It seems to me (and my unscientific observation) that many of the guys responding are all for it but many of the women are not. My little cousin is all for it, as is my former boss. Both love dogs. But they also love football.

Should Michael Vick, after having served his time, be forgiven? My gut reaction is no.

Yes, he served his time but he showed an complete and utter lack of respect for the law and for the basic suffering of life in his actions. I’m not sure two years in jail has ‘fixed’ his views. Has he truly shown remorse? What is he doing to become a better citizen and show others the error of his ways?

“As you can imagine, the last two years have given me time to re-evaluate my life, mature as an individual and fully understand the terrible mistakes I have made in the past and what type of life I must lead moving forward…”

Has he spoken out against dog fighting? Has he started any sort of organization to rehabilitate or rescue dogs? Kids look up to football players and sports people. I would never want my son to wear a Vick jersey…ever.

…Vick finally pleaded guilty after his three co-defendants had already done so. They told of how Vick participated in the killing of dogs that didn’t perform well in test fights by shooting, hanging, drowning or slamming them to the ground….He plans to work with HSUS in a program designed to steer inner city youth away from dogfighting.

Well, until he takes some drastic steps - speaking out STRONGLY against dog fighting and the brutality he put upon those poor dogs I can’t stomach his return to the NFL. I’m not opposed to forgiveness. And I do think people can change. But I’m really unsure in this situation. Is he really such a great football player that his past should be completely overlooked and forgotten (or forgiven)? Apparently some fans think so.

Seriously though…is he the ONLY player who is good enough to save the Seahawks? I kind of doubt it. The PR issues alone seem to trump his skills on the field.

What do you think? Would you support a football team that signed Vick? (Not that I watch a lot of football…it’s not exactly my favorite sport.)

Without a thought for his own safety, Grounds ran through the brush to the water’s edge, where the gator had what it thought was breakfast clamped between its crushing jaws. “I just grabbed the lower jaw with this hand and the upper jaw with this hand,” he said, indicating his bandaged right hand and his left.

That is just so scary. I can’t imagine seeing one of my babies snatched by a predator. It wouldn’t be a gator in our area…but if we move to a more isolated area I can definitely see me worrying about bears, cougars, and coyotes. I think Trooper and Timber could handle a coyote but you never know.

Keep your babies safe!

I’ve been sick and came home from work early yesterday. I let the doggies out and thought they’d all come back inside so I shut the door. I laid down on the couch and took a brief nap for less than an hour when hubby got home. I looked out the back door and Quinn was outside!

It’s not exactly cool in our part of the world right now. I felt so bad - she was very thirsty. Of course, she loves the heat but an hour for a girl her age in 80+ temps isn’t the healthiest.

Today I take a break from work and let the doggies outside and I would have sworn on a bible that she’d come back inside. About 30 minutes later I’m at the computer and look outside and there she is! What the heck is wrong with me!?!?

She’s inside now, in the bedroom with the air conditioner on. My poor little girl. Mommy is losing her mind.

It’s supposed to get up to over 100 degrees this weekend…Even her heat loving self shouldn’t be out too long in that weather.

I’m not sure what we’re going to do on Sunday because hubby and I have a ‘baby’ class at the hospital that lasts all day. Even though their kennel is in the shade, it will still be too hot to leave them outside from 9 to 5. That’s just cruel. But leaving them inside the house alone, all four of them, for that long. *gulp* Makes me VERY nervous. I’m going to see if my sister in law can come by and give them a break for an hour or so.

We are not a heat friendly family. We prefer snow!

Good times.

So I had to head to the big docs in Seattle and we got good news. And not great news … the baby is too big - most likely due to the diabetes - so I’ll probably have to go on insulin.

All this stress has had a negative effect on hubby and I…as well as the doggies.

While all this was going on Hubby went back to work and this last weekend was hardly home at all. When he was home he was sleeping. So Timber was a wreck. It was almost cute…whenever papa was home Timber was glued to his side. The minute papa started getting ready for work Timber would slink to the front door and mope. I felt so bad for him…he so missed his papa.

I tried to take him on a walk, but the pain in my back and abdomen makes it very difficult for me to control him. It still takes some strength to correct him when he tries to pull too hard. He was okay until the neighbor dogs started barking at him and then he started hopping and pulling. We made it for about 20 minutes but that’s all I could handle.

Thankfully Trooper is a bit easier for me, though I still get pain even just walking with no dog.

Timber gets to go to daycare this Friday and I know it will be super good for him. I’m going to continue to try to walk Trooper twice a week if I can. I’m also going to talk to the daycare staff to see if any of them would be willing to stop by our house three times a week to walk at least Timber while I’m huge.

Sorry for not updating more often. I keep thinking of great things to write about but just haven’t been able to log in and update as much as I want. It’ll probably continue that way for a bit longer. I’m swamped at work and have four days of jewelry classes coming up starting Thursday.

Darn life…It certainly likes to throw kinks into my plans.

This wasn’t an ordinary attack or mugging. This attack involved children ages 11, 12, 13, and 15. And a pit bull.

No, the kids weren’t attacked. The children DID the attacking. Calling them children is misleading I think…they should be called monsters.

This story makes me so angry I can’t even describe it. These monsters should be in juvie. The dog is obviously going to be put down and I think the kids and the parents should be charged with animal cruelty. THEY allowed this dog to get a taste for violence. They ABUSED this dog.

The King County sheriff’s office said four kids used a pit bull to attack two women in SeaTac.

Deputies arrested the 15-year-old girl and three boys — 11, 12 and 13 years old.

The first woman saw the kids kicking the dog, Snaps, Sunday evening and stopped her car because she thought they needed help. The sheriff’s office said the 15-year-old girl punched the woman with her fists while a boy brought the dog.

So first, the kids were kicking and abusing the dog. THEN they decided to use the dog as a weapon against two women.

“One of the boys brought the pit bull over on a leash and the dog was encouraged to join in the fight, which the dog did, and bit this 63-year-old woman on the hand and on the thigh,” said Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Of course the dog joined in … pit bulls want to please their masters and will do as they’re told with gusto. If they are trained in violence they will do so without abandon. The dog wasn’t “defending” the girl as the owner claims (the owner is the 15 year old’s brother)…he was ENCOURAGED to attack.

SICK! Just sick and completely twisted. Where were their parents? Who taught them it was okay to disrespect human, and animal, life in this way.

People like this are the problem. Pit bulls are NOT the problem.

I’m sickened. I hope that all four kids are put in some sort of detention, but I am guessing the dog is the one who will pay the ultimate price.

God bless the woman who stopped because the little monsters were kicking their dog. And pray that both women heal quickly.

Their latest gag involves a fly and the President. Of course, you probably know he’s not my favorite person, but for pity’s sake it takes skill to swat and kill a fly with just your hand so I give him props. But of course, PETA has to throw a fit and make a stink about killing a FLY.

He didn’t shoot a dog or run over a kitten. He didn’t even eat frog legs. He killed a FLY. I’m sure that they would grumble if he swatted and killed a mosquito too.

Their priorities are sorely misplaced and their goals seem more oriented around controversy and raising money for themselves than actual protection of animals.

Did you know that PETA run shelters have an astronomical kill rate? Only 0.32% adoption rate in 2008!

PETA rakes in nearly $30 million each year in income, much of it raised from pet owners who think their donations actually help animals.

Imagine how much good that money could actually do for animals in need? Say, working to show the horrors of puppy mills. Imagine how much in the way of advertising and marketing that money could buy.

(Not that I love the sad commercials put on by the Humane Society…they make me cry!)

PETA equates the eating of cows to the Holocaust and thinks that humans owning animals as pets is cruel. Yet killing adoptable animals is just fine. They are nuts and it’s horrifying to me that they are able to raise so much money…money that could go to actual animal causes.

Hubby has taken some time off and so the dogs haven’t had to be in the kennel nearly as much as in the previous few weeks. I even managed to take Trooper on a walk the other day. Hubby walked Timber and we managed to all stay together (a lot of times I end up going one way and hubby the other because both dogs want to be leader). And it didn’t kill my back.

I started taking Aqua Arobics and am hoping it gives me more stamina and more energy to walk the pups. I had my second class this morning and I was wiped out. Amazingly, from the first class on Tuesday to today’s class I think I felt a difference in my flexibility. I couldn’t touch my heels in one of the exercises on Tuesday but could today. So here’s to more flexibility!

So life goes on despite the myriad of difficulties and obstacles. We’re hoping my MIL pulls through … her kitties need her. And so does her unborn grandchild.

I’m making some special jewelry to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and I’ll be posting it here as well as my other blogs. I hope no one will take offense, since this is not my jewelry blog. It’s all I know to do at the moment.

It’s a new blog but so far she’s doing great. I was very interested in the first few entries that I read…they caught my attention and were well written. Her goal is to raise funds to help her take care of animals. Which sounds like something I will do when I get older too. I’ve always told hubby that I want to have a barn renovated for rescuing dogs.

So head on over and take a look when you have a moment. I love her BB story.

We’ve been having some major challenges to getting the dogs walked and exercised. The first is that it’s been super hot (okay, my definition of super hot is mid 70s… but I’m pregnant and our dogs have long hair) and the dogs pant inside with the air conditioner on.

And second, my body is rebelling. I did the dishes today and my back was killing me. I go get groceries and my back kills me. We had a garage sale the other weekend and I was in pain for several days afterward. Pregnancy is not so much fun.

So my poor babies are suffering because of the heat and from lack of exercise.

Then on Tuesday there was a major bad accident on the freeway and it took me over two hours to get home (normally takes 40 minutes). On top of that hubby had a DUI rollover accident near the end of his shift and he was an hour late getting home. Poor babies were stuck in their kennel for 11 hours!!! Talk about hyper. They were nuts that night.

Last night hubby and I dragged our butts outside with Timber and Trooper and forced ourselves to go for a walk. It was quite a challenge. I think they both have forgotten all their training for walking on the leash. Trooper was a maniac. He was worse than Timber! But by the end of the walk they’d both settled down.

Exercise is SO important and I feel so absolutely horrible about not being able to provide it. But last night I could hardly move after the walk.

I’m not sure what the answer is. If I had someone near us who I trusted I’d pay them to walk the dogs. But I don’t know or trust anyone locally. My Sister in law lives too far away … I trust her.

Hubby keeps saying that he’ll walk the boys, but he always ends up saying how tired he is. Which is true. He works 10 hour shifts, but does get three days off a week (although last week he also had an overtime shift last week). It’s when he’s working days during the week that the dogs have the hardest time. Right now his schedule is Tuesday through Friday, at the same time I’m at work during the day. So it’s the kennel for them.

If we weren’t having a baby I’d be taking (at least) Timber to daycare more often. As it is, he gets to go once or twice a month. He LOVES it. Maybe if I get a few more jewelry sales I’ll use the money to buy a few more days for him.

I know Quinn and Kodiak are fine. Quinn can barely make it around the block even one time. And Kodiak starts limping if we go around twice. So it’s really just Timber and Trooper that make me feel horrible.

If I feel this guilty about neglecting my K-9 babies, imagine how horrible I’m going to feel when I have to go back to work after maternity leave!

After great debate, hubby and I took Timber and Kodiak with us down to my grandfather’s house. We left Quinn and Trooper home, which made me sad but realistically I can’t handle four dogs right now. It would have been an utter zoo. Quinn doesn’t really enjoying being out, except for small walks around the neighborhood. Trooper would have loved it, but it really was achingly hot out and he would not have been comfortable.

So off we went, Kodiak and Timber in the truck cab with us. Timber continues to amaze and entertain me. None of the other dogs like to have their head out the window when we’re on the freeway - it’s just too much for them. So typically once we get on the freeway on ramp the windows go up. But Timber kept poking the window with his nose (which cracks me up to no end) like he wanted them open. So daddy obliged.

And talk about a cutie. He was just in such heaven, and our day had only begun.

When we arrived down at the farm, Timber was a tornado of energy. My grandpa hates misbehaving dogs. Seriously. Hates them. So I told him he was free to discipline Timber if he tried to jump up. His discipline is really just a knee up, but that’s kind of hard for an 82 year old to do so I told him he was free to use his foot. I’d rather he kick our dog than fall down and break sometime.

But hubby managed to keep hold of Timber, for the most part…my uncle did have to lift his knee to keep Timber off him. He was just SO excited.

Before getting ready for the rest of the visit we decided to go for a quick walk to get some of his energy out. It didn’t really help a ton, but as the day went on he got more and more calm. By the time we were ready to leave grandpa was telling him what a good boy he was. =)

And Timber got to SWIM, really swim, for the first time EVER! He’s a natural!!! I was so excited to see him frolicking and playing in the river. It was wonderful!!! Daddy threw sticks in and Timber would dive in and chase them as they floated down.

Of course, he was on leash the whole time. I don’t trust him further than I could throw him. But it was a nice long leash that allowed him to go all the way in the river to where his feet no longer touched. At one point he got stuck on a big rock out in the center of the river. It was so cute.

Kodiak on the other hand got to go off leash for the very first time ever. Being a husky he doesn’t always have the best hearing or sense of direction but he did really great. A couple of times I had to walk after him and call him back rather sternly…but even reluctantly he came back every time. And we put him back on leash when we walked past the horses…we didn’t trust him *that* much. But he went in the water higher than he’s ever done before.

Of course, he didn’t ever swim … he never has. I think it’s a Husky thing. Quinn has never swam with us either. And Trooper hates getting too high in the water. Timber is our swimmer.

So it was a wonderful day. Except for my sunburn.