IT'S TIME FOR AN UPDATE!

Here's a picture of Nicky standing in the back yard.  He thinks he looks very handsome and regal, and maybe he does, but to me he's just a very tall little brother.  Nicky finished his obedience class last Wednesday night.  Mom thought it was a fairly stupid class, but the money she paid for it went to REGAP, so that made it sort of worthwhile.  Also Nicky is getting a little better about coming in the house when he's called instead of staying out in the yard gawking at the squirrels.

And Mom started using the little squirt bottle she got in class to spray Barry and Mel when they bark while she is fixing our dinner, so now they don't bark anymore.  Before this, she had tried just stopping the fixing of the food whenever any barking happened, but this method did not work very well because maybe Mom was not patient enough and consistent enough when she used it.  But the squirt bottle worked really well.  And the other night, Mom squirted Chloe when she was climbing into the trash basket, and Chloe hasn't tried to do that since then.

Okay, well, here's another photo, and it's of Barry in the yard.  Mom sort of missed him when she took the picture, but she likes it anyway, so she said I should put it in my blog.  I guess what this picture shows is that Barry was trotting pretty fast on his way into the house.  And I think it also shows that Mom needs to practice her aim.

Barry and Mel are still having diarrhea, so they are getting some medicine and stuff.  Mel is getting Panacur, which is supposed to cure you if you have worms.  Also he is taking metronidazole, and he is getting some extra prednisone for a few days.  Barry is going to start eating a new, different food.  But the clinic had to order the food, and it didn't come yet.

Nicky also has diarrhea some of the time, but Mom is only dealing with Mel and Barry right now.  Mom says she is really tired of picking up big piles of gooey poop in the yard because it's messy and hard to pick up, and she usually ends up getting it on her hands.  Which she doesn't like, for some reason.

Last week, Mom finally got around to burying Gabe's ashes, which was sad for all of us.  She buried them at the base of our big, tall oak tree, kind of between the roots.  Trixie's ashes are buried nearby, also at the base of the oak tree.  Mom was afraid that Nicky might try to dig a hole in the spot where Gabe's ashes got buried, so she put some rocks there.  When it started raining the other day, I asked Mom if Gabe's ashes would sprout and grow lots of little baby Gabes, but she said that only phoenixes grow out of ashes, not dogs.

And speaking of holes, Nicky is in trouble with Mom because he has dug several of them in the yard.  Mom filled the biggest ones with bricks, and she filled one that was kind of in the middle of the yard with dirt.  Then she dug up some grass from another place in the yard and planted it where the hole was. She is just hoping that Nicky won't dig there again.

Mom planted some pansies in some pots outside, and the pansies are blooming.  They like cool weather, but they will look yucky later on, when it gets hot.  Then Mom can throw them out and plant something else.  Mom's clematis is also blooming, which makes her happy.

Yesterday Mom turned off the furnace because the weather is finally getting warm.  And in fact, Mom might even turn on the air-conditioner today because the temperature is supposed to go all the way up to 90 degrees.  Nicky really doesn't like hot weather.  I know this because he told me so.  Also, he pants really big and loud when he is hot. Yesterday when Mom took him for a walk, it was about 75 degrees, which Nicky thinks is pretty hot.  So he started walking slowly in all the shady spots and hurrying through the sunny spots to get to the next shady spot.  I think Nicky will be very happy when Mom turns the air-conditioner on!

Read More

CATS AND DOGS FOR YOU TO ADOPT

Okay, it's time to show you some nice, homeless cats and dogs that are at the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City, just waiting for somebody to adopt them.  Usually, I mostly only tell you about dogs, but on Wednesday, Mom went into one of the cat rooms for a while and played with cats, so she said I should write about them.  And she also played with two little dogs that are living in the cat room, so I get to write about them, too.

Anyway, this first cat is 2 years old, and she is named Rosebud.  She is a very pretty calico cat with long-ish hair and a short tail.  We don't know how she got the short tail, but she might have been born that way.  Anyway, when Rosebud first came to the shelter, she had some injuries because she had been hit by a car.  But now she is all healed up, and she can jump on the cat furniture and do all the regular catlike things.  Rosebud needs a home without really young children, just because she plays rough sometimes, and she might hurt the children.

Nikki is a 3-year-old short-haired cat who is mostly grey, but she has some nice white markings, too.  Nikki is very friendly, and if you pick her up, she purrs and rubs on your face and shows you what a totally lovable cat she is.  Nikki had some wounds when she arrived at the shelter, like maybe she had been bitten by a dog, but now she is fine.  Mom does not know why nobody has adopted Nikki, because Mom thinks Nikki might be the best cat at the shelter.

This cute little black kitten is named Jack, and he is 10 months old.  He grew up in a foster home where there were other cats and also dogs, and he likes them all.  Jack is very playful and sweet.  He is one of several black cats at the shelter, so if you like black cats, you can find one there that is just right for you.

Okay, now I will tell you about the dogs.  This first little guy is Paddington, and he's a bichon mix.  He's about 1 year old, and he needs a quiet home with no kids.  Paddington was found outside the shelter one day, and no one knows how he got there.  He had really matted hair, so it had to be shaved, but now it is growing back, and he looks cute and fluffy.

Alec is a chihuahua who is about 8 years old.  He is very affectionate and likes to be held.  He weighs less than 5 pounds, so he would probably just fit into your purse.  When Alec came to the shelter, his right eye was all red-looking, so he went to see Dr. Keil, the doggy eye doctor.  Dr. Keil said that Alec is probably blind in that one eye, but she thinks he will be able to keep the eye.  Alec needs a home where there aren't any young children.

Mork is one of the dogs that Mom played with in the cat room, and the other one is Mindy.  Mork is a chihuahua/dachshund mix, and he's 3-1/2 months old.  Right now, Mork weighs about 5 pounds, and when he is grown, he will probably weigh about 15 pounds.  Mork is very playful, and Mom thought it was a lot of fun to watch him running around the cat room with a great big stuffed toy in his mouth.  All the cats watched him, too, but they stayed up on high perches.

This little wirehaired terrier mix is named Mindy, and she was picked up along with Mork because their owner let them run loose in the streets all the time.  Mindy is 7 months old.  She is a little timid, but she is very sweet.  She will probably weigh about 15 pounds when she is full grown.  Right now, Mindy can't run and play in the cat room because she has a broken front leg.  And the way she got the broken leg was she either jumped or fell out of a cage.  The photo was taken before this happened, but now she has a cast on her leg.

Well, that's all for today.  I hope you can adopt one of these poor, homeless animals.  And if you can't, I hope you can talk one of your friends into adopting one of them!

Read More

DOGS DESERVE BETTER

There are tons of different kinds of rescue groups, and in fact, there are so many of them that I can't possibly tell you about them all.  Whenever there is something that needs to be rescued, like a guinea pig or a wild horse or a parrot, someone has probably made a group to rescue it.  And even within certain types of rescue groups, such as groups that rescue dogs, there are specialized kinds of rescue.  And that's what the group I'm going to talk about today does.  They rescue dogs that have been living all chained up in their yards.

This group is called Dogs Deserve Better, and they have representatives all over the country who are trying to get dogs out of bad situations where they have to live in small pens or else are chained up all the time.  Also the group tries to get laws passed that will make it illegal to tether your dog, or at least to tether it for more than maybe three hours at a time.  Oh, and guess what else the group is doing:  they are going to buy Michael Vick's Bad Newz Kennels and turn them into a Good Newz Rehab Center for dogs that have been chained or penned!

Personally, I don't understand why anybody would get a dog and then tie it out in the yard and never let it come in the house.  This just seems WRONG to me because clearly a dog should be sleeping in a nice, soft bed, especially on cold nights.  But some people keep their dogs outside all the time, day and night.  This can make a dog feel really crazy because there he is, with a chain that is only maybe 6 feet or 8 feet long.  And the dog can't go any further than the length of that chain without choking himself or having the chain dig into his neck.

Then in the winter it gets really cold outside, and in the summer, it's really hot.  The dog may not have much shelter from this yucky weather, so sometimes dogs freeze to death or die of heat stroke.  Also they might not have as much water as they need, or they might knock their water over.  And sometimes people who chain their dog outside forget to feed the dog or give the dog fresh water or play with the dog.  So dogs that are chained up might starve to death or they might strangle themselves if their chain gets tangled up or if they try to jump over a fence.

Another thing that happens with dogs on a tether is that they don't get socialized, so they can be really aggressive, especially if someone comes into their space.  And sometimes kids are mean to chained-up dogs, and cruel people might steal the dogs or shoot at them or torture them or poison them.  These poor dogs can't get away because of the chain, so they are scared all the time and that makes them want to bite anybody who comes close.  There have been some studies that showed that chained dogs are three times more likely to bite than dogs who are not chained.

Also, wild animals can attack dogs that are chained up, and if a female dog is in season, she will get visits from all the male dogs in the neighborhood, and then there will be a litter of unwanted puppies.  Besides that, dogs who live on chains usually don't get proper medical care.  And they have to live all alone, even though dogs are very social animals who like to live in packs.  So that's another sad thing to think about.

Anyway, Dogs Deserve Better does a lot of work to help get dogs off of their chains and make life better for them.  DDB lets groups from all around the country put links on their site to show the dogs that are now available for adoption after living on a chain before.  There are other organizations who are working to get dogs unchained, too, especially by trying to get laws passed.  For example, the ASPCA does this, and so does PETA.

So if you know somebody who keeps their dog on a chain, maybe you can talk to that person and try to convince them that the dog would be lots happier living inside.  And you might also tell the person that dogs who bond with their families make much better guard dogs than dogs that are left outside to "guard" the house.  If this person doesn't listen to you, it might be time to call your local animal control officer.  Either that or you should bite this person on the ankle, which is what I would do!  Because dogs don't belong on chains, and if there is anything you can do to help make life better for one of these dogs, please do it!

Read More

BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY

Best Friends is a really cool organization that does a ton of stuff to help make life better for animals.  The Vision Statement of the Best Friends Animal Society is A better world through kindness to animals.  And their Mission is No More Homeless Pets.




Back in the 1980s, when Best Friends was first getting started, about 17 million dogs and cats got killed in shelters every single year.  The people who founded Best Friends thought they could do something about this situation, so that's what they set out to do.  They started a grassroots movement to help people all over the country see that lots of "unadoptable" animals really could find good homes.  Also they wanted everybody to see how important it was to spay and neuter their pets so that more unwanted animals didn't get born.

Best Friends Animal Society built a sanctuary in a place called Angel Canyon, which is near Kanab, Utah. Kanab is by the south edge of Utah, and the nearest big city is Las Vegas.  In that part of Utah, there are lots of pretty rocks and cliffs and canyons and sandstone.  And because there is so much nice scenery, there are several National Parks there.  Mom has been to some of these parks, but I haven't been there.  I have mostly only been to Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

So anyway, Best Friends has grown a lot during the years.  They get all their money from donations, and they have built a whole bunch of nice buildings in Angel Canyon at their sanctuary.  They also do a lot of education, like by offering workshops, training, internships, and conferences.  All of this education is to help other groups set up shelters and do spay/neuter programs and stuff like that.

Another thing Best Friends does is help out when there is an emergency or a disaster.  After Hurricane Katrina, they helped rescue hundreds of dogs and cats.  Also they have helped out with animal hoarding or failed shelter situations.  And they took in more than 20 of Michael Vick's pit bulls.

At any one time, there are about 2,000 animals at the Best Friends Sanctuary.  Many of these animals get adopted, but sometimes they have to stay there a long time until they are ready to go to a new home, like for instance if they are really shy or sick or something.  And sometimes they can never be adopted, for some reason, and these animals are welcome to just live the rest of their lives at Best Friends.

Lots of people go to the Sanctuary to take a tour.  And they can even stay for a few hours or a few days and volunteer.  There are lots of things to see and do at Best Friends, and that's why people like to go there.  Here are some of the main places you can see in the Sanctuary:

DOGTOWN
The dogs get to live in packs, and they can dig holes or do whatever without getting yelled at.  Also there is training and socialization and agility equipment to play on.  Volunteers can take the dogs for walks or even for sleepovers in a guest cabin.

One part of Dogtown is called "Old Friends," and that is where the older dogs live, and they will be taken care of for the rest of their lives.



There is also a TV show about Dogtown, and it is very interesting because it tells the story of some of the dogs that end up at Best Friends and what happens to them.

CAT WORLD
Cat World has a bunch of different parts to it.  First there is "Happy Landings," where cats first get used to being at the Best Friends Sanctuary.  Then the cats that are friendly and nice can go to one of the "Adoption Houses."  Kittens live in "The Nursery."  Then there is the "TLC Cat Club," which is where cats live that have something wrong with them, like maybe they are blind or only have 3 legs or are FIV positive. And the last part is "Wildcats Village," which is for feral cats who don't have anyplace to live anymore on the streets, but they can't live in a home because they don't trust people enough.

HORSE HAVEN
There are horses, burros, mules, goats, and sheep in this area.  Some of the horses can be ridden, but others are just meant to be pets.  There is a special pasture for the older horses, with flat land so they don't have to go up any hills.

PARROT GARDEN
There are all sizes and types of birds in the Parrot Garden, plus some other exotic pets.  Some of these birds can live to be 80 years old, so if their human dies, they are left without a home, and that's how they might end up at Best Friends.

BUNNY HOUSE
About 130 rabbits live here.  They are house rabbits that couldn't stay in their homes anymore, and most are available for adoption.

PIGGY PARADISE
There are more than a dozen pigs, and they are mostly pot-bellied pigs, which are very smart and clean and make good pets.  The pigs have houses and condos to live in, shrub gardens, and special play areas.

WILD FRIENDS
This area is for wild birds and animals that are hurt, and when they are all well, they are put back into the wild so they can go on with their lives.  The people who work in this part of the Sanctuary know how to take care of wildlife, and they try not to "tame" the birds or animals while they are there.  Sometimes there is a bird or animal that can't go back to being wild, for some reason, and then it can stay at Best Friends forever.

THE CLINIC
Several vets work at the clinic and do all sorts of surgery and treatment to help animals get well again.  Some animals come to Best Friends because other groups couldn't afford to treat them or didn't know how.  In this picture, a dog named Richie is getting examined.  Richie fell out of a truck and broke his hips.  After he got all healed up again, he was adopted.

There are many interesting stories at Best Friends.  You can go to their website and read the success stories.  Or you can go to the Guardian Angel page and find out how some of the animals are doing that have special problems.

Mom would like to go visit the Best Friends Sanctuary sometime, but she doesn't know when she will go.  Maybe when she does, I can go along, too.  I think I would like that!

Read More

NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED®

Seabiscuit

Maybe you have gone to see a movie, and in the movie it looked like an animal got hurt or even killed.  And maybe you were upset about this, but then at the end of the film, guess what!  It says "No animals were harmed® in the making of this film."  And then you feel lots better.

But did you ever wonder how a filmmaker protects the animals in the movie and gets to use that special registered trademark phrase saying that none of them were harmed?  Well, it's all because of the American Humane Association, which is the same group I mentioned yesterday that is celebrating Be Kind to Animals Week.  The AHA spends a lot of time worrying about animal abuse and also about child abuse, and they try to make everything better for both animals and for kids.

Hachi: A Dog's Tale

One very important thing that the AHA does is they can supervise the making of a movie and make sure no animals get hurt during the filming.  The AHA has lots of people who are trained to work on movie sets, and they consult with the director and actors and everybody to figure out how to get certain effects without anybody getting injured.  The AHA is the film industry's only official group for doing this kind of thing, so if filmmakers care about their animal actors, they will use this group.  Otherwise, they might get in trouble with animal-rights activists and the public.

101 Dalmations

In 1972, the American Humane Association first started putting out a newsletter called the National Humane Review, and in it they told people how animals had been treated in recent films.  At first, they just had two ratings:  Acceptable and Unacceptable.  Later on, they put out a set of guidelines for filmmakers to use and they also monitored filming, if they were asked to.  Before 1980, there were 107 films rated Unacceptable.  Then between 1980 and 1988, after the guidelines came out, 31 films were Unacceptable.  After 1988, only 16 films got that bad rating.

True Grit

Every year the AHA Film and TV Unit monitors about 1,000 filmed productions, both in the U.S. and in other countries.  Now a film can get an even better rating than Acceptable, and this rating is Monitored:  Outstanding.  Also the film gets the "no animals harmed" end credit.  Sadly, sometimes an accident happens that causes an animal to get hurt or even killed during the making of a film.  In this case, the AHA does an investigation, and if they decide the guidelines were followed, they rate the film Monitored:  Special Circumstances.

Water for Elephants

One movie that just came out has a whole bunch of animals in it, and this movie is Water for Elephants.  Mom read the book, and she wants to see the movie very soon.  I'd like to see the movie, too, because it has a Jack Russell terrier in it.  But dogs can't go into movie theaters, so I will have to wait and see the movie on DVD or HBO.  Anyway, if you want to see how the AHA helped keep all the animals safe while this movie was getting made, you can go here:  http://www.americanhumanefilmtv.org/water-for-elephants/   They explain how the elephant who plays the part of Rosie, and whose real name is Tai, got trained by positive reinforcement methods.  And also there is a little video about the making of the film.

So I just want to end this by saying that if I am ever in a movie, I hope the AHA is there to make sure I don't get hurt, and that I am allowed to take plenty of naps while I'm on the set.  But first I will have to find an agent to get me some auditions for nice, juicy roles!

Read More

BE KIND TO ANIMALS WEEK

Yesterday was the first day of Be Kind to Animals Week, which is a very important event that happens every single year.  The American Humane Association started Be Kind to Animals Week way back in 1915, and it is a time for humans to think about how much animals mean to them.  Also it is a good time to teach children to be nice to animals.  Of course, it's perfectly okay to be kind to animals any other week of the year, but sometimes it helps to have a special time for thinking about stuff like this.

Anyway, the American Humane Association says there are some very good ways that people can be kind to animals, and here is their list:

1.  Speak out for animals.  This might mean trying to get laws passed that are friendly to animals, or protesting puppymills or something like that.

2.  Report animal abuse.  Usually there is somebody like an animal control officer or a humane society that you can tell if you see an animal being mistreated or neglected.

3.  Appreciate wildlife.  Personally, I appreciate the squirrels and rabbits that we have in our yard because we can chase and maybe catch them, but Mom says that is not exactly the right kind of appreciation for Be Kind to Animals Week.

4.  Adopt a pet from a shelter or rescue.  Of course, I am always telling you to do this because I know how important it is for homeless dogs and cats to get adopted.  And what better time could there be for taking home a new pet than during Be Kind to Animals Week?

5.  Take care of your pet.  This means you should give your pet lots of healthy food and a nice, warm place to sleep.  Also you should get vaccinations and other medical care for your pet.

Okay, now you know what you should be thinking about this week, which is all the ways you can be kind to animals, especially dogs and cats.  I've decided that this would be a good week for me to write some blog entries about groups that spend all their time being kind to animals, because there are quite a few of these groups, so you can look forward to reading about them.

Read More

DANDELIONS

On Friday, Mom mowed the back yard, and while she was mowing, she started thinking about dandelions, and she told me that dandelions might be a good subject for a blog entry.  But before she told me that, and while she was still mowing, a bunch of dirt and stuff blew in her eye, even though she was wearing some of those funny-looking safety glasses.  And when Mom was trying to get the dirt out of her eye, she rubbed too hard and ended up with something called a corneal abrasion.  Which means that her eyeball got scratched and it hurt a lot.  So Mom had to go to Urgent Care and have the doctor look at her eye and give her a prescription for some eye drops, and now her eye is feeling lots better.

But anyway, I'm telling you all this because even though I am not terribly interested in the subject of dandelions, I feel sorry for Mom, so I said I would go ahead and write about these pesky plants.  And the first thing I will tell you is that most people think dandelions are annoying weeds that shouldn't grow in their lawns.  And then I will tell you that dandelions are part of the aster family, which makes sense if you think about the fact that aster flowers look kind of like a dandelion flowers.

The fancy scientific name for the common dandelion is Taraxacum officinale, but most people just call them dandelions.  In French, the phrase dent de lion means "lion's tooth," and that is where our word dandelion comes from.  If you look at a dandelion leaf, you will see that it has edges that are shaped like teeth, but these teeth don't really bite.  In fact, dandelions are plants that you can eat every part of without getting sick, and dandelions can even be used for medicine.  Dogs don't usually eat dandelions, but people do, and so do caterpillars.

During all the many years that dandelions have been around, there have been lots of different English common names for the plant.  Some of these names are:  blowball, lion's-tooth, cankerwort, milk-witch, yellow-gowan, Irish daisy, monks-head, priest's-crown, puff-ball, faceclock, and swine's snout.

Dandelions grow pretty much everywhere in the world, and that's because they can grow in all kinds of soil and also they make bunches and bunches of seeds.   One dandelion head has between 54 and 172 seeds on it, and one dandelion plant can make more than 5,000 seeds in one year.  The seeds get blown by the wind, and they can go several hundred yards before they land.  Also they can hang around for a few years before they even sprout.  So if you are wondering why it's so hard to get rid of the dandelions in your yard, this is the reason.

You can eat dandelion leaves raw, like maybe in a salad.  Or you can cook them and make dandelion greens.  The leaves have lots of vitamin A, vitamin C, and more iron and calcium than spinach has.  Dandelion flowers can be made into wine.  Also, in Belgium, the flowers are used to make an ale called Pissenlit, which means "wet the bed" in French.  Oh, and you can also make jam or a type of syrup out of dandelion flowers.  Plus the roots can be ground up and roasted to make a substitute for coffee.

In Canada, dandelion root is a registered drug, and it is sold as a diuretic, which is something that makes you pee a lot.  The leaves can be made into a sort of drink that helps treat anemia, jaundice and nervousness.  You can use the white sap of the plant as a mosquito repellent or as a folk remedy for warts.  Also you can get a yellow or green dye from dandelion flowers.  A brand-new use for dandelion root sap that scientists are studying is to make rubber out of it.  This rubber would be just as good as the rubber made from trees, but it would be cheaper to make.

So anyway, dandelions are really pretty nice plants, even though nobody likes them.  And now I wrote a whole blog entry about them, which should make Mom happy.  It's always a good idea to make Mom happy because otherwise she might forget to feed us!

Read More