The Adventures of Periwinkle and Stinky

"Calm down, Periwinkle!  Pacing back in forth won't make Stinky get here any faster" said Periwinkle's brofur Raz.  Periwinkle nodded.  She knew he was right but she was always so excited when Stinky was coming to visit that she couldn't sit still.

Suddenly both Raz and Periwinkle heard that familiar WOOSH and Stinky came flying out of the Teleportation Tunnel and almost knocked Raz over.  "Oops, sorry Raz.  Sometimes the Teleportation Tunnel can be confusing" said Stinky.  Raz told Stinky it was okay.  "I'll leave you two lovebirds alone to get started with your adventure," said Raz.

The Tabbies giggled at "Lovebirds" and spent some time paw patting, whisker kissing, and catching up on the events of the last week.  Finally asked what the adventure was for this week.  "Are we going back to Orlando again?" he asked.  Periwinkle said they were not and were staying at her house.  She hoped he didn't mind.  "Of course not, whenever we are together it's special.  So what will we be doing?" he replied.  

Periwinkle explained that Earth week was from April 20 and ended on Earth Day which is April 22 every year.  She thought it would be fun, and informative to share some facts about Earth Day with their friends.  "Good idea," said Stinky.  "We need to be kind to our Earth and sometimes need reminders about the simplest things"

Periwinkle shared these fun facts about Earth Day:

1. Earth Day was founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson on April 22, 1970.
2. 20 million people participated in the first Earth Day.
3. More than 100 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered in the United States each year.
4. The U.S. buried or burned more than 166 million tons of resources – paper, plastic, metals, glass and organic materials – in landfills and incinerators last year.
5. It only takes about 6 weeks total to manufacture, fill, sell, recycle, and then remanufacture an aluminum beverage can.
6. Half the world’s tropical and temperate forests are now gone.
7. More than 2 million people globally die prematurely every year due to outdoor and indoor air pollution.
8. Every year in the U.S. nearly 200 billion beverage containers are sold, two-thirds of which are landfilled, incinerated or littered.
9. Recycling, reuse and remanufacturing account for 3.1 million jobs in the U.S.
10. Recycling saves 3 to 5 times the energy that waste incinerator power plants generate.
11. By reducing our waste 1% per year and recycling and composting 90% of our discards by 2030, we could save 406 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent every year. This is the equivalent to shutting down 21% of our nation’s coal-fired power plants.
12. More than 76% of cardboard boxes and 72% of newspaper were recycled in 2006 but less than 50% of printing and writing paper was recycled.

 One easy and important way to save our Earth is to use reusable bags when you shop.  Periwinkle said her Mom always uses them.  Stinky noticed that the pawsome bag his Mom sent Periwinkle's Mom for Christmas was one of the favorites!  

"Of course, we all need to recycle.  Mom always makes sure to recycle our Fancy Feast cans!" said Periwinkle.

Periwinkle also told Stinky that, living by the beach, they were so much more aware of the need to recycle plastic.  "We need to protect our turtles," she said and Stinky said he remembered the turtles from one of their other adventures.  They both spent some time reading 

54 of the Best Ways to Live That No-Single-Use-Plastic Life So You Can #SaveTheTurtles.  

"What else can we do at home?" asked Stinky.  "Well, we can grow a lot of our own fruits and veggies so we can be sure there are no harmful pesticides in our foods and in our land.  Mom grows herbs and some veggies and we have a mango tree and an avocado tree"  Of course, Stinky was a typical boy and had to climb up the mango tree!!  He was amazed at how many baby mangoes there were!

If you want to do something in your town, you could join a group planting trees.  Trees are so important to our environment!

While searching for more ideas about Earth Day they found a site where you can compute your carbon footprint and they had Periwinkle's Mom try it for them.   Click HERE to find your footprint.

They also found a list of things YOU can do on Earth Day!

All that research made them hungry and they went outside to have a snack of Temptations, Fancy Feast and some nip flavored earth day cookies.  Of course, they made sure they recycled the cans when they were done.

Soon it was time for Stinky to head home.  They shared some time whisker kissing and headbonking.  Stinky told Periwinkle he had a great time and learned a lot.  She was pleased.  "I was afraid you would be bored" she said.  "Anytime I spend with my steady girlfriend could never be boring," he said.  Periwinkle blushed and thanked him.