People just suck

You know, I get a good run for awhile where there is hope for humanity. Then along comes reality and just knocks the stool right out from under hope. Yesterday was one of those days. I'm sure anyone and everyone in rescue knows the feeling, but I'll vent just for the hell of it.

I got an email yesterday from someone looking to place their dog. Seems they are leaving the country and don't want to put the dog through the move. Since they adopted him from the rescue I volunteer with, they would like to give him back. Oh, by the way they adopted him in 1992 when he was 10 months old, and he's been a backyard dog ever since. He doesn't have any health issues, other than being 14 years old. He's very good, gets along with everyone, but they don't think he'd make the transition to being a house dog at this age, and they don't think he would survive a winter outside in Switzerland so they liked to give him back. So he can live out his life in comfort. Outside somewhere, without the only sad form of a family he's known for the last 14 years. People suck. And things like this make me seriously doubt our ability to get to the truth when we interview for placements.

Then I have my own return coming back, after 6 years. He is the sibling of the 2 dogs my friends adopted from me 6 years ago (they adopted the mostly white one, and the one on the ground. Prince is the other one in the lap). The owner thought about returning him last year, because he's untrainable. Seems they took him to a class 3 times - not 3 different classes but attending 1 class for only the first 3 sessions, and the trainer told them he was untrainable - at 12 weeks old what puppy isn't easily distracted. So they didn't try to train him for the next 5 years. Last year I met with them and gave them some suggestions if they didn't want to give up on him. But I could have taken him back. They kept him, supposeldy to try. Now a year later they didn't try anything, still think he's untrainable - though without any effort I don't know how you reach that conclusion - and want to give him back.

Now, I know we rescues say we want the dogs back because we don't want people to just bail on them, take them to a shelter, or abandon them. But sometimes you have to wonder if you are perpetuating the disposable pet mindset by making it so easy for them to give them back. It's truly a rock and a hard place.

People suck. Whenever I start to have a little faith I just need to remind myself that for the most part people are really selfish, self centered, uncaring, unthinking, self absorbed bastards. Regardless of their political views. Regardless of their income levels. Regardless of their religious beliefs. Regardless of their social backgrounds. Most of them will bail on something meaningful in a manner that causes pain to someone or something else if it is to their advantage. There are a few good ones out there, and I am lucky to call some of them friend. But for the most part, People Suck.

Thunder bad.

I don't have much to write really. We are having an odd little thunder storm move through. And though to many I know it would seem almost laughable, I know my Border Collie is at home beside him self with worry that the world is, indeed, coming to an end. And for some reason this frenzy of concern for the world drives him to pounce on his poor little deaf cattledog buddy, Ekko, who has no clue TS is aggitated until he lands firmly on her head. I guess it's his way of sharing the thunder with her, since she can't hear it. It's like he says "here, this is how it sounds in my head!"

Dog news at The Bark

I guess I just got busy and forgot they had set up a blog over at The Bark. But I found my link again today and paid them a visit. They have some interesting news about how to help various groups trying to help the displaced Katrina animals. They also have some interesting links to articles about what is and isn't working, and how to help change Red Cross policy on dogs in shelters.

One thing that really struck me was that no one had left any comments. Odd. There were entries that seemed to warrant feedback to me. I commented on one, but then decided I'd comment here and link over to them, even though no one reads my blog either :-)

If you happen to read this, go visit them.

Thanks!

I Love Meerkats!

I visited them at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. I got this cute series of pictures and made this little animation. I was going to post it here, but it wouldn't animate for me so I had to send you to it instead...

Fixing our world image

Evidently President Bush is feeling the heat from all his bad choices and has assigned someone to spin us a new image. According to an article by Reuters:

One immediate task for Hughes will be countering the negative effects abroad of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Television images of desperate and mainly black survivors of the storm stranded in danger and squalor in flooded New Orleans fueled perceptions abroad that the United States was a racially divided country in which the government is unconcerned about its poorest citizens.

Umm, hello, they fueled the same perceptions at home. Or I should say added fuel to a perception that already existed. After the President got elected he was quoted as saying that:

"This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base.” -- George W. Bush

Some people argue that this was a quote repeatedly taken out of context. I would argue that simply popping in to his mind is an indication of his true feelings. And now we have thousands of poor people dying due to lack of a timely response to a disaster we even knew was coming. And since Bush had given only a fraction of the money asked for to shore up failing levies, it wasn't hard to imagine thay at least some of them might fail in a situation like this. How come no one asked, oh my what happens if our crappy levies are damaged by this class 4 hurricane? Damn, someone do their job please.

Ok, I'm pretty sure I'm PMSing so I'll shut up now.

Still learning the art of blogging

But, I am getting there. I just added 2 blogroll links to my sidebar. I am very proud of myself. Now I need to find a few more to add. The thing is I don't get "out" much to read everyone's blogs. I just pop in here and there to see what's about town, so to speak. I'm much more of an observer than I am a participator. But I like being exposed to all the different viewpoints, and just daily chatter. Maybe I'll start getting more active now that I have a few lessons under my belt.

You'd think that by working with and being friends with someone who's writing a book about how to blog (look julie, a link in my paragraph) that I'd be right up there on ability. Just goes to show you how non-participatory I really am...

The inmates are running the asylum

never has it been more true...

My one class

Well. School is back in. I have one evening class on Tuesdays. Psychology of Women. We will be examining gender roles and societies attitudes towards women in different cultures. Should be interesting. She's mainly lecture and video. Last night, though, was a shock to my apparently sheltered system.

We learned all about various endocrine insufficiencies during gestation that affect gender. We learned about babies born genetically male but with deformed genitals. And since it is evidently easier to make a vagina than it is to make a penis, they opt to turn the baby boy into a baby girl. Even though it is genetically a boy. They keep having problems with the kids when they hit puberty, basically being too much a boy and then opting for surgery to turn them back. I was really having a problem with why they were making an obviously wrong choice simply because the surgery was easier - to perform by the way not necessarily to withstand. So even though children are born every day with some kind of deformity that they must live with, boys born with deformed gemitals would some how be better off turned into girls rather than learning to live with their deformity or possibly waiting to repair the genitals when the child is older. How could they possibly survive the ridicule, was the justification! Hello, children are mean to each other all the time but that doesn't mean we put a bag over the head of the kids with cleft palettes or hide the ones that need leg braces. We address the issues and teach the kids how to cope. And at a young age, before those damn gym classes, it's much easier to hide deformed genitals than it is a limb or a face. I think the Dr.s are doing much more damage to these kids pschologically than if they were simply allowed to develope the way they were born rather than being forced into the wrong mold. I was having a real hard time with this whole thing...and I don't even like kids.

I could go on about this because it really seems to have messed with me, but I won't. Can't wait to see what I learn next week...

It's not looting people, it's survival

I'm not going to launch in to a big long rant on what ISN"T being done for the victims of Katrina. But I am going to say that when you are left out in the elements, with no food or water or medical care and there's a store right in front of you, and no aid in sight, it's not looting it's survival. Has any one bothered to look at the news footage of what these people are "making off with" when they show pictures of "looting"? Thi sis not the L.A. riots with people making off with TVs and stereos, these are people taking food, water, and medical supplies to try to keep as many friends and family alive as they can. Hello, anyone else hearing a wake up call?!