Though several weeks have passed, America and her Allies are still reeling in shock, grief, anxiety, and anger, trying to adjust from the
terrorist attacks of September 11. No doubt, American lives have changed forever in ways that we will continue to discover in the weeks, months, and perhaps, even years, to come.
What is absolute about America, more so than any other country in the world, is that we are an adaptable, flexible, and resilient folk. We will mourn, we will respond to the immediate challenges, and we will adapt and continue to grow despite the horrors of that beautiful fall day in New York, Washington DC, and a field in western Pennsylvania.
A disaster of this magnitude puts in perspective what is truly important in our lives. Family members, including our precious animals, come out on top of the list. Our valued and trusted friendships are a close second. Take extra care to carefully nuture these relationships and be extra certain that your pets are well-cared for; love and appreciate them in the short term and provide for them in case any type of unexpected
disaster hits close to you.
This is one experience that has touched Craig and me deeply and we are grateful for our own safety, but saddened beyond expression for what America and the world is enduring.
August 2001 Who Are You Dealing With on the Internet?
"Beware. Keep on your toes and be alert" is all I can say. During the years on the Internet, it's been my experience to make friendships that have gone through thick and thin. In fact, many of the very first people I met online are still in frequent contact with me. We've developed deep, personal friendships, way beyond some of the relationships I've developed in real life. Oftentimes, I've met some of these warm, caring people in person, making our friendship bond even stronger.
But every once in a while, you will get the real lemon, the one that momentarily destroys your faith and trust in your fellowman; inadvertly, even your own general
outlook of people. And that is what has happened this month in my life.
Oh no, it didn't just "happen" this month. It's been a long, long time coming. In fact, other friends whom I hold in high esteem knew this person much better than I did and begged me not to go in with her, that in the end, I would be doing all the work. The real ass kicker is that they had known OF her or knew her a much briefer time than I've known her. But, I chose to bury my head in the litterbox because, to be quite honest, I didn't stop to think that someone I'd known for years would destroy a six-year relationship with a single email. Wait ... make that NO email. Wait ... I'm getting ahead of myself.
You know how it goes... One day you enter a cat site and love what you see. You email the web site owner and the beginnings of a nice relationship begins. Through the years, emails are exchanged discussing various animal issues, even though the visited web site is simply a cute site without any substance for the well-being of animals. However, through your efforts, the web site owner gradually sees that animal advocacy will make a statement to her visitors, and so you feel that you've made a difference for the sake of animals, plus helped another pet owner to realize that the reality of life is not just made up of the "cute" stuff.
Then another day you get an email from the same site owner begging for assistance in starting a cat message board. This person has had cats all her life, but doesn't KNOW cats, nor does she know much about message boards and animal advocacy. "Oh please, please give me your help," she writes. "You know so much about cats and animals in general. We could be a team!" And so you drop everything you're working on and spend months and months giving her tips, suggestions, and general advice.
And that's the way it began. For well over a year and a half, I worked as hard as I could, devoting every minute I could spare to that message board. This board was supposedly owned by her, two other women that I had brought onboard, and myself. It was a monumental success. I was very proud of the impact we were making on cat owners in giving assistance to their worries and problems, extending friendship around the world to other cat lovers, and in doing so, I thought the personal friendship between this woman and me was growing deeper and stronger.
Then this month all hell broke loose. Problems arose on the board that only
she could handle. Why only she? Because she never
trusted me (or the other two women) enough to make the administrative decisions in her absence. Damn, she didn't even bother to tell us that she was dropping off the face of the earth for two and a half months. Our pleas for her administrative support went unheeded; my personal emails, come to find out, were simply deleted unread as they came into her mailbox.
Long after I disassociated myself from that message board, I received emails from others complaining of the administration. Finally I broke down and wrote my so-called friend, who never once made contact with me by a single attempt by email or phone after I left moderating the board, even when she came back to find me gone. The email I received from her in return was a poor-mouthing list of ailments and events that had happened to
her. This is no excuse; this is pure unadulterated irresponsibility and lack of respect for those who have done all the work for her, with no concern about
their own personal lives. I replied with, "And the rest of us lead a life of sunshine and roses. No, (name withheld), the rest of us have had scores and scores and scores of problems, too. HOWEVER, because we're close friends, we've made damn sure that our right hand knew what our left hand was doing."
The long and short of this tale is that no matter how long you've known some people, if their GAIN isn't met, then you're like so much garbarge - to be kicked around and eventually left on the curbside for trash removal.
Beware. Keep on your toes and be alert.
March 2001 Pet Responsibility
How often do you come across a person who decides out of the clear blue that he or she wants a pet? Oftentimes, you come across these people in email and on message boards, people you know who only want a pet because they've never had a dog or cat before. They think because Jane has one, they should have one. What can they possibly be thinking? Pets aren't like so much trash - to be discarded after the novelty wears off. A friend once said that "Pets are for life, not to be adopted, rented and taken back."
I've posted this same information before - in fact, on most of the animal message boards in which I participate - so I'm sure those who know me realize how deeply pet responsibility concerns me. The following questions are the standard questions that I ask anyone, both online and off, who wants a pet or wants to add another pet to their household.
I always remind them that these questions should be thoroughly discussed by the individual and his or her family
before bringing home another pet of any kind. When thinking about getting a pet, each person in the family should seriously think long and hard about that commitment ... the training, the care, the expense. Each person should be in agreement about getting a pet. Getting a pet and then afterwards trying to influence the one who didn't want the responsibility to care for and love the pet usually causes deep resentment toward the pet. The pet is the one who suffers in the long run: fear, intimidation, and eventually possible abuse and homelessness.
Are you fully aware of our society's pet surplus problem and will you take part in it by allowing your pet to breed?
If you are an apartment or other rental dweller, will your pet "outgrow" the home? Will you move if you need more room for your pet? What will happen should you move? Will you consider an apartment that will not take pets? Will you compromise with a new landlord's tenant requirements if pets are permitted? (i.e., "Well, I would have had to get rid of Binky if I didn't declaw him" or "Lady barks so much when she goes into heat that the new landlord said we can't keep her, so we're taking her to the pound or shelter.") If you are buying or building a new home, are your carpeting, hardwood flooring, drapes, furniture, landscaped lawn, etc. more important to you than your pet?
If you permit your pet outside, will you follow your state and local animal laws and licensing regulations so that he doesn't infringe on the rights of others? Do you plan on keeping your pet outdoors most of the day? Will you provide adequate food, water, and proper shelter outdoors? When the weather is extreme, will your pet come indoors?
Are you willing to devote time each and every day for exercise, grooming and play regardless of how busy you and your family are? If you are away from home for more than a day, will you have someone come into your home for quality time spent with the pet while you are gone? Will you board your pet at a kennel or cattery? Will your pet be left alone in an empty house or apartment during the day while you work? Will you consider getting him a companion if you are?
Will you teach your child or children about the responsibilities of caring for your pet? If so, will you make time to teach the child how to properly treat, care, train and clean up after the pet, and make sure that the child follows through?
What will happen should your pet develop a serious disease, or is ill for a long period of time, or develops an illness or disease associated with aging? Will you continue taking him to the vet for treatment, regardless of the cost? Will you make sure he's not suffering due to lack of veterinary care, medications and any special dietary measures? Will additional care and expense for an ill or aging pet crimp your lifestyle in any way?
What will happen to the pet in the event of a break-up of your relationship or marriage? If the pet seems happier with only one of you and not the other, will you be willing to forsake your feelings for the sake of the pet's?
If you should lose your source of income, will your pet lose his "right" to live in your home? Will any form of abandonment be considered (i.e., given to a co-worker, friend or relative, taken to a shelter or pound, left on the street, euthanized, etc.)? If all your options to keep your pet have been exhausted and you must give him up, will you consider the pet responsibility of the prospective new owner? Will you make it clearly understood that you will take the pet back if his new home doesn't work out? Will you follow-up to make sure your pet is well cared for and happily adjusted in his new home? And if you have any doubts whatsoever about the new owner, will you take steps to rehome your pet again?
If you and your family are uncertain about any of the above questions or you've come up with ANY excuses why you could make a decision to exclude the pet currently sharing your life, you should never own a pet.
I sincerely hope that these people consider everything mentioned very thoughtfully and carefully before they undertake a life long commitment. Cats, dogs, and many domesticated animals are wonderful pets, but they also deserve to be treated with understanding and respect. Each pet deserves respect and love as an individual. People must understand each pet's needs, treat them with dignity, and have compassion for them when they are unable to defend themselves in what is their world also.
February 2001 Censorship or No Censorship? aka the Bonsai Kitten Web Site
I strongly disagree with these people screaming about free speech. Give me satire, parody - in fact I LOVE it - but don't give me satire or parody involving cruelty to either people or animals. We live in a
sick, depraved society - the recent abuse cases of the mutilated, tortured-to-death cat in Atlanta, Georgia and mutilated, tortured dog rendered sightless in Dallas, Texas are proof enough.
There're many crimes against animals and people that are a direct result of impressionable young people and the absolute crazies seeing the same acts depicted in a movie or TV show. If you could convince me that we have no sick wierdos out there who would accept satire as it is meant to be when it involves cruelty - then fine. However, that is
NOT the case. There're going to be young boys and evil individuals, who wouldn't think twice about following the instructions on that damn Bonsai kitten web site with a live kitten. They'd enjoy it, but maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't have, had they not seen this hideous web site.
Along with freedom of speech comes responsibility - and that responsiblity involves not promoting something that will result in torture, mutilation, and death of innocent, defenseless animals. If we could click a button and keep this type of thing away from the youths and sickos who would emulate it - fine, too - but we can't. If we can't find enough other topics for satire, parody, whatever that does
NOT involve cruelty - then that's a sad, sad statement in itself. There's enough fodder in politics, government, movies, celebrities, life styles, cults, religions, and so forth to keep a satire buff in stitches for a lifetime. The torture and death of even one innocent little kitten is not worth the laughs and enjoyment of anyone.
I could not be happier that the FBI has found no humor in this site and is investigating. I mean why not have Baby Bumper Cars - we could tie live babies to the front of bumper cars and smash them to see which baby could look the worst or the most like a certain object. We could have a web site where we could strap quadriplegics into a parachute and watch them splat when they hit the ground because they're unable to open their parachutes. We could have an internet game where we could "lynch a black man" with a click of our mouse. Why not have elderly, infirm people and with a click of our mouse place objects in their path to watch them fall down stairs to see who is hurt the most, or gee whiz, maybe one or two may die - what fun! How wonderful it is that we have the right to display and promote those sites - I mean the possibilities are endless.
Where does it stop? How far will we go involving satire of cruelty???
I don't know about you, folks, but I don't want to live in a country that by allowing cruelty
PROMOTES it. It should be a crime to create something involving an act of cruelty that could be actually committed against an animal or human. I
WANT censorship of cruelty specific web sites, videos, etc., whether the video or website is
ACTUALLY doing it or be it simulation or computer enhancement or whatever. I want whoever is sick, perverted and evil enough to create these things to have their "creation" shut down and their ass thrown in jail. That's a "right" I'm not at all opposed to losing.
NOT having the right to create cruelty sites certainly isn't going to turn our great nation into an American version of Nazi Germany or the former Communist Soviet Union. And that's that.
January 2001 Human Rights vs. Animal Rights
"Authority without freedom is tyranny, and freedom without authority is anarchy. We walk a thin line and have forgotten that with greater freedom comes greater responsibility." ~ Frances Boyter, Feral Cat Caretaker and Director of an Animal Sanctuary
In our world today, there is a worn-out rebuttal used by many freedom-of-this-and-that whores that gives my ass a case of the dry grins: "The owner's decision is the owner's decision" reference to animals, especially those who suffer at the hands of their owners - mutilation of toes due to declawing, or not wanting to spay or neuter because they want to breed the pet at least once for whatever reason, or worse yet, who don't want to have their pet lose "the pleasure of sex." DUH...
These people believe that whatever happens to an animal they have or at the hands of a neighbor, friend, relative, or whoever, is the owner's personal business - after all, even our government states that animals are PROPERTY, not thinking, breathing beings, but objects worth less than a television set - and that any interferring by outsiders violates that person's right to privacy. Don't most of these same people who scream about their rights rant about how superior they are to animals? Well, there you go. They can defend their vastly superior selves, but what better way could they share a bit of their time and effort in defending "inferior" animals? Because they don't raise the animal rights issue, that's why; these people feel that animals have no rights.
An animal shouldn't have to suffer just because he gets stuck with a selfish human who makes decisions pertaining to owner convenience and that aren't in the animal's best interests. As a caring individual (and this goes without saying that you don't have to even be a pet owner), if you know of a situation in which someone doesn't have the best interests of the pet or other animal at heart, you will try to do all you can to change the situation in favor of the animal. If this involves invading the so-called privacy of the person, then that's certainly a small price to pay to avoid the animal's pain and suffering.
Domesticated animals are at the mercy of humans. If we are ignorant, thoughtless, cruel, or indifferent, they suffer. If we value our rights over their welfare and comfort, they suffer. Let a person's rights be stepped upon before violating the rights of an innocent, voiceless, defenseless animal.
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