animal rescuers - resources - support

[Novelafemme]

Originally Posted by Andrew, Jr.

Belle,

Thank you for this! I am home all day, and I find so many different kinds of animals. I have found bats, birds, dogs, cats, elk, deer, and even a bison that wondered off his owner's property. I work with animal rescue, along with my vet who also works with both animal rescue and ASPCA. She is a Godsend to me, and the animals she has helped.

I only take in strays. I have a dog, Dino Martini. And I have 3 cats, Madison, Gabby, and Sophie. I rock them to sleep every day until their eyes roll to the back of their heads and they start to snore.

I cannot imagine my life without my animals. They are a huge part of who I am as a human being. I feed birds, squirrels and chipmonks. I recently found 2 box turtles this year. I took them into my vet, who is making them well. They had some disease that she is treating with medicine. Once I get them back, I am releasing them back into the woods. The boxwood turtle I found 3 years ago is now huge. His mate had babies in my front yard in my iris's. The eggs were looked like chocolate eggs you get at Easter. I watched them like a hawk, and soon enough, the babies were born. It was wonderful to watch. The one think I do to know that the turtle's are mine is to dab a bit of white out on their shell. Not a lot, but enough to last for a while. And I reapply it when the white out fades.

I can just talk and talk about animals. They are such a joy.

Love,
Andrew

{{{{Andrew}}}} I just love your post and can relate to so much of it!

As a child ~ animals were my sanctuary. I found safety and refuge in caring for them and in the peace they offered amongst the craziness of my life.

As an adult I have had to work diligently to not bring home every stray I come across. Living in a border town means that I see A LOT of homeless animals and it tears me up to not be able to help them as freely as I would like. But...I do what I can by volunteering at our local animal care centers and by offering my home as a foster site when I can.

There are animals that I have had in my home that, due to experience, I would not have back...but for the most part I can weigh the benefits against the draw backs and find that the unconditional love and laughter these animals have brought into my life have, by far, been well worth the time, money and energy spent.

[Andrew, Jr.]

Animals are just fur gifts from God. I know that I would be so lost and alone without them in my life. When I was very young, I would come home with everything imaginable.

I would win animals from the State Fair, like Igawana's. I even lost one in my mother's house. To this very day, it was never found. I have no idea of where that baby went. It was a big guy too.

Then there are the hundreds of goldfish that I would fill up my blowup pool with water for them. For some reason I felt the need to rescue the animals from the fair.

Animals validate my life. People just shoot me down. Animals just want me to love them. It is love at it's best.

[violaine]

oh crumb! i typed about a page, and now it's gone. had to take some calls and walked away from the post. i'm going to start over, in a document file, save it, and return with one of my most recent Dobie Rescues. i will describe the entire process start-to-finsih.

great to see you all. thank you for sharing your expressions of love toward animal-friends.

[violaine]

i shall use a green heading for safe; yellow for content warning; and red for may find very disturbing.

Daz’s Story.

A woman on my committee posted a brief to our FB page about a dog called "DAZ" at our local animal control shelter: A stunning dobie in need of a home. Our shelter is high kill- meaning, the animals are there for only three days. Animal Control falls under a Municipality:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipality

Sometimes, animal control, rescue groups, and the humane society come from different places with regard to best serving the public/animals. This is a very important distinction to make because Animal Control where I live [and I am quoting!] exists to “keep roaming and biting dogs off the streets” and are not “required to keep the animals longer than a three day period”.

So, we placed a three-day hold on Daz, as that was longest hold animal control permitted us. The Process began! I telephoned dobie rescue groups in my state, wrote to them, as well as dobie rescue groups in neighbouring states. I sent out lots of emails to all of my contacts and included the FB page. The woman and friend- on my committee was totally devastated by what she saw going on inside of the shelter. In fact, she did telephone a county commissioner later that afternoon because: The council generally functions as a parliamentary or congressional style legislative body, proposing bills, holding votes, and passing laws to help govern the city.

Daz was soaking wet when he was brought out to meet my friend during their meet and greet at the animal control shelter. My friend was barely able to pet him, and spend time with him, as the staff were standing over and rushing the visit. She needed to take a photo of him, and send to dobie rescue to verify he was a dobie. While Daz was outside of his run, it would have made sense to clean the enclosure, but that was not the case. after he was placed back inside the spraying of water and chemicals began! I have several letters from people who have written letters/emails to the humane society about witnessing this very same thing - out in the open at our local ACS.

We had to place a second hold on Daz, and my friend claimed to be very ill, so it was approved by ACS. Dobie rescue were an awesome bunch, and trying hard to find a foster for Daz. Time often gets down to the wire with animal rescue work, so I acquiesced to the universe, and then several local people came forward to offer temporary fostering for Daz. Thank goodness! Everyone plays a vital role in a well-coordinated rescue effort, and the feeling of comradery is unbelievable. Plus, there was an awareness of the culture of the ACS we were dealing with, and dobie rescue was not amused about the shelter’s inflexibility. A letter was composed to the county commissioners from dobie rescue, and the woman on my committee telephoned and spoke with a commissioner also.

I was thrilled to death when we go the go ahead from dobie rescue to get Daz out of the shelter! He had been in there without sunshine or any outside fresh air- for six days! Dobie rescue had faxed over their vet info, as Daz needed to be neutered. I paid for him to be adopted out- 10$ adoption fee, and 14.95$, which should have been waived [most shelters work with rescue groups, realising the animal will be S/N, chipped, et c. and are about the animal not the $]. It’s not even like 10$ + 14.95$ is a lot of money, right? Daz was already chipped anyway. We took him outside and he nearly pulled me onto the ground! He is a large dog, and was running for freedom! We took him to several parks to let him explore and exercise. I did a mini-eval of his temperament considering the situations- he was an OS [owner surrender], had been locked up and sprayed with water/chems for nearly a week. Daz loved children and other dogs. After about a half an hour, he finally “looked” at me. Then he kissed us. I wanted to live with him, and offer a forever home to Daz, but I couldn’t.

On the road, Daz jumped into my lap three times! Finally, with his butt in the back seat, and his shoulders and head leaning against me, he fell asleep- and snored! We were in close-close contact with the woman and founder of dobie rescue from start to fiish. She actually heard him snoring on our drive to meet the foster. Daz jumped right into the car when he met the foster, and would be with him for a little over a week before getting neutered. His temperament was checked out during this time. Dobie rescue founder told me the day we took him out that she had a forever home lined up for Daz- if all was fine with his disposition.

All of us we pleased to hear about Daz going to his home and even laughed about him jumping the fence to meet his next door neighbour new dog-friend! [we knew that he was a fence jumper- and this info must be communicated to the rescue group. Whatever the ACS will share information-wise, is crucial info to pass along to any rescue group].

The next time I write, I’ll share steps being taken with the ACS- how to come up with a goal/plan to try and bring ACS up to date, researching ACS S.O.P.'s [our local ACS does not have a SOP!], and aiming for an environment healthier/happier for all of the shelter animals, working with county commissioners, director of animal control/chief animal control officers, rescue groups, when to involve HSUS, and even the media.

[Andrew, Jr.]

I would love to have the money to buy land to have a non-kill shelter for animals. *Deep sigh. Now that would be such a blessing for both animals and me. I hate to see or hear about any animal abused, tortured, or starved. If animals could only talk.

Belle, I loved your story. Thank you.

[NotAnAverageGuy]

Originally Posted by Andrew, Jr.

I would love to have the money to buy land to have a non-kill shelter for animals. *Deep sigh. Now that would be such a blessing for both animals and me. I hate to see or hear about any animal abused, tortured, or starved. If animals could only talk.

Belle, I loved your story. Thank you.

Andrew by law even no kill shelters do have to put down some of their animals, I came upon this once when I did volunteer work for Probation... the owner had to take in 3 dogs to be put down, these dogs were adoptable but I never got a straight answer as to why she had them put down.


Here for the shelters, it is a 3 day stay as well for certain breeds, if a rescue or someone doesn't adopt them, which is very sad.

[WolfyOne]

Very nice thread topic.

Those here that know R and I, know what we've gone through this year. It prompted us to move to another town just so we could protect the stray cats we were feeding on our porch. We have way more cats than we ever expected to have, 17 to be exact. All of them are or have been strays at one time in their lives. We started out doing catch, fix and release them back outside when they were healed. We've taken them to the vet when sick, put flea medicine on the indoor and outdoor ones. Have had a bb removed from the nose of one. Anyhow, we gathered up all the outside cats that we could because an old neighbor killed one of them with an air compressor nail gun. We managed to put 4 on a farm. The vet kept 3 for her place. A friend took 2 and a lady in a neighboring town took 2. That still leaves us with 17, in which 3 belong to a roomie of ours. It's been a struggle with 17, but we manage. It's hard finding homes for those that can be adopted out because we don't trust others around here to take care of them. We've put a lot of money out of our own pockets to fix so many cats and hopefully will find a few good people for some of them. Some of them have been attacked by our old neighbors Great Danes and are spooked easily by dogs now. Some are semi feral and trust few. 3 are 7 months old and were born outside, so we trapped them and took them directly to the vet. I do it again in a heart beat if it meant saving a life from a cruel person. I think spaying and neutering is very important, but most country folks don't. We helped clean up the over population of cats in a town that needed it desparately.

I think that's about it. Perhaps not in any kind of order, but ya'll get what I'm saying.

[Pennysparkles]

Originally Posted by Andrew, Jr.

I would love to have the money to buy land to have a non-kill shelter for animals. *Deep sigh. Now that would be such a blessing for both animals and me. I hate to see or hear about any animal abused, tortured, or starved. If animals could only talk.

.

Mr too Andrew, me too. My dogs are both rescues and even after 4 years my beautiful little terrier cross still reacts as if I am going to beat her when I go to put her lead on, it breaks my heart.

I so wish they could talk so I could understand better what they are telling me. But I give them all the love and light I can every day and thank spirit for bringing them to me.

Namaste

[NotAnAverageGuy]

There is a sugar glider rescue in Irving, Tx that does ALOT of rescuing, Angie(the head rescuer) barely even has time to update the website she has.

I am posting a link for anyone who wants to know more about them and the lengths she has gone to take care of her rescues and there are some stories about some of the sanctuary gliders she has and why they are there. Warning: some stories are heartbreaking and will anger the best of us.

www.hopeforgliders.org/

[WolfyOne]

Originally Posted by Pennysparkles

Mr too Andrew, me too. My dogs are both rescues and even after 4 years my beautiful little terrier cross still reacts as if I am going to beat her when I go to put her lead on, it breaks my heart.

I so wish they could talk so I could understand better what they are telling me. But I give them all the love and light I can every day and thank spirit for bringing them to me.

Namaste

One of our rescued cats cowers when you go to pet her head. It wasn't until we noticed her bottom teeth were knocked out that we figured out why. Her tongue always hung out of her mouth and R opened her mouth one day to find a row of teeth gone. I think whoever dumped her in our area must have beat her badly. She's much better than she was in the beginning, now that we brought her inside. She used to get very defensive and swat or hiss at anyone that would get near her. Sometimes that old trigger comes to the forefront and she only does it a little now.......if I could only find the person that did that to her.

[owen4u1904]

Originally Posted by Novelafemme

{{{{Andrew}}}} I just love your post and can relate to so much of it!

As a child ~ animals were my sanctuary. I found safety and refuge in caring for them and in the peace they offered amongst the craziness of my life.

As an adult I have had to work diligently to not bring home every stray I come across. Living in a border town means that I see A LOT of homeless animals and it tears me up to not be able to help them as freely as I would like. But...I do what I can by volunteering at our local animal care centers and by offering my home as a foster site when I can.

There are animals that I have had in my home that, due to experience, I would not have back...but for the most part I can weigh the benefits against the draw backs and find that the unconditional love and laughter these animals have brought into my life have, by far, been well worth the time, money and energy spent.

I still live with my parents... ..lol...but, I have been banned from bringing home cats. Or any other kinda animals that I find. Of course it is kinda funny, cause now we have 3 cats that I never found. We have or Mama cat who came to us prego. We kept one from her first litter. She had like 4 more litters, then her 5th litter she had a grey kitten which she never had before. But it was kinda weird, cause we just had a grey cat who ran away or went to the woods and got beat up or something and was never seen again. So we kept the grey kitten. LOL, our family is real orginal though, we named her kit. So we have 7 cats with more kittens on the way and 3 dogs.

[Kimbo]

Originally Posted by rbentley1904

I still live with my parents... ..lol...but, I have been banned from bringing home cats. Or any other kinda animals that I find. Of course it is kinda funny, cause now we have 3 cats that I never found. We have or Mama cat who came to us prego. We kept one from her first litter. She had like 4 more litters, then her 5th litter she had a grey kitten which she never had before. But it was kinda weird, cause we just had a grey cat who ran away or went to the woods and got beat up or something and was never seen again. So we kept the grey kitten. LOL, our family is real orginal though, we named her kit. So we have 7 cats with more kittens on the way and 3 dogs.

I really wished you would take into consideration spaying your cat. I know you mean well but it is appalling to many of us that spend countless hours rescueing animals --- over 6 million animals a year are euthanized. Please spay your cat. Allowing her to breed like this is irresponsible IMHO.

In many cities it is against the law to allow an animal in heat to roam free.

If you need any help with resources please PM or post here...we are a wealth of resources.

[FeminineAllure]

http://www.petco.com/product/106533/...oft-Chews.aspx

This may work for your cat Kimbo.
~Hugs to him~

[Andrew, Jr.]

Atlasthome,

I have no clue what to give a sr. cat for joint care. Things you can do around the house is to put out a heating pad (on low) and put it under a towel and let your baby lay on that. Stop her from jumping up and down. Pick her up. My baby is elderly too. And I use a heating pad in the winter months. She loves it. As long as she is happy, Daddy is happy.

Ask your vet for something you could put in her water or sprinkle over her food. Pills are a no no for my elderly cat. It just is too much for her too.

Love,
Andrew

[AtLast]

Thank you so much. Yes, Lucci does have a portion on my bed that I have put a big heating blanket out on. Both cats and my dog snuggle up there! He has been showing that he needs more warmth in winter and has actually been coming in much earlier as the day gets colder. He mostly hangs out in my backyard and keeps an eye out for anything that moves.

I will ask my vet about any supplements as I have to take both cats in for annual exams and some shots.

No, I can't oill him, too upsetting for him and he doesn't have many teeth left. But, overall, he is aging quite well which makes me very happy. Very playful and still very agile. I just want to give him anything that might help his joints as he continues to age. There are oddles of things out for dogs.

Originally Posted by Andrew, Jr.

Atlasthome,

I have no clue what to give a sr. cat for joint care. Things you can do around the house is to put out a heating pad (on low) and put it under a towel and let your baby lay on that. Stop her from jumping up and down. Pick her up. My baby is elderly too. And I use a heating pad in the winter months. She loves it. As long as she is happy, Daddy is happy.

Ask your vet for something you could put in her water or sprinkle over her food. Pills are a no no for my elderly cat. It just is too much for her too.

Love,
Andrew

[violaine]

Today at the meeting of commissioners –

I spoke briefly with the secretary to commissioners prior to 9:30 meeting, and asked her if the statistics would be on the agenda. She handed me a copy of the agenda, and there was nothing pertaining to the animal control shelter. Secretary told me the statistics would be available, and the chief animal control officer would be present next meeting on Tuesday- 9. Feb. 2010, at 9:30 A.M. I wasn’t sure if I could bring up the topic of the statistics anyhow, and secretary said that I could when the commissioner called for “wishes to be heard”. My goal was to get a word in about having an Animal Advisory Board established [like it used to be before the Chief AC Officer disbanded it years ago]. With an Advisory Board, a lot of great changes could take place.

The meeting began as scheduled, and after about ten minutes, I could hardly believe my ears.... NOTHING was on the Agenda for today about the AC/shelter, yet one commissioner began addressing the complaints at our animal control shelter, plus their awareness of the FB citizens concerned about the AC/shelter page.

Thank goodness on staying to be a presence there, as I almost left since the secretary and agenda made no mention of the discussion!

The commissiners were looking at an investigation of the AC/shelter by The Animal Board of Health [who are NOT on our team]. A few areas where Animal Advisory Boards/Board of State Federation of Shelters and ABOH do cross paths, i.e. rabies holding periods, and abuse cases. The ABOH has no background, education, or experience in the animal sheltering department.

I gave comments when the room was addressed to do so, – which should be publicised in the minutes- welcoming and urging the diversity of an Advisory Board. This would not be a cost to the taxpayers- as one commissioner stated budget cuts for AC ahead, and there would be an expense involved with Advisory Board implementation.

If the commissioners want an independent investigation of AC by the ABOH, there will not be anything found- and of course, the AC/ shelter and commissioners come off looking clean. We know this is not the case, and are in desperate need of transparency via a watchdog organisation like Board of State Federation of Shelters. This is heavy artillery in the most positive degree.
For example, when statistics are requested, they need to be sent out, versus never receiving them. Financials, et c.

I telephoned BOSFS today directly after hearing the commissioners. My contact will get on this immediately to the Board of State Federation- and did mention a person she had in mind who has many years of experience, and another individual at a private Humane Society. She will also write to the commissioner who brought this to the agenda.

People/taxpayers might have attended if discussion of the AC/shelter had been posted to their website/agenda. The scary thing is, if the commissioners do not wish to discuss public matters, and only wish to stick to “roads/hwys”, then someone else needs to be the boss of the animal control/shelter!

So, BOSFS is writing to commissioners offering to do an independent investigation of the AC, as this was brought to her attention. Humane society here has already submitted the BOSFS info to a commissioner.

[Diavolo]

I've got a rescue Dobe at the house right now. She might have nipped at a child or something. She's only 9months old and she's just a spazz. Very sweet dog that just needs some training. Bubba is just being a snot. He's snapped at her a couple of times. She's heading to the rescue hopefully tomorrow. I need some rest before Sunday.

[Andrew, Jr.]

I hope everyone is doing well.

[violaine]

there was a good turn out tonight at the meeting of concerned citizens including rescue groups/foster people, and lots of volunteers belonging to various committees. the reporter wants to interview the commissioners plus the chief animal control officer before running the piece. i heard this before from him, as i've worked with the same reporter on a handful of our own newspaper stories. however, tonight was a different tone all together, with a room full of amazing people sharing experiences regarding the animal control shelter- it gave a voice to the animals - past, present, and looking towards a brighter future.

a news station was scheduled to come, but at the last moment, there were three breaking stories so that just gives us another opportunity to get this issue out a bit later- not such a bad dealio.

one paper already covered it. we're on the way.

tomorrow, i will attend a meeting of the commissioners to get the animal control shelter statistics, which i've been asking for far too long! also, i will inquire about an animal advisory board being formed, to be a liasion for animal control and county commissioners. i should be able to get all the statistics i want if there's a board in place [the present chief of animal control disbanded that board years ago!]. another plus to having a board, is the members are diverse- humane society will have a seat, and That Means- we will get ordinances for anti-tethering !!

tomorrow comes early, and i'm not a morning bird.

[owen4u1904]

Originally Posted by Kimbo

I really wished you would take into consideration spaying your cat. I know you mean well but it is appalling to many of us that spend countless hours rescueing animals --- over 6 million animals a year are euthanized. Please spay your cat. Allowing her to breed like this is irresponsible IMHO.

In many cities it is against the law to allow an animal in heat to roam free.

If you need any help with resources please PM or post here...we are a wealth of resources.

I totally get what you are saying. She is the only one we never got spayed. She came to our house pregnant and just kept having them. Eventually the dr had a talk with us too, and he had to really make us understand that it is okay to do an "abortion" type of thing. The first couple of times when was getting ready to spay her we would notice she was pregnant. We kept our a kitten out of the 4th set, and that is when she took off. She still eats our house but we cant catch her and we know she is pregnant again so me and the rest of my family agreed that she will probably come inside to have them so we need to watch for her and just keep her in the house this time. Thank you for letting me know but this story does let people know that cats need to spayed and you just have to learn to deal with that part that I mentioned above.