Thank You

Sometimes people steal from me.  I’d like to think it happens because they don’t understand how the internet works but I know that can’t always be the case.  I generally just ignore it because – well, it’s the internet.  But in doing so, I don’t want anyone to think I don’t very much appreciate it if you see a stolen piece of mine and call out the thieves.  I really do.  It tells me you remember my work enough to recognize it, even when it’s posted on another site without credit.  It tells me you, like me, are plagued by a sense of justice – and I think that’s a good thing, however tragic.  And it tells me that despite whatever the haters say, I am right in believing readers here are SuperFantasticAwesomeWishTime.

It’s easy to recognize people for their generous donations, rescue work, and other forms of advocacy for shelter pets.  I feel comfortable doing that because it’s about the animals.  It’s harder for me to recognize people just for sticking up for me when they see I’ve been wronged on the internet.  It feels selfish and egocentric.  But the truth is, this blog and its readers mean the world to me.  This is my form of advocacy and I protect it as fiercely as rescuers protect their work.  And if I saw a rescue group taking credit for saving a pet I knew a different rescue group had actually saved, hell yeah I’d jack them up.  I do my advocacy work for free, as do most shelter pet advocates – whatever their chosen venue, because I want to do it.  I want to make a difference on some level, at some point.  I’m continually striving toward that goal.

And so, thank you.  Thank you for being part of my tiny corner of the internet.  Thank you for protecting it from intruders.  Thank you for all the good things that you do – big, small, known and unknown.  I appreciate you.

Updated: Alms

Update:  Halt!  No more contributions needed.  I have ended the ChipIn.  Thanks very much!

***

It’s that time of year again.

WordPress charges a $60 annual fee for the privilege of including videos on the blog. I’ve set up a ChipIn and any money received will be put towards that fee. If I don’t reach the goal, I will make up the difference myself. If it goes the other way, I will use any money received beyond the $60 for other blog related expenses (space upgrades, FOIA fees, etc.).

If you prefer to send in a contribution via snail mail, please let me know it’s coming so I can count it toward the total:

Shirley Thistlethwaite
#251
10120 Two Notch Rd, Ste 2
Columbia, SC 29223-4385

Thank you!

Jeanne, You Ignorant Slut!

I know you are probably thinking, “Shouldn’t that be JANE, you ignorant slut?”  But here’s the thing, Jeanne Chancellor, head of the “Friends of MAS” volunteer group, has used so many aliases while commenting on this blog, I can’t be sure if “Jane” was one of them.  A little background:

Yesterday someone commenting under the name “Cammy Linderman” posted a comment about an MAS volunteer who had come forward to speak to the media about the neglect at the pound.  The interview has not yet aired and was conducted under the agreement that the station would conceal the volunteer’s identity.  “Cammy Linderman” outed this person publicly on the blog in a very underhanded way.  This got my attention so I began running through my list of suspect IP addresses from those who have left comments defending the abuse and killing on MAS posts in the past.  In addition to Cammy Linderman, I found Anna Kallecter and Anna Kellecter, Amber Zeuss and Amber Seuss, Elizabeth Swafford and Eizabeth Swafford – all with several commonalities:  They were all one letter off in their spelling, the IP addresses were all from Memphis, they connected to the internet at times through Bellsouth and at other times through the City of Memphis, they used AOL e-mail addresses almost exclusively and they were all the same as “Jeanne100″ – a commenter who posted three times in April 2011 using Jeanne Chancellor’s AOL e-mail address.  The City of Memphis server threw me momentarily until I learned that Jeanne Chancellor had been issued a laptop by the City of Memphis as head of the “Friends of MAS”.  So that about tears it.

Jeanne Chancellor appears to be all of these commenters and seems to be using her city issued laptop, paid for by taxpayers, to give virtual identities to the many confused voices in her head.  I could overlook all of that but when she outed the courageous volunteer who went to the media to speak for the neglected pets at MAS under the condition of anonymity – this I can not abide.

And so Jeanne Chancellor, you are now the one who is outed.

You are outed as someone willing to put a brave shelter volunteer in harm’s way and subject this person to vindictive retribution.

You are outed as a defender of one of the most abusive shelters in the country.

You are outed as a “Friend” only to the City of Memphis and its corrupt political culture.  You are no friend to the homeless animals in Memphis.

ABC24 reported that there was a meeting between volunteers and city leaders several weeks ago where some volunteers spoke up about the dogs not being fed and other concerns.  I am told that Jeanne Chancellor attended that meeting but remained silent.  This would be in line with her years of silence regarding the criminal activities at MAS.  She had the chance to speak for the pets at the pound but chose to let them suffer.  She used her knowledge of that meeting and subsequent events to attempt to put a volunteer in harm’s way by outing the person on this blog.  That person should be commended for speaking up.  That person had the courage and strength of character to come forward and take action when Jeanne did not.  That person deserves our thanks, not our betrayal.  When reform finally comes to MAS, it will be because compassionate people put action to their good conscience.

Jeanne Chancellor, you and all your aliases have been banned from this blog.  If you ever attempt to use my blog to hinder shelter reform at MAS again, I will not be so kind in my response as I was today.  Take that laptop that the caring citizens of Memphis paid for and get the hell out of the way.  Change is coming.

This blog will be going dark tomorrow to protest SOPA/PIPA

Image from sopastrike.com

You may already be familiar with the proposed legislation (SOPA in the House, PIPA in the Senate) that would, in effect, shut down this blog and a host of other internet sites if enacted.  I want the internet to remain a place of free exchange of uncensored information and ideas.  I want to continue my form of advocacy and I support the rights of others to do the same.  Therefore I am joining in the blackout on January 18 from 8am to 8pm to protest these awful bills, to help raise awareness and get people to take action.

If you want to read more about SOPA/PIPA or want to know how to fight back, everything is here.  This is the page that I will be directing visitors to tomorrow.  I WILL be on Twitter tomorrow, following and sharing news about the #SOPAstrike.  The blog will be live again at 8pm.  Please consider calling or writing your Senators and Representative in opposition to PIPA and SOPA.

Hey Girl!

I’m on Facebook.  Which makes me feel like a celebrity (dog).

Please join me there and let your Facebook friends (only the awesome ones) know about my new page.

In Which I Answer Some Questions

I love reading the search terms that bring people to the blog.  Some are in the form of questions.  Since I don’t know if the searchers found any suitable answers, please allow me:

What to do if you see a loose Pitbull? Invite him over for dinner, see if he’s got any tags on his collar.  If so, call the owners and invite them over too.

Should I yell at my Beagle? Oh but what, pray tell, could a Beagle possibly ever do to deserve this?  The answer here is NO of course.  On the off chance the Beagle was being a Very Bad Beagle, he really won’t care whether you yell or not anyway.  He’s just going to do his Beagley stuff, regardless of the volume of your voice.

Is baloney good for treats for dogs? About as good as it is for humans I suppose.

Why doesn’t my neighborhood get mail? Perhaps you live in my old neighborhood?  When I lived in Boston, I had a mailman who – swear to science – only delivered the mail on fair-weather days.  Whenever I hear that old saying about mailmen that goes “Neither rain, nor sleet nor dead of night…”, I still feel compelled to yell out “Nuh-uh!”.

Of course some search terms are not questions but interesting nonetheless:

throwing up after laughing  This sometimes happen if you watch too much C-SPAN.  Remember to change the channel for regular breaks.

naked drunks  Endeavor to avoid.

pot belly beagle  I beg your pardon?!  My Beagle is just big-boned!

weeble  173 hits in the past year according to WordPress which is pretty good for a dog blog, I think.

As you might guess, the most popular search terms that lead people to the blog are variations on “YesBiscuit!”.  Here is a sample:

yes bisquit

yes buiscuit

yes buscuit

biscuit yes  (Oh! So Euro!)

yesbiskit

yes!biscuit  (O!K)

yesbuiscut

yes biscouit

yes biscui  (A French reader, perchance?)

yes buiscet

yes busiuit

yes bisucit

There’s more.  Lots more, I’m sorry to say, but you get the idea.

 

 

 

Blog Housekeeping

Couldn’t I come up with a more boring title?  No, I could not.

Various:

I really appreciate everyone who sends in tips and information.  I sincerely wish I could post them all.  If I don’t post on something you’ve sent in, it’s not because I deemed it unworthy but more likely to do with time constraints.  Please feel welcome to share these links, stories, etc in the open threads I post regularly.  Sometimes I put time into investigating a story and it doesn’t pan out, for whatever reasons.  Again, I’m not blowing you off, just trying to maintain my Slightly Above/Below Mediocrity standard.

I am more than a blogger – I am an actual human bean.

As such, I have other interests and am involved with other activities beyond this blog.  My website is called YesBiscuit!, as is this blog, as is my Twitter account, etc.  I’m sorry if this confuses anyone.  If you only want to be involved with the YesBiscuit! blog, then please feel welcome to do that.  If you choose to venture into the beyond-world, you might come across things you don’t like.  Just like real life.  And I so don’t play with people giving me shit because they are shocked and horrified and generally aghast to learn there is more to me than this blog.  Do it, don’t do it, whatever.  Figure it out.

Lastly, there is a feed for the blog, for those who want it:  http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/feed/

Random Spamdom

Just a little something to lighten things up.  This one made it through my e-mail’s spam filter and I thought it might make you chortle:

Hello, I am a Internet marketing professional. I had done a Google search under the keyword Memphis Nose Job and had run across your website yesbiscuit.wordpress.com. I see that you are not listed on the first page of Google for your particular search.

I am not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

I think I probably AM aware but go ahead.

There’s no reason that you can’t have top three rankings for the keyword Memphis Nose Job based on your website structure and content. You have a very nice site.

Thank you.  I mean, I’m not an Internet-with-a-capital-I marketing professional, but I do ok.

What you need is high quality one-way anchor text links. I can help you with this…..

Not only can I get you ranked for the keyword Memphis Nose Job but I am talking about all of your keywords on top of Google. Adding new high quality PR anchor-text links from the highest quality websites will produce the results and business you want for yesbiscuit.wordpress.com.

The right kind of links are crucial in getting top ranking… and I can hand deliver these quality links to you.

Hand deliver?  So you’re coming over?

My partners and I own 1000′s of websites and offer private linking to hundreds of website owners just like yourself.

I didn’t send this email out to very many people but I do favor your website because I can see your website monetizing the targeted website traffic for the keyword Memphis Nose Job can deliver.

I always knew I was special.

I have your contact information and phone number. Would it be okay if I were to give you a call?

You have my phone number?!

I have a very simple way to prove to you that what I do works risk free for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes.

Would it be okay if I were to give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?.

Yes, please – that last thing.

Places to Give Away Your Money

Worthy causes:

Mama Pibble and pups, rescued from MAS – donation info here.

ChipIn for Charlotte and the Wilburettes, rescued from MAS

Questionable:

Some of you would like to see videos embedded in the blog and have asked about kicking in toward the WordPress video upgrade.  I set up a ChipIn for that.

Book Raffle Winner

Clarice is the winner of the raffle for the book “Food Pets Die For“.  Thank you to those who entered and congratulations Clarice!