Author Archive: Helen

Today is Halloween! I took the day off to be with my Doberchildren and to enjoy this incredibly moody wind in South Florida. Intermittent rains pour down, and several of my Doberbabies have become Dobermaids. Dobermaids are cousins to the Mermaid, and enjoy a good romp in the wetlands in their backyard during and after a rain shower. Muddy paws are more important than wet ones to Dobermaids. You see, the maid part refers to me. I’m the one who cleans up after them!

On Halloween Eve, we were bombarded by a witch, but the Fort Doberdale Witch Posse stuck her to the ceiling where she’s hanging out for the duration of this holiday. If she tries to escape, she’ll be a holey witch!

This morning, I called into a Psychic talk show on Sirius. It was fascinating. People told some eerie stories from personal experience. I recounted my Ouija board story from when I was 15 or 16, and needed some hints on managing my personal rascal spirit, who laughs ferociously after knocking things out of my hand or off the counter, so I have to pick the stuff up. The host, Mary O, told me she did not feel I had any entities in my personal space, but when I have these rascal entities “busting my chops” (she’s from NJ), to repeat “Be Gone! Be Gone! Be Gone!” Then I need to explain to them it’s my turn, and it’s my life on the physical plane, and they need to butt out. I guess reasoning works, so I’ll try it. Especially on those days when I’m in a hurry, and someone unseen creates little nuisance obstacles. Though I do have another theory for that. It being that if I’m late, perhaps I’ll avoid something tragic. So I don’t protest too much.

Mary O also mentioned that having bells on doors will keep the evil spirits out. So in a backsided way, Raven’s stubbornness to housebreaking, which caused me to buy bells for the doors, was a good thing. Imagine that. I bet Raven’s really peeved that her evil peeing plot turned into a good thing for me. Hahahahaha!

Scary enough for you?

After listening to the entire 3-hour show, let’s just say that I’m glad my house is haunted by paws and not by the darker side of energy. Yikes! I thought politicians were scary!

Tomorrow is November 1st and the start of NaNoWriMo, which I’ve joined and my username is FortDoberdale. This is a yearly event for writers all over the world who want to complete 50,000 words of a novel. We have a month to do it in. I hope to go the course this month, and come out the other end with 50,000 words applied to the same novel. Lord knows I write at least that many words in e-mails every month! It should be fun, though my Doberchildren don’t understand why I prefer sitting in front of my computer screen instead of doing something really productive as in throwing the Cuz ball, petting their heads, or most importantly, fixing their meals. That reminds me, I need to go shopping for some lizard gizards, eye of newt, and bat wings for dinner tonight.

Enjoy the day! And remember to keep the chocolate and raisins away from your kids and keep them safe tonight. They’re precious. Even the evil ones. Tehehehe.

The Raven.

Life

Dobermann Tooth Fairy?

This picture was sent to me by a Dobie person who has never met a Dobie she didn’t like. She claims this is the Dobermann Tooth Fairy. Well, I guess there’s no disputing this is a fairy type individual … the wings are a giveaway … not an angel, of course. Angels do not wear tutus. Fairies do. The t-shirt has a picture of a tooth on it, so possible Tooth Fairy material. The tatoos though … do you think a Dobermann Tooth Fairy would label himself with tatoos?

Is this the Dobermann Tooth Fairy or are we imbibing a little too much too early on this special day? Either way, he’s a cute little rascal, isn’t he?

Tehehehehe.

Life

The Facade of a South Florida Animal Shelter

http://www1.wsvn.com/features/articles/carmelcase/MI51306/

On June 12, 2007, Carmel Cafiero of WSVN-TV Fox News Miami/Ft Lauderdale, reported that Broward Animal care had no scale to weigh animals for correct dosage of phenobarbitol to put animals in the shelter to sleep humanely. It gets worse. They didn’t have a stethoscope either, so there was no proof that these dogs and cats hearts had stopped and were indeed deceased at the time they put them into their plastic death bags (garbage bags) and hauled them off to the refuse site where they were dumped. They said their crematory was broken, but they were planning on getting it fixed. (What would be worse, suffocating or burning to death, if you had not be put fully at death’s door with a lethal injection?) This was supposedly going on for years.

Carmen interviewed Broward county’s then new animal services facility director Rick Richter and the two informants who, thank God had the courage to turn this over to the news. Carmen documented this on WSVN’s website:

I had heard about this over the weekend, four months plus after the disclosure. On Saturday, I went to the shelter. I needed to see what the workers there looked like as this information sinked in. Had I missed something in all the years I’d gone through this place?

I walked around the shelter as if I were walking on egg shells. I never linger in a shelter for longer than I need to. But I did have to look a little longer at each person I’d known before this knowledge. Everyone looked the same. Everyone had the knowledge and was living with the knowledge. Moreso, they were living with the deed, and that is a much harder thing to live with.

I walked around to the last section of the shelter, and in front of a room with a closed door was a veterinarian-type scale. I looked at the room across from it. The door was closed. Hanging off the wall on a pole was the dog catcher’s noose. This was were the ritual took place for all dogs who were not adopted. I slowed, but could not stop until I got to the bathroom to wash my hands before leaving the building. This was my ritual. My lucky lucky ritual. I got to walk out of the place.

There is a follow-up interview here where Carmen talks to the county’s veterinarian, Dr. Tim Johnston:

http://www1.wsvn.com/features/articles/carmelcase/MI56836/

He addresses the issue of the scale, stethoscopes, and pets being euthanized in front of each other, which, according to protocol, is unacceptable.

I understand since this story broke, there have been shuffles in staff positions, 3-day unpaid leaves which could be made up with overtime, and there is a nationwide search for a new shelter director. Small concessions.

From a personal perspective, this story, which has been going on for years behind closed doors, has really befuddled me. My perceptions of the shelter personnel in Broward county has always been of the highest esteem. They work with rescue to save the pets they can. There has been a pride in cleanliness and keeping disease down. I waited to pull a dog from the shelter that had been in there for months due to his owner’s incarceration. During that time, the shelter workers always gave me a place to take the Dobie out to run, or go for a walk outside his cage on my weekly stops to visit the dog. Honestly, I cannot say I have had one bad experience with any of the shelter workers there. The job is hard. I couldn’t do it.

I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. No one does, but those who are behind those doors. It takes the strong ones, the people with enough conscience and will power to bring the inhumane practices we don’t see to the forefront. Personally, I want to thank them. Whoever they are, I want them to know I thank them for standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. They have courage, respect for the victims of pet overpopulation and respect for self, and I applaud them.

As for the rest, I am left bewildered thinking about them. I am wrestling with this duality of personalities, and cannot find an explanation to merge what I have seen, experienced, and known from these people with what I now know. Finding peace with this will be a hard hard thing, if not impossible.

POV

To Dress Up or Not to Dress Up

How do you decide if you need a Halloween costume or not? The bottom line is believability.

Some of us don’t need to dress up for Halloween. We already have what we need to be beautifully Vampirish.

Yet, there is a certain pleasure in indulging in our moody fantasies…which may not be too far away from the truth.

While other fantasies could never be pulled off without the absolute of a costume.

They simply could not be imagined in one’s wildest dreams otherwise.

Baby, Raven

Batty Lilian