CANAL FULTON, Ohio

Dillie

Dillie’s a lot like most of the other household pets on her block – she’s got four legs, a tail and tongue that will lick a friendly hand. She’s even housebroken, likes treats and to run around in the yard.

The difference is Dillie’s an 180-pound full-grown deer.

Dillie in Kitchen

Dillie, short for Daffodil, has lived relatively under the radar for the past five years with her owners, Dr. Melanie Butera and Steve Heathman, in their Canal Fulton home.

“The neighbor kids come to visit and we have had church groups and others here to see her,” said Butera, an area vet.

Last week, Dillie was thrown into the national spotlight after she was crowned the winner of a Zoombak video contest.

After a delivery man left the gate to the yard open and Dillie wandered off this summer, Butera began looking for a tracking device for Dillie.

Butera found the Zoombak personal GPS locator. The small unit, which Dillie wears on a collar around her neck, allows Butera and her husband to keep an eye on her by logging into their computer.

Dillie's Collar

Shortly after Butera purchased the GPS locater, the company held a contest asking Zoombak users to make a video showing how people were using the GPS locater.

Butera entered a video showing Dillie sleeping in her bed, swimming in the family pool and eating a bowl of spaghetti noodles.

“It wasn’t even a half a day (after entering the contest) they called and said we’d won,” Butera said.

The family received a $1,000 prize for the winning video and the media hasn’t stopped calling. Dillie was featured on the CBS “Early Show” Thursday morning and area TV stations have visited her home. Butera has also been contacted by British and German news agencies.

“I guess they don’t have deer in Germany,” Butera said jokingly. “It doesn’t seem that strange to us. Vets all over the world are probably saying, ‘That’s no big deal, I have a giraffe in my basement.”

Saving grace

At 3 a.m. nearly five years ago, an area farmer showed up on Butera’s door step with a dying 3-day-old doe. She weighted just 5 pounds.

“Her mother hadn’t nursed her,” Butera said. “She was born a triplet; the other two were bucks. She has severe cataracts.”

The farmer told Butera that she could have the little deer if she wanted to care for it.

“She was too sick to eat,” Butera said. “Her body temperate was 94 degrees; normal is 102 degrees. She was a few breaths from dead.”

Butera gave her a jugular catheter and Dillie was hospitalized for a few days. When she left the hospital, Butera brought Dillie to her home to continue her rehabilitation.

“She wouldn’t take a bottle,” she said. “We had to hand feed her. She grew up on goat’s milk.”

Too small and weak to be left in the barn, Butera and her husband nursed the deer back to health in the comfort of their home.

“We never intended for her to be in the house,” she said. “She was just too sick to be outside.

“When she got on her two feet, so to speak, we took her to the barn but she was terrified of the horses. So we kept her in the house.”

Dillie Inside

Dillie Living Room

Dillie peering

Living the high life

Dillie adapted to life inside – learning on her own to climb the stairs, play with the family’s Standard poodle, Lady, and to get ice cubes from the refrigerator’s ice machine in the door.

“She would follow Lady around,” said Butera, who once owned Stark County Veterinary Emergency Clinic and now operates Elm Ridge Hospital in Canal Fulton. “She would go underneath Lady and try to nurse.”

Butera said Dillie has the personality of both a dog and cat. She knows her name but won’t come every time she is called. She’s bonded with Steve and used to sleep at the foot of their bed. These days Dillie lounges around on her Serta Posturpedic mattress in her own room.

Butera explained Dillie follows a typical pattern for deer – she eats in the morning, rests and then eats in the evening.

She goes outside daily and can spend hours running – sometimes up to 40 mph – in the yard, but Heathman admits Dillie isn’t fond of rain, wind or snow.

Dillie’s diet includes bananas, apples, bread and greens including spinach and different types of lettuce. She delights in special treats including vanilla bean ice cream, spaghetti noodles and Lady’s Beggin’ Strip treats.

Dillie eats

Dillie ice cream

Cream

“She’s very exceptional,” Butera said. “She’s so loving, so smart, so unafraid. She’s a very passive animal. She doesn’t have a lot of weapons. She only has her hooves.”

Not your average deer

Butera warns against having a deer for a pet. Dillie is a farm-raised deer – not wild – and has a permit from the state Wildlife and Game Commission.

“She has a pedigree,” Butera said. Dillie also bears an ear tag. The state checks on the deer regularly.

There is no way to tell Dillie’s life-span. Deer living in the wild live on average eight years but the life-span of a house deer is unknown.

Butera said Dillie grooms herself and receives vaccinations and regular treatments to prevent fleas and worms. While there are some diseases that could be passed to human from a deer, Butera said it is unlikely Dillie carries any diseases.

“She’s really loving,” Butera said. “Our family thinks we are crazy but everyone enjoys her. My friend who house sits begs us to go on vacation.”

Rising from her nap in her bedroom

Comb

Roses

Love on Hooves

My thoughts can be summed up via this adorable youtuber’s video:

via the Enterprise

Dewclaws on dog

“The Dewclaw is the tiny fifth claw of a dog’s leg above the other toes, so called, rather romantically, because it brushes the dew from the grass. Dogs almost always have one of these tiny talons on the inside of their front legs and sometimes also on their hind legs.” -  Whatchamacallit: Those Everyday Objects You Just Can’t Name (And Things You Think You Know About, but Don’t)

Expectant Puppies *click for flickr photo page*

My pup Spencer, a Pug dog, has dewclaws. Nemo, a cocker spaniel, either doesn’t have them or had them removed before we got him.

Some say they are useless and should be removed, but they can also help the dog climb, scratch, pick their teeth, move things and hunt.

Apparently, people would go to strange lengths to remove them. According to the Dog in Health and Disease (1887):

The Dog in Health and Disease *links to Google Book page*

“Regular dog-fanciers bite off the tail, but a pair of scissors answers equally well; and the same may be said of the dew-claw. If, however, the nail only is to be removed, which it always ought to be, the teeth serve the purposes of a pair of nippers perfectly, and by their aid it may be drawn out, leaving the claw itself attached, but rendered less liable to injury, from having lost the part likely to catch hold of any projecting body.“

They would bite the dewclaws off…

Stan the T-Rex at Manchester Museum *click for wiki page*

Tyrannosaurus Rex had them, so do Ocelots, lions (all cats), wolves, dogs (all canines), deer (hoofed animals), and many birds and reptiles.

Asiatic Lion Cub with DewClaw *click for larger*

More info: Paws for Thought: Comparative Radiologic Anatomy of the Mammalian Forelimb.

«Hello everybody!» Baby Meerkat via 'Tambako the Jaguar'

Not every mammal has dewclaws. For one instance look at this adorable Meerkat baby! (Humans and primates don’t have them either, but we’re not as cute.)

Early Tools – MATERIALS > cast iron | lace wood

Okay, I punch you first. Then maybe you can punch me. I always win at rock-paper-scissors versus this guy.

They should make a working version of this, with all of the fingers movable.

Cork chair? Cool, what about a chair made out of a hundred or so used wine corks?

I like the melted slag look, but it might be difficult to eat off of.

If you drop a prayer bomb into an Al-Qaeda camp do they convert to Christianity before or after disintegrating into a fine red mist?

A good table for Q.

I would be better if it totally looked like a cow’s udders. And was wireless.

More over at Design Martus.com (design firm Martus & Silvio, of Grand Rapids)

via Make

I’m not so much into Emmerich as his designer.

I don’t know what it is, but there seems to be a thing for Communist memorabilia and genocidal irony among many modern designers…sometimes it works.

Knick knacks would be better replaced by vintage/reproduced patriotic propaganda magazines or books of murals of the sort on the wall – with some Commie bookends. Maybe the Great Wall on one end and the Berlin Wall on the other?

Now this is something to look into: Chalkboard paint. Side note: what’s with the ball of Barbie dolls?

The novelty of this will soon wear thin and he’ll be left with a creepy wax mannequin peering disgustedly from under his stairs. Not very comfortable.

I like that shade of green on the ceiling. Not sure about having that many dead zebras though.

Ornamentally awesome door. Having vault/super villain lair/submarine type doors in a normal living space has always seemed like a cool idea to me.

Great look…would be even better with a painted bomber girl on the wing.

Chair must be cheap? Could make one yourself.

I hope he has a bird in there. Could make it a blackbird as a poignant, unsubtle symbol of the times.

Not sure of this thing’s purpose. Would be better as a diorama of Red Square with marching Russians.

Hope the director likes the color red.  AK-47 art or Russian onion domes would have also fit in.

via The new York Times

]]> http://www.abcdeology.com/?feed=rss2&p=315 0 http://www.abcdeology.com/?p=309 http://www.abcdeology.com/?p=309#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:42:32 +0000 nate http://www.abcdeology.com/?p=309 The mesmerizing surreal photography of Philippe Ramette.

‘Rational exploration of the undersea’

irrational walk

the wait

the contact

the nap

the anchor

the ascent

the break

the map

the arrival

-Separate series -

Crisis of casualness

Gravity break

Punching-stone

Distorted mirror

via BOOOOOOOM

The Sweep *click for larger*

“The Sweep – Printed and Sold by Bellamy – SIX PENCE – 49 Mincing Lane, London”

Translation:

“If you ask me which of all human beings is happiest in proportion to his means, I would answer, the sweep. He is not proud in his dress, small are his wants, and great his independence. Wealthy men make way to let him pass, and truly he is a man of high calling. He fears little for his capital in trade, for his brush and shovel are nearly the whole. Humble as he is, he can set his foot under the grate; Insult him and you become a marked person.he seldom accumulates riches, though to he often rises in the world.In the delicate feelings of his heart, he spurns not the negro, because his face his black ; no, he hates such pride, lives independent and comfortable, and above all he is content with his business, because he knows it suits him.”

-English Rebus, middle nineteenth century, via pilllpat (agence eureka)’s flickr and Le Ramoneur de Bourg (The Sweep of Town)

Atmoshpheric Analysis with Laser*click for larger*

Atmospheric Analysis with Laser

“The Alfred Wegener Institute carries out research in the Arctic and Antarctic as well as in the high and mid latitude oceans. The institute coordinates German polar research and makes available to national and international science important infrastructure, e.g. the research ice breaker “Polarstern” and research stations in the Arctic and Antarctic.”

"Drilling Trench" *click for larger*

“Drilling Trench”

"Coccolithophorids" *click for original*

Coccolithophorids

“Coccolithophorids” are unicellular shell-forming planktonic algae; from the English translation it appears they have been finding them them with deformed shells because of pollution.

"The researcher in the diffuse light of his construction" *click for larger*

“The researcher in the diffuse light of his construction”

I’m really digging the lighting in this portrait. Google Translated from the German (”Der Forscher im diffusen Licht seiner Konstruktion.”). Appears to be a model / night light of the Coccolithophorids.

A young elephant seal. *click for MUCH larger*

Young Elephant Seal

The original rather rough English translation they had was “Will soon became a big one – a young elephant seal.” Cute critter.

Winged Snail, aka Limacina *click for MUCH larger*

Winged Snail, aka Limacina

“The shell of the winged snail Limacina would dissolve when pH values in marine waters decrease.” Another pollution problem. The photograph looks antique, like the 50s – 60s pictures in the children’s encyclopedias that used to belong to my father and his brothers as children.

"Telemedicine satellite leased to the Antarctic" *click for larger*

“Telemedicine satellite leased to the Antarctic”

Nothingness…

German: “Telemedizin -Satellitenstandleitung in die Antarktis”

"Salawitch-polar stratospheric clouds" *click for Wallpaper size*

"Polar stratospheric clouds" 2 *click for larger*

“Polar stratospheric clouds”

Perfect for a computer wallpaper. There must be wondrous sunsets and sunrises on the polar ice caps, unmarred by light pollution or smoke.

"picture book for children, Weimar 1801"

“Picture book for children, Weimar 1801″

Couldn’t tell you what those things are specifically, or why it was labeled for children – seems more like a scientific book. Fig. 1 is the best. What is that finned tentacle thing doing? Is it part of the shelled creature or is it eating it or scavenging the shell or what?

Clione - small floating sea slugs, aka sea angels *click for larger*

Clione, I learned, are also called sea angels. A cool fact from wiki: one species defends itself from predators by synthesizing a poison . As predators will not eat the sea angel,  amphipods (shrimp-like crustaceans) will apparently seize them and carry them around for protection.

The German caption was  “Lipid droplets in the epidermal layer serve as protection against predators.”

Complex diatom shells. *click for larger*

Complex diatom shells.

“Only scanning electron microscopy shows all details of the complex diatom shells.”

Neumayer Station *click for bigger*

Neumayer Station

“The current Neumayer Station is constructed to be covered by snow.”

'Blue House' Polar Night *click for larger*

‘Blue House’ Polar Night

“The ‘blue house’ (right), office building AWIPEV research base, towards the end of the polar night”

Wegener - "Rise of a meteorological balloon." *click for larger*

Wegener – “Rise of a meteorological balloon.”

Unloading of the 'Gustav Holm' * click for larger*

” Unloading of the ‘Gustav Holm’ ”

End of Expedition May 1931 *click for larger*

End of Expedition May 1931

“Wegener’s brother Kurt brings the expedition to an end. In may 1931 Wegener is found, they build up a mausoleum of snow, and a cross out of boring tools. Meanwhile everything is sunk in deep in Greenland”

Ice formation *click for larger*

Ice Formation

“Ice formation in the Antarctic near McMurdo” From wiki: “McMurdo Station is an American Antarctic research center located on the southern tip of Ross Island on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as USA’s Antarctic science facility, and the logistics base for half the continent.”

Horn Coral *click for larger*

Horn Coral

“Hornkoralle – Typical biocoenosis on the ground of the Weddell sea shelf” From wiki:  “A biocoenosis describes all the interacting organisms living together in a specific habitat (or biotope).

An ecosystem,  is a biotic community (or biocoenosis) plus its physical environment.”

bright red coral and colorful nudibranch *click for larger*

Coral reef in the Red Sea is striking in the bright red coral and colorful nudibranch

Diatoms come in various shapes and sizes *click for larger*

Diatoms come in various shapes and sizes. “Kieselalgen kommen in verschiedenen Formen und Größen vor”

Haul of marbled Antarctic cod *click for larger*

Haul of marbled Antarctic cod on the aft deck of research vessel Polarstern

A complex of tubes and crevices characterizes the internal structure of many icebergs *click for larger*

“A complex of tubes and crevices characterizes the internal structure of many icebergs.”

Acidification *click for larger*

“The consequences of acidification will firstly effect polar waters”

Idotea Metallica *click for larger*

“The marine isopod Idotea metallica, one of at least 30 southern Atlantic species found recently in the German Bight”

Ice Core Air Bubbles *click for larger*

“Approximately ten percent of the ice cores consist of air bubbles containing the atmosphere of previous times.”

]]> http://www.abcdeology.com/?feed=rss2&p=298 0 http://www.abcdeology.com/?p=294 http://www.abcdeology.com/?p=294#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:35:56 +0000 nate http://www.abcdeology.com/?p=294 I was researching Witch Trees (trees where witches were rumored to have been hung back in the 1600s) to see if any still existed – maybe around my area of New England.

This lead me to the Witch Tree, also called Manido Giizhigance, or Little Cedar Spirit Tree by the Ojibwa Indian tribe on the shores of Lake Superior.  (Not a place where there were hangings, that is just its name.) It is named in the State of Minnesota Historic Places registry.

The Witch Tree, vintage photograph *click for bigger*

The Witch Tree is over 400 years old (French explorer Sieur de la Verendrye described it in 1731) and perhaps much older – these types of trees can be a very long-lived in certain conditions, with notably old specimens growing on cliffs where they are inaccessible to deer and wildfire; the oldest known living specimen is just over 1,000 years old, but a dead specimen with over 1,500 growth rings has been found. These very old trees are, despite their age, small and stunted due to the difficult growing conditions. Offerings of tobacco are traditionally left there by generations of Ojibwe, French voyageurs and local kayak/canoe paddlers before journeys on the Great Lakes. The tree and  land are owned by the Ojibwe tribe of the Grand Portage Reservation and there is no access unless accompanied by a tribal member (you can, however,  get close to the base of the cliff by sea on kayak/canoe).

The Witch Tree in the Evening *click for bigger*

A description from ‘The North Shore: A Four Season Guide to Minnesota’s Favorite Destination‘ by Shawn Perich:

“The weatherworn cedar stands alone on the rocky shore of Hat Point. Its roots grip the rock like aged fingers, drawing sustenance from an invisible source. It grows so close to the water that you can only wonder how it has been able to withstand the lake’s ferocity. Yet it has done so for at least four hundred years.“

Witch Tree's Roots among the Rocks *click for bigger*

Appropriately, I am listening to Jónsi & Alex  – All The Big Trees (from Riceboy Sleeps).

Riceboy Sleeps album cover

'Feest in het Bosch', story by Jac. van der Klei, illustrated by D. Viel, 1927 *click thru to big*

Alle eendjes by Uitgever 1930 *click thru to big*

'Uit Huis en Hof' by Konrad Mullerfurer, 1921 *click thru to big*

'Van twee visschertjes een vertelling voor klein en groot met rijmpjes en knipsels door J.E.' by Enderlein, J. 1913 *click thru to big*

'De Gouden Haan' by Marietje Witteveen, 1940 *click thru to big*

'A dat is Aafje - door Bas van der Veer' by Bas van der Veer and Freddie Langeler *click thru to big*

'De Reis Naar de Maan' by PJ Andriessen, 1876 *click thru to big*

'De Wilgen by Adama van Scheltema', illustrated by Rie Cramer, 1918 *click thru to big*

'Waarom de slak zijn huisje altijd met zich meedraagt een verhaal van Vadertje Brombeer' by Brombeer, Vadertje 1946 *click thru to big*

'Het Theesalet van Pieteloet' by Agatha, 1860 *click thru to big*

'Landelijke Tafereelen' published by J Scholz, 1860s *click thru to big*

'Het ABC voor Holland's Kleintjes met 156 Plaatjes' by Daan Hoeksema, 1923 *click thru to big*

'Het Prentenboek der Sporten' by Yvonne, 1912 *click thru to big*

'Pierrot', text by J. Schenkman, illustrated by Louis Raemaekers, 1907 *click thru to big*

“Old children’s books are moving, intriguing, amusing and inspiring. They have value not only for the individual reader, but also for our society as a whole. Each successive Dutch generation grew up with its own specific children’s books, and each generation unconsciously adopted such moral standards and values as they contained. Children’s books serve as indispensable witnesses of an ever changing society

Within the framework of youth literature, picture books occupy a special place. In picture books, the images are just as important as the texts. They are by no means intended exclusively for young children. Old picture books reflect the views people held about good and evil, poor and rich; about education, with examples of dutiful and bad behaviour; about love for one’s own country and about people from foreign countries. They illustrate a changing world of new inventions and modes of transport, of living and fashion, of daily life in towns and villages. There is both humour and moralism to be found in children’s books; they play with the relationship between reality and fantasy.

A total of six hundred and fifty Dutch picture books, dating to the period 1810–1950, are brought together in this collection, which runs the gamut from Robinson Crusoe to Tielse Flipje (a cartoon mascot on ‘De Betuwe’ jam pot labels) and from old nursery rhymes to fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm: there is something for everyone in the collection.“

Its perch serving as lookout and diving board, a kingfisher waits above the still waters of an English river, which reflects trees and sky. This flashy hunter can dive and return with a fish in 2 seconds. *Click thru to bigger image*

The oldest Kingfisher on record was 21. There was “once a country practice of killing a kingfisher and hanging it from a thread in the belief that it would swing to predict the direction in which the wind would blow.”

Ready to dive, a hovering Kingfisher

An azure blue, a kingfisher plummets toward the water, reaching speeds of more than 25 miles an hour.

In a prey's-eye view, an adult female snaps up a stickleback, a small spiny fish, from just beneath the water's surface. Beak color gives away a kingfisher's gender- Males show mostly black, while females have an orange lower mandible that matches their feet.

The bird's aim is so unerring that even though a protective translucent membrane veils its eyes underwater, it can confidently catch fish to depths of two feet.

'The Kingfisher rises out of the black wave like a blue flower,' wrote poet Mary Oliver, paying tribute to the dashing river bird on its feeding rounds. Light scatters prismatically in microscopic feather structures to create the kingfisher's brilliant blue.

More Kingfishers rising out of black waves like blue flowers:

Kingfisher erupting out of water.

Kingfisher erupting with two fish.

Black Wave, Blue Flower: Kingfisher

James has produced a few books on the Kingfisher in his 20 years photographing and researching them. His latest,  “Kingfisher: Tales from the Halcyon River,” was assembled through exhaustive photographic work, during which he “watched and photographed kingfishers for literally thousands of hours, starting work before dawn and continuing until there is too little light for him to see.” And “the accompanying text is equally exceptional. Written in diary form, it covers the kingfishers’ habits season by season and describes them with real intimacy.”

Male Kingfishers fight.

Kingfisher Nest in bank

The Kingfisher returns to the nest with fish for its young.

In a riverbank burrow a mother feeds one of her nine-day-old chicks a small fish, which it will swallow whole.

There are also Pied Kingfishers:

Pied Kingfisher

There is much more (including more images) at James’ website. Make sure to check out the book, I know I will be!

via