theFar's Travels

Hills has a shelter partner program where they offer free food to feed sheltered animals. The shelter benefits as the animals in their care get a steady supply of the same food rather than the hit-and-miss mix of donated food that so many shelters must rely on.
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One the other end of the spectrum is a smallish locally owned pet food company supporting an open admission (or nearly so, well talk about that another day in another post) by donating their high grade dry product to fee all the shelter’s pets.

A round of applauses (and thank you notes, I’ve sent one myself) should go out to Castor and Pollux (http://www.castorpolluxpet.com/) for their generosity to the Humane Society for Southwest Washington (http://www.southwesthumane.org/).


For Hills reply to questions about their corny donations, read their letter below:

Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc.
Phone: 866-283-1217
E-mail: shelters@hillspet.com
Dear Shelter Partner,

Recently we have received several inquiries regarding the Hill’s® Science Diet® canine pet food (SKU 6960, 50-lb bag) that is provided through the feeding program partnership. This formula uses corn as the first ingredient instead of meat, which is different than Science Diet® products sold at retail.
Please be assured, the “corn first” formula adheres to the high standards of all Science Diet® pet foods and is made with the high-quality ingredients Hill’s Pet Nutrition is known for. In fact, there are only insignificant nutritional differences between the “corn first” and “meat first” products (see attached table for nutritional content). Both products are precisely balanced for the adult lifestage and have a clinically proven antioxidant blend to strengthen the immune system. The different foods simply deliver the nutritional content of protein and other essential nutrients through different ingredients.

Did You Know?
Corn contains:
Quality proteins for muscle and tissue growth
The highest digestibility of carbohydrates for energy compared to any other grain
Essential fatty acids for healthy skin and coat
Beta-carotene, Vitamin E and lutein–nature’s antioxidants
The “meat first” food was created in response to the consumer perception that a “meat first” product is superior, which is not the case. In addition, the “corn first” product can be produced more cost efficiently, which allows us to support a significantly higher number of shelters and has helped us to save nearly 1 million dogs and cats each year. We thank you for your continued partnership and for all you do to improve the lives of pets in your care. If you have any other questions regarding this pet food, please contact a team member at 1-866-283-1217.

Sincerely,
Your Hill’s Science Diet Shelter Nutrition Partnership Team

nope nope - knee is not recovered
back in the brace, up with the leg, down with the meds and on with the ice...damn

Very odd...

My ex (beloved ex) and his lady wife are reproducing! There will another little person in their life. I shared their glee when they called me earlier this week.

It wandered into my brain sometime afterwards that they will have an age-staggered family. The father is about a dozen years older than the mother who is about a dozen years older than my son and he will be just a bit than a dozen years older that the baby to come.

Very odd, odd and interesting I guess.

So much of this has little to do with the dogs. The teachers need to be involved as much as the learners do.

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Interesting article on animal learning from the times states,
"Dr. Dukas hypothesizes that any animal with a nervous system can learn. Even in cases where scientists have failed to document learning in a species, he thinks they should not be too quick to rule it out. “Is it because I’m not a good teacher or because the animal doesn’t learn?” Dr. Dukas asked."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/science/06dumb.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5124&en=ac91b2ae04c7301e&ex=1367726400&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

How do dogs learn - Dog's Mind by Bruce Fogle

http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB275

For years, I was the sort of dog-less dog-lover that would frequent dog parks. If you spent anytime at these places, you’ll have seen folks like me. Yes, I threw balls for other people’s dogs. I petted those dogs, happy of the fur and the wags, watched them run, and marveled at their body language and play styles.
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"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog." - Jack London

Here comes another - which speaks to you more? which one makes the point more clearly? which one do you think we should use?

Animal Aid loans save lives; they relieve suffering. They allow pets to receive the care they need, even if their owners are currently unable to pay the veterinary bills. These loans are no interest for the life of the loan and are graciously accepted by a number of veterinary clinic that partner with Animal Aid throughout the Portland metro area.
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Whatever the reason, we were grateful.

We all do what we do because we are moved by compassion.

Thank you all for the care you give your own pets and for the donations of time and money that goes to the care of other pets in need.

What most folks know of Animal Aid is our small, mostly colony style cat shelter here in southwest Portland. That is the cute furry face of our organization. The heart of what we do goes un-noticed by most of the public. The grants and loans we offer is what makes us different from the other small local animal welfare non-profits. We generally run "happy endings" in our newsletter to try and raise funds - there are stories of pets with sad or tough starts in life that find their way, through our organization, to good safe homes. This time I wanted to go in a different direction.
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I tried to give a taste of what I do, slip in a bit of education and ask for help all in a short essay. It was cut and tailored some by our director but the feel is it is still there. Does it come off as too dreary or pleading to you? Any suggestion are welcome.

'cause we all need a bit more magic in our days now and again

I send care packages ever month or so - sometimes snacks or nibble food, sometimes books or little toys, other times feathers or stones. This time it will be dragon coins!

...not at all certain I'm ready to do the same for the first eighteen years yet.

fifteen years clean, nearly four dry for my son, raising a glass these days
learning to drive again after leaving the City, blow-out at 80 on a curvy mountain road learning me not to do that, spin-out in winter white-out teaching me sometimes there is nothing to do but hold on
miles and miles, NYC subways, Alaska highway, Bay Area commute, driving the kiddo down to LaLa-Land and back to visit with his grandparents, knowing the boy is flying home from Scotland by himself, walking and walking and walking, city streets/frozen sidewalks, trails - beach low and sky high
animals born into my hands, adopted to homes through my work, saved from pain and fear by my help, sent out of this world in the euth-room, again by my hands

How would I place today? I am mother to my newly teen-aged son, supporter/friend/lover to my second husband who taught me that no was a word I could own/that I didn't have to settle and the world was indeed mine, working in animal welfare at Animal Aid, living in the City of Roses (year three, second time around), purple part of spring (violets and hyacinths doing their show for a week now lilacs just coming on), post coffee through pre-morning road time, entry done and off into the day.

Dropping out of the scene, not doing streets drugs on a regular basis, having a cat in my life that depended on me, fighting through self hate, SCA, leaving New York and finally getting away, LA, shattered wrist, Davis, Portland, Davis, somewhere there a marriage and a baby, struggling for myself, Anchorage, dear friends, mountains that made me weep with joy, northern lights, motherhood, struggle against bindings that I had crafted, dear man's suicide, affairs of the heart, Seattle, more battles inside for myself, my child grows, finding new love, the joys and falls of poly life, Redwood City, La Honda, Camelot and the close, stand up tall, that moment standing at the doorway when he raised his hand to strike me down, learn the word No, divorce, protect my son, go to school, books to earth studies, about five surgeries somewhere between Seattle and the Santa Cruz mountains, more pain, chronic pain for a decade as technology catches up with my damage, more surgery, married again, a strong mate to carry me through, back to volunteering, more critters in life, giving-up ranger hopes, excepting my limited ability/disability, San Anselmo, defeat and depression, not giving up, animal welfare, rising up again, trying again, letting my son go, Portland, new again, crafting a different relationship with my boy, new city, new place...here we go again.

Stories read, stories lived. People known, lost, found again.

Growing learning changing holding on letting go

I've just gotten back in-touch, only and email or three, with a person who was very important to me a long time ago. I want to bring her up to date on me, who I have become and who I am striving to be.

I think it over and it is difficult to even know where to start.

First I am mulling over the lynch-pin moments in the past decades, those choices or happens that changed the direction of my life. I am counting them up then running through them like a personal set of prayer beads. Will they explain to me or to anyone else the paths I've taken? I feel it is important but I keep starting and stopping, turning away. Some of these points are not pretty at all, they hurt to move around and think over, others seem simply absurd. Still there they are.

I'll move to post them soon.

Does any one else chart their lives like this with touch-stones? What job you were working when, who was your lover, where was your home, what colors you wore?

Miz Kitty and her friends ROCK! Anyone thinking of coming and visiting the City of the Roses this spring should know her last parlor of the season is May 17th *hinthint*...

oops: http://www.mizkittysparlour.com/home.html

I caught site of rolls of stickers at the check out stand at our local nifty cool grocery store. I grinned and winked at the sparkling butterflies. I asked the nice clerk if my inner child could have a sticker. He gave me a funny look but said, "sure", and handed me about a dozen of them! Now two are stuck to the toes of my Converses! WWEeeeeeee!

And then are are keys...I used to have hold collection of them. I wonder where they were lost along the way? It may be I need to find me some again. You never know when you might need them!



hmmmm...

http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=tag_title&search_query=skeleton+keys

I get a lot of calls here at Animal Aid from folks needed a lot of very different kinds of help from re-homing pets, to spay and neuter questions, to looking for pet friendly housing, people on the streets looking for vaccinations for their pets, to emergency situations like cats poisoned or dogs hit by cars – you get the picture.

Today there were two calls from opposite ends of the spectrum that really got to me, one had me in tears and the other had me laughing out loud.( Read more... )
I was glad of the second call. I have helped the cat owner set up and appointment to get Miss Kitty her surgery tomorrow.

The old Bozo Cat has gone on. I can't say whether she is happier now but I trust she is at peace.

After she passed on, stroking her thin little body, it came to me that I hadn't seen her stretched long and relaxed like this in literally years. She had declined to a hunch and a curl; when she walked her legs never really straightened out. I kissed her forehead. I would never had tried such a thing while she was living - it was not something she would have tolerated.

We lived together a long time, this old cat and me. I found her in a parking lot near a park in LA the a couple years before my son was born. She was a half-grown lint colored kitty, wearing a pink leather color with a bell on it. I took her in to get her back to her home; I was not looking for another cat at the time. Three weeks later she was still in our home and no one had called looking for her. What was I to do? I kept the little smidgen cat, though she was a menace from day one. I still have scars on my feet from her more playful years...

Many homes, many mile, four states latter she is gone.

It has been a lesson in taking care of what is yours, responsibility is what it is. She was a challenge, dangerous to other pets and to people. The only person she really ever loved was my son. She tolerated me; I think she understood I was her care-taker.

God's speed little one, may your soul have been gentled by your stay with us and by my son's love for you.

It snowed, big flufty drifting flakes, here - last week of March. On my way out in the morning, I stopped under the cherry tree in our front yard - full blossoming pink wonder. The snow layered over the petals and the new red leaves. A single tiny bird was singing to us all - heartfelt songs.

Surrendering is not giving up. Giving up is just quiting. Surrendering can be honorable.

Tomorrow Kwan Yin's birthday is celebrated, Lady of Mercy my patron for many years now. I will sit at tea ceremony in a walled garden in this city and pray for mercy.

Old elderly cat's time has come. She weighs next to nothing, is frail and failing. I feel she needs help moving on. Our big goofy Orange Boy cat Guido is in the hospital since Sunday night, as they see if he will recover from a urinary blockage or not. Tomorrow will hold that for us as well. Thursday is minor surgery for my husband.

The scenery inside my head is barren and twisted, early spring in a DMZ - things are striving to grow still. I keep walking forward though there are many times when my thoughts pause and I just don't know.

A rambler, a voracious reader, an ethology geek and a card-carrying member of the the Easily Amused Club.

Hedge Scholar, graduate (with honors) of the School of Hardknocks, professional dog watcher and cat observer, puddle stomping meandering wandering crazy wise fool...lover, daughter, Mother, sister-friend, Earth worshiping tree hugger, dreamer, lame dancer, crowmama, little child, old bird, Bear'mum, corvajenbranajennynifferme.