As Bright as the Sun: A dog's life AFTER dog fighting

I never knew much about the dog-fighting world until I read Cynthia Schlichting’s As Bright as the Sun. If you think you know something about it, click on the link I provided, go to Amazon, and buy it. I doubt you know enough.

Cindy and her husband, Brian, are the proud parents of (currently) three “fur kids.” They have Foster, Jane, and Bella. Foster, a German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix, was their first adoption, and he was soon followed by Jane, a Rottweiler herself. Cindy and Brian love their kids the way parents of two-legged, non-fur-covered children love theirs. As Bright as the Sun is as much an homage to these kinds of families as it is the story of Bella, the former bait dog.

In the book, Cindy opens the door to her and Brian’s life and invites the reader in with a genuineness that makes you feel right at home. You get to know Cindy as a single girl with two cats, and then Cindy and Brian with two cats, and then you get to meet the dogs. She shares their love for each other and for the animals who share their home, and she describes the thoughts she and Brian had before each adoption as well as how those adoptions progressed. If you’re an animal lover, you’ll love these stories.

But when Cindy discovers Bella, a rescued Pit Bull-mix who had been used as a bait dog in a dog-fighting ring for years, her and Brian’s life changes forever. Cindy uses some creative license to reconstruct Bella’s life for the reader, and she does a wonderful job of this. Through Cindy’s eyes, we get to see where Bella was born, where she grew up, and how she was stolen by the dog fighters. We suffer with Bella as she is tortured and starved. And we rejoice with Bella when she is rescued and given her “forever home” with Cindy and Brian.

Cindy wrote this book because she wanted to shed more awareness on the world of dog fighting. She wanted people to understand how prevalent it is, how incredibly horrible it is, and how we all can do something to help the innocent victims of those dog-fighting rings. She is donating 40 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the book to Eagle’s Den Animal Haven and Rescue, Inc. (where she and Brian found Bella) and to Where Hope Lives Humane Society, so you can help right away just by purchasing her book!

Cindy and Brian are proud parents to Foster, Jane, and Bella. You’ll see their love shines As Bright as the Sun when you read the book. You’ll be touched by the story as I was.

I’m proud to call Cindy and Brian my friends—and Foster, Jane, and Bella too!

Obama and his idea of "work"

Guess what Obama’s up to now. We’ve already established that he really likes big government and wants to keep growing it, right? He wants people dependent on the government so that they will continue to support the big government that supports them. We’ve got that straight, right? Well, listen to what he wants to do with “welfare reform.” It’s another end-run around Congress.

In 1996 President Clinton signed into law The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. This was truly welfare reform. The 1996 act required people who were receiving time-limited assistance to work or to participate in job-training programs, and the federal government rewarded states that had high percentages of people moving from welfare to work.

Under the 1996 law—passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, remember—after two years of assistance, recipients had to go to work. If families had been receiving assistance for five cumulative years, they were no longer eligible for cash aid from the government.

So what does Obama want to do, you ask? He wants the White House—not the federal government because that would mean he’d have to change the law LEGALLY and go through Congress—he wants the White House to issue waivers to people changing the definition of what it means to “work.” Are you ready to hear what he considers “work”? I don’t think you are, but I’m going to tell you anyway. Obama wants to grant people “work” waivers if they:

• Are on bed rest
• Engage in motivational reading
• Get massages
• Exercise
• Engage in journaling
• Engage in personal care activities
• Stop smoking
• Engage in weight loss promotion
• Participate in parent-teacher meetings
• Help a friend/relative with chores

How can people support this man? He wants as many people in this country dependent on the government as he can possibly make happen. Look what he’s done so far. Think about what could happen in another four years.

Please, vote to save our United States of America in November.

Breaking Bad: Magnets, anyone?

The Season 5 premiere of Breaking Bad started off as most of the seasons have—flashing us forward and then sending us back to right where we left off with Season 4. So how much of a glimpse did we get of the final episode of the series when we saw Walt open that trunk and stare at that machine gun? Where will the 14 episodes in between last night’s and the final one take us? Who will die? And will Hank finally figure out who Heisenberg is?

I regretted not re-watching Season 4 as soon as the episode started. With hubby’s help, though, I soon got caught up: Gus is truly dead (I wasn’t sure, right at first). Jesse’s still got Walt’s back. (It cracks me up that Jesse still calls him “Mr. White.”) Hank’s still hot on the trail. Skyler is still a force to be reckoned with—even though Walt scares her now that she knows he’s responsible for Gus’s violent death. (Ask Ted Beneke how much Skyler scares him!) Okay…You’re caught up pretty well now too.

When Mike found out that Gus was dead, I couldn’t figure out where he was going so fast until he almost (literally) ran into Walt. Never underestimate the loyalty an injured underling feels for his crime boss. I loved Jesse when he jumped in front of Walt to stop Mike from killing him right there in the middle of the desert. And I loved it that Jesse could stop him—Mike really grew to like and respect Jesse last season.

The trio’s mad dash for Gus’s laptop was all for naught, though, and Mike was ready to run while Walt was bent on fixing the problem—the problem being the cops had the laptop with all of the video footage of the basement lab implicating all three of them. Jesse’s next-best scene came when he sat there in the background saying, “Or a magnet.” A little louder. “Or a MAGNET!” And then, “OR A MAGNET!” I was laughing out loud as he finally got their attention and the light bulb went on over Walt’s head.

As is usually the case, the show made me laugh as Jesse, Walt, and Mike committed a major crime. The magnet in the truck, the truck on its side, the evidence sticking to the wall in the evidence room—that’s some good stuff—and it was their ticket (they hope) to escaping detection for their part in the making of the meth.

I was also glad to see smarmy, slimy Saul back in action. The look on his face when Walt told him, “We’re done when I say we’re done,” was great. I’m not worried about him. I’m sure he’ll make out fine in the deal. Even if he did help Skyler hand more than $600,000 of Walt’s money to a man who was sleeping with Skyler. As Saul said, Walt was “kinda busy with other things.”

I’m so glad Breaking Bad is back, and I’m glad it doesn’t seem to have slowed down one iota. I’ll miss Walt, Jesse, and company when the season (and the series) is done, but I can’t wait to see where they take me before the end.

Buckle up. Breaking Bad is back and Heisenberg’s driving.

A Child Lost in Flight -- Review of a Memoir

On June 18, 2009, the worst thing that can happen to parents happened to Mohan and Suja: their baby died. In an effort to work through his grief, Mohan wrote A Child Lost in Flight, a brief memoir that chronicles in excruciating detail the death of Aditya as well as Mohan and Suja’s struggle to move on after the tragedy.

I give little away if I tell you that Mohan and Suja are Indian immigrants who lived in Canada when Aditya was born. For a myriad of reasons, they decided to return to their homeland, where their families lived, so that they could raise their son with a much bigger support network than what they had in Canada. I also give little away if I tell you that Aditya died very suddenly on the flight to India.

Aditya’s death and the events that took place once the plane landed will wrench out your heart. Mohan spares no details as he describes what happens once he and Suja disembark from Flight 229. I sobbed as I read what transpired in India over the next few days, and I bet that most people who read his story will shed at least a few tears.

Ultimately, I think that’s what Mohan needed and hoped for when he wrote the book. I think he needed to reach out and let others feel his pain so that maybe he wouldn’t have to feel so much of it. I think he also wanted to let other parents who have suffered similar losses know that they’re not alone, even if they feel completely isolated from the world in their grief.

It doesn’t matter where we live or what God we pray to. The pain of losing a child is recognizable in any language. Faith, love, and family are what we need to move on in our lives when fate deals us such a violent blow. Mohan and Suja survived their loss, and in A Child Lost in Flight, Mohan offers their experience as a testament to show that it can be done—that the deepest, darkest night will end.

The Walking Dead: "Beside the Dying Fire" Season Finale

In “Beside the Dying Fire, the finale of Season 2 of The Walking Dead, a huge question is answered, bigger questions are raised, and survival is—as always—the name of the game.

Carl and Rick don’t have much time to discuss Shane’s death, his rise as a walker, and his second death before they realize a humongous mob of zombies is pouring out of the woods toward them. (If you puzzled over where they came from like I did, here’s what I deduced from the flashback: the helicopter attracted them, they started to follow it, and then, because they’re incapable of independent thought or reason, they just kept walking and walking and walking in that direction. Is that what you decided too?)

Rick and Carl run for the barn and Rick decides to try and attract as many of the walkers as he can, hoping they’ll follow him into the barn. It’s not a bad plan—there are just too many zombies for the fire that he and Carl set inside the barn to be of much benefit. Some of the walkers die, yes, but not enough of them. The farm is under siege.

It’s chaos as everyone tries to flee. My husband and I dubbed the very minor members of Hershel’s farm family—Patricia and Jimmy—as “red shirts,” and it was an appropriate moniker as they both died bloody deaths trying to escape the mob.

Lori is frantic because she doesn’t know where Carl is, but she jumps in a truck with T-Dogg and Beth and escapes. (I hate Lori, by the way. “Shane was always there for me. I love Rick. I needed Shane. I don’t know whose baby I’m carrying.” Gag.)

Hershel is determined to die trying to save his farm, but when Rick and Carl find him, Rick makes him leave with them. “It’s my farm!” hollers Hershel. Looking at the swarm of zombies, Rick tells him, “Not anymore it isn’t.”

Carol seems to be a goner until Daryl spies her and rescues her, the two of them escaping on his motorcycle. Glenn and Maggie make it out. That leaves only Andrea, and although I don’t really like her, I do admire her strength. So I was disgruntled—not quite sad, but definitely bothered—that she was left behind. What a fighter she is…and what will happen to her now that that dark-robed figure has found her. One of the big questions for next season.

Once the whole group is reunited, they turn to Rick for guidance but many seem unhappy with his decisions—especially the decision he made long ago to keep them in the dark about something the scientist told him at the CDC: all of them are infected with the virus. That’s why Randall and Shane turned after they died even though they hadn’t been bitten. And that, my friends, is the basis for the biggest questions for next season.

How will the infection affect them from here on out—both physically and mentally? Will the group continue to trust Rick, now that they know he kept this from them? (Should he have done so?) What does this mean for Lori’s baby? Will it be born in some weird, mutated form, infected from conception? And how will Lori and Carl relate to Rick now that they know he killed Shane?

It’s such a compelling show that always makes me wonder what I would do if faced with such terrible choices. I can’t wait to see what they do with Season 3 of The Walking Dead. Was that the prison in the distance?

The Walking Dead: Rick killed Shane in "Better Angels"

In “Better Angels,” the next to last episode of Season 2 of The Walking Dead, we see Shane push the boundaries farther than he ever has, and we see him pay the price. Unfortunately, others get caught up in the wake of his actions.

Shane hasn’t been himself since he shot Otis and left him behind for the walkers—and let’s face it, Shane’s original character left little to commend. Leaving people behind for dead wasn’t new to him. Sacrificing others for his own good wasn’t new to him. But this act seemed to stain whatever good might have been present, and he became nothing but a destructive malignancy within the group.

Were you surprised when Shane led Randall off into the woods and broke his neck? Nope. Me neither. I was surprised, though, when Randall showed up as a walker. What the heck? We knew how he died, and it wasn’t as a zombie meal. So what’s up? The last episode reveals that answer.

When Shane slapped himself upside the head after killing Randall and then rammed his face into a tree, his deterioration became even more apparent. When he and Rick took off together to try and find the “escaped” Randall, did you have that sinking feeling in your gut that they both weren’t coming out of it alive? Me too. Were you ready to say goodbye to Shane? I was. It was time for him to go.

When Rick finally faced off with Shane and stood seemingly defenseless against him, his gun innocuously outstretched in his left hand, I thought maybe Shane was going to get away with it. (How could the show go on without Rick, though, you ask? I don’t think it could. That’s why I said “maybe.”) The knife Rick drew and shoved up into Shane’s torso surprised—and thrilled—me. I am so glad he’s gone.

He almost wasn’t, though, was he?

What the heck is up with these dead people coming back as walkers? Again, the final episode reveals the truth—and it’s a doozy.

I’d be negligent if I didn’t comment on Carl’s well-timed appearance and his amazingly good aim with Daryl’s gun. Carl saved his dad’s life, but again, at what cost? Carl loved Shane. When will all the baggage that boy is carrying become too much for him to handle? The growth of his character has been one of the most interesting ones in the show.

There’s only one episode of Season 2 of The Walking Dead left to blog about. And there’s a mob of walkers on the way.

The Walking Dead: Kill Randall? in "Judge, Jury, Executioner"

If you had been part of the group in The Walking Dead episode “Judge, Jury, Executioner,” how would you have voted? Should they have killed Randall or kept him prisoner?

There were convincing arguments to kill him: he’s got 30 scary friends, he knows where Rick & Co. are hiding, and he’s another mouth to feed. There were convincing arguments not to kill him: if they’re civilized, they wouldn’t do it; he hadn’t done anything to them; they saved him in the first place.

The arguments to kill him came mainly from Shane. Dale spoke up—mostly alone—against killing Randall. Sounds true to both characters, doesn’t it?

For the record, I was in favor of keeping him prisoner. I wouldn’t have been comfortable killing someone who hadn’t hurt me or the people I love. My daughter felt the way I did. My husband didn’t want to kill him either, but he did want to take him far away and drop him off.

We’ll never know which would have been the best choice.

But it is interesting that the voice of morality and reason is the one that was silenced in this episode. Will others wear the hat? Will they honor Dale as they said they would?

And what about Carl? The lost boy…the boy who doesn’t believe in God or heaven. The boy who antagonized a walker. The boy who stole Daryl’s gun, who intended to kill that walker. The boy who blames himself for Dale. And, finally, the boy who took the gun his dad offered him. What is going to happen to Carl? Who is he becoming and who can control it?

There was also one sweet moment, wasn’t there? When Hershel gave Glenn the watch—and his approval? Did that give you the warm fuzzies? It did me, which is nice because usually The Walking Dead only gives me the creeps…in a really good way.