Thursday, August 31, 2006 , evening

Go, Andre!

When Flippy and I first moved to Las Vegas, we fostered two little sickly kittens for the NSPCA.  We had the honour of naming them, so we named the Siamese “Stewie”, after the character on “Family Guy”, and we named the little orange tabby, “Andre”, after Andre Agassi.  We figured Andre Agassi was one of Vegas’ most famous exports, so it seemed like a good name for a cute little guy.  Thoughts of those two kittens went though my mind tonight, as we watched the human Andre Agassi play a match at the U.S. Open, perhaps his last.  I used to love watching tennis on TV, but have grown away from it since Bjorn Borg left the game (yes, that was a long time ago!), but I’ve had a great time watching Andre play.  We watched him win a tough match on Monday, and another one tonight, knowing that the first match he loses in this tournament will be the last match he plays in his career.  The poor guy is in rough shape with back problems… he walks a lot like Flippy did prior to her surgery, but worse.  There’s something pretty inspirational about watching a sore and tired “old man of the tennis world” dig down deep to win these tough matches (against opponents who are theoretically young enough to be his children).

Assuming his back holds up, Andre Agassi will play another match sometime in the next couple of days, and I encourage you to check it out if you’re a tennis fan.  I wonder what ever happened to our little foster kitten Andre, and if the shelter kept his name?  He’d be 7 years old now, which is about 44 in human years -- I hope he’s holding up better than his namesake!

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Added after the fact:

Evolution and appreciation of Agassi

Agassi’s Career Comes to a Close With a Loss

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/31 at 09:39 PM
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Stop the horse slaughter

I know I don’t usually write about non-companion animal issues, but I’ve been closely following the political activity surrounding the efforts to stop the slaughter of wild horses.  Here in Nevada the horses are the image on our state quarter, and while I generally don’t waste any love on Republicans, I’ll admit I appreciate the good work Nevada Senator John Ensign has done on this issue.  I disagree with the man on just about everything, but I can’t argue that he’s great about animal issues.  In any case, if you’re interested, the HSUS offers an easy online form so you can email your local representatives to ask them to support H.R. 503, which would put a permanent ban on the sale of wild horses for human consumption.  As with so many things, it’s not a perfect solution, and we’ll still need to find homes for horses which have been pushed off their grazing land by ranchers, but it’s a good beginning.  Here’s the link:  Homestretch for Horses

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/31 at 09:33 PM
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006 , early evening

Magazines on sale

I received notice in my email today that Amazon.com is having a “sale” on two popular pet magazines, The Bark, and I Love Cats.  You’ll still pay the regular subscription price ($15 for “The Bark” and $26 for “I Love Cats"), but then Amazon will send you a $5 gift certificate good on a future purchase.  I’ll admit I’m not familiar with “I Love Cats”, but I’m always buying “The Bark” at the bookstore, and I’m paying about $20 a year for it.  With the gift certificate, it lowers the subscription price to $10 for the year.  I think I’ll be taking advantage of this (not that we need more magazine subscriptions, but whatever).

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/30 at 06:52 PM
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Tuesday, August 29, 2006 , evening

My first conference call

Today I lost my conference call virginity.

Last week I received an email inviting me to attend a conference call to discuss a new blog being written by/for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.  At first I thought the email was a mistake, because it was a fairly personalized invitation, and mentioned “We have been following your blog, and based on your regular and insightful coverage...”, etc., etc., which made me wonder who they were talking about.  In any case, I’m interested in IFAW’s work, so I thought I’d try to attend the conference call.  Maybe I’d learn something, after all.  It would be a discussion of blogging by important bloggers, and I could just eavesdrop and try to pick up some pointers on how to have a successful blog.

The conference call was today, at 11:30 am.  I rolled out of bed at about 11:15, looked at the clock, and almost decided against calling.  At the last minute I decided I really should call and listen, as I might not have this sort of opportunity again.  I assumed there would be 40 or 50 people participating, and that it would be a rollicking good time.  Well, I called in at about 11:29, and someone actually answered the phone to speak to me.  Yikes!  Then she told me I was “the first one to arrive”, OMG!  Then one other blogger called in, and that was it—me, two women from IFAW, a moderator, and Eric, in a meeting to discuss this big important blog.  It was all I could do to not hyperventilate. 

I’ve never been on a conference call before, so I’m not sure what normal etiquette is.  I’m also Canadian (i.e., excessively polite in groups), so I wasn’t sure when to speak because I didn’t want to cut anyone else off.  Eric wasn’t shy about speaking up, and was very well-spoken, and he did a great job of covering the basics of how to promote a blog, how to build a regular readership, etc.  I was able to add a few extra suggestions, but only after Eric was done and the conversation was tossed to pathetic little me.  Me, in my shorts and ratty t-shirt, with cats running over me, sitting on the sofa… I felt so unprepared and unprofessional.  Honestly, I could make a number of suggestions on blog promotion and optimization, but I wasn’t expecting to have to make them, so I had a bad case of brain freeze.  I’m not used to people asking my opinion about blogging, I guess… I feel like such small potatoes.  To make me feel even more bewildered, I noticed that the IFAW blog was linking to me in their blogroll.  I believe I’m a competent blogger, and do a good job with my blog, but I also admire so many other people whose link should be on that blogroll before mine.  I don’t think that’s false modesty.  I just don’t think that I should be held up as a prime example of an animal rescue blog when people like Susan, Jody, and My Animal Family aren’t being acknowledged.

All in all, it was a good experience, but one I wish I’d been better-prepared for.  I want to see the IFAW blog succeed, because it’s an excellent central point to find relevent information from across the globe.  I also don’t want the IFAW people to think I’m a total dweeb for calling into a conference call and not expecting to participate.  The only other calls I’ve been invited to are shareholder calls, where the CEO of a company might have 500 or more participants to discuss a company and its stock, and I never bother to call.

So, to IFAW, your blog is off to a great start, it’s a great idea, and please don’t think I’m a moron.  I’m surprisingly competent any time after 12 noon.  To Eric, it was a pleasure to hear you speak and to listen to your ideas.  And to me, I guess I need to take myself more seriously.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/29 at 09:59 PM
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Dear charities…

Please stop sending me things.  I don’t mind sending $25 your way once or twice a year, but it bothers me immensely when you repay my donation by sending me unrequested calendars, stickers, notepads, keychains, dog tags, and innumerable other little trinkets.  If I wanted trinkets, I’d just buy the trinkets myself, and it annoys me to think that you’re spending all the money I donated to you towards the effort of getting me to donate more money.  That’s not why I sent you a contribution!  I don’t think I’d even mind if you spent my donation towards attracting new donors, but stop wasting it on me.

With this being the anniversary of hurricane Katrina, I guess I’m starting to get some “annual reminders” from the larger charities we sent money to last year.  Interestingly enough, the charities which send out the most “stuff”, are also the charities which could be criticized for being “90% administration and 10% action”.  In contrast, small groups like Alley Cat Allies just send me a simple donation request twice a year or so, without any fanfare.  It makes me feel like they’re using their donations more wisely.

While I’m on my soapbox, if you’re going to send me personalized address labels, spell my name properly!  I don’t think I have one set of address labels with my name spelled correctly.  The closest I ever get is my first name lacking the hyphen, which is fairly close, but why can’t it be perfect?  Flippy, on the other hand, has a nice simple name so our desk overrunneth with Flippy’s return address labels.

In closing, I don’t want to donate any more money to HSUS, ASPCA, or NSAL until they lay-off the hard sell.  I’ll continue to donate to a number of other smaller charities who do grassroots work.  I’ll also continue to support Best Friends, of course—they send out a magazine if you donate, but you can opt out of receiving it, and I confess that I really enjoy reading it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/29 at 09:11 PM
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More about green tripe

It’s been a couple of weeks since I received my first order of “innards” from GreenTripe.com, and the dogs have had a chance to sample all the different goodies.  They just love, love, love the Tripe Stuffed Raw Cow Hooves, and at just $1.25 each, they’re a great bargain.  I offer them frozen, straight from the freezer, so it makes them long-lasting and gives the dogs a good dental workout.  They stink ever so slightly ("essence of barnyard"), but no more so than the dried cow hooves you find at pet stores.  The dogs will lick out the stuffing and then chew on the hoof, but I end up tossing out the thickest part of the hoof at the end of the day.  You can also buy unstuffed raw hooves, for 33 cents each, but I don’t know if they have much nutritional value.  If you’re going to pay for the special shipping and styrofoam crate and dry ice, you’d might as well spend a little extra and get the stuffed hooves.

Unfortunately, the dogs are pretty ambivalent about the tracheas and gullets ("unfortunate" because I have so many of them, now I have to figure out how to use them up!).  The tracheas are kind of slimy and tough to grip, and the dogs seem confused by them.  They’ll eat them if I chop the tracheas into smaller pieces (which I’m doing), but I don’t relish the idea of doing that all the time.  The gullets seem better for chewing, but they’re so large that they have to be cut into smaller pieces or they just get wasted.  I can thaw and chop one gullet into four pieces, which means two days worth of snacks, but it’s a lot of work and has to be done carefully, with a big cleaver.

I found another website, A Place for Paws, which sells green tripe, chicken necks and backs, and a selection of other raw items, but they only ship their perishable products to the midwest.  Still, it might be a good source for people living in that area (check the delivery map on their website).  Their prices seem to be excellent.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/29 at 11:15 AM
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Sunday, August 27, 2006 , early afternoon

Xylitol can be toxic

There was an interesting little snippet in the latest ASPCA newsletter about how the artificial sweetener xylitol can be poisonous to pets.  It’s not a sweetener I’m too familiar with (I think I’ve only noticed it in chewing gum), but figure it’s good to put the word out there.  I’ll admit I like my artificial sweeteners, because they let me enjoy things like Crystal Light without any guilt, but if this stuff is harmful to pets, I guess it’s probably not good for people over the long haul, either.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/27 at 02:57 PM
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Saturday, August 26, 2006 , early evening

“I’ve never seen anything like this”

The title of this entry is what the vet said when she looked at Scampi’s leg abrasion.  Nothing strikes fear into my heart like a vet saying something along those lines, because I’m afraid it’s code for “expensive tests”!  Luckily, the vet decided to treat the problem conservatively for now, under the assumption it’s just an injury which might be slightly infected.  Scampi’s on Clavamox for a week, with an e-collar, and if the wound doesn’t heal he’ll have to have a skin scraping.  I guess it’s sign that the staff at the clinic are comfortable with us, as they made jokes about it being ringworm and me being infected with it, and then they giggled.

One thing I’ve discovered I love about Scampi is that he’s a great pill-taker!  Just slap a bit of cheese around the pill and he eagerly gulps it down, just like a dog.  I can hardly believe my luck, because of all our cats, the only one which can be pilled with any ease is Frank (just pry his mouth open and toss the pill in).  The other cats struggle and squirm and gag, so I barely have words for how much I appreciate Scampi’s cooperation.  This almost makes up for him losing the brand new Lupine cat collar I bought him (I have no idea what he did with it, but it went missing within a few hours of me putting it on him, and I haven’t seen it since) (the design was, “Muddy Paws").

While at the clinic for Scampi’s appointment (and Frank’s FIP vaccination), I filled out a job employment form and attached my resume.  In the spot where it asked if I wanted full-time or part-time, I just wrote, “Please talk to me about this.” I figured that will give me opportunity to explain my concerns about working full-time in reception, while also explaining that I think I could work full-time as long as it was a “work at my own pace” position.  I’ve told the front desk staff more than once that I don’t want to jeopardize the good relationship I have with all of them, so I think they know that I only want to take a job if I feel I can succeed at it.  I’ve seen so many people come and go from that office because they can’t handle the stress, and I know the regular staffers don’t appreciate wasting their time training people who end up leaving.  The rumour mill says there might be a “back office” position open soon, and that would be perfect for me, but that’s just speculation and I’m not sure if it will pan out.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/26 at 07:51 PM
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Thursday, August 24, 2006 , evening

Let’s talk about cats, man

It seems like a long time (or a “lon time”, heh), since I wrote about the cats.  Thankfully, no news is mostly good news.  Tomorrow we’ll take Frank in for his FIP shot, and we’re also taking Scampi along so he can have a wound on his leg checked out.  I hardly know how to describe his wound, except that it’s a long scar (or bald spot) on the back of his right thigh.  It’s almost like a racing stripe.  We thought he injured himself about six weeks ago when he took a poorly executed flying leap over a baby gate downstairs (a 3.4 degree of difficulty).  At that time, the back of his leg had a long scratch on it, but it scabbed over and wasn’t inflamed.  He didn’t seem bothered by it at all, and eventually it was just a flat scar and the hair seemed to be growing over it.  A couple of weeks later it seemed worse again, bigger, but it also was scabbed over and not irritated (we figured he’d hit the gate again—he’s not coordinated when he starts his jump from a smooth surface, like linoleum).  A couple of days ago I looked at his leg and he seemed to have injured it again, and this time it had some fairly large scabbed areas on it, with irritation around the edges.  He isn’t picking at it, and it doesn’t seem to hurt, but now I’m wondering if it’s something more than just a scrape.  If we didn’t handle him so much we wouldn’t even know he had an injury, because his pale skin just blends in with his fur.  I feel a bit stupid taking him in to be checked out for an injury he’s had for over a month, but really, it didn’t seem to be anything more than an abrasion at first.  None of the other cats have any marks like it, there’s been no fighting amongst the cats, and the weirdest part is, we can’t find any rough spots on the gate we think he’s scraped himself on.  I’m very interested to find out what’s going on with him.

I was offered a job a few days ago (contingent upon getting my work authorization); I was offered a job as a receptionist at the vet’s office.  I don’t want to have to turn down the first job I’ve been offered, but I don’t think I’m capable of handling the reception duties.  Those people work so hard, are constantly on the go, and the phone rings non-stop—I’m afraid it will be too much of a shock to my system after not working in an office setting since 1995, and after dealing with fibromyalgia for the past decade as well.  I would definitely love to work at the clinic, but I think I need a backroom “work at your own pace” position (like a kennel attendant), or I need to start part-time so I can ease into simple things like keeping a schedule.  The one thing I don’t want to do is take a job and perform poorly, because I don’t want to affect the good relationship we have with the clinic and the people who already work there.  This was one of the reasons I thought a part-time job caring for animals at the animal adoption center near us might be a good idea for me, because there I don’t have to worry about burning bridges, and I don’t have the extra burden of dealing with the public.  I’ve waited so long to be allowed the freedom to work where I want, but a 10 year layoff is a difficult thing to overcome.  I’m not sure how much my body or mind can handle, and I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew.  I’ll be thinking this one over for a while.

I hate to do this to you, but here’s one more funny cat video via YouTube:

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/24 at 09:56 PM
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Wednesday, August 23, 2006 , early evening

Good news and bad news

I am extremely tired, and I had a three hour nap this afternoon.  I don’t know how you regular people keep a schedule, because the whole idea seems torturous.

The quick version of my day was, I was given a temporary work card.  It will allow me to seek employment for the next year while I wait to receive a Green card, and if necessary, it can be renewed.  While I’m happy to have cleared one hurdle, today was supposed to be my, “I’ll finally get legal permanent residence status” day, and that didn’t happen.  The first problem was that Homeland Security hasn’t completed my background check (the one they started the day I had my biometrics done in early July), and I can’t be issued a visa until that’s done.  I’m told that some checks are taking as long as a year to complete, and checks on people from places like Pakistan are taking as long as two years, so I don’t know when I’ll see the light at the end of that tunnel.  It seems to be a very unorganized process, with no central computer database.  The second problem I encountered was that the “visa priority date” for my immigration category was rolled back last month, so suddenly, a visa is unavailable for me.

The whole “visa priority date” concept is a bit confusing.  Most immigration categories have quota limits on them, for example, my category of “unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens” has an annual limit of 23,400 (the number of visas which can be issued in a fiscal year).  As there are always far more applicants than there are visa numbers available, a person can end up waiting many years for their application to finally hit the top of the pile.  The “visa priority date” is the method the government uses to indicate which applications are being processed in a given month.  In my case, my application was submitted in March 2001, so that’s my priority date.  I needed the government to process every application prior to March 2001 so they could reach mine.

My priority date hit the top of the application pile in the fall of 2005, but then I had to wait to be scheduled for things like biometrics and interviews before an actual visa/Green card would be handed to me.  Today was supposed to be the day I finally got my visa, but sometime last month, the government ran out of visa numbers—they hit that ceiling of 23,400 visas per year.  Not only did they run out of visas for this year, they suddenly seem to feel they’ve run out of three years worth of visas, because they’ve rolled their current priority date back to January 1998!  That can be roughly interpreted as them telling me that I’ll need to wait three more years, again, until my application hits the top of “the pile”.  How did this happen?  I don’t know.  My lawyer didn’t seem to know.  He thought they were probably overestimating the problem, and hopes that the dates will roll forward again in October, the start of a new government fiscal year (and the release of the next crop of 23,400 visas).  I could face the same problem again if my priority date becomes current after October and my biometrics still aren’t completed—I could watch another fiscal year fly by me while I sit and wait.  If I get to July 2007 without a Green card, I’ll need to have those biometrics and the medical exam done all over again, as they’re only good for a year.  Then the biometrics will have to be checked again, and I’ll enter government purgatory.

I’m happy that I’m done with the interview process—I was promised I won’t have any more interviews.  That’s a consolation, I suppose.  Don’t get me wrong—the work authorization is wonderful.  However, it still doesn’t allow me to travel outside the country (ah, the irony; I want to be a permanent resident so I’ll be able to leave).  I also can’t apply for citizenship until five years after my Green card is issued, so everytime that’s delayed, it delays my citizenship application as well. 

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Now that the details are out of the way, I can talk about other bits and pieces of our day.  In bullet points:

  • Getting up so early was nasty, and as always, the pets were noisy and bothersome all night to ensure we didn’t sleep very well.
  • I’d never met my lawyer before (he’s from California), but I immediately liked him when we picked him up at his hotel to drive to the interview, and he was very personable and chatty.
  • I didn’t feel nervous like I thought I would—I think I was too tired to feel nervous.
  • The building where the interview was done is emblazoned with a huge “Department of Homeland Security” logo on the front, and I wish we could have taken a photo, but we were afraid we’d be arrested.  We had to pass through a metal detector to go inside.
  • The woman who interviewed me had an accent, possibly something from the Caribbean.  I thought it was interesting that the two people from the government who I’ve dealt with closely (the biometrics guy and the interviewer) have both been immigrants themselves.
  • My lawyer did a whole “body language” thing in the interview where he seemed to be trying to intimidate the interviewer.  I guess it worked, because she messed up one thing (which would have been to my advantage if my biometrics had been in order).  I think it’s a game they play, as he also threw in some comments about how he was suing the government on behalf of a couple other clients, and it seemed like very calculated “casual chatter”.
  • After we dropped the lawyer at the airport, we went to Bellagio for the breakfast buffet.  Despite our fatigue, it was wonderful.  So many choices of breakfast items (just about everything you could think of, from cereal to pancakes to smoked salmon to, yes, curried cauliflower), plus a fabulous array of fresh fruit.  Flippy and I each ate a bowl of mixed berries—blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries, plus Flippy had a bowl of sliced strawberries.


When we got home, we fed the birds and then slept the afternoon away, then we relaxed in the pool for a while.  Tomorrow real life has to start up again, but it was sure nice to spend a good chunk of the day just goofing off.

My apologies if any of this entry doesn’t make sense—my brain is feeling pretty convoluted and it doesn’t want to make sentences.  I didn’t think I was overly stressed about today’s events, but I’m so exhausted after them, it must prove there was a lot of tension bubbling under the surface.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/23 at 06:34 PM
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