•
Our two “kittens” are turning four in a couple of months. It took me about two years to mentally and verbally stop referring to them as “the kittens”.
Around the summer of 2001, we were thinking to adopt a kitten, somone to provide playful companionship for Harry. When we found our special kitty, and he already had a buddy he’d bonded with, we decided to adopt both. Their first day with us was September 10, 2001.
Moo was a special kitty; tiny at 4 lbs, with one eye that is weepy, another that just never developed, and prone to respiratory problems. Since our two cats at the time, Bonkey and Harry, each had one-eye too, Moo seemed to fit right in.
Jack was the “big brother” at 6 lbs; he looked after Moo while the two waited for a home.
Here’s a photo of them playing together on the first day in their new home..
Jack & Moo were adopted from a local rescue group, Cats Are Truly Special. You can visit them on the web at http://www.catsaretrulyspecial.org.
•
It’s funny how people use words differently.
Although I’m now vegan, the “stuffing” at Thanksgiving is still one of my favorite foods. The only difference is that it’s made vegan, without any animal bits. (If you have a food processor, try this pate recipe; it was a wonderful stuffing-like flavor!)
To some, “stuffing” is “dressing”.
To me, “dressing” is something I’d put on a salad!
So, here is a simple recipe to dress your salad for success. It’s easy to make and relatively inexpensive.
You can use any type of measurement for this dressing to make a small or large quantity. Here are the proportions:
1 part olive oil
2 parts balsamic vinegar
1/2 part soy sauce
1/4 part maple syrup
pepper to taste
Some friends shared this recipe for me, and this is what we used for our vegan group camping trip last year at Butano State Park. I hope you enjoy it too.
•
In many households, the “baby” of the family invariably attracts the most attention by their behaviour. In our household, that would definitely be Mite. Through no fault of his own, but rather an intrinsic part of who he is, Mite swaggers across a room with confidence and will stare at you unblinking when you’re eating something he wants a bite of.
Perhaps it’s because he was at the Peninsula Humane Society, bored to tears in a tiny cage with nothing but food to entertain himself with, or something else in his past… but he definitely loves to eat. Because of his wobbly back legs, we’re careful not to overfeed him as we want him to remain mobile.
He usually finishes eating first. To let the other cats finish without Mite interrupting, I’ll pick him up and hold him upright against me, much like you’d hold a baby after feeding him, stroking his back. And like a baby, Mite gives a little burp. Yup, he’s “Mite LB” alright… Mite Little Burper….
•
I took this photo last night at the local Safeways. I thought it was pretty funny and worth sharing.
•
This is the billboard outside Judahlicious, the new juice bar on Judah.
Kinda spooky don’t you think? 
•
In response to the public?s growing awareness of animal cruelty in the egg-industry, the United Egg Producers (UEP), the industry?s primary trade association, created the ?Animal Care Certified? (ACC) program in 2000. Today over 80% of the eggs found in supermarket aisles bear the deceptive ACC logo. The seal is aimed at assuring consumers that the eggs in the neatly packaged carton were produced humanely.
As Mercy For Animals? new investigation exposes, nothing could be further from the truth and a boycott of the egg industry has been called.
Mercy For Animals says it has uncovered gross abuse inside Ohio’s largest “animal care certified” egg farms.
Investigators for the group went undercover at the “Ohio Fresh Eggs” Farm and say they found such things as starved hens, cramped living quarters and hens with large, open wounds and infections.
•
I had a wonderful day yesterday, the highlight was of course the Erik Marcus talk at the Red Victorian Peace Center, in the Haight.
There was a young family there, and the little boy came over to our display table and grabbed some “Why Vegan?“, ran outside and proceeded to hand them out to passersby. This was totally unprompted.
Nearly eveyrone took a leaflet from him, and if they didnt he would run after them and demand that they did. So he had an 100% success rate. Of course he had a unfair advantage, being only a few feet tall and extra cute — But never the less he was extra determined and full of energy.
After he ran out of leaflets he came back inside and I got to talk with him.
I asked him jokingly if he had a job and what his rate was, he said $3,000. I asked was that for a day or year? He said a year, but could do it for less or free, but would need to talk to his mother.
He couldn’t have been much more than 5 years old, but had already perfected his outreach technique and was full of confidence and compassion in doing it.
I think we could all learn from him.
•
It deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh?
•
Just caught this on boingboing.net -
No science fiction movie has ever had a machine as creepy as the E-Z Catch Harvester, a machine that uses rapidly rotating brushes to catch chickens and convey them into pens.
The video clip is a must see.
I’ve seen some horrific factor farming videos over the years, but this one just stunned me. Not really sure why.
Nothing bloody I promise, after all it’s a promo video by the company that makes the thing, but it’s still shocking.
Click on the image above for specs and the link to the video clip, or jump straight to the clip here.
