1 . While some say school safety depends on guns, cameras or alarms in classrooms, Mark Gomer and Kristi Schiller think specially trained dogs should play an important role in preventing violence in schools.

Gomer’s for-profit company has sent a gun-and-drug detecting dog to patrol (巡查) the halls of an Ohio high school, while Schiller is launching a nonprofit program in Houston to give schools the trained dogs for free.

Gomer’s first full-time safety dog is a three-year-old Dutch shepherd named Atticus, who is reported to duty this school year at Oak Hills High School in Green Township in southwest Ohio. The dog was trained at the school before the summer break, said Gomer, co-owner of American Success Dog Training in Bridgetown, Ohio. Atticus has won over students, parents, teachers and district Superintendent Todd Yohey, who initially worried what people would think of him spending $10,000 on a dog. Gomer has talked to a lot of parents and faculty, and they are saying it was money well-spent, he said.

For her part Schiller is looking to provide safety dogs to schools free of charge. She hopes her new initiative, program “K9S4KIDS”, does for schools what her program “K9S4COPS” did for police departments. She has placed more than 60 dogs with agencies in three years. “These dogs are extremely social, yet highly qualified warriors that are accustomed to going straight to the source of a threat or shooter and disengaging the suspect armed with the weapon,” said Schiller.

As the programs get up and running, questions remain about possible health problems and distractions the dogs can cause.

A school safety expert said those are concerns parents and schools will have to work out. Ken Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services consulting firm, discussed the issue in general because he was not familiar with either program.

He said the dogs would have to be extremely social to deal with students’ initial excitement “Kids are going to like those dogs,” Trump said, “There are concerns to work around, but with the right dogs and right handler and the right policies and procedures, they should be very beneficial. The dog might be a distraction in the beginning, but they will become part of what students expect to see when they go to school.” “There is so much these dogs can do,” said Ted Dahlin, a deputy who serves on the K9S4COPS board of directors. “If I were going to pick a school to make trouble, it would be one that I knew didn’t have a dog.”

3 . Not all birds sing, but those that do—some several thousand species—do it a lot. All over the world, as soon as light filters over the horizon, songbirds start singing. They sing to defend their territory and to impress potential mates.

“Why birds sing is relatively well-answered,” says Iris Adam, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Southern Denmark. The big question for her was this: Why do birds sing so much? “For some reason,” Adam says, birds have “a crazy drive to sing.” This means hours every day for some species, and that takes a lot of energy. Plus, singing can be dangerous.

“As soon as you sing, you reveal yourself,” she says. “Like, where you are, that you even exist, where your territory is —all of that immediately is out in the open for predators, for everybody.”

In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, Adam and her colleagues offer a new explanation for why birds take that risk. They suggest that songbirds may not have much choice. They may have to sing a lot every day to give their vocal muscles the regular exercise they need to produce top-quality song.

These findings could be related to human voices too. “If you apply the bird results to the humans,” says Adam, “anytime you stop speaking, for whatever reason, you might experience a loss in vocal performance.”

To figure out whether the muscles that produce birdsong require daily exercise, Adam designed a series of experiments on zebra finches —little Australian songbirds with striped heads and a bloom of orange on their cheeks.

Through these experiments. Adam’s conclusion is that “songbirds need to exercise their vocal muscles to produce top-performance song. If they don’t sing, they lose performance, their vocalizations get less attractive to females—and that’s bad.”

This may help explain songbirds’ constant singing. It’s a kind of daily vocal practice to keep their instruments in tip-top shape. It’s a good rule to live by, whether you’re a bird or a human—practice makes perfect, at least when it comes to singing one’s heart out.

5 . The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre has recently “rediscovered” an ancient shark skeleton that has been sitting in the museum’s collection for nearly 50 years. Could this shark be a part of a newly discovered ancient shark species?

This fossil’s original discovery was in 1975 on a farm just west of Morden, Manitoba. The skeleton was brought into the museum and was forgotten within the ever-growing fossil collection. The skeleton was hidden in the collections room for over 40 years and the center just recently found the fossil in its storage around eight years ago.

Adolfo Cuertara, the director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, explained that “It’s a very special shark for many reasons. It’s highly possible that we are talking about a new species.” Although the shark has not been given a scientific name yet, the museum has unofficially named the skeleton, “Dave”, in honor of the farmer on whose land the skeleton was found.

After the fossil rediscovery, Dave was exhibited at the fossil center museum. Dave is around 15 feet long and is one of the largest well-preserved shark skeletons in the entire world. Within the paleontology (古生物学) world, complete shark fossils are extremely rare due to their soft cartilage (软骨结构) which disintegrates as they age. Dave’s shark species are filter feeders with no teeth, who receive their nutrition by absorbing it out of the water. Cuertara emphasizes Dave’s uniqueness by explaining, “The shape of the jaws and the skull and the kind of structures that it has, because the preservation is really amazing, is telling us that it is probably going to be a new species. The problem is now we need scientific papers and scientific research and this paper is underway.”

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre is hopeful that more scientific research will provide more information on Dave’s ancient shark species. For now, Dave is currently on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre and the museum has the exhibit up to date with their current information.

7 . You may have seen white-faced capuchin monkeys (卷尾猴) before, whether at a zoo or in a popular movie. These medium-sized monkeys are found in Central America and northern South America. They have a mostly black-haired body and white hair on their face and shoulders. The cap of black fur on their head resembles the hoods(兜帽) that Capuchin monks in Italy wore, and that’s where the name came from.

Another fascinating feature of these monkeys is their long tail, which acts like a third hand. Capuchin monkeys use their tail to hang on to tree branches to support their body weight while looking for food. While they eat fruit and nuts, they also enjoy insects, frogs, and lizards. Since they spread various fruit seeds through their feces(粪便) and eat insects that are harmful to trees, they contribute a lot to the preservations of forests.

Capuchin monkeys are very social and live in groups of 20 members or so. A group of capuchins is known as a troop or a barrel. Troops are mainly made up of females, who remain in the same troop their whole lives, while males change troops about every four years. Communication and social activities play a significant role among monkeys in a troop because they help form social bonds. A curious example is “hand sniffing,” where the monkeys stick their fingers in front of each other’s nose.

Outside the forests, capuchin monkeys are not only used by humans for their acting abilities. These intelligent animals have small fingers and are gifted with fine motor skills. They can be trained to do many tasks that humans with disabilities cannot do, like turning the pages of a book or picking up dropped objects. Therefore, the white-faced capuchin can be important assistants and companions for some disabled people.

8 . We recently went to a friend’s backyard to meet her new puppy. He was lovely beyond words. Our friend was wearing smiles as she told us about his first days at home. It was truly puppy love.

Later that night, I walked behind my own dog to help her climb up the stairs, and heated up the homemade food that helps control her kidney (肾) disease. You can’t imagine these extra cares when you began raising a puppy. For me, I am lucky to know this more “mature” love. To love, and to be loved, by an old dog is truly an honor.

For a long time, I denied the fact that our dog was getting old, or I really didn’t notice that Skyler was getting older. But these days, there is no denying the fact. Sometimes, she will fall while eating from her bowl and wait patiently for someone to help her up.

I still remember the first days of Skyler. In the home, she always needed to be beside someone, with at least one part of her touching one part of you. At the park, it was different. If we started running toward the end of a field, she would cross the finish line before we had even made it halfway.

Now, at 15, Skyler still needs to be right beside you on the couch. But it is hard. It is sad to see this once fast, strong dog struggle to walk up the front steps or to see her begging eyes whenever she needs help to get up on the couch. Over the past few years, we have had to forgo certain family trips because we wanted to take care of her at home.

However, I know this experience has taught our children about sacrifice and unconditional love. It has taught me the same. Dogs give us unconditional love. The least we can do is give it back. There will likely be times of great sadness and hardship, but in the end, you will feel very lucky for the time you have together.

9 .

The connection we have to cats is so strong it feels almost as though they can read our thoughts, study our moods, and even judge how to behave based on our needs. But what really goes on in their sweet, furry heads?

Research suggests that cats don’t necessarily see us as any different from them. While cats understand that their human caretakers are larger than they are, they continue to behave around us in the same way as if they were around other cats. The only key difference is that cats meow to humans, not other cats.

Owners wondering about what the cats are thinking about should turn to cat body language. Since these are the ways your cat primarily communicates with you, studying their body language can help you understand then on a deeper level and you may start with tails:

We may think we have great insight into “cat thinking”, but we may never fully understand them. There exist lots of misunderstandings about cats, most notably:

*Cats try to be alien and prefer to be alone. No! They are actually social animals who hope for close relationship.

*Purring (making a low continuous sound) only means happiness…In fact, it can also suggest pressure, fear, or pain.   Keep an eye out for illness, and be prepared in the case of an unexpected accident.

*Cats scratch (抓) to anger people. Wrong again! Cats need to act out this to give themselves great pleasure and comfort.

A recent study concluded that cats, when given a choice between playing with certain toys or having interactive fun with a human being, decisively choose to play with a person. For us here at Cat Care of Vinings, it’s two-sided!

As always, please call us with any questions or concerns. Or, let us know what you believe cat thinking is all about!

10 . Clementine seemed to be missing apiece from her life’s puzzle for most of her life. Dropped off as a 3-year-old homeless dog near New Orleans, the dog stayed in the shelter for four months before being moved to Texas.

While living at an adoption center in Texas, the dog was adopted out twice to different families. Sadly, neither of those adoptions were successful. It turned out Clementine didn’t get along with smaller pets, and she had too much energy for the second family.

Meanwhile, Captain Robert Moree wanted to add a fire dog to the station. He’d just read a study about how dogs help firefighter scope with the pressure of their jobs, and he was eager to give the study a real life trial run! With the permission of the chief and other firefighters, he and a few colleagues visited the shelter. As soon as they met Clementine, they were smitten!

“They introduced us to Clementine,” Captain Moree recalled. “She started to like us, and we liked her instantly. Later that day, my driver, Bryan Wallen, and I decided to get her.”

Captain Moree officially adopted Clementine, but she definitely belonged to every person in the firehouse. She loved to hug the firefighters in between calls, and she was always nearby whenever anyone was preparing food. “She rides on the truck when we go out on calls” said Captain Moree. “She not only makes the station feel more like home during our 24-hour shifts but also keeps us excited to come to the station.”

Clementine has made such an amazing journey from a homeless dog to a hero dog. She was named Dog of the Year at the 2022 ASPCA Humane Awards!