Live Long and strong...

                                      Some New links on  www.wildmother.org

Wild Mother on Earth Day

Hey All,

Wild Mother  is ...  on Earth Day 2014.

Check out the links to love page as for the rest of the site- Not all there yet but it is a work in progress 

lets make the world a better place!

http://www.wildmother.org/ 

Wild Mother is dedicated to this planet and all its inhabitants. Our mission is to create solutions for our mother Earth. We base this on our two words that make up our name.

Wild adjective

Living or growing in the natural environment; a natural state

Mother verb [with obj.]

(often used as noun) brings up with care and affection: the art of mothering- Look after kindly and protectively

With that in mind wild mother sees our planet as a community family and as all families there are those elements that do not function and don't always get along or agree. But mother reminds us that we need to share and learn and be part of a healthy community and family.

Wild Mother  approach to environmental concerns...

The question is what can we do to help and make things better for everyone?

We take a positive encouraging approach to a holistic way of living.

How do we plan to do this?

Wild Mother will use media to get the word out and share information and what everyday people and organizations are doing to make the world a better place.

 Using this website to help people find information and connect with issues that are important to them and through the Internet people will be able to share their own solutions and ideas.

And we will do our best to make protecting  our planet fun!  

 Founder of Wild Mother,

JoAnne Helfert Sullam

http://www.wildmother.org/ 

Puppy Love and how to be a rock star

 Me and my friend the wolf Atka

(Mommy where do dogs come from? ) 

Puppy Love and how to be a rock star

A few words on puppy love…and being a rock star.

Everyone loves a puppy and who wouldn’t want to be a rock star.

So you want to take that puppy home and love it forever and ever and ever.

And now that you have a puppy  (your biggest fan) when you go out with your new puppy, you two are now the center of attention. Out the door and down the street, when you go to the park, you  and your puppy are rock stars!

You will hear  “OMG, How cute! Can I pet him or her?” and when that adorable little puppy looks at you with those sweet, innocent eyes that say,

 “I love you and I just want to be with you always”.

 You may think “can it get any better that this?”

But then… go home and sooner or later the honeymoon is over.

You’re still a rock star when you walk out the door with the little one.

But when you are home alone with your new BFF little fan….

One of the biggest rocks stars with his fans

Singer Roger Daltrey in the countryside with his dogs on his estate in Sussex, 1978. Photo by Terry O'Neill

Now lets stop here for a moment and; remember that admirer that you thought you wanted to date because he or she was so friendly to you and you could do no wrong and they looked at you with such love in their eyes and maybe you thought I could spend the rest of my life like this… until, he or she started calling you up at 3 in the morning and said “I can’t live with out you!!”

 (Bark, whine. Bark.. Bark. Whine… whine.)

Then you think what was I thinking? What did I get myself into?

But, how could you know? You were blinded by this, so cute, unconditional love and “I am such a rock star”.

Now what?

You just made a 10 or even 20 year commitment with a doody and a chew everything barker, who whines all night when you have to be up at 6am!

So where am I going with this?

I have seen this so many times and spent years rescuing and placing unwanted pets.

It makes me sad and after many years, the styles and music have changed and I now have to wear glasses: But the little puppy situation has not changed and who, through no fault of their own, grow up to be untrained, unwanted dogs.

I wrote a little story about a new puppy “Little Puppy & The mystery of the doody in the hallway” to be funny about an unfunny subject but also to give a voice to the critters that live with us who try to be “good pets” and to illustrate that they have feelings and needs too.

So, I want to share some basics for when you get a new puppy and let me just say that there is great info and plenty of experts on the subject and I have worked with some of the best, so you can go further than what I am offering here.

That being said...

Here it is… worth repeating for the- puppy loves you and rock star feeling you or someone you know will have some day.

The first thing I tell people is to picture your life in 1, 5 years or even 10 or 20 with your dog.

What does that look like?

If it fits, great, if not, rethink either the breed or the timing in your life.

The second thing to think about is walking the dog.

I know this seems obvious, but I hear this a lot when people come to me for doody training advice: “I am too busy to walk the dog, he has the whole back yard.”

Yes, this is true you have that backyard but dogs need to be exercised and mentally I believe that they need to use that great sense of smell as a “social calling card”.

Also the first day you bring your pooch home matters

As in any relationship there should be ground rules.

If you let someone (the puppy) sleep with you on the first night then they will want to sleep with you every night and will not understand why they can’t.

I know the first day is hard, you feel bad and you want to show them how much you care, but when you start out with a crate they may still cry the first night or two but it will shorten the time the puppy needs to adjust.

The same goes for potty training and feedings. Just like having a baby (part of your fan club) you do want to keep it on a schedule and just like having a baby you would never leave them unattended, the puppy should go to his “crib” when you are not watching them.

Dogs, “they say” (I not sure who “they” really are but “they” are usually right) come from wolves which are den animals which means they dig a hole in the ground and keep the pups there until it’s safe for them to come out and the puppy will understand this, and if the puppy has regular outings and is properly cared for your little fan will never feel that its create is a cage.

I tell people to think of your little puppy as you would a toddler in the house and when he or she turns into a dog they are still kind of like a child that tries to understand and wants to please you but they do have the limitation of; well being a dog and need a little TLC and understanding.

 

A page from my Little Puppy book 

One more thing I would like to share with you; is that dogs have a different language than us and we can meet somewhere in the middle of a common language. I think it’s important to try and learn some of theirs, after all, would you go into a long term relationship with someone from another culture with a completely different language and expect them to only learn your customs and language?

Find a mate (you new pup) that’s right for you and your lifestyle and if you do take home a little bundle of joy, with an investment of time and patience, you and your pooch will always be rock stars to each other.

Here are a couple of links.

Your fan,

JoAnne

 About dogs IQ

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32349079/ns/health-pet_health/t/dogs-are-smarter-toddlers-iq-tests-show/#.UzMTXOvlEjU

This one’s fun:

http://www.talkingpets.ca/en/speakdog.aspx

Some basics on doggie talk:

http://www.wikihow.com/Communicate-With-Your-Dog

 check out the latest edition to the family...

Pet Mummies

 Very interesting...
 Here is a link to an article I came across on exhibition "Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt."that I wanted to share
Animal-mummies-displayed-at-california-museum

little kittens adopted by a poodle

Found abandoned my daughter save these sweet little kittens and her poodle, Shanna adopts the 2 week old kittens as her own.A happy ending for all

The Snowy owl and NY Times

Sunset on a winters day on the beach

I generally like to look at life as a glass half-full but In light of recent events of the port authority “wildlife specialist” exterminating snowy owls.

I would like it to be safe too. 

But I agree with this statement from Erin Crotty 
Executive Director Audubon  NY

“A need to protect airline and passenger safety. We believe there are non-lethal control strategies that are equally effective, including trapping and releasing, and have been used successfully at other airports, including Logan Airport in Boston.”

I believe that it has been the easy way to just eliminate any critter that may get in the way but there is always an alternative to this. I am not saying that it's an easy one but at this point in time perhaps a necessary one to save the wildlife and let them live wild and free.

 Otherwise what will be left?

Here is a link to sign a petition about the owls.

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-port-authority-of-new-york-and-new-jersey-stop-shooting-snowy-owls-at-new-york-metro-area-airports-2?share_id=pSTiVqbmWU&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Here's a link to learn more about the owls and airports”.

http://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/blue-hills/snowy-owl-project

Here is my story about the snowy owl:

On The Wildside   

Searching for the Snowy Owl,”

Fist printed in the Enterprise Pilot Oyster Bay, New York, August 19, 2004

 

Me and my friend a Barn Owl

                                 

Searching for the snowy owl

It must've been about 10° out, but it felt like 20 below. I was at Jones Beach on one of the coldest days of the year. What was I doing there? I was looking for bird.

Now most people would be wondering (like most of my family) that I must be crazy, or at least a little weird. What kind of bird would be worth getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning and spending the day in the freezing cold?

Well, for me it was the snowy owl. The snowy owl winters on the shores of Long Island from November to March.

This magical creature migrates from places like Alaska, Greenland and Iceland. It is the official bird of Québec (sounds impressive doesn't it). I've always dreamt of going to places like Alaska. Seeing the snowy owl would be like having a small piece of that dream.

I wish I could be like Dr. Doolittle and talk to the owl. I would ask the owl about its travels, things like did he have many stops or did he fly direct? Maybe you could tell me where I could go to see a lot of wildlife? But I have been searching for weeks and have not seen one. Needing someone to share my joy with (if I ever found the owl) I took anyone that would go.

One day I went to work on my then 16-year-old daughter, as we walked on the beach I  torture her with my bad impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger, over and over again, I would say “I am looking for ta snowiee owl –have you seen ta snowiee owl?”

 (she found my Arnold imitations amusing)and when she got bored, to keep her going I would tell her things about the snowy owl, things that I learned,  things like it was the only owl that hunts in the daytime. That it had a wingspan of about 52 inches (she wasn't sure how wide that was, so I told her she would be really impressed when she saw it).

My daughter at the beach with me

She said cool, which meant she would go on this adventure with me.

It was late in the day, half frozen and feeling defeated; we headed for the parking lot. Will we ever get to see the snowy owl? Maybe I would just have to go to Alaska after all. The sun had begun to set. The winter sunsets are so beautiful that we stopped to take a photo. Then out of nowhere, like a ghost in the sky, the snowy owl stopped to rest on a dune right in front of us…

Hues of orange and pink softly reflected on the snow white feathers of the owl. He looked at us, with large haunting bright yellow eyes, it seemed to be indifferent to our presence. Captivated we stood there shivering. My daughter's eyes wide with awe said everything. We were crazy for being out here. It was the timeless allure of nature that brought us here. As we sat waiting for the car to warm up I thought maybe the owl and I will meet again someday perhaps in Alaska.

                                            

                       Winter Retreat

                       Acrylic on Canvas 11”x14”
   http://www.joannesullam.com/Prints.html

               __________________________________________

Although I never got a photo of the owl that day it had made such an impression and I painted that which lived forever in my memory and which happen to be the painting that was featured in this NY Times article.

This is part of a personal study about migratory birds and here is the link for the New York Times article about that study.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/nyregion/capturing-long-island-s-wildlife-in-oil-and-ink.html

Capturing Long Island's Wildlife, in Oil and Ink

By BARBARA DELATINER

Published: December 15, 2002

OYSTER BAY COVE— JOANNE SULLAM has sketchpad, pencils and camera in hand. At the sound of what she called a ''rare bird alert,'' she will gather her tools and rush to any place on Long Island where an unusual species has been sighted.
Take the snowy owl, for instance. An increasingly infrequent visitor to these parts, the owl was spotted at Jones Beach State Park one day last winter and off Ms. Sullam went to the beach for a look. For weeks she got there just after dawn to sit in the dunes, binoculars at the ready, until the bird finally appeared again, at sunset one day.
''It landed on a dune in front of me,'' recalled Ms. Sullam, a 44-year-old artist who is a native Long Islander and lifelong animal lover. ''And while I couldn't get any good photos, I did see it up close, catch the color variations, the shape of its eyes.''
Ms. Sullam's adventure with the snowy owl led to a portrait in oil, part of her project, ''Wild on Long Island,'' in which she is recording local landscapes and the migratory birds that visit them. Twelve of her oil paintings and pen-and-ink sketches are being exhibited at the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Oyster Bay Cove. As Ms. Sullam completes more bird portraits and incorporates botanical species, butterflies and animals like deer and foxes in her paintings, she hopes to expand the show and move it to other venues on the Island.
The goal is to raise awareness of the Island's endangered species by showing people the wildlife around them.
''So many species are threatened by changes in their migratory and breeding habitats that it's important to raise public awareness about what's happening,'' Ms. Sullam said in an interview at the Roosevelt sanctuary, where she is a volunteer.
Trish Pelkowski, director of research at the sanctuary, is collaborating with Ms. Sullam on the project. ''Knowing what a bird might look like and where to look for it is the first step to awareness,'' Ms. Pelkowski said.
Completing the project may take a few years, Ms. Sullam estimated, because painting wild creatures takes time.
''The early bird artists, like Audubon himself, worked from stuffed birds,'' said Ms. Pelkowski, who helps Ms. Sullam locate the species. ''Art and nature conservation have evolved so much that this would no longer be acceptable.''
Most of the time, Ms. Sullam's subjects are literally on the wing. As she did with the snowy owl, she waits for hours, days or weeks in dunes, woods, grasslands or marshes to capture the birds in their natural habitats. Sometimes she uses captive animals as models, like a disabled bald eagle and peregrine falcon that live at the sanctuary and are always ready for a close-up. Backyard bird feeders also provide a steady supply of subjects.
Ms. Pelkowski and her colleagues at the center, the oldest sanctuary of the national Audubon Society, often invite the artist when migrating birds are caught in nets and tagged before being returned to the wild.
''I get as much as 15 or 20 minutes and can really get a sense of the bird -- like the shape of its feathers, its colors, the tilt of its head -- and then put all the components, including their usual habitats, together,'' Ms. Sullam said.
Raised in Long Beach and later a resident of Oceanside, Ms. Sullam and her family moved to Brookville seven years ago because ''the wildlife is much better on the North Shore,'' she said.
She attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan; her paintings and sculptures, mostly of animals, have been shown in local galleries. Her current project unites both her interests.
''The entire U.S. warbler population has declined by 30 to 40 percent,'' Ms. Pelkowski said. ''And the number of short-eared owls is down 70 percent in the U.S. So JoAnne has to see them soon and paint them before they all disappear.''
''Wild on Long Island'' is at the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center, Cove Road, Oyster Bay Cove, through Jan. 11. Information: (516) 922-3200.
Photos: Joanne Sullam, holding a peregrine falcon at the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Oyster Bay Cove, paints portraits of Long Island wildlife, like the snowy owl, below, and the bald eagle. Her paintings and pen-and-ink sketches are on display at the sanctuary through Jan. 11. (Maxine Hicks for The New York Times)

Art -After the Rain

                                    New work After the Rain- 24"x48"

After the Rain
 24" x 48" Acrylic on canvas
Part of my new Mood-Scape series
 Motivated by a trip to South Florida during mid- summer and it rained almost everyday.
But, the day before I was leaving to come home the skies cleared and it was one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen.
What struck me the most was the deep pinks and orange and the drama in the golden –yellow light coming through and I came home and painted it from memory.
            JoAnne
                            email me if anyone would like to own the original or even a giclee

Black Bear Info and A few tips from a tree hugger for that Black Bear "encounter”

                            “ Living with Black Bears”

 As I sit in my studio working on my latest creation,

I raise my head and look outside and with a great delight, I often see the local wildlife go by.

It was once upon a time that I would only see cars go by.

I will always be grateful for this change in my day and my life.

“This is a personal choice,” my city friend says, as she focuses on some of the smallest of our wildlife (the mosquitoes to be exact.)

I like to stay focused on the larger of our wild neighbors.  I see some of the wildlife I raised and released as a wildlife rehabilitator. 

Hercules, the eastern cottontail goes by as does Bella the deer and others I didn’t raise.

Although I do have a bird feeder, I never feed the wildlife I have raised after I release them, but they still come by.

One summer not too long ago, everyday around 4:00 in the afternoon, a red fox passes by.

I always wonder if he carries a watch as he is always on time (more than I can say for myself)

I would anticipate this visit, and it became the subject for this wildlife artist’s work simply named “The Fox”.

Some has called me a tree hugger and that’s just fine with me.

Tree Hug's

Which brings me to…  The ultimate “tree hugger” Black Bears.

 A bear’s life is not so different from ours.

Raising families and finding food is at the top of their list and sometimes while doing this, we meet.

 In recent years their numbers have been growing and they have become familiar sights, though not always in the best of situations.

“I don’t live near bears” is your answer, but if you are going to spend the last of the summer days in the county, or if you live in Black Bear Country and maybe planted a nice garden and like to feed the birds, Then I would like to share this with you.

  

When I first moved to this Black Bear community,

I had forgotten to put the birdseed away one day, it didn’t take long for the local bear to climb up on the deck and help himself.

What surprised me was how quiet he was and if it wasn’t for my dog Jessy barking I would have never known he was only a few feet away!

As a wildlife artist I enjoy seeing wildlife in the wild.

Live in peace and “bearing” with nature and you can be a tree hugger too.

                                                  

                 A few tips from a tree hugger for that Black Bear "encounter”

                             

                                     Bear etiquette 101

#1

When hiking outdoors in Bear country the first rule is bring a friend along.

 It’s more fun with a friend anyway.

 Also you can bring an air horn or carry a whistle with you.

 Talk or just be noisy, if you do come across a Black Bear, stand tall and make yourself as big as possible, be loud and never turn your back on the bear.

You can back away slowly and then leave the area and continue your hike somewhere else.

A treed bear can be frightened so give it some space that s/he can safely come down.

When hiking if you feel frightened by a bear it is appropriate to yell, wave your arms, make noise.

Never turn your back on a bear, you can back up slowly and leave the area. 

If you must you can carry a can of pepper spray of the type sold to mailmen for dogs. This is effective in chasing away a bear.

#2

A friend to the Black Bear is one that does not feed him. (He can forage for wild food himself.) Bears don’t know that you like to feed him and your neighbor does not.
 This could make him a “Wanted Bear”.

#3

When using bird feeders, you can either put enough seeds out in the daytime with a catchall underneath to prevent any extra seeds from spilling onto the ground that would attract bears.

Also, bird feeders can be replaced with shrubs and flowers that provide food & shelter for the birds.

#4

Have a secure garbage system: use bear resistant cans or

You can put Ammonia in the garbage bags and the garbage cans.

Ammonia in my outdoor cans has worked well in keeping all critters away from my garbage (including my sweet, garbage picking dog.)

#5

Clean up your grill after every use or burn it hot for a few minutes after using.

#6

You compost? Happy days, good for you!

Cover all compost, especially melons, with manure or soil. Avoid putting meat scraps and grease in the compost.

#7

 If you find a cub or feel the cub is abandoned you can call your local D.E.C. office

(Department of Environmental Conservation) they will know what to do.

But stay clear just in case mom is around and you just can’t see her.

Never get between a mother bear and her cub, if you come across a lone bear cub avoid getting too close or handling it.

#8

  Never offer the bear food or tease a bear and keep the dog on a leash if you think there is a bear around.

#9

When taking photos always keep a respectable distance,

Use a telephoto lens for your camera if you have.   

#10

  Remember that these are still wild animals and they are just trying to make a living.

 Black Bear

Enjoy 

JoAnne 
www.joannesullam.com