You might have heard of the Texas shelter that was raided by police recently, a number of gravely ill and unadoptable dogs were taken out, most to be euthanized. No one wants them.
The Friends Of Homeless Animals organization, the group that is treating and releasing the Boston Terrier Bud to me in October, has agreed to take this chihuahua – his name is Shep – on and get him very serious but treatable skin disease treated.
They say they couldn’t say no.
He has tested negative for heartworm, he is six months old and now weights five pounds. Carol Johnson of FOHA e-mailed me this photo. This is the first time I have ever posted a photo of a dog in urgent need of adopt on my blog. I want to see what happens.
Perhaps another way to do some good.
His eyes got to me and if no one else wants to take him, I might take her myself and look for a home for him. With Bud, I will have three dogs, that is enough. (FOHA has also accepted a second dog, who is 10 years old, has heartworm, and several other severe and chronic illnesses.)
I am working hard to help people who are vulnerable these days, I wish also to help some dogs who are the most vulnerable.
If you are interested in helping this dog, a heartbreaking scene, please contact the Friends Of Homeless Animals on their website, or e-mail Carol Johnson at [email protected]. Please let me know if you can help this dog, I am [email protected].
We went to a framer in Vermont to get the watercolor by Carolyn Gale from New Zealand framed. Next door was the Chocolotarium, a wondrous chocolate and candy shop. As I came out, I said to Maria, “I think I need to take a photo of Judy,” who is a formidable co-owner of the place.
Maria and I go through this all the time, I reach in to get my camera, she either takes out a sketch pad or finds a quiet place to sit, in this case by a beautiful Vermont stream. I loved the image, this is one of the things that makes me love Maria so much.
In my mother love, someone I loved and respected looked at me in exasperation one day and said, “why do you have to take so many photos? Can’t you just take a few?”
Not once in these years has she ever been irritated, rolled her eyes, urged me to hurry, looked exasperated by this obsessive need I have to take pictures of the things that touch me and my life.
We have this understanding: creativity is sacred, it comes first.
I do the same for her. There is not much more important than her getting in her studio to create, I never begrudge or get annoyed it.
How lucky I am, I said as I came out of the Chocolotarium, to be able to be who I am.
We respect and love each other and we let each other be who we need to be. That is a precious gift, the foundation of love as well as creativity.
We met Judy a few years ago, she is one of the owners of the Chocolatorium, a funky, alluring and remarkable business set in Arlington, Vt. I buy sugar-free chocolate covered raspberry jellies there, a wicked addiction.
The family loves chocolate and makes all kinds right on the premises, it is the kind fo shop that exists only in Vermont, and don’t mess with Judy, she has a laser -like stare that would melt her own candy.
She asked me why I wanted to take her photograph, and I said because she is beautiful, and she said, “oh, come on.” But she is beautiful and at the back of her shopped, there is an auditorium where there are daily shows about the power and wonder of chocolate. It’s called the Chocolatorium, and busloads of tourists pull up there daily.
Today, she talked about the loads of people who nearly overwhelmed the store yesterday, she also insisted I try to orange sugar-free chocolate jellies to broaden my horizon. She stuck a few of them in my box, no charge. I would not dare to ignore her wishes.
The orange jellies are pretty great.
I am very happy to know Judy and to have her in my life. She is the kind of unique individual I love to meet, the rare and anti-corporate entrepreneur, tough as nails and with a heart the size of Chicago.
She comes from a specific place and time, you would not see her anywhere and everywhere.
Fate is eager to go to the dump each Saturday and see her friend Bob Hersey, who has a stash of biscuits and sometimes even donuts for her. The men who work at the dump are passionate dog lovers, Fate starts wagging a mile or way.
She is a sweet and friendly creature, as enthusiastic as she is averse to pushing the sheep around. I am glad I didn’t push her. Nothing makes her happier than coming to the dump.
Carolyn Gale And The Gift Of Creativity. Getting Framed
I took Carolyn Gale’s painting, which I bought two weeks ago for $200, to a framer, it will cost $160 to frame the watercolor in this bright blue frame with a bright white matting and it will be ready in two or three weeks.
I plan to hang it on my study wall.
I first saw the painting when it was posted on the Creative Group At Bedlam Farm, an online community of people who wish to share their creative work with one another anyone else who wants to see it. People apply to join, and are lightly screened to make sure they are creatives. That’ s about the only requirement.
That, and that there is no nastiness.
The interesting thing is that I have never met Carolyn Gale or spoken with her, I have no idea what she really even looks like. She lives in New Zealand, and I doubt that I will ever meet her or speak with her.
All I know about here is that she is a strikingly original artist who uses bold colors and paints with great feeling and skill and emotion. I have no idea if she trained with someone or trained herself. I wasn’t the one who admitted her to the group, I am grateful to the person who did.
I created the Creative Group at Bedlam Farm (originally called the Open Group at Bedlam Farm) because I have, for years, been fascinated with the idea of the online community, especially one for creative people.
The Internet is drowning in hatred, hostility and argument.
Could a real and supportive community be created online, one which encouraged people rather than diminished them or argued? Could a group of creatives come together and share their work openly, without fear of being attacked or ridiculed?
Could we escape the poisoned rhetoric and grievance of the left and the right?
Could people really come to trust one another, befriend each other, sometimes even meet one another and form face-to-face relationships? It was a bumpy ride. At first, more than 800 people signed up and it was chaotic.
We reduced the group to two or three hundred, and it got even more chaotic, in large measure because I didn’t understand how to manage it or communicate my strange ideas to people, many of whom didn’t like it or share my own values, or had their own agendas. There were a lot of people on the group who had no idea what it was really for, and who I didn’t trust or respect much.
This was my fault.
Three years ago, a group of 50 or 60 talented people, a close-knit community within the group, left the site after months of quarrels and drama to form their own group with their own rules, and it was a good and healthy thing that they did, for them and for the group.
They have done well with their own group, and I assume they are content.
Out of this sometimes painful schism came the group I wanted and finally learned how to deal with. The ones who stayed behind – 70 per cent of the group – wanted to be there. It made an enormous difference.
I found five or six respected and committed people who cared about the sight and turned it over to them for the management and leadership that was required. I redefined my role, and the rules and goals of the group.
Really, the more I stayed out of it the better the group did. I was the lightning rod, now I’m just another member.
My major campaign was to make sure there was no longer any hostility on the site of any kind, to work to build a community of trust and freedom.
Thanks largely to the people who agreed to help run it, screen new members, and encourage the ones we have in productive ways, we created the community I always dreamed, every there is a daily outpouring of good writing, photography, blogging, painting, fiber art, jewelry, collage and a dozen other forms of creative expression.
We have members – 202 of them – from all over the world, most of whom none of us will ever meet. Creative people like Carolyn Gale. We have been conflict free for three years now, we trust each other, support each other, share our work with one another. We paint, blog, write books, sew, quilt, glaze and write poems.
This is the community I always dreamed of, but could never quite figure out how to establish. The key was letting it happen naturally and organically. Wee screen people, look for creatives who leave any hostility or anger at home, who reject office politics, cliques or envy. I can’t remember the last nasty or snarky message.
Who speak up privately when there is sensitive feedback, complaints or questions. There are few. We like each other, we listen to each other, we celebrate one another’s work.
It is a joy to read the offerings of the group every day, so much creative work, so much color and light, so many surprises. Take Carolyn Gale. I loved this painting from the minute I saw it and want to see it on my study wall.
The painting arrived a couple fo days ago and I couldn’t wait to get it to the framer. Thanks Carolyn, for your work, for your presence on our creative group, for letting my buy this painting.
My wall needs this color and radiance, and so do I.
