As Shakespeare almost said, "All's well that ends with puppies." Ok, I said that, but it's true! Especially when you get to play with them and hand them off to someone else who deals with the poopies!
It was a Monday. Things like running around in circles over paperwork, cutting my finger open while making a salad with bagged lettuce (don't ask, it really took talent!) and just feeling like I got nothing done. Yesterday we cleaned a lot - got the whole toy room clean and I would've liked to keep the momentum going, but today was to be a Heartland day.
It started with a run to the vet for some routine spays. Ruby the kitten still had a touch of her cold, so more antibiotics and no surgery for her. Mary got spayed and they're not sure what's up with her ear wax, but of all her problems, we're not too worried about the ears! Toledo was already spayed (not by our vet!) but in heat so they did an exploratory and found ovarian tissue that hadn't been removed! Luckily Toledo will never have to go through another heat cycle again! Lucky for me too since she was really loud. They told me that finding that was like finding a needle in a haystack and it was a minor miracle that they were able to get it.
I drove down to the Humane Society of Missouri on Macklind to pick up Merlin. They wouldn't let me have his friend since he wasn't a Heartland cat. I can understand but was sad. He would've been guaranteed a place until he was adopted. Now I can just hope that he is strong enough without Merlin to be brave and happy and find a home. Merlin is doing well and is gorgeous! He wasn't my foster cat originally, but I agreed to take him in since his foster mom is full at the moment. I did remember him and he was such a cute little kitten!! Here he is all grown up at 10-months-old.
I stopped by a couple of camera stores on the way home (I know, poor baby had to wait in the car) but with construction on Hwy 40 these days, you can't waste a trip into the city! I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy. I was hungry, but none of the millions of restaurants that I drove by sounded good. What an odd day for me not to want to spend money!
Then we went to the vet to have Merlin tested and he was negative! While I was waiting for the test to "cook" I took pictures of Sir Chester of Winghaven - a cat that is temporarily residing at the vet's office while he looks for a new home. He is so cute and sweet. He'll be coming to PetSmart when there is an opening. He had to make sure I got his "good side" - at least he has a cute little tushie!
After I got home, did kitty chores, made dinner, fought with the kids about them eating dinner, it was time to go back to the vet to pick up the surgery patients. As I was leaving the vet, I got the call that the puppies were coming, so it was quickly rushing around to get cats settled back home and taking off again.
A rescue contact had asked if we could help out this rural shelter by taking a couple of puppies. Our big thing was that they'd had 2 rounds of shots, so they should be healthy. They wanted to get these guys out because they look to be small breed dogs and would be highly adoptable in a bigger market like ours (did I mention VERY rural!) A volunteer drove 4 hours each way to bring these guys to us. I was the lucky one who got to play with them for an hour while we waited for one of our volunteers to drive them up to their new foster mom. I had to give the big one a bath, he got sick in the car, but he didn't mind the snuggles. Enjoy the pictures, I have tons more!! They have the roundest ears, the shortest legs, stubby little tails and round little tummies. So cute. But I wish I had known that the pictures were turning out this dark - I would've changed settings on the camera. Oh well!
Dogs aren't born mean, it's people that make them that way
http://www.dallasne ws.com/sharedcon tent/dws/ dn/localnews/
columnists/jfloyd/ stories/012508dn metfloyd. 1b3061e.html
06:28 PM CST on Thursday, January 24, 2008
There are probably a lot of ways to make a mean dog, but
one sadly tried-and-true method is to tie it up out in the
yard and forget about it.
No doubt, there are responsible owners who see nothing
wrong with tethering a dog outside for a few hours of fresh
air and exercise, whose pets are probably none the worse
for it.
But we've all seen the others: the scary pit bull that
erupts in a barking frenzy, lunging and straining at the
end of the chain when it sees you coming down the sidewalk.
Or the sad-eyed mutt tied up next to a doghouse, its
existence limited to the worn-down patch of dirt defined by
the rope's radius.
These aren't pets. They're prisoners.
Before you think that I've gone all PETA on you and that
I'll shortly be saying lobsters experience complex emotions
and chickens require indoor carpeting, consider that this
isn't just a dog problem. It's a public-safety problem, and
a social problem. It's a people problem.
Last week, Dallas' Animal Shelter Commission proposed a
package of recommendations that I fervently hope this city
(and all others) will seriously consider.
They advise limiting the number of animals one household
may keep; they impose a nearly universal requirement for
pets to be spayed or neutered; and they ban tethering or
chaining unsupervised dogs to trees or posts.
Like many cities, Fort Worth has already acted: This week,
the City Council banned tethering any unattended dog. A
city health department news release sent out after the
action states the obvious: "There is evidence that
tethering dogs makes them more dangerous. ... Our animal
control officers encounter on a daily basis tethered dogs
that are left without food, water, or shelter."
Ordinances like this one, or the measures proposed in
Dallas, are about a thousand times more practical and
humane than the knee-jerk wave of ban-the-breed legislation
that sweeps through after every publicized dog attack.
The reason: As veterinarians and health officials – experts
– patiently keep saying, dog problems are caused by people.
It's human behavior that got us to the point where entire
neighborhoods in ostensibly civilized American cities look
like Third World shantytowns: sick, skinny, half-feral
animals roaming the streets; crazed, chained-up dogs prized
for their meanness by half-witted gangsters or homeowners
who use them as cheap burglar alarms.
Outlaw a "mean" breed, and these imbeciles will go to work
on a "friendly" one.
A veteran animal control officer in Louisiana's Calcasieu
Parish recently told a television station there: "I've seen
the chow go through that phase. And the Rottweiler and the
Doberman. ... The pit bull has just hung on a lot longer
than any of those dogs."
Pet owners (you can save that "companion animal" business –
until our cats start paying for groceries, we're the
owners) have obligations, not only to their animals, but to
their neighbors and their communities.
Consider that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention estimates that a dog routinely tethered or
chained up is nearly three times more likely to bite than a
dog that's fenced or kept indoors.
Or that, according to a Pennsylvania- based anti-tethering
advocacy group, 194 children nationwide have been killed or
maimed by chained dogs in the last five years. You may not
lose much sleep over dogs, but surely you care about kids,
don't you?
Domestic dogs don't "choose" to be chained up, or run
loose, or breed indiscriminately, any more than a family
pet who peed on the floor one time too many "chooses" to be
unceremoniously dumped by the highway.
Humans, disgracefully, do choose to mistreat them, neglect
them, let them roam loose, chain them up, or egg them into
aggressiveness.
Banning breeds, euthanizing ever-increasing numbers of
strays and letting people do whatever they please with
their own "property" are not just inhumane solutions – in
practical terms, they aren't solutions at all.
Dallas' "dog problem" is in reality a "people problem." And
it's past time to hold those people accountable.
We adopted out a few kitties, a trio of dogs and continued to have one of those days!
I just finished doing kitty chores and I have some fluid on my sock - I'm not sure what end of the kitty it came from or which one it came from, but the result is the same. I have a cold toe and need a new pair of socks! The worst part is I was talking on the phone to one of my cat-connected neighbors when I stepped in it and we had an indepth discussion about what it could possibly be! I'm way too comfortable with this kind of stuff to be a normal person.
Then remember that feral kitty that is roaming my basement? Well I was trying to grab Toledo the tortie and almost grabbed the feral one by mistake. That would've been very interesting! I also got to torture kittens that I bottle-raised by giving them a treatment with a nebulizer - so scary!
The returns come in groups - it happens every year. I don't know what makes people all want to give their pets back at the same time, but it sucks! We have a cat down at the Humane Society of Missouri and someone else has a cat that is peeing in the house but isn't interested in taking him to the vet or finding out why, just wants to get rid of it. I hate people today!
To top off the bad news, one of our fosters recently adopted one of her special needs kittens, but now it seems that the kitten isn't going to make it. Horrible news to get while doing adoptions at PetSmart. I don't know how she muddled through the day, but at least karma helped get lots of her cats adopted today.
Dogs: Natalie, Angel, Coal
Cats: Coolio, Chingy, Shante, Sylke, Titan, Jada
Natalie: cute puppy who flooded our phone lines with calls this week. We're all happy that she's got a new home. She went to a single woman who also plans to get a kitten and will spoil them rotten!
Angel: beautiful and sweet and perfect golden retriever mix who was the first dog that we pulled from a new shelter, great home too!
Coal: black golden doodle - super shy and pathetic which means that I totally loved him! His foster mom loved him too, but the new family will have lots of patience too!
Coolio: black tuxedo kitten, the first of the rappers to go home today!
Chingy & Shante: Two more of the rapper kittens and they got to go home together!
Sylke: the last of our rapper kittens for today - beautiful girl with the most unique markings - a black tabby with smoky undertones
Titan: my loud bengal finally went home today. I'm hoping that his family is having a quiet evening and that he behaves himself! I'm going to miss his charming personality, but not enough to hope that he comes back!
Jada: Titan's sister went home last Sunday and is having a tough time of adjusting. She's the opposite of Titan - she's hiding and taking her time fitting in and worrying her new mom.
I sure hope that these guys stay in their homes for the rest of their lives! It's so hard taking the chance, hoping that you're doing the right thing. You want to do what's right for them and you want to trust the people coming in to get the cats. How can you know who will take care of them forever and who won't? That's what makes the success stories so wonderful....
I'm getting ready to head out to PetSmart to adopt out kitties and was quickly scooping boxes, wearing my only pair of jeans that fits at the moment. I kneeled down to scoop and suddenly my knee was moist. I'm hoping it was puke, but I wasn't sure. Harry has been having "issues" lately. Already this week I've picked him up to smell something most unpleasant and then had to wash his butt and soak my shirt. The good news is that I almost washed my jeans last night, but got busy and forgot, so now I can wash them tonight instead. The other good news is that it came off pretty easily. I just hope that's the worst that will happen today!
Titan is supposed to get adopted today! Jada got adopted last Sunday! But we've had a string of returns - I got a cat back named Peter. The first kitten born at my house. His owner died and the husband didn't want to keep him. Annie got returned too. Something about neighbors complaining about the barking - they didn't even give her a week! Cross your fingers for me!
My favorite part about having cats is having them sleep with me on cold winter nights. I have one that sleeps on my feet (Tad), one that sleeps on my hip (Harry) and one that sleeps on my pillow (Max). Well, Max starts out on my pillow and can end up anywhere by morning, but he's usually touching me somehow. Then Harry will end up snuggled up with one of the other kitties and when it's about time for the alarm to go off, he'll be on my shoulder, gently purring in my ear waiting to get the first petting of the day.
I stumbled across some pictures of Tad and Max from earlier in the year and thought that I'd share. I need to get a better one of Max! He looks like a cyborg in this picture! He's 14-years-old and showing his age. His eyes are still blue, but they're getting cloudy. Harry just isn't very photogenic, but I keep trying!
Missing Cat
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - The last time cat-owner Kelly Levy saw her
tiger-striped feline was before she took her husband to the airport. The
24-year-old came back to her house late Friday to find the bottom
step, where Gracie Mae would usually be waiting, empty.
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Levy tore the house apart looking for the 10-month-old tabby who had
been spayed just days before. She and her dad took out bathroom tiles and
part of a cabinet to check a crawl space and papered the neighborhood
with "lost cat" signs.
Then she got a phone call.
"Hi, you're not going to believe this, but I am calling from Fort
Worth, Texas, and I accidentally picked up your husband's luggage. And when
I opened the luggage, a cat jumped out," Levy recalled the caller
saying, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Rob Carter, of Fort Worth, told The Dallas Morning News for its online
edition Tuesday that he made it home with the suitcase.
"I went to unpack and saw some of the clothes and saw it wasn't my
suitcase," Carter said. "I was going to close it, and a kitten jumped out
and ran under the bed. I screamed like a little girl."
Carter said that he eventually was able to get the cat to come out from
under the bed.
"In the morning, I got close enough to see its collar and the phone
number on it," he said. "So I called the number and got a hold of the
crying wife of the traveler."
Gracie Mae had crawled into Seth Levy's black suitcase undetected, been
put through an X-ray machine, loaded onto an airplane, thrown onto a
baggage claim conveyor belt and picked up by a stranger.
Carter delivered Gracie Mae to Seth Levy and the tabby made the
1,300-mile trip home on an $80 plane ticket Sunday night.
Carter said that he considered keeping the cat before he knew she had a
home.
"If I couldn't have found a good home, I would have kept it," he said.
"We were going to name it Suitcase."
As I was cleaning last night I thought about doing a post just updating you readers on how some of the kitties are doing!
Mary:
She was hilarious last night. We also have a pet chinchilla who has a huge cage in the basement and Mary had never paid any attention to him before, but last night she suddenly spied him and went into full predator-mode. She got down really low and then moved side to side trying to get lower, then she did something I've never seen a cat do. She was so excited about the possibility of pouncing, she did a ilttle dance while in her crouching position and then bounded to the top of the chair next to Luna's cage and stopped short. She wasn't sure what to do when she was face-to-face with a bigger rodent. Too cute. Who knew that our Mary was secretly a little tiger? She is doing really well and will get spayed on Monday!
Uno:
Uno is doing well too. The hair is finally starting to grow back on his shaved spots. But it's not growing in evenly, so he has these odd patches of stubble and looks pretty silly. He is still gaining weight, but back to a little loose stool as I've been trying to wean him onto less expensive food. Looks like I'll have to visit the specialty pet store today (Muddpuppies or Animal Crackers) and pick up some more California Naturals Herring and Sweet Potato. It's fun seeing what buddies Mary & Uno have become. When it's time to go back "home" (to their cage) at night, if I put one in, the other comes running to make sure they're not locked out!
Princess Annaliese:
The fat little tub-of-kitty doesn't want to leave yet. She was returned this fall for pooping outside the box (kitties should NEVER think outside the box!) Who could blame her, she had icky poopies. So after her fecal exam was negative, I put her on that special food and she got solid. Then I switched her to regular food and she stayed solid, so off to PetSmart she went. She got grumpy, got icky poopies and had some blood in it. She also has developed a fatty tumor on her hip. So back to the vet, this time she had barium and x-rays to confirm the diagnosis of Inflamatory Bowel Disease. Basically she has food sensitvities and will need to be on that special diet (looks like I'm buying the big bag today!) and will be on prednisone as well to help calm things down. Hopefully that'll do the trick and help her find a new home. She's not getting any younger - we have her down as around 8-years-old.
Ruby:
My little calico kitten from the shelter was listed as "wild" on her intake form and the staff pretty much felt the same way. She and I disagreed about that and now she's my little buddy. As soon as I open the cage, she pretends that she's afraid of me, but now she can't hold off for very long before she's crawling through the door on her own and launching herself into my arms. I'll miss her when she goes, but she also gets spayed on Monday and there's a good chance that she'll be adopted by the weekend. Kittens are rare this time of year and she's a cute little beauty! I was going to name her Clover, but then my daughter insisted on Ruby and I thought it was a cute compliment to her red coloring, so the name stuck. I'm in love with those green eyes, which is where the name Clover was coming from.
Sakura: She is still fighting her eye infection and now it has spread to both eyes. She's so good about getting the ointment in though, even though it hurts to even look at her poor eyes. She just loves to be held. I can't wait until she's healthy enough for a new family, she sure deserves it!
Bruce: My other recent rescue is pretty much over his cold. He goes to the vet today to get tested for FIV/Feline Leukemia and get his shots. If all goes well, he'll be heading to PetSmart with me on Saturday and hopefully going home soon. He's another one that I truly love, but want to see out of here just because he would be so much happier in a real family.
McFlurry: my little feral. We've come to an understanding - I won't try to touch her and she won't hiss at me. She lives with French Fry and Chicken Nugget in a walk-in cage and while the other two are doing so well that I brought them to PetSmart last week, McFlurry wants nothing to do with me. So imagine my dismay last night when I went downstairs to discover that she'd figured out how to get out of her cage! So now I have a feral cat running loose. I may have to gather up the couple of cats that run free and trap her in my own basement! At least she wasn't hiding, she would openly explore and let me see her, just not get close. So we'll see if she can keep using the litter box she can roam for awhile. My plan was to release her in a barn when the weather got warmer, but if she can escape, then maybe we'll have to speed up that plan!
But speaking of kitties, it's time to go do my morning rounds of kitty meds. I was too tired to do all the boxes last night, so I have those ahead of me too. Best get started! Oh, and Murphy is still doing well! He's getting more playful every day.
Cold weather, slow adoptions but BIG NEWS! Annie went home today! Tallulah also came back today, but her foster mom was very happy to see her and will be sleeping in bed with her tonight!
Dogs: Blair, Bella, Annie
Cats: Jerry, Gidget, Riley, Smitten & Bashful
Jerry - my little ice cream boy whose brother Ben died a couple weeks ago. He went to a very nice family with two little girls who will just love him to pieces! Jerry's new grandma and great grandma were there as well to offer advice and buy him new toys!
Gidget - one of our more senior cats at six-years-old, someone fell in love with her from the website and adopted her today
Riley - went home last Sunday afternoon, I hope I get pictures to see if her coat keeps getting longer as she gets older, she came in with kittens and short hair, but it just kept growing out!
Smitten & Bashful - these were the shockers of the week. Two cats, a mother and son, who are so shy that they never came to PetSmart after their first awful experience. Someone had been looking at Smitten's picture online for 4 months and finally wanted to meet her. Then she couldn't seperate mom and son and so both got a great home! We've gotten updates already and they are making the transition very smoothly!
Blair: little pup that was being sold in the parking lot of Walmart - bichon friese mix
Bella - little golden mix pup that was dumped in the country just after Christmas
Annie - Visit our main website or look deep in the archives of my blog to see her story. She's one of our $1,000 animals. She came in with major allergies and needed multiple surgeries for entropian eyelids. Her skin isn't red anymore and she can see! Her new family had adopted Daisy, a hound dog that we saved from a kill shelter, but she had a problem and had to be put down. The family was taking it very hard and wanted to fill the void right away! They're going to be meeting with our vet to see what all will be involved in managing Annie's allergies, but what a great family - Annie deserved this happy ending!
I'm impressed, someone actually noticed that I put new cat pictures in my photo section and didn't talk about them yet! So here's the scoop on the new cats! Don't forget that you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.
This is Sakura. I'm not sure how old she is yet. She's got an eye infection in her left eye, but she should be ready for adoption as soon as that clears up. She was in the kill shelter and her owner didn't come. She was micro chipped, but the lady gave her away and didn't have the new person's information. Sakura is quite a sweetie and is declawed.
This is Marissa, also pulled from the shelter but a week ago. She's over her cold now. One of our volunteers has a daughter who wants to foster a cat in her first apartment, so we're going to have her start with Marissa since she should be easy, and then we'll work on a kitty with more of a challenge. I bet that Marissa will be happy to sleep in a bed and get lots of attention. She's a sweet little girl who could use a little fattening up. I like this picture, but it does kinda look like a mug shot!
This was the one that I went back to the shelter to get. He wasn't ready the day that I was up there, but he stole my heart. He just sat in his cage and begged for attention. I love how big he is, how solid his head is, how green his eyes are, his subtle stripes, his white paws. He is so noble. It was hard to come up with a name for him, but I finally settled on Bruce. I was calling him big guy, big kitty, big man cat, so thoughts came to a friend from college that we called "Bruce-man". He had flashy green eyes too. They're both very mellow guys. Bruce is also declawed, that will help him get a home a lot faster, but it didn't matter to me!
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(KSDK) - A pair of men posing as animal control officers are trying to steal small dogs, officials in St. Charles County said.
An O'Fallon, Missouri woman said a man tried to seize her grandson's puppy from her front yard Thursday. The man said he had to take the dog because it was not wearing a collar, the woman said.
The individual eventually took off with another man driving a white van.
Officials with the Humane Services for St. Charles County said they do not know what the intentions of the men were. But they said they are assuming the worst.
"They could be taking animals to use them for medical research. Or to breeders for breeding. Or they could be using bait dogs for training pit bulls." Theresa Williams, the director of St. Charles County Humane Services said.
The two men used a white van with a red dog outline, similar to the one used by St. Charles County Animal Control, Williams said.
Williams said a few other residents reported seeing the van.
She said legitimate animal control officers wear clearly marked uniforms with a city or county emblem. They also carry and identification badge. Vehicles are also identified in large print.
Miguel Smith, 5, is the owner of the puppy. He said he will keep the puppy indoors, to be on the safe side.
"If they took her, my heart would be broken in pieces. This is the only friend I have," he said.
Residents who have questions about the identity of an animal control officer in St. Charles County should call the Pet Adoption Center at (636) 949-7387.
