Miniature Horse Trains as Guide for Muslim

28-year-old Mona Ramouni an attentive Sunni Muslim lost her sight to retina damage, a common side effect of premature birth. She has lived, studied and worked in the Detroit suburbs all her life relying on her family to guide her around. As a Braille textbooks proof-reader, she craved more independence. Respecting the feelings of her Jordanian-born parents, who like many Muslims consider dogs to be unclean animals, she also accepted that having a Guide Dog in the home was out of the question.
However, Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter, says however, that although most Muslims believe dogs can violate ritual purity, horses are viewed as "regal animals," though, "there would be concerns about bringing a horse into certain establishments and areas of worship as well."
Cali, a miniature 3-year-old former show horse, official title, Mexicali Rose standing about 30 inches tall and weighing about 125 pounds. "This is a really awesome little horse,"I want a horse that will be a partner for the next 30 or so years. ... What I really want is to be able to take her places and go places with her that neither of us ever would have been able to do without each other," Ramouni said.
There are only about five miniature horses besides Cali, trained as guides for the blind in the United States according to Cali's trainer, 61-year-old Dolores Arste.
Ramouni paid for the horse, $450 a month for Arste's training and other expenses out of her savings. Since she has had no experience of working with a guide dog, she has had to learn from scratch how to control a guide animal and has worked hard with Cali. "I've never met a young woman with so much dedication," Arste says. Cali’s training took place in both Hatfield, Ark., and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.,where Arste taught her how to get in and out of vehicles, guide through crowds and stand still indoors.
Additional training may take an additional two months before Cali can join Ramouni for good, taking up residence in a newly erected shed on Ramouni's lawn. "Taking on a horse as a guide is a huge commitment, same as a dog but with more physical needs," Arste, 61, says. "It is not a novelty. It is a real working animal. The horses can live into their 30s, more than twice as long as most dogs.”
Having Cali as a guide has opened up new opportunities for Ramouni, but the U.S. government may soon tighten the laws on exactly what defines a guide animal under the Americans with Disabilities Act to exclude farm creatures such as horses. “The new ADA regulations are under review and final language will be issued later this year,” ~ Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar.
Ramouni, meanwhile hopes to pursue a doctorate in child psychology at the university's main campus in Ann Arbor. “The benefits go beyond the practical. Before Cali, I had basically given up. I mean, I had been to the point where I thought, 'I'm going to get nothing out of my life’ And having Cali ... showed me that I had forgotten about all the optimism I had as a kid. When I was a kid, I thought I could do anything. I thought everything was possible."

The Dog That Cornered Osama Bin Laden ... not your standard K9...nor is the gear‏

Cairo: War Dog of the US Navy SEALs (DevGru Unit)

(Elite K9 Commandos)

When U.S. President Barack Obama went to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, last week for a highly publicized, but very private meeting with the commando team that killed Osama bin Laden, only one of the 81 members of the super-secret SEAL DevGru unit was identified by name: Cairo, the war dog. Cairo, like most canine members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs, is a Belgian Malinois. The Malinois breed is similar to German shepherds but smaller and more compact, with an adult male weighing in the 30-kilo range.

(German shepherds are still used as war dogs by the American military but the lighter, stubbier Malinois is considered better for the tandem
parachute jumping and rappelling operations often undertaken by SEAL teams. Labrador retrievers are also favoured by various military organizations around the world

Like their human counterparts, the dog SEALs are highly trained, highly skilled, highly motivated special ops experts, able to perform extraordinary military missions by SEa, Air and Land (thus the acronym). The dogs carry out a wide range of specialized duties for the military teams to which they are attached: With a sense of smell 40 times greater than a human’s, the dogs are trained to detect and identify both explosive material and hostile or hiding humans. The dogs are twice as fast as a fit human, so anyone trying to escape not likely to outrun Cairo or his buddies.

The dogs, equipped with video cameras, also enter certain danger zones first, allowing their handlers to see what’s ahead before humans follow. As I mentioned before, SEAL dogs are even trained parachutists, jumping either in tandem with their handlers or solo, if the jump is into water. Last year canine parachute instructor Mike Forsythe and his dog Cara set the world record for highest man-dog parachute deployment, jumping from more than 30,100 feet up — the altitude transoceanic passenger jets fly at. Both Forsythe and Cara were wearing oxygen masks and skin protectors for the jump. Here’s a photo from that jump, taken by Andy Anderson for K9 Storm Inc. (more about those folks shortly).
As well, the dogs are faithful, fearless and ferocious — incredibly frightening and efficient attackers. I have seen it reported repeatedly that the teeth of SEAL war dogs are replaced with titanium implants that are stronger, sharper and scare-your-pants-off intimidating, but a U.S. Military spokesman has denied that charge, so I really don’t know (never having seen a canine SEAL face-to-face). I do know that I’ve never seen a photo of a war dog with anything even vaguely resembling a set of shiny metal chompers.When the SEAL DevGru team (usually known by its old designation, Team 6) hit bin Laden’s Pakistan compound on May 2, Cairo’s feet would have been four of the first on the ground. And like the human SEALs, Cairo was wearing super-strong, flexible body Armour and outfitted with high-tech equipment that included “doggles” — specially designed and fitted dog googles with night-vision and infrared capability that would even allow Cairo to see human heat forms through concrete walls. Now where on earth would anyone get that kind of incredibly niche hi-tech doggie gear? From Winnipeg, of all places. Jim and Glori Slater’s Manitoba hi-tech mom-and-pop business, K9 Storm Inc., has a deserved worldwide reputation for designing and manufacturing probably the best body Armour available for police and military dogs. Working dogs in 15 countries around the world are currently protected by their K9 Storm body Armour.

Jim Slater was a canine handler on the Winnipeg Police Force when he crafted a Kevlar protective jacket for his own dog, Olaf, in the mid-1990s. Soon Slater was making body Armour for other cop dogs, then the Canadian military and soon the world. The standard K9 Storm vest also has a load-bearing harness system that makes it ideal for tandem rappelling and parachuting.

And then there are the special hi-tech add-ons that made the K9 Storm especially appealing to the U.S. Navy SEALs, who bought four of K9 Storm Inc.’s top-end Intruder “canine tactical assault suits” last year for $86,000. You can be sure Cairo was wearing one of those four suits when he jumped into bin Laden’s lair. Here’s an explanation of all the K9 Storm Intruder special features:

Just as the Navy SEALS and other elite special forces are the sharp point of the American military machine, so too are their dogs at the top of a canine military heirarchy. In all, the U.S. military currently has about 2,800 active-duty dogs deployed around the world, with roughly 600 now in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here’s the link to a dandy photo essay about U.S. war dogs that just appeared in the journal Foreign Policy. Several of the photos I have included here are from Foreign Policy, as you will see. Other photos are from K9 Storm Inc.


As for the ethics of sending dogs to war, that’s pretty much a moot point, don’t you think? If it’s ethical to send humans into combat, then why not dogs? At least the U.S. now treats its war dogs as full members of the military. At the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. combat dogs there were designated as “surplus military equipment” and left behind when American forces pulled out.
NB: THIS POST WAS TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM AN EMAIL I RECEIVED.(THANK YOU ARLENE) IT IS NOT IN ANY WAY MY OWN WORK OTHER THAN THE LAYOUT ON THIS BLOG PAGE. I AM ENTITLED TO NO CREDIT FOR THE CONTENTS OF THIS POST, BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT AS MUCH AS I DID.

Zia Pueblo Sun Symbol

       

 

This image, The Zia, is an ancient Zia Pueblo sun symbol. “Zia” meaning sun. The Zia are an indigenous tribe based at Zia Pueblo, an Indian reservation in the state of New Mexico, US... The Zia are known for their pottery and use of the Sun symbol.                                                
Zia is an Arabic name meaning Light. Light emitted from objects such as the Sun and the Stars rather than the reflected light of the Moon. It is named Noor.

The Sun Symbol

The Zia Indian sun symbol represents the earth’s four directions, the four seasons, the four periods of each day and the four seasons of life and also mans four sacred duties: to cultivate a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and to uphold the welfare of his people. This ancient symbol is found on pottery, art, and other Zia Pueblo artefacts.
Consisting of a red circle with groups of rays pointing in four directions, it is painted on ceremonial vases, drawn on the ground around campfires, and used to introduce newborn children to the Sun along with other sacred rituals.
The number four is considered sacred by the Zia Indians, and can be seen repeatedly in the four points radiating from the crimson circle. It’s outreaching lines which extend in the four directions of the compass, give the symbol sacred meaning to the Zia. The sacred number four symbolizes the Circle of Life: four winds, four seasons, four directions, and four sacred obligations. The circle binds the four elements of four together

The Zia Sun Symbol is the sole symbol featured on the Flag of the State of New Mexico. The red sun honours the Indian Nations, on a yellow field (yellow was the royal colour of the Spanish crown carried by the conquistador Coronado in 1540, the date of his entrance into New Mexico, at Zuni and the first recorded European contact with North American Indian people)

The new state flag was designed by Dr. Harry Mera of Santa Fe, New Mexico, an archaeologist familiar with the Zia sun symbol found at Zia Pueblo on a 19th century pot.
The salutation, “I salute the flag of the State of New Mexico and the Zia symbol of perfect friendship among united cultures," was many years ago commonly recited in New Mexico public schools after the United States pledge of allegiance.
It is the firm belief of Zia Wolf-Sun that as we cross cultures and nations in our virtual worlds, that this “Zia symbol of perfect friendship” be a reminder to us all, of of our obligations to respect and treat in the right way everyone we should meet in course of our virtual travels. Let it be so!!