pet connection

Picture of Ghlaghghee (pronounced “Fluffy,” as I’m sure you all know) is from John Scalzi’s most wonderful blog, Whatever. I recognized John on the floor of the massive Book Expo America last year and introduced myself. We kinda-sorta know each other from our days working for Bees (him, Fresno; me, Sacramento) and from our time at AOL back in the day when working for AOL made you cool, not hopelessly 20th century.

John was gracious enough to look glad to see me, at least long enough to mention that he was late for a book-signing.

Since I’m stealing a picture from his blog, I need to say that I’m not a big reader of Sci-Fi, but John’s stuff is so intelligent, creative and funny that I have read it all. You should, too, so go check it out.

In any case, Ghlaghghee Scalzi is here to help me let everyone know we’re shutting down here until Sunday, so Christie and I can deal with our respective moms (mine’s coming home with her new knee on Saturday) and all our bloggers and readers can enjoy time away from the computer with friends and family.

Happy Fourth, everyone!

Last night my friend Shirley came over with her darling little Scooter, an 8-pound black fluff ball with malignant melanoma. That’s an aggressive cancer that was diagnosed a bit too late for Scooter to start the vaccine she could have had at the vet school. Scooter was diagnosed just a little over a month ago. At this point she has a large tumor that is visible on her lower lip. She is comfortable on pain meds, has an appetite, and enjoys running around and going for car rides. That could change any week or any day, or even any hour, but right now she’s comfortable.

Unfortunately, the poor girl smells bad, pungently so, even to someone with a poor sense of smell like me. Her breath is awful and she licks her paws a lot from allergies. She’s starting to pee in the house after having enjoyed a bionic bladder all her life. I sent some Pooch Pads home with them.

Shirley brought Scooter over last night so that I could help trim some of the Maltese/poodle mix’s hair around her mouth that’s been getting dirty. Cleaning it will help keep Scootie comfortable and avoid skin irritation. Shirley held her while I tried to cut and/or clip. Scootie is not at all happy about anyone getting near her mouth, for obvious reasons. We got some of the hair around her mouth trimmed - not as much as I’d like - and we stopped when she was clearly pretty stressed.

While we were doing that, I kept Dodger and Ginger outside to keep Scooter as calm as possible. When we were done, I let my dogs inside once Shirley thought it was okay. They ran into the living room and practically came to a screeching halt. Their reaction to Scooter was an amazing display of canine behavior. Ginger, who generally tells Scooter to leave her alone, backed off and nervously sat at my feet, staring at Shirley and Scooter with wide eyes. When they circled each other, Ginger was silent for the most part, and she wouldn’t get too close. When Scooter came to her, Ginger would back away.

Dodger, my sensitive English Setter who practically cries if you look at him cross-eyed, tried his best to hide from Scooter. He avoided her like the plague. Dodger skulked under the kitchen table and trembled. Then he skulked across the living room to sit next to me on the couch. At one point he gave wide birth to Scooter, ran to Shirley and said hi, and then came back to the couch in the same huge semi-circle. Scooter was feeling curious and hopped off of Shirley’s lap to go to the couch and say hi to Dodger. She reached up on her short toy legs and he pulled back as though he’d been slapped and curled into a ball in the corner of the couch, his face pointing away from Scooter. He was afraid of her - I felt his revulsion - and he couldn’t bear to interact with her. He couldn’t even look at her. My normally energetic dog was as still as could be, almost as if he were asleep even though he was awake.

Both of my dogs reacted completely differently to Scooter than they have before. They knew she was ill. We kept telling my dogs that it was okay that Scooter was sick, that it was part of the cycle of life, and that her pain is managed. Of course that did nothing but make me and Shirley feel better. Oddly enough, Shirley and I met when our mutual friend died of ovarian cancer at 48.

After they left, my dogs calmed down.

Here’s wishing Scooter good quality of life with whatever time she has left. She probably won’t make it to her 14th birthday this August, but as long as she’s happy and eating, she’ll be with us. When the time comes, I hope with all my heart that her passing will be peaceful. Given my dogs’ reaction, I suspect it will be sooner rather than later.

During a “lively” discussion of the use of e-collars following this post, there was an expansion into whether we needed to preserve a working dog who does a job some people don’t like: Hunt.

Why do we need retrievers from top-level hunting lines at all? some asked, arguing that hunting should be banned, anyway, so who needs the dogs who do that work?

Several folks pointed out that the drive, trainability, athleticism and focus of hunting-line retrievers was ideal for search and rescue work.

Well, guess what? It’s also good for something else.

This morning I’m listening to NPR, a story about the military’s bomb-sniffing dogs. The reporter describes a drill the handler is doing with his dog, a Labrador retriever.  I didn’t have to imagine this drill from the description of the reporter: I’ve seen it, in field training.

From NPR:

Lode is a black Labrador retriever; his tall, thin handler is Lance Cpl. Robert Leddy.

“We usually air them out before we start to work them, so they don’t go to the bathroom while we’re running them and stuff,” Leddy says.

“When he’s all done, he usually comes up to me and tells me he’s ready,” he adds.

Lode and Leddy are one of 13 bomb-detecting teams attached to the Marines’ 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, whose home base is Camp Lejeune, N.C. Their task is to help clear the roads of the deadly bombs that are taking a major toll on U.S. troops.

In one training exercise involving foot-long rubber batons called bumpers, Lode plays an impressive game of fetch. He follows whistles and arm signals like a border collie, going to the bumper Leddy directs him to, while ignoring the others.

The drill trains the dog to be able to approach a suspicious pile of gravel or a box near the road that could contain a bomb.

Dear NPR: That’s not “like a border collie” at all.  That’s like a retriever. And that drill is done every day by working hunting dogs.

Good boy, Lode. Keep saving lives.

Here’s the rest.

The dog that began my therapy dog volunteer work was an Australian Shepherd named Bear. My sister Mary renamed him Care Bear because he was so affectionate. Care Bear had such a loving soul that I felt the need to share that and therapy dog work seemed the perfect outlet.  Care Bear’s career began in 1984 and continued for ten years.

He was followed by several other dogs who were very good therapy dogs. Chocho, a Papillon, made people laugh. Dax, an Australian Shepherd, took her job seriously and gave love just as seriously. Riker, another Aussie,  is just as affectionate as Care Bear was and I semi-jokingly say that he is Care Bear reincarnated.

With the experience of training and handling several therapy dogs, I’ve had fun watching Archer on his first few visits as he learns what his new job is and how to handle himself. His first visit went very well; his second visit was great; and during his third visit this week I realized that I’m going to have another awesome therapy dog.

Archer is very intuitive and is quickly learning what persona to use with different people. I watched him become happy and bouncy with some people; calm and quiet with others; and serious with a few other people. He’s also figured out how to get people to pet him using a variety of techniques. With some people he rests his head on their knees and then stares at them until they pet him. With a few other people he stands sideways to the wheelchair and leans close. When people are unresponsive he has nosed a hand until the hand is resting on top of his head. And once during this week’s visit, I saw him play bow (head and forequarters low and hips high) and bounce in front of a man in a wheelchair until the man laughed and agreed to pet Archer.

So far, though, Archer is only visited two different facilities. One is a skilled nursing facility and the other is a day care center for seniors. After a few more visits, I’ll begin taking him to other types of facilities so I can see where he really feels comfortable.

Riker, my ten year old Australian Shepherd, visits with kids at an after school day care center for kids. He has a tendency to be a ‘bull in a china shop’ so is too rough for senior citizens or very young kids, but he does great with grade school age kids. He can take their rough play yet will also snuggle and cuddle if one child needs that. He will lie quietly next to a child if someone wants to practice their reading skills by reading to him. But then he’s always more than happy to play ball.

Bashir, my now five year old Aussie, began his therapy dog career when he was young but then I stopped because he didn’t appear to enjoy it. I won’t force a dog to do this work so stopped bringing him on visits. However, this past April a good friend of mine died of cancer and Bashir and I made a last visit to her (that post is the beginning of this series). Bashir made it very clear that he was grown up now and very willing and eager to do therapy dog work so we’ve resumed. I have found that he’s particularly attracted to older people so we’ll be visiting that population; probably at retirement or nursing facilities.

Who knows where Archer’s talents will lead him? I don’t know, and it will be an adventure to watch him grow up. He is obviously very good with senior citizens. He likes kids but I’m not sure how well he can control himself right now if kids get rowdy. That’s something we’ll have to discover. Archer does like to be the center of attention so I’m not sure he would be happy to lie still next to a reading child. Our group visits a physical therapy health center where the dogs take an active part in physical therapy and I think Archer might enjoy that so we’ll check that out.

This is the last of the weekly posts about Archer’s new therapy dog career, but I will post occasionally, especially if something exciting or different happens.  The adventure continues!

The bill now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, according to Save Our Dogs. The State Department of Finance opposes the measure because it would increase costs–an insane move when the state faces a projected $21.3 billion (yes, billion!) budget shortfall–so it’s hoped that the bill will die there, but that’s not something opponents can count on.

It’s not too late to call and write, according to Susan Hamil, a longtime Bloodhound breeder and dog judge who is involved with CHIC and AKC’s Canine Health Foundation and is outspoken and passionate when it comes to this type of legislation. (Full disclosure: Susan is my vet’s wife and we’ve been friends for years.) We spoke earlier today about the bill’s progress–it was being debated in committee while we talked.

Kim Thornton: So have you been in Sacramento lobbying against this bill? I know John is there, or was yesterday.

Susan Hamil: John is there. He’s coming back this afternoon. Lots of organizations that I know wrote in opposing 250 are not listed as being opposed to it. It’s just criminal. The state of California is about to go bankrupt and [Democratic State Senate Majority Leader Dean] Florez is pulling out all the stops to get this passed. And I’m appalled at the money HSUS has that they’re putting into this legislation.

Kim Thornton: I thought HSUS wasn’t supporting this.

Susan Hamil: They are! Are they ever! It’s ASPCA that doesn’t support this.

Kim Thornton: It’s my understanding that HSUS has not come out in favor of it. [Note: HSUS makes no mention  of SB250 on the legislation page of its website.]

Susan Hamil: John was telling me last night that when he went into Florez’s office, there was HSUS stuff all over the office. There were all kinds of brochures and signs. Don’t tell me they’re not behind this.

Kim Thornton: Do you think Arnold will veto it if it passes?

Susan Hamil: I have no idea. I think if they don’t pass a budget, he’s going to veto everything.

Kim Thornton: So what’s going to happen if 250 passes?

Susan Hamil: On the surface, it sounds like something everybody could support, but when you really read the bill, you realize that if, in a city like Laguna Beach, where leaf blowers are illegal, my neighbor could have some guy using an illegal leaf blower, cause my dog to bark, I could be cited, my intact dog could be taken away from me and spayed or neutered, and the only hearing process would be through animal control. It’s worded in a way that animal control can be very arbitrary in how they approach this.

Kim Thornton: What would be a better piece of legislation, if any?

Susan Hamil: I think we should quit all this stupid 250 and 241 and have everybody get together and lobby to keep the Hayden Bill. The Hayden Bill did two things: It increased the hold time for stray animals and it required that they be spayed or neutered. That was a huge issue because it made sure that animal shelters, which are the largest source of reproductively intact animals, spayed or neutered pets before they went out.

Also, they never separate the cat and dog problems. Those are two completely different problems. 250 would make feral cat feeders criminals. They’d come in and round up all those cats and do what with them? Kill them.

Kim Thornton: Why do you think this type of legislation is so popular even though it doesn’t work?

Susan Hamil: Here’s the thing. If you get involved in the shelter world and rescue, you become so angry at people for not taking care of animals the way you think they should take care of them, that you end up restricting pet ownership and making it so onerous. In your desire for retribution, your frustration and anger and your perception of the way animals are treated, then you’ll do anything to try and punish people rather than help pets. People want to believe the worst of everything and they somehow think that if you never have puppies again…. Everybody’s ‘buy local, buy local’; well, what are we doing? We’re putting everybody who could have a litter of puppies that you could actually go see where they’re born out of business. We’re making it too onerous for them to actually have a litter of puppies. So what do we get? We get the lowest common denominator.

Kim Thornton: We get cheap imports from Eastern Europe.

Susan Hamil: And how are we going to stop that?

They’re getting more and more clever in how they present these bills. They know what the public will accept.

Susan checks the news online as we talk. Well, it looks like 250 is out of committee. The vote was 6 to 3. It’s so anti-dog. If your neutered dog is barking and carrying on, then what do they do? Take it away? We’re passing so many anti-pet laws: anti-barking, limiting numbers of pets.

This is the thing that makes me crazy. If you were in the shelter business and you were complaining because you had to kill dogs or cats, then why would you keep restricting pet ownership?

Me again. After I finished transcribing the interview with Susan, I decided to call and see if John was back from Sacramento. I asked him about the lobbying process and what he thought would happen next. Here’s the Twitterized version of what he said.

John Hamil, DVM: It’s a difficult and highly political process. Decisions are generally made along political lines and votes are almost invariably by party. Our two major points are “costs more, doesn’t solve the problem.” And in many instances, aggravates it. There is no nationally recognized group that ’s listed in support of this bill and many of the groups that supported 1634 are not listed in support of 250. Many of the groups have actually taken the trouble to write positions against it.

I was asked ‘Gee, you’re a veterinarian. It seems counterintuitive that you wouldn’t be in favor of this. Can you explain why the AVMA is against this?’ So I got to say two things: it interferes with the doctor-client-patient relationship on a life-threatening procedure that has many complications, not only of anesthesia, surgery, blood loss and infection, but also as complications of postsurgical effects on increasing certain cancers and causing certain orthopedic problems. But the major thing is that it doesn’t save dogs’ lives and it costs more money.

I specifically pointed out, using their example of Santa Cruz, that Santa Cruz, which is the best model they have, is not as successful as its neighbors who don’t have [mandatory spay/neuter].

It’s frustrating because you don’t find out until you’re standing outside in the hall how they’re going to set it up. They say ‘You’ve got five minutes, two speakers.’ So all the stuff you have prepared that would give you a logical flow of thought, you just don’t have time to do that. You have to pick out ‘Okay, you emphasize these two things; I’ll try to do these two things,’ and you end up not doing as good a job as you’d like to do.

It’s not over. It still has to go to finance. The California department of finance went out on the biggest limb I’ve ever seen. They said this was going to cost millions and millions of dollars to reimburse local governments.

I think ultimately that we’re going to prevail because we do have the economic thing on our side and we have the facts on our side. I don’t think the governor is going to allow very many bills to pass that have any money tied to them.