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.

Monday musings...

Horsemen often refer to the look in a horse's eye to describe the sort of mount and companion that horse is likely to make. Generally speaking "a quiet eye" or " a kind eye" are the ones to look for. Here are the kind eyes (and ears) of two of my horses, soft, calm, but ever alert.

The chestnut is Dixie, and don't let that soft eye delude you. She's the alpha mare and total tyrant of chow time. She never shows any white, rolls her eye or lets on - until she whirls, teeth bared, hooves flying to run off any equine in her peripheral vision.

Perhaps that's why Babygirl (the bay) is looking just a little apprehensive... Actually, it was the whirr and beep of my camera that put Babygirl off.

I just liked these close-ups and wanted to share a little horse lore with all the wanna-be horse whisperers out there.












The shy one with the teary eye is Rita the red roan.







I have all kinds of collections of things - bones, twigs, plastic lizards, buttons, glass perfume bottle stoppers, cicada shells, telephone wire, turtle shells, and, um, Kewpie dolls. Actually, I never purposely collected these little guys; I just keep finding them as I unpack boxes marked "miscellaneous dec."



Apparently they have hidden themselves amongst the odds 'n ends I put away until my house is "finished" (yeah, like that's ever going to happen...) waiting for me to liberate them. It was only when I came upon #4 that I realized I had an entire Kewpie family. They guard my DVD/VHS players from bad karma and power surges and the like... Who'd have ever thought Kewpie doll hair would make a fashion statement?



Before I got sick, I was thrifting - one of my most favorite pastimes. I found the bobble bird that day and I also found this wonderful little (21 x 8) painting of mushrooms. They're not the morels I wrote of a while back, but aren't they delightfully rendered? There's no date, but it's signed "Ralph Cooper" and it's painted on a fragment of one of those canvasboard panels. On the back there's a small printed cartoonish figure wearing a hat that says something like: _URG DAN or DAI in very tiny print. The artwork style of the figure would date it from the forties to the late fifties.

I paid $3.00 for it.

I wonder what future thrifters will pay for my works...

And finally:

I missed Valentine's day as I was in a bit of a viral stupor. It's not the day itself I regret missing, as it's generally been a disappointment, romantically speaking... sigh. But I wanted to post something cool - like my fellow bloggers did for the most part.

So here he is... My Valentine Kewpie, wishing everyone love and hugs for the rest of the year.

Addendum: Roy just informed me that my Kewpies are just plain trolls... Oh my. As soon as I saw his comment, I knew he was right. I'd forgotten they were called trolls. Perhaps they now lurk around blogging sites rather than bridges. Thanks Roy!