Hijacked Dogs on Thursday

For this week's Dogs on Thursday post, Cooper decided to strike an artistic pose.

Speaking of artistic, New Jersey's arts organizations need your help. (How do you like that segue? Pretty smooth, eh?)

I don't talk much about work, but I work for an arts organization in southern New Jersey, and we depend on state grants for a large portion of our operating budget. Since New Jersey's state budget is in the red, today they announced a freeze on payments to the state's arts organizations. Back in July, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts announced grants of $14.4 million for more than 160 groups (something like less than 10% of those groups are in the southern portion of the state...I'm just saying...) but only $2 million has been dispersed so far. Basically, we have been operating on the hope of the promised money being distributed for 5 months now.

For more information, you can go to this article from the today's Courier Post newspaper. If you are a New Jersey resident, I would really appreciate it if you could please go to this link and tell your legislators that the arts in New Jersey are important to you. That is, if they are important to you.

Emma, Tara and Cooper say "Please support the arts. That's what buys our dog food and treats and cookies and snacks and pays our Vee-Eee-Tee bills, though we could certainly sacrifice and cut back on the visits to the vet."
Nice try, babes! As long as I have breath in my body, you three are getting regular check-ups!