Month: September 2014

Yesterday there was a pet adoption event in Union Square that was sponsored by the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals. I was commenting on Facebook about all the animals who need homes and I learned an astounding statistic.

Apparently it’s not so true that there are more available animals than homes/adopters. 17 million people plan to get a pet in the next year, according to this short video from the Humane Society. It’s more a matter of spreading the word to potential adopters to adopt a shelter animal vs a puppymill pet. I knew this was true, but I didn’t know how true. Kill shelters could become a thing of the past by shifting attention to shelter adoption AND outlawing puppymills and shutting down the stores that use them.

Of course I took a few pictures at the adoption event. First, pitbulls have to be one of the most photogenic animals on the face of the earth. You can’t take a bad picture of them. They all have such impossibly sweet eyes and expressions. Who can resist this face??

I wanted very very badly to adopt this girl. But I’ve already made Finney’s life miserable with Bleecker. I can’t introduce a dog. But I think when Finney has “moved on” I might give a dog a try. Bleecker might like a dog. Does anyone have opinions about this? Would a cat miss having another cat around? Would a dog miss having a dog? Or would a one cat/one dog household work?

It’s a baby pigeon! This was at the booth for the Wild Bird Fund, a wonderful organization who nursed the sick pigeon I brought them a year or two ago. They were in the process of feeding this little guy when I took this shot.

I was shocked to see our police commissioner William Bratton there. I’m kicking myself for not introducing myself. He wouldn’t remember of course, but I interviewed him for my book about the NYPD’s Cold Case Squad. Why didn’t I go up to him? What is wrong with me?? I’ll be hating myself for weeks about this.

Anyway, enough about self-loathing me. That is Sergeant Barbara Thomas to Bratton’s right. She is the Commanding Officer of the NYPD’s Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad. She was there with Det. Roman (not pictured). We love her and her squad!

I went out to Brooklyn on Friday to hear a presentation about a citizen journalist group from Turkey called 140 Journos, except they’ve now shortened it to Journos. They want to share the tools they’ve developed with others. Now that newspapers clearly appear to be dying, I’ve been paying attention to what will be taking its place. This is something different though, because it’s not really new journalism exactly, as counter-journalism.

I’m also interested in exploring other ways to tell a story beyond a book (something I started way back when in grad school). I still love books, so I’m hoping to come up with an expanded book form, a super book.

On the way to the presentation, which was in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I was caught by the graffiti, which was everywhere. I want to go back and explore this neighborhood. It hasn’t been completely taken over yet.

I have been unable to make up my mind about what I should do today, and so far have ended up doing nothing! I have a ticket to an event/presentation called Re-tooling Citizen Journalism where I hope to learn about new tools, but based on my behavior so far today we shall see if I leave the house! But this sounds great:

“Re-tooling Citizen Journalism is an event dedicated to empowering citizen journalists with new digital storytelling tools and bringing them up to speed with the equipments of a citizen news agency. We aim to make better use of existing tools and build new ones in order to encourage more citizens to participate in reporting, explaining, and analyzing their own news stories.”

Washington Square Park at night, where the children (slightly older children) play.

Twenty million times a day I screech, “BLEECKER!” No matter what I do he will never ever stop trying to play with Finney. It’s heartbreaking for both of them. For poor Bleecker who has no one to play with, and for poor Finney who just wants to relax and enjoy his senior years in peace.

A second after taking this shot I yelled “BLEECKER!” But that only resulted in …

A temporary retraction of the paw. Stealth Bleecker. Just biding his time. By the way, those toys all over the place? They’re proof of how much I love my cats. I can’t stand clutter but I make sure to have plenty of things available to bat around. Ping pong balls are a favorite.