Since I've blogged last, I saw the exact same show (as a rerun!) that I blogged about..so I decided it was time to commit and follow thru and write again. Shortly after my last blog in FEBRUARY we got broken into and had a little over $1000 (at least that we know of) of items stolen from our house. Those items being Ryan's 32inch flat screen tv. MY camera. MY $400 cash. MY costume jewelry (mostly trinkets that were from my childhood that I as I 'grew up, realized aren't worth anything, priceless) MY jewelry that I made and sold, MY photo scanner, MY Internet card (?) and...some weird random things.. It was a pretty traumatic incident and my immediate reaction was, Not Again! I had my car stolen and stripped almost...3 years ago now and my parents had been broken into last year. I was more mad than anything. I just couldn't believe that it had happened, I had been gone less than two hours and my dog was still home during the entire incident. We were assured that since I had all of my receipts and serial numbers of everything electronic that was stolen that it would more than likely show up. We got NOTHING back. IT ended up being the first of 5 or 6 robberies in our neighborhood in under two weeks. It was pretty horrific all around. Since then I look at my life, my possessions and things I keep around differently than I ever have before. I have the mentality, I'm doing it this way, or putting this here or hiding this...for next time. I certainly believe there will be a next time. Maybe not in this house, but this is only going to get worse in the future. SO. My message to everyone has been, try to mix up your schedule, be unpredictable and always assume someone is watching you. THEY ARE. I am eternally grateful that these "things" were "just things" and not someone(s). I am so thankful for the safety of myself, my husband and the children that were with me at the arrival to the scene. Aside from all the terrible feelings of regret and feeling violated..A sour outcome from this for me has been my disinterest for any and all beading projects. Prior to the robbery I had sold less than half of my jewelry and trinkets and made over $400. I cannot disassociate negative feelings as hard as I try. I hope to overcome them soon for the fall season, pre Christmas shopping..but we shall see. I had made a link from my blog for my jewelry and "bead people". It remains empty as it was all my pictures I took of my inventory was stolen from me when my camera was stolen. As a result to that I am backing up all my photo's in several places/ways and immediately uploading them off my camera. Sonext time..I will still have my memories. I did find some photo's from the boutique I had in OCT. 90% of these pieces were the items that were stollen.

Heart of a Lioness

I was beading yesterday and I had Animal Planet on and I was listening to an amazing story that was airing about a young lioness in the Samburu Reserve in Kenya, Africa. Her story was is so unique and I was so moved by it, it was so amazing I have to share it. 

  Briefly she is a lone lioness without a pride and she has adopted an orphaned Oryx Antelope calf. Oryx are prime prey to Lions and her behavior makes this story, this Lioness so extrodinary and unbelivable. The people have named her Kamunyak which means "blessed one".  She is unable to feed the calf as it is not yet weaned off it's mother and seeks milk. Except for that fact of  not being able to provide milk to the calf, Kamunyak steps completely into the role as mother for this calf. She doesn't let it out of her site and they interact very intimately with each other normally as mother and calf. 

Since a little over a week with the calf, neither Oryx or Lioness have eaten. The community tries to intervene and throws the starved Lioness some meat which she refuses to eat. Her behavior is so unbelievable.  The researcher following the pair, Saba Douglas-Hamilton comments on how it is only time that will tell the fate of the starving pair. 

Nearing just over 2 weeks Saba is struggling to keep up in the thick brush and spots the dazed and weary pair. For the first time, Kamunyak lets the calf wander just out of sight as she rests in the shade. Then to every one's complete horror there is a terrible noise and an adult male Lion has snuck up on and ambushed the small calf. The calf is bleating and wailing and it is so gut wrenching to watch. Kamunyak immediately jumps up and can do nothing but watch as her calf is stolen away. 

I was so incredibly heart sick over watching this sequence. I felt physically sick as I watched Kamunyak helplessly cower in fear. Lioness's often loose young cubs to adult male lions, but just knowing that this Lion had litterally "laid with the lamb"  had brought more intense feelings of sorrow and loss.  

The narrator then noted that Kamunyak was seen making a kill shortly after losing her calf. And if this story wasn't extrodinary enough, she was seen to adopt another five or six orphaned Oryx calves over the next several years, none of them having lived as long with her as the first calf. She has not been spotted since Feb 2004. I believe this is to air again on Animal Planet later in Feburary. 

Here is a site that has clips from the show. Begin with The First Encounter. Click the orange play icon where it says, next video.

http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/wildkingdom/lioness/videogallery/videogallery.html

V

And this is him after his hair cut!! He is still so incredibly cute. His legs are so long!

This is our dog Vader whom we inherited just before Christmas from the grandmother of one of the familes that I nanny for. (the kids named him!) He's almost a year old and in this picture he had never been groomed his entire 10 month existance. He is a pure bred miniature schnauzer. He's such a sweetheart.