Brave Cat. Renew Tiger Stamp. Adopt! Housebreaking. Gettysburg Address. Notre Dame and MSU.

 

For “Mammal Monday”:

Cat saves family from bear!!! AMAZING VIDEO!!!

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Only 3,200 tigers survive in the wild.

“Congress is poised to let the Save Vanishing Species stamp expire and with it, tiger conservation funding.

Tigers once ruled the jungles of Asia. Today, only 3,200 survive in the wild – due to decades of merciless poaching. If we don't speak up, poachers will continue to hunt wild tigers and their prey until the tally falls to... zero.

Poachers can be stopped in their tracks, but only when conservationists have the resources they need.  The Save Vanishing Species stamp does just that – raising a remarkable $1.58 million dollars for tigers and other wildlife in just one year – all at zero cost to the American taxpayer.  But now the stamp is up for renewal, and Congress may let it expire – putting vital tiger conservation work at risk.

Almost two years ago, wildlife-lovers like you convinced Congress to create this stamp. We can convince them to renew it today – but only if we speak up.  Tigers may not have much time left. Poachers have devastated tiger populations across their range. They track down and kill tigers, then sell their skins and bones on the black market.

By cracking down on illegal poaching, creating and protecting parks, and supporting recovering tiger populations, WCS and the conservation community have proven that poachers can be stopped. But as poachers grow more sophisticated, conservationists need more resources. That's why funding from the Save Vanishing Species stamp is so important to protecting tigers.

And that's why we can't let Congress turn their backs on tigers now. Send a letter to your members of Congress – ask them to renew the Save Vanishing Species stamp to protect tigers and other threatened wildlife.

Thanks for taking a minute to speak up. Together, we can make sure Congress does the right thing for tigers.”   Sincerely,

Liz Bennett
Vice President, Species Conservation
Wildlife Conservation Society

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“A great PSA dismissing the stereotype that all shelter pets are disturbed and unfriendly!   Watch and share with your friends and help us promote pet adoption!”

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7 Ways To Cure Your Dog's Housetraining Problem

“This is THE best advice I could ever give to anyone training their dog.  Would you like me to share it with you? Excellent, here tis:

“I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn't think about what I wanted.
I thought about what they wanted. I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream.  Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in
front of them.”
What is it that your dog wants?
When you are using a reward based dog training system (like I teach) you have to first figure out what your dog really wants.
I have seen hundreds of dog owners show up with treats their dogs did not like to my classes.
They would offer up a dried up dog biscuit made out of flour and corn and wonder why their dog was not excited about doing obedience.
This is very simple but profound advice, but if you can think about what your dog wants and then use THAT to train, it will be much easier and
effective.”  Eric Letendre

“Dog Training Video - Discover 7 housetraining secrets expert dog trainer Eric Letendre uses to cure tough housetraining issues. This informative dog training video offers useful and easy to apply dog training tips.”

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On This Day:

President Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address, Nov 19, 1863:

“On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

For some time, Lincoln had been planning to make a public statement on the significance of the war and the struggle against slavery. In early November, he received an invitation to speak at the dedication of part of the Gettysburg battlefield, which was being transformed into a cemetery for the soldiers who had died in battle there from July 1 to July 3, 1863. A popular myth suggests that Lincoln hastily scribbled his speech on the back of an envelope during his trip to Gettysburg, but he had actually begun crafting his words well before the trip.

At Gettysburg, Lincoln, who began his address with the now well-known phrase "Four score and seven years ago," reminded the assembled crowd of the Founding Fathers' vision, which established a nation that was "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." He addressed the country's civil war, which was testing the endurance of American revolutionary ideals, and he honored the soldiers who fought at Gettysburg, suggesting that their struggle had already consecrated the ground "far above our power to add or detract." Lincoln then succinctly stated the purpose of the Northern war effort: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Today, the words of the Gettysburg Address are carved into a wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.”

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“As we commemorate the 149th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s historic Gettysburg Address, please ask Congress to help the National Park Service fully tell his story by protecting the Lincoln Train Station in Gettysburg.

President Lincoln arrived at this train station--now beautifully restored--on November 18, 1863, the night before delivering the Gettysburg Address.
The Borough of Gettysburg and Gettysburg Foundation are set to donate the Lincoln Train Station to the National Park Service to help tell the story of Lincoln at Gettysburg and to serve as a downtown national park visitor center. To make this happen, we need Congress to pass legislation adding the train station to the boundary of Gettysburg National Military Park.

Thank you for doing your part to honor President Lincoln by protecting the Lincoln Train Station in downtown Gettysburg. Future generations will appreciate your action.”

Click Here to Send Your Message to Congress!

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Notre Dame and MSU play to a classic tie, Nov 19, 1966:

“On November 19, 1966, in college football, first-ranked Notre Dame and second-ranked Michigan State play to a 10-10 tie at Spartan Stadium. The Irish, per coach Ara Parseghian's instructions, ran out the clock at the end of the game instead of passing to score and risking an interception. After the game, Parseghian defended his decision. "We'd fought hard to come back and tie it up," he told reporters in the locker room. "After all that, I didn't want to risk giving it to them cheap."

Notre Dame was playing without several of its star players that day. Back Nick Eddy had slipped on the ice at the East Lansing train station. The Spartans' 290-lb defensive end Bubba Smith had flattened quarterback Terry Hanratty at the beginning of the game, dislocating his shoulder and sending him to the bench and Hanratty's backup, Coley O'Brien, was diabetic and plainly not feeling like himself. As a result, the Spartans took an early 10-0 lead. The Irish managed to tie the score in the second half, and with a little more than a minute left to go in the game, they got the ball back in plenty of time to score—but Parseghian was reluctant to chance a run at the end zone. After all, MSU's defense was practically impenetrable, and a turnover would have given the Spartans a chance at victory. So he opted to run out the clock instead, preserving his tie and, for the moment, his team's ranking.

Neither the Irish nor the Spartans would play in a bowl game that year, Notre Dame because the university thought postseason play would interfere with the football team's studies and Michigan State because they'd gone to the Rose Bowl the year before, and going twice in a row was against the Big Ten's rules. Since the national championship hadn't been settled on the field, it went to a vote: the end-of-year AP and UPI polls. Complicating matters was Bear Bryant's undefeated—and, crucially, un-integrated—University of Alabama team, a stark contrast especially to an MSU squad that had welcomed many black players from the South. In the end, in a vote that many people viewed as a rebuke to the segregated, obstructionist Alabamians, Notre Dame kept its No. 1 ranking. MSU came in second, and Alabama came in third. (It's worth noting that all-white teams from the South had won six of the previous nine championships, and a stubbornly un-integrated Texas team captured the first-place ranking in 1969. Still, many voters were certainly aware of, and dismayed by, Alabama's racist stance. Meanwhile, Bubba Smith had another explanation for Notre Dame's triumph: "All the sportswriters," he said, "are Catholic.")

The Notre Dame-MSU tie was the first college football game to be broadcast to U.S. troops in Vietnam. At first, ABC wasn't going to show the game at all, but 50,000 fans wrote letters and signed petitions in protest and the network changed its mind. And the reversal paid off: The game got higher ratings than the next year's first-ever Super Bowl did.”

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Yesterday:

Just in case we had a sudden freak hard freeze, which does happen occasionally here, it was time to think about the hundreds of aloe vera plants that are outside in the wooden trough next to the fence. 

We had taken some pots off the porch in the Spring, and put them out there, but they had grown too tall to cover. 

Time to bring them back in, so we found places to put them in the vinyl-clad screen porch.  Some had to be re-potted into larger pots, they had grown so much.

 

 

Then we covered the remaining ones in the outside trough by screwing strips of sheets, held down by slats of wood, on the back of the wooden trough and screwing the sheets down on the front.   This is just half of them!

 

 

All that bending over made our backs ache, but Ray’s couldn’t have been too bad, as I saw him washing his car later.

Miss Priss enjoyed some time on the porch yesterday.

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