Byrd's Eye View

This weekend there are adopt-a-thons and fundraisers galore for homeless critters across the Piedmont!

Saturday, October 4th

Ten Thousand Villages Puppy Adoption Fair
Animal Rescue and Foster Program
11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Jefferson Village
1564-A Highwoods Blvd. Greensboro For more information call
323-0850 or 275-1204

Cat and Kitten Adoption Fair
Feral Cat Assistance Program
12:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Petsmart
Bridford Parkway, Greensboro
For more information, visit www.feralcatassistance.org

Ten Thousand Villages Puppy Adoption Fair
Animal Rescue and Foster Program
10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Dog Days
705 Battleground Avenue, Greensboro
For more information, visit www.ruffloverescue.com or www.dogdaysgreensboro.com

Doggie Jog
Humane Society of Davie County
Shelter #2 in Rich Park
Registration from 9:00 am - 9:45 am; $15/dog. 
Free games for the dogs, Frisbee Toss/Fetch, Tennis Ball Raffle.
Prizes awarded for walkers with the two highest pledges brought in.
T-shirt and goodie bag to all registrants.
Also, dress your dog up and win a great prize for the best dressed pooch!
Pledge forms can be downloaded from our website Events page:  www.davienchumane.org 
Donations of supplies for our adoption center are always welcome (paper towels, bleach, plastic trash bags, detergent).


Sunday, October 5th

Blessing of the Animals services
Humane Society of Davie County
2:00 pm at Church of the Ascension at Fork, on Fork-Bixby Rd just north of 64 East.
3:30 pm Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Cooleemee, NC
Bring your 2- and 4-legged companions to these wonderful services celebrating the role of animals in our lives, in the tradition of St. Francis of Assisi. You will receive a blessing just as your pets will.

Cat and Kitten Adoption Fair
Feral Cat Assistance Program
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Petsmart
Bridford Parkway, Greensboro
For more information, visit www.feralcatassistance.org

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We did a story this morning on a Home Depot employee who heroically chased an accused shoplifter from his store when a fellow employee called for help.  The suspect jumped into a truck and took off, but the employee who chased him was able to grab the chainsaw that the suspect was trying to nab and get the truck's license tag.  The suspect was apprehended a few weeks later.

Home Depot fired this employee for violating company policy:

 "Associates cannot accuse, detain, chase or call the police on any customer for shoplifting."

"Policy calls for any associate who witnesses criminal activity to immediately contact the designated loss prevention associate or security guard to their store, who is professionally trained to handle the situation in the safest way possible."

The morning show team had a spirited conversation about this outcome and I thought it was very interesting. 

Here's my take on it:  The employee was with Home Depot for six years and had worked his way up to a supervisory position.  He was not the "designated loss prevention associate", a.k.a. "security guard".  He knew the policy set by the company and violated it.  Home Depot, like many large stores, budgets a certain amount to cover the loss from shoplifting.  That amount is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of a lawsuit against the company for any claim of injury, false arrest or  defamation of character that a suspect can claim, not to mention injuries sustained by the hero employee.  What is the employee had been killed during the altercation?  It's just not worth it.

This isn't the first time.  Home Depot has followed the same procedure in the past when employees have tried to stop suspected shoplifters.  (I mention Home Depot specifically, but other stores have similar policies too.)

What do you think?  Should he have been fired?

Today, I was watching a recorded episode of a popular talk show that focused on the subject of education and opportunity.

There was an experiment. Four students from an inner city Chicago high school traded a day with four students with a suburban high school. The comparisons were startling.

• When juxtaposed, the suburban school had an open, warm entrance, the inner city school had metal detectors and security officers.
  
• Suburban: state-of-the-art computer lab, Olympic pool, a thriving band program and full work-out room.
  
• Inner city: no computer lab, a moldy pool that hadn't been filled in 10 years, hardly any instruments (students had to rap on their desks in music class) and a gym with a leaky ceiling housing equipment that was held together by duct tape.
  
• More than 24 AP classes in the suburban school, but only 2 in the inner city school.

Parents and students alike were outraged at the disparity. Test scores revealed more problems. Here are the numbers of students who met state standards in three subjects:

                                        Inner City                 Suburban
Reading                            16%                           78%
Science                             1.5%                          76%
Math                                   0.5%                          77%

I know, I know... "Emily, get to the point!" OK, here are my ponderings, and remember that I'm not a parent, so I have to draw on my experience as a student.

My first reaction was, "That's awful. How could school systems allow such disproportionate funding?" Then I thought about my own high school experience (a very, very small amount over 20 years ago).

We had most of the nice stuff like a pool, gym, and stellar music program but I never used any of it. I went to class, studied my books, did my homework and stayed out of trouble.

There were no cell phones and few computers of any value to us at that time. We read books and hand-wrote class notes, homework and papers.

Do students need state-of-the-art facilities to become well-educated?

Dr. Randy Pausch was a pioneer in many ways:  in teaching, programming, gaming and living.  He was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in 2006 and was told he would have three to six months to live.  He chose to live.

He taught at Carnegie Mellon University and gave a lecture aptly titled "The Last Lecture" where he spoke of his triumphs in life.

http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/

Dr. Pausch died today at the age of 47.  I hope that the many paths he blazed in this world will be well-travelled by the rest of us.

One of the worst experiences is having a pet run away.  Our friends at Animal Rescue Groups of North Carolina have a site devoted to lost and found pets:

http://www.argnc.com/alert.html

This is a great idea!  Tell your friends so that we can increase awareness about the pets out there who need help finding their way home.

To provide additional protection for your critter, consider having him or her microchipped.  The cost is worth the peace of mind.  Local shelters and veterinarians have the scanners that are used to read the chip and your pet can be returned to you, if found. 

Oh, Mom's fine.

For those of you who live near her, she'll be out tomorrow morning (and the next and the next), walking her usual route and picking up trash.  She's called the Trash Lady by some who don't know her. 

No, today Mom took my brother and I ahead to a time that neither of us want to think about.  You see, she's at that point in life where she wants to make plans for her last days.  She went to several attorneys who specialize in estate planning, and settled on an attorney in the Guilford College area who she really connected to. 

Today, Mom arranged for Jon and I to meet with Cheryl and take a look at some of her arrangements for her Last Will and Testament, Powers of Attorney, and her Living Will.  I was prepared for some stuff, but that last one, the Living Will, had me unglued. 

You see, my mom and her sisters had to make a decision about my grandmother about 15 years ago.  They were told that Mommac was in the last stages of Parkinson's and that she was not going to recover.  They had to decide whether or not to feed her and hydrate her through tubes.  Unfortunately, Mommac's mind was still good... it was her body that failed her.  She couldn't speak anymore and her expressions were fleeting.  She was so tired...

It took two weeks for her to die.  It was awful.  We don't know if she suffered since they probably didn't administer pain medications or morphine back then, but I know that her daughters suffered every minute of every day knowing that they decided to essentially starve her to death. 

Mom wants to protect Jon and I from that decision, if it comes, but she didn't know whether she wanted to sign anything with specific instructions.  I didn't want to be at a big, shiny wood table with pages of legalese -- jargon that became almost comical to read.  Pages with initials, signatures, witnesses, notarizing... but they all represent my mother's last days.   My mom and her care.  Her death.  Those are the days that I will only want to be next to her, holding her hand.  Or feeding her.  Making her comfortable.  Watching "Monk", "Columbo"  and "Harvey" on DVD over and over again.  Reading the latest children's book to her (she was a children's librarian for over 20 years).  I don't want my mother's sacred last days reduced to pages of paper.

I must say at this point that Cheryl and her assistant, Kent, were smart, professional, and extremely patient through the entire process.  They stayed to answer every question for as long as it took, and showed great sensitivity to the grave subject at hand.  And they assured us that we're doing paperwork now so that we don't have to do it (and more) at a later time when we'd rather be sitting with Mom, watching DVD's and making her comfortable. 

Mom's a trooper.  She's even trying figure out what to do with her ashes.  I think that's a great idea since Mommac is still in a shoebox on a shelf.  Really.

But now that we've signed everything, Mom can relax.  She'll be out tomorrow morning marching around the neighborhood just like she does every morning.  She was recently "clipped" by a minivan which left her laying in the road and limping for a week.  I like to say Mom got hit by a truck.  And she keeps on going.  I figure she still has six or seven lives left, so hopefully I won't have to pull out those "Columbo" DVD's anytime soon.

Here is a transcript of a voicemail message that I received today:

"Hi Emily, this is Miss Simmons.  I, uh, watch you every morning on, uh, FOX 8 weather and being as that we, my husband and I, were discussing how totally disgusted we are with your silliness over the music in the mornings, antagonizing Cindy to join in your dancing and whatever, we're going to have to block you.  Sorry!"

Now, aside from the ring-and-run aspect of this message, (she didn't leave a return phone number or any way to contact her), I was a little surprised.  The observation that I hear most from people is that they really enjoy the music and shots of all of us dancing in the morning.  Furthermore, it is very rare that I ever appear on-camera dancing.

I would like to know what you think.  Do you like the 10-20 seconds that we have music and show our crew enjoying it right before weather in the morning?  Would you rather not have that as part of the morning newscast?

Sound off!

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We did a story this morning about the proposal to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18.

Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea, and why?

Click to play video

Yikes! 

If the meat recall doesn't have you thinking twice about chomping into that burger, the graphic video showing animal abuse at Westland/Hallmark Meat Company might.

This isn't a blog to convince people to give up meat.  I think that's an individual's personal decision.   With that said, if you want to take a break from eating meat for a day, a week or just cut back your consumption, it's really easy to find meat-free foods to satisfy your appetite and your taste. 

People cut back on or stop eating meat for any number of reasons.  I've met folks who just don't like the taste anymore.  Not me!  I love (to my core) cheeseburgers.  My mouth waters whenever I smell a cook-out or a pepperoni pizza.   I became a vegetarian solely because of the way animals are treated.   Unfortunately, I'm not always good at being a vegetarian and sometimes allow myself salmon or tuna.  It's rare, but sometimes I just need the protein.  Someday I hope to be disciplined enough to eliminate those two foods from my diet.

Choosing a vegetarian way of eating doesn't necessarily mean eating a salad for every meal or learning to tolerate mushy tofu.  Heavens, no!  These days there are lots of creative and flavorful choices.  Not only do vegetarian foods provide ample protein, but some taste so much like meat you probably won't miss a thing.

I'm not kidding!  I've shared my vegetarian sloppy joes and chili with avid meat-eaters and they have unanimously said that they were delicious and close enough to the real McCoy that they wouldn't have noticed the difference if I hadn't told them ahead of time.  

Some brands you may want to try:  Morningstar Farms, Boca, Amy's and Gardenburger.  (There are others, but these are the ones that I've tried).  These products aren't just about burgers (though they are very yummy), they also provide sausage, corndogs, hot dogs, "ground beef", chick'n patties, chick'n nuggets and bacon.  I've tried them all and they are wonderful!

Nuts are staples of a good vegetarian diet.  How yummy is that??  You can snack and get healthy fats in your diet.  They also provide great long-term energy.  Fruits and vegetables will not only provide big nutrition and fiber, but they are often locally grown, so you support your local farmers. 

Finding vegetarian choices in restaurants is easier than ever.  Sometimes it takes a little extra investigation when ordering in a restaurant.  Depending on how strict you are, you may want to ask if the chef uses chicken stock for flavoring (mashed potatoes, marinara sauces, etc.) or gelatin in recipes.  

Asian and Middle Eastern foods are also incredibly flavorful and often are meat-free.  Try hummus, couscous, falafel, and vegetable spring rolls.   If you're cooking a recipe that calls for chicken or beef stock, you can substitute vegetable stock as a delicious alternative. 

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was  to "eat a rainbow every day".  If you have lots of color on your plate, you're getting some great balance in your diet.

Just to make sure the bases are covered, it's important to consult your physician if you're going to change your diet, simply to make sure that any underlying health issues are addressed. 

I can only speak from my own experience.  I feel great on this diet but I understand that it's not for everyone.  Consider it though if you're even the least bit curious.  You may find that you like it!

Poor form, buddy. 

First you spout hate and then you delete every response that countered your view.  Oh, and then disabling comments on your blog is just plain cowardly.

The purpose of the blogging section is to promote dialog.   If you're going to post hateful, inflammatory opinions, be ready to take what you get.

 

 

Shame on you!  That's what I want to say to the parents who were involved in a knock-down, drag-out fight at a local elementary school -- during the children's holiday program, no less!  I don't care what tradition you observe during this time of year, there is no excuse.

Grow up.  Your children learn from everything that you do.  In fact, kids learn by the time they're in elementary school that you can't haul off and hit someone because you don't like them. 

At that moment, you failed as parents.  Harsh?  You bet, but no harsher than kids watching their parents get into a physical and verbal altercation in front of friends, neighbors and family.

Make it better.  You can teach your kids (and the adults that saw you acting like idiots) that good can come from bad.  Apologize and forgive. 

And we wonder why "kids these days" don't show respect...

 

LEE COUNTY SHELTER RENOVATION THIS WEEK = KILLING OF ALL ANIMALS

A note from a Shelter Attendant:

"To my knowledge, none of these animals have been spoken for so far. Heather (our volunteer) is the one who works with the rescues and such. As far as a specific time that they will be euthanized, we do not have one yet. They should all remain at the shelter all day Monday, but starting mid-week, they will have to start being euthanized so we can have the shelter empty over the holidays for renovations.

If you know someone who may be interested in adopting one of these animals, please send them by the shelter tomorrow (Monday, Dec. 17th between 10am-12pm and 1pm-4pm to visit. Thank you!"

PLEASE SEND TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW...THERE IS NO ADOPTTION FEE AT THIS SHELTER!!

Lee County Animal Shelter 1450 N. Horner Blvd.

Sanford, NC 27330

Phone: 919-776-7446

Office Hours: Monday - Friday 8am-5pm and Saturday 8-12.

Adoption Hours: Monday - Friday 10am-12pm and 1pm-4pm, Saturday 10am-12pm

CONTACT THE PEOPLE BELOW DIRECTLY at their emails for information about these animals:

animalshelter@leecountync.gov

hjacks9@yahoo.com

aboni@leecountync.gov

PLEASE TELL EVERY RESCUE GROUP YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS - HOPEFULLY SOMEONE WILL WORK A MIRACLE and give these animals a home for Christmas and forever after.

There is a GORGEOUS CHOCOLATE LAB purebred male there - please, SOMEONE SAVE HIM!!! http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876308

OTHER DOGS: SHEPHERD mix http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876130

BOXER mix http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876147

LAB mix black and white http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876158

BOXER mix http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876166

SHEPHERD mix http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876168

LAB mix http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876203

LAB mix http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876215

BORDER COLLIE http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876228

SHEPHERD mix--beautiful http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876231

CHOW mix MOTHER & her litter of pups! http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876247

CATS: BEAUTIFUL CALICO http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9876122

TABBY & WHITE CAT http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9694390

BLACK & WHITE KITTY http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?p
etid=9694382

Hi Shadowgirl07 and welcome to our blogosphere.

You may want to change your account settings to allow comments, otherwise it's kind of difficult to reply to you.

You asked, "Is it wrong for a 14 year old girl to go out with an 18 year old guy? If they love each other deeply?"

In my opinion, yes, it's wrong.  While there is no question in my mind that a 14-year-old can fall in love, a kid that age shouldn't be dating.  Especially an 18-year-old guy.  The levels of maturity are different physically, emotionally and mentally.  Plus, if the relationship becomes physical, the 18-year-old can be put in jail for any number of sexual offenses.

If this is you that we're talking about, wait until you're older.  Go out with a group of friends, enjoy being a child (which is what you are) and put off the heavy stuff until you're older. 

I believe true love lasts forever.  If you wait at least three years (out of a lifetime, that's nothing), not only will the relationship be stable and healthy, it will be legal.

We had a story today on hand-washing.

Ewwww!!!  Ick!  Ick!  Ick!!!

33% of men still aren't washing their hands after using the bathroom.  12% of women aren't washing up. 

What's up with that??

Isn't that Personal Hygiene 101?  And I don't mean an obligatory splash-your-fingertips-under-the-faucet "washing", I mean soap-and-water-scrub-your-hands washing.

Imagine the implications of not washing...  "stuff" on the door handle... on pens, keyboards, phones, chairs...

I'm grossing myself out. 

Plains States Flood Victims to Arrive Next Week

Dogs, cats, kittens and puppies, left homeless during the recent flooding in the Plains States, will arrive in Greensboro on Wednesday, July 18th, from Oklahoma.

The Greensboro based Animal Rescue & Foster Program, located at 705 Milner Drive, has been working with animal rescue organizations in Oklahoma to help rescue animals affected by this disaster. The floods have affected animals in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. Shelters have been flooded several times and temporary shelters have been set up at local fairgrounds. The Animal Rescue and Foster Program was contacted and asked to take as many animals as possible.

Volunteers will travel to Nashville, Tennessee, to meet Oklahoma volunteers, in an effort to bring dogs and cats back to Greensboro for medical care and, eventually, to find permanent homes.

Monetary donations, as well as donations of pet food, are especially needed to help care for the animals arriving from the flood stricken areas. Your donations can be dropped off at 705 Milner Drive, in Greensboro, Wednesday evening from 5-8pm, Saturday from 11am-3 or Sunday from 1-4pm.

Contact 336-574-9600 for more information.