We just got back from the beach. A MUCH needed vacation that didn't last long enough. Chad got burnt the first day so we had to cancel a lot of plans and spent our days in the AC. I didn't get much sun :( But I did get to rest, which is what I needed most. Got home last night and already jumped right back into the swing of things. Spent the morning fixing paperwork and balancing drawers and checkbooks, then (my mother's gonna KILL me) I sorta adopted a cat :o/ They found a 6-8 week old kitten out back while I was gone. The poor thing was too weak to walk! They've been feeding her but she has a bloated belly, that I'm sure is full of worms, and what sounds like an upper respiratory issue which could be caused by nothing more then stress. I had Chad pick up some soft food and flea and tick shampoo, I've wormed her and bathed her and when I get her home I will get some antibiotics and specific heart worm meds in her as well. Then I'm thinking with a comfy, warm place to sleep, lots of love and the antibiotics, her cough should fade.. They've been calling her, Sammy, but I'd like to call her, Rooney (shouldn't have to explain) Chad doesn't like it though. All the names I like are guys names (Tomlin, Pouncey, Potsie, Ziggy, Keizel..etc. All Steelers) so it's sorta tough. Fluery's cool too...
So, the beach. I have a friend who's never seen it. And that breaks my heart. So I was determined to get him something from the beach. 'On our way out' (3 detours, 2 hours and 9 shops later) we were walking out of this huge, two story souvenir shop and I saw a shelf with all of these baby sharks in jars.
This friend of ours is in to really weird stuff and already has something dead in a jar on his mantel so in my mind, it's perfect for him. But that wasn't the first thing that came to mind when I saw it. I was consumed with this sadness and anger... but also captivated by the thing. I stared at it for about 10 minutes without really blinking. Every scenario of how it could have ended up in that jar went through my head. Chad assures me that it was something completely innocent, but who knows? And the last thing I wanted to do was support however it got there by purchasing one. BUT......... I just had to! It's absolutely beautiful! Is it not?? In this sad, broken way... Captivating. The preservation of it's short life. It's almost immortalized..... So I bought it. Hope he likes it.
Hi, I just wanted to say that practises like this are really harming the shark population.... it's decreased by 95% since 1970, mainly because of shark fishing. A large contributor to the motivation behind it is souvenirs... just like this. Shark pups don't die naturally for this, they are fished and taken out of the water for this very reason, so heartless people can profit off the suffering of these keystone animals.... we really need sharks. The ocean needs sharks. Things like this are definitely NOT innocent in any way.
ReplyDeleteI know you didn't know what happened, but I thought I might tell you anyway, because purchasing things like this is encouraging the cruel practice. Sorry to bother you with such negativity, but you seem like you have compassion, judging by that blog post, so I thought I'd let you know.
Have a good day.
Also I am aware this is a very old post, but I thought there was no harm in just letting you know
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