Foster maltipoo Millie doesn’t like to crowd us on the bed, so she goes to the very edge and even stretches upside down, as seen here in these pictures. Even though she’s one of the tiniest dogs I’ve ever fostered (she’s mostly fur), she’s very agile, so she gets in and out of bed and jumps off and on like it’s nothing. I’ve got to take her to the vet soon to check out what’s going on with the growths in her ear. I’m hoping they are benign. We think she’s about five years old.
Meanwhile, the newest foster, cream-colored chihuahua Marshall, is acclimating well. He’s young, healthy, and looking for a permanent home. He’s shy at first, but incredibly affectionate once he trusts a person. He is already neutered and house-trained, and he has yet to bark once, so definitely not yappy! He gets along very well with other dogs, as you’ll see in the videos where he’s very playful.
Fosters Dolly and Marshall (who only recently met each other) start off wrestling in bed, and then Snoopy joins them….until someone yelps. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, my parents used to say.
Here are Snoopy and the three foster dogs resting in the backyard of the rental this morning.
As the Humane Society of the North Bay’s Disco Gala was beginning last night, we took a panorama of the view from the Masonic Temple on top of the hill here in Vallejo.
At the Humane Society of the North Bay’s Disco Gala at the Masonic Template in Vallejo, we had an incredible auctioneer. We raised a lot of money for the homeless cats and dogs in our area! As a volunteer Board member of the HSNB non-profit, I’m very proud of the work we do to try to save as many lives as possible, given the challenges created by circumstances and, in some cases, callous people.
Lots of disco and disco-adjacent music (like Dua Lipa that Tom Bilbo and Shea are dancing to) at the Humane Society of the North Bay’s Disco Gala.
Pictures we took while helping to set up:
Pictures we took once the gala was underway:
The video compilation below is over half an hour long, but it begins with me at the microphone introducing most of the HSNB Board and then the auctioneer.
Shea took this picture of me with the pack of FIVE (look carefully) a few days ago. It’s sort of an optical illusion. The three fosters are all there with Bonnie and Snoopy.
Three fosters are Millie (a small white Maltese-Poodle mix), Marshall (a cream-colored Chihuahua), and Dolly (a black Chihuahua with a white chest). The two guest dogs are Gracie and Lucy, whom I dog-sat again. Of course, our dogs are Bonnie and Snoopy.
We took in another very shy chihuahua (cream colored) named Marshall, who was not coping well with being in the shelter. He’s been painfully shy like Dolly was, but I don’t mind that he’s enjoying the freedom of the backyard a lot while we patiently get to know him. The dogs all get along with each other, and he’s going to hopefully trust Shea and me more to be affectionate soon, but at least for now, he’s curious and comfortable sleeping in doggie beds and enjoying the wonderful weather outside as much as he wants to. We had two pool days in Vallejo with the dearest of friends, catching up. This was last night, resting in the backyard of the rental (the house under renovation is getting closer and closer) with the five dogs, including the three fosters.
While we were at Lazybear we had a housesitter/dogsitter who took care of our fosters and our former foster who is now adopted, Perry!
This first picture is of a cool tumbler I received from the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) gala in Chicago, where I attended the Second Annual Tobacco End Game Summit last week. I opened the package when I was in Chicago and thought, “How cool that they gave us these mugs to thank us for our advocacy.” But EVEN COOLER was when I looked again and read the BACK of the mug!!!! Now I take this thing with me EVERYWHERE! I love it when advocates OWN IT.
After flying back from Chicago earlier in the day for a Tobacco End Game Summit, I mustered the energy to go online and fight for a robust Tobacco Retail License with my fellow activists for the health of youth who would otherwise become addicted to tobacco. The vitriol from retailers who insisted that they would go belly up if they had to have their sales of POISON curtailed was unbelievable, even using a 9-year-old boy whose parents told him they might lose their house if the TRL passed, rather than find HEALTHY products to sell in their community. I told the City Council about my ties to Brentwood since the 1970s and how my own godfather, a long-time resident of Brentwood on Oak Street, died prematurely from his own smoking. I spoke immediately after a PAID lawyer and got to mention that I was there PRO BONO. You can hear my comments in this video. I’m so pleased that the City Council did not kowtow to the paid attorney and the big businesses and put the health of the community first.
This first video is the excerpt of my comments:
I got most of my prepared comments out before getting cut off by the 2 minute timer:
Good evening City Council. My name is Joseph Hayden. I’m a volunteer co-Chair of Tobacco Free Solano. With my law degree I work pro bono with many counties in the bay area including Coco. Unlike the person who just spoke, I am NOT getting paid to be here. Brentwood is special to me as I’ve had longstanding ties there since the 1970s. My godparents moved to Oak Street with my godbrothers and were very active in the community and in the high schools long before the major growth that took place. Sadly that same godfather died way too young due to his tobacco addiction, leaving my godmother a young widow. In my immediate family numerous others died between the ages of 35 and 50 from their own addiction to tobacco. I’m pleased that Brentwood is considering a relatively robust Tobacco Retail License so that the youth have a better chance to live their best lives without the scourge of addiction since more than 95% of people who smoke started before they were of legal age. I wish all retailers would wake up and stop peddling POISON altogether by voluntarily removing this garbage from their shelves and selling healthy products. The future is a world where commercial tobacco is no longer widely available and certainly not normalized as it has been. Profit versus health? Not a question for me. Tobacco related disease is THE MOST preventable cause of death in the world. 8 million people a year are killed by this shameful industry. For centuries commercial manipulation turn sacred traditional tobacco of indigenous people to this highly toxic combination of carcinogenic chemicals that are designed to kill when used as intended. As for distance complaints by the retailers, it was already reduced dramatically. I’m sure if they had their way there would be no density requirement at all. This distance does not comport at all with the best practices of a TRL from the Public Health Law Center. We just heard from families affected by pediatric cancer. Thank you for taking this step to put your community’s health above profit.
Here is the entire segment (with extra parts at the beginning and end):
Video to come and pictures of me on a panel to come (hopefully).
I had the honor of being invited back to the Second Annual End Game Summit in Chicago. The previous one in 2024 was in Washington DC.
I addressed a number of issues from the dais and in various comments.
NEEDED DIVESTMENT – I covered my concern over “diversified” mutual funds that many of our retirement savings go into funds that are NOT green and therefore contribute to tobacco companies. WE MUST DIVEST.
RACISM & HOMOPHOBIA – I spoke about Big Tobacco’s targeting of numerous marginalized communities, various ethnicities and of course the LGBTQ population.
ENTERTAINMENT – I literally said, “it chaps my ass” that imagery in the entertainment industry STILL normalizes smoking and gives them free advertising, when electronic advertising of tobacco was made illegal decades ago. These depictions, I gave examples of, are even in the sci-fi genre which depict in the distant future and especially among protagonists for no substantive reason on film. I would like to see some outreach to producers and directors to curtail this dangerous trend.
DOGE REPERCUSSIONS – I pointed out that our HHS Secretary, RFK Jr. is a known Zyn (smokeless tobacco pouch that still causes cancer) user and popped one in his mouth ON CAMERA during a congressional hearing! With an administration rewriting history, we need to focus on why this product was drastically changed from traditional sacred tobacco use among indigenous Americans to the deadly poison it is sold as now.
As a reminder, I pay for my own travel and accommodations to these things and all my work is pro bono. This is what my blood, sweat and tears to get my Juris Doctor was for. This is what I wanted it to be for.
The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council put on an amazing gala in the evening after the day-long End Game Summit. I was lucky enough to be invited to the gala as well. There were amazing spoken word contest winners and other performances, as well as a preview to an upcoming film made by Black and indigenous activists against commercial tobacco and reviewing the history of sacred traditional tobacco, which has NOTHING to do with the garbage products that colonizers made out of this native North American plant.
I love collaborating with these amazing people, saving so many lives, and fighting for the end to ALL MENTHOL sales nationwide, like California has finally done. Of course END GAME means ending all commercial tobacco sales as has been done in more and more jurisdictions across the planet.
While I was in Chicago for a conference for several days, Shea took care of the dogs and did some tabling at the Farmer’s Market. He also attended a VGN and made a keto-friendly cheesecake and got some pool time in with some friends, as well as going to karaoke.
