Two months into it. A wild, wonderful ride.

As the two or three people who ever read my blog know, I love animals. And you know that about two months ago, I came across the story of Patrick, the abused pitbull from New Jersey.

After reading about this horrific story of animal abuse, I became angry like many people. I googled the story and came upon a Facebook page called The Patrick Miracle. I saw postings by others who were as equally angered and moved by Patrick’s story.

For me, he reminded me of my own dog Stormy, who had also been terribly abused and starved. Seeing the pictures of Patrick brought back the memories of when I found her and the feelings of anger, pity as well as a basic instinct to want to protect.

I came across another Patrick page and then another. All equally devoted to Patrick’s story. I started to follow them all. One page in particular stated that they wanted to organize a a nationwide movement devoted to changing laws regarding animal abuse offenses and to create awareness to this cause. I wanted to help. I had to help. I had to do something more than what I had already done for the animals.

I immediately, posted on the wall of the page that I would love to work on the Oregon effort. I had no intention of leading the effort. I had no experience at lobbying on the political arena. I had only worked on the organic level of helping animals one at a time.

I had done my share of writing letters and making telephone calls in the past on animal issues that concerned me. And I wasn’t afraid of taking on an extra challenge. I never pretended to know what I was doing. I said so from the very beginning. I knew there were plenty more qualified than I to take leadership.

However, after a number of days of waiting to hear back after posting, I still did not get a response. When an email address was posted, I sent an email saying I wanted to help the cause. No response. Then everyone was told to patiently wait while the team was organizing. But more days went by without a word. The deadline for the sign-up had come and gone. The volunteer email was shut down, we were told to wait a few more days. That deadline passed. In the meantime, I noticed another Facebook group had started called Patrick the National Movement. I contacted them and asked if they were associated with the other group and if they knew how I could get involved. I was told that they were not associated with the other group as they had some negative experiences. They suggested that if I wanted to help, that I could just start my own FB page devoted to Patrick and the Patrick Movement and represent Oregon. I told them, I had never worked on animal advocacy on this level before. They said that many others had different levels of experience but that if I wanted to do it, just go ahead. So I started the Patrick Movement Oregon page.

I still followed the other page for updates but I still did not see an evidence that they were ready for volunteers from other areas.

In the meantime, many FB pages were created devoted to Patrick by all sorts of folks who wanted to make a difference.

It did not take long for me to discover that there was a lot of drama already going on that I was not even aware of. After various introductions and messages, I learned why.

I will not go into the details of this nasty drama as it is only one of many in the animal advocacy arena.Suffice it to say, by aligning myself with this group, I immediately became the enemy of the other. I got messages from people I didn’t know asking me why I had started a Patrick Movement page and that the other group had not authorized me to represent Oregon.

I noticed that many people started to ask questions on the wall of this other page. People were asking tough questions and then poof, comments disappeared this continued to go on. Finally, I also asked who was the admin of the page and what was going on, I got blocked.

I was pissed, sure but I kept my page up and started to go to work.

I learned more and more about the person who claimed to have started a movement and yet, i never saw this person actually responding. I found that odd. I saw simple questions from innocent people being answered in a snide and arrogant manner. Like they were children being told to sit quietly do as they were told.

As more time went on, I asked who was this person to tell people what they can and cannot do. I found out from many, many other people I didn’t even know how they had been treated by this person and her friends. The abusive messages, the bullying, the threats. My crock of shit radar was in high mode. Every word that seemed to come out of this person’s mouth and her followers was arrogant and dominating. I knew that I did not want to align myself with people who talked down to other people.

After weeks and now months of drama and groups aligning and rumors and gossip, nothing has changed. It is still a work in progress.

I never set out to attack this other person, her followers or her cause. However, a group of dedicated people, saw through her methods and began to speak openly about it. I even created a FB page for the rest of us to vent our feelings. Some of remarks were snarky and rude, but pretty much the truth and was after all just opinion not law.

I learned that this person accused people of stealing her idea, her TM, and stalking her simply because we gossiped about her. I also gossip about Sarah Palin but she doesn’t threaten law suits. Other folks chose to post some personal info on this person. I never went snooping for it. But it became fodder for discussion in our group. When you put yourself out there on youtube, you must expect people to take a look and comment.

It was when, this person got my FB account shut down for simply expressing an opinion about her, I got mad and I wasn’t go down without a fight.

After all this time,nothing on that other page has changed. They are still getting their ducks in a row. They accuse the rest of bullying them and stalking them when all along, they were doing the same.

Many people saw through this person’s lies and misinformation. She played the victim.And yet she was the bully. Maybe her 50,000 “followers” thinks she is the bees knees but I don’t. I don’t like people who bully others into falling in line.

I will continue to fight for the animals in Oregon and elsewhere. It is a work in progress but at least we have made progress.