Be A Better Writer and Feed the Hungry

May 9, 2009May 9, 2009 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Having a great vocabulary is just one of the hallmarks of a great writer. Whether you write novels or picture books, or just a letter to the editor, a broad vocabulary is a tremendous asset. Good grammatical skills are another plus. So here’s an idea – why not strengthen your vocabulary and sharpen your grammar skills and help feed hungry people around the world? You can do both at FreeRice.

When you visit the FreeRice site, you have the opportunity to play a vocabulary game. For each correct answer, FreeRice will donate 10 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end world hunger. It’s multiple choice – if you get the answer correct, you will get another word challenge which will be more difficult. If you get it wrong, you will be offered an easier word challenge. You can even hear a vocabulary word pronounced if you’re unsure about it.

The site opens on the vocabulary section, but you may also choose grammar, famous world paintings, geography, math, chemistry or foreign languages. For every correct answer, FreeRice tallies your grain donation, first by grains, then by bowls. You can indicate on another page if you would like to have your last scores and grain donations remembered for your next visit.

FreeRice has two goals: 1. Provide education to everyone for free. 2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. How can you go wrong?

So get working on your vocabulary; get feeding some people in need, and get going!

WARNING: This is very addictive!

Animal Artists and Authors Join for A Cause

November 3, 2008November 3, 2008 / still a dreamer

Do your gifts tend to have an animal theme? Then stop by and do some holiday shopping and support a great cause! Eight animal artists and authors, including myself, Jeanne Balsam, are participating in Paw Prints – an art and book sale fundraiser to help Animeals. 20% of all our sales will benefit this charity who delivers pet food, supplies, etc. to the homebound, indigent and handicapped, a kind of Meals-on-Wheels for pets.

The following artists and authors will be participating:

Doris Ettlinger, children’s book illustrator
Andrea Gianchiglia, pet portrait artist
Mark Mueller, wildlife artist
Jerilyn Weber, Equine and pet portrait artist
JoAnn Dahan, dog trainer and author, Kids Training Puppies
Loren Spiotta-DiMare. author, pet-reference books for adults and picture books for children
Diana Tuorto, Horse Columnist, Today in Hunterdon. Author, middle-grade horse books for children,
and of course, yours truly, artist, author, and illustrator.

Date: Saturday, Nov. 8th

Time: 1:30 pm – 4 pm

Location: Clinton Community Center, 63 Halstead Street, (next to the Public Library) Clinton, NJ

I will be there with animal themed Christmas cards, blank note cards, prints, etc. Check out some more artists’ and authors’ offerings on the PAW PRINTS flyer.

Hope to see you there!

Box in the Road

August 30, 2007July 11, 2012 / still a dreamer

What’s better than spending a weekend with your oldest friend in the world? Spending a weekend with your oldest friend in the world AND helping an animal survive!
The day was getting late, and our plan to head on over to the local farmstand looked like it might not happen. Then I remembered they had that wonderful little deal that you can actually still find in places like this – a secure lock box! A testimony to faith in human nature, a secured box for payment of roadside fruit and veggies so customers can come at odd hours to purchase them still amazes me. Customers are trusted to pay the right amount for the produce they choose and to not steal whatever cash is currently in the box, (or the box itself), until the farm owners come out and remove it. That’s one of the reasons why I like living in the country. But that’s not the box I’m writing about.

We left for the farm – about a 3 or 4 mile drive, and about what it takes to get to any decent thing you want to get to out here. As we drove down the two-lane blacktop, I noticed something in the opposite lane. It looked like a large rock, but not really. When animals occupy such a large portion of one’s brain, red flags go up fairly often. `Did you see that?’ I asked, already wondering at its odd shape. Kathy, on the passenger side, hadn’t gotten any better look, so we agreed to check on the way back.
After getting a small stash of seasonal goodies, we turned back to go home and whoosh! we watched the car ahead of us whiz down the lane, straddling the not-so-likely rock. Shortly after, we did the same, and I wasn’t convinced a rock had gotten in exactly that spot. So finding a safe area, I turned the car around once again.

On the return trip, I pulled alongside and rolled down my window for a better look, and my suspicions were correct – the `rock’ was a box turtle. Probably had a big idea to cross the road, and with just enough cars, became petrified to go further. Luckily, there’s not a whole lot of traffic on that road and he was smack in the middle of the lane. I pulled over.
My partner in rescue jumped out and picked up the stranded box turtle, who peeked out at her briefly before slamming his shell and plastron shut. But she’d noted which way he was headed, and walked him into the brush a good 10 feet and far enough away from danger. Hopefully, that was his direction and he continued on into the woods to his home.

One of the best feelings there is … whether the beneficiary be animal or human … is saving a life. And we both smiled a good long time after our turtle rescue. Good luck, little guy!

Need professional illustration? I can help!

The Gift

August 21, 2007January 19, 2012 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

Not long ago I received a gift. No, it wasn’t John Beresford Tipton with a check for a million dollars and my future security. It was a gift for my heart … two gifts, actually.
The first was an e-mail from someone who adopted a rescue dog from me many years ago. Larry wrote that he and his wife Jeannie had searched me out on the web to tell me that Deuce had passed away and to thank me for “the best dog they ever had”. In quiet tears, I responded … to thank them for letting me know, and indeed, what a wonderful dog Deuce had been. I was so grateful that Larry and his family had adopted him.
It wasn’t but three weeks later that the second gift arrived … another e-mail. Jon and Diane also searched me out on the web to let me know that Spike had just passed away at 13, also to thank me for “the best dog they ever had”. Again, I responded in kind.
For ten years I ran a rescue for, I believe, the most difficult dog to place – the American Pit Bull Terrier. I placed Deuce and Spike well over 12 years ago when they were just youngsters, and before e-mail. Although we kept in touch, it wasn’t easy when one’s lives were consumed with multiple jobs and, in my case, a demanding rescue on top of it. But the best thing about placing Deuce, Spike, and all the other `pits’ I placed, was I never had to look back. I knew, through my extensive screening, breed education and adoption requirements, that these pups were now set for life. (Ask any of my adopters – they were grilled!)
Rescuing `pits’ presented tremendous challenges – they are truly misunderstood dogs. Their history, their true temperament, their genuine love of people – what the public needed to know was not what they heard. Instead, they were slammed with horrific, isolated incidents where unstable and undoubtedly abused pit bull terriers attacked humans. As if there were no other news going on in the world.
Pit bull terriers were … and are … horribly abused, tortured, made insane and killed — for not being good enough fighters. Imagine the worst … they suffered much more. Some, still alive, were simply wrapped up in plastic bags and dropped in the garbage. Just not good enough.
My heart was broken more times than I can tell in saving these dogs’ lives. So many were, and are, stable, loving and kind dogs, euthanized nonetheless for simply being born the wrong breed and being bred to excess.
Yet, as a rescue, I received so many gifts. I was truly blessed with people who came forward to help me save this wonderful dog no one wanted. Vets, trainers, foster homes, experienced rescue people to guide me in effectively screening … all appeared. The pit bull terriers I had the fortune to know and help were themselves gifts I will never forget. But perhaps the greatest gifts, for both the dogs and me, were the truly caring and devoted people who took them in.
These rescue dogs lived long, healthy lives, and then I received one more gift.
An e-mail to let me know.

Note: This article was published in the July 2007 issue of The Animal Companion. Although I have not actively operated my APBT rescue for over 7 years, these wonderful people contacting me inspired me to write about one of my many experiences in rescue and with the breed.

Does A Cricket Matter?

August 11, 2007March 14, 2009 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

On a recent Wednesday night I came home rather late, but being as I wasn’t tired yet, decided to watch a Will and Grace rerun. Settled in to the TV room, I was aware of the usual summer evening sounds – tree frogs, katydids, crickets. One cricket in particular seemed quite loud, possibly on the porch roof right outside one of the windows. I went over to listen; it really was quite loud. Then I realized the sound was, in fact, coming from inside the room. The cricket had somehow managed to get up to the second floor and in the corner behind the kitty litter box. It was too dark for me to see him, so on and on he sang, while I wondered how I was going to get him back outside.
Trapping and releasing insects is not new for me, but I do like to have the advantage of seeing them first and ideally, not having them jump or crawl on me. Daylight would work better and I figured tomorrow would be soon enough to figure this out. I went to bed, listening to the cricket in the next room singing … singing for a mate despite the odds of finding her in the room of a house, singing for help, singing his last song … I couldn’t tell.
In the morning I moved things around and got a quick view of him – a good-sized black field cricket. But he jumped further back and was lost to me again. I didn’t want him to be mangled by the cats, nor to die without even some grass beneath him, but there didn’t seem any easy way to get him.
That evening, back in the room, it was totally quiet … had he died? Then I heard a quiet little chirp. I did whatever a human can do in reaching out to an insect … just opening myself to let him know I’d get him back to his home if he’d let me help him. Amazingly, not too much later, he appeared on the carpet in front of the TV … no big jumps, probably tired and dehydrated. Or maybe he knew his window of opportunity to get home had opened. I checked the cats and they weren’t noticing, so got a box lid and quickly covered him. Slid the piece of cardboard under him and ran downstairs – front porch lights on, and laid the makeshift rescue trap on the walk’s edge next to the grass.
I lifted the lid, but there he sat. I tapped the cardboard and yet he sat.
`C’mon, little guy – it’s your grass … go!’ and I tapped the cardboard again. This time he did a cricket sized leap into the dark, wet lawn. He made it.
Does a cricket’s life matter? It did to that one. And I’d say, by the quiet little grin that stuck itself on my face for the rest of the night, that little life mattered to me, too.

Please visit my website for this and additional writing samples and animal art.