With Love, Mother Earth

Danzo and I were out in the backyard as Cam was on a serious fence fix kick. He was using the back of the hatchet for a hammer and I tried my best to not imagine the blade cracking into his skull, Homer Simpson-style. In an attempt to distract myself, I started thinking about the weather. The past couple weeks have been comprised of a few days of intense rain storm, then a couple days of glorious sunshine.

Walking about in the yard with my son in my arms and my lover pounding on the fence, I became part of a particular rhythm that caused me to look around. I began to notice that many amazing things happen right under my feet... including (and this is the highlight) millions of tiny HEART-shaped sprouts emerging from every millimeter of desert earth as far as I could see!!!

Digging up the Past - Part 2: October 17, 2002

On the night of October 16, a group of activist friends and I were hanging out at my apartment after a work party. It was getting late, but we were all feeling a little frisky. Maybe it was a full moon? I don't know. I do know that we were all tired of working inside and wanted to get out into the world and still "do something for the animals."

Looking back on it, I realize now that these elements were a recipe for disaster from the beginning. Why couldn't we just relax and appreciate all the work we had already accomplished for the day? Or go out and do something fun together? I don't think we really even knew how to have fun. We were too busy being concerned about saving all the animals in the world. There was no time for fun and games.

We started talking about the different campaigns and how we could do something at night with them and one came to our minds almost simultaneously. The SHAC campaign stands for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (http://www.shac.net/) and they're a group of people who shed light on an animal testing company called Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).

HLS tests on and kills many different animals. Bunnies, guinea pigs, primates, puppies. If it is cute and cuddly, they are destroying it. Specifically, it is common knowledge, even to this day, that they take 500 puppies EVERY DAY and do things like drop chemicals into their eyes and slice their skin open then rub chemicals in the wounds to see how this affects their biological systems. Then after the results are recorded, the puppies are all killed! Its not like they could retire or live a normal life after being subjected to such torture.


This of course infuriated us and the more we talked about it, the more we wanted to stop it. But HOW? Well, SHAC was a group known for getting results with finding ways to attack not just the company itself, but also its investors. Since HLS was based in the UK, we wouldn't be able to go there ourselves, but we knew of a company in Seattle who had a prominent HLS investor on its board of directors. PERFECT!

Next, we decided that we would send a bunch of black faxes to the company in Seattle to send our message. A black fax is a black sheet of paper that is intended to create an annoyance. If plenty of pages are sent, the toner on the recipient's fax machine will run out. We wanted to let them know that it was for the animals and not some random person, so right in the middle of the black page, we would type a message in small white font that would say something like, "Stop supporting puppy killers," or something like that. You get the idea.

"Wait, I don't want to send them from my apartment," I said. "We should go somewhere else so they can't trace the line to me."

I'm not a technology expert myself, but I guess since it was going to a physical fax/phone line, we couldn't just use Wi-Fi. We had to create a black fax on a lap top and find a physical line on our end to hook the laptop up to in order to send our faxes. Of course, its probably different by now. After all, that was 2002. Ages ago technologically speaking.

It was getting so late that some people went home. The three of us that were left got in the car and were off to find a random phone line. We drove around for awhile until we ended up in Tukwila. At this point it was probably 1 or 2 am, October 17. We saw a quaint little business with a phone line easily accessible from the ground. The plan was for one of us to hook the laptop up to the phone line and start sending as the other two would watch for anyone coming. I grabbed a walkie-talkie and went around the corner while my boyfriend at the time hooked the laptop up to the phone line. The other guy took off in another direction with his radio.

I hadn't been standing there for more than a minute or so when my damn radio went DEAD! I hurried back to the car that was pulled up alongside my boyfriend who was dressed in all black, hunched over the laptop in his own world. Who knows where the other guy went and if his radio was still working or not. All I knew was that our operation was quickly unraveling and we were sitting ducks without working radios.

I told him my status and I got in the car to put my radio on the charger and find a new one as he continued working. I bent down and rummaged through the mess on the floor, but for the life of me couldn't to find a new walkie-talkie. I got a funny feeling that I should call the whole thing off. I sat up and looked to my left and who did I see? Yep! The police!

They rolled up right next to the car and looked right at me. I looked to my right and saw that my boyfriend had already been thrown on the ground. Pinned down with his face in the pavement. Before I knew it, I had a gun pointed at my head with an officer yelling,

"GET OUT OF THE CAR WITH YOUR HANDS UP. KEEP 'EM WHERE I CAN SEE 'EM!"

All I wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed with my cats and wake myself up to realize this was all a dream, but I couldn't. There was no escape. I got out of the car, was cuffed, patted down and thrown in the back of a cop car. There was a lot of confusion as to why we were there. The cops assumed we were robbing the place so they told me I was under arrest for robbery.

"PLEASE! I wasn't robbing the place. You have to believe me! I wouldn't do something like that!" I pleaded.

Just like that, my boyfriend and I were off to jail in separate cars for who knows how long. And who knows where the other guy went? I was never so scared in my life when the background checks were happening on the police computers on the way to jail. My boyfriend came up as a terrorist of sorts for interfering with animal enterprise. The cops started asking me questions and what started out as an attempt to take action to save the animals was quickly turning into felony charges and a long jail sentence. I didn't answer their questions. All I could do was demand to speak to a lawyer.

Digging Up the Past - An Introduction

I used to pride myself as a long-time vegetarian. Ten years total and of those, five years vegan. My early twenties were spent transitioning to veganism and finding anything and everything I could do to get more involved in animal rights and rescue. Protests, envelope stuffing, handing out fliers, undercover abuse investigation, bringing vegan goodies to potlucks, going to meetings, you name it. If there was something going on to help animals, I was there. My work and dedication was subsequently acknowledged when I was asked to become a part of the board of directors for the Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN) in Seattle.

I was happy to help in the big city, but I felt like Seattle was already heavily saturated with plenty of activists so I used my resources to start a chapter of NARN in the south end of Seattle including south King County and north Pierce County. An area where I grew up and feel strongly connected to. At the time, I had a good-paying corporate job and used the money to get my own 2-bedroom apartment in the city of Kent. I made the master bedroom into an office and declared my place the headquarters for NARN south end chapter.

My role as the south end coordinator allowed me to expand the movement through bringing people together in a community to create plans for protests and carry out projects under the umbrella of animal rights. I found absolute joy in trailblazing the way for an awareness of compassion in a new frontier. Bringing questions to peoples' minds that might be trying to run from them by living on the outskirts of the city was something that got me up in the morning. I was a fearless leader... Fearless until the wee hours of the morning on October 17, 2002.

Meet me on the 700th floor

I saw my dad in a dream. His figure was standing before me in a hazy spirit form.

"Meet me on the 700th floor," he told me as he disappeared into thin air.

I rushed to get on the elevator and as the doors closed behind me, it took off on a wild ride. I got really high up a few times only to find myself clinging to the wall in response to the elevator switching directions and falling. The speed was so intense that hundreds of floors passed by in a matter of seconds. I thought it broke, but just before it crashed, it moved horizontally and diagonally. Taking my body violently in another direction with my soul left behind to catch up.

It was a lot like the elevator on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory except it wasn't made of glass, so I couldn't see what was going on beyond the walls. I felt trapped because it seemed capable of getting to every floor except the 700th. Every time it started to climb upwards, I felt overcome with excitement, anticipation, yearning, and love. Then... when I would fall, those feelings were quickly replaced with horror, reality, confusion, and sadness.

I woke up confused and wanted to know why the number 700 was in my stream of consciousness. I let my gut instinct direct me to some information online, which just might make up the puzzle pieces to what my dad was trying to communicate:

Rumi
"700 years ago the Sufi poet Rumi wrote about two intelligences. The first is called acquired knowledge or book learning. It is the kind of intelligence that helps us to get ahead in the world and is tested to see how well we retain information. Rumi describes it as “getting always more marks on your preserving tablets.” This is the intelligence of our schooling and striving to succeed.

Rumi also describes another kind of tablet or intelligence: “one already completed and preserved inside you. A spring overflowing its springbox.” This intelligence is not the kind that moves from the outside in, as in traditional learning. “This second knowing is a fountainhead from within you, moving out.” Creativity is about honoring another kind of intelligence that originates from within us rather than from outside sources."

A state of mind
"The 700 Level referred to the cheap seats in the upper deck of Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Usually the most rowdy fans were there, especially at Philadelphia Eagles games and to a lesser extent Philadelphia Phillies games. In his book, "If Football's a Religion, Why Don't We Have a Prayer?", Jere Longman described the 700 Level as having a reputation for "hostile taunting, fighting, public urination and general strangeness." Due to an improvement in facilities, an increase in security, and a lower tolerance for fan misbehavior, there is no equivalent in either Lincoln Financial Field or Citizens Bank Park. The name has also been the inspiration for websites relating to Philadelphia sports, as well as a weekly "Letters to the Editor" section in the Sunday Sports pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Many Philly fans still talk about the "700 Level", but this refers to a state of mind rather than an actual physical place."

Blade Runner
"Another distinction between the races that is made in subtle way is the location where they reside. Tyrell and Deckard live very high up. Deckard lives on 97th floor whereas Tyrell lives on the 700th floor [7] (Sammon, p. 137)."

Urbandictionary.com
"Heaven:
4. A geographic location. Take the white stairs across the street, or if you dislike stairways, elevator adjacent to it, 700th floor."

"Step into my office...

Louis will get you some coffee. Have a seat while I check these reports on my computer..."

Oh Tomato Soup,

You are a hot red lovely flame of liquid almost searing my throat as I uncontrollably guzzle you. Tender pieces of tuna marinated in tomato glory left behind from dunking my sandwich. The bread with a warmth of its own becomes succulent beneath the the crunchy toasted surface.

A simple bite... a burst of flavor instantly conjures memories of my childhood. Snowy days when all the kids in the neighborhood come in from a morning of play. That kind of play that is savored all the more because school was canceled for the day. Red noses sniffling, mouths slurping. Children hurrying to get back outside.

White Board Sketch of the Day

Not quite sure what this is, but it seems to be inspired by my latest obsession with watching the Simpsons and Project Runway.

He's ALIIIIIIIVE!!!

Foofie is a guinea pig and has been a friend of mine for almost five years now. Unfortunately, he has been under the weather as far back as Christmas time. He just didn't seem like himself. About a week ago, "not seeming like himself" turned into a huge puss-filled lump on the side of his nose, raspy breathing, decreased appetite, lethargy, and the absence of any peeing and pooping. I'm no expert, but it seemed to be a case of an upper respiratory infection (URI) coupled with an abscess.

Taking into account the maturity of his age, severity of his symptoms, and our lack of funds, I thought he was a goner for sure. These factors also contributed to the fact that I really didn't want to take him to the vet and have them run up a bill with all kinds of tests. Besides, that would stress him out, which wouldn't promote healing anyway. Fair enough... so I set out to take care of him myself.

I figured the first thing I could deal with was the lump on the side of his nose. I thought it might be an abscess, so I took a sterile needle and attempted to create a small puncture so I could drain it. I poked it and nothing but blood came out. I tried drawing out the infection by massaging it with a eucalyptus hot-pack. After a few minutes, puss and blood began to drain from the lump, not through the puncture, but through his right nostril!

Next step was to attack the infection with medicine. I gave him some vitamin C drops, but also wanted to get my hands on something stronger. I didn't want to get a prescription or order online from a sketchy website so I searched for information. I found out that some pet stores actually sell antibiotics over-the-counter for fish. Its the same stuff used for people and other mammals, but just labeled for fish. No prescription necessary.

I went further and made a list of guinea pig-safe antibiotics and headed down the street to Petco. I wandered up and down all the aisles and nothing was matching up to what I needed. I even asked a worker for some help and, well what can I say? He worked at Petco. The interaction was short-lived to say the least and the trip turned out to be fruitless.

The drive home was filled with curse words and frustration about how I can't just buy what I need from the local pharmacy. I found myself lashing out at the U.S. health care system and the government. I was just plain feeling bad about the world at large. Good GRIEF! Talk about a waste of energy! Once I got home and vented to an actual person, the doom and gloom was all out of my system and I was able to shift my focus back to taking care of good ol' Foof.

Instead of venturing out again, I got smart and called a few more pet stores to see if the existence of this fish antibiotic was just a big fish story. I didn't find any traditional antibiotics. I found something MUCH better for around $30.00! Its a product called Vibactra Plus. Its a tincture full of amazingly powerful natural extracts like cloves, grapefruit seed, Jatoba, olive leaf, mustard seed, and black seed. I put just a drop on my tongue to see what it was like and oh MAN! It felt like the tree of life planted itself on my tongue, instantly spreading its healing roots throughout my body!

The treatment for Foof consisted of 5 Vibactra drops and 8 Vita drops orally, nasal massage with a wet eucalyptus hot pack, wiping his eyes clean and grooming as needed 4 times a day. Water, food and bedding was kept fresh and changed daily. Once a day, antibiotic ointment (a generic Neosporin) was applied to the skin on and around the lump area. It was also essential for him to get plenty of sunshine and fresh air, so he went outside everyday as usual, but with this crazy desert weather, I was extra careful to make sure he didn't get overheated or chilled.

I've been doing his treatments faithfully for about a week now and he is so much better! The raspy sound in his lungs is gone. The lump is pretty much non-existent. He is eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping again. His eyes are bright, his hair is fluffy and shiny. He is full of spunk and pretty much back to his old self again! I plan to continue his treatment twice a day for a few more days just to give the infection a final kick in the pants.

I am thrilled to have Foofie pull through and live with us for just a bit longer. This experience has taught me a little more about my own healing capabilities through the properties of natural medicine. I've also come to realize that I love my little Foof as a part of the family. He has his place in my heart and will be deeply missed when his time does come. For now, the Grim Reaper will have to stop knocking on his door and come again some other day.