Yay! More books … oh wait! … more &%*$# books!
By Gina Spadafori
September 27, 2007
I don’t like Las Vegas. There, I said it.
I don’t like the noise and the smoke, and the fact that it seems to have the most dog- and pedestrian-unfriendly high-rise areas of any American or Canadian city. I didn’t see a single dog in 24 hours, but all my clothes and luggage now reek of cigarette smoke. That seems to me misplaced priorities. Who would rather be around cigarettes than pets?
But, I’m happy. Really, really happy. That’s because our quick little turnaround junket (Dr. Becker from Spokane, me from Sacramento) has resulted in agreements for two great new books for next fall, and what’s shaping up to be a whole lot more. No, can’t spill the beans, but we couldn’t be happier.
Except …
Oh my heavens we have to write two new books by April! That’s, um, just a few months away!!
:::breathe::: ::: breathe:::
There, that’s better.
Honestly, though, I was beginning to think the trip was doomed when my total for coffee and a muffin at the Sacramento airport before the outbound flight was $6.66 (666!! aiiyeee!!) and on arrival at the Las Vegas reverse-ATMhotel I was immediately assigned to room 911 (911 … help meee!!).
Not that I’m superstititous or anything …
But I’m back home now, and I have to say cats are a riot. The dogs and the parrot were screamingly overjoyed to see me back, even though I’d been gone less than 24 hours and I knew my neighbor made sure they were cared for very well.
But the cat? Miss Clara shot me a look full of pure venom, flipped her fluffy tail in the air and showed me her pretty backside as she strolled pointedly from the room. Well! I guess she showed me!
Velocity The Rabbit (VTR) was just happy to get more dandelion greens.
Oh, it’s good to be home. Even better to be home with two new book deals, and more.
Trust me, you’ll love them. Can’t wait? Try some of the ones we’ve already written, including the three news books just hitting retailers now.
Yeah, that’s right: Last year we wrote three books (plus a weekly syndicated pet-care page for newspapers across the United States and Canada) and covered the pet-food recall 24/7. Plus, we all (Dr. Becker, Christie and I) have other work-related obligations (read: jobs). How do we do it? Heck if I know.
But … two new books for 2008! Yippee!
***
Speaking of books … go buy this one. Really. Do it. Now. Christie told me it blew her mind and has forced her to re-think 25 years of assumptions regarding the slaughter of adoptable pets by shelters. Whatever. But I opened it on the outgoing flight and soon was digging in my carry-on in the overhead compartment for post-its and a highlighter to mark passages.
I was so engrossed in the book I felt like waking the inurance salesman in the seat next to me and saying, “Hey, listen to this!” So engrossed I was disappointed to have to close it for landing. Oh, for a longer flight!
I finished it on the way back from Vegas. It’s well beyond the most important and thought-provoking animal policy book of the year. I’m now trying to figure out if it’s the most important and thought-provoking pet-related book I’ve read in five years … 10 … or more.
Christie promises a full review on the blog. Our heads have both exploded, but in a good way.
I’m quite sure heads are exploding at HSUS, but in a bad way. And that’s a good thing.
“I didn’t see a single dog in 24 hours, but all my clothes and luggage now reek of cigarette smoke. That seems to me misplaced priorities. Who would rather be around cigarettes than pets?”
Sort of along the same lines, it has always irked me that if you DO find a hotel/motel that allows dogs, you have to take a room that has had smokers in it, and those rooms are generally filthy. So I have to choose between a non-smoking room which is reasonably clean, but leave my dog at home. Or bring my dog but get stuck in a filthy room that reeks besides.
Yeah - I know it’s an allergy issue. But it still bugs me!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — September 27, 2007 @ 8:33 am
I have asthma; I can’t stay in a smoking room, because I can’t breathe in a smoking room. Telling me I have to stay in a smoking room if I want my dog with me, is telling me I have to leave my dog at home, or risk hospitalization.
Comment by Lis — September 27, 2007 @ 9:04 am
I think the hotel management mindset that decreed this policy just sort of lumps all allergies together. It never occurs to them that you could be allergic or sensitive to smoke, but still be okay with being around animals.
(And yes - I know they’re worried that if the NEXT guest staying in the room has an animal allergy, then if the room is not clean enough, they’re worried they’ll put that person at risk. But the traveller with dogs always ends up getting the short end of the stick in these scenarios.)
Comment by The OTHER Pat — September 27, 2007 @ 9:13 am
I signed up for a seminar with Nathan Winograd which is being held in a few weeks at a “No Kill” shelter in Chicago.
I’m looking forward to reading his book. I’ve always been conflicted when I hear a shelter is ‘no kill’ - are they only taking highly adoptable pets, are they warehousing animals in cages for years, or are they really no-kill and able to find loving homes for ‘difficult’ animals.
Its sounds like Winograd is looking at a whole shift in perspective - but I’m not sure how he does it. So I’m very interested (but just a tad skeptical) as to what he says. I’m sooooo hoping that he really has some ‘magic’ to share.
Comment by 2CatMom — September 27, 2007 @ 9:55 am
It’s not “magic.” Winograd’s case is well-argued and well-supported in facts.
If anything, it’s the shelter industry that has been engaged in magical thinking.
If something doesn’t work, year after year after year, and you refuse to consider proven alternatives, you’re engaging in magical thinking. Trying harder to push a broken system doesn’t make it magically start working.
And blaming the victims — two-legged and four-legged both — is just making it worse.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — September 27, 2007 @ 10:34 am
Ok, give me a hint (I’m getting the book at the seminar). He’s looking at the demand side of the equation, isn’t he? Rather than say ‘we have too many animals to place’ he’s working to increase the number of adopters. Or am I totally off track.
Comment by 2CatMom — September 27, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
I think that what he’s doing (and what makes the most sense,IMHO) is to say that this is a complex problem, and therefore requires a complex and multipronged solution.
So you don’t look at JUST the “demand” side OR the “supply” side - you look at both. You encourage spay/neuter of pet-quality animals to cut down on the number of animals produced (the “supply side”). You work with education programs that help people be better informed of what they’re getting into before adopting an animal, as well as outreach programs that help people work through many of the behavioral issues that frequently result in animals being surrendered, thus increasing the success rate of keeping animals in homes (the “demand” side). And so on.
And you work with shelters to encourage the mindset of becoming more actively involved in the process of placing animals rather than just being revolving doors that animals pass through in both directions. Which supports both the “supply” and the “demand” side when it’s really being done right.
And so on. Lots of little angles on all the aspects of the problem that add up to a lot less dead animals and a lot more successful placements overall.
Have I sort of got that right, Gina?
Comment by The OTHER Pat — September 27, 2007 @ 3:10 pm
One of his main points is that there are more homes NOW than there are animals being euthanized - so the question is, in no small part, how to “market” shelter animals so that they find those available homes.
We’re no longer killing more than the potential number of homes. If we could double shelter placements from 16% to 32% of owned animals, every animal would have a home.
There are some caveats (not every animal is placeable). There are also some special needs groups (oversupply of pits and pit mixes, feral cats and TNR, orphaned kittens) that require specific policies.
Comment by Sally — September 28, 2007 @ 7:17 am
PS - lots of information is online at http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org and nathanwinograd.blogspot.com if you want a preview.
Comment by Sally — September 28, 2007 @ 7:21 am
Thanks for the info. I have looked at his web site and as the OTHER Pat stated it didn’t seem to be one magic bullet.
I’d like to have read the book beforehand but since I already ordered (and paid for) it through the shelter I’ll just have to wait.
Comment by 2CatMom — September 28, 2007 @ 10:45 am
What it is: A complete 180 of traditional ways of thinking about the relationship of shelters to pets, shelters to the community and people to pets.
Once you chance the mindset, the programs to achieve the goals naturally follow.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — September 28, 2007 @ 10:52 am
If you want to read an excellent book about dogs - or one particular dog you might want to grab a copy of Merle’s Door. It is an astoundingly good book about one man’s experience with a dog that simply adopted him (as a dog I once had adopted me) and the observations about how dogs and our relationship with them have evolved.
Maybe the best dog/man book ever…
Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — September 29, 2007 @ 2:50 pm