“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” -Aboriginal proverb (NaPoWriMo #22)

Take care of our planet
For all its little creatures
We owe them the experience
Of exploring Earth’s natural features
Like blizzards, rainforests, coral reefs
Oceans and skies of bright blue
Take care for everyone who shares this planet
Especially for those who must one day be stewards too.

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I know this one’s cliche, but I love our planet so this butterfly and rainbow thoughts just spew out. Happy Earth Day!

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

Puppies and a sunflower

Ink sketch from early 2012. I miss art class.

When Elephants Weep: Brief Book Review

So, this title quickly caught my eye as I was browsing the book shelf as I have always been a sucker for anything animal-themed. Thought it indeed had some very fascinating and touching stories regarding our non-human friends, I must admit this book was not quite what I expected.

Stories include:

– A mother giraffe fends off a lion for an hour to defend her child.
– Koko the gorilla cares for a “pet” kitten she names “All Ball.”
– A male falcon displays uncharacteristic behavior, including sounds that sound like cries of anguish, when his mate is killed.
– A gorilla who is given orange juice as a treat, gives it instead one day to a researcher who complains of a stomach ache. When she returns ten days later, the gorilla insists on the researcher drinking her juice until reassured that the stomach ache is gone.
– And of course, the thing that gives this book its title: elephants have been seen to cry on numerous occasions.
(These examples summarized in the review by Andrew J. Sydlik)

While I thoroughly enjoyed such a vast archive of accounts and stories (this book is well researched and referenced), often times the book takes on a rather ‘preachy’ tone, focusing on the argument of whether animals have feelings or not, instead of insight into how feelings and behaviour integrate which was what I expected. I don’t know how different the views on animal cruelty were when this book was published in 1995, but regardless I find a lot of the book scorning denial for superiority of the human race and scientists who do not take emotions as seriously as they should, when  instead it could have highlighted works that have been done to support the argument of existence and importance of emotions in non-humans.

That being said, and being the biased animal lover that I am, the many stories will leave you well entertained and more affectionate of our animal friends than you were before, so I would say, give it a go, just feel free to skip some of the in-between stuff.

Thanks for reading!
-thebookybunhead