sillylilly_bird

Originally posted by kylecassidy at post

In 2009 I got an email about a kid who'd saved up his allowance for a year and donated all of it, every penny, to City Kittes, our local stray-cat rescue. I did a blog post about it and a few months later, another blog post, this time about how my own post had circled back to me. Well, that story circled around the internet and every year Evan kept donating all of his money to City Kitties and it spiraled, larger, and larger. I got to meet Evan one year at one of the City Kitties art auctions, he was shy and quiet and I didn't want to overwhelm him, but I felt I'd met a real hero -- someone who was completely selfless -- the exact opposite of people who move out and leave their pets on the back porch to fend for themselves.




One of Evan's letters to City Kitties


In any event, the story swirled around to the top of Reddit and then the Huffington Post and really exploded. And yesterday, Evan was on the Ellen Degeneres show and Ellen had a suprise up her sleeve.

I won't blow the surprise, but I'll link to this page at City Kitties.

When I got to the surprise my jaw dropped.

And then I set up a monthly donation to them because if a ten year old kid can think selflessly, I can at least try.

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[Roller Derby Portraits]

This is from a friends only post I made a couple of days ago:
Lloyd is good people. I knew that. But yet another example: I went down to his house tonight to thank him for mowing my field (it's not done, but it's mostly done, and anything helps). Anyway, on his porch were Hershey and Duke, and a new pup, little thing, docked tail, cute as a button, cheerful as all get out, and spinning around on her butt because she was so excited that I was there. Her back legs don't work right. And the reason they don't work right, and the reason that her tail is docked, is because Lloyd hit her with a car down by the lake, nearly amputating her tail and damaging her hind legs. Most folks around here, if they bothered to do anything at all beyond driving away, might kill the pup. He took her to the vet. Tail had to come off, and legs are gimpy but kind of work (they're weak, and she can walk on them, just not for long and not really well). But she's chipper as hell, and the damage isn't stopping her from being a happy puppy who is playing with Duke, greeting me on the porch, and following Lloyd around like he's her personal God.

Good people.

These are some photos of Josie this afternoon. She's a wiggly little thing, and she likes people, so getting her to hold still isn't easy. But you can see the lost tail, and that her hind legs don't work the way they're supposed to, especially the right rear. She can walk, but she loses control of the right rear leg, and after a very short while she just drags it. Lloyd doesn't know I'm doing this. But if you can see your way clear to help out a little, it would be greatly appreciated. I know he spent $100 on the tail amputation. He's retired military, mows lawns and cleans up his son's bar to help pay the bills (Ruth, his wife, has ongoing major medical expenses, so money never goes very far). And even so, he comes up here and helps me around my place, took in Alan and Jeff and let them live in his camper until they could get a place, and of course, took in an abandoned pup that he'd hit with his car and got her medical care and gave her a home. When I asked her what kind of dog he thought she is, he responded "Hunting dog. She's got some Blue Tick in her. When she's well, she'll be a good hunting dog." He's an optimist, that man. Anyway, here are some photos of Josie (and one with Duke), and a pic of Lloyd helping me build my chicken coop.









If you can see your way clear to send a couple of bucks his way, I'll see to it that he gets it all to cover the vet bills. Thanks.

Happy Memorial Day. My book, War Paint: Tattoo Culture and the Armed Forces is out today. You can buy it from Amazon (pay no mind to that "4 to 6 weeks" - it's shipping now) or look for it in your local bookstore (special prize to the first person to send me a photo of it "in the wild").

A few years back I found myself looking at one of those ribbons on the back of a car that said "support our troops" and wondered what I could do to actually "support our troops" rather than just putting a magnet on my car. Soon after I met a WWII veteran with a tattoo of a paratrooper on his arm and I asked him about it. For the next two hours he told me about parachuting into France on D-Day, being wounded at the Battle of the Bulge, getting tattooed in Scotland while drunk -- I realized that nobody had asked him about it before and that we were losing these stories, so many of which had a significance so personal you may not be able to tell just looking at them, you had to ask.

War Paint is a collection of portraits and stories, there are also closeups of tattoos if you're interested in closeups of tattoos.




Click to read Nick's story

Thanks to everybody in uniform and especially the people overseas away from their families, in harms way, whether in uniform or not. Come home safe. And thanks to my publisher, Schiffer Books who saw something here. Happy Memorial Day.


And, in case you missed it, here's the talk I did at Franklin & Marshall college on War Paint. There's a long wonderfully flattering introduction, student Ann Leffel talks briefly about her tattoo photography project and I start about 12 minutes in. And I do answer the question "why should you thank a soldier if you're against the war?" which is something someone brought up here a few weeks ago.

Stories in Ink: Capturing the Art of Tattoos from Franklin & Marshall College on Vimeo.

I'd love it if you'd share with your friends.

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Here's your chance to have some of Roswell's DNA in your house (without me mailing you a hairball).

Meet Cat Murdock, the kitten without fear, who was rescued by yagathai during a terrible thunderstorm.

Cat Murdock comes from the same feral cat colony as Roswell and although Roswell's been spayed, her sires were ... prolific ... which is bad for the mouse population of West Philadelphia but good for you if you're looking for a well dressed companion who will wake you up nearly every morning for the next decade. She's spayed, FIV/FLV negative & gets along well with other cats.




Clickenzee to Embiggen!!!

Cat Murdoch is friendly & fearless and currently in Philadelphia. She'll love you and climb everything in your house. We'll probably do the adoption through City Kitties though they don't know it yet, so people who are interested can email or post in the comments.

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[Roller Derby Portraits]

Originally posted by cantarina1 at post

Clark can stand up today and is feeling much better.. Also the Humane Society is investigating pressing charges against the people who did this to him. I didn't realize this but the animal cruelty cops aren't funded by the state, but by donations. You can help stick it to Clarks former "owners" by going to PSPCA.ORG and donating for "humane law enforcement".

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Via Citykitties (emphasis mine):

A good samaritan found this cat today in a gutter by Clark Park, half dead. He is now at the Cat Doctor with a body temperature of 90 (normal is 102) and blood PCV of 8. The Cat Doctor housecat, Diamond, is currently donating blood to save his life. During the exam, the vet found that this cat has a microchip. When called, his "owners" reported that he was acting sick, so they put him outside. If this makes you as angry as it makes us, please channel your anger in one of two ways: visit our website at www.citykitties.org and make a donation to help us pay for his care, or share this post and encourage others to do so.




Click to donate.

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From the flist: 



Spread the word, even you're not a US citizen, it is important for everyone!! It easy to do and it can change everything. More info by clicking on the banner.
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Read this analysis from boing-boing.net

Get on the phone and call your representative. Express your disapproval. Tell him or her exactly how you feel, and that you don't support this. Tell your friends to call their representatives, their Congressperson, and complain. Mention that you are a registered voter that takes your civic responsibility seriously and that you will use that vote to express your feelings about this.

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_60/Internet-Companies-Boost-Hill-Lobbying-210345-1.html?pos=olobh

“We support the bill’s stated goals — providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign ‘rogue’ websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting,” the Internet companies wrote in Tuesday’s letter. “Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action and technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites.”  The chamber-led coalition in support of the bill includes Walmart, Eli Lilly & Co. and Netflix.

Google and other opponents of the legislation argue that restricting the Internet in the U.S. sets a bad international precedent and that the language defines infringing too broadly.