Drama

Yesterday I posted about a topic that is very important to me – helping to save the lives of animals, and educating people on ways to live with your animals with allergies. I also included ways to find dogs that are less allergenic than others.

Someone got all bent out of shape and accused me of blogging about them for my personal gain. There was one paragraph in that blog (a short one, too) that referred to them, and yes, it was the catalyst for that post. However, if you know me and read my blog regularly, you’ll know that I often post about animals, rescuing animals, and how I feel about people who don’t take pet ownership seriously. So to think a whole post was directed toward them and only for MY benefit was a gross assumption. Oh, but I did gain from it personally – a whole $1.25 from page impressions.

This is my blog, and I blog about things that are important to me. I don’t take sponsored posts if I can’t find some relevance to my own life. I won’t blog about products I won’t use or don’t believe in. If I want to blog about something because I feel it will make a difference, I will.

I was also called an “animal activist” yesterday by someone. Should that insult me? Hell no. I am strong in my convictions and beliefs, and if you’re offended by something that I say, maybe you will learn something from it anyway. I have volunteered in animal shelters for almost 10 years, have read countless books and studies, and feel very strongly about the topic of animal welfare. Am I as bad as PETA? Well, no. That’s an extreme that even I find offensive. But you know what? The person that called me an “animal activist” showed no compassion toward animals in the rest of his statement, and I can assure you – he is not the kind of person that I would want to associate with.

The whole thing has caused a bit of family drama, but honestly, I couldn’t care less. I stand firm in my beliefs. Yes, I do realize that there are extenuating circumstances in every situation but to say that you actually DID research dog breeds and then come home with a lab shows me that was a blatant lie. No book, breeder, shelter or website would ever tell you to adopt a lab if you have allergy issues. Period. Did I mention that I have allergies to dogs and cats to? (yes, I did) I’m most allergic to my mom’s lab. Oh.. and I also had about 6 years of allergy shots as a child for my many allergies (including the ones to our dog).

My husband just wants butterflies and rainbows when it comes to his family. Maybe it once was, but it can’t always be. I am not comfortable keeping my mouth shut about topics that are important to me. It’s been hard enough keeping my mouth shut about the fact that his mom has not had their 8 year old female spayed. I can’t keep quiet on everything. I’m not going to change who I am to conform. I don’t expect everyone in the family to like me and don’t lose sleep at night over it. Likewise, I also don’t have to like everyone either.

And the bottom line is, this is my blog. While I do have faithful readers, the reason I created it in the first place was to have somewhere to get my thoughts out and talk about things that are important to me. My post yesterday was about how to live with animals and allergies. It wasn’t about ANYONE, it was about a topic. I will continue to blog about my passion for animals and hope to educate others in the process. I’ve blogged about responsible pet ownership in the past, and it’s not something I’m going to stop doing just for rainbows and butterflies.

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