No time like the present to prepare for an emergency.

January 30, 2010

I published this information in Tail Talk in June, 2008 after a particularly severe flood, and after seeing all of the grief and suffering in Haiti I thought it was a good time to remind people that there is no time like the present to make sure you are prepared to care for your animals during an emergency.  If you are not prepared, they will suffer.  There is no time like today to pull everything together to prevent a lot of grief if the occasion ever presents itself.  From AmericanHumane.org I found the following:

When disaster strikes a community, essential services like water are often unavailable. So what can you do to ensure your pet is cared for during and, especially after, a disaster?

Preparation for pets

  • Have a plan.
  • Keep your pets’ vaccinations up-to-date.
  • Know where your pets can go whether it’s a friend or family member, pet-friendly hotel, animal shelter, or boarding facility.
  • Place your contact information, including the name of an out-of-state contact on your pets’ ID tags, microchip registrations, and licenses.
  • Prepare an emergency kit of leashes, collars, extra ID tags, water, food, medications, health records, and photos to prove ownership.
  • Have on hand portable carriers large enough for your pets to stand and turn around in.
  • Prepare a first-aid kit, including your vet contact information and an authorization to treat your pets.
  • Gather any relief plans developed by your local Red Cross chapter; emergency management office; or police, fire, health, wildlife and agriculture departments so you know where to turn for specific resources.

Preparation for livestock

  • Post emergency contact numbers at your barn or on your pasture fence.
  • Have sufficient transportation available for all your livestock or know where to obtain it. Train your livestock how to board the vehicles.
  • Create a list of neighbors within a 100-mile radius of your home who would be willing to board your livestock if you are forced to evacuate.
  • Form agreements with neighboring ranches and farms to help each other with disaster preparation and evacuations.
  • Know organizations in your area that are prepared to rescue and house displaced livestock.
  • Involve your family and neighbors in establishing an evacuation plan for animals in barns and outlying buildings.
  • Have a supply of feed at a separate location, which could be air-dropped if the animals become stranded.
  • Make up a kit with leads, halters, equine and bovine first aid kits, quieting hoods for easy transport, and water.
  • Keep photos and a copy of your ownership papers or brands with you at all times in case you are separated from your livestock.

I was especially glad to see the information for livestock because it provided a lot of valuable information to think about. I don’t think we’ll ever be fully prepared for surviving a major disaster, but the more preparation we maintain the better we’ll be at not only surviving, but triumphing, over whatever is put in front of us.  And if nothing ever happens, we can count our blessings and be grateful in the knowledge we were ready.

And never forget, it is only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.

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Posted by tailtalk

There’s no excuse for being a weanie in the end.

January 23, 2010

This past week I was talking to Heidi Snyder, the president of the Randolph County Humane Society.  Heidi is one of the most visible people at the shelter as she is there during normal business hours during the week, plus she plans the transports that take the animals to meet the plane that takes them to other shelters across the country when no one here adopts them, or plans for the upcoming medical needs of the shelter based on past demand and a wing and a prayer.  She does all of this in-between chemotherapy treatments and yet rarely seems to miss a day at the shelter.  Everyone that donates their time to the shelter, all of the volunteers, and that includes all of the office staff, all of the board of directors, and all of the people that clean the shelter, they take care of the animals as their own until someone walks through that door to take them on to their forever home.   A gentleman called recently that was very put out that the doors of the shelter weren’t open at his convenience to drop off his dog.  It was explained to him that the shelter is an all volunteer operation and we are happy to arrange to meet with anyone at their convenience, but the main shelter hours are open at the convenience of the volunteers that staff it.  He was even more unhappy when he found out that the shelter couldn’t take his dog because it was an aggressive breed.  There are protections that are in place to protect the dogs that find the shelter their home, the workers that volunteer to take care of those animals, and the public that enters our doors seeking the loves of their lives.  Upon further discussion he said the dog he wanted to surrender was 10.  Now this is the part of the story where I have a great deal of difficulty understanding how this could be.  If you have an animal that has been part of your family for 10 years and has recently gotten aggressive then you need to take it the vet, not the shelter.  And if you find out from the vet that after 10 years of being good there isn’t anything you can do to help this aggression, then you need to spend the money and have your dog euthanized.  After 10 years of being your dog, you need to man up and take care of business, and not leave it for the shelter to try and find a new family for a senior, aggressive dog that will not find a home before it dies, which will happen much quicker now that it has no family to love him as it did in the past.  It’s not right to walk away from your obligations in the end just because it’s easier.  There is a senior, female lab in the shelter right now.  She’s the best girl there is.  Someone just left here and didn’t look for her.  She never messes in her cage, she’s grateful for every biscuit she gets, and she never tires of any pets and kisses that are bestowed on her.  But it’s doubtful that anyone is going to look her way when there are so many younger animals to be adopted, and yet she’s the perfect companion.  I know, I have one just like her, my 13 year old white German Shepard, Girlie Sue.  She’s still in great shape, even for an old girl, and she’s every bit a viable part of this family.  We all have difficult times to face in our lives, and when our animals get old is one of them.  Of course it never occurred to me that people just dumped their senior dogs.  I wonder what will happen to the 10 year old aggressive dog now.  I wonder if his person will take care of business, or find some other way to pass the buck.  I pray for the dog’s sake that he takes the high road this time.  And all of you out there, remember, if you see animal abuse, call the shelter and report what you are seeing.  And never forget, it is only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.

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Posted by tailtalk

I opened my heart to my cats and received so much more in return.

January 17, 2010

All my life I’ve been a dog person.  It’s not that I don’t like cats.  I just didn’t feel any way about cats.  For some reason we didn’t have cats when I was growing up but my mom had both cats and dogs after I was grown and gone.  We didn’t have cats when my kids were growing up because they were allergic to them, so they grew up with dogs only.  I’ve never spent any time at all around cats so I have no idea what they are like except through all I’ve read and the cartoons like Garfield.  My thought of what a cat would be like to have around the house would be something that would be there at their convenience, not yours, loving, but in a removed sort of way.  I guess I expected a cat to act like an intellectual, someone that stands back and judges everything you say and do, finding your way inferior to theirs.  But I have to say nothing could be further from the truth, or at least further from my experience with at least 50% of my cats.  And I know 25% of the remaining 50% is my fault for not being a love monkey – I did it to him when he was a kitten by scaring the bejeebers out of him with the ear mite medicine, and after feeling his claws between my fingers in the most tender skin on our body I wasn’t right there to reinforce the warm, fuzzy feelings so since he was a barn cat I really didn’t understand the need to do anything different.  And Booger came to us half grown, already elusive in his ways but willing to learn.  Sometimes.  But Bartholomeow and DonCato are the biggest love monkeys that ever walked the face of the earth.  We went through some really scary times where we thought we were going to go insane, but if you can just maintain when you come out the other side it is well worth the effort.  DonCato did this licking thing, and he did it incessantly.  My God, it felt like he was going to lick your skin off.  If he saw you he came running for you and you went running in the opposite direction.  It was a race to see who could get to the door the fastest, then slam the door in his little kitten face.  But you couldn’t see the sweetness in his face because all you could see was the pain caused by that little kitten tongue trying to lick the skin off your body.  And he was relentless.  He was a little demon in kitten clothing.  Bartholomeow, on the other hand, didn’t do anything obnoxious except try to sneak into the house at a time when he had not yet been invited into the house as a house cat.  So we were still undergoing the battle of the wills.  Because he was coal black, you wouldn’t see him slide in when you opened the door, he’d just be there, in front of you, and you’d wonder how he got there when you just saw him outside.  But once we decided we were just going to have four house cats life became decidedly more simple (on one hand).  The most important thing I can tell you is that my cats are the most loving little critters I have ever been around.  They are so soft, and they love to be touched, and I love to touch them.  It feels so good to sit and rub their fur, and feel their warmth.  You can feel the love and appreciation they have for the home you have given them.  I know people say they are standoffish and removed, but they aren’t, and I promise they will bring something to your life that is so grand that my words just don’t describe the feeling.  I can’t tell you what it means to pick up a warm, furry creature, to hold in my arms while they sleep, to feel the beating of their heart.  You feel their love seep into your skin, and it brings you comfort throughout the day when you deal with things that are so disheartening that we all have to deal with; the news of the loved ones that have cancer, the children that can’t seem to help themselves and are constantly in trouble, hours and hours spent working for that never ending pile of bills.  You can face it all alone or with comfort of a warm heart to get you through the worst of it.  It was a complete shock to me, not something I expected to happen, and I am grateful beyond words for the opportunity to have them.  It saddens me when I remember that 70% of the cats that are in shelters are euthanized because there aren’t enough people to adopt them, and those are the cats that make it to the shelters.  The answer is to spay and neuter your pets.  At the shelter, we have two dreams.  The first dream is have a cat facility because the room that is the cat room now is not a good environment for felines.  Their room is a closet, and the best that can be said is that it’s simply not suitable.  They need a room that has its own hvac and fresh air system , separate from the dogs, and it needs to be on the outside of the building where they can have a window to the world and be stimulated by the world outside, the trees, the birds, the sky.  The second dream is a big one.  It is going to take a corporate sponsor.  We have a $15,000 dream to build a clean room onto the building where low and no cost neuters and spays can be performed for the people of the county and the surrounding area.  If we had the facility and the doctors, there are grants available to fund the surgeries.  Our dream is to create the first area in Southern Illinois that outlives the need for an animal shelter because of programs such as this dream, to spay and neuter the pets of the area at low or no cost.  It’s a big dream, but isn’t that what dreaming is about?  Make your dreams as big as you can imagine, and to imagine no more need for shelters is a perfect world in my book.  So join us in our dreams.  And never forget, it is only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.

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Posted by tailtalk

We have a critically dangerous 911 situation outside right now.

January 9, 2010

Right now we are having a serious cold spell and if you have animals outside, bring them inside.  They cannot survive outside in this weather.  No matter how you feel about dogs and cats, they need shelter in these temperatures, so buck up and take care of them.  It is important!  We made them dependent on us and now we must make the extra effort to  make them safe when they are in peril.  It is extra work, but this is what you signed on for when you took on pets.  If you don’t know how, then this will explain the least of what they require in the cold, and when it is like this they have to be brought inside.

If you are like me you can’t understand how there are animals that are left to the elements in this bitterly cold weather, but if you must leave your animals outside, first understand that no dog is biologically able to endure the unsheltered cold of the weather we are experiencing when the temperature drops into the teens, so please follow these safety tips to keep your pets in good health.  Their shelter should be elevated off the ground to prevent moisture accumulation and have some kind of door to keep the winter winds, sleet and snow out of their shelter with the door pointed towards the east or south.  Their shelter should be insulated with either hay or straw but never with blankets.  Blankets will hold moisture and freeze, creating more cold inside the shelter and do the opposite of what the shelter is supposed to do.  They must have access to water, and their water supply should be heated.  You can purchase systems that either sit under their bowl or have a wand that sits in the bowl to prevent the water from freezing.  Make sure their food bowl stays full.  They’ll need extra calories in the cold because their bodies will burn the calories generating heat to stay warm.  Make sure you take care of your pet during this stressful time or they literally will not survive.  Snow and salt must be removed from their paws and not allowed to pack their pads.  If you see that they have snow, ice or salt on their paw, apply warm, moist towels and check to see if the skin appears red or gray or sloughs.   If it does, contact your vet immediately for further treatment because their paws have frostbite and this is an emergency situation.  Cats can’t stand the cold and will go under the hood of a vehicle to find shelter from the wind, snow and cold.  If you have cats in your neighborhood, always beat on the hood or blow your horn before starting your vehicle to scare any cats that may have taken up residence there.  We have to do what we can to take care of each other during the hard times and not just the fun times.  No one ever said life was easy, and happily ever after means you work harder than ever before, but the payback is enormous.  So bring those pets inside where you won’t have to worry about frostbite and frozen water.  It’s the right thing to do.  And for all of you that do the right thing if you have a little extra this month think about sharing it with the Randolph County Humane Society to help take care of animals that have no one.  And never forget, it is only through you that we continue to save lives, one by one.

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Posted by tailtalk

How I came to live in a cathouse.

January 2, 2010

Something happened over the last months and we went from three inside dogs and one inside cat to three inside dogs and four inside cats.  I’m not sure how this transition took place, it didn’t happen overnight and yet it seems as if overnight here I am with two cat boxes to clean and four more male personalities to contend with.  How on earth did this ever happen to me?  I say that with tongue in cheek because my life is richer and more full than I ever imagined and we have more fun, all of us (even Girlie Sue is getting into the spirit of things, something I never thought I would see in a 13 year old warrior princess) but we still have some issues to work on because not everyone is quite sure about these furry little critters that swat at you as you walk past the chair from some place inside the cushion.  The last cat to move inside is Thomason, Tommy, our ultimate barn cat.  All of our boys are neutered, but Tommy is still a tomcat.  For any of you that watched the movie “A Christmas Story” over the holidays to remind yourselves of your youth in the late 40’s and early 50’s, if you can picture the bully in the movie named Skut Farkus you can visualize Tommy.  I swear they could be twins in both looks and personality.  Tommy regularly beats up Booger, even though Booger is twice his size.  Booger was the original king of the house and Tommy was the king of the barnyard, and any time Booger dared step into Tommy’s kingdom he got the short end of the stick.  Well, now that everyone is in the house Tommy still holds the upper hand and hangs out 24 hours a day in the dining room, the very room where the food bowl is kept, so now I have to walk Booger into the dining room so he can eat.  I’m not sure how I became the referee of the cats but I know have a new hat to wear and I just can’t say no when Booger comes and sits by my chair and stares at me with those big eyes, drilling his thoughts into my head until I have no choice but to get up.  I don’t know how he does it because no one else has ever figured out how to get me up out of my chair that fast.  You can ask my husband.  He asks me to do something and my response is “just a minute and I’ll get it.”  Booger stares at me and it’s like feet don’t fail me now because I have to move!   DonCato started out as the second cat inside and he was a kitten non grata because every time you picked him up he insisted on licking you incessantly, and those little kitty tongues aren’t made for licking people skin.  It was like he was obsessed.  After a while you wanted to run from him but he wanted to be inside so bad that we played this game where he tried to sneak in every time we let the dogs out, and we’d turn around and there he was.  Finally when he learned to control his licking he was able to stay in the house longer and longer, and I suppose that was the beginning of the end for my outside cats.  And last but not least was Bartholomeow, black Bart, in line with DonCato for the sweetest and most loving cat of the bunch.  However, since he’s black from head to toe with just a white hair here and there he didn’t know not to be in the walking lanes on the path to the door and I can’t tell you how many times he went flying in the middle of the night as I was walking in the dark to let the dogs out.  You’d be surprised how far a kitty can fly when he’s drop kicked in the dark through no intention of mine, but it was kind of like a football kicker going for the point after.  I’m half asleep after Girlie Sue poked me with her cold nose six or seven times to tell me that she needs to go out and there is poor Bart, in the dark, about to sail through the air with the greatest of ease.  He has learned to stay out of the traffic lanes, much to his credit, but he did sail six or seven times before he got the hint.  You can’t see a black cat in the dark, and he didn’t suffer any consequences from his midnight flying routines, so no harm, no foul.  Zoeybean, our latest adoptee, still isn’t sure why she isn’t supposed to chase the cats and I’m not sure who starts it (it could be either of them) but all will be quiet and the next thing I know cats are taking the high road across me in my chair while Zoeybean is giving chase below, trying her best to catch one.  When I scold her and tell her cats aren’t for playing she gives me that look like “Pleeeeez Mom, just let me have one, we have so many!!!!!!!!”  And Action Jackson, he’s the great protector of all living things.  If Zoeybean goes after the cats Jack gets in between Zoey and the cat with a curt growl to let her know those cats are his friends and she is NOT to mess with them.  He is the largest, most powerful, loving animal I have ever known and he protects his friends at any cost, even though Zoeybean is his very best friend, his love for all animals comes before even his own personal satisfaction.  And no matter how rowdy the games get during the day, at night we all come together as a family in our bedroom and sleep as one big family.  Lately we’ve had two dogs and two cats in bed with us every morning when we wake up.  Thank goodness they invented king size beds or we’d be sleeping on the floor and the animals would take over the pillows.  And in the morning when it’s time to go out I walk to the door with three large dogs and four cats in tow, trying to find a place for my feet amongst all those paws, reaching around them to open the door a crack until they all manage their way out to do their business and come back in to start another day of making me the luckiest person on this earth.  Who has time to sit around and feel sorry for themselves because I am in pain and my legs don’t work like I want them to when I have all this love surrounding me.  When I see Girlie Sue, Warrior Princess, sleeping on the couch with Booger, sleeping right above her with his paw hanging down, touching her, and I know this would never have happened one short year ago, or Action Jackson protecting his friends, the cats, and Zoeybean, learning that cats are our friends to play with and love, to treat gently and have fun with, well, it’s just a good feeling.  When I hold DonCato and Bart in my lap as I write Tail Talk and feel the softness of their fur against my skin, knowing the love and appreciation they have for me for taking them in and giving them a home when so many are euthanized because there is no one to love them I just don’t understand this world.  I don’t understand how I can be the one to be so lucky.  But am I lucky, or have I just come to a place in my life where I stopped being so rigid that I stopped saying no to everything that might bring joy to me.  Hmmm.  Bring joy to me.  Interesting concept.  Why is it that we have so much difficulty with that.  Is it because we’re afraid our house will be messy when someone stops by?  Who stops by?  Do they live in your skin?  Do they fight your battles?  Do they feel the emptiness and longing of wanting something or someone to love you unconditionally?  No they don’t.  We need to stop worrying about what is unimportant in this world and begin to fill our lives with the love that can be yours if you open your home and your heart to shelter animals.  My gray days are filled with laughter and joy, brought to me by my friends, my three big dogs and my four inside cats.  You too can have this.  It’s waiting for you right now at the Randolph County Humane Society.  And never forget, it is only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.

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Posted by tailtalk

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