It's true...I'm a sap for wildlife...

If you have read my profile, you know that I have a deep love of animals...which could be attested to by many people who have known me during my life. I was sitting in a staff meeting the other day when all of a sudden, THUD...a bird flew into the picture window where we were meeting. This caused a momentary glitch in the rhythm of our otherwise stimulating gathering, but soon everything was progressing again. However, I was mentally running over to the window over and over in my mind, trying to check on the poor little thing. In my heart I was running outside and down the sidewalk to see if a warm box and a few drops of cool water might help alleviate what must have been excruciating pain. Or...even worse...was he even alive?...was mouth-to-beak needed? I may never know.

Then there was the time in my life when I worked at a camp/conference center for about 10 years. It was during that time that the camp was offered a couple of peacocks. Now how cool is that??? A conference center located in the beautiful northwest, right on the ocean, nestled in the woods...and adding a couple of peacocks wandering around the grounds seemed like the perfect match. Or so I thought. Actually, eventually mine was a lone voice of support for these beautiful creatures. I was thrilled beyond words when they would wander past the window of my office and stop to look at me for a few minutes. Just me communing with nature...sigh... But then the comments started. There apparently is quite an issue with the amount of ... ummm..."excrement" that these little beauties can drop. I mean, it really is quite remarkable. Our head housekeeper was freaking out because of her fear that people would be tracking this "stuff" into the buildings...and outside there were piles in the most inappropriate places. At any rate, this was a battle I lost... and the peacocks went bye-bye.

I could go on and on...but let's just leave it that I am incredibly passionate about God's gift of animals in our world.

SO...all of that to say that the past couple of days I have been becoming more aware of a current situation with polar bears. The change in our weather patterns is gradually destroying the habitat they live in. Now, there are differences of opinion as to whether these weather changes are a natural occurence or whether they are due to mankind's mismanagement of the environment...but regardless of whose fault it is, the fact still remains that there is a very real risk that the polar bears will become extinct one day. So sad...so incredibly sad...