Helping Nature One Bite At A Time
June 9, 2011
My mom and I went to Fossil Rim this week. It wasn’t too crowded except there was a bus full of kids in front of us that took forever to move. Luckily we passed it at the half-way point.
I think the most interesting thing to see at Fossil Rim this time was when the zebras tried to eat my mom’s car.
Photos by Joe and Kari Kirkham
June 8, 2011
My cousins were up one night when they heard a noise outside. They saw a opossum limping across their yard. Well, their neighbor’s dog attacked the opossum. So they came to the rescue and noticed that there was a hole in the opossum’s leg. They went by to their other neighbors house who works at the Fort Worth Zoo for help, and the opossum was brought to a nursing facility where they take animals who were hurt in the city and fix em up. Once they are all good, the animals are released into the wild. The opossum was fixed up and is in the forest!
June 6, 2011
Today was my last day of school. YAY! I’m so happy to be free. Tomorrow I’m going to one of my favorite places in Texas — Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. Fossil Rim is one of those animal parks where you drive through it and look at all the free-roaming animals. They have a pretty intensive animal conservation program plus all types of activities that you may want to look at for the summer. They have camps and programs and they have this thing called a Nature Challenge where families compete against one another at various missions and projects. It’s meant to get families in the outdoors and in nature (http://www.fossilrim.org/index.php). I think I’d like to check it out for something to do this summer.
I love Fossil Rim. My earliest childhood memory comes from there. I was feeding an ostrich and he tried to swallow my entire hand.
I was one of those kids several years ago that may or may not have been exposed to a sheep with rabies from the park. Fossil Rim was very good about trying to contact everyone and let them know if they had been at the petting zoo at Fossil Rim during a certain time they may have been exposed. Well — I was there during that time. My mom and dad did not want to risk it so I had to get rabies shots. It was not fun. I had to have eight shots (not all at once) with this big ol needle right in the muscles. I remember biting my mom’s hand while she helped hold me down for the shot. I apologized to her the whole time I was doing it but I wanted to get away. One time I threw a book at her head. Another time I made a break for it and ran out of the doctor’s office and all the way down almost to the parking lot before my mom caught me. I sound like a real brat but those shots were horrible. To this day I HATE shots and needles of any kind. My mom figures I will never get a tattoo because you have to use a needle to get one.
I’ve had a lot more good times at Fossil Rim than bad times. My dad, mom and I spent the night in one of their safari cabins once. It was fun because we got to see all the animals come down to the watering hole at sunset. We heard coyotes howling that night. We also got a behind-the-scenes tour where we got to see the Attwater Prairie chickens and some of the other animals you don’t get to see in the park.
Since school is out for the summer I will probably be adding more and more stuff to my blog. I hope you will check it out now and then and tell your friends to check it out, too.
May 16, 2011
I went to Bridgeport this weekend to the Center for Animal Research and Education (CARE). I haven’t been for awhile so it was fun to see all the cats again. I heard some new stories like what happened to Princess, one of the white tigers. See, CARE takes a lot of donated food from people but they are real careful about what they take because some stuff can hurt the cats. Some people gave CARE a horse that they said had died of natural causes but the horse was really euthanized. This made the cats that ate it real sick. Princess especially got sick and almost died. The people at CARE had to do a lot to save her. The good news is that Princess is now OK and she talks a lot to people who come through the facility (she likes a lot of attention). The sad news is that when CARE has to spend money on stuff like treating Princess then there is not as much money left for other stuff, like buying food or fixing up their pens.
If you want to help CARE then click on my link on this site and the CARE site will tell you how to donate. Be sure to tell them that “Joe sent you…”
May 5, 2011
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There’s an organization for kids if they are real interested in nature. It’s called Action for Nature (www.actionfornature.org). If you are interested in conservation and then telling other kids about conservation you should look at this site so you can get ideas on how you can help the earth.
I just bought some of those Japanese sodas with the really unique bottles at World Market yesterday and they give a part of those proceeds to Japan to help with the earthquake victims. Go buy and drink a lot of soda to help the cause.
There’s a really funny YouTube about a jumping spider that is on the NPR site today. Check it out because it’s really good.http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/05/05/135963961/dirty-dancing-a-gallant-spider-goes-all-the-way.
I’ll be glad when school is out for the summer so I can spend more time with my blog!
April 20, 2011
Recently I have been to the Fort Worth Zoo. They have this new thing where they bring these robotic dinosaurs and put them all over the zoo grounds. Even though the robots are kind of cheesy when they move its still a interesting sight. I would recommend you go see it if you like that kind of stuff but if you go on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday it will be jam packed. So if you do end up going I hope you like it.
April 15, 2011
My name is Joe Kirkham (Kirk-um) and I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I love animals and nature. Ever since I was a baby I would always carry those little plastic animals with me. Instead of a security blanket or a stuffed animal, I had to have my “guys” with me. I called them “guys.” I always had to have two or three in each hand, too. Sometimes I had to have three of the same animal in both hands and sometimes I had to mix them up.
For about four years now I have been trying to raise money for animal conservation. At first I tried to raise money for some of those big organizations that always ask for donations by mail and to thank me for big donations they send me return address stickers with MS JOE KIRKHAM not MR JOE KIRKHAM . Then I started to raise money for smaller places that are in Texas. I decided that those smaller places don’t get as much money as the big places — and they really need help.
My two places that I have been raising money for are The Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge (www.fwnaturecenter.org) and the Center for Animal Education & Research in Bridgeport, Texas (www.bigcatcare.org). You should check out these sites.
In a few days I will write more about what I have done and what I am doing now to to help the FWNC&R and CARE. I want to show you pictures and tell you some facts about these places and about animals. Right now I just wanted to introduce myself.
Talk with you soon!
Joe :^)
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