On Birthdays, Cranes and the FDA

On Birthdays

Yesterday was Violet Rays' 10th birthday! For some reason, she likes to dig around a bit and then lie down in some partially dug up ground, partly under the shrubs. Maybe because it's still 85 degrees out and December, but I'm not sold on that explanation as when it's 95 degrees she'll sunbathe and roll around in the middle of the yard in full sun for 30 minutes.

She was allowed to do any annoying thing she wanted to do for her birthday, which included standing still in the middle of the Village Green, facing into the wind, for 15 minutes straight. That was a lot of fun for me. She went on six walks, and only three were with Charles. She loves walking without him because she knows it's all about her pace and her direction. On one walk she took 30 minutes to circle the block because she wanted to sniff every blade of grass she could see.

And speaking of eyes . . . Her birthday present? She's getting the tumor on her left eye removed next week. We thought it was just a tag, but it's a benign mass that's been irritating her eyeball for months. It's like an iceberg in that the visible part is about 10% of the total mass. At least it's the bad eye that she can't even see out of because the retina's damaged and mostly detached.

Cranes

We had a visitor on our walk this morning: a sandhill crane. He belongs to a group of four, I think, and the other three are looking for him. Like when I was a kid and went to the mall with my family (BCP: Before Cell Phones), my parents would say: If we get lost, let's meet in front of the fountain. For the cranes, the meeting spot is the east Village Green. This has happened before and the others eventually come a-squawking and they reunite and fly away.

I took 14 photos and never saw the pink ball that completely ruins the photo. Sorry.

and the FDA . . .

They sent me this:

My name is Beth Martin and I work in Web Communications in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Public Affairs.  I am writing to invite you to attend a free Animal Health and Safety Widget Webinar for Bloggers hosted by FDA on Tuesday, December 8, from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET. The featured speakers, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Principal Deputy Commissioner of the FDA, and Dr. Bernadette Dunham, Director of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, will focus on the importance of animal health and safety for both animals and pet owners. After the presentations, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and/or offer feedback.

One of the FDA’s priorities is to promote animal health and safety information.  Toward that end, FDA is developing an animal health and safety widget to make it easier to receive and share animal health information. The widget is a Web application that contains FDA animal health and safety news alerts and tips. It displays this content on any blog or Web page. The content requires no manual updates because FDA automatically updates it.

If you can attend, RSVP to askCVM@fda.hhs.gov. We will email you the webinar access information. This is an open webinar, so please forward this invitation to others you think may be interested. We will be using the Twitter hashtag #FDApet if you’d like to tweet about or follow the webinar on Twitter.

Believe it or not, the webinar is the day of Violet's eye surgery and I'm not sure where I'll be. But I am interested and curious. Perhaps I can swing it and report back. I will do my best.

Comments

[electronic cigarette reviews]

I am beginning to really lose all faith and credibility in the FDA. It seems to me that instead of focusing their efforts on protecting the general public they are in-turn being influenced by corporate agenda and special interest. I take everything they say with a grain of salt.

[Vapor King]

Ah, the FDA. I stopped listening to them a while ago.