Category: Animals

Hometown history

The Sequim Museum and Art Center‘s new location allows for better viewing of an exhibit about one of Sequim’s unique claims to fame, the Manis Mastodon.

In 1977 local resident Manny Manis was digging on his property when he unearthed a large tusk. As his wife Claire tells the story, his first thought was that he’d found an elephant. Together, however, they had the good sense to find research archaeologists. A team from Washington State University excavated a mastodon whose age was subject of controversy until more current technologies aged it to over 13,000 years old.

The Manis Mastodon is of particular importance because there is evidence of scoring on the tusk from a human tool as well as a spear point embedded in a rib bone. It is evidence of one of the earliest interactions between humans and mastodons in the Americas. The site is also one of the oldest in North America.

The dig site was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and was donated to the Archaeological Conservancy in 2000.

Click here for more information about the Manis Mastodon Site. It’s an interesting story. The exhibit at Sequim Museum and Art Center tells the story as well, along with a large rendering of a mastodon with some of the unearthed bones.

Meet Hadley

We have joined a group of local Guide Dog puppy raisers called “Puppy Pilots,” a group of adults who take on the early training stages of pups for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Raisers teach pups the good behavior needed for a career as a guide, acclimating them to a broad array of situations and environments. Hadley is the newest pup to come to Puppy Pilots. She is 10 weeks old, very smart, and sweet as can be.

We are “sitters” for Puppy Pilots. Pups will stay with us from time to time. But it’s more than a bed and biscuit gig. Like Hadley, we’re learning the ropes to grow a good canine citizen and are training, too. I plan to follow little Hadley as she learns the ropes and progresses to a possible career as a guide dog.

Theme Day: Brown

For today’s City Daily Photo theme of the color brown I present a pair of my favorite local Shire horses, a British breed of draught horse used in farming. There’s a small herd of these horses here that are used as plow horses and they rarely fail to catch my eye. They’re big and gorgeous.

Click here to see how other City Daily Photographers from around the world have met today’s challenge of “Brown.”

Theme Day: Black

Today’s City Daily Photo Theme Day color is “Black.” This is our black Labrador Retriever, Chord, and, for me, it’s a sad post. We had to say goodbye to Chord last month and we’re still gingerly touching the edges of the painful void he left behind.

Part family, part ambassador of the animal world, he seamlessly fit himself into our life for 13 years. He was smart enough to understand what we wanted and smarter still to teach us what he wanted. He left behind the very best memories. We couldn’t have asked for a better companion.

Click here to see other posts for today’s theme.