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Misconception

Angela Walker

As my mother used to say, ???I am madder than a wet hen???.  Friday Night there was news piece on a National TV station, featuring the SPCA. 

It was very one sided and painted the SPCA as lying, cheating thieves and nothing could be further from the truth.  Their goal is to help all the cruelly treated animals. 

What this program did not show, was the dogs stacked in kennels on top of each other, or the dogs they found dead.  Apparently, it was filmed after the animals were seized and not during the seizure.  This is very disturbing, as it paints rescue in a bad light.

I am a volunteer for a local rescue group and I can assure everyone, that we do not steal peoples dogs out of yards, neither does the SPCA.  I applaud the SPCA for stepping in and rescuing the dogs from those puppy mills and backyard breeders.  Sure as they say, ???their livelihood was ruined???, well that really is a shame, they should not have been breeding in the first place.  No one could possibly take care of over 100 dogs properly.  These dogs where in kennels, outside in the heat, some had terrible tooth decay, heart worms, mange, and other illnesses.  Please go to the SPCA website and look at the pictures from the raids that they reference on the segment. 

As always, this is just my opinion.  I think a journalist should report ALL the facts and not try to sensationalize so much.

Angela Walker

Angela Walker
alwalker @ academicplanet .com

I live in Texas and have had several stories published on petwarmers, storytime tapestry, fuzzywarmers, write2theheart and 2the heart.

Angela, Mom of Chloe, Bella, Madison and Rascal. 

Foster Mom of Hannah Faith

http:www.loveourpets.com/mycolliehaven

Today's Queue Stories
~**~**~**~

Up the hill and going down...

Ashish Gorde


I will be touching the big 4-oh next year and I will
have officially entered the age when all boys and
girls are considered "grown-ups". It will be a
milestone for me and I am not sure if I'll be
celebrating the occasion with any pomp. Ideally, I
should sit down and reflect on my life and see how I
have fared so far in the eternal scheme of things,
whether or not, I have accomplished all that I set out
to do, if I have achieved anything tangible or
intangible that I can look upon as my legacy to the
world, and, most importantly, have I made any
difference to the people around me. Or will my death
(whenever it comes) be just a mere bleep on their
radar?

There is still time to figure out the answers to these
questions and I am sure I'll have ample time to set
things right if they are not. And if my time is cut
short and I leave the world much earlier, I'll have
just all this that I have done so far as my
contribution to this world. It will be my gift and my
legacy, as it were.

Now this leaves me with the tantalizing question about
regrets... have I lived to my full potential and, if
not, am I sorry that my life is incomplete because of
it?

In one word, no.

In my opinion, regrets are futile exercises. They
waste so much time and energy as we battle thoughts
and ideas in our heads and, needlessly, bang our heads
against walls ... and for all that, we get nothing in
return except for more regrets.

I see my life not as a series of failures (although
there are quite a few non-accomplishments to my
credit) but a fulfillment of what I could be at this
point of time. I see those non-accomplishments not as
a blot on my life but as necessary pruning to make me
the man I am now. Those regrets, those
non-accomplishments, that unfulfilled potential is what
makes me "me". It has shaped my character, matured me,
helped me to grow, made me sensitive... in other
words; it has been an indispensable component of my
growing up.

However, this is how I am and how I look at my life so
far. But the problem is with other people who have
their own expectations about our life.

There are those who think I behave way too young for
my age and feel I should be more responsible. What
they really mean by that is that I should get married
and raise a family of my own and learn the pitfalls of
domestic life. It makes it hard for them to digest
that marriage ought to be a partnership between two
compatible entities and not something to add to your
resume. Then, there are those who just don??™t like my
ideas and 'youthful' (even if I may so) ideas. I am
not sure if they are threatened by it or what but I am
tired by their constant non-response and passive
discouragement. Their pathetic pretence in enthusiasm
is so sad because it follows very closely with their
enthusiastic indifference.

Now this point brings me back again to the big 4-oh.

One of the clearest signs of growing up and being up
the hill and going down is, precisely, when we meet
people like these. I don??™t say that these people age us
quickly but they act as mirrors, of sorts. They show
us where the world is plodding on and where we are
placed... and they elicit a response, are we going to
give in to them and lose our integrity? Or are we
going to continue living and making life miserable for
these people?

The answer to the second question will involve rocking
the boat a little and charting our own individual
path. And that, in many ways, will determine our
legacy to this world.

ashbg@rocketmail.com

~**~**~

How to be a nuisance

Ashish Gorde

While on the subject of growing old and not getting
any younger, let me add a few parting words before I
draw the curtains on the topic and not discuss it for
a long, long time.

I feel I have to say this and get it off my chest
because it is an observation that I've made and it
annoys me no end.

When we are young and are bursting with ideas and show
potential for talent, we are encouraged by all the
'grown-ups' around us and are constantly urged to
reach our full potential. Some of these same
'grown-ups' even attempt to 'mentor' us just to show
how supportive they are towards us.

But the moment we cross the rubicon, meaning,
'youthful years', then, things begin to change
especially if we are still bursting with new and
innovative ideas. If we were admired for our ideas
when we were younger, then, in the same token when we
become adults, we are seen as a nuisance.

We suddenly lose our perch and the insecurities of
these petty people suddenly turn us into a 'pain in
the butt', 'idealistic', 'non-realistic',
'uncontrollable', what have you.

Suddenly we cease to be the object of admiration but
are seen as an 'obstacle' for any worthwhile progress
mainly because we see a different way of solving an
issue and still prefer not sticking to the tried and
tested.

Of course I've given the worst-case-scenario over
here.

One way of avoiding this outcome is a fairly simple
solution and one greatly admired by the petty
grown-ups. Continue having these wild innovative ideas
and continue making the petty grown-ups feel they are
the most important beings in the universe. Give them
the ego massage they crave and do your work.

However, this is easier said than done because the
moment one develops 'ideas' and embarks on developing
an individual mindset, you are bound to upset a lot of
people. Petty people are the first ones who will
oppose and disagree with you. And because of this one
has to accept the fact that one can never please all
people at all times and that becoming a nuisance and
spoilsport might be our lot.

After all, who said growing up was easy?

=====
Links to all my favourite sites can now be found
on one single page:
www.ashishgorde.org

and, yes, please give me your comments
so I can make this site work for you!!!

ashbg@rocketmail.com

As far as bio is concerned, let me try. I was born on 19th November 1965 in an obscure town in south central India called Miraj. But when I was four years old, I went with my family to Bahrain, an island in the Arabian Gulf (or what most people call as Persian Gulf). I grew up and interacted with people of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds in Bahrain and that has been one of the main reasons why i feel and consider myself cosmopolitan. I went to India for my higher studies and eventually got myself an MA in English Literature but university life was also the time when I indulged in a lot of writing and, in particular, theatre. After my studies, I came back to Bahrain (and went to Bangalore, too, in between) and worked as a copywriter for many years. Presently, I am the Editor of the University of Bahrian's official magazine and I, also, teach English on a part-time basis.

Hope that's ok?

Ashish Gorde

~**~**~

Why I Started Richards Prayer Request Page

by Richard Sims

I was receiving all kinds of prayer request at my e-mail address so, I decided to

start up a prayer request page. It seems that God has always answered all my

prayers. Last year we had a tornado on the ground coming toward us here in

Arma and after seeing it was going to be a direct hit; we all started praying and the

tornado lifted.  Now I ask you; if it wasn't God answering all of our prayers, then who

was it?

When the tornado's of 2004 hit Franklin, Ks. and all the other surrounding towns we was in Granby mowing my mother's yard. Just as I was finishing up and putting up the lawn tractor.  my mother told us she had heard a weather report that we had bad weather heading toward Granby and if we was going to go home we should take off then or stay until the bad weather had past over us. We had an hour and 45 minutes trip back home to Arma, Kansas. Mom told us she would be praying that we made it home safe.

We took off and started for home. We had just gotten east of Joplin, Mo. at Webb city, Mo.

and the tornado sirens was just sounding. We turned on hwy 43 traveling north

toward hwy 96 just east of the town of Carl Junction, Mo. We came to Hwy. 171 and made

our turn north on 171 hwy toward the Mo-Ks. state line when all of a sudden we noticed

the sky behind us was a weird color and kind of a pinkish hue. We kept going towards home.

Coming up on Franklin, Ks. they had the roads blocked so we would have to go the

bypass around Franklin. I asked the Kansas Highway patrolman if they had had a bad

wreck and he said no! It was a tornado and there were houses in the road and electric

lines down making the roads dangerous. Franklin is just a mile south of Arma, Ks. so we didn't know what we was going to find when we got home. We found out we had just gotten through Carl junction, Mo. about 5min before the tornado wiped out most of the town and 20mins after it had wiped most of Franklin, Ks. out!

God had his loving hands on us keeping James, Jackie and I all safe from harm!  The next time was when Jackie's cousin Sharon had invited us up to her home in Savannah, Mo. to celebrate a late Thanksgiving  We told her that if God was willing we would be there. It turns out God wasn't willing for us to make that trip. We conveniently didn't have the money to make the trip and thank God for that because, later I got under the van to change the transmission filter and the fluid and noticed that the tires were about to blow out on the insides where we couldn't see. If we would have taken off on that trip both front tires could have blown out causing us to have a bad wreck.

 After getting new tires put on the van and making it safe to be driven the wheel chair lift that is used to load James (Jackie's son) broke down, God helped us get the funding to get it fixed. Then here not long ago the fuel pump located inside the fuel tank went out. Here again; God took care of  it by helping to get the funding to get the fuel pump repaired.

A year and a half ago my five year old granddaughter Destiny was taken by her mother from my son's house in Carl junction, Mo. for none of us to ever see her again. I prayed and asked

God to bring her back. Nothing happened right then but, now she is living in Granby, my

home town in Missouri and  we will be able to see her again soon. After all of this, is

it really necessary to tell you that God does answer our prayers! It might not be exactly

when and how we want them answered but, he really does!

I wouldn't even think of a day of my life with out God our father in heaven in it.Now you see why Richard's Prayer Request Page and guest book was setup. I know the power of our Father God and  what he can do for us all. The Prayer Request Page Is http://www.geocities.com/armaksman/techie8.html?200526  And the link to the guest book

to leave your prayer requests is http://www.freegb.net/gbook.cgi?133176  Please remember

to leave your E-mail address so we can send you our prayers for you.

God Bless You all and be with you always!

Richard Sims
armaksman @yahoo.com

About Me:
I am Richard D. Sims of Arma, Kansas, I am
46 Years old. I was born and raised in
Granby, Mo. the oldest mining town in
southwest Mo.
I enjoy writing poems, short stories and
just being able to cheer up people!
My hobbies are 1/4 mile drag racing,
wood crafts and spending quality time with
my family, and serving our lord Father in
heaven.
Richard D. Sims:
armaksman @ yahoo. Com