Dogs and Cats celebrate Pink Saturday, too!

Being someone who cannot, and I mean cannot, live without pink, I decided to include a couple of my fuzzy babies this week in celebration of Beverly's PINK SATURDAY over at How Sweet the Sound. After all, you don't have to be a human being in order to be partial to the color pink. All you need to do is have good taste!

Freyja, my gentle and kind German Shepherd Dog, has taken to cuddling up in my favorite reading chair in the dining room. The chair is white with pink roses (another pink Saturday) which really isn't all that great to use as a large-size dog bed, but, not being one who would dare to damage the self-esteem of any of my fuzzy kids, I grabbed a pink bedspread to cover the upholstery so Miss Doggy could lounge and nap just like the kitties in the house...that is, when I'm not sitting in the chair reading a good book. As you can easily see, Freyja still thinks that she isn't supposed to be in the chair if you are a student of doggy body language. Life is hard when you are a big dog because all of the cute stuff is made for little dogs, so being able to give Freyja a place she could call her very own is special to me.


What can anyone say about Camille Suzanne other than the fact that she is absolutely gorgeous? The bed she is cuddling into rests on a radiator in my dining room (gee, I should change the dining room to the pet room!) I have kitty baskets tied to the tops of all the radiators in my Edwardian home. I have hot water heat and when the boiler bubbles up, those kitties sure love to snuggle into a basket to cook and percolate!

Camille is a rescue kitty from my local animal shelter. I spotted her 7 years ago, curled up into a tiny ball of white fluff trying to take a nap and to stay warm. When she heard me walk into the room she raised her head and tried, I mean tried, to open her beautiful eyes but they were held shut with oozing infection. The decision was made for me. I opened the cage, cupped the tiny, white body in my hands and walked into the shelter office. I told Holly that I was adopting the kitten I had cuddled in my arms. That was that and that was the last time Camille had to feel hungry, cold, sick or unwanted. In fact, I hate to admit this but she really does run this place. Do you think the fact that I keep telling her how much I love her and how pretty she is has given her the idea that she is special? BTW, another "pink alert"...check out Camille's sweet pink nose and ears! Her paw pads are pink, too, how cute!


Last, this PINK SATURDAY is Scout, my Golden Retriever. Rescued from the shelter at the age of 3, he has lived with me for the past 5 years. Kind, sweet, gentle, loving and precious, he told me that he wouldn't feel ashamed if the world knew that a boy dog "had a thing" for a stuffed pink pig! Scout is very confident in his doggy-ness! Scout is the pooch who loves to lay on the bed next to me with his head on a pillow next to mine. He loves to do that and I love him to do it, too. We have a mutual admiration society going on 24/7!


So, you see, pink is not just my favorite color, it just happens to attract the canines and felines that share my home with me. Besides, don't they just look so cute in pink? I sure think so!

If you love pink, or just like to look at pink things, be sure to stroll over to Beverly's blog. She's got oodles of blogs listed that are celebrating PINK SATURDAY!

Jumping to the wrong conclusion in the land of Blog

It always amazes me how folks jump to wrong conclusions or don't have the ability to understand the written word or hit the send key before they really, really think. I just got an anonymous email (how brave) calling me a racist for the post I made to my blog yesterday. They said I was a racist because I voted for Barack Obama based on the color of his skin. Um, I don't think that's what I said/wrote/implied. I believe the whole jest of my post was that it was so thrilling that race or skin color had nothing to do with the past election and that it was wonderful that people didn't see color, they saw the content of Barack Obama's character as the basis/foundation for how they cast their vote.

Well, I can't reply to the person who contacted me because they took the high road and contacted me as "anonymous", but I sure hope they come back to see this entry and realize that their take on things was in fine form this morning. I suggest they clean their glasses when they read from now on or finish that first cup of morning coffee to fully wake up before they take to reading blog entries.

It's people who draw a conclusion without taking into consideration the facts or what is written before them or don't ask questions who have made our world the war-like place it has become over the years. Words, once they are shot out and have hit their intended mark, can't be retrieved. What those words accomplished could leave damage long after the shooter has moved on to another target.

I forgive the person who attacked me. Why? Because today is a day of celebration for me. A day of brotherhood and a new dawn for America and because that is what is asked of me by God.

You don't have to agree with me but you should be nice to me and tolerant of my views because that is the same respect you would receive from me if you were sitting in my chair. And, if you really have something to say to me about something I write, let me at least be able to respond to you personally and privately. Maybe you read something into what I wrote that wasn't intended that requires clarification or maybe you didn't, but at least let me face my accuser in all fairness.


Now, let's all go arm-in-arm into Blog-land and sing Kumbaya.

The election of our 44th president ~ WE ARE THE WORLD

Today I sit at the laptop in my sweet, pink kitchen listening to the little, pink TV sitting on the counter (is there any other color than pink?). It's tuned to CNN, and, of course, they are talking non-stop about the significance of the election and the swearing in of our first black president, Barack Obama.

There haven't been many times this past year, and especially now, that I haven't totally crumbled with emotion when I hear him speak. I'm not black. I'm a white, Polish-Catholic gal from Michigan, but the events of last year and now the beginning of this...take my breath away, literally. No matter where I am in my home if the radio brings Obama's voice into a room, I stop to listen, even if I've heard the speech a million times before. If I can, I stop to look and to take in the remarkable significance of his election and the fact that I was alive to be able to cast my vote in his direction and to become a part of history...something that not many of us can claim as an inheritance to leave for future generations of Americans, and, the world.

I remember when Kennedy was shot. I was in my biology class. Over the speaker system an announcement was made that our president had been injured. Then our principal told us John Kennedy had been shot. A few minutes later the voice told us that our youngest, Irish Catholic president was dead. We were let out of class and told to go home. The school would be closing for the day. Afterward, things seemed to spiral out of control. We lost Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X and a host of others that either weren't important enough to be remembered and eulogized by the print media (their opinion) or they were not as well known, so my mind just doesn't recall their loss to humanity.

I've been wondering these past months why I am so, so emotional about the recent election. If I was interviewed, I would have to say my profound reaction comes from my feeling an ownership of sorts to Obama's win. It's as though I was witness to the most miserable conduct of humanity and now feel as though, in some small way, we are turning around...seeing things differently. African Americans are all over the media talking about what this election means to them and how it has changed their view of the future.

What it means to me is that Barack Obama would not be taking the oath of office tomorrow if millions of people that are not of African American heritage had not seen the content of his character and realized that now is the time to slam, and I mean slam, the door on hatred for one another because of the color of skin. There is no color to hunger or happiness or sadness or despair. When we live, if you cut open a chest, all of our hearts are the same color and when we die, our spirit is transparent, any indication of color is washed away.

So, whether you voted in favor of this historical day or not, I hope you take the time to feel immense pride in the fact that our country has finally had an election that HAD NO COLOR at all and if it was seen, it just didn't matter. "We are the world...", at one time an anthem to bring people together, again, rings so, so true. If you don't believe me, take a ride around the web and look at the headlines in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America. Right now, my American pride is bursting from my soul.

The two digital photos you see in this entry were taken this morning. I was listening to MLK's "I have a dream" speech on CNN at the time. I looked down and felt that the two items I was getting ready to set out for Valentine's Day represented the emotion that washes over me concerning our past and present, and the promises we need to keep in order to honor the memories of all the people, living or dead, who brought us to this point in time.

(The photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. was taken from: www.thekingcenter.org)