Most situations in life are pretty much cut and dried... There is a right way and there is a wrong way... You speed with your car and get caught, you are going to get a ticket... You write a check for more money than you have in your checking account, the check is going to bounce, the bank will charge you fees and hopefully an apology to a business after making your check good will suffice... We rely, as humans, on the dependability of having few options and not too many choices to make... Most of us mature adults realize quickly that too many options, too many choices or too much of anything translates into stress... And then every once in awhile, I come across a situation that is not so cut and dried... And I continue to 'percolate' on the matter in my head, trying to figure it out and what is the right answer versus the wrong one... So today, I bring one of these situations to you... So that I can share my inability to determine exactly what is right and what is wrong...
Let's call this lady "Mary"... She's an elderly lady and has a darling little boy furbaby that she loves dearly named "Pepe"... Pepe has an affair and Mary decides to adopt one of Pepe's children, who she names "Prince".... Prince has been raised since a pup with his dad, Pepe, and this is one happy little family... Because Prince has been raised with his dad, he has a very strong bond with Pepe... Dogs are very social creatures and isolation is not something they like any more than we humans do... When Mary starts getting sick, she makes a hard decision as to what is to become of her two little furbabies when she passes... Having no one to take care of her two furbabies, and knowing just how bonded and close they are, she also realizes that splitting them up is not an option... Nor a kind thing to do... Not many folks want to adopt two dogs together at one time...
Mary writes in her will that when she passes, if one or both of these furbabies are still living, she would like them humanely euthanized and their remains cremated with her... One would think that your last will and testament is binding and that after you die, the people left behind will honor your last wishes, right? Or why do we bother with doing something like this if after you are gone it means nothing, right? So Mary passes onto Heaven, but Pepe and Prince are still alive... During this sad and tragic time, it is decided by a vet that fulfilling Mary's last will and testament is not an ethical thing to do, so Mary is buried without her two furbabies' ashes... Mary's niece now has Pepe and Prince... But because of the city ordinances, she cannot keep Pepe and Prince because it will put her over-code... In the meantime, Prince and Pepe become even closer to each other because their dear mom is gone and in a dog's situational way of thinking, they don't have a clue what has gone on - just that Mary is no longer here and they are in a strange home... Natural for them to bond even closer with each other... Even Mary's niece tells me these are really great little dogs, but she is ill with cancer and cannot deal with additional problems because of the city's restrictions on how many pets a person can have... She has her maximum by law and that's all there is to it... Makes me wonder yet again why we have the laws we do regarding the number of pets a person can have... If a city's restrictions are four, it doesn't matter if you have four 150-pound Mastiffs or four 5-pound Chihuahuas... Four is four is four... And you can state in the law it is for environmental purposes, but four 150-pound Mastiffs leave a TON more poop behind than four little dogs!!
I get it... These laws are to attempt to prevent people from becoming hoarders... But to whom really does these laws have the most effect upon?... People who live in a city that has a pet restriction of four, but want more, will simply not license any over the legal limit... The city simply loses the licensing revenue... People that follow the laws surrender dogs like Pepe and Prince... And the county budget is used to take care of little furbabies like this... These two end up in the county shelter and become the taxpayers' concern to house and take care of... Unless a rescue like TLC steps up and takes both of these boys because they are bonded... And continues to work extra hard to find an adopter that is interested in adopting not one dog (which is hard enough on a daily basis to find), but two dogs together at the same time so that Mary's last wishes are honored... What is wrong with this picture?... And where is the right and the wrong in these situations? I don't have an answer, and I've been grappling with this since we pulled these little guys out of Camarillo... So, your thoughts are...... ????
Everyone has heard that old saying, "God never shuts a door that he does not open a window, but sometimes?... it is just hell in the hallway." And for the past 6 weeks, I have 'lived' this saying over and over and OVER... We have spent the last almost two years being told we'd have to relocate once the redevelopment reached our location at the Simi Valley Town Center (SVTC)... And I won't kid you - this temporary status affected a lot of what we did and the decisions we made... We held off installing an air purifier on the roof because of cost and knowing our location was temporary... Any modification we made was made with the mindset it had to be movable and was temporary... That one day we would have to move it from the #587 space to another location inside the mall somewhere... When we were told on May 20th by management that they "could not offer us a permanent location and it would behoove us to look outside the boundaries" of the mall, it was a very dark night indeed... The morning brought a reprisal of what we had accomplished in the almost 3 1/2 years at that location - we had effectively stopped the sale of puppymill puppies in the previous pet shop location and had saved the 2,226 lives of dogs and puppies since the rescue was formed... We could NOT have reached that number without the generosity of free rent and the graciousness of the management of the mall... Business is business, and it was time to get out and get BUSY! A decision had to be made - either we shut down TLC permanently or we found a new location to be moved to... After a lot of soul searching, we came to the decision we had to try and save TLC somehow, some way.... There were too many canine lives depending on us, not just today but in the future of Ventura County... My volunteers started mentioning this commercial location that has sat empty for a year, two years, etc. Each time, I'd go hunt down the leasing agent and ask about the property... In six weeks, I bet I have seen, inquired about or discussed over 50 vacant commercial properties... Either we could not afford the location or it was too small (too big)... Or we could afford it but did not like it... We might be able to afford it, we liked it but then the landlord did not want a rescue center there... Or the landlord felt like we would be a bad risk because we had not been paying rent (but hefty vet bills instead, getting sick dogs healthy)... I was really getting pretty discouraged... I learned more about commercial property in the past two months than I EVER wanted to learn in my life time... "Triple Nets", "CAM", lease lingo - you name it - I had to learn the lingo, piece by piece... And you would be ABSOLUTELY AMAZED at the empty locations around our city that the landlords preferred to keep empty for one reason or another... But my volunteers would keep finding yet another location for me to investigate.... (sigh)... Finally, we found a landlord who believed in our mission and cause... It was more than enough room... But the monthly rent scared the socks off of us... Almost $5,000 a month... Geeze louise.... How are we going to do this? I have always told myself and my volunteers... "If God wants this rescue train to stop rolling onward, he will stop laying down tracks for us to run on...." And my husband repeated this numerous times back to me... Each time we faced a mountain, someone would help this rescue train overcome it... One of our volunteers is very familiar with leases - I could not have waded my way through all of that without Steve... Never once did he allow me to feel stupid (although I certainly did) because this is not a part of life I have had much experience with.... Because the grant from the city would not be issued until the beginning of July, he offered to loan the money to the rescue so that we could move forward with the signing of the lease in the meantime, and not lose the two, three weeks... Our new landlord has been exceptionally kind and generous - compassionate beyond belief... I do not have the words to express how much he has helped us to find a new home for TLC at a time I thought we never would... It has restored my faith in mankind that 'business can be business', but not devoid of community spirit and forward thinking...
Another volunteer works at Sherwin Williams and talked to his boss about getting the paint at cost for us... And when you need 20 gallons of good quality paint, that becomes a substantial savings... Joe not only picked up the paint and delivered it, he carried up the stairs and came back later to help us paint! Even our adopted dogs are jumping in to help us get the rescue center painted! This is Miss Allie who was adopted by Jill last year... She's doing a great job and not wearing any of the white satin paint, HUH? When faced with the costs of putting down the flooring and 'gobsmacked' with the first estimate (OMG $19,000+), other volunteers ran auctions of artwork and raised the money - something we could not have overcome without the help of Kayre and Bill Morrison, along with Carmen who donated the balance when we came up short covering the total cost. Our landlord recommended a general contractor when we ran into problems trying to get the permits from the city to remodel a few things. Pete was able to negotiate the paperwork and help.... another Good Sam donated a professional phone system to the cause... And 'Santa Don' along with his lovely wife came by, took a tour of the rescue center gave us a $1,500 donation towards the shelving we need for the back room and other items on our punch list, plus the moving costs... Once we get up and running, Santa Don is also going to take care of the wide screen TV and BluRay player we want to run training videos and other things inside of the workshop areas we have laid out in our plans for the new rescue center... We want to teach people how to keep their pets instead of surrendering them, do senior citizen therapy sessions, show children how to not get bitten by strange dogs - and the list goes on and on.... Dreams we've had of making this community a better place in our lifetime... I have had more opportunities in the past month to get 'mushy-gushy' from the amount of generosity and belief in the mission of No-Kill for our county than ever before... I'm not one to get 'misty-eyed' easily because I'm a w*tch, but I have been totally overwhelmed at the number of people who share my vision of a rescue center for Simi Valley and have stepped up in either energy, sweat and/or hard labor... Or with financial donations to the cause of making this all happen... We hope to be moved in by the middle of July and hold our grand opening ceremony in September... This is some amazing stuff - miracles occurring almost on a daily basis - at a time when the 'hallway' appeared pretty dark and gloomy! EXCITING stuff, huh? Linda
Without a doubt, we could not save dog and puppy lives without the financial support of the community... Adoption donations seldom cover the amount of money we have invested in any dog, especially if there are high vet costs involved in getting them back on their feet and ready to be adopted...
The easiest way to join the cause of helping to save dog and puppy lives is to set up a monthly tax deductible donation via your credit card through our PayPal account... And there are just SO many ways to do it!
I am giving up one Starbucks a week to help save a dog's life! Donate $20 a month
I am donating enough to do one puppy's most needed puppy vaccines to help prevent them from getting very sick as they grow up! Donate $48 a month
I believe in spaying and neutering your pets to help in the cause of No-Kill in our county. Please speuter a rescue animal this month on me! Donate $60 a month
Save one dog a month for me! Donate $100 a month
Feed a nursing momma dog through the 8 weeks of giving her puppies mommie's milk! Donate $167 a month
Give a senior dog the gift of extended life - please do a dental on a senior dog for me! Donate $252 a month
Goodwill Ambassador - Save 5 dog lives a month for me! Donate $500 a month
I want to be a TLC Guardian Angel! Donate $1,000 a month
Select your level of commitment with the drop down menu below and then hit the button - it is just THAT easy to help save a dog or puppy's life each month at TLC!
Tax Deductible
TLC is a 501c3 nonprofit, registered with both the I.R.S. and the State of California as a charity (26-4639832). As such, your donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of our tax code and regulations. Seldom do we have enough funds to cover all of the expenses TLC incurs to save these dogs and bail them out of high kill shelters, get their medical needs attended to and just simple board and care. Any and ALL donations are GREATLY APPRECIATED!
TLC's story - from beginning until now... I started out in rescue in 1980 after reading a news article about Greyhound breeders in Florida. They were breeding these dogs, racing them, and when the dogs no longer could race and win, they were killing them.
A group of rouge rescuers were organizing ‘trains’ that would transport dogs destined for death from the Florida racing tracks up the Eastern Seaboard to homes that wanted to adopt them. I was so horrified about the idea of anyone breeding dogs for racing and killing them in this manner, that I knew I had to get involved somehow.
This was LONG before the advent of cell phones, the Internet or ATM cards. It was all done via long distance calls and snail mailing the breeders and the tracks.
Each train was a long and tedious process, starting from Florida and sometimes going as far as Maine. You would meet someone at an arranged truck stop or rest stop along I-95, take the dog(s) from one Good Sam and drive the next leg of the trip. Depending upon where you were, you could drive 300 miles one way, turn around and drive another 500 miles north to then return 200 miles back to your home.
It was tiring but always filled with the great feelings that at least today on your watch these dogs did not have to die because they were getting older, weren’t fast enough to win or ‘didn’t have the right stuff’; addicting feelings that made you want to do it over and over again – as long as you could afford the gas and the long distance charges.
At the age of 22, I just could not believe our society was doing this kind of canine killing. My youth was spent on a farm where stock and crops are raised for food. You didn’t get attached to that new litter of piglets because you knew they were destined for the smokehouse eventually – but killing dogs like this for no good reason? ::shudder::
I stayed involved in rescue, volunteering at various ‘animal pounds’ through my young adult years and moved to the West Coast in 1997. Once here, I got involved in the local Chinese Crested rescue. This breed is not as prevalent on the West Coast as it is the East Coast, so there wasn’t as much for me to do in California. I began to also volunteer at local ‘all breed’ rescue groups.
On the farm when I was younger, we were a sort-of-retirement home for canine officers being retired from service. It was not uncommon for us to have 10-15 highly trained Dobies, Rotties or German Shepherd dogs at any given time.
Today, in 2015, no one would think of allowing a preadolescent teen, to handle a dog pack of this size and advanced training. Back then, there was a kennel already built on the farm when we bought it, and my biggest challenge was to teach them not to chase the wild deer on the acres around the farm or our chickens in the coops (one of their favorite things to do).
I think back now with a bit of an ‘inner grin’ about those times – for no one ever came to the farm after dark and just opened their truck door to step out. We did not need a security alarm; there were too many pairs of watching eyes aligned around the vehicle, waiting for that person. The kids at school gave me the cruel nickname of being a ‘honker,’ ‘cause at our house, you honked your horn and waited for someone to come out and whistle for the dogs to back off and retreat to their kennel runs!
Once out here in California in 1997, I ran into my first Pitty hands-on at a rescue - another breed more prevalent (at the time) on the West Coast that was not prevalent on the East Coast or Deep South. Pitties that I had seen in the South were all fighting Pitties that were kept chained, usually waaaay back in the woods, and you just didn’t mess with them. Owners were pretty selective about who knew about their fighting rings, breeding areas, etc.
I was volunteering with a rescue in Woodland Hills and another volunteer knew I had experience as a kid with big, powerful dogs, so she asked me to work with their Pitty at the rescue events. Nice dog, it did not take much to get her through all of the basic obedience commands quickly and she got adopted shortly thereafter. I was assigned another one, and I just stayed on this track for some time.
In 2001, I was sent by a Chinese Crested rescue to Camarillo to look at a dog who was reported to be up for adoption. It turned out to be a Poodle and not a Powderpuff, but I found a skinny, scrawny NASTY little dog as I was leaving that had the notation on their kennel card – “Untrainable” – and it just struck me as odd. EVERY dog is trainable – you just have to find their hot button. I went back the next day, looked at her again, and fell in love with my first Chihuahua.
And she was a pistol – I won’t kid anyone. She wore a harness and leash on around the house for the first six weeks so I could catch her when I needed to. She bit my husband numerous times and to this day, he carries a small scar on his nose from Peanut.
But oh, she taught me SO much about this breed. There is something SO magical about Chihuahuas – not just that they look like puppies all of their lives, but their brain power is absolutely amazing. And their hearts? They love you more than the state of Alaska and Texas together, even if they are only 5 pounds. I have always said, “Chihuahuas are 5 pounds with 100 pounds of attitude.”
Eventually (just because I could), I took Peanut back to Camarillo and put her through the dog obedience classes that were being given at the time with every adoption. It was with a lot of personal pride that Peanut and I graduated from the class (Only two dogs did and both were Chis!) I was especially proud of us because we were consistently standing aside of huge, powerful dogs in class who wanted to eat Peanut for lunch! “Untrainable” – HMPH… yeah, right!
Peanut was my alpha dog for many years and quickly showed any new foster the ropes – she potty trained more dogs in her lifetime than I ever had. If a foster was not quite balanced yet, she got them in line right away. If I close my eyes, I can see that look of hers as she appraised the behavior of a new foster and quickly established some canine manners and decorum to any disturbance in her pack!
I continued to volunteer and foster heavily for local rescues, doing whatever I could (and that was a lot). I was (again) so horrified by the amount of healthy, adoptable dogs that were being killed for space at the local shelters in our county and the surrounding counties. These are not just numbers on a sheet of paper.
I will never be able to erase the visual image I got one day of seeing the ‘killing fields’ I accidentally stumbled upon at a local shelter…. rows of steel drums with sets of paws facing the sky, waiting for someone to shove down the paws and put a lid on as the truck was coming to cart away their bodies for the rendering plant.
I was “No-Kill” long before it was fashionable or politically correct to be… I just did not know it.
I have stood outside of BarkWorks and protested. I stood outside of the pet shop in the Simi Valley Town Center and protested the sale of puppymill puppies (and almost got arrested). I did counts at that petshop in fact, and was heavily involved in the anti-puppymill crusade - a nation-wide movement. I have gone into puppymill auctions in the Mid-West and watched that horrific example of a billion-dollar business built on greed and profit. I networked across the nation with other like-minded individuals in the cause to stop the needless killing of healthy, adoptable animals and the production line of backyard breeders and millers into the shelter systems.
In January of 2006, I came home from volunteering at a rescue and my husband was watching football. Again, I was complaining that the rescue did not microchip or do rabies before they adopted a dog, etc. and because it was not a commercial break, he wanted to get rid of me as quick as possible.
“Linda, why don’t you just start your own damned rescue then?!!” “Really?” “Sure……” as his attention went back to the game.
Six months later on June 6th of 2009, Tiny Loving Canines, Inc. (my “own damned rescue”) held their first mobile adoption at Petco in Moorpark. There were not many of us – 5 volunteers in total (and three of those were my family members and me). We thought we had TOO many dogs up for adoption (there were seven dogs), but we adopted our first dog that first Saturday and the ‘little rescue engine that could’ – DID.
For 2.5 years, TLC successfully held mobile adoptions in Moorpark. At the end of 2009, we had saved 83 canine lives. In 2010, we saved another 242… not bad – 325 lives in 18 months! The rescue grew in volunteers and foster homes. By this point, TLC held pull rights in our county and 5 surrounding counties… I did not discriminate.
In my life, it seems I come across a very deep fork in the road once every 5 years... life- changing forks in life’s journey. In 2005, my physical health went into the toilet and I spent 5 months in a wheelchair, having to teach myself how to write my name by hand, type and even walk again. I had a lot of time to think during those months – my brain worked fine – it was my muscles that were not cooperating.
And in 2010 another deep fork in life's road, but it was mental and not physical this time. “Why is my county killing so many dogs? What is wrong with us here in Ventura County? What is wrong with the system that we are failing so many of these creatures that cannot speak for themselves?”
We live in one of the safest cities in America – unless you are walking on four paws… this really began to grow from a nagging thought to almost another crusade, but one of a hometown variety.
It was not easy to save a dog in our county at the time – one dog could take the better part of your day, standing in line, waiting, getting the paperwork done, etc. To bailout a dog as a rescue, you paid just a few dollars less than someone in the general public, but if you were a No-Kill rescue, you could keep that dog for months, going into your pocket just to feed them and do the vet bills necessary. Unless you had big bucks or wealthy supporters, each dog you saved put you back financially. And if they were sick or needed a lot of veterinary care? Your rescue days were over before they started.
As I saw my fellow rescue members headed out into out-lying counties or into Los Angeles, I struggled a lot with this internally throughout 2010. I fought a lot with Ventura County Animals Services (VCAS) directly – never with the personnel (well, not much) but with the system, which was dreadfully broken.
I started documenting case after case of poor medical care. One day after pulling a dog and paying the bailout fee, I was standing in the lobby at Camarillo waiting --- to be told the dog had accidentally been euthanized. I told myself on the drive home – empty handed without the dog – that this carnage had to stop… somehow… some way.
In 2011, I began to pull dogs for that same pet shop location in the Simi Valley Town Center, which had gone from a pet shop (FINALLY) to a quasi-rescue called Pets Hope. We continued to do mobile adoptions in Moorpark every Saturday and when I pulled dogs for TLC, I also pulled them for Pets Hope.
By the end of 2011, TLC’s saves numbered 292 or 617 from our birth on June 6, 2009. And then the other shoe dropped – at the end of 2011, the owner of Pets Hope called me and said she was closing down the pet shop rescue, effective January 1, 2012. The board of TLC quickly huddled together and took a major leap of faith; taking over the ‘brick and mortar’ location. We realized that the only thing that could replace Pets Hope in that location was another pet shop - or we could REALLY turn it into a full blown rescue shop. Once again, we did what no one else could do. The little rescue engine that could – DID.
We didn’t even know how to turn off or on the air conditioning unit. Shortly after we took over, the previous manager quit. The TLC volunteers were not that many in number and the first year was a major struggle. We could not have gotten through the first six months were it not for two volunteers – Joseph and his dad, Big Joe.
In October of 2012, Big Joe died unexpectedly of a heart attack. No advance warning… one day he was my ‘work husband’ and the next day he was gone. I do not know how we got through the rest of that year – it is still a blur in my mind. But by the end of 2012, TLC had saved 449 dogs and puppies in that year (for an accumulated total of 1,066 since our birth).
More importantly, VCAS and our county committed themselves to the pathway of No-Kill in the summer of 2012, and in turn, TLC committed itself to pull first from our county always.
We will do whatever it takes within our resources to save the life of a dog.
Our save numbers stayed steady in 2013 – we saved another 465 canine lives that year – we were now up to 1,531. We did a LOT of educating the first two years as a brick and mortar. People just didn’t “get it” – why the need to retain their pets, the need to spay and neuter their pets, how important it was to microchip and license…as so on and so on. Every person that came through the rescue shop was another opportunity to educate and change someone’s misconceptions and mindsets.
We organized a few transports during these years (our largest was 38 to New York) and each transport was a new learning experience for us. We struggled to keep the electric bill paid, went through the growth spurts in volunteers and the human element of dynamic personas. We refined our protocols and procedures. We had three different rescues fly in from out of state to tour our facility, take our boilerplate, and go back to their communities to begin rescue shops. We got MUCH better at what we did, got into the use of social media and polished our photography skills.
And on a personal note: On December 26th of 2012, we saved a pregnant momma Pitty and her daughter. Momma gave birth at my home on January 12, 2013 to 9 beautiful puppies. Once she had nursed her pups, they’d all gotten spayed/neutered and adopted, Momma sorta/kinda ‘hung around.’ Every adoption application we would get in on Momma just didn’t have the right stuff for one reason or another. It was decided she’d become a ‘shop dog’ as she is a natural ambassador for this breed. We began to use Momma to introduce to children who were afraid of large dogs. The more I trained her, the more Momma sucked up the training; and I would push her some more to learn something new. By the summer of 2013, Momma passed her Canine Good Citizen certification and therapy dog certification; and I had lost my heart along the way. (Editor’s Note: Momma chose Linda from the get-go. We all knew it even before Linda was ready to admit it.)
We ‘broke the bank’ in 2014, and finally went over that “500” mark of dog saves in one year by 18. It was a busy year, especially when we tend save one “hard case” for every 3 lives we save. We had some $1,500 Chihuahuas along the way with accumulated vet bills, survived a distemper outbreak, lost foster homes and gained volunteers (and the reverse), had dogs stolen from us, and implemented a foster-to-adopt program that finally worked well.
We had a lot of learning experiences along the way – including that if you turn down someone for a dog or puppy because it is not a suitable placement, you are likely to find a complaint filed against you with some authority. That was a very long year in many respects, and we discovered it is darned hard to save a dog’s life, even if you are a non-profit and aren’t making money!
In 2014, we ran a year-long program, based upon a supporter’s desire to donate $400 a month to save dogs. Our experience has shown that many times if you give someone a dog, there is no value attached to that pet. They have no financial investment and therefore are not as willing to try to correct behavioral issues.
We knew our small dogs work exceptionally well in senior citizen homes, so we began the ‘Santa Don’ program with this supporter’s monthly donation. Once approved and a senior citizen was committed to adopting one of our little ones, the shopkeeper on duty would tell them about the program and lower the adoption donation by $100 in exchange for a photo of the new adopter and their furbaby in a Santa Claus hat! Thanks to this kind donation, 48 dogs found their way into loving senior citizens’ arms in 2014. We also began placing ‘mascots’ in senior assisted living facilities.
Now, as we continue along in 2015 and approach our 6th year anniversary on June 6th, it has been one hell of a ride.
Shortly we will be approaching 2,225 dog and puppy lives saved by 60 dedicated volunteers who keep the rescue shop open 7 days a week. Our youngest volunteer is 18 and our oldest is 70 (who also manages our thrift shop to subsidize vet bills). We hold numerous events throughout the year – one being our successful charity book drive and the other being ‘Race for The Bone’ (Chihuahua races basically).
It takes 300 volunteer hours per week to be open for 60 – we start at 6AM and we end at 8:30PM, open every major holiday with the exception of Christmas and New Year’s Day.
We are a tight group and are there for each other. It is not uncommon for us to be out at 3AM, looking for one of our adopted dogs who escaped his yard, or doing a mad dash to the ER with a sick dog or pup.
And the sad reality is that there is never, ever enough money. For the first five months of this year, TLC has spent over $22K in vet bills alone. Our average weekly food bill is always over $250. And our electric bill (even hanging up all of our blankets and not using the dryer) runs between $1200 and $1700 a month.
We continue to explore ways and implement programs to save more dog lives. We are getting the word out through social media, and recently, our app went ‘live’. We are organic and always changing; willing to do whatever it takes to save a dog’s life, within our resources, unless it is illegal or immoral.
While all of this can be overwhelming and quite powerful, we still adopt love into people’s lives - one dog at a time. You can’t buy happiness but you sure can adopt it at TLC!
It is a proven fact now that having a pet is good for your health... If only Ponce de Leon had stopped by a local animal shelter or rescue, he could have easily found the 'Fountain of Youth' he was searching for!
We consistently hear about how having a pet keeps our senior citizens young and engaged... This week's story about a dying man and his last request - to see his beloved Chihuahua - was granted by the hospital which had a strict 'No Pets' rule... As you can see fromthe video and information - CLICK HERE , James and his BFF, Bubba, were reunited and James is now doing MUCH better... It does not take much... Unconditional love and devotion from a dog or cat... And you realize life is precious and our four-footed friends enrich our lives... This does not show up on a life profit and loss statement, ya know?... And for those senior citizens that are pretty much house-bound, their pets are the source of companionship, keeping them from being as lonely when their children and busy lives diminish the number of visits... But pets are not just healthy for senior citizens... They are healthy for all of us...
LAUGHTER... Our pets are forever doing something that makes us giggle throughout the day... Or we are doing something to them that causes us to laugh... We share our funny pet stories and photos with others at work or in our lives... Ask someone if they have a dog or cat - or a pet - and you are likely to see them whip out their cell phone and start showing you pictures and videos they have taken... Whether it is some quirky behavior or us dressing them up at Halloween, any pet is going to bring laughter into your life and this is very healing and brings joy!
COMPANIONSHIP... Many of us that are pet owners will tell you that we like dogs (or cats) better than people... Doesn't mean that we are introverts and isolationists... You can have a really bad day at work, dealt with road rage coming home and that door opens up?... Your dog doesn't care about any of that - they are just ecstatic that you are FINALLY home!... Attitudes are contagious and a few pets and kisses? The day doesn't seem that bad after all, ya know?... And because dogs can read our body language MUCH better than we can read theirs, they do almost seem like they can read your mind at times... You can tell them anything and you know they will keep your darkest secret, will lay aside of you when you're not feeling that well and while they cannot talk back to us in English, they get their message across... Dogs exist in the here and now... They are situational creatures... They are social animals... They don't care if you are fat, ugly, old, young, male, female and so on... They are not judgmental and can turn the dullest day into one filled with the sunshine of love...
STRESS RELIEVER... When dealing with stress, touching and petting is an effective stress reliever... As much for dogs as it is for us... There is something about that cadence of petting your dog which brings back rhythm and a sense of peace to us as humans... Ever notice while you are petting your dog, they reach a point of a DEEP sign and it seems like their whole body just does an instantaneous relax?... It works the same way with us... And also why doctors recommend autistic children have a pet... There is a lot to be said for having a pet that loves you, understands you when you are stressed and enjoys being part of 'de-stressing' you...
BLOOD PRESSURE REDUCTION... One of the physical ways doctors measure the effects of stress on a human body is by taking our blood pressure... There have been countless studies done on the effect of pet ownership on high blood pressure... Whether you are sitting and watching fish swim around in an aquarium or just enjoying watching your dog fall asleep, you will experience a decrease in your blood pressure... This is another reason more and more assisted living facilities are bringing in dogs for mascots... It has proven to be beneficial to the residents both in lowering blood pressure, reducing stress and providing uplifting mental attitudes...
EXERCISE... Having a dog will cause you to get out more and exercise... Even if it is a short walk around the block, every little bit helps to get us up and out of couches and chairs, not positioned in front of a TV or computer monitor... There are groups that meet up in dog parks now... Like the new version of 'coffee clutchers' from the 50's or leaning over a neighbor's fence to have a conversation... It is a good way to get to meet and know your neighbors (as long as you pick up after your dog) and a great way to exercise yourself!... There are just so many places now that allow you to bring your dog and even if it is a run to Lowe's to pick up something for the house, you will enjoy it as much as your dog does! These are the ways we thought of living a healthier lifestyle by having a dog... How about you? Does your pet keep you healthier?
On the 19th of this month, VCAS contacted us about a litter of puppies that had been surrendered to them from the general public... By California law, unless an animal can be spayed or neutered, they cannot be adopted by a shelter or a rescue organization... And this litter had no mom and was but a day or two old... In other words, a bottle-fed litter... Not having a foster mom or dad to take on this challenge, they became my fosters and 'so it began' as the story books say... So how do you do something like this, you might ask?... With a lot of help and patience (and little sleep)... Luckily, my family members believe deeply in No-Kill for Ventura County and what TLC does... So I get a lot of support from my husband and daughter - not everyone in rescue is as lucky as I am...
My husband came up with a great solution to my first obstacle to overcome - making sure each puppy got fed... With four white ones, it would be really easy to miss one, thinking they'd already been fed, ya know? TWO crates, both with heating pads, so that as you fed a pup, you could move them to the other crate... And when you run out of puppies, you are done for the next three hours! (smile) I have told numerous friends that when folks tell me they don't believe in God, I want them to bottle-feed a litter of puppies... There is absolutely no way you can tell me God does not exist if you do something like this... As you watch them nurse and actually live through the most dire circumstances of their very young and tender lives, you have to believe in the magic and Greatness of God above...
And the other amazing point? Momma dogs are incredibly efficient and effective... How they do what they do and successfully raise a litter of puppies is beyond me (and then some)... Because they have no momma, it is up to me to keep them clean... Momma dogs constantly groom their puppies and clean up after them, making sure their 'den' is nice and tidy... In my case, it means they end up getting baths every two days... First you have to fed everyone a little bit or it becomes like a shark feeding frenzy... They all go nutso when it is time to nurse... So if you at least take the 'edge off', they go through the bathing process much easier!
Once bathed, as you're drying them off, they all have a different way they like to nurse... There is the 'side saddle' pup... If you give him a finger to push up against, he's just as happy as a piglet in mud... Another one is a pushy/puller... She pushes the bottle with her feet and pulls the nipple with her mouth at the same time... I'm guessing she's getting more milk that way, but I can always tell it is her 'cause the bottle jerks back and forth as you struggle to hold onto it!
This little girl likes to lay on her back when she is eating... In fact, both of the two dark females like to nurse on their backs, so you constantly have to watch to make sure they aren't nursing too fast and it is coming up their noses by accident... One of these puppies 'sings' throughout the nursing process... She makes puppy sounds nonstop for some reason... It is an ongoing process... Adjust the water temperature, give them a bath, dry off most of the water and then start them nursing so you can really dry them off with the microfiber drying towels... Once you have one done, you start the process all over again with the next puppy!
They are now 12 days old, so most of them have started opening their eyes... They have now figured out that when there is light coming in from the front of the crate, it must be feeding time... So they will gang-rush the gate door, all demanding to be fed at the same time (and I only have two hands!). Halfway there and an hour later, three are clean and have very full bellies! Time to snooze and nap... Ah, to have the life of a puppy, huh?
One of the puppies is a 'bottle holder'... He is not going to let that bottle disappear or go away from him... So he tends to hold on tightly (or as tightly as you will let him!)... And those little claws?... You'd be amazed at how strong they are for as young and tiny as this litter is! "This is MY bottle and I'll give it up only when I want to - not before!"
The runt of the litter is really teeny tiny... This is the one I stay worried about... I usually feed her at the beginning and then again at the end again... Her belly cannot hold that much milk at one nursing, but by the time you go through the entire process, she is ready for a small 'second helping'.... She weighs 3.4 ounces right now and is about half the size of her bigger siblings... But even for her small size, she is a determined little creature... She's fighting for her portion of the feeding time... Makes you marvel at the amount of natural instincts each puppy is born with... And the amount of maternal instincts each momma dog has... They do this with no books or the Internet to reference to... Just know what needs to be done and how to do it, even if it is their first litter... Ah, this is the life, huh?... Full belly and clean coat... Warm, clean bedding and blankee to crawl into...
Two and a half hours later, all six are fed and cleaned, ready to take their naps and relax for another 90 minutes before the process starts all over - but just nursing so that's only about 30 minutes with six puppies... Thankfully, this week they are nursing every 4 hours instead of 3, so we are getting more sleep now... Even so, there is two of us TLC volunteers bottle feeding this litter... And a momma dog does it all by herself... Aren't mommas just the most amazing creatures, regardless of the species? Paws-itively Yours, Linda ================== P.S. Their names are: Brown females - Siggy and Helga White females - Lagetha and Princxess Aslang White males - Bjorn and Ragnar Stay tuned as they grow and eventually come up for adoption about mid May!
Dogs end up homeless and in our shelter systems for all kinds of reasons... And many folks believe when they adopt, there must be something with the dog for it to have ended up in the shelter system initially... So when they are looking for the perfect dog to adopt, they are disappointed... Simply put, there is no perfect dog or puppy... Each puppy is going to come with pooping on your carpets, chewing your shoes and its first year is going to be expensive and fragile with all of the puppy illnesses that are possible, even if vaccinated... Each adult dog is going to come with some form of baggage... It might be a simple as one day they were laying on their owner's couch, saw the leash and thought they were going 'bye-bye' and found themselves being handed over the counter to some strange place with a LOT of barking dogs they do not know... Even the most easy going dogs suffer some form of stress going through the shelter systems... And then there are the dogs whose owners did not seek out the proper medical treatment, but believing the guardian dog fairy at the county shelter would make everything all well and better with a wave of the unlimited power of the medical budget wand, fueled by the taxes paid by resident taxpayers...
This is Sundae's story... Apparently having a history of upper respiratory illnesses or 'colds', Sundae was surrendered to our local county system... "This is just a sick dog I bought at a pet shop when she was a puppy"... Well, that should have been the first clue as to where that owner went wrong... Once we stepped up to save Sundae's life and made sure she received medical treat, our vet discovered Sundae had pneumonia and megaesophagus (or in layman's terms - an enlarged esophagus - you can read more success stories HERE)... And as her treatment for pneumonia began, her health condition improved dramatically very rapidly... Basically, when Sundae eats, her esophagus does not move the food down into her stomach and small particles were going into her lungs, causing the pneumonia... We do not know how long this has been going on, but for a pup that is only three and a half years old, this is sad - shame on the owner in my book...
The medication is relatively inexpensive and a "Bailey's Chair" is needed... One of the TLC volunteers built one for Sundae and it will go with her when she is adopted... Using gravity, Sundae eats sitting up like a human baby does in a high chair... Sundae is really smart and learned quickly what we expected of her... Each morning and evening, she knows she'll get fed in her special chair and she loves her breakfast and dinner! She will carefully lick her bowl clean - almost to the point you might not have to wash it - and then sit patiently for the 10 minutes afterwards... As she sits, I am sure she contemplates the theory of the Big Bang, how the stock market is doing today and if she should wear "Doggie De Clare" or "BowWow Beautiful" tomorrow as a fragrance... Sundae gets along well with other small dogs that are even tempered and easy going... So I am just as sure she wonders what she had done to receive such special and unique treatment as her own, custom-made chair that only SHE can sit in and eat at! As as she thinks about just how lucky of a girl she is today having TLC saved her, she tends to clean her paws just like a cat would... So is Sundae a perfect dog?... No, she's even better than that... She's a very unique and loving special little girl who has now been brought up to adoptable standards and ready to find the furever home of her dreams... Sundae is spayed, up to date on her shots, has received her rabies shot, is microchipped and will be licensed for the County of Ventura if a resident at time of adoption.... Her Bailey's Chair is included with her adoption along with her sweet disposition and a heart as big as Alaska - a heart that is just looking for the love of an unique human companion all her own! Come into the rescue and meet Sundae but be prepared for her to steal your heart!
