Flying Reindeer...myth and reality.
If you were to ask Santa or his elves if flying reindeer are a myth, they would smile and say, "How do you think all the presents are delivered?"
We live part of the year in Finland, a land where the Sami people, a culture with orgins going back thousands of years, have always raised multitudes of reindeer...for food, shelter, clothing, blankets,tools, sled pulling, and survival.
Consider this...Long , long ago, if Santa's special reindeer did not exist -- or went missing, or were kidnapped -- there would have been no Christmas, an immense loss for children everywhere. In fact, it's impossible to calculate the sad impact of such a catastrophe.
Villains in mythology are awesome. Their evil ways always affect the lives of innocent victims, including children. The King of the North was just such a villain.
And so it was, when considering how the dogs might -- once again -- come down from their planet to teach people about courage and love and to help them find non-violent ways of dealing with evil, that I found myself thinking about the wicked King of the North and the story of the kidnapped flying reindeer...
This is the origin of Snow Valley Heroes... a retelling of the story, lost these many years in the mists of time, of how the dogs saved Christmas.
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Happy Holidays to All
Happy Holiday Wishes from the Planet of the Dogs
Our traditional Holiday photo is from the website archives of dog lover Richard Bradley: www.arockinmyshoe.com...Unfortuneately, Caboose, the dog on the right, has returned to the Planet of the Dogs and won't be spending the holidays with the Bradleys...Darcy, the big dog, is aging but still enjoys a holiday treat.
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Tails of Hope is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the field of veterinary medicine and helping to eradicate cancer and other life-threatening diseases affecting companion animals. They also have a book which benefits kids with cancer through therapy reading dogs.
We learned of this program through Lynn Michalson. Lynn and her Delta Society Pet Partner dog, Mackenzie, participated in a Tales of Hope Reading Program at the Children's Hospital at the Columbia Campus of New Your Prebyterian Hospital.
This is a very special example of reading dog books to kids...in this case, Jill Rappaport and Linda Solomon's book about Jill's dog, Jack, who contracted cancer. In the Tales of Hope Reading Program the book is read by -- or read to --kids who are undergoing cancer treatment, to help them deal with their own situation. This synopsis of the book is from the Tails of Hope website:
"JACK & JILL is the true story of an abandoned puppy that Jill
rescued. Together they lived on a farm where Jack spent his days running through fields and playing with the other animals. Sadly, one day Jill received the news that Jack had bone cancer and to beat the disease, Jack’s leg had to be amputated, with chemotherapy to follow. The story shows how Jack didn’t let this get him down. With only three legs he was able to still live life to the fullest and his story serves as an inspiration to both children and adults alike. Jack shows us that everyday is a true gift that must be treasured. "
Here is a link to visit the website: TalesofHope
The photo on the right, above, is of Mackenzie. It was taken in the Adult Oncology Unit at the Cornell Medical Center in New York City.
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Nancy Houser's Way Cool Dogs blog features many articles on dog health... a recent report on dog cancer research being conducted at North Carolina State University relates directly to the goals of Tales of Hope (above) . Here's an excerpt:
..."It is hoped…and planned…that this new cancer study in dogs will have huge implications for the advanced study, discovery, and treatment of both dog and human cancers.
The breakpoint regions that are so important in this new scientific study of dogs are “sites on the genome where chromosomes broke during speciation (when new species of dogs developed).” (ScienceDaily)
The professor of genomics at NC State, Dr. Matthew Breen, and his graduate assistant, Shannon Becker, examined the breakpoint and compared it to wild canine species by overlaying both genomes.
What they found were shared breakpoints amidst 11 different species when they differentiated during evolution. These new findings were recently publishing in Chromosome Research."
Read it all on this link: WayCoolDogs
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New York Public Library presents the Children's Literary Salon: Irish Children's Literature Laureate Siobhán Parkinson, this Saturday, December 10 at 1PM....
Siobhan has always been an outspoken champion of the cause of children’s literature, and writes and speaks passionately on the subject. She is visually impaired, and relies heavily nowadays on audiobooks and ebooks.
This event is sponsored by Culture Ireland's Imagine Program. It will take place in the South Court Auditorium. When you enter through the front entrance, the Information Desk will help direct you to the Auditorium... Elizabeth R. Bird, Librarian, organizes and leads these excellent discussion forums.
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Ariel Wulff's passion for dogs and dogs in distress continues unabated, resulting in even more activity to help dogs...On her Up on the Woof blog, in addition to pointing out dog abuse, and offering biscuits of other dog related information, Ariel has organized a raffle with a different dog book each week, signed by its author, to help the cause of Lucky Dog Rescue.
Click here, RESCUERAFFLE, to learn more, to see the book of the week, and, if you wish, to purchase raffle tickets for one dollar each, or five tickets for three dollars, or...
To see a list of all the book raffle titles-- a dog lover's delight -- visit her Up On the Woof blog...click here:WOOF
Ariel's first book, Born Without a Tail, a touching, insightful, autobiographical tale of an animal lover's life (the rescued dogs in the photo on the left are part of her recent family) now has a successor...
The new book,Circling the Waggins, is complete and searching for a publisher. It's about the love, joy and comedy created by a home dealing with the trials and tribulations of living with rescued animals.
Meanwhile, she is now the National and Local animal and pet book revier for the Examiner.com.
To see Ariel's Yellow Doggie cards, bags, art and gifts, visit www.Yellowdoggie.com
All of these creative activites relate to and are sustained by her appreciation, love, and concern for dogs and other members of the natural world.
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Videos: Holiday classics return: We've recommended some of these in the past...they have endured and are perfect for the Holiday Season:
Dogs celebrate Christmas: DecktheHalls...
Amazing Sheep Dogs and lights :BorderCollies
Kids, doglovers, and friends will all enjoy this musical celebration of humanity...Link: PlayingForChange
The Human Animal Connection... a documentary about therapy dogs working with people...produced by Delta Pet Partners...Link: Moment by Moment
In house nostalgia: the YouTube announcement for Snow Valley Heroes SVHeroes
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The Planet Dog Company sells innovative, safe, tested products for dogs. They donate 2% of every sale to the Planet Dog Foundation. This is the 10 year anniversary of their Planet Dog Foundation Awards Progeram for organizations that support dogs helping people in need. In their own words...
"The Planet Dog Foundation proudly celebrates a decade of giving by awarding 10 grants to 10 exemplary non profits this Fall. We are honored to provide our modest support for these amazing dogs doing amazing work across the country."
To see the ten recipients of the 2011 Awards, as well as some fine dog photos, visit this link: DogAwards.
If you have a favorite dog organization that supports dogs helping people, you can apply for a grant by visiting the Dog Awards page.
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HBG Update:Our foreign rights representative, Deanna Leah, has endorsed
sparkabooks. This is from her FaceBook wall:"HBG Productions has been busy uploading HBG books to SPARKABOOKS electronic global community! Lets see how it works....
The photo is of Izzy, Deanna's dog lying in the grass at home in Chico, CA.
Therapy Dogs are often about the possibilites of life as in this note and photo from Karen Sorensen...
These are pictures of Shannon and Star reading. Shannon is our young adult literacy student. She is mildly disabled and never was taught to read while in school. We (Star and I) have been tutoring Shannon for about a year now. Shannon is now reading at about the 6th grade level and she has just completed learning her times tables. We are so very proud of her progress in these areas. She is also a regular competitor in our local special Olympics and has a job. I tutor for the Literacy Center here in Evansville (www.litcenter.org.) whose goal is to improve basic literacy in the adult population in theEvansville area. We have 20% of the adult population who are functionally illiterate. Shannon is my 2nd mentally challenged student. We meet once a week for one hour and during the week we communicate via text messages. I do not use the normal Laubach method with her. We work on normal life encounters such as reading directions on a package and how to count out change and read the drivers manual...Shannon functions quite well, but will continue to do better, the better she reads. I love to see her make progress. So does Star!
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Ask any dog...do you enjoy having kids read dog stories to you?
Kids Reading Dog Books to Dogs
If you have a therapy reading dog and like the idea of kids reading dog books to dogs, send us an email at barkingplanet@aol.com and we'll send you a complimentary book from the Planet Of The Dogs Series.
We will also send complimentary reader copies to librarians and teachers with therapy reading dog programs.
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The photo above is from the Pages for Preston therapy reading dog program created by teacher Julie Hauck at the Longfellow School in Sheboygan, WI. The photo below right is of Nina Mortellito, and her Delta therapy reading dog Lilly, working with one of their friends
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Read Sample Chapters of all our books at www.planetofthedogs.net
All books in the Planet Of The Dogs series can be purchased at your favorite
bookstore or on the internet through Barnes& Noble, Amazon, Powells and many others.
Librarians, teachers, bookstores -- order our books directly from Ingram...professional discount, of course.
The photo is of Nina Mortellito and her therapy Lilly reading with a friend.
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Frankie, the Inspirational dog, Celebrates the Holidays
Barb Teschel, has written two veryy special books for young kids that deal with difficult issues... In her prize winning Frankie, the Walk 'N Roll Dog, kids learn to overcome adversity and handicaps. In another prize winner, Frankie the Walk 'N Roll Therapy Dog Visits Libby's House, kids learn, through Frankie, about dealing with the loss of old or sick people. That's Frankie in the photo with his dog cart.
In Barb's own words,"Sometimes life throws us a curve ball. That does not mean we should give up on our dreams. It just means we should look at things in a new way."
For more information visit: www.joyfulpaws.com
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Who were the Snow Valley Heroes?
Did they really save Christmas/ The question has been asked for many years...and many have tried to answer this question. The confusion and uncertainty exist largely because of questions and doubt regarding the Planet of the Dogs. However we now know that this is the true story of how the dogs saved Christmas.
To lean more, read this review by Ariel Wulff in her role as National Animal Books Examiner, Cleveland Pets Examiner and Cleveland Animal Books Examiner, click here:SVH
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Below is the only remaining picture of the Ice Castle, home of the King of the North, and the place where he hid the kidnapped reindeer, Dasher and Dancer.
This map of the Great North shows trails followed by Daisy, Bean, the Tundra Town traders, and the Snow Valley dogs in their quest to find the reindeer, and save Christmas.
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From the Wall Street Journal...A Fascinating update on dogs, time and humans by Mark Derr...It begins like this...
"From the Cave to the Kennel....
What the evolutionary history of the dog tells us about another animal: ourselves. From a cave in France, a new picture has emerged of canines as our prehistoric soulmates.
Chauvet Cave in southern France houses the oldest representational paintings ever discovered. Created some 32,000 years ago, the 400-plus images of large grazing animals and the predators who hunted them form a multi-chambered Paleolithic bestiary. Many scholars believe that these paintings mark the emergence of a recognizably modern human consciousness. We feel that we know their creators, even though they are from a time and place as alien as another planet.
What most intrigues many people about the cave, however, is not the artwork but a set of markings at once more human and more mysterious: the bare footprints of an 8- to 10-year-old torch-bearing boy left in the mud of a back chamber some 26,000 years ago—and, alongside one of them, the paw print of his traveling companion, variously identified as a wolf or a large dog.
Attributing that paw print to a dog or even to a socialized wolf has been controversial since it was first proposed a decade ago. It would push back by some 12,000 years the oldest dog on record. More than that: Along with a cascade of other new scientific findings, it could totally rewrite the story of man and dog and what they mean to each other...
To continue reading this thoughtful, informed, and provacative article, click this link: Derr
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A Holiday salute from the Planet Of The Dogs to Deb Eades who opened our eyes to the Dog Rescue Railroad. Her compassion and her efforts on behalf of dogs in trouble, dogs in pain, and dogs needing a home is unlimited. In her book, Every Rescued Dog Has A Tale, Deb writes from the heart of her real life adventures and shows how much difference one concerned person can make in the lives of homeless dogs.
The book is available throughh Amazon, IPad and Kindle.
I guarantee Deb's YouTube Video will touch every dog lover's heart. Click this link: Deb
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Sunbear Squad...Transforming Animal Lovers into Animal Welfare Defenders
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This site offers all-original knowledge, tools, and inspiration to help individuals prepare to report signs of animal abuse, animal neglect, accidents, and distress promptly. In other words, “Be a Better Good Samaritan for Pets.”
Here is an excerpt from one of many true life rescue stories posted by Sunbear members and advocates:
Rain Storm Rescue for Injured Puppy
"Meet "Muddy Puppy," named because he was found in a muddy ditch in the pouring rain. Hit by a car and with two painfully broken back legs, someone did care enough to try to protect him from the driving rain with an old jacket. But not enough to offer him relief from his painful suffering and overwhelming fear. Instead they just drove off leaving this 4-month-old puppy to slowly and painfully die all alone. All hope gone.
An Oklahoma Beagle Rescue volunteer driving by feared she had found a child in the rain and stopped to check. Instead, under the jacket she found a very grateful, scared, cold and miserable beautiful Black & Tan Coonhound puppy! Bless that volunteer..." This link will take you to SunbearSquad.
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"To err is human, to forgive, canine"-Anonymous
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