animal rescuers - resources - support

[violaine]

i thought that i would place this topic under the support heading, as anyone who is involved in animal rescue work, probably could use a little bit of support from tme to time i'm on a committee of the humane society, and work many fields. so, feel free to discuss experiences outside of rescue work.

please write about an animal rescued, how he/she was brought to you attention, finding the rescue group and transporting of rescues, fostering, dealing with inflexible/behind the times animal control shelters, model of excellence shelters, bending ears of commissioners, and/or legislation/law- how a bill becomes a law, share resources, et c.

http://www.ddal.org/legislation/federal/bills/

[Andrew, Jr.]

Belle,

Thank you for this! I am home all day, and I find so many different kinds of animals. I have found bats, birds, dogs, cats, elk, deer, and even a bison that wondered off his owner's property. I work with animal rescue, along with my vet who also works with both animal rescue and ASPCA. She is a Godsend to me, and the animals she has helped.

I only take in strays. I have a dog, Dino Martini. And I have 3 cats, Madison, Gabby, and Sophie. I rock them to sleep every day until their eyes roll to the back of their heads and they start to snore.

I cannot imagine my life without my animals. They are a huge part of who I am as a human being. I feed birds, squirrels and chipmonks. I recently found 2 box turtles this year. I took them into my vet, who is making them well. They had some disease that she is treating with medicine. Once I get them back, I am releasing them back into the woods. The boxwood turtle I found 3 years ago is now huge. His mate had babies in my front yard in my iris's. The eggs were looked like chocolate eggs you get at Easter. I watched them like a hawk, and soon enough, the babies were born. It was wonderful to watch. The one think I do to know that the turtle's are mine is to dab a bit of white out on their shell. Not a lot, but enough to last for a while. And I reapply it when the white out fades.

I can just talk and talk about animals. They are such a joy.

Love,
Andrew

[NotAnAverageGuy]

Good thread topic Violane!!!!

I try to do what I can to get rid of the stigmatism Pit Bulls have against them.

Pitbulls and Parolees on Animal Planet is a rescue I do support.

[Andrew, Jr.]

Dog Fighting is huge in Maryland. They have places all over the state. Personally, I don't care for the bully breeds because I was bitten by a German Shepard when I was a youngster. And I don't agree with dog fighting at all. I think it is just plain wrong.

I really believe when raising any animal it is all about the owner, and how the owner raises the dog. If you put a pitt bull on a tread mill, and then starve the dog, and tangle a kitten in front of him - we all know what is going to happen. It's terrible.

As for Animal Planet, I have problems watching that show. It gives me nightmares.

[Kimbo]

I bet ya aren't surprised that I stop in here...

I'm probably considered a bit crazy by many when it comes to my opinion of animals. I rescue them often..I have 6 cats myself and am constantly trapping something in my neighborhood to get spayed or neutered. I will apologize now for my attitude and impatients with those who turn a blind eye. I just can't.

I've been heavily involved locally and throughout the states in animal rescue. I've taken on local authorities on behalf of the animals, and I was one of the crazy people who did animal rescue in Katrina. I've also worked with Red Cross, FEMA and a few states to help implement animal rescue into their emergency preparedness.

I've a few stories when time allows which is not the case tonight, however I had to drop in and say hi.

[DamSkippy]

Originally Posted by Kimbo

I bet ya aren't surprised that I stop in here...

I'm probably considered a bit crazy by many when it comes to my opinion of animals. I rescue them often..I have 6 cats myself and am constantly trapping something in my neighborhood to get spayed or neutered. I will apologize now for my attitude and impatients with those who turn a blind eye. I just can't.

I've been heavily involved locally and throughout the states in animal rescue. I've taken on local authorities on behalf of the animals, and I was one of the crazy people who did animal rescue in Katrina. I've also worked with Red Cross, FEMA and a few states to help implement animal rescue into their emergency preparedness.

I've a few stories when time allows which is not the case tonight, however I had to drop in and say hi.

(Snip: Kimbo) I'm probably considered a bit crazy by many when it comes to my opinion of animals. I rescue them often..I have 6 cats myself and am constantly trapping something in my neighborhood to get spayed or neutered.

I am the crazy cat lady with my family, some freinds and mostly at work. I have since 2005 altered 60 cats. My motto you come for dinner you will leave fixed. (ha) Anyways, i was recovering from chemo/breast cancer beginning of 06 and noticed cats and babys.. so i did research on the net and found out about some programs that i could trap ferals and bring them into the SPCA for 15.00 (single and limited money) worked for me, plus people helped my cause and donated for some $ here and there.

Nice to here other people doing the same (kudoz) i wont stop and i help my freinds out now since i have seemed to altered every cat in my blocks radious.

Dam Skippy

[Novelafemme]

Originally Posted by Andrew, Jr.

Belle,

Thank you for this! I am home all day, and I find so many different kinds of animals. I have found bats, birds, dogs, cats, elk, deer, and even a bison that wondered off his owner's property. I work with animal rescue, along with my vet who also works with both animal rescue and ASPCA. She is a Godsend to me, and the animals she has helped.

I only take in strays. I have a dog, Dino Martini. And I have 3 cats, Madison, Gabby, and Sophie. I rock them to sleep every day until their eyes roll to the back of their heads and they start to snore.

I cannot imagine my life without my animals. They are a huge part of who I am as a human being. I feed birds, squirrels and chipmonks. I recently found 2 box turtles this year. I took them into my vet, who is making them well. They had some disease that she is treating with medicine. Once I get them back, I am releasing them back into the woods. The boxwood turtle I found 3 years ago is now huge. His mate had babies in my front yard in my iris's. The eggs were looked like chocolate eggs you get at Easter. I watched them like a hawk, and soon enough, the babies were born. It was wonderful to watch. The one think I do to know that the turtle's are mine is to dab a bit of white out on their shell. Not a lot, but enough to last for a while. And I reapply it when the white out fades.

I can just talk and talk about animals. They are such a joy.

Love,
Andrew

{{{{Andrew}}}} I just love your post and can relate to so much of it!

As a child ~ animals were my sanctuary. I found safety and refuge in caring for them and in the peace they offered amongst the craziness of my life.

As an adult I have had to work diligently to not bring home every stray I come across. Living in a border town means that I see A LOT of homeless animals and it tears me up to not be able to help them as freely as I would like. But...I do what I can by volunteering at our local animal care centers and by offering my home as a foster site when I can.

There are animals that I have had in my home that, due to experience, I would not have back...but for the most part I can weigh the benefits against the draw backs and find that the unconditional love and laughter these animals have brought into my life have, by far, been well worth the time, money and energy spent.

[Andrew, Jr.]

Animals are just fur gifts from God. I know that I would be so lost and alone without them in my life. When I was very young, I would come home with everything imaginable.

I would win animals from the State Fair, like Igawana's. I even lost one in my mother's house. To this very day, it was never found. I have no idea of where that baby went. It was a big guy too.

Then there are the hundreds of goldfish that I would fill up my blowup pool with water for them. For some reason I felt the need to rescue the animals from the fair.

Animals validate my life. People just shoot me down. Animals just want me to love them. It is love at it's best.

[violaine]

oh crumb! i typed about a page, and now it's gone. had to take some calls and walked away from the post. i'm going to start over, in a document file, save it, and return with one of my most recent Dobie Rescues. i will describe the entire process start-to-finsih.

great to see you all. thank you for sharing your expressions of love toward animal-friends.

[violaine]

i shall use a green heading for safe; yellow for content warning; and red for may find very disturbing.

Daz’s Story.

A woman on my committee posted a brief to our FB page about a dog called "DAZ" at our local animal control shelter: A stunning dobie in need of a home. Our shelter is high kill- meaning, the animals are there for only three days. Animal Control falls under a Municipality:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipality

Sometimes, animal control, rescue groups, and the humane society come from different places with regard to best serving the public/animals. This is a very important distinction to make because Animal Control where I live [and I am quoting!] exists to “keep roaming and biting dogs off the streets” and are not “required to keep the animals longer than a three day period”.

So, we placed a three-day hold on Daz, as that was longest hold animal control permitted us. The Process began! I telephoned dobie rescue groups in my state, wrote to them, as well as dobie rescue groups in neighbouring states. I sent out lots of emails to all of my contacts and included the FB page. The woman and friend- on my committee was totally devastated by what she saw going on inside of the shelter. In fact, she did telephone a county commissioner later that afternoon because: The council generally functions as a parliamentary or congressional style legislative body, proposing bills, holding votes, and passing laws to help govern the city.

Daz was soaking wet when he was brought out to meet my friend during their meet and greet at the animal control shelter. My friend was barely able to pet him, and spend time with him, as the staff were standing over and rushing the visit. She needed to take a photo of him, and send to dobie rescue to verify he was a dobie. While Daz was outside of his run, it would have made sense to clean the enclosure, but that was not the case. after he was placed back inside the spraying of water and chemicals began! I have several letters from people who have written letters/emails to the humane society about witnessing this very same thing - out in the open at our local ACS.

We had to place a second hold on Daz, and my friend claimed to be very ill, so it was approved by ACS. Dobie rescue were an awesome bunch, and trying hard to find a foster for Daz. Time often gets down to the wire with animal rescue work, so I acquiesced to the universe, and then several local people came forward to offer temporary fostering for Daz. Thank goodness! Everyone plays a vital role in a well-coordinated rescue effort, and the feeling of comradery is unbelievable. Plus, there was an awareness of the culture of the ACS we were dealing with, and dobie rescue was not amused about the shelter’s inflexibility. A letter was composed to the county commissioners from dobie rescue, and the woman on my committee telephoned and spoke with a commissioner also.

I was thrilled to death when we go the go ahead from dobie rescue to get Daz out of the shelter! He had been in there without sunshine or any outside fresh air- for six days! Dobie rescue had faxed over their vet info, as Daz needed to be neutered. I paid for him to be adopted out- 10$ adoption fee, and 14.95$, which should have been waived [most shelters work with rescue groups, realising the animal will be S/N, chipped, et c. and are about the animal not the $]. It’s not even like 10$ + 14.95$ is a lot of money, right? Daz was already chipped anyway. We took him outside and he nearly pulled me onto the ground! He is a large dog, and was running for freedom! We took him to several parks to let him explore and exercise. I did a mini-eval of his temperament considering the situations- he was an OS [owner surrender], had been locked up and sprayed with water/chems for nearly a week. Daz loved children and other dogs. After about a half an hour, he finally “looked” at me. Then he kissed us. I wanted to live with him, and offer a forever home to Daz, but I couldn’t.

On the road, Daz jumped into my lap three times! Finally, with his butt in the back seat, and his shoulders and head leaning against me, he fell asleep- and snored! We were in close-close contact with the woman and founder of dobie rescue from start to fiish. She actually heard him snoring on our drive to meet the foster. Daz jumped right into the car when he met the foster, and would be with him for a little over a week before getting neutered. His temperament was checked out during this time. Dobie rescue founder told me the day we took him out that she had a forever home lined up for Daz- if all was fine with his disposition.

All of us we pleased to hear about Daz going to his home and even laughed about him jumping the fence to meet his next door neighbour new dog-friend! [we knew that he was a fence jumper- and this info must be communicated to the rescue group. Whatever the ACS will share information-wise, is crucial info to pass along to any rescue group].

The next time I write, I’ll share steps being taken with the ACS- how to come up with a goal/plan to try and bring ACS up to date, researching ACS S.O.P.'s [our local ACS does not have a SOP!], and aiming for an environment healthier/happier for all of the shelter animals, working with county commissioners, director of animal control/chief animal control officers, rescue groups, when to involve HSUS, and even the media.

[owen4u1904]

Originally Posted by Novelafemme

{{{{Andrew}}}} I just love your post and can relate to so much of it!

As a child ~ animals were my sanctuary. I found safety and refuge in caring for them and in the peace they offered amongst the craziness of my life.

As an adult I have had to work diligently to not bring home every stray I come across. Living in a border town means that I see A LOT of homeless animals and it tears me up to not be able to help them as freely as I would like. But...I do what I can by volunteering at our local animal care centers and by offering my home as a foster site when I can.

There are animals that I have had in my home that, due to experience, I would not have back...but for the most part I can weigh the benefits against the draw backs and find that the unconditional love and laughter these animals have brought into my life have, by far, been well worth the time, money and energy spent.

I still live with my parents... ..lol...but, I have been banned from bringing home cats. Or any other kinda animals that I find. Of course it is kinda funny, cause now we have 3 cats that I never found. We have or Mama cat who came to us prego. We kept one from her first litter. She had like 4 more litters, then her 5th litter she had a grey kitten which she never had before. But it was kinda weird, cause we just had a grey cat who ran away or went to the woods and got beat up or something and was never seen again. So we kept the grey kitten. LOL, our family is real orginal though, we named her kit. So we have 7 cats with more kittens on the way and 3 dogs.

[Kimbo]

Originally Posted by rbentley1904

I still live with my parents... ..lol...but, I have been banned from bringing home cats. Or any other kinda animals that I find. Of course it is kinda funny, cause now we have 3 cats that I never found. We have or Mama cat who came to us prego. We kept one from her first litter. She had like 4 more litters, then her 5th litter she had a grey kitten which she never had before. But it was kinda weird, cause we just had a grey cat who ran away or went to the woods and got beat up or something and was never seen again. So we kept the grey kitten. LOL, our family is real orginal though, we named her kit. So we have 7 cats with more kittens on the way and 3 dogs.

I really wished you would take into consideration spaying your cat. I know you mean well but it is appalling to many of us that spend countless hours rescueing animals --- over 6 million animals a year are euthanized. Please spay your cat. Allowing her to breed like this is irresponsible IMHO.

In many cities it is against the law to allow an animal in heat to roam free.

If you need any help with resources please PM or post here...we are a wealth of resources.

[FeminineAllure]

http://www.petco.com/product/106533/...oft-Chews.aspx

This may work for your cat Kimbo.
~Hugs to him~

[owen4u1904]

Originally Posted by Kimbo

I really wished you would take into consideration spaying your cat. I know you mean well but it is appalling to many of us that spend countless hours rescueing animals --- over 6 million animals a year are euthanized. Please spay your cat. Allowing her to breed like this is irresponsible IMHO.

In many cities it is against the law to allow an animal in heat to roam free.

If you need any help with resources please PM or post here...we are a wealth of resources.

I totally get what you are saying. She is the only one we never got spayed. She came to our house pregnant and just kept having them. Eventually the dr had a talk with us too, and he had to really make us understand that it is okay to do an "abortion" type of thing. The first couple of times when was getting ready to spay her we would notice she was pregnant. We kept our a kitten out of the 4th set, and that is when she took off. She still eats our house but we cant catch her and we know she is pregnant again so me and the rest of my family agreed that she will probably come inside to have them so we need to watch for her and just keep her in the house this time. Thank you for letting me know but this story does let people know that cats need to spayed and you just have to learn to deal with that part that I mentioned above.

[Darth Denkay]

I know I'm late to the discussion but wanted to toss in my experience. No I haven't used Reconcile™ (fluoxetine hydrochloride) - you may not be aware of it but all it is is prozac - which can be useful in treating anxiety. I definitely think meds are warranted when the anxiety is bad, but behavioral modifications are equally important. Someone mentioned the not making a big deal out of leaving/coming back, which is very true. Same thing with storm anxiety - act like nothing is wrong which sends the message that nothing is wrong. If you try to comfort then it sends the message that something is wrong. I would consult with your vet for resources for behavioral interventions. One book I found helpful in terms of a general understanding was "Don't shoot the dog." I also used another resource that was specifically intended for canine anxiety - recommended by my vet - can't remember now what it was called.

As for the meds, prozac is safe and can be effective. But don't by Reconcile when you can get generic prozac for much cheaper. I don't know if you have Walgreens in your area but they have a generic meds plan. If you get the family plan - $35 a year - it covers generic prozac and includes pets. That's definitely the way to go. There are also other meds that can be used. My dog is on clomipramine - that and intense behavioral work have made a huge difference for her. Her anxiety has gone from major anxiety/freak out attacks to sitting and shaking, which generally doesn't last very long.

Establishing yourself as alpha is also really important, for many reasons, one of them being for anxious dogs. When they see you as alpha then there is a sense of safety for them and it can reduce anxiety. Something as simple as obediance school to help you be alpha (if you aren't already) could be a helpful step as well.

I'll check at home and see if I can find links to the references that have been really helpful for my Norah.

[NotAnAverageGuy]

Where should I post a thread about sugar gliders and exotic pets? under this section or the other part of the forum that has healthy pets thread?

[violaine]

hi notanaverageguy-

i think you could put your ideas in a new thread if you wanted, or here- for resources/support. i've never really been terribly picky about the animal conversations staying on topic of particular animal in threads i start on the boards. it's up to you

hope you are doing well. i totally miss a site called cavycompendium. apparently, there's a database error that has not been tended to for a very long time. the forums were great, not just for gpigs. there were plenty of forums for other exotic pets.

[NotAnAverageGuy]

Originally Posted by violaine

hi notanaverageguy-

i think you could put your ideas in a new thread if you wanted, or here- for resources/support. i've never really been terribly picky about the animal conversations staying on topic of particular animal in threads i start on the boards. it's up to you

hope you are doing well. i totally miss a site called cavycompendium. apparently, there's a database error that has not been tended to for a very long time. the forums were great, not just for gpigs. there were plenty of forums for other exotic pets.

I belong to one suggie site and it doesn't have the speed of convo how I like it, , I adore sites like this that always has something going and not many threads linger for a week or two.

[Kimbo]

Tonight there is a documentary on called Pedigree dogs exposed. The AKC has come out against the documentary which does not surprise me at all due to the fact that they seem to promote puppy mills. It's on BBC America or you can find it in full online--I don't have time to google it this morning. Warning it is sad...

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/pedigree-dogs-exposed/

[Andrew, Jr.]

I received a book last year called "For the Love of Stray Cats" by Father Joe Breighner. It is very easy reading. In the front of the book is a prayer for animals that was written by Dr. Albert Schweitzer, MD. This is how it goes:

"Hear our humble prayer, o God, for our friends, the animals. We pray especially for animals who are suffering; for any who are hunted or lost; for any who are deserted, or frightened, or hungry. We pray for all animals who must be put to death. We entreat for them all Thy mercy and pity. And, for those who deal with them, we ask a heart of compassion, gentle hands, and kindly words. Make us ourselves to be true friends to the animals, and so to share the blessings of the merciful."