Saturday, daughter-in-law, Laurie and I walked and rode the trails of PAWS, Performing Animal Welfare Society. All of the animals that come here are in trouble, have been abused or tied up for years, confined in zoos, and so on. PAWS gives the animals freedom near the end of their lives. It is a great charity. The sad part is how awful some of them have been treated before they arrive at PAWS. Tigers, a black leopard, and lions, were off somewhere in the bushes and trees enjoying their freedom and space except this barely visible lion who took a liking to a nap on a platform next to the fence.
We saw four active Black Bears. They have red or black fur.
Protective fencing makes it tough to photograph them. The camera wants to focus on the fence.
Laurie is an elephant lover and has never touched one and felt their leathery skin. She has a vast collection of elephant items that started when she was in grammar school. She hopes someday to ride an elephant. It is pleasant to view them out in the open enjoying a spacious range. PAWS has 2300 acres for the animals to roam.
This is Nikolaus, a young bull. PAWS is the only sanctuary to take bull elephants.
He wanted to be playful and stay where all of us were gathered.
He rested his heavy trunk on the bars and seemed to say, "Isn't anybody gonna throw me a carrot?"
We bused past Asian elephants grazing in a flower filled field.
These two African Elephants rummaging for something good to eat next to an oak snag. r
A couple of females were grabbing everyone's attention as they staged themselves by the fence close to a road stop.
They came from a performing background and were obviously begging for goodies, though no one but staff is allowed to feed them anything. One kept tooting funky elephant calls with her trunk, and tossing dust over her head. The other would crowd the fence, step on the steel cord as though to say, "I could bust through this flimsy fence if I wanted too."
Of course, they can't.
We returned to the bear sanctuary and then had lunch in town. (PAWS is located in San Andreas.) If you plan to attend an event, contact them through their website and read the stories and see good pictures at this link. It was a fun time in on a nice day at PAWS.
http://www.pawsweb.org/
Sunday, Mother's Day, Laurie and Ken hosted a salad lunch and dessert.
Laurie is a stellar cook and loves to try new recipes. The salads were varied and different. She made deviled eggs with avocado as the binder instead of mayonaise. They were good. Of course, before the salads, we munched on all the snacks. Is it a habit to eat before we eat?
Lauries's sister, Michele brought carrot cake, Virginia made berry cobbler, and Laurie made a really good key lime pie also with avocado as part of the ingredients. Avocado makes it a healthy dessert.
Someone took all we mother's picture. I don't have a clue what we were laughing about. Laurie, Michele, Virginia and Me.
Then we trooped over to my brother, Clark's house for Mother's Day Dinner with a whole new set of mothers. Clark, with his future Mother-in-law, Sue.
Sue's sister, Jean.
Clark's father-in-law to be with their daughter, Tammy.
Clark's fiance, Theresa, on the right conferring with Laurie.
Theresa's daughter, Whitney is unmarried and has no children.
Theresa's daughter Courtney, with the newest member of the family, seven month old Tyson.
Courtney with husband Josh, the baby, and two of the cutest sisters who dote on baby brother. Theresa has a third daughter, Lindsey who was unable to attend. Clark has a daughter, Melissa, who lives in Texas.
Tammy's son John, has two dogs. No kids.
Clark allowed each woman, and the grand-daughters, to pick from the bouquets of flowers hanging on the patio covers. Cammi picked this one because it matched her dress.
Her younger sister went for contrast, black and yellow petunias. Beautiful.
This is the gang, but everyone moves around. Somehow, I missed Matt, Tammy's husband. We had a good chat, though.
Baby Tyson is the new apple of Grandma's eye.
My brother Bill and Clark live near each other, that is makes three of us in Calaveras County. We said our goodbyes, and waddled off home, each of us with a huge bouquet of Petunias. Theresa, too, is a marvelous cook and we can't seem to help but eat. All of us decided we prefer family time to dinner in a restaurant, even if it means a lot of cooking.
