Love Me Because..

Today was a good day in animal rescue ~ it was one of those heart-warming, tear jerking days, the ones that get us through the sad times and the hard times.

This was one of those days that you volunteer in animal rescue for.

The Love Me Because event is an adoption event to help those animals with special needs find their homes. We implore people not to love them despite their problems, but rather because of their problems. We want them to be loved because they are overweight, have medical issues, are older, are not cuddly, have behavior issues because no one taught them better ~ and sometimes, simply because they are overlooked, for no apparent reason.

Today so many of these animals were adopted out, including many long time residents from the shelter I volunteer for.

Tibby is an adorable calico ~ she is very sweet, despite her constant frowny grumpy face. She has been in our shelter for at least 10 months. Today she found her permanent home, one with kids to love her. They looked beyond her grumpy face to the sweet cat within.

Willa Nelson is a gorgeous orange tabby~ she came into the shelter so full of worms they had infiltrated her bloodstream. We treated the worms, yet the neglect she had suffered prior to us had taken its toll, causing poor Willa to slightly drag her back legs. Today, she found a family that loved her, walking impairments and all.

Some of our long timers were not so lucky ~ poor Quicksilver is still looking for his home. I can't believe this handsome devil is still without a permanent, loving family to call his own. He is a fighter and a survivor, having come to our shelter on death's door, starving and flea ridden. He is a well fed, healthy boy now, and continues to wait for the right family. He is a cool guy who even has his own Facebook page, Quickster McChubbs!

Even though Quicksilver still waits, so many others found their homes - a pair of senior sister tortoiseshells were adopted by two senior sisters, a shy black cat named Ranger was adopted to a quiet home where he will flourish, a beagle recovering from ear surgery went to a great home as well. For all of us volunteers, today was a great day, to see those we worried about and loved find their happily ever afters.

You can view more pictures of the event at the Wyandotte Patch.

The wee little christmas tree

This year Billy and I had a Christmas Tree conundrum. For the past ten Christmases, we have had a mild mannered, well behaved American Eskimo named Chevis. Sadly, he passed away in April at 15 years of age. To fill our hearts and home in his absence, Billy and I now have one dog, two cats, and a foster cat. These animals are not like Chevis; he would leave things alone, while this trio is curious and strangely hungry.

When we adopted Penny from the pound, she was a scrawny, underweight little English Setter. She also had stomach issues, which took us a while to diagnose. Regular dog food, treats,

everything but her prescription I/D upsets her stomach. When she doesn't feel well, she desperately tries to gnosh on whatever she can find laying around the house. We didn't figure this out right away however, and a week after owning her, we came home to a pile of dog vomit on our bed - complete with fake Christmas tree garland with 1/4 round wire in it. We rushed her to the vet to find she still had a bellyful of wire and tree garland. She had to have an emergency surgery, which she recovered from very well. Can you see where this story is going?

In addition to Penny and her dangerous food choices, we also have two cats under the age of one. Making them kittens still in behavior and temperament. Making them curious, and playful, and slightly experimental.

So Billy and I reviewed our options- a fake tree, which Penny could eat if she felt like it, with ornaments that the cats could knock off and hurt themselves on the ornament hooks, or a real tree, minus ornaments. It looked like the real tree was going to be the winner this year, until I read that most evergreens are toxic to animals. With my crew, I didn't want to take the chance of them ingesting possibly

toxic tree. So Billy and I chose this- a completely all metal, indestructible, table top christmas tree. And it seems to be working out well so far! The animals don't really care about it, it is just another thing to sniff and walk around to them.

We have hopes that next year will be the return of a Christmas tree, but this year, we are happy to have each other, and Penny, Maggie, Miso, and our foster cat, Mouse. Because like they say in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and I am paraphrasing here, Christmas is not about the ribbons, and bows, and trees, and packages and presents- Christmas doesn't come from a store, but lives in your heart.

A Day of Divine Intervention and Bedlam

Yesterday was one of those days, where your heart sinks, the day that you dread as a volunteer for a shelter. Early in the morning, my phone rang, with my friend on the other end calling to tell me that the day had that we had all been anticipating with great sadness and anxiety, knowing it was out there on the horizon. We had finally been at more than capacity for too long, and three dogs were going to be put down. We only have 6 dog runs at our shelter, and we have been at 12-13 dogs for a long time now. We just double up on the runs, and put one dog in the makeshift run behind the shelter. And we had been doing this for a month and half now, scrambling like mad to get our dogs adopted before this day came.

Fourth of July weekend is a bad weekend for dogs. We get so many lost and stray dogs due to people having backyard parties and leaving gates and doors open, or the actual neighborhood fireworks scares dogs so badly they leap their fences to try to get away from the noises. Dog that were never fence jumpers or runners find themselves now on the run, lost, and disoriented by all the explosions going on around them, like all of a sudden being thrust into a war zone. This is a very traumatic day for a lot of animals, and even the local shelters who don't often have dogs fill up this weekend every year. Which brings us to our overcrowded pound, on a holiday weekend known for large numbers of intakes.

One dog scheduled for the short list has always been a volunteer favorite. He is a dalmation/great dane mix, whose owners gave him up to us three months ago because he got too big for them. Why they didn't think about this in the first place before they adopted him, I don't know. This is something that happens alot, as well as people giving up their animals because they are moving, or because after five years they develop allergies and don't want to take medication. But, I digress. The other two dogs have just as tragic back stories, including a 7 month old boxer-pitt mix who had lived her entire life in a crate in a basement, before being given up to us because the people were tired of her. She has absolutely no training, and is basically like a giant, friendly, wild dog. Her owners have ruined her, and it will take a great deal of love, patience and rehab to make her a pet, and unfortunately, those homes are hard to find.

So, I was not looking forward to stopping by the pound yesterday afternoon. I had to stop in to drop off a key to my friend, and I was fully expecting sadness and grim expressions. Instead, I walked into a pound with an uplifted, joyous mood, the kind of feeling that you get when you escape something big and frightening by the seat of your pants. It was borderline euphoric, and everyone had giant smiles beaming from their faces. Three dogs had been adopted, including one of our death row dogs, the dalmation/great dane mix! This freed up cage space and left breathing room for our other dogs, at least for a little while. So, while the day had begun as the kind of day that you hate when you are a volunteer at a shelter, it ended as the type of day you love, the kind where the most needy dog finds a loving home.

My own home right now is chaos! We currently have Penny, our dog; Maggie, our cat; and Sassy, my brother and sister-in-law's dog. They all get along quite well, that is not the problem. The problems arise at feeding time, and at bedtime, believe it or not. Penny and Sassy both have special dietary needs, prissy little girls that they are, and have specific food to address these needs. Maggie is eating kitten chow, which is not that great for adult dogs, who usually get sick if they eat it due to the higher levels of fat and protein that is in food for young animals. And of course, they all want to eat each others food, and not their own. I have to chase Penny away from Maggie's bowl, and Sassy away from Penny's bowl, and Maggie away from Sassy's bowl! It is like a circus meets feeding time at the zoo around here at mealtimes. Added to this, Sassy does not want to eat really at all, because she is still getting used to our house, and is feeling a little bewildered. This morning I had to put Maggie and her food bowl on the ironing board, and close the door to that room; next I put Penny in the hallway with her bowl, and gated that off; and finally Sassy ate in the kitchen, after I added a tiny bit of Penny's bland wet food to her bowl to temp her into eating. But once they were all chomping away in unison throughout the house, I had to smile at the situation, and the fact that I absolutely love having a houseful of happy, loved animals.

Sleeping is another story- the past two nights Billy and I have gone to bed and woken up with two dogs and a cat in bed with us. Good thing we have a large bed, is all I have to say. Of course, Maggie has to sleep right on top of me, knowing somehow in her little cat way that I am allergic to her. She is too cute to push away though, so I just suffer slightly for her.

All in all, yesterday was a good day - dogs were adopted, my animals are doing well, and for one dog, who had been downtrodden and was at the end of his rope, he finally found freedom on Independence Day.

Kitten Season..

Spring and summer are always busy for those involved with animal rescue, and this summer has not been any diffferent. First it is kitten season, everywhere you turn there is someone there with a litter of kittens they found in a yard, a garage, or under their deck. This year is even more difficult, with the economy in Michigan being what it is. People are losing their jobs, their homes, and giving up their pets to rescues and shelters, and in some cases, just letting them loose or leaving them behind. So we volunteers are busy giving shots and medicating sick animals, taking pictures for petfinder, taking animals to events, hoping that an animal will not just find a home, but a good home that will love them, and take care of them. We also clean cages, socialize feral cats, and walk dogs. But all this work is worth it for that feeling you get when you leave the pound and all the animals are fed, their kennels are clean, and they are snuggled in content and happy, or when you leave an event knowing that a cat or a dog has found their perfect match.

Sometimes you lose your heart, and alot of times your heart breaks. Sometimes you take them home. I found my dog in the pound, an underweight English Setter, who was starved for love as well as food, a stinky faced girl who would look out at me from the bars every day with her big brown eyes, and get mad at me when I would put her back in the kennel after her walk. One day as I sat in the field across from the pound where I was walking her, she crawled into my lap, all 30 pounds and long legs of her, and I knew she was mine, and I had to keep her. Luckily for me, my husband is an animal lover, and fellow animal rescuer, and fell in love with her as well.

Penny has been a challenge, but one we are happy to undertake. We got her out of the pound a week after our much loved 15 year old American Eskimo Chevis passed away from lung cancer, and named her Penny. I believe that Chevis sent her to us to care for and love, she is our "Penny from heaven," as corny as that is. In the 5 weeks we have had her, she has escaped from our yard, gotten terrible diarrhea as we learned that she has a sensitive stomach, and then eaten christmas garland and had to have emergency surgery to remove the wires. This makes us sound like terrible owners, but really, truly we are not. She is a silly, sweet girl, who just has a nose for mischief. We are quickly learning her personality, as she begins to trust us. (she is also gaining her healthy weight)

The day Penny ran out of our yard, we had had her about a week. My mom and stepdad came over and opened the gate to our backyard, where Billy and I and Penny were gardening. Well, Billy and I were gardening, and Penny was patrolling for rabbits and squirrels. As soon as they opened the gate and came in, Penny ran up to them to say hi, and then noticed, hey she could get out of the yard and really investigate! She took off at the fastest run I have ever seen, and Billy and I lost sight of her within 40 seconds. I was panicking, scared to death the worst was going to happen to her, and I ran off behind her, Billy and my stepdad not far behind me. My mom was the smart one of the group, and ran for her car. She saved the day, and the dog, by spotting Penny in a parking lot. Not thinking about anything other than, I have to get her! my mother jumped from her moving car. Good thing mom was only going like 3 mph. As soon as mom called to Penny, Penny jumped in the car like nothing ever happened.

We are now taking Penny to dog training, where we hope she will learn some better habits. We also need to learn how to communicate with her too, so we have high hopes for this class. So far so good!