Pet Guardians keep cold dogs warm in East St. Louis

Ashley Hinkle, Alestle Photo Editor

by Ashley Hinkle, Alestle Photo Editor

Brrr…

When it’s this cold outside, you’ve heard on the news countless of times to bring your pets inside. But what about those animals, particularly dogs, that have no place to go? What do they do? I took a drive around East St. Louis around 8 a.m. in the morning with PJ Hightower, with Gateway Pet Guardians, to find out.

The stray dogs hide in abandoned houses and burrow into the ground to stay warm. This isn’t the lifestyle of a king; it’s barely and barely a lifestyle to survive.  And how do they get food? Well thanks to PJ, Thanks to Hightower and the Gateway Pet Guardians, the dogs are fed every morning with food donations from various organizations and individuals from the area.

I rode along with Hightower and Jamie Case on a Saturday morning and took photos of all the dogs they fed.  We loaded Hightower’s car with three bags of dog food and a bag of treats. It was a very cold morning, so cold that we whisted for the dogs from the heat of the car.

Hightower knows everything about these dogs in East St. Louis. She knows where they live, who mates with who, and even when the females menstrual cycles are. She goes out every morning to feed the dogs that are still on the street because they don’t have foster homes to go to, so they have to wait a little while longer.  Most of the dogs we fed would not get close enough for us to pet them. They are very skeptical of interacting with people. We would lay out a pile of food and be on our way. Although they were wary, the dogs weren’t vicious.  Some were even gracious enough to let the birds eat, too. 

I wanted to take every single one of them home with me. I am a huge animal lover and have been wanting a new dog for some time. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be getting a rescue dog after my experience. These dogs need warm homes and individuals to accept them into their hearts and show them the meaning of love. After all dog is man’s–or woman’s–best friend.

Gateway Pet Guardians are always looking for foster parents to house dogs while they await a more permanent home. Fostering is the first step to getting the dogs off of the streets.

While on my ride Case told me about a girl who, on her twelfth birthday, called Case to let her know that instead of her friends bringing her gifts that year, she asked them to bring doggie gifts for her to donate. If only all of us were so thoughtful.

Coming up for Gateway Guardians:

Gateway Pet Guardians’ Mixed Breed Art Auction, 4 to 8 p.m., Feb. 28 at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood

When did women decide they weren’t beautiful?

by Ashley Hinkle, Alestle Photo Editor

Ashley Hinkle

We look at advertisements of females as the ideal of female beauty.

We also learn from advertising how important it is for a woman to be beautiful and what it takes to achieve this level of beauty. It takes a massive amount of time, energy and money. Women who do not achieve this feel as though they have failed.

The ideal is based on absolute flawlessness and is therefore unachievable. The ideal woman has no lines or wrinkles, no scares or pimples and no pores.

Advertisement agencies are able to manipulate photos in order to achieve perfection that in the real world is not possible, and honestly we should all know that by now.

Perfection is the idea, but who is to say that even these women that are in magazines, that have no pores, are perfect? Who came up with this ideal perfect woman? Isn’t everyone different? Are we not all made up of completely different chemical compositions that make everyone an individual and not any of us the same? How is it then that we can determine what beauty is?

Yet women from all over find themselves looking at ads and wishing to look like them. Wishing to be thinner, brighter eyed, sun touched, toned and in-shape.

Advertisements even make us question are beauty even if we do not realize it. We are all effected, whether we want to admit it or not, we have all asked, “Do these make me look fat”?

Constant password updates are unnecessary

by Ashley Hinkle, Alestle photo editor

Ashley Hinkle

Yesterday, I had to renew my SIUE Web mail password. This password is used to get into my e-mail account and Blackboard, but I don’t understand why we have to change them so often.

We don’t have to change our passwords to get into our Cougarnet accounts, and that has a lot more personal information in it. I don’t have to change my e-mail passwords for my Charter account, and I also don’t have to with my online banking. What is in my SIUE Webmail that needs to be so protected?

There is a problem with this system, for students and faculty alike. One professor told me maximum security businesses don’t have to change their passwords as often as we do.

I had trouble trying to remember my locker code in at high school. I have trouble remembering peoples’ names. Now, I have to change my password for my e-mail after so many days. I just don’t understand why it’s so necessary.

Shutting down the ‘everyday, instant everything’

By Ashley Hinkle, Alestle photo editor

A weekend with

Ashley Hinkle

out a phone. Sounds daunting doesn’t it?

In all actuality, it really wasn’t that bad. It was nice not receiving text messages and cell phone conversations that could have taken place at some other time rather than in the middle of weekend activities. We are all so digitally connected that we are lost without our devices. Amazingly, it is possible to function without them.

In order to set plans, I had to call individuals through landline phones. The toughest part was trying to remember their phone numbers. Trying to find a phone book was a bit of a problem as well.

Once phone numbers were obtained, my friends wouldn’t answer my call because they didn’t recognize the number. They didn’t call me back until they listened to my message. The landline phone that I used didn’t even have caller ID, so I answered every incoming call and hoped it was who I wanted to talk to.

Plans were finally made: meet in a parking lot at 1:30. That turned into an hour long wait. My friend didn’t show up until 2:30, and I was stuck waiting without knowing what was going on. I sat there thinking to myself, “Hmm… This would be a great time to be able to call from a cell phone.”

While somewhat of a nuisance, this experience was actually eye opening. It was nice getting away from the hustle and bustle of everyday instant everything and revert back to what things were like when I grew up. My weekend actually felt longer, time seemed to slow down, and suddenly–just by having my phone off–I was actually able to stop and smell the roses.