April's Ark Pet Sitting,behavior coach, dog walks. Bonded/Insured

06/13/2026

Statistics show an estimated one in three women and one in four men experience some form of domestic abuse in their lifetimes – but currently only 19% of domestic violence shelters accept pets.

06/13/2026

♥️🐾

A warm welcome awaits at Ravenwood Castle! Always from our staff, and sometimes from Tiki. 🐾

06/10/2026

NEUTER THE ONES YOU FEED.

It's kitten season! Currently, our fosters are full. We get calls for assistance for colony cats with kittens on a daily basis. They only way we can bring them into safety is with your help. We need fosters! Do you have a spare room and a bit of time to help. We provide everything else!

Fostering saves lives!

Visit our website for information and our foster application www.lakecountycommunitycats.org/volunteer
or call 440-497-0289

06/10/2026

06/09/2026

THE WET FEATHERS ON MY CHEST WERE NOT RAIN.
MY THROAT WAS CLOSING FROM THE INSIDE.
You saw me under the feeder.

A mourning dove.

Soft gray body.

Small head.

Quiet eyes.

The kind of bird people barely notice because I do not arrive loudly.

I do not flash bright colors.

I do not fight for attention.

I just stand there.

Maybe too still.

Maybe too puffed up.

Maybe with wet feathers around my beak and chest.

Maybe you thought I had been drinking.

Maybe you thought the sprinkler caught me.

Maybe you thought I was only cold, sleepy, or tame.

But the wetness on my feathers was not rain.

It was my throat failing me.

I am a mourning dove.

The drool near my beak was not water.

The seeds I dropped were not crumbs I did not want.

The way I kept trying to swallow was not normal.

Something was growing where food should pass.

Something was making each seed harder to carry down.

A wild bird does not understand the name of a parasite.

I only understand hunger.

A throat that hurts.

A crop that feels wrong.

A beak that opens, but cannot solve the problem.

I may walk under your feeder because I still want to eat.

I may stand near the birdbath because thirst keeps calling.

But when sick birds gather where seed and water stay wet, the place that feeds us can also keep passing sickness from mouth to mouth.

Please do not touch me with bare hands.

Please do not try to force food or water into my beak.

Please do not ignore wet, drooling, puffed-up doves that cannot swallow.

Keep cats, dogs, and children away.

If I am weak, unable to fly, struggling to breathe, or sitting too still in the open, call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, bird rescue, animal control, or your state wildlife agency.

And if you see more sick doves or pigeons near your feeders:

take the feeders down for a while.

Empty old seed.

Clean feeders, platforms, and birdbaths.

Let everything dry.

Change water often.

Because sometimes kindness is not adding more food.

Sometimes kindness is stopping the place where sickness keeps meeting new mouths.

To you, I looked like a quiet dove under the feeder.

To me, every seed was becoming a stone.

06/08/2026

GRANDAD
10-yr-old male
~ 82 lbs
Needs: Single-family home with limited stairs; no fence required
Good with: Dogs and kids 10+; no cats
House trained: Yes
Crate trained: Doesn’t need one

Status: With a foster
Working on: Finding the very best retirement home
Enjoys: Yard meanders, slo-mo walks, napping in sun puddles

Prepare your comfiest chair, Grandad’s moving in! This super-sweet gentleman is a lovely, easy companion who radiates warmth, patience, and serenity. While he occasionally summons his inner protector to ward off external threats—such as the neighbor’s robotic lawnmower—he is mostly content to bask in the sunshine with his people close by. Let’s give this gentle soul the five-star retirement he deserves.

THANKS TO A GENEROUS DONOR WHO WANTS TO HELP ALL SENIOR PUPS FIND THEIR FOREVER HOMES, THE ADOPTION FEE IS $125.

Lab Rescue adopts dogs to VA, MD, DC, PA, WV, DE and NC with most dogs fostered in MD or VA. Complete an application at lab-rescue.org/adopt.

06/08/2026

Just pick up your trash! Teach your young ones learning to fish. Thanks to those who pick up after others…

THE CLEAR THREAD ON MY LEG WAS NOT GRASS.
IT WAS A SAW THAT MOVED EVERY TIME I WALKED.

You saw me near the pond.

A Canada goose.

Limping.

Standing on one foot.

Moving slower than the others.

Maybe you thought I was old.

Maybe you thought I was annoying.

Maybe you thought I was just another goose blocking the path, hissing at people, leaving mess near the water.

But look closer.

The thin clear thread around my leg is not grass.

It is fishing line.

It is almost invisible until it has already started cutting.

It tightens when I walk.

It burns when I swim.

It pulls when I try to rest.

And because I am wild, I keep moving.

That is what wild bodies do.

We do not lie down and explain the pain.

We limp.

We hide it.

We keep eating.

We keep following the flock.

We keep standing in public while something human-made slowly becomes part of our skin.

A loop around one toe.

A knot above the foot.

A hook hidden where you cannot see it.

A line that may look loose from a distance, but has already started to disappear under swelling.

Please do not chase me into the water.

Please do not throw bread to get me closer.

Please do not just cut the visible piece and walk away if the line is tight, embedded, or wrapped deeply.

I may still need help after the line is gone.

A wound can stay.

Infection can stay.

A hidden hook can stay.

Take a clear photo.

Remember the exact location.

Drop a pin on your phone.

Call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, local wildlife rescue, animal control, or your state wildlife agency.

And if you fish near ponds, lakes, rivers, or beaches:

take every piece of line with you.

Even the small pieces.

Even the tangled ones.

Even the ones that look too light to matter.

Because to you, it was almost nothing.

To me, it was a noose I had to walk on.