You look like your dog

You look like your dog. I said this to a woman who lives in my building the other day. She had bleached her hair all white and she looked just like her dog, a Samoyed. I was like, You look like your dog!

She was complimented. (It was meant as a compliment.) Who wouldn't want to look like their dog? Happier, skinnier, healthier, less stressed out … Yeah! Dogs are smart.

So, the next time someone tells you that you look like your dog, just smile and say, "Thank you." It is a grand compliment.

Mike McKenzie 2013

Elephant Keeps the Beat

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Elephant Keeps the Beat.

http://youtu.be/Nzsx-iIC9n4

When it comes to captive elephants, there are two forms of contact that humans may have with them -- protective contact and unprotected contact.

What you are seeing in this video is protected contact.  The zookeeper can touch the elephant or feed it through a door or window.  The protective wall makes it much less likely that the elephant will hurt a handler.  If you watch the video for a while you will notice that it is not always a good idea to have "unprotected" contact with an elephant.  Elephants can be dangerous.

Of course, it also depends upon the elephant.  Some places do unprotected contact with elephants.  Yes, I have stood next to a captive elephant.  That elephant was super mellow compared to the one in the video.  You wouldn't get me into the cage with the elephant in the video ... just saying.  Elephants are so big, they might bend down to scratch their toes and inadvertently crunch a human being into a wall.

It also depends upon the interactions the elephant has had with humans.  Some elephants have not had positive interactions with humans.  That can be the problem for captive animals in circuses, that the training to get them to do behaviors was not very humane.  Therefore, it is not unheard of for an elephant to injure or kill a trainer.  Killer elephants end up in zoos, that is true.  No where else will take them.

I used to be very anti or against zoos.  They seemed like animal prisons to me.  But at some point later in life, I came to understand that but for zoos urban children throughout the world would never have a chance to see or touch or smell an elephant.  Children are the hope to the future.  It is better to let them see an elephant, to consider that areas of the Earth must be set aside for such animals, and for children to learn to love and care for animals.

Mike McKenzie 2013