Goodbye October...

you were and are the most gorgeous month of the year here in central Oklahoma. The weather is perfect, sunflowers and goldenrod and many many other wildflowers are putting on their last burst before their winter sleep. The air is cool and crisp and the sun bright without being oppressive, the angle of sunlight makes for a golden look and feel. Exquisite.

Some of the gold.

The purple

More of the gold (the goldenrod).

Midnite and Judy in the gold.

Molly in the gold.

 When I went out into the field to take some shots of the golden flowers, the guard donkeys (Judy and Molly) and Midnite (the magnificent) had to come over to check out the camera and see what was going on. Their beauty contrasts nicely with the gold.

October is lovely. The sun is about about 4 months away from the furthest north it travels and the staggering heat here has finally gone away. The mornings and evenings are mellow or crisp and the days are bright and warm. Thank you nature, thank you...and thanks to Judy, Midnite and Molly for allowing me to capture their images. We are fortunate to occupy such a glorious planet with such beautiful plants and beautiful animals, lucky lucky us. It is amazing!

Thank you again, October, for being yourself.

The Oklahoma Connection

The post on July 22, 2010 mentioned an Oklahoma connection associated with the beagle rescue.  In addition to the beagles, 55 macaque monkeys were taken from the animal exploiting laboratory.  A primate rescue/shelter here in central Oklahoma, Mindy's Memory, has become the home for 8 of the rescued animals.  You can follow their progress by visiting the Mindy's Memory website.

Midnight is the individual wearing black.

Earlier this month, Heartland Rabbit Rescue had some visitors from Austin.  The photograph of the visitors shows them with the resident Rabbit Rescue pony, Midnight.  There are several hooved folks that live there, including 2 donkeys (Judy and Molly).

The girls (Judy and Molly) are very diligent in sounding the alarm if marauding dogs or coyotes approach their home although their skills at detecting hungry hawks still need development. 

Below is a photograph showing a young visitor from Norman along with Molly and Judy.

Molly has a white forehead, Judy has a gray forehead and the visitor wears a red football shirt.

Christina, over at the Rabid Tidbits blog has posted some current photographs of the baby bunnies recently born at Heartland Rabbit Rescue.  It is astonishing how fast they are growing.

Most of us who live in cities are rather limited in the variation of animal species that we have the opportunity to interact with. One of the many benefits of volunteering at a sanctuary or rescue facility is the chance to get to know different kinds of animal folks and different individuals.  Each rabbit is unique with her or his own likes and dislikes, behaviors and moods.  Just as is each donkey, each pony, each dog, cat or human.  We humans tend to lump other species all together and presume that we then know about them.  This is no more true for human animals than it is for rabbit animals (or others).

Volunteering, especially for young humans, offers them the opportunity to become more sophisticated in their knowledge about the other Earthlings they share this planet with.  Once you become friends with a living being, it becomes more problematic to then see that being (or others like her or him) as a "thing" to be exploited or abused or killed.  For most of us, anyway.....there are exceptions.