16 Dogs! M/C Dog! Spag Dog. Cold Dog! Pushed-In Faced Pets. Patton. Truman. Scharnhorst. Delaware. Gorbachev. Day After Christmas.

For "Mammal Monday":

16 DOGS GO FOR A DAILY BIKE RIDE AND SWIM in a river. They are so well trained and obviously love him. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=qF ... &vq=medium

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Dog on motorcycle.  Man’s best Friend simply loves to RIDE HIS MASTER’S BIKE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=xdj67XknFrM#t=5

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Spaghetti Night – The cockatoo feeding the dog

http://www.dogwork.com/brpsk8/

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What a dog does when it's cold:

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What Never To Do With a 'Pushed-In' Face Pet

"A brachycephalic breed is a dog or cat with a pushed-in face. Some people call them 'smashed nose' breeds.   You may not have heard the word 'brachycephalic' before, but I'm sure you've seen at least a few of these dogs.   They include incredibly popular breeds like the pug, Boston terrier, boxer, bulldog, Pekingese and Shi Tzu.

Himalayans and Persians are examples of brachycephalic cat breeds.  'Brachy' is a Greek word meaning short, and 'cephalic' means head.   These animals are short-headed, short-muzzled breeds.   And needless to say, they are intentionally bred to look this way, with a normal lower jaw but a compressed upper jaw.   Due to this altered facial construction, all these dogs have what is called brachycephalic respiratory syndrome to varying degrees. Most of them do fine, but one breed in particular, English bulldogs, tend to have really significant respiratory problems."  More By Dr. Becker:  Complete Article and video at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/12/20/special-needs-of-brachycephalic-breeds.aspx

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• "Double your impact—matching gift opportunity
  ends December 31

Help preserve the pristine beauty of our national parks for future generations. Your tax-deductible contribution will be matched up to $100,000 … but only until midnight EST, December 31!"

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On This Day:

Patton relieves Bastogne, Dec 26, 1944:

"On this day, General George S. Patton employs an audacious strategy to relieve the besieged Allied defenders of Bastogne, Belgium, during the brutal Battle of the Bulge.

The capture of Bastogne was the ultimate goal of the Battle of the Bulge, the German offensive through the Ardennes forest. Bastogne provided a road junction in rough terrain where few roads existed; it would open up a valuable pathway further north for German expansion. The Belgian town was defended by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, which had to be reinforced by troops who straggled in from other battlefields. Food, medical supplies, and other resources eroded as bad weather and relentless German assaults threatened the Americans' ability to hold out. Nevertheless, Brigadier General Anthony C. MacAuliffe met a German surrender demand with a typewritten response of a single word: "Nuts."

Enter "Old Blood and Guts," General Patton. Employing a complex and quick-witted strategy wherein he literally wheeled his 3rd Army a sharp 90 degrees in a counterthrust movement, Patton broke through the German lines and entered Bastogne, relieving the valiant defenders and ultimately pushing the Germans east across the Rhine.

He was transferred to the 15th Army Group, but in December of 1945 he suffered a broken neck in a car accident and died less than two weeks later, on Dec 21, 1945.   He was 60 years old."

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Truman dies, Dec 26, 1972:

"On this day in 1972, former President Harry S. Truman dies in Independence, Missouri.

Then-President Richard Nixon called Truman a man of "forthrightness and integrity" who had a deep respect for the office he held and for the people he served, and who "supported and wisely counseled each of his successors."

Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. The son of a farmer, he could not afford to go to college, so he too worked as a farmer before joining the army in 1916 to fight in World War I. After the war, Truman opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. When that business went bankrupt in 1922, he entered Missouri politics. Truman went on to serve in the U.S. Senate from 1934 until he was chosen as Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth vice president in 1945; it was during his Senate terms that he became known for his honesty and integrity.

Upon FDR's death on April 12, 1945, Truman became the 33rd president of the United States, assuming the role of commander in chief of a country still embroiled in World War II. With victory in Europe was imminent, Truman agonized over whether to use nuclear weapons to force Japan to surrender. Just four months into his tenure, Truman authorized the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945. He and his military advisors argued that using the bombs ultimately saved American and Japanese lives, since it appeared that the Japanese would fiercely resist any conventional attempt by the Allies to invade Japan and end the war. The use of the new weapon, dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August, succeeded in forcing Japan's surrender, but also killed, injured and sickened thousands of Japanese and ushered in the Cold War.

Although harshly criticized by some for his decision to use the devastating weapon, Truman also displayed integrity and humanitarian virtues throughout his political career. In 1941, Truman drove 10,000 miles across the country in his Dodge to investigate potential war profiteering in defense plants on the eve of World War II. As president, Truman pushed through the Marshall Plan, which provided desperately needed reconstruction aid to European nations devastated by the war and on the verge of widespread famine. He also supported the establishment of a permanent Israeli state.

Truman served as president for two terms from 1945 to 1953, when he and his wife Bess happily retired to Independence, Missouri, where he referred to himself jokingly as "Mr. Citizen." He was hospitalized on December 4, 1972, with lung congestion, heart irregularity, kidney blockages and failure of the digestive system. He died on December 26. A very subdued and private funeral, fitting for the down-to-earth Truman, was held in Independence according to his and his family's wishes."

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Britain surprises German attacker in the Arctic, Dec 26, 1943:

"On this day, the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst is sunk by British warships in the Arctic after decoded German naval signals reveal that the Scharnhorst is on a mission to attack an Anglo-American convoy to Russia.

Hitler's navy had posed serious threats to convoys shipping supplies to the Soviet Union since the fall of 1941. American, British, and Soviet merchant ships had suffered devastating attacks in the Arctic, mostly by German U-boats. Operation Rainbow was the German plan to attack two Anglo-American convoys as they sailed between Bear Island and the North Cape en route to the Eastern front. But Enigma, the British code-breaker, once again provided the Allies with the sensitive strategic information they needed to anticipate and prevent disaster. The Scharnhorst, Germany's 31,000-ton battle cruiser, which had already sunk the British cruiser Rawalpindi, was surprised by the British battleship Duke of York, which sank it in what became known as the Battle of North Cape.

Approximately 2,000 German sailors and crew drowned and only 36 survived.

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Yesterday:

Washington crosses the Delaware, Dec 25, 1776:

"During the American Revolution, Patriot General George Washington crosses the Delaware River with 5,400 troops, hoping to surprise a Hessian force celebrating Christmas at their winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey. The unconventional attack came after several months of substantial defeats for Washington's army that had resulted in the loss of New York City and other strategic points in the region.

At about 11 p.m. on Christmas, Washington's army commenced its crossing of the half-frozen river at three locations. The 2,400 soldiers led by Washington successfully braved the icy and freezing river and reached the New Jersey side of the Delaware just before dawn. The other two divisions, made up of some 3,000 men and crucial artillery, failed to reach the meeting point at the appointed time.

At approximately 8 a.m. on the morning of December 26, Washington's remaining force, separated into two columns, reached the outskirts of Trenton and descended on the unsuspecting Hessians. Trenton's 1,400 Hessian defenders were groggy from the previous evening's festivities and underestimated the Patriot threat after months of decisive British victories throughout New York. Washington's men quickly overwhelmed the Germans' defenses, and by 9:30 a.m. the town was surrounded. Although several hundred Hessians escaped, nearly 1,000 were captured at the cost of only four American lives. However, because most of Washington's army had failed to cross the Delaware, he was without adequate artillery or men and was forced to withdraw from the town.

The victory was not particularly significant from a strategic point of view, but news of Washington's initiative raised the spirits of the American colonists, who previously feared that the Continental Army was incapable of victory."

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Gorbachev resigns as president of the USSR, Dec 25, 1991:

Mikhail Gorbachev announces that he is resigning as president of the Soviet Union. In truth, there was not much of a Soviet Union from which to resign—just four days earlier, 11 of the former Soviet republics had established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), effectively dismembering the USSR. The Soviet Union, for all intents and purposes, had already ceased to exist.

In his farewell speech to the nation, Gorbachev indicated that the recent establishment of the CIS was the primary motive for his resignation, claiming he was "concerned about the fact that the people in this country are ceasing to become citizens of a great power and the consequences may be very difficult for all of us to deal with." In words that were sometimes prideful, sometimes resentful, Gorbachev stated that he stood on his record of achievement. He had, he claimed, overseen the Soviet Union's trip down the "road of democracy." His reforms "steered" the communist economy "toward the market economy." He declared that the Russian people were "living in a new world" in which an "end has been put to the Cold War and to the arms race." Admitting "there were mistakes made," Gorbachev remained adamant that he "never had any regrets" about the policies he pursued.

In reality, Gorbachev had lost much of his power and prestige in the Soviet Union even before the establishment of the CIS. The economy was unstable. No one seemed pleased by Gorbachev-some opponents demanded even more political freedom while hard-liners in his government opposed any movement toward reform. In August 1991, he survived a coup attempt only through the assistance of Russian Federation president Boris Yeltsin. Following the failed attempt, Yeltsin became a vocal critic of the slow pace of economic and political reforms in the country. As Gorbachev's power slipped away, Yeltsin took over the Kremlin and other Soviet government facilities and replaced the Soviet flag with the flag of Russia. After over 70 years of existence, the Soviet Union-America's archenemy in the Cold War-was gone."

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Yesterday's TV Program:

"You may look forward to Christmas but what happens afterwards?" 

"Are you truly fulfilled and is the world a better place?"

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Just a quiet day with my critters, the washing machine and the Internet. 

The laundry revealed some interesting things about the weather the last few days. 

There were tank-tops and shorts, plus turtlenecks and long johns! 

That's TX for ya!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bottle-fed kittens, Pebbles and Precious are going to meet prospective new 'parents' today.