Morgan Niels-Jeske
“The Valentine Baby”
January 1, 2008 – February 5, 2010
Adopted into our family February 14, 2008

She no longer has the burden of an old body, but I’m going to miss her so much. Here’s an excerpt from the journal entry I wrote about her on Valentine’s Day of 2008. The best Valentine’s Day ever.

In my hands was a tiny, beautiful baby girl rat. Seriously, all I did was stare at her for the longest time. I couldn’t formulate any thoughts and I hardly dared hope that she was mine, so I kept asking stupid questions like “Where’d she come from?” and “What is she doing here?” I know I kind of made Ash nervous that I didn’t like her, but I was just in shock. And then when it finally started to dawn on me that this little girl was mine, I began to tear up and almost started crying. She’s so beautiful. She’s mostly white with a dark gray hood with a white line like a scar down her face to her nose and a dark gray spot on her back. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

We love you, Morgan.

“The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.” – Thich Nhat Hanh.

There’s a new comic up over at The Family Menagerie. TFM is updated every Monday (regardless of when it’s actually done, I might add), so be sure to check out all the crazy antics that two girls and twenty-two pets come up with. Good times for all.

And who doesn’t love puppies and kittens?

P.S. Don’t forget about the current Poster Giveaway!

Snailbird.com and the awesome crew over at Online Poster Printing are teaming up to do another amazing giveaway! I cannot express enough how much I love working with them. The final product is always 100% perfect. Plus, they’re not like the normal conservative printing company – they’re community oriented and driven, and respond fast to questions. Not to mention they’re an easy-going bunch and I just really love the community they’ve got going for their sponsorships. Anyway, enough public love, onto the giveaway!

The Prize

One awesomely big 18×24 Poster Print for one lucky winner! This can be printed on high gloss paper or semi gloss paper stock. The finished product will be rolled up and shipped to the winner in a protective poster tube. How cool is this prize? Check out what Online Poster Printing can do working with digital photo enlargements and digital photos on posters.

The Rules (Gotta have ‘em)

01. Sorry guys, this one is for US residents only.
02. Gotta comment on this post of course to enter the giveaway – tell me what you’ll want to use your poster for. Do you have an event coming up that you’d like to advertise? Have a picture you’ve taken that you want to blow up and give to your mom? I’m curious!

While I can’t promise this will be done in time for Valentine’s Day, you could always use it as an Oops-I-Forgot-It-Was-Valentine’s-Day-So-Here’s-A-Big-Happy-Picture-Of-Us present a week or so later. The deadline to get your comment in and take part in the giveaway is February 12, 2010. At that point, I’ll choose the winner through the Random.org generator. Only those with answers to the above question will be put in the drawing so don’t forget that part! One comment is allowed per person and don’t forget to tell your friends to join.

Don’t forget to tweet about the giveaway to your friends!

Come back on February 13, 2010 to find out who the winner is!

Meg resides in the beautiful realm of Missoula, Montana, where she dresses in fancy clothes, plays lots of MMORPGs, and lives with her extremely geeky, tousled-hair boyfriend (Hi Greg). I met her through her writing when we were in high school, but to me, it’s her art that really stands out. Her character “sketches” are amazing and really bring out the personality of each and every one of them. She has a talent for filling even the simplest postures with emotion. And she likes to draw geeky things like World of Warcraft characters and dressing her and her boyfriend up in Star Trek-esque outfits. This makes her full of win in my book.

Go check out her art and her fashion blog (which she needs to revive!), and tell her how wonderful she is. Because she is. And pretty, as always. Yep.

Find Meg at these other Places:

DeviantArt: Rethe
Tegaki-E: MissMeg
Fashion Blog: Meg Sue & You
Twitter: @Megsauce

Previous Artist Showcases:
Viet-My Bui
Danielle Corsetto
Lois van Baarle
Erika Moen
Anne Julie Aubry
Jason Chan

“When you’re in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks.” -Natalie Clifford Barney

So, I have a favor to ask of you: there’s this group on Facebook called Maddie’s Corner (also found on twitter @MaddiesCorner), founded by Kristin Chenoweth (Galinda of Wicked, in tons of movies, was on American Idol tonight for those of you who don’t know her). They’re a pretty amazing organization that celebrates animals and the people who love animals. Well they’re holding a contest right now. The person who sends the most fans their way wins $1000 for any non-profit animal organization they want. We want that to be us.

Of course we want to try and get the money for the feral cat group that we volunteer for. It’s called Central Texas Feline Rescue and we’re a Trap-Neuter-Return group. We go out everyday, 365 days a year and feed the feral colonies that live in Austin and the Austin area. Almost every Tuesday we are out there trapping feral cats to have them spayed or neutered and given rabies shots before returning them to their colonies. We’re also an extremely small group, completely volunteer run. Most of everything we do comes out of our own pockets – our founder, Elizabeth spends the most to keep the group running. This year we TNR’d over 300 cats. Ash and I fostered a kitten we found on the streets and named her Mika. On Christmas Eve, she was adopted by some really wonderful people and they tell us she rules the household now.

$1000 would go far for this group. But we need your help. Here’s what you can do. Go to the Maddie’s Corner fanpage on Facebook and fan the group, or you can start following them on their twitter. Then post a comment/reply and tell them that Ashley Niels of @RescueAnimals sent you (Ash is in charge of the twitter account so they know her name). Make sure you add the RescueAnimals part since that’s the common name we’ve been using (on twitter and facebook). The more people the better so feel free to share this note.

Come on guys! With your help, we can win Central Texas Feline Rescue a much-needed $1000. They really deserve it. Thanks to everyone who helps us out! If you have any questions, please ask us and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Help the kittens! =^..^=

Brody was the happiest dog you’d ever find. Always smiling, always playing; that dog laughed through life. He was our golden Dalai-Lama dog, from the day we picked him up from the pound one year ago. Has it really been a year? On the fifteenth of January, 2009, he came into our lives, a furry little skittish pup. He quickly took all of our lives by storm. He loved everyone, he loved the dogs, he loved water, he loved camping, he loved the world, even the worst of it. I miss him so much sometimes it hurts, and I try not to let it show, but there are times I feel like my world is caving in. I know he’s with Brandy waiting for us, two golden angels on the other side of the bridge, waiting far more patiently than we ever will. Time heals, but sometimes it’s also a punch in the gut.

I miss you, Brody.

After the devastating earthquake hit Haiti, I was at a loss as to what to do. I’m still at a loss, but I hope that even this little effort will make a difference. I recently joined the livejournal community HELP_HAITI and decided to throat my hat in the game. I’m auctioning up some of my design work to try and raise money for a hurting country. Here’s the info:

You can see things I’ve created at: designcoyote.com (for designs) and (for icons)

I am offering: A set of 20 icons OR a Wordpress Design from my DC Shop (either for Wordpress or to be modified as an LJ design if possible)

Fandoms (if appropriate): For icons, it can be any fandom.

Additional Info (optional): As with most others, I would prefer if you gave me the images to work with for the icons – they are yours, so wouldn’t you like to have the say in what they look like?

Designs currently up in my Design Coyote shop can be viewed here. If you want a blogger design, make sure to choose one with that option, I won’t be modifying them for blogger for this bid (only to LJ).

Starting Bid: $15

If you’re interested, please go here to comment and make a bid – bidding will end January 20th, so make sure to get in fast. All proceeds that I make will go to the charity of your choice, and (taking a leaf from Leigh), I’ll match the winning bid with my proceeds going to UNICEF. Let’s try and give a little back to the world, shall we? Let’s do it!

I give you … *drumroll* …

We have about 20-something comics already sketched out and ready to go, so it’s going to be updated every Monday from here on out. More pages/downloads/goodies will be added as we continue on this little adventure. Eventually the comic will expand to events in our lives not related to animals, but for now, that’s the focus. And trust me, that gives us enough content for life.

Check it out, give us a shout, and tell us what you think. And keep checking back for more comics and more updates. Welcome to The Family Menagerie!