sad animal lover

Tina Ciancaglini, 49, has been rescuing animals for years and taking care of them on her family's property near Golden Gate Estates. "These are my babies. All my kids have four feet," she said. "Everybody has a little story out here." Ciancaglini makes a living as an emergency room nurse, but her hours were recently cut, and the cost of feed has gone up, so she's been behind on bills. Then the trailer she lived in with her mother burned to the ground last week due to a faulty stove and she lost four dogs and ten cats. Ciancaglini is now in a situation where she is unable to feed all the horses unless she can adopt them out to new homes or get donations to buy feed.

segways

police funeral

senior olympics

water logged

David Hluzek who has been homeless for twenty years, surveys his camp in the woods of East Naples where the water has been rising about 4 inches per day since Saturday. "We gotta find a different place to live because this is getting a little extreme," he explained. "I'd just like to see the sun come out for five minutes." The water in the camp and in Hluzek's tent is almost a foot deep. According to the National Weather Service, there is a 70% chance of rain through Wednesday and a 30-40% chance the rest of the week.

p.s.- Mosquito/ mystery bites= the joy of rain feature hunting in Florida... I will never go swamp wading again without waders. My legs are still itching like crazy, but it was worth it.

water pollution

alligator alley

The stretch of highway between Naples and Miami that crosses the Everglades is called Alligator Alley. The Fish and Wildlife Commission arrested a man on a canal last week for stealing 133 alligator eggs while high on marijuana, so I got sent out to the side of the highway for a press conference today- its a pretty slow news week. You can read the release here. I felt bad for the tv guys who were trying to get decent audio with semis flying by at 80 mph.

city pier

sad times

I got my first assignment today- about a store- well, a whole shopping center- that's going out of business due to the economy and some bad management. I was saved slightly by the store owner's daughter and granddaughter who were helping out with the move. Regardless, it felt good to be out shooting.

life in color

My bathroom is pink and green, my roof is made of white tile, there are fuscia flowers in my yard, and I can walk to the beach... I got a little over excited when the rain didn't come back this evening and it finally all started sinking in.