I agree it takes time, but how rewarding it is to see a pitiful and abused animal blossom into the pet it should be! For anyone who is bothered by the way things are with the puppy mills, and backyard breeders, and other forms of animal abuse (dog fighting, experiments in labs, etc) please consider getting more politically involved. Check out the Humane Society websites and read up on legislature regarding animals. Seek out animal alliance groups in your state, they should all be online. Find out what politicians in your state are for the tougher laws, and write to both them and the ones that are not. Most websites will even have form letters you can copy and paste to make it easier for you to do this. Even if all you do is write a few letters, it is a big thing! And we ALL have time to do it! I know there are alot of people out there who really care about animals, but there are also alot that don't - the abusers and the people who have no problem dumping their pets on the street or in a shelter when the animal becomes an inconvenience for ANY reason, whether they are moving and can't be bothered finding an animal friendly rental, or because they did not take the time to train the animal properly, and every excuse in between. Even if today I found enough homes for every homeless animal in every shelter, tomorrow the shelters would fill up again. We can't save them all, but we can take the steps toward enacting tougher laws, we can adopt instead of buying a puppy or kitten, and we can spay and nueter. We can tell those in charge that if things don't change, they can forget about getting our vote. This suffering is not an impossible problem to fix if we all commit to doing what has to be done!

Thanks everyone! Funny story regarding his name. He started out as Thomas, named after a favorite uncle of mine. I use to call him that and only that. But when he was about 4 YO he came home rom preschool and told me, not asked, that he be called Tommy. Now he goes by Tom or Tommy or his full name when he is in trouble. LOL Clare

My husband died on December 19, 2008. His funeral was the 23rd - This is my fourth Christmas without him. Any real joy in the holidays died with him - it will always been the anniversary of the saddest week of my life. Since then, I've also become estranged from one of my daughters, due to her mental illness and alcoholism. Today was quiet - son and I shared a turkey dinner I cooked. No tree, no presents, no decorations - one grandson called briefly, said he was "making the rounds" and would be over soon - never showed up. I told son if he had not been with me today, I would have been totally alone all day - might as well have just been any old day. Next year I'm seriously considering just taking a cruise over the holidays - never been on one, so maybe it's time to see what that's like. The secret is to not have very high expectations of the day.

all the struggles that you guys mentioned above are miniature comparing to my struggles but do I give up? Oh no way, the whole point is to have a hope what will that fig make next spring and many times it's not to have many many figs to eat? it is to see what's going on and even if i see just 2 figs at least i see how do they look like, and i live in a a very very cold climate, and yes I do the same like some of you: in-out-in-out-in-out :-) , ouch it's cold tonight