The AKC National Championship Presented by Royal Canin® will air on its new network, ABC, as a three-hour special this Sunday January 17, 2021 at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. The show features thousands of dogs from around the country and the world competing for the coveted title of National Champion. Hosting the 20th Anniversary … Continue reading AKC National Championship to Air on ABC January 17th
A Look Back at 2020 + Plans for 2021
It was the strangest year of my life, and likely most of your lives too. The hardest part of it for me was my stepmom passing away from cancer in July, and how difficult her final days were due to visitor restrictions because of Covid. The rest of it, while very challenging, was not what I consider to be a true struggle. My husband, who has worked in the live music industry his entire career, was furloughed in late March, which has obviously been quite challenging. Our trip to Iceland was canceled, as was our trip to Florida in July and the rest of our travel plans. My kids missed out on activities and school. And the year went out with a bang on Christmas, which was not only the first Christmas in my life I haven’t spent with my sister, but also the night my dad fell down his stairs and was to have emergency surgery on a broken femur. (He spent a week in the hospital and is now in a rehab facility.)
In January, I shared 6 easy ways to refresh school lunches in the New Year.
In February, I shared an updated version on my favorite vegetarian tortellini soup recipe.
I shared my 16 favorites items from Trader Joe’s in March.
Quarantine meant lots of organizing in my kitchen, and in April I shared tips for organizing both your pantry and fridge.
In honor of Earth Day, I shared 10 ways to be eco-conscious in your own home.
I shared my favorite veggie club sandwich recipe in May.

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GreaterGood.org & Halo Announce A New Dog Resource, FidoFoster.org
GreaterGood.org & Halo Announce A New Dog Resource, FidoFoster.org, & Launch the “Walk and Wag” Photo Contest with Celebrity Judge Olivia Munn to Salute Dog Heroes Halo Pet Food for a Year, 15,000 Halo Meals and $ 10,000 in Grants Courtesy of MyPetCandle to Donate to Animal Shelters, Training with Animal Planet’s Pet Expert Andrea Arden, Wag!
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How to Calm a Dog During Fireworks
Firework displays may be fun for human participants but the loud noises and flashing lights of holiday fireworks spell absolute terror for many dogs–so much so that many dogs go missing after…
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Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken
I also post almost exclusively vegetarian recipes on here, because, well, I’m a vegetarian and have been most of my life. But both of my kids and my husband enjoy eating meat, and if I can whip them up something they truly love that isn’t vegetarian for once, they’re stoked.
INGREDIENTS
1 18 oz bag InnovAsian Sweet and Sour Chicken
The Thylacine was more a marsupial coyote than a marsupial wolf
One of the most common memes in our popular understanding of zoology is that the thylacine of Tasmania was the marsupial equivalent of the gray wolf. This idea comes from a rather superficial understanding of its morphology, and lots of speculation about its behavior have stemmed from this popular understanding. One idea is that they were pack-hunters like wolves and dingoes, and they would have been murder on Tasmania’s sheep industry. Therefore, the final extinction of the thylacine was largely predicated upon a rational fear that the creatures would have been detrimental to sheep husbandry.
A lot of these speculations come from a belief that the thylacine was quite large. As I have discussed before on this space, larger carnivores are largely forced to hunt larger prey to survive. Otherwise, the larger size is of no benefit to the animal. Ecologists have found that the mass of 21 kg (about 46 pounds) is the size at which a carnivorous mammal can no longer subsist on smaller prey alone.
Thylacines were estimated to have weighed 29. 5 kg (about 65 pounds), which meant that their diet would have been larger prey. However, really big prey species are almost absent from Tasmania. The largest kangaroo in Tasmania is the Tasmanian Eastern gray kangaroo, which weighs is roughly the size of the smaller forms of white-tailed deer in the US. Further, analysis of Thylacine skulls revealed that they could not withstand very much force. So the thylacine would not have been a very effective predator of prey the size of an Eastern gray kangroo, and it would have had a lot of trouble grappling with a fully grown sheep.
The fact that thylacines would have had problems killing large prey creates a contradiction in their supposed larger size. If thylacines really did weigh 65 pounds on average, then they would be a major exception to the rule that larger predators must hunt larger prey to survive.
Well, a new analysis by researchers at Monash University has revealed that traditional estimates of thylacine size were greatly exaggerated. Using complex morphometric analyses on various preserved specimens, the researchers revealed that the mean weight of a male thylacine was 19.7 kilograms (43 pounds). The mean weight of a female was 13. 7 kilograms (30 pounds).
These animals would have been roughly the same size of an Eastern coyote. Now, Eastern coyotes can live on large prey or small prey, and they can scavenge quite well. But they have skulls that can withstand blunt force from a sheep or a deer that a pack of them has run down. The Eastern coyote can live as a fox or a wolf, depending upon the conditions of the ecosystem in which it lives.
A thylacine would have been a smaller prey specialist, and because its weight did not exceed 21 kilograms, its subsistence on smaller prey did not violate the “costs of carnivory” rule.
Indeed, the only predatory mammal I can think of that does come close to violating this rule is the maned wolf, which sometimes weighs 22 or 23 kg. It lives almost entirely on small prey and fruit. This species has been persecuted for its attacks on livestock, but like the thylacine, it is not much of a threat to them.
Of course, there will be debate about this finding. Many historical accounts of thylacines suggest or imply or even outright claim that they were killing sheep and dogs left and right.
But the truth is that Europeans had their own concept of what a creature like this could do or was likely to do, and they merely transposed these ideas onto a creature that had the superficial appearance of a wolf or hyena.
We should by now stop trying to pigeonhole the thylacine into a marsupial wolf and should try to appreciate it for what it was.
Or might still be.*
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*I don’t believe they still exist, but I certainly wish they did!
Thank You, Happy Holidays, and See You Next Year!
Should we dress up our pets for Halloween?
Should we dress up our pets for Halloween? Dressing up on Halloween can be great fun for children and adults alike, but what about our furry friends? Just like people, dogs and cats are individuals, and no two animals are the same. For some pets, getting dressed up and the attention their costume brings, is
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200+ Movie Dog Names and the Dogs Who Portrayed Them!
Are you a movie buff with a new barking buddy? Why not name the dog who has landed a starring role in your life after a dog seen on the silver screen? From classics to today’s Hollywood hits,…
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Pandemic Puppy Scam
Tips to avoid a scam: Never buy online. You want to see both the puppy and its parents up close and in person. Ask lots of questions of the breeder, and expect them to ask you questions, too. A reputable breeder will not have more than 2 – 3 breeds they deal with. They should … Continue reading Pandemic Puppy Scam