Tail Talk

I saw an email outlining the animals at the Washington County Animal Control facility, a high-kill shelter, with their euthanization date of August 21, 2008.  In the email list they mentioned a “one year old white german shepherd male,” and my first thought was I know why he’s there.  I lived with a one year old white german shepherd terrorist that later became the love of my life, but during the terrorist years it was difficult at best to live with him.  You know the rest of the story without me going any further but I’ll share it anyway.  Walking into the Randolph County Humane Society, a no-kill shelter, is difficult for those of us that love animals, but those animals are allowed to live without fear of dying. .  We are fortunate that our county is served by a no-kill shelter, and with your continued donations and volunteer support we’ll be able to keep it that way. 

Walking into a high-kill shelter is another experience all together.   Those animals know their time is limited, and some accept their fate while others jump and bark, doing anything and everything they can to get your attention, knowing full well their lives depend on it

On Tuesday, August 19, 2008, we brought Happy Jack home to be part of our pack.  His new housemates include my husband, myself, Girlie Sue (11 year old white german shepherd female) and Budward (11 year old husky mix male).  From the moment we left the shelter Happy Jack was a force to be reckoned with, a bundle of energy with no manners.  And the smell was beyond description.  Fortunately, Best Of Show in Sparta had time available to give him the full court treatment and the awful odor of impending death was replaced with the smell of a new beginning.  His introduction to his pack mates went better than expected, but that’s a relative statement.  It feels like we have a 7 year old that’s been sent to live with his great-grandparents (us, not the dogs).  Jack is a 51 pound bag of bones that looks as if he hasn’t eaten in months.  While the only dog bones we were used to seeing were well chewed and out in the yard, Jack’s bones stand an inch above his hips when he’s standing on all fours and his skin hangs in between his ribs.  He doesn’t know a stranger, and he shares his kisses and body hugs with all he comes into contact with.  I have seen a few behaviors that are not the best, but he’s a quick learner and so easy to teach that there isn’t anything he does that would cause a reasonable person to banish him to the pound.  He’s extremely intelligent and eager to please.  He lifted his leg in the house twice after he first got here, but after my scream of dismay and a quick trip outside to finish what he’d started he got the big picture and hasn’t done it again.  Our dogs are mellow and live in the knowledge they will be fed regularly, but Jack is a Starvin’ Marvin that doesn’t trust he’s going to eat again anytime soon.  I left the butter out after I’d made breakfast, but when I looked for it later I couldn’t find it anywhere.  I was sure I’d just gotten a new stick out of the refrigerator but finally I thought I must have been having a senior moment.  It didn’t occur to me that Jack might have eaten it until I noticed the pan of bacon grease left on the stove top to cool was licked half clean.  As soon as I started to look on the floor for the butter I found my answer to the great butter mystery.  There was the butter wrapper, lying in full sight, right in front of the utility room door.  Always in the last place you look.  I walked into the living room and there was a plastic shopping bag in the middle of the floor.  I wasn’t too concerned until I realized it was the bag that contained the catfish stink bait my husband had recently purchased.  Then Jack got sick, right in front of the door.  I was happy to see he hoped to get outside before losing his cookies, but that’s little consolation when you’re the one cleaning up the mess.  In one day Happy Jack has managed to accomplish something years of nagging by my husband had not; I’m becoming a better housekeeper.  Not willingly, not gladly, but I’m doing it.  And if that’s the price I pay for saving another love monkey from certain death, then I’ll have to buck up and do it. 

He went to the vet to have his nuggets removed on the same day he had been destined to die, and I’m pleased to report Happy Jack is still happy.  So for all of you on the fence about neutering your male dogs don’t fret.  They’re the same animals afterwards as they were before, so you have nothing to fear.  Besides removing his nuggets, Happy Jack had to have all his shots and the rest of the tests to insure he wasn’t a health hazard to himself or his housemates.  If anyone thinks the $150 adoption fee from the RCHS is excessive, I would have saved $100 just in vet fees by adopting one of their shelter dogs.  But I wasn’t looking to adopt a dog.  Not until I read about the one year old male white german shepherd that would die unless I intervened.

And that brings me to the uncomfortable part of this story.  There is a video on the Randolph County Humane Society website (randolphcountyhumanesociety.com) titled “In Hope, an animal shelter story” that I hope you will all make a point to view at your earliest convenience.  There is one line in the video that shook me down to my toes, and I’m going to share it with you:

“For every animal that dies in a shelter there is someone, somewhere, responsible for its death.”

I hope that today you will make the decision to have your cats and dogs spayed and neutered because if you don’t and you’re not a registered breeder, then you’ve become the person they speak of.  Does that make you uncomfortable?  It should, because it speaks the truth we prefer not to think of, that we may be the ones responsible for their suffering.  It’s not a pretty truth, but go walk around a high-kill shelter and take in what is happening to these animals.  While they are guaranteed a less painful death than what they might experience otherwise that’s just not good enough.  We must all be part of the solution so one day there will be no need for shelters to exist.  It begins with you, and lest you forget, it will not happen without you. 

There are many times I feel our Governor legislates as if there is no Southern Illinois, but he recently signed HB5076, a bill that protects “good Samaritans” from civil liability during emergencies while providing care for animals.  The press release from the Governor’s Office, dated August 20, 2008, reads:

                     The new law does not apply if the person’s actions
                     involve willful or wanton misconduct. The law also
                     provides that any civil lawsuit as a result of a
                     violation of this Act must be brought within two
                     years of the violation.

                     “The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, for example, was
                     made worse by the fact that many individuals did not
                     feel comfortable rendering aid to animals in the
                     aftermath, for fear of facing legal action,” said
                     Rep. Feigenholtz. “This new law gives that protection
                     to people here in Illinois.”

                     According to the American Society for the Prevention
                     of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), 18 other states
                     already have Good Samaritan provisions that protect
                     individuals who rescue or help animals during
                     emergencies or disasters.

 
                     “Numerous other states have similar provisions in
                     place and I am pleased to see Governor Blagojevich
                     sign this bill into law, protecting Illinoisans from
                     retribution for helping animals during times of
                     emergency,” said Sen. Cullerton.

                     “We are very supportive of this legislation,
                     particularly because it points out that licensed
                     veterinarians can help during emergency situations,”
                     said Dr. Robyn Barbiers, DVM, President of The
                     Anti-Cruelty Society, based in Chicago. “We are
                     pleased to see this bill become law.”

I am happy to see this law put into effect because during times of extreme stress people should be free to offer assistance to those in dire need without worry.  When natural disasters strike we must be able to come together as a people and offer our helping hand without concern or fear.  On the flip side, this legislation does not protect those that engage in “willful or wanton misconduct.”   It’s unfortunate that in our world that statement is necessary, but while most people have intentions of helping their neighbors during their time of need, disasters also bring out the worst among us that use these times in an opportunistic manner to line their pockets through deceit.

This bill was passed with the help of the ASPCA, a group that in addition to providing safe haven for abused animals also lobbies for laws to protect the most helpless among us, our pets and farm animals.  You can sign up at the ASPCA.org website to be notified of important legislation pending on a national and state level along with links for you to send your thoughts on the legislation to your legislators.  They’ve made it so easy that there is literally no reason not to be involved.  After you visit FidoFinder.com to vote for the Randolph County Humane Society as your favorite shelter take a moment to check out ASPCA.org and see what you can do to make this world a better place to live.  And always remember, your vote makes a difference, and we can’t do it without you.

Jaime and Wolffie

During a conversation this week with Heidi Snyder, president of the RCHS, she mentioned that over the past month two dogs that had been adopted had been returned to the shelter.  When asked why their pets were being returned, the adopters said it was because “they just don’t have time for them.”  To say I was stunned by their reasoning is an understatement.  I don’t know whether people just don’t understand what a commitment having a pet will be or if they truly believe they don’t have an hour per day to share with their new family members, but before you bring a new family member into your home please, PLEASE, make sure you are ready for this commitment.  These poor dogs are suffering from depression because they don’t understand why they are back at the shelter.  They were so happy to go to their forever home only to find out it was an “only while it is convenient for me” home.  Although being in the shelter is preferable to the alternative, pets are happiest when they are with their families, even if it is only for one hour per day.  You don’t even have to pay attention to them, they’re happy to just lay by the door while you get dressed in the morning, to be there to see you off for the day.  When you get home from work, they will be there, doing their job of being available to offer love and companionship if you want it, and if you don’t have time they are satisfied to just be in your presence.  No one ever promised life and love would be easy, and if you are under the mistaken impression that engaging in the greatest, unconditional, loving relationship you’ll have in life comes without work and suffering, then you have a misguided view of real life and you are destined to suffer more than just denying yourself the love and companionship of a pet.

Most of my pets have been shelter dogs and strays, but my husband wanted a white German Shepherd so we purchased one from a breeder.  The breeder didn’t have the papers available when Wolffie picked us out (it was a pack of 11 of the cutest white fluff balls I’ve ever seen in my life) so we didn’t know until weeks later he was only 5 weeks old when we brought him home.  We had decided on a different puppy but Wolffie was persistent so we brought him home instead, a decision we never regretted.  If anyone knows anything about shepherds (I didn’t) you know they not only shed incessantly but twice a year they “blow” their coats, so you vacuum garbage bags of fur daily, and as soon as you’re done you turn around and you can’t tell you ever vacuumed.  It was a lesson in humility for me because my home always looks like a disaster.  Before Wolffie was one year old there were times I thought he would have to go to the pound, but I’d made a commitment and I stuck by it.  I had raised three boys and on more than one occasion I would find them with their bicycles apart and grease all over my living room carpet, so as soon as they were grown and out of the house I purchased a white (yes white) couch and loveseat to revel in my newfound clean home.  One night upon my return home from a hard day at work I found Wolffie had chewed the upholstery off the arms and down the sides, ruining my newly purchased and highly cherished furniture.  I bought a 3’ tall artificial Christmas tree that I loving added my grandma’s glass ornaments to after putting the tree up on a table, far out of his reach, only to find that while I was at work Wolffie had jumped up and shattered every ornament on the tree, popping them with his teeth.  I walked into the house to find the broken glass of my grandma’s ornaments everywhere.  All that was left were the little tin holders hanging on the branches, a glistening reminder of what could not be replaced.  He was a Houdini that got out of every room we banished him to and a terrorist that destroyed everything I thought was important to me.  From the day we first brought him home I could hear a gurgle in his chest that the vet was never able to diagnose, but after his death we found his esophagus had a defect that created a pocket where food would lodge, causing him to vomit anywhere between five and ten times daily.  Every day of his life he threw up, but we had to keep feeding him because he was a 108 lb. “king” shepherd and when standing would look my husband in the eyes.  Wolffie never understood he was a dog.  He was only five weeks old when we picked him up, far too young to be taken away from his mom but eating solid food,.  We had to buy a king size bed because he slept with us.  When the alarm went off in the morning Wolffie roll over on his back and stretch, and you knew it was time to get up when you heard his toenails clicking on the headboard.  When we sat at the table to eat, Wolffie would put his haunches on the floor and sit with his front legs on the table, as if to say “where is my plate and why do you keep putting my food in that bowl.”  He had to be right there with us, this huge snow white love monkey that wasn’t happy unless he was giving you a full body hug.  He stopped being a terrorist when we brought Girlie Sue (a white German Shepherd shelter dog) home.  Although they were spayed and neutered, once his girl was there he was happy.  There were days when I was cleaning up dog vomit that I would become overwhelmed that I had to clean up this mess, but I would remind myself that every day I had with this angel of God was a gift, and I knew it wouldn’t last nearly as long as I would like.  Not long after he turned 7 he could barely get up, and when he didn’t eat I knew something was seriously wrong.  We took him to the vet, and found that he had cancer of the spleen (a common problem with shepherds due to all the inbreeding to create their sought after characteristics).  His spleen had ruptured, in effect causing him to bleed to death internally.  I held him in my arms while the vet helped him across the rainbow bridge.  My dad had passed two years before, and he was as much grandpa to my pets as he was to my kids, so I knew he would be there to take Wolffie from my arms into his.  Soon the life was gone from the most loving spirit I had ever known in all my days, and my family and I were left to grieve our loss.  I would gladly take whatever horrible things life threw my way to have him back, but I have to be satisfied in the knowledge that when I make my way to the other side Wolffie will be there to greet me, and that brings me comfort.  Their lives are too short for most of us, but if you open your heart and allow them in, no matter what grief you have to go through to get there, you will be rewarded with a love that mere words are inadequate to describe.

Don’t make the decision to adopt a new pet lightly, but remember when you do it is a life time commitment.  And in return you will be rewarded with heaven on this earth.

August is a new month for the FidoFinder.com most popular shelter contest, so vote for the Randolph County Humane Society and help them win the $1,000 monthly donation.  Your vote will help the two dogs returned to the shelter find their way to a new, and this time for real, forever home.  We can’t do it without you.