It was only a few months ago, in late June of 2013, when the animals at the Calgary Zoo were forced to evacuate because of rapidly rising water levels on the Bow and Elbow Rivers.Little did they know that they would be joining an already hefty evacuee list with tens of thousands of local Calgarians, some of whom probably had seen them at our awesome zoo at one point or another.

It's been just over three weeks since raging floods wiped out countless homes and caused massive devastation here in Calgary and in Southern Alberta. It is nothing short of heartbreaking to consider what so many people are enduring, and what they have lost. The worst of it is that many of those losses can never be restored, replaced or rebuilt.But in the face of the worst disaster ever to hit this city, or indeed, this part of Alberta, our mayor, Naheed Nenshi, has been the voice of reason and reassurance.

There are so many reasons to love Calgary. One of my long time favourites is its amazing location in the front yard of the Rocky Mountains; our protectors they seem to be from coastal tsunami's and earthquakes that occur near fault lines such as the one that runs along the coast of British Columbia.