Paint’s Blog

thing is i’d be HAPPY to attend the nightly meeting if they would just solidify my shedual . so i know when i need to come in

I didn’t know, but this is a 2 month old article. Isn’t this great? He gets it.

wonderful artical when so often we see suck sad news .
http://tinyurl.com/2ozrw4

NEW LEASH ON LIFE
Raiders’ Cooper dedicates himself to care of abused and mean dogs at animal shelter
Gwen Knapp, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

For a long time, Jarrod Cooper wouldn’t tell anyone at the Oakland Animal Shelter what he did for a living. He wasn’t there as an NFL player, as the anti-Michael Vick. He had a pretty good idea that if the league wanted someone to do spin control, he wouldn’t be the first choice for the job.

The Raiders had started their season without Cooper, while he served a four-game suspension for a positive steroid test. He doubted that he would return the field. It would be so easy to write off a special-teams player, even a great one, if his name was linked to any type of scandal.

He needed something to fill his time, to distract him from the disturbing thoughts that filled his head and to begin building a future without football. So he arrived at the shelter like any other volunteer. The staff members didn’t ask too many questions about the heavily muscled young man with elaborate tattoos, but they did find him intriguing.

“He’d drive up in this nice car. He had all this time,” volunteer coordinator Megan Webb said, laughing. “We had no idea.”

Cooper returned to the Raiders, and everyone at the shelter figured out who he was late in the season, when he got hurt and arrived to volunteer on crutches. By then, he was hooked on the place. He had become the perfect antidote to Vick and his sadistic dogfighting ring – a pro athlete who owned big dogs and, more and more every day, devoted the fierce intensity cultivated by football to the cause of protecting animals.

“When I first came here, I’d see a mean dog, I’d say what’s wrong with that dog? And now if I would see a mean dog, I think, ‘Who did that to this animal?’ ” he said. “The dogs only do what you train them to do.”

Almost on cue, a roaming cat jumped into Cooper’s lap as he began the interview. The two-hour visit dispelled any suspicions that he volunteers here for show, as perfunctory public service. He and Webb bantered constantly about various animals, from the puppy that had been thrown against a wall to Rambo, a dog that had arrived months earlier with a mile-long disobedient streak and, after a committed effort by everyone at the shelter, had been adopted out the day before with a reformed attitude and a new name, Riley.

Cooper brought out his digital camera to find a picture of Riley. As he clicked from frame to frame, he passed pictures of a huge red sore on a dog’s shin and of himself planting his handprint in newly poured concrete in the shelter’s backyard. Cooper is financing the construction of outdoor kennels so that the dogs can spend time in fresh air and sunshine without having to wait for volunteers to take them out individually.

Later, Cooper peeled away from a tour of the facilities with a Chronicle photographer and reporter so that he could “take care of Bob,” a man waiting for him in the lobby. Webb explained that Bob was the concrete guy. “Jarrod has to write him a check,” she said.

He also is underwriting a workshop this month on how to identify and cultivate task-oriented dogs that are too hyperactive to be house pets but often make perfect worker animals, performing search-and-rescue duties or herding cattle. Experts from Texas are flying here to lead the discussion.

Yet Cooper’s checkbook, Webb insists, isn’t half as active as he is. He cleared out the back area before construction started on the kennels, and he put hours into cleaning up a barn by Lake Merritt, which the shelter owns but can’t use to full advantage. His girlfriend, Erica Arana, said she barely saw him some days because he’d go to physical therapy in the morning, then spend the afternoon and evening at the shelter, sometimes returning home as late as 8 p.m.

“People save the animals, and the animals save people,” he said, “and once you see that and experience it, you’re stuck here. I’m stuck now.”

Cooper ranks second among the volunteers in terms of hours served, Webb said, bringing out the football player’s competitive side.

“Really No. 1,” he said, flashing an impish smile at Webb. “Martha doesn’t count anymore. She works here now.”

As a college student, Cooper wanted to train for veterinary school, but the workload didn’t fit with his football schedule. He now is certain that his future outside sports will be devoted to animal welfare. Working with Bad Rap, a nonprofit that promotes proper treatment of pit bulls, he has committed himself to helping pet owners understand and fulfill their responsibilities. He started an organization called Code 597, named for the California penal code against cruelty to animals, and recruited seven other Raiders to help, including Nnamdi Asomugha and Justin Fargas.

“I always use myself as an example. When I was growing up, I thought it was OK to chain your dog up and then go to work or go to school. I’d be gone from 7 to 5 at night because I had track practice,” he said “You don’t think about it. Your dog knocks over his food or his water. He’s sitting there for 12 hours without any water. That’s not how you take care of your animal.”

Code 597 will help equip owners with better restraining devices, perhaps a crate or a dog run, plus neutering services or microchips that help locate lost animals. Cooper owns two Presa Canarios, Kaine and Kristo, huge dogs that, under the wrong supervision, can become very dangerous. Cooper initially thought about breeding them for profit; within in a week of volunteering at the shelter, he said, he had them fixed.

“I think I wanted to get the big dogs for a macho thing,” Cooper said. “That’s not a very educated reason to get a big dog. … Thank God it got corrected by volunteering here. It probably saved me and my dogs.”

The shelter work acted like therapy, Cooper said, during his suspension. He had been in trouble before, getting jailed and suspended after two DUI arrests and generally failing to ground himself. After he started volunteering, “you could really see a difference in him,” said Arana, who began dating him two years ago. “It was like he’d found his place.”

He likes to compare himself to a cartoon character. “You know when the Grinch had a small heart, and then his heart grew big?” he said. “You do lose your way once you’re in the NFL for a while. Your sense of reality starts to get a little skewed.”

“You’re in another world,” Arana interjected.

“Yea,” he said, “you are. And this place just kind of put me back in the real world. Helping people, it just kind of opened me up, made me have maybe a little more feelings. Kind of the Grinch syndrome.”

In light of Vick’s guilty plea, the NFL probably could use a little Dr. Seuss in its game. Cooper hopes to take Code 597 to league headquarters someday and advance the cause throughout the league. But he’s in no hurry. He wants to make things work here first, be sure that the program serves pets and their owners before it becomes an NFL enterprise. Anything less would be a show, and when Cooper doesn’t want to be on stage. He’s stuck in another world, and he really likes it there.

Oakland Animal Services: www.oaklandanimalservices.org/indexp.php

BADRAP: www.badrap.org/rescue/

Jarrod Cooper on MySpaceTV: vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=25528232

E-mail Gwen Knapp at gknapp@sfchronicle.com.

so i might have mentioned this before . we do computer repair as a means for a little suplimental income..

about 3 months ago, Matt was asked to fix a apple laptop.

he looked it over and it was determined it needed a full reinstall and a hard drive recovery..
so the client was informed he needed to buy a external hard drive ,
Matt wrote out the specs needed , how large and where to get a good price. he continued bugging Matt to “fix” it but never went out and bought the hard drive that was required to do the back up.

about 2 months ago.
he called wanting matt to install a peice of software .
Matt went out and looked at it. it’s PC only, Matt made a deal he could barrow a loaner laptop for a few days .,
so Matt could take his mac and do the HD recovery ,
when matt dropped off the PC to loan , he refused to let Matt take the other for repair saying hew needed it their ect..

so Matt left it since he also hadn’t bought his own back up drive anyway ,

the next day he calls Matt at 10pm and say he has to fix it NOW he need the hard drive recovered it an emergency.

so Matt took my 500gb external, to do the recovery , all it was supposed to be was a recovery. not more then 4 hours tops with back up and reinstall of the OS.

he held Matt their for over 11 hours . and still was demanding he come back. and continue working even though Matt told him i need to sleep i have to work at 3 pm. he didn’t get out of their till 11 am.
and he expected mat to return because Matt was exhausted he left the HD to finish coping which it did and he didn’t have room on his scooter to carry every thing back. at that time the client asked how much he owed Matt , Matt said 300.00( this is grossly under valued, i did the write up and it should of been 1270, 300 is a 73+% discount) client said here’s a 100.00 shored him 200.00 then kept demanding more work even though he never paid for the work the was just done over 11 hours.

that was Matts’ mistake .

on Monday Matts day off, he called him back to shedual a time to pick up equipment .

no returned call.

called or emailed every day for a week no return call.

week 2 , I did the collections calls,

day 1 , “sir m, please call me back by the end of thhe day (5pm) to schedual a pick up of our equpitment)

no return call

day 2 . “sir this is an urgent matter please return a call or email for a scheduled pick up of equipment.

no call

day 3

“sir i need to hear from you immediately or I will be forced to escalate this situation by contacting the PD and listing the equipment as stolen .”

that got a call back.

he threated to keep the equipment untill “services were finished” , then we could pick it up on Saturday …

Saturday rolls around ,called for time as requested .
was told out of the country will call back when he returned .

called or emailed every 3 days their after .
( we did check and another computer repair shop he frequents , and were told he had been to Hollywood the Wednesday 2 weeks prior.. 2 days after Matt had called on his Monday off.. so not only was he in Hollywood ,he didn’t contact us or drop off requested equipment then…

finally last night i got a hold of him.

and asked are you back in the country?

he said yes , asked where we had been

i told him , I have been waiting for him to call as per his secretary ..

his response was well she told you to call me ..
( not true , every time we got any one she said he would call)

i can pick it up now .

he said it was a bad time .

said come get it at 5:30am .

i told him i work till 7:30 i can get it at 8am is that a good time ,

. he said yes

we agreed upon picking it up at 8:am 4-30-08

so at 10:34 pm he leaves a message on my cell.

“make sure you bring Matthew with you . i have unfinished bisness to talk to him about ..”

i called Matt at 5 :30am and told him to meet me at work before we go over, since i wanted to call the Culver pd and have that back up..

client showed up at my apartment at 6:30 am woke Matt up. ( some idiot neighbor let him in the building)

and told Matt “comm’on your wife told me to get you . and i need work done ..”

at 7 am Matt calls me . asks where i am .

i told him i don’t get off work till 7:30,.

i ask wher he was , he says “upstairs at the client apt..”

i was befuddled i told him to meet me at work

i told Matt “if your their get the laptop and hard drive ,do not do any more work and meet me on the street at 8am.”

client got irate in the back ground refused to hand over equipment
Matt balked as usual he is horrid at confrontation. that ends up falling to me.,.

I panicked at this point..

**i’m shaking again …………..*

any way .
got their at 8am.
met Matt out side asked him where the equpitment was ..
was told to come up stairs by client.

walked to my hard drive and picked it up.

he got irate started screaming obsenties at me .

i told him “their would be no more work done, I’m taking my equipment and leaving.”

he said how dare i get “all up in his face ” ect more shouting .
said something about us stealing his property…( my laptop/hard drive with my name and number stickered to them .)

i said fine i will call the PD and let them handle it ,if he doesn’t turn over the equipment and let us leave..

he blocked the door and menaced ..

i hadn’t unplugged the Hard Drive yet . i held it and let it transfer, based my next move on his next move.
i then dialed the pd ,i had set them to speed dial.
he lunged across the room , smacked me ( in my fresh root canal sore already cheek…) beat the phone out of my hand while i was dialing….

i was in shock, i said you jhit me that’s assault..
he said “no, i just took your phone” .. …….

i repeated” that was assault , I’m taking my equipment and leaving .”

at this time Matt put him self between us , told him to not “talk to my wife that way,”

he handles things calmly, but he isn’t very good at confrontation…. if he had started swinging, i don’t think it would of been good . we just needed to get our stuff and get out.. i do think if the client had had tried to swing at me again, Matt wouldn’t of backed down, but given the situation, their wasn’t a lot of time for planning.. and the dude was holding my phone, playing keep away then dropped it at one point becuse i hat to pick it up off the floor, it had shoe marks wher he stepped on it..

. i wish he had called 911…. but keep in mind the entire senerio played out in under 8 minutes.. it’s not like we had time to consider a plan B.

i then unplugged the hard drive were it was
(their is about a 90% chance i destroyed it doing that ,, never dismount a apple HD that way it fries them )

and walked over to get my laptop he tried to block again like he was going to toss it out the window .
i got it first though.

because he was slow i was able to get the laptop away from him, before he tossed it,
and he wasn’t fast enough to get it back. he tried once to grab it , and then gave up returning to screaming obscenities.

i was shaking for almost 3 hours after wards…. i was so, . just every thing mad, pissed, scared , i was scared, i was seriously scared ..

but i was pissed too, by unplugging the hard drive and I knew i was sacrificing it. but it was the gesture at that point. I’m pretty confident I killed that drive.

but it was the principal at that time he had already hit me . and i had to get the laptop back, my mom needs it….

 

 

then we left with him screaming “I know where you “F$%^ n live” repeatedly and “Matt control your women” , “you fat F%^& cow” ,,, and on and on, and “no one does that to me i’m Jona E-somthing” .. that was like the 5 th name he had used, dude has like 5 aliases . .

i think he is seriously used to stomping his foot and getting what ever he wants..

when we finally found the police station, the PD didn’t do anything , they told us to file a restraining order,

Matt got an ear full form me for not listing to me and allowing ourselves to be in the position

I had told him i wanted a cop present before we went over ..
Matthad no idea why i was concerned.
i knew damn well this jerk wasn’t stable.

oh and just to make it worse while Matt was their, he when on for 20 minutes about how he ate Dog in twain and how good it tastes , he KNOWS we do dog rescue. ..
he is just cruel.

i shook for 2 and a half hours , i’m shaking again . stress nerves angry….

i spent the next 4 hours at the court house getting a restraining order.

i’m going to tell you whats in my heart.

i think i will find a lawyer and prosecute but under these terms , mainly because it will confuse him..

#1 they lawyer can sue but i do not want any money. what every he gets over his costs , and i don’t care if he goes deep, will be donated to Dogs without Borders , a recuse that takes a few strays from Tiwain to place them in the US , she does 90% local shelter dogs, but the last 10% are flown in from Taiwan when their is an adopter interested . ,
this donation is to be made in person, in the name of the dogs he ate in tiwain , and then laughed about in detail to my husband for 20 minutes .

#2
he is to do, at least 40 hours community service at a battered women shelter for hitting me .

#3 he needs to work for no less then one week as a customer service rep, at a best buy or circuit city during returns weeks . Dec 26th thru Jan 8th.

#4 i want him to know that his money means nothing to me , that i don’t care “how many zero’s ” he has in his bank account since he is morally bankrupt, and quite frankly i don’t want his filthy money.