10 Tips to Prepare for a New Pet

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Chloe would not be alive today if it weren't for Half Way Home

Thanks to all of our friends and readers who nominated Rescue Me for a Pettie in the Best Cause Related Blog category.

We were honored to learn that Rescue Me is a finalist!

While I’m honored to have my blog in the finals, my desire to see us go all the way is fueled not by my ego, but by the $1,000 we will win for a rescue of our choice.

That rescue is Half Way Home in Collins, Mo. (not to be confused with the municipal shelter of the same name in Kansas City, Mo.)

I started volunteering with Latichia Duffy and her grass roots rescue about two years ago, when I learned that the Springfield, Mo., animal shelter not only doesn’t make animals in their charge available for public adoption, but also usse a horrible method referred to as Heartstick, to kill the unwanted and unclaimed.

Latichia is truly a homegrown, grassroots rescue. A person who cares deeply for animals, saw a need and attempts every day, to make the world a better place for the homeless animals she not only takes in from Springfield, but rescues from puppy mills that are closing or have been ordered to shut down.

This woman, as many small rescue owners do, works tirelessly night and day on behalf of those who cannot help themselves.  For those who have seen small rescues operate, there are no days off from feeding, cleaning kennels, getting pets to low cost spay/neuter facilities (Latichia routinely takes pets to Kansas City, more than two hours away for the lowest cost services) or talking to other rescues, transports and potential adopters.

Latichia has met us twice on a Sunday, an hour and half away from her home, to bring us two of our  adopted dogs, Abbi and Chloe.

Since I’ve known her, Latichia’s main goal has been to get a metal building constructed and finished so that her charges will be more comfortable while awaiting their forever homes.

Last winter, that dream was nearly realized until a devastating fire, which destroyed the new building and all of its contents, including thousands of dollars of donated food, towels, kitty condos and an industrial washer and dryer.

A generous donor did rebuild the building, but it needs to be finished and $1,000 would gp a long way towards that goal.

You can help. Each day between now and July 29, you can go to the Pettie Voting site and vote for K9 Chronicles Rescue Me in the Best Cause Related Blog category. While you’re there, K9 Cuisine’s Roxanne Hawn would also appreciate a vote in the Best Dog Blog category for her dog’s blog, Champion of My Heart.
There’s no registration, no apps to sign into. It’s easy and you can vote 2-3 times per day.

A click (or two) a day could mean so much for the animals at Halfway Home.

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Hanah, several days after the Joplin Tornado

As we enter the 4^th of July weekend, I’m reminded of Anastasia, our then 8-year-old Maltese, who, 17 years ago today, got away from my mother in law, who was watching her while we were out of town.

Ana was spooked by the fireworks and ran into an unfamiliar neighborhood, never to be seen again.

Oh, we did what we could in the 1994 pre-social media era. When we were finally able to get an earlier flight home on a holiday weekend (my great aunt, who was my grandmother figure in my life also died that weekend), we canvassed the neighborhood and surrounding areas again, put up posters and handed out fliers. I checked the shelters and ran an ad in two daily newspapers for 6 months.

Because Ana had wiggled out of her collar, our 6 pound little girl didn’t have any identification. There were never any confirmed sightings and only cruel prank phone calls resulted in our efforts.

It was heartbreaking for us and something, nearly two decades later, I’ve never quite gotten over. And I admit, for years, it strained my up until then good relationship with my husband’s step mother.

That’s why I can identify so well with these stories I’ve seen on Facebook this summer:   .

Bella is a dog that was involved in a serious car wreck with her owner and his friend. After the accident, the car burst into flames and as Bella’s owner, who had two broken ankles, dragged his unconscious passenger from the burning wreckage, Bella escaped into a vast urban area.

Social media helped her get discovered by an alert dog lover two days later.

Then there was George, a Boxer, stolen, along with the truck he was in. The truck was stolen in Maine and located in Boston, Mass., but no George. His picture was posted far and wide and he was recovered the next day not far from where the truck was stolen.

Most of the stories are not so happy. Like Marco Polo, the lost cat. Marco recently relocated with his owner from Miami, Fla., to Kansas City, Mo., and slipped out an open door in May. Marco has his own Facebook page, “Find Marco Polo, the lost cat,” but to date, Marco hasn’t been found.

The two Malamutes, Maya and Cesar, stolen from the enclosed camper shell of a pick up truck in Ukiah, Calif., that we posted on K9 Cuisine’s Facebook page, have yet to be located, although social media is aiding in reported sightings.

Perhaps one of the saddest stories is that of Hanah, the American Bulldog that was ripped in May from her owner’s arms by the Joplin F5 Tornado, as they all huddled in a closet. Hanah was spotted and photographed several days later, battered and dirty, a mile away from her former home.

I’m not clear who took the photo or why they didn’t take Hanah to the Humane Society, which has done an excellent job of reuniting pets and families and adopting those out that were not claimed.

But the “Bring Hanah Home” Facebook page has drawn over 7,600 likes. Because Hanah could be anywhere by now, either taken from the region by a well-meaning rescue that came to help the devastated city, or someone else, her story has been told nationwide and fliers were even recently passed out at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Her owners, we are told through updates, continue to hope she will be found and returned.

Besides the fact that social media is becoming more prominent in animal recovery and rescue, there are other lessons to be learned from these heart-breaking stories.

1. Our pets, for many various reasons, should never be left alone in parked vehicles. Two of these pets I mentioned were stolen while inside parked trucks.
2. Our furry family members should always be wearing a collar with identification tags. They should have both tags with their name, address and contact information, as well as their rabies vaccination tags. If they lose one, they will still have the other. Veterinarian tags have led to many a happy reuniting of pet and owners. Even my husband and I are guilty of letting our pets go without their collars here in the country. There does loom the small possibility that any of our dogs could be picked up and relocated by thieves or natural forces such as a tornado. It’s a big mistake we’ve corrected. As one poster descripted id tags: It is our pet’s phone call home.
3. Pets should be microchipped. I know it is a controversial topic for some pet parents, due to the very low instance of some chips being associated with cancerous tumors. But personally, I would rather take that very small chance than have one of my dogs possibly be lost or stolen and then end up someday in a high kill shelter. To my knowledge, Marco Polo the cat was the only pet in my above examples that was microchipped.
4. Finally, generally, pets should be restrained while traveling with us in our vehicles, even for short rides to the vet or dog park. They should either have a pet seat belt or be put into a carrier. It’s not only safer for us when we’re driving, but is generally safer for the pet if there is an accident, or even if you’re pulled over by a dog wary police officer. I know there are instances, as there are with humans, that seatbelts are not a safer option. Bella, it was pointed out to me, would likely be dead if she had been restrained in the car that wrecked and caught fire. but that is more unlikely than having an accident and having your pet scamper away from the safer confines of the wrecked vehicle.

I hope all of our U.S. based readers have a Happy and Safe 4^th of July holiday and keep your furry family members cool, safe and away from fireworks!

Do you have a story of having lost a four-legged family member? Were they recovered, where and how?  

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We love sharing stories of rescue and educating people about how they can become part of the solution.

It’s easy to nominate Rescue Me. You don’t have to register for anything and it will take less than 2 minutes of your time:

Go to the Dog Time site.

Under Nominee information,

Name: Rescue Me

Nominee URL: http://blog.k9cuisine.com/dog-rescue-shelters/

Nominee E-Mail: kerri@kerrifivecoatcampbell.com

Please nominate us under the “Best Cause Related Blog” category.

It would also help if you would tell all of your friends too!

We appreciate your support!

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Did you know that there are approximately 250 million registered vehicles on the road in the United States?

Did you know that many states give you the opportunity to support pet adoption and rescue when you register your vehicle?

That’s right, many states, including Colorado, Arkansas, Utah and New York all have plates that you can purchase to help shelters across your state.

It appears that California has an initiative to get pet loving plates and a group is taking pre-orders to get them.

These are just a few of the states I researched. The fees aren’t out of line for many and the funds typically go to help rescues or shelters.

For example, in my state of Arkansas, for $35, I hve the choice of purchasing one of two plates. They read:  “Support Animal Rescue and Shelters” or “Spay and Neuter.”

I like the idea of not only helping shelters when I pay my fee, but also spreading the message about responsible pet ownership by reminding people that they should spay and neuter their pets.

I may just go a step further and get the “Support Animal Rescue” plate and have it put onto a personalized plate that reads: “Spayntr”

Can you imagine the good we could do for homeless pets if just half of us would purchase these plates through our state?

Check with your state’s DMV or do a google search. In many cases, you don’t even have to wait for your plates to expire before buying the specialty tags.

What do you think? Have you purchased a specialized plate that helps an animal cause?

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One of our canine daughters, Dakota, with our eldest human daughter, Steffi

Do you “own” your pet or are you a “pet parent,” or would you not go that far and are you the caretaker of your “animal companion?”

Does it matter how we refer to our pets as a society?

It does, according to researchers publishing the new Journal of Animal Ethics, a new publication produced by the University of Illinois Press.

The journal and its editors believes if we elevate animals in our vocabulary, it will also help elevate the discourse and, in turn, improve our treatment of them.

I’ve had a similar discussion before with many people in the rescue field, but it wasn’t to how we refer to our pets, but how we describe what happens to them if they are surrendered to “shelters” to be “euthanized” or “put to sleep.”

Many in the rescue world have started referring to “shelters” as “pounds,” and using the term “kill,” instead of the tamer descriptions we use to destroy healthy, adoptable animals.

I think these folks at the Journal of Animal Ethics may have a point too.

When I was a kid, our dogs were “outside dogs.” Although it was obvious we loved them, they weren’t treated as equal members of the family. Like many early suburbanites, my parents even allowed our dogs to run the neighborhood, until fences became all the rage.

For my husband and I, our pets are our children. We love them as we do any family member. They travel with us and if they cannot, we have a pet nanny who comes to our home to take care of them.

I’ve often wondered, when looking at our Fearsome Five, all of whom are rescues, if their previous “owners” had thought of themselves as “pet parents,” as we do, could they have dumped them on a road, chained them with no food or water in a backyard, given them up because they licked or left them to die in a high kill shelter?

I don’t think so.

The only qualm I have with the above referenced article is the statement that fish couldn’t be considered a “companion animal.”

I know people who have grieved the loss of their fish, as I did when I heard my “Spot,” a fish I had to give up when we moved out of state, had died. I think companion animals can come in all shapes and sizes, with or without fur.

What do you think? Do you believe elevating our speech when referring to animals may help how society as a whole, treats them?

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I know, and we all thought we had at least until December 21, 2012, not just 4 days left.

At least some Christians are prophesying and planning for the May 21^st date and apparently, their pets will not get to accompany them to their eternal reward.

If you’re worried about what will happen with your beloved pets when you’re swooped up, if you live in one of the 26 states covered by Eternal Earth-Bound Pets USA, worry no longer.

For $135 for the first pet and $20 for each additional pet, you can rest assured that your pet will be collected and placed into a pre-approved rescue while you go about your eternal life with wings and halo.

I don’t mean to sound flippant about people’s beliefs, but these types of predictions have been going on for 2,000 years. With each dire outbreak of disease, wars and world strife, some believers prophesy the end must be near.

I have to give it to Bart Centre, though, the founder of Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, for finding a way to capitalize on fear based predictions. He has 250 clients.

I have a prediction of my own: On May 22^nd, the people who predicted this Rapture will find themselves still standing on earth with their pets. They will be scratching their heads and backtracking that they got it wrong.

On May 22^nd, I will be rest assured that my pets are not protected by a company against some prophesy that may or may not ever come, but for the event that will rest assured eventually claim all of us – death.

If you’re really worried about leaving your pet behind, set up a pet trust or, if you live in a state that doesn’t have pet trusts, include for your pet’s care in your will.

That is the best way to show you really care about what happens to them after you leave this earth, no matter the reason you leave it.

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Proposition B, known as the “Puppy Mill Legislation” in Missouri, the state with the most (over 1,400 dog breeding facilities) that is dubbed “The Puppy Mill Capital of the U.S,” had many provisions when it went to a vote of the people and was passed in November.

Early this spring, the state’s Republican dominated legislature voted to essentially gut the law, removing many of the provisions that would have ensured dogs in Missouri breeding operations are treated humanely.

In a controversial move, the Democratic Governor offered both sides a compromise. The law leaves in tact original provisions of Proposition B, such as requiring rests between breedings, annual veterinary exams and larger cages without wire floors (although it does give more time for compliance on these issues). It weakened provisions such as requiring constant access to the outdoors and exercise to “regular” access. The law does provide more funding for enforcement.

It also removes the 50-dog limit.

Large local and regional humane organizations, such as the Humane Society of Missouri and the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation supported the compromise. The Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, organizations that largely funded the original initiative, were against the compromise.

The governor and legislature enacted the compromise bill into law last week as an emergency measure, largely taking away the ability by Proposition B supporters to get a referendum back on the ballot for another vote.

Here’s my take on the matter.

In a perfect world, people’s ballot initiatives would be put before a vote of the people and once passed, lawmakers would make the initiative a law, unless it violated the constitution, and then it would be challenged in the legal system.

But in a perfect world, we wouldn’t even be debating the merits of providing annual veterinary exams, water that isn’t in frozen form, cages large enough to turn around in and that didn’t have wire bottoms that cripple dog’s feet, rest between breedings or regular exercise for breeding dogs.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world and money talks. Animal advocates within the state knew what they were up against: A Republican majority legislature heavily financed by the huge agriculture lobby in the state that was bent on seeing the guts of the law that would have provided more protection for animals, ripped out.

They were also up against a deeply divided public, some of whom are not among the ranks of progressives when it comes to animal welfare. One poster on a dog blog I read even theorized that photos of “puppy mills” are doctored or are “from the 1970s” or are an invention of the HSUS to scare the public into voting for such ballot initiatives so there will eventually be no more breeders.

Of course, anyone who has been to a puppy mill rescuing dogs that are no longer a money maker for these breeders, know this is utter nonsense.

The high kill shelter where we adopted two of our five rescues even recently enacted a surrender fee for the shelter because they have so many people who are “return surrenders,” or people who surrender pets up to 2-3 times a year. They surrender a pet and then go and buy another. They consider their pets disposable and throw them out as easily as a pair of shoes they tire of.

This is what animal advocates in Missouri were up against.

Given these obstacles, I say anything that passed is a victory for the dogs.

What do you think?

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I’m an all around animal lover and had always wanted a cute, soft rabbit to cuddle.

When I was in my 20s, a woman from work was moving and they had to get rid of their rabbit. She offered to give it to me along with the den and food and all of the accessories.

What could be more perfect?

Well, anything would have been better than taking in a pet we were not prepared to deal with and really, knew nothing about. First of all, our rabbit had not been socialized and proceeded to bite or try to bite me every time I needed to get into her den. We couldn’t even take it out for a pet, much less try to litter box train her or let her roam the house.

As we begin the week before Easter, I implore those of you who are thinking of getting your child a live rabbit, chicks or ducks to just stick to the chocolate ones if you haven’t done your homework on these adorable little critters.

Animal rescue organizations are bracing for the season they surely must dread, the time of the year when people make impulse buys and then decide later that rabbits are not for them. The lucky ones end up in rescues.

The others, well, end up in the wild. Not good for domesticated rabbits who don’t have a clue how to fend for themselves. Terrified and lonely, they typically end up as prey for wild predators, or they starve to death.

The word is that the abandonment issue surrounding rabbits will be higher this year due to the hit movie, “Hop,” and this being the Chinese Year of the Rabbit.

Please don’t add to the problem by thinking a white bunny with a twitching nose will be the perfect playmate for little Jane or Joe.

If you have done your homework and are ready for a 10-year commitment and convinced a rabbit is the perfect pet for your family, please consider adopting from a local rescue. You can find one in your area through petfinder.

Here’s a link to a good article on rabbit adoption.

Oh, our former rabbit didn’t end up living a lonely existence only seeing people when it was time to feed. Nor did she end up on our table or loose in our neighborhood.

There was a much happier ending.

She only lived in her den in our garage, for a couple of weeks until I could find her a more suitable home. The last I heard, she was still living with the couple who had plenty of experience with pet rabbits. They thought she was the perfect pet, which just goes to show how much of a difference putting experience to work can make when taking in a pet.

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Have you heard the allegation that Charlie Sheen starved one of his two pugs to death?

I’m a very connected person and I hadn’t heard it.

The network news did report this morning that Warner Brothers threatened Sheen with a lawsuit if he didn’t stop saying he was in negotiations to return to their show.

Sheen’s ex-wife, Denise Richards, made the allegations in late March after Sheen tweeted that Richards is a “dog thief” because she will not return the couple’s surviving pug to him to serve as a mascot on his tour bus.

I don’t like celebrity news/gossip and try to stay away from it, instead trying to focus on issues in the real world. For me, that includes assisting where I can in animal welfare and working on women’s issues. So, needless to say, I detached myself from any fan adoring the first time Sheen was accused of hitting a woman.

I have to wonder though, Where is the outrage for a man who is accused of the worst of animal abuse?

Where are the investigators and prosecutors who should be investigating this crime?

Where are the media, who gave us non-stop coverage of Sheen for what seemed like weeks during his “Tiger DNA” and “Warlock” media blitz earlier this spring?

Where are the “boycott Charlie Sheen, the dog killer” Facebook pages?

Maybe the outrage, or lack thereof, is in the same place it was when Sheen put a knife to his ex-wife’s throat or trashed a hotel room in another incident and sent the woman he was with cowering to the bathroom.

Roxanne Hawn at Dog Food Dish and Allie Johnson at Pet Tips & Tails, have discussed this week the reaction of some people who ask those involved in animal welfare, “How can you feed your pets such a good diet when people are starving?” and “How can you care so much for animals when there is so much human suffering in the world?”

I have to wonder about the collective sanity of a society that would ask such questions and then support Sheen by watching him on television, knowing what he has done. Or worse yet, pay between $47-$100 for a ticket to his live show so they could be led in an enthusiastic chant, “F**** that B**ch,” referring to Richards, the mother of two of his children.

I don’t know if Sheen really starved his dog to death but for people who have studied violence, that Sheen, who has been accused multiple times of violence against women, could torture an animal in his care to death is no stretch. Criminologists have long proved that violence against animals and people are often linked.

I only wonder where is the outrage for any of his crimes, against humans or animals?

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