Nessas Place

The sad fact is that there are many people who have dogs that aren't cared for. Their humans say they love them and in some aspect they probably do. Love is more than saying three words though. If actions don't follow, the words mean nothing.

It takes more than feeding and watering to constitute love, though those are certainly important. It takes knowing that loading them in the car to see the vet will result in drool and hair all over your car. Maybe worse if they are nervous riders. You still do it though. It means taking the time out of your day for a game of ball or shaking hands, even though you're exhausted. It means caring enough to keep them safe, warm and healthy. What you would do for your kids, you should do for your dog.

Your dog loves you no matter how bad you fail them. If breakfast is late, it's okay. He'll still tell you good morning with a wag of his tail and that shining look of adoration in his eyes. If you forget to water him, he doesn't care. You showed up eventually and all is forgiven. Whatever you do, if he ultimately knows he's loved, your dog will put up with anything from you. The sad fact is some dogs put up with way too much.

It's that depth of love that makes me so ill when I see animals who have been abused, abandoned, starved, and just in general allowed to go downhill. I literally cannot watch a lot of the Animal Planet shows because the ones that involve Animal Cops and such make me cry. People are so cruel!


It's not just the starving and abused ones either. It's the dog who has been nothing but loyal and kind who has been allowed to have 10 litters of puppies. All of which ended up "dumped in a nice neighborhood so they can be adopted". That just pisses me off to no end. If you can't at least go get your dog spayed or neutered, don't get one. If you are too damn cheap to have that done, but just have to have a dog, then don't make the babies someone else's problem. You aren't being kind by dumping a helpless animal in a "nice neighborhood". What you're doing is dropping an innocent animal off, leaving it terrified and not knowing what to do, where to go or how to get by. It's more likely to be hit by a car suffering a terrible death, being picked up by the pound to be euthanized or being shot by a property owner than it is that it will be adopted. It's a sick SICK SICK thing to do and I think that anyone caught doing it should be banned from having any animals ever again. Especially people who are known to do it over and over again.

The sad fact is that it happens all the time. People say "I can't afford the spay/neuter fee". They can afford cigarette's though. They can afford sodas. They can afford to blow money in a thousand ways that doesn't even help themselves, but they can't find $40-60 to make sure their dog doesn't bring unwanted puppies into the world.

I actually know people who have gone and dumped a litter of puppies off and then a few months later turn around and go get a new puppy from somewhere for a child's birthday. All I can ever think to say is WTF??? What was wrong with the 10 you dumped off?? Wrong color? They were YOUR responsibility and you couldn't hack it, but a new one will get a better fate?? My guess is probably not.

We have 4 dogs currently. A chihuahua we've had for 13 years, A lab/boxer mix we rescued from irresponsible idiots that is 5 now, a PeekaPoo that supposedly turned up at the egg donors house that we took pity on, we have no idea how old she is, and one of my sisters dogs that we are babysitting. It's not easy keeping them in food, flea preventative, heartworm preventatives or bath products. It's harder still making sure they can see the vet if they need to, but we make sure it happens. The way I see it, I made a promise when I brought them home. I promised they'd have a forever home and part of that is that it's a GOOD home. In the case of my sister's dog, this is not her forever home, but I protect her as I do my own because my nieces and nephews love her. They provide what she needs but we provide the daily care.

I understand vet bills are expensive. I get that sometimes there's just not enough money to go around. That's why you should do everything you can to make sure you don't get a pet if you can't take care of it. I'm really not trying to be preachy. I'm not on a soap box. I just saw a dog get hit by a car this morning after seeing someone drop it off. I tried to get the license plate number but didn't get out there in time. The neighbor across the street got the puppy from the road and he buried it so at least that much was done, but it still makes me ill. I truly truly hope that the person who dropped it off suffers something as horrible as that innocent puppy suffered this morning at some time in their life. I know it's not a Christian way to think. I'll have to work on that when I am not seeing that baby being hit and killed in my head like some horrible movie. People just SUCK sometimes!


Nessa

If so, it's probably your own fault. You might be the person trying to use it and finding that people don't seem to care that there are specific sections for a reason. You might be the person who doesn't care that there are specific sections. Either way, you have control over how your local Craigslist runs, at least to an extent.

If you are the person posting where ever you want, regardless of the rules, you suck. You are irritating the very people who might be looking for the item or service you have to offer. Being a relatively smart person, If I am looking for a boat, I go to the boat section. If I want a boat to be serviced, I go to the services section and click on "marine". If I am looking for Pets, I look in the pet section. If I need services for my pet such as grooming, etc, I go to the services section and I choose "pets". See where I am going with this? This isn't rocket science. I look in the section related to the item or service I am looking for. Here's an example:

Get A Boat Serviced
When I go to the motorcycle section and I see postings there for motorcycle service, what I am going to do every single time I see your ad is flag it. Yes,Every time. Why? Because it is in the wrong section. Again, this is not rocket science. So when you notice that your ad is constantly being flagged off by myself and other users you can know in your heart that you are doing something wrong. It's not your competition trying to keep you down, it's the people who might want to use your services at some point that you are irritating. Your competition is merely laughing at you as they watch all the business in your mutual area come their way because they follow the Craigslist rules and you don't.

In the business world, your name is either gold or crap. How you conduct your business determines which side of the scale you fall on. If Bob's Cycle services constantly irritates me on Craigslist by posting in the wrong sections and then posts stupid narratives about how they're competition are the ones flagging them, I am going to avoid Bob. I am going to tell all my friends who might want a referral to a cycle service that Bob seems to be slightly off balance and doesn't appear to have much work because he's constantly ranting and raving on Craigslist. My friends will tell their friends too and they'll also avoid Bob. Before long the only thing Bob has going for him is that he's really good at being flagged on Craigslist.

The same thing goes for all the other sections. I know it seems a good idea to put your ad in the section with the most traffic. The problem is that while you might get an ad in there, it won't generally stay there. The people who use that section want quality listings that match the section and they'll flag your add off in short order. Your job at that point is to put your ad in the section it belongs to. Your job is NOT to go back to the same section and post about how you want to meet the person who flagged you so you can beat them up. That gets flagged too. Before you know it, you're like Bob and you're spending all day posting an ineffective ad proving not only your inability to follow rules but the fact that you are probably a little mentally unbalanced as well.

Sort of like the woman on the Houston Craigslist page who kept advertising in the free section, that she wanted a free haircut, color and perm. Poor thing was determined that she was going to get it and kept on posting and reposting in the same section. It finally came down to her posting things like "you stupid B*tch coward flagger, you meet me somewhere and i will beat your ass". Of course, she didn't post with an email address that could be replied to or a phone number that could be called, so that too was an ineffective ad. When that post was flagged off she reposted with "too bad you don't have the balls to meet me so I can kick your flagging coward ass". Once again, no email or phone number was posted. How could someone who was interested possibly even reach her to prove they weren't a coward? Can we say it again? INEFFECTIVE! So I'm not really sure who the coward was at that point. This went on most of the day and it kind of got to be fun to try to flag her off before everyone else could. What can I say, It was 40 degree's and raining outside. This was the only entertainment available at the moment.

Had this woman simply posted in the "wanted" section in the first place, she could have posted and gone on about her merry way. Myself and others would have been bored not being able to flag her off but, oh well. She might have found the service she was looking for and not been pissed off all day.

One of the biggest misconceptions I see on Craigslist is that people honestly think ONE person is flagging their ads. That's not the case. The best I can figure is that it takes approximately 5 flags from different users to have an ad removed. So if you post something and it disappears, it's probably not your worst enemy that's watching craiglist to see if you post. It's a number of people who know how to read the rules and they know your ad belongs elsewhere. So offering to meet people to beat them up is probably dangerous to say the least. 5 against 1 odds are seldom favorable for the 1 unless your an MMA expert or heavily armed. My advice is to just avoid the situation and post properly. It's easier.

AS for flagging, this is how users of Craigslist can avoid letting their local Craigslist go down the drain. Yes it might seem silly to worry about what is posted in the wrong sections, until you are looking for something specific and you have to wade through unrelated ads to get to what you want. Yes you can search for keywords but not everyone realizes that and sometimes it returns so many results that it makes things even more difficult. That's WHY there are SPECIFIC SECTIONS! If there is a particular section that you are looking through and you see something that does not belong, flag it! Yes you might end up seeing someone post like the woman above but it's good for a laugh, so it's okay. Use the tools that the Craigslist Gods gave you to keep the list in good running order rather than running amok with idiots.


Craigslist makes it easy to do this by having the flags available on the upper right hand side of every post. It's as simple as a click. You don't have to be logged in or registered to use the flagging features either.

There are 4 possible flags that can be used:
Miscategorized: Wrong category, wrong site, discusses another post or otherwise misplaced

Prohibited: Violates Craigslist Terms Of Use or other posted guidelines
Spam/Overpost: Posted too frequently, multiple cities/categories, or is too commercial

Best Of Craigslist: Should be considered for inclusion in The Best Of Craigslist



Two of the most often broken rules are:

Pet sales: Pet Sales are NOT ALLOWED. Period. See?
"Household pets of any kind including but not limited to dogs, cats, primates, cage birds, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish. Re-homing with small adoption fee OK" ( That is straight from the list of Prohibited items. Go look for yourself. )

You CAN give away a pet with a small rehoming fee. A small rehoming fee of $300 is not a rehoming fee, that's a sale. Don't try to pretend otherwise.

Pet offers belong in the PET section. The General section is NOT where you would post them. See the Graphics below.

Pets Go Here:

I had planned for this year a kinder, gentler blog. A blog with feel good moments and smiles and lots of warm fuzzies. Let's face it, that's not going to happen. I have far too much of my Granny in me to just let things keep sliding by without having my say.

So to kick off the New Year, Lets discuss, Sarah Palin. She's a moron. I can't stand her and she doesn't represent any woman I know. I am tired of her comparing herself to people like me. She gave birth to some kids, so did I. She's a woman, so am I. She lives in America, So do I. That's pretty much the extent of it. She may have done good things in Alaska. I don't know. I don't care. What I care about is her steadfast refusal to face reality. In my opinion that makes her dangerous.

There is a viral notice going around the net that basically blames the Tuscon shootings on a map that Sarah Palin's people put up during her campaign. Now I personally don't think that's the case. The guy who did the shooting desperately needed help and didn't get it. Period. I do believe however, that Sarah's constant use of words related to guns and hunting could incite persons with a tenuous hold on reality, like that young man, to do things to her competitors.

Some politicians would see these shootings as a way to learn from a tragedy. Some would realize that maybe there is a way to campaign and get their point across without using words such as "shoot" or using the cross hairs of a rifle to depict places that she has deemed needing a change.

What does Sarah Palin do? She and a few other morons decide that only Democrats see this as an issue and issue statements calling those Americans things like "disgusting" and "reprehensible". The reality Sarah, is that if one of your kids pictures were to be shown with a rifle cross hair on it, you'd be afraid for your child and you'd insist it be dealt with. It would take a sick mind to do it and you'd expect someone to be punished. Right? But we're reprehensible for thinking you and your campaign managers are irresponsible? I guess when it comes down to it, I'd rather be reprehensible than ignorant. So I guess you have me there.

Now lets discuss the proposed Pit Bull ban in Texas. I personally believe Texas is the greatest state there is. I wouldn't WANT to live anywhere else. If this ban is enacted, I just might though. Why? Because it will be final proof that there are too many idiots in charge and it's time to go.

This all came about due to "Justin's Law". I have looked for both sides of the story all over the Internet in an attempt to be as fair as possible. I admit to being biased because I am an advocate not only for pit bulls but for responsible pet ownership. I have to say I was disgusted by the fact that the owners of the Pit Bulls who attacked and killed this young boy demanded that a memorial set up for him be removed. Apparently it was on or very close to their property. I'm sure they did not mean for their dogs to be harmful to anyone. I'm also positive that it must also be painful for them to know that their dogs did something so horrendous. However, they were their dogs and this child was killed. A memorial could have served to allow some healing and possibly a lesson for responsible Pit Bull ownership. So thumbs down you 2, you should be ashamed.

I feel terrible for the Mother of this child. I cannot and would not want to imagine how something like this would feel. The thing is though, not all Pit Bulls are bad. There are people out there who only have their dogs. Forcing them to have their dogs killed for absolutely no reason at all is cruelty on a level all it's own. Their dog is not the vicious monster that hurts children. Their dog is sweet and wonderful. Their dog trusts them and they trust their dog. Their dog goes places and never attempts to hurt anyone. Their dog makes them smile every single day. Their dog loves them no matter what and they love their dog the same way. Their dog has been socialized, trained, loved and cared for just as some people care for their children. It's not right to kill that dog for the actions of others.

By all means....require licensing. Require certain reasonable measures. Allow animal control officers to make surprise inspections. I don't care what needs to be done, but don't kill an innocent animal because someday it COULD do something bad. So can cars, so can guns, so can gas, so can many other things including people! I know psychotic kids and some adults that I believe will eventually hurt someone some day, I don't want them killed because they have the potential. I just keep praying they'll get help. That's what Pit Bull owners need. Help and Understanding but not to be targeted for something they have no part in. Help them show that their dog is not the vicious animal others think it is. Understanding to see that their dog is as loving as your Lab is. Legislation to do that is fine..........banning the breed for the ignorance of others is not.

Before anyone says anything, let me say that I realize that Pit bulls can be dangerous. I realize that they have to potential to seriously harm children and adults alike. There's no question about that. The problem is that there are thousands of dog bites every year around the United States. The ONLY ones we hear about are the horrific ones that involve a "dangerous" breed. It's understandable that people would hear these reports and think that this new law might be needed but here are the facts of the matter:

1. "It is estimated that around 5,000,000 dogs per year are killed in shelters. In many places “Pit Bulls” make up as much as 30-50% of the shelter population, and sadly, are less likely to be considered for adoption than any other breed. Assuming that 25% of the shelter dogs killed are “Pit Bulls”, then approximately 1.25 million “Pit Bulls” are killed in shelters every year.
Therefore, it is at least a hundred thousand times more likely that a “Pit Bull” will be killed by a HUMAN, than the other way around." Source

2. "Additional strategies to encourage responsible pet ownership and reduce dog bites include regulatory measures (e.g., licensing, neutering, and registration programs and programs to control unrestrained animals) and legislation (7). "Dangerous" dog laws focus on dogs of any breed that have exhibited harmful behavior (e.g., unprovoked attacks on persons or animals) and place primary responsibility for a dog's behavior on the owner. Because a dog's tendency to bite depends on other factors in addition to genetics (e.g., medical and behavioral health, early experience, socialization and training, and victim behavior), such laws might be more effective than breed-specific legislation" Source

3. "Breed identification is left up to victim and witness testimony, and is often wrong. Due to negative press, biting dogs of almost ANY breed have been called "Pit bulls". Try this little quiz for fun: Find the Pit Bull See how many people you know can pick out a pit bull from pictures, let alone in the middle of an attack." Source

4. "Each year, 350 people drown in their bathtubs. You are 151 times more likely to be killed by your bathtub than you are by a pit bull."

5. "Every year, more than 2,000 children in the U.S. are killed by their
parents or guardians either through abuse or neglect. A child is more
than 800 times more likely to be killed by their adult caretaker than by a
pit bull."

6. "For every pit bull who kills, there are hundreds of thousands that DON'T. "

7. "In the year 2000, pit bulls were involved in 8 fatalities. See below for facts about the same year.
From the National Safety Council: Numbers of Deaths Due to Injury, United States in 2000:


Bitten or struck by dog (all breeds), 26

Bitten or struck by other mammals, 65

Bitten or stung by nonvenomous insect and other arthropods, 9

Bitten or crushed by other reptiles, 31

Drowning and submersion while in or falling into bath-tub, 341

Drowning and submersion while in or falling into swimming-pool,
567

Accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, 327

Ignition or melting of nightwear, 9

Contact with hot tap-water, 55

Contact with venomous snakes and lizards, 12

Contact with venomous spiders, 5

Contact with hornets, wasps and bees, 54

Contact with other and unspecified venomous animal or plant, 9

Nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics, and antirheumatics, 176

Alcohol, 302

Legal intervention involving firearm discharge, 270

Legal execution, 8

Source

So there, if we elect people who will allow a specific breed to be banned from an entire state, to be fair and safety conscious, do we next expect them to ban bathtubs, aspirin, pajamas and insects? Good luck with that, I'll move to a smarter state.

Nessa