Aww, I didn't know about the NC Zoo being so cool. I went right through that area and didn't know.
The place I just visited in New York was well incorporated into the local landscape. The first animal we got introduced to there was the river otter at the entrance. I wouldn't have even known it was an exhibit, it was a sectioned off area of the stream running through the park and it looked like it was just meant to keep larger local wildlife out of the zoo.
The otter (Scooter was her name) came when the keeper called her, she followed us back to the area where they check on her and feed her, and she was having the happiest zoomies!
All the other areas looked larger than they likely were required to be, and every animal looked relaxed, and we got to interact hands-on with a few, and they were all very chill.
The worst zoo I was ever at was one near my home. A coworker wanted to go, as they had a baby tiger advertised, which was her fav animal. I was curious where this zoo was, since the area wasn't where I'd picture us getting more than a very small zoo.
It was inside a building in an industrial park! We were both kinda sketched out, but she really wanted to see the tiger, so we went in. It felt like a smuggling operation. Everything was indoors in pens that looked meant for transport. Animals were all very obviously depressed. Not a single thing in there appeared relaxed. We quickly got out of there, and it was thankfully shut down that same summer.
Now that I've worked with animals for a bit, I talk to the keepers about more details of their care, and what regulations they deal with and what rehab or conservation projects they're involved with, and can appreciate a lot of what goes on other than the exhibits, and it's so obvious how much these keepers care about their animals and the support they provide to get animal populations up to return animals to the wild. I don't think anyone would picture animal care as some get-rich type career, it's stinky and dirty work where you can potentially be hurt by animals. These people are there because they care about animals. Some owners I think may give into temptation and cross over into collecting more animals than they have capacity to care for, and then that becomes the problem, but I have gone to many zoos in many states, and there's maybe been 2 or 3 that have been meh, but most are pretty cool. I think zoo haters have either been sadly unlucky and their first one was a crappy one, they just humanize animals in an unrealistic way, or they don't consider the conservation programs they participate in that involve many more animals than are in display.
I don't fault your rationale; I've been to a couple sad zoos. They definitely exist and should be shut down, and some animals will just never do well in captivity. There are still specific animals I think about years later and I hope they are in better places now.
But I just did a private tour of a really great zoo's operations, and I work wildlife rehab where we need to keep animals in captivity for months many times, and some mind it a lot less that others, and some will come back to visit after being released. Animals face a lot of danger and scarcity of resources in the wild, and in captivity, those things are no longer problems. We often picture animals having these wonderful lives of peace and freedom, but we forget about predation, going hungry for days, either not having or constantly having to defend shelter, and how catastrophic even minor injuries or just getting old can be.
There are mandated standards for shelter, animals get individual care plans, giving them the best of food and medicine, they get protection from extreme weather, they often get to choose mates and get to raise their young in much safer and less stressful conditions, and when they get old or lose teeth, etc they still get regular meals, shelter, and nicely heated or cooled places to rest.
Are they captive? Yes. But well-run places aren't miserable for many animals. Maybe at worst like an all-inclusive resort where they tell you not to leave because outside the resort area it gets rough fast or house arrest when you're a millionaire. Zoo animals inspire a lot of people to get involved with conservation or animal care. At my place, we do let the animals go when they are ready. Most of my coworkers seem to think seeing them go free is the best part. Honestly, I worry about all the animals I release. I saw what got them nearly killed to begin with, and I'm sending them back into that world where most things will want them dead, and there are so many human-based hazards they don't understand. Staying with us would likely at least double all their lifespans. They lose a ton of perks when they leave out care. But my job is to make sure they get fixed up and back to nature. I debate whether I'd rather explore more medical opportunities or to see into animal education, since those animals are unreleasable. Either way, I'm here helping them because of all the amazement I got from nice zoos and aquariums.
I'm also a noob with tech anymore. My old faithful router started dropping this year, replaced it with the Flint 2 earlier this year because I also wanted OpenWRT. It comes with OpenWRT installed, but I don't think it's the plain old vanilla OpenWRT, so when I hooked it up and started setting it up, it needs a firmware update anyway, so I installed the actual OpenWRT from their site. It's been great since, totally happy with it.
Those are good examples. I've never known serious addicts, but seeing how my grammom dealt with grandpa getting Alzheimer's was very difficult, as they'd been married 70 years, so it's not even like she could remember life without him, and then he was physically there, but mentally lost 99% of the time. She was relieved after he was finally at piece, but by then, so much of her felt taken away from her, she basically decided she wanted to not be here if he wasn't and she essentially said her goodbyes to us and said she was going to stop her meds so she could be with him again. She was my fav relative, and was one of the few loving people I had growing up. But I knew for years she was miserable watching pop suffer and be lost and afraid. I told her she didn't owe anyone anything and if she wasn't old enough to make her own decisions, who the heck was? I miss her every day, but I think she was right to feel relief when pop was at peace, and it was right for her to decide she didn't want to be in a world with half of herself missing.
My lifelong best friend just went through the same thing with his mother and a long bout of dementia. It was so physically and mentally demanding on him, his mom seemed very lost and upset almost all the time, and his dad was having all kinds of mental challenges coping with the situation and taking it out on my friend and the caregiver they hired, and as sad as it was to lose her eventually, everyone living's life was in many ways, much calmer and stable and they were able to start healing. I miss her too, as I knew her since I was around 6, so almost 40 years. But much of her was lost to illness and was never coming back.
We also lost both my wife's parents withing the last few years, and I was horrified at how terrible it is to be there while actively losing someone. I was at the hospital with my wife for both of them, and they both were essentially past the point of no return, but we all were there 12+ hours waiting for the physical process to be over. It seemed very demeaning to the person that was dying, and very cruel to the family to just have to sit there and wait for everything to stop instead of giving a loved one the peaceful and graceful end that we give to animals. I think I was more angry than sad, and I felt closer to them than to my own parents. It just seemed needlessly prolonged for all parties involved, and the family is getting mad at the poor nurses, because their hands are tied, so I felt bad for them too. Like, if there is no way they are going to recover, where is the humanity in making everyone sit there and watch that final suffering? It was just baffling to me how we can say that is cruel to let an animal linger like that, but we make families do that every day.
I tried not to go on so off topic for so long, but I get frustrated so many people refuse to talk about death until it's right in front of their face. Some people act like I'm morbid or something, but it is an inevitability, and I think being mentally prepared for it is helpful because you won't be in the right state of mind to think through anything when you're on the spot facing it. It also leads to not having wills, insurance, and plans for many important things the surviving parties will need to deal with that also delays people healing from the experience.
Your family gave that dog a second chance at life for a long time. Someone just permanently damaged him before you guys met each other. Even if he never became a friend, you still gave him more moments of comfort and safety than he would have seen had you guys not taken him in. It's sad he couldn't recover, but if giving him up was the end of his story, you still gave him all you could before that.
Working in animal rescue, I think a lot about animals that can't be saved, and sometimes a calm and peaceful end isn't the worst outcome. You probably know all this, as your story makes you seem very compassionate, but just in case, you shouldn't feel guilty. You guys went above and beyond what most would have done for that poor dog. ❤️
I needed an old prescription from a previous place and the doc didn't want to give it to me at first since it was a few years old. As soon as I told them I wasn't trying to get an old prescription filled, that my current doc had sent me there to get it to help determine my new prescription we've been having trouble narrowing down, she turned it right over.
I've made toad in the hole a few times, because how could I learn of a dish with a name like that and not make it?!
When I was looking for recipes, everything recommended onion gravy, which sounds like it'd be appropriate, and it's paired well when I've made it. I can't find the exact recipe I used, but here is a recipe that sounds approximately like it. Basically onions, beef stock, mustard, and Wooster sauce.
I've honestly never seen anyone recommend doing number 4 before. I grabbed this picture to show the original person how they look in the holder and out, but yeah, like you said, the flush is supposed to do step 4 for you.
You got me. I'm the Fediverse's biggest warmonger. How was I able to fool everyone else but you all this time???
It's an interesting strategy to try and take someone out of context when my full statement is right above yours, I never would have thought of that.
And why am I responsible for every action of my government even if I didn't vote for any of these guys, but you seem to bear no responsibility for what your country's government does? If I did that, I might worry I'd come off as a huge hypocrite. But you seem to do it flawlessly! Kudos to you, and your moral high ground. You have truly bested me today.
The article felt it really reinforces they know they aren't welcome, but are moving forward regardless.
They claim it was a misunderstanding, but now that Greenland is clarifying their position with the drilling team is still proceeding, I don't see how that is anything but being provocative.
It will be interesting to see how we fight after blowing all our missile reserves in Iran. 😒
I wonder how aware of the circumstances the actual drill crew members being sent there. Do they know they are being sent there as pawns or possibly expendable cannon fodder?
Death of Robin Hood and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
If they would be more honest with how many people Kiryu would have killed thus far in reality, it honestly wouldn't be too far out there of a crossover.
Greenland Energy has retained Phil McGraw, better known as Dr Phil, a prominent rightwing former chatshow host who served on Trump’s religious freedom commission, to make a documentary series that will “capture the mission of these modern-day wildcatters”.
Aww, I didn't know about the NC Zoo being so cool. I went right through that area and didn't know.
The place I just visited in New York was well incorporated into the local landscape. The first animal we got introduced to there was the river otter at the entrance. I wouldn't have even known it was an exhibit, it was a sectioned off area of the stream running through the park and it looked like it was just meant to keep larger local wildlife out of the zoo.
The otter (Scooter was her name) came when the keeper called her, she followed us back to the area where they check on her and feed her, and she was having the happiest zoomies!
All the other areas looked larger than they likely were required to be, and every animal looked relaxed, and we got to interact hands-on with a few, and they were all very chill.
The worst zoo I was ever at was one near my home. A coworker wanted to go, as they had a baby tiger advertised, which was her fav animal. I was curious where this zoo was, since the area wasn't where I'd picture us getting more than a very small zoo.
It was inside a building in an industrial park! We were both kinda sketched out, but she really wanted to see the tiger, so we went in. It felt like a smuggling operation. Everything was indoors in pens that looked meant for transport. Animals were all very obviously depressed. Not a single thing in there appeared relaxed. We quickly got out of there, and it was thankfully shut down that same summer.
Now that I've worked with animals for a bit, I talk to the keepers about more details of their care, and what regulations they deal with and what rehab or conservation projects they're involved with, and can appreciate a lot of what goes on other than the exhibits, and it's so obvious how much these keepers care about their animals and the support they provide to get animal populations up to return animals to the wild. I don't think anyone would picture animal care as some get-rich type career, it's stinky and dirty work where you can potentially be hurt by animals. These people are there because they care about animals. Some owners I think may give into temptation and cross over into collecting more animals than they have capacity to care for, and then that becomes the problem, but I have gone to many zoos in many states, and there's maybe been 2 or 3 that have been meh, but most are pretty cool. I think zoo haters have either been sadly unlucky and their first one was a crappy one, they just humanize animals in an unrealistic way, or they don't consider the conservation programs they participate in that involve many more animals than are in display.