I'm on vegan.com!

Erick Marcus put my photo on vegan.com today! I'm so excited! We ate at Greektown in Detroit, Michigan last May after Ryan's graduation from Wayne State University. It was a delicious meal.

More photos of our trip to Michigan are here and more photos of vegan meals are here. I love to eat.

Fridge Friday

I joined a group on flickr called "Fridge Friday." As you can deduce from the name, each Friday, members shoot their fridges and post. This is the kind of thing I love. I'm very invested in regular routines. (I've clicked on The Animal Rescue Site home page every day for five years, no joke.) Additionally, the National Blog Posting Month theme for July is FOOD. In the interest of double dipping (or the very non-vegan "killing two birds with one stone"*), I decided to post the sad shot of my fridge that I took today.

Our belongings still aren't in Ithaca, nor is my car. Before George went back to Phoenix, we went to the Salvation Army and bought two plates, a bowl, and two sets of silverware. Later, I got a baking sheet at Wegman's. This constraint meant that we avoided buying anything at the grocery store that required a pot or pan (not to mention a spatula, big spoon, or measuring cup) for preparation. That left sandwiches, cereal, and frozen dinners. Unfortunately, my bread became moldy quickly (the humidity?). Normally, I would have Silk Soy Milk, but I used the last of it in a bowl of cereal earlier in the day. In the fridge are: hamburger buns, vegan butter, leftovers (hummus, dumplings, and gluten/pepper stir fry...not all from the same meal). Most importantly, it is stocked with three cases of Diet Coke (caffeine free for evenings, full of caffeine for the a.m.). George and I went grocery shopping before he left, but without a car, I'm not keen on walking home with a load of groceries.

Tomorrow, George should be here with the moving van and my truck, so we can start eating as usual. Hmmm...I'm not sure how different the fridge will be next week.

* When I first became vegetarian in 1997, I bought every vegetarian cookbook I could find, and I am sure that one of them contained non-vegan idioms with compassionate alternatives, but I have no idea which one it was. Recently, I looked through the cookbooks I have now, and couldn't find it, but maybe I overlooked it. Anyone know?

Quote of the Day

"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man,"--Charles Darwin

More Midwest Pigs

The Farm Sanctuary has posted a set of photos of Midwest pigs arriving at the shelter. In this set, you can see the adorable piglets that were rescued.

Link

Happy Birthday to Me

Ardmoreites: Please Post Photos to Flickr Group!

I created a flickr group for pictures taken in Ardmore (Oklahoma) that highlight buildings, culture, history, etc. Alas, few Ardmorites are on flickr, so please join and post your photos!

Group Page

New Addiction

I have been incessantly playing a Boggle-like game online at Wordtwist. I am surprisingly horrible at it.

McCain Leads Pet Owner Poll (Despite Obama's Action for Animals)

In an AP-Yahoo News survey of pet owners, McCain, who has a number of animals, was preferred by 42 percent of respondents, while Obama received endorsements from only 37%. I have to admit that Obama's lack of a pet bothered me before I had decided whom to support in the primaries, but ultimately, decided that it was his position on animal issues that was more important. The Humane Society Legislative Fund regularly publishes scorecards assessing legislators' position on animal-related issues. Obama took pro-animal positions on horse slaughter, animal fighting, and funding for enforcement of a number of laws. He received a score of 75. McCain, on the other hand, received a score of 25; his only pro-animal position was on horse slaughter. Animal lovers, feel confident in supporting Obama. He may not have companion animals of his own, but he is a friend to animals.

Story on msnbc.com
HSLF Scorecard (Adobe Reader Required)

Iowa Pigs Still Need Help

From the Farm Sanctuary:

I know that we recently reached out to you for help, but we are still in urgent need of funding to continue the mission to save pigs from the Midwest flood disaster.

This emergency rescue is historic, both in its mission and scope, and is expected to be one of the most expensive rescue operations Farm Sanctuary has ever undertaken. But we couldn't turn our backs on farm animals in need; we couldn't leave any pigs behind.

Farm Sanctuary's emergency rescue team is continuing to work day and night on the ground in Iowa to save the pigs. The urgency of the situation is only growing, as we have now rescued 69 pigs, most of whom are in very poor condition and a number of whom are pregnant.

We need your help right now to provide emergency onsite care to the pigs and transport them out of the disaster zone, as we have secured all survivors on the Iowa levee. Given the condition, number and size of these animals, this endeavor is massive.

Right now, Farm Sanctuary's National Shelter Director Susie Coston is onsite in Iowa providing triage care at a temporary holding facility. Here, the pigs are receiving care for third degree burns and treatment for abscesses and wounds.

We urgently need your additional gift this week for:

• Emergency onsite care and security
• A hired veterinarian, medical supplies, electrolytes, antibiotics
• Fans, hoses, kennels, fencing, shovels, rakes
• Temporary housing fees
• A series of large animal transport trailer trips from the disaster zone to our New York Shelter

Many of the farms hit by floodwaters were factory farms where breeding sows, normally confined to gestation crates, are continually impregnated to produce piglets for the pork industry. This means that a number of female pigs we have rescued are in late-term pregnancy and will soon be giving birth to babies, adding significantly to our total number of rescued pigs and making this huge-scale rescue even more challenging.

We need your additional gift today to continue this mission and bring these pigs to sanctuary, where they will be given the vital care they need to recover. Please help the pigs now with a special gift.

Many of these pigs once faced a lifetime of confinement in a dark factory building, only to be brutally slaughtered for pork. Today, they have a chance to live.

Please, help care for and transport the pigs to safety with a donation now.

Yours for the pigs,

Gene Baur

President & Co-founder

Farm Sanctuary's 4th of July "Pignic"

The Farm Sanctuary is less than an hour's drive from Ithaca. On July 4th, we went to the annual Pignic. Of course, the best part was the tour. We were able to spend time with all the animals except the sheep and goats, though we did see the new sheep from last Fall's rescue effort as well as Zoop, the goat after which last summer's amazing Mountain Goats benefit was named. It's always so wonderful to be around the animals--the lucky ones who are saved from a trip to someone's stomach. I'm amazed that people can visit the Farm Sanctuary and still eat meat, but I guess the industry has done an incredibly effective job separating "meat" from the animals.

After the tour, we had vegan picnic food--though I had a veggie burger from the last batch. So many people attended, they ran out of food and had to make a trip into Watkins Glen to replenish supplies! While George and I were eating, Gene Bauer (co-founder) arrived, and he was swarmed by fans. We watched the spectacle, and I wanted to get my photo taken with him, but George put his foot down. I did console myself with the irrelevant coincidence that Bauer and I had the same camera case. Swoon. My "Chicks Dig Vegans" t-shirt was very popular...I even got a thumbs up from the pig mascot!

View the slideshow of photos.

Happy Ending for Some of the Iowa Pigs

LilyPig is documenting the Farm Sanctuary's rescue efforts on Flickr. See some of the rescued pigs arrive at the Farm Sanctuary here.

Remember to donate to the Farm Sanctuary!