Through Our Eyes

Camouflaged Kitty

I have friends who have cats; some are outdoor cats, some are always indoors. The truth is, cats are predators and love to hunt. So when you let your cat out of the house, it will hunt small birds. In North America alone, the number of birds lost to cats is 500 million a year!

Some people put bells on their cats thinking that will help protect the birds from the predator, your pet cat. But by the time the bird hears the bell, it is too late; the cat is close enough to grab the bird.

As for the cat, it is also in danger of being attacked by larger wildlife such as the raccoon, the weasel, and the fisher, to name a few. There are also any number of diseases that your cat can pick up and injuries from fighting with wildlife that has much longer claws to defend themselves. And then of course, there is the car that cats are often hit by when they run out in the street. A lot of dangers for a little house cat.

If you have a cat, for its safety and the safety of all the native birds in your area, keep it indoors. Give it lots of, and a variety of, toys and it will be entertained for years to come.

“Camouflaged Kitty” painting by DJ Geribo

2015 is the Chinese Year of the Sheep

Our apologies for neglecting our Eye Help Animals blog for so long. It has been a busy year, and yes, it has been almost a year since our last blog. But we are back on track and will be working on many changes over the next year.

In our defense, we are still putting out our bi-monthly newsletter.  You can subscribe to our Eyes Alive newsletter from our website. And we will be sending out a bi-weekly notice to help bring attention to our goals for EHA and what we are doing to help wildlife around the world. We are also going to feature our products more prominently. The goal is to help raise funds for wildlife reserves and we can only do that by selling products. We hope that you will help support wildlife by supporting Eye Help Animals.

Also, look for our long over-due 3rd collection of wildlife eyes. The theme is Endangered so this group, in particular, needs your support.

Purchase our Eye Help Animals Wildlife Eye collectible pin featuring the Ram.

Eye Help Animals is Saving Wildlife Together with their special edition Mug

This holiday season, give the gifts of wildlife, saving them that is. With each gift you purchase from Eye Help Animals, a donation of 25% from profits will be given to an organization that is dedicated to saving wildlife. Check out our gift shop – I’m sure we have something for everyone on your list! (Gifts include Wildlife Eye Collectible pins – collect all 32 of them, canvas bags, t-shirts, baseball caps with Tiger eye, Tiger prints, and our exclusive, one-of-a-kind, hand-painted wildlife earrings – in large and small sizes!)

Again, National Geographic magazine came to my aid when looking for a blog to post. The latest issue, October 2013, is their 125^th Anniversary Collector’s Edition and it is called “The Photo Issue”.

The magazine, a keeper, is filled with amazing photos, which is something that NatGeo has been famous for over the many years that it has been in publication.

Of course, there was an article with photos of animals.  The word ‘Protect’ was prominently displayed throughout and the quote from one of the authors that may become a prediction of the future fate of wildlife “Zoos are the last refuge against a rising tide of extinction.”

In the past we’ve had EHA supporters comment about our collaboration with Zoo Atlanta and the fact that we were looking to develop similar partnerships. They saw it as a negative collaboration and thought we should not align ourselves with establishments that put animals behind bars. What I have found through my education during the years since we founded Eye Help Animals is the truth in what the above quote is saying. There are species of animals that are so close to becoming endangered that zoos may be their protector, their last hope against extinction and the only place that many species of animals will be found.

I just watched, for the second time, the documentary film “I Am” by film director Tom Shadyac. Tom is the director of such hits as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”, “The Nutty Professor”, and “Bruce Almighty”. “I Am” is a wonderful documentary where Tom realized, after buying 3 mansions with over 17,000 square feet, that he wasn’t any happier, especially when he saw so many homeless living off the streets just blocks away from his mansion. And then when an accident left him in a lot of pain, he went in search of answers to the questions “What’s Wrong with the World?” and “What Can We Do to Fix it?” by talking to philosophers and spiritualists around the world.  What he found was a lot that was right with the world especially in the form of compassion for others that we all share.

One interview I found especially interesting was with Thom Hartmann, author of “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight”. Thom talked about a study where a group of deer was observed to see which was the alpha deer and how they would display that position in the group. What the observers found was quite surprising. When some of the group wanted to get water, they would start by looking in the direction of one of the known waterholes. Soon, others were pointing in that direction. When more than half of the group pointed in the direction of the waterhole, the group started migrating towards the waterhole. There was no one alpha directing the group to go at a certain time or to a particular waterhole.  It was through cooperation and the group making a democratic decision that they all started to move toward the waterhole.

As always, we can learn a lot from the wildlife on our planet, who know how to live in this world without any input from humans.

Every Saturday morning, especially during the winter months when I’m typically home on a weekend morning, I turn the TV on to watch Jack Hanna’s “Wild Kingdom” program. It has become my weekly dose of hope and encourages me to keep going when I see all the places he visits around the world where people are committed and dedicated to saving the lives of animals. I happened to catch it this morning and Jack was doing a countdown of his favorite “Zoo-tastic Adventures”.  Although the zoo where he works, the Columbus zoo, did come in second, his #1 pick was the Singapore zoo where there were baby white rhinos rubbed down with mud and the staff were walking orangutans around the park. Jack was so impressed and amazed by this beautiful zoo. I’m so impressed by and a huge fan of Jack Hanna!!!

 Orangutan Wildlife Eye Collectible Pin
Our price: $4.95

We recently received an email from a customer who told us that while walking on her property, she spotted what she was sure was a black panther. She was, understandably, a bit unnerved, especially since this is near her home and she has grandchildren and pets who walk through her woods, as well. She was concerned, also, about telling too many people in case a ‘trophy hunter’ found out about it – she was mindful of the animal’s safety, too. She asked us for advice as to who she should inform and wanted to know our thoughts on this. Jim wrote back to her, thanking her for sharing her story with us, and recommended that although she may never see this animal again since sightings of black panthers are rare, he suggested that she should still use caution and never walk alone at night and keep her grandchildren and pets close to home, and she should contact the Northern Jaguar Project for guidance and more information. Sharing our land with nature and wildlife is something we always advocate. People need to be aware of the dangers when they decide to reside in some of the few remaining areas where endangered species live.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. DJ and I had much to celebrate but we know there’s still so much that needs to be done.

We happened to watch a television program on our local PBS station titled “Earth Days” and realized that it is people just like us who will ultimately succeed in creating the world we want to live in.  It was strikingly obvious in the program that every U.S. President since the mid sixties has talked about the need for environmental policies, but the record shows that it’s usually individuals and small groups of concerned citizens who are the driving force behind adopting and strengthening our environmental laws.

The recent international conference in Copenhagen demonstrates that governments are almost powerless to effect any real change because they can not agree on what needs to be done in any meaningful way.  However, concerned individuals – regardless of their nationality – can take action now and not wait for any international consensus.

DJ and I do everything we can to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  We care for the land we are fortunate enough to own and do everything possible to protect and minimize our impact on the local wildlife that shares our land with us.  And, we do our best to inspire others and look for ways to raise their awareness of the impact their decisions have on our planet’s wildlife and habitat.  We realize that not everyone agrees with our personal philosophy and that’s OK.  We believe there are many who do share our vision for living a life that’s in harmony with nature instead of living a life that’s disconnected from nature.

And, it’s people like this that play a large part in how we are…

"Saving Wildlife Together"!

If you watch the news, we’re sure you’ve either seen or heard about the death of one of SeaWorld Orlando’s animal trainers in an incident involving Tillikum, an adult male orca, on February 24th, 2010. To be sure, it’s a terrible tragedy. But, the tragedy goes beyond the loss of the young woman. Wildlife conservation and entertainment are vastly different concepts and there are very few examples we can think of where the two align.
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