In praise of horse sense

I love to read.  Maybe it comes from being a schoolmarm's daughter.  Perhaps it is a natural byproduct of having spent six of my childhood years in remote areas where television was (then) utterly unavailable.

I read in the tub .... my nose is usually buried in a book at the table ... and of course there is no better way to wrap up the day than being curled up in my double rocker by the fire with a good book.

Any top ten list of my favourite genres would have to include good suspense novels.   Indeed, they have been responsible for more late nights than any gentleman of my acquaintance:)

Sometimes the truth can be more gripping than fiction.  See the beautiful Appaloosa filly pictured above?  Her name is Sophie and her story reads like a classic cliffhanger. 

She was loaded on a meat truck and on her way to the meat market in Quebec. "She was the youngest and the smallest on the truck, extremely thin, was covered in rain rot, dehydrated, very frightened and very weak.  She would have not likely survived the grueling transport to Quebec in her condition." 

( the topic of why I only buy hamburger that comes from a local nova scotia farm is a sticky subject that would be sheer speculation to dwell on... sigh )

Lucky for Sophie, one of the members of the Maritime Horse Protection Society was able to make a deal with the truck driver for her.   Even though he refused to offload her for less than he would get in Quebec, a price was agreed upon and Sophie began the long journey to recovery and adoption. ( click here to see how much better Sophie looked after a few months of good care )

My mother loved horses.  She was raised on a farm on the island and in a different time and place would have gone on to become a veterinarian instead of a nurse.  

So I know firsthand that it takes deep pockets to keep a horse properly.  There are few phrases as misleading as the old adage, "healthy as a horse'.  Even in competent experienced hands, healthy horses will require a level of vet care that would stagger most pet owners.  And that is not counting farrier bills, fencing and all the other bits that are part and parcel of having a horse.

Unfortunately for horses, ignorance is NOT bliss.   Lack of husbandry skills and/ or underestimating the resources required can do at least as much harm as deliberate neglect and cruelty, eh?

As well as rescuing, The Maritime Horse Protection Society have made education an important part of their mandate.   They also lobby for improvements needed to protect horses under our own Animal Protection Act and for laws to protect horses being transported.

They have been around for almost twenty years now and are part of CANFACT  (Canadian Farm Animal Care Trust )   In realspeak that also means that they can offer a tax receipt for any donations to support their work.

Of course they are always on the watch for horse experienced folk with a spare stall to foster ... but for all the rest of us ... they also have a neat sponsorship program.  Folks can sponsor part or all of the six month fostering costs.

Who among us, when we were small, has not asked Santa for a pony or a horse?   Horses helped shape human history and can still capture our hearts.   WC Fields once said that 'Horse Sense is the thing that horses have that keep them from betting on people' 

What time is it?   It is always, always time to praise real horse sense when we find it!

Cassanove is available for adoption.  Click here for more info

This is a picture of Annie when she first arrived.  Click here to see how much better she looks two years later!  Note .. Annie was adopted by one of the Society's members :)

Act naturally!!!

When I was a little girl, as children are wont to do, I thought the sun would rise and set in the same way every day of my life.  

By then, most people actually had a phone in the house ... but it was on a wall in the hall ... not extensions in every room.  Cordless and cellular roam a phones were a Jetson sort of gadget that were still far in the (long distance plan) future.   Women who actually knew their bank account number put on a dress and hat and gloves to go to the bank.  Black and white TV's were watched on a network with a bedtime not much later than my own!

Does that mean that I am yearning for those "good old days"  Of course not!  I like banking in my flannel pj's and bunny slippers!   I'm actually thinking of ditching my landline because my cell is more reliable during power outages.  Setting aside how handy on demand in for someone with a life, these days me and my trifocals appreciate this bigger and full color screen.

Better still is the way the world seems to have caught up with how I was raised.   Organic gardening and eating local food are no longer thought to be eccentric.  It is a delight to see common sense becoming more mainstream ... at least about that anyway :)

Best of all of course is that life is much better for owned pets.   (And before the keyboards catch on fire, yes I do know we "are not there yet" but I am old enough to remember my parents being the exception rather than the rule for having all our dogs spayed, taking them to the vets for checkups and letting them live in the house )

As a matter of fact, natural living is just better for all of us.  Andy and I both take hemp oil for our arthritis.   At their checkup a couple of weeks ago, my vet said that the home made food is very likely the reason the big dogs' teeth (and everything else) are in such good shape.

So it is great to see plans shaping up for the Nova Scotia Integretative Health Pet Expo.  Their lovely website is up and running and I see that there has been a facebook group started to go with that.

What time is it?   It is always time to salute those doing good things for the animals!

When Love Comes to Town

I love the water lilies in my little ornamental pond.  Whats not to love?  They are strikingly beautiful  They have settled in so well that they are so low maintenance as to be no trouble at all.  Best of all, today's first blooms are the first in a beauty pageant that will last until the hard frosts of October.
No question about it, dollar for dollar they have proven to be the best investments in my garden.  It was more work and money upfront to build the pond ... but that one time effort and expense that has so far yielded seven years of trouble free beauty.
Expense is the real bugaboo these days for all levels of government.  Here in Nova Scotia, more fiscal responsibility is being downloaded from the provincial level to the municipal at the same time as some of our small towns are struggling on the brink of bankruptcy. 
What does that mean in realspeak?
Why of course, that these are cost cutting days where bureaucrats and elected officials will be unwilling and / or unable to assume new expenses in their budgets. 
In a world where arguments against No Kill are centered around cost, it means that getting to No Kill Nova Scotia is going to take some real creative thinking.
But wait just a darned minute ... hasn't our own society taken an official position of No Kill?   Are not most of our private rescue groups and shelters already on the No Kill wagon?  You bet!
What is missing from this picture?  Why Animal Control of course!  If there is one constant in Nova Scotia, it is that there is no constant when it comes to Animal Control   Each and every one of our fifty-five municipalities have their own arrangements and bylaws.  
From bylaw negotiation to statistical tracking and beyond .. any change must be individually implemented at the local level .... fifty-five different times!
The only constant of course is the common reluctance to initiate any change that is going to cost money.
What if it was possible to pick up the pace down the path to No Kill Nova Scotia without breaking the bank?  Sound unrealistic?  Seem like a pipe dream?
Not for Washoe County Regional Animal Services in Nevada.  In an area with the highest unemployment rate in their nation, how did WCRAS achieve an incredible 95% save rate?  To begin with, there is a whopping 54% reclaim rate for dogs ( although the 6 % reclaim rates for cats doesn't look so impressive at first glance, it is still more than twice the national average. )  How did they do that?

• Their officers in the field are allowed to make every reasonable effort, including scanning for microchips, to return the animal to their rightful owners.   The extra work in the field is offset by reduced intake and sheltering costs.
• Officers are also allowed to proactively investigate to determine who the owners of impounded animals are
• All impounded animals are photographed on intake and their pictures posted on a website that the county also promotes with free magnetic dog bone stickers
• If officers believe they know who the owner is, the animal can be held longer than the five day period
• Officers are sent to the home to hand deliver the Notices of Impoundment
• And are allowed to talk to the neighbours to determine if a real life event such as being arrested or hospitalized is the reason for the impound.  In these cases Animal services is permitted to seek solutions that do not involve the loss of the animal
• Animal services can and will waive the impound fees and fines if they believe that the financial hardship is all that stands between a dog and his or her owner

Closer to home, there have been some great ideas that can save lives without costing Animal Services a cent!

• The society negotiated with the Town of Windsor to have an adoption pact included in their new Dog Bylaw.  What does that mean in realspeak?  It means that once the impound period is over, all impounded animals must, by law, be offered to the Hants SPCA.
• In Annapolis County, Animal Control has a partnership with the volunteer group CAPS in an effort to create better outcomes for all impounded animals.  
• Annapolis County has also provided a lifesaving per cat subsidy to Team TNR to help keep feral cats out of the system.
• Colchester County has a longstanding lifesaving relationship with ARC that has made a significant difference for homeless dogs in their municipality.

I noticed in the last online BOD meeting minutes for the society, that the society is considering their stand on Branches being able to contract services for their local animal control.   The subject has been made a priority on their strategic issues To Do list, so we can reasonably expect some interesting developments there.
The facts speak to how successfully Metro was able to transition away from their traditional contractual revenue source ... and that has cast the entire subject in a whole new light.
The point I am making in my meandering way is that many of the tools to improve Animal Control save rates already exist here in Nova Scotia.  We have the rescue and breed rescue groups.   Hard working TNR groups are springing up in every corner of the province.  Gosh darn we even have our very own Spay Day started!
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, the holdup isn't the lack of compassion. It isn't the lack of enthusiasm. As with any other logistical goal, the biggest hurdle is the need to restructure existing assets.
Even if it would be wonderful to see all municipalities have their own Animal Care and Control Centers, here in the real budget world that might be more pipe dream than possibility.   Yet there are achievable objectives that would not create a fiscal burden:

• have free lifetime licenses for altered and microchipped pets
• change the cat at large bylaws which inhibit kind hearts from maintaining a managed feral cat colony
• cease expensive fines for first time offenders
• allow a volunteer run red flag system of social networking to save lives
• post information about spay neuter and other responsible pet ownership subjects on all municipal websites
• post petfinder featured adoptable pet widgets for Nova Scotia on all municipal websites
• animal control pounds are all entitled to use petfinder.   To date only the Homeward Bound City Pound contractor has availed themselves of this service.   Free service, eh?

What time is it?   It is always time to recognise that No Kill Love 'can come to town' just by thinking outside the box.
When love comes to town,

I'm gonna jump that train
When love comes to town,
I'm gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down,
But I did what I did before love came to town
When Love Comes to Town .... BB King

What a purrfect idea!!!!

What a purrfect idea!!!    Please CLICK HERE for more information!

Urgent!! Safe berth needed for sweet senior kittizen

I love my eldercat!  What's not to love?  Her youthful feisty self has mellowed into a lovely gentle soul.    We have years of shared history that just makes every day we are granted now a special and precious gift.
I love little Andy!   I chose the name Andy because it means 'brave one' which is an apt description for a small senior lad with only two teeth left to fend for himself.   He is as dear to me now as if we did have those years of shared memories.
The point I am making in my meandering way is that senior pets have a sweet and special charm ... but that they often get the short end of the stick from those who are too blind to see.
Who is this beautiful cat?   She is a sweet senior who was dropped off at the vets to be killed.  Lets call a spade a spade here ... its not being put to sleep when they aren't going to wake up, eh?
She is beautiful and gentle and in desperate danger.   The good news is that even though ARC is bursting at the seams, if a foster can be found they will tuck her under their paw.
What time is it?  It is time to remember the power of social networking to save a life.  Please share this with your friends to help find this beautiful cat a second chance with a safe berth! 

Hmmmmm......

Back in the day, I used to love the descriptive language used in crafting formal menus.   Mind you, to be perfectly honest,  all that elegant terminology and enticing description could put a glamorous sheen on anything.   The same people who would leap at the chance to savour the 'garlic scented Escargot Roquefeller' probably spend a fair bit of time every year keeping slugs out of their garden, eh?
In any walk of life, the written word is a powerful thing.   Nowhere is that more evident than in the Petfinder listings that one finds around this province.  
Take for instance, this listing for Atlantic Small Dog Rescue which begins with the appealing phrase " Zoey is a very lovable 2 year old .... " and continues on for five chatty paragraphs that paint a crystal clear picture for a potential adopter.
Or this inventive listing for NS Labrador Rescue, who always use a tongue in cheek style to shine a pawsitive light on things such as "I'm very inventive and figured out that if I jump on the the box and onto the chair I can get onto the table and scope out the goodies left there "
Or this lovely detailed listing for East Coast German Shepherd Rescue which makes sure that potential adopters not only know Katy's backstory, but that she is small, a bit of a Diva and that she "wants to be by your side and loves to cuddle".
Or this appealing listing for Ador A Bull which combines specific details about his progress in training with enticing bits about how he "loves to find a warm lap to curl up on at the end of the day"
Or even this brief bio from Homeward Bound City Pound which describes Snoopy as a " silly little boy with lots of energy" and then goes on to describe the type of home that will be able to "give him all the love and attention that he needs"
Or this special listing for Metro that seeks to engage someone with enough heart to adopt both Amie and Jack, giving a glimpse of their history along with their progress. 
Or this cheerful chatty bio for ARC that goes into great detail so that a potential adopter can see if this grreat guy is the lad they have been looking for ( NOTE: Gordon is the sweetie in the picture at the top of this post ... all the other pics just scroll down for :)
I could go on and on well into the afternoon with all the great bios that have been carefully crafted and about the ones who understand that a great picture is worth a thousand words
Which is why the Petfinder listings for the Cape Breton SPCA stand out so very much more now.  According to last years stats, there was an intake of 1,134 dogs.  That means that the shelter took in an average of 22 dogs each week.  What does that mean in realspeak?  That means that there should definitely be more dogs listed for the last few weeks than the four that are listed there now :(
Even if last years redemption rate of 25 % for the dogs held true, there should still be more listings than these four.  It is the seventh of June today ... and in realspeak it has been over six weeks since there were any new listings for dogs.
What time is it?   It is obviously still time to wonder just what is going on at the Cape Breton SPCA.

Zoey is with Atlantic Small Dog Rescue

Distance is at NS Labrador Rescue

Katy is with East Coast German Shepherd Rescue

Pilsner is with Ador A Bull

Snoopy is at Homeward Bound City Pound

Amie and her pal Jack are at Metro

A nice destination for a sunday drive!

I love my sweet O Henry!  What's not to love?  He is gentle with my eldercat and full of patience when little Andy is full of terrier feist.  It really is frosting on the cake that he really is the perfect pal for Miss Ruby.

To be perfectly honest ... handsome is as handsome does.  It is his kind and gentle heart that has endeared him to me.  

I will never forget the day that I met Henry.   It was pure chance that he had just been brought up to the vets in Greenwood by Annapolis AC at the same time as I had popped in to buy food.  

He was so thin ... and his poor little feet were such a mess ... but even on such short acquaintance it was clear that he was a sweet sweet soul.

If CAPS had not been formed in 2004, that magic moment never would have happened for Henry and I.   There would have been no shared journey that would have taught us both such a tremendous amount.

Nope.  If CAPS had not been formed, Henry would not be laying on my grandfather's sea chest watching the hummingbirds outside the window.   He would have been shot. 

Straight sweet and simple ... CAPS was formed to create better outcomes for animals at Annapolis AC.

The short version of this story is that in this is a relationship based world and while I try not to play favourties, I will always have a soft spot for CAPS.  So I was delighted to see that there are plans afoot for an Open House up at Violet Cottage this Sunday coming.

If you have never been to the Cat Cottages it would be worth the trip for that alone!   Violet cottage is full of recycled ingenuity .. much of which began on the roadside for spring and fall pickups:)   Visitors are always impressed by how immaculate the cottages are and by the way every room starts purring as soon as visitors come in!  

What time is it?  If you are looking for a lovely destination for a Sunday drive ... then its time to think about coming to this cute little open house :)

Harriet

Tuffy