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Jan. 19th, 2009 @ 01:37 pm
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...is happy and spazzy.
(If you have a moment, and you like funny things, I suggest clicking on that picture, going to 'all sizes' and looking at her face close up).
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I just went through my calender, and we've officially been to 9 agility classes. I can't believe we've only being doing it for three months - it feels like forever. It was also, apparently, enough for us to go to our very first competition! Whoo! Except... yeah, I wasn't expecting to be very competitive. I went into it expecting just to have fun and practice and that's exactly what we got out of it. We didn't get a single clean run because Zelda went off course every time to go say hello to spectators. We did, however, end up with two points (I think) because it was a team competition and my partner (heh, the trainer) got points. Pretty funny, and now we have points on the books with NADAC. Good times.
OMG. Our very first off-leash weave pole success - caught on film!!
As of the taking of this photo, Zelda had only touched a teeter-totter about 5 times. Ever. The fact that she was willing to do it for me without a leash says volumes about just how willing, eager to learn, and easy to train she is. And did I mention fearless?
Zelda says: "I worked so haaaaaard."
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I'm not one to get mushy in public, but I think I've decided that public eulogies for pets are important. Otherwise, they go practically unnoticed into unmarked graves and fade from memory even of those who cared for them.
Hanta lost a battle with a serious ear infection sometime last night. I know, how lame. But when I say 'serious' I mean it. Five days ago, overnight, she went from scurrying around to unable to move except for a very disturbing alligator death roll that looked like she was having a constant seizure. Apparently bad ear infections put pressure on a nerve that makes it impossible to balance or tell up from down. At any rate, the antibiotics apparently weren't enough (and I take it back what I said about rats being cheap pets - I've spent more in the last year at the vet on the rats than the dog).
I didn't really know Hanta that well. She was a Craig's List 'rescue' back in January, and her and her litter mate Typhus hadn't been handled much before I got them. Even months later, she really preferred our contact be limited to taking treats from my hand. I guess that's why there's an unnaturally (for me) small number of photos of her.
She was a sweet rat, though, and I'm glad I gave her 9 good months. She'll be missed.
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Aug. 7th, 2008 @ 10:24 am
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I was so disgustingly responsible and healthy yesterday.
- Ate balanced, healthy meals all day.
- Exercised on my break.
- Spent 2 hours volunteering at the local animal shelter.
- Immediately came home and did laundry, cleaned the house and the rats' cage, socialized with the rats (still can't trim Typhyus' nails - she's as wiggly as a trout on crack), worked on some of Zelda's tricks (we can spin both directions! Yay!).
- Went to bed at a decent hour
This was so different from my usual routine of 1) come home 2) nap 3) eat ice cream before dinner 4) play Oblivion until 11 (yes, this is late when you need to get up at 5:30) that I'll have to make up for it somehow - maybe go binge-drinking and drive my car into the side of an orphanage or something.
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Random notes while watching the reality show "30 days" where a bow hunting meat-eater lives for 30 days with a family of vegan animal rights activist. (Aired June 17th, but didn't watch it until tonight). Tom turned it on, and I immediately started bashing PETA (biased? Me? Nooo...), so he told me to keep comments to myself until the show was done. My laptop's right here, so I'm taking notes, instead.
Right from the start, I identify more with Mr. bow hunter.
PETA sure does try to make itself look good (as always). I can't tell if the activists are being dishonest (both with themselves and the cameras) or if they truly don't know that PETA's overall goals are not to improve animal welfare, but to cause the extinction of all domestic animals so that humans can never use them.
(OK, I have to admit: I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the well-meaning people who happen to be PETA activists, and PETA itself. I just wish they'd chosen a different club to join)
PETA / PETA members / vegans try to frame a dichotomy: either you're a vegan, or you support factory farming. There's no room for sustainable, ethical animal products.
It only took about 5 minutes for a PETA member to compare people eating animals to Nazis killing Jews. Tally of the use of that analogy so far: 2
Seeing Mr. bow-hunter dressed in a chicken suit pretending to kill a woman dressed as Colonel Sanders = LOLZ
Even after seeing some horrific images, bow hunter is very reluctant to reject factory farming. The dichotomy that PETA frames in the beginning works on him: he thinks he has to choose between factory farm animal products or veganism, and he does love him his meat. No one explains that you can choose different types of animal products. You can CHOOSE humane food. That's never mentioned. It's either "you eat factory farm meat" or "you don't eat meat at all".
Bow hunter visits a farm that specializes in rescuing animals from factory farms ("rescuing" = "stealing"? Not sure... There's a sequence where they "rescue" a sick veal calf at 3am that makes me wonder). Owner lady goes on and on about how humans don't have the right to keep animals for food, and don't have the right to force animals to do what we want, etc, etc. Yet, I see a lot of fences on her property. She treats her animals very well, but she's still keeping them captive "against their will", she still forcing medication on them, even though they obviously don't want it - who is she to force them to do what SHE wants?
Cue images of a factory milk farm. OMG. Factory farms are bad. Wow. Only PETA could have given us this revelation.
(It's actually good to see, on a mainstream cable show, images of a commercial milk farm - but having PETA take credit for exposing these practices makes me mad. Like they're the only one's doing anything about it.)
Image: bow hunter walking the family's small dog. The small dog pulls on the leash like crazy.
Owner of the dog: "Don't choke him!"
Tom: "Then leash train him, lady!"
Me: "lol"
PETA lady also implies that PETA is behind important spay and neuter campaigns. Yup. They're certainly the only ones who send out THAT message.
Cue sequence where they visit an animal shelter and show a healthy, friendly, young pit bull being taken to the back room to be euthanized, all the while talking about how this could have been avoided if only people spayed and neutered their pets. The hypocrisy kills me. PETA's official stance on pit bulls is that they should all be euthanized, anyway (well, they think all pets should be killed, but ESPECIALLY pit bulls). How horrible to use the tragedy of this dog's life to further their agenda.
I like bow-hunter even more by the end of the show:
"Am I going to hunt again when I go home? Yes I am. But I do believe animals have rights. Animals don't deserve to suffer or be abused."
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Final thoughts:
Every time I see something about "animal rights", I feel left out (and usually angry). I rarely see anything even close to my views portrayed in the media.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love animals (even the ones that PETA forgets, like bugs). Pretty much the only time I act "girly" is when I'm around a dog (or frog. or beetle.) My life, actually, pretty much revolves around animals. My art and photography centers mainly on creatures great and small. I volunteer at my local shelter. All my pets are rescues of some type. I want to be a vet tech. One of my main life goals is to own a small farm and have a huge garden and rescue un-wanted dogs and horses.
I also want to raise my own chickens for eggs and meat, goats for milk, and maybe a pig or two for meat. I also hunt and fish. I have no trouble kiling and butchering animals. I have a freezer full of elk meat right now and I know exactly where it came from, how it died, and how the carcus was handled and cleaned. I also saved the hooves and bones for future artwork, and I'm in the process of tanning the hide for leather.
I see nothing wrong with eating meat, or using animal products. I feel that my views of food and animal welfare are pretty enlightened and well-balanced, but I rarely see them in the mainstream. Here on campus, yes. In books, yes. In blogs I read, hell yes. But PETA's false dichotomy is very pervasive. I often think they do more harm than good.
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I really sleep like this.
I really do sleep like this, too. If it looks like I fell asleep mid-stride, it's because that's what happened.
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RIP Mo
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May. 17th, 2008 @ 11:31 am
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January 2006 - July 4th 2008
 
(entry post-dated this that it would be next to Curly's)
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January 2006 - May 15th 2008
 
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cyborgsuzy's journal
