When I decided it was time to head for home, Honey was beginning to show more interest in the shade around the bushes than the rabbit scent, and was happy to drink some water from our bottle. We were walking along at a comfortable but slow pace, when I felt her tug on the leash. I looked around to see if she had spotted a rabbit, and saw a dog behind us — too close for our comfort. Honey is reactive to strange dogs, and we hadn’t met this one before. Some folks walk their dogs off-leash out here, and I have to shoo them away or ask their people to call them back. Problem was – I didn’t see any person with this dog. He did startle when Honey barked and I yelled “Stop ! Go away!!”, and he ran off. I couldn’t spot him over the bushes, and I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t pop up again – which could be a problem for both Honey and me. I guided Honey in the direction of our car, looking from side to side and front to rear, while Honey was doing the same – but she did it with an eagerness to find the dog while I was hoping to avoid it. Honey is not a fighter, but she sounds very bold when she meets a larger dog. I’m hopeful that she’s only trying to scare it away, but I don’t want to find out, especially with a loose dog with no owner.

We were in sight of the fence opening out of the desert area when I saw the dog again. This time it was far enough away that didn’t have to worry much about a confrontation, so I started to worry about the dog. I pulled out my iPod to take its photo so I could check for missing dogs on Pets911.com. Then I saw him head for the gate opening and run right through like he was used to it. Hmmm, may not be a stray, but might have been out on a walk and got separated from his owner. When I got thru the opening with Honey, I saw it run to a parked car just ahead of my car. I got Honey into the car so that I didn’t have to worry about an unfriendly meeting, and walked slowly closer to the other car. The dog looked like a Chow mix, in good shape, wearing a collar, and seemed shy of mean but not reactive. I offered it water since it was drooling, but it was too shy to come that close. I started wondering — is it staying near this car because it belongs to the car’s owner, or because it offers cool shade? Was is running loose on its own because it got out of its yard, or was it walking with an owner? If it was with an owner, did the dog just run far ahead, or could the owner have been injured? Crap! Now, what do I do? I looked back towards the desert and still saw no one. The car had been parked there when I drove up, so I didn’t know if it was parked by someone who went out to the desert or someone who walked to the homes nearby. I can imagine a lot of scary scenarios if given a few vague clues, and I figured that I would have to stay until I figured a solution. After a while, a man walked by (came from the opposite direction of the desert) and I told him what I was worried about and wondered if I should call the police to run a check on the car’s license plate. He seemed less concerned than I about the possibility of anyone being hurt, but thought that the police would get the dog out of the way. Cripes !! Forgot about that — the police probably would have the dog taken to Animal Control if the owner didn’t show up soon, and I wouldn’t want that to happen. But … what if the owner is lying out there with a broken leg, needing help? How long am I going to wait?

I walked over to the fence opening and looked towards the desert again… Is that a person and a dog? I walked thru to the desert and started walking to see better — yes, there was someone and there was a dog, and there was someone else behind them. I was too far away to yell, so I trudged forward and started waving my arms. No response. When I got closer, I started yelling, but had to get even closer before I got any reaction. I called out “do you have another dog?” It was a woman with a couple of dogs, running loose with her, and she hesitantly asked “what color?” Sheesh!! What do you think I’m doing, lady?, I thought. “Do you have another dog? I’ve found one running loose.” This time she answered, “Yes”, and I said it was a gold color and lying by a parked car. We were pretty close by now, so I stayed back since I seemed to be making her nervous. The lady behind her started calling a dog’s name. I explained that I’d seen the dog running loose and worried that it’s owner might be hurt and waited to see if someone would come. She said that her dog had run ahead, and the other lady started calling a dog’s name again. Then we were close to the fence opening and the strange dog was standing there and they all started calling it. It ran back to the car instead, and I went to my car to wait with Honey until they got their dogs stowed inside. The first lady thanked me for being concerned, I got in my car, told Honey she was a good dog for waiting calmly and drove home. I love a happy ending!!

Ohhh, no, not that! I came to watch the beautiful horses that I loved and wished I could own but had long since convinced myself were unattainable, and live in a pet-restricted apartment complex that I am satisfied with, and now hear that this beautiful puppy is AVAILABLE. I moved away from the pen and started looking at other events, hoping to pry my thoughts away from the AVAILABLE puppy. I didn’t struggle very long, and I moved back towards the pen where I had seen the lady and the dog. They were gone. Okay, I didn’t come to get a dog. I have only lived by myself for a couple of years, and am not yet ready for a dog. Our family dog had died while I was in college, and now I’ve graduated, started my career, and will get a dog when I get a home. These thoughts all went through my mind, but then I saw the tire tracks. Bicycle tire tracks, with puppy prints occasionally showing up next to them. I followed those tracks ( I was a former Girl Scout, after all) until I found a stall with a bike leaning against it – and the lady and the dog. We talked, and they told me some things about her – grew up on their horse ranch, her age, her breed – Norwegian Elkhound, and maybe some other things that I don’t remember 35 years later. I leaned over and petted her and she kissed me and showed normal puppy appreciation for the attention. They told me the price, and I paid it. They gave me some papers to fill out to send in to the AKC to get her registration papers, and they gave me her leash. My new puppy, who soon became “Misty”, and I spent the rest of the day at the horse show. Frequently I would be approached by kids who wanted to pet her, and Misty wriggled and kissed and reveled in the attention. The next day I took Misty back to the horse show, and I spent less time watching the horses and more time watching people approach us so they could “pet the pretty puppy”.

Then the weekend was over, and I had to leave my new puppy in a new place where she was not legally supposed to be, and go back to work. I truly do not remember if she made messes while I was gone, whether she used the newspaper that I would have laid down for her (no puppy pads back then), or what I did at work that day or the next or the next. I know that I would have worried about her being lonesome, about being caught with an illegal pet, and I know that I started looking for a new apartment right away. I found that the only apartments that rented to pets were unfurnished (I lived in a furnished apartment and only owned a small tv), and that I would have to buy a sofa, some tables, a bed, a dresser if I was going to rent a different apartment. I think I lived in my pet-less apartment for 2 weeks before I was able and ready to make the move; two weeks of walking Misty after dark and very early in the morning, two weeks of dealing with her bathroom needs while I was a work, and two weeks of worry about breaking the rules. Two weeks of being with a dog who turned out to be every bit as wonderful as I had imagined when I followed those bicycle tracks to find her owner and make the deal to buy her.

When I sat down to write this post, I intended to react to an ASPCA email telling the story of puppies dying of heat-related complications while being flown to new owners from puppy mills in Oklahoma. Puppies who were bought, sight unseen, from internet websites disguised to look like private breeders. The ASPCA report warns us that “…As animal lovers become more aware that purchasing a dog from a pet store supports the inhumane practices of puppy mills, commercial breeders are using online sources to get their dogs directly into homes across the country…” and …”“The bottom line is the only way to be sure your new puppy isn’t a product of cruel and inhumane conditions is to see for yourself where he lives—visit the breeder’s facilities and meet the puppy’s parents,” Menkin states. “Or better yet, adopt from your local shelter.” Cori Menkin, ASPCA Senior Director of Legislative Initiatives states “A sure way to spot a scam is that they often offer to ship the dogs to the buyer without ever meeting in person. No reputable breeder would ever ship a puppy to a buyer sight unseen.”

I was angry when I heard about the puppies dying – mad at the heat, at the airlines, at the breeders, at the buyers. I have never caused a dog to be transported via airline, especially during the summer, and plan never to be guilty of that during the rest of my life. I have only adopted homeless dogs since the early 90′s, and currently have a dog, Honey, who had been in a kill shelter twice before I adopted her. I believe that everyone should adopt dogs and cats from shelters and rescues until there are none left locked up in any of them, and yet, I too once or twice (actually 3 times) bought a dog instead of adopting one. Misty’s owners met me, but they didn’t know anything about the type of home I could offer her (heck, I had to sneak her into the apartment that first night to keep us both from being kicked out and becoming “temporarily homeless”! I didn’t know anything about the people, Misty’s parents, her environment, her socialization, her health history. I knew she was adorable to look at and showed no obvious signs of illness or neglect (eyes, coat, nose, ears, nails, skin). I knew she acted friendly to me and to other people who walked by, and I’d always known mostly friendly dogs, and she was adorable. Misty WAS adorable, and sweet-natured with kids (one little girl at our new apartment complex loved to pull her tail straight out from its rolled up position and watch it snap back into the roll – she laughed each time she did it, and Misty enjoyed the attention. Some dogs might have objected to this, and I had no way of knowing when I got her that she would be that safe around kids.), sweet-natured with other dogs and little furry things (while walking her one night, I felt a tug – Misty had stopped and was nosing a pet bunny that a man let run around his front yard (with little supervision). Misty was THRILLED to touch the bunny and was very gentle, only wagging her tail. My current dog, Honey, has shown herself to be reactive to all but small dogs and will chase a rabbit in the desert. The county shelter from whom I adopted Honey had no information on her behavior, her parents, her health history, her socialization or lack of it.

I’m still angry and unhappy about the puppies dying on the airplane, and believe it could have, and should have been avoided. I’m angry that “commercial breeders” – puppy mills pretend to be reputable breeders online and that people aren’t more careful about how they choose a new dog for their family, but as I look back over my life and my experiences with dogs, I can hope that more people learn to adopt from shelters, and that more of us figure out ways to help our new dogs learn to deal with their old problems, if they have any. Lots of dogs will be just like Misty – happy, loving, healthy and a joy to be around. Some will be like Honey, friendly with some – aloof or reactive with others, but still a joy to be around – although that joy is mixed with a lot of re-training, hard work, and apprehension while learning about her reactions to each new activity in her life.

Puppy mills? Never!!! Pet stores? Never!!! (They always sell dogs from puppy mills – reputable breeders will not sell their dog to a pet store.) Pet rescues and shelters? YES!!! But, do as much as you can to learn about the dog before you choose it, and expect to spend time with trainers to deal with any problem issues. Apartments with No Pets Allowed? Phooey!! Misty motivated me to save for my first home, and we moved into it just 15 months after I sneaked her home into my apartment. Then, I had to buy her a puppy to keep her company when I went to work, and since it was my house, I didn’t have to ask anybody’s permission!

Donations are needed, of course, at each facility.

The Cat House on the Kings is California’s largest no-cage, no-kill, lifetime cat sanctuary and adoption center. Our mission is to place rescued cats and kittens into loving, permanent homes; to provide a safe, happy and healthy home for unwanted cats and kittens in a unique, no-cage facility; to prevent pet overpopulation through spaying and neutering; and to educate the public about responsible pet ownership.

Since its founding 18 years ago, The Cat House on the Kings has saved over 18,000 cats and 5,000 dogs (not counting the 40,000 animals we have spayed and neutered!) and currently cares for more than 700 cats and kittens! — from the website: The Cat House on the Kings

The Caboodle Ranch

Caboodle Ranch was unintentionally founded in 2003, when a series of unfortunate events finally lead to its creation. The founder, Craig Grant, lived with his son and his son’s cat. When his son moved out without taking the cat, Craig found that the cat was pregnant, and that his condo and neighbors didn’t want cats around. Craig changed from being a man who didn’t like cats to a man who bought property so the cats could live safely. He started taking in cats from rescues and shelters, and the numbers grew from 6 to 11 to hundreds.

Caboodle Ranch is a 30 acre non-profit cat rescue society; founded by a single individual who cared enough to make a difference in the lives of cats. Caboodle Ranch has the seal of approval from the Tallahassee Humane Society and Tallahasee/Madison County Animal Control.

Each day Craig has a lot of work to accomplish, which includes filling feeders, changing water throughout the ranch, giving medications, changing litter boxes, and sanitizing shelters. He needs to be able to do these things uninterrupted. The ranch is also Craig’s home, so please respect his privacy and hours of operation. Visiting Hours For Caboodle Ranch Start at 2pm.

A visit to the Caboodle Ranch

Best Friends Animal Society

(From their website) — Best Friends Animal Society is guided by a simple philosophy: kindness to animals builds a better world for all of us. In the late 1980s, when Best Friends was in its early days, roughly 17 million dogs and cats were being killed in shelters every year. Despite the commitment of shelter workers to the animal in their care, the conventional belief was that little could be done to lower that terrible number.

Best Friends’ No More Homeless Pets campaign created a new vision: A grassroots effort to place dogs and cats who were considered “unadoptable” into good homes, and to reduce the number of unwanted pets through effective spay and neuter programs.  Since then, the number of dogs and cats being destroyed in shelters has fallen to
approximately 5 million a year.  There has been much progress,but there is still much more to do.

The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary at Angel Canyon, at the heart of the Golden Circle of national parks in southern Utah, is home on any given day to about 2,000 dogs, cats, and other animals, who come from shelters and rescue groups around the country for special care they can only receive at Best Friends.

Most of the animals who find their way to Best Friends have special physical or behavioral needs, and our expert staff of veterinarians, trainers and caregivers offer them all the help they require.  Most of them are ready to go to good new homes after just a few weeks of special care.  A few, who are too old or too sick, or who have suffered extra trauma, find a home and haven at the sanctuary, and are given loving care for the rest of their lives.

Early this year, two talented dog-loving friends created a website that is “the happiest ‘Spot’ on the web” – Draw the dog (drawthedog.com). They “capture the joy, chaos, love and goofiness of living with dogs…” Draw the Dog shows a daily cartoon, but they came up with a unique way of showing them — the cartoons “draw themselves” as you sit and watch! Jim George, an ex-Disney animator, draws the cartoons, and friend Bruce Kasanoff does “everything else”. They get ideas from readers and create moving images that recreate daily experiences with our dogs. They also want to help all the homeless dogs that are in rescues, shelters and pounds waiting for a chance to have a new home, so they created the videos below. If you have room for a pair of loving eyes and a wagging tail – please consider adopting from your local rescue. If you don’t know where your local shelter/rescues are located, just go to Petfinders.com and put in your zipcode to get a list of nearby dogs/cats/rabbits/ etc. that need homes.

Also be sure to visit Drawthedog.com and sign up for a daily email full of wet noses, wagging tails, and lots of fun!

I’ve been waiting a lot lately. Sometimes we have to wait — a few minutes for a friend to arrive for lunch, hours for the cable guy/plumber/tow-truck to show up, days or weeks for a bank to approve a loan. Many times we have to wait on the phone, on hold, for what seems like forever …

After I posted the above, I ran across two related articles in the New York Times by Stanley Fish. In his “Opinionator” column, “Can I Put you on Hold? ” and its follow-up column with comments from enraged readers, Fish discusses his notion that “There is a class of utterances that, when encountered, produces irritation, distress and, in some cases, the desire to kill…” Great stuff – from Fish and from his readers!

As their YouTube description for this video, the authors wrote: “Two professional engineers illustrate the proper care and practical benefits of cats…”

Video courtesy Youtube and the LOL Cats

Law enforcement agencies and courts worldwide are recognizing that people who commit acts of serious animal abuse frequently have previous histories of, or future tendencies toward, violent crimes against humans.

(Received an email last night that one of our group’s cat colony caretaker’s had witnessed a drive-by shooting aimed at the cats she feeds – one cat was wounded, and I imagine that the caretaker was not worried only about what might happen next to the cats, but to herself. )
Children’s acts of animal abuse are some of the strongest and earliest diagnostic indicators of conduct disorder, often beginning as young as age six and a half (Ascione, 2001).

( I’ve always thought that we have a natural instinct to love furry animals – no one ever had to teach me to want to pet a kitten or a puppy. When something interferes with that natural instinct – like a parent teaching, on purpose or by action, that animals are to tortured instead of loved, there are consequences. Nasty consequences for all of us.)

The FBI identifies animal cruelty as one of several juvenile behaviors associated with increasingly violent behavior. The FBI uses reports of animal cruelty in analyzing the threat potential of suspected and known criminals (Lockwood & Church, 1996).

(If you ever read comments in online news forums, there’s always someone who says “it’s JUST an animal”, or “people shouldn’t get upset about animal abuse because there are so many children who are being abused” – as though humane people cannot fight against BOTH child abuse and animal abuse. When people rise up to show their disapproval and disgust for animal abusers, they ARE working to fight against child abuse, elder abuse, abuse and violence of all people – because a person who is vicious towards animals will be, or already is, vicious towards people. They need to be stopped.  They need to be shown that their behavior is totally unacceptable. They need intervention and therapy, but first they need to be identified and stopped.)

In a Massachusetts study, 70% of animal abusers had criminal records including crimes involving violence, property, drugs, or disorderly behavior (Arluke & Luke, 1997).
Half of school shooters have histories of animal cruelty (Verlinden, Herson, & Thomas, 2000).
Of search warrants executed for animal abuse or dog-fighting investigations, 35% resulted in seizure of either narcotics or guns.
Of 22 offenders arrested for animal abuse violations, 18 had prior arrests for battery, weapons, or drug charges and 5 had
subsequent arrests for felony offenses (Chicago Crime Commission, 2004).
Thirty-one percent of inner-city teens in Chicago have attended a dogfight (Cleveland, 2006).  (We’re all thinking it — the NEXT Michael Vick? )
Adults who keep vicious dogs are more likely to have been arrested for violent crimes and drug- and property-related offenses
(Barnes, Boat, Putnam, Dates, & Mahlman, 2006).
A Canadian police review of crime records found that 70% of people charged with cruelty to animals also had other reported
incidents of violent behavior, including homicide (Boat & Knight, 2000).

There’s more, much more — More info about The Link

- Phoenix Arizona| ABC15 News

Excerpt:

“…Though he is aiming to tackle the pitbull problem specifically, the Sheriff said over 200 animals (dogs, cats, horses and pigs) are living behind bars today.

Since Sheriff Arpaio opened the MASH unit (Maricopa County Animal Safe House) 10 years ago, over 1,500 animals have been incarcerated, usually for years at a time.

Arpaio says most of the animals live a good life in his jails — eating well, getting exercise and proper grooming — all thanks to work done by inmates.

Many of those inmates have benefited from the animals by getting work in the pet care industry upon their release from jail.

Since Arpaio’s jail is a no-kill animal shelter, pets like Queenie can be there an awfully long time.

“Years ago, I had a pink neon VACANCY sign erected above Tent City to tell the world that here in this county, there would always be room in jail for the bad guys,” Arpaio said. “The same thing is true for the dogs and cats we take in from abuse and neglect cases. We’ll always have room for them too. But to accomplish that goal, we need to get some of these animals adopted.”

Since opening day, the Sheriff’s MASH unit has operated almost completely on donations and not on tax payer monies.

With fewer people or families here adopting from the MASH unit, Arpaio is looking for creative ways to reduce the population of his adoptable animals.

The Sheriff uses resources such as long-haul truckers, his statewide inmate transportation vans and airplanes to drop the animals off at their new homes outside the Phoenix-Metro area.

Arpaio said of his MASH unit, “I run a no-kill animal shelter and I intend to keep it that way.”

According to Arpaio, it costs about $100 to adopt one of the dogs. Anyone interested is encouraged to call 602-876-1212.”

I don’t always agree with Sheriff Joe, but the one thing I’ve always loved about him is his program to provide shelter and good care for abandoned/mistreated animals. The inmates who learn to care for them are helped as are the dogs. Let’s get some of those jail-dogs out of their “pink underwear” and into good homes on the other side of the razor wire!