I am Tilin, a Welsh corgi and wine country dog, aka @winecountrydog.
I started pawin the puter and dooin social media in 2008, after I had life-saving back surgery and had to sit-stay to recover. That is when I came to create wine country dog ezine™ — an independent pet-ezine.
My ancient self does have a few health pawblems, but my ortho surgeon gave me a chance to walk again. Other good vets and Mum have helped too. Myself goin wobbly but strong toward 17th BD in November 2014.
Luv to paw-write and tweet, and travel to meet new furriends and nice humans. Some of them write about wine or craft beer or food and health. Wine country has got nommy fresh whole foods and farmers markets. And wine country means most effurrywhere in world these days eh.
You find that my furbro, Jackie Nippers Corgi, does sometimes join me on adventures and on twitter. Our beloved Ani Meezer rarely does.
All three of us were rescued from diffurrent circumstances. Furbro is a "breeder rescue." We doo encourage adoption of furriends from good animal rescue charities. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Howlo. I am Jackie Nippers Corgi (aka pawlitico™).
You may find me on walkies with furbro Tilin Corgi, and out at wine tastings and regional food adventures up and down Pacific coast. Sometimes on social media with furbro. We like to paw-write tasting notes for wine and food.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Our thanks to Mum (aka winecountrydogma™) for editing, web dev, photography, pro fact-checking, and for grrreat homemade whole food meals. Mum is trained in D.A.R.T. and helps us paw out animal rescue info during disasters.
Have you ever spent time talking with a pig, or running across a farm field together on a sweet summer afternoon?
Pigs are wonderful, smart, playful, social animals. They deserve to be regarded with respect and treated humanely!
So then why does the popularity of factory-farmed bacon continue to grow?
Sadly, not often do humans stand up and say publicly "Eating bacon and other meats is one thing. But if you can't get meats from pastured farm animals who've been humanely raised, we don't want any of it!"
Maybe everybody just needs to see the truth of how pigs are confined and abused on "factory farms" -- intensive industrial facilities that are not farms at all.
Mum sez she does defy anyone to go on eating factory-farmed bacon, ham, and pork once they've seen what those pigs endure.
Howl. Let us now visit with a happy pig. Furhaps you remember Bella the Piglet, rescued from a factory farm back in 2004?
Bella became a spokespig for the Australian campaign SaveBabe.com, which works to bring an end to factory-farming practices there.
Compassion changes the world, and it all begins with taking a closer look at what's in our food bowls.
Myself and Jackie Nippers are lying at mum's feet, listening to her recite a passage from The Outermost House by naturalist writer Henry Beston.
“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by a complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge, seeing thereby a feather magnified, the whole image in distortion.
We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man.
In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.
They are not brethren. They are not underlings. They are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
Paw-notes: The Outermost House by Henry Beston is a book chronicling a season the author spent living on the dunes of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It was published in 1928 by Doubleday and Doran and is now published by Henry Holt and Company.
posted by Tilin Corgi and Ani Meezer and Jackie Nippers
"Her eyes met mine as she walked down the corridor, peering apprehensively into the kennels. I felt her need instantly and knew I had to help her. I wagged my tail, not too exuberantly, so she wouldn't be afraid.
"As she stopped at my kennel, I blocked her view from a little accident I had in the back of my cage. I didn't want her to know that I hadn't been walked today. Sometimes the shelter keepers get too busy, and I didn't want her to think poorly of them.
"As she read my kennel card, I hoped that she wouldn't feel sad about my past. I have only the future to look forward to, and want to make a difference in someone's life.
"She got down on her knees and made little kissy sounds at me. I shoved my shoulder and the side of my head up against the bars to comfort her. Gentle fingertips caressed my neck; she was desperate for companionship.
"A tear fell down her cheek, and I raised my paw to assure her that all would be well. Soon my kennel door opened. Her smile was so bright that I instantly jumped into her arms.
"I would promise to keep her safe. I would promise to always be by her side. I would promise to do everything I could to see that radiant smile and sparkle in her eyes.
"I was so fortunate that she came down my corridor. So many more are out there who haven't walked the corridors. So many more to be saved. At least I could save one.
"I rescued a human today."
~ Author unknown
--- Paw-notes: The human we rescued feels fortunate to have us, and we are so grateful for her. ... Woofin bout gratitude, this day marks the third anniversary of Tilin Corgi's "disc blowout" and successful surgery. Tilin does continue to luv walkies arfully much.
Molly's last-ever twitter bio reads: "X UK & USA Freelance journalist, author. Politics, music, animals, food, photography, history. Green. Sinfully lazy."
Aka @Amalarian, her previous twitter bio reads: "Freelance journalist, author, idler, landlady of Tuscan vacation house. Politics, books, food, animals. Not selling anything"
Aka our beloved twitter friend of three years, a grrreat friend to dogs, a superb writer, an insightful and moving photographer. Armed with great intellect and wit. Ruff on the outside when necessary. Kind beyond measure. Always helping the underdog. Radiating a mischievous energy, revealed by the twinkle in her eyes.
Molly spent a grrreat deal of time during her last year taking a photo a day and posting to her blipfoto journal. If you read through the hundreds of comments on Molly's last blip photo, a photo of Luigi dog, you know that Molly became as beloved in the blipfoto community as she was by her twitter followers.
Below is a copy of one of Molly's last dog photos, in which she does capture the sweetness and intelligence of a young Italian pupster.
Molly titled this photo simpawly "Tuscany: Puppy in profile."
Read wot a fellow tweep of Molly's has to say bout twitter friends, refurring to her friendship with Molly:
"The thing about twitter is, some people you just click with straight away ... you feel you are real friends with someone you have never met, but feel you know them. And how easy it is to talk to people you can't see."
To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence—this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden. ~ Goethe (Quote contributed by our Mum.)
The animals in the Fukushima Prefecture 20-km exclusion zone are waiting. And starving.
Thousands were left behind when their humans had to evacuate after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
None of the animals in the 20-km zone near the nuclear reactors are being fed or rescued because the Japanese government will not allow rescue groups back in.
Someone, please feed the animals! Please allow beloved pets and farm animals to be saved!
Our pawpetual question: Why do dogs and cats get canned and kibbled foodstuffs 'stead of fresh foods? If you live 'ere in wine country or other place where fresh whole foods are plentiful, why not support local markets and make your own pet foods?
