My Best Friends with 4-Paws

American Press Travel News March 12, 2020–Bob and Barb “Stopping to Smell the Roses”, and remembering his best friends.

My first dog pal was Shishkabob, she was alternately covered in bands of white and black fur. She reminded me of my favorite skewered dish of Shishkabob. I don’t have an image of her for this article, just pictures of her in my memory. I was in my last year of college, It was February, the coldest month in Vermont and it was snowing. I looked out my apartment window and saw this dog next to the front door of a Jewelry store in Brattleboro, VT. It was shivering. A patron opened the door and I saw it run in. Donning my coat, I went down the stairs, across the street and entered the store. The owner was shooing the near- frozen- dog out of the store, and the patrons smiled and looked on. I asked if this was anyone’s dog? No one responded, and so I scooped her up, took her home and she became my first, 4-paw, best friend.

Terry lived with me for 14-years. She really lit-up my life. Long gone now, I remember her funny, and sometimes delightful antics. My second dog was when living in the Florida Keys. It was a rainy New Years and Barb heard about a dog that was being held, but being mistreated by this family in Key Largo. The puppy-dog was 7-months old. He was being left in a closet in a plastic garbage bag with his muzzle taped, so when the owners who were tenants, and not allowed to have a dog, left their home, he couldn’t bark. I took him, after being extremely gruff with the people, cleared him of ticks and worms, and Charlie became my dock-dog. He too made it to 14-years. He was our traveling companion all over the USA as we traveled in our motorhome, fly fishing America!! My third dog also traveled with us around America. Terry, mixed up Terry, was our fabulous pal for about 14-years too! Terry saved me from a huge tree that fell in the exact spot I had been standing, one evening at our farm. He pulled so hard and whined that I walked away from repairing a solar fence light. The tree fell seconds after I was away from the fence. We buried Terry 2-years later after his kidneys failed, on our farm, with a carved granite head-stone made for me by a Cherokee Indian in Alabama. Dogs-just cannot live without them, and for me it was proven!!!!

**Barb in Minnesota fishing with Charlie.**

Koko Crater Botanical Garden Oahu, Hawaii

**Signage allows casual visitors to understand the what Koko Crater Botanical Gardens is all about. Image: Richard Hines**

American Press Travel News-January 20th, Hawaii, USA–Columnist, Richard Hines at Koko Crater Botanical Garden in Oahu, Hawaii–My wife, Pam and I decided to make one more early morning trip before our 6:00 PM flight out of Honolulu. Pam is active with our local Garden Club and one of the Master Gardner’s in our home county in Kentucky. With these credentials, it was obvious flowers were on the agenda, so we opted for the Koko Crater Botanical Garden. It was our third garden tour this past two weeks and while she was busy checking out the names of flowers, I concentrated on photographing some of the local birds.

During the entire trip bird photograph was a high priority and because Koko Crater was not crowded, I was able to photograph as many if not more birds in this garden than any other location we visited. On this morning, I was able to add several birds to our life list plus photograph Zebra Dove, White-rumped Shama, and Red-billed Leiothrix among others.

The 50,000-year-old crater has created perfect growing conditions for barrel cactus and other desert species across the 60-acre garden which is within the 200-acre crater site. We saw an interesting mix of desert plant species from America, Africa, and Pacific locations

**White Rumped Sharma. “I enjoy finding birds that live in exotic locals.” image Richard Hines**

When you drive in the parking area, you won’t find a visitor station as at other gardens and as we walked through the gate you will find a sign and information brochures near the gate. This the area where you will first notice the grove of Plumeria trees which provided a unique scent as we walked along the trail.
The Koko Crater Botanical Garden is located on the eastern end of Oahu, Hawaii. You will find four major collections which are organized by region (Africa, the Americas, Hawaii, Madagascar). In all there are around 500 trees comprising 200 species that you will see around the 2-mile-long loop trail.