My Contribution To Black Friday

Forgive me for being a "day late (give or take) and a dollar short" as my mother would say, but I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family and loved ones. Although I've been "MIA" (missing in action) for a few days now from the blogging world, I spent a good portion of my Thanksgiving at my in-laws house with my husband's mother and father, 4 sisters, their husbands, his brother and girlfriend, assorted cousins, nieces and nephews, as well as my 2 stepdaughters and their significant others.  He has a large family and I think the final count at dinner was 31, which is pretty overwhelming when you're from a small family as I am.  But over time you get used to the noise and chaos and they're all extremely close so it makes for a nice get together. And the food! Good grief! Enough to feed everyone with leftovers to spare - and maybe a small country, too.  There is definitely much to be thankful for.  Since my own family is several hours away, I'll be spending my Christmas with them.   We usually have to alternate holiday visits this way so we get to spend time with everyone during the holiday season. 

Although the day after Thanksgiving was "Black Friday," I refuse to get sucked into the madness of setting my alarm before dawn so I can rush to the malls with the rest of the crowds.  Speaking of which, one of my stepdaughters, who works part-time at Bed Bath & Beyond, had to be to work at 3:15 AM to be ready for their store opening at 4:00 AM(!)  I'm sorry, but this is nothing short of insanity to me.  There is NO store or reason on this earth for me to be anywhere but home at 4:00 AM. Doesn't matter what deal they're offering (or even giving away for that matter), it will never hold any allure for me in this lifetime. I love the Christmas season and all the good things about this holiday, just not the commercialism and the "spend, spend, spend" nonsense that puts so many people into debt the rest of the year and takes away from the TRUE meaning of Christmas.  That being said,  while I didn't venture out into the wee hours of the morning (except to the hen house), I did make a very short trip to the mall at 2:00 PM as my one small contribution to Black Friday.  I'd seen a review of the book "Oogy" by Larry Levin a few weeks ago and decided to get this for my other stepdaughter, who, like me, is also an animal lover, and works as a veterinary technician at an animal hospital. Since she loves to read books about animals, among the other things my husband and I buy her at Christmas, she can usually count on a non-fiction book about an animal from me.  It's sort of become a tradition in the last 5 or 6 years and I know she looks forward to it.  I haven't read it myself yet but I'm sure I will. For those who are not famiilar with "Oogy," (which is the affectionate derivative of the word "ugly") it's the true story of  a pit bull who had been used as a "bait dog" in the horrible world of dog fighting.  A bait dog (makes me shudder to even say that!) is a chained animal which is used by fighting dogs as bait to bite until the dog is incapacitated or killed.  Oogy was used as such a dog. When he was found by the police who raided the dog-fighting ring in Philadelphia, he'd had his left ear torn off and was bitten so hard a piece of his jaw bone was crushed and according to the author, "there was a hole in the side of his head the size of a softball." Afterward, he was thrown into a cage and left to bleed to death. Although this is enough to make you want to lay down and cry for the rest of the day, the story does get better.  Oogy is taken to an animal hospital and expected to die there, but as fate would have it, is discovered by the Levin family who have brought in their terminally ill cat in to have put down when they meet Oogy. Despite all that he'd been through, Oogy had such a happy and outgoing spirit that the Levins fell in love with him and after several surgeries to repair his face, he is adopted by them where he continues to live happily with to this day. 

I have included the You Tube video from the author so that you could meet Oogy in person.  What a great story with a very happy ending!

 


So this is how I kicked off my Christmas shopping.  And hopefully, it's the last I'll see of the mall for a while.  Of course I do intend to do more shopping - I'm not a  total Scrooge after all.  However, with any luck, I can finish the majority of it online where there are no crowds to contend with and I don't have to fight anyone over the last parking space in front of my computer ;-)