RIP Sweet Jasmine

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I was so proud of Sports Illustrated for putting Sweet Jasmine, a Michael Vick dog, on its cover last year. But I am now saddened to learn through Bad Rap that Sweet Jasmine was struck and killed by a car last night. Go and rest with others now, Sweet Jasmine.

Breaking My Contract at Toren

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It’s official. I’ve hired a lawyer to help me get out of my contract at Toren. Just one year ago I was bursting at the seams at the idea of owning a piece of real estate in New York City, and now I am sitting here, tail in between my legs, desperately hoping to get my deposit back.

It’s not that I’ve had a change of heart. I haven’t. But things in my life have changed and taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

What Toren looks like one year after putting my deposit down.

For starters, two months after I put my life savings down and signed a contract at Toren, the credit crisis this country is currently steeped in just began to rear it’s ugly head. What’s more, in May I was reduced to half time at my job – a sign that the start-up Internet company I work for, is not doing well.

Myself and a group of buyers from the Toren joined forces to lobby the sponsors to reduce the prices of our condos to refelct current market rates. They relented and now I have but no choice to hire a layer who will look for loop holes in the offering plan and solicit the New York State Attorney General for the return of my down payment.

Life was different one year ago. I was newly married, gainfully employed and the future looked bright. I knew it was risky business buying a new construction condo that could take one year or more to build, but I could have never predicted this economic downturn. Not even the best of Wall Street’s analysts could.

 

Fifa Forever in Our Hearts

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Fifa’s foster mom, Saleena and I made the very painful and difficult decision of putting Fifa to sleep in the middle of the night. Her condition had deteriorated drastically between when I picked Fifa up Saturday and took her to Saleena’s home in Queens, to last night. Since Saturday night she had been having constant watery stool, wouldn’t eat much and drank profusely while becoming incontinent in the house. She could walk Saturday but was restless, taking two steps and falling down since yesterday.

The vet who put her down concurred with our second opinion that choosing not to mess around with an eight year old dog’s liver was the right thing – that the biopsy and surgery would have been highly invasive and risky. So it is almost a blessing that we were not able to come up with the $4,000 estimate.

It is my belief that Fifa had no idea what was going on and was already half gone before they administered the injection. Saleena held her and I spoke gently to her. As heavy and sad as it was, we’ve at least been able to find solace in the fact that unlike millions of other animals that die in shelters every year, Fifa had love and quality end of life care.

Thank you to the few individual donors that came through as well as the generous donation from Friends of Animal Rescue. It is a shame that everyone’s vital contribution ended this way, but I wanted to say thank you nonetheless.

Fifa’s vet fund

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Fifa, an eight year old sweetheart, was recently left outside of Animal Care and Control tied up to a fence. She was given a stellar evaluation and quickly became a shelter favorite.

Fifa was rescued by United Action for Animals and had a foster home in Queens all lined up with Saleena Hernandez. But after further evaluation, what was thought to be a simple tumor on Fifa’s mammary gland is actually fluid in her tummy. In order to get a proper diagnosis, Fifa needs to go to a specialist to have an ultrasound done.

We are not ready to give up on Fifa just yet and could use your help to get her the diagnosis needed to move forward. We know these are hard times, but if you can donate something, anything, to Fifa’s cause, please click here.

You may also send a check or money order made payable to United Action for Animals to:

United Action for Animals

P.O. Box 635

New York, NY 10021

Bronx dogfighting trial delays

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Unfortunately the Bronx dogfighting trial which was scheduled to commence today, was hit with more defense attorney delays. A lawyer representing one of the five alleged dogfighters/spectators went on vacation.

The trial has now been pushed back to Tuesday, September 29th. If you live in the NYC area, please consider coming out to support the voiceless victims. The judge has taken notice of our presence and it has certainly had an impact.

Letting nature take it’s course…

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The baby bird in this picture was hopping along a tree-lined street in Brooklyn Heights when Jason and I happened upon her. She was trying to fly but couldn’t. Perhaps she left the nest too soon…

Her mom talked to her from the tree branches up above and kept her eyes astutely on Jason and I as we rescued her from underneath a parked SUV and then again from the steps to someone’s garden apartment that she had gone down, but could not get back up.

We even witnessed her mother catch a fly mid-flight and then swoop down to put it in the beak of her baby. She did it again with a tiny worm and then again with the crumpled up pieces of bread we threw to her.

We put in a phone call to our good friend Jen from United Action for Animals for a bird rescue reference, spoke to the person and found out everything we were doing was just about all we could do. She said the bird sounded healthy and that the natural steps to first flight were playing out the way it was supposed to. The other alternative she gave us was to capture the bird and bring it to her on the Upper West Side so she could rehab it and eventually release it back into the wild.

It was a tough decision – to finally walk away and leave the baby bird to fend for itself on the streets of Brooklyn, but neither Jason or I were willing to take it away from its mother. And so baby bird, I go to bed praying that you will find your wings tonight…