So I don't know if any of you caught Oprah's show yesterday. She had director Tom Shadyac on to talk about his new documentary I AM. You may be asking "Who is Tom Shadyac?" Well he is the director of films like Liar Liar and The Nutty Professor. It was a pretty interesting and profound show.
After making MILLIONS of dollars in the film industry he found that he was not fulfilled by all the fame and fortune. The world had taught him that wealth was the only way to measure happiness. So when he found that in fact the money didn't make him any happier he went in search of what it was that would truly make him happy. "Each day that you don't do what you love, a small piece of your heart dies" (Like I said, profound).
Through his journey he set out to answer two "simple" questions: What is wrong with the world? And what can we do about it? He talks about the key to survival is not competition, but rather cooperation. Cooperation with each other and cooperation with our planet: "You cannot take more from the world than what you need." There is a ripple effect to all of our actions.
It definitely gets you thinking. If you can catch it on rerun, hulu, or however, you should definitely watch it. The documentary is set to be released in theaters soon.
In the past few years, since I was pregnant with Gabriella, Beau and I have tried to start living a more "aware" life(I think that living in Gainesville has something to do with it as well). We are more conscious of the foods we eat: Like where did it come from? Is it organic? How we get places: Should we ride our bikes? Should we walk? We like knowing that we are helping the planet in our own small way.
So here is the point of this whole entry: No, we are not starting our own animal shelter as the title may have lead you to believe. But, we have been taking care of some animals in need.
Earlier this week, Sunday night to be exact, some(pardon my language) A**HOLE literally threw a female black lab out of the bed of his truck, in the parking lot of the vet clinic next door. She obviously just recently had puppies, as her udders are hanging and full of milk. Beau saw her running around that night, but we just assumed that it was a lost dog. It was not until Monday morning that Jeanne informed us of what had happened(she had witnessed the whole thing from their home and called the police).
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| Here she is relaxing under some trees, trying to get out of the heat. |
So for the past few days I have been going to the back lot, of our development, to leave her food and water. Since it has been so hot this week, our temps have been in the 90's, I go back there a few times a day and replace her water and fill it with ice. Some of the other neighbors are also leaving food and water out for her. Animal control was called out(not my idea as I hate to think that they would catch her and possibly put her to sleep if not adopted) and the vet clinic was informed. In an attempt to catch the dog, the vet clinic set up a trap, but instead caught a raccoon.
Then yesterday afternoon, around 6:30, the family and I headed back to check on the dogs supplies. After checking we decided to keep going on a little walk. It was on our walk that Mikey and Gheri alerted us to a baby raccoon in some underbrush. It was tiny and looked hurt. It walked straight out to us and was not the least bit frightened of the dogs. It was then that I figured it was to coincidental that a baby raccoon was all alone, in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of the road, and two days earlier the vet clinic had caught a raccoon and released her in another area. I told Beau that it must be orphaned.
Beau took off his shirt, wrapped the baby raccoon up, and we took it home(after borrowing a pet carrier from a neighbor). We called Wildlife Rescue and waited, and waited, and waited for them to call us back. At about 9:00 PM I was convinced that they weren't going to call us until the next day and I was in for a night of raccoon feeding and monitoring. So off to Pet Supermarket I went for some formula, Pedialyte, and GLOVES. I was all ready to care for the baby raccoon when Wildlife Rescue called and said that they could meet us to pick up the raccoon kit. So at 10 PM I went to deliver the baby. The woman who met me looked the baby raccoon over and said that it was definitely an orphan(she could tell by the nasty fly eggs all over its body, a sure sign of not being near its mother for at least a day) and had we not taken it home it would surely have died.
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Our little rescue. It was the size of a small puppy. So cute!!!
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The ripple effect. One act of animal cruelty on a dog left a baby raccoon orphaned. It is a shame that people take so much from this world and not enough people give back. Over the next years it will be my and Beau's duty to teach our kids to be kind to one another and our world. A big job if you ask me, but something that we are going to work hard at.
