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What charities that help people and animals have touched your heart?
THE PET PROJECT
http://www.thepetprojectmn.org/
Last week, we heard a presentation by Kimberly Carrier, founder of a nonprofit organization called The Pet Project. As all of the people present for Kim's talk, we were deeply moved by her cause and impressed with what she has accomplished.
The mission of The Pet Project is to help people keep their pets by providing pet food and basic supplies to those who are struggling. The Pet Project also provides connections to basic veterinary care and information on finding pet-friendly housing.
In today's economy people are being forced to choose between trying to keep their homes and pay their bills and caring for themselves and their pets. Kim told about animal shelters having people crying in their lobbies as they make the painful decision to surrender their beloved animal companions because they can no longer care for them properly.
A hairdresser by trade, Kim decided she had to do something about the situation of people losing their pets due to having fallen on hard times. She discovered that most food shelves don't provide pet food because it isn't part of their stated mission. Yet they accept donated pet food and distribute it to people who need it.
The Pet Project helps to keep pets with families by providing pet food to food shelves and working with veterinarians to provide basic, non-emergency services. It also has housing resources listed on its website for those facing foreclosure.
Kim says that she needs monetary donations to buy the thousands of pounds of pet food she donates each month. We were touched by her examples of children raising money for the organization by asking friends not to give them birthday or bat mitzvah presents but to bring a donation for The Pet Project instead.
If you haven't heard of this organization, we thought you'd like to have it brought to your attention. Visit the website and see if there's something you feel called to do to help.
We all listened to Kim's stories and her mission with gratitude for people like her who see a need and gather all the resources they can find to fill it. In addition to her full time job, she volunteers as much as 35 hours a week helping people take care of and keep their pets. She has plans to expand the program nationwide.
What charities that help people and animals have touched your heart?
Allen and Linda Anderson
ANGEL ANIMALS NETWORK
www.angelanimals.net
Send a blank e-mail to AngelAnimals-on@mail-list.com to automatically receive your free Angel Animals Story of the Week Newsletter. Visit http://archive.mail-list.com/angelanimals to read past editions of the Angel Animals newsletter.
Mohanshee's Lair will interview Linda Anderson about ANGEL ANIMALS
WAR DOG MEMORIAL
What, you may be wondering, is a newsletter like Angel Animals Story of the Week doing by writing about a memorial to honor war dogs? The answer is that war dogs and angels have a lot in common. If you think of the words describing angels -- messengers, protectors, loyal friends -- you would also be describing dogs who are trained to aid military personnel in the most dangerous areas and situations in the world.
Many years ago Linda got a call from retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant John C. Burnam of Bethseda, Maryland. He was a dog handler during the Vietnam War. He had written a book about the dogs who had served with him, especially an amazing German shepherd named Clipper. John wanted Linda to edit his book. She agreed to help him.
John's story gripped Linda from start to finish. She said that it felt as if she were slugging through the jungles of Vietnam with Clipper and John, as the dog led an infantry platoon through land that was laced with explosives. Relying on Clipper's sense of smell, his survival instinct, and intense loyalty, John made it through dangers that took Linda's breath away as she worked on his book.
Now John has founded the John Burnam Monument Foundation (www.jbmf.us). He has joined forces with the United States War Dog Association to convince Congress and the nation that military working dogs and dog handlers deserve to be honored for their service to the country.
Dogs have saved lives and often lost their own in the line of duty through World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. Today, they are essential in the war on terror as they detect roadside bombs and weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan for US and NATO troops.
In 2006, Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina introduced a bill calling for a national dog monument, and it was approved in 2008. On October 28, 2009, President Obama signed a law authorizing JBMF, Inc. to build and maintain the National Monument for Military Working Dog Teams.
Next week (week of April 19, 2010), John will meet with Congressional leaders and Pentagon officials in Washington D.C. to present a miniature clay model of the monument's design, created by artist and sculptor Paula Slater. The monument model presents four breeds of military dogs -- Doberman, German shepherd, Labrador retriever, and Malinois -- that have saved thousands of lives.
John continues to travel across the country, telling the military working dog story and raising funds through donations to build this national monument. John's personal story can be found in the first printing of the original book Linda edited, DOG TAGS OF COURAGE (2006), and in a more recent book, A SOLDIER'S BEST FRIEND (2008). That book became the inspiration for a feature film, MOE, which is expected to be in production in early 2011.
We invite you to go to the John Burnam Monument Foundation's website (www.jbmf.us) and support this exciting project whose time has come. An excerpt from DOG TAGS OF COURAGE/A SOLDIER'S BEST FRIEND is the featured story this week.
Allen and Linda Anderson
Angel Animals Network
www.angelanimals.net
Great story in Angel Animals Story of the Week (4-17-10) about a brave dog who served in the military at www.tinyurl.com/yl6g3jf
Were/are you a Peter Rabbit/Beatrix Potter fan?
Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit
Millions of children around the world, including us, thrilled to the adventures of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny. We began wondering if those wonderful creatures, who held their escapades in Mr. McGregor's garden, were based on real-life animals. If so, these truly were "angel animals" of historical significance who still delight the hearts of children a century later. We visited the Internet and found a website (www.peterrabbit.com) devoted to Beatrix Potter's writings. Below are some things we learned.
* Since her childhood, Beatrix Potter kept rabbits as pets. Her first rabbit, Benjamin H. Bouncer, or Bounce, was inspiration for the fictional character, Benjamin Bunny. She wrote about Benjamin as a "noisy, cheerful, determined animal, inclined to attack strangers, and also a rascal." The little girl bought her rabbit friend from a London bird shop and secretly carried him in a paper bag into her nursery.
* When Beatrix Potter was 19 years old, between 1885 to 1907, she spent summer holidays in the English countryside of Lingholm and Fawe Park on the northwestern side of Derwentwater. She began sketching local scenes, especially the gardens and woods that were filled with red squirrels and woodland creatures. Mrs. Potter's pet hedgehog was named Mrs. Tiggy Winkle and became the hero of her book, THE TALE OF MRS. TIGGY WINKLE.
* Beatrix Potter bought a farm in the Lake District where visitors today look for Tom Kitten or Jemima Puddleduck. On this farm she bred prize pigs. One became the model for Pigling Bland, another of the characters in her stories.
Beatrix Potter sent a picture letter of illustrated animal stories to a sick child. This letter became the source of her first book, THE TALES OF PETER RABBIT, published for the public by Frederick Warne & Company.
Mrs. Potter died in 1943. She donated 4,000 acres of Lake District land to the National Trust. This special place in "angel animal" history will always be preserved.
Were/are you a Peter Rabbit/Beatrix Potter fan?
Allen and Linda Anderson
E-mail: angelanimals@aol.com
Angel Animals Network
Website: www.angelanimals.net
Inspirational Writing and Publishing Today
You are invited to have a memorable experience in bringing your writing to a new level and meeting others who want to share insights from their lives. Linda is teaching the following class in Minneapolis. Register soon as these classes tend to fill up fast!
Inspirational Writing and Publishing Today
Instructor: Linda Anderson
Class: A668, 6 Week Class, Winter/Spring 2010
Location: Open Book (The Loft Literary Center,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Date(s): Tuesdays, March 9 - April 13
Time(s): 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Enrollment: Open
In this spiritually hungry world, people long to be comforted and inspired. Self-help, New Thought, religious books, daily meditations, memoirs, and personal true story anthologies top the bestseller lists. In this class, you'll learn the forms, elements, and markets for inspirational writing and read samples from masterful writers. You'll get tips for moving from self-expression to service by writing about your life's experiences in ways that help others. We'll also talk about a system for framing chapters in a book-length work, or for organizing an article. This class offers nurturing feedback and suggestions for rewriting, polishing, and getting published. It includes individual review of your assignments or book in progress. For intermediate and advanced writers. 30% presentation/lecture 25% writing exercises 25% discussion and sharing of writing 20% review of master writers Instructor Information:
Linda Anderson
www.loft.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=2496
Linda Anderson
Writing about Creating Cat-astrophe
Creating Cat-astrophe
On New Years Day morning, we were relaxing in our living room when Allen noticed that Speedy was not at the top of the cat tree. Our carpeted cat tree is situated so that both Cuddles and Speedy can look out the window at the front yard to see all the birds, squirrels, and people.
Allen did not realize that the cats have a routine in regard to their cat tree. So he went to find Speedy, carried him to the living room, and placed him on the top seat. Speedy settled in, looking a little confused.
Cuddles and Linda watched as Allen did what he thought was a nice thing for Speedy. After Speedy was in place, Cuddles immediately jumped up and tried to get onto the top perch. Speedy wouldn't let her.
Cuddles sat, alert and in problem-solving mode, on the second perch. Allen began to understand that he must have interfered with the natural order of things: Cuddles has the top perch in the morning, and Speedy occupies it later in the day. Linda said, "They have their routines and agreements between themselves."
After about five minutes, Cuddles was still thinking about this situation as she sat on the second highest perch. Meanwhile, Speedy tried to jump down from the top by using the second perch as a stepladder to the floor. Cuddles would not budge, making it impossible for Speedy to get off the cat tree.
Allen decided to fix the cat chaos that he had inadvertently created. He placed Speedy carefully on the floor and then returned Cuddles to her usual morning place on the top perch. The natural order had once again been changed, not by request, but by an outside busy body.
As if to make their point that Allen's human interference had not been welcomed, Speedy quickly left the room. Cuddles jumped down from the cat tree and followed him out, leaving both perches unoccupied.
There is a spiritual principle known as the Law of Noninterference. Essentially it means that sometimes, things need to happen the way they are set into motion and with silent agreements in place between the people or animals who are directly involved.
When have you upset the natural order established by the pets in your home?
Allen and Linda Anderson
Angel Animals Network
www.angelanimals.net
Overcome Overwhelm
Communicating with Animals
Trained and skillful animal communicators often say that they're only doing what we all have the capacity to do. Ours is just undeveloped. The average person doesn't trust or recognize what she or he sees and hears from animals.
Animal communication has always intrigued us. But living with our especially talented communicators -- our cocker spaniel Leaf and our wise black-and-white tabby Cuddles -- has provided us with a deeper level of understanding this process.
This morning, Leaf made his customary trip to the acres of off-leash dog park near the river where he loves to explore. Allen has many experiences with him there, because Leaf seems to be more of who he truly is in that expansive freedom.
Today, a little boy was teetering like a tightrope walker across a fallen log that hovered above the forested ground below. Leaf typically enjoys performing a balancing act on this type of log -- the higher off the ground the better.
Allen said to our daredevil dog, "Why don't you go and show that little boy how it's done?"
With his amber eyes Leaf looked up at Allen as if to say, Great idea! He trotted off to the log, leapt on it, and soon was strutting his expertise for the little boy. The child's parents clapped for Leaf, and the boy giggled.
No one had taught Leaf to obey a command: Show the little boy how it's done. We don't think you'd find it in any dog training manuals. But Leaf understands this everyday kind of communication and proved it with his actions, much to everyone's amazement.
What experiences have you had with pets or animals in nature in which they showed you irrefutably that you and the animal had communicated?
Early New Year's Resolutions
Early New Year's Resolutions
Today, we had an invigorating breakfast meeting where we talk and about new goals for the new year. In this tough economy 2009 was hard on just about everybody. But the animal shelters and animal welfare organizations experienced undue hardships.
So many people's houses went into foreclosure that animal shelters were deluged with frightened, confused pets who suddenly became homeless overnight. The shelters have become overcrowded. Not as many people felt they could afford to adopt a shelter pet.
We're exploring ways that we can help animal shelters and organizations. We're looking at possibilities for doing fundraising and speaking engagements to increase awareness and funds for homeless animals.
Just a reminder that in this season of giving, please be sure to remember how much your local animal shelters (and even the national organizations) need your donations of time, materials, and money. Shelters with websites often list the types of donations they need. Things like blankets, food, toys, and crates go a long way toward helping them to survive.
The animals will thank you. They always do.
What ways have you found to help animal rescue organizations?
What are your best tips for getting good animal photos?
We have great admiration for good animal photographers. How do they ever get the animal and the person to CALMY and simultaneously look into the camera with pleasant expressions on both of their faces? It's a mystery to us.
When Leaf looks directly into the camera, the glint of light turns red in his eyes. If he looks at Allen, his cute profile is fun to see. His eyes with their unique expressions, though, aren't clear in a side view.
One time, after putting up with us trying to get a good photo for about fifteen minutes of hassle, Leaf found a solution. He licked Allen's nose, then turned, and stuck out his big, pink tongue at the camera. So there!
On the other hand, our cat Cuddles poses like a runway model. She's the ultimate beauty, posturing for the camera, arching her back, and gazing contentedly toward the lens.
What are your best tips for getting good animal photos?
We wish each of you a happy holiday and a Merry Christmas. Please give the special pets in your life an extra hug and tell them it's from us. We'd do it in person if we could.