Mooshika blog: Springtime – go for a walk

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In the Hindu religion, rats represent foresight and prudence, and white ones are very lucky. Mooshika is the name of the steed that Ganesh - god of new beginnings and of fire, knowledge, wisdom, literature and worldly success - rides upon. The steed, of course, is the intelligent and gentle rat. “Mooshika” means “little hoarder.”

Dans la religion hindoue, les rats représentent la prévoyance et la prudence, les blancs étant considérés comme particulièrement chanceux. Mooshika est le nom du destrier de Ganesh – dieu des nouveaux départs, du feu, du savoir, de la sagesse, de la littérature et du succès matériel. Ce destrier, bien sûr, est un digne représentant de la race douce et intelligente des rats. Le nom ''Mooshika'' signifie petit amasseur.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Springtime – go for a walk - and adopt

Now that the paths are clear and the weather is mostly sunny, it's time to get out there and start watching wildlife. Just tread very, very carefully, or you might frighten some poor small rodent to death! Meadow voles are out - as they surely are during winter, running under the snow - and this blog post from a few years back found a recently-deceased specimen and showed it in good detail.

The Canadian Wildlife Federation has a Walk for Wildlife campaign - join it now, log your kilometers, and by the end of the summer you may have raised a lot of money and earned a lot of badges. We need to conserve habitat for all creatures - of which rodents are just a small, but significant, portion. Recently, The Nature of Things aired an episode on beavers, which left one cheering for them and the awesome work they do to restore habitat and water for everybody. Cheers also for the perception and innovation of one wildlife dude, Michel Leclair, (link to a radio interview) who found a way to redirect beavers and keep them doing good work, changing our ways to prevent them from flooding out our roads - without killing them, as most places still do (and hopefully will smarten up about).

More about a new/old pet adoption after the jump…

About one month ago, I welcomed a new old boy into my life. He is actually not new to me - he is one of the boys from November, 2010, rescued through the SPCA Monteregie. We have pictures of him as a wee pup, as a baby boy just old enough to be weaned with his brother, and then as a young buck, when he was adopted into his home. He comes back to me as an old man because his adopters are moving to Europe; his brother died last year. He is easily two and a half years old now. He will stay with me until it's his time to go to the Rainbow Bridge; he lives with the other boys as companions - sometimes Dweezil, sometimes Archie, and almost always Waddy.