making friends...

No more canvassing! I'm relieved to be through - and terrified I won't be able to find anything else. My friend Carol and I are going to pool our last two hundred dollars buying plants and pots at a wholesalers and repotting to make fancy artsy pots o'fleurs to sell at the gallery. Wish us luck!

In the meanwhile, I thought I'd post a few shots of friends I made - or tried to make - while out and about. Out of the hundreds of address I visited, only two dogs seemed bent on a bite. The majority of dogs were reasonably friendly if not outrightly so. In fact, the biggest risk was being jumped on by enthusiastic pooches with muddy feet. I met no "attack" cats - though several shy ones skittered away at my approach. A few would gladly have hopped in the van with me and most allowed me to scratch their chins or stroke their backs.

Some simply ignored me...

or were too busy watching the neighbor's dog to bother about a census person...

And who knew there was such dog as a bi-color Newfoundland? I was delighted by these huge fellows and their spots and speckles!

This fellow liked me so much, he did a cha-cha-cha.

This pretty calico was positively too shy to look at the camera...

Miss calico was quite unlike this Akita - a very friendly and not-at-all-shy boy.

This fellow was just wa-ay laid back... I think I woke him from a nap.

This adorable canine kept watch without expending energy. I don't recall she ever got up once.

Sometimes, the yard-guard was of another sort. Nice horns!

Some looked on with little or no curiosity.

And some were all about curiosity!!

Theme Thursday... animals

This is my first thematic post, (find the other culprits here) and because it's animals, I just couldn't resist. I'm a total softie for animals, wishing I could make things better for them in general, and sharing my life and home with many over the years. I've never counted the number of cats and dogs I've rescued, saved, neutered, fostered and loved, but I know they add up to dozens and dozens and dozens. Birds and bunnies, horses and pooches, kittens and cats and even turtles, possums and squirrels have quartered with me at one time or another.




Those helpless little faces, those eyes begging for love and understanding. How could I not answer the call?








And today I wish to share a little secret: I also rescue homeless stuffed animals.



I know there are more of you out there who share my compassion for these, the cast-aside, the forgotten and forlorn. They number in the millions; helpless creatures once-treasured for their fine fake fur, silken ears and polyester-plumped little bellies, their bright glassy eyes now clouded with despair.



Stained with the tears of old sorrows, their hapless little faces peer hopefully from the shelves of thrift shops and second-hand stores. Their threadbare little limbs poke out of yard-sale boxes, tossed there with the callous indifference of capitalists bent on gleaning some further mean and meager sum - as if all their years of dedication were not enough penance...
















Never mind how they were there for us when we needed them: when we were frighted of the dark or when our hearts were broken, or when we needed someone to hug when no one understood. They listened without judgment or censure.

Like tokens of love from a now-defunct relationship, we are embarrassed now by their very presence in our domain. They remind us of our fragility; they frighten us with their knowledge of our deepest fears. And so they are scorned, cast away, abandoned, forsaken.



Here now are the faces of some of the wretched and forgotten.

See how their faces are careworn; etched with love passed on, tattered by disappointments and frayed with anxiety.

See how they ask for nothing except to be loved.

Can you turn away, unmoved?

Open your heart and your home to those who have served us well in our time of need. Hug an animal today... stuffed or otherwise...

(It'll be our little secret.)










Like the Velveteen Rabbit, it's the loving that makes it all real.