Hi all! The fundraiser is so close to being ready to launch. I’ll share all the details when it is. I hope you’ll stay tuned and consider purchasing one of the fun items we’ll have available. A portion of the sales will go towards helping animals (and people) in need.
At times, I find myself reevaluating my approach/beliefs about animals/advocacy after conversations where people are questioning or challenging me. My first reaction when I feel I am being challenged or criticized regarding my love for animals and advocacy for them is to get mad and defensive and tell them that they are wrong. I’m sure that’s a common reaction to anyone who feels challenged about something they feel strongly about. It does get your goat🐐 and it’s hard to forget the conversation. But then I remind myself that sharing thoughts and beliefs (and facts) is how we learn from one another. The other person may even teach you something. 😁
I haven’t changed my mind about advocating but I did stop and think about a few things I could do differently.
So, my friends please remember to always be open to listen another’s point of view, to be respectful, and be kind. Noone wants to listen to a
Hello everyone! I have been MIA once again from blogging. As I’ve mentioned before you can’t force a post. So when I don’t have anything to say, I choose to stay silent rather than trying to jibber jabber on about something that I’m not really feeling.
I have been spending time creating some more designs for my new product line. Honestly, I have so many ideas I could spend all my days designing & creating. I wish I could, but with a full time job that’ not going to happen right now.
Anyway, the graphic I am sharing in this post was an idea from today, and so I sat down and made it right away while it was fresh in my mind. I always enjoy seeing how a picture I have in my head will turn out when I try to create it.
This graphic suits me so well…I am definitely the purple fish in a lot of ways! Especially when it comes to animals. The world views animals as “less” than us humans and here for our use however we please. What we are taught, grow up with, and see most of the world doing becomes our “normal.” Then there is so much other “stuff” going on in the world that so many of us just sit and complain about. But the thing is we can choose to do something about it. Instead of just going with the flow and accepting it, we can choose to go against it. We can be the ones to make a difference!
I hope you get some encouragement from this post. Now for an update on my products. A few smaller items such as car coasters, buttons, and air fresheners have been made. The person I am working with debuted my items this weekend at a craft show. I have also showed and sold some items to family, friends, and co-workers. But there are still some details to work out before I can offer them to you all. I also may wait until we have more designs and products available before offering them online. I hope you’ll continue to stay tuned while I figure all of this out.
Take care!
Question: How do you see yourself? One who goes with the flow? Or one who goes against it?
Thank you to all who took the time to fill out the questionnaire on my first post in this series. I want to take a few minutes to explain a little more why I am doing this. I am not doing this for me. I am not doing this to get more likes or followers. I am not doing this to add more content to my blog. I am doing this for animals. How do I mean? Well here is an example. I made a comment on a social media post about the treatment of farm animals and that I do not believe God would approve. Someone respectfully (which is very appreciated) asked me in reply “what about the sacrifices of animals in the bible?” I was thrilled to have someone ask me this (again…respectfully asked). Dialogue is what I want. Dialogue is how we all learn from each other. THAT is why I am doing this series! 😊
So let’s get on to Part 2 of “Feelings & Emotions.”
Here is the link to the second questionnaire: Let’s Discuss Series: “Feelings & Emotions” Part 2. It will take less than a minute to fill out but will make a huge impact! Thank you in advance!
WHAT DID I DO?
I had a mom and siblings
but a human took me away,
I want to make you happy
I’m really trying to obey
I had to go potty
but didn’t know where,
then your voice got so loud
it gave me such a scare
I tried to understand
your human word “sit.”
What did I do
to deserve to be hit?
I want to play with that dog
I don’t want to fight.
What did I do
to deserve that bite?
What did I do
to deserve that kick?
When all I wanted to do
was give you a lick
I was lost and trying
to find my way.
I thought you would help
instead here I now lay
I’m seeing others like me
at the golden gate.
They gave me a big welcome
and said now you’re free from the hate.
copyright LeeAnn Johnston/animalsarefeelingbeingstoo
I came to write this poem as a way for me to get out some of the frustration I am having lately. There are way too many abuse cases out there to these innocent beings. I kept the poem on the lighter side to convey some of the pain animals are in because of US humans. But the truth is it is so much worse than this poem. I am going to spare you the awful things I have heard about lately that people are doing or have done to animals. But I really want you to not have your head in the sand and be well aware that these things go on and they will not change without us. If you don’t know what to do I can give you one thing. Teach any child in your life to be kind to all animals. It starts there. They are our and the animal’s future.
I‘ve been wrestling with the best way to apply my advocacy for animals the last few years. I still don’t have it figured out but the same thoughts keep coming to mind. How can I change the way the world views animals? The way the world views them is why they are treated as they are.
I just watched a video of a man putting tape around a dog’s front and back legs and his mouth. Flopping him around like he was nothing. The whole time this dog was moving around his big dark brown eyes with such fear. This man proceeded to move the dog around like a piece of luggage without any concern for this living being. He proceeded to fling him on the back of his motor bike and sped off. While driving the dog falls of the motorbike onto the road. The guy picks him up like a piece of garbage and flops him back on the bike, this time without even fastening him down. He takes off with one hand on the dog trying to hold him on. You see he was on his way to a “client” to sell this dog for meat. The reality is much worse treatment happens to cows, chickens, pigs, and other animals every day. All for humans, for “normal” society, for food on the table. And while this is happening the animal, the living being, is experiencing extreme fear, panic, and pain.
I am sad (and truth be told angry) that I live in a world where other living beings are seen as less and as something we can do whatever we want with. As long as no one talks about it, as long as we keep hiding our heads in the sand, as long as we cover our eyes & ears and chant “la la la la la” we’ll just keep on trucking.
Not me, not us who can’t keep on trucking. Who in good conscious can’t turn their back on these animals. I don’t know what the answer is and I am unsure of my next chapter of animal advocacy. I’ll just keep praying for clarity on this.
Some people worry about how this affects my own well-being, but the truth is I would be worse off if I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t live with myself. Much of my therapy is in writing posts such as this. It’s a way to let some of the anger, frustration, and sadness out.
I would like to end by letting you know the dog I spoke of in this post was saved by a kind man who saw what the guy was doing to him. The kind man followed him, chased him, stopped him over & over trying to talk the guy into giving up the dog. He finally did! The kind man immediately took all the tape off of the dog and gave him lots of well-deserved pets, hugs, and kisses.
*TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WANT TO BE TREATED, EVEN IF THEY’RE A DIFFERENT SPECIES.*
Oh my, oh my…is it just me or are cover photos a royal pain?!
I wanted to change the cover photo on my business Facebook Page because I felt the graphic was outdated. This task turned out to be a nightmare. First, you have to figure out what size to create the graphic as, then you have to know the best way to save the graphic so it doesn’t loose quality when uploaded, then you have to adjust it to fit in the space allotted. Viola! Not so much. You look at it on a desktop and it looks good, then you look at it on a mobile phone and the profile picture circle is covering part of the design on one side and showing more blank space on the right. Back to the drawing board! Blah, blah, blah. Please tell me it’s not just me.
So I finally got it to where it’s satisfactory but if any of you have any tips, please share. Also, if you want me to share some of the things I learned, let me know.
Since I was on a mission to get the new cover photo on Facebook I decided to create a similar graphic for the header/banner on my blog. The other banner had animals that were created by someone else and as cute as they are, it is important to me to have animals on there that were created my moi.
🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾
Hello all. I hope you and your furry ones are doing well!
I am excited to share that this summer I will have some new graphics that will be available on a variety of products for sale. Any money earned will not be for me. I am doing this to raise money for animals in need. Please stay tuned, keep checking back, and please consider purchasing something for yourself or an animal lover in your life.
As I’ve mentioned before, I now only write posts when I actually have something to say. In the past I was forcing the posts just to be sure to have something out there on a regular basis because that’s what I thought I had to do. But when I was doing that blogging was no longer fun, it was work. Something I’ve been thinking a lot about and wrestling with for so long is what society sees as “normal” treatment of animals. This is also a part of why I stopped writing posts. Sometimes there are so many thoughts swirling around, so many questions, so much hurt that it becomes hard to put it in words. But I am once again attempting to put them in words.
I understand going along with what seems “normal” I also have done this. It is only when I took the time to read, research, look in an animals’ eyes, and empathize (put myself in their shoes) that I was able to allow myself to see the truth.
I made the following graphic with these thoughts I’ve been having in mind.
Continue reading
It’s been a while. Hope you’re all doing well!
We’re trying a new water fountain for Cino. We gave up on having one for a while because they kept breaking down or just not working well. We’ll see how this one is. This one is the Catit flower fountain. Anyone else have this?
Cino LOVES fountains and having one around has important health benefits.
Now, let’s talk weather. It’s been really, really cold here and this weather always makes me think of all the animals without proper care and shelter. So a reminder that if you see an animal being left out in the cold, be their voice and say something.
How’s the weather where you are?
I saw this image and felt it was perfect to share on my blog. I’ll end with this. It is exactly what I would do and what I believe we should all be doing…caring for all of God’s creatures.
Animals Are Feeling Beings Too 