Driving along the coast road the other day, roof down, sun shining, the beautiful Bahamian water off to the left-hand side of my car, I listened to the words of the radio blaring out my beloved “Oldies”; music that reminds me of those golden days of being young and carefree without a responsibility in the world (tell me about it !!!).

I don’t usually really LISTEN to the lyrics of the music, just the entire sound and beat, but all of a sudden I honed into what was being sung.

"Think of your fellow man. Lend him a helping hand. Put a little love in your heart"...

When you have a dog in The Bahamas and you need to take that animal to the United States, do you know what is required of you?  Or do you suddenly panic and scamper around the place phoning everybody and getting all sorts of different “very helpful” answers and then spend the rest of the day trying to sort out through the rubble as to which person actually got it right?

Well, relax; it is really not as complicated as it sounds. My sweet Abigail, who is now 13 years old, was recently diagnosed with melanoma. This is not quite as terrible as it sounds because recently a new vaccine has been developed and some vets are in a position to administer it on a bi-weekly basis..

Gee Wiz it’s Christmas….

Here we go again. It seams like yesterday that I wrote an article about the pit-falls and dangers of a perfectly innocent and family event like C H R I S T M A S!!

When I last wrote about this Buddy was a little dog of a year old and his partner in crime was two year old Chief… well a year has gone by…and now I have a two year old Buddy with his partner in crime Chief who in near to three years old and, you know what…. not a thing has changed!!! NADA!!! ZIP!!!

Wow, how time flies… Buddy is over 18 months old. It seams just like yesterday that he was a rather round ball of soft fur waddling around on the floor looking up with soulful eyes to be lifted and carried and loved.

Well, not much has changed except his size. He is still looking up with those amazing melting black eyes asking for a constant cuddle and thinks he is a lap dog, and would be happy to be carried.

Most of his endearing characteristics have remained, with a few new ones thrown in too. Unfortunately, the bad habits have stayed too. Perhaps that is my fault, but he is still so very cute that I find it very difficult to get cross with him and even more difficult to say NO! Even when he has put his paws up on the kitchen table, poised to steal (No, not steal, that is too big a word), to “borrow’ something to eat!

Have you ever spent time looking at how animals interact? Today I received an email from a friend featuring a film clip about motherhood and exceptional mothers. It showed various mother animals nurturing baby animals of a different species: A female dog suckling a litter of kittens, a cat nursing a fawn, and a leopard giving warmth to a baby baboon whom it had orphaned by killing it’s mother for food.

All these particular stories show a most definite trait of compassion amongst animals.

They day before yesterday I was driving along Robinson Road, and was stopped at a busy cross-section, there were two Potcakes standing on the corner, obviously intending to cross the street. There were cars everywhere, trying to push through, horns blaring, and tempers rising. The dogs made several attempts to cross; finally one made it safely over, the other dithered and ran back to the original corner...

I have recently been getting quite a few letters from my readers and they are all very encouraging and many of then contain interesting real life animal stories.  I particularly wish to share one with you. To start with: the look on this little guy’s face is just so cute, who could resist such a face?

Thomas Laws wrote me from Atlanta a couple of weeks ago,

"Dear Kim,

I own a Royal Bahamian Pot Bull or Pit Cake named "Wazza" - he hails from the city of Freeport in the Bahamas.  He is currently 5 months old.  (Estimated time of birth Feb 1 2008). I was told that he was rescued out from under a dumpster when he was only a few weeks old behind either a grocery store or a "target" in Freeport.  I adopted him from a potcake rescue group a few months ago here in Atlanta where I live..."

A few days ago somebody asked me what qualifies me to be the President of the Bahamas Humane Society. At first I was a bit taken aback. It seamed, on face value, a very forward question that bordered on being rude. After stammering for a few seconds, I gathered my wits, and then went into a lengthy, in fact, far too lengthy when I look back on the incident, dissertation of my “qualifications”.

I returned home from Rome in 1980 and ran the BHS office in the afternoons, I reinstated the Bahamas Humane Society ball “Evening of Elegance”, I was principal fund raiser for ARK, I have been on the BHS board for several years….I love animals, I own tons of pets, I have homed hundreds of animals, and so I babbled uncomfortably on, justifying myself to this alarmingly simple question, posed to me by somebody who was probably wearing diapers when I first came home and worked the office of the Bahamas Humane Society...

It’s not easy being a dog and some times even harder in the Out Islands.

There is a very a very dynamic group called Pet Pals in Eleuthera are trying their best to help. It is a battle against time. Every day there are more and more unwanted puppies and kittens born into hopeless situations. There are instances where the dogs are poisoned because they are being a “pest’ which means doing what comes naturally, barking, chasing chickens, or chewing up stuff...

Wow! The Bahamas Humane Society really pulled out the stops and put on a wonderful day with the dogs!

The event took place at the Botanic Gardens and kicked off at 11:00 in the morning. There were countless food stalls: Pizza & Patties, Jerk (delicious and spicy), conch Fritters (loaded with conch), hamburgers and hot dogs (cooked in the Rotary mobile Kitchen van) and an exotic stall manned by the Sheraton Hotel. The Bahamas Humane Society had a delicious bake and bring stall of donated goodies brought by various supporters and board members…Chocolate cup cakes, ginger bread puppies, brownies, muffins, cookies and more…..there was cotton candy & popcorn, candies could be found at Mortimer’s candy stall and at the German Candy stall….Calories galore!!!! Rotary manned a bar, fully loaded and of course there were all sorts of soft drinks...

Sometimes there are lots of different things to say about various different topics and I think to myself,  'how can I possibly put all of these things in one article?'  Then I have to try and figure out what is the most important thing to discuss and what can afford to be left behind. Why I wonder, did it take me close to a year to figure out that time to time I could write an animal news, a bits and pieces article, touching more than one thing?

Who knows what touched me to suddenly be enlighten me, but it did and so here we go...

A few days ago our sweet wriggly black Labrador ,  “Buddy” celebrated his 1^st birthday. Belonging to a crazy family like ours, Buddy had a Birthday party! Oh yes! I see the raised eyebrows now! Is she nuts? Why he is “just” a dog! With all the problems in this world, remembering a dogs birthday! Well, I never!

So, I figured, precisely, with all the problems and horrors in this world; we need to come down to basics and celebrate the simpler things in life, the sweet and happy things in life……..like…..Buddy’s 1^st Birthday...