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Archive for the ‘Pets + Domestic Animals’Mar 6, 10 Comments (0)
 Rufo Hi friends, just a very quick note tonight to just say hi and all is well. I received a note a week ago from a friend on the list asking about our Dolphin Academy mascot Rufo so here he is. I shot this yesterday as he hung from one of the many palm fronds in his personal little palm tree. Rufo is so funny to watch and is a super big hit with the guests each day. He will hang completely upside down holding on with just one leg and then like a circus performer he will swing his body and pop his head up thru the palm fronds as you see here as if to say “here I am”, we love him!
I went for a deep dive today down to 102 feet with a friend from work out in front of the aquarium in search of new sponges. We found a great new area that was just loaded with goodies, will take Aimee back there on her next day off to help me search for photo worthy shots. After work I went on a nice fast hour and a half mountain bike ride in the wilds of Curacao. The trails are so dusty and loose now, man does the Caribbean ever need rain!!
That’s about it, talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Dec 18, 09 Comments (0)
 Scooby-Doo Good evening all, Aimee here along with my “fat-faced-dog”, or as Barry calls her, “Scooby Doo”! Yes, and believe it or not this photo was taken more than one hour later after a vet visit and a IV steroid injection! Just imagine what she looked like when I picked her up on the trail? Now, I understand you basically know the story; Barry and the dogs were on the trail working, I was at the Aquarium, and got this panicked phone call that said “we have an Indi emergency, you have to take her to the vet right now!” Ok, now those are the words no pet owner wants to hear, especially this paranoid mamma. At this particular time as well, our car was at the shop, so I was only on the bike. I quickly dropped everything I was doing, begged a friend for the keys to her jeep and ran out of there. Barry said her face was humongous and I was mostly worried about her air pipe becoming restricted from the swelling. We were not sure what she got in to, either bees or ants, there are plenty of both out on the trail. Well, when I picked her up her eyes were only slits, she could barely open them at all. So, I called the vet and met him at his clinic (on a Sunday morning), he checked her out and decided to give an IV injection and sent us home. Barry kept an eye on her all day and by the next morning, she was back to new and looking for something else to get into! She is definitely our “busy one”, the next day actually the lid was left off the dog food bucket (little did Barry know), I came home an hour later and said, “hmmm, Indi sure looks bloated”. Then I went upstairs and found the source! Let’s just say there was lots of moaning and sleeping for her the rest of the evening. Well, that is the dog saga for the week, she sure keeps us on our toes. The adventures never end. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Although it’s almost Christmas, we are still barefoot!
Aimee
Dec 10, 09 Comments (0)
 Christmas Kitty 09 X-Mas Card Good evening friends! Who remembers the tiny little kitten I found in the middle of the desert this year?? For those of who don’t remember or are new to the blog I found the smallest little kitty on the top of big rocky hill near the ocean in the middle of nowhere! The dogs went crazy when we first heard the meowing but instantly helped me flush the kitty out of a big mound of cactus and overgrown brush. Seconds later out popped this beautiful little homeless kitten and without a second thought I opened my big camera bag and carefully placed him inside for the long walk back to the car! Needless to say I had two dogs stuck to me like glue the whole way back to the car and were basically going crazy from the non-stop meowing coming from by bag. We immediately rushed him to the vet but to our surprise he was in pretty good health. Then over the course of a few weeks Aimee fed him powdered milk thru a syringe and then he gradually started eating on his own. I can’t remember how long we had him but as you can see I made good use of our new family member and photographed him constantly in all kinds of fun positions and figured why not use him for our Christmas card this year! Well the story has a great ending, my friend and co-worker Sorayda came by one evening to see him and it was love at first sight and he has been with her and her husband ever since and is now named Mundi for where he was found. Here in Curacao Mundi means the desert, the name just fits. Most of you who know me know I am not a big cat fan but this little guy stole our hearts, we enjoyed every minute with him and we are so thankful he got a great home, he’s one lucky cat!
We had a pretty busy day today, Aimee and I took the dogs to Saint Joris for a nice walk something we haven’t done together for a long time. It was so hot and windy by 10:00 that we were forced to go home. At 2:30 I did a dive down near Punda at the site of the new proposed Pen Resort Hotel. I was hired to take two VIP’s on a tour of the reef and show them the important corals that will need to be protected during the building of a new breakwater project. Most breakwater’s around Curacao are built will gigantic stones that are dumped into the water but this one will be done with steel making it safer and maintenance free and there should be far less damage to the reef during installation.
Well once again I just want to thank everyone who came to visit us this year for bringing needed supplies and gifts to us, it’s like Christmas six times a year!! Aimee and I also want to thank all our friends for all the help in the past and present helping to make our lives what they are today, we have countless friends that have done so much for us and we will never forget it. This year went by so fast and I still can’t believe I never got a vacation?? Yeah I know I live on a Caribbean island and I don’t need a vacation right?? We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and a Merry Christmas!
Sunny Curacao regards, Barry, Aimee, Inca, Indi, Nila and Mundi!
Oct 31, 09 Comments (0)
 Rufo in the rain Good evening boys and girls how was you Halloween day?? Our day here started at 4:30 in the morning! Our friends Zenzi and Ester came by at 5:00 and took Aimee to the airport, all three girls are headed to the IMATA conference in Atlanta. So I am on my own again for a week, will have to start getting up earlier just to get everything done in time.
Today we got hammered by a tropical downpour that dumped so much water in such a short time we had to cancel all our afternoon dolphin swims due to yucky water! When it rains like it did today everything runs into the sea causing very poor surface water conditions! While it was raining or should I say pouring someone inside yelled “look at poor Rufo”! Well poor Rufo was having a blast! He would open his mouth and drink water plus spread his wings open getting a super full body shower!! I shot this from a window, it was raining so hard I couldn’t get near him without getting soaked. After the rain stopped he just sat there in a daze a little bit like he was cold so I picked him up and dried him the best I could.
After work I took the hound dogs on a muddy one hour walk and a fun swim in the ocean. The ocean was like a lake tonight so the dogs had such a great time swimming and are now fast asleep! The frogs are sure making noise tonight, it’s time for bed, talk to you tomorrow, Barry
31-10-2009
Oct 30, 09 Comments (0)
 Happy Halloween Good evening friends. I spent the evening looking thru tons of pictures trying to find some kind of a scary face for Halloween but all I found was this “Happy Face” photo from Inca. I mean if you didn’t know Inca and you saw this coming at you full speed it could be seen as scary right?? Well Happy Halloween anyways I tried!
Aimee and I both worked today so not much to report. I did go on a fast one hour bike ride directly after work and then raced home and took the dogs for a very short walk returning in the dark.
Bad news for the local reef system tonight, Lionfish have just been found for the first time in Bonaire and in Curacao this week at the dive site Watamula. Lionfish are not supposed to be here and can and will do great harm as they are ferocious hunters and eating machines!! Divers are being told to immediatly report any sightings or carefully catch them and take them to the Sea Aquarium or contact me and I will help any way I can. It would appear that a cloud of larvae carried by the ocean currents passed by the windward islands recently, out of which the larvae settled when they found the sea bottom within reach. It is likely then that hundreds of juvenile Lionfish are now living around the islands. Because they can live down to depths of 150m (500 ft) or more we will never see most of them, only those that end up relatively shallow, like the three that have now been reported.
Aimee leaves early tomorrow morning for her trip to the States, it’s going to be an interesting week. Gotta run, have a safe Halloween, Barry
Sep 25, 09 Comments (0)
 Faya Hey gang, for weeks and weeks now we have been getting requests for a recent photo of baby Raven or as she is now called Faya. So tonight we finally met with her new parents Frank and Marja at Saint Joris right after work for a much overdo reunion! It was so great to finally get to see her again, we have been putting this meeting off for so long. Indi was a bit rough with her, Inca was Inca which means she really wasn’t that excited about the whole deal but hey that’s her loss! We did a long walk down to the point on Punta Mangusa where we took this photo with Aimee’s camera, I brought mine but forgot to put the card in?? So for all of you that have been asking how’s Raven doing, I think the photo speaks for itself, she is one lucky little puppy who has a great home. I told Frank tonight we will try hard and get the dogs together more on friday evenings it’s good bonding for them all.
For all of you who liked the Mating Squid photo I sent out a few weeks back you can now cast a vote on it if you are so inclined at www.underwaterphotography.com/photo-contest/Default.aspx?CT=10&ID=46709 This is one of the top underwater sites in the World and you the viewers can help be the judges, you can also click on underwater photo contest, then type in my name and it should come up as well. Many Thanks!!
Also it seems I get more people finding me on Facebook then any other place so here’s the link to that as well, www.facebook.com/home.php#/barry.b.brown?ref=name It’s been great hearing from old friends that I thought were gone forever, thus the magic of Facebook I guess? And again the few photos I have on Facebook are tiny for a reason. If I make them any bigger they can easily be copied and or become the property of Facebook that’s why I just made little thumbnails for you all, if you want to see the bigger ones check out our daily blog at www.coralreefphotos,com or www.wildhorizons.com
I am still trying to fight an in-coming sickness, I have a little sore throat now and had a pretty hard day at work. Have a great evening, thanks for your notes, Barry
25-9-2009
Jul 26, 09 Comments (0)
 Brave Heart Final Brave Heart Died just a few hours ago, we just got back from burying her in the desert under a big beautiful tree! We will miss her so much!! Keep her in your prayers, Barry and Aimee
26-07-2009
Jul 20, 09 Comments (0)
 Two Island Dogs Good evening once again from Curacao! I always tell you all that we find all kinds of things washed ashore each morning but never imagined we would find a boat?? This had just recently found it’s way to shore overnight and of course Indi had to be the first to check it out!! On the other side of the boat there was a nice little entry way which I didn’t see at first. I was taking photos of the boat when up pops Indi and then to my surprise Brave Heart climbs up, I’m not sure Indi is setting a very good example?? Well once aboard I had a hard time getting them out as the whole thing must have smelled like “fresh catch of the day”, all three of them were busy licking the inside floor boards.
Aimee and I both got off work early today and took the dogs to the “dog beach” for an afternoon of fun in the hot sun! Little Brave is such a great swimmer! I think having those big ears helps as they act like small sails, really we couldn’t get her out of the water. Indi as well swam and swam but Inca well she just stood next to me on shore and watched, if I don’t get in she won’t get in, such a daddy’s girl!!
Aimee and Emily just left to help feed the whale, I have heard it is getting stronger and swimming on it’s own now. The plan is to get her well, find a passing pod of pilot whales and release her into it?? That’s the plan.
Till tomorrow, Barry
20-07-2009
Jul 12, 09 Comments (0)
 Brave Heart Good afternoon, I just got home from a long walk at Saint Joris with the pack. They are all completely crashed spread out all over the house fast asleep! This is another shot of baby Brave Heart! I am hoping someone out there will forward this to someone else and we can find her a great home, she’s one in a million! This dog is so playful and so cute, if we could keep her we would but we can only have two dogs in the house we have now. We took this picture last week at Canoa. The wind was blowing so hard it kept her ears up the whole time, it’s hard to take these kinds of pictures when your laughing so hard!
I am getting ready for a bike ride in a few hours and then going on a night dive at Pier Baai at 7:30, need to do as much as I can today before my eye surgery on Tuesday will be out of the water for two weeks. That’s about it for this Sunday, we are sure enjoying our house guest Emily, really a nice girl!
Have a wonderful Sunday and please make some calls and forward this to anyone who might be interested. Till tomorrow, Barry
12-07-2009
Jul 2, 09 Comments (0)
 Two Puppies Hello everyone. Aimee here! Thursday was a Curacao holiday, Flag Day! So, a couple of weeks ago Barry ordered some “flag-shirts” at work. Everyone on the island wears them today. They are great, all blue with two white stars on the right chest and yellow stripes on the sleeves; the Curacao island flag colors. The island is very busy celebrating today, with people decorating their houses and flags on all the cars. I just don’t remember from years past this kind of celebration. But, what fun it is.
Well, today we all had the day off, so we took a “Brown-fun-family-trip-to-the-beach” day. We of course took ALLLL the dogs. This photo here just makes me laugh every time I look at it. First off let me explain. It has been super, super windy here for weeks and today it seemed even harder. So, don’t worry, this pups ears don’t normally stand up like this. She was facing into the wind and “whoosh” up they went. I told Barry I would have felt safer if we had a leash on her in case she took off like a kite! Well, little sister underneath had found her way under this coral boulder and dug her way to this side. Those two will keep you on your toes for sure! The windmills are over by our favorite beach, Canoa, on the north side of the island. Our plan today is one we live by: a tired dog is a good dog. After all the walking, digging and jumping, all the pups flopped asleep in the car before we even drove away. The good thing was they all slept for the next 3 hours and we went to the movies! We went to see “Up” the latest Pixar animated film; and it was awesome! I would really recommend everyone to go see it, kids and adults alike.
Well, Barry and I are headed out to show the pups to a potential new owner. It is pretty tough to find the kind of homes we are looking for. Most dog people already have several dogs. These little ones have changed so much over the last weeks. They arrived never being touched by a human and now when we walk in the room we get attacked by licking, jumping puppies. It is so wonderful to get to be a part of. So wish us luck. I know just the perfect home is just waiting for them, we just have to find them.
Aimee
02-07-2009
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