A burned baby bear needs help!

[XemaSab]

A few days ago, a local forester found a burned baby bear in the woods. He took it to a wildlife rescue place, and they are currently asking for donations to help nurse this baby back to health!

http://www.ltwc.org/



Here's a link to the original article about the bear:

http://www.redding.com/news/2008/jul/17/firefighter-rescues-tiny-injured-bear-moon-fire/

Please help out in any way you can!

(This has been cross-posted to the lounge and GD.)

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. KnR

[hatrack]

2. I can't help it! Awwwwwww!

nt

[pscot]

3. I've been looking fo an excuse to post this

The Vajra Shovel award goes to Adam Deem, for living the dharma.

Smokey the Bear Sutra
(by Gary Snyder)

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings — even grasses, to the number of thirteen billions, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

"In some future time, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur, Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."

"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR
A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.
Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display — indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the West, symbolic of the forces that guard the Wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the True Path of man on earth: all true paths lead through mountains—
With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;
Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;
Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs; smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;
Indicating the Task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes; master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.
Wrathful but Calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him,

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.
Thus his great Mantra:

Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana
Sphataya hum traka ham nam

"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND.
BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED"

And he will protect those who love woods and rivers, Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children.

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel.

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice willl accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.
AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.
thus have we heard.

(may be reproduced free forever)

[GliderGuider]

6. You have no idea how much I loved that piece.

Thank you.

[XemaSab]

4. Running up the flagpole...

:patriot:

[depakid]

5. Kick for 'lil smokey

Update:

Black bear cub burned in California wildfire clinging to life

"Lil' Smokey," a dehydrated 6-month-old black bear cub horribly burned in the Northern California wildfires, was fighting for his life Monday at a care center in South Lake Tahoe.

"Everybody should keep some good thoughts for him because he is pretty critical," said Cheryl Millham, founder and executive director of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.

Her center is a licensed facility that rehabilitates and releases injured wild birds and animals.

The cub, weighing just 8.5 pounds, has been treated with antibiotics, other medicines and clean bandages each day. Until Monday, when his appetite flagged, he dined on peaches, pears, grapes and plums.

Millham credited firefighter Adam Deem, who found the bear in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest west of Redding last Thursday, with saving the bear's life.

"This bear would have been dead right now, dying an agonizing, horrible death with burned paws if that firefighter had not picked it up," said Millham. "Thank goodness this firefighter had some compassion."

As it is, the bear has a rough road ahead.

Pads on his feet must grow back, and the bear needs toenails.

"If the pads regenerate and the toenails regrow," the cub could go back to the wild, said Millham.

Without claws, the bear cannot tear apart a log to look for grubs or climb a tree.

"We like to think the prognosis is good," said Millham. "He's getting the best of medical care and donations are ming in so he gets the best food."

Lil' Smokey spends a great deal of time lying down because of burns, but can stand on his four bandaged feet.

If the bear rebounds, he will be taught to enter water to fish, search logs stuffed with grubs and rummage for acorns.

Then, he will be sedated and placed in a snow den in January or February for hibernation in a location selected by the state Department of Fish and Game.

"The center puts it through a process so that it has the best chance for survival," said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for Fish and Game.

Two bears raised last year by Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care did fine upon release, Millham said. A remote camera revealed that when they came out of hibernation in the spring they went to a rotten log and ripped it apart.

"They learned their lesson well," said Millham.

The rescue center can only accept cubs from birth to 50 pounds. Pictures of Lil' Smokey are at the group's Web site: www.ltwc.org.

The center has two other bear cubs, also 6 months old, who have grown to be roly-poly furballs weighing 35 to 40 pounds.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9962255

[alphafem1969]

7. Update on Lil Smokey

My brother Adam tells me that Lil Smokey has put on 3 1/2 lbs this week and CBS is going to fly him down to Lake Tahoe to be there for one of his veternary visits :) So he is doing MUCH better.

[alphafem1969]

8. Looks like no release back into the wild

http://www.ltwc.org/images/LilSmokeyGallery/index.htm

Adam got to see and hold him yesterday, and it looks like the paw damage is too severe to ever have him released back into the wild :( You can see Adam, Celeste and Lil Smokey in the link above