Monday is good news day today!
By David S. Greene
December 21, 2009
Greetings from a very snowy New England. Each and every one of today’s stories is designed to combat the holiday shopping/cold weather/high stress/Monday morning I don’t want to go to work blues. Not a depressing or frustrating one in the lot. I’ll even offer a money back guarantee. Such a deal!
Flying Chihuahuas! California, as you may know, has way too many of the little guys (and girls) with the tiny paws and big ears. The rest of the country, particularly the east coast, doesn’t have enough. Don’t ask me why we’re short (pardon the pun) on chihuahuas, I don’t know. Perhaps we don’t watch enough Reese Witherspoon movies. Anyway, thanks to Project Flying Chihuahua, Mexican dogs will be warming hearts in New Hampshire, New York, and elsewhere.
Saving Keystone Wallis: If it were fiction, it would be rejected as too hokey, especially at the holidays. Good thing this story is absolutely true. A gray mare in western Pennsylvania enjoys a successful harness racing career, earning $600,000. She then breeds 14 foals who sell for a combined $300,000. She subsequently comes within a hair of being slaughtered. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette picks up the story from there…. (Hat tip to Mary Mary) I want to fly out to Crafton, Penn., and meet this horse.
Faith walks: Have you heard about Faith? No, not Gina’s FayBee, but the famous Faith. She’s a 7 year-old lab-chow mix, and she only has two legs. But, she walks just fine. On two legs. She also has a job these days, which is to visit disabled Army vets. This is a great dog doing important work for heroes. Doesn’t get any better than that! (Hat tip to Snoopy’s Friend for this story, and the one to follow)
Guido’s pacemaker: If you’re a person in Guido’s situation, your cardiologist would recommend a pacemaker, assuming you could find a cardiologist while you’re in a no-kill sanctuary. Guido now has a pacemaker.
Although not widely known, the concept of implanting pacemakers in dogs is hardly new. The first time it was done was 1968. Today hundreds of similar operations on dogs are performed in the U.S. every year.
Maxine Mager owns Creative Acres, a no-kill animal sanctuary in Brighton.
“We do everything we can for all the animals,” she said.
Guido’s procedure won’t be cheap. The operation will cost up to $4,000. Mager says anyone interested in making a donation can check out the Web site.
A Hound’s Blog: Finally, this last cite isn’t news, it’s simply the best blog post I’ve read all week, and sometimes I’m going to offer a post just because it’s worth reading. Here, you’ll get Scottish deerhounds, whippets, PBGVs, and Molly the pony. Enjoy, and thanks Glenye.
Note: Most of today’s sites were recommended by loyal, eagle-eyed readers. Thank you to them, and please, if you find something of interest, send it to me. Or put it in the comments.
photo credits: Chihuahua: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes. Keystone Wallis: Hogan Equine at Fair Winds Farm. Molly the Pony: Glenye Oakford
At Alexandria, VA’s, annual Scottish Walk parade, usually held in December, there’s often a whole brigade of Scottish Deerhounds that appears on the parade route (along with brigades of Goldens, Scotties, and other breeds of Scottish origin).
Comment by Susan — December 21, 2009 @ 6:53 am
I love the Keystone Wallis story, and here’s some backstory on Dr. Hogan. She’s rather modestly described as an equine orthopedic surgeon, but she’s actually one of the best and best-known in the business.
Her previous brush with mainstream media came when Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby. Dr. Hogan had saved his life when he nearly killed himself in a starting gate accident:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/stor.....amp;page=1
Also related: Reuters recently reported that the French are losing their interest in horsemeat. Since France is one of the prime markets for U.S. horses dumped at auction and sold to “kill buyers,” this trends is good news. It’ll force horse owners to find humane ends for their animals instead of squeezing the last few bucks selling a horse that no longer has “value” on paper.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 21, 2009 @ 7:59 am
Another link I’m liking today: Denver Post columnist Bill Johnson takes part in vet-school study to see how good shelter staffers are at IDing breeds of dogs. The answer: They suck at it.
Johnson argues that this alone should mean an end to Denver’s unfair and deadly ban on “pit bulls” — i.e., dogs deemed as such by an animal control officer who has only a 1 in 4 change of getting breed ID right.
Hat Tip to Brent at KC Dog Blog for this one.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 21, 2009 @ 8:09 am
Hi, David. What a nice surprise to find our “Hounds Around Town” post mentioned this morning in your round-up. Thank you! That Scottish deerhound is only five-and-a-half months old.
The story about Keystone Wallis is a great one, and the fate she nearly had is still all too common, I’m afraid. Kudos to all the people who make a positive difference in animals’ lives!
Comment by Glenye Oakford — December 21, 2009 @ 8:10 am
Thank YOU, Glenye!
Comment by David S. Greene — December 21, 2009 @ 8:15 am
Hi David:
911 hero dog reborn in 5 cloned puppies
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/vid.....=allsearch
Comment by Snoopys Friend — December 21, 2009 @ 10:27 am
Faith is going to be reunited with her rescuer this January and he is serving in the military.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — December 21, 2009 @ 10:48 am
Re: The cloned puppies.
I somehow missed the media kerfluffle when these pups were delivered to Mr. Symington this summer.
I have never heard of Mr. Symington or his dog Trackr before. The claim to have made a live find at the WTC site always and immediately PINGS THE RADAR.
(http://www.scottshieldsfraud.com/ for just one ferexample)
Compounding my skepticism, Mr. Symington, who is very well-spoken, has left ZERO tracks on the web with the exception of stories about the cloned puppies and Trackr “pulling out” a live victim of the 9-11 attacks.
He claims to have been called to respond. Mr. Symington was a police officer in Canada at the time. Those of us with more direct experience of how deployments for this incident start to smell the sewer gas here.
And finally, Mr. Shields has quite police work and moved to Los Angeles and has a page on IMDb.
Just sayin’.
Comment by H. Houlahan — December 21, 2009 @ 12:10 pm
Correction above (brain fart or Freudian slip?) — Mr. SYMINGTON has quit police work and moved to LA and has a page on IMDb.
Media accounts of the rescue of Genelle Guzman-McMillan do not credit Mr. Symington’s dog with any part of it. One account does say that a police dog handler from Nova Scotia was in a group nearby when Ms. Guzman was found.
Also of interest, another one I missed:
http://www.bioarts.com/press_r....._09_09.htm
Comment by H. Houlahan — December 21, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
Huh … so SOMEBODY is looking to get a reality TV show, it would seem?
What, is balloon boy already over?
:::sigh::::
I spend my life NOT wanting to be “famous.” Just ask Dr. Becker, who thinks I’m a recluse. Seriously, what’s frickin’ appeal?
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 21, 2009 @ 1:33 pm
From the police notes section of The Indepedent Maine:”A caller from Bob’s Seafood said there was a dog in the store, possibly a pitbull, wearing a pink sweater. The owner arrived in the parking lot & the officers returned the dog.”
Comment by Nancy Freedman-Smith CPDT — December 21, 2009 @ 3:28 pm
A pink sweater! LOL!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 21, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
A dog that has really gotten around-and in a good cause
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ation.html
Comment by Susan Fox — December 21, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
Pets2Vets article at Mother Earth about pairing Vets with shelter dogs:
http://www.motherearthnews.com.....12009.aspx
Comment by straybaby — December 21, 2009 @ 10:41 pm
A very odd Christmas Special aired last night on ABC http://abc.go.com/shows/i-want.....rlie-brown
Snoopys brother came to find a home and no one wanted him - he was ugly and he was sent back to live alone in the desert where he strung a cactus with Christmas Lights.
Strange………….
Comment by Snoopys Friend — December 22, 2009 @ 10:26 am
Thanks for the links!
Snoopys Friend, was that the story about Spike?
Comment by David S. Greene — December 22, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
David, yes it was. “I want a dog for Christmas” - no one wanted the poor ugly dog and they sent him back to the desert - hitch hiking to live alone.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — December 22, 2009 @ 3:12 pm
Was that supposed to be a happy ending?!
Comment by Pai — December 22, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
Pai,
The music was upbeat and the characters seemed not bothered too much by rejecting the dog - he was a skinny ugly dog and he had an adopted home for awhile but then he was kicked out to fend for himself and he lost weight and was ugly again so the children took him around to houses in the neighborhood and no one wanted him - he was sent back to this lonely dry desert place. And this is a Charlie Brown Christmas TV Movie commentary on how to treat homeless ugly pets?
So much for wanting a “Dog for Christmas” -
Comment by Snoopys Friend — December 22, 2009 @ 3:31 pm
The chihuahua migration has made the Monitor too:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2.....-pets-east
But I have to wonder about organizations that are NOT No Kill (such as the ASPCA) wanting to import more animals from elsewhere, even as they continue to kill animals who have a a place to go already lined up, and to use the same old, same old rhetoric about ‘pet overpopulation’.
Comment by Valerie — December 24, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
Was the same on NPR this morning from the shelter directors: Blame the people, blame the “breeders” (all breeders are bad, all the same, and all responsible for “pet overpopulation,” NOT) and take no responsibility for the failure of leadership in the shelter industry.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 24, 2009 @ 12:41 pm