Inglath Cooper's Blog, page 24

Champagne and Grimm Need Help

Champagne

Champagne and Grim have lost their family due to tragic circumstances. Mother and son – she’s nine, he’s one – their person is apparently in failing health, and they have been left at the Roanoke, Virginia pound, otherwise known as RCACP.

Grim

I don’t know why a family member couldn’t have stepped forward to help in this time of need. I only know that the tragedy has been furthered by the fact that they are in danger of being euthanized at the Roanoke facility because it is not a shelter, a haven of safety for pets in need of rehoming. It is a very short-term holding facility for dogs and cats who have been given up by their people. And in the state of Virginia, when an owner signs their pet over to a city or county pound, they can be taken directly to the euthanasia room and injected with poison. Then put into an incinerator, if they are at the Roanoke Regional facility, their existence vaporized as if they were never here at all. Or in Franklin County, for example, put into a black bag and taken to the landfill.

Healthy, vibrant pets who thought they were going for a car ride, who had no idea what was going to happen to them.

This is wrong. We live in a country capable of not allowing such a horrifying end for these pets who have loved their people.

Champagne and Grim huddle together in their kennel at the Roanoke pound. They are scared. They sense that bad things happen in this place. And they are right.

 

Champagne and Grim Need Our Help

Champagne

Champagne and Grim have lost their family due to tragic circumstances. Mother and son – she’s nine, he’s one – their person is apparently in failing health, and they have been left at the Roanoke, Virginia pound, otherwise known as RCACP.

Grim

I don’t know why a family member couldn’t have stepped forward to help in this time of need. I only know that the tragedy has been furthered by the fact that they are in danger of being euthanized at the Roanoke facility because it is not a shelter, a haven of safety for pets in need of rehoming. It is a very short-term holding facility for dogs and cats who have been given up by their people. And in the state of Virginia, when an owner signs their pet over to a city or county pound, they can be taken directly to the euthanasia room and injected with poison. Then put into an incinerator, if they are at the Roanoke Regional facility, their existence vaporized as if they were never here at all. Or in Franklin County, for example, put into a black bag and taken to the landfill.

Healthy, vibrant pets who thought they were going for a car ride, who had no idea what was going to happen to them.

This is wrong. We live in a country capable of not allowing such a horrifying end for these pets who have loved their people.

Champagne and Grim huddle together in their kennel at the Roanoke pound. They are scared. They sense that bad things happen in this place. And they are right.

 

That Flagler’s Carrot Cake

I’ve had some pretty excellent carrot cakes in my life. My mama happens to make the most excellent Southern carrot cake around. Her cream cheese icing is so good, she could market it and become famous for it.

Although I may be endangering my chances of getting her to make me one anytime in the near future by saying this, I recently had a carrot cake experience that may top all carrot cake experiences.

The Flagler Steakhouse at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. Two words. Un. Believable.

First, I’m a vegetarian. So it may seem a bit odd for me to be eating at a steakhouse. As an aside, I will mention that I managed to find wonderful vegetable selections on the menu. The Corn off the Cob was incredible! So, too, the sautéed mushrooms and onions!

That said, I would go to Flagler’s for the carrot cake cheesecake alone.

I visited the restaurant with my mom, sisters, and three of my daughters during a girls’ trip to Palm Beach. My sister had been raving about the cake and telling us how big the slices were. So my daughter and I decided to split one. When the cake arrived, we stared at the plate and reminded the waitress we had asked to share a slice. She smiled and said, “Oh, we divided it for you already!”

Not that we minded how big it still was in its divided version. The picture here is half a regular serving. And even then, we could only eat a little more than half of it.

The cake layer reminded me of a thick oatmeal cookie and the icing could tempt you to lick your plate if you decided to forgo manners and not waste a speck.

Here are some descriptions. Not going to help your bikini status, but worth an extra workout to justify.  So memorable you’ll be thinking about it days later. Probably shouldn’t be a staple in your diet.

Check out the entire dessert menu at The Flagler Steakhouse in Palm Beach, Florida.

 

A Date With Devon

My daughter, Lola, and I made a date this afternoon with one of the dogs from the Franklin County Humane Society Adoption Center. We picked Devon for today’s date because he’s one of the rescue dogs who has been at the adoption center the longest, and we thought he would enjoy getting out and going for a car ride.

We drove to the YMCA and took him for a good long walk, parts of which he set the pace for. Once he’d settled into the idea that he could slow down and enjoy himself, he began to sniff around and take notice of the interesting stuff going on around us, cars driving by, runners running, children playing on the playground.

Devon out for a walk

From there, we drove over to the Dog Wash, a very nice setup at a local carwash, where you can drop in with your dog and have a spa-like bath. With a little cajoling, Devon climbed up in the tub where Lola joined him with the spray nozzle. Seven dollars got us a fine selection of good-smelling shampoo, conditioner, an oatmeal treatment and warm water. Devon couldn’t have been a more cooperative boy.

Devon getting his spa treatment!

After the bath, we headed for the McDonald’s drive-thru for a plain single burger for Devon. He loved the smells coming from the pick-up window, but waited patiently for me to open his snack and break it into bite-size pieces. He ate it with perfect manners.

Devon loving his car ride!

It’s hard to understand why Devon hasn’t been adopted yet. He’s as nice a boy as you could hope to meet. He’s athletic and gorgeous, polite and plain fun to be with.  I’m hoping his perfect family will find him soon. Until then, Lola and I will definitely be taking Devon on another date again soon.

Forget Regret – Jessica Kenney

Forget Regret – Jessica Kenney

If you haven’t yet heard Jessica Kenney’s beautiful voice, head over to iTunes and download her new release! I am so thrilled to have co-written with songwriter Jerry Sims one of the songs Jessica selected for her debut album – Forget Regret. It’s an amazing thing to hear the words come to life with a voice like Jessica’s. Jerry and I both loved this song when we wrote it, loved the message and what it says about not dwelling on those things we can’t change, but moving on and looking ahead. Thank you, Jessica for hearing that message in this song and for delivering it to the world so beautifully!

Download Forget Regret.

Download the Jessica Kenney’s album.

 

Dog Rescue: Nina

Nina

Dog Rescue: dog of the Day! Had so much fun taking pics of this beautiful girl yesterday! Nina is a sweetheart of a puppy who’s had more than her fair share of trauma in her young life. After being left at a regional pound as a very young puppy, she nearly died before being brought into rescue by the Franklin County Humane Society. Nina survived, and as you can see by the smile on her face, she’s holding no grudges. She loves life, loves attention, loves to play. She’s just plain adorable. She is available for adoption in Virginia. For more info on her, please email plannedpethoodrockymount@yahoo.com.

 

Friends Sustain Us

Friends Sustain Us

Some of the most special moments in my life are those I share with my dogs. Whether it’s Thomas, waiting for me at the top of the stairs when I didn’t even realize he knew I’d gone downstairs. Or Roscoe doing his blink-squint and tail wag when we meet eyes. Or Maggie doing a happy dance when I pick up her leash. They are my friends. Loving members of my family. They sustain me.

 

4th of July Memories and Reminders

Freedom

I came awake this morning to thoughts of my Grandma Holland, one of the loveliest ladies I have ever had the honor to know. We lost her just over two years ago, and hardly a day goes by that I don’t think of her.

But this morning, as I was lying in bed in that state somewhere between dreaming and consciousness, I thought about the way she got up to an alarm clock at four-thirty every day of the working week.  There were times when my sister and I would spend the night at her house, and I would hear her alarm go off at that painful hour, wait to hear the pad of her feet across the wood floor. The alarm would go silent, but the sounds of her day would follow. The whoosh of water in the bathroom sink, the percolator preparing her coffee, WNLB on the kitchen counter’s transistor radio. All of this in preparation for her job at a local manufacturing factory.

Grandma didn’t drive, so she rode to work with another lady who worked at the factory. She would hurry about, so that she was always ready on time, never wanting to hold up the friend generous enough to give her a ride.

I don’t think I ever realized as a girl just how difficult it was for my Grandma to earn her weekly paychecks. She never complained about any of it. Instead, her attitude was always one of gratitude for the job she had, the ability to earn an income. She was out the door by six so that they would be sure to arrive well before the seven o’clock whistle. She was usually home by five o’clock, depending on whether they worked overtime.

And even then, her day wasn’t over. There was supper to be fixed. Clothes to be washed. A house to keep clean.

On this morning, this fourth of July, I am thankful that I awoke to thoughts of her. I am thankful for the example she set for me, for the awareness I have of how she took nothing in her life for granted. She saw the opportunities she had as a blessing, remembered the days of the Depression when food was hard to come by. When she and her nine siblings were left without a mother when she was just thirteen.

Those experiences shaped her, made her grow up to become a woman who understood what it was to have the freedom to work and earn an income. To eat each day without worrying about where the next meal would come from. She lived her life with that awareness, that appreciation, that gratitude defining who she was.

My life is a cakewalk compared to hers. I have not had to live through the Great Depression, get up at four-thirty each day to earn a living. I know she would be happy about that, grateful for it, in fact.

But doesn’t that make my responsibility for gratitude for the freedoms I have in this life, an even greater one? I think so. And I thank you, dearest, sweetest, Grandma Holland, for reminding me of that on this 4th of July morning.

Cool Shoes and Paying It Forward

My head can be turned as easily as the next person’s by a cool new gadget or fashion that wows, a book that sounds awesome.

But what really makes any of those things stand out for me these days is when they are attached to a company, individual or writer who uses their platform not only to promote their business or product, but to give back as well.

The most recent example I’ve found of this is Jeffrey Cambpell Shoes. I came across some photos of their shoe designs on Pinterest and immediately loved what I saw. I clicked through to FreePeople.com where they were for sale and ordered a pair which I loved as much when they arrived as I did in the picture.

What sold me on this company though was what they were doing with their shoebox. On the inside of the lid, they prominently displayed photos and bios of cats available for adoption in various shelters.

Jeffrey Campbell Shoes

That made me stop and think, okay, now I really like them. Not only are they getting the word out about these kitties in need and very likely putting them in front of someone who might actually adopt them, but the action in and of itself tells me what kind of company they are and what kind of people are running it. People who care about a need and are making an effort to help meet that need in a way that is creative and compassionate.

As far as I’m concerned, discovering Jeffrey Campbell shoes is a win-win for me. I’ll be buying more because I love what they sell, but I also love what they give back.

Twitter Street

I easily qualify as late to the party where Twitter is concerned. Facebook, I pretty much got right off the bat. It was easy enough for me to understand how there was a lot to be gained from having a Facebook Page, the opportunity to interact with people who liked the same things, in my case, books and dogs. And to interact with them in a way that eventually allows you to start to know someone.

I stuck my toe in the Twitter waters a number of times before a recent flash of insight. I admit the first time I attempted to learn what it was all about, it seemed a little like trying to read a foreign language that I had never studied. Number signs, abbreviated words and shortened links, all in all, it felt like a fairly unfriendly user experience.

I didn’t go back for a while. And then I started to hear more people singing its praises, and I thought again I must have missed something the first time around. So I waded in a little farther this time, read a bunch of Tweets by other people and started to get a feel for the language. What I began to understand was just how much great material and information there is to be found in scrolling through a few hundred Tweets. While I wasn’t visiting on a daily basis and spent far more time on my Facebook Page, I began to see how people could get hooked on it.

And so, a couple of weeks ago, I made another commitment to familiarizing myself with the world of Twitter. I did a couple of days of immersion, reading and following until I began to have this new vision of what Twitter was really all about.

In my mind, I saw this really long street, the kind of street you’d like to hang out on. Maybe cobble-stoned old-European style for aesthetics sake. And on each side of the street could be seen something like a storefront. With each person I’m following having their own cool awning representing who they are, what they like and what they stand for. And behind that awning is what they do every day. Writing, reading, personal training, gourmet cooking, whatever it is that their life is about. And whenever they’re not doing that, they come out onto the street and talk to the folks who are interested in them. Sometimes, maybe they just have a minute to chat. Sometimes, longer, and they’ll throw out more than one thread of conversation. Then they duck back behind their awning and carry on with regular life. Until the next time they wander back out onto the street to hear and be heard.

When you’re new to Twitter Street, it’s nice to think about how you would address someone that you were actually meeting on a real-life street for the first time. We wouldn’t run up with a banner touting what it is we’re selling to the world, whether it’s an opinion or a book or personal training. We would introduce ourselves first, compliment the other person, notice what they do, get to know them and let them get to know us. In little bitty snippets, granted, but it’s amazing the picture you can start to develop of a person when you follow them for a bit and read the clues they share.

I’ve decided that’s what I really like about Twitter, the unique opportunity it presents to step out on to a street filled with really interesting, really cool people doing amazing things each and every day. Learning who they are. What makes them tick. How they get through the hard days. How they celebrate the good ones.

And I love, too, how people make a deliberate effort to be polite. Just as if they were walking down the street and meeting someone face to face, saying something nice in the form of a ReTweet, a Favorite and sometimes, an actual reply.

If you haven’t visited Twitter yet, go ahead and assume it’ll feel a little strange at first. You’ll have to settle in with the local color and get comfortable with the dialect. But once you do, you’ll be amazed at some of the people who step out from behind their awning to follow you down the street and are as interested in getting to know you as you are to know them.