Rinalia's Ramblings

Live blogging Halloween 2012

2012-11-01T01:28:38Z

http://www.for-the-pits.blogspot.com/2012/10/liveblogging-halloween-2012.html

In which Mina's greatest goal is to go home with some small zombie or princess, either one works for her.

rinalia @ 2012-10-13T20:06:00

2012-10-14T03:06:48Z

This calf has his "serious biznass" look on his face. His name is Douglas. He is a year old and in cow-world that is still babyhood. He knows his name, which impresses visitors. I call to him, and he comes running, legs akimbo, head bobbing, smile on his face. He is adorable until he tries to mount you, then less so.

He is from the dairy industry, a discarded male calf. Of the five calves rescued, we picked two to come to Animal Place. The rest went to another sanctuary. Douglas won me over when, despite his trauma and fear, he came up and sucked on my hair. Win. He is a troublemaker and you can blame me for that.

On Photography

2012-10-13T03:47:23Z

I went out and took photos yesterday. I had not done so in a long time. Francis chewed cud for me. And now, you.

There is a camera I want, but I am afraid I want it only because it is more expensive and better than my current ones. They are good cameras, but it's amazing how quickly the digital age puts a 2, 3, 4 year old camera to shame. And well, a good camera, a good lens, does not make you a great photographer. I could become a great photographer if I spent my life committed to this small, burning passion of mine. But I won't right now, so I'm a happily decent snapper of one-eyed cows chewing cud.

When I was younger, I lugged around my dad's Minolta. In high school, I would stand transfixed in the film section of my local pharmacy store, trying to pick out the best film for the shots I wanted. I could carefully remove a used reel from my dad's camera, beneath a black cloth, and transfer it to a canister tank for development. Those were precarious seconds, when cherished moments in time could be deleted from this earth forever.

They may not have been my best photos, but those black and white pictures I developed with my own hands are some of my most precious.

I love the digital age, to be honest. I love snapping a bazillion photos and not worrying that I will become penniless from spent cash on wasted film. I love gazing instantly at these snapshots. LOVE, people. It's a childish wonderment - that what I see can (imperfectly) be transferred to something permanent and shared with everyone else. That sometimes I catch real, honest to goodness emotions in the faces of nonhumans....so powerful that others can see it too. And that sometimes, in a rare brilliant light, my photo tells a story. Those are my favorite.

My dad's Minolta is still alive. It works perfectly well and is probably older than I am.

Did you know Dakota, the turkey, can alter his bloodflow to those bumpy caruncles on his neck and snood (long dangly thing)? That his coloration indicates his mood, his feelings? He is in a dapper, good mood in this photo.

CHRISTOPHER MINA DAY

2012-10-08T17:49:17Z

Christopher Columbus was an asshole.

There, I wrote it.

He did not discover North America, for one. There were already people living there, so obviously it was already "discovered".

What did he do?

He enslaved the native population. He raped their young girls. He kidnapped people and shipped them to Europe (and during that ugly ship trip, most died). He allowed his men to randomly behead people, beat them, cut of their hands, implement "tributes", test their blades on people's body parts, rape, pillage, etc. ad naseum.

The guy was a jerk. I don't know if he was a jerk by 16th century standards, probably not. He was human, and he explored a lot, but he introduced so much trauma, devastation, and cruelty to so many of the native peoples in the Americas.

Nothing to celebrate.

So I'm going to celebrate Mina. Because this is how she would have done it:

Upon landing, she would have presented this visage to the native people:

HEY EVERYONE!

If that failed, she'd obviously have to get serious:

And put a freaking squirrel on her head. WHO CAN RESIST?

But let's say they DID resist (wtf is wrong with them, you might ask), well, then:

You are a failed people if that doesn't move you to tears of sadness and joy.

rinalia @ 2012-10-03T08:03:00

2012-10-03T15:03:45Z

I just bashed my head on a shelf and learned how much a head can bleed. A lot, for such a minor wound.

That is all. Livejournal, you're welcome.

In which I re-emerge

2012-04-13T01:47:23Z

for a spell.

Not much to say, really, since I last posted a year ago. Since I have a permanent account, I feel obligated to at least make an annual post.

Mina is still an old cantankerous bitch, and I love her more than I can put into words.

Celeste is still a freak of nature.

Evidence:

I'm just plugging along.

rinalia @ 2011-04-08T18:48:00

2011-04-09T01:48:50Z

I know it's been awhile.

Chloe, the second foster puppy, has been here more than a month and I desperately want to keep her but won't...for a lot of reasons. She has two possible adopters she'll be meeting on Sunday. So hope for the best for the little whipper-snapper.

Also, Tommy says hi. He is sweet like that.

Chloe

2011-03-06T02:17:27Z

Foster puppy. Yes, she is that cute in person.

rinalia @ 2011-02-17T07:55:00

2011-02-17T15:55:25Z

For the first time in my conscious 30-yr existence, I woke up to snow. SNOW. Mina and Celeste were horrified - it was their first snow too. They refused to touch it.

(I say conscious, because I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on December 24th in the middle of a severe blizzard, but I don't 'member much of that).

2011 Book List

2011-01-24T01:58:05Z

Finished

Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz (1/23/11)
Glimmerglass - Jenna Black (1/30/11)
Desert Crossing - Elise Broach (1/31/11)
Blade of Fortriu - Juliet Marillier (2/7/11)

SHERMAN

2011-01-24T00:28:00Z

Yeah. For reals.

I has a foster dog

2011-01-23T05:17:25Z

and his name is Sherman.

He is 4 months old and snores.

The girls have mixed opinions on him. They met him through his crate and baby gate. Mina is Concerned but Interested. Celeste did not growl but stress panted. Sherman really wants to meet them for reals. Later, Sherman, later.

He is all legs and clumsy puppyness.

If he is part Pit Bull, it is a small part. Whatever he is, it is a mixture of soft fur and large feet.

He is available for adoption. Here is his petfinder ad. He needs to be adopted soon, because his adopters need to enjoy his puppyness!

Stay Safe Australian Peeps

2011-01-12T16:33:30Z

I hope you're not affected by the floods, and if you are, I hope you and your loved ones stay safe.

rinalia @ 2011-01-08T20:10:00

2011-01-09T04:10:00Z

I apparently need a football icon. Just to give you a warning that the post content will contain stupid sports reference.

Saints for the fail. Colts too.

But really, the Saints? Losing to a 7-9 team is embarrassing for former Stupidbowl (Superbowl) winners.

That is all in football.

Tomorrow, I expect Aaron Rogers to kick Vick's ass and that the Packers D will turn Michael Vick into a walking zombie. Mkay? Thanks!

Vegan Sugar Cookies

2010-12-28T22:01:33Z

Some tasty vegan cookies my mom and I made. They were just the right texture - not too hard, not too soft.

Recipe

Hapy Mina-nas

2010-12-26T01:39:08Z

I am 30!

2010-12-25T02:51:17Z

That is all!

I has a year in review

2010-12-23T21:25:59Z

Not really, but my sanctuary does. Not "my" as in "mine, I owns it" but as in "mine, I am owned by it". Figure that out on your own.

Plus, I used my mad editing skillz and put this shiz-nit together ON MY OWN OMG IT WAS SO HARD. It wasn't, but it was time consuming.

Not included is me buying a house; Mina being "woe is me" for a month after moving; Celeste trying to eat a deer; Mina trying to eat Celeste (but that's normal, amirite?); or my daily jogs. Those are pretty important, I know. So I told you now, so you won't be disappointed.

Livestock Auctions, I Hates Them

2010-12-18T19:42:48Z

I took our newest staff member to a livestock auction yesterday. I hate these places. They are surreal. I always encourage anyone who eats meat or consumes dairy to visit - it's where "spent" dairy cows and day-old male dairy calves end up. It's not pretty.

People bring their children. They sit in bleachers and watch as feeling, frightened non-humans are herded and paddled into an arena. They bid on them. By the pound, often. It is how I imagine human slave auctions were like. A family affair. A place you could eat some food, while buying lives. At the very least, they didn't serve up human slave burgers. At livestock auctions, you eat cows while buying cows to slaughter.

I am alien in these places.

We ended up taking home 10 broiler chicks no one wanted. They had been sitting in a wire cage, in the rain, for hours. Two could not stand up. They are only 6-weeks-old and already obese and "ready" for slaughter. They peep like babies, it is heartbreaking. 9 billion of them are killed each year for consumption. Babies! I can't get over it.

I saw a man load two screaming piglets into the trunk of his car. It was a Dodge Stratus.

A calf on his way to a veal farm nuzzled my hand, searching for maternal contact. How amazing that the drive to suckle overrides the absolute terror of neck grabs, paddling, shoves from tormentors. It is the picture that should stand next to "pitiful".

rinalia @ 2010-12-16T20:49:00

2010-12-17T04:49:53Z

Imagine you like a show. It only comes out once a month, so you eagerly await that day to download each episode. There are only twelve.

For the first eleven episodes, you are in love with the main characters and the story arc.

And then in the twelfth episode, everything goes very wrong. Horribly.

You have just wasted an entire year.

That is how I feel right about now. Just so you know.

Prius Fail

2010-12-17T02:40:50Z

My boss somehow backed her vehicle off her driveway and got it stuck. So of course I took pictures of the car's rescue.

The scene:

Trying to push the vehicle up. Just kidding, it was just for the shot.

Trying to tip the vehicle over, just to scare the boss.

MAGICAL WINCH!

And the grand finale!

The most exciting part of the rescue was trying to turn the car on. I should say, most embarrassing. We had to bust out the manual (the boss wasn't present). Once we figured it out, it was smooth sailing from there. Keyless keys are silly, and I am glad Ford did not do such a dumb thing with my hybrid, Henrietta the Ford Escape.

I FAIL AT READING

2010-12-15T05:18:50Z

No, seriously. I do.

I read 30 books this year. Thirty. That is like a marathon runner jogging 2 miles in the boston marathon and calling it quits because they're bored or something. I don't think it's actually like that, but it's my simile, so deal.

My icon should really say "Books hate me" but it doesn't.

In unrelated news, I drove in the worst fog this evening. If there had been a deer in the road, they would have been run over AND I NEVER WOULD HAVE SEEN THEM. That's how bad it was. So bad that someone less skilled and awesome than me drove themselves off a hill. They were fine. I knew this because they were milling on the road, smoking. Well, maybe milling on the road in the middle of Stephen King fog indicates head trauma. They are lucky no zombies were lurking about. Or giant dinosaurs from another dimension.

Back to reading, I don't know what was up with me this year. Actually, I do. I moved. And left behind the best library system in the world for a library that is closed on my weekends (Sundays/Mondays) and makes you pay for interlibrary loans. This library is only open until 5 pm. FIVE. That is when I get off work, so unhelpful. My pool of books winnowed pitifully down to back issues of the local town paper (from 1883 or thereabouts!). <--- If you end a sentenc with parenthetical notations and an exclamation point, does that exclamation point go outside the parenthesis or what?

MINA IS A DONUT SO I MUST GO EAT HER AND SLEEP.

An ode to mina

2010-10-03T04:04:43Z

Mina was about three years old when I started fostering her.

These are the things I know about her.

1. She lived somewhere without much sun.

2. She was not socialized around people properly.

3. She was running loose with a 4' belt, three inches thick wrapped around her neck.

4. She had not eaten well in at least 2 weeks.

5. She was not licensed, collared, or microchipped.

6. She was not spayed, and she had had puppies.

I know number one because the first thing Mina did when I let her out in the backyard was splay herself, sensuous and languid on the dirt. Within a day of her sun-worshipping, freckles appeared on her white belly. They have remained, a constant reminder to me that sunscreen isn't just for people. So I know that, for the first 2-3 years of her existence, she lived somewhere without meaningful access to sun.

For some reason, this hurts the most. To think of Mina isolated or locked up, kept from her sun, her people, her world...that makes the ache in my heart set aside just for Mina flare up and fling great tendrils of sadness throughout my body. To think of ANY dog kept socially isolated during their most socially sensitive period of initial existence...but Mina, Mina especially. She has spent the past 9 years making up for that denial of warmth.

I honestly do not believe Mina was physically abused. Even though she shied away from wild movements. Even though brooms and vacuums and bats made her cower in fear. I really don't think anyone hit her. What I do think is something even sadder, in some ways - a total denial of her existence. I think whoever had her first saw her as a means to an end, a way to make money off of her offspring. I believe they kept her in the garage, and that they didn't do much with her except feed, water and breed her. I don't think they saw her as a friend, companion, confidante, beautiful, perfect, sassy or meaningful. When she was young, I doubt they took her on walks or introduced her to as many people as possible. She lived in a small, dark, isolated world.

I know this because when I first met Mina, she was socially stunted. There was this innate desire to submit herself to people, and an even more intrinsic desire to want people to be nice to her. But it took her time, because that was all that had been given to her. Time. Endless hours of isolation. I think of her in those days, lying on cement, gazing up at locked doors, hoping against all hope that someone - anyone - would lay down beside her and just be.

It took her a week to approach me through chain link, to wedge herself between two large, needy dogs. It took 45 minutes for her to crawl - with a great sense of relief - into an animal control officer's lap during her (failed) temp test.

But what I remember most about her idea of time was how long it took for her to playbow to me in my room. The first day I brought her home under the sweet, but naive notion of "fostering" her, I invited her up on the bed. She looked confused, appalled, unsure. But when she climbed up, one leg after the other, she whirled around to face me. In that moment, I saw a light, a spark, a promise of difficult, amazing things to come. And in five seconds flat, I saw her very first playbow. She dug her paws into my comforter, butt high in the air, tail gently flagging back and forth. I could not admit to myself - not yet, it was too soon - that this was my heart dog, that this dog would teach me so much about unyielding love, overwhelming frustration. Mina knew, though. She knew with all her canine heart that she had found Home.

No matter her Before Me years. No matter the stupid, inane people who did not see Mina as an absolutely divine addition to their family. No matter the spiteful, mean animal control officers who wanted to see her dead (and a big MATTER to the one who didn't). No matter the tapeworms and the 15 missing lbs. No matter at all. She had arrived and was here to stay.

I don't want to paint Mina as perfect. She is The Most Difficult Dog I have ever welcomed into my life. When she dies - never, by the way - I will foster or adopt the easiest, goofiest, dorkiest, senior dog on earth. S/he will be laidback, non-reactive, confident and cool. Celeste will love them like she loves Mina, and that is saying something. I will give this senior dog a nice, happy, perfect end of their life. I don't know if they will fill my heart like Mina, or comfort me like Celeste, but I don't care. I will give and they will take, and that is 100% okay.

But until that long-distance future, I will worry about lumps and goopy discharge. I will watch brown shift to gray, bleach to white. I will cringe when legs stop supporting tight turns during play-time in the backyard. I will continue to provide a helping hand when joints buckle. I will inhale her perfect, dog scent and wish her to live forever. I will wonder when she might go deaf, stop hearing jangling dog tags and fence fighting Jack Russell Terriers. For the twilight years ahead, I will watch as she ages with grace and utter ignorance of her weakened state. In return, she will rest her muscular head over my heart, breathe in time with me, accept my foibles, grace me with kisses and comfort me in the way she knows best. She will love. I will love. We will be perfectly different beings resting, breathing, hoping together.

rinalia @ 2010-09-27T17:50:00

2010-09-28T00:50:05Z

It was so nice seeing you, Lou! There were cockroaches, bubble yum, a bottle and a half of wine, and really lovely conversation outside on the patio. I mean, could it get any better? NO. I mean, yes - no cockroaches, but it was a story so that's something. Also, thanks for the vegan cinnamon rolls, they made my life oh so much happier!!

In other not so interesting news, I'm watching Monday night football, because I promised my dad I'd be more into football this year. He didn't actually ask me too, but I feel like I'm doing a daughterly duty by doing so anyways. It's Green Bay and Chicago and really I could care less. The 49ers still suck. The only hope I have is there will be a brawl. Brawls make sports events so much more fun. I realize this makes me a bad vegan, but oh well.

I also watched a lot of anime today. My sofa and me were practically one. I had decided to make my Sunday (Monday) a lazy Sunday (Monday). And it was. Is. I'll conclude it with Dancing With the Stars. Yeah, you read that right.

HAI! I'm Cute!

2010-09-20T00:54:07Z