Tail Talk

Love is in the Air

It’s springtime, and love is in the air.  For every animal that is currently unaltered they run the risk of reproducing unwanted puppies and kittens that will end up in shelters all across the country.

Why Spay or Neuter?  If you think that just having one or two litters won’t hurt anybody, this fact should change your mind: according to the Humane Society of the United States, 10,000 babies are born in the U.S. on any given day. On that same day, however, 70,000 puppies and kittens are born. Match those two statistics up, and you’ll see that there will never be enough homes for all the animals born in this country unless we all take responsibility for spaying and neutering our pets. Change begins with YOU! Spay or neuter your pet!

•  Spayed/neutered pets live longer, healthier lives
•  Spaying your female pet greatly reduces the risk of breast cancer and completely eliminates the threat of uterine and ovarian cancer.
•  Neutering your male pet prevents testicular cancer and prostate problems, and helps him avoid serious health problems like hernias and perianal tumors.
•  Males neutered at a young age are far less likely to develop dominance or aggression-related behavior problems, including possession and food guarding, territory marking (lifting his leg on everything in sight), aggression toward other dogs, and “humping” inappropriate objects.
•  Neutering your male pet relieves him of the constant urge to go out in search of a female in heat. Ridding him of his urge to roam could very well save his life, and save you from a terrible broken heart.
•  Spaying your dog or cat eliminates her heat cycle and the mess that goes with it. Also, females in heat often cry and howl incessantly, develop nervous behavior, and attract every unaltered male dog in the neighborhood to your yard!
•  Altered animals are generally more docile and easier to train.

And now a word from Heidi, the President of the Randolph County Humane Society:

According to the American Humane Association, nearly 10 million animals are euthanized annually in the United States. That’s 833,333 every month- 208,333 every week – 27,778 each day – 1,157 every hour! Or…think of it this way – 19 companion animals are put to sleep every minute of every hour of every day each year.  I know I don’t like those odds at all, and at RCHS that will never happen as long as we continue to do our part and spread the word and take a stand against the breeding that runs wild in every county, city and community.  PLEASE SPAY & NEUTER, it’s not that expensive, and there are programs that will help. PLEASE do your part! Spread the news that animals are dying needlessly and WE CAN CHANGE THE ODDS, WE JUST HAVE TO FIGHT A LITTLE HARDER and TAKE A STAND!

It is a common myth that pet overpopulation means there are “not enough” homes for all the shelter animals. In reality, there are more than enough homes, but not enough people are choosing to adopt from a shelter. Seventeen million Americans acquire a new pet each year — that is more than double the number of shelter animals! Sadly, only 3.5 million people, or about 20 percent, choose to adopt their new pet. The rest choose to buy their pets from pet stores or breeders, or they choose a variety of other cheap or free sources, such as friends, neighbors or Internet ads.

Virtually all puppies sold at pets stores come from puppy mills, where dogs live miserably in tiny cages with little or no opportunity to exercise, play or socialize. Although there are many responsible breeders, there are far more irresponsible ones who are breeding for profit without regard for good health and temperament or the pet overpopulation problem.

So what do you say.  Will you stand with us and see if we can change the odds, and maybe, just maybe, stop the constant influx of animals that find their way through our door starting now because of the unaltered animals?  After all, it is only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.

This has been an interesting week.  I donate my time to the shelter from the comfort of my recliner and that works for me on so many levels, not the least of which is the fact that when I go to the shelter I fall in love with every face I see, and believe me, there are some beautiful faces there to love.  But the person I wrote about a couple of weeks ago when I wrote “The distinction between overworked and hard working are in the heroes of this world” has been out sick with the flu so I thought I would try to step up to see if I could do it.  “Doing it” means getting up in the morning and being at the shelter by 9 am and staying until 1 pm, a real accomplishment for me because sitting in a chair is one of those tasks that is beyond me, but since it’s for the animals I’ve sucked it up and done what needed to be done for the four hours per day this week.  Thank goodness for an understanding husband that is willing to put up with the additional pain medications for the good of the animals in addition to the stories that I come home with about the animals that I’m not sure I can live without now that I’ve spent some time with them.  And that’s where the real problem lies for me.  I fall in love too easily.  There’s one guy in there named Shep that looked at me with his big brown eyes and it was love at first sight.  I could tell that there were many, many snuggly nights in his future and I could only wish and dream that I would be the recipient of those snuggles, but I know that’s not to be.  And the kitten that Michelle and her husband saved from the coyotes and big dogs that someone must have dumped in their neighborhood, even though Michelle is highly allergic to cats, she fell in love with this little girl just as I have because you can’t help yourself because she’s so beautiful and sweet.  After she was captured she soiled herself from being in the cage overnight and was a very dirty little girl when she arrived at the shelter, and very smelly too, something a sweet, white little kitten should never be, so she was given a bath, and she’s such a little love monkey and was so grateful for the kindness shown to her that she purred the entire time she was being bathed.  How can you not love that animal?  I mean, forget the fact that she’s beautiful beyond words and sweeter than any kitten that I’ve ever met before, and I’ve known a few, so that’s saying something.  So are you beginning to see the writing on the wall here?  And then there’s Zepher, the part greyhound dog that really needs a place to run and we have that place, or the big white Pyrenees that is so well behaved and would be an excellent addition to our pack, and oh my God I want them all!  I have to learn to love them as a rescuer because I believe I could be a hoarder if I wasn’t careful.  Not in a bad way because we have the room and I would never bring on too many, but how do you stop the love?  And I definitely have the love.  For once in my life I am grateful my physical inabilities will not allow me to continue to work at the shelter on a daily basis.  Just never forget, it’s only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.

During the month of February I have attempted to stay true to the path of Cat Appreciation Month.  I will admit I have veered from giving thanks for those mystical creatures  a few times when writing Tail Talk but only when it was necessary to bring you information I deemed so important that it couldn’t wait until after that all important 30 days of adulation we’re giving over to the feline persuasion.  I try to keep my stories light but I came across a page on facebook titled the Adlai Grace Foundation, and it’s dedicated to a kitten that was thrown from a moving vehicle onto the road and left there to die.  Except she didn’t.  She was found.   And there is where the foundation comes in because it tells all about the three week struggle of the baby kitten that was left paralyzed and incontinent after her attempted murder, and her three week struggle to live.  And the impact that little being had on so many people.  It is an incredible story and I highly recommend that you visit the page, see Adlai Grace’s pictures, and read her tale.  My favorite photo is of her little face peeking out of the basket while the adult cat checks on her

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You can really see how tiny she is in the photo of her broken little body hugging the remote control.   That lets you know just how big a danger she was to society and why it must have been oh so important for whoever did this to her; to throw her from that moving vehicle and destroy that tiny body that didn’t have a chance at life.  I think she stole my heart because she looks so much like one of my own cats, Donald, my first class mouser and serious love monkey that sleeps curled up in my husband’s arms every night and tenderly gives me kisses with his sand paper tongue, and the thought of someone doing that to my sweet boy is more than I can bear to think about.  But mostly I guess I would like for you to read the comments of the people she has touched.  Most poignant was her adopted mama, writing “Prezzies! Everyday was like Christmas at our house when Adlai Grace came to live with us. People sent food, diapers, toys, blankies and treats for the precious beloved little girl. When Adlai died, I couldn’t even open my mail. All the joy had left my life. From Christmas every day to the depths of grief in seconds…….I seriously questioned whether or not I would ever recover. I have concluded that I will never fully recover from losing little Adlai….so I just need to fight in her name to help protect other babies from the same fate she endured. I love you, Adi Gray. I will never forget you. I will never stop loving you.”  Immediately after finding Adi Gray she began telling her story, sharing with the world the struggles this tiny wisp of life lived just to make it from one day to the next, until the unthinkable happened and there she slipped from the limit of our sight into God’s loving arms, never to struggle again but to run and play freely as a kitten should in a world of mischief.  But for those of us that are left behind on this side the struggle of letting go is a difficult one.  She stole our heart with one glance.  We would take on her pain if only we could but we couldn’t.  That poor, tiny creature was left to suffer in a way that was unimaginable to the rest of us.   We had to stand by and bear witness to her suffering, to make sense of the senseless.  In her name we go forward to insure that this does not happen to another innocent, but if it should, we must insure that the laws are there to protect them and that they are enforced to their fullest extent possible.  Remember, if it’s to be, it’s up to me.  If we all commit to changing our part of the world then the world will change.  And little Adi Gray’s short life will have had purpose far beyond the three short weeks she spent on this earth.  I encourage you to visit and “like” her page today.

https://www.facebook.com/adlaigracefoundation

This is more than the story of a kitten for cat appreciation month.  This is about what we all can do to make this world a better place and not let the abusers that take what is so precious from us win.  Not this time.

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

My life has become an unexpected life.  When I was young and I dreamed of what I wanted to be when I grew up, never once did I dream of being forced from my choice of careers by hypersensitivity to pain from back surgery that didn’t cure what ailed me.  It wasn’t a life choice that was anywhere on my radar, but when it reared its ugly head it took total control over every aspect of my life and lifestyle and left me with the choice of learning to enjoy a new way of living or living a life filled with anger at everybody and everything for what I had lost through no fault of my own.  I will admit I have those days when the anger seeps in, but I do try to keep them at bay, and the way that I’ve found to keep my days filled with sunshine and joy is through the animals that I have adopted from the shelter.  I have always enjoyed the antics of having a dog at my side but having cats is new to my psyche, and I have to say I highly recommend them because they are, at the very least, the most highly entertaining creatures I have ever come across.  But as in all things, the real joy is in numbers because we have four inside cats right now, and while there are moments when having that many animals can be irritating, between the interactions of the three dogs and the four cats, there is always something happening around here that allows me to forget about myself and lose myself in them and what is happening in their world.  And their world is far more interesting than anything that is happening in mine.  Sissy and Bubby, the brother and sister kitties we adopted a year ago Christmas, couldn’t be any less alike and yet you can tell immediately they are siblings that love each other unconditionally, even as they jump out at each other, rolling around uncontrollably until they tire in each others arms and settle into a somber sleep, barely glancing if I walk into the room and disturb their slumber.  Bubby is as lithe and agile as you would expect a feline to be but  when Sissy runs through the room all you hear is thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump as if her little legs are going in the circles of a wheel with a flat rather than moving with the grace of a cat in motion.  They’re all as curious as can be and don’t want to miss out on anything that happens so we have to be careful if we go into the spare bedroom for something that they’re not closed into the darkness and left with no thought because the next thing you know the carpet will no longer be attached at the carpet bar.  Not a problem, so long as it comes out in one piece and doesn’t come apart in the waft and weft as it came off the loom (as has happened).  It doesn’t go back together like it comes apart.  We like to start our spring garden plants from seed but now that we have four cats to help us prepare our garden inside the house and out our big decision this year is where do we put the seed pots?  So we decided the spare bedroom would be the safest place and out of harms way.  We’ll begin in the kitchen with the dirty work, then transport everything to the bedroom so we’ll only have the door open for seconds.  I turned around after those seconds and was shocked to see there are three dogs and four cats in the bedroom with us, all trying to figure out what these things are in the peat pots, what these grow lights are for, why does mommy have towels laid out and if I jump from here can I pull them all over in one fell swoop?  Why yes, I believe I can, so here goes, and… SUCCESS!!!  All this happened within thirty seconds of the door being opened and our carefully thought out plans gone have awry.  So you see, when life takes you down paths you never intended to go and you think you’ll never have any joy again, the answer my friend is to adopt cats and dogs.  Lots of them.  You’ll never have another moment to be able to sit by and concentrate on “poor me” because you’ll be too busy laughing at the silliness going on around when you’ve got all these critters trying to help you with every task you try to take on, and if you think you can’t live with the pain one more moment, well guess what, oh yes you can because you’ve got way too much else to think about than to think about poor me.  So get over yourself and save the world, one animal at a time.  And never forget, it’s only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.

So did everyone see the news story about the dog in Colorado that bit the lip off the news anchor during the interview about his rescue after falling through the ice after chasing the Coyote?  Well, if you’ve heard the story but not seen the video, things are not always as they seem and there are important lessons here that we all need to pay attention to because the only ones to suffer are the animals, and this poor dog may die because of it.

Lesson number one, at all times make sure your dogs and cats have had their shots because to not to do so will cause problems beyond your ability to believe or overcome, resulting in their being euthanized for your stupidity and laziness.

Lesson number two, you are responsible for your dogs actions no matter what, so don’t let other people do stupid things because dogs will be dogs no matter how irresponsible people are and your dog could die because of their lack of responsibility.

Case in point, watch the video of what took place between the news anchor and the poor dog that had a traumatic day of falling through the ice and almost losing his life, only to be saved by the fireman and come back to face this woman’s stupidity:

Lead up to and bite of News Anchor by Dogo Argentino dog that had been rescued from drowning

This woman is obviously a dog lover and she had every good intention in the world, but she didn’t have a clue that how she was behaving around this strange dog in a strange environment that had just been through a traumatic experience might lead to his death sentence.  Watch what she does in the lead up to the bite.  She rubs the dog in a very excited manner all over his face and back, a maneuver that gets him all worked up.  Then she gets in his face and stares him directly in the eyes, a threat.  He growls but she doesn’t back off.  So he strikes.  It’s quick.  He doesn’t go after her, which he could.  He could get her down, go for her throat, and that would have been the end of her.  But no, he growls, she doesn’t respond, so he lets her know he means business and this time she understands what he was trying to tell her the first time when she didn’t listen to the growl.  Now they are talking about killing him because his shots weren’t up to date.  He’s not showing any signs of rabies but that doesn’t matter.  The dog will pay the price because of his owner’s stupidity and laziness.  And the interview isn’t the first time his owner was stupid.  The reason why the dog ended up in the water, almost drowning and requiring a rescue in the first place, was because he was walking him off leash and the dog chased a coyote onto the thin ice and fell through.  If you want to see something that will make your heart sick, watch the video that shows the dog before and during the rescue:

Max the Argentino Dogo in the frigid waters of the pond and the fireman that saved him.

There is never a time that I don’t realize that my dogs are my responsibility and if I am not careful I could be the cause of their death.  I am particularly worried when the grandkids are around because all it would take is one second of not paying attention and everyone’s life will change.  And it won’t be for the better.  So I never relax, not for one second, because I know if I don’t pay strict attention at all times it could be a moment we’ll never recover from, and where children are involved, well, I’m just not willing to take that chance.

There will be people that will say that was a vicious dog and they are a vicious breed, but nothing could be further from the truth.  Any time there is an incident between canine and human it is the human to blame.  So take responsibility for the situation and make sure your animals are protected.  Never, ever leave a child alone with a dog no matter how loving that dog is and has been because they are, after all, a dog.  And are you willing to lose your dog because you trusted them to be something more than to act out on their instinct to react?  We owe them more than that.  There is no one to blame but yourself if you find yourself in this situation, and don’t ever, lay the blame on the innocent.

I’ve had a new addition to my RCHS shelter volunteering activities and within my first week I’ve already learned how wrong I can be.  How’s that for beginners luck?  But in this instance luck had nothing to do with it, it was a total misunderstanding on my part of how words can be perceived and once it was pointed out to me I could see how wrong I was. And I will admit, I was wrong (Tim take note here because this isn’t something you’ll probably ever hear).  I have taken on the task of helping to update items on the Randolph County Humane Society facebook page, and it has been a learning experience, let me tell you.  I am familiar with working on websites, and I can send an email, and I guess you’d say I’m familiar enough to stay out of trouble with most but a master of none.  So I felt pretty confident to take on the task but I felt every much the grandma as I tried to learn facebook.  And while I’m trying to learn it I’m trying to insure we put our best foot forward because it’s not just my face that’s going to be red with embarrassment by any faux pas I make but the shelter as well so I have to be on my best behavior.  I was writing a description one of our board members that is also a regular at the shelter in the day to day operations, handles the PetSmart foster care program and adoptions in addition to taking the shelter dogs to PetSmart every 3^rd Sunday, and she cleans the shelter of poo and tinkle, seeing to it all the animals are loved and fed on her scheduled days.   I posted the description as “our very own overworked” because in my world what I just described is someone that is way overworked when you consider this is all done without pay, out of the goodness of their heart, for the love of the animals, and in their spare time.  I was told to remove that word “overworked” because that was a terrible word that did not at all describe what they did or how they felt.  And therein lies the difference between a true hero and the rest of us and why we need to be grateful for that .1% of the rescuers that give their lives to the shelters and the animals every day that find the word “overworked” as in insult to what they do.  Hard working would be more appropriate, is how they feel.  Okay, I’ll give you that one, but hard working doesn’t even come close to describing it in my book.  I am hard working but I don’t come close to what they give in time or effort.  And I think that’s a distinction that really shows the love and the passion because when I look at myself I know I don’t have it to give, and I don’t think 99.9% of the population has it to give.  So tonight when you take that moment to be grateful for all the good things in life, spend a little extra time giving thanks for all the people that really give of themselves, that .1% that feel that overworked is a dirty word and would rather just be thought of as hard working.  Because they are our true heroes and without them the world would never change.

My husband and I have a way with words that’s fun for us but makes everyone around us wonder what the heck is going on in our world.  Our latest kitty kid likes to sit at the top of my recliner, which also happens to be a rocker, so if I’m not careful when I get out of the chair I send her flying across the room.  Tim’s warning to let me know of impending cat doom is to holler out “catapult, catapult” while everyone else sits and looks at him like he’s nuts.  But I know, and I guess that’s the important thing.  I’ve only sent the cat flying across the room a couple of times and so far she’s no worse for wear, so we’re good.  That doesn’t get us into trouble like our code name for our blood pressure medication.  For some reason Tim started referring to it as his “heartworm” medicine, and I picked up on it and have gotten so used to the terminology that I can no longer think in terms of blood pressure, even when I am at the doctor’s office and have to try to speak intelligently about my medical conditions.  However, the defining moment was when we were in Northern Indiana visiting his mother and he suddenly remembered he’d forgotten to bring his medicine with him.  I don’t know what was funnier, the look of shock on his mom’s face when she exclaimed “you don’t have heartworms, do you?” or her expression when he responded “of course not, I take medicine for it.”  Yes, sometimes we forget ourselves.  We have multiple names for each of our pets because the names evolve.  Take Happy Jack for example.  No one ever knows who I’m talking about because when we brought him home from the high kill shelter we named him Happy Jack because he was so happy to be out of the shelter he pooped in the van on his way home.  Then his name evolved into Action Jackson because of the speed with which he ran through the house.  That stuck for a while until we started calling him puppy, because he was compared to our older animals, then we started talking about his cute little puppy toes, and the name Puppito came about.  Then we started calling him Pete.  So 50% of the time we refer to him as Jack and the other 50% of the time we call him Pete, but it’s the same dog.  Everyone thinks we have more animals in the house than we have, and when you have as many as we do that’s quite an impressive number.  We do the same thing with the cats.  Donald was originally Don Cato, but now he’s Donald but with a lot of different pronunciations, like Donowd, it just depends on the occasion.  So you just never know what we’re talking about when you come to our home.  But somehow all the animals and the people involved understand each other and know who is speaking to who and when.  The cats know their names and come when their called, and most of the time the dogs do too.  When they don’t it’s by choice and not because they don’t know any better.  And don’t let any dog or cat pull the wool over your eyes into thinking otherwise.  They’re smart animals and know a lot more than they let on.  The really smart ones have us at their beck and call.  And if you don’t have any really smart animals in your life, well you don’t know what you’re missing out on.  Life just doesn’t get any better than spending an evening at home with your loved ones, the furry ones and the less furry ones.  It just don’t get any better than this.  So if you’re missing out you too can have it, just go to your local shelter and adopt.  Not just one but two or three.  And never forget, it’s only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives one by one.