Kessy learns how to read

It may not have been the flyers this cat read, but she sure read the love put into it

By Pamela McLoughlin

A beautiful thing happened this week when my daughter Kathleen's beloved cat Kessy returned after a week AWOL.
Kessy, a sweet, gentle, affectionate purring machine who can easily withstand sudden tail pullings by toddlers, had never been out for more than a night
The skeptics among us thought she had fallen prey to a coyote, been hit by a car or catnapped because she's so nice.
But Kathleen kept believing and on Friday after school she created flyers with Kessy's picture, then went around the neighborhood with her best friend Jackie to distribute them.
I picked them up at dusk by the community center after distribution and as we pulled into the driveway Kathleen opened the door and jumped out of the moving car, as Jackie and I looked at each other, perplexed.
Kathleen had spotted fur in the deep grass, ran up to the cat and it turned out to be a black and white cat - not Kessy - who likes to hang out by our door.
But just as Kathleen saw it wasn't Kessy, she heard a meow from behind that she recognized and all Jackie and I could see was Kathleen's elated expression (car had just stopped moving) - something usually reserved for favorite band or boyfriend.
She picked up Kessy who was atypically skittish and smelled, we decided later, like dog, cigarettes and gasoline.
The first thing I said to Jackie was "Kessy must have seen the flyer!"
Jackie chuckled and said that when they were distributing the flyers, Kathleen had said, "Maybe Kessy will see the flyer."
Anyway, I keep going over the scenarios in my head and am wondering if anyone who knows anything about cat behavior or catnapping behavior can tell me: Was it just a coincidence that she came home minutes after the last flyer was distributed?
Did someone holding her captive see the flyer and let her go?
Was she just out on an extended romp with the other cat (Kathleen says they're friends!)?
Was it the prayer Kathleen's sister, Debbie, said two hours before Kessy came home? Or did Kessy indeed see the flyer?

The neccessities for bears

Help Save the Moon Bears

There is a new book just out in stores that is attempting to help save moon bears.
The book, "Moon Bear," by Brenda Z. Guiberson and illustrated by Calecott Medalist, Ed Young, is about about Asiatic black bears, known as moon bears because of the crescent moon-shaped blaze across their chests.
The publisher said in a statement that in "addition to delighting young readers, the book has another purpose: to help save moon bears from a life of captivity and cruelty."
"Thousands of moon bears tragically spend their lives in tiny cages on bear “farms” where cruel methods are used to extract their commercially viable bile."
The book has been produced in partnership with Animals Asia, an organization dedicated to ending cruelty and rescue thousands of moon bears on these “farms,” the statement said.
Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group (Mackids) has "become 'Team Moonbear' in an effort to raise “Moon Bear Bucks” to save a bear. To see more of what Mackids is doing and to find out more about Animals Asia, visit www.mackids.com/TeamMoonBear and http://www.animalsasia.org/

Trying to save the wild mustang

Photgrapher captures spirit of the American mustang

SOUTHPORT - The photographs of imperiled wild mustangs taken by photographer Esther-Grace Simson will be shown throughout May in an exhibit in the Perkin Gallery at Pequot Library, 720 Pequot Ave.

Wild mustangs are descendants of horses Spanish Conquistadors brought to North America and living emblems of the old West, event organizers said. By the end of the 19th century, two to three million mustangs roamed the Western plains.
Starting in the early 20th century and up to the present day, the horses have been sold for pet food, glue, pony skins and shot for sport.

In 1971 a law was passed to protect mustangs on public lands. But due to pressure from cattle ranching interest groups as well as the oil, natural gas and mining industries, mustangs are again being rounded up in a violent manner, such as helicopter roundups, and herded into federal holding facilities while they await an uncertain future in an inhumane way, event organizers said in a statement.

About 24,000 of the horses are in captivity.

On a recent trip, Simson traveled with her daughter Danielle to the foothills of California’s mountains near Santa Barbara in search of the horses.

Some rescued mustangs reside on 300 acres at the Return To Freedom sanctuary. The mother-daughter team set up various base camps as they followed the grazing bands of mustangs from one spot to another, the statement said.
Simson remembers setting up base camp, and waiting quietly until the horses sent their scouts to appraise and inspect them, the statement said.
They were ultimately welcomed warmly, andeventually nudged by a young stallion, indicating that they were accepted by the various bands of mustangs. The "mission to record the proud nobility of these wild and beautiful animals and to promote an awareness of their sad plight was accomplished," the statement said.

Simson is a member of the Royal Photographic Society and the Equine Photographers Network. Her work has appeared in numerous publications. She is the designated photographer of RJ Masterbug, star of the Disney film Hidalgo, the statement said. Her photographs of RJ have appreared on the covers of Horsemen’s Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Up magazines. She has exhibited nationally and internationally.

The opening reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. May 8.
This exhibit is one in a series of shows of amateur and professional photographers curated by Enid Munroe. For more information, call the library at 203-259-0346.



Editor's note: the information in this post was provided by the Pequot Library, It is lightly edited here.