Why I deleted my website

Charlie & Daisy at Prospect Head 

So why did I delete my website? Was it a hissy fit because I inappropriately crossposted other people's posts from NSDogs to this blog? Let me first address that.

#1 I don't think I did that. Maybe a little bit. A couple sentences here and there where I was feeling exceptionally lazy, but 99% of it was MY posts that I copied into this blog and I paraphrased what the thread was about and I didn't say who said it or where the thread came from. I did however copy MY posts verbatim. I was giving MYSELF permission to copy MY posts completely. I think the people were unhappy because I was calling them to task for what they were saying and they were feeling like idiots. Maybe. I don't know. Once I started getting grief I just deleted the posts and deleted the emails I was receiving without reading them and unsubscribed from NSDogs because the group hasn't been fun in several months anyway. We used to go on group walks and knew each other personally and knew each other's dogs but for some reason that isn't the case anymore.

I certainly did publish the posts here without anyone's knowledge because this blog has been the place where I've put stuff that I find intersesting and has been the place where I've kept my rants that I've found interesting. Duh, they were rants that I found interesting. My rants. Not their rants.

Maybe that's the problem, I don't know. They'll probably stick to their "it's the principle of the thing". Whatever. I'll stick to my - they were my posts quoted - not theirs. But that doesn't have anything to do with why I deleted my website.

And that's another thing - the rants were posted here - which is an entirely different spot than my website if you'll notice. This is posted on "Blogspot"? My website was posted on "geocities". 2 entirely different places. One has nothing to do with the other. This blog has NOTHING to do with "Charlie loves Halifax". I've never advertised this blog the way I did the website. Even more than the website - this blog is for my own enjoyment. And I've always said that the website is a personal website with my opinions only. Up until yesterday this blog had almost no hits. Then yesterday it had 400. I wonder if more people were pissed off because they WEREN'T cross-posted, than because they WERE. That's why this blog still exists on June 30th and "Charlie loves Halifax" does not. So onto why the cross-posts don't have anything to do with why I deleted my website.

Well maybe they do a little bit, because it's got to do with the pinheads. Dog culture in this city is getting a bit crazy it seems. People just do not want their dogs interacting with other dogs, and everybody is becoming unbelievably uptight. I just can't handle it anymore. Especially within the flyball, agility and purebred dog community - they are so far up their own assholes that they haven't seen the light of day in years. And I'm sick of it. (And that's what the posts were about - the flyball community and the kennel cough outbreak and the CKC people). I've been getting so many angry and hateful emails from people in those communities about stuff that I write that it's just not worth it. And it's become dangerous for my dogs. My dogs are not allowed to have a bad day. I've been accused of preaching on my web site and not following my own advice.

My dog Daisy is a victim of being a black and tan dog with an absolutely intense face and a volatile personality but any mistake she makes is my fault - not hers, that's what I believe. Unfortunately she will be the one to die if she lunges at the wrong person or dog, and that's all it will take in this day and age. And I'm not going to let that happen. And having this website has taken away our anonynymity to the point that we can't have a bad day without someone noticing and whispering and saying to so-and-so who says to so-and-so and on it goes.

And unfortunately my philosophy on dogs is a lot looser than a lot of people's. I don't believe in clicker training (I hate it in fact). I don't believe in correction training, I don't believe in feeding your dog certain ways, I have strong views about off-leash exercise, temperament testing, euthanasia, the CKC, and a few other things as well.

So that puts me into conflict I guess. With some uptight people who are more articulate and better placed than me and I don't know if it's worth it anymore. Nothing like my website has ever existed any where before and I don't think this city was ready for it anyway. People here aren't ready to treat their dogs like full members of their family. They may talk like they are, but I don't think they are.

I really don't know if people got the philosophy behind the website. That's its all about acknowledging that they are actually just like us - just like cows are just like us, and pigs are just like us - but dogs are a lot easier to house train and cows don't really like to cuddle in bed at night. So dogs make better house pets. But none of them make good supper. Although if you're going to eat one of them it takes a long time to eat a cow so I choose to eat cow. But I'd also eat dog because there's no difference, but that's a different rant.

Does this city need a website like I had? Did it have any usefullness? Do I still feel like fighting? I've left the NSDogs group so I won't be fighting with any of them anymore and that was the cause of a lot of my conflict. And I felt like I had to be nice because I was a moderator. There's the NSDogs website that exists. One would think that should be the clearinghouse of all things dog related for Nova Scotia. But that's all I'll say about that.

I had always designed the website around how I wanted the city to be, not how it was and I guess it back fired on me. That's why I was always fighting with people, because it was too unrealistic.

I would say that to some people I've probably lost all credibility. But I'm pretty sure that those people never thought too much of me to begin with. So maybe "Charlie loves Halifax" will be back, but it'll be back with no references to NSDogs and there'll be no apologies for my lectures. Or my rants.