Today is Valentine’s Day, a day set aside to show your appreciation for the one you love. If you are from my generation, it really is about the guys giving, not so much the girls, though I understand that times have changed. In my day, it was the guy’s job to pick out that perfect bounty of flowers, and of course, they earned extra brownie points if delivered to their sweetie’s work, so all can see just how much she means to them. Most of us really don’t know or care how this day came to be what it is today, but we do know the social pressures that have been created by all the ads. A day of...

Guest blogger Shauna Coen shares her experiences during her first year as a dedicated volunteer. Everyone used to tell me I couldn’t do it. They’d say “Shauna, you’d just want to take them all home, it would just break your heart.” And so I would listen to everyone and once again decide to not send in my volunteer application to the Edmonton Humane Society. Then during one of the worst winters I can remember, I got very tired of being cooped up at home complaining about the weather. I finally I stopped listening to the naysayers, followed my heart, and submitted my application to walk dogs...

Late last week our facebook page took on a life of its own. Unfortunately not in a good way and certainly not in a way that would make a difference to any animal, despite the intentions of some of those that caused this “firestorm”. I’m not blogging about this “event” to dwell on history, but I wanted to touch on the collateral damage that this has caused. This phenomenon of the use of social media to create a free-for-all against organizations, whether justified or not, is becoming more and more widespread, and to be honest, we knew it was only a matter of time that our page would be subject...

Guest blogger Peace Officer Nicoll A sleepless night tonight. As I laid down in bed I realized I wouldn’t sleep until pen was put to paper, or in this case; fingers to keyboard. The deep freeze finally hit Edmonton this week. As many of us went about our days worried about finding our winter jackets, plugging in our cars and trying to get to work safely on icy roads, I woke up each day knowing what a busy day we had in store for the Animal Protection department. I laugh each year as it often seems that Canadians forget that winter comes back, perhaps we try to pretend it won’t, perhaps we are in...

Last week I sat down to watch one of my favourite TV shows, “Harry’s Law”. I am drawn to programs that have no nonsense characters. Characters that, even though they are sharp – sometimes edgy and curt, get the job done with focussed determination The show was filled with the usual array of interesting law challenges dotted with a bit of humour that resonates with real life, which only adds to the entertainment value. Tonight the show had a story line that was of particular interest for me, Harry was representing a client that rescued a full grown gorilla that had escaped from a local zoo....

Holy Cow, is it the end of the year already? Or wait, it’s the beginning of a new one, depending of course, on how you look at it! Either way, 365 days have floated by, seriously what happened? I took a few days “off” early last week and used part of that time to reflect on the year that has just past. A big part of that reflection for me, was spending some time reading through the blogs I’ve posted and re-reading some of your comments. Even though I started blogging back in late 2009, it took a bit to build the readership and to make and keep the commitment of posting once a week. Of course,...