Barbara V Evers

Imagine taking your four-legged tail-wagger on a car trip…to the canine blood bank! Believe it or not, these facilities do exist. Rover just hops up on the table, rolls up his cuff—er—flips out his paw, and the donation begins. It makes sense. Dogs suffering from diseases, anemia, and injuries need blood transfusions. Last night, while I drove home from my local writers’ group, this story on John Tesh's radio show caught my attention. Tesh cited CNN and Dr. Ann Schneider of the Eastern Veterinary Blood Bank (EVBB) in Maryland with most of his information. It turns out that dogs have six major blood types, but depending on the breed or mix they might have a dozen! Wow. Talk about some intricate DNA. And some large breeds are universal blood donors—greyhounds, retrievers, labs, boxers, pit bulls, german shephards. Abraham Of course, my first thought was of our lab mix, Abraham. How would he react to regular visits to donate blood? According to Dr. Schneider of EVBB, ideal ...

Don’t let my blog title fool you today. Yes, I care about the environment and animal welfare, but the pandas I refer to currently reside on my dresser. Last night I dreamed that I was contributing to two donation circles. I’m not sure why the items needed to fall into the circles, but they did. Anyway, I dropped a wedding gown in one and firewood in the other. I felt nothing during those two decisions. Note, it was NOT my wedding gown since it was white and mine was peach, so don’t start analyzing that part. Anyway, the next thing I grabbed to drop into the donation circles was my two stuffed pandas. The smaller one, Teddy, has been with me as long as I can remember. It belonged to my sister first, and she gave it to me when I was small. Teddy doesn’t have any fur left, but I think that’s my sister’s fault, not mine. Over the years, he’s been re-sewn and washed many times. I asked for the larger panda a few years ago at Christmas. He came from the Bombay Company store in the mall a...

For the last two months, I looked forward to this week.  With Greenville Tech closed for the holiday, I planned to get some things done around the house, work on my writing, and read some good books. Maybe even get together with friends for lunch. The thought of this week got me through a demanding schedule in May and June. It's Thursday now, and how have I spent my week?  Bouncing balls on the front porch, playing with Fisher Price toys (a circus and train from my childhood) and coloring.  I have read some books-- Curious George, The Ugly Duckling, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, If You Give a Pig a Party --just not the ones I planned to read. So what happened?  My daughter is a single parent and suddenly got transferred out of town.  She started work this week in the new location, but she still doesn't have a place to live.  So...my beautiful, three-year-old granddaughter is staying with us. A fun week, but definitely not the week I plan...