Remembering Decoration Day

While we celebrate the unofficial start to the summer season, lets not forget the true meaning of this holiday.

Thank you to our soldiers......past, present and future!~

TDIPT goes to the Fair

well sorta.....
The members of TDIPT are kickin off the summer w/ our second annual County Fair group launch! We had so much fun last year w/ our "A Fair to Remember" launch, that we've decided to make a County Fair launch an annual TDIPT tradition.
This year we present to you..... "A Day at the Fair"!
We'll start listing our County Fair themed offerings right after Memorial Day, and we'll continue right on through the week.
Be sure to type tdipt into your ebay search to see all of the top notch prims being offered by our talented members. They never disappoint!
or
Just click here to see our fair offerings beginning Tuesday May 27th!

~~ See ya at the Fair!~~

Where There's a Will.......

I received this story via email this morning from a friend. I thought it warranted sharing.

Meet Molly. She's a gray speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners when Katrina hit southern Louisiana, USA . She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled.

While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier, and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected and her vet went to LSU for help. But LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes.

But after surgeon Rustin Moore met Molly, he changed his mind. He saw how the pony was careful to lie down on different sides so she didn't seem to get sores, and how she allowed people to handle her. She protected her injured leg. She constantly shifted her weight, and didn't overload her good leg. She was a smart pony with a serious survival ethic.
Moore agreed to remove her leg below the knee and a temporary artificial limb was built. Molly walked out of the clinic and her story really begins there.

'This was the right horse and the right owner,' Moore insists.
Molly happened to be a one-in-a-million patient. She's tough as nails, but sweet, and she was willing to cope with pain. She made it obvious she understood (that) she was in trouble. The other important factor, according to Moore , is having a truly committed and compliant owner who is dedicated to providing the daily care required over the lifetime of the horse.

Molly's story turns into a parable for life in post-Katrina Louisiana . The little pony gained weight, her mane felt a comb. A human prosthesis designer built her a leg.
The prosthetic has given Molly a whole new life, Allison Barca DVM, Molly's regular vet, reports.
And she asks for it! She will put her little limb out, and come to you and let you know that she wants you to put it on. Sometimes she wants you to take it off too.' And sometimes, Molly gets away from Barca. 'It can be pretty bad when you can't catch a three-legged horse', she laughs.

Most important of all, Molly has a job now. Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people her pluck. She inspired people. And she had a good time doing it.
'It's obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in life', Moore said, 'She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others.''

She' s not back to normal,' Barca concluded, 'but she's going to be better.

To me, she could be a symbol for New Orleans itself.'

This is Molly's most recent prosthesis. The bottom photo shows the ground surface that she stands on, which has a smiley face embossed in it. Wherever Molly goes, she leaves a smiley hoof print behind!

She's sure left a smile in my heart today!

Read more about Molly and see more pics here.

~Welcome~

Here's my new offering for TDIPT Mercantile
My Welcome Doll has found a new home, but be sure to check out the Mercantile as there are lots of lovely offerings, and new mega-talented artists as well, so head over to have yourself a looksy!

Rest in Peace, Eight Belles

I know by now, most of you have heard about the tragedy that occurred in the final moments of the Kentucky Derby. Eight Belles, a beautiful gray thoroughbred filly, was euthanized on the track only moments after finishing second in the high stakes race. Driven hard through the race, she suffered breaks to both ankles so severe that she couldn't even be moved into a trailer to be taken for medical care. The pictures of her sad end are gut-wrenching, but during the TV coverage, cameras turned away from the brutal reality of horse racing, choosing instead to focus on the winner, the horse who wasn't run to death this time.

The horrible injury that ended Eight Belles' life


In the midst of yet another horse racing tragedy, even those close to the sport are now questioning its future. Veteran sports columnist Sally Jenkins wrote an article for the Washington Post in which she acknowledges honestly that, "... thoroughbred racing is in a moral crisis, and everyone now knows it. Twice since 2006, magnificent animals have suffered catastrophic injuries on live television in Triple Crown races, and there is no explaining that away. Horses are being over-bred and over-raced, until their bodies cannot support their own ambitions, or those of the humans who race them."

She goes on to state that an average of two horses per day an injured so severely during a race that they are no longer able to be used in competion. Persian Brave, a former racehorse in sanctuary at SASHA Farm with a similar injury, lived through his career-ending leg injury. He is merely crippled. Many aren't even that fortunate.

Feten (left) and Persian Brave (right), Former race horses living at SASHA Farm

Defenders of the 'sport' will say that the horses are athletes who are just doing what they love. Horses aren't athletes. Athletes choose to train and compete. Do the horses get to choose? On certain days, when the mood strikes them right, the three horses here, two former racers and a spunky little quarterhorse mix, run so hard that we can feel the ground rumble on the other side on the sanctuary. It's absolutely breathtaking to watch them sprint through the pasture. They do love to run, and they even love to race each other, but they get to choose how fast, how hard, and how long they run. When they're tired, they stop running and rest. Eight Belles didn't get to choose. Someone sat on her back and whipped her so she wouldn't stop, or even slow down when her body told her she was tired. Horses don't choose to run until their legs break.

PETA has launched a campaign to end horse racing, hoping that public outrage over the recent tragedies will have some power to affect change. We hope it will, too.

I received this info via email from SASHA Farm, a wonderful farm sanctuary here in Michigan.