Further Confusion; Dancing; Cockatiel Situation

[summer_jackel]

I am just back from Furcon and had a great time...I'm still completely con-crashed, of course, especially since I stopped for my weekly dance lessons on the way home from the con, just to make sure that I was absolutely exhausted, not just a little exhausted.

It was a really fantastic convention, though. Speaking of dancing:

corpsefairy and I had a lot of fun foxtrotting in the fursuit dance competition, although we'd have been better if we had more opportunity to practice our routine. (I'm the lead in the gold leopard mask; she's the follow in the silver leopard. The heads will be better next year, too; I ran out of time and had to rush them). I giggle at the commentary to the video that claims we were "choreographed perfectly," though of course I'm happy that we were appreciated. What I led on stage was only roughly approximate to the routine we'd planned, partly because we had more stage than we were expecting and partly due to leader error. I was literally weak-kneed with stage fright, but I'm pleased to see on the vid that I don't look nearly as bad as I was afraid I looked. I'm fully aware of every glaring flaw in my performance there of course, but hey, it's a recognizable foxtrot.

I just began silver level lessons (omg omg how did that happen??), so next year's performance may be a silver foxtrot. If it isn't a Quickstep.

I have to say that it was extremely amusing to be the only slow ballroom dance in a show full of techno acts---some of which were jaw-droppingly amazing and all of which were quite good, but variety is nice. I'm making it a bit of a personal goal to encourage more partner dancing in the fandom, and to that end corpsefairy and I taught a waltz lesson on Saturday. I have never taught dance before, so let's just say that I now have a greater appreciation for my own teachers. Still, the class was really fun, we had good attendance and people were totally waltzing at the end! We will be doing all of this again next year, only hopefully with more preparation, more space and a better floor.

I did quite well in the art show and adequately at the dealer table, especially given that I had no real table decoration, prints to sell etc. and have not been a terribly active artist, other than my comic, for a couple of years. It has been a very hard couple of years, but I am pleased to say, quietly, that I am doing better now and really want to make a point of creating more art in 2011.

It was great seeing everyone I saw; it is a wonderful pleasure to spend time with all of you furry folks. FC is definitely a highlight of my year.

I also want to specially thank everyone who came to me offering support regarding eclipsegryph's cockatiel situation. It was gratifying and touching to have so many people care about this. If you don't already know, we won the case and all three birds are now safely home. I haven't written about this since I took the case; as a lawyer, I owe a duty of confidentiality that does not permit discussing such matters in public fora. However, my client and kynekh_amagire have made the story public here and in their journals, which I find personally gratifying since this is a case deserving of public interest and concern. So here's my own closure to the matter (including no confidential information and nothing that isn't discussed in much greater detail elsewhere), as a pet owner who once supported Mickaboo and never will again.

This situation should be of great concern to anyone with an interest in pets and pet rescue. Mickaboo's behavior was deplorable and appalling throughout the whole ordeal, and though justice did in fact prevail in the end, a pet owner shouldn't have to fight a corrupt rescue in order to reclaim animals fraudulently surrendered to it by an angry spouse. Some of Mickaboo's volunteers are trying to do good things, but its administration is corrupt and the organization deserves no tolerance or support. Behavior like this harms the birds in Mickaboo's care and the credibility and value of private animal rescue in general.

I have decided to adopt another green cheeked conure some time this spring (more detail about that later) and, wherever I end up getting him, I absolutely will not be adopting from Mickaboo. I urge everyone to continue to boycott the organization and its supporters---but be happy; we won. It's a brand new year, and hopefully this one will be even better than the last.

Comments

[smile-n-cuddle.livejournal.com]

Congrats on winning that case! Nice work :)

Fur con sounds so fun! Your picture isn't showing up though :(

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm really glad that it's resolved. :)

The link that apparently isn't working for you is a youtube imbed; does this work better?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h63pBfzpfA

[smile-n-cuddle.livejournal.com]

Ooh that was so awesome!!!

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was a lot of fun. :)

[kimberly-t.livejournal.com]

Looks like you were having fun in the video! Congratulations for having the guts to strut your stuff on stage; I think I'd just keel over if I tried it! :-)

Even more Congratulations on winning the cockatiels case! I just skimmed the relevant links & journal entries, but just the skimming made it plain that this was a stinking mess from start to finish. Mickaboo probably started off as a wonderful idea, but... *shakes head*

BTW, I sent you a message via LJ a couple of weeks ago; did you get it?

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Hey, thank you for poking me again! I left you a message, and the favor you asked has been done; sorry it took me 2 weeks.

Mickaboo did start as a great idea and accomplished a lot of good things, but what happened here is one of the worst 'private animal rescue gone wrong' incidents I've heard about. I'm glad it's over and I hope that another rescue organization, one more ethically administered, takes its place soon.

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

I was talking with maggock a couple of days ago about the situation, and had I suggestion for her: support Mickaboo's sister organization Mickacoo.

There was, at one time, a rumor floating around that Mickacoo -- that had NO involvement in this mess and was quite worried that it was going to foul them as badly as Mickaboo -- was putting pressure on Mickaboo to stop the Crusade and settle.

It would make a neat solution; redirect everyone that previously had dealings with Mickaboo to Mickacoo. But I don't know enough about the organizations to know whether supporting one means supporting both, or whether supporting Mickacoo is a valid way of sending a message to Mickaboo.

What do you think, Summer?

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

I would not support Mickacoo while it still has any affiliation or relationship with Mickaboo. It's really gratifying to hear that people within the organization were attempting to right this wrong from the inside, but as you say, the level of connection is unclear. I always thought that Mickacoo was just the branch of Mickaboo that took in domestic fowl; I have no idea if there is a separate legal identity and would not support it unless that was clearly the case.

My suggestion? It would be so awesome if there was an ethical bird rescue in the bay area. If the Mickacoo leadership wants to distance itself from this (and I truly hope that it does), perhaps it could rename itself and set itself up as a nonprofit unrelated to Mickaboo. That way, it could keep doing its good work without the taint of what has happened here, and ethical Mickaboo volunteers could offer the new organization their time and energy.

Barring that, there are lots and lots of good animal charities around that are in need of resources.

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

Mickacoo is a dove/pigeon rescue, operating under Mickaboo's umbrella -- Mickaboo directs "found dove/pigeon" people who contact them to Mickacoo, which, in turn, sometimes uses their resources to screen homes or transport birds. I believe Mickacoo is actually just one person, who is probably a sweetheart, but maaaaybe a little misguided: she deals primarily with king pigeons (meat birds) from Chinatown's markets, which well-meaning people purchase and "rescue", not realizing that they cannot fly and will not survive if released into the wild.

I don't expect that making a point of supporting Mickacoo and not Mickaboo will make any difference, given that they don't occupy anything like the same niche or operate on the same scale.

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Summer'd said the same thing, that Mickacoo was a much smaller, domestic offshoot of Mickaboo. Sounds like there's exactly no degrees of separation between the two; I'd been led to believe they were more or less equal "sister" organizations.

Well, I perch corrected on that score. I'm sure there's alot of other good animal rescue organizations to support in lieu of Mickaboo/coo; if you find one, by all means let me know and I'll spread the word.

[ladyringo.livejournal.com]

You guys look fantastic!

It was super nice to see you and I love my Dixie badge! (It will be an LJ icon soon!)

I am going to try to get down at some point to visit with my mom and when I do I will be sure to try to hook up with you! :)

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would love to see you! Let me know when you're down this way!

[maggock.livejournal.com]

I approve of more conures! So does Pippin!

Too bad Mickaboo is off the table, it looks like they're the only major bird rescue in your area. But, it's their own damn fault. XP

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

No doubt, I would walk into Petco and get a conure first. :P

Still, there are oodles of conures on CL, and I've lined up a breeder who seems to be doing everything right and has a really wonderful clutch of turquoise babies who will be fledged in a couple of months. We will see what conure comes to me.

[tailypo.livejournal.com]

Fantastic dancing! Zlato's mom and step-dad compete at ballroom dancing, and they were stars at our wedding. His step-dad tried dancing with me at our wedding and all I did was keep tripping on my excessively long skirt. XD

Closest I get to partner dancing is dressage. Hahaha.

Yay new conure!

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

There's a surprising amount in common between riding and dancing---form, distribution of weight and balance are important in both. I think that my dancing has improved my riding.

Having a skirt that you can't step on is crucial. XD

[tailypo.livejournal.com]

My dressage instructor was also a ballet instructor. She drew comparisons quite often!