Welcome to the World Baby Phoebe

My sweet baby was born on May 3rd, 2007! Her name is Phoebe Joan and she is a healthy little 8 pound girl. (I don' t have pictures downloaded yet, but I will soon) She is on my lap right now, sucking her fingers and dreaming of breast milk.

Official announcement

I'm pregnant! Just about 14 weeks now. I wanted to wait a little so as not to jinx myself, but I feel confident that everything is going to be okay. The little pea is due April 21, 2007.

It's a really exciting time, and a scary time, an emotional time, basically anything you can think of. But I'm really looking forward to everything.

Wish me luck!

long sad animal post

I read this on craigslist and I'm sitting here at work fighting back tears. We were so lucky to have found Wiggie.

THE SHELTER MANAGER'S LAMENT

"I am posting this (and it is long) because I think our society needs a huge
"Wake-up" call.

As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all...a
view from the inside if you will.

Breeders Need Not Apply

First off, this is a forum to for adoption and/or rehoming as clearly stated
in the rules. All of you breeders/sellers on craigslist should not only be
flagged (and I hope the good people on craigslist will continue to do so
with blind fury), but you should be made to work in the "back" of an animal
shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad,
lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling
to people you don't even know…that puppy you just sold will most likely end
up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore.

So how would you feel if you knew that there's about a 90% chance that dog
will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or
not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are "owner surrenders" or "strays",
that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.

No Shortage of Excuses

The most common excuses I hear are:

"We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)."

Really? Where are you moving to that doesn't allow pets?

"The dog got bigger than we thought it would."

How big did you think a German Shepherd would get?

"We don't have time for her…."

Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs!

"She's tearing up our yard…." How about making her a part of your family?

They always tell me:

"We just don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her…we know
she'll get adopted, she's a good dog."

Odds are your pet won't get adopted and how stressful do you think being in
a shelter is?

Well, let me tell you.

Dead Pet Walking

Your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it
off…sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages
to stay completely healthy.

If it sniffles, it dies.

Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25
other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it
eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the
family that abandoned it.

If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take
him/her for a walk. If I don't, your pet won't get any attention besides
having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out
of its pen with a high-powered hose.

If your dog is big, black or any of the "Bully" breeds (pit bull, rottie,
mastiff, etc…) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front
door. Those dogs just don't get adopted.

If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full,
it will be destroyed.

If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable
enough breed…it may get a stay of execution…not for long though. Most get
very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing
aggression…even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment.

If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles…chances are it will get
kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because
shelters just don't have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

The Grim Reaper

Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a
perfectly healthy, scared animal being "put-down."

First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash…they always look
like they think they are going for a walk…happy, wagging their tails. Until
they get to "The Room."

Every one of them freaks out and puts on the breaks when we get to the
door…it must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left
in there, it's strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or
cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs depending on the size
and how freaked out they are. Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start
the process…they will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose
of the "pink stuff." Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained
and jerk… I've seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the
resulting blood and deafened by the yelps and screams.

They all don't just "go to sleep." Sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp
for air and defecate on themselves.

When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large
freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed…waiting
to be picked up like garbage.

What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food?
You'll never know and it probably won't even cross your mind…it was just an
animal and you can always buy another one right?

Liberty, Freedom and Justice for All

I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and
can't get the pictures out of your head…I do everyday on the way home from
work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always
be there unless you people make some changes and realize that the lives you
are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can
stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full,
and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.

My point to all of this…DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Bush's Summer Reading List

Okay, I am a big reader, and this summer I have about 5 books under my belt. However, George W Bush, the leader of the free world has read over 25 books this summer. Here is a link (although they forgot to mention The Stranger by Camus):
www.booktv.org/misc/081706_bush.asp

Wow I'm impressed this guy must be smart. A website determined that he would have to read for 2 hours a day at a page a minute for him to have read all of them. Can you imagine, in a time of an intense war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel and Lebanon, and terrorism all over the world, good old W has time for 2 hours of pleasure reading. Must be nice.

So in case you missed the sarcasm in the last paragraph, I just want to know, why does this administration have to lie about every single solitary thing? Who do they think they are fooling?

Funny Google Stuff

I got these from a post on Bush Haters United...
1. Type "failure" into the search bar in Google then click on "i'm feeling lucky" It should take you to an appropriate website.

2. Type "Santorum" (our hate-mongering senator from Pennsylvania) and click "I'm feeling lucky"

I love these small protests that people do. Sometimes it seems like it's all we have--especially since I don't trust voting anymore, although I will continue to do it until the day I die.

Does anyone have any suggestions for some more grassroots actions?

Please indulge my egotism...

I posted a bunch of wedding pictures in my album. Take a looksee if you're interested. I'm not all into the bride crap but I must admit it was very fun.

I may be a widow tomorrow...

My husband Mark is babysitting my maniacal twin nieces tonight all by himself for the first time ever. He has fear in his eyes. And to torture him further, I bought pumpkins and paint for them to decorate. (insert evil laughter) I love him really...

I think tonight I will do all my shows with my cell in my bra in case he calls with an emergency like they've flushed the dog down the toilet.

Pray for him!

Gifts for my bridesmaids

I am so excited about the gifts I got for my girlz! I can't give it to them until tomorrow, so I thought I share it with tribe.net, but don't tell Megan, Michele, or Kristin. They are beautiful vintage silver mesh purses, soooo lovely. I want one for myself!

They tricked me to my shower last week by having the owner of the restaurant call me and say he needed a dancer for a party they were having. I should have been suspicious when he agreed to my price right away. So I show up in all my glory, hear my name announced, go out zillz a blazin' and there are all my friends and relatives. It was so much fun. I was with Megan the day before telling her about the costume I was going to buy with the money and she never let on.

Latent racism

Mark & I are embarking on the search for our first home. It began last night on the outskirts of Northern Liberties in Philadelphia, it was not quite the artsy section of it; in fact, it was a really working class neightborhood, populated mostly by African Americans and hispanics. I don't concider myself a racist but to be honest, we both had reservations about being the only whites in a neighborhood and we asked the seller if the area was safe. (On a side note, we live in Old City now, the center of the young white professional brigade, and my car has been broken into twice and Mark's car has been out and out stolen) I am bothered by this feeling and angry at myself for thinking about it. (We really liked the house, but we have a lot of books and we're not sure it has enough space for a dozen bookshelves)

After the 'hood, we saw two houses in Havertown, which were in a sparklingly white suburb in Philly, and I couldn't imagine myself living there either. I don't want my children to grow up in a homogenous school system, meeting very few blacks, hispanics, etc. I guess I'll never be happy.