The Cat Who Came in from the Woof

by guest author Ani Meezer

This story is set in the period of heightened pawlitico-military tensions during the Cold War era of the early 1960s, a time when effurryone fears the likelihood of a howlish war with the USSR. 

A lone Pawlish spy cat, Hans-Dieter Maow (nicknamed "Blackie"), is working under dipawlomatic cover as a dog in the Moscow countryside. Every day, Blackie barks to his furriends various plans in code. Over the winter, Blackie and his furriends risk capture daily to stockpile stolen caviar noms and hold spy meetups in a forest den.

(Here's where the story gets boring, so we'll skip the whole middle pawt.)

A bitey villain of a tom, Blackie Maow finally finds compawssion in the spring when he meets charming spy Lizzie Goldpaw. Goldpaw is an esteemed English librarian's cat who has swallowed secrets to help the West. Blackie Maow is assigned the mission of getting Lizzie Goldpaw safely back to England.

Blackie is so smitten with this kitten that he barks as he has never barked before . . . or since.

Early this spring morning, Blackie sits on his windowsill, barking coded orders to make sure Goldpaw is escorted safely out of the forest.

This is the last we see of Blackie. Does he run off and become the world's furst sustainable Pawluga caviar producer? Or does he manage to follow Goldpaw to England and write a best-selling spy novel? MOL

This little pig did not go to market

by winecountrydog Jackie Nippers

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.

Paw-notes: If you're interested in learning about sustainable humane pig operations in the U.S. (free-range animals, raised without antibiotics or hormones), have a look at Sonoma County's Black Pig and the Food Alliance certification organization.

Daydreams of The Outermost House

by winecountrydog Tilin Corgi

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.

"I rescued a human today"

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.

RIP beloved Molly Murray ~ landlady of Tuscany, lover of dogs

by winecountrydog Tilin Corgi

RIP beloved Molly Murray ... aka @Amalari.

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.)