Our “little baking team that could” has been baking up a storm the last two weekends, and we have just one more week to get everything baked, packaged and organized!
We're trying to raise another $3000 for the SPCA of Texas here in Dallas. Last year's sale raised $3055 and we really hope we can do better than that for the animals this year.
It seems like an overwhelming task to prepare $3000 worth of baked goodies, and then sell them all in just one day. We all agree though that this is some of the biggest fun we have all year long!
So far, I have bunches of these things wrapped up in my freezer:
Cranberry Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts
Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts
Strawberry Bread with Pecans
Texas Pecan Pie Bars from the Pastry Queen
Texas Pecan Pie Bars with Chocolate and Bourbon from the Pastry Queen
Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies
Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies with Mint Oreos
Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies with Bittersweet Chocolate Chips and Walnuts
SisMama has made a whole slew of awesome pound cakes in lots of flavors, and K & P have made oodles of breads.
Next weekend, we'll be making all of the candies and other treats that we don't want to freeze. If you're in the Dallas area, email me or leave a comment if you'd like to come visit us at the sale and I'll send you the details. If you'd like to donate to the SPCA of Texas but you're too far away to visit us, you can use the web site that's been set up for our donations. It's http://www.spca.org/goto/bakesale.
Meanwhile, wish us well! The SPCA of Texas – like lots of animal organizations right now – is in serious need of funds in this economy, and we'd really like to help!
It's no secret that I love animals. I'm vegetarian because of my love for animals. I don't really like squirrels, but I still wouldn't hurt one OR eat one. 🙂 I live in Squirrel Heaven amidst oodles of mature trees, and have slammed on my brakes plenty of times to avoid squishing one of the little varmints.
I especially love cats of all kinds and all sizes, so it makes sense that my cats are a couple of my favorite models. It amazes me to look at a cat – or any animal – really closely, and notice how wonderfully they were made. We saw your boys yesterday, LilSis, so now here are mine…the furkids!
So, I thought our Chicken Hat Fashion Show was unique to our little family of kitty pies. Remember when we tormented featured the furkids in the cutest-ever chicken hat?
Ashy the Poo
A very disgusted TomTom in the Chicken Hat
Bruschi (K's kid)
Brady (K's other kid)
Now, I find out that the Cheezburger cats are working the chicken hat too! ^..^ I guess we started a trend! I swear we were first!
I Can Has Cheezburger, and Cute Chicken Hat?
As cute as our cats are, they don't seem to enjoy modeling as much as the Cheezburger cat does. Maybe modeling school would help?
When I saw this little witch hat at Petco, I couldn't resist buying it for TomTom. Can you tell how much he loves it? 🙂
This is actually the only photo I was able to get with his eyes open. He gets so humiliated when I put a hat on him that he won't even look at me! It's probably a combination of humiliation and anger. (He's probably sitting here secretly plotting how he's going to get back at me for making him do this.)
If you've been reading us for a little while, you know that both BigSis and I can't resist the temptation to stick little hats on our Furkids! We just have a little thing about “Cats in Hats”! 🙂
Since BigSis' furkids didn't want to cooperate this year when she brought out the pirate hat, I decided to repost their photos from last Halloween when they were both witches.
I love the witch hat with braids! It looks great on Gaby!
Gaby looking handsome in his witch hat!
And it looks cute on Ashy too!
Ashy looking not too happy about his hat!
We hope everyone has a Happy and Safe Halloween! Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour at midnight tonight!
Before I say anything else, can you even imagine in your wildest nightmares that someone could viciously stab these beautiful animals to death? That they could grab one of these babies and slit its' throat? What kind of human being can do that? What kind of human beings are we if we KNOW that's happening and we don't throw the biggest international hissy fit known to man until it freakin stops?
Back on August 14th, I talked at length about the Japanese dolphin slaughter that's been taking place every year, which was just brought out into the light in “The Cove” documentary. I've been keeping up with the developments since I saw the movie and wanted to give you an update.
The city of Broome, Australia has had a sister-city relationship with Taiji since 1981. They just severed all ties with Taiji because of the dolphin slaughter. Bravo, Broome! We already loved Australia, but now we do even more!
The dolphin drives usually start on September 1 (this Tuesday), but Rick O'Barry thinks Taiji may delay it a little because of the current publicity.
The Mayor in Taiji has said that all residents have to be tested for mercury poisoning (from hair samples). Since dolphins are 5000 times as toxic as Japanese law allows, people are being saved as well as dolphins.
If you'd like to see more detailed information, there are several videos available of live chats with the Director of “The Cove”, Louie Psihoyos.
For more information and to help end the slaughter of these dolphins, go to any of these links and join the fight:
The links are also in the right sidebar in the Animals section under BigSis' Favorite Links. Let's keep doing everything we can do…it's making a difference but there's a long way to go!
Just think with me for a second. If Taiji did NOT conduct their annual dolphin slaughter this year – from September to March – 23,000 dolphins would live instead of suffering a horrendous death. That's 23,000! Please help!
Where in the fudge have I been? I hadn't heard a peep about this award-winning documentary called “The Cove” until last week, even though it won the Sundance Film Festival and a bunch of other awards, nor did I know anything about the atrocities revealed in the movie. Since it's not my style to stick my head in the sand, I went to see the “The Cove” last night, although I knew it would be emotional.
Now I know a bunch of things that are horrifying and haunting me…things that I wish were not true. To say that I am outraged and disgusted is an understatement.
Here is what I learned:
There is a tiny fishing village in Japan called Taiji. Every year from September to March, dolphins migrate through this area, and the “fishermen” of Taiji herd them into a cove, using the dolphins' sensitivity to sound against them.
In this cove, the prime dolphins – usually young females – are selected to be sold for up to $150,000 each. Taiji is the world's largest supplier of dolphins to water parks like Sea World. A live dolphin show can bring $1 million per year to the attraction, so there is continuous demand from these parks for dolphins.
The dolphins who are not chosen for sale are slaughtered by these “fishermen” who stab at them repeatedly from boats with long harpoon-like poles, until the cove is literally filled with blood. Then the dead dolphins are fished out of the water with hooks and hauled off to be cut up.
Taiji is alone responsible for the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins.
The *meat* from these dolphins is then sold, often being passed off as whale meat. The acceptable level of mercury for human consumption is .4 ppm (parts per million), however, because dolphins are so high up the food chain, their tissues can contain 2000 ppm. The risk of mercury poisoning is therefore very high for any one who eats dolphin.
Until “The Cove” team broke this story, the dolphin meat masquerading as whale meat was being given to schools for free, so the contamination was being delivered directly to Japan's school children. It is still sold as whale meat to unsuspecting consumers.
One dead dolphin may bring $600, but the “fishermen” say they are slaughtering the dolphins for pest control, more than for the money, because dolphins eat so much fish that the supply of fish is diminishing at alarming rates. They apply this same ridiculous rationale to whales. Never mind the fact that humans deplete the seas of fish to the extent that some people think the oceans will be void of any fish within 40 years at the current fishing rate.
Half of the dolphins in captivity only live 2 years. They suffer from depression, which is understandable since in the ocean they swim 40 miles a day. They also suffer from ulcers, to the extent that the water parks stock Tagamet and Maalox to treat them.
Dolphins can commit suicide. They choose to deliberately breathe when they are out of the water, unlike humans who breathe automatically without ever giving it a thought. So they can choose NOT to breathe.
Now that I know about all this, I can't forget that I know it and I want you to know it too. Here's the trailer for “The Cove“.
What you first need to know is that Ric O'Barry trained the dolphins for “Flipper” in the 60s. He had an epiphany after one of the dolphin stars of the show – Cathy – died in his arms. He says that she was so depressed that she chose to stop breathing and die, rather than continue her so-called life in captivity.
Since then, Ric has spent 35 years trying to end dolphin abuses and captivity. In the documentary, at great risk to his personal safety, he sets out to reveal the atrocities that are being committed in Taiji. He and an incredible team plan to film what happens in the cove, since it is highly protected, for reasons you will see. They succeed, and we see the actual footage of the slaughter.
So now that we have seen this footage with our own eyes, and it has been brought out of the dark veil of secrecy into the light, what are we going to do about it? It has to stop. WE have to stop it. Here's what you can do:
Go see “The Cove” and encourage others to see it. Check thecovemovie.com for viewing locations in your area.
Stop patronizing parks that feature live dolphin shows. They aren't having fun, and they aren't smiling!
Support the filmmaker – Ocean Conservation Society – with your financial donations.
If you must eat fish, find out which fish has the safest levels of mercury.
Contact our leaders and help get the word out in Japan. This link will allow you to sign a petition letter online and share the opportunity with other people who care. It couldn't be easier.
Tell everyone you know about the cove and what happens there. There are people just like me who had no clue about this, and who need to know.
I'll leave you with one personal experience. When LilSis and her family and I went to Maui in 2000, the highlight of the trip for me was the snorkeling day trip we took to Kauai. As our boat cut through the water, we had several different varieties of dolphins swimming along the front of our boat, escorting us. We had pods of bottlenose dolphins, spotted dolphins and spinner dolphins, and maybe others. It was thrilling to watch them, and the emotion they exuded was just joy joy joy. They seemed to be having the time of their lives, swimming and spinning, swimming and spinning.
To think that anyone could slaughter these incredible creatures for any reason is incomprehensible to me. I'm not going to stop talking about it until the hell in Taji is stopped.
I just channeled Elly May Clampett for a minute there, didn't I? I can't help it; sometimes my inner hillbilly comes out! After all, I am from Texas. Hey, fellow Texans; please don't be offended. You know the rest of the world tends to view us as hicks or rednecks or bumpkins. If we can't have a sense of humor about it, we're in deep horse doodie!
Back to the critters. It's been 15 years since I had one on my plate; other than my cats trying to steal my dinner, that is. And trust me, I have not withered away since I stopped eating meat. People who know me know that I always say I don't eat anything with a face or with parents. No chicken, no fish, no flesh. But I'm strong and have good energy 15 years later. I am certainly not a pale sickly twig!
Why'd I stop eating meat? I read a book by John Robbins called Diet for a New America and decided to skip meat-eating for a week, just to see if I could do it. I never went back. Once I knew about factory-farming, I couldn't forget that I knew it. So there you have it. I won't get preachy about it. People know where I stand, and as much as I'd like for everyone to be vegetarian, it has to be your choice. You don't make a major lifestyle change like that because someone else is beating you up about it. You do it because you want to.
I'm not vegan yet, but I'm always moving closer to it, and I'm intrigued by the raw diet. I do eat an occasional egg, although if I think about it, it grosses me out to think of eating a liquid chicken. And I do eat a little cheese. Why can't someone invent a tasty, melty non-dairy cheese, for cryin out loud??
So what do I eat on a daily basis? By now, you know I eat hummus…I talk about it all the time. Green hummus. Healthy hummus. Hummus with sundried tomato pesto added. Now I'm on a mission for the perfect artichoke hummus recipe.
But I do eat other things – not just roots and leaves – and I'm going to talk more about that soon so stay tuned! Meanwhile, happy anniversary to me and to all of the critters I didn't eat! In honor of this anniversary, check out this funny little Farting Cow video from Animal Planet. Trust me, you'll laugh! Just don't laugh so hard that you…well, you know!
A few years ago, I still had 3 cats instead of my current 2, and I really was getting tired of the daily litter box scooping routine:
Find a plastic bag without holes
Scoop into the bag and tie it up
Take the filled bag to the dumpster – rain or shine, light or dark, Africa hot or Antarctica cold
If I was too lazy to make the trip to the trash, I'd occasionally leave the little bag of presents sitting on the front or back porch for later, and that's just gross. There had to be an easier way to handle this chore, which had to be done every day with 3 cats. I started thinking and wishing that someone made a contraption like the Diaper Genie, but for used cat litter instead of disposable baby diapers. I went online, and voila! Someone does make that contraption. It's called the Petmate Litter Locker ($21.87 at Amazon).
Litter Locker
This little jewel does everything I want it to do. I don't have to dig around for a plastic bag and I don't have to schlep the filled bag to the dumpster every day. You just scoop the used litter into the Litter Locker with the provided scooper, and then turn the handle. There is a long plastic bag in the Litter Locker, and when you turn the handle, you're essentially coiling the bag and it's contents around itself. When the Locker gets full, you just empty the coil into the trash.
There is no odor, and you never have to touch anything yukky. If you have several cats and like a really clean litter box, or your cats demand a really clean box, you can scoop several times a day if you want to. It's super easy! And anything that makes my life easier is a winner in my book! I've been using the Litter Locker for around 3 years now, and am on my second one. After a while, I think the plastic does absorb a bit of odor from storing all that poo, so I replaced mine when I moved a year ago.
You can buy the Litter Locker and refills at Amazon.com, PetSMart, WalMart, Petco and several online pet supply companies. I highly recommend it!
Humpback whale and baby (photo credit: Animal Planet)
I don't usually sit around on my fan-fan-fanny watching TV. But this week started crazy and ended that way, and by the time Friday rolled around, I was brain-fried. Don't ask! The details are gory. But the most strenuous thing I could manage by Friday night was to catch up on my Google Reader a little, and to press the TV remote control channel button until I landed on Animal Planet.
I happened upon the premier episode of season two of a show called “Whale Wars”. Have you heard of this show? I hadn't, but 5 minutes into one episode and I'm hooked. I found myself watching with my breath held, and my hand covering my mouth. It's emotional, dramatic, suspenseful, action-packed, and real. There is wicked weather, life-threatening storms, treacherous icebergs and ice fields, in addition to the threat against the whales. And since I've been a vegetarian for 15 years solely because of my love for animals, the fact that the show's focus is on saving whales makes it mesmerizing to me. After seeing humpback whales in Hawaii, I can't imagine that anyone could harpoon them for their “meat”. They seem to be the most joyous, innocent, peaceful animals that you could imagine.
I didn't know it, but in 1986, commercial whaling was outlawed internationally. The co-founder of Greenpeace, Paul Watson, knew it. In 1977 he founded a group called the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. In “Whale Wars”, he is the captain of an aging ship called the Steve Irwin, and Paul's passion is enforcing the whaling ban, regardless of the cost. In “Whale Wars”, he hits the international seas with 36 volunteers and a mission.
I saw 2 episodes, both featuring the Sea Shepherds' hunt in Antarctica for Japanese fishermen who were illegally killing whales. The Japanese claimed to be killing the whales legally for research. You know where I stand in that debate; on the side of the whales. Watch this show. Make up your own mind.
~BigSis
~LilSis
and decided to skip meat-eating for a week, just to see if I could do it. I never went back. Once I knew about factory-farming, I couldn't forget that I knew it. So there you have it. I won't get preachy about it. People know where I stand, and as much as I'd like for everyone to be vegetarian, it has to be your choice. You don't make a major lifestyle change like that because someone else is beating you up about it. You do it because you want to.
($21.87 at Amazon).
