Wednesday, August 31, 2011

So what if my life is short?

I keep hearing from people that they 'only have so long on this Earth, so what if their life is shorter? They are going to enjoy it.'
I can't help but think: Yeah...but it isn't like you just keel over one day. Too often you end up suffering for an extended period of time, sometimes for years, with a debilitating disease or condition. I also start to think about their friends and family, and I can't seem to shake my judgement that these people are being, straight-up, selfish.





Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Year of the Dog

I've only been vegan since September 12, 2010. This story started years before that.
My husband and I adopted an American Staffordshire Terrier cross from our local shelter. This was 2005. It wasn't long before I was involved in the pit bull rescue community, helping pit bulls find loving homes. At one point we were given a Bloodhound puppy that our friend had rescued. He took the dog from the owner because he wasn't getting his dog's broken leg fixed. The owner had looked into how much fixing the leg would be, decided it was too much, so didn't do anything for days. That's when our friend intervened. He brought the broken dog to our house. We quickly figured out which clinic could actually do something for his leg, and got him there. We paid for his leg to be fixed. It was pricey, he required pins and such. The poor dog was sent back to his owner. I don't really know what happened to him. I hope he's okay and happy.

Anyways! In 2007, I was taking a look at one of my dog magazines and there was a short story about a new film, Year of the Dog, with Molly Shannon and it talked about how the film was all about this character's concern for dogs. I talked Troy into renting it with me and we watched and it was, meh. For me, it was sad. It made me sad. In fact, it made me a bit uncomfortable. I thought this was because it was sad.

Now, the reason I watched it again was because it was recommended on an episode of Our Hen House. They talked about how Molly's character becomes vegan and then follows that with some rather radical and sometimes inappropriate behaviour. It's really a comedy. It really is. Maybe you need to be vegan to understand the humor. Or appreciate it. Maybe I was so blinded to her veganism the first time, that I couldn't appreciate or see the funny bits. She does the stuff that ethical vegans have thought about doing, but don't. Cause that'd be...inappropriate. I don't know how, but I totally missed her becoming vegan. Actually, it makes sense. I had blinders on. I didn't want to see it, so I didn't. So I wanted to see which parts I had missed the first time. It was all of it. I think I must have seen the first 10 minutes and another 10 minutes in the middle and that was it. Because she clearly states several times throughout the film, "I want to be vegan", "I am vegan", "yup, vegan", "those cupcakes have no eggs, milk, or butter". She even sponsors farm animals for family gifts. Is this what everyone goes through? I mean, does everyone really not see vegans? How did I wake up?