A Goodbye to Ana and Devi

Ana and Devi did not really come into my life by choice.  I love rats.  But their lives are so short and the heart brake so huge.  I also could not give them as much time as I would like, since I have two cats to care for as well.  But then there was a situation I could not look away from.  I knew that if I did not take these rats, they would die.  They were just a month old.

Ana was named after Anatidae, the family order for ducks, which I love to observe in the wild. Ana was much more shy and would assume your finger was a food offering if you offered it through the cage walls.  She loved her back massages.  I could see the content in her facial expression.  She also loved to explore and took really good care of her sister.   

Devi was named in honor of Amrita Devi, a woman in 1730 who lead her village to their deaths by hugging trees to protect them.  Without the forest, they had no livelihood and in the end the forest was saved. Devi was social and loved people and often greeted them with kisses.  She loved playing hide-and-seek where she would hide behind something on the couch, run out, and then I would attack her with my hand.  Repeat.  Damn she was cute!

Their health problems stated with Devi having respiratory issues at just one year old.  We found the best vet with an expertise in rats.  A few months ago Devi’s respiratory issues got really bad and I had to take her back to the vet.  Ana and Devi traveled together, so when I got to the vet and found blood in the carrier, I discovered Ana had bumblefoot. The vet looked them both over and prescribed medications for them both. The meds helped Devi a lot, but Ana’s bumblefoot was improving but not resolved.  I had to take her back to the vet and then discovered she had mammary tumors as well (almost always benign). If it had just been one, we could have done surgery, but there was a lot of them, so we decided to focus on slowly the tumors’ growth.   Last week, I went to check on the rats in the morning and found Ana dead.  It happened fast and unexpectedly.  I was confused and really sad.

Devi was devastated.  I held her as much as possible.  She would sit in her cage starring off and didn't really nest anymore.  She was obviously depressed.  Almost instantly her respiratory problem got worse again.  I started her on antibiotics, the same ones that helped her before.  They did not help.  She was hardly eating; only a bite of her favorite banana or avocado.  I gave her treats of tofutti and almond ice cream, which she enjoyed.

One night I spent a long time holding her and she didn’t move much and sometimes would move in a way that made me feel she was uncomfortable.  She was grinding her teeth more, a sign of possible discomfort.  Her breathing was really labored.  The next day I made a vet appointment after anguishing over all the possibilities for her comfort. I knew that euthanasia was a real possibility, but also wanted to see if there was any other option.  The vet agreed that she seemed in pain and that she was not going to get better since the antibiotics were not helping.  Most likely her lungs were too damaged since she had the respiratory illness so long and there was a real threat of her going into respiratory distress, a very torturous way to die.  We decided upon humane euthanasia.  I knew it was the right decision. She went peacefully and in my arms knowing how much she was loved.  Hopefully she is now with her sister.  They passed away a week from each other just shy of two years old.

Most people would not understand the loss of a pet rat.  They do not realize what amazing characters these little creatures have and the love and understanding that can pass between a rat and a human.  Rats are so positive, yet impressive fighters.  Study after study has demonstrated their ability to care for others and their remarkable intelligence. They have such individual personalities and an amazing way to win you over with their charm.  I miss Ana and Devi with all my heart.  Deciding to adopt them was such a great decision. Even though I hurt so much right now and miss their little faces, I am so happy to have had them in my life.  The heart break is worth it.

Brownie Cups and a Wedding!

Last week my younger sister, Laura, got married! It was very unconventional and perfect. There was no planned location until the day before. I got ordained online about a month prior, but prepared nothing to say. I just knew I had to make sure they both said their "I do's". It was very small and located essentially between a hotel and walmart. But you would never know that since we were along a walkway next to a river. There was a western grebe in the distance along with lots of cormorants and other birds. I had my eye out for a vagrant ribbon seal who was spotted in the area a week prior, but no luck.

The groom prepared a funny thing for me to say at the beginning, then they whispered vows to each other (which was my favorite part and so cute!) and then on the fly I made up "do you take..." stuff and declared them married. Laura was radiant and beautiful and she is about 6 months pregnant. Right before the wedding I got to feel the baby kick, which was so exciting! After nuptials, everyone went out to dinner, which I think was a first for my dad in almost 20 years.

After dinner, I shared these brownie cups with everyone. Laura hates cake, but loves brownies. And since we didn't have plates or a knife, I knew cupcake version of brownies would be perfect! Here is what I did.

Brownie Cups

1/2 cup Soy Margarine, melted

1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1 cup Organic Cane Sugar

1/2 cup Silken Tofu, blended

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 cup Unbleached White Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place baking cups into 12 muffin cups; set aside. Combine the melted margarine and cocoa. Add the sugar, silken tofu and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Add chocolate chips and stir until just combined. Drop by the rounded tablespoon into the baking cups until dough is evenly distributed. Bakes for 20-25 minutes.

News and Opinions- a long overdue update

I just realized it is now March and this is my first blog post of the year. What?! To be honest, I haven't been creatively cooking as much and when I do, I forget to write anything down. My life has been filled with school, applying for graduate school and doing an amazing internship with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network for the northern Oregon coast.


I've also had sad news to deal with. My cat Roy was diagnosed with abdominal cancer. I thought he wasn't going to be around much longer, but luckily the steroids he was prescribed are working miracles with him and he is doing great! So, we focus on that. Yesterday I found him on the neighbor's roof, and today we were playing chase with crumpled up paper I threw outside to distract him from attacking my other cat, Loki. I should probably go outside and pick that paper up soon. He hasn't learned fetch yet.

Anyway, I have been busy. I've been contemplating switching my blogging over to my AnimalKind blog and just write about whatever, and include recipes when I have time, post my favorite nature photos that I took, talk about animal rights, share my path to becoming a marine biologist and other wildlife adventures. What do people think?

In other news, this summer I was honored by being asked to write a guest blog post for "Stop Chasing Skinny". The response was very supportive. Today I was alerted to an obnoxious comment posted by someone who obviously just wanted to feel powerful, or whatever they get from it. So I wanted to share the link so people have a chance to read my story, and respond to the negative comment if they would like to. It is titled, "Fat Acceptance Saved My Life".

Anatomy of an apology: Daiya makes nice

I was so furious when Daiya Cheese posted a video entitled “Being FAT is now illegal in Japan”. Each fat hating comment and stereotype fueled this anger, which is why I quickly wrote up a blot post about it (and posted on facebook and emailed the company). The only thing I was seeing on their facebook page was empty apologies that clearly did not understand why people were upset.

When I got an email from Daiya Cheese requested my phone number so the CEO could give me a call, I knew it was a good sign. When I talked with Greg, CEO, and Andre from the company, my fire was completely put out. While Greg had a good explanation for not being around when the controversy started and being unaware of it, he did not use it as an excuse. Instead, he sincerely apologized for what happened. He told me exactly how he was going to remedy the situation. They were creating a code of conduct for facebook and would delete the really hateful posts by others. He was clearly frustrated with the social media employee, who up until that time had done a good job. He promised to give her training to understanding why the video post was so insulting to others. Andre shared with me his past of being bullied and they both shared how the hateful message from the video post goes directly against what they believe and what the company is about. What a relief!

I felt listened to. The apology was heartfelt. There were no excuses, just accountability. They were being proactive to remedy the situation and were addressing people’s concerns. They kept asking for my feedback and made sure I knew that their doors were open for further communication. I was impressed! Here is a video of Greg apologizing for the incident so you can see for yourself.

Companies have a human component, especially the smaller ones. I understand mistakes can happen. We all make them. To me it is more important how a mistake is handled, than what the mistake itself was. My hope it that this is a learning opportunity for everyone involved, especially the social media person. Daiya Cheese has won me back as a customer and I have new respect for them as a company.

Although there was a lot of hate being smeared across their facebook page, there was also a lot of people speaking up and showing me that fat vegans and their allies are out there and have a beautiful voice. It was nice feeling connected to them and even made some new facebook friends and was introduced to a new blog. I can’t convince every one to be open to the truth and be considerate, but at least I could find others who live like my motto; health at every size, respect for every body.

Daiya Cheese posts video that promotes fat hate - Updated!

UPDATE: Today I talked with Greg, the CEO, and Andre from Daiya cheese and I left our conversation feeling the company is in the process of taking appropriate measures to resolve the hurtful video posting on facebook and make sure situations like this do not happen again. I will be sure to blog about follow through of these measures and feel very confident that the company is sincerely good and will remedy the situation.

Daiya cheese just posted a video on their facebook page titled “Being FAT is now illegal in Japan” and then asked, “Should this be adopted in North America?” People have been commenting like mad, both upset and agreeing. Many comments were downright insulting and inappropriate. Daiya then did a post saying they did not want to offend anyone, just encourage a discussion. They obviously still do not get it.

By posting this video, Daiya is leading a discussion that promotes hatred. The idea of making fat people illegal contributes to stereotypes that we are all lazy and eat unhealthy. It contributes to the shaming of fat people and tells us they we need to change. It does not ask important questions; such as can you be fit and fat? The answer is YES!

You can see this when reading the comments by others. I get so enraged seeing how rampant fat hatred is and how quickly our concerns are dismissed and made fun of. People are not just speaking their mind; they are attacking me. I have been fat as long as I have been conscious of my existence, been fit majority of that time and vegan over 15 years. I have experienced people’s stereotypes and have been targeted for my size in ways you could not imagine. This includes, ironically, having a hamburger thrown at me during a mcdonalds protest and names slung at me by a car passing me as a bike up a huge hill.

Corporations have been profiting from people’s insecurities and promote unhealthy diets and unattainable bodies. As a result, our society is filled with eating disorders and bad body image. There is a solution. Promoting a healthy diet and exercise, along with body confidence, will contribute to a healthier population. A person’s size has no relevance in the talk about health. As a society, we should focus on health at every size and respect for every person.

On Daiya’s wall I posted that they should educate themselves about this issue, and even volunteered myself to be contacted to do so. Their response? A thank you for my post and that I can email them at any time. What! Wasn’t I already contacting them? And isn’t it their responsibility to educate themselves and correct their ignorance? I try to give companies a chance for a positive response since I have been at the other side of controversy before, but their response it not acceptable. Please join me in telling Daiya their post and behavior is irresponsible and not acceptable. Daiya should educate themselves why this post is considered offensive to so many and make a true apology. Email them at cr@daiyafoods.com.

And if you personally would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact me, or check out some of the links below.

Big Fat Facts

Health At Every Size

Dances with Fat Blog

Pumpkin Baking

I went to a housewarming party last month and had been wanting to try and make pumpkin bundt cake. Well, I couldn't find my bundt pan so I ended up using the same recipe I developed to bake into cupcakes. I then glazed them simply with powdered sugar whisked with a little vanilla and coconut milk. I am not a huge pumpkin fan, but I do love ginger so I made sure to add just as much ginger as cinnamon and I think this helped me enjoy the cupcakes, along with the extra moisture from the pumpkin.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

3 Tb. Flaxseed Meal
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Oil
1 cup Unrefined Cane Sugar
1 cup canned Pumpkin Puree
1/4 cup Molasses
2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup Soy, Almond or Coconut Milk
2 1/2 cups Unbleached White Flour
2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp ground Ginger
1 Tb. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt

Combine the flax and water and let stand a few minutes. Cream together the oil and sugar, then add the pumpkin, molasses, vanilla and milk. Add the flax/water mixture to the other wet ingredients. Whisk together the dry ingredients and add to wet and mix until just combined. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes. Bake 40 minutes for 9-inch cakes and 50-60 minutes for a loaf pan.

* For gluten free, use 1 1/2 cups sorghum flour, 3/4 cup sweet white rice flour, 1/4 cup potato starch and 2 tsp guar gum for flour. This has not been tested in this recipe, but it has worked in other cake recipes.

A Thanksgiving story and some favorite recipes

Looks like Obama's daughter may get there is something wrong with eating turkey.
- Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images North America

My very first all vegan Thanksgiving was about 15 years ago. I was in college and talked my family into allowing me to make the entire meal, so it would all be vegan. My sister picked me up in Eugene to head to Portland and she broke the news that my parents had a "thanksgiving" meal the week before since they would be missing out that year.

I was devastated! I loved my family and was glad to be visiting, but the whole point of me working so hard to create a delicious vegan meal was to save a turkey! This is the biggest fight I can remember having with my parents as an adult. I was over the top agry, and they were apologetic. The next 10 years, I don't think they ever ate turkey, so it may have made up for the life taken so many years back.

My parents are not vegan, or even vegetarian, but I will say they have been tremendously supportive of my activism over the years. This even includes when I get arrested or clubbed by a police officer (during the Seattle WTO protests)! Ok, that last part actually made my dad super proud!

Anyway, in case you are still desperate to find the perfect Thanksgiving recipes, here are some of my personal recipes I use every year.

Stuffing (my personal must-have Thanksgiving dish)

Thanksgiving Gluten Roast (bottom of post) or Miso-Maple Tofu

"Buttermilk" Biscuits

Pumpkin Pie