Dear animal lover readers,
It’s been a while since I’ve written a post! Life has taken quite a turn and kept me busy!
As a quick update on Kahlua who had a knee surgery as a result of a torn ligament, she is doing well! Now running and playing at the dog park with the best of them! Going through surgery was hard, the recovery was even harder, but the reward is fantastic!
With Christmas around the corner, as a family that only has children on 4 paws, we don’t have to think too much about gifts. But the question came up this week where my boyfriend and I wondered if we should buy our furry babies Christmas gifts. We usually do and they are a huge part of our life. But we came to the conclusion that they have everything they need or even could want. A basket full of toys, treats in abundance, food, comfy beds and even clothing!
This year, if you are faced with the same thing, don’t forget your local shelters! Prepare a gift for another dog in need in the name of your own! If they could speak, that’s what they would want!
Many shelters offer several ways to donate in the name (or to the memory) of your pet (sponsor a kennel, monthly giving, etc.) and would be more than happy to review those options with you.
Visit www.frederictonspca.ca to find out more or go to http://www.spca-nb.ca/ to find your local New Brunswick shelter.
This Christmas, give a gift to a furry friend in need!
The more actively I volunteer for the SPCA, the more I feel like we are fighting an uphill battle. The reality is, every victory is currently considered the adoption of a pet. But, the more I think about it, this “victory” is really the result of the greater bigger issue. It seems as though we are actively fixing the issue, which consumes the greatest part of our budget and our efforts, but we don’t have time to fix the root cause.
In no way shape or form do I want to minizme the tremoundous effort of all shelters and humane orgainzations. The reality is, their dream is nothing short of wanting to have no reason to be.
The solution resides in education. Currently there are more unwanted dogs in proportion then there are appropriate available homes. Dogs need to be spayed and neutered to eradicate the issue. This cycle needs to be interruped at the source.
With this in mind, I wanted to dedicted this post to the advantages of spaying and neutring your dogs.
If I’m talking about human babies in my title, the world would be outraged, but when I explain that I’m talking about a human baby (New Baby) and a furry baby (Old Baby) people seem to let out a sigh of relief.
Strangely I have a problem with it just the same.
I am as outraged as I could be to think that parents to a newborn can choose to let go of their best friend, the one that loved them unconditionally for several years, just because the became “inconvenient”.
Man’s best friend doesn’t even give you up when you die! Most of you must have read the article about the dog in Brazil that stayed by their owner’s grave several days after the burial (the doggie is now adopted by a new loving owner, but that gives a new meaning to “never leave a man behind”). In my mind, this display of loyalety should make any owner ASHAMED of even thinking about giving up on their friend because training them to be around the new baby is “too hard”.
Please, new parents, don’t give up on your “Old Baby”. If you give them to another home, you will force them to re-adapt to a new pack. They will be confused. They will be lost. As much as you try to make sure they go a good home, you can never guarantee they will not be abused or unloved. It happens to often… unnecessarily.
In order to help you and any otherwise helpless new parents, I’ve gathered information from various sources that allow you to train your old AND your new baby. To ensure the entire family can stay together.
FOR DOGS:
How to introduce your dog to your new baby - As per Caesar Milan himself!
You have multiple pets… You think it’s going to be harder? Not at all!
Introduce your baby to your dog gradually
FOR CATS (My blog is about dogs… but it happens too often to cats as well):
I hope this information helps you will keep your ENTIRE family together, and happy!
Spay/Neuter your pets!
Thank you so much to all my readers who took the time to reply to my last post.
Shannon from DunRoamin (friend them on Facebook!!) shared great insight. She sees it first hand and definitely would have lots to share in terms of knowledge. Take a second to read her comment before I continue on with the post:
“The fact of the matter is that there is an endless supply of dogs. Asking where they came from makes no difference. People abuse purebreds as readily as they do mutts.
Yes, spaying and neutering will help control the pet population. If all pets HAD to be spayed and neutered then people wouldn’t sit in the parking lot of stores with boxes of puppies to give away.
And as for laws, there are laws. But laws are no good unless they are enforced. People need to stand up for our voiceless friends. They need to tell their families, their friends, and their neighbors that abuse will not be tolerated. People need to REPORT abuse, not sit around and complain about it. And people need to be ready to leave their names with the RCMP or SPCA when they report the abuse, otherwise the law can’t do their jobs.
So please, continue to write blogs, post notices on facebook, support your local SPCA. Post flyers in neighborhoods that advocate unchaining dogs. Every person who you rub off on will be 1 more person who treats animals with compassion and respect.”
I’m still, at this point, wondering what I can do as one individual.
Most of my friends and family have adopted pets. I’ve made sure they are all spayed and neutered. I’m at my max capacity for furry family members and my own pets are spayed.
If I saw abuse, I would surely report it. Even if it was my own family… and my family knows that. I would leave my name with the authorities in a heart beat!
I volunteer at the SPCAs. I donate and re-facebook their messages when they have special events.
That leaves me with the fact that I still want to do more.
The key, as per my fantastic followers, seems to be to ensure pets are spayed and neutered. I will commit to contacting my local SPCA and see if there is a way we can help in that regard. That would reduce the volume of dogs needing homes and abandonned. Maybe we can work together to put an infrastructre in place that supports spaying and nutering pets that aren’t homeless to avoid some of the issue from happening.
As for puppy mills, lots is being done on that front and I urge all of you to keep avoiding supporting them! DON’T shop at pet stores that sell dogs and only get your pets from rescue groups.
Thanks for reading! I will let you know what comes out of my meeting with the SPCA regarding a spaying and neutering program for non-abandoned dogs.
“My name is Duke and I’m abused.”
“My name is Lilly, well my owners mostly call me Damn Dog, and I don’t see many people from the dog house outside.”
“My name is … dog.. I think.. no one talks to me… It’s cold tonight… and my chain is really short… and tight.”
WHY?
Those are made up stories, but they are so real… My question is WHY? I solve problems for a living as a process improvement project manager, but this issue doesn’t seem to have an answer.
I have been reading rescue stories on the DunRoamin Stray-Rescue page on Facebook and I had to close it down. It is beyond my understand that people are capable of such cruetly to animals.
Dogs used to be free, like wolves, and live in packs. Then humans came along, “domesticated” them, asked them to live in their world. To beat them? to abuse them? to mistreat them? They are taking a pack animal, an animal destined to NEVER be alone, and leaving them outside, chained up. WHY?
As I was thinking about this issue I thought to myself that we surely needed to resolve the problem by continuing to take dogs out of bad homes. But then it dawned on me; that wouldn’t solve the problem. Those bad owners (a.k.a morons) will just get another dog and repeat the cycle. The real solution lies in PREVENTING them from getting a dog in the first place.
This led to this thought: Where are they getting those dogs?
Not from the SPCAs since SPCAs run background checks in most cases
Not from Pet Stores since those dogs are usually “pure bred” puppy mill dogs and cost a lot of money
So where?
I would LOVE to get comments from all my readers as to where they think those moron owners are getting dogs. If I could gather all the places where they are able to get those dogs, maybe a solution could be put together to eliminate that possibility for those idiots. Savings dogs by not allowing bad owners to get them in the first place. To me, that’s the key! PLEASE comment on this post to help me try to start finding a solution.
How can one possibly deal with such a terrible thing?
It’s not possible for me to yet describe the pain that must follow the loss of man’s best friend. At this point, although both of my lovely babies have had tough times with surgery, hip dislocation, etc. they are otherwise very healthy.
Today I read a post were a lady had to put her best friend to sleep because of a medical error by the vet. Those things happen to humans and can surely also happen to pets. The difference is that regardless of the quality of life a human would be left with after the medical error, the horrible decision of defining their destiny does not rely on our shoulders. With our pets, we have to define when pain is too great and it is a heavy burden to bear.
Once she had made the decision that her beloved best friend would not have any quality of life, she had to come to the conclusion that it was time to part ways. Her only consolation rested in the fact that she would tell the world what had happened so that her dog’s death would not be in vain. She would give tips on how to prevent this from happening to others.
This brought tears to my eyes and made me realize that, amongst the many difficult decisions we have to make in our lives, having the life of another living creature in our hands is probably the greatest. This is part of the commitment we make to our furry friend. Knowing that not many dogs have the chance of just crossing to the other side during their sleep, peacefully, I wanted to think of ways to prepare myself for this tough decision.
As a result, I make the commitment, to myself and to my dogs, that their passing will satisfy one thing. I believe that if they could write a will, if they could give away anything that they owned, they would want me to give their bed to another… they would want me to give their food dishes to another… they would want me to give their walks to another… they would want me to give my love to another…
The great life we all have together is not something all dogs are granted with. And if my dogs could speak, I believe they would ask me to give their legacy to another. I therefore decided that my only consolation in their leaving this world can be found in the fact that it will allow me to save another abused, unloved and abandoned animal from the concrete walls of a shelter. It will allow me to give all the love they’ve had to another.
This is the only thing they could put in their will if they could talk and write.
This promise is dedicated to my furry daughters, Kahlua and Lady.
As per my last post, my Shep. Mix had surgery for a torn crutiate ligament.
This post will simply serve as a follow-up (23 days post surgery).
First, she is getting great results from her vet follow-ups! She has lost a lot of muscle mass, but seems to be ahead of the curve in terms of recovery!
We have her (FINALLY!) on a semi normal “going out” schedule and she started her 5 mins walks 2x a day only 20 days after surgery!
Here are a few things I recommend in order to prepare for surgery:
BEDDING:
Ensure you have something thick and comfy for the furry baby. When they come home, they will spend a lot of time laying down and the cold floors (particularly in winter) because the cold will contribute to joint stiffness.
Use a crate or a pen to ensure the dog doesn’t have to much area to walk around. At the begining, only potty breaks will be allowed
ENTERTAINEMENT:
Ensure you have TONS of toys such as Busy Buddy or Kong to keep your dog entertained. Some dogs get so bored to be sleeping all day that they get depressed. You want to ensure you are prepared to at least keep their brain stimulated when their bodies can’t be.
You can also teach your dogs tricks or games that can be done while they lay down. For exemple, if your dog knows how to give the paw, it is not a stretch to teach them “Which Hand” (simply have a treat on one of your hands without them seeing. Put both hands in front of them closed and don’t open the hand until they put their paw on it. It usually doesn’t take long for a dog to catch on if they know how to give the paw) and that can entertain them (and you!) for hours.
**One word of caution here. If you are still feeding your dog full portions, be aware of the amount of treats you give because them gaining weight, if they have knee issues, is NOT an option!** You can use their own dog food for the games or to stuff in toys. If they won’t go for that, you could reduce the food intake and give some treats. Make sure to check with your vet.
SPECIAL MATERIAL:
At first my dog didn’t want to go outside at all… So I had to find a way to let her do her business inside. I bought puppy training pads and we figured it out from there. There is a lot of groups and information out there if you are having any type of issue like this.
Essentially be prepared to possibly have to get some “random” things you would not normally need for your doggie.
Last words:
My recommendation is to find a good vet.. Someone that will go through all the pros and cons with you and make you reach a decision at your own pace that you feel comfortable with.
If you are not comfortable with the solution suggested, get a second opinion.
My Shep mix has been going through some rough time so we’ve been away from the blog. It’s time for a new post, but it will be a “more to come” post. At this point, we have a diagnosis: The ACL is torn. This happened in March 2010 and we haven’t had surgery. The thought process? There are several options available and a rash decision is definietly not in the books when it comes to my furry babies.
With a torn ACL your options are:
- Conservative Management
- Surgery
Once you choose a method, you have to commit to the time, effort and attention it deserves. Because I’m not a big proponent of surgery in life in general if at all avoidable, we chose Conservative Management. What that meant was that we were to try to build the scar tissue around the knee joint in a way that would avoid slipping of the bones. This was going very well! After the initial tear on March, we took a good two months without any heavy activities.
After being really careful we were finally able to have regular walks again! We were avoid all running and jumping still in October, but we were doing very well! The dog was walking with no pain! Then….. she slipped…. That damaged her cartilage and we ended up in a very painful situation.
This happened in October and led us to move to the surgery option.
Her Cruciate Repair surgery will happen on Dec. 1st. We will then have a long recovery time. The road will not be easy, but we are committed to it.
What is my experience so far?
I’ve doubted myself EVERY step of the way. We had a lot of set backs, I’ve wondered if I was doing the right thing, I’ve wondered if she was on too many medications, I’ve debated if I should force her to go out or let her trust her own body… EVERY step of the way I’ve had doubt. From one moment to the next, I have a new battle to fight. I have a new issue to solve. I have a new decision to make.
All I can say is “hang in there”. One thing I was always sure of is that my furry baby is worth it. Worth any stress, any upsetting moments, every tear. It would be great if the road was never full of speed bumps, but that’s not how it is. We are in this together, for the good and the bad.
If you have a Lab, you have most certainly had to deal with the ingestion of foreign material… They are more curious than we could ever imagine!
It is our responsibility to not leave “temptation” in front of them… But they eat some things we would never imagine would interest them.
Most people that read that would think that if we have such a dog, it should be crate trained for its own safety… To a degree I could agree with that. Both of our dogs are crate trained, but they now “earned” the run of the house when we are gone.
But TONIGHT! Our Lab ate; with us right there, a nylon cable that was attached to a toy. We were RIGHT there! I knew she was chewing on the toy… but I never thought anything of it, until she proudly shows me the last little piece of rubber that was left of it…. I take it from her mouth and start looking EVERYWHERE for the remains of the toy. Nothing…
One thing was sure; the time it took her to eat it meant she didn’t chew it. It’s about 15cm long… meant for tugging with Kahlua… not eating.
Here’s the tip of the night. If you realize right away that your dog ingested something, you can give them 1tsp of salt. Drop it right in their throat and hold their snout to make sure they swallow. Give it no more than 10 mins and your dog will be throwing up. I’m not a vet, so obviously it is your own judgment if that’s the best call rather than calling the vet. If what they ate is poison, call the emergency vet line. But I just thought that could be a helpful tip for owners of dog explorers.
I’ve had a dream for years now.
I would love to be able to one day have a dog rehabilitation centre. Be a little like Caesar Millan… Try to make a difference in the dog world. I believe that dogs can learn from us on how to adapt in the world, but dogs also need other dogs.
If you have a perfectly well balanced dog, it can teach others to behave in the human world. For example, I’ve had my Shep. Mix (Kahlua) for several years now and she is now as trained as I want her to be. She behaves like a perfect lady in a room full of people, she walks perfectly on a leash, she waits for her food politely and she obeys commands on a dime, regardless of how excited she is. Now… She still does the odd thing that people would think might not be perfect, but the point is, now our lives are perfectly in sync. I just so happen to not care that her nails scratch the ledge of my windows when she climbs up to look out. Or that she goes on the couch when we’re not home. This is all a question of perspective. All in all, she fits our life.
What now? Well, Kahlua is now very involved on what has been my Lab’s (Lady) journey to stability. When Lady came into our life she was a lovely and beautiful mess… but a mess nonetheless. She had too little exercise, not enough direction, slightly too much food and lacked greatly in the discipline department. Lady was at a level where sit meant nothing if you didn’t have a treat in your hand. She had NO idea that we were the boss. No idea that snatching a piece of meat off the counter was not acceptable. If I got mad at Lady and gave a command in a stern voice, she was wagging her tail and acted as if I wanted to play. She clearly had no idea what mad meant in human.
One thing she always understood was “dog”. This is where Kahlua played a huge part. Kahlua was able to tell her when the things she was doing were unacceptable. She became Lady’s mother. We would walk Lady between Kahlua and I. Kahlua guiding her steps and teaching her, like she would’ve a puppy. Kahlua would sit between Lady and her food (unless I told Kahlua to do otherwise) to ensure Lady would wait for my command to eat. She would take toys away and “tell” Lady when it was time to sleep or to relax. She would guard food that would fall on the floor… not eating it herself, but simply telling Lady she couldn’t dive on it… unless I said so. Lady is now on her way to also be perfectly adapted to our human lifestyle. Kahlua has now moved back from “telling” Lady what to do because Lady now understands “English”. So if you are the pack leader and your dog is perfectly adapted, maybe it’s time to save another dog’s life… Adopt: www.spca.com
