Keep a kitty or puppy warm this winter!

**For Minneapolis Area readers-
I volunteer with Pet Haven, and I wrote this blog to post around the internet, because Pet Haven has found many stray and homeless animals that need adoption this winter! Please read on, and come to one of the adoption sites upcoming!**

Do you want to give that special someone a cat or dog, kitty or puppy? Please do so by adopting from Pet Havens' wonderful animals. Pet Haven, a non-profit institution that is based around finding and providing vet care for homeless dogs and cats, and have a number of excellent animals that need warm homes this cold winter.

If you will be receiving a pet as a gift, or giving a pet as a gift this holiday season; please wrap up a food dish, a few toys and present it to the lucky recipient, inviting them to attend an adoption (listed below) right after the holiday to make a selection. Most of the company will be gone, presents are given and there is time to welcome and introduce your new choice in a quieter and calmer setting - lots of time for warm snuggles and new games.

All of the animals that come to Pet Haven are cared for, fed, given medical attention, shots and trimming so that he or she is ready for adoption right away. Even if you are not sure if adopting a pet is on your holiday wish list, you can get a few laughs and licks by attending one of these three free-to-everyone adoption events and meeting the cute little faces that need a home:

Dec. 6 from 11-1pm, At the PetCo in Richfield
Dec. 7, 1-3 p.m. At the PetCo in West St. Paul
Sunday, Dec. 21, 1-3 p.m. At the PetCo in Richfield

The animals would love to see you. We also need your help. Please help our cause by telling other friends and families about adopting these great animals into families this winter. Feel free to copy and paste this entire message on your blog, website, or into an e-mail and send it out to your friends and family. You can go on-line right now and browse some of these cats and dogs, and also look at pictures and read about some of the unique animals on the pethaven dog blog , and the pethaven cat blog .

Let's work together to give all these cats and dogs a place to stay warm and loved this holiday season!

(I will be attending the Friday event listing above and taking some pictures!)

My angry letter to Amnesty International

Here is the letter I wrote to Amnesty on Wednesday, Nov 26th 2008:



Dear Amnesty International,

Stop sending me packets of your material. I strongly regret my donation to your charity organization.

A few months ago, I was shopping at my favorite co op in Minneapolis, called the Wedge. Outside were a number of volunteers asking for donations to Amnesty. I was curious enough to enter a conversation with a young, nervous, guy who was very nice and friendly and urgent about getting donations to help support a number of important causes. I really had no money to spare, but during our extended conversation about Amnesty, of which, I knew only a minimal amount about, I ended up giving him a one time cash donation of 10 dollars.

Since then I had received more materials in the mail than the 10 dollars I donated could afford; when factoring printing cost, postage, ect. I found it very disgusting that my donation was simply used to further solicit myself. I feel that my kind donation was squandered away, in less than three months. I think it is very bad practice to take small one time cash donations and further solicit them with mass mailings. It is shameless and a horrible waste of money.

I feel that the volunteer would be saddened to find out the $10 he got from me, was spent solely on trying to coerce me out of more money through very impersonal and lavish mass mailings. I also think it is a shame that my $10 did not go the causes this volunteer had convinced me my donation was going towards. It goes to show that even good deeds do not go unpunished, and I think this conduct of mass mailings, especially to those unable or unwilling to support for larger sums of money, is very bad practice for Amnesty International.

I understand that your organization is constantly in need of donations, however, maybe you would not need so much money if you cut back on this ridiculously obese mailing frenzies to those that obviously can barely scrape together enough for a one time donation. A simple solution to this problem would be to ask each individual if they could conceive of giving money in the future, ask when that might be, and let the individual that they will be receiving a reminder in the mail at that time asking for future donations. This way you will be saving money on wasted mailers, and saving the money-less charitable person a pile of unwanted junk mail. I doubt that my suggestions will be given any consideration.

While I believe you, Amnesty, stand for good things, the methods are simply not to my liking and you will not be receiving any more donations from me. Please take me off your mailing list.


William Hessian

Aids awareness in Namibia

My high school friend, Aleks Hindin, is going to teach english and raise HIV awareness in Namibia, near South Africa. Aleks asked me last week to help out and draw him a logo he can use on his website.

I told him I could, and I did as evidenced below:


Aleks is going with World Teach, and needs to raise money for his trip. I wanted to support his project here on Zombie Robot Frosting: health, immortality, technology blog and tell my readers about his efforts.

You can visit Aleks' Namibiapage about this volunteer trip, and how to contribute to his efforts. In 2003 21% of the adult population in Namibia were infected with the HIV virus, and Aelks and World Teach are trying to raise awareness and help educate their people.

Aleks needs to raise $6000, let's help him do this. I also want to encourage everyone to think about donating your time and effort to a good cause. Lets make this world a better place.

'Meow Off' kitty benefit

Pet Haven
Pet Haven is a non-profit organization in Minnesota that rescues and re-homes cats and dogs, spays and neuters to reduce overpopulation, promotes responsible guardianship through educational programs, and advocates on behalf of companion animals.

Meow Off!
Kelsey and myself have just started volunteering, and the first event I got to go to was a Meow Off! The Meow Off raised money for Pet Haven and showed off 11 cats, of which 4 were up for adoption. The cats were judged, and awarded prizes based on their meowing, and also based on their costume. I wanted to post some pictures of the event, I also plan to make a short video of footage I took during the show, but that will have to wait until I find the time to put it together. The Pet Haven crew was very fun to work with. Kelsey and myself were assigned to decorating the prize bags and putting up spiffy signs. I also was the vote counter, to declare the winners of the Meow Off based on the judges votes. The intensity was almost too much to handle. The cats up for adoption were really amazing. You can see pictures of cats currently up for adoption on Pet Haven's cat and dog blogs.

Volunteering
If you live in Minnesota and want to become a volunteer, there are many options to help out. You can spread information, help on the website, be a dog or cat foster parent, or many other positions. You can find a list of volunteer opportunities here. If you want to help donate money to the program please check their website. I will be posting more about my involvement with Pet Haven in the future.

enjoy the Meow Off pictures!

Winner of the contest competition, cute hat and jersey. 


The cat walk portion of the meow off



A paw for the crowd

This kitty did not much love the outfit, but was a good sport. And took home a prize.

These were the calmest cats in the group. Practically sleeping through the Meow Off! The white one did hiss when one of the oprhan kitties broke free and went running around the Double Tree in St. Louis Park.

If you would like to see more meow off pictures you should see the meow off blog!