Carbon Footprints, swimming, and Updates

Boy, another week has flown right by! I have had so much fun learning to swim, hiking, chasing my friends! Does it get better then this?

They call me a "water dog" but in my head the jury was out early on. When I first came to Vermont our pond had ice on it. I was just a baby and didn't understand that water wouldn't hold my weight. My mom and I were on one side of our pond, my brother on the other. When he called me I thought I could go across the ice to get to him faster. Bad idea!! The ice broke, I fell under it and couldn't find my way out. Boy the water was cold. Mom dove in and saved me, we were both REALLY cold on our long walk home.

I have overcome my fear and this week I have been learning to really swim. I practice putting my head under water and blowing bubbles. My brother said that is just the way he was taught to swim! For some great safety tips on introducing your dog to swimming check on the site Water 4 Dogs, a canine rehabilitation facility in NYC where they even have birthday pool parties for dogs!

I try to understand what mom and dad talk about. They think I only know sit, down, come, and shake! Mom was talking to my dad about "carbon footprints". I borrowed their computer (yes my little brother has been showing me how to surf the web) and I found this great article.

Two scientists from New Zealand claim that pets have a carbon footprint twice the size of a SUV. Robert and Brenda Vale's wrote a book called (I don't think I like them) "Time to Eat the Dog, the Real Guide to Sustainable Living" and they say a medium size dog has a footprint of 2.1 acres compared to a mere 1 acre for a sports utility vehicle.

This is a measurement of how much each of us impact on the world compared to the (big word) biospheres ability to regenerate resources. The total amount of "greenhouse gases" (carbon dioxide) emissions each of us create by everything we do in our world. At first I thought that meant we damaged the earth by walking on it. Actually we damage it in many ways. Since dogs are (another big word) carnivores (meat eaters) our impact increases because producing meat requires a high amount of land and energy.

Cats are also carnivores and they are estimated to have a carbon footprint of of a small Volkswagen, where as a goldfish would be compared to two cellphones! What an odd way to look at us! Since I am just a pup, I believe I am a lot like a baby blue corvette, vahrooooom!

I don't think that people should start pointing the finger at us! Look at what they do to destroy the planet, we just eat!

Check out S.A.V.E.S. new website for general information about the new emergency hospital. All the demolition is done, boy did they make a mess. Now the walls are going to start going up!

They dug trenches and put all the electrical and water stuff in them, then covered them over with cement. The cement was really wet, I know!

Well that is it for the week! I have a feeling the new hospital is going to look VERY different by the end of the week! Tootles. :)