pet connection

Seems as if I’ve been given a lifetime of change in a very short time.

After a year of counseling together, my husband of almost four years and I decided that we were better off not being together. Details spared, Pat and I are trying to work out a loving, supportive arrangement for our 9-month-old daughter, Reagan, who is the love our lives. Pat’s parents went through a divorce when he was young, and we both hope to spare Reagan the worst of what can happen by making our separation one where we can still speak highly of each other, be supportive and stay friends. We both dread not having our daughter with us all the time, but this is a challenge we must meet.

There was also the issue of our pets. Our two pugs, Willy and Bruce, have been buddies since they were puppies but they both seem to prefer our company even to each other’s. Each dog had long ago picked out on which one of us he belonged to: Willy has always been my shadow, and Bruce has been Pat’s play buddy. We followed their lead, and so a couple weeks ago as I moved back to North Idaho, I left Bruce with Pat. And yes, I cried, but it was the right decision for him, and for Pat. I have had Bruce here since while Pat visited family, and they love being reunited. But I know it’s temporary, even if they do not.

But Willy is friendless no more. I was checking out the PetFinder.com application, which I’d downloaded on my iPhone, more out of curiosity for the new program than for anything else. The first dog who popped up was a Pomeranian named Mister Teddy Bear, age 10. He was older than I would have once considered adoptable, but I know far better now. I couldn’t resist his sweet puppy-faced picture, and I passed the iPhone around to my family to share.

We all talked about him, and we all knew that I could make the rest of Teddy’s life as loved and well-cared for as possible. I called and was delighted to hear that he had a “therapy dog personality” and loved everyone, including children and other pets. I had to meet him, and the rescue group set a time to come over to my new home.

I opened the door to a happy fluff ball who looked like a husky puppy, and when he looked up I could see why he was named “Mister Teddy Bear’ — his round, chocolate eyes and his roll- polly body covered with fuzz that made him look like Reagan’s stuffed bear. Teddy attached himself to me like a conjoined twin as I talked to the adoption representatives about him.

I found out that Teddy had been on Craig’s List needing a new home, and that he was in desperate need of veterinary care: To start, he needed to have all of his rotted, painful teeth removed from his years of neglect. The rescue group picked up Teddy as soon as they saw the ad, and they found his condition worse than they’d anticipated. His hair was so matted that what looked to be part of his chin was actually a mass of fur, plastic, food, and other debris. The mat had been on Teddy’s body for so long that it actually had become a part of him, and they needed to remove part of the skin and start him on antibiotics for an infection. In addition to the dental surgery (all but two teeth were to come out because those two were needed to keep his jaw from collapsing), he needed to be completely shaved because his hair was too tangled from years of not being brushed to get a comb through. He also had not been neutered.

“Teddy was a fighter and had a strong spirit,” Debbie and Catherine told me. After all the work on him was done, he was more energetic than ever.

We introduced Teddy to the pugs, and after a few sniffs of greeting, he was accepted into the family. The way Teddy acted so attached to me at our first greeting, comfortable in my home and with the pugs, it almost felt as if we’d met before, and I knew Teddy was mine.

After signing final adoption papers, Teddy officially became Mister Teddy Bear Becker, a dog who now had a forever home. Teddy is already sleeping on the bed, following me around like a second shadow behind Willy, and is sleeping under my desk right now as I write. Even if Teddy is small in stature and old in years, I am amazed at the warmth of spirit he has, and I feel all the more blessed that God has brought me Teddy for just the right change at just the right time.

In the spirit of change, I realize that Teddy will take different care from the pugs, who are young, healthy, and full of energy (and have all their teeth.) I will be training Teddy with the clicker, but, I realize many of the treats I use for Willy won’t work for Teddy, because he doesn’t have teeth to chew. Any suggestions from all of you for treats a toothless dog can eat? Also, Willy has way more energy than Teddy. Today on our walk I carried 8-pound Teddy for most of the walk, while WIlly surged forward with gusto. Any other wisdom from all you of you to share about balancing dogs of different ages and stages?

Yes, it’s a lot of change. I’ll soon be alone with my daughter, half as many pugs and a new heart dog named Teddy. Through faith, family, friendship and furry friends, life’s changes become that much more bearable, I know.

Did you ever wonder how activism happens?  How do the leaders and role models begin to make a difference in their communities? USA Today paints three portraits of people who saw a need that wasn’t being met, and decided that since action needed to be taken, they’d do it.

It all started a few years back when Tonja Robertson ferried the occasional cat to be neutered when the shelter where she volunteered needed transportation help.

Now the former gift-shop owner is a one-woman show responsible for hundreds of southern Indiana pets getting sterilized every year — preventing the births of thousands of unwanted kittens and puppies.

As founder (and organizer/orchestrator/driver) for the non-profit Spay Neuter Indiana Pets (SNIP), Robertson has distributed hundreds of discounted sterilization vouchers to mostly rural folks who had never spayed or neutered their dogs or cats. Moreover, twice a month she launches her military-precision pickup of animals at pre-arranged spots in three towns for people unwilling or unable to make a vet trip, traveling 205 miles between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., returning with sterilized animals.

“Often, the call comes from a person who started feeding one cat outside and then there’s a litter, and it quickly turns to 10, and the person is desperate,” Robertson says.

Last year more than 400 cats and dogs were sterilized because she made it happen (about 75% were cats); this year she anticipates 600.

If you think the problem is too big and you can’t do it all, just remember what Margaret Mead said:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Companies teaming up for adoptions: Do you have this week’s issue of Time Magazine? Check out the advertising insert. Petco, Iams, Hoover, PetFinder and Sargeants came together to publish an eight-page insert, cooperatively promoting responsible adoptions. Before you jump all over big conglomerates as being uncaring, remember they are capable of helping the greater community. (hat tip to KC Dog Blog for the link)

Animal health is tied to human health: When animals are sick, the threat to human health is increased. Translate that idea globally, and the mandate is clear: taking care of animals helps everyone. The Kansas City Star recounts a symposium of veterinarians, scientists and experts at the city’s Bartle Hall convention center.

Even animal diseases that don’t transfer to humans could cause billions of dollars in the damage to the U.S. economy in a matter of weeks. Barbara Drolet, a U.S. Agriculture Department microbiologist, said the country needs to spend more to diagnose animal diseases and to develop the ability to quickly produce vaccines.

“This is absolutely a threat to the United States,” Drolet said.

DC cabbies discriminating against blind people with service dogs: The Americans with Disabilities Act forbids cab drivers from discriminating against or charging a surcharge for passengers with service dogs. District of Columbia law says largely the same thing. Yet, the Washington City Paper highlights a study from the Equal Rights Center showing that’s exactly what’s been going on.

The Equal Rights Center study was based on 30 tests in the District. A blind person with a service dog was placed up the street so they would be seen by the cab driver first. A person who wasn’t blind and didn’t have a service dog stood on the same side of the street after the blind person. In 15 of the 30 tests, the cab driver drove past the blind person and picked up the sighted person without the dog. In three of the tests, the cab driver attempted to add a surcharge to the blind person’s fare for transporting the dog.

I have a hunch that D.C. might not be alone in this kind of discrimination.

Let’s just be humans leading training: I’ve been looking for an article like the one I found in DogStar Daily. A drawback of approaching dog training as a “dogs are wolves” issue, is that, in the words of the article, it’s

an insult to both dogs and wolves, and, advertises a complete misunderstanding of their most sophisticated social structure.

It’s a good article. Please read and discuss.

Bunny time!!

Monday is Labor Day, so I’ll be back with the next news wrap on Thursday the 9th. Have a great weekend.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credit: Charlie, Danese Kenon/The Star.

The FDA announced yet another salmonella-related pet food recall, this time of an Iams cat food intended to help control weight and hairballs in indoor cats. From the FDA press release (and no, it’s not on the Iams website yet, or if it is, I sure can’t find it):

The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is voluntarily recalling a small number of bags from a specific lot of one of its dry cat food products due to potential salmonella exposure.
No illnesses have been reported, and no other Iams pet food products are involved.

Only one code date is affected by this announcement:

Product Name	Version	Code Date	UPC Code
Iams Indoor Weight Control with Hairball Care dry cat food	6.8 lb bag	02304173 (B1-B6)	1901403921

The company successfully traced and retrieved nearly all of the affected product and estimates that fewer than 60 bags from this production run may have been purchased by consumers.

This production run was sold through a single retailer in the following states:  Illinois, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

Consumers who have purchased one of these few bags with the specific code date listed above should discard it.  For a product replacement or refund, please call P&G toll-free at 800-862-3332 (Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM EST).

The full release is here.

Scout, the golden retriever puppy I’ve been watching for friends, goes home to Southern California on Friday. He has been a pleasure to have around, an adorable ball of fluff who’s also smart and outgoing. Scout is going to be a great family dog and a wonderful companion to Ryan, the family’s 7-year-old.

Two days ago, Scout was joined by Sport, a flat-coated retriever puppy of about the same age. Sport’s breeder is a friend of mine, and she needed him to get some city socialization while waiting for a minor heart murmur to resolve. Her veterinarian believes it will, but of course he can’t go to a forever home until the full extent of the condition is known. His breeder didn’t want him to stay on her property when he needed to continue his social development and training without his mom at his side.

As you can imagine, the two 10-week-old puppies became immediate BFFs.

While Scout will surely miss his playmates here, I’ve no doubt he’ll be happy to have his own boy, and vice versa. And Sport? There’s a great family in his future, too — they just don’t know it yet.

Their names are too much alike, though, and I’ve started referring to them collectively as “Spout.” Or just, “Da Boys.”  What a darling pair:

After all these years, Larry Bird has developed a strange fascination with Bella. He’s always watching her, and frequently jumps off his cage to walk over to her, then tries to bite her. He did this the other day while I was on the phone. I kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn’t try to play bitey-face, and when I was done with the call picked him up to return him to his perch. That’s when I noticed the blood dripping onto the floor. I guessed he had broken a blood feather when he jumped down, but I didn’t know what to do for it (Larry is my most trouble-free pet), so off we went to Serrano Animal and Bird Hospital. (For once, a pet emergency was during the day. Hallelujah!)

When birds molt–lose their old feathers–the new feathers coming in have a blood supply that provides nutrients while the feather is growing. The developing feathers can be fragile, so a broken blood feather is a common problem in pet birds. Larry’s veterinarian, Scott Weldy, says cockatiels are especially prone to broken blood feathers, but they can happen to any bird. Common precipitating events are flying into a wall, window or ceiling fan or, as in Larry’s case, taking a Geronimo leap off a cage.

So that I could avoid an emergency veterinary visit in case this happens again, Dr. Weldy showed me how to grasp the blood feather at its base and gently pull it until it pops out of the socket that it’s growing out of on the wing.

“If you jerk it out you’ll hurt the wing,” he says, “but if you put a little pressure on it for a moment or two, usually that will stop the bleeding. That traumatizes the feather follicle the least and will stimulate a new feather to be grown in place of the one that was just pulled out. If you keep a little gentle pressure on it, usually within five minutes they will stop bleeding and they’ll do fine.”

Be careful not to apply too much pressure. If the blood isn’t able to circulate, it can’t bring new clotting factors and platelets to the wounded area to stop the bleeding.

Larry had splattered quite a bit of blood on the inside of his crate during the five-minute ride to the clinic, so just to be on the safe side, Dr. Weldy gave him some fluids.

“It’s an easy preventive measure,” he says. “It’s not necessary in all cases. Usually when I see birds that have blood all over the place or if their skin looks dry and tacky to me–it should be supple–I’ll give fluids.”

As long as we were talking, I thought I might as well ask about other types of bird injuries. Traumas such as flying into frying pans, toilets, mirrors and ceiling fans are the most common incidents Dr. Weldy sees. Besides feather injuries, cockatiels are also prone to egg-laying problems and what Dr. Weldy calls “split butt.” That’s when a usually young cockatiel jumps off his cage and touches down on his tail, hyperextending it and splitting the skin open. Because there are two large muscles on the rear end, it can look as if the bird has a large tumor.

“People say ‘My bird is bleeding from his rear end and he’s got this big tumor there,’ and when you look at it, it’s just that the skin got split,” Dr. Weldy says. “It’s fairly easy to fix and it has a really good success rate. I just put a little local anesthetic on it and suture them back up.”

Larger or heavier birds such as African greys and Amazon parrots are more likely to split the skin on the chest when they hit the ground. Those injuries are a pain to repair because birds tend to pick at the sutures.

“Can you put little e-collars on them?” I asked.

I was joking, but apparently they exist. Dr. Weldy likes to use plumbers pipe insulation wrapped with tape to make a foam tube collar, which keeps the bird from bending his neck down but still allows him to turn his head and see clearly. It’s a trick he picked up from Bay Area avian specialist Brian Speer, coauthor with our own Gina Spadafori of Birds for Dummies, probably something I should read.

With the words, “He’s a nice bird” ringing in my ears, I took Larry home, and he is back to staring at Bella while she eats or sleeps beneath his cage. What an odd couple.

Image: bloodfeathers, from the Quaker Parakeet Society website.