My Fire Hydrant

Angela is our Coordinator for the Office of Animal Welfare. She has been with P&G Pet Care for four and a half years.

1. What pets share your life?
I have three beautiful dogs–all rescued–that are my “children.” Asanya is our oldest, a whippet at 9 years of age, was a rescue from Whippet Rescue of Ohio, and she’s the head honcho of our family. Petite and lean, she knows how to work a room (you just can’t resist that face). Samson, our 8-year-old boxer, was rescued from a family that could no longer care for them for personal reasons. He’s goofy, makes us laugh every day, and is becoming more regal with every grey hair that comes in; older dogs are just the best. Cheech is our newest addition (3 years ago). He was a “failed foster” from Greater Ohio Boxer Rescue (we fell in love with him and decided to break the cardinal rule of fostering and adopt him). He’s about 6 1/2 years old and has just received his pet therapy certification! What a wonderful story to tell people. He’s our well-behaved little guy that I take EVERYWHERE with me. We love them each so much.

2. What are your pets most unusual habits?
Asanya will stop at EVERY tree on a walk and–no, not pee on it–will look up to see if there’s a squirrel she can entice down. Some days I think she thinks she’s a monkey… Samson LOVES balloons and will jump right in the middle of the strings to pull them all down from the ceiling. He wraps himself in the middle as if he’s deep in the jungle on a safari. Then he’ll pounce on them individually as if they’re prey. He’s also afraid of construction cones…go figure. Cheech likes to lie his big fat head right on top of my head to wake me up in the morning. There’s no feeling quite like being smothered in the morning. But he’s learned it works, I pop right up!

3. What’s your favorite story about pets in the office?
I LOVE taking Cheech to work with me. He makes me really look forward to breaks and lunches that I used to just work straight through. I love taking him on the Paw Path…a doggy trail on campus at work…and out in the field to play on lunch. And he loves it too. He’s so excited to come to work with me in the mornings!

4. What is your favorite part of working at Pet Care?
I think I have the best job in the world. I get to help find homes for the dogs and cats that have formerly worked for Pet Care. It’s like finding a home for a child…we know them all individually: their name, their personality, which animals are in their playgroups, what they like to play with, who their favorite people are, everything about them. It’s the best feeling in the world to get the feedback, updates, and follow-up pictures from adopters. I’m so blessed to have found such a wonderful job so early in my career!

For the past 10 days, I have been obsessing over Twilight.

Are you familiar with this series of books? Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and (I recently discovered) a partially finished manuscript on Stephenie Meyer’s web site called Midnight Sun.

I’ve been very annoyed with myself for getting sucked into this vortex. I’ve put my real life on hold because I’ve had my head stuck in one of the four-and-a-half (I’ve been reading Midnight Sun on my iPhone and going blind) books. I’ve been trapped in the story even when I’m not reading.

Almost all the time during the past 10 days my enjoyment in reading about Bella and Edward has been tempered with a certain amount of cynicism and some outright disgust. What kind of love includes stalking and fear? And why was I finding this so appealing?

I finally had to resort to some online research to resolve my feelings, and here’s what I’ve decided: Edward is like a dog (With the exception of the last book of the series Breaking Dawn–I’m still trying to figure that one out).

TOP TEN REASONS WHY EDWARD IS SIMILAR TO THE BEST KIND OF DOG

10. He has inspired cult-like forums and web sites, similar to breed-specific forums and web sites

9. He is as polarizing as a discussion on what dog food to feed (raw versus kibble, brand A versus brand B)

8. He has a face that is “angelic,” something all dogs have

7. He is fascinating to watch

6. He watches over Bella as she sleeps

5. He follows Bella around when she’s awake

4. He snarls and growls when he plays with Bella

3. He snarls and growls when danger threatens Bella

2. He exists just to make sure that Bella is happy

And the number 1 reason: He gives Bella unconditional love

If you are interested in further reading the following links were very helpful to me and I highly recommend them (especially if you’ve felt as conflicted as I have in your response to the Twilight series):

My Thoughts on Twilight

Five Reasons a Smart Young Woman Adores Twilight

Five Reasons a Smart Middle Aged Woman Loathes Twilight

And because the movie just didn’t do it for me: If Twilight Was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest.

I’ve discussed it with some of my friends. We’re seriously thinking of starting a Twilight 12-step program.

Twilightaholics Anonymous?