Would I like to Be an Animal? If So, Which One Would I Be?

Horses, strong, loyal, and beautiful

This one has many options. I love all of God's creatures, though I am very fond of several animals that I have never even touched, I also love several species that I have owned and rescued and adopted out to new forever homes. 


Many of you know that I have done pet rescue for many years, and in doing so, I once was involved in the rescue of more than three hundred Potbellied Pigs. I learned a lot from and about these magnificent creatures. Pigs are one of the most intelligent animals on the planet. Only chimpanzees, dolphins and whales, and elephants are more intelligent than pigs. Dogs are quite a ways behind pigs when it comes to being smart and/or intelligence. Pigs can understand several hundred words, and can think and calculate how to get something they want, even if it's inside your refrigerator. They can easily be taught many "tricks" too. Anything that it is possible for their body to do, they can do. 

Rescued Potbellied Pig

I bottle-fed and raised more than one hundred of these wonderful creatures, most from tiny piglets that were at risk of being trampled by other larger pigs, that were over crowded and unaccustomed to humans touching them. They were fed, watered, and that was about it, as the man who had the three hundred Potbellied Pigs, was in his seventies, and simply unable to handle it all. All of the pigs were intact, and were multiplying out of control. Once they were fenced in and males and females separated, and tiny babies along with their mothers were put into individual pens, things began to take shape for the surgical desexing, treatment for parasites, and vaccinations.


When I began taking home tiny babies, and hand raising them, I quickly learned how intelligent they really are. Did you know that a tiny baby Potbellied Pig trains itself to use a litter box within minutes to a couple of hours when enclosed in a confined area? They learn their name very quickly, and love to cuddle and be cuddled. They are very fast learners indeed. If you have ever seen photos of so called "Tea Cup" pigs, or as some sell them as, "Micro Mini Pigs," be assured that those babies are only one to maybe three days old. They will eventually grow up to be from 100 to even 200 pounds in weight, and be about the height of a large Pit Bull or Rotty.

Miniature horse mare
cares for her young by
instinct.

Chimpanzees, whales, dolphins and elephants are the only other animals which are more intelligent than pigs.


I realize I still haven't answered this Plinky Prompt, for it is really not an easy one for me to answer. I love horses for their regal stance, and their athletic ability. I love donkeys or burros as they are called in Spanish. They are smarter than horses, and can really be very stubborn, especially if they are overloaded with more than they should be carrying, or sense danger in their path. Otherwise, donkeys are loving and cooperative little beasts. I know, I had one, and she "Gobi," was such a love.


I have also had goats, which I also adore. They are kind gentle creatures that can produce the most delicious milk that can be used to make great cheese and ice cream, too. Goats are much easier to care for than a cow, and are much cheaper to feed, too. The milk goats we had were such loving animals, though they could play rough with each other, butting heads and such. They loved being brushed and even being bathed, too. They each took their proper turn at milking time, and were gentle when it was time to be gentle. 

Burro or
donkey

Domestic goats and sheep

You must realize that most of the animals I have talked about so far, are considered prey animals. So, that being said, when they feel threatened, they will bolt and run as fast and as far as their legs can carry them. That includes horses, pigs, goats, and even dogs. Donkeys, on the other hand, while they will try to escape danger, they are certainly no coward when it comes to defending themselves, or other animals in their herd. Donkeys also make for very good "watch dogs." If someone they do not accept as part of their herd arrives, they will let everyone know. They have a very loud "bray," that can be heard far and wide. 


I don't think I really need to say a lot about our magnificent and intelligent sea creatures. Anyone who has watch them perform, whether live in some huge aquarium, or loose and wild in the open sea, they know how wonderfully intelligent they are. From dolphins to the largest whales in the sea, they are highly intelligent, and bond for life with other members of their pod or family. Those in captivity also often bond with their handlers in many cases. 

Orca Whales also know as Killer Whales are often
trained or conditioned to perform for human entertainment

The same goes for elephants. They are very loving towards their family members and even mourn the death of others in their family, for many years. I'm sure you have seen documentaries that show elephants examining the bones of long dead friends and family members in the wild. Elephants which were once friends, and who may have been separated for many years, readily recognize and bond again with their old friend when reunited. Elephants also bond closely to kind caretakers who have taken care, fed and bathed them for years. 

Family of Chimpanzees during family grooming time

Chimpanzees are also on the list of highly intelligent creatures. They too, are fiercely loyal to members of their own clan. They are loving and caring parents, be they mother, father, aunt or uncle or cousin.  Just as in many families. squabbles happen from time to time, but they still care about each other. Chimps also know when they see their own reflection in water or mirror, they recognize themselves. 


I don't think I can really answer this question as to what animal I might like to be.  Maybe I would like to be a horse, running free and wild. Running over hills and grazing peacefully in fields of clover and wildflowers. I would be bathing in rivers of crystal clear water, and climbing hills to look over the surrounding valleys. Imagine, running in a herd of wild horses, escaping wolves who are out for a kill. Worse yet, imagine trying to escape humans who herd wild mustangs into pens which trap them, and feed them food which they are not accustomed to eating. Changing the diet of an equine rapidly can cause colic, which is life threatening to horses. If left untreated, causes a slow and extremely painful death. 

Draft Horses grazing

While considering this question, I know though I love and appreciate the animals that God has created, but mankind was God's special creation.  Only mankind has the ability to reflect God's attributes, and to think about why we are here in the first place, Only humans can give honor to our Creator verbally, and thoughtfully, even in writing and though literature and videos.  Only mankind knows that he has a creator, while animals are beautiful and show the ingenious design and love shown by God the Creator.  He and he alone has the power to create living things, things that are instilled with the ability and instinct to know what they should eat, and how to care for their young.  

Old typewriter

Antique car

Mankind has many innate abilities, such as thinking, reasoning, ability to love, and to recognize that he had to be created.  Mankind also has the ability to think about the things God has created, and to learn from those things, in order to use them to his advantage, and construct buildings, landscapes, bridges made of steel and concrete, as well as fashion automobile, bicycles, and even flying machines to transport people and things around the world, as well as into space.

God created living things that flew first

Man learned from
God creation to design
aircraft, ships, etc

 Only mankind can reflect God's glory, albeit in a very small way.  While animals and inanimate objects show the wonder of God's designs, only mankind was made in "God's image,"  with the ability to show "love, justice, wisdom and power," in a more limited way. 


There are good sides as well as bad to being any animal, even more so when man steps into the equation. Not every human considers the possible ramifications of his or her actions.


I would not really choose to be an animal after all, because if I were an animal, I could not thank my Creator and my God for all of the wonders he has created and provided for humans to use and enjoy.  I could not tell anyone all of the the things God has in store for people who really love and appreciate his blessings.  I am very grateful for the fact that God made humans with a thinking brain, that allows us to learn more about him.  I want to please God well, and obey his commandments just as any child should love, respect and obey his or her parents.


http://www.watchtower.org
http://www.jw.org

Military Planning a Virus Against Religious Fundalmentalists? Then Who's Next?

A virus to reduce a person's religious leanings?

This is no joke.  

The video linked to here, is from a Pentagon meeting in 2005.  Watch this military video for yourself at this link:

http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/biological-warfare/pentagon-working-on-anti-religion-flu/1306818242001/

Do I Cook? A Few of My How To Guides

PK Hawk
©2011 PK Hawk

I can cook when I want to or when I need to.  It really helps when I am inspired though. 

I have created a few How To Guides on PK Hawk's Helium.com profile also as PK Hawk. 

Here are links to a few of the recipes I have created and made into How To's: 

HOW TO MAKE CHERRY CREPES:

Link:

How To Make Cherry Crepes: 

How to Make Chile Beans From Scratch: 

Link:

Chili Beans from Scratch by PK Hawk 

How to Make Healthier Dog Food at Home:

Link:

How to Make Healthier Homemade Dog Food 

Where I Grew Up

Open Road in Farming Land

I did not grow up in one single home. My father loved to see the country, so we moved every few years. When I was small, we lived in Ohio, and due to my mother contracting Rheumatic Fever, her doctor said we needed to move to a warmer climate. That meant moving to Georgia, closer to her family. There, my father had difficulty finding work due to the fact he was considered more or less untrust-worthy, as he was born in Ohio, and grew up there and in Kentucky. The folks in the south had a name for people from the north that today would be considered hate speech.  At the risk of offending someone, I will tell you what many people called my dad.  They called him a "Nigger Lover."  In Ohio, my father was a electrical contractor, and made a nice living for the family. When we lived in Ohio, no one thought anything of people of one race having connections and friendships with someone of another race or skin color.  That never has made sense to me anyway, as we are all the same under the skin and in God's eyes.  


In Georgia Daddy had trouble keeping a roof over our heads and food on the table. There, my mother had my youngest sister, who was born with a cleft pallet, and needed several surgeries in order to correct the problem. I had Rheumatic Fever, and chronic nephritis and was not expected to live to see the age of nine years. Mom was also still feeling the effects of her bouts with Rheumatic Fever, as well.


After living in several other places in Georgia and South Carolina, my father decided if we were ever going to make it, we needed to leave the south, as he just could not find enough work there, due to the racial discrimination against him being from the north.


We moved to Texas, where he found some work, and things were certainly better, but still not what he needed in order to properly support his family. In 1955 we took a trip to California to see his sister and her family, while attending a convention in Los Angeles. There my dad met a fellow electrician, who happened to be an electrical contractor in Long Beach, CA. Jim Rose offered my dad work if we moved to California. After the convention, we headed back to El Paso to get our belongings, and moved to Los Alamitos, CA.  Jim Rose was a very nice person, and kept my dad working, which paid the rent and put food on the table and clothes on our backs. By 1957 Mr. Rose even provided my dad a brand new 1957 Ford Fairlane, hard-top convertible to drive. 

1957 Ford Convertible

Eventually Dad decided to join the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) where he could get union wages, and be recognized as a "journeyman electrician." We moved to Westminster, CA where we lived until I was married in 1963. I really loved living in the little farm house because the whole area was open. The house was surrounded by acres and acres of fields where a very nice Japanese man leased the land, and grew things like Blue Lake Stringless Beans, celery, red leaf lettuce, cauliflower, and such.  We had no neighbors right on top of us like we did living in Los Alamitos. We had several milk goats, which I milked twice a day, as well as dogs, cats, chickens and some ducks, too. 

Plowed Field in Heat of Summer

Same field, different season
with wild oats

Some of my happiest memories growing up are from the years we lived in that little house. It had a an old barn out back, as well as a water well, with a pump-house, a five hundred gallon holding tank for water, and plenty of room to run, or walk and no neighbors. Oh yes, I already said that, didn't I? To this day, this is my favorite way of life, though I don't have it that way any longer.  My husband has passed away, and our daughters are married and have grown children of their own.  I have some physical limitations, as well, so living as I would love is out of the question nowadays.  But, if I had my choice, I would be living on a small farm, with a garden large enough to provide me with fresh vegetables, and a few fruit trees, and I would have at least one milk goat, so I could have fresh raw goat's milk, homemade ice cream, and that lovely got cheese we made when we lived in that old farm house on about forty acres, with plenty more open acreage surrounding  the are we lived.

Dead Ringer for Dusty

News Alert Today RE: CA Appeals Court Decision

 KFIAM640: Appeals Court: California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. http://www.kfiam640.com

Adventures in Moving: Two Senior Ladies Moving and Downsizing For One

The lake where I live from higher up
©2010 PK Hawk

As many of you already know, I sold my home of the past ten and a half years, and finally opted to downsize and live near a local lake.  I may eventually use my inflatable boat for lolling around on the peaceful waters.  I may even do some occasional fishing.  Most of the fish I would catch will be released back into the lake.  I will only keep a few for dinner, and share a few with friends and my older sister.

The moving really did drag on, since the youngest of our motley crew is sixty-three and has severe Osteoporosis.  She has broken more bones than she wishes to share with the rest of us.  She is still in many ways in better shape than myself, as I have three herniated discs in my lower spine and have had two neck surgeries due to several herniated discs in my neck, as well as having Bronchial Asthma, and Spinal stenosis.  I will soon be sixty-seven years of age, and really did not have anyone else to help with the moving and going through things that I had collected over the past many decades.

When a person has been active and involved their entire life, it is really not easy to ask for help, so we both are more inclined to help each other, and carry on.  We did get some volunteer help from the very kind gentleman who bought my home, and he even had some of his workers helping move the heavier items, which were moved into storage.

Snow Bear checking things out
at the lakeshore
©2011 PK Hawk

When it came to setting up my gazebo, my older sister pitched in as well.  Mind you, she is already seventy, going on seventy-one.  Between the three of us, we setup and put together a 7’x7’ Rubbermaid storage shed, as well as a 10’x12’ canvas screen and curtained gazebo.  That was no small task let me tell you.  I also built and installed a fenced area for my dogs, so they would not be running amok in neighbor’s yards.

It has nearly nine months now, and I still have not been able to get to the storage facility and go through my two units full of things.  I know I really will have to unload lots and lots of things, which I am not likely to ever use or have room for again.  There are also many things I could sell, if I ever get around to taking photos and posting them on some online auction or sales site, such as Craig’s List, or maybe eBay.  I still will have many things to get rid of, which I will most likely just throw away, or set in front with a sign saying, “FREE.”  I will also probably have at least some things which I need to unload, that are worth some money, that I will probably just put into one of the auction units at the storage facility, which they can sell when their monthly auction day comes around.

I have at least two tall cabinets.  One is for computers and printers, and the other one is one of those two-door, double door cabinets that is about six feet tall, with shelves inside.  I don’t think I will have room to use that thing again, even though I could put it to use.  I also have a large “L Shaped” desk, which I will never have room for again.  My sewing machine, over-lock machine and several other things are also buried in there someplace.  I have blankets, towels, clothing, as well as shoes and boots that I could use, if I could just get to them.

Seriously though ladies and gentlemen, if you are reaching an age when you need to begin downsizing, I strongly suggest you begin… Yesterday.  The older and more infirm you get, the more likely you will end up having to leave it to someone else to do it for you.  You probably will not like that, one little bit.  Unless you are of secure financial independence, it would be much wiser to start at least some amount of down-sizing before you reach sixty or sixty-five years of age.  Of course, much will also depend on your physical condition, too. Many are in much worse physical condition than I, but many more are worse off than me, too.  I am a widow, and have been since I was forty-nine years of age, so I have had to be more self-reliant than someone who may still have his or her marriage mate living.  I have also been disabled since the age forty-six, too.

Early morning walk to the shore
©2011 PK Hawk

Alicia and the Dalmatian

This is a true story.  Only the names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals involved.

When Alicia was very little, maybe about two or three years old, she was in her back yard playing when the neighbor’s large Dalmatian came running after her, barking.  The rear yard was fenced in, and her parents thought it was secure.  She was terrified of the dog, as it was certainly larger than she was.   Alicia did what most children her age would have done.  She ran inside, calling for her Mom and Dad. 

There were neighbors whose house faced the alley, and they also had children, who happened to be sitting on their back porch, laughing at her for running inside.  Alicia’s father did not see anything funny about the incident, as he had talked to the neighbors about that dog before.  Maybe it jumped over the fence, who knew, except maybe the children in the neighbor’s yard.  This all happened in Hamilton, Ohio, where there were fence and leash laws to help prevent just such things from taking place.

All this happened just about the time when Alicia’s mom, Arlene’s two cousins drove up in front of the house.  Carl, Alicia’s father ran outside, to the car.  He reached inside and into the glove box, retrieving a pistol that the cousins always kept in their vehicle.  (This isn’t as odd as it may seem, as this all took place in the late 1940’s, when many people kept firearms in their cars for protection.)

Anyway, Carl ran back inside, and to the rear door in the kitchen.  He had the gun at the ready, too.  The dog was not too far from the fence on the left side of the yard.  Unknown to Carl, Alicia was watching everything.  Carl, aimed the gun to the right side of the back yard, toward where he had a box-type utility trailer parked.  When he fired the gun, the dog yelped, and well, needless to say, there was a lot of commotion.  It was not very long before the police came knocking on the door, either.

It seems that the dog’s owner, and the parents of the kids on porch, called to report that Carl had shot the dog on their porch while the children were playing there.  Of course, this was completely untrue, but it was still illegal to fire a gun inside city limits.  Alicia’s dad was given a citation for illegally firing a firearm, and had to go to court to tell his story to the judge.  He also had to pay a fine of $50.00.  That was a pretty stiff fine for 1947 or 1948.  At least the judge listened to his story, and the police who came to the house, did verify that the bullet from the gun ricocheted off of some metal on the trailer, and that was how the dog was hit.  He would never have intentionally shot a dog, or aim and fire a gun anyplace near where children were playing.

WONDERS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

Are we too dependent on modern technology?

Modern technology has affected the lives of most people in the United States, as well as most all developed nations throughout the world.  While there are many who consider it absolutely necessary to their lives, other people say they simply refuse to use anything more than the telephone, and ATM machines.

You must have noticed that you can not go shopping without seeing that most every store now uses computer run systems for everything from scanning the UPC codes on packaging, to decided from which department the item originated, to how many of that item is left on store shelves.  Computers also are programmed to figure the tax on your purchases, as well as which items you are most likely to purchase in the future.  Your receipt will even print coupons to encourage you to purchase the same item at a later date, or to promote another manufacturer’s similar product. 

It is also true that even though computer technology has helped production of many industries, it has been at the cost of many people’s jobs as well.  Physician-controlled computerized implements and technology perform many surgical procedures.  Artificial joints are created using computerized systems, as are dental implants, as well.

GPS Tracking Grid

Even your clothing and you vehicle now bear bar codes that are read from varying distances by bar code readers provided to stores, as well as law enforcement, and the Department of Motor Vehicles, and mechanics who do auto repairs.  Your car is now equipped with satellite read GPS (ground positioning servers) that can help to locate a stolen vehicle, thanks to programs such as LOJACK. 

Law enforcement in many areas now have the ability to either turn off your car’s engine, or to freeze the electronics of your vehicle if they deem it necessary.  You cell phone in most cases can be tracked also by GPS which is now part of most if not all newer cell phones, too.

Your local electricity provider in many parts of the country have been replacing the old electric meters which we have all been familiar with two-way readable and controllable digital electric meters which also have the ability to judge how much electricity you use at any given time of day, as well as what appliances you use and when.  These can be controlled as the provider sees fit, to adjust or control when and how much electricity you are using.  If you fail to pay your bill, they can shut off your electricity by remote control, without even sitting foot on your property, too.  And, you don’t have an option, either. Little by little, all electric meters will be replaced by these new two-way meters.

What do you suppose would happen in the event of a solar flare blowing out even a few satellites that send and receive information and communication to and from various businesses on earth?  Many people as well as big business are concerned about that issue.  With millions of people depending on ATM machines to bank accounts, as well as the hundreds of millions of people who depend on cellular phones for everyday communications, exchanging photos, online banking, buying and selling stocks, etc. will all come to a standstill if even a few satellites are damaged or destroyed.  This could happen by accident, or by design, leading to practically nothing computerized working for days, months, or even years.  It is definitely worth thinking about.  What would you do if you lost all of your modern conveniences, such as even your microwave, television, satellite TV, etc?

Just last evening, there was a local news piece stating that our local nuclear power plant alerted that there was a leak.  It may or may not be significant, but look at what happened in Japan and at Chernobyl when those nuclear reactors malfunctioned for whatever reason.  Tens of thousands of people are no longer living.  There are families who have been changed forever, most who also are suffering ill affects from radiation that leaked from those plants which were once thought to be safe.