Tail Talk

The start of the holiday season this year has been one that I hope never to repeat, but as life goes I’m sure there will similar days ahead.  In July I wrote about our trip to Northern Indiana to visit my in-laws and our experiences as a dog family with their blind hound dog.   During that trip my father-in-law told us he has prostate cancer and it had spread to his bones, so the end would be near.  After learning he had cancer he decided against any treatment towards a cure and made the decision to instead live the best life he could for the time he had left.  He made that decision five years ago, and looking back I now realize he was taking care of business to insure he was the best father and husband he could be for the duration of his life.  He did not share his illness or his decision not to treat until July, so once the shock wore off we spent the last four months living as he was dying, grateful for the opportunity to say our extended goodbyes.  He passed to the other side this week, bringing an end to the suffering that had become his existence.  His Honey, the blind hound dog, was as much a part of the process as any family member.  She seems to know that her very best friend won’t be with us again, and she shares our grief.  After reading that New Scientist Magazine had reported that dogs were able to read emotions on our faces a few weeks back I found an article they published titled “Do Animals Have Emotions” (Copyright New Scientist Magazine, Reed Business Information:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19426051.300-do-animals-have-emotions.html?full=true),

and I’d like to share with you one of the stories in the section about grief that tell the story of a mama chimp named Flo and her baby boy named Flint.  I’d seen a special on TV about this family of chimps, narrated by the primatologist Jane Goodall.  The mother chimp, Flo, is old when Flint is born and she is much gentler and lets him get away with much more than any of her other children, causing jealousy and frustration among his brothers and sisters.  The special ends when the young chimpanzee Flint dies, apparently of grief, soon after his mother died of natural causes. “The last time I saw him alive, he was hollow-eyed, gaunt and utterly depressed, huddled in the vegetation close to where Flo had died,” Goodall recalls. Slowly Flint made his way to the spot where his mother’s body had lain. “There he stayed for several hours, sometimes staring and staring into the water. He struggled on a little further, then curled up – and never moved again.”  I cried so hard when I saw that program that now any time my husband sees me crying over something on TV he asks if I’m watching the sad monkey show.  The article not only speaks to grief but also empathy, spite, gratitude, love and awe.  Being a scientific magazine they have a discussion at the end of the article in agreement and one in disagreement.   You can disagree all you want but I know in my heart of hearts that all animals live with emotion driving their decisions, just as we do.  In the past four months while living with dying at the forefront of our thoughts, we have existed with our combined pack of dogs on numerous occasions.  Honey is blind, Happy Jack is epileptic and suffers grand mal seizures, Budward is losing the use of his back legs and struggles to walk, and Girlie Sue is now profoundly deaf.  We are a band of misfits if ever there was one.  Yet we come together as a family, treating each other with compassion, kindness and love.  Together we are whole. 

While waiting for our appointment time during a recent visit to our vet, I noticed a sign that stated spay and neuters are available for $15 from the Dept. of Public Health for Illinois residents that receive food stamps or are receiving Social Security disability.   I was surprised to see the State was sponsoring a program like this because it could be so useful if people just knew about it.  Since I’d never heard of it before I started to investigate the program and found out the reason I wasn’t aware of it is because most people aren’t aware of it, including our local Bi-County Health Dept.  I called the Springfield office of the IL Dept. of Public Health and found out everything there is to know about the program, asking them to please send information to our local health department at the same time they sent it out to me.  Apparently the program has been in operation since 2005  when Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the General Assembly passed the Illinois Public Health and Safety Animal Population Control Act [510 ILCS 92], which created the Illinois Public Health and Safety Animal Population Control Act — also known as “Anna’s Law.”  The legislation was named in memory of Anna Cieslewicz, who was attacked and killed by stray dogs in 2002 while jogging in Chicago’s Dan Ryan Woods.  The act was introduced as a means to protect the public safety by decreasing the number of dangerous dogs, stray dogs and feral cat populations throughout the state.  The program provides Illinois residents that receive food stamps or Social Security disability with a way to obtain low cost spay or neuter surgery and rabies vaccines for their household pets.  In order to be eligible to participate, the individual must be an Illinois resident and participate in either the food stamps or Social Security disability income programs.  All eligible program participants are required to fill out a four part application form that is available from the local health department or by calling 217-782-3984 and submit proof of eligibility.  The Department then reviews the application and, once approved, mails the application back to the citizen.  The individual must take the approved application form to a veterinarian participating in the program.  The act requires the individual to pay a $15 co-pay when the surgery is performed.  All other costs related to the surgical procedure and rabies vaccination are reimbursed by the Department.  The veterinarian then submits the application and proof of the surgery to the Department for reimbursement.  There are two vets in Randolph County enrolled in the program, Dr. Schupp of Chester Animal Hospital and Dr.  Allard of the Sparta Animal Clinic.  Even if you don’t qualify under the program I hope you will take your animals to these veterinary clinics.  They don’t have to sign up but they do so to offer the greatest benefit to the people of Randolph County and should be commended and supported by the community at large for their efforts.  There are only a total of 124 vets out of a possible 2,930 vets that are registered in the State that are participating, so we are very fortunate to have two in our county.  There are no vets registered under this program in Perry or other surrounding counties.  In case you’re wondering, our tax dollars ARE NOT at work funding this great program.  The Animal Population Control Fund receives revenue from various sources including Pet Friendly license plate fees, fines collected from animal control agencies under the Animal Control Act, and voluntary contributions.   Let’s hope they keep up the good work and continue to help animal lovers that have fallen on hard times take care of the least of them among us.

In case you missed the Santa Paws Red Bud event, The Randolph County Humane Society will have their annual Santa Paws photo event for pets with Santa on Sunday, December 7th at the Movie Gallery in Sparta, IL from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to the professional portrait sitting they’ll have a raffle for a handmade Christmas quilt plus gift baskets and RCHS gear will be available to purchase for that hard to buy for person or stocking stuffers.  Participants receive one professional portrait sitting with our new Santa that grew out his beard extra early just for our event!  Photo packages are available or individual items including individual photos, keychains, calendars and Christmas cards can be purchased from the a-la-carte offerings.  Price list is available by calling the shelter at 618-443-3363. The Santa Paws event funds the Randolph County Humane Society through the long winter months, and we need you to turn out in a big way.  In order to keep the packages reasonable the shelter will only receive $2 for every order compared to the $10 per order they received last year.  They felt it was important for everyone to have a professional photo of their pet without they expense of an expensive sitting fee, so please support them by asking every animal lover you know to come out for this event because these donations keep the lights on and the heat running until the next fundraiser in March, 2009.  And never forget, it is only through you that we continue to save lives, one by one.