Categories
Just Shelley

Golden Girl: This old broad

If you’ve been reading my weblogs in their various incarnations since the painful beginning, you’ve read me talking about my car, Golden Girl.

Golden Girl isn’t a fancy car. It’s a 4 door 2002 Ford Focus with a Zetec engine and painted in metallic gold. It is my very first car.

No, I’m not so young. I’m just one of those who didn’t decide to drive until I was…well, older than most people when they learn to drive. I started to learn to drive in Boston, practiced cross country, and received my first driver’s license in San Francisco. I bought Golden Girl a few months later via the internet, at a time when this was still a very new idea. I test drove a Focus, but didn’t meet Golden Girl until I picked her up.

My car was my delight. I drove her from California to Missouri, and from Missouri to Idaho, and back to Missouri, and on to Florida, then Missouri, and back to California and then returning, once more, to Missouri. Once in Missouri, I visited every nook and cranny in the state—including many dark hollows posted “Do Not Trespass”, with guard dogs that look at you as if sizing up which part to bite first.

Golden Girl is no longer young. A broken strut earlier has today been joined by a cracked thermostat housing, which followed a massive amount of work last year. There’s a short in the car somewhere, most likely in the instrument cluster that causes the instruments to peg out, go to zero, and then eventually recover. One could live with hyperactive instruments but the car’s lighting also dims as the same time, which can makes things a bit interesting at night.

I take her in to be worked on more frequently than I take her in to have her oil changed. And I no longer trust her for driving outside the city. Heck, half the time I don’t trust her for driving in the city.

I can’t afford to get a new car, and I won’t buy a used car full of someone else’s problems. I have to consider that at this point I’m driving Golden Girl until she can go no further, and then hopefully some charitable organization can get a little extra good from her.

Then I’ll be as I was before I bought Golden Girl—living carless.

It’s hard to think about going without Golden Girl, though. This last decade has not always been easy, with some sad losses along the way, but I’ve always had my car.

Categories
Critters

Bunnies again, but this time Six Bells Farms

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

updated

I seem to be getting links to cruelty cases related to bunnies. The most recent was a link about a bunny mill that was raided in Colorado, and the owner charged with cruelty. The mill is named Six Bells Farm, and the owner is Debe Bell. More on the story in The Denver Post.

Bell states to publications that she sold rabbits as meat, not pets, but her own web site proves this isn’t true. Sheriff’s deputies and animal control found 25 dead bunnies on the property, and Bell stated that she was holding the dead bunnies to donate to a zoo. However, no reputable zoo would take meat from rabbits that died from unknown causes, and she’s not identified the zoo.

Three vets that attended the raid have stated that the animals were not in good condition, and needed immediate help. Bell’s neighbor stated that this couldn’t be true–and of course, I’m sure she’s more knowledgeable than three veterinarians. No reason to be biased, either.

Puppies…bunnies…. No animal should be treated cruelly in mills, roadside zoos, or the other places where greedy people prosper from animal suffering. I’ve extended the scope of this site to cover other types of animals, as well as other types of places that the USDA monitors, such as the deplorable roadside zoos found in too many states. My primary interest is still in closing down puppy mills in Missouri, but all these critters need all the champions they can get.

update

Denver Post article states that the bunnies should be available for adoption soon. As for the condition of the rabbits when they were taken from Bell:

The shelter is caring for 154 of the animals. Strickland said when the shelter received the rabbits July 21, many couldn’t urinate or defecate because their fur was so matted.

I tried to get a copy of the court case, but Colorado has subcontracted out its court access to a company, Acxiom (CoCourt.com). The prices are outrageous, the site primitive, and the design of the system is hopelessly flawed. I’m so thankful that Missouri takes its commitment to open records seriously and provides an excellent no-cost court case record system.

Categories
Critters

Bunnies Again

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Puppies…bunnies…. No animal should be treated cruelly in mills, roadside zoos, or the other places where greedy people prosper from animal suffering. I’ve extended the scope of this site to cover other types of animals, as well as other types of places that the USDA monitors, such as the deplorable roadside zoos found in too many states. My primary interest is still in closing down puppy mills in Missouri, but all these critters need all the champions they can get.

More at Puppies at Burningbird.

Another bunny mill story, but this time in Colorado. One angora pulled from a cage in the 85+ degree building was so covered in matted fur that you could barely see its face. As the sheriff stated, not only were the rabbits thirsty, they were “aggressively thirsty”.

I’ve decided to extend the scope of Puppies at Burningbird. It’s still Puppies at Burningbird, but now covers other critters in addition to puppies. Because all of these critters need all the champions they can get.