The antidote

I love gardening ... but I really don't think its fair that I have to keep finding the same muscles over and over again every spring. After all, the tools I've collected over the years only have to be dusted off, while the gardens and my skills just keep expanding every year.
The yard has come a long way since I moved out here sixteen years ago. Bit by bit, year by year, I've been leaving a very organic footprint on my space. A tree here .. a shrub there ... a pond over there ... year by year its all added up. Its been a learning curve and I'm definitely a better and smarter gardener than I was when I first moved out here.
The No Kill movement has been growing right along with my garden. Year by year it has started to take hold and is beginning to leave a very compassionate and kind and better pawprint wherever it has taken hold.
Here in Nova Scotia, the small rescues and shelters have been embracing the idea of No Kill. This year the society has officially thrown its hat in the ring with their Strategic Plan 2010-2012 . How did that happen? It happened because the provincial board recognized that their membership were ready, willing and able to support No Kill. In other words ... the animal loving public in Nova Scotia believe that it is possible to stop killing healthy, treatable adoptable pets.
Somehow this has slid under the radar for our politicians. Our provincial government was willing to put up $600,000 to market the McCartney concert .. a sum that pales besides the loan guarantee that was put in place to ensure that Sir Paul would realize his 3.5 million dollar fee. According to the CBC news article tonight, "Dexter has not ruled out further investments in concerts but said caution is necessary"
HRM contributed an additional $200,000 for the concert. Why does that number sound familiar? Because that's very close to the amount that was requested for first year start up expenses in the proposal that the society presented to the HRM Council for a Low Cost / High Volume Spay Neuter Clinic.
So what happened to that proposal? Tonight on my friend Joan's blog, I read a Very Interesting set of quotes by an HRM councillor (http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/2010/04/homeward-city-pound-does-what.html) that do not suggest that there is either any understanding of, or support for the society's mandate, by the HRM Council. Is that why the well thought out presentation is gathering dust instead of getting support?
( the subject of how many of the same individuals who have been campaigning to undermine the society were the same lovely people who have contributed to its loss of credibility in the past is a separate topic that is going to come back to haunt the HRM council )
The Annual General Meeting for the society is this Saturday, April 17th. If you live in the HRM area, why don't you email your Councillor and ask him or her to attend the meeting and find out just what the society does and does not do.
What time is it? Its always time to remember that the only thing that will move politicians from their own agendas is strong voter feedback.
Action is the antidote to despair. - Joan Baez