First--MY thank you to all of you with your help through out the last few
years.  I have learned so much from all of you.  A particular thanks for
your thoughts on Ensure and adrenal disease.  Deliver sounds like the way
to go.  BIG-is there a difference between Deliver and Deliver 2 that is
significant??  I thought that you wrote about Deliver 2.(?)
[I don't think there is a regular Deliver -- just Deliver 2.0(r)  It's a
very concentrated high nitrogen forumula meant to "tube feed" ill humans.
Pretty wild stuff... BIG]
 
Personally, I give a lot to animals directly: the fish, ducks, geese,
smaller birds, deer opossum, raccoons, fox, feral cats, coyote, and animals
I cannot identify in the dark but find fascinating to peer at.  I feed them
every day rain or shine.  None of them can say thanks.
 
The squirrels knock on my window with the cats right there in the morning
for their peanuts.  Then they stand up and beg.  I wish I could kiss them,
they are so cute.  They cannot say thanks.  I understand
 
I also give to two shelters for cats and dogs here, and give Save a Pet all
my good knick knacks and paintings, and clothing for their resale shop, and
try to buy things there.  They are so busy when I come in that they only
say thank you if they are not surrounded by people.  I can understand this
 
I have given to 3 people in fires who have lost their homes.  and did not
expect any thank yous' there either.  Nor do I expect people dying in the
hospital to write a thank you.
 
But other than situations like that???????
 
Yes, I do expect a thank you.  Some organizations give me a year membership
card and note saying thank you.  Mary of FAIR writes up in her newsletter
who is supporting her with a big thank you there.  Whenever I have her mail
me supplies she sends the bill with a thank you on it.  She has sent me
several certificates of appreciation for my support.  They are hanging in
my den on the wall.
 
The homeless people this summer cost me a bundle.  They had next to no
manners.  The girl had no mother to teach her anything.  The Mom was and
is a drug addict.  Yet even this pretty darn lazy girl said thank you.
She wrote me a thank you note before leaving.  I have next to no room
here.  But I saved that note..
 
My mother told me that it was polite to say thank you.  It is a basic and
simple rule.  To not say thank you is to be rude.  Period.  I personally
don't donate again to people who cannot say thank you.
 
It is also good business to say thank you.  Mary says thank you in several
ways to me.  I KNOW that she appreciates my help.  So I want to help her
again.
 
People I have donated to who never said or wrote thank you??  I wonder if
they got my check.  I wonder how organized they could be.  I wonder how
well they are caring for animals when they are thoughtless to someone who
has worked for hours to earn the money for the check sent.
 
I have no lunch or dinner break.  I take one literally once or twice a
year.  I come home exhausted with still more work to do concerning the
business.  Half of my day off concerns my business.
 
I have NEVER had anyone in our FML family not thank me for a donation.
Never.  I love animals and feel that until they can vote in this
society-they are always going to be abused and neglected without proper
recourse: murdered, skinned, trapped, hung on walls, slaughtered, or shot
into extinction.  I strongly feel that The future of many animals is grim.
 
So I have many causes of importance to me.  I have an "adopted" wolf, I
donate to try and stop the horrendous conditions of chickens in so called
farms.  I belong and carry cards to a number of societies, and donate to
causes like Buddy-for stray cats and dogs.  And blah, blah, blah.
 
No way-when there is so much need out there: that I have to donate to
someone that I feel is rude, and thoughtless.  That is just me-MY feelings.
 
I feel badly for the person who has donated without a thank you.  I really
do.  My feelings are hurt when that happens.  Sorry-I wish that they
weren't-but they are.
 
So again-my thanks to all of you.  I truly pause at times to inhale the
sense of peace that comes over me from knowing the many fine people in our
FML family.
 
Lisette
[Posted in FML issue 3156]