Kristal Lee

Today I had anticipated blogging on love and relationships. However, perusing my local online newspaper, I came across a subject that I simply couldn’t get off my mind.

ANIMAL ABUSE

Most, if not all, of us have heard about Michael Vick’s conviction and incarceration for his involvement in a dog-fighting ring that tortured, maimed and killed dogs. And, his subsequent “reformation.”

But, do you know that felony animal-abuse incidents are occurring in your own home-town neighborhoods. Yes, the house next door. Where your kids play with their friends. Where you visit with neighbors, co-workers, and family members.

I was shocked, horrified and disgusted to read about an arrest of a 21 year old man who repeatedly sodomized his dog, a Whippet mix, so viciously that that animal services workers were forced to euthanize her. He pleaded no contest to animal cruelty charges and was sentenced to three years probation and forbidden to own animals.

WTF???!!!

No mandatory counseling? No charges of lewd and lascivious behavior? No charges of a sex crime? Simply because the victim was an animal???

Unbelievable!

According to Kathleen Kennedy, a spokesperson for the Orange County Animal Services Department, perpetrators of animal abuse have a five times higher rate of escalating into committing violent crimes.

Research also demonstrates a correlation between animal abuse and domestic violence.

I applaud The Cruelty Hurts campaign, launched last April by Orange County Animal Services. They have endeavored to develop cooperation between local law enforcement officers and have partnered with Central Florida Crimeline which actively prompts citizens to call their anonymous hotline. One tip lead to the discovery of a cock-fighting ring that was also harboring guns and illicit drugs. Another may have saved the life of a woman who was the victim of domestic violence. When officers arrived in her home to investigate a report of animal abuse, she was able to silently alert them to her own predicament by mouthing, “Help Me.” Which of course, they did. But if someone hadn’t picked up the phone to report suspected animal abuse, who knows what might have eventually happened to her.

I urge everyone to be aware of what’s happening around your home. Take walks through your neighborhood and get to know the people in your community. Check on those abandoned and foreclosed houses in your area to ensure that no animal was left behind. (Believe me, it happens every day. Our shelters are full of abandoned animals whose owners have moved out without them.)

And, please take animal cruelty seriously. Animal-abuse is a crime and can be prosecuted as a felony offense. Keep in mind that animal abusers often escalate to more violent crimes. You and your family could be at risk if an animal-abuser is allowed to continue that behavior unchallenged. Please don’t confront them yourself, as this could put you in harm’s way. Call your local crimeline and/or local law enforcement if you suspect someone of abusing or neglecting an animal.

Encourage community leaders, representative, congressmen, senators, and even our President to develop stronger and better measures for dealing with animal-abusers. Mandatory counseling for anger issues is a good place to start. And in cases where sex acts have been perpetrated upon animals, sexual behavior counseling seems a good idea.

Animals cannot defend themselves against such violence. It’s up to us to stand in the gap. Be an advocate and make your neighborhood a safe haven for all.


**Check out the article “Animal-abuse crackdown helps fight other crimes” by Kate Santich at OrlandoSentinel.com.

Seems some experts have determined that play time is not only good for kids, but adults as well. In fact, its essential to our well being. There’s even scientific research to prove it. Who knew that scientists were interested in playing? There’s even a National Institute for Play in California! According to some studies, play is a natural stress reliever with the proven health benefits of lowering blood pressure, increasing energy and reducing fatigue. Playfulness with a partner can increase romantic attraction and boost libido.


So, what qualifies as play? Whatever you find fun to do in which you have no goal except the sheer enjoyment of doing it. You remember those things, don’t you? The things that make you go wheeee! and woohoo!

Personally, I like stomping puddles in the rain. Its childish, undignified, and I’m definitely too old to be doing it, but that makes it all the more fun. I’ve also been known to walk by a ringing phone in a store,–you know, the ones hanging on the wall that the sales associates use to call different departments– pick it up and have a kooky conversation with the associate on the other end.

Sometimes a potentially embarrassing moment can be the constructs for a new game. While I was eating crab legs in a restaurant, water shot from the shell as I cracked it with my hands. It squirted over my shoulder like a miniature geyser and sprayed the woman sitting at the table behind me, who incidentally thought condensation from the air conditioning vent had dripped on her. Of course, then it became a game to see if I could do it again. Disappointingly to me, but probably not to the other patrons, I was unable to recreate the event. But that doesn’t deter me from trying whenever I eat crab legs.

Now, I have scientific endorsements for when I have moments like those and encouragement for more. Oh, I will relish telling my family and friends…Play, play, I must play.

For more information on Play, check out the article “Go Out and Play” by Margaret Renkl in the May 2010 edition of Ladies Home Journal.

~Kristal Lee

Procrastination: the art of delaying or deferring action until a later...much later...time. Yes, I consider it an art and writers are the Rembrandts of this medium. We even have our own name for it. Writers block.

Some psychologists believe our dedication to this masterpiece of dilly-dally is a coping mechanism for anxiety and stress over starting or completing a task. Ha! More likely it's the dreaded synopsis or sagging middles that has us frittering away our time. Although, on occasion, it's the characters. They just won't cooperate!

Once a werewolf leapt from my computer screen, straight through the picture window in front of my desk. He was a blur of black fur streaking across the yard as he bounded over the fence and disappeared into the woods behind the house. I've done my best to wrangle him home, but so far he remains MIA. And so, a blank page with a blinking cursor is my monument to him. When he finishes his wanderings, I'll be there with fingers nimbly poised over the keyboard ready to start his story again. Hopefully, he'll have new and exciting tales to tell.

In the meantime, the writer in me does what she always does.

She writes.

It might be an email to a friend, or a blog post. Even a comment on another writer's site. Anything that keeps me writing.

Writers block may be the bane of our existence, but it doesn't have to be the end of it.
~Kristal Lee

I'm a moody viewer, i.e., my mood dictates what TV program or DVD we watch at home. It's not uncommon for me to abruptly announce to hubby (in the middle of a show), "I don't want to watch this anymore. Put something else on." To his credit, he complies graciously...mostly. Usually my mood fluctuates while watching dramas. There's enough of that in my daily life so I'm not entertained by it. But sometimes, I'm just not in the "mood" for whatever is on.
Recently, we watched "ROLE MODELS," a slapstick comedy with Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott. The familiar anxious dread lurked in the shadows from the start. The opening segment was rude, crude, and those dudes were definitely getting on my nerves. But, I persevered. And I'm glad I did.

Starting out, the main character was self-absorbed and extremely unlikeable: male, turning 40, unhappy in life, and dragging down those around him.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly no Pollyanna. I believe we create our own inner turmoil with our compliance and acceptance of others' expectations as our own, assuming facades to camouflage our inherent nature in an effort to be accepted. To be "normal".
As the film progressed and the character stepped outside of his own disappointments and problems to aid a young boy, he learned that the way to true happiness is to be true to oneself. Conformity at the expense of one's nature equals self-destruction.

The universe is full of angry, accomplished, bitter, begrudging , resentful, successful souls. What it needs is a cosmic counter-balance of courageous, fly-in-the-face-of-convention, self-accepting, free spirits.
So, listen to the rhythm of your own soul and dance to its beat, even though someone may laugh. The world needs laughter. Find your inspiration in unlikely places and then follow where it leads. Skip backwards down the yellow-brick road. And when you find yourself on the road less traveled, be adventurous and take a friend.

Worry less about what others want you to be, think, say, or do; and, meditate more on who you are, what you think, and what you want to say and do.

Banish the stigma of being different. If the world needed us to all be alike then we would've been born clones, not individuals. Embrace your uniqueness. Dare to be different. Be true to yourself. Find happiness wherever you can and know in your heart that conforming to someone else's ideal of "normal" is way over-rated.

~Kristal Lee