Brodies Application: Fill & Download for Free

This was Cooper, a rescued Pointer, who stole my heart the minute I saw him at the shelter. My husband wasn’t as quick to come around. He didn’t want to adopt another dog, but alas, he found himself a reluctant dog dad once again. Fast forward five years, and Cooper had our family wrapped around his liver & white spotted paw. When he became ill very suddenly, our lives changed to meet his needs. We cooked his chicken & rice meals to encourage his eating. We switched up our work schedules to get home throughout the day to care for him. We were heading out the door one morning to get Coop to the emergency vet when he died right in front of us. It was devastating. We cried a river of tears for days. My husband swore he’d never love another dog again, the way he loved Cooper. To be honest, it’s been a year and a half since Cooper’s passing, and my husband still isn’t the same.Two days after Cooper left us, I did a Google search for rescued Pointers available for adoption near us. I wanted another male. There was a female within a couple hours, but no males. The next morning, something made me search again. A nearby rescue group had just posted a photo of a 12-week Pointer mix pup. A precious little boy who had been pulled from a high-kill shelter in Arkansas and brought to Illinois. He wouldn’t be available for 3 more weeks, but we could put a “reservation” on him. Much to my surprise, it was my husband who hit the “Reserve” button and completed our application. Immediately, and for the next weeks while we waited for Brody to become available, we felt happier. Cooper had left such a hole in our hearts, but the excitement of giving another rescue dog a home was building.We arrived early on the morning Brody was officially released for adoption. We couldn’t wait to meet him. We had been prepping our home for 3 weeks. This meeting just HAD to go well. These weeks of anticipation had been our saving grace from the dark cloud of Cooper’s passing. When they brought Brody out to the meet & greet room, I think my husband and I laughed for the first time in 3.5 weeks. Brody was a clumsy, goofy puppy, and he loved us immediately. We all knew he was going home that day. As we completed the adoption paperwork, we learned a bit more about Brody. He was part of an accidental litter, and he was dropped off at animal control. Because he was an owner-surrender, there wasn’t a mandatory hold time. Brody was scheduled to be euthanized 72 hours after being dropped off. The facility was full. Luckily, a staff member recognized a sweetness in Brody and reached out to rescues to see who could pull him. Luckily (again), our local rescue responded. The stars aligned, and I believe, with a little heavenly nudge from Cooper, we brought Brody home. Not a replacement for Cooper. We could never replace Coop. But we honor his wonderful spirit by giving another homeless pup a home. Long answer, I know. If you made it this far, here’s a picture of Brody when the rescue brought him out to meet us. Love at first sight!

Tee hee hee.Ok, so since we want this to be funny, we're going to have to find a way around the usual omnipotence and omniscience when talking about Jesus. Let's just say he's trying to blend in a little.Nice. Let's do this“What are power tools?”“How can power tools be used in carpentry?”“Do I have to disclose where wine comes from when selling it?”“Why doesn't anybody speak Aramaic anymore? Or Greek? Or even Latin?”“Why do people expect me to take pieces of paper instead of coins when I sell them something?”“Do I need a lifeguard to go walk on water?”“I healed a man who had cancer, but now he's suing me for practicing without a license, what are my options?”“I went out to go fishing, but I was stopped and fined, why was that?”“Where do I get a 'Fishing License'?”“What does '$' mean?”“Would a previous criminal conviction make it harder for me to become a U.S. citizen?”“Does the U.S. have Roman era criminal records?”“Why is an orange man the king of this country?”“What does the king have against people from the middle East?”“I have been accused of starting a rebellion and overthrowing a government. Will this impact my citizenship application?”“Why is it so hard to become a U.S. citizen?”

I was CEO of a publicly traded ethical pharmaceutical manufacturer for several years. As such, I worked with costs, made alliances with Big Pharma, sold product to the government agencies and the major distributors, and dealt with our own health-care insurance providers. Being curious about the lay of the land, I also dug into things more than the average CEO might.First, our distribution was far from direct to the end user or hospital. It proceeded to a market manager, then to a big distribution company, then to major outlet warehouses, and finally to drug stores or hospitals. Remember, every lot expires in 2 years from manufacturing date. Months of that expiry were already gone before it got to a place where you could buy it. Furthermore, we were obliged to take back the product AT SELLING PRICE if there was less than 6 months to go.The contracts with our distributors were onerous. There were holdback, price variance guarantees, bonuses, rebates and whatever other calculation they could make to reduce our net selling price to them. Interpreting the language of this deal took specialized staff, and the accounting was a nightmare. The distributors made much more profit that we did as manufacturers. Our margins were a bit slim for the industry, simply because, being smaller, we lacked economies of scale. Gross margins of about 30% were common.When we had to make deals with Big Pharma for product development, for their use of our facilities or vice versa, they were always first to take profit and last to take risk. To develop an new molecule (FDA New Drug Application) cost a good fraction of a billion dollars. Most of that was in the clinical trial, which were designed by Testing Boards and specified by agreement with the FDA, all out of our control. Most drugs do not get through all phases of clinical testing. It's like making a movie: you put in a lot of money and hope for a good box office. The incentives for return on these enormous investments drive the kinds of drugs and the the way they are sold. A few bad investment will ruin a company. A few good ones will put it on top of the stock market. The connection between investment, risk and the kind of drugs developed, all under the auspices of the FDA, is a huge problem. Cures are not nearly as lucrative as palliatives. Real breakthroughs are not in the province of publicly owned corporations. The really new stuff comes from small inventors, a few teaching hospitals, and a few real entrepreneurs, all of whom rely on Big Pharma for the investment required by the FDA's clinical procedures. You see nothing about this are in the media, but it deserves scrutiny. The cost of getting a new drug to market is the biggest driver of health costs.Once the drug is on the shelves, the manufacturer/patent holder has a monopoly for the rest of the 17 year patent period. There is usually about 10 or 11 years left after clinical testing. Once it loses patent protection, the price for that generic molecule will drop like a stone. A $100 pill will drop to $10 or may be even $1. That is why Big Pharma fights so hard to keep their patent monopolies as long as they can.In my opinion there are a lot better ways to get drugs to market, but this is not the place to describe them.Once the FDA has cleared a drug, other countries' drug agencies have a much easier time collecting the necessary data, and to prevent premature competition, Big Pharma sells them the original drugs with a heavy discount. So other countries piggyback their drug costs on the US procedures (with exceptions, of course).The curse of too many middlemen and meddlers also occurs in the health care insurance area. The doctor has a casual relationship with a patient, and that is getting weaker. The sticky relationship is between the employer, the state insurance commission, and the insurer. Obamacare has weakened the state commissions and made the employer optional (but still predominant). It does guarantee that the insurer gets the lion's share of the revenue along with a Federal guarantee against losing money. It certainly looks like the insurers will make out like bandits in the long run.The problem with these middleman structures is inefficient intermediation. The responsibility for service or when something goes wrong is spread between and among this group and that company. You can't find anyone to blame. It's always the other guy's area, not mine. In a business where doctors deal with the most intimate problems there there ought to be sacred relationship between doctor and patient. But you have interference from a web of profiteers, data mongers, and lobbyists.Where no one is responsible, the average person is left with a selfish agenda. The patient wants the pimple on his arse looked at NOW. The doctor wants to make enough to retire early before the walls cave in. Big Pharma wants to show a pipeline of growing profits to drive their stock. The FDA wants to steer the biggest possible ship. The politicians and the insurance companies... well, you get the picture.In this kind of intermediated structure, the patient gets screwed and the costs go up. Neither the doctor nor the patient have any power over the system. The doctor has to play CYA or she gets sued. The patient swallows the pills and the bills. The lawyers are shuffling around looking for a victim every minute.Health care is one of the very few industries where the middle men make the lion's share of the profits. Oil is another. It is a mark of corruption.Nothing much changed in the PPACA except that power shifted to the Federal government, an agency with a penchant for redistribution and a poor reputation for running things well. You can complain, but you will not connect with anyone who has responsibility. And being chased by the IRS will not enhance your health.