Interesting Article for Hate Crime Prevention

This is just another article for those of you who are interested in hate crime prevention.

Gay-rights groups launch hospital ratings

Faith Autumn Reign
Someone Who Cares Founder
www.someonewhocares-web.org

"Opie is magical. He speaks to us as effectively and easily as any human being, but with his eyes and his paws and his gorgeous, plume-like tail that wags about 90 percent of the time. When it doesn't wag, Desi and I compete to see who can make it wag again, and usually it isn't a difficult job.

Opie was born happy. He was a very happy 4-month-old when he came to our home from the Washington Humane Society, despite the fact that he had been rejected at least twice: first by those who dumped him at the shelter, then by another family that adopted him and brought him back to the shelter within a week.

I have to give Desi credit here-- we were at the shelter looking for an older dog when he fell in love with this golden furball. When we were told he already had been adopted by another family, Desi was heartbroken and we returned home empty-handed. Funnily enough, I persuaded Desi to return to the shelter the next week and there was Opie, romping around with a little German Shepherd puppy. He had been brought back by his new family that had apparently found him to be too much of a handful. This time, with Desi grinning ear to ear, we brought him home.

Make no mistake-- Opie is no picnic. He chews on everything. And I mean everything. Almost every piece of furniture and most of our shoes have been nibbled by his curious teeth. Admitted he was always upfront about it: the first time we met him at the shelter, he chewed through my dog Lucy's leash in under two minutes.

He also loves to bark at anybody and everybody that walks outside our house. Dog, cat, human, squirrel: he calls out to everyone, tail wagging furiously.

He chases our cats, Pubm and Pie, and is always trying to get into their food and kitty litter.

He sleeps on our bed, unlike our other two dogs who stick with their doggie beds. What's more, he loves to change positions a hundred times each night, which means he pretty much takes up half the bed while Desi and I squeeze into the other half.

When we walk, he sits down where he feels like it, and refuses to budge, even when it's raining or snowing or just freezing cold.

But it is perhaps that stubborn, mischievous streak that makes Opie so special. He is a dog that knows his mind, and that's about all there is to it.

Besides, no one kisses like my Opie -when Desi or I get home from work he is so excited, he hops around and elbows Lucy and Freddie, my other two dogs, out to stand up against your knees. He then pulls your face down with his paw to launch wet, sloppy kisses all over it.

But if one of us is not back, his excitement soon gives way to long-faced anticipation and he haunts the front door, waiting for the other person to get back. It is only when everyone is around - mom, dad, Lucy, Freddie, Pubm and Pie, that he is truly happy.

Those are the times that he curls on the living room couch, content to do nothing more but close his eyes and dream. For just a few minutes, before he heads back to the window to sniff for more trouble."

~~ Vaishali

Interesting Article for Hate Crime Prevention

Hey everyone who cares about Hate Crime Prevention! Here is an interesting article for you!

Gay Couples Get Married in California - AOL News

Faith Autumn Reign
Someone Who Cares Founder
www.someonewhocares-web.org

New Rescued Pet of the Month - March

"Sweet and shy but immensely intelligent, Lucy is, as I jokingly call her, our first-born. Meaning, of course, that she's the first dog we adopted, from the Washington Humane Society. She is immensely special. In many ways, she is a life-changer.

When we went to the shelter that first time in 2002, we didn't expect to adopt a German Shepherd. We wanted a smaller dog, someone we could take long, peaceful walks with. We put in an application for a cocker spaniel mix, Sheba, who looked perfect.

But the shelter asked us to state a second, third and fourth preference as well, in case someone had already put in an application for Sheba, and Lucy (then named Goldie) made it to our fourth preference.

When we first saw Lucy, she was sitting, quiet and dignified, in a corner of the run. She didn't look terribly happy or interested in us. When we asked a volunteer to bring her out, she ran gorgeously and elegantly all the way to the fence, happy just to be outside her small run. She didn't so much as acknowledge the two people who were desperately trying to get her attention.
A couple of days later the shelter called us to say Sheba had been adopted by another family, and did we want one of our other choices?

We asked her if the other dogs had applications on them. All of them did, the shelter staffer informed him, except Goldie.

So we brought Goldie home and renamed her Lucy after our favorite sitcom star, because Lucy, uncharacteristic of regular German Shepherds, had the most gorgeous golden-brown coat and a red head.

That first day, this dog who had refused to acknowledge us at the shelter followed us everywhere we went. She slept a lot, happy, perhaps, to finally be home.

I wanted to tell the exact story of how Lucy came to be adopted by us because she laid to rest many myths people have about adopting dogs. Some believe the dog has to form an instant connection with them, or it is not for them. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Of all the dogs I have adopted and fostered, maybe just one or two showed any real interest in us the first time we met them. But each one invariably was deeply in love with us- and we with them- within hours of coming home. In the unnatural and even impersonal atmosphere of a shelter, it is not easy for a dog to form loving connections with each and every person that peers at them through the bars of the run. But give them a chance, and they'll give you their whole heart.
Lucy also changed my life in other ways. She opened our eyes to the cruel fate that millions of homeless dogs and cats suffer - more than 6 million cats and dogs are euthanized each year in shelters for lack of homes. While dog and cat breeders had never been our favorite people, we realized even more after becoming the parents of our shelter dogs and cats, just how cruel a practice it is to create more and more puppies and kittens when so many others have to die homeless in shelters.

I had been a meat-eater all my life, but loving her made me realize that in the end, there really is not much of a difference between a dog and a cat and a lamb and a cow or even a chicken. They care for their lives just as we do, and protect it as fiercely. We really have no right to take it away from them when we don't need to.
Lucy has now been with us more than five years, and she's as happy as a dog can be. Her self-assigned job - every Shepherd needs a job or they give themselves one - is to keep the other dogs safe and in check. She protects her canine siblings fiercely if they get into trouble with other dogs, and bullies them around the house where she is, clearly, the alpha dog.

When I look at Lucy now I cannot believe that she was not our first choice when we applied for a dog that first time. She has given us more love and inspiration than we ever could imagine. And because of that, she will always be our most special girl."

~~ Vaishali

New Pet of the Month - February

"I got Buster from a box of kittens in front of my local Wal-Mart. He wasn't quite old enough to leave this mother yet, and he had fleas so bad that he was anemic. He spent the first two weeks of his life with me in the front pocket of my mother's pull-over hoodie. This in itself is not very remarkable, but how I got to save him later was.

Buster liked to spend a lot of time outside, which was not a problem with me since we lived in a cove. Unfortunately, he ended up in a situation like many outdoor animals - he was hit by a car. Luckily, he lived. He knew I would not be up for work for a few more hours and was smart enough to go to the neighbor's front porch b-- he knew the neighbor leaving for work shortly.
My neighbor found him on his front porch and brought him to me. I immediately rushed him to the vet. Buster had surgery to remove one leg, and now he is a very spoiled indoor tripod kitty.

Buster likes to let you know when he's approaching you for lovins with a loud "MROOOOW OOOOW OOOW!!!" I call it his siren. He also uses his siren when you are not feeding him quick enough for his liking. Buster is my little man, and I am thankful every day that he survived the accident."

~~ Gigi