Spartan Green, Corn Gold

Normally, I use this blog to tell about the adventures of my dog Gibbs.

However, today I am using it as a venue to voice my opinion on something that angers me… the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

You see, HSUS is an animal rights organization.  As an agriculturist, I believe in Animal Welfare, not Animal Rights.  The difference?  Animal Welfare is the school of though that provides for animals to be raised in a clean, healthy manner, conducive to overall well-being and higher production.  Animal Rights is the school of thought that dictates that animals should have the same rights and provileges as humans.

Obviously, I love my dog dearly.  He, along with my cows, pigs, and other animals, recieve TLC and are as healthy as can be and recieve lots of affection.  However, I do not believe that my dog has the RIGHT to eat “people food“, run around unleashed, or otherwise act like an undisciplined heathen that bites people.  Not cool.  I also do not believe that animal agriculture serves God‘s purpose for the livestock, etc. that He put on this earth.

That being said, I view HSUS as a personal attack on my way of life.  Here are some facts:

• HSUS is NOT affiliated with local animal shelters or humane societys
• HSUS is a special interest group with an agenda:  end animal agriculture
• Less than ONE PERCENT of HSUS funds go toward supporting animal shelters

So, this is what I am asking you to do.

1.  Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/leaderboard and vote for the 2nd and 3rd organizations in the first column.  These groups are in the running to receive $250,000 of funding from Pepsi, and HSUS is currently in the lead.  By voting for the other groups, we can prevent HSUS from receiving that money. 

Not sure how to vote?  It’s easy.  Click the “bubble” containing the organization, then select “vote”.  You can use your facebook login… quick and easy.

2.  Go to www.humanewatch.org – this organization works to expose HSUS for what they really are.  Humanewatch has entreated HSUS to raise the amount of funding that they send to animal shelters to 50%, at which point in time, Humanewatch will cease to plague HSUS.  So far, HSUS has not cooperated.

Thanks for reading – remember, every vote counts, and celebrate the holidays by volunteering or donating to a local Animal Shelter!!

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Gibbs and I traveled home to my parent’s house Wednesday afternoon, then spent Thanksgiving weekend the same way most people do:  eating, sleeping, and shopping.

Unfortunately, by Sunday evening Gibbs wasn’t feeling too well as a result of consuming Haley (the dog)’s “big dog food” on several occasions over the weekend.  He was rather mopey and looked sickly.   Which especially wasn’t good since we were visited by Jordie and Haley (the person) last night, which happen to be two of his favorite people to play with.

Anyway, he seemed to feel much better this morning.

Also in somewhat-new developments, Gibbs has a facebook, where he is listed as Leroy Jethro Gibbs.  If you’re interested in his Tails, add him as a friend.

This morning, Gibbs headed home with Kevin to spend the day (and night) away from Mom.

While I miss him, it worked out very well as I (Mom) was able to study for the lovely midterms that I have tomorrow, as well as finishing a paper.

Now at 3 months, Gibbs is heading into the “terrible twos” (think dog years) and manages to get himself into all kinds of trouble, especially when he thinks he is helping.  Case in point:

Or, when he chooses to be a distraction in a less “helpful” way, he gets stuck under things.

Granted, he does have some cute and very sweet moments.

P.S.  It’s less cute when you know that he “had an accident” on the bed as soon as he woke up.

This weekend, Gibbs and I are headed home to my parent’s house.  Of course, this meant packing up as much stuff as possible prior to going to class and work today, so that following class/work I just have to pack up Gibbs’ crate, toss him in the car, and head home.

Now, since the majority of what I  take home on weekends like this is laundry, I generally use laundry baskets to pack rather than bags.  One basket for clean clothes and one basket for dirty clothes is a pretty good system for travelling the short distance home.  As always, Gibbs tried to be helpful.

Sorry for the grainy picture... Blackberry photo

It took some work to convince him that he and his toys go in his doggie crate, not laundry baskets.

Reasons I’m excited to go home this weekend:

1) Gibbs hasn’t been to my parent’s house yet.  This means:
     a) He hasn’t met the cows yet
     b) Several of my family members haven’t met him yet
     c) He hasn’t met our Cocker Spaniel, Haley, yet
2) My mom will use her magical Mom Powers to make the basket of dirty clothes turn into a 2nd basket of clean clothes
3) Haley will (hopefully) teach Gibbs some manners.  Especially when it comes to potty training and trying to steal other people’s toys.
4) There is plenty of room for Gibbs to run around out of the range of cars without having to be on a leash
5) We live in the country where no one cares if his poop gets scooped.

P.S.  Thank you Brittany Parkhurst for the new blog title.

I dropped a sock on the trip from the basement upstairs.  Luckily, Gibbs was following closely behind and brought it upstairs for me.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get pictures of the battle that ensued to get it back.

Jeff: 3

Tiffany:  8

For anyone out there that is thinking “What the heck does that mean,”  we have a scoring system to see who persuades and/or forces Gibbs to do his “business” outside.

The scoring system is as follows:

‘Number One’ = 1 pt.

‘Number Two’ = 2 pts.

‘Numbers One AND Two’ = 3 pts.

The lead currently belongs to Tiffany.

Actually, my dog’s name is Gibbs.  As in; Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the NCIS character. 

Gibbs became part of my life October 28th, and is pretty awesome.    He’s a 10 week old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and manages to get himself into all kinds of trouble.

For example, this morning he was playing under my bed when he started whining.  I thought he was stuck, so I went to save him.  In reality, once he was under there he just couldn’t figure out how to get back through the bed skirt.

I said he’s awesome, not smart.