Happy human, Happy dog

HAPPY HUMAN, HAPPY DOG

 GOOD DOGS AT HOME

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Dog Training for People, Lesson 2: Wherever, Whenever

Meeting dogs at Shelters & Bringing them Home Successfully

During the many phases in saving a dog's life, simple handling techniques can literally mean the difference between life & death.

In the shelter:
Too often, staff, volunteers, and potential adopters pass a dog in a kennel and talk to him.
The dog may bark, lunge, cower, ignore, avoid, or otherwise appear unsocial.
Insecure dogs may want attention, but be misunderstood as outgoing & friendly, when actually they need calm leadership to rehabilitate any co-dependent insecurities, which can later lead to more dangerous behaviors, such as separation anxiety, stressful fixations, or even fear biting.

Any spectrum of behaviors exhibited in a shelter can be remedied, but it is often not mitigated by considering that the dog may have recently lived on the streets, been injured, abused, mishandled, surrendered by a trusted owner, and feel scared, confused, in pain or discomfort, and stressed.

*** A better way to gain a more accurate evaluation of how a dog feels, and to gain their trust, is:

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The Eccentric Me

 

                                                    In kindness I will call myself eccentric—not in every manner but in some and then defiantly so. I shall share but a few of my idiosyncrasies here and in the process if not inform at least amuse.

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Finally, A Project that Makes Sense for Our Troops

A few weeks ago, I was introduced to an innovative concept in a way everyone may support our Military Troops who wish to follow their goals in the music and writing industry. My first reaction after reading the information on the project was, "Why hadn't anyone thought of this wonderful project previously?" Only answer was, they were not Brenda Brown.

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Indian Givers About Face

The term "Indian giver", considered offensive to Native Americans, is derived from their early system of bartering. North Americans may have misunderstood items of aid as gifts, yet the Natives intended them for trade, and thus wanted them back if no item of equal value was reciprocated. People have passed onto generations how the act of taking something back shows lack of good character, teaching their children not to behave in this manner, depsite their misinterpretation of the historical context and thus, inaccurate reproach, placed on the original act itself, yet meanwhile, ironically using a derogatory misnomer to teach their children about integrity.

If they are so quick to uphold this value of good character, in spite of its derivative flaws, that giving and taking back is reprehensible, then why are they equally as quick to teach their children that taking something but giving it back is acceptable? In the case of a stolen item, an item taken in anger, an act done or word said in revenge, we can all agree giving or "taking it back" is a proper course of action. But what about a puppy?   

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D-Day for Dogs

 

A big day has arrived to change the tide in rescue work, shelter reforms, and a step for animal rights overall.

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The Elusiveness Of Wisdom

In this short informal series I will analyze the so-called “nuggets of wisdom,” or old sayings that are passed on to us from one generation to another.

We, the passive recipients, rarely question these words, if at all. We rush to share them on Facebook and elsewhere but… have we ever stopped and analyzed the words and the possible unwanted meanings/interpretations? Is wisdom a set-in-stone type of deal?

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PLAYWRIGHT INTERVIEWS ATTENDEES OF HIS VAMPIRE PLAY BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER by Sal Buttaci

          VAMPIRE AND SKULL (Public Domain)

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PUFFING INTO THE BIG SKY: My Last Cigarette-smoking Days by Sal Buttaci

        "Cigarettes"  by Anna Cervova (Public Domain Photo)

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Meet Hank Waterman - Excerpt from 'The Wheels Final Turn"

Chapter 4 – Hank Waterman

Hank Waterman stood on the sidewalk holding the three-month-old Havanese close to his chest. He scanned the street and noticed Jennie Ford approaching from a few feet away and for an instant considered freeing the young pup until the young girl had passed. Instead, he grasped the squirming dog tighter to his chest.

He watched the girls’ slim figure, dressed in white canvas shorts and tight blue t-shirt, pony-tailed black hair flying in the wind as she jogged toward him. Inwardly, his thoughts turned to lust. She might be ‘just a kid’ but that didn’t stop his body from yearning or his groin from aching with desire. Acting the respectable male adult had its difficulties, sexual desire being one of the most challenging to conceal. His weight shifted from left leg to right while he steadied his short wide frame and cast his cold black eyes upon the approaching girl.

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DEAD DOGS WALKING

Man's Best Friend is in urgent danger. Man is not his best friend in return!

4-5 million animals are killed in U.S. shelters each year. While there is growing awareness of backyard breeders, puppy mills, and the thousands surrendered daily at shelters, it is a far cry from much needed reforms for those whose lives depend on it NOW. California is just one example that illustrates the vast & urgent needs. The NKLA (No Kill Los Angeles) movement has garnered celebrity support to make L.A. a no kill city. However, state and city government officials are working against reaching such a potential milestone that would greatly propel reforms such as enforcing unlicensed breeding laws and mandating spay & neuter. California Governor Jerry Brown, ironically, a dog owner himself, is calling for the repeal of the Hayden Law, which has implemented much needed protections for shelter animals, such as longer holding times for strays and vet care for the ill or injured. It has been so effective, it has served as a model for other states. Yet it has been suspended (claiming due to budget crisis) since 2009, & thus, 250,000 more dogs have been killed due to lack of funding. It is not a financial crisis; such budget-based arguments are misguided at best. It is a mindset problem: a mere percentage of bureaucratic fluff salaries, mismanaged or corrupted budget funds, and taxpayers' dollars used to euthanize thousands daily could be better utilized to implement task forces to enforce existing unlicensed breeding laws and mandate new ones, such as spay & neuter and education for anyone getting an animal, (which is being successfully done in more competently & financially organized countries: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYBt6rfsj6w)

Please be the voice for the animals whose lives depend on the Hayden Law remaining intact & new reforms to be implemented. Contact representatives with your pleas: http://news.change.org/stories/day-of-action-save-california-s-shelter-animals-save-the-hayden-law 

Without this law's protections, ill & injured animals can sit untreated in pain for days before being killed (which is already happening too frequently even with the law in place). Many are mislabeled aggressive or unsocial just because they do not feel well and are terrified.  Often, babies are taken from mothers, and the moms are euthanized, seniors and those with special needs are surrendered, left without vet care, and discarded. Puppies as young as a few weeks are euthanized. While rescues work frantically to save them with little resources or help, yet the ignorant or misinformed shop for a pup in a pet store, often the product of a severely neglected ill puppy mill mother or discarded mother from someone's backyard. Rescues work tirelessly to get animals out, but they are overworked, out of room, and out of funds. But the animals keep coming into shelters. The shelters are not the enemy. They are full and overtaxed as well. 

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Hurts So Good: Rhino Revolution

Rhino Revolution, a South African group near famed Kruger Park, who is eager to help the plight of endangered rhinos, yet reluctant in their methods, yet is perhaps one of the most effective means to save the dear rhinos' lives from barbaric poachers who don't even respect protected reserve space. http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rock-center/46489687#46489687

Rogue helicopters fly over reserve air space hunting for rhinos with majestic horns. Poachers used to fatally shoot rhinos. Now, they are even more cruel. They merely tranquilize the rhinos & proceed to chainsaw their entire faces off, before the numbing effects have even taken full effect. These barbarians learned rhinos' horns start growing in the skulls, so this way ensures they gather it all.

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THE TRUE HEART OF ITALY by Salvatore Buttaci

My scrapbook of Italian postcards ranks high on my list of conversation pieces.

“I’ve always wanted to see Venice,” says my neighbor Bill. 

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TALES FROM THE COMMUNIST CRYPT

Excerpt from the upcoming Romanian Rhapsody © 2011 by Oana. This is a book about my sister and me growing up in the midst of oppression and censorship.

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WHAT MADE ADOLF HITLER TICK? by Salvatore Buttaci

If anyone were to ask you to pinpoint the precise moment of your epiphany, that statement you made to a large enough audience to assure your reputation as a thinker, perhaps not brilliant, but at least a notch or two above average, what would you say?

I can tell you what was on my lunch plate yesterday, but probably would say mash potatoes instead of carrots; however, I can most accurately recount to you, word for word, my almost brilliant observation in my college class of World History II forty-six years ago.

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Dog Training for People, Lesson 1: The Trick of the Tail

The Trick of the Tail

Most people misunderstand a wagging tail to indicate friendliness. Actually, a dog wagging her tail just means she has excited energy; such energy may or may not be friendly. Too much excitement can lead to insecure nervousness or even aggression. An excited dog can become dominant or may become the target of another dog’s correction. In addition to noticing a wagging tail, notice if the dog’s body is relaxed or tense. Are they intensely staring, ears up, & leg muscles stiff, or are they loose and breathing easily. Other indicators can come from other dogs. Do other dogs ignore your dog? This signals that they do not want to interact with unbalanced energy. However, other dogs may also correct your dog’s overly excited energy; dogs naturally nip an over-excited dog to correct an energy that is not a healthy, natural state of mind. This may appear like an aggressive attack & a fight may ensue or a dog may become insecure. It is important to prevent such misunderstandings & “nip” a potential negative situation in the bud. Too often, other dogs may also have a similar imbalanced, overly excited energy, and greet your dog & play intensely. However cute this may seem, play needs to be monitored. Dogs should greet in a calm, respectful manner and play when they are allowed to play, but stop if you direct them to subside over excitement. 

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Pariahs Pimpin' Out Primates

Elle Macpherson should be ashamed, to say the least. With her status & access to the public eye, she should use such means to inform the public of atrocities committed against animals, not openly be an advocate of such horrors! She has not only admitted ingesting rhino horn, but sings its praises regarding health benefits. I doubt the rhinos concur. They are not even killed like past poaching methods, shooting them & sawing off their horns; rather, poachers discovered the horn actually begins in the skull, so to gather all of it, now, rogue helicopters fly over protected reserve space, shoot tranquilizers into the unsuspecting creatures, even moms or babies, chainsaw the rhinos' faces off, leaving them without eyes, nose splayed open & in excruciating pain. These poor dear rhinos awake in agony, disoriented, and wandering around for weeks, suffering a slow torturous death. They are even now farmed in concrete pens with their horns repeatedly "harvested". Such evil, cruel acts are so reprehensible, yet Elle Macpherson gladly turns a blind eye to partake in eastern "medicine".   And the west turns a blind eye as well; entertainment "value" is prioritized above all else, as she is cast in NBC's new show, Fashion Star, which should be boycotted to send a message that educated, humane Americans will not stand for such greedy selfish monsters to make a dime while the lives of innocent, defenseless, wondrous endangered beasts pay for it in the most horrific ways. Rather than giving airtime to a self-centered consumer, why not spread awareness of the Green Scorpions, environmental guardians, who fight to protect such exotic animals and reserves' airspace.

It is our responsibility, our privilege as reasoning beings, to seek out information, rather than consume the ways of the ignorant masses, joining them as they fall (or jump) over a self-serving cliff, their insatiably gluttonous bellies full with selfish, callous junk "food", leaping to their own ultimate demise & taking down unwilling victims with them. Rise up, speak out, act against such idiocy & barbarism.

The salacious Supermodel-Turned-Rhino-Killer is sadly only one example of many. Donald Trump's sons proudly hold the body of an endangered leopard in a photo taken when they participated in the exploitative trophy hunting practice in Africa, yet The Apprentice garners more viewers. Obama signed the repeal of a ban on sodomy & bestiality in the military, & legalized horse slaughter for human consumption.  Tennessee ordered all pit bulls killed, but in a recent case, Texas elevated the legal status  of pets from mere property, recognizing, like family heirlooms, their sentimental value to families; yet, neither stories made headlines. Many states still have atrocious gassing chambers to euthanize over 4 million animals in the "shelters" every year. They are crowded into ovens, and it takes up to 40 minutes for them to panic and suffocate, while they paw & bite, confused, frantic, & desperate to breathe and live. Some do not die & have to endure another round of the horror. And this occurs, while excited, ignorant families enter pet stores to purchase a "designer" puppy, the offspring of a mother overbred & suffering in a cage in a hellish puppy mill.  Rodeos & circuses exploit animals for "sport" & entertainment. Hunters kill 200 millions animals per year in the U.S. alone. Laboratories of common cosmetic, cleaning product, and countless other companies skin 100 million constrained animals alive yearly, & prod them w/ devices, electrically shock them, drop chemicals in their eyes, and frankly, torture them, though no legal regulations require it. Ducks suffer painful damage to their throats, as they are force fed for fois gras. Did you know Arnold Schwarzenegger banned fois gras from being on California restaurant menus by March 2012? No? But profuse news of his adultery was reported. Why is there no celebratory outcry for this major step forward for animal welfare?  And conversely, no appalled outcry against the sale of lion burgers in Vermont, a species so endangered they have to inevitably be in-bred in attempts to salvage the majestic cats. Pigs are kept confined in cages where they cannot move; mothers can only lie on their side, held down by bars, & nurse babies who cannot bond to them as nature intended. Lambs are ripped from their mothers, killed as their shocked mommies try to retrieve them. All so the "superior" primates, humans, can eat tender pork, and lamb on Easter, ironically a religious holiday celebrating the most humble, loving One whose message is of servitude & mercy. Chickens' beaks are burned off at the tip so they wont peck each other since they are so crowded in factory farms' wire cages. Baby chicks are minced alive. Cows are over-milked until their teats are raw, infected, & oozing pus. They are crowded in fields with no shade or grass, if they are the lucky ones, and then are discarded to slaughterhouses that cram the stressed animals onto slippery floors where they fall in their brothers' blood, are strung up, often still alive, while their legs & horns are sawed off. And all this so McDonald's & other imposters to health can serve fast "food".  59 billion animals die worldwide every year for humans to eat meat, though God provided plenty of nutritious and flavorful foods growing from the earth, not walking on it.  40 million animals per year are barbarically skinned alive for the fur industry, so Rihanna can shop for a coat in a posh NY shop. And in other more recent trends, gorgeous defenseless birds are farmed & plucked alive, often dying from the shock, just so teens and equally selfish, ignorant and shallow participants in the fad can adorn their hair with the "blood" feathers.

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The Serious Need for Imagination

Albert Einstein once wrote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to knowand understand.” As I watch the incredible development of my little ones and reminisce about all the mischief I got into as a youngster, it causes me to wonder where our imaginations went. Somewhere between 4 and 14 we are talked out of a land filled with endless possibilities and talked into a land of restraint, compliance and normality. Not that being orderly is wrong, but a life sentenced to ‘ordinary’ can be mind numbing. Mankind was created for something much greater than carving out a meager existence.

What happened to the days before technology? The days when we could entertain ourselves by going outside with one of our mother’s towels wrapped around our necks and for hours we engaged in the battle of the Super Friends. Where a stick was a McArthur’s sword or a water pistol made of the Lone Ranger. We didn’t need a text, Facebook or a Twitter account because our day was filled with playing tag. We felt care free when we allowed our minds to run free with the moment. But something happened. Life became complicated. We matured and decided with the assistance of society that ‘playing around’ was simply kid’s stuff.

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The Disease Called Negativity

Several months ago Hollywood studios released a blockbuster film that is currently up for several awards called Contagion. With heavy hitters like Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Laurence Fishburne as the main cast, they attempt to follow a web of infected individuals as a pandemic erupts across the world. This incredibly strong strand of flu virus that seems to originate from an animal spreads like wild-fire from the shores of Hong Kong, San Francisco, Chicago and everywhere in between. Day of our lives we are only a few steps from a disease that can take us out. In recent reports on news outlets we have witnessed firsthand the dangers of bacteria and germs that find their way into our homes and on our foods. This got me thinking about another airborne disease that gets very little ‘press’; the germ of negativity! It’s a scary thought that every person we meet could be a carrier of the disease of negativity. And worse, these infected could pass it on to travelers, hospitals, schools, churches and cause a widespread panic. Every sneeze is causing suspicion as to whether or not you are the next victim.

Negativity is defined as: an unpleasantness, lacking positive or constructive features. This can potentially describe most of the people we communicate with on a daily basis, or sometimes ourselves. All you have to do is look at a local news show and realize the ratio of positive and negative reports are grossly disproportioned. While we have done all we can with hand sanitizer and flu shots, we have neglected to protect ourselves from the deadliest disease of all. There are no statistics to show the amount of dreams, visions and potential that has been destroyed by the illness of negativity. Just as with any disease, knowledge, prevention and a little precaution will go a long way to keep you symptom free.

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Book Fairs & Festivals: Here to Stay?

Kindle, Nook, and iPad's have changed the way books are brought to fans. In fact, the list of eReaders goes on and on as the eBook craze has swept the nation! With the touch of a button and often times a large fraction of the cost, one can download books from their favorite authors without stepping foot in a store. With small independent stores and large retailers like Borders closing it's doors, one is left to wonder what the future holds for the industry? As a new author, I have participated in book fairs and festivals with some showing a large turnout while authors struggle to bring the author out of the red associated with participation. Although I have not been privy to the changes in the industry on a grand scale, one thing I know for sure is that change is occurring at a rapid pace. It is up to us to sink or swim as authors and bring you, the fans, what you want.

So the question is do you still enjoy the feel of a good paperback or hardback book in your hand? Do you enjoy the atmosphere of being surrounded by your favorite authors in one place ready to meet and greet you with an autographed copy of their work? Are book fairs here to stay or will they evaporate like other traditional literary platforms?

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