Gotta love the internet: blast from the past edition
By Kim Campbell Thornton
July 13, 2009
I check my Gmail account about once a month, usually right around the time my column comes out (a look at no-kill shelters this month), mainly to see how much hate mail there is and if there are any reader questions I can answer without writing a whole nother article. This month, though, I had a couple of fun e-mails waiting for me. The first was from some former neighbors, who had seen an article I wrote for Cat Fancy and sent an update about their doings. Their Lab, Phoebe, is getting on in years, but still hanging in there. They didn’t know about Darcy and of course have never met Harper. We’re hoping to get together for dinner soon and catch up.
But the really fun e-mail was from Larry’s breeder. She had seen my column on poisonous plants. “When I saw in your bio that you still have Larry Bird, my heart melted,” she wrote. In the many years since I’d last seen her, she had sold her California home–at the top of the market!–and moved to Iowa with a bunch of birds and her four dogs. The dogs were old at the time of the move and have died, but now she’s living with a Sheltie who makes sure she gets plenty of exercise every day.
“It was hard for me to accept that I need an ‘old lady’ dog, but Jesse is just perfect. We walk miles most days, but right now we have very hot, humid weather so I’m trying to get him to chill a bit.”
I never thought of Shelties as “old lady” dogs, quite the contrary, but based on what she was like 20 years ago, I’m sure that Charlene is not the typical old lady. I imagine that a Sheltie is just about the right speed for someone with her energy level. I’ll have to find a photo of Larry to send her.
Right now, I’m thinking about feline communication and training skills. Is your cat a genius, evil or otherwise? If you have stories about things your cat has trained you to do or ways he communicates with you, please write me at Kim.Thornton@gmail.com. I promise to check for responses before another month goes by…
And then there’s this shelter in Texas, where the city “leaders” have told the animal control boss that the city is not in the business of adoptions, and to kill every animal when the 72 hour hold is up.
“Mandatory euthanasia” the policy is being called. It’s not euthanasia. It’s slaughter.
Hat tip to Cait for pointing out the story.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 13, 2009 @ 7:04 am
Ugh. It would be in Texas.
Comment by Kim Thornton — July 13, 2009 @ 8:54 am
Is no kill really more humane? I have seen the pets looking so depressed in their small cages day after day - month after month - is that really more humane if they never get adopted?
Comment by Sam — September 13, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
Sam, your point would be well-taken if that’s what no-kill is, but it’s not. It’s not about warehousing pets for life — it’s about getting them into new homes, and getting the percent of animals who leave the shelters to go to new homes up to 90 percent of more, with the remainder truly unadoptable.
Visit the Web sites of Maddies Fund or the No Kill Advocacy Center to learn what no-kill is really like. And pick up a copy of “Redemption” by Nathan Winograd.
You have some very exciting catching up to do!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — September 14, 2009 @ 7:02 am