A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
One Friday afternoon I decided to go into our local city animal control shelter. I was there taking pictures of a couple of dogs that needed rescue. I finished up and was walking towards my car when something in my heart pulled me in a different direction. I found myself knocking on the door of the rescue coordinator’s office. I peaked in and asked if there were any urgent doggies that needed help.
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June ended with me still having nineteen kittens and one mother cat. The amount of work required to maintain all these cats and still have a nice smelling house is staggering. Up at 6 a.m. to feed and scoop, which takes about two hours. I generally hit the sack around midnight. Why so late? Because in addition to taking care of the kittens, I have a ton of other things to do each day. I have several “side hustles” to pick up some extra cash, a home and yard to maintain, and ongoing TNR projects. You know, a life, lol! But I take my rescue efforts very seriously. I am aware that some people may think I’m “crazy” to do so much work “for nothing.”
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Miri Meadow, called Mayzee by her foster mom Sheron, is about twelve years old and is a petite girl at about ten pounds.
Sherron says Mayzee is very sweet. She follows Sherron everywhere, always looking up at her. Although Col. Potter Rescue doesn’t know a lot about her background, Sherron guesses she was picked up on the street either having gotten lost or discarded by previous owners. She is afraid of loud noises and suffers from separation anxiety.
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In the world of rescue, it is like a battlefield between rescue groups and Animal Control. It’s a pretty simple battlefield: rescue groups want to save a life from being ended at a kill shelter. In the eyes of a rescue group, Animal Control kills perfectly healthy animals with just a few days to make it out of kill shelters. But people keep dumping their pets at high-kill shelters knowing they may die within three to seven days once they have been left there. From our perspective, we see the staff as heartless humans who take a life of a healthy animal. So, speaking of Animal Control in a positive manner is uncommon in the world of rescue.
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Gerard is a mixed breed Col. Potter rescue that his foster mom, Eilene, thinks is part terrier and part Golden Retriever. But, she says he’s too silly to be a Gerard, so Eilene calls him Ratty.
Ratty loves attention. He is very sweet, has no problem with other dogs, and enjoys greeting visitors.
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About a month ago, we were told of a little bulldog sitting alone in a back room at our local city shelter. She was in the kennel all alone, possibly blind and hours away from being euthanized. See this sweet girl had such a bad infection in her eyes that we weren’t even sure she had eyeballs! Somehow she ended up at the shelter and was never claimed and was too sick to be placed for adoption, so she sat quietly waiting for her time to end.
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The end of May was both uplifting and encouraging even with a hiccup or two. The day after I finished last month’s column, I stopped to feed my small colony and was perturbed to see a kitten. I had not seen any pregnant cats out there. One kitten turned out to be four kittens. They were scared, but it was clear that they were not feral. If they were born feral, there would be no way I would have been able to grab them by hand. Granted, I did have to crawl through some bushes, but I was not leaving any behind. Plus, they were flea-free, very unusual with cats born in the wild.
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Let’s talk about the pros and cons of adopting a senior versus a younger dog or puppy. Everybody loves puppies, I get it. I love puppies, you love puppies, your best friend just got a new puppy, and you’re beside yourself with jealousy. It makes sense the default choice when adopting a new dog is to go for the younger pup, however, you may be surprised by how rewarding it can be to adopt an adult dog, a senior dog to be exact.
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Hartigan grew up in a loving home with two parents who took him everywhere. However, as he grew older he developed some health problems which were difficult for the family because, with busy schedules, they had trouble handling his schedule of medications. In addition, they had a baby, and when the baby got more attention than Hartigan, the Scottie became quite jealous. So, when he bit the baby, the parents were ready to have him euthanized.
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Dogs can bring a lot of good to the community; therefore, it is our duty to build a society that embraces dogs and recognizes their essential role in our lives. When dogs are present, the people and the community thrive. When you take your Frenchie puppies out on a walk, people will stop you just to pet them. Dogs have been shown to bring a positive impact in communities; therefore, it is the duty of the community members to make it good for dog owners if they want to thrive. Here are some ways to do so.
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Freddie was rescued from CCSPCA, a high-kill shelter. A shelter staff member at CCSPCA texted me to tell me about Freddie who was being pulled to be euthanized that day. He wanted to see if I would help Freddie because he was such a sweet boy that was born with a crippled front leg. He was good with the litter box and got along fine with his leg being crippled. The shelter had tagged him to be euthanized deeming him as being unadoptable due to being infirm, or crippled. He was not this perfect cat for the shelter to be concerned with as being adoptable. As if cats coming into high-kill shelters are perfect purebred cats!
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As a volunteer with Rattie Ratz Rescue, a non-profit pet rat rescue located in the Bay Area of Northern California, I have witnessed first-hand the affects Covid has had on the running of a rescue. Of course, as soon as Covid became publicly known, keeping the volunteers and animals safe was the Board’s primary concern. All public events were canceled as soon as the shelter in place was ordered back in March 2020, and they will remain cancelled for some time to come.
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Bringing home a new puppy is an exciting time for your family! You have a new family member, but that family member requires a slightly different diet than the rest of you.
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I’ve always been an animal rescuer, as I imagine many animal lovers are. Butterflies with broken wings, sparrows fallen out of their nests, tarantulas upside down in the swimming pool. I “rescued” them all. But cats have always been special for me. I dragged home my first stray cat when I was five, a ginger/buff-colored guy who my father reluctantly let me “keep.” He spent nights in the basement as he was forbidden to sleep with me, which dismayed me greatly. But I outfoxed my father: I tiptoed down every night to sleep with the cat on the basement stairs. Anyhow, one night I was discovered, and the cat mysteriously disappeared.
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Meet little dolly Molly, she is a kitty who has a quiet elegance, a big heart, and an undemanding personality. She is independent, sits back to observe before exploring. Such a down-to-earth attitude is probably the result of being the single sister with three lively brothers who all have easy, undemanding natures, but love playtime and each other. Like them, this pretty sweetheart does love to leap and swing at toys on a wand, is especially fond of chicken, and can’t resist a tasty kitty treat! She has also gotten along with bigger cats and small dogs. A beautiful, silky black and white ensemble has her always looking dressed for success. What a devoted and adorable addition lovely Molly will be in a home where she will be given time to adjust to a new situation. How about your home sweet home? Molly is very shy and will need a lot of time to adjust to a new home, she is a little hissy with lots of attitude she would be a great friend for a current kitty and not much of a person cat. She loves other cats. Molly is available for adoption at their Blackstone Ave Petco Adoption Center, from Cat House on the Kings.