My Amur Leopard / / ...
My Amur Leopard / / / Most of you know that I spend a lot of time at the Philadelphia Zoo, in PA. I do have to say, I wish I lived next door instead of an hour away, but as I make the busy drive into Pennsylvania (from NJ) and have to wait in traffic as I try to make my way to the other side of Philadelphia, my thoughts are always, always with one animal that I just can’t wait to see. Yes, the baby Amur Tigers were stunning, when they were babies, but I always ended up at MY AMUR LEOPARD. The two photos above, the first one is the Male and the second is the Female The Amur Leopard is the rarest and critically endangered cat in the world. It is said that there is fewer that 40 of these majestic cats left in the wild, due to habitat loss and natural disasters such as fires, not to mention poaching. It is hard to believe when I see these stunning cats that they are becoming to be extinct in the wild To learn more please visit Amur Leopard
Mattie’s Story My 12 year old puppy Mattie has been recently diagnosed with liver cancer. When she had an ultrasound done, the docto…
Mattie’s Story My 12 year old puppy Mattie has been recently diagnosed with liver cancer. When she had an ultrasound done, the doctor said she needed surgery to remove the tumor and the spleen (the tumor was wrapped completely around it), but it was only a 5-10% chance she would make it through. Well, she did and with flying colors. She was out chasing ducks 2 days later. Unfortunately, I found out the tumor has mastisized before they were able to remove it and cancer spread to her liver. They gave her less than 2 months to live. But, it’s been over 2 months and she’s still going strong. She’s already gone through 2 sessions of chemotherapy without getting sick, but the specialist told me last week not to expect too much. He also let me know approx. how expensive this was going to be. Her treatment includes 5 drugs: Denamarin, Doxorubicin, Cychophosphamide, Piroxicam, and Tramadol. Along with these drugs, she has to go in once a week to check blood and have x-rays/ultrasounds to determine the location and or spread of her cancer.So far, with the tests, surgery, x-rays, etc. the bill is up to $5000. The specialist told me to expect at least $8000 more. I just can’t give up fighting for her though. Whatever I have to do to save her I will do. She’s my kid. I’ve never been able to have children so my pets (Mattie and Checkers, her 16 year old brother) have become my children. Who knew you could ever love something so much. About my kids I adopted Checkers 15 years ago from a local shelter. On the day I met him, he was to be put down since he had been there over 7 months, so I asked if I could adopt him instead and he’s never left my side since. He has been so great taking care of Mattie. Any time he can sense that she’s hurting, he walks up and starts licking her ears and nudges under her chin to curl up & fall asleep. He never leaves Mattie for too long. I met Mattie when she was 6 weeks old. Her mother and 5 brothers and sisters were found starving in an alley Austin Texas until a local took them in and fed them until they were old enough to be adopted out. Most of her sibblings were adopted by the time I got there. Everyone wanted the ones that looked like black labs, which were all of them except Mattie. I stood outside the yard and watched for 10 minutes or so, watching her try everything she could to get any attention at all with no luck. All of a sudden this runt of the litter with her bloated belly and ears and feet that were waaay to big for her little body made a b-line through the yard straight for me. She was the most precious thing that I had ever seen in my entire life. Since then she’s gone everywhere with me, even tubing down the Guadalupe River in her own tube… my puppy freakin’ rocks! The 3 of us have been through everything you can imagine, including almost being homeless. I remember a time when I couldn’t even afford to buy groceries, it was either food for them or for me, so I was able to go for about 5 days without food so my kids could eat. Mattie has even saved me twice, once from a bad boyfriend and once from myself. She has never once given up on me, so there’s no way I’m giving up on her. Our Goal So far, We’ve tried to get grants from non-profit organizations but have been turned down by all of them, reasons being: she’s too old, we live in the wrong state, or they don’t pay for longterm medical assistance like chemo. Now, to try to raise money for Mattie’s bills, I’ve set up The Mattie Cancer Fund on my website. Here you can check out Mattie’s Photo Journal to see her daily progress and make donations. I’ve also designed a cute sticker with Mattie’s photo on it saying “I helped save a life today”. Anyone who donates $20 or more will recieve a sticker in the mail, so make sure to enter your name & address when making your donations. The donations have been set up through paypal for safe and secured transactions. Also, I’ve put several photos of Mattie and Checkers on tees and artwork on redbubble.com, cafepress.com, and my website. So the more pieces I sell, the closer I can get to giving her the help she needs. If anyone knows of any other ways to raise/receive money, I can use ANY and ALL the help I can get. If you know other animal lovers that may want to help Mattie, please pass this site along to them. Mattie’s webpage: / http://samitha.org/mattiecancerfund.htm I f you have any questions or suggestions, email me: samithahess@yahoo.com
Last week, Mattie was given the worst news a cancer patient can get. They found many more tumors on her liver which means the chemo was n…
Last week, Mattie was given the worst news a cancer patient can get. They found many more tumors on her liver which means the chemo was not at all helping. She and I decided to get a second opinion and start her on some holistic remedies. She was doing great, still chasing ducks & playing outside with grandpa. But yesterday she started bleeding from her mouth and had to rush her to the emergency clinic. There was so much blood and by the time we reached the clinic, she couldn’t walk. One or more of the tumors has mastisized and blood began to build up in her abdomen. A horrible vet walked in and unemotionally told me to murder my child because I was cruelly causing her extreme pain, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t murder my own child. I yelled at her to leave me with my child and give me another vet. My dad took off work and rushed to the clinic to help us, but when he saw her face, her perfect sweet kind face, he couldn’t do it either. She was still lifting her head and barking at the puppies in the other room, and wagging her tail, and man did her ears perk up when her grandpa came in. Her ears perked up and she quickly sat up for grandpa to pet her head. After that, a wonderful vet, Dr, Boon,came in & sat on the floor by Mattie and assured me that the other vet was wrong and would be reported to the owners. She said Mattie was not in any pain, just discomfort and pressure. So, she gave Mattie a pain patch and some meds to help with the bleeding and we took her home. I stayed with her all night. She tried to get up a few times but she just couldn’t go far without toppling over. So I just made a pallet beside her bed and held her hand all night and prayed for God to do whatever it took to make her comfortable and happy again. When we woke up this morning, she wasn’t looking well at all and I could feel it was almost time. I was going to go get some sub-q fluids to help her with dehydration but just after I got off the phone with the vet, she looked up at me, took her last 3 breaths and became still in my arms. It took less than a minute, but I was holding her head and telling her how perfect and brave she is and grandma was on the other telling her that it’s all ok. I held her for a long time in my arms and she looked just as beautiful and perfect as she’s always been. I’m so happy that she’s at peace now but I don’t know how I’m going to be able to live without her. I miss her so much.
Seth Godin is a fantastic blogger, and here is an article he wrote on the subject of Protecting your ideas in a digital world...
Seth Godin is a fantastic blogger, and here is an article he wrote on the subject of Protecting your ideas in a digital world This is an excerpt from that blog post: / Build a reputation as someone who creates great ideas, sometimes on demand. Or as someone who can manipulate or build on your ideas better than a copycat can. Or use your ideas to earn a permission asset so you can build a relationship with people who are interested. Focus on being the best tailor with the sharpest scissors, not the litigant who sues any tailor who deigns to use a pair of scissors.
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