My oldest monster, Patrick, has been growing like a mad weed since we moved to Alabama. I’ve been trying to keep a ‘redneck eye’ on it. That is my official way of measuring my son’s height. It goes a little something like this…I have him stand right in front of me and ‘measure’ where his eyeballs are in relation to my eyeballs. Pretty good, eh?

So I’d been ‘keeping an eye’ on him, so I thought. Then the other morning, while getting ready for school, I noticed that Patrick was not just a itsy, bitsy smidge taller than I. No, with shoes on, and myself barefoot – he was FOR SURE taller than I. More redneck measuring skills – itsy, bitsy smidge – or – FOR SURE. Pretty good again, eh? Yeah, so I made him come over to me so I could see close up how FOR SURE it all was. It was definitely FOR SURE. But the little bugger had shoes on – and I didn’t. See – all was right with the world. It was okay. I could deal. Fine – go on to school, boy – Momma’s just fine.

And then it happened. A weekend morning – both of us wandering the Redneck Roberson Castle barefooted…
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Yes, quite literally, I have a pain in my neck! I woke up this morning and my neck was hurting. I have had this sore spot for a while now. Two spots, really – the glands on either side of my neck. I got sick last February – I had a sinus infection, along with a double ear infection. The doctor called in two prescriptions for me, one of which was oral and reasonably priced. The other, however, was eardrops and was so ridiculously high priced that we didn’t have the money for it. And I swear – for real – that the glands in my neck have hurt – off and on – since then! Some mornings I wake up and the one on the right side is really sore and I feel like I’m getting one of my vicious migraines, so I put ActivOn on it. You know, the arthritis cream! Ha!

Sometimes when I wake up and my neck and shoulders are sore and the migraine is trying to sneak in, I put Freeze It on my shoulders and just itsy-bitsy part way up my neck and that helps a lot. But I can’t really get Freeze It too high up on my neck or it burns. It’s really weird – I love that stuff, it’s totally awesome, but, I have to be careful when using it on my neck.

I just accidentally discovered that ActivOn would work for this purpose. I think you could call it a double accident!
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I’ve lost them. They’re gone. I can’t find them anywhere. I wonder if you could help me find them….

I really don’t mean it. I don’t want them back, no way, no how – not a chance in Hell do I want them back. In fact, it would be great if I lost some more 11.3398093 kilograms! Seriously!

You see, with the help of some lovely people online – and with some really strong determination, that came from I don’t know where, I have….
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In the last Save Jenny! post I told you about a poll on the NBC5 website asking where you think Jenny the elephant should spend the rest of her days. I do hope you’ve gone over there and let your voice be heard!

But – check it out:

That is SO AWESOME! If you haven’t voted in the poll – please go do so now! Thank you so much!!

Other ‘Jenny Action’ you can take:

Contact the Dallas Mayor
Call, fax, and email the mayor, whether or not you live in Dallas. (This really is so important – when this hit the national stage is when the council really started listening and deciding to slow odwn the whole decision-making process. So even if you don’t live in Dallas, like I no longer do, please feel free to let your voice be heard.) Politely but firmly urge him to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. Civilly insist that he intervene in the Zoo’s decision to keep her in Dallas.

Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@ dallascityhall. com

If you’d rather use the contact form on the city’s website, it’s right here: Contact Mayor Tom Leppert

Thank you so much!

Concrete and bars – what a life, eh?

Robert Wilonsky, the gentleman who writes for the Dallas Observer that I told you about in the post about troubled elephants, spoke with Paul Dyer on Wednesday about the Dallas Zoo’s decision to keep Jenny in Dallas. You can read all about their conversation here: Paul Dyer Explains the Reasons for Keeping Jenny at the Dallas Zoo. Please, no, PRETTY PLEASE – come back when you’re done reading, as I’ve something important I’d like to share with you! Thanks!

….waiting….waiting…..waiting….

Great! You came back! Jenny and I really appreciate it! Ok, NBC5 ran a story on Jenny – there is an article and a video. Here is the link to it: >>>>>>Jenny The Elephant To Remain In Dallas<<<<<<. Toward the end of the video, Angela Hunt is featured speaking her mind about the Dallas Zoo’s plans to build a larger elephant habitat. More importantly than the article or the video, though, in the sidebar underneath the video is a poll. It is a poll asking where YOU think Jenny should live the rest of her life! Please go take the poll and let your voice be heard! Do it for Jenny! Seriously – have you spent any time looking over The Elephant Sanctuary’s website? That place is simply amazing. And I truly believe that we owe it to Jenny, after all that we humans have put her through, to let her live her life out there in peace, where the objective is about her, not about humans visiting her!

Other ‘Jenny Action’ you can take:

Contact the Dallas Mayor
Call, fax, and email the mayor, whether or not you live in Dallas. (This really is so important – when this hit the national stage is when the council really started listening and deciding to slow odwn the whole decision-making process. So even if you don’t live in Dallas, like I no longer do, please feel free to let your voice be heard.) Politely but firmly urge him to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. Civilly insist that he intervene in the Zoo’s decision to keep her in Dallas.

Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@ dallascityhall. com

If you’d rather use the contact form on the city’s website, it’s right here: Contact Mayor Tom Leppert

Thank you so much!

As I mentioned in this post about Jenny the elephant, one of the Dallas city council members, Angela Hunt, took a trip to Mexico to see the park in Mexico to which the Dallas Zoo wanted to send Jenny. (She also traveled to Tennessee to see The Elephant Sanctuary.) On her website, AngelaHunt.com, you can read about her experiences and also see the many pictures that she took on her trips.

Along with photos, Ms. Hunt also took videos of the elephants in Mexico. In her videos, the elephants are seen almost constantly swaying back and forth. This is one of her videos:

Soon after this, Robert Wilonsky, who writes at Unfair Park – The Dallas Observer Blog asked Joyce Poole, the world’s foremost authority on elephants, to watch Ms. Hunt’s videos. She is currently working on a study that proves that elephants suffer from PTSD. That is so not surprising – the torment humans have put elephants through over the years is just awful! Here is her response to Robert after seeing the videos:

Dear Robert,

The music is hauntingly beautiful and, put to the swaying of confined elephants, brought tears to my eyes. Why do we humans feel such a need to confine and control other animals? Is our pleasure in seeing them worth the cruelty that we inflict on them? Elephants are intelligent, socially complex individuals who have the same basic needs that we have: Freedom and autonomy, companionship and affection, just to name a few.

The first elephant in the video looks very unhealthy; she is too thin. All of the elephants in the video are swaying — a behavior only seen in confined elephants. Like so many captive elephants they are bored and frustrated with nowhere to go and no one to see, no new smells to investigate and nothing to strive for. The result is standing in one place and rocking, slowly losing their mind. Well, wouldn’t we do the same given similar circumstances?

I often try to put myself in the elephants’ shoes, so to speak. Ever had to stand for hours and hours alone waiting for that bus that never comes? Feet and back aching? I, too, start to step from one foot to the other. I, too, rock back and forth; I sway. But I don’t wait for a bus for days, for weeks, for months, for years. I have the freedom to choose to go.

We need to wake up to the reality of what we are doing to other creatures and stop hiding behind a lot of constructed arguments for keeping elephants in this way.

Jenny should go to a sanctuary.

Regards,
Joyce Poole

And now we see the VERY SAME BEHAVIORS in Jenny! I’m quite sure that after all she has been through in her life, at the hands of humans, Jenny must have PTSD, as well! A member of Concerned Citizens for Jenny went to the zoo just days ago and took this video:

Jenny is definitely not happy there – nor would any elephant be! The elephant ‘habitats’ at The Dallas Zoo have long been a complaint of mine. I’ve taken great joy in mocking the boardroom meeting I imagine in my head 30-40 years ago/whenever the heck it was! I imagine it was something like this:

“You guys! I have the BEST idea! Seriously! This is gonna be great! Let’s make a tiny enclosure, make it out of concrete and maybe put in a little dirt – and put some elephants in it! It’ll be fabulous! I’m sure the elephants will be happy there!”

Yes, folks, I’ve haughtily and sarcastically shared this scenario with many people over the years. Hey, I never claimed to be mature! Just ask my ninth grade algebra teacher! She’ll be happy to tell you, “Lisa has the potential, she’s just too immature to live up to it!” Haha!

Ok, back to the subject at hand, you guys quit getting me off track! Hrmph! I think I’ve given you enough information in this post, I’d just like to repeat the actions that YOU can take now:

Contact the Dallas Mayor
Call, fax, and email the mayor, whether or not you live in Dallas. (This really is so important – when this hit the national stage is when the council really started listening and deciding to slow odwn the whole decision-making process. So even if you don’t live in Dallas, like I no longer do, please feel free to let your voice be heard.) Politely but firmly urge him to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. Civilly insist that he intervene in the Zoo’s decision to keep her in Dallas.

Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@ dallascityhall. com

If you’d rather use the contact form on the city’s website, it’s right here: Contact Mayor Tom Leppert

Thank you so much!