The goodest of bois has turned 13. He’s had a rough couple of months. Hopefully, 2022 will be a more relaxed retirement for him. Some animals you just know you’ll never have another close to in the future. He’s that once in a lifetime dog. From the streets of Flint, Michigan to his own house purchased with his golden years in mind, he deserves every single thing we can give him and we’re so happy that we’ve had 13 years with this handsome devil. I wish we could have 13 more. Happy birthday Ozzy ‘No More Tears’ Ozzdog! ❤
Something I don’t talk about enough is my passion for wildlife and environmental conservation. If I lived life over again, I would go to school for biology and find a career in some type of conservation. Sure, I could do it now, I’m not horribly old or anything, but now is not the time for student loans and school expenses. So, instead, I join conservation organizations fighting to help the planet and endangered animals. Currently, I’m a member of both The Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy. In fact, renewing one of my memberships is what made me think of doing this post.
I think most people may be under the impression that donating or becoming a member of these types of organizations is pretty costly. I’m here to tell you that it isn’t expensive, it’s easy to do, and honestly, it makes you feel good. A little bit of money to help make a difference in the world, is something most people can handle. And, it doesn’t even have to be a monthly contribution. With most organizations, a one time donation makes you a member and if you want to contribute monthly, more power to you!
To prove my point, here are just a couple of organizations and their donation rates:
The Sierra Club – $39 for a yearly membership. My renewal rate was $19 the next year. Plus, the renewal came with a sweet hiking bag as a thank you and I received a 2019 calendar as a holiday gift. You also receive a bi-monthly publication keeping you up-to-date on the work they’re doing and things going on the world that you don’t hear about on national news.
*Note, you can select with most places to not receive a gift at all. I like getting the swag to represent and spread the word of their missions.
The Nature Conservancy – Minimum donation of $15. My renewal rate was as little as $10 but for $15, I’ll be receiving some swankin’ reusable tote bags.
The Oceanic Society – You can do one time or monthly donations OR you can adopt an animal as a donation. Adopt a Dolphin: $40/year. Adopt a Humpback Whale: $60/year. Adopt an Albatross: $45/year
The Ocean Cleanup – Is an organization of engineers working to find ways of removing the mass amounts of plastic and garbage in the ocean. Minimum donation of $10.
By the end of the year I plan on joining another one of the aforementioned societies (probably Audobon), to make that a total of 3 places I contribute to. These are also great gift ideas for the animal lover/environmentalist in your life. Each group has the option to donate or purchase a membership for someone else.
So that’s my soap box preaching for the week? Month? I don’t normally do these kinds of posts so who knows, might become a regular thing.
If this isn’t up your alley, just help pick up garbage where you see it! Sure, you weren’t the loser that put it there but you can be the winner that helps keep the planet clean.
Now not the actual flying squirrels with cute caped armpits, I’m talking about these chunky fucks:
The Fox Squirrel.
Ozzy’s arch nemesis.
Yesterday, I got home from work and promptly took the dogs outside. One of these chunky fucks was apparently surprised by our arrival even though we were not quiet about it. The dogs tree’d him in the smallest tree in the yard. Mind you, this tree is still twice my height. There was no chance that the dogs could actually get to him. Despite this, I didn’t want the dogs harassing him. So ring around the tree I go, trying to grab Ozzy because once I wrangle him, Samus will follow. Dogs are fast though so this was not working. The whole time the squirrel is chattering his fool head off.
Finally, I stop, put my hands on my hips and kindly explain to the squirrel that he needs to shut the fuck up because it’s just keeping the dogs all riled up.
MOTHER FUCKER LAUNCHES HIMSELF AT ME LIKE I’M THE NEXT AVAILABLE GODDAMN TREE.
I scream the world’s most pathetic scream, which I think caused him to realize, “OH SHIT THIS IS NOT A TREE” and he lands on my foot and scampers off up a giant maple tree.
Now I am forever scarred by the image of a fat, brown fuck with tail helicoptering coming at me from above.
It’s been awhile since any of my adorable critters have been featured on the blog. Not for any lack of cuteness but because they’re mostly featured over on Instagram. (I fully admit that Instagram is a lot more fun that I thought it would be.)
I’ll do a mini-intro for each pet for anyone new to the blog.
Blanket thieving once again.
Zelda, our second pet together. (The first being a rat named Wednesday.) We’ve had a love/hate relationship. She likes to do bad things. But since we’ve moved to the house, we’ve seen a whole new cat. We now have a nightly ritual that if I’m not in our bedroom at the correct time, I hear persistent mewing.
Snowed in.
Meanwhile, this one likes to make snow angels.
Ozzy, our first dog together. We’re dog people, thru and thru. We adopted Ozzy from a high-kill shelter in Flint. Michigan when he was 10 weeks old. He was malnourished, dehydrated, had roundworms and mange. He’s the first animal that I nursed back to health and 100% the reason I got into animal rescue. By my own estimation he’s lab/chow/pit bull mix. He’s a big, laid back baby who kicks all the ass at cuddling.
Brisk morning romp in the yard.
Gaming with Dad.
Samus. Oh, Samus. We were planning on getting a second dog a year later than we did. My grandpa was dying, I was depressed, my husband decided I needed someone to take care of who couldn’t take care of themself so I wouldn’t dive further into depression. His irresponsible coworker at the time had a new litter of puppies. Inbred puppies. Mom had had one litter of puppies by a neighbor’s dog, they kept a male puppy and when he was old enough, he knocked up his mom. She’s 3/4 mini-Aussie and 1/4 Rottweiler. To top it off, mom stopped nursing the puppies at about 5 weeks and the people couldn’t handle the puppies cries so they locked them in a bathroom. One which, they did not clean and eventually threatened to throw them all out in the snow if the people who wanted one didn’t come pick them up. That’s how we came to have a puppy at 6 weeks old who shouldn’t have been separated until 8 weeks. She’s an adorable pain in the ass. She’s high energy of course but also has anxiety and OCD, along with severe trust issues.
This had been on my TBR pile for 3 years. My 15 year old cousin owned and highly recommended I read it. Since he’s pretty wise for his age, I did. He also told me that he had not been able to find the rest of the series so, guess what he’s getting for Christmas?
Here begins the tale of Daine. An outcast girl with the ability to talk to animals. (I was jealous at this point already.) With no family left, she and her trusty horse friend Cloud left her hometown to look for a new life. What she found was friends and an epic adventure. Creatures who have not existed in her world in over 400 years are breaking free of the realm they were locked away in. Some of them are good, a lot are bad.
Befriended by one of the world’s strongest mages, she begins to learn how to use her ‘wild magic.’ *cough* Book title *cough* They will need all the advantages they can get if they’re going to save their world.
There is nothing particularly special about the writing itself. This is also clearly a young adult fantasy. Despite those two points against it, I need to know what happens. I liked it enough that I must know the end results. Or at the very least, check out the next book. Here’s the best part of sharing books with a cousin into fantasy; since I bought him the rest of the books for Christmas, I now have access! Mwahahaha!
Samus is 3/4 miniature Australian Shepherd, thus she loves to ‘herd’ the cat much to the chagrin of Zelda. Last night Zelda refused to be herded and this is the dramatic response of Samus to the situation.
cupcakesandmachetes 