Li'l Smokey's Rehabilitation Blog

Blog Bug

Some of you have experienced problems with the site, particularly with viewing and making comments on the webcam page, over the last couple of days. It's an issue with Typepad, the blogging service that we use.

According to Typepad:
"Categories and Archives lists are not displaying correctly on some blogs. We are currently working to resolve the bug and apologize for the inconvenience."

I'll keep you updated if and when I hear more. Until then, it looks like the best thing to do if you're having issues is to refresh the page. You may need to do this a few times, or wait a few minutes before refreshing. Thanks for your patience, and sorry for the inconvenience!

Karen

Smokey Update on Fox40

None of us have seen much of Li'l Smokey since he sealed himself off in his igloo, but if you check out the latest video update from KTXL Fox40 Sacramento (which aired yesterday), you can catch a glimpse of him in his den!

To watch the update, go to the Fox40 website, then scroll halfway down the homepage until you see the Video Player. Right now, the Smokey update is one of the options shown on the right of the video screen, but that will probably change as Fox40 posts more videos. If you don't see him, just use the Video Player search tool (at the bottom right of the Video Player) and search for "Smokey."

Enjoy!
Karen

Smokey's Igloo and the Six Pak

Smokey's Igloo.  As you can see, Smokey has barricaded himself in his igloo with straw.  This picture was taken last Monday, January 19 and when I went in to take the picture, not a straw was moving!  You can see "Black Bear" in the foreground and it would seem that he has seen better days!

This picture was also taken on Monday, January 19.  This is the "den area," where the "Six Pak" spend most of their time.  The area is 6' deep, by 10' long and 8' high.  There is a fluorescent light above the chain link ceiling, which (I hope) they are unable to reach.  But, I have said that before, like with web cams or Cat5 cable.  The picture was taken later in the day, so NONE of them were sleeping, except for, maybe, the three on the bottom. "

Smokey images for sale without permission

Hi everyone,

We've discovered that a company is selling Li'l Smokey images taken by Tom and LTWC volunteers without permission.

We're in the process of resolving this issue, but wanted to ask everyone to please avoid purchasing any Smokey images from a third party site. If you do see that someone is selling Smokey images taken by LTWC, please let us know - you can contact either tom@ltwc.org, or karen@firsttracksservices.com.

Thank you!

Karen

Smokey Update: 01/12/2009

I just sent the first update/test message to our new email distribution list. If you signed up for updates about Smokey, the webcam and LTWC, you should have received an email from me this morning.

If you didn’t receive an email and you want to be on our email update list, please email me at karen at firsttracksservices dot com. Although I did not purposely leave anyone out, I may have left someone out accidentally. Also, we did receive a couple of requests through the blog that either contained no email address or an incorrect address.

Below are updates from Tom and Sue, which they posted over in the comments section of the Webcam page yesterday.

Karen
LTWC Webmaster

[From Tom: January 11, 2009, 10:02 AM] Good morning. Cheryl and I got home last night. LOTS of high winds in the Southern California “high deserts.” But, once we got to Ridgecrest (intersection of Hwy 395 and 14), it was pretty calm from that point on. But, you have to remember, the winds were (for the most part) coming out of the west and we were on the ‘east’ side of the Sierra’s from that point until we got home.

We hear you. The web cam WILL be moved this afternoon. We will either put it in the “play area” of the Bear Rehab Cage, or in the “feeding area.” We will watch for a little while and determine which would be best. We will also keep an eye on Smokey to see if he does anything with this warm weather. It is 19 degrees right now, so I don’t think he will be coming out.

The red and yellow thing is actually ALL red. It only looks yellow from the way the sun hits it. And, yes, it IS a Kong Toy. It is made out of a hard rubber that is hard enough that makes it difficult for even a little bear cub to break into. Normally, it is used for dogs and dog biscuits are placed inside. This gives a treat when they play with it long enough. We were thinking of putting White Bear in there, giving Smokey something to do, but he played with it anyway, so we didn’t need to entice him with anything else.

As for our “vacation” -- I wouldn’t exactly call it a vacation. We traveled over 2,000 miles, worked on the float over 12 hours a day for the first five days, then visited Kiwanis clubs and divisions from Pasadena to Kingman, Arizona. Yes -- there were some down times, plus we got to see our new great-granddaughter, our grandson, our daughter and my mom, so those visits were fun. But, a lot of traveling! We will be down in Las Vegas this coming weekend for a couple of nights for more Kiwanis visits (business). Talk to you all soon. Hope you had a Happy New Year.

Tom

[From Sue: January 11, 2009, 3:13 PM] The light is switched on in the "feeding area" that you see in the forefront. The back area is the "den" where they sleep and we've left off that light. We decided to show you this area rather than the play area because they have been in this area most lately.

[From Sue: January 11, 2009, 4:49 PM] The room off to the left is the "play area" -- it's quite a large area which includes a couple of tire swings (they love those) and a 2-tiered loft. Also, that's where they find water via a "swimming pool/wading area." There are 6 bears in the 3 areas (each area can be separated by a steel door that moves up and down -- that's how we feed them and clean the areas without human interaction). The cub with the yellow tag on its ear is from Yosemite.