Taking off the gloves

This is one of my very favourite times of the year.  From now until Thanksgiving, Mother Natures palette brushes our tree lined country roads with some new bit of beauty every day.
To be perfectly honest ...what's not to love?   The bugs are generally finished in the woods.  The leaves are still on the trees and aren't yet a slippery carpet to make climbing up and down the ridge such risky business.  Best of all, the more moderate temperatures put the spring back in everyone's step for our hikes.
This is also the time of year when people start noticing stray cats more.  The ones that didn't become coyote or hawk or fox or eagle chow... the ones that were adept enough at hunting not to starve ... the little teenage mother cats who survived being tossed aside to birth their babies in the wild ..... all the little survivors who were tossed aside like rubbish will be trying to charm their way into the warmth and safety of domestic bliss.
Everyone agrees that its not humane to let them starve.  Yet municipal tax mail outs are short on solutions and long on advice about encouraging strays to move on.
Yes I know that the Kings Branch, like the Valley Animal Shelter ( and everyone else )  is full.   Does finding a better outcome for strays always have to involve having shelter space?  Of course not!   Many people will take in strays ... where the problem arises is the areas that are popular dumping grounds.  Eventually even the kindest of hearts "fill up" so it is poor planning on anyone's part to assume that strays will always find safe harbour when they show up.
Many people people are actually like Miss Ruby and Henry.   My beautiful big dogs live in harmony with my six beautiful cats .. in fact they often do double duty as cat warmers at night :)
But these same dogs that snuggle with cats inside view any cat outside of the door as a completely different species.  The best example I can think of that is Dora and Oscar.  When they were still outside, the big dogs went on more than one merry gallop around the house after them.   The instant I brought Dora and Oscar into the house ... they were viewed in a completely different light.
In much the same way, purported animal lovers are quite capable of viewing stray cats as nuisances.  They are sprayed with hoses / fired at with pellet guns / poisoned / shot / caught in bags to be tossed in the river / etc.
Its more realistic to think that the Great Pumpkin is actually going to visit than to expect there are happy outcomes for all the stray cats in this province.
It IS helpful when shelters like Metro offer spay neuter help for kind hearts that bring in strays.  But this type of thing is seldom well advertised ... nor is it the be all and end all solution.
The stray problem is so darned huge that no ONE particular thing is going to be a quick and easy fix.   Its going to take:

• someone having enough balls to initiate legislation to ban the traffic of living breathing sentient beings in all the free online ad sites
• People waking up to the fact that the numbers of cats that are killed in Nova Scotia every year are still staggering.  (CAPS was formed because Annapolis County residents were horrified to discover dogs were being shot by Annapolis AC ... if that kind of energy could just be harnessed for the cats just imagine how fast our politicians would react !)
• Municipalities recognizing that it is cheaper to pony up with spay neuter chits available at vet clinics than to tie up overtasked AC with nuisance complaints
• Undercutting the competition of 'free to a good homes' with Off Site Cat only adoption events, and last, but not least
• municipalities not to expect rescues and tnr groups to be their clean up crews without providing meaningful support and creating better and more humane cat bylaws.

Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.  Bodie Thoene

A First Rate Girl looking for a Second Chance

Its the worst nightmare possible for any committed and responsible pet owner.  Meet Bee .... who has been well cared for and loved for every day of her five year life.  Bee has always lived indoors, has beautiful house manners, is spayed and has had regular checkups and good vet care for all of her life.  Bee is loved and cherished and is the apple of her Mom's eye

So why ... would one ask... would such a dog be in need of new home?  Genuine medical issues is why.  Not the magical gee we suddenly acquired an allergy bs that is so often presented in the free online ad sites.

In Bee's case its the real deal  When her Mom was expecting her first child, the normal asthma that she had flared into pneumonia.  Bee's Mom finally had to be hospitalized during the pregnancy.  Now she is pregnant again and her health is so precarious that her doctor insists that she find a new home for Bee before the baby is born.  And before the keyboards catch on fire ... real honest to gawd asthma is no joke and can be life threatening.  

I'm very careful these days not to swallow whole every tale I am sent.  If I learned anything from the whole Brindi debacle, it is that some folks are quite capable of playing fast and loose with the truth.

But this situation was brought to my attention by a Very Well Respected animal rescuer whose word I trust implicitly. 

So if you, or anyone you know is looking for a lovely, well behaved and beautiful dog who has years and years of love left to share, PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

What time is it?  Its time to put your thinking cap on and see if there is anyone you know who would love to Bee's new Mom or Dad.

Trying to cat(ch) a little more light

I love having pumpkins in my garden.  What's not to love?  They're easy to grow, are really disease resistant and make marvelous fall decorations.   Its almost frosting on the cake that pumpkin is also the key ingredient in so many of my old favourite recipes.
If you're not a gardener, not to worry.   This time of year it is impossible to shop anywhere without practically tripping on them.  Retailers know that pumpkins don't keep forever, so they pull out all the stops to minimize the amount that will wind up in the green bins.
Now people can ... and some do ... head out on the back roads to buy vegetables at the big U Picks.   Its a lot cheaper.  It makes an interesting excursion with the kids.  And best of all one is confident that the produce is local.
Why doesn't everyone do that? Because we live in a convenience focused society.  In many cases, both partners have to work to afford a house these days.  Add into that all the activities folks want time to enjoy and its easy to see why so people many take the simple road when they are shopping for anything.  Its the reason the big box supermarkets, thrive, eh?
It is the very reason why people still buy pets from pet stores.   People KNOW that the pets very likely come from puppy mills.   But people also know that their discounted designer clothes were likely created in sweatshops ... that the dollar store toys come from countries without our Canadian Standards Council ... and that the cheaper rice in the grocery stores might come with a higher health price tag than the organic rice in the health store.
People KNOW ... but if there is a conflict between convenience and social responsibility, convenience wins every time.   No matter how good, or kind or compassionate a person is there are only SO many hours in a day, hmm?
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record ... that is the very best argument for offsite cat adoptions.   There is not a single successful business that does not understand the value of advertising.  What is the best way to 'advertise' cat adoption?  Getting the cats out where more people can meet them.
Its just frosting on the cake that cat only adoption events offer a convenient alternative to the pet stores ... which is business speak is referred to as undercutting the competition.
Do we need laws to ban the sale of all pets in a pet store?  You bet.  But until we actually get them, the most effective tactic is to offer a convenient alternative for consumers with offsite cat adoptions.
After all, the differences between cats and dogs is more than purely anatomical.   There are no offleash cat parks where adoptables can be promoted by their fosters.   The numbers of cats available for adoption are so staggering that its no surprise that Petfinder listings for cats don't always get the same level of work as the ones for the dogs.  
Its the big reason that I'm building the Cat Galleries.  There are hundreds and hundreds of lovely kittens and cats available for adoption in Nova Scotia and unfortunately that still only represents the tip of the iceberg.
Its wonderful that so many have found safe sanctuary ( and before the keyboards catch on fire, yes I know that not all the cats in the society's care live to tell the tail, but THAT was one of the motivators for building the galleries, eh? )
But .... for every cat that has FOUND a safe berth there are at least a dozen turned away.   In some instances that is a dozen a day that are turned away!
But I don't want to wander afield here. 
Offsite cat adoption events are a proven part of the No Kill Equation.  Why? 

• Is it because they boost adoptions? 
• Is it that it brings Pet Adoption out in the public eye in a friendly and inviting way? 
• Is it that each successfully adopted pet becomes an ambassador for pet adoption? 
• Is it that each adopted pet represents one less customer for pet stores and the "free to a good homes" 
• Is it that pets adopted from reputable rescues are already altered and so become part of the solution instead of being part of the problem?

Nope!  The correct answer is all of the above!  
What time is it?  Its always time to remember that offsite cat adoption events are a personal and pawsitive way to engage public interest in Pet Adoption.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.  Plato

When Duct Tape won't do the trick

Today is fall pickup in my neighbourhood.   Unlike the 'city folk' who need the sanction of an actual freecycle day, around here there is an etiquette to spring and fall pickup to encourage recycling.  Its understood that one man's trash often is another one's treasure and so items are displayed for easy access and high value items are put out early for people to peruse.    Everyone slows down to look and over the years I've found all sorts of Very Useful Things.  Used carpet underlay works equally well as underlay for pond liners.   From tomato cages to toddler beds, its almost as good as Kijiji for finding and recycling things.
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record ... I still maintain that Kijiji is no place for the traffic of living breathing sentient beings.  People who wouldn't want their neighbours to know how casual they are about the whole commitment thing don't hesitate to avail themselves of the anonymity of Kijiji.  People who wouldn't dare put their pets at the end of the driveway don't hesitate to put them in the online ad sites.
I love my eldercat.  I was just forty when she showed up, and at the time my vet thought she was three or four.  She could easily pass for a purebred Burmese and at some point before we met, somebody thought enough of her to have her spayed.
Honestly, I don't know what is sadder ... the unaltered youngsters and their offspring who are tossed by the wayside or the more mature adults who have suddenly been left in the lurch.  
If people can understand that responsible pet care includes getting the cat fixed, why is it still such a hard sell to convince some to keep their pets through all of the normal bits of living?
It is part of life's journey to meet new partners, get married, have children, change jobs and move.  Its called living.  And before the keyboards catch on fire, yes I know that many people are responsible pet owners  .. but we wouldn't be in the situation we are in with the kitties if everyone kept their pets for life, eh?
There are no easy answers, but it is disturbing to see the "if we can't beat them join them' school of thought that seems to be emerging about placing rescue ads in Kijiji. 
Even the society seems to be considering the matter ... in the online minutes of their Aug 30 meeting there was, according to item 7, some discussion of "using the Kijiji online service to promote adoptions"
Seriously?  How is possible in one breath to ridicule the Benoit's ad selling their house while having a discussion about using the same venue as the Benoit's to promote pet adoption? 
Of course the board has bigger fish to fry as they are having a serious problem getting some of the branches to come to the provincial board meetings. And before the keyboards catch on fire about THAT, nobody has to leave the farm so to speak as they all have the conference call option.  It has been such a recurring problem that more than one branch president is on the verge of losing provincial voting status as a result.  ( The subject of how one branch president miraculously dodged this by attending the last meeting is an interesting one that would be sheer speculation to dwell on )
But I AM wandering afield here and want to get back to the kitties.  For the longest time I have been wondering how to give the kitties more exposure on the homeless pet site.  The numbers are so staggering that without having staff it simply hasn't been possible to present them in the same way as the dogs.
I'm a middle aged granny not a professional webcrafter and have been sharpening my skills along the way ... and I finally think I have a found a way to get all the individual kitties faces on the site.
I'm in the process now of building Cat Galleries for each group who rescue cats.   Its manageable if I do this by group and so even if I can't hyperlink each individual listing, there are contact links with each gallery
When the galleries are finished, I'll put a drop down slideshow sampler on the front door to add a little extra attention to them
If its not everything that it should be, its a step in the right direction.  We do, after all have a pretty good volunteer network of kind hearts who would be more than willing to help kitties get to approved adopters.  
What time is it?  Its always time to remember that as adorable as it may seem to watch Red Green reruns where everything can be fixed with duct tape, not everything is that easy or simple
Your cat will never threaten your popularity by barking at three in the morning.  He won't attack the mailman or eat the drapes, although he may climb the drapes to see how the room looks from the ceiling.  ~Helen Powers

When love comes to the door

Its no secret that I love cats.  What's not to love? Kitties are brilliant and beautiful and best of all they make wonderful companions. 
If cats could play hockey, I could field a full string on the ice with my crew.  Its a popular dumping spot for cats out here and I suspect there is something on my mailbox that only cats can read.  
Out of my six, only one was adopted from a shelter.... my mighty little mini Morgan, who came from SHAID three years ago.  At the time, I was already at my firm (haha) four cat limit.   But in the course of researching the background to build the homeless pet site, I stumbled on her story in the very well done SHAID newsletter and actually drove all the way over to Bridgewater to adopt her!
As statistics go, I'm actually pretty close to the mark.   In a survey conducted in 2008 for the Canadian Veterinary Journal *, when people brought home a cat:

• 24% came from friends and family
• 17% were adopted from a shelter
• 16 % took in a stray
• 14% went the 'free to a good home' route
• 11% were offspring
• 9% came from a pet store
• 5% were listed as other , and
• 5% more came from a breeder

So in a house where one cat came from a shelter, one was adopted when my best friends' brother passed away suddenly and the rest all just showed up at my door, that stacks up quite normally, eh?  To be perfectly honest, if a survey of popular dumping spots for cats was done the numbers who chose strays would climb up the charts.
Stray cats are really dependent on good luck and good will.  For every Oscar that finds a welcome, there are many more that don't live to tell the tale.  But I don't want to wander afield into an oft repeated list of Unsung Unhappy Tails.
Any meaningful solution for the cat population explosion has to address the issue of stray cats.   Most TNR groups are already overtaxed and rarely have the resources to address all the feral cat colonies.  While they would love to help, its not realistic to expect assistance there.
Nor do most Animal Controls in the province take in strays.  In most instances, unless they are injured or engaged in nuisance behaviours, strays fall outside of their thinly stretched mandate.  Added into that mix is the common perception that all cats that AC pick up are killed, and its easy to understand why kind hearts wind up with their own little stray cat colonies.
Isn't kindness a good thing?  Of course it is.  Its not humane to let the cats starve.  People who take in strays are actually providing a community service that should be acknowledged with spay neuter assistance from their municipality.  It should be a standard thing that anyone could access through any animal clinic in the municipality.
Would that solve everything?  Of course not. It wouldn't keep people from dumping strays .. but it would help keep kind hearts from getting in over their head and needing intervention.  Intervention, I might add that would ultimately involve AC and be a much bigger headache than spay neuter chits.
Even better, it would improve the chances for strays to find a safe berth.  In this day and age, not everyone can afford the spay, hmm?
Best of all, like TNR, it would reduce the nuisance behaviors that require intervention from animal control and culminate in so many Unhappy Tails.
Why do people take in strays?  Because they actually see their sweet little faces. ( we'll get back to that subject in another post ...lol )
Nobody has to go to a shelter. Noone has to fill in an application or provide references.  Its simple and its easy for people to do the kind thing.
What time is it?  Its time to recognize that spaying and neutering strays isn't just keeping animals out the shelter system, its a sensible way to create healthier communities.  

* Perrin, T. (2009). "The Business of Urban Animals Survey: The facts and statistics on companion animals in Canada," Canadian Veterinary Journal, 50(1): 48–52.

The writing on the wall

I love so many things in life ... but doing housework isn't even on the bottom of that list.  When I get busy writing, the dust bunnies frolic behind the couch ... casual visitors can easily spot the big dogs' favourite windows by the noseprints and the oddest bits of things can collect on the kitchen counter.
At times like that, I'm always happiest to have familiar friends pop by.   First time visitors might not understand that that the dog coats on the back of the chairs and the dog booties dangling from the pot rack aren't really a permanent fixture.  Honest!
Good friends aren't going to gossip about that.  And anyone who does simply wasn't much of a friend to begin with, in my books.
Animal rescue organizations and shelters of course want to present themselves in a good light.  Gossip can have a detrimental effect on everything from adoptions to fundraising.  It can even keep kind hearts from offering to volunteer.
Some groups attempt to prevent gossip by insisting that all their volunteers sign confidentiality agreements.   In some cases, this can really handcuff animal advocates who have to choose between being able to physically help the animals and bringing things to light.  
Canada is a separate country from the USA, so of course we have all of our own laws.  South of the Border, Section 1983 of their own laws have been used in a very ground breaking way to stop government officials and employees from retaliating against animal activists who speak out against conditions in animal shelters.
Another very effective tool that organizations have to prevent gossip is transparency.  When the shelter is an open  book, when impromptu visitors are encouraged to take a tour , when outspoken animal advocates are welcome to add their energy to the Board of Directors .... it becomes very easy to nip negative gossip in the bud.
Anything less only encourages suspicion, eh?
Its important to remember that at some point in time, most existing No Kill shelters had a journey to make ... one that generally began with rebuilding their relationship with their community.   How did they do that? 
The Nevada Humane Society started with a series of Town Hall meetings and surveys to determine how the residents felt about their shelter. 
Was everything peachy keen?  Of course not.   There was a great deal of dissatisfaction and skepticism as to whether the shelter was doing all that it could to save lives.
That began a two year process of change.   A new director was hired who was committed to moving forward.   The entire management team was replaced.  Only three of the original seventy employees were allowed to remain.
This was only possible because the Board of Directors chose NOT to circle the wagons.  It was only by airing out the dark corners that any of this was able to happen. 
Sound radical?  Not when one realizes that these changes were possible because the community wanted change.   At the end of the day ... change always has to be community focused ... because without that any shelter is just a building which can be viewed with suspicion and distrust instead of being embraced and supported.
Sound like a "south of the border" solution?  Not when viewed in light of the wonderful progress that has been made by our own society at the provincial level.  None of that would have happened without a new and very determined BOD.
On another note .... anyone who follows the No Kill world has eyed with envy the wonderful No Kill Conferences that have become annual events.  If you have always wanted to attend, now there is a very cool thing being put on cooperatively between the No Kill Advocacy Center and Animal Ark ... No Kill Webinars .  For an incredibly modest fee of twenty five dollars, anyone can register for the first one on Oct 22, the topic of which is Reforming Animal Control 
A second session on "TNR and Other Programs to Save Community Cats" is scheduled for November 12th.
What time is it?  Its always time to recognize the truth of the old saw ... if at first you don't succeed.... try and try again"
It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.  Samuel Adams

An answer for Sarah

Besides weeding out the often illiterate and/or the spam sort of posts, comment moderation is also handy when somebody leaves a comment on an old post.  The commenter actually had such a good point that I'm going to post it here with my answer
"Hi Janet, I'm adopting a retired breeder (she's 8) and I'm wondering if you know of any resources for senior dogs such as how to start an exercise regime, weight loss program, etc. I currently have a 2 year old cairn terrier and I'm just looking for some reading to make the transition from a single dog house to a two dog house. Thanks, Sarah "
Well Sarah .... coming out of the gate its important to note that every "retired breeder" is as different as the circumstances she spent the last eight years in.  For instance ... some bitches spend their breeding years in a kennel vice living in a home.   Many retriever breeds from good breeders are used to a high level of activity if they come from field lines ... because of course the value of their pups is directly linked to the parents accomplishments in the field trial world.
From the sounds of your comment that might not be the case here :)

• Our very own SPCA here in Nova Scotia has developed an awesome collection of Educational Material that includes ( but is not limited to ) a wonderful Dog Training Guide, another one on how to introduce your dog to new dogs
• All the Best Friends Dog Resources have now been sorted into a manual called the ABC's of Dog Life 
• The Senior Dog Project is a great resource for health issues for senior dogs .... if you scroll down the front door there is a veritable potpourri of anything and everything there 
• there is a pretty neat FAQ on geriatric health issues for dogs here

A couple of things that I've found from personal experience:

• two dogs have more fun than an only dog ... and once they are settled in together your younger dog could help with the weight loss just by playing
• if your new pal eats too quickly, you can slow a bit by using one of the stainless dishes that have a rim and inverting it so they have to work a bit harder at it.
• two dogs with different nutritional needs can't have their food left down so at least its easier to manage quantities
• Oops.. what I meant to say was that my my vet says that any dog over five should NOT be eating any food or snacks with wheat and perhaps its just me but I've found it makes a difference

In this house anyway, liver makes the world go round.  Liver cookies, liver brownies, roasted strips of liver or you can always buy dehydrated liver.  I'm not a professional dog trainer but I'm telling you right now my kids will do anything for liver :)
And last but not least, if love and liver cookies doesn't do the trick, we have a few wonderful pawsitive dog trainers here in NS who could get all paws on the right path!
Good luck!