Happy New Year!

It's still January (barely) so I'm thinking I can still get by with wishing you a Happy New Year! If I were making resolutions I'd resolve to blog more frequently, but I'm not so we'll just have to wait & see what happens.
Things are going fine here. I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and have been reading like a maniac! I absolutely LOVE being able to pick a book & instantly have it right in my hand, it's amazing!! I've bought a few, borrowed a few through the library's electronic book program, and downloaded some that are free because of being classics or Amazon.com's deal of the day. Woo hoo! Happy New Year & Happy Reading!! :-)

Tuesday Afternoon with Aubrey the Silky Cat

Today was my day to volunteer at our local Animal Shelter. I've been doing this for a couple of months now and really enjoy it. I mainly focus my attention on the cats and puppies, because that's what's needed most right now. (They already have plenty of dog walkers, and that works out fine for me because with my back being a bit delicate I don't want to risk getting jerked & ending up like I was earlier in the Fall!)

Today I was scheduled for afternoon instead of my usual morning hours and I was amazed at the difference a few hours made! When I arrived all of the cats were sound asleep, a huge contrast to mornins when vying for attention - wanting to play, bouncing around in their cages, meowing, etc.! As I was reading their cards & catching up on new arrivals a ball of fluff started to stir and Audrey, a long-haired calico who has been living there nearly 3 weeks, woke up. I got her out of her cage and she snuggled up against me purring like crazy. I sat in the rocking chair and petted her for quite a while - we were both in Heaven! Since the other cats were all still sleeping there was no need to "share the love" - they were perfectly content and so was I.

As we rocked I realized that my eyes were getting misty. Hmm.. what was that about? It only took a couple of minutes to figure it out - petting her felt just like petting Callie, our elderly cat (nearly 19 yrs. old) who passed away in '09 and who I still miss. Stroking the incredibly soft, silky fur and slender frame brought back so many good memories! This little "pound kitty" girl is 7 years old and was turned in because her owner was no longer able to care for her. To me these are the saddest cases - it's easy to find homes for puppies and kittens, but when a pet has a few years under its belt people tend not to be as interested in them even though an older pet is often more docile and well behaved than the younger ones.

When I got home I told DH all about her and guess what he, who just a few months ago, said "no more cats", said? "Bring her home!" WHAT?? You could've knocked me over with a feather! I don't know whether it was her photo or hearing about how much like Callie she was, or if it was just the way he was feeling at that moment. I don't know that we'll actually get a cat - we had decided not to - but anyway it was interesting hearing those words come from his mouth! We (or at least I) would have to discuss it further before making such a big decision. In the meantime it's fun to think about!

High School Pal Charged with Animal Cruelty

You may (if you're a FB friend) know that my high school class recently had a 40-yr. reunion. It was wonderful seeing everybody after all those years & we all had a great time. During the reunion talk turned to the people who weren't there & what had happened to them. Turns out one of the girls (well she'd be 58 now so maybe we should say women) had recently been arrested for running a puppy mill! I'd heard about the raid but never would've imagined that my classmate was the person who was responsible for the deplorable conditions these little dogs were living in!

Pat and I had many classes together including Home Ec, which stressed cleanliness & good nutrition. Her Puppy Mill showed no sign of either of those things. I am just heartbroken thinking about what awful things must've happened to her after high school to bring her to the point where she could raise dogs like this and not see anything wrong with it.

There were over 110 dogs being kept in bad conditions behind her homes. The neighbors, when interviewed by the local tv & newspaper, all talked about how noisy & smelly the animals were. Some even mentioned that Pat's husband (now deceased) had been convicted of animal cruelty several years ago & wasn't even supposed to be keeping animals.

What I don't understand is why these neighbors never reported the situation to the authorities!! PLEASE, if you see animals being kept in bad conditions, call your local police or animal shelter & don't rest until something has been done about it.

If you are planning to buy a puppy, please don't buy it from a pet shop - or from somebody who wants to ship it to you or meet you somewhere with it. If the breeder isn't willing for you to come to their house & meet the parents & see where the puppies are being raised, RUN the opposite direction! You can bet they have something to hide. What they do is clean up a couple of the breed you're interested in & bring them to meet you. Sometimes they clean them up & bring them to a pet shop to sell for them. They may tell a flowery story about the wonderful place where the puppies live but don't believe it unless you see it.

When questioned about what she'd done, Pat refused to admit that she'd done anything wrong. Some of the dogs confiscated from her property were in such bad shape that they had mold growing on them. They had no water, had rats in the cage with them, poop everywhere. It just broke my heart to hear about it, and when I watched the video that showed the conditions I just cried & cried. Nobody, human or animal, should have to live like these little dogs did. I cried for them and I cried for Pat, the quiet, friendly, helpful girl from high school whose life has led her to this point. I pray that when the legal process is finished, these little dogs will find loving homes and that Pat will get help and be able to once again become a caring individual and overcome whatever it was that brought her to this low point.

(The video is entitled "Rowan County KY Puppy Mill Bust" and can be seen on You Tube.

Scrabble Birthday Calendar

Saw this Birthday Calendar idea today & LOVE it! My son recently asked me for a list of family birthdays. He's a huge Scrabble player, so this would be a really cool way to present him with the birthday info! I'd like to make one for him AND one for myself!

I'm wondering how they did the tiny lettering used for each person's name. Maybe rub-on letters? I wrote the calendar creator a few minutes ago & asked him how, hope I hear back! If not, I'll figure something out. :-)

Overwhelmed When Trying to Scrap :-p

Yesterday I made a couple of cards & today I spent several hours reorganizing some of my materials. I'm feeling a little discouraged because I have so many scrapping/cardmaking supplies and so rarely use them. Whenever I try to scrap I end up spinning my wheels, getting overwhelmed, and accomplishing nothing. I have years of pics to scrap and tons of pretty things to use. So, my question to you is: How do YOU get started when you're not sure where to start? Any tricks or suggestions will greatly appreciated! :-)

Ticker Tape Quilts

I like to quilt but haven't done it in a very long time. Just now I read about "ticker tape quilting". Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't. Apparently you use small scraps & stitch them onto a quilt sandwich. I've been looking at pics on flickr of ticker tape quilts & it looks like there are quite a few ways of assembling the pieces. If you haven't seen them, there are a variety pictured here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1347527@N21/

My friend Ruth wrote about them - that's how I first heard of them. You'll find her blog under "fuzzy's faves" there on the left side of my blog. There's a sew-along project going on that she featured today in her blog. Each person works at their own speed, posting pics to show others how they're progressing. When you finish you'll have a Rainbow Ticker Tape Quilt, so called because each square will feature a different color. It sounds like fun!

Taste Test: Blue Buffalo vs Canidae

While we have double the dogs we usually have, we thought it'd be interesting to do a little dog food comparison & see which dog food is preferred. Our dogs (which we'll call the White Team since they're both white) normally eat Canidae and the visiting dogs (which we'll call the Black Team since they're both black) normally eat Blue Buffalo. Both are high-quality dry dog foods that are similar enough that we (and the owners of Dex & Sam) agreed that it'd be ok to have a bowl of each brand of food available to all four dogs.

First Day: All 4 dogs ate like there was no tomorrow! Seriously, they ate twice as much as they usually do. The White team (aka our dogs) ate Blue Buffalo almost exclusively. Black team (aka the visitors) ate Canidae almost exclusively. Both bowls were almost completely empty at the end of the day. While the dogs were extremely active, I think part of the encreased eating was due to having something new since each chose the food he/she didn't normally receive.

Second Day: Food consumption returned to normal. All 4 dogs returned to eating their own brand, and at the end of the day both bowls were still half full. The dogs were not as active today since the excitement of having each other around had abated. Funny that the "new" wore off this fast, both with having new companions & with having different food. All 4 are happy & content, playing and napping.