Ducks, duck

It is amazing how quickly one can go from animal defender, welfare advocate, rescue worker and our "fury/feathered brother's keeper" to, I'm gonna kill that f-----g duck!

As spring approaches so to visions of human aqua-romance appear on the horizon and our thoughts turn to slow, hot evenings spent submerged in watery bliss...then come the ducks.

Now the truth is we like ducks. Ducks are cool, ducks are somebody's mother but when two ducks adopt your swimming pool in lieu of the loo well then, we just don't know.

A duck in love is a duck in search of privacy, kind of like college. A private pool with a view is better than the commons and a whole lot better than a dorm room. Thing is if you're a duck, well then pool/pond is the same thing as dorm/loo and the effect on our pool is, OK, we won't go there.

Feathers aside, ducks in the pool are cool just please, don't pee in my pond.

Southern block party, animals welcome

Southern Blogs Ring, the premier source on Southern culture, manner, missive and nostalgia will be holding a group blog to celebrate being alive, southern and free all at the same time.

You’re are cordially invited Saturday April 30th to attend our first neighborhood cotillion and brunch.

The menu will be a light repast of Southern classics and down home cooked tales served up with Southern style and taste by your hosts:

• Whacky Southern Housewife
• The World According to Tish
• Garden Stuff
• The Gardens Gift
• The Which Blair Project
• Florida Gardening
• A Southern Belle’s Musings
• An American Housewife
• Southern Porch
• The Green Cutting Board
• Animal Broadcast Network
• Romantic Ramblings
• The Naked Vegetarian

Guests will be offered words, photographs, entertainment and some surprises, to be sure. So plan to attend and spend some time with us in the South.

Stay cool

The country needs to get embittered about this. Most new cars today come with life-long organic coolants, ethylene-glycol based and very poisonous to small animals. What is worse, these coolants taste and smell sweet so when they leak unto the drive or roadway small animals will be attracted to it and lap up the spill. It takes as little as one teaspoon of ethylene-glycol coolant to cause kidney failure and death in a small dog.

Several companies, (Peak's Sierra, most notably) has developed a safe coolant based on the chemically similar propylene-glycol which is much less toxic. Unfortunately not all manufacturers have switched to it because it is more expensive and most manufacturers will void your warranty if you substitute the less toxic coolant for the one specified.

California and Oregon now require that any coolant sold in those states be "embittered" so that it tastes awful to animals, even little kids. The manufacturer adds a chemical stink agent to the formula that cost 2-3 cents per gallon.

Veterinarians and animal control wardens promote the embittered coolant and the less toxic propylene based formula as common sense methods to easily reduce environmental pollution and the accidental poisoning of thousands of domestic and wild animals.