Cute animal pictures: the highest and best use of the blawgosphere

As if to validate the point of the previously - linked post, here is an adorable goat in a holding cell (a Toggenburg, I believe):
Via West Seattle Blog by way of Slog.

More prison doggies

From tonight's CBS news:

Nine Colorado prisons have enacted a program which allows inmates to train dogs... (T)hese canines have helped in the rehabilitation of the prisoners...

NY: "tattooed bikers, a dog's best friends"

Uplifting tales of tattooed Americans helping animals in need, from the New York Times:

Heaven’s Angels

Clad in leather, inked to the hilt in skulls and dragons, with images of bloodied barbed wire looped about their necks, they shared something else — a peculiar tenderness for animals, and the intensity needed to act on the animals’ behalf when people abuse them...

About a year ago, they took up the name Rescue Ink, and now work full time investigating cases of animal abuse...

Nothing peculiar about that; admirable in fact.

Deputy public defender monkey

A travelling sock monkey on Minnesota's p. d. crisis:

Monkey and I both agreed that the state needed to add more public defenders. Monkey also felt that there should be an attorneys lounge with bananas...

One hop

There's a rabbit warren in the bushes next to juvenile detention. Tonight one of the younger bunnies was there for debriefing after I'd stepped out from talking with two clients. Both are about to go away for a long time, a likely ten months for the one, more than two years for the other. The resident wildlife outside seem to have a sense of when I can use a bit of animal uplift.

ID: a Mazda-load of hot Holsteins

One of the cool things about working at the Twin Falls County Public Defenders Office - it may be 2008, but you still get to represent cattle rustlers:

"The way that it happens is you drive your little Mazda into the dairy, in the back where the cameras don't pick it up... And you take four small calves out of the calf hutches and you put two in the trunk and two in the back seat and you drive off..."

A day off at Northwest Trek

Getting to be a Martin Luther King Jr. day tradition:

Bonus link greetings of the day go to The Mountain Goat Report, In The Moment, and Feminist Mormon Housewife.

No justice, no cats

Blogger Adam has a place for us in his coming regime:

In every municipality dealing with a feral cat problem, we set up special tribunals to try accused cats. Each cat will be assigned a public defender...

My unbiased experts are skeptical.

WA: imagine, an arrest-free port protest

Yesterday we were at the farmers' market, conveniently located next to the Port of Olympia. As the marchers went past, I was turned off by the bullhorn and the upside-down Old Glory, but was heartened to see a demonstration truly non-violent enough to bring your dog.

Bonus link goes to OlyBlog and "Imagine a different protest."

Four squirrels and ten Hail Marys

For our colleague the Bardd, some days in Drug Court are joyful: Drug Court graduation for example. Other days feel like eavesdropping on someone else's confession: bless me, Your Honor, for I have sinned, for instance. The Bardd also has issues with Nature's "scoundrelly little opportunist," the squirrel.

Then there's this from the criminal defense lawyer at The Squirrel's Nest: "It would be totally awesome if we could just dispense with the clients"

One more lawyer, Simba's Mom at Unpublished Opinion (motto: "I will try to talk about something other than the cats") has noticed how squirrels are like cats.

And on my back porch there's an uneasy detente between the wily eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) and the dapper Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri).

Bless the beasts and the firefighters

From the Idaho Statesman, photo by Chris Butler:People, pets saved after fire breaks out at apartment

When Boise fire fighters say they work to save lives and property every time they are called out to extinguish a blaze, that includes pets. Boise fire fighters rescued two cats from an apartment fire Friday morning and resuscitated one of them with a special breathing mask, much to the relief of residents of the apartment complex...

Nothing about work here, just moved by the photo and the story. HELP Animals, Inc. is one charity that helps provide animal oxygen masks to first responders.

"Please don't laugh at us when we yell 'bad bear!'"

This public service reminder from the Bear Whisperer and your friends at the Mammoth Lakes Police Department:



"There are no problem bears, only bears in problematic situations."

(Curiously, "Bad Bear!" is something that my wife has been known to yell at me.)
(hat tip to NPR)

Go orange, go big blue

My 8-year-old boy brought me a souvenir from my hometown:I now know that the mascot of the hometown team is not the Boise State Bronco; it is in fact the Boise State Aggressive Horse.

Tomcat blogging

For an antidote to the previous post, here's a good tomcat:

Badgering the witness

Much obliged to Missouri Criminal Defense Lawyer for this illustration:
"Badger, badger, badger..."

IN: copygoat crime

It seems that the recent goat - at - large arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho was not the first, just the latest, of a wave of hooved delinquents. Last month's most wanted, from the Herald Argus:

They got their goat! - Animal that wandered across highway Wednesday taken in by Howmet employees

Billy was apprehended by police shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday outside Howmet. According to La Porte City Police Officer Nate Thode, no charges will be filed against the goat. He was taken away without incident, he said.

“He’s in custody,” Thode said with a smile. “We’re not charging him with anything.” The goat incident even resulted in a police report. No word on whether the goat got a copy, and if so, whether he ate it...

ID: some days I miss Twin Falls

From the Times-News:

Goat on the lam nabbed in downtown TF - Animal was missing since Saturday

A goat is in custody after a harrowing escape from a Twin Falls livestock yard and three days on the lam, police said Tuesday... (T)he goat had finally been captured. "Yeah, they got it," said Sgt. Anthony Barnhart with city police. Barnhart did not say if the goat would be charged with a crime or if it was being held for questioning. But the goat is unlikely to face serious punishment.

After all, it's just a kid.

OR: tigers and bears blogging

Uploaded from our Saturday trip to the Oregon Zoo:

Weekend new cat blogging

Courtesy of Feline Friends, please welcome Al the Cat:

Weekend harbor seal blogging