It has been so long since I blogged that I had to look up my pass word!
Anyway, Here is the news on Peanut Butter and Annie the one eyed cat. Right after I blogged the last time. Annie got a forever home and has not come back. Peanut Butter, however, took on her new owner's other dog and was sent packing back to her foster home, where she had been replaced in dominance and got hurt.
Peanut Butter is now at the shelter in a 4 x 5 kennel. She is mended after her fight at the foster home but we have not found her a home where she would be the only dog. She has lost the weight she needed to lose but she still is a frightening looking mutt. We had a drug dealer who wanted her but we sent him packing fast faster than PB was sent back! Nothing scarier than a bunch of angry women.
If you pray for animals, PB sure could use some, as could all our 200 or so cats and dogs, kits and pups.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Tales of the Tails at the APL – Annie
Annie is a black cat brought in to the shelter by a person who “found” her. You can never tell for sure if the animal was found or the owner just got tired it. As it was Annie came in a while ago. She was given her shots, cleaned up and placed in OB. That is the observation room not a place for the animals to deliver young, not that we don’t have a lot of that going on at the shelter. Annie was given a good bill of health and “fixed.” No animal leaves the shelter otherwise.
The problem with Annie was that she was an adult cat with one blind funny looking eye. She had been to the mall shelter several times since she was spayed, but came back to the main shelter each time. A few weeks ago, a man and some of his family came to the mall looking for a pet. The man was older and was wanting a friend to hang around with. He chose Annie because he too was just about blind. We all thought it was a great match, Annie loved the man and the man loved Annie and they had something in common.
I’d like to say that was the end of a happy story, however, when they got home, the man’s eyes started to itch and water. The more Annie snuggled up to her new best friend the worse his eyes bothered him. They family came out the main shelter in tears. He could not keep Annie. He had trouble enough seeing and the itching and watering made it much worse. “I’m so sorry Annie.” the man said with tears from allergies as well as sorrow. They left with no pet for grandpa. It was a sad story all around.
The problem with Annie was that she was an adult cat with one blind funny looking eye. She had been to the mall shelter several times since she was spayed, but came back to the main shelter each time. A few weeks ago, a man and some of his family came to the mall looking for a pet. The man was older and was wanting a friend to hang around with. He chose Annie because he too was just about blind. We all thought it was a great match, Annie loved the man and the man loved Annie and they had something in common.
I’d like to say that was the end of a happy story, however, when they got home, the man’s eyes started to itch and water. The more Annie snuggled up to her new best friend the worse his eyes bothered him. They family came out the main shelter in tears. He could not keep Annie. He had trouble enough seeing and the itching and watering made it much worse. “I’m so sorry Annie.” the man said with tears from allergies as well as sorrow. They left with no pet for grandpa. It was a sad story all around.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Tales of the Tails at the APL -- Peanut Butter
Tales of the Tails at the APL
Let us talk about Peanut Butter. How does this relate to the Animal Protective League, you ask? The answer is simple. Peanut Butter is a head strong “Pit?” mix, who came to the APL two years ago. She was skinny and malnourished, dirty and sore. Peanut Butter was the color of peanut butter. She was low to the ground like an English bull with strong jaws and a strong will. She was brought in by one of the dog wardens, but she did not stay at the APL shelter for long.
Peanut Butter was pregnant, about as pregnant as a dog can be. Because the APL was so full (more than twice capacity), she was given shots and place in a four by four foot kennel. Luckily for Peanut a couple of the dog foster parents happened to be at the shelter that day. They took pity of the poor beast and removed her to their garage/birthing center. The next day Peanut Butter had 10 puppies.
It is the policy of the APL to keep alive any animal that is safe to humans, and I can swear that Peanut Butter was safe. When I went to visit the Joys (the foster parents) they brought me in to see the passel of pups playing in the pen. Peanut Butter insisted I pick them up and give them some love’n. When I sat down on an old couch in the garage, she jumped up to join me. After giving me some love’n she settled with her head in my lap to watch the Joys' children play with hers.
Peanut Butter was so grateful to have a home with food, water and health care, she was determined to attend to everyone with the same love and affection. And so her puppies grew, came of age, were spayed or neutered and went off to their own “forever homes”. Soon the APL received a litter of pups came in with no mom. Peanut Butter was glad of the company and treated these pups as her own until they too came of age, were spayed or neutered and went off to their own “forever homes”. Time passed easy for Peanut Butter. She thought she was in her forever home, with people who loved her.
The Joy’s noticed that Peanut Butter was having trouble with a back leg, but with pups around there was little that could be done. The babies needed their mom or foster mom as the case may be. Now that the pups were all gone, Peanut Butter was scheduled for spaying surgery of her own, and she came through that just fine, but she still had trouble with her hip. The vet did some x-rays and found that the young lady had been hit by a car or club. Her hip had been broken and left to heal on its own. She needed surgery to break it again and set it properly.
The APL had a fund raiser for her surgery, which was done with skill and precision. Peanut Butter was given a clean bill of health. Her hip fixed, her shots all given, and she was spayed. It was time for her to move on to another home so that the next expecting mommy dog could have the space. By this time, more than a year had passed. Peanut Butter had established her self with the other 5 dogs and the family with 4 children. She saw that life was great there. So, what was with being taken to the Mall APL Shelter to sit in a crate and a bunch of strangers looking at her? She did not mind the attention but she certainly did not like that crate. The cookies were nice though.
Week after week, on Saturday, she had to go to the mall and sit in that crate. She got to where she could put up with it ok. The APL costs on Peanut Butter were in excess of $2,000, but the price on poor Peanut Butter kept getting lower and lower. Would no one take this poor dog? Her price dropped to a minuscule $25 and still the weeks came and went with no one to take her.
At last a couple came in looking interested! They had other dogs, fenced yard, and had had “alpha” females before. “We like hard headed dogs.” the wife stated, “and we don’t live in any city that prohibits pits. Can we visit with her in a petting room?” “Come on Baby.” coaxed the man. This puzzled the volunteers a bit but they were hopeful that this might be the couple to take Peanut Butter home. Except, many, many people had looked at her before. They took her into the petting room, the kids gave her cookies and still she had no real home.
A volunteer got Peanut Butter’s records out of the book and told the story again, “She came in pregnant, she had raised her pups and another dogs pups, she had been hit and the hip mended wrong, she had two surgeries, she likes to boss other dogs, she loves and is gentle with kids, she has had all her shots, she has been all this time in a foster home who needs the space for the next pregnant dog, so she is house broken” and on and so on.
The couple left, another, “maybe.” “What do people want anyway?” I thought. “We volunteers have enough pets. I have five dogs, KD has nine, Tam has twelve!” “I’m going to lunch!” I cried, “it’s two o’clock already. RRRuffgh”
When I got back some forty minutes later with a hair cut and a sack of food from down the mall, there seemed to be a party going on or at least a party spirit. “Peanut Butter has a HOME!” they shouted! Another couple came in and quickly “snapped” her up. They paid for her and were in Sears doing some shopping.” Shortly, the couple came back in. “There’s my Daisy!” they called out.
“Daisy?” I thought, “I would never have put that that name on a heavy, low, hard headed, muscular concrete block with golden brown fur on it. But, we all see things differently. That’s what makes the world go around.”
I walked the couple out the special door we can use (no dogs in the mall or through the stores) and watched as Daisy Butter gladly jumped in to the back of her new van and gave a big lick kiss to the back of the head of her new mom. Finally, after some 2.5 years Peanut Butter…er… “Daisy Butter” is going to her forever home. That is just fine. It is the reason for which we saps are here.
Best of luck Daisy! Now, if we could just find a home for Rascal. He is a shy pup.
Let us talk about Peanut Butter. How does this relate to the Animal Protective League, you ask? The answer is simple. Peanut Butter is a head strong “Pit?” mix, who came to the APL two years ago. She was skinny and malnourished, dirty and sore. Peanut Butter was the color of peanut butter. She was low to the ground like an English bull with strong jaws and a strong will. She was brought in by one of the dog wardens, but she did not stay at the APL shelter for long.
Peanut Butter was pregnant, about as pregnant as a dog can be. Because the APL was so full (more than twice capacity), she was given shots and place in a four by four foot kennel. Luckily for Peanut a couple of the dog foster parents happened to be at the shelter that day. They took pity of the poor beast and removed her to their garage/birthing center. The next day Peanut Butter had 10 puppies.
It is the policy of the APL to keep alive any animal that is safe to humans, and I can swear that Peanut Butter was safe. When I went to visit the Joys (the foster parents) they brought me in to see the passel of pups playing in the pen. Peanut Butter insisted I pick them up and give them some love’n. When I sat down on an old couch in the garage, she jumped up to join me. After giving me some love’n she settled with her head in my lap to watch the Joys' children play with hers.
Peanut Butter was so grateful to have a home with food, water and health care, she was determined to attend to everyone with the same love and affection. And so her puppies grew, came of age, were spayed or neutered and went off to their own “forever homes”. Soon the APL received a litter of pups came in with no mom. Peanut Butter was glad of the company and treated these pups as her own until they too came of age, were spayed or neutered and went off to their own “forever homes”. Time passed easy for Peanut Butter. She thought she was in her forever home, with people who loved her.
The Joy’s noticed that Peanut Butter was having trouble with a back leg, but with pups around there was little that could be done. The babies needed their mom or foster mom as the case may be. Now that the pups were all gone, Peanut Butter was scheduled for spaying surgery of her own, and she came through that just fine, but she still had trouble with her hip. The vet did some x-rays and found that the young lady had been hit by a car or club. Her hip had been broken and left to heal on its own. She needed surgery to break it again and set it properly.
The APL had a fund raiser for her surgery, which was done with skill and precision. Peanut Butter was given a clean bill of health. Her hip fixed, her shots all given, and she was spayed. It was time for her to move on to another home so that the next expecting mommy dog could have the space. By this time, more than a year had passed. Peanut Butter had established her self with the other 5 dogs and the family with 4 children. She saw that life was great there. So, what was with being taken to the Mall APL Shelter to sit in a crate and a bunch of strangers looking at her? She did not mind the attention but she certainly did not like that crate. The cookies were nice though.
Week after week, on Saturday, she had to go to the mall and sit in that crate. She got to where she could put up with it ok. The APL costs on Peanut Butter were in excess of $2,000, but the price on poor Peanut Butter kept getting lower and lower. Would no one take this poor dog? Her price dropped to a minuscule $25 and still the weeks came and went with no one to take her.
At last a couple came in looking interested! They had other dogs, fenced yard, and had had “alpha” females before. “We like hard headed dogs.” the wife stated, “and we don’t live in any city that prohibits pits. Can we visit with her in a petting room?” “Come on Baby.” coaxed the man. This puzzled the volunteers a bit but they were hopeful that this might be the couple to take Peanut Butter home. Except, many, many people had looked at her before. They took her into the petting room, the kids gave her cookies and still she had no real home.
A volunteer got Peanut Butter’s records out of the book and told the story again, “She came in pregnant, she had raised her pups and another dogs pups, she had been hit and the hip mended wrong, she had two surgeries, she likes to boss other dogs, she loves and is gentle with kids, she has had all her shots, she has been all this time in a foster home who needs the space for the next pregnant dog, so she is house broken” and on and so on.
The couple left, another, “maybe.” “What do people want anyway?” I thought. “We volunteers have enough pets. I have five dogs, KD has nine, Tam has twelve!” “I’m going to lunch!” I cried, “it’s two o’clock already. RRRuffgh”
When I got back some forty minutes later with a hair cut and a sack of food from down the mall, there seemed to be a party going on or at least a party spirit. “Peanut Butter has a HOME!” they shouted! Another couple came in and quickly “snapped” her up. They paid for her and were in Sears doing some shopping.” Shortly, the couple came back in. “There’s my Daisy!” they called out.
“Daisy?” I thought, “I would never have put that that name on a heavy, low, hard headed, muscular concrete block with golden brown fur on it. But, we all see things differently. That’s what makes the world go around.”
I walked the couple out the special door we can use (no dogs in the mall or through the stores) and watched as Daisy Butter gladly jumped in to the back of her new van and gave a big lick kiss to the back of the head of her new mom. Finally, after some 2.5 years Peanut Butter…er… “Daisy Butter” is going to her forever home. That is just fine. It is the reason for which we saps are here.
Best of luck Daisy! Now, if we could just find a home for Rascal. He is a shy pup.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
I'm thinking that Facebook is a good way to keep in touch, let people know you think of them, and still have little or no REAL contact or communication with them.
"Here, I'll send you a fish for your "little Blue Cove" and a horse for your "My Farm". See I like you and am thinking of you."
The cool little games we get to play and we do not have to pass on how we really think and feel, or hear what we do not wish to contemplate. We are doing “things” for people and yet barely burning 3 calories. WE can show 15...23...52... people that they are loved and thought about in one heart felt Click! Is not the “NET” wonderful?
And, we can learn that our loved ones are alive and healthy enough to spend some hours on Facebook, or the like. Good thing to know.
Better than silent nothing I suppose.
"Here, I'll send you a fish for your "little Blue Cove" and a horse for your "My Farm". See I like you and am thinking of you."
The cool little games we get to play and we do not have to pass on how we really think and feel, or hear what we do not wish to contemplate. We are doing “things” for people and yet barely burning 3 calories. WE can show 15...23...52... people that they are loved and thought about in one heart felt Click! Is not the “NET” wonderful?
And, we can learn that our loved ones are alive and healthy enough to spend some hours on Facebook, or the like. Good thing to know.
Better than silent nothing I suppose.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Things I've Learned
Some things I learned lately, or at least had reinforced.
-You can send a kid to the office easier if you tell them, “It’s a good thing I like you.”
-If you drink Beet-carrot-celery juice, you will see a change in color of your urinous waste.
-You can use less electricity and have you bill go up (& up).
-Cold dogs will put up with doggie sweaters but hot dogs will not.
-Some dogs think plastic food dishes are chew toys.
- If it's on the floor, a dog will chew it.
-If there is fluff in it, a dog will get the fluff out.
-Spell check can give you a word then tell you it is spelled incorrectly.
-You can work 6 days straight on the Wii Fit and not loose an ounce.
-If one dog has itthe rest will want it.
-Dogs never want to eat out of their own food dishes.
-Friends like you better if they don’t see you too often.
-Dogs don’t care if you get a good nights sleep as long as they can lie next to you and push you with their feet to be sure you are there. You think that they could just smell you.
-You can deny God’s existence but he will never deny yours.
-Don’t put the squirrel feeder and house inside the Jack Russell yard.
-My cranberry relish still taste's good and is good for you.
-The book “Coralline” (yes with an o) is going to be coming out as a movie.
-Husbands stop listening to you even before the loose their hearing.
-The colder the temperature, the finer the snow.
-Six dogs in your house can be too many and too few at the same time.
-A dog loves you, even when you say something offensive.
-Most dogs are good for a snuggle.
-Don’t blog about communication, before you take your antidepressant.
Pax Christi!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Sorry
For what even I have done or said that has bothered you in any way, I am honestly and humbly sorry. Really! I mean it, wondering why intelligent people can not communicate their feelings clearly and non-offensively? Is it because we are so smart we look for hidden meaning or omens in everything?
Recently, two people came to visit. It had been a while and I and Pop looked forward to it with anticipation. Even though we had a great time, there was fear and trepidation, on my part at least. Every time I spoke I worried that I was offending some feeling of theirs, and several times I did just that. Our beliefs on some things have become quite different. I noticed some sighs and eye rolling coming my way.
Every parent has some regrets and feels that they were poor parents. Mine grow around the stick of lack of truth or clarity in communication. But this feeling of inadequacy spreads through out every thing I do. I know I’m a good person and have much to give. I know I care about all life from a germinating seed of a human to the germinating seed of a plant. Life is LIFE, a gift from God. I know I care and mean only the best. I’m not vindictive, I love, try at least to be patient, kind, not jealous etc.
You would think I’d have a bunch of good close friends. You would think that, but you would be wrong. I have some awesome friends. They are far away and are not near me day in and out. People whom that is forced on, I wind up offending and they pull away.
Pop is right in a way. He once said, “…., you offend everyone you talk to.” The truth in the statement is I eventually will do just that. Ah, I know. I am wallowing in self-pity and regret. That does not change the truth. 60 some years old and still can not talk to relatives and friends. There is none in the world whom one can just be our selves with. Funny, that is what we all want. To be accepted “as is”, non returnable, you have to keep me even with the flaws.
Recently, two people came to visit. It had been a while and I and Pop looked forward to it with anticipation. Even though we had a great time, there was fear and trepidation, on my part at least. Every time I spoke I worried that I was offending some feeling of theirs, and several times I did just that. Our beliefs on some things have become quite different. I noticed some sighs and eye rolling coming my way.
Every parent has some regrets and feels that they were poor parents. Mine grow around the stick of lack of truth or clarity in communication. But this feeling of inadequacy spreads through out every thing I do. I know I’m a good person and have much to give. I know I care about all life from a germinating seed of a human to the germinating seed of a plant. Life is LIFE, a gift from God. I know I care and mean only the best. I’m not vindictive, I love, try at least to be patient, kind, not jealous etc.
You would think I’d have a bunch of good close friends. You would think that, but you would be wrong. I have some awesome friends. They are far away and are not near me day in and out. People whom that is forced on, I wind up offending and they pull away.
Pop is right in a way. He once said, “…., you offend everyone you talk to.” The truth in the statement is I eventually will do just that. Ah, I know. I am wallowing in self-pity and regret. That does not change the truth. 60 some years old and still can not talk to relatives and friends. There is none in the world whom one can just be our selves with. Funny, that is what we all want. To be accepted “as is”, non returnable, you have to keep me even with the flaws.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Learning Experiences
Life is full of learning experiences. Learning is necessary. With out learning there is no growth. Learning is what makes life worth living. OK, Okay, what’s my point in writing. I have one of those life questions, and that is, “WHY do so many learning experiences have to cost SO MUCH money?
Here is what I’m talking about. A friend kindly purchased a used lawnmower for the APL. It was used, so she had it overhauled. The thing ran really well all summer, but as the last mowing of the season finished the engine blew up. Why? No one put in oil. Now she is looking for a new used mower for the APL. No they can’t fix it. No the APL does not have the money to buy one.
What was the thing learned? Check the oil yourself because no one else will. Now, I ask you, couldn’t that lesson been learned more cheaply?
Here is my own example. I bought a $12,000 Inbro embroidery machine. What did I know? I went to the trade show. I shopped around. Looked at all the machines and made my decision, the wrong one, of course. Wrong because I believed the sales person that there would be training and support near by. (Near by to them was the east side of Pennsylvania.) So after 3 years and calling the service guy in I sold the machine for $1,750.00, which was $250 more that I could get for a trade in. Most companies would not even talk about taking it as a trade in. Couldn’t someone have just told me to get a Tajima in the first place?
Pop took his money out of the bank and paid off his car and bought me a Tajima machine. Now there is an expensive “Learning Experience”! I could have bought two new cars or a house in Ashtabula, Ohio with what we have spent on embroidery machines. I better get some customers and fast! Anyone out there need some creative embroidery work done? Please? Maybe?
Here is what I’m talking about. A friend kindly purchased a used lawnmower for the APL. It was used, so she had it overhauled. The thing ran really well all summer, but as the last mowing of the season finished the engine blew up. Why? No one put in oil. Now she is looking for a new used mower for the APL. No they can’t fix it. No the APL does not have the money to buy one.
What was the thing learned? Check the oil yourself because no one else will. Now, I ask you, couldn’t that lesson been learned more cheaply?
Here is my own example. I bought a $12,000 Inbro embroidery machine. What did I know? I went to the trade show. I shopped around. Looked at all the machines and made my decision, the wrong one, of course. Wrong because I believed the sales person that there would be training and support near by. (Near by to them was the east side of Pennsylvania.) So after 3 years and calling the service guy in I sold the machine for $1,750.00, which was $250 more that I could get for a trade in. Most companies would not even talk about taking it as a trade in. Couldn’t someone have just told me to get a Tajima in the first place?
Pop took his money out of the bank and paid off his car and bought me a Tajima machine. Now there is an expensive “Learning Experience”! I could have bought two new cars or a house in Ashtabula, Ohio with what we have spent on embroidery machines. I better get some customers and fast! Anyone out there need some creative embroidery work done? Please? Maybe?
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