Olive Branch Accepted and One Offered In Return
It is with great relief and that I wholeheartedly accept BlogPaws’ apology and offer one of my own. My emotional expression of frustration was never meant to harm anyone, nor create the firestorm that followed. As I mentioned in response to a comment today, I should have written my thoughts in a journal instead of my blog. I apologize to BlogPaws and to anyone else who was hurt by the words that have been spoken (on both sides) these past two days.
Let us put down our sticks, our stones, and our words, and work together towards the one thing that unites us all – the animals.
My thanks to Tom, Yvonne and Caroline for being the first to offer an olive branch and to those who brought levity and thoughtful insight to the discussion
I leave you with the one person who always seems to see the bigger picture, and who’s wisdom I respect a great deal, Pamela Webster, and her beautifully written blog post “Lessons in Grace – The Idealists vs the Realists”
Mel Freer
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No Dog About It Blog 
Hi Mel,
Indeed, as someone who has been informed of this in the background, let’s return to the ideals of being there for our non-judgemental and unconditional loving friends in the animal world.
Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet star has been most dismayed over it all.
With respect and kind wishes, Gary
Respectfully agree Gary.
Wow. Go away for a week, and you miss everything.
I’m glad it all worked out between you and the BlogPaws team. The last thing the animal welfare community needs is MORE factions.
Me too Lori. We don’t need any more factions at all.
Glad to see that this situation has resolved in a satisfactory manner to you AND the Blog Paws Team.
Thank you Karen. Me too.
This is great news to wake up to. The healing can begin.
Agree.
You have nothing to apologize for, Mel. But for your sake I hope things calm down.
Mel, we are glad this can move into more positive feelings, now. I think it shows how people can misinterpret emails, blog posts, and even casual comments. BlogPaws accepts responsibility for not contacting you offline to discuss your concerns and is glad you know we never meant to ‘attack’ you, and vice-versa. The pet community is too important to all of us – this experience shows that no one is immune to being misunderstood. In the end, we’re all pet people trying to do the right thing. Let’s continue to work together on that.
Amen.
I was offline for a couple of days and missed it all and I’m so happy to see that everything has worked out for the best. it’s hard to be passionate about something and not speak your mind, it’s what draws people to your blog – it’s who you are. We learn from our mistakes, and we all grow stronger and become more connected by resolving disagreements. Cheers to everyone involved for being open enough to extending the olive branch 🙂
I am just getting caught up on all this and I am so sorry to read about all that has been going on. I have spent quite some time tonight reading through posts on this matter and it saddens me. It saddens me because I really think very highly of the pet blogging community. When I started blogging I had choices I could of been a mommy blogger, but I chose not too because of the wonderful, compassionate pet blogging community that I saw before me here. What has transpired over the past few days between some of the bloggers in this community breaks my heart, the words that were said, the personal insults, and the feelings that were hurt. Sure it happens but this was pretty rough.
I am glad to hear that you and BlogPaws have come to an understanding but it still makes me wonder if the damage was already done?
From what I have read I think you handled yourself very dignified and I certainly hope you don’t really mean that you should of written this in your journal rather than on your blog. You brought certain things to people’s attention and that is what it is all about. ( and I do not mean that disrespectfully, I mean that you have a great deal of knowledge and that should not go unheard). Ok…I’m going to stop now:)I could blab forever!
I’m actually sorry that you have to read it. Please know that this is not indicative of the pet blogging community. Sometimes misunderstandings happen – even outside the community. I believe that whether mommy bloggers or pet bloggers, we all come to this with a passion for the subject we know and love to discuss so much. When there is that much passion in one place there are bound to be disagreements. I still believe this is a wonderful community full of some pretty awesome people with lots of knowledge and motivation and insight that we can all learn from.
Is the damage already done? I hope not.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments Jen. I hope that you will give all of us another chance to show you this is a wonderful community.
I’m not going anywhere, regardless, like you said this is a great community, just sad that one if the “awesome” peeps and fellow triberrs got dissed:)
Mel – I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it by sooner. Due to my crappy and rare Internet connection this weekend, I was a bit behind. I read your posts and all of the others – I’m reserving comment on those since it seems silly for me to comment on each development now that that situation has come to a resolution. However, I did want to stop by here and say that I thought your initial post was professional and I didn’t read it in any way, shape or form as an attack on BlogPaws – more of a post raising questions about the vetting process and a thought-provoking look at a broader issue about the tensions at play. When I saw the BlogPaws initial response, I was appalled and angry on your behalf. I’m glad that you received an apology from BlogPaws, and I hope that they will be more thoughtful when responding to blogs that raise questions or issues in the future. Most of all, I just wanted to let you know that you had my support throughout, even if I was unable to tell you at the time. Hugs!
Thanks AJ. I saw your tweets of frustration. I hate being disconnected fro my phone or computer too. 🙂
I appreciate that you read my post and understood that my intent was not to attack BlogPaws, however having read it again from a different perspective, I can see why they took offense. If you read everything then you know that was not my intent, but I do see their side of things much more clearly now. I’m glad we’ve both have had some time to reflect, learn and understand. I hope that you will move on with us and let this whole thing be in the past.
Thank you for the hugs. Glad you made it home safely!
I think Pamela summed it up perfectly in her post – it’s all about taking the time to reflect and try to understand where the other person (or in this case, blog) is coming from. A good lesson for us all to learn, but a hard way to learn it!
Honestly, it was probably a blessing in disguise that I was out of pocket – that probably kept me from firing off some very angry thoughts I wouldn’t have been able to take back.
I’m all for moving on!
A blessing indeed. 🙂