… the latest version of the footwear that is universally agreed upon as hideous: the newest crocs can be purchased already decorated with girl-y flowers! There are all kinds of additional trim that has been designed to add on to those holes across the front: cartoon characters, plastic jewels for adding color and sparkle, personalized photos of family, pets, any subject of your choice. But recently seen in the internet: these with the colorful posies already applied, ready to open the box and hit the streets!

We thought the floral design was printed on – but it looks so much like actual embroidery, it’s hard to say: it almost appears that part that has the specialty detail added is a separate piece that was sewn on. More cushy on the inside, on the top of your foot as well. It is hard to believe there are people who work in jobs that require hours of being up-right who have the tolerance to wear them all day – but who knows?

You will also notice, the shoe appears to be more waterproof than the older, standard model: no perforations around the edge of the sole. Good for keeping socks dry, but not so great for people who want ventilation, those who go wading or wear them at the river/beach. For some, it might just be standard, daily foot-wear. For others, with a long history of employment that requires being vertical for hours: there just is not the support feet, ankles, legs, muscles, tendons, ligaments need to maintain health.

… by Sue Grafton. The author of the ‘alphabet’ series, a set of 27 books, all identified by the sequential letters of the alphabet as the author assembled the story line for her plot. With the lead character a fictitious female private who lives in the fictitious town on Santa Teresa in southern California. After working with law enforcement for several years, then as an investigator for an insurance company, Kinsey Millhone chooses to go into business for herself. Fulfilling the requirements to become a PI, fully licensed and independent.

The main character, consistently present through out the series is Kinsey Millhone, self-employed as a private investigator. Living in a fictitious town in southern California:close enough to the Pacific that she can go for three mile run along the beach front. With fictitious neighbors, friends, geography and a few truisms thrown in to anchor the stories. Millhone’s parents died when she was a small child, causing her to be the ward of an unmarried aunt. After a aw enforcement, and working an investigator for an insurance company, she apprentices herself to qualify as PI.

In the “S” book, she is hired to investigate the disappearance of a woman, Violet, who vanished decades ago. Talking to family, friends, neighbors, police she becomes convinced of foul play. Violet’s daughter, seeking closure, struggles with the idea that she was abandoned, although the title of the book comes from the idea that the mother just ran off, simply vanished, leaving no trace, no note, never making an effort to reconnect, after being gifted a new automobile. The unlikely discovery of where that vehicle might be found leads to someone thinking Millhone needs to be silenced as well….

… found in pet shelters. Amazing pups who obviously really want to be useful, just need someone to show them what their job is! Taught by people who help the animals develop the ability to locate the hidden nests where sea turtles lay eggs on the sandy beaches just above the shore line. The female sea turtles’ reproductive task completed, after covering the holes they dig with their flippers, they then laboriously return to the salty ocean. Abandoning the dozens of small leathery eggs and disappear back into the deep water.

The canines trained for this work were first seen in an online article. Passed along as a an unusual way for those often neglected, throw-away, neglected dogs to become useful: and don’t we ALL want to feel like we were made for a purpose? Media outlets in recent years have promoted the dangers to sea turtles in fishing nets, well as land-baseed predators, like un-leashed dogs, coyotes, humans, that might up the nests and consume eggs before they mature to hatch. Plus dangers once those tiny creatures do get to the waterline, when so few survive to maturity and reproduce. And then there is climate change across the planet, which many deny as bunkum.

The world is right there at your fingertips when consulting Dr. Google: One story found in ‘People’ magazine, and another came from ‘National Geographic’, considered a well-established, reliably documented source. Such an unusual and unique approach, people who have funding to do environmental and conservation work on this particular challenge of supporting wild-life are writing research articles about the success of the task.

The reports indicated the dogs could be trained to identify the residual odor left behind when the sea turtles deposit their eggs after digging nesting holes in beach sand. This process, when done by the trained canines is not fool-proof, but far quicker and with much better results than the tedious efforts produced when humans are doing the same work, searching on two (human) feet at a much lower pace. Numbers quoted in the article for a dog named Dory on the Atlantic coast in Florida completes tasks consistently.

Magpie, seen above in the article from ‘People’ magazine was selected from a number of rescues, and trained with grant funding from Tito’s Vodka. The sea turtle breeding season starts in April and lasts through September, with Magpie starting her ‘job’ as soon as she was trained: finding many more nests in that time period than the humans had previously discovered. Trainers expect she will also help with locating injured turtles during the ‘off season’ when not detecting the ‘chambers’ filled with eggs below the sand. The turtles, after completing the task of laying eggs, often cover the holes they dig so effectively they are often invisible to humans, but the scent easily found by the trained dogs.