Kevin John Gilhooly

Some Random Thoughts On Sparky's Pals Goals

There seem to be a plethora of rescue groups out there, but that is because they are badly needed, and because many are very specialized. It is also because many times we fail to see that one large group attacking a problem may be more effective than many small groups.

So why start another organization?

Pet overpopulation is a serious problem, and there are many dogs (and other animals) that need to find forever homes. We will not delude ourselves into thinking we can solve the problem, but perhaps by helping some groups work together more efficiently, and taking the best of each group's talents and ideas, we can at least work on it.

What you don't know can hurt them

One weakness in the rescue community seems to be that many of us assume the general population should believe exactly as we do. If this were the case, there would be no problem to solve. The challenge for us is to have the rest of the population arrive at our conclusions without forcing our beliefs on them (which tends to just alienate people.)

I was trying to invent a phrase to summarize our goals. The biggest problem that I see is ignorance at all phases of pet ownership. How many times has anyone in rescue heard "If only I had known..."? So, I wanted to remind people that what they don't know can hurt their pet.

The best way to educate people is to begin young. Pet education in the schools will help the problem as those children grow into adults, and teach their own children the lessons they learned early on. This is critical.

We also need to consider where strays and shelter animals originate, and address those issues.

* Some are abandoned by their owners, who were never educated on the proper expectations for adding a pet to the household, and cannot cope with the challenges of pet ownership.
* Some are born in the streets because their parents were not spayed or neutered.
* Some are dumped by breeders who failed to sell them, and don't want the cost of care and feeding any longer.

We can help the expectations issue through education, but only if we are able to educate people before they purchase or adopt a pet. Once the pet is in the home, it is very difficult to explain to someone why the "bad behavior" they are seeing is normal. I would like Sparky's Pals to have a program to educate pet owners before and after the pet arrives home. The pre-education is critical, and will be the most difficult to implement.

Kevin´s Pub began back in 1994 or 1995 (depending on the various file timestamps), as my personal website on www.dfw.net. It was going to be a collection of witty sayings, writings, and lively exchanges between friends, both met and unmet.

When friends gather for conversation, sometimes you get the Algonquin Roundtable, and sometimes you get the corner table at Denny´s after a long evening of partying.

One great thing about most websites is that the old pages never seem to get pruned. I´m trying to clean up the site as I reorganize it, but like all sites, it´s continually under construction. There are still piles of crap lying around, but they're not actually linked anymore, so they're just a wee bit harder to find. Also, it has physically moved, from dfw.net to FortuneCity, to swbell.net and finally onto its own domain, while changing names from "Kevin's Bar & Grill" to "Kevin's Pub." Portions were also found on GeoCities and Tripod, until those sites closed down, or management policies got too stupid for even me to tolerate. At one point, I even considered changing the name to The Spaniel and Budgie.

My original website was called "Kevin's Bar & Grill." A neighborhood bar was the first metaphor I conceived when I started designing the website, all those years ago. One of the lessons I had learned from surfing was the more interesting sites all had a unifying theme, and I always wanted to run a bar, so that's what I chose to emulate. A good website should be like a pub - a place to wander in, relax, talk to friends, and then wander back out again.

After a while, it occured to me that a mailing list was a much better host for a virtual pub than just a website. So, the original Kevin's Pub started out as a mailing list to keep people in touch as we all fled IntellAgent Control. It was originally called "Kevin's Tab", because our local (physical) pub had waitresses that would always ask for a name to run a tab, and no matter how many times we went in there, they could never remember anyone's name, so whoever started the tab would just use "Kevin", since they seemed to remember at least one of us actually had that name. Half the time, I was out of town, but it was still my tab. I assume it was paid off each night, since I've never received a bill.

This site is the unification of the two themes, held together with baling wire and spit, plus $35 a year to hold the domain name. Thanks for visiting!

Our personal wedding site on the Knot has apparently expired (what does that say about how long they think a marriage will last?) If you thought we'd never make six years, pay off your bets.)

We were married on-board the Dream Catcher, off Key West, Florida on February 11, 2000. (This makes it easy for me to calculate anniversaries.)

It was a small wedding party, which I highly recommend.

Since the Spousal Unit's birthday is February 1, it also means I can miss her birthday, our anniversary and Valentine's, all within a two-week period.

We had a long discussion on the location and the methodology. Why drag the families and friends through the awful burden of weekend travel, dry, boring sermons, long dinners ("Chicken or fish?"), watered-down drinks and dancing until dawn? Just sneak out of town with the wedding party and get it over with. In style!

Here's my original announcement to family and friends, for reference:

So, I was wandering around the house this weekend, with this nagging suspicion that I had forgotten something rather important. Have you ever had one of those subconscious thoughts that you just couldn't bring forward? Then, the Spousal Unit came wandering in and said, "I can't believe we're engaged!"

Ah. That would be it. Engaged. Then, it all came flooding back. The wine. The food. The wine. The music. The wine. Me down on my knee, saying, "Please don't shoot... hey, as long as I'm down here..."

This is her first wedding, after years of strenuous denials. This is my second, after years of strenuous denials. We're bracing for the abuse that's sure to follow. 'You said you would never get married, ever, ever, ever." "It depends on what you mean by the term 'never'."

I really respect marriage as an institution, but those of you who know me could probably think of any number of institutions I was more likely to visit. So it goes.

Since we met online, I just assumed we should get her ring at eBay. This suggestion received a bit of uh, resistance, shall we say, so I guess I'll be spending the next few weekends at the pawn shops in the area. Anyone have any extra rings?

I guess whomever had November 1999 in the pool is probably a bit richer.