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Monthly Archives: January 2012

No pet for you

Before I got Yaris, I looked into adopting a rescue dog.  It seemed like the thing to do.  There are dogs out there that need a home and I have a home that needs a dog.  Seems like the very logical and a good match.  On top of that, I’ve raised several dogs so there won’t really be any surprises for me, unlike with first-time dog owners.  I really didn’t think it would be much of a problem.

Well…it was.  I really wanted a GSD and the two GSD rescue operations in my area were…really snotty.  They wouldn’t answer emails, phone calls…basically, they wouldn’t acknowledge you.  Finally, I just resorted to filling out their posted application form and sending it straight to one of the employees.  I never got a reply.  And those application questions are DETAILED.  Why do they need so much detail?  Yes, they need to know that the dogs are going to responsible owners but do they really need to interrogate you?

But maybe they were just really busy.  Extremely busy.  The busiest.  So busy that they couldn’t even set an auto-reply about how my application was being considered and they would get back to me at a later date.

I thought maybe it was just a one-off experience.  Perhaps I was just unlucky and contacted all the super busy, snotty people.  Apparently not.  One of my co-workers said she also got that treatment when she tried to adopt a dog.  She is also an experienced pet owner.  And I recently came across this article.  It seems like this is almost the norm for pet rescue agencies.

So, the question is this: why are you rescuing pets?  A lot of the mission statements say that the agency rescues pets so that they can be adopted by loving families.  And yet, it doesn’t seem like they allow any family to adopt the pets.  I cannot understand this at all.  I think rescue agencies are heading the way of PETA (here is what I think of PETA).

Btw, did you know the ASPCA sided with Ellen DeGeneres when that whole situation about her adopted rescue blew up?  At least someone has their head on straight.

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I make! Book box edition (1)

I’ve mentioned before that I have been suffering an acute infection of the attention span.  It’s made it hard for me to accomplish things in reasonable amounts of time.  I think I’ve mostly fought the ASD off, but now and then I relapse.  Such was the case last weekend.

I had picked up a book shaped box on sale from a craft store not too long ago with the intention of refinishing it and using it as my main stationery box (it’s important to support the USPS).  The problem with picking things up on sale is that they’re often not quite what you want.  Here, I’ll show you.

So, I liked the fact that it was a box shaped like a book.  I’m not terribly interested in mutilating a book just so I have an interesting place to store things.  But this supposed book was about butterflies…or something.  Maybe it was a book about postcards on butterflies.  French butterflies.  It’s not terribly clear.  Anyway, I don’t really like butterflies.  But this was the best box out of the selection that was on sale.  If I’m going to use it, obviously it has to change.

So I did this to it.

This is where the ASD comes in.  I meant to have all the refinishing completed in time for today’s post.  But I haven’t and it’s not.  I’ve only managed to re-cover the box.  Arguably, I have recovered it.  Anyway, this isn’t all I had intended to do to the box.  There’s more to come.  But right as I was starting the re-covering process, I suffered an EXTREME lack of motivation and I stopped doing anything for about five days.  I think I’m better now.  And, at least the box passable now.  It was absolutely hideous before.

But if you look carefully, you’ll notice I made some mistakes.  I should have left a flap of paper at the hinge on the inside of the box so that the hinge would be covered.  I forgot.  Also, since I wasn’t thinking, I rather beautifully covered inside of the book cover that is now completely obscured by “pages” of the book.  Because I did that, I ran out of large sheets of the green cardstock and I had to use two different pieces for the bottom of the box.  Oops.  Some of this stuff will be obscured as I proceed to the next segment of the process.  I’ll post that when I finish.

Btw, today is Chocolate Cake Day.  Have you had your slice of chocolate cake yet?