A Look at Big Feet… Not Bigfoot !

"Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot.”

-Sherlock Holmes

                                       Good Day World!

Some of my earliest memories were people telling me that I had big feet.

“Look at those big boats” my father often commented. “Don’t worry,” he’d say, “You’ll grow into them.”

Or, my siblings calling me “Frog,” because I had “big flippers.”

I now know that I got a bad rap back then.

Those supposedly big feet of mine ended up being a size 11 extra wide. Not very impressive by today’s standards. Two of my three sons have bigger feet than I do. One of my grandsons has a size 12 extra wide.

And, just look at some of the professional athletes today. Shaq O’Neil, and every center in professional basketball, have gunboats that start around size 16.

But if you want to talk about really big feet – world class examples – then you have to see Jeison Orlando Rodríguez Hernandez’s massive foundations!  Hernandez, who lives in Venezuela, has feet measuring nearly 16 inches each and his shoes are size 26.

That’s big enough to be recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest feet.The previous record was held by Sultan Kösen, his feet measuring 14 inches.

We should all be proud of our feet. Without their foundation we’d be crawling. I agree with Leonardo da Vinci who said, “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Investigations Agree: No Corporation in the World Has Done More Damage to the Earth Than Exxon

Good Day World!

No matter where you live on this planet, you’ve been affected (one way or another) by the misdeeds of Exxon.

In the last three weeks, two separate teams of journalists—the Pulitzer-prize winning reporters at the website Inside Climate News and another crew composed of Los Angeles Times veterans and up-and-comers at the Columbia Journalism School—have begun publishing the results of a pair of independent investigations into ExxonMobil.

Though they draw on completely different archives, leaked documents and interviews with ex-employees, they reach the same damning conclusion:

Exxon knew all that there was to know about climate change decades ago and instead of alerting the rest of us denied the science and obstructed the politics of global warming.

To be specific

I don’t know how that makes you feel, but it angers me. Monumental greed has led to nearly irreversible climate damage.

Exxon management knew what was happening and even circulated internal memos admitting that “human-induced climate change” was taking it’s toll on the planet.

I have one question for all the governments in the world…

When are you going to put Exxon out of business and try all of it’s mangement team for crimes against humanity?

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

Oh Snap! Fox commentor arrested for lying and fraud

Good Day World!

It’s an open secret that Faux Fox News is not the place to go if you’re looking for credible reporting.

Here’s the latest example of the quality of commenters it hires:

Wayne Simmons, a 62-year-old who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, was arrested by federal authorities following his indictment by a federal grand jury for allegedly committing major fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government.

Simmons has been interviewed by Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto and has appeared on "Fox & Friends." He has discussed a wide range of issues on the network, including CIA interrogation techniques and, ironically, a former CIA official found guilty on fraud charges.

Simmons claims to have worked for the CIA from 1973 to 2000, and "used that false claim in an attempt to obtain government security clearances and work as a defense contractor, including at one point successfully getting deployed overseas as an intelligence advisor to senior military personnel," according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The question is, doesn’t Fox vet it’s people for at least a modicum of truth?

Federal prosecutors say that Simmons had a "significant criminal history, including convictions for a crime of violence and firearms offenses, and is believed to have had an ongoing association with firearms notwithstanding those felony convictions.”

Another faux pas for Fox…another day in the “Spin Zone” for the Republican Party.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Silence is Golden in World’s Quietest Room

“I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down…”

-Buffalo Springfield

Microsoft File Photo

                                          Good Day World!

In our noisy world the lack of sound can be golden.

You might think that a library reading room or well-insulated basement is a quiet place, but compared to the anechoic chamber in Microsoft's audio lab, they're about as quiet as a jumbo jet.

The chamber, housed in Building 87 on the company's Redmond, Washington, campus, was recently verified by (who else?) Guinness as being the quietest place in the entire world, reaching an eardrum-bending -20.3 decibels. (Source)

Microsoft and others use chambers like this to test equipment for noise levels, to provide a perfectly silent environment for training voice recognition, and so on.

You can learn more about sound ratings and the B87 anechoic chamber at Microsoft's website.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

If I had a hammer, I’d…

“If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning,
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land…”

-Peter,Paul, & Mary

Good Day World!

Marvel Comic fans know all about the Norse Thunder God, Thor.

His hammer – Mjolnir – can not be picked up by just anyone. They have to be worthy – like Thor. As far as I know, the hammer has never found someone else worthy enough to fling it…but that’s another subject.

Enter…Allen Pan, aka Sufficiently Advanced on YouTube, who decided to replicate Mjolnir. The guy is an electrical engineer and pretty darn clever!

He used powerful magnets, and a microwave oven transformer electromagnet in the head. This creates a very strong magnetic pull, strong enough that the hammer, when placed on a metal surface (that can't be lifted, such as a locked manhole cover), feels too heavy to lift.

So how does Pan lift it?

The handle is attached to a capacitive touch sensor, which in turn is attached to an Arduino Pro Mini and a solid state relay, which serves as a switching device. As soon as someone grasps the handle, the electromagnets switch on, attaching the hammer to the metal surface.

The hammer can be turned off via a fingerprint sensor keyed to Pan's thumbprint. When Pan grasps the hammer, the magnets switch on. When he moves his thumb over the sensor, it switches off again, allowing Pan to lift the hammer.

Apparently Pan has a sense of humor and took his hammer to Venice Beach, California, and put it on a manhole and challenged people to pick it up.

All Pan has to do now is harness lightning (it shouldn’t be a problem for an electrical engineer) and train his hammer to come back to him when he throws it!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Why lower gas prices this year will hurt millions of Americans next year

                                     Good Day World!

Lower gas prices this year has been good news for the American consumer.

But, those low gas prices are going to take an unexpected toll on over 70 million people, more than one-fifth of the nation's population, next year.

Why?

The main reason for no benefit increases next year for millions of people is…believe it, or not, low gas prices.

By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation. This year, because gas prices have dropped, no one will get a cost of living increase in 2016.

It’s Official: No COLA in 2016

That affects retirees, disabled workers, and spouses with children, who get Social Security benefits.

That also goes for 4 million disabled veterans, 2.5 million federal retirees and their survivors, and more than 8 million people who get Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor. (Source)

It seems ironic to me that when something good happens for consumers in this country, it comes with a caveat.  

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Pass the Burrito Challenge and Get 10% of a Mexican Restaurant

                                      Good Day World!

Although I have no experience in the restaurant industry, I’m thinking about becoming a partner with Don Chingon, a restaurant in Brooklyn.

Yawn, right?

Not so fast. You could do the same thing, if you wanted. It’d help if you had a huge appetite.

All you have to do is eat a 30-lb burrito and drink a ghost pepper margarita in under an hour and you’ll own 10% of Don Chingon’s Mexican restaurant.

BTW – no bathroom breaks or discharge of bodily fluids allowed during that hour. The restaurant also will not accept responsibility for illness or death incurred while participating in the challenge.

You should also know why George Shea, a partner in the International Federation of Competitive Eating, calls the contest a "great PR stunt." He’s sure no one on the planet can meet that challenge.

Perhaps not… but, I’d try if there wasn’t a $150 entry fee!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Meet Florida’s Candidate for US Senate: He plans on Starting a 2nd Civil War!

Good Day World!

So, you thought Donald Trump was a crazy political candidate. You haven’t seen anything yet.

Meet, Augustus Sol Invictus, an Independent running for a US Senate seat in Florida. He believes he was born to start a 2nd Civil War in America.

Even Trump can’t top that thought. 

Invictus has repeatedly vowed that it is his destiny to start a second civil war in America.

In a 2013 memo to his colleagues, he wrote, “I have prophesied for years that I was born for a Great War; that if I did not witness the coming of the Second American Civil War, I would begin it myself.” (Source)

Trump’s campaign slogan of Make America Great Again may be misleading, but when you take a look at Invictus’s campaign logo you’ll find yourself blinking in disbelief. It’s nearly identical to that of Benito Mussolini’s. He also likes to display swastikas in his published campaign materials.

Crazy enough for you?

But wait! There’s more: He has expressed support for a eugenics program, which would sterilize, euthanize or forcibly abort 'the weakest, the least intelligent, and the most diseased.”

If that doesn’t convince you he’s a true Loony Tune, the US Senate hopeful has admitted that he sacrificed a live goat and drank its blood. He’s a Pagan by the way.

FYI: Invictus has a frequently asked questions section on his website .

Sound’s like the Republican and Democratic candidates in Florida seeking senate offices are really going to have a challenge for the “crazy vote” in that state.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Whatever you do, don’t say…

Good Day World!

Whatever you do, don’t say…"Who was chasing me? You're slow as ***!" like this DUI suspect did after claiming his dog was driving his car.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “I left town because Hollywood Star-Wackers were hunting me,” and expect authorities to forget you committed a felony and had been hiding for five years when you got caught crossing the Canadian border into Vermont – like actor Randy Quaid did!

Whatever you do, don’t say…"Just give me some (expletive) bacon-jalapeno mac and cheese." A University of Connecticut student faces criminal charges over a confrontation with a campus food court manager who wouldn't let him buy macaroni and cheese with bacon and jalapeno peppers.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “Officer, come over to my house quick. I’m too high on marijuana!” like one 22-year old Youngstown, Ohio, man did recently and not expect to be the butt of jokes for the rest of your natural life! 

Whatever you do, don’t say… “I’m a federal agent and I need a free pass to catch a fugitive at this event (Comic Con in Salt Lake City),” and actually just be a dweeb trying to scam a freebie.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “There’s a bomb here,” at your workplace just so you can get fired. There’s got to be an easier way!

Time for me to walk on down the road…  

Why the mainstream media didn’t cover report showing 78% of Americans against Citizens United decision

Good Day World!

Americans are sick of the corporate masters that rule them.

Skepticism of corporate power is what the American Revolution - or at least the event that sparked it - was all about, which makes the latest polling about money in politics anything but surprising.

According to Bloomberg Politics, a full 78 percent of Americans think we should overturn the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision that opened up our election process to floods of corporate money. This isn't, by the way, a situation where a bunch of Democrats are tipping the scales.

Money in politics often gets painted in the media as "liberal" or "progressive" issue, but this new Bloomberg poll shows that Americans of all political persuasions overwhelmingly oppose Citizens United.

Eighty-three percent of Democrats want to overturn it, as do 80 percent of Republicans and 71 percent of self-declared independents.

The ever-more-concentrated corporate media really don't want to discuss Citizens United or the public's overwhelming desire to overturn it. In fact, even though our TV networks have spent hours breaking down every single Donald Trump poll, they've so far completely ignored that amazing Bloomberg study on opposition to Citizens United. And I mean completely ignored.

Maybe there's a good justifiable, journalistic reason for this. Maybe the fact that Americans hate Citizens United is so obvious that the mainstream media don't think it was worth reporting on.

But it's doubtful.

The big open secret about Citizens United is that the mainstream corporate media support it. More money in politics means more money spent on elections ads, which, of course, means more money for the corporations that run the major news networks.

But luckily, the American people are figuring out what's up. If the rise of Bernie Sanders is any indication, they're more than ready to take part in another political revolution against corporate power - just like the one that founded this country 239 years ago. (read the full version here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Peto's Paradox: Why Don’t Elephants and Whales Get Cancer As Much As Smaller Animals?

                                    Good Day World!

Researchers have long wondered why Cancer is much less common in elephants than in humans, even though the big beasts' bodies have many more cells.

PETO’s PARADOX

Peto's paradox refers to the fact that large animals including elephants and whales, have comparatively low cancer rates even though they have many more cells than smaller species.

STUDY RESULTS SHOW PROMISE

Elephants' cells contain 40 copies of a major cancer-suppressing gene called p53, two teams of scientists report. Humans have just two - one from each parent. The gene helps damaged cells repair themselves or self-destruct when exposed to cancer-causing substances.

The findings aren't proof that those extra p53 genes make elephants cancer-resistant, but if future research confirms it, scientists could try to develop drugs for humans that would mimic the effect.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

A Perfect Storm of Islamophobia Hitting This Weekend

                                      Good Day World!

I usually don’t pay attention to hate rallies – there’s too many these days – but I’m having a hard time ignoring one in my backyard!

My hometown of Medford, Oregon has joined 21 other cities across the USA (see map here) in protesting Muslims “Global Rally for Humanity.”

Self-described “Patriots” have brought weapons to protest outside Muslim worship centers today.

A perfect storm of Islamophobia is hitting the nation thanks to one so-called patriot from Arizona. 

According to the Center for New Community, the protests are the brainchild of Phoenix anti-Muslim activist Jon Ritzheimer, who made headlines in May by organizing an armed protest outside a Phoenix-area mosque.

Ritzheimer also has a history of issuing ugly threats, including his threat to arrest Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow for having voted in favor of President Obama’s arms deal with Iran. Even his fellow militiamen from Michigan disavowed that one.

Preparing for the worst

The Council for Islamic-American Relations issued an advisory urging mosque-goers to be careful and take safety precautions this weekend. 

These protests are a sad footnote in American history, and proof that this country does not guarantee religious freedom for everyone. Intolerance is the password for today’s protests.

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

 

 

Gowdy’s Vendetta Against Hillary Exposed, But Continues

                                        Good Day World!

There isn’t anything Trey Gowdy wouldn’t do to make sure Hillary Clinton is not elected president.

No big deal you say…there’s plenty of other conservatives that are making it a mission to derail Clinton’s campaign.

True. But none of them are so blatantly using taxpayer money to fund their vendetta against Hillary Clinton like Trey Gowdy is. He’s had the gall to waste millions of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of his political plans to discredit Hillary - instead of really trying to get to the bottom of what happen in the Benghazi incident where four Americans died.

Gowdy, as House Select Committee on Benghazi chairman, has unabashedly directed all efforts towards targeting Hillary.  Gowdy’s name, image, and position has been used to solicit political donations by Stop Hillary PAC, which describes itself as “created for one reason only—to ensure Hillary Clinton never becomes President of the United States.

Gowdy has not held any of the hearings on his schedule (he initially had an investigative plan that set out monthly hearings  with all the different agencies involved in preparing for and responding to the attacks in Benghazi, including the State Department, the Defense Department, and the Intelligence Community).

The only hearing actually scheduled thus far however, is with Hillary Clinton.

The Committee has never held even one public hearing with anyone from the Department of Defense. Why?

The Committee was given an unlimited, taxpayer-funded budget, and it has now spent more than $4.6 million in one of the longest and least productive investigations in congressional history—focused on Clinton.

The Committee is being used by Republican fundraisers to attack Clinton.The Committee’s attacks were described by the conservative PAC America Rising as a taxpayer-funded political activity. 

Gowdy’s approach has been criticized even by conservative commentators who fear that it will forever be plagued by allegations of unfairness, and politics if this investigation is dragged into 2016. (full article source)

They should be concerned because Gowdy isn’t going to end his vendetta until after the elections.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Don’t you just love it when…

Good Day World!

Don’t you just love it when… you read about medical miracles like this?

Don’t you just love it when… some people get their comeuppance?  Months after winning a national title, Harvard's debate team has fallen to a group of New York inmates.

Don’t you just love it when…you run across animal stories like this?

Bettina the Orphaned Bushtail Possum Finds Comfort in Toy Kangaroo

Don’t you just love it when…you can’t get a straight answer from authorities?

Feds Won't Say If Artificial Turf on Your Kid's Soccer Field Is Safe

Don’t you just love it when…you hear about a teenager doing something really special that could save lives?

Don’t you just love it when…a crime story is funny instead of depressing?

Time for me to walk on down the road….

Birdie, birdie in the sky…

“Birdie birdie in the sky
Why do you do that in my eye
I will not laugh I will not cry
I’m just glad that cows don’t fly!”

-Camp Songs

(Photo/Archaeopteryx Live Science Staff)

Good Day World!

Are you a bird lover?

Even if you’re not, you may find the following brief history of birds entertaining.

And then there were birds…

The evolution of birds is thought to have begun in the Jurassic Period, with the earliest birds derived from a clade of theropoda dinosaurs named Paraves. Birds are categorized as a biological class, Aves.

The earliest known isArchaeopteryx lithographica, from the Late Jurassic period, though Archaeopteryx is not commonly considered to have been a true bird.

The raven-sized animal in the photo above lived about 150 million years ago and had feathers identical to that of modern flying birds. But Archaeopteryx also had sharp teeth, a long bony tail and clawed fingers.

At 7 feet long and 3 feet tall, Beipiaosaurus is one of the largest known feathered theropods the group of swift upright dinosaurs from birds are thought to be descended.

(Photo/Beipiaosaurus Live Science Staff)

Like Archaeopteryx, Microraptor was about the size of a crow and had teeth, claws and feathers on all four limbs that it may have used to glide between trees.

(Photo/Microraptor by Julius T. Csotonyi)

As of the mid-2000s, new fossil and molecular data provide an increasingly clear picture of the evolution of modern bird orders, and their relationships.

A 2008 study published in Science examined DNA sequences from 169 species of birds that represented all of the major extant groups. The findings may necessitate a wholesale restructuring of the avian phylogenetic tree.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Thank You Bill Maher and Supply Side Jesus!

Thank you Bill Maher!

Thank you “Supply Side Jesus” for loving conservatives!

Bill has a way with words as demonstrated here:

"Let's face it Republicans, this photo of Jesus

is not really the face that best reflects your party's values.

This is (photo right - Martin Shkreli).

In a recent show, Bill told the story of Shkreli jacking up the price of Daraprim, then played his rather callous analogy in which he discussed pricing life-saving drugs like pricing cars.

"The fact that this story played out last week during the papal visit exposed how little these so-called Christians of the far right believe in what Jesus actually said," Maher said.

"How could they? There is not a tent in the tent big enough to fit both Jesus and Ayn Rand. In order to be both Republican and Christian they had to create an entirely new Jesus [emphasis added].

We don't only have two Americas, we have two Jesus’s now. It's true. Liberals have the traditional Jesus who hated rich assholes and wouldn't shut up about how they should give away all of their money.

And conservatives made up a completely new Jesus. A small businessman from Galilee whose main gripe is big government and who wants to make Nazareth great again. I call him supply-side Jesus. He'd love to help the less fortunate but he's got investors to think about.

Like the time supply-side Jesus performed a miracle and created a bounty of loaves and fishes and then gave them all to the top one percent so they can trickle down to the takers. ..."

Time for me to walk on down the road….

House Freedom Caucus Prepared to Shut Government Down

                                     Good Day World!

A lot of people are going to miss John Boehner.

Now that a new subversive group in the House – the House Freedom Caucus – has ousted him, be prepared for a Tea Party darling replacement who won’t have any compunctions about shutting down the government.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R) of California and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R) of Utah are vying for the soon-to-be vacated Speaker of the House position. Both are making grand promises to the House Freedom Caucus.

Both men make Boehner look like a true statesman. That’s bad news for the American public.

ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE?

Like any subversive group, the caucus has an invitation-only selection of 40 zealots, which meet regularly at a Capitol Hill restaurant called the Tortilla Coast. The fight starts with the GOP's election for the speakership and other GOP leadership offices, which will take place in a secret ballot on Thursday.

In the weeks ahead, the Freedom Caucus will have plentiful opportunities to push the fight further – from the speaker's race to a combustible mix of fiscal deadlines this fall.

Though members say they have not yet settled on a strategy, one thing is certain: They are not afraid of government shutdowns, fiscal cliffs, or any other hardline tactics that typically made Boehner wince.

STILL SOME SANITY IN GOP CONGRESS

In Congress, a backlash may be building against Freedom Caucus hardball tactics. Last month, a caucus member quit, saying tactics were harming, not helping, the GOP cause.

Over in the Senate, Republican colleagues shouted down Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R) of Texas last week over his procedural move related to spending and Planned Parenthood.

But make no mistake…Americans need to be prepared for some angry Freedom Caucus members blackmailing the government and shutting it down if they don’t get their way.

You thought Congress was already inept? You haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until the new Speaker of the House (at the end of this month) fires the first salvo in a war of ideologies where the American people will lose at every turn.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Note to Mainstream Media: Pick a Number and Stick With It!

Good Day World!

When I first started hearing the reports of a huge rainfall event descending upon the Carolina’s four days ago, some newspapers were saying it was going to be a once in every 200 years downpour.

Within days that prediction vaulted to:

East Coast Flooding: 'Once in 500 Years' Downpour Threatens South Carolina

The very next day it went Biblical:

'Stay in Your House': Officials Warn Residents During Unprecedented '1,000-Year' Floods

Within the space of four days the predictions went from a 200-year deluge to a 1,000 year calamity! I strongly suspect there was some hyperbole among those frenzied predictions from members of the mainstream media.

No question, it’s been bad, nine deaths have been attributed to the flooding. The downpours and "catastrophic" flooding are expected to persist. But can we take a deep breath here?

There’s no statistical data showing this was a 1,000 year flood. North Carolina governor Haley called it that, but she’s hardly an expert.

Besides North and South Carolina, part of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia felt the storms fury, but none of them vanished into the Atlantic Ocean the last time I looked.

I get it…dramatic headlines get attention, but when you go from 200 to 1,000 years in four days that’s just too much.

Note to mainstream media: Next time pick a number and stick with it. It’s more credible.

Time for me to walk on down the road…  

 

Jeb Bush’s ‘stuff happens’ philosophy reflects GOP’s stance of doing nothing about mass killings

Good Day World!

Maybe Jeb Bush is right…”stuff happens and there’s no need to change gun laws.”

At least that’s what most Republicans want us to think whenever a mass shooting takes place (an average of twice monthly).

The most recent data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2013 an average of 92 people died in the United States each day of firearm-related injuries.

The day that the mass shooting at a community college in Oregon (October 1st) took place these people were also killed by gunfire:

* A 5-month-old girl was shot to death while riding in a car with her mother in Cleveland.

* A man killed his wife and a good Samaritan, then turned his gun on himself in north Florida.

* A security guard was killed, allegedly by a co-worker in Atlanta.

* Teen-aged brothers were gunned down in broad daylight near a busy intersection in Fresno, California.

* A suspect in a Georgia shooting killed himself after a three-county car chase.

The list of the Oct. 1 dead goes on and on: murders, suicides, workplace violence, domestic violence, street shootings and drive-by gunfire.

But whatever happens, don’t change gun laws because the NRA and the Republican Party doesn’t want to admit that we have a gun problem. They always turn to the “mentally ill” shooters as an example that guns aren’t the problem. Nuts are.

Okay, so why doesn’t the Republican Party take on mental illness and come up with programs to combat it? The reason why they don’t is simple; they don’t like funding any health programs.

Where does that leave us? Watching helplessly as people die every 16 minutes from gunfire because of a murderous ideology that extols the merits of guns while blocking any legislation to make the public safer. 

Time for me to walk on down the road…

A Tale of 3 Adopted Cats and a Dog

Good Day World!

I’m going to start off today with the old adage… never say never!

Two years ago, my wife and I had one dog, Molly, a black pug (photo).

When someone asked me if I was going to get any more pets I said, “No way. Never going to happen.”

As a matter of fact that determination was tested several times. I stood by my guns each time, refusing to get another dog, or cat. But then something happened.

To help out someone we love we adopted two cats. Oliver (Photo), a blind black Persian-mix, and his brother Tommy (photo). Molly meanwhile, gradually learned how to deal with our two new additions over a year’s span.

The animal pecking order became Oliver, Molly, and then Tommy. Because Oliver is blind he has a tendency to slash out when startled and ask questions later. This earned him a healthy respect from Molly who learned to keep a distance from him and to approach him slowly when necessary.

Tom is a lover, not a fighter. His sweet disposition gets him bullied by both Oliver and Molly. Just when things were firmly established in our increased household we found ourselves rescuing another cat.

We call him Bob (Photo being petted).

Bob has lived the first two years of his life hiding under beds and other places and only coming out briefly to eat, drink, and go to the bathroom. The person he lived with was able to approach him and love on him, but the minute someone else entered the room he was gone in a flash!

Bob lives in our walk-in closet right now. We love on him daily, but can’t get him to come out and hang with the rest of the family yet. Bob is pretty hardwired, but we hope that will change.

It didn’t stop there. We ended up rescuing a dog in our neighborhood when he was abandoned by his owners. His name is Butters and he’s half Italian Greyhound and Chihuahua.

He’s also one of the sweetest dogs you’ll ever meet. He fit right in with everyone (but Bob) from Day One. So that’s how we became a modern day Animal House and why I never use the word NEVER if I can help it!

Time for me to walk on down the road…