Dear Santa Revisited

Last year Mama asked me to write a letter to Santa. She wanted me to write a new one this year, but my wishes still haven't changed since last year, so I'm reprinting it.

Dear Santa:

Mama wants me to write a letter to you saying what I want for Christmas. I really just want to eat all 32 of her nutcrackers (most of them have furry stuff somewhere on them, and they ‘re all made of wood, which I also like to eat).

Seriously, I just want people to be more responsible doggie owners. I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to hit a dog (I wasn’t hit, but I know many dogs are) so I want anyone who doesn’t understand dogs to not have a dog until they do.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to get a dog for someone as a present only to not spend time with him/her. Or to give him/her away when they realize how much work we dogs can be.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to hoard a dog, thinking they are doing the dog a favor and providing a good home by keeping him/her in a crate all day, never letting him/her out to go potty, to eat, to socialize or to exercise. I was done no favors by the person who hoarded me; I ended up with an intestinal disease and afraid of a lot of things. I want people who hoard dogs (and other things) to get help for themselves instead of trying to help the dogs.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to ignore a dog, never playing with her/him, never talking to him/her, only treating her/him like an object not to be cared about.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to let their dog run loose without training, without supervision, in places where dogs have no business running loose.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to not spay or neuter their dogs unless they are planning on being responsible breeders that are kind to all dogs, even the runts. And mama thinks that breeders shouldn't breed until there are enough buyers in line to buy the puppies. Good things are worth the wait!

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to train dogs to fight without reason, as a football player did and I know others do. I don’t want any dog to be trained to be aggressive or to be mean. I’m not considering police dogs and others like them in this group; they are trained to use force when needed to stop bad guys/gals, but they’re also trained to stop when the humans can take over.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to donate food to the poor without donating food for their pets. I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to judge a poor person with a pet as irresponsible; people never can know why poor people became poor. Maybe they had pets before they became poor. Maybe one day they’ll be poor too and what will happen to their pets? I hope it never happens, but it could. So Santa, I want people to remember pets when donating to worthy causes.

On the same note, I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to put getting a pet over feeding their children. It may make the children happy for a while, but it won’t feed them and it won’t help the pet when they can’t feed them.

Santa, I just want all pets everywhere all the time to be loved and respected and treated like one of the family.

In fact, I can honestly say I want that for all animals, humans included.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a happy thanksgiving. I did, even if Mama DIDN'T give me a single table scrap. Not ONE. Hmmph.

She did get me a new food bowl recently. It's kind of funky:

See those ... spikes ... jutting into the bowl? they're supposed to slow me down as I eat.

So, do you think it works? Well, I guess it does. It used to take me all of 30 seconds to eat. Now it takes me a full minute!

By the way, what do you think of my winter coat?

Mama is Amazed

Mama actually read an entire book without me eating it. Mama says this was a very good book, but if you read it, have tissues handy. She also said that Marley had done a LOT that even I don't do!

Stopping Puppy Mills

Mama got an email the other day from someone she's never heard of. He was writing about an organization called Give Back America. The email had a link to their blog (she didn't click on it cuz it's not safe to click on links from people you don't know. She typed in the address herself) and the blog stated that they were trying to stop puppy mills. Puppy mills are places where people irresponsibly breed dogs, then keep all the puppies closed up in cages, giving them no attention, no socialization, and no love. The purpose is simply to put money into the pockets of the owners.

Mama agrees that puppy mills are horrible. She considers the "rescue" group where she got me a type of puppy mill. They had too many dogs for them to care for. They advertise charging $125 for mixed breed dogs, and $250 for pure breds. I'm a mixed breed, and they charged mama $250 for me. She says she was stupid in one way for not questioning that, but then she fell in love with me so just chalked it up to helping a charitable organization. She now knows better, but it's too late to get her $125 back.

Mama wants puppy mills shut down too. But the website suggests that we go about this by refusing to buy puppies from puppy mills, thus taking away the profit for the owners who would be forced to stop. Mama doesn't think this is the way to do it, and this is why.

If no one buys the puppies from the puppy mills, the dogs never get out. If the mills do close, the dogs usually end up at the pound or a shelter. They never did learn to socialize. They were probably not very healthy. And they probably looked rather scraggly like the picture of me above, taken the first day mama brought me home.

However, if people wrote to their legislators and asked for a law banning puppy mills, then people would have to go underground to keep them open. Hopefully, caring people would catch on to neighbors with puppy mills, and report them to get them shut down. Lots of media attention can help teach people how to recognize a puppy mill so reporting can flourish.

Both options, not buying from puppy mills and getting laws passed, take time. Time that the dogs in the mills lose. But mama thinks banning the mills is the better of two options because it implements permanent change, and not a band-aid like she thinks the boycott of the mills is.

Think about it. Then look at the picture of me above, and look at me below, taken several months later after I got good food into me and proper medical care. Puppy mill dogs look scraggly like I did. Healthy dogs look more like I do now. Whichever method you choose to pursue, mama urges you to pursue in the effort to close down puppy mills.

Mama Came Home

In a VERY good mood today. I said, "Wow, mama, you look so happy".

In fact, she looked so happy I caught it too and I wagged my tail (well, okay, I always wag my tail when mama comes home. I like how she says "Izzie, look at your little tay-el").

She pet me extra hard and gave me an extra kiss. I said, "Wow mama, you must have had a very good day".

In fact, she told me she had just an "okay" day.

"Just an okay day?" I asked. "But you look like you just won the lottery".

In fact, she said "It wasn't me that won the lottery, Izzie, it was your Auntie Donna and your Unca Joe. They just won the biggest lottery of them all".

I said, "Are they going to share it with us?"

Mama said "Well, Izzie, I don't think so. At least not in the way you'd think. You see, Auntie Donna and Unca Joe's lottery has two legs and two arms and a beautiful head and black hair just like you!".

"HUH?" Was all I could say.

She then led me to see Auntie Donna and Unca Joe's "new" blog, Waiting For Lauren Elizabeth.

I wagged my little "tay-el" a LOT after seeing what their lottery looked like!

Congratulations Auntie Donna and Unca Joe!