North Shore Animal League Has Posted A Special Request

Cat Hit by Car Needs Your Help

Champ's Story When North Shore Animal League America rescued this sweet Siamese cat from a municipal shelter, he was perilously close to death.

The cat, whom our rescue team named Champ, had been hit by a car and left gravely wounded on a roadside. His injuries included head trauma, a broken jaw and severe damage to both of his eyes.

Despite Champ’s slim odds of survival, the medical staff at North Shore Animal League worked tirelessly to save him. They immediately administered medication to alleviate his pain; next, they wired his jaw shut so it could have a chance to heal properly. Then, they inserted a feeding tube so Champ could receive essential nourishment to help him gain back his strength.

Their veterinary staff monitored Champ around-the-clock, concerned that the impact of the crash might have caused neurological problems. Day by day, he is growing stronger, and he shows no signs of brain damage.

But Champ isn’t out of the woods yet. Sadly, the injuries to his eyes were far too severe to be repaired, and he will require surgery to remove them. To find out more about this go to www.animalleague.org.

This evokes memories for me of our little cat who was born with the cerebral virus similar to cerebral palsy in humans. He had wandered to the road after someone left the gate open and was hit. He survived, but was on shaky ground for several weeks. It was our fabulous vet who pulled him through.

Another cat in our family whose name is Chance (for second chance). He was lost from somewhere in the farm land and ended up in a friend's garage with a big abscess in his side, probably from a coyote attack. We took him in and again our vet pulled him through. He was so traumatized he spent most of his first year with us on a chair under the dining room table!

It has been several years now and he has decided he can now rule over the other cats in his privileged old age.

We are glad help support all rescue agencies. My website will include all of them. The website has taken some time to build due to some extenuating circumstance, but will be built soon.

Locusts For Lunch

Could bugs be the next cuisine trend? Just imagine it: 'Restaurant Arthropod's'. Now serving: Locust Louis; Mealy Bug Meatloaf; Centipede Souffle; Moth Broth; Mosquito Fahito au jus.; Chigger Juice.

Insects for Dinner? No-no, not the squashed fly between the pages of your plastic menu or the little roach that scrambles out from under your plate in a restaurant, but the one that gets delivered in your dinner on purpose.

Consider the possibilities... Arthropods, or organisms with jointed legs are clearly related to lobsters, crabs and other edible beings in the ocean. It's been determined that lobsters are actually sea-going cockroaches and in addition, lobster exoskeletons also have the same jointed legs and antennae as grasshoppers. In comparison, grasshoppers should be more desirable than lobsters. Grasshoppers eat clean grass; lobsters eat sea garbage like dead fish and other remains on the murky ocean floor. Of course we all eat some insects unknowingly. Aphids cling to lettuce leaves, and weevils and beetles can reside in flour and rice undetected. The FDA actually has a measurement of `acceptable' insect presence in food.

You might consider the nutritional angle. Termites have considerably more protein than a steak, for example and that protein has more amino acids essential to our diet than any other animal.

Insects can be `farm raised'. You can breed them like cattle, and in a smaller space with less odor! They could be marketed as a simple solution to world hunger. (Many nations already commonly eat insets, by the way.) There are over five million species roaming the earth, so we would definitely enjoy more variety in our dishes. Rather than being crop destroyers, they would be the crop.

If you are curious, why don't you pick up the book, 'Entertaining with Insects', and try out a few dishes at your next formal dinner party. And chefs, consider the colorful presentations you could make! Real butterflies...... I'll bet that if you dipped them in chocolate you could get almost anyone to try one.

...We ate in a seafood restaurant last night and I sadly passed on the lobster tail.

by Kathleen Brack About the Author: Kathleen Jerauld-Brack. BFA Graphic Design and Fine Art. Is recipient of many Art and Literature Awards. She is also Webmaster of: http://www.bestplacetoeat.com/ |