Why People Suck…

So, we had a huge thunder and lightening storm last night. Mackenzie, one of our dogs, is deathly afraid of loud noises, espeically thunder and fireworks. She once had a seizure she was so afraid. After that happened we got her some acevet which is a tranquilizer. It works fairly well as long as you get it into her quickly enough. Well last night the storm started at around 3 am and she was already too upset. Deb gave her 2 acevet anyway and put a tight t-shirt on her. Tight t-shirts help afraid dogs feel more secure. You might wonder why she is like this and this is where the title comes in. Kenzie was left outside, on a rope, with a prong digging into her neck for the first 4 months of her life. She was outside for the storms, the fireworks and whatever else went on. She was kicked to make her aggressive. While she has come a long way we do think there is something wrong with her brain. She is very aggressive towards new dogs. We used to think it was something that happened when she snapped except now she is starting to go out of her way to nail dogs. She has to be kept separate from other dogs for everyone’s safety.

The other reason people suck is that they starve dogs. Kenzie was definitely starved. Tucker has also been starved - he is quite skinny and is always looking for food. Clio was also starved as was Mabel. A starved dog never forgets what it was like to be hungry. They are always looking for food. It is a fine balance to make sure they get what they need to eat without making themselves sick. Meals are scheduled here and there are lots and lots of treats the rest of the time.

One thing we guarantee every dog who comes here - they will never again know hunger, abuse or lonliness. They will have a soft bed to sleep on and they will be well looked after. We ask for nor needing anything from them.

We are ecstatic!

We just checked Mabel’s leg and it is looking so much better! It is not a goopy mess anymore. The fur seems to be growing in around it and it is not bleeding any more. The lump is still there and she is still 17 years old but we will take any progress we can get. Oh and she ate 3 times between 11 am and 7 pm! Way to go Miss Mabel.

The interesting thing about having senior dogs around is that every day is a gift. You don’t take them for granted because you don’t know how long they are going to be with you. Dogs like Mabel, who have not known much kindness in their lives, seem to know and appreciate a soft touch. Deb was combing her today and her eyes were closing she was enjoying it so much. Mabel is not a dog who asks for much besides going outside and eating. When she asks for these things there is no doubt about what she wants and she makes it clear she isn’t going to wait. I am so happy that she feeling better after the scare we had at the beginning of the month that it is joyful when she barks and I seeing what she needs is a pleasure. In these moments she is so full of life and herself.

If you have room in your home and your heart think about adopting a senior dog. Yes, there can be issues (like incontinence) or giving meds or going to the vets and yes they may not live all that long but it is so worth it! I can tell you that they will live much longer in your home than they will in an animal shelter. The rewards are too many to list. Just know that you will be helping an animal finish out its days in comfort and peace and you will reap the rewards. check out SAINTS or your local shelter for a senior animal who needs you today.

Mabel update

As some of you know Mabel has a cancerous tumor on her leg. It is open and icky. This follows the cancerous mass we had removed when she had a dental last fall. We had been trying to come up with things to do to help Mabel feel a bit better. (some ideas were a bit better than others and we got a lesson in ‘palliative care’ from Carol at SAINTS - where we adopted Mabel from). We took Mabel to vet on Thursday to get more tramadol and metacam to help with the pain and inflammation. We also got antibiotics as her leg is infected again. We will no longer be covering her leg or keeping a cone on her head to stop her from licking it. Hopefully, she will be able to keep it clean.

By yesterday she had finally recovered from being at the vet (it was just a short visit and a ride in the car) and was her usual barking self. I took a roast out of the oven and she was barking at me for some. I told her she had to wait so she went over and barked at the roast. Too funny. Her spirit and her will to live (and eat - the dog eats 3-4 times per day) is inspiring. She has gained a pound since the last time she was at the vets. We don’t know how long she has - we hope for a long time.

Adopting senior dogs was one of the best things we ever did. It has been incredibly rewarding. We have learned so much from Mabel and Mollie.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to our SAINTS

Happy New Year everyone. Our SAINTS, Mabel and Mollie are now one year older - 16 and 18 respectively. Both are continuing to do very well. Mabel sleeps a lot but she wakes up whenever someone goes into the laundry room because they could be delivering a treat. She gets lots of treats delivered to her and she loves it. For some reason she prefers to lay in the laundry room. A couple of times a day she will troop out and lay on another bed. I think she likes the laundry room as it is quiet and out from underfoot of all the other dogs. And never doubt that an old dog can learn new tricks. Mabel has figured out that everytime she goes outside and comes back in she gets a treat. So sometimes she asks to go out, goes out on the deck and comes back in and looks up at you with her deep brown eyes and mouth wide open. Mabel tries so hard to be continent. She lets us know when she needs to go out by trotting around the kitchen quickly. We have to be fast because she doesn’t have much staying power but what more can you expect at 16!

Mollie is still a going concern. She is like the energizer bunny spinning around our house. Because of her strokes Mollie tends to go in circles and she kind of does everything to the right. She has enhanced her pilates moves with some yoga now. She regularly does downward dog and a new move I have called the frog as she sticks her back legs flat against the bed and twirls around on her front legs. If she thinks no one is paying attention to her she starts to do speed pilates which is absolutely hilarious. We are hoping to get it on video one of these days. Mollie has also learned that the best treats are given out in the living room at dinner time. This has meant that she has had to conquer her fear of our new laminate. She enjoyed salmon last night.

Welcoming Mabel and Mollie into our home has been a gift. Everyday they add something to our lives. If you have ever thought about giving a senior a home I encourage you to do it. They are different from younger dogs. They give so much in exchange for so little.

PS - it is also Kirby’s birthday today. Happy birthday brown puppy, we love you.

Voted off the Island…

Well I guess it happens to everyone at some point…I have been voted off the island. As many of you know I am involved in animal rescue. Now, this is a very cliquey community of people who are all trying their best (for the most part) to make a dent in the sheer numbers of homeless animals. We are a very passionate group of people. Sometimes we argue. Well, more than sometimes, we argue all the freaking time. We mostly do it on message boards. All of the boards have different rules. Some have moderators and you have to adhere to certain Terms of Use, others are more loosely structured. Many times these boards get bogged down in flame wars and arguments that go on and on.

Now, to the getting to the being voted off the Island part. I was on a board (and I won’t say which board) that has private areas for volunteers of rescues to discuss confidential matters. I have been a member of these rooms since the board’s inception. Well, it seems that I pissed some people off because I posted something (mostly on another board, but once on this board) showing the idiocy of a certain poster’s position. Well, this person has a bunch of people who protect him (not sure why…). So, it turns out that membership in these private areas can be revoked if another person asks that your membership be ‘reviewed.” This can even happen if the offending post is not even in this area. This is what happened to me. I go to check into the private area and suddenly I am not allowed in. Someone (and I will never know who) asked that my membership be reviewed in these areas. The process, apparently, is to immediately revoke your access and then post a poll seeing if you are worthy of continued membership. Well, it turns out that by a vote of 88% I was to be banned from the private areas. In essence, I was voted off the Island.

The ironic thing about this is that the many people on this board accuse another board of being arbitrary in their rules and enforcement. They seem to be so busy criticizing the other board that they can’t see how their policies are also not fair. Perhaps there is no ‘fair’ way to do run a message board. It does seem to me that having private areas in general is not a good method. What is really funny is the areas I was talking about were only the first level of private areas. They also have another private area (created when someone questioned why the individual I criticized was granted access to the original private area) that is only for ‘rescue owners’ and ’senior rescue people’ like members of boards of directors. In order to become a member of that area you need 2 references from within the group. Yet again, another popularity contest in the high school world of animal rescue.

Joyful Moments

I went to Dairy Queen to indulge my weekend caramel sundae addiction and picked up an extra cone for the dogs. As many of you know we have several rescued dogs. For some of our dogs, especially the seniors, joy and pleasure have not been in great abundance. Some have come from abusive backgrounds and others sufferred neglect. One of our dogs, Clio, was a backyard breeding disaster. She is blind and brain damaged and I am not really sure she knows she is a dog most days of the week. Clio’s world is quite small. It is us and the house. She is not all that fond of the other dogs but she will cuddle up with Kiefer and Kirby. Madison has been seen cleaning her from time to time.

I came home with the ice cream cone and sat down in the dining room and proceeded to let them all have a lick, one at a time. The big dogs licked the cone fairly well. Then I gave it to Clio. Well she started biting at the ice cream and the look on her face was one of pure joy and ecstasy. When the ice cream went down she started biting at the cone. Her enjoyment was palpable. I think we will have to do this more often.

Here is a picture of her from last fall:

Today, we made it official…

Today we made the decision to officially adopt Mabel and Molly from SAINTS . Mabel came to us as a foster dog at the end of February. She had some issues the main one being that she was peeing blood. We did some exploratory testing at the vets and stopped as the only way to determine what was wrong would be surgery and you don’t do surgery on 15 year old ShihTzus. Turns out it was likely only a bladder infection which has been cured by a long course of antibiotics and the switch to a raw diet which lowers the pH of the urine making it less likely to have recurring infections.

Here is Miss Mabel Mae or Maybe Baby as she is affectionately known here:

Mabel has taken over our house and our hearts. She loves her raw food and her cooked chicken even more! Welcome home Mabel Mae.

Molly is a 17 year old pomeranian with no teeth. She came to us a week before my mother was coming to visit in April of 2007. In hindsight, not really a good plan as she is incontinent. She has a had a few strokes and she kind of leans to the right in everything she does. She tends to go around in circles. But her main claim to fame is that she is the original pilates dog. This dog stretches her legs out many times a day. She does it when she is happy and excited and sometimes we can get her to do it on command. What is really funny is when she does it because she wants attention.

Molly has also embraced raw food. She does not let lack of teeth slow her down either. She will tackle pieces of meat larger than her head. I have seen her strip a chicken leg in under 15 minutes. Molly loves people so much at times it seems like she can’t get herself close enough to you for a snuggle. Welcome home Molly!

We are honoured to have Mabel and Molly join our family. So many people throw away their senior animals for one reason or another. Sometimes it is incontinence, a new baby, moving to a pet-free building. We need to remember that it is a privilege to have the love and companionship of an animal and when we take on that responsibility it is for life. Mabel and Molly, for whatever reason, lost their homes. We will make sure that never happens to them again.

Adopt a senior animal.

My new blog!

Well, I have been thinking about starting a blog for some time - so here goes!

So a little about me. I am a married lesbian. My partner Deb and me live in the GVRD (soon to be Metro Vancouver!!) with our 8 dogs. Most of our dogs are rescues and you will read lots about our dogs no doubt. I am an unabashed facebook addict and I love technology.

I work as a Volunteer Coordinator for The Centre (www.lgtbcentrevancouver.com) in Vancouver. This is a new position for me after working for 7 years for the BC Government.