Friday, December 28, 2007

A New Year Beckons


Here I sit, on my favorite spot in the whole world, on top of the couch's arm, contemplating life and the year that has passed.

I had a jolly good year! I went to the ocean on holiday in Cape May, NJ; I visited Gracie in Maine. I spent an interesting 2.5 weeks with the Daschund/Beagle brood while Mom and Dad went to Africa. I made many friends in the dog park and ran and ran. I enjoyed the daily services of my dogwalker. I spent many afternoons at Daycare which I love. I went on many many walks with Mom and Dad. I destroyed many toys and removed many squeakers. I partook of many treats and chews. I swam in many fountains all through Summer despite being warned that I was not allowed to. I connected with many amazing dog bloggers and cyber dog friends. I launched a heartfelt campaign to stop Marc Andre Laporte from abusing any more of my Canadian brothers and sisters...

BOY, 2007 WAS A GOOD YEAR! (Well, except for the itchies over summer)

Here's to another happy, healthy year in 2008!
Happy New Year Everyone!! (Hope there won't be any fireworks!)

AGC

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas to my Non-Jewish Friends


Enjoy your holiday, hope you find yummy treats in your stocking and many gaily wrapped gifts under the tree. Hopefully your parents won't follow's Doug's lead and hide your gifts IN the tree:



Special holiday cheer to our wiry friends in Montreal. The signatures continue to rise on our petition...don't forget to sign!! We're at 8,374!

Cheers!
AGC

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Laporte Crusade Hits YouTube

Thanks to our friend Nancy for creating this moving YouTube show to highlight our all important campaign against Mr. Laporte:



Please spread it around, everyone should see it!

I end with this petition entry which made Mom laugh out loud...

# 7792: Dec 18, 2007, Claire leone Domney, United Kingdom
Lock him up i his own filth with a dead convict for dinner the ba**ard

We are 3 entries away from 7,800 signatures!!

AGC

Thursday, December 13, 2007

A Message from Bingo
Laporte Survivor

Who would believe by looking at that beautiful photo at right of smiling, happy Bingo and his Mom Helene, that Bingo survived the Laporte House of Horror? In two years, they have travelled a very hard road together, Helene helping Bingo overcome his traumatic past. When Mom and I look at Bingo and his Mom, we can't help smiling and feeling warm all over. To think of what Bingo survived shows just how resilient and special our breed is!

Bingo was very happy to see himself on my blog with his pal Honeybee that he wrote me an email:
I diid see mee an honeebee!!!. Wee wur so happi to bee onyur paige dat we juzt leeped inde aire wit joy! Wood uue tell awl de peepol onyur blog how happi wee R?
Woof …oops I forgawt…I don’t bark anymor.


Well Bingo, you just told everyone yourself. Well done buddy!
Bingo sent other wonderful photos of himself which I'd like to share with you here at left. Mom says he reminds her of me!

By the way, unbelievably, the petition has now accumulated 6,548 signatures! Even the Russians have found us and the Christmas Island people - what do you think they call themselves? Christians? LOL!
I liked the post today from Mary "Mare" Moore #6,539 from Canada - she wrote:

"I am simply appalled at what this man (and others like him) has done to those poor dogs. I'm even MORE appalled at the thought that the judge just might allow him to get some of his dogs back!!!! Only a LIFE-TIME BAN on owning ANY animal is what this guy needs! He doesn't deserve to own a lowly slug let alone anything higher up on the food chain!!!! There is absolutely NO excuse in the world to justify either what he did, nor being allowed to ever own another animal for eternity! "

We couldn't have said it any better Mare. We just hope Judge Sirois feels the same way.

I wonder if the good judge would appreciate an artistic interpretation of the Laporte legacy? Bingo's Mom Helene goes to Honeybee's Mom for art lessons and painted "a series of little dogs coming out of the darkness" to represent Bingo's journey. We think that the painting speaks volumes! I am sure Asta's Mommy who is a great artist, will agree that this is a pawsome picture!

Keep up the good fight! Tell your friends to sign the petition!
Oooh, and before I forget - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAR CANADIAN PAL DEAN-O! WHO IS 7 TODAY! He and his fabulous Mommy Christine have been working flat out at promoting our petition! Wishing you many more happy and healthy years pal!

AGC

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Happy News on the 8th Night of Hanukkah


Mom has gotten me hooked on refreshing the No Dogs for Laporte petition website every 5 minutes! We have been doing jigs around the room all day because the numbers keep jumping upwards! First we aimed for 1,000, then 2,000 and then so many came in today, that Mom kept yelling, "Ax - we need to up the goal dude!! What do you think?" I give a wag for every 1,000, so to date, I told Mom to go with 4,000, but I might have to wake her in the middle of the night with 5 wags if the petition continues to rise. I will be on refresh duty tonight!

Boy the jigs and refreshing is getting tiring, I haven't even had time to eat my Dingo which you can see I left on my keyboard...helping other wires is more fun and gratifying than eating a million Dingoes. That much I can tell you!

So in between the refreshing and the jigging - we did still make time tonight to light our menorah. Tonight alas, is the last night of Hanukkah, so as you can see, we lit 8 candles and the chief candle in the middle known as the shamash. We didn't get to play dreidel again - but when we were doing our petition jigs, we made sure to jig in many circles so we became canine/human dreidels instead!

We also found time to snack as we need our sustenance to keep on fighting for the Blainville wires! Dad worked late tonight and came home with some KFC chicken - I LOVE chicken - eventhough Mom had coincidently barbequed chicken for his dinner already (and I got half of that too!). I won't tell you which chicken I prefer - the Colonel's or Mom's 'cos, I live with Mom!

I'm sad to see the end of Hanukkah - but who can be sad when one only has to run upstairs and hit refresh on the computer. In the time it's taken me to write this blog post - the number has jumped from 3,782 to 3,865 (and I'm a fast blogger!!). Pawsome! And also, I still have one more Hanukkah gift - the postman left a slip in our mailbox to pick up a parcel - I suspect it is the package from Ricky Pepper and his family that "got lost" for a while! Woohoo!

AGC

Monday, December 10, 2007

Meet Laporte Survivors: Bingo and Honeybee


I'd like to introduce you to two very special friends, Bingo and Honeybee (that's Honeybee snuggling on top of Bingo in the photos, they love eachother very much). What makes them extra special is that they are survivors of Marc Andre Laporte's puppymill in Blainville. Forty other foxies who they lived with were not so lucky and did not survive the horror and neglect.

Yesterday these brave pups, met with a journalist from "Journal de Montreal" to tell their story in the hope that it will stop any of the ridiculous talk of Laporte getting his wires back! "Bing and Bee" as they are known, meet every week for "coffee" with their Moms Helene and Elizabeth G. It's a kind of therapy session for everyone. When the wires think of what they have suffered, they get very very sad. In fact they cannot bear to even think about going back to that life again. They are very grateful to all the humans campaigning against such a notion and appear on the blog today to beg you to sign the petition and write letters to Elizabeth Pierce on their behalf (119 16th Street, Roxboro, Québec Canada H8Y 1P1). And speaking of their friend and protector Elizabeth Pierce, here is a photo of her with Honeybee.


All the foster moms explained to the journalist how excruciatingly difficult it was caring for Bingo and Honeybee after they were rescued - they had so many scars from their life with Laporte, it took so much love, patience, medicine, training and effort to nurse them to health. One thing they pointed out to the journalist was that most of the rescued wires have/had conjunctivitis and some are blind because they had lived their little lives in the dark at Laporte's puppy mill.
Can you imagine? I, Axel G, am afraid of the dark, I do not like to go for walks when its dark out, so I shudder to think of what those wires endured living 24/7 in the darkness.

Bingo's Mom told me that when she first acquired Bingo (after one foster family gave up on him), he could not be taken outside! He yelped non stop and at first she had to carry him and put a blindfold on him. One day she lost patience and yelled at him to be quiet, and believe it or not, he responded. After that breakthrough, he made giant leaps of socialization.
"He is so happy now!" she tells me, "He likes old people and children the best. He has other dog friends. He still doesn’t understand toys and if a job is too difficult he easily gives up (eg. a Kong with a cookie that doesn’t come out, gets left there). "

Sometimes she says, he stresses and starts to “make circles”. And not surprisingly, he has nightmares! He sleeps in his Mom's room, in her bed, and when he starts crying and yelping she tells him it’s ok and he calms down.

"I think I have a harder time with his beginnings that Bingo does. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about the hell he lived in. "

Well, friends, there is no doubt about it, Bingo is one lucky chap to have found such a great home and Mom. Can you just imagine Bingo having to leave this loving home and return to Laporte?! No we can't either and we won't allow it to happen!

Our story has now hit South Florida thanks to the valiant efforts of my Florida pals Jake and Just Harry. Ellie Brecher, general assignment reporter, best known as the Pet Lady for The Miami Herald, blogged about our Laporte campaign after being notified by the Barkalot Boyz and their Mum J1. You can see it here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/crazy_for_critters/
Well done chums - hopefully all the Montrealers vacationing in Miami will see it!


AGC

Sunday, December 09, 2007

"FERMEZ LAPORTE" Update and Don't I look dashing?

Mom and her friends continue the crusade against Marc-Andre Laporte - the convicted wire fox terrier abuser in Montreal, Canada who has the gaul to ask the court to return the very dogs he abused back to him on February 22, 2008. To all sane humans and dogs, this is clearly an INSANE proposal, so the petition, aptly called "No Dogs for Laporte" or "Fermez Laporte" continues. Signatures now stand at close to 1500! If you haven't signed yet or told all your friends to sign, please do now at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/no-dogs-for-laporte

We also ask you to write a letter of protest and mail it to:
Elizabeth Pierce
119 16th Street
Roxboro, Québec
Canada
H8Y 1P1

We are hoping that both the petition and the letters will be presented to the Judge Sirois, and that as a result, Sirois will say, "No dogs for you Laporte, get your pathetic ass to jail!"

And now in other, more cheery news - I got a haircut Friday just in time for the holiday bash at Asta's place in NYC. As you recall, I had a horrible haircut courtesy of Pet Stupid a few months ago - they destroyed my coat by shaving it. Color and texture went out the window. But thanks to new groomers, Pooches Choice, I have been restored in two sessions over 3 months, to my former glory. This is what I looked like before my session on Friday:

I do look cute as can be in my scruffy mode and you can see that the colors were starting to return on my shoulders and back. But look how dashing I looked after my appointment:

Mom and Dad did a jig when they saw me, they keep oohing and ahing about how handsome I am, and who am I to protest their praises?

Hanukkah continues, sans latkes - my mother is very lazy indeed. Today is the family party at our cousins and I am NOT invited because they have a new Yorkie pup and I guess they're nervous I might mistake it for a hairy, yappy latke? Harumpf! So I get to stay home - at least Mom gave me a juicy marrow bone to enjoy to assuage her guilt.

Thank you to Bigfoot Fletch and Maxie for the cute Hanukkah gift that arrived on Thursday. It's a blue Hippo with his name "Zaftig" embroidered down the side. Mom explained that "zaftig" means "FAT" in Yiddish. Amazing that they're making Yiddish/Jewish Hanukkah gifts in China! Mom went holiday shopping yesterday for today's party and was dismayed to see that practically everything she picked up to buy is made in China! We are trying to boycott due to their terrible record in animal rights and environmental issues - but holy cow, it's difficult!

Now, don't forget to sign our petition!

AGC

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

On the First Night of Hanukkah...

Tonite is the magical 8-day festival of lights: Hanukkah! It celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple at the time of the Maccabee rebellion. The festival is observed by the kindling of lights on each night of the holiday: one on the first night, two on the second, and so on. Here in the USA it is also celebrated by the buying of copious amounts of gifts. But as Mom is not American and never experienced this as a child in South Africa - she doesn't "buy into that shit" to quote her direct. Sure, Dad got a gift (he basically pleaded with Mom to buy him a watch with a built in compass - Mom gave in thinking it would help Dad not get lost so much). So far, I have had one gift - a big furry rat toy from Dad (So far it is still in tact. I am giving myself 8 days to get the squeaker) and of course, the lovely gifts from Miss Amelia.

Hanukkah is Mom's favorite Jewish holiday and I like it too. I especially like latkes. So before we go on, I am going to don my apron and teach you all how to make latkes - pieces of potato fried in oil and topped with either sugar/cinnamon (South Africa) or sour cream and apple sauce (USA). FYI - in Israel, where Mom spent 6.5 years of her life before meeting Dad and Me, they also eat lots and lots of donuts, known as sufganiyot during the holiday.

So with apologies to Rachel Ray...

Step 1: Peel the potatoes


Step 2: Grate the potatoes - you can use a food processor but doing it on a tiny grater has better effect says Mom...watch those fingers/paws everyone..



Step 3: Grate onion (try do it with your eyes closed as Mom started to weep half way through...)



Step 4: Beat 2 eggs and mix with some flour and baking powder



Step 5: In true Chanukah spirit, drench a pan in oil and add latke mixture.



Step 6: When browned, remove latkes and place on paper towel to absorb all the oil.



Step 7: Transfer latkes to a pretty plate and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar - that's how Mom likes it. Dad prefers the sour cream/apple sauce but Mom forgot to buy any!



Here is a picture of me from 2005 enjoying my very first latke. Boy I was thin in those heedy days:

I am really looking forward to going to Asta's holiday party on Dec. 6. Me and the Barkalot Boys Jake and Harry, being of the Jewish persuasion, will be bringing our latkes, donuts, dreidls (spinning tops) and Hanukkah music along to share our holiday spirit!

Dreidls (pictured right) are a big part of Hanukkah, and playing the Dreidl game is so much fun, it's even better than poker. Dreidl is a spinning top in Yiddish. They are known as a sivivon in Hebrew. Players use pennies, nuts, raisins, or chocolate coins (gelt) as tokens or chips. When us canines play, we will use pennies, Pupperoni, Milkbones, Wellness Wellbars, Natural Balance mini-logs and other delectable treats. Here is how it works:

Every dreidl has 4 symbols on it as it's a 4-sided top. These are letters of the Hebrew alphabet:

These letters mean "A Great Miracle Happened There". In Israel the dreidel is a bit different in that their letters mean " A Miracle Happened HERE!" The player spins the dreidel. When the dreidel stops, the letter that is facing up decides the fate.
NUN - nothing happens - next player spins the dreidel
GIMEL - player takes all tokens in the pot
HEY - player takes half of the pot
SHIN - player must put one token into the pot

See, its very easy. The challenge dear friends will be spinning the damn thing using our paws! Maybe we can just toss it in the air instead?
Or, we can do what George the Boxer does:




There are many wonderful songs associated with Hanukkah - I have two favorites, "Oh Hanukkah!" and "The Dreidl Song". The words of the first song capture the spirit of the holiday:

Chanuka, oh Chanuka

Chanuka, Oh Chanuka, come light the Menorah
Let's have a party, we'll all dance the hora
Gather round the table, we'll all have a treat
Sivivon to play with, and latkes to eat.
And while we are playing
The candles are burning bright
One for each night, they shed a sweet light
To remind us of days long ago.
One for each night, they shed a sweet light
To remind us of days long ago.

To hear the tune, you can watch this movie I found on Youtube of little kids giving it a go - sing along, it's good practice for our party on Friday.


And while we play the Dreidl game we will sing The Dreidl Song:

I Have a Little Dreidel
I have a little dreidel
I made it out of clay
And when it's dry and ready
Then dreidel I shall play!

(Chorus)Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel
I made it out of clay
And when it's dry and ready
Then dreidel I shall play!

It has a lovely body
With legs so short and thin
And when my dreidel's tired
It drops and then I win!

(Chorus)

My dreidel's always playful
It loves to dance and spin
A happy game of dreidel
Come play now, let's begin!
(Chorus)

Here you can see some cute kindergarten kids at their holiday concert singing the song. Sing along everyone!



HAPPY HANUKKAH EVERYONE!!!

AGC

Monday, December 03, 2007

500 Signatures and still counting

Thanks to everyone who has responded so enthusiastically to our "No Dogs for Laporte" campaign. We are thrilled to see over 500 signatures to our petition and many promises of letters being mailed to Canada. Please be sure to include the zip code on those letters (H8Y 1P1) - if you already sent one without it, don't fret, it will get there, it will just be delayed.

Every minute Mom hits the refresh button on the petition page, she whoops in delight and we do jigs around the living room. We are amazed at the countries represented - from Australia to Greece, Costa Rica to Poland, Malaysia to Italy, South Africa to Sweden and on it goes. It is good to see such evidence of love and concern the world over.

My astute Canadian Buddy Dean-O has been helping me a lot - today he sent me some links to videos of the coverage of the case in Montreal TV.
Click here to see a report in English:
http://montreal.ctv.ca/cfcf/video_popup?news_id=17190
Click here and here to see reports in French.
We understand some French but those folks in Montreal have funny accents. But you don't need words to explain horror at Laporte's house and you sure as heck don't need words to see what constitutes a happy wire in a safe home on her Mommy's lap!

Please continue to tell all your friends about our campaign - to sign the petition and write lots of letters.

With all this activity going on, we've scarcely prepared for Hanukkah. We promise to do a special Hanukkah installment tomorrow, as the holiday begins at sunset tomorrow.

AGC