We Had To Put Duke Down

R I P Duke September 2000 - August 25, 2016

This is the beginning of his story: How We Got Duke

Duke had been with us for 14 great years.  This is a story in pictures.

The first day that he came to us was on a very rainy day in September of 2002.  It was pouring rain and I watched him as he went from house to house on my corner of the road.  We he got close enough to me I put my and out to him with some cat food. This picture was a few days after that day, when he really decided that we would be his pack leader from then on. See how skinny he was then.  He was about to give up totally.  I had to feed him puppy food, by hand, to get him some nutrition.  Then wean him off that when he was able to eat more.

We got him neutered and found out that he had double dewclaws and so we had them removed at the same time.  We found that he was a mix of Boxer (his ears and forehead), German Shepherd (his black around his nose and big ribcage) and Yellow Lab (his coloring).

He loved it here.  My daughters loved him too and babysat him every once in a while.

He would play in the snow and he loved laying around.

He loved going to the park.  Later on in his last couple of years he developed Arthritis and wouldn't get in the car.  He also used to love going to work with his daddy on Sunday's.  We miss that so much.

When Charlie was born and he was so shy Duke took him under his wings and they became inseparable.  Charlie is having a really hard time with Duke leaving us.  These are some of the picture of Duke and his sidekick Charlie.

Duke got cancer when he was younger.  I think he was about 7 or 8 years old and he did not like that collar on him at all.

He got Vertigo about 3 years ago and never really recovered from that, but many of the cats tried to help him through it.

Then last year he made a new friend.  Here is a picture of it but you can also go the the story about that on this blog too.

Now Duke sleeps in this box and his favorite toys are with him.  Charlie sleep on the crate right up next to the box that Duke is in almost every night.  We had him on the mantel and Charlie would sleep on that crate up next to the stone.  My husband thought that he was trying to be close to Duke, so we moved Duke to the top of the crate and it was true.  Charlie and Duke are inseparable.

We also decided to put Duke in with either one of us who passes away first.  My husband and I thought that he came to us, so he should be with us....always.

August 19 was a very sad day.  My neighbor across the street had to put his dog down and since his dog and Duke were kind of like friend here he asked us to bring Duke over.

Well Duke went into the fenced yard with his friend.  There was steps up to the porch on the side of the house.  Duke decided that he should walk up those steps.  Let me tell you that it was not a good sight to see.  I was on the other side of the fe3nce, but I watched.  It was painful to watch too.  Duke made it up to the third step and then his legs gave out on him and instead of rolling back down the stairs, he rolled off of those stairs.  He was already in so much pain from just walking over to the house.  He could hardly make it back home.  That is when I knew it was time.  That was a very sad day.

I called our Vet and they told us that we could bring him when we could get him in the car.  OMG the thoughts that were reeling in my head.  The anger that I felt.  I asked them if they know of a vet in the area that could come to my house and put my dog down.  They did recommend someone and we called on that Monday to set it all up.  I also had to call a pet cremation to get him and do their thing.  Our vet wanted $500.00 to do it all and it would be cold and dry and we just didn't want that for Duke.  The vet that we called did it and was a whole lot nicer and compassionate and so were the Pet Cremation Company.

I don't do much crying for Duke because I live with Duke day in and day out.  Almost all my time was with Duke since his Vertigo years ago.  So I felt kind of relieved when he body went limp after the first shot the vet gave him.  He was in so much pain and the meds stopped working well and then we had to go to aspirin and even that didn't help him after falling off the stairs.  

He did not leave his body or the house for days.  I still think that Charlie feels his presence in and around the box.  

Charlie misses his greatly.  My husband misses the morning and evening walks with him.  We all miss him jumping into the car for a ride or to the park.

What I miss is telling him Good Morning every morning and waking him up to go outside.  I miss giving him the last bit of my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I miss brushing him and hugging him.  We had other names for him too like, Big Gallute, Big Brown Dog, Dukers and maybe a few more that I can't think of right at the moment.

After his body went limp and I was petting him for the last time something else occurred to me.  When I got to his belly area there was almost nothing there.  I mean there was no mass as in body mass.  Then I thought...he had a growth on the back of his butt.  We had called the vet and they told us that when we could get him in the car to bring him.  Well we will never use that vet every again.  I looked it up in one of my natural health books for dogs and cats, written by a DVM and it looked and sounded like he had a backed up anal gland.  I could squeeze it and it would shrink only to return to the size and grow just a bit more the next day.  The vet said that I was doing things right with the warm compresses......

But, I was thinking that I was making it worse instead of better.  After petting him and feeling how empty his body was, that was when the thought came that that growth might have been cancer.  He did have that years ago and many times it does come back and with the tract record of the other animals that we had had died from some form of cancer or auto-immune disease.  That very well could have been why he was also so bad the last few days of his life.  That growth had to have been painful.

Whatever, he is not in pain anymore and he can get up and down and run around without any pain.

His most favorite place to lay was under the front deck.  So I will leave off with pictures of him enjoying the view that he had when laying under there.

Duke’s New Friend

Duke’s New Friend

Sampson

Duke has a new friend.  His friend doesn’t come around much but when he does Duke and him play around.  They play tag, but things are changing for his friend.  His friend is getting older and his hormones are starting to kick in. His friend also has a sister and they came by yesterday morning to visit me.  Duke was not out yet as he was still in bed fast asleep.  They were around for about an hour and then they both left.

His friend did come back later in the evening and Duke was outside.  My husband got to see his friend too and that was fun.  He allowed my husband to put out his hand and I am not sure if he let him touch him or not.  I can touch him and he also wanted to play with me too.  I did rub his back and tried to see what was on his sides.  They were just spots that he was shedding.  He liked being scratched between his ears.  I also rubbed his neck and he did enjoy that.

Duke and Sampson

If you haven’t been around my fb page or read any of my articles then you would not be guessing that what Duke’s friend is. He is a male deer.  His antlers are just coming in.  Last time that we saw him was the day of the big snow storm where we got 42 inches.  I don’t know where this deer sleeps.  I don’t even know if he and his sister sleep together.  I do know that someone raised them.  We have been told that and we also seen her walking through the woods with them. 

I think that I am going to call the male deer, Sampson.  I don’t want to call him anything and I fear for his life here in these big woods.  I know that they did not raise these deer on purpose or know what the dangers would be when they started growing up.  They should have called the local Wildlife Center and had them raise them in their sanctuary. 

Eating My Rose Bush

When he comes around now, I had to push him away from my rose bushes.  He was eating them like they were candy.  No I also know why I have a bare area in my garden that I have my Irisises and Lily of the Valley’s in.  He ate them all up.  Now a normal wild deer wouldn’t go near places that I have my pinwheels in, but he did.  It was so funny though when I saw him put his nose right down into the pinwheel and sniff it as if he was going to munch on it.  I don’t have much money to put into my vegetable gardens this year and maybe there is a good reason for that.  He and his little sister will eat it all up because they are not afraid of man or anything else.  They used to be afraid of the cats, but not this time.  He chased my one cat from the perimeter of the yard to the front deck.

Another thing that was hilarious was when my husband went outside and took Duke for his evening walk.  Sampson, was really into eating our grass and not paying much attention to anything else.  We may not need to cut the grass if Sampson and his sister come around more often.  Well my husband and Duke were about halfway down the road and Sampson lifted his head up and seen them and he took off running towards them.  That deer walked with my husband and Duke and even came back with them.  That was funny and so cute. 

We do have lots of wild deer that run and live here in these woods.  They are huge.  There were about 12 deer in a herd that ran across my yard and down into the ravine about a month ago.  They stood about 7 feet tall at the top of their head.  They were all females.  They were amazing.  They didn’t stop to make friends with anyone.  They were a herd just running through the woods.  Sampson and his sister will never run with the herd and I am afraid that they will eventually kill Sampson and his sister.  That is the way it is in the wild.

Sampson

Raising Sidney

Sidney on March 29, 2016

This little guy, well I should say big guy because he last weighed in a year ago and 14.5 pounds.  He is a tad heavier than that right now.  My husband is home sick and I didn't want him in the picture but....this is amazing that Sidney is up in his lap.  He has been in his lap now for abut an hour.  I love seeing and watching how Sidney has really progressed here with us.

He started out being thrown into our house that had a dog and several cats already.  He was scared of anything and everyone and all the other animals.  In his state of mind he didn't trust anything or anyone and rightly so.  He was being abused, kicked, shoved around and scared to pieces by another dog that loved to tree cats.


The first main thing that I had to fix, was his biting all the time.  I understood why he did that.  In his mindset he was going to bite it before it bit him.  That took months, but I did get him to calm down and accept love.  

Charlie

He now likes to "play" with Charlie verses when he first was introduced to him and he fought with him.  During this time that he has been here Charlie lost a couple of pounds.  That is a good thing, but Sidney put on those ponds.  Hahaha!  He still is very active.  He is about 4 1/2 years old now and I just love him to bits!

Sidney has an idea how the day is supposed to go.  Many times it doesn't go like he thinks that it should.  The moment that I get out of bed, everyone follows me to the kitchen where I keep the containers of food, one for Duke's food and the other for the cats food.  This is where it gets tricky, for me.  I pour some food in the dishes on the shelves in the living room.  Frederick gets on the shelf that is next the the stove.  Then Sunshine gets the dish in the corner on the opposite side of the wall in the living room.  That is not too bad, but when I go to fill the dish up in the office that is on the widow seal........Sidney runs for it and runs in front of me most times.  I have now changed my steps in that.  I will wait for him to run in front of me first, then go pour the food in the dish.  That works 85% of the time.  After those are all filled and they have eaten it is now time to let out the girls; Shadow and Sunshine ,

Frederick

and then I let our Frederick, the newest member of the family a short while later.

I am then able to sit down with my first cup of coffee.  Oh but Sidney has other ideas.  We must play. He loves the feather on the end of the string at the end of the stick.  My word he does love to jump up and he jumps up pretty high.  We have to do that for about 15 minutes, then he stops and goes to lay down.  

Sometimes Charlie gets in the act too but he would rather the red dot toy.  The red dot toy only gets taken out when it is a cloudy day because they can't see the dot when it is sunny.  It gets washed out by the sun.  They both love that toy and I could play with them for a lot longer than 15 minutes.  Charlie doesn't really go chasing the red dot, but Sidney loves to chase it....on the carpet.  He really doesn't like it on the floor too much so I keep it on the carpet.

Sunshine

Shadow

Sidney has really learned to love it here even with the girls that like to hiss at him and try to take his face off with their claws.  They don't hurt each other though as I trim their claws about once a month, sometimes twice a month just so they don't hurt each other and me too.

Little Bits

Just recently in the last 3 or 4 months has wanted to sit on the chair with me and he has allowed me to pick him up.  He didn't like that before and would squeak at me to let him down.  It is a rare occurrence to see him sitting in my husband's lap, so when he was on his lap my husband said "Look What I Have."  I just had to get a picture of that.


Sidney is so precious and beautiful too and he has adapted very nicely and I am loving it to see a happy cat.

Sidney's first days here, almost 2 years ago.

A Rare and Often Fatal Disease in Felines

This is a story about one of my cats who suffered with this disease, Houdini.

Plasmacytic Stomatitis An Auto-Immune Disorder In Cats

What is it

Plasmacytic Stomatitis attacks the lining sheath of the cat’s teeth. What I was told was that when a cat gets an infection in one of the cat’s teeth that their immune system tries to eradicate the infection. That is what it is supposed to do, but in this case the immune system doesn’t know when to stop and continues on to attack the good parts of the teeth. The cat’s gum’s become red and very sore. This strain is rare. 

There are other stomatitis diseases but this is one of them that are incurable at this time. They don't know if it is genetic or what switch that they can turn off or even why it only attacks some cats but not others. It is like cancer in humans, they just don't know right now. No other cat that I have or has been around has this. His mother doesn't, his brother doesn't so it doesn't seem to be genetic. The other cats that I have don't have it either. Just Houdini had it and it was not contagious. It truly is a mystery.

How Houdini Earned His Name

Houdini got his name because he earned it. When they were born I had them all in a very large doge crate, the kind that is a cage and not all plastic. It has a shelf and I put that in it for mom to get away from her kittens when she was weening them. On the back end I attached a large box for her to nest in and have her kittens in private. Well when Houdini was about 3 months old he would get out and I would see him playing around the box. None of the other kittens were out. So I put him back in. I turn around to go back in the house and turn right around to find him out again and the others still in the box. I put something heavy on the box lid so he wouldn’t escape. He still got out. To this day I still don’t know how he was getting out and the others not follow him. So he was named Houdini.

When I finally realized Houdini had something wrong with him it was during the winter months. I noticed that he would come up on the deck and lay on the heating pad that I had out there to keep their water from freezing. He would lay on the side that the dish was not on. In the beginning I thought nothing of it because the cats took turns laying on it. Sometimes they would not go under the house where I have a light there that keeps the temps above freezing. They prefer to be out in the open. I also know this is when they lay in the sun and it seems to fill them up with warmth that lasts for hours. They seem to play more after getting this sun energy power and filling up their batteries. They would run around the yard and up and down trees. I would just sit on the deck and watch them. After running for an hour or so they would come up and nuzzle me for some human attention. 

Alternative Treatments

After feeding them one day I noticed Houdini jumping away from the dish after taking a few kibbles. At first I thought a bug had bothered him. A few moments later I saw him do it again. That was when I knew something was wrong.

I never saw him get any tooth infections and this Stomatitis came on very suddenly. So I brought him in and put him in another crate but a smaller one. At first he made a fuss but that was short-lived because he was in so much pain then that he would permit me to do just about anything to him. I gave him ¼ of a baby aspirin because I didn’t have anything else and as it happens this was after Vet hours. I started him on 3 drops of Oil of Oregano (supposed to kill viruses, fungus and bacteria) in about 10 drops of Olive Oil. I gave him about 6 drops of this twice a day. I tried this for a week and nothing was happening and upped the dose and doubled the Oil of Oregano. It did seem to help and he was also calmer because it also sedates them a bit. At this time he was eating pate canned cat food that I had mashed with a fork to make smoother. I added ¼ of a pill of “B” Complex because I had read that they will get those types of infections if they are missing vitamin “B” in their diet. I also added Taurine and Glucosamine to the food. It wasn’t working enough. I had been doing this for a month. Now he inadvertently became an indoor cat through all this. 

Becoming an Indoor Cat

I had to do something so I called the Vets and get an appointment for the next day. He was put on Prednisone and antibiotics and a pain killer. Now this cat has to stay in that cage until all the meds are gone because I cannot run around trying to catch him every time I had to give him the liquid. I have 3 other cats inside. I also made sure that what he had was not contagious. This form is not and is cat specific. I felt so bad for him. He was in so much pain, but the pain killer and prednisone was working and we all thought this would be the end of it. So I let him back outside, where he really wanted to be with his brother. About 12 days later he is not eating again. He now just stands over the dish of dry food and stares at the food. So I bring him back in and call the Vet and we put him on another round of the same stuff. Again he did the same thing as the first time. Getting him to eat mashed pate canned food was difficult too. He just could not get food past the painful gums. So I was putting his food and half a can of water in the food processor and pureeing it. Sometimes I had to coax him and tell him to take it slow. This little boy was starving right in front of my eyes. This time the vet put him on a month of antibiotics, no prednisone or pain killers. They also cleaned his teeth to see if that was the problem. It wasn’t and I had the choice of them pulling all his teeth or keeping him on meds for the rest of his live. After eating he would always want to come and sit on my lap and lay his head on my chest. Sometimes he liked to be rocked and sometimes not. Sometimes he liked to just lay next to me. When he was in lot of pain he would bump his head hard up against the bottom of my chin.

A Very Hard Decision

We went on vacation and I had the vet board him. The day before, I had made up all his food for them to feed him. While at the hotel I get a call from my daughter, who had our dog for the week, and she told me what the Vet was doing with my little boy, Houdini. He wasn’t eating and they didn’t want to force him. They gave him prednisone and pain killers and he was not responding. I can understand that because between the time of the last round of his treatment and taking him to the vets I had given him half of a baby aspirin instead of the quarter and it did nothing for the pain.

Sitting in the hotel room alone I had to make the decision of pulling all Houdini’s teeth or something else. I had tried everything from alternative to natural to chemical treatments to heal this little cat and not a thing was working. I even changed his food to Science Diet so that I could possibly wean him off of canned food. I prayed and I even used my "healing touch" and they did nothing either. I thought about all this in the few hours that I was in the hotel alone. My husband was at a meeting. It was the hardest and saddest hours of my vacation. I called the vet back and set up a time to put him down. It was a very difficult thing to do but the best thing for him. I was just keeping this boy in pain and I just could not and didn’t feel it right to keep him that way.

We get back from vacation and we go to the vet to put him down. I did not linger too much but did let Houdini know that I loved him very much and that I had done everything for him and that he would be going to a place where there was no pain and that he wouldn't have to worry about eating and being hungry all the time. The vet took him back to put the IV in him and sedate him a little. I don’t understand why they have to do that though because I would think that giving him an overdose in the first place would let him and his body separate. I pet him for about 5 minutes and told them that I was ready. I never say Good Bye to them. I told him that He was going to Rainbow Bridge.

This is the third cat that I have had to put down in 2 years.  It doesn't get any easier. I could never be a vet because I could not do this and not get emotional. One of my dreams in High school was becoming a Veterinarian.  I love animals, domestic and wild.  I believe in my heart that this was a purpose for me. The other profession I wanted to do was nursing.  Well as life would have it I didn't get a *degree in either......but I do all that within my life without a degree. I became a mom and had kids and part of that role is nursing them back to health.  I have had many cats and dogs, bunnies, hamsters, goats, ducks and chickens to take care of too.  So I got a lot of Animal husbandry through that.  Where I live now the animals come to me and they aren't afraid of me---well except for the feral cats around here.  We have this kind of half joke around here that I feed all the animals. I do to some extent and I am also known as "The Cat Lady" around this part of my neighborhood.

My Houdini

Houdini was just put down in May of 2011 because he had Plasmacytic Stomatitis.

Zoos, Wildlife Re-Location and Conservation

Zoos, Wildlife Re-Location and Conservation

There are plenty of people on this earth that are a little blind to what is going on.  They seem to be stuck in the time before Zoos were in the process of repopulating species that are close to or are considered in the endangered list or almost near extinction.  For some reason they have not gotten the memo that there are many organizations that are in the business of re-populating and re-locating many species for their survival. To understand more please click on the link:

Jack Hanna: What Zoo Critics Don’t Understand

Those who believe in Global Warming and Climate change seems to think that things are just dying and we doing it and that is all there is too it.  Get that right out of your little minds.  Yes, I am here to incite you and to educate you.  There are so many things that humans are doing to help earth and all her species….that we know about.  Sure there are species that have been thought to be extinct, but somehow they show up on our radar. 

10 Animals The Came Back From Extinction

Those people who are making claims that we are destroying the earth and killing off the many species that are here hide those facts.  You need to ask yourself, Why and What Are They Doing To Help, besides take money from your pockets? Do you ever see them doing anything to help the situation or are they politically motivated?  As far as I can see they just put fear into people and spread some untruths.  I have yet to see them actually helping anything or anyone on this earth. 

Now, Planet Earth has been taking care of itself and all the species that live here for much longer than we have even been here on the planet. Earth knows what it is doing and it doesn’t ask us humans for permission.  It is us humans that are stupid, maybe I am sorry for saying it that way, but that is the way that I feel.  Come on be smart!  If you know there is an area that gets constantly pounded with Natural disasters, why in the world would you want to keep building there.  You are the stupid ones.  Nature is going to do what it is going to do and we cannot change that.  Humans have to take responsibility for where they live and take into account the nature that around the area.  I just hate hearing that their homes were destroyed because of a natural disaster many times and yet they continue to build there again and expect people to pay for their mess. 

Zoos used to be just caged animals without regard to those animals or species livelihood.  They didn’t take into account of what repercussions that would bring.  Though they did have a bit of the right idea in showing others just what is out there in the wilderness, it wasn’t conducive to the species as a whole.  It wasn’t until people began to speak out about all that and really thought about the welfare of the species and the longevity of it.  Humans began to think about how they could contribute to the problems that they were causing…or some were causing.  Not everyone is bad and that is some human traits that are in this world. 

Modern zoos began to use Zoos to re-populate those species that we have taken from the wild.  That is a good thing.  We began to observe the species habits and we also began to seriously research their mating habits in the wild and the best thing of all was that we began to take part in the reproduction cycle and systems of these species.  Some species have done well in their reproductions and did have babies. 

The main one that you see is the Panda Project. The World Wildlife Fund helps with that Captive Breeding Program.  You see that all over the news, but many have no idea what it is all about or what they do to help the endangerment of the Panda and other animals and species.  The first thought that comes to mind with anything having to do with captivity turns people off and the immediately shut off any further reading or education.  They need to really stop doing that.

So I will take the time here to educate you and the site that I am getting all the information from, just in case you want to look it up yourself is: Captive Breeding

What is captive breeding?
Captive breeding is the process of breeding animals outside of their natural environment in restricted conditions in farms, zoos or other closed facilities. The choice of individual animals that are to be part of a captive breeding population, and the mating partners within that population, are controlled by humans.

Captive breeding is generally carried out for one of these main purposes:

1. To produce animals for commercial purposes (pets, food, fibre, medicine, and other human uses).
2. To produce animals for zoos, aquaria, research institutions, and other public facilities.
3. To increase captive population numbers of threatened or endangered species. In some cases, these individuals are part of a management programme aimed at eventually reintroducing captive-bred animals into wild habitats and populations. In other cases, captive facilities claim to be breeding animals for such purposes -but the animals may not be suitable - or they are not part of a legitimate conservation and management programme.

Long Horn Sheep

There are plenty of organizations that have and do re-locate species for their survival.  Jack Hanna has several conservation programs they are running and have run to help wildlife survive.  The have moved Long Horn Sheep from one part of the world to another part to replenish the animals that have left that area.  Currently they have 70 projects going on in 30 countries.  

Some of them are

http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation

Conserve the Elephants, Save the Elephants continues to raise money for elephants in crisis, conduct research on reducing human conflict, supports anti-trafficking legislation, and provides educational resources for the local people.

Cheetah Conservation, Dr. Laurie Marker founded the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in 1990 after witnessing the dwindling populations of cheetahs in the wild. Marker has helped launch a highly successful captive breeding program in the United States and has conducted important research that revealed the lack of genetic diversity in cheetahs.

SECORE. Coral reefs, the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, are suffering in many parts of the world. One way scientists are helping preserve them is to raise corals in laboratories, and then reestablish them into reefs in need of restoration.

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SeaWorld in San Diego California have been doing a whole lot of conservation and saving wildlife.  So far they have saved over 475 seals and sea lions so far this year, topping the previous record of 474 rescues in all of 1983. The rescued sea lion pups were found malnourished, dehydrated and lethargic. Some were also ailing from hypothermia, hypoglycemia, pneumonia and other illnesses.

Veterinarians and animal care specialists care for each animal for up to eight weeks before they can be returned to the ocean.  Read the story:  SeaWorld Rescued 475 Seals And Sea Lions This Year

http://isafari.nathab.com/rhinos-without-borders-rhino-relocation

Rhinos Without Borders Epic Rhino Relocation is yet another effort to reestablish the Rhino’s that have been killed by poachers and other things. Botswana's rhinos were largely poached out of the country by 1992, with a survey of only 19 white rhino at that time, while the black rhino was considered "locally extinct." In 2001 the Wilderness Wildlife Trust began the Botswana Rhino Relocation and Reintroduction Project, releasing about 32 white rhino into the Mombo Camp area of the Moremi Game Reserve within the greater Okavango Delta ecosystem. In 2003, four black rhino—these were two breeding pairs—were reintroduced as well. The first white rhino calf born in Botswana in almost 15 years was discovered with joy by the researchers in 2004, and in 2009, the first black rhino calf was discovered! The rhinos are closely monitored in partnership with Botswana's Department of Wildlife and the Botswana government, and the populations continue to increase in number today.  For more information on Rhinos Without Borders, click here.

**This just in today and what wonderful news from National Geographic:
  

Rare Sumatran Rhino Found for First Time in 40 Years

African Wildlife Fund Africa is home to some animals that have been categorized as endangered of being extinct. Some of them include:  mountain gorillas, Grevy’s zebras, elephants, rhinos lions and bonobos. They also protect the indigenous people and the deforestation problem giving them resources to cope with the problems.

With all the programs that I have researched and added here, there is no way that people and organization can say that we are not helping already.  These are just a few that I found and there are plenty more.  Open your eyes and see that we are doing something to save the wildlife and human population on the planet that we call home.

It is my hope that this gets you to do your own research into these things and maybe find a way that you can help too.   Remember though that it is up to planet Earth to decide what survives, what doesn’t and what the new species will be.  We do not control the planet, the planet controls itself. 

It used to be survival of the fittest, but it wasn’t like this long before there were Zoos and the people who decided to care.  It truly was survival of the fittest without human intervention. 

Now you can ask yourself…Oh God, What Have We Done.

We think that we are doing right by saving all the wildlife, but what will that will be in the future.  There have been many times that we have added back to a place the animals which we thought should go back there only to find that population of that species have overrun the environment.  We must be careful not to upset the balance in nature.