America loves its exotic pets, but just as celebrities like Paris Hilton can discard a ferret for a kinkajou as easily as changing their handbag, many of those looking for something different in a pet can’t handle the reality of dealing with the daily responsibility of caring for a wild creature.

In the case of the wolf dog, Fred Keating has created a sanctuary to house and care for these hybrid creatures. The Loki Wolf Sanctuary in New Hampshire currently provides daily care and feeding for 94 wolf dogs who live as packs in 24, one-acre enclosures.

The wild dog problem is larger than one would expect. There are an estimated 1.5 million wolf dogs in the U.S. and 500,000 of them are estimated to be at risk.

Wolves have always been America’s misunderstood predator. Hunted and trapped to near extinction they are still under attack. Just this week the Federal protections for burgeoning wolf packs in the mid-west and northern plains have been removed and hunts are planned to reduce populations to the minimum to keep them off the endangered species list. The wolf dog faces an even more daunting future. Not a domesticated dog and not a wild wolf, any dog with even the slightest genetic trace of wolf in its lineage will exhibit wolf-like traits that make them a less-than-ideal house pet and a candidate for mistreatment.

To learn more about the Loki Clan Wolf Refuge or make a donation: Click Here

The genesis of the idea for Oregon-based, Resource Revival began back in 1991 and all because of a flat bike tire. Founder Graham Bergh went from pedaling to his recycling job, to peddling thousands of pounds of recycled bike parts to people all over the world. Just in time for cupid is one of their newest innovations, the Valentine’s Bottle Opener, $12. For more of RR’s gifts and home furnishings, click here. For the hot red opener, click here.

Buy and sell handmade items ’round the world at etsy.com. This newly-listed pair of sterling silver earrings features “a simple grassy design cut by hand into the disc.” Disc is 3/4 of an inch in diameter. $22.00  Checkout Tall Grass Earrings and many more handmade items, here.

When your drink needs to coast, do it at 33rpm. Set of 6. For stores and a selection of other cool retro-fitted vintage vinyl, vinylux.net. Considering recycling your own records? Shoot ‘em an email.

For all you shoppers in Great Britain who want to do your part for this good Earth, and for funky shoe fetishists everywhere, we bring you Worn Again’s jack tweed shoe. Made with recycled rubber soles, uppers of unsold or damaged jackets from charity shops, scrap leather from car seats and the always stylish re-used jacket buttons.
Worn Again

update: as far as we can determine this shoe appears to be out of stock (3/5/08)

Recycled, handmade and Fair Trade clutch constructed from confetti candy wrap — sturdy, cute and fun for that glam girl on the run. 7.5″ x 3.5 ” only $24.00 from taraluna.com

Don’t know exactly why these appeal to me so much, but here’s an array of “you’re out of this world” kitschy nostalgia-type cards for your sweethearts. Launched in 1958, this collection coincides with the first US space satellite launch. Only $4.49 for a set of 10. Available at perpetualkid.com, a not-so-eco-friendly site. They do offer recycled doormats (a valentine’s buzz-kill), from recycled tires.

You never know what you’re going to find when you step into BASE on South Beach’s Lincoln Road. This 100% woven wool pillow works 24/7 and 365…available in 2 color combos, LOVE on one side, LIFE on the other — $98, ALL PROFITS from this sale of these pillows goes directly to UNICEF’s fund for children infected with HIV. This pillow-talk available at baseworld.com

It’s no longer about painful spikes in gasoline prices endangering the family’s day-trip to Lake Winnipesaukee, it’s about survival. We are a nation under attack on two fronts and in both cases we are complicit enablers in our own potential demise. On one hand we have the rapid decline of our environment precipitated by our constant, unchecked creation of green house gases, and on the other, a middle-eastern cauldron of dangerous geo-political forces hellbent on our destruction all financed by oil money — much of it being paid them by us. We need to regain control of our own destiny. Relying on market forces is insane. Prices are manipulated, up and down, by Saudi Arabia and the oil cartel to to maximize their profits and quell our dissent.

There appears to be only one solution to this catastrophe: a nasty, pernicious and painful gas tax that will drive gasoline prices to heretofore unseen levels. Take the tax revenue squeezed from every red-blooded American’s fuel consumption and roll it into alternative energy research and technology. Fast-track the whole damn project. Forget pathetic attempts at lowering emissions by 20 or 25% by 2020. The game will be over. Do it now. It will hurt, but in the long run we will all breathe easier.