Several months ago, I wrote about Cloe, the magnificent snow leopard, living at the loving
sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida, who was treated for kidney stones with
lithotripsy.
Unfortunately, the day my husband and I visited Big Cat Rescue, the weather was extremely hot
and humid. Cloe was ensconced in her air-conditioned den, napping away the afternoon. While I
was deeply disappointed that I didn't get to meet Cloe, I often thought about her and hoped
that on my next trip I would have the opportunity to visit her.
So I was deeply saddened the other day to learn that Cloe had died shortly before her 14th
birthday. Even though the choice was difficult, since Cloe was suffering from kidney failure,
having her put to sleep was the final gift of love Carole Baskin, the founder of Big Cat
Rescue, could give this beautiful cat. According to Carole, Cloe had lived longer than most
snow leopards. Along with the sadness of Cloe's death, the words Carole wrote soon after the
snow leopard passed touched me so deeply I felt compelled to share them here.
"I shut off the snow leopard cave air conditioner for the last time tonight- 3/8/11. Cloe the
snow leopard had just left her exquisite body and was bound for that place where all good
cats go when they die. As I walked into the office, the chorus of lions stopped me in my
tracks to listen. An over-sized butterfly began circling me and then perched on a branch
right above my head for a long moment, before disappearing high into the boughs of the tree
and darkening sky. I felt it was Cloe; happy to finally be free and wanted to share the
moment with you. She kept circling before stopping to say, 'good-bye', and leaving. Thank
you, everyone, for giving her, and all of these cats, the best lives possible."
The ability to love that deeply is truly a precious gift that should never be taken for
granted. At the same time, it is always risky for us to allow our hearts to open to an animal
and share that special bond. For at the precise moment we open to that love, we also open to
the grief we will eventually suffer when that animal dies.
It doesn't really matter if the beloved animal is a dog, cat, bird or fish, or any other
member of the animal kingdom. When we have been blessed with such a joyful relationship, we
cannot avoid the extraordinary pain and sadness that comes at the time of loss.
2011年3月14日星期一
2011年3月7日星期一
Edwards aces thrill ride with Sprint Cup win in Las Vegas
Carl Edwards jumped off the Stratosphere Tower 10 days ago and flew with the Air
Force Thunderbirds on Thursday.
His latest adventure in Las Vegas was celebrating in Victory Lane on Sunday after
winning his second NASCAR Sprint Cup race in four years at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
before an estimated crowd of 140,000.
Quite the Vegas vacation, indeed.
"I've had a blast. I don't know what I'm going to do next weekend," Edwards said,
adding he plans to award the Kobalt Tools 400 winner's trophy to the Thunderbirds,
who he said inspired him.
The resident of Columbia, Mo., was flying high after winning for the 19th time in the
series and earning his Roush Fenway Racing team $401,541.
Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne are the hottest duo in the series. They won the
last two races of 2010 and were second in the season-opening Daytona 500.
"This is the best start to a season that I've ever had," Edwards said. "We have been
performing really well, and it's just a joy to drive these race cars right now. The
Fords are back and are strong."
The victory was the seventh in 14 Las Vegas Cup races for Roush Fenway Racing.
Edwards, who won the 2008 Cup race here, finished 1.246 seconds ahead of Tony
Stewart, who led a race-best 163 of 267 laps in a Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet that
was clearly dominant.
Even Edwards doubted he would have won without a blunder by Stewart's team on lap
151. Stewart fell from first to 23rd when NASCAR assessed a stop-and-go penalty after
his car dragged a piece of equipment out of the pit box during a stop.
"We just gave one away today," Stewart said. "I don't even know what to say. We just
gave one away. (Our car) was the baddest thing on the West Coast today. Second
sucks."
Stewart regained the lead on lap 200 after his team saved time by changing two tires
and other front-runners took four. But that cost him on the last stop with 32 laps
remaining when he had to change four tires and Edwards took two and beat him onto the
track.
"It definitely didn't hurt the decision-making process to see them run extremely well
with two tires," Osborne said. "I thought our only opportunity was to leapfrog them
on the track and hope we could hold them off."
Stewart took the points lead through three races with 113, tying him with Kurt Busch,
who finished ninth after rebounding from a spin on lap 103. Edwards is third.
The last 32 laps provided the drama missing during the first 235, not counting a fire
when the engine in Kyle Busch's car detonated or Jeff Gordon's day ending when he
crashed into a wall.
After a record number of lead changes in the season's first two races, there were 21
on Sunday -- seven fewer than the track record -- and nearly all were products of pit
stops. Cars ran single file for nearly all the race with only a smattering of green-
flag lead changes.
For much of the day it would have been easier for a driver to pass a kidney stone
than another car.
"Anybody out there today knew that passing was nearly impossible," said Denny Hamlin,
who probably passed the most. A post-qualifying engine change dropped him to the rear
of the 43-car field to start and he finished seventh.
"Hopefully when we come back here (Goodyear) will soften the tire up, and that's when
you'll see a lot of side-by-side action," Hamlin said.
Edwards, though, said excitement was not lacking from his vantage point.
"I can tell you, from the driver's seat there are no more exciting tracks to drive
on," he said of Las Vegas. "This place has a lot of character. You slide the car at
200 mph through the corner and there are multiple grooves.
"Some days we will have races that are more single file and some days we won't. I
think the savvy fans know what's going on."
Spoken like a driver who had just won the race.
Force Thunderbirds on Thursday.
His latest adventure in Las Vegas was celebrating in Victory Lane on Sunday after
winning his second NASCAR Sprint Cup race in four years at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
before an estimated crowd of 140,000.
Quite the Vegas vacation, indeed.
"I've had a blast. I don't know what I'm going to do next weekend," Edwards said,
adding he plans to award the Kobalt Tools 400 winner's trophy to the Thunderbirds,
who he said inspired him.
The resident of Columbia, Mo., was flying high after winning for the 19th time in the
series and earning his Roush Fenway Racing team $401,541.
Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne are the hottest duo in the series. They won the
last two races of 2010 and were second in the season-opening Daytona 500.
"This is the best start to a season that I've ever had," Edwards said. "We have been
performing really well, and it's just a joy to drive these race cars right now. The
Fords are back and are strong."
The victory was the seventh in 14 Las Vegas Cup races for Roush Fenway Racing.
Edwards, who won the 2008 Cup race here, finished 1.246 seconds ahead of Tony
Stewart, who led a race-best 163 of 267 laps in a Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet that
was clearly dominant.
Even Edwards doubted he would have won without a blunder by Stewart's team on lap
151. Stewart fell from first to 23rd when NASCAR assessed a stop-and-go penalty after
his car dragged a piece of equipment out of the pit box during a stop.
"We just gave one away today," Stewart said. "I don't even know what to say. We just
gave one away. (Our car) was the baddest thing on the West Coast today. Second
sucks."
Stewart regained the lead on lap 200 after his team saved time by changing two tires
and other front-runners took four. But that cost him on the last stop with 32 laps
remaining when he had to change four tires and Edwards took two and beat him onto the
track.
"It definitely didn't hurt the decision-making process to see them run extremely well
with two tires," Osborne said. "I thought our only opportunity was to leapfrog them
on the track and hope we could hold them off."
Stewart took the points lead through three races with 113, tying him with Kurt Busch,
who finished ninth after rebounding from a spin on lap 103. Edwards is third.
The last 32 laps provided the drama missing during the first 235, not counting a fire
when the engine in Kyle Busch's car detonated or Jeff Gordon's day ending when he
crashed into a wall.
After a record number of lead changes in the season's first two races, there were 21
on Sunday -- seven fewer than the track record -- and nearly all were products of pit
stops. Cars ran single file for nearly all the race with only a smattering of green-
flag lead changes.
For much of the day it would have been easier for a driver to pass a kidney stone
than another car.
"Anybody out there today knew that passing was nearly impossible," said Denny Hamlin,
who probably passed the most. A post-qualifying engine change dropped him to the rear
of the 43-car field to start and he finished seventh.
"Hopefully when we come back here (Goodyear) will soften the tire up, and that's when
you'll see a lot of side-by-side action," Hamlin said.
Edwards, though, said excitement was not lacking from his vantage point.
"I can tell you, from the driver's seat there are no more exciting tracks to drive
on," he said of Las Vegas. "This place has a lot of character. You slide the car at
200 mph through the corner and there are multiple grooves.
"Some days we will have races that are more single file and some days we won't. I
think the savvy fans know what's going on."
Spoken like a driver who had just won the race.
2011年3月2日星期三
'Stabbing' pain barely hurts
Celebrity coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht -- who's consulted on the deaths of everyone from
JFK to Elvis Presley to Anna Nicole Smith -- told a Manhattan jury yesterday that
getting stabbed in the heart is only "moderately" painful, at worst.
"Yes, there is pain, but it's not great pain, such as a kidney stone, or a gall stone
in the bile duct, or a break in a big bone," Wecht testified in the sensational
"Harlem Kevorkian" murder trial, which goes to a jury today. "It's really just minimal
to moderate pain."
Wecht, 79, was the only defense witness called on behalf of Kenneth Minor, an East
Harlem man "hired" off the street by Long Island self-help motivational speaker
Jeffrey Locker to kill him in a fake mugging so his family could collect $18 million
in insurance.
KEVORKIAN DEFENSE: Kenneth Minor, in court yesterday, is accused of killing a
motivational speaker he says hired him to stab him in the heart.
Steven Hirsch
KEVORKIAN DEFENSE: Kenneth Minor, in court yesterday, is accused of killing a
motivational speaker he says hired him to stab him in the heart.
Both sides agree that the debt-plagued Locker, 52, hired Minor to "Do a Kevorkian" by
helping stage the fatal mugging in Locker's Dodge sedan in the predawn hours of July,
16, 2009.
Prosecutors call Minor a contract killer who plunged a knife seven times into Locker's
chest.
But Minor insists through his lawyer, Daniel Gotlin, that he only held the knife
against Locker's steering wheel as Locker repeatedly impaled himself.
Minor hopes to be acquitted of murder under an assisted-suicide defense.
Toward that end, Wecht testified that it's entirely possible for very despondent
people to repeatedly stab themselves, even in the heart, because it doesn't take much
strength and only causes "minimal to moderate" pain.
At least one of history's very few survivors of such an injury would disagree.
"I was just in extreme, excruciating pain," Christopher McCarthy, who was stabbed in
the heart in January 2009 by a crazed man on the subway, testified.
JFK to Elvis Presley to Anna Nicole Smith -- told a Manhattan jury yesterday that
getting stabbed in the heart is only "moderately" painful, at worst.
"Yes, there is pain, but it's not great pain, such as a kidney stone, or a gall stone
in the bile duct, or a break in a big bone," Wecht testified in the sensational
"Harlem Kevorkian" murder trial, which goes to a jury today. "It's really just minimal
to moderate pain."
Wecht, 79, was the only defense witness called on behalf of Kenneth Minor, an East
Harlem man "hired" off the street by Long Island self-help motivational speaker
Jeffrey Locker to kill him in a fake mugging so his family could collect $18 million
in insurance.
KEVORKIAN DEFENSE: Kenneth Minor, in court yesterday, is accused of killing a
motivational speaker he says hired him to stab him in the heart.
Steven Hirsch
KEVORKIAN DEFENSE: Kenneth Minor, in court yesterday, is accused of killing a
motivational speaker he says hired him to stab him in the heart.
Both sides agree that the debt-plagued Locker, 52, hired Minor to "Do a Kevorkian" by
helping stage the fatal mugging in Locker's Dodge sedan in the predawn hours of July,
16, 2009.
Prosecutors call Minor a contract killer who plunged a knife seven times into Locker's
chest.
But Minor insists through his lawyer, Daniel Gotlin, that he only held the knife
against Locker's steering wheel as Locker repeatedly impaled himself.
Minor hopes to be acquitted of murder under an assisted-suicide defense.
Toward that end, Wecht testified that it's entirely possible for very despondent
people to repeatedly stab themselves, even in the heart, because it doesn't take much
strength and only causes "minimal to moderate" pain.
At least one of history's very few survivors of such an injury would disagree.
"I was just in extreme, excruciating pain," Christopher McCarthy, who was stabbed in
the heart in January 2009 by a crazed man on the subway, testified.
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