“These photos of Ramen Noodle are from an ongoing project of differently abled pets I started in 2010. I began to wonder more about the lives of these animals and their owners. These are people who’ve opted to keep their animals alive, to change diapers, to buy apparatuses, to put in extra time, money, and effort to make their friends comfortable.
“I want to show how interesting these animals can be and share some of their amazing stories of survival and recovery. Some of the animals are rescued from abuse and neglect, some are a family pet that has gotten older, or been in an accident. So far all of my stories have ended in what seems to be a very positive symbiotic relationship between animal and owner, and Ramen Noodle is certainly one of these.
“Ramen Noodle was born with four legs. He was probably a mill puppy, inbred to achieve his tiny size. When he was eight months old, his first owner brought him to the vet, with a broken arm. Unfortunately the owner did not properly care for his injury, she didn’t come back to get the cast checked until nine weeks later. At that point, to no ones surprise, the arm was nearly eaten away by gangrene. By then, Ramen Noodle was listless and refused food. It was a wonder he survived.
“After weeks of intensive care, the owner was given the option of signing him over to the clinic or being reported to animal services. ‘I really don’t think his first owner wanted to hurt him. I think they just didn’t understand all the care that goes into having an injured animal,’ recalls Jaime Salata Van Tassel, who had been his clinic caretaker. She adopted him, have already been won over by Ramen while acting as his lead nurse and caring for him in her home.
“A second injury cost Ramen his other front leg, this time he jumped of a chair and broke the bone. Again, one of the effects of interbreeding dogs for small size is week bone, so his single teacup poodle arm broke so badly it could not be mended. While Jaime was devastated, Ramen surprised everyone and bounced back. Three weeks later, he was learning to walk on two legs.
“Ramen gets around the house on his hind legs. I’ve watched him run at full-speed for toys, and to play with other dogs, he is essentially unrestricted despite his lack of front arms. Like any young, happy dog, he loves attention and food.
“Ramen and Jamie show us that a dog can be just as happy as any other pet after an amputation. Jaime can provide real perspective as the owner of a pet with disabilities.
“‘Once they’re healed and they’re running, they never think twice about what happened to their arm,’ she says. ‘That’s how it was with Ramen Noodle and any amputation I’ve seen. Once the animal gets through the pain and the medication and the understanding that they have to do things a little different, it’s like it never happened.’”
The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.
“
| — | Bertrand Russell (via thelushfiles) |
“I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.”
—Bertrand Russell
Men, hitherto, have always been cramped in their hopes and aspirations and imagination by the limitations of what has been possible. They have sought relief from pain and sorrow in the hope of an after-life in heaven… But there is no need to wait for heaven. There is no reason why life on earth should not be filled with happiness. There is no reason why imagination should have to take refuge in myths. In such a world as men could now make, if they chose, it could be freely creative within the framework of our terrestrial existence. In recent times, knowledge has grown so fast that its acquisition has been confined to a tiny minority of experts, few of whom have had the energy or the capacity to impregnate it with poetic feeling and cosmic insight… We are suffering from undigested science. But in a world of more adventurous education this undigested mass would be assimilated and our poetry and art could be enlarged to embrace new world to be depicted in new epics. The liberation of the human spirit may be expected to lead to new splendours, new beauties, and new sublimities impossible in the cramped and fierce world of the past. If our present troubles can be conquered, Man can look forward to a future immeasurably longer than his past, inspired by a new breath of vision, a continuing hope perpetually fed by a continuing achievement. Man has made a beginning creditable, for an infant - for, in a biological sense, Man, the latest of species, is still an infant. No limit can be set to what he may achieve in the future. I see, in my mind’s eye, a world of glory and joy, a world where minds expand, where hope remains undimmed, and what is noble is no longer condemned as treachery to this or that paltry aim. All this can happen if we will let it happen.
“
| — | Bertrand Russell, Has Man A Future? (via notsoterriblymisanthropic) |
Contemplation enlarges not only the objects of our thoughts, but also the objects of our actions and our affections: it makes us citizens of the universe.
“
| — | Bertrand Russell (via kellietab) |
Do you think that, if you were granted omnipotence and omniscience and millions of years in which to perfect your world, you could produce nothing better than the Ku Klux Klan or the Fascists?
“
| — | Bertrand Russell (via dianarules) |
A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
“
| — | Bertrand Russell (via extra-d-terrestrial) |
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
“
| — | Bertrand Russell (via wizardryofasilverfish) |
