Big welcomes to a beautiful, young girl who was born near the St. Lawrence River and has been adopted by her new parents in Cragsmoor. Her name is River and she is about eight weeks old. She has pretty brown and white fur and adorable freckles on her English springer spaniel legs. We wish her a long and very happy life.

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I don't believe this! Obama's new Secretary of the Interior removed the wolves in the Northern Rockies from the Endangered Species Act. If I had thought this would happen, I never would have voted for Obama.

According to The Defenders of Wildlife press release, the latest is that, "Interior Secretary Ken Salazar failed to fully consider both scientific and legal inadequacies underlying the Bush administration's delisting rule before adopting it on April 2, 2009. The Bush administration delisting rule adopted by Salazar essentially allows over two-thirds of the region's wolves to be killed before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would even consider stepping back in and restoring protections."

The following is a statement by Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife:

"After working more than 20 years to restore wolves here, it's a thrill to see the wolf population finally on the threshold of recovery with more than 1,600 wolves in the region. However, we cannot ignore that this delisting plan fails to protect their future and would allow states like Idaho, which has demanded that all wolves be removed 'by any means necessary,' to decimate the population to less than a few hundred wolves. We need a delisting plan that allows the wolf population to thrive while addressing the needs and concerns of our regional residents. "

Thank goodness the DWL has brought a law suit to stop this. "Sadly," said Stone, "we have to return to the courts to reverse a delisting rule that puts us right back where we started — with a wolf population that cannot survive without federal protection."

It isn't just that they are being taken off the list, but Idaho plans a huge wolf kill. The farmers can buy sheep-protecting dogs for their herds. Why is it so wonderful for Bald Eagles to hunt and not wolves? I despise this hypocrisy. Some people feed their snakes live mice and yet are horrified if a cat kills a bird. It is all part of the natural world.

If you would go online to Defenders of Wildlife you will learn how to help. Thank you.

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School starts next week, so remember to leave your pets with water, toys, a window, and some way to go out during the day. Be sure all gates are closed if your yard is fenced, so that no one follows his best friend to school. Hope you can talk about animals at school, what they mean to us, and how to care for them.