Oasis Animal Sanctuary in the Philadephia Inquirer!

My animal shelter made the Philly newspaper!
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Kevin Riordan: South Jersey's Oasis center provides homes for 'throwaway animals'

By Kevin Riordan

Inquirer Columnist

Ginger likes me.
"She wants to be your friend," Denise Lanzetta says.
I'm not so sure; Ginger weighs half a ton and stands 16 hands high. Besides, she's the only quarter horse I've ever met.
But this 17-year-old chestnut mare, convalescing at Lanzetta's place in the Atlantic County Pinelands, quickly wins me over with her gentle charms.
Which makes it even tougher to believe that not long ago, Ginger was so starved you could count the vertebrae in her noble neck.
"Horses become throwaway animals, just like dogs or cats," says Pam Brighton, president of the Oasis Animal Sanctuary, an organization in Monroe Township. "We take in as many animals as we can. But we don't have a . . . facility of our own, and we are limited."

Lanzetta, an Oasis volunteer for three years, rescued Ginger this summer. (It's a complicated story involving a change in caretakers and inappropriate feed, but the horse was willingly surrendered.)
Ginger now enjoys the good life on Lanzetta's 19-acre farm, also home to nine other rescued horses, a bunch of cats and dogs, and a potbellied pig.
"There are horses here that have been abandoned or chained in their barns," Brighton says. "They're left to die."
I don't get it.
"We don't, either," she says.
Founded in 2000, Oasis rescues as many as 70 animals - mostly dogs and cats, as well as a couple of horses - annually. A network of adoptive and foster families and volunteers supports the work.

See the rest of the article and the photos!

 

Losing friends...

I lost two recently.  Actually, this has been going on for a couple of years, but I'm finally facing the fact that these good friendships are gone.

I still will hear from them.  My one friend will contact me when she needs something.  But if I need her... well, you can guess.  She has a lot on her plate, I know that.  And every one of us wishes we could stay in better touch with our friends.  We make the effort, and when they are hurting, we are there.  Erma Bombeck, the humor author, once said that the best friends are the ones who can be apart for a month and still be enormously close when they're back together.  And if a crisis comes up, they drop everything to be there.

My friend Suzanne and I are like that.  Busy lives means we don't always have the time, but we make time and when we can talk -- by getting together, on the phone, or email -- it's always great.

That's why I didn't face the fact about how far gone these relationships were; I kept thinking they just needed time to take care of things.  But after years... time to wake up and see it for what it is.

My other friend...  I really can't believe it and the real thing is: I have no idea why this is happening.  Everything was great and then, all of a sudden....  she still contacts me every once in a while with a polite note of about 4 words or so.  Maybe a little paragraph.  This is someone who'd spend hours talking with me or doing things together.  I could tell her anything.  And practically did.  We've shared so much and been through a lot. Another friend recently pointed out that she was my muse; I never realized it until then.

It hurts.

And yes, I know: the sun will come out tomorrow.  I'm only sad if I let myself be that way.  The glass is half full, not half empty.  A door closed, a window opened....    blah, blah, blah.  There, I made the Mike Brady speech for you.

Following up at last

I'm doing okay.  I went back to work on Monday which ended up being a mistake: I got so dizzy, I couldn't get up from my chair. And most nights I'm wiped by the time I get home.

My doctor shook his head when he found out about going back to work before he told me to: he asked, "How did that go?" and when I mentioned the dizziness, he said "I bet".  Ah, live and learn.

The dizziness is gone now, but for some reason, my nose is really sore.  Like something hit it.  Still, it's small potatoes compared to what some people go through.

On Friday, I rolled over and felt a sore spot on my left hip.  When I asked John if I had gotten a shot, it started a stream of things-I-didn't-remember-coming-out-of-anasthesia.  I could not wake up!  It was such a sweet sleepy feeling, I couldn't fight it.  They'd tell me to open my eyes, I would, and I'd be asleep immediately again. 

Apparently I kept saying I wanted to see the dogs.  John would tell me to get up so I could go home and see them.  Once I sleepily reasoned: bring 'em here.  He laughed and told me that was impossible.

Because I couldn't stay awake, I thought the nurses were mad.  I told John "No one here likes me" 3 different times!  "But I love you" I'd crooned as I fell asleep again.

I did get a shot, for nausea.  Apparently, I got up too fast from the post-op for recovery.  I don't remember at all, although I do kind of remember thinking how good that chair felt in recovery.  The nurses talked to John and I'd suddenly chime in with one word and be out again.  And I asked John not to go to work -- like he was going to.  I finally did get to the car, of course, slept all the way home, got up, and dropped into bed where I went out for HOURS.  Oh, after the dogs realized I was "hurt" and lay close around me.  Then we all slept.  One of the best naps ever!  Shame you can't get that sleepy time drug for home use!

The dogs never left me; John had to feed them in the bedroom and drag them outside.  Protective, fuzzy little nursemaids. :-)

So, the doctor said the procedure went great and will really work for me.  It'll be another 3 weeks before I start to feel that.  Oh, and I have "spacers" in my sinuses so the scar tissue grows only where it should.  Spacers!  I asked John if he thought they looked like those plastic, white things they put on the top  of pizza so it doesn't stick to the box.  Or like the plastic air bubbles used in packing.  He said he knew he should have paid the doctor to go a little further and tweak my brain.

He had to work at a campground show all weekend, but he did come home at night instead of staying there.

Anyway, I'm doing fine.  I don't like my nose hurting like it's been punched, but again, I'm okay.  And I know too many people who have been through worse.

Sinus surgery tomorrow!

It's an outpatient procedure; I go in at 8:30 in the morning.  John's going with me; I know it's something simple, but I'm glad he'll be with me.

I did tease people at work about all the things that could go wrong, such as blindness, spinal fluid leaking into the brain, heart attack, stroke, death... and they should be nice for me just in case.  Although, imagine if I came in on Monday with Elphie or Rico as my seeing eye dog!  I started teasing John, .but he confessed it is hard to think about me having even something like this.So instead, we spent the last few hours just cuddled together watching TV.

I'm all set for recuperating:  I have plenty to read from the greats like Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut to light, fun reading of Calvin & Hobbes, Dilbert, Peanuts, and Foxtrot.  I have my favorite DVDs that I haven't watched in a while to a couple new ones from Netflix.  And I have my comfy bed with my fuzzy nursemaids and the hubby.

And drugs. Good drugs.

Would you trust your spouse to jab you?

I have to have sinus surgery next week, plus they did some testing. I got a couple allergies (2 types of grass and dust mites), including some kind of condition where my sinus cells are super sensitive to smells.

The medicine hasn't worked well yet, so they added a spray today. Of course, they have to see how I'll be after the surgery (to remove scar tissue from the first surgery that's making my sinuses constantly circulate instead of draining like normal).

Anyway!

The allergist warned me that the medicine may not work and I may have to do shots. To save money and trouble, she said she'd teach someone to give them to me instead of going to the doctor's each week. IF someone would be willing to do it...

I don't know if I could, at first thought. Jab someone I love knowing it'd hurt?

So I asked John with the understanding that he'd balk...

... or so I thought. He's actually more .

It might be because he realized what I did on second thought: if this is what someone I love needed me to do, I'd do it.

Or it might be because I got all snippy on the phone the other day and then hung up on him.

Karma's a bit--

Go, Spain!!

I finally have World Cup fever.  I was talking to my friend Maria in Spain when they won against Germany; this is stupid, but I never considered how exciting this is for her.  But I caught her excitement and I'm routing for her team to win it all!

Buena suerte, España!

Awkward Family Pet Photos.com

Because awkward families have to drag their pets into the torture!

Pity these pets:

 Pity them.

This picture below... what the--!

And frankly, this next one terrifies me:

Happy Independence Day, USA!

All the brutality of war, all the horrors and struggles, that those men and women endured, for the freedom of having a say in government: a vote.  That plus so much more.  What better way to celebrate that than sharing people expressing their freedom to be themselves:

Happy 4th of July from The PeopleofWalmart.com!

Oh wow that’s neat, JanSport came out with a new flesh colored fanny-pack….wait…wait a minute…hold on…that can’t be…is it really?…..OH MY DEAR GOD! Someone come and stab me in the neck so I’m distracted from this pain!

North Carolina

How the hell did the White Witch of Narnia come through the wardrobe?

Wisconsin

Oh damn, Santa is workin’ it!

Florida

Enjoy more at PeopleofWalmart.com.

Speak out against "crush" videos!

I don't ask this a lot, but when something so -- disgusting, horrific... as this happens, please take the couple minutes it'll take to help.

Last week, a bipartisan bill advanced in the U.S. House to ban the sale of animal "crush" videos catering to viewers who find it sexually stimulating to watch such extreme cruelty. Will you urge your two U.S. senators to sign on as co-sponsors of this legislation?

Please make brief, polite calls to your senators. You can say: "As a constituent, I'm appalled by horrific animal "crush" videos and want Congress to ban their sales. Please join as an original co-sponsor of the Senate version of H.R. 5566 that Senators Kyl, Merkley, and Burr plan to introduce soon. Thank you."

Do you understand the - vile sickness  -- we're talking about here?  Little innocents like kittens, pups... are tortured and murdered for someone to find sexual pleasure.  And we have done NOTHING about it until now!

Believe me, I beg just as much to end the twisted horror done to humans.

This link will show your Senators and their office numbers. This link does the same, but also has an email form. Call, email, or do both.  I just did.  It took me exactly 2 minutes and 23 seconds.

Oh, please... please call, email...  Please help.