The Blog Pound

Thursday, September 14, 2006 , the wee hours

Eek, a job

The day after I was given my temporary work authorization card, I filled out a job application at the vet’s office. I knew they were hiring receptionists (a job which intimidates me), but had also heard through the grapevine that they might soon have an opening for an office manager. I wasn’t sure what an office manager did, but I was told the job was mostly doing things like inventory, placing help wanted ads and screening applicants, and “conflict resolution”. I was pretty psyched about having a job like that, because it would allow me to work in a veterinary environment while still having some autonomy (i.e., not being constantly supervised, and being able to mostly work at my own pace). So, I submitted my application and resume, and then… nothing. No one called me about my application, at all. After a couple of weeks I checked in by phone and was told that they were really behind on hiring because the office manager had indeed been fired. I was very pleased about the firing, but still unable to hook up with the vet who was hiring because she isn’t in the clinic very often. Finally, I just made an appointment for Eli to have her wellness exam, and I made it with the vet I needed to speak to (I’m the rare person who has to pay money to get a job interview, heh).

This past Monday we had the appointment. The receptionists knew I wanted to discuss employment, so they scheduled our appointment for a half-hour block instead of just 15 minutes. The vet came into the exam room, checked out Eli, and left. That was it. I had to ask a tech to fetch the vet for me again. When she came back into the room I said, “What on earth do I have to do to get you to give me a job?!” She seemed a bit surprised, which must mean she’s overworked, because she’s known that I’ve wanted to work at her clinic for years. Not only had I filled out an application, I’d had two of the receptionists actively requesting I be hired, so the fact I practically dropped to my knees and begged her for employment shouldn’t have been a surprise.

She asked me what I wanted to do at the clinic, and I said that I honestly didn’t want to be a receptionist, because I thought the job was too difficult. There was no point in lying about it… the stress of being a receptionist would eat me alive. I then mentioned I was interested in the office manager position, a job which is like a revolving door in that clinic because the people they hire just never seem to mesh with the rest of the staff. I suggested that maybe it was time to hire someone who was familiar with the office and the employees, and outlined my background in hiring people, supervising, running a business, etc. The vet was open-minded about hiring me, but said that she was honestly thinking of eliminating the position completely, because the job always ended up causing more problems than it solved. We chatted back and forth about various things—vet stuff, immigration stuff, office politics, etc.—and I mentioned that I was interested in one day going back to school to become a tech. The vet perked up—“You want to be a tech?” They were hiring techs, but I reminded her that I had no qualifications and no training (and legally, “technicians” have to be licensed by the state). I finished up the interview (which lasted about an hour) by suggesting that she could hire me as the office manager on a trial basis to see if it worked out, and that if it didn’t work out, I’d still remain a happy client.

Yesterday, the head vet tech called and told me that Eli’s bloodwork had been fine. She then asked if I could come in next Tuesday at 7:15 in the morning for a working job interview, to be an assistant tech. She said the interview would show “what (you) know and what (you) don’t know”, and I have a feeling I’ll excel only at the “what I don’t know” aspect. I love the idea of working with staff in a hands-on capacity, but still, it’s frightening. I’m so old… the licensed techs could be my adult children. I worry that I’ll discover the job I’ve always dreamed of is a job I’m not good at. I also worry that my decade-long health problems will prove to be insurmountable. It’s been one thing to have been forbidden from working for the last decade, but now that I’m allowed to, what if I just can’t do it? Mostly, it’s a bit scary to be jumping back on the employment horse again. If any of you have been away from working for any length of time, you’ll know how easy it becomes to stay at home, to not have a routine, to be a bit of a hermit. I know I want to work (and I’ve always loved my jobs), but it’s very frightening to suddenly have the moment of truth on the horizon.

When Labour Day rolls arounds every year, I heave a sigh of relief that I’m no longer a student, subject to the whims of the calendar, wondering what challenges the year has in store for me. As I wait for my interview next Tuesday, I once again feel like an apprehensive student during the last few days of summer vacation!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/14 at 12:56 AM
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Wednesday, September 13, 2006 , late at night

Selective deafness

Eli, our 10 year old GSD, just passed her latest wellness exam with flying colours. It was just bloodwork and a urinalysis, but the tech who called with the results said they were “wonderful”, and the vet who did the exam said that physically, Eli was in great shape. I was a bit concerned about her back legs, as they seem to be getting weaker, but I’m told she has excellent range of motion back there, and that any weakness I notice (like occasional difficulty climbing stairs), can probably be attributed to muscle atrophy. Rimadyl has helped Eli with day-to-day pain, but she still feels that running around the yard aimlessly (like a certain Anatolian I know), is a waste of her time. I’d love to get her into the pool for hydrotherapy, but she’s been afraid of water since she was a puppy. I guess I should walk her more often now that the weather is cooler; I’ve avoided it during the summer because there are so many black widow spiders around outside after dark, and they love to hang from the block walls we’d have to pass while we walked.

Anyway, Eli’s body seems to be holding up quite well for an old lady. The one thing that hasn’t held up are her ears, and she suddenly went deaf earlier this year. She’s not completely deaf (she still hears thunder, and the refrigerator door opening), but I think she spends most of her time in a blissful state of silence. I say “blissful”, because she gets herself into the most serene-looking deep sleep, now that she’s not awakened by the sound of footsteps or other noises around the house. When we come home after being out, she sleeps through the garage door opening and our entrance into the house, so it’s good we don’t rely on her to be a watchdog. While I normally wouldn’t begrudge her this new-found peace and quiet, it’s driving me crazy because she can’t hear anything I say to her. She’s always been one of those dogs who understands complete sentences, so the fact that she now can’t hear me when I ask her to come with me, or to go upstairs, or to leave something alone is extremely frustrating. She understands a few hand gestures, but I have to really get in her face and make eye contact for her to see that I’m motioning to her about something. I also miss being able to just talk to her about nonsense and to know that she’s listening to me… I worry that she might get lonely in her quiet head.

While the deafness has been hard on me, it’s also been tough on Dante. He’s used to being able to summon Eli to join him outside with just a couple of barks, but now he gets no reaction from her. This unfortunately has made him bark more than usual, so I hope he’ll soon figure out some alternate form of communication with her, too.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how she’s holding up. She looks fabulous, she’s still quite mobile, and her eyes are fine, so I shouldn’t lament the loss of her hearing so much. I’m a bit envious of it, I think—what I wouldn’t give for a bit of my own deafness when the parrots decide it’s time to rise and shine every morning!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/13 at 11:05 PM
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Sunday, September 10, 2006 , late at night

Pet food fundamentals

I mentioned last month that I’d signed up to take a class offered by VSPN.org called “Pet Food Fundamentals”. I’d hoped it would give me more knowledge about animal nutrition, and I liked the concept of it because the course outline said we’d be discussing specific brands of pet foods. The class started last week, and while I’ll reserve some opinions until it’s over, so far I’m somewhat disappointed. The course instructor does have some specific biases, and has said things like, “there are no documented cases of allergies to corn”, and “by-products are beneficial because using them avoids waste, and that’s good for the environment”. The common thread throughout the course is that if the AAFCO approves of a food then it must be okay, and foods which are manufactured as “good enough for humans to eat” (for example, Spot’s Stew), have been somewhat mocked. It’s not a bad course by any means, and it introduces some interesting ideas about marketing, but I feel that it partially exists to convince people that fancy pet foods are unnecessary and that Science Diet, for example, is the epitome of quality.

Because I’ve come into the course primarily as a pet owner, and not as a veterinary professional, my experiences with pet foods have been very different than the instructor’s. I’ve had the luxury of switching my pets’ diets for the sole purpose of monitoring the effects of those changes. I’ve had seven years of experience trying elimination diets with one dog, so I know how she reacts to different ingredients (like corn, for example). While I’m sure a kibble-only diet is perfectly sufficient, I don’t think the discussion should stop there, and I’d like to see an acknowledgement that perhaps dogs are enriched mentally when they’re given raw foods. So far we’ve watched videos about how nutritious kibble is made (with only the finest ingredients!), and have learned that terms like “holistic” and “organic” have no purpose except to draw in consumers, but I don’t feel like I’ve learned very much to help me care for my pets.

Frankly, the emphasis on the “power of corn” is driving me nuts, but I don’t want to be too argumentative. I think for purposes of this course, the fact that corn seems to go in one end of my cat and come out the other wouldn’t be considered relevant.

I was hoping I’d learn lots of new things and be able to talk about them here, but don’t hold your breath. The people running the course are very well-educated (more educated than I am), but they have a different perspective on pet food, and treat it as a “tool” of their practice rather than a “life force” (sorry to get all touchy-feely there, but I couldn’t think of how to describe our differing attitudes). If I’m ever in a position to give pet owners guidelines about feeding their pets, I’ll still give them the basics of how all pets foods with the AAFCO stamp of approval meet basic needs, but I’ll also be willing to tell them my anecdotal stories about how different foods seemed to give my pets better health. I’d owned cats for over 15 years before someone finally suggested to me that cats benefit from an all-wet food diet, so I think it’s important to tell people what you know.

If you have any interest in basic pet nutrition, here are the websites which were recommended for background material: Veterinary Nutritional Advocate (offered by Hills.com), and Daily Nutrition Matters, offered by Purina.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/10 at 11:38 PM
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Doggie hugs

Many of you have probably seen this, but it came to me in email: Doggie Hugs. I don’t know where the email originated, but the link is to a website which reposted the content. These are some great pictures!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/10 at 12:39 AM
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Dog Heroes of September 11th

I received an email ad for an interesting book called Dog Heroes of September 11th. It’s about the search and rescue dogs used in the September 11th recovery efforts, and it looks like a beautiful book full of great photos. If you click the above link, you can visit the book’s website. Be sure to check out the slide show to see samples of some of the pictures. Sales of the book will help fund the training of more dogs by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/10 at 12:15 AM
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Saturday, September 09, 2006 , early evening

Religious police ban sale of cats and dogs

Saudis ban sale of dogs, cats

Sep. 9, 2006. 01:00 AM DONNA ABU-NASR ASSOCIATED PRESS JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia𣶷audi Arabia’s religious police, normally tasked with chiding women to cover themselves and ensuring men attend mosque prayers, are turning to a new target: cats and dogs. The police, known as the Muttawa, have banned the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence. The prohibition on dogs may be less of a surprise, since conservative Muslims despise dogs as unclean. But the cat ban befuddled many, since Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats � and even let a cat drink from his ablutions water before washing himself for prayers. The decree � which applies to the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and the holy city of Mecca � bans the sale of cats and dogs because ``some youths have been buying them and parading them in public,’’ according to a memo from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jeddah’s city government. The memo urges city authorities to help enforce the ban. Pet owning is not common in the Arab world, though dogs are kept for hunting and guarding. In large cities around the Middle East, stray dogs often wander the streets and are considered pests. Street cats are also plentiful, and people will often feed them or play with them � but it isn’t a widespread custom to keep one in the home, and many cannot afford it. However, in the past decades, owning dogs or cats has become a fashion statement among Saudis. Showing off a Doberman, pit bull or fancy breed of feline has became a status symbol. The decree has not been enforced yet, according to several pet shop owners and veterinary clinics in Jeddah. It applies only to selling dogs and cats, and there was no sign the Muttawa would confiscate pets. The decree did not say whether the religious police would try to stop people from appearing in public with a dog or cat � or whether owners would be allowed to sell puppies or kittens born to their pets. The ban distressed cat and dog lovers. Some have wondered why the religious police are focusing on this issue when the country has far more important challenges, such as terrorism and unemployment. “I was shocked when I heard about it,” said Fahd al-Mutairi, who owns 35 cats, which cost him $1,000 (U.S.) a month to feed and care for. “What was even more shocking was to hear that the ban came from an authority that has nothing to do with such an issue.’’ “I would understand if it came from the Health Ministry or anybody charged with ensuring pets coming from outside do not carry diseases,” added the 23-year-old flower-shop owner. No other Arab country restricts pet ownership. But in Iran, ruled by Shiite clerics, religious police sometimes harass people seen outside with their dogs. Last year, Iranian police told people not to bring their dogs out in public, but the order was never backed up by law and dog-owners widely ignored it.

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I’m no fan of the Saudis (and definitely no fan of their religious police), but I think a ban on the sale of dogs and cats doesn’t sound like a bad idea. After all, if a ban was put in place here, it might finally cut down on puppy mills (I’m not advocating a ban, merely saying I can see it might have an “up” side). However, I doubt this ban in Saudi Arabia is going to have any essence of “reasonable” about it, and I worry it will lead to owners being forced to give up their pets. I’m interested to see if organizations like HSUS have an official response to this news.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/09 at 06:41 PM
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Thursday, September 07, 2006 , the wee hours

Pact with the devil

That’s what we’re calling our trip to Walmart today to do our grocery shopping—our pact with the devil. I really don’t like our Walmart at all, because it’s grubby and crowded and full of children and noisy and because they display Latter Day Saints reading material, however, so many of their products are oh-so-inexpensive. We originally went there today to buy that dangerous and verboten street drug, Sudafed, because we can get a box of 20 12-hour pills for less than $4. We thought we’d go and buy two or three boxes of Sudafed, leave, and never go back. We were already irritated from our last visit, when we practically had to sign over all rights to our internal organs so we could buy one box of Sudafed, so I guess it shouldn’t have surprised us today when we were only permitted to buy one lousy box. One box! We’d chosen a box of 20 12-hour pills, plus a box of 48 every-six-hour pills (we’ve both been battling sinus problems for over a month), and we were told we could only have one box. We could have had a second box, but I forgot my driver’s license at home, so it was “one per adult customer”. I was really, really annoyed by this policy. We asked the woman ringing us up how much Sudafed we’d need if we wanted to make crystal meth, and she laughed and said, A lot! So, if we can’t make meth with just two or three boxes of Sudafed, why won’t they sell it to us? Why, why, why?! We all know that meth dealers now just bring their Sudafed in from Mexico (and they probably pay less for it, too), so it’s not right to pester ordinary citizens for things like ID when they want to buy a couple of boxes of legal, OTC medication. Perhaps “the terrorists” have won after all, if only because they still do whatever they please, and the rest of us have our every move recorded and scrutinized, right down to our nasal habits.

Anyway, we were at Walmart, it was a rare not-too-crowded time of day, so we decided to stay and do our grocery shopping there. We started in the produce section. I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the fruits and vegetables, but I’m not sure which day they receive new deliveries and stock shelves, so the quality problem might have been just bad timing. Once we moved out of produce, though, I was immediately struck by how inexpensive everything was. I wanted to buy one of everything I saw, because they had a surprisingly good selection of “ethnic” food items, as well as a lot of hard to find meats (like pork neck bones, sweetbreads, beef heart, etc.). There were no chicken necks or backs, but Carina (if you’re reading this), they had 10 lb. bags of chicken quarters (thighs and legs) for just $3.30! I bought one bag and it contained 8 jumbo-sized quarters, which I then cut into smaller pieces for Eli and Dante. I know the legs and thighs are fattier than other parts of the chicken, so I wouldn’t want to make them an entire diet, but it’s hard to beat 33 cents per pound. The brand was “Gold Leaf”, and it didn’t seem to be a sale, but a regularly-priced item.

We continued on through the store, buying some cheddar-with-chipotle cheese, some snack-sized bags of potato chips (portion control), and a lot of interesting ethnic foods we hadn’t seen anywhere else. The store was like a United Nations of customers and food items, and we find that hard to resist. We found the world’s cutest tins of condensed milk (teeny, tiny tins, like they belonged in a Fisher-Price pretend kitchen), and prices on most things which reinforce the theory that Walmart is going to put all their competitors out of business by driving down prices, then we’ll all be screwed. Flippy and I love to drink Crystal Light’s individual powdered drink mixes (you add them to a bottle of water), but at Albertsons or Vons they cost about $6 per box. Smith’s offers their own knock-off Kroger version of the mixes, and we’re thrilled when those are on sale for $2.50. At Walmart, however, original Crystal Light powdered drink mixes were priced at a barely-there $1.78 per box. That was a rare example of something dietetic being inexpensive, because it generally seemed that price was inversely proportionate to calories. Among the very inexpensive things we noticed were cheesecake slices for $1.00, and 400 calorie, 33 grams of fat, cheese and jalapeno hamburger patties for about 50 cents each.

We ended up spending about $120. Not everything was a great value—toilet paper wasn’t on sale and was about the same price as we’d pay elsewhere, and it was the same for most of the non-food items. Dishwasher detergent, paper towel, Kleenex, trash bags—they were no bargain. Flippy noticed that Starbucks items, like bottled coffee, also were as expensive as they are everywhere else, so perhaps Starbucks won’t lower their prices for Walmart (or perhaps Walmart wants to recoup some money from the Starbucks’ addicts).

As always, Walmart leaves me feeling confused and a bit dirty. I want to go there often to stock up on $2.50 frozen raspberries and 33 cent per pound chicken, but on the other hand, some food items don’t seem to be the best quality. I’m also overwhelmed by all the junk food and desserts and snack food—it’s no place to be if you want to diet and lack willpower. It’s also no place to be if you’re a meth addict, because they definitely won’t give you a break on your Sudafed purchases.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/07 at 12:21 AM
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006 , late at night

Little Lord Fauntleroy

If looks could kill…

After a week of Clavamox, Scampi’s rear leg abrasions aren’t any better. In fact, they’re worse, because what started as just one leg has now spread to both. I really had no option but to try the e-collar the vet recommended, as it will let us know if Scampi is injuring himself (say, by over-grooming). I’m pretty skeptical about that as the culprit, because we’re with him all the time and we don’t see him do any excessive grooming, but I knew I had to give the collar a try. It unfortunately turned Scampi into the clumsiest, saddest, most depressed and confused kitten on the planet. He bumped into things, he walked backwards and tried to run away from it, and he eventually just plunked himself down in one spot and looked unfortunate.

He had the collar on for about eight hours, and as I was getting ready to give the cats their final feeding, I noticed Scampi wandering back and forth from one litterbox to another. He’d try to stand on his hind legs as if to jump inside (the boxes are quite deep), but then he’d stop and walk away. I took the collar off him and he immediately jumped in a box and peed a river, so I think the collar had kept him from being able to jump. He usually jumps with his hind legs, grabs the edge of the litterbox with his front legs, and then jumps down in, but with the collar his front legs couldn’t grab onto the edge of the box. I was worried he’d end up having litterbox “issues” if he felt he couldn’t get into the box, so I just took the collar off and our experiment lasted all of one-third of a day.

I sent him off to bed after rubbing one of his legs with ItchStick. It’s a medicated, waxy stick (like deodorant), and it contains witch hazel, aloe vera, and lidocaine, plus a bittering agent to keep pets from chewing on their wounds. I saw Scampi take a lick of it and he seemed quite disgusted, so hopefully this stuff will remind him to leave his leg alone, while encouraging healing. I’ll try it on just one leg for about three days, and if there’s improvement, I’ll continue. If there’s no improvement, I guess he’ll be back to the vet for a skin scraping. I wish I could post photos of what his legs look like, but I’d have to hold him still to do that, and he wouldn’t like it. So there.

Sigh… I hope the problem doesn’t turn out to be some sort of allergy. I wouldn’t even know where to begin figuring out what he was allergic to, and if it ended up being dust mites, well, he’d just have to learn to live in a plastic bubble.

One positive thing came of his course of Clavamox—his gooey eyes cleared up. He’d had a yellowish discharge from his eyes for a couple of months, but his eyes were clear nad not irritated, and the vet didn’t think it was anything to be concerned about. Whatever it was, it went away instantly with the Clavamox and hasn’t come back, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/06 at 11:55 PM
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Tuesday, September 05, 2006 , lunch time

Missy Mae’s mom

I spoke to Missy Mae’s original caretaker on Sunday, and she sounds great. Well, she sounds tired, but no worse than she sounded when I first started talking to her on the phone back in May. She said her chemotherapy has been tough and draining, but it’s obviously keeping her alive and enjoying life. She even hopes to be well enough to make a visit to Vegas in October, so we’ll try to get her together with Missy Mae for a little visit. In the interim, I suppose I should really work on getting Missy Mae out of the bathroom. I assure everyone reading this that she’s perfectly happy in the bathroom, and that the door is always open and she gets plenty of visitors (feline and human), but she seems to have no interest in leaving. She’s just a few feet from the back patio where she could look out the door but no, she prefers the bathroom. If I go sit on the floor next to her she’ll come over to me for pets, but unless I offer to brush her, she quickly loses interest and goes back into hiding again. She truly does love to be brushed, so I guess someone took good care of her when she was younger.

I hope that over time she’ll become more comfortable visiting the kitchen, or even wandering upstairs, but I don’t want to push her. When I’ve brought her upstairs in the past, she runs and hides in a closet (she opens the sliding door herself!), and I feel that she’s better in the open, well-lit bathroom where there’s lots of traffic, than hiding alone in a dark closet. I don’t know what sort of life she had in the past, but her lumps and scars make it seem like recent elements of it were rough, so maybe she’s just content with peace and quiet (and the occasional flush).

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/05 at 01:06 PM
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Monday, September 04, 2006 , evening

If you can’t say anything nice…

I guess it’s the anonymity of the Internet which makes some people think it’s okay to rude, mean, and horrible, no matter the circumstances. I know I’ll sometimes criticize a company harshly on my blog, or I might call a politician an idiot, but I can’t imagine ever mocking or cheering someone else’s misfortune. I might think Tom Cruise is an moron, for example, because he purports to be an expert on mental health issues and could cause serious harm, but if and when the man dies, I’ll either not speak on the topic or I’ll look for something positive to say. Um, “I loved “Jerry Maguire” (because Renee Zellweger was in it)”—I could say something like that. I could also say, “Tom Cruise smiled a lot”, and that wouldn’t kill me or make me a liar. Odds are, I’d probably just keep quiet, because if I didn’t care for the man, why would anyone want to know my opinion?

I was thinking about this subject today as I browsed news stories and online tributes about Steve Irwin. I won’t subject you to some of the truly horrible, disgusting things people felt compelled to write, because I’d just be glorifying mental illness. However, I was nauseated by the number of “sane” people who used Irwin’s death to jump on a soapbox. Generally, it seemed to be an uneducated and uninformed soapbox, because I highly doubt any of Irwin’s harshest critics ever watched his TV shows. I wrote last night that I wasn’t a huge fan of Irwin’s TV persona because he was a bit too excitable and “loud” for my tastes. However, I was able to look past the character to see what an incredible man he was, and to respect him for his experience, knowledge, and dedication to conserving wildlife. Today the Internet was full of know-it-alls who claimed that Irwin “deserved” his fate because he “harassed animals”, yet nothing could be further from the truth. I never saw Steve Irwin handle an animal with anything but the utmost respect, and I know he developed his animal-handling skills in the process of trying to save animals that others were trying to kill. Instead of having Australian homeowners kill poisonous snakes on their property, Irwin would go catch the snakes and relocate them, unharmed. Instead of letting poachers or hunters kill “nuisance” crocodiles, Irwin would capture them and relocate them to more isolated areas, or would give them a home in his conservation park. Yes, he “wrestled” crocodiles in the process of capturing them to move them, but I’m sure if you asked the crocs, they much preferred a bit of rope and duct tape to death.

I’m just not sure what the critics want from a conservationist. I’ve seen Irwin criticized for capturing animals, for touching animals in the process of educating the public, and even for maintaining a zoo (a zoo with great breeding programs for many endangered species). I guess he was somehow supposed to just love the animals from afar, letting them be killed as urban expansion eradicated their habitat? Anyone who thinks their child can be compelled to love animals from seeing a photo in a book is sadly misinformed about the power of touch and experience. Even my young nephew, who’s an animal lover, is most fascinated with insects because he’s able to touch them, to experience them. Steve Irwin’s work was all about letting the average person experience the thrill of wildlife vicariously, while also teaching love and respect. He loved all the animals so much, from insects to the largest carnivores, and for anyone to sit back in their desk chair and whine that he “deserved what he got” is just sickening.

I was going to let the online cheering over Irwin’s death pass unmentioned, until Flippy forwarded me a comment from the Chicago Tribune. Here’s what one person had to say, and she even signed her name and linked to her website:

Steve Irwin lived by the sword and died by the sword. Anyone who chokes, shakes, scares and generally bothers that many wild animals eventually can expect to push too hard one time too many. I am glad that he never visited my sanctuary where we respect the animals with silent respect. Besides zoos are miserable places for animals to live. Posted by: Susan | Sep 4, 2006 5:45:10 PM

Ironically, “Susan” is the director of Tortoise.com, a nonprofit group which is a “permanent sanctuary for abandoned or lost tortoises”! Their website proclaims that they do education about tortoises and turtles by taking them to schools so children can experience them, they produce “educational videos”, and they even have photos on their website of group members posing with and touching tortoises. They keep tortoises in a “natural enclosure” outdoors, and rehab sick ones in their home, so exactly how are they different from Steve Irwin?! They’ve chosen a threatened and misunderstood species of reptile to care for, and they dedicate their resources to protecting it. They use the reptiles in their educational materials, as they know the only way people will learn respect is through education. Susan is obviously another person who never saw one of his TV shows, and who has no idea what a beautiful “zoo” Irwin and his family created. I guess they should have just called it “Australia Natural Enclosure” or something. Everyone who reads this blog knows we regularly make charitable donations to a variety of causes, and that we love small rescue groups, but I can assure you that “American Tortoise Rescue” will never see a penny of our money. How foolish for someone to promote their website while simultaneously being hateful and petty!

In closing, I liked Steve Irwin, and I would have enjoyed working with him and learning from him. To the people who want to use this occasion to criticize him and say, “I told you so”, I hope you enjoy your safe little lives where you know everything and never do anything out of the ordinary. Yawn.

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Here’s a great article about media and public reaction to Irwin’s death, both positive and negative: Notes on the Death of Steve Irwin

and, here’s a nice editorial by someone who was an Irwin fan: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=5&no=315972&rel_no=1

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/04 at 08:56 PM
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