Animals in Woodbourne seized in 'worst ever' abuse

To contact us Click HERE

By Victor Whitman


Fallsburg police and animal control officers removed numerous animals on Tuesday from a ramshackle trailer home in the Town of Fallsburg and charged an elderly woman and her son with animal cruelty.Police executed a search warrant at 333 Rose Road outside Woodbourne, and found goats, rabbits, geese and two dogs living in "deplorable" conditions.Virginia Wagner McCombs, 81, and Donald Wagner, 62, were charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty under the section of Agriculture and Markets law that refers to "overdriving, torturing and injuring" animals.When authorities arrived in the morning, two cocker spaniels were tied by a rope to a pickup truck. The rabbits were in handmade chicken coops covered with feces. Goats were crowded into fenced enclosures on muddy ground. The property was strewn with detritus and hoarded items. Large rats were running around."This is the worst I have ever seen," said Joanne Gerow, Fallsburg's animal control officer.Gerow said authorities seized two dogs, 14 goats, seven baby goats, 23 rabbits, four geese and four chickens. All the animals were taken to a rescue farm in Sullivan County. Gerow said the animals appeared to have been fed, but will be evaluated..."  More

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2011

To contact us Click HERE
As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2011 and posted it on Spotify.
The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there.
Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks A great song to kick off the collection, it also kicks off a short gun-themed set. Note that the collection ends with a gun-themed song too.
Imelda May – Johnny Got A Boom Boom
Danger Mouse – Two Against One (feat. Jack White) Danger Mouse's Rome CD was amazing - I chose 2 songs for this collection, but there are many more great songs too.
Chris Difford – Like I Did Good for all the rock-loving parents out there, and quite a lovely tune too.
Diego Garcia – Under This Spell I'm guessing Amy's Leo will like this one.
Gomez – Options
Imelda May – I'm Alive Sounds quite a bit like Nick Lowe; and each of the 3 Imelda May songs here sound different from each other.
Nick Lowe – Shame on the Rain Yeah, I should have included his song "I Read A Lot" but this fit better.
The Steep Canyon Rangers – Atheists Don't Have No Songs Steve Martin is amusing here. This song kicks off a short (and hopefully not-too-offensive) religion set.
The Dirt Daubers – Wake Up, Sinners
Eliza Gilkyson – 2153
Eleanor Friedberger – Heaven
Emmylou Harris – Big Black Dog A great sing-along song, whether you have a dog or not. It's fun for cat lovers too.
Iron & Wine – Tree By The River How can you not love a song with this lyric: "I mean the world to a potty-mouth girl, with a pretty pair of blue-eyed birds." ?!
Danger Mouse – Black (feat. Norah Jones)
Sarah Jarosz – Annabelle Lee
Robbers On High Street – Second Chance Thanks to Amy for alerting me to Robbers on High Street; this isn't the song she first recommended, but it's quite a fun song anyway.
Garland Jeffreys – Rock On The first of two covers; I want to pair this one with Spiders & Snakes.
Imelda May – Tainted Love The start of this song makes me think of the Waitresses, which surely was intentional.
Noah And The Whale – Just Me Before We Met My favorite line: "don't be shy; be brave little champion."
Peter Bjorn And John – Tomorrow Has To Wait
Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane Lolhusband doesn't like that there is only one lyric here, but I love how it sounds.
Thomas Dolby – Road To Reno It's been a long time since he's had a new album, and this was worth waiting for.

If CDs were more than 80 minutes, we'd have more songs here ... but these are the cream of the 2011 crop.

A Librarian's View of ScienceOnline

To contact us Click HERE
I've submitted a photograph to #scio12 science-art show.  I wanted to convey something about science, which is tough since what I most like to photograph is flowers and cats. Ok, I could have argued that they were science photos, but I thought it was a stretch.
I thought more about it and decided to take photos of some of the books I've acquired (for myself or for my library) as a result of ScienceOnline past & current.  Here, therefore, is my view of ScienceOnline:

The books are, from top to bottom:

• Graedon, J., & Graedon, T. (2011). The people's pharmacy quick & handy home remedies. Washington, DC: National Geographic.
• Zimmer, C. (2011). A planet of viruses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers.
• Dunn, R. R. (2011). The wild life of our bodies: Predators, parasites, and partners that shape who we are today. New York: Harper.
• McKenna, M. (2010). Superbug: The fatal menace of MRSA. New York: Free Press.
• Linden, T. (2011). The New York times reader: Health and medicine. Washington, D.C: CQ Press.
• Tucker, H. (2011). Blood work: A tale of medicine and murder in the scientific revolution. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Mooney, C., & Kirshenbaum, S. (2009). Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future. New York: Basic Books.
• Specter, M. (2009). Denialism: How irrational thinking hinders scientific progress, harms the planet, and threatens our lives. New York: Penguin Press.
• Meredith, D. (2010). Explaining research: How to reach key audiences to advance your work. New York, N.Y: Oxford University Press.

You can check out (literally and figuratively) these books on my WorldCat list of ScienceOnline Books.

Field trip to Durham's @LifeandScience museum! #scio12

To contact us Click HERE
I was thrilled to go on a behind the scenes tour of Durham's fabulous Museum of Life and Science at last week's ScienceOnline conference. Here is an annotated visual tour of the trip, with photos taken by several of us on the tour. I used Storify to curate the images, which were posted on Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube (the bear video is awesome; especially the last 10-20 seconds).

Thanks especially to Keeper Mikey for the tour!

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2012

To contact us Click HERE
As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2012 and posted it on Spotify.

The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there. 

• When I Was 12 – Explicit Content This Stephanie-friendly, lite-pop album Dear Eskimo came out in 2009. How did I miss it then?! Fortunately, Amy came to the rescue & shared it with me in 2012 ... and three of their songs made the cut.
• Stars – The North (Breakglass Version)
• Lana Del Rey – Diet Mountain Dew So many great songs on her two-volume set Born to Die, the Paradise Edition, but I limited myself to this one.
• Chairlift – Cool As A Fire Haunting lyrics: "now that I found you, I don't have a choice ... with or without you, I don't have a choice." There are a lot of great songs on their album Something. 
• Carolina Chocolate Drops – Country Girl
• Norah Jones – If the Law Don't Want You ... neither do I. This is one of two songs I selected from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell. They're all a little country (or Americana), and they're all just like a Mary Karr novel. 
• The Little Willies – Jolene I heard -- and loved! -- this version before I heard Coach Beiste sing it on Glee. Coach's version makes the song even more heartbreaking, tho' I prefer listening to the Little Willies. 
• Lisa Marie Presley – Heartless Storm & Grace is my favorite Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis) album ... and this is the best song. 
• Lee Ann Womack – Momma's On a Roll The second of two songs from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell.
• Steve Forbert – Can't We Get Together? This is second of Steve's songs that mentions being in another time zone from his girlfriend; it also mentions the Raleigh airport.
• Josh Ritter – Love Is Making Its Way Back Home This whole album is amazing, even tho' it's an EP. Josh Ritter could make a great song out of a phone book.
• Citizen Cope – One Lovely Day 
• Leonard Cohen – Come Healing The entire album Old Ideas is terrific, but this song, with Dana Glover is especially haunting. 
• Josh Ritter – Why 
• Glen Hansard – Talking With the Wolves
• Sea Wolf – Old Friend
• The Mavericks – Back In Your Arms Again Not nearly enough Mavericks on the Suited Up & Ready EP, but what's there is great fun.
• When I Was 12 – Kitten I'm Smitten Really, who doesn't like a song with that title?  Of course, mittens are also mentioned. 
• Calexico – Puerto
• Allen Stone – Sleep This turned into a huge earworm for me ... mostly when I can't sleep, and this song comes to mind when I "feel it [sleep] on the ends of my fingers / Taste it on the tips of my teeth" ... You've been warned about the earworm!

Animals in Woodbourne seized in 'worst ever' abuse

To contact us Click HERE

By Victor Whitman


Fallsburg police and animal control officers removed numerous animals on Tuesday from a ramshackle trailer home in the Town of Fallsburg and charged an elderly woman and her son with animal cruelty.Police executed a search warrant at 333 Rose Road outside Woodbourne, and found goats, rabbits, geese and two dogs living in "deplorable" conditions.Virginia Wagner McCombs, 81, and Donald Wagner, 62, were charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty under the section of Agriculture and Markets law that refers to "overdriving, torturing and injuring" animals.When authorities arrived in the morning, two cocker spaniels were tied by a rope to a pickup truck. The rabbits were in handmade chicken coops covered with feces. Goats were crowded into fenced enclosures on muddy ground. The property was strewn with detritus and hoarded items. Large rats were running around."This is the worst I have ever seen," said Joanne Gerow, Fallsburg's animal control officer.Gerow said authorities seized two dogs, 14 goats, seven baby goats, 23 rabbits, four geese and four chickens. All the animals were taken to a rescue farm in Sullivan County. Gerow said the animals appeared to have been fed, but will be evaluated..."  More

The Easter Bunny's Important Message

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Every year, around June and July, animal shelters around the country are seemingly instantly flooded with rabbits that are no longer wanted. Countless well-meaning families buy cute baby bunnies as Easter presents for the children, only to realize a few months down the line what complex creatures these are, what complex care they require, and what a bad combination a skittish, unneutered rabbit and a rambunctious child can be. Read this article on why rabbits don't always do so well with children and vice versa and read here about the importance of spaying and neutering.

Buying a rabbit as an Easter present is a time-tested bad idea. Sure, baby bunnies are ridiculously adorable, but they also require a varied diet, not inexpensive vet care, a spay/neuter surgery, daily attention and playtime, and intricate rabbit-proofing (which in turn requires a watchful eye and sometimes infinite patience). Rabbits are excellent pets, but only in the right circumstances, which includes knowing full-well what you're getting into. And if you've done the research and still think you're ready to get a rabbit, don't ever buy from a pet store! Instead adopt from a shelter or a rescue and save a life!

Buy a toy rabbit for Easter-- adopt a real rabbit for life!

Celebrate Petfinder's Birthday by Sending in Your Adoption Story!

To contact us Click HERE


March 15, 2011 will be Petfinder.com's 15th birthday! This revolutionary website has not only helped unite hundreds of thousands of homeless pets with their adoptive parents, it also tirelessly works to educate and entertain the public with their blog, message boards, library of articles on pet health, behavior, training, and much more. To celebrate this exciting milestone, Petfinder.com is staging a takeover of the Internet on March 15. This will entail a massive awareness explosion about adoption and shelter animals by numerous participating pet-centric blogs.

In honor of this momentous occasion, here at The Rabbit Advocate, I am hosting a rabbit adoption story contest. Send in a picture and story (up to 100 words) of how you and your bunny friend found each other and I will post a winner here on March 15th. Let's all get to writing!

The Easter Bunny Isn't Real

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I know all of us bunnyparents look forward to the Easter holiday season and the sudden availability of all imaginable rabbit-shaped objects that comes along with it. But while we’re enjoying the bunny cards and figurines, we need to realize that Easter is also a terrible time for many rabbits. Year after year, unsuspecting parents buy real baby bunnies to put in their children’s Easter baskets alongside jelly beans and chocolate eggs. Weeks later, these rabbits are dumped at shelters or (even worse) released into the wild, when the family slowly realizes that rabbits are not perfectly behaved inanimate objects.

As you and I know, rabbits are not toys, and they’re certainly not appropriate gifts for young children. Help spread the word to people in your area by writing in to your local newspaper, putting up posters at obliging shops/malls/grocery stores/veterinary clinics, or simply talking to friends and family about the commitment involved in owning a rabbit. Shelter and rescue volunteers have already begun spreading the word all over the country and I urge you to reach out and educate your local town or city about choosing toy rabbits for Easter, and adopting real rabbits for life.



While Peanut (left) and Jimmy may look like toys, these 3 lb. dwarf Hotots are real-life bunny brothers, adopted for life by Caroline and Matt in Boston, MA.

To read more about a national Easter awareness initiative, check out the House Rabbit Society’s Make Mine Chocolate campaign.

Rabbit Housing Series: Housing Possibilities

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The first of three installments in the Housing Series deals with variations in housing possibilities.

I’m often asked about the best way to house rabbits. Of course, indoor housing is a must. But once inside, should a rabbit be caged? Penned? Allowed free-range?

While many bunny owners allow their rabbits to live in a free-range environment 24/7, this decision should be influenced by a variety of factors. First, consider the available space: is there an entire room that can be closed off and completely rabbit-proofed? If not, then keeping your rabbits penned up while you're gone may be a safer option.

Consider also the naughtiness level of the rabbit in question. Some rabbits are less inclined to chew and dig, and these guys are prime candidates for a free-range situation. In others, these behaviors are deeply ingrained and keeping them in some sort of containing structure (dog crate, pen) while they are unsupervised is highly recommended. As long as you allow your rabbits several hours of out-of-cage time daily, using a pen or large dog crate is perfectly acceptable.

Naughtiness Level: High

Picking the area of the house to place the pen should be thoroughly planned out. It’s important that your rabbit be kept in a relatively high-traffic area of the house, such as the living room. This keeps the animal from becoming isolated and bored, and also makes giving the rabbit out-of-pen time easier. You should not have to pick up and carry your rabbit to a room where he or she can lounge—the constant chasing around and picking up is not conducive to a harmonious relationship.

It is much easier to keep the pen in an area of the house where you spend the most amount of time, and simply open the pen and let your rabbit out when you're home. When it’s time to pen her up, train her to hop to her pen for a treat. This is much lower stress, and with rabbits, the lower the stress, the better for everyone.

Stay tuned for the second installment in the Housing Series, in which we will explore setting up the perfect rabbit pen!

Animals in Woodbourne seized in 'worst ever' abuse

To contact us Click HERE

By Victor Whitman


Fallsburg police and animal control officers removed numerous animals on Tuesday from a ramshackle trailer home in the Town of Fallsburg and charged an elderly woman and her son with animal cruelty.Police executed a search warrant at 333 Rose Road outside Woodbourne, and found goats, rabbits, geese and two dogs living in "deplorable" conditions.Virginia Wagner McCombs, 81, and Donald Wagner, 62, were charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty under the section of Agriculture and Markets law that refers to "overdriving, torturing and injuring" animals.When authorities arrived in the morning, two cocker spaniels were tied by a rope to a pickup truck. The rabbits were in handmade chicken coops covered with feces. Goats were crowded into fenced enclosures on muddy ground. The property was strewn with detritus and hoarded items. Large rats were running around."This is the worst I have ever seen," said Joanne Gerow, Fallsburg's animal control officer.Gerow said authorities seized two dogs, 14 goats, seven baby goats, 23 rabbits, four geese and four chickens. All the animals were taken to a rescue farm in Sullivan County. Gerow said the animals appeared to have been fed, but will be evaluated..."  More

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2011

To contact us Click HERE
As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2011 and posted it on Spotify.
The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there.
Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks A great song to kick off the collection, it also kicks off a short gun-themed set. Note that the collection ends with a gun-themed song too.
Imelda May – Johnny Got A Boom Boom
Danger Mouse – Two Against One (feat. Jack White) Danger Mouse's Rome CD was amazing - I chose 2 songs for this collection, but there are many more great songs too.
Chris Difford – Like I Did Good for all the rock-loving parents out there, and quite a lovely tune too.
Diego Garcia – Under This Spell I'm guessing Amy's Leo will like this one.
Gomez – Options
Imelda May – I'm Alive Sounds quite a bit like Nick Lowe; and each of the 3 Imelda May songs here sound different from each other.
Nick Lowe – Shame on the Rain Yeah, I should have included his song "I Read A Lot" but this fit better.
The Steep Canyon Rangers – Atheists Don't Have No Songs Steve Martin is amusing here. This song kicks off a short (and hopefully not-too-offensive) religion set.
The Dirt Daubers – Wake Up, Sinners
Eliza Gilkyson – 2153
Eleanor Friedberger – Heaven
Emmylou Harris – Big Black Dog A great sing-along song, whether you have a dog or not. It's fun for cat lovers too.
Iron & Wine – Tree By The River How can you not love a song with this lyric: "I mean the world to a potty-mouth girl, with a pretty pair of blue-eyed birds." ?!
Danger Mouse – Black (feat. Norah Jones)
Sarah Jarosz – Annabelle Lee
Robbers On High Street – Second Chance Thanks to Amy for alerting me to Robbers on High Street; this isn't the song she first recommended, but it's quite a fun song anyway.
Garland Jeffreys – Rock On The first of two covers; I want to pair this one with Spiders & Snakes.
Imelda May – Tainted Love The start of this song makes me think of the Waitresses, which surely was intentional.
Noah And The Whale – Just Me Before We Met My favorite line: "don't be shy; be brave little champion."
Peter Bjorn And John – Tomorrow Has To Wait
Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane Lolhusband doesn't like that there is only one lyric here, but I love how it sounds.
Thomas Dolby – Road To Reno It's been a long time since he's had a new album, and this was worth waiting for.

If CDs were more than 80 minutes, we'd have more songs here ... but these are the cream of the 2011 crop.

A Librarian's View of ScienceOnline

To contact us Click HERE
I've submitted a photograph to #scio12 science-art show.  I wanted to convey something about science, which is tough since what I most like to photograph is flowers and cats. Ok, I could have argued that they were science photos, but I thought it was a stretch.
I thought more about it and decided to take photos of some of the books I've acquired (for myself or for my library) as a result of ScienceOnline past & current.  Here, therefore, is my view of ScienceOnline:

The books are, from top to bottom:

• Graedon, J., & Graedon, T. (2011). The people's pharmacy quick & handy home remedies. Washington, DC: National Geographic.
• Zimmer, C. (2011). A planet of viruses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers.
• Dunn, R. R. (2011). The wild life of our bodies: Predators, parasites, and partners that shape who we are today. New York: Harper.
• McKenna, M. (2010). Superbug: The fatal menace of MRSA. New York: Free Press.
• Linden, T. (2011). The New York times reader: Health and medicine. Washington, D.C: CQ Press.
• Tucker, H. (2011). Blood work: A tale of medicine and murder in the scientific revolution. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Mooney, C., & Kirshenbaum, S. (2009). Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future. New York: Basic Books.
• Specter, M. (2009). Denialism: How irrational thinking hinders scientific progress, harms the planet, and threatens our lives. New York: Penguin Press.
• Meredith, D. (2010). Explaining research: How to reach key audiences to advance your work. New York, N.Y: Oxford University Press.

You can check out (literally and figuratively) these books on my WorldCat list of ScienceOnline Books.

Field trip to Durham's @LifeandScience museum! #scio12

To contact us Click HERE
I was thrilled to go on a behind the scenes tour of Durham's fabulous Museum of Life and Science at last week's ScienceOnline conference. Here is an annotated visual tour of the trip, with photos taken by several of us on the tour. I used Storify to curate the images, which were posted on Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube (the bear video is awesome; especially the last 10-20 seconds).

Thanks especially to Keeper Mikey for the tour!

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2012

To contact us Click HERE
As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2012 and posted it on Spotify.

The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there. 

• When I Was 12 – Explicit Content This Stephanie-friendly, lite-pop album Dear Eskimo came out in 2009. How did I miss it then?! Fortunately, Amy came to the rescue & shared it with me in 2012 ... and three of their songs made the cut.
• Stars – The North (Breakglass Version)
• Lana Del Rey – Diet Mountain Dew So many great songs on her two-volume set Born to Die, the Paradise Edition, but I limited myself to this one.
• Chairlift – Cool As A Fire Haunting lyrics: "now that I found you, I don't have a choice ... with or without you, I don't have a choice." There are a lot of great songs on their album Something. 
• Carolina Chocolate Drops – Country Girl
• Norah Jones – If the Law Don't Want You ... neither do I. This is one of two songs I selected from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell. They're all a little country (or Americana), and they're all just like a Mary Karr novel. 
• The Little Willies – Jolene I heard -- and loved! -- this version before I heard Coach Beiste sing it on Glee. Coach's version makes the song even more heartbreaking, tho' I prefer listening to the Little Willies. 
• Lisa Marie Presley – Heartless Storm & Grace is my favorite Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis) album ... and this is the best song. 
• Lee Ann Womack – Momma's On a Roll The second of two songs from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell.
• Steve Forbert – Can't We Get Together? This is second of Steve's songs that mentions being in another time zone from his girlfriend; it also mentions the Raleigh airport.
• Josh Ritter – Love Is Making Its Way Back Home This whole album is amazing, even tho' it's an EP. Josh Ritter could make a great song out of a phone book.
• Citizen Cope – One Lovely Day 
• Leonard Cohen – Come Healing The entire album Old Ideas is terrific, but this song, with Dana Glover is especially haunting. 
• Josh Ritter – Why 
• Glen Hansard – Talking With the Wolves
• Sea Wolf – Old Friend
• The Mavericks – Back In Your Arms Again Not nearly enough Mavericks on the Suited Up & Ready EP, but what's there is great fun.
• When I Was 12 – Kitten I'm Smitten Really, who doesn't like a song with that title?  Of course, mittens are also mentioned. 
• Calexico – Puerto
• Allen Stone – Sleep This turned into a huge earworm for me ... mostly when I can't sleep, and this song comes to mind when I "feel it [sleep] on the ends of my fingers / Taste it on the tips of my teeth" ... You've been warned about the earworm!

Arlington's Hoarding Response Team honored

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The town’s Health and Human Services’ Hoarding Response Team is being recognized by the National League of Cities (NLC) as a model program demonstrating innovative and collaborative approaches within government.
The Arlington Hoarding Response Team is one of 27 municipal programs selected for the 2012 City Showcase — NLC’s premiere program celebrating city achievements.
The Hoarding Response Team provides emergency response, intake, referral and follow-up services for persons living in hoarded, unsafe and unsanitary living conditions in their homes. The team, comprised of representatives of multiple town departments, operates on a hazard reduction model to ensure affected residents can safely reside in their homes.
The program will be highlighted during this year’s Congress of Cities and Exposition, held in Boston, Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. During the conference, representatives from Arlington will engage in networking and knowledge sharing with colleagues from around the country..."  More

Animals in Woodbourne seized in 'worst ever' abuse

To contact us Click HERE

By Victor Whitman


Fallsburg police and animal control officers removed numerous animals on Tuesday from a ramshackle trailer home in the Town of Fallsburg and charged an elderly woman and her son with animal cruelty.Police executed a search warrant at 333 Rose Road outside Woodbourne, and found goats, rabbits, geese and two dogs living in "deplorable" conditions.Virginia Wagner McCombs, 81, and Donald Wagner, 62, were charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty under the section of Agriculture and Markets law that refers to "overdriving, torturing and injuring" animals.When authorities arrived in the morning, two cocker spaniels were tied by a rope to a pickup truck. The rabbits were in handmade chicken coops covered with feces. Goats were crowded into fenced enclosures on muddy ground. The property was strewn with detritus and hoarded items. Large rats were running around."This is the worst I have ever seen," said Joanne Gerow, Fallsburg's animal control officer.Gerow said authorities seized two dogs, 14 goats, seven baby goats, 23 rabbits, four geese and four chickens. All the animals were taken to a rescue farm in Sullivan County. Gerow said the animals appeared to have been fed, but will be evaluated..."  More

Mom's 75th Birthday!

To contact us Click HERE
Sunday, Aug. 26th 2012 my mom turned 75. We had a party for her at W.Dennis Beach, which we entitled "The Party of Lights". Everyone was supposed to be 'lit up' in some way. This is how it looked after dark. 
Here's a photo of my mom and her 4 kids: (in order of oldest to youngest) Treg, Me, Odin (dark hair) then Grethe. Yes, we have really weird names, but you have to blame that one on my dad. They are all Scandinavian like he was. 
Here's the birthday girl herself! She was in her glory with all her kids, grand kids and friends gathered for her special day. 
I bought some light up balloons and we tied them to a bucket, put them in a kiddie pool filled with water so they wouldn't pop, (and so the kids wouldn't step on them) and my sister had some easter egg lanterns with glow sticks in them hanging off of bamboo sticks, and the candles were all just led candle lights. There were no flames at all, but the whole place looked and glowed as if there were. It was really neat looking!
Then of course, we glowed too. I have to say, it stopped passer by-ers. One even wanted to take photo's!

Breten (me), Brielle (my oldest) Odin (sister) Mom, Sienna  (my youngest) Grethe (sister)

Here is all the girls in the family, except for my youngest niece, Qena. She's only 2 and was running around  somewhere. We couldn't catch her for the photo. 

me and Brielle all a glow

This is a great photo of Brielle and her aunt, but look closely in the background and you'll see my nephew, Frey (another Nordic name) making a lovely face. Leave it to a 12 year old...

Here's Qena! (my 2 yr. old niece)

My mom with her son who she sees about twice a year (even though he lives 45 minutes away. )

Sienna, Grethe and Quince (her oldest son)

The sun went down and the lights started to glow!

My brother, and his sons, Brenden and Dylan set up their instruments and started to play. They are all really good and it was great to have live music!

another shot of the pool and lights

Add caption

It was a really fun party. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and the glow lights were such a great thing to do. I think we may just do that again next year! Happy birthday Mumma. ~

Dave's 50th

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Odin, Greg and me

This past Friday I was invited to Dave's impromptu 50th birthday party at the Lost Dog pub in Orleans. I invited my sister, Odin to go with me because she knew the whole gang that was going to be there too and I sure as heck didn't want to go alone! My old next door neighbor (when I was a kid) Greg, who invited me, and all of his friends who I used to hang out with,  were there so it was like a class reunion of sorts. I hadn't seen most of these people in 32 years and didn't even recognize a lot of them including the birthday boy! (It's funny but they said I hadn't changed - except the hair color of course) I don't know if that's good or bad.

Anyway.... There's just something warm and fuzzy about being with childhood friends. You kind of forget the present stresses and it takes you back to a simpler time in your mind, when life was easy and all you had to worry about is what to do on a Friday night. Seeing Greg especially was like seeing part of  family because he was like a brother growing up.
So, even though I was out of my comfort zone, and it was hard to talk myself into actually getting out of the house at night and going,  I'm so glad I went. I remembered what it was like to be a 'person' again- not just a mom or an artist, and I realized that I need more of that balance in my life. Balance. It's a good thing.

no more photo's?!

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Ok, so I just got an message saying I've just about hit my limit on photo's for this blog unless I start paying so much a month. Hmmmm Now I'm not sure I should continue this blog or not. I mean, I love that my blog is mostly photo's and not much writing. I guess because I'm a visual person, and I've got enough stuff to read every day. I imagine a lot of you are like me too. Sometimes one can be overloaded.

 My mom, sis, daughter and I are planning on starting an 'idea' blog, filled with creative ideas from the 4 of us- and we've already purchased the domain name; theIdeaDivas.com. I'll probably be devoting more time to that soon anyway so....... I don't know what to do.

A Librarian's View of ScienceOnline

To contact us Click HERE
I've submitted a photograph to #scio12 science-art show.  I wanted to convey something about science, which is tough since what I most like to photograph is flowers and cats. Ok, I could have argued that they were science photos, but I thought it was a stretch.
I thought more about it and decided to take photos of some of the books I've acquired (for myself or for my library) as a result of ScienceOnline past & current.  Here, therefore, is my view of ScienceOnline:

The books are, from top to bottom:

• Graedon, J., & Graedon, T. (2011). The people's pharmacy quick & handy home remedies. Washington, DC: National Geographic.
• Zimmer, C. (2011). A planet of viruses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers.
• Dunn, R. R. (2011). The wild life of our bodies: Predators, parasites, and partners that shape who we are today. New York: Harper.
• McKenna, M. (2010). Superbug: The fatal menace of MRSA. New York: Free Press.
• Linden, T. (2011). The New York times reader: Health and medicine. Washington, D.C: CQ Press.
• Tucker, H. (2011). Blood work: A tale of medicine and murder in the scientific revolution. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Mooney, C., & Kirshenbaum, S. (2009). Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future. New York: Basic Books.
• Specter, M. (2009). Denialism: How irrational thinking hinders scientific progress, harms the planet, and threatens our lives. New York: Penguin Press.
• Meredith, D. (2010). Explaining research: How to reach key audiences to advance your work. New York, N.Y: Oxford University Press.

You can check out (literally and figuratively) these books on my WorldCat list of ScienceOnline Books.

Field trip to Durham's @LifeandScience museum! #scio12

To contact us Click HERE
I was thrilled to go on a behind the scenes tour of Durham's fabulous Museum of Life and Science at last week's ScienceOnline conference. Here is an annotated visual tour of the trip, with photos taken by several of us on the tour. I used Storify to curate the images, which were posted on Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube (the bear video is awesome; especially the last 10-20 seconds).

Thanks especially to Keeper Mikey for the tour!

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2012

To contact us Click HERE
As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2012 and posted it on Spotify.

The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there. 

• When I Was 12 – Explicit Content This Stephanie-friendly, lite-pop album Dear Eskimo came out in 2009. How did I miss it then?! Fortunately, Amy came to the rescue & shared it with me in 2012 ... and three of their songs made the cut.
• Stars – The North (Breakglass Version)
• Lana Del Rey – Diet Mountain Dew So many great songs on her two-volume set Born to Die, the Paradise Edition, but I limited myself to this one.
• Chairlift – Cool As A Fire Haunting lyrics: "now that I found you, I don't have a choice ... with or without you, I don't have a choice." There are a lot of great songs on their album Something. 
• Carolina Chocolate Drops – Country Girl
• Norah Jones – If the Law Don't Want You ... neither do I. This is one of two songs I selected from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell. They're all a little country (or Americana), and they're all just like a Mary Karr novel. 
• The Little Willies – Jolene I heard -- and loved! -- this version before I heard Coach Beiste sing it on Glee. Coach's version makes the song even more heartbreaking, tho' I prefer listening to the Little Willies. 
• Lisa Marie Presley – Heartless Storm & Grace is my favorite Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis) album ... and this is the best song. 
• Lee Ann Womack – Momma's On a Roll The second of two songs from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell.
• Steve Forbert – Can't We Get Together? This is second of Steve's songs that mentions being in another time zone from his girlfriend; it also mentions the Raleigh airport.
• Josh Ritter – Love Is Making Its Way Back Home This whole album is amazing, even tho' it's an EP. Josh Ritter could make a great song out of a phone book.
• Citizen Cope – One Lovely Day 
• Leonard Cohen – Come Healing The entire album Old Ideas is terrific, but this song, with Dana Glover is especially haunting. 
• Josh Ritter – Why 
• Glen Hansard – Talking With the Wolves
• Sea Wolf – Old Friend
• The Mavericks – Back In Your Arms Again Not nearly enough Mavericks on the Suited Up & Ready EP, but what's there is great fun.
• When I Was 12 – Kitten I'm Smitten Really, who doesn't like a song with that title?  Of course, mittens are also mentioned. 
• Calexico – Puerto
• Allen Stone – Sleep This turned into a huge earworm for me ... mostly when I can't sleep, and this song comes to mind when I "feel it [sleep] on the ends of my fingers / Taste it on the tips of my teeth" ... You've been warned about the earworm!

Arlington's Hoarding Response Team honored

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The town’s Health and Human Services’ Hoarding Response Team is being recognized by the National League of Cities (NLC) as a model program demonstrating innovative and collaborative approaches within government.
The Arlington Hoarding Response Team is one of 27 municipal programs selected for the 2012 City Showcase — NLC’s premiere program celebrating city achievements.
The Hoarding Response Team provides emergency response, intake, referral and follow-up services for persons living in hoarded, unsafe and unsanitary living conditions in their homes. The team, comprised of representatives of multiple town departments, operates on a hazard reduction model to ensure affected residents can safely reside in their homes.
The program will be highlighted during this year’s Congress of Cities and Exposition, held in Boston, Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. During the conference, representatives from Arlington will engage in networking and knowledge sharing with colleagues from around the country..."  More

Animals in Woodbourne seized in 'worst ever' abuse

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By Victor Whitman


Fallsburg police and animal control officers removed numerous animals on Tuesday from a ramshackle trailer home in the Town of Fallsburg and charged an elderly woman and her son with animal cruelty.Police executed a search warrant at 333 Rose Road outside Woodbourne, and found goats, rabbits, geese and two dogs living in "deplorable" conditions.Virginia Wagner McCombs, 81, and Donald Wagner, 62, were charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty under the section of Agriculture and Markets law that refers to "overdriving, torturing and injuring" animals.When authorities arrived in the morning, two cocker spaniels were tied by a rope to a pickup truck. The rabbits were in handmade chicken coops covered with feces. Goats were crowded into fenced enclosures on muddy ground. The property was strewn with detritus and hoarded items. Large rats were running around."This is the worst I have ever seen," said Joanne Gerow, Fallsburg's animal control officer.Gerow said authorities seized two dogs, 14 goats, seven baby goats, 23 rabbits, four geese and four chickens. All the animals were taken to a rescue farm in Sullivan County. Gerow said the animals appeared to have been fed, but will be evaluated..."  More

The Easter Bunny Isn't Real

To contact us Click HERE

I know all of us bunnyparents look forward to the Easter holiday season and the sudden availability of all imaginable rabbit-shaped objects that comes along with it. But while we’re enjoying the bunny cards and figurines, we need to realize that Easter is also a terrible time for many rabbits. Year after year, unsuspecting parents buy real baby bunnies to put in their children’s Easter baskets alongside jelly beans and chocolate eggs. Weeks later, these rabbits are dumped at shelters or (even worse) released into the wild, when the family slowly realizes that rabbits are not perfectly behaved inanimate objects.

As you and I know, rabbits are not toys, and they’re certainly not appropriate gifts for young children. Help spread the word to people in your area by writing in to your local newspaper, putting up posters at obliging shops/malls/grocery stores/veterinary clinics, or simply talking to friends and family about the commitment involved in owning a rabbit. Shelter and rescue volunteers have already begun spreading the word all over the country and I urge you to reach out and educate your local town or city about choosing toy rabbits for Easter, and adopting real rabbits for life.



While Peanut (left) and Jimmy may look like toys, these 3 lb. dwarf Hotots are real-life bunny brothers, adopted for life by Caroline and Matt in Boston, MA.

To read more about a national Easter awareness initiative, check out the House Rabbit Society’s Make Mine Chocolate campaign.

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2011

To contact us Click HERE
As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2011 and posted it on Spotify.
The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there.
Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks A great song to kick off the collection, it also kicks off a short gun-themed set. Note that the collection ends with a gun-themed song too.
Imelda May – Johnny Got A Boom Boom
Danger Mouse – Two Against One (feat. Jack White) Danger Mouse's Rome CD was amazing - I chose 2 songs for this collection, but there are many more great songs too.
Chris Difford – Like I Did Good for all the rock-loving parents out there, and quite a lovely tune too.
Diego Garcia – Under This Spell I'm guessing Amy's Leo will like this one.
Gomez – Options
Imelda May – I'm Alive Sounds quite a bit like Nick Lowe; and each of the 3 Imelda May songs here sound different from each other.
Nick Lowe – Shame on the Rain Yeah, I should have included his song "I Read A Lot" but this fit better.
The Steep Canyon Rangers – Atheists Don't Have No Songs Steve Martin is amusing here. This song kicks off a short (and hopefully not-too-offensive) religion set.
The Dirt Daubers – Wake Up, Sinners
Eliza Gilkyson – 2153
Eleanor Friedberger – Heaven
Emmylou Harris – Big Black Dog A great sing-along song, whether you have a dog or not. It's fun for cat lovers too.
Iron & Wine – Tree By The River How can you not love a song with this lyric: "I mean the world to a potty-mouth girl, with a pretty pair of blue-eyed birds." ?!
Danger Mouse – Black (feat. Norah Jones)
Sarah Jarosz – Annabelle Lee
Robbers On High Street – Second Chance Thanks to Amy for alerting me to Robbers on High Street; this isn't the song she first recommended, but it's quite a fun song anyway.
Garland Jeffreys – Rock On The first of two covers; I want to pair this one with Spiders & Snakes.
Imelda May – Tainted Love The start of this song makes me think of the Waitresses, which surely was intentional.
Noah And The Whale – Just Me Before We Met My favorite line: "don't be shy; be brave little champion."
Peter Bjorn And John – Tomorrow Has To Wait
Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane Lolhusband doesn't like that there is only one lyric here, but I love how it sounds.
Thomas Dolby – Road To Reno It's been a long time since he's had a new album, and this was worth waiting for.

If CDs were more than 80 minutes, we'd have more songs here ... but these are the cream of the 2011 crop.

A Librarian's View of ScienceOnline

To contact us Click HERE
I've submitted a photograph to #scio12 science-art show.  I wanted to convey something about science, which is tough since what I most like to photograph is flowers and cats. Ok, I could have argued that they were science photos, but I thought it was a stretch.
I thought more about it and decided to take photos of some of the books I've acquired (for myself or for my library) as a result of ScienceOnline past & current.  Here, therefore, is my view of ScienceOnline:

The books are, from top to bottom:

• Graedon, J., & Graedon, T. (2011). The people's pharmacy quick & handy home remedies. Washington, DC: National Geographic.
• Zimmer, C. (2011). A planet of viruses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers.
• Dunn, R. R. (2011). The wild life of our bodies: Predators, parasites, and partners that shape who we are today. New York: Harper.
• McKenna, M. (2010). Superbug: The fatal menace of MRSA. New York: Free Press.
• Linden, T. (2011). The New York times reader: Health and medicine. Washington, D.C: CQ Press.
• Tucker, H. (2011). Blood work: A tale of medicine and murder in the scientific revolution. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Mooney, C., & Kirshenbaum, S. (2009). Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future. New York: Basic Books.
• Specter, M. (2009). Denialism: How irrational thinking hinders scientific progress, harms the planet, and threatens our lives. New York: Penguin Press.
• Meredith, D. (2010). Explaining research: How to reach key audiences to advance your work. New York, N.Y: Oxford University Press.

You can check out (literally and figuratively) these books on my WorldCat list of ScienceOnline Books.

Field trip to Durham's @LifeandScience museum! #scio12

To contact us Click HERE
I was thrilled to go on a behind the scenes tour of Durham's fabulous Museum of Life and Science at last week's ScienceOnline conference. Here is an annotated visual tour of the trip, with photos taken by several of us on the tour. I used Storify to curate the images, which were posted on Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube (the bear video is awesome; especially the last 10-20 seconds).

Thanks especially to Keeper Mikey for the tour!

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2012

To contact us Click HERE
As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2012 and posted it on Spotify.

The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there. 

• When I Was 12 – Explicit Content This Stephanie-friendly, lite-pop album Dear Eskimo came out in 2009. How did I miss it then?! Fortunately, Amy came to the rescue & shared it with me in 2012 ... and three of their songs made the cut.
• Stars – The North (Breakglass Version)
• Lana Del Rey – Diet Mountain Dew So many great songs on her two-volume set Born to Die, the Paradise Edition, but I limited myself to this one.
• Chairlift – Cool As A Fire Haunting lyrics: "now that I found you, I don't have a choice ... with or without you, I don't have a choice." There are a lot of great songs on their album Something. 
• Carolina Chocolate Drops – Country Girl
• Norah Jones – If the Law Don't Want You ... neither do I. This is one of two songs I selected from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell. They're all a little country (or Americana), and they're all just like a Mary Karr novel. 
• The Little Willies – Jolene I heard -- and loved! -- this version before I heard Coach Beiste sing it on Glee. Coach's version makes the song even more heartbreaking, tho' I prefer listening to the Little Willies. 
• Lisa Marie Presley – Heartless Storm & Grace is my favorite Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis) album ... and this is the best song. 
• Lee Ann Womack – Momma's On a Roll The second of two songs from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell.
• Steve Forbert – Can't We Get Together? This is second of Steve's songs that mentions being in another time zone from his girlfriend; it also mentions the Raleigh airport.
• Josh Ritter – Love Is Making Its Way Back Home This whole album is amazing, even tho' it's an EP. Josh Ritter could make a great song out of a phone book.
• Citizen Cope – One Lovely Day 
• Leonard Cohen – Come Healing The entire album Old Ideas is terrific, but this song, with Dana Glover is especially haunting. 
• Josh Ritter – Why 
• Glen Hansard – Talking With the Wolves
• Sea Wolf – Old Friend
• The Mavericks – Back In Your Arms Again Not nearly enough Mavericks on the Suited Up & Ready EP, but what's there is great fun.
• When I Was 12 – Kitten I'm Smitten Really, who doesn't like a song with that title?  Of course, mittens are also mentioned. 
• Calexico – Puerto
• Allen Stone – Sleep This turned into a huge earworm for me ... mostly when I can't sleep, and this song comes to mind when I "feel it [sleep] on the ends of my fingers / Taste it on the tips of my teeth" ... You've been warned about the earworm!

Celebrate Petfinder's Birthday by Sending in Your Adoption Story!

To contact us Click HERE


March 15, 2011 will be Petfinder.com's 15th birthday! This revolutionary website has not only helped unite hundreds of thousands of homeless pets with their adoptive parents, it also tirelessly works to educate and entertain the public with their blog, message boards, library of articles on pet health, behavior, training, and much more. To celebrate this exciting milestone, Petfinder.com is staging a takeover of the Internet on March 15. This will entail a massive awareness explosion about adoption and shelter animals by numerous participating pet-centric blogs.

In honor of this momentous occasion, here at The Rabbit Advocate, I am hosting a rabbit adoption story contest. Send in a picture and story (up to 100 words) of how you and your bunny friend found each other and I will post a winner here on March 15th. Let's all get to writing!

The Easter Bunny Isn't Real

To contact us Click HERE

I know all of us bunnyparents look forward to the Easter holiday season and the sudden availability of all imaginable rabbit-shaped objects that comes along with it. But while we’re enjoying the bunny cards and figurines, we need to realize that Easter is also a terrible time for many rabbits. Year after year, unsuspecting parents buy real baby bunnies to put in their children’s Easter baskets alongside jelly beans and chocolate eggs. Weeks later, these rabbits are dumped at shelters or (even worse) released into the wild, when the family slowly realizes that rabbits are not perfectly behaved inanimate objects.

As you and I know, rabbits are not toys, and they’re certainly not appropriate gifts for young children. Help spread the word to people in your area by writing in to your local newspaper, putting up posters at obliging shops/malls/grocery stores/veterinary clinics, or simply talking to friends and family about the commitment involved in owning a rabbit. Shelter and rescue volunteers have already begun spreading the word all over the country and I urge you to reach out and educate your local town or city about choosing toy rabbits for Easter, and adopting real rabbits for life.



While Peanut (left) and Jimmy may look like toys, these 3 lb. dwarf Hotots are real-life bunny brothers, adopted for life by Caroline and Matt in Boston, MA.

To read more about a national Easter awareness initiative, check out the House Rabbit Society’s Make Mine Chocolate campaign.

Mom's 75th Birthday!

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Sunday, Aug. 26th 2012 my mom turned 75. We had a party for her at W.Dennis Beach, which we entitled "The Party of Lights". Everyone was supposed to be 'lit up' in some way. This is how it looked after dark. 
Here's a photo of my mom and her 4 kids: (in order of oldest to youngest) Treg, Me, Odin (dark hair) then Grethe. Yes, we have really weird names, but you have to blame that one on my dad. They are all Scandinavian like he was. 
Here's the birthday girl herself! She was in her glory with all her kids, grand kids and friends gathered for her special day. 
I bought some light up balloons and we tied them to a bucket, put them in a kiddie pool filled with water so they wouldn't pop, (and so the kids wouldn't step on them) and my sister had some easter egg lanterns with glow sticks in them hanging off of bamboo sticks, and the candles were all just led candle lights. There were no flames at all, but the whole place looked and glowed as if there were. It was really neat looking!
Then of course, we glowed too. I have to say, it stopped passer by-ers. One even wanted to take photo's!

Breten (me), Brielle (my oldest) Odin (sister) Mom, Sienna  (my youngest) Grethe (sister)

Here is all the girls in the family, except for my youngest niece, Qena. She's only 2 and was running around  somewhere. We couldn't catch her for the photo. 

me and Brielle all a glow

This is a great photo of Brielle and her aunt, but look closely in the background and you'll see my nephew, Frey (another Nordic name) making a lovely face. Leave it to a 12 year old...

Here's Qena! (my 2 yr. old niece)

My mom with her son who she sees about twice a year (even though he lives 45 minutes away. )

Sienna, Grethe and Quince (her oldest son)

The sun went down and the lights started to glow!

My brother, and his sons, Brenden and Dylan set up their instruments and started to play. They are all really good and it was great to have live music!

another shot of the pool and lights

Add caption

It was a really fun party. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and the glow lights were such a great thing to do. I think we may just do that again next year! Happy birthday Mumma. ~