A Dachshund Afraid of Human Touch

I received this in an email from the ASPCA. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a strong supporter of the ASPCA. Please help rescue dogs by reading below, donating if you will, and spreading the word. Or, read about another ASPCA related effort here.


 














Most dogs love a belly rub or scratch behind the ears—but for Pepper the Mini Dachshund, being touched is utter agony.

When a behaviorist reaches for him, he is gripped with terror. He tucks his tail, widens his eyes and tries to become as small as possible while tensing every muscle in his tiny body. Pepper is a spirited little guy, and he wants so much to be social with people. He just can't—yet.

Earlier this year, the ASPCA rescued Pepper from a hoarding situation where he lived with nearly 50 other dogs. Human touch—much like going outside, using stairs or wearing a leash—is completely new and very scary to him. But thanks to the brand-new ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center for dogs, there's hope for Pepper.

At the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center, located at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in New Jersey, we're treating dogs like Pepper who are rescued from puppy mills, hoarding situations and other cruelty. This new, first-of-its-kind facility is giving them the time and intensive support they need but can't get anywhere else.

As part of the inaugural class at the brand-new rehab center, Pepper is receiving the attention and rigorous treatment he needs to learn to trust. And he's already progressing.

As you read this, Pepper is learning that an outstretched human hand means only good things. When Pepper graduates from the program, he'll be placed for adoption. We can't wait to see his happy ending—and we're also thrilled that what we learn rehabilitating Pepper will be part of a study that will help so many more dogs.

"The fact that we're able to help Pepper here is wonderful," says Kristen Collins, ASPCA Director of Anti-Cruelty Behavior Rehabilitation, "and what we learn will help us improve the lives—and even save the lives—of countless other dogs across the country."

We're thrilled to launch this groundbreaking initiative—and so grateful we can count on your support to change animals' lives. Please consider making a gift to the ASPCA today. Together we can do great things for animals like Pepper.  
 

Tails of a (Boarded) House Puppy

[(P)update on the two labs featured in this post; They are low HW positive. WCAC is accepting donations to help treat them so a rescue will pull them!  Donations can be taken over the phone at Crawfordville Animal Hospital. (850) 926-2089!]

Kahlua is a house elf  puppy. And there are times I need to board him. *Sigh* Yes, I know you feel my pain. Let's chat about pet boarding now, shall we ? I read a fellow rescue advocate's post about A Sleepover and the consequent light-bulb led to this post. We all have interesting boarding stories. I would love to tell some of mine (because god knows I talk so much) and I would love to hear some of yours (hey.. I can listen too, just not as well as Kahlua can. But I might tilt my head if that makes you smile.)

Special shout out to my close friend and roommate Nadine who was the best co -pet-parent /Sibling/Aunt to Kahlua  in the world (yeah, talk to those two if you want to figure their relationship out!)! Pupzilla and I miss you!

I honestly do not know of many pet boarding facilities out there, but I toured one of them way back when, and loved them. With each separation my faith in them has just been more and more reinforced.

Adoptable 3 year old lab mix - Louise

During the first separation, I called them every couple of hours. Kahlua wasn't eating. I was panicking. But the owner of the facility would entertain my endless worry over the phone with immense patience. She would also remove him from the facility into her own office and have dinner with him so that he would have some peace and quiet to eat. She augmented his dry food with beef bouillon or eggs or rice to make it a more attractive prospect (because, let's face it,  he is a bit of a diva, and he was missing his mother.). I was so grateful for this personal care and love that they showed him. When I saw him again, he had shed a few pounds but was happy and healthy!

I apologized to the owner for my incessant calls.  Her answer was what makes me keep going back to them:  "Shalini, it's the parents who don't call I sort of worry about." This is not to say that she thinks that those who don't call, don't care. But the fact that she saw that I needed her reassurance at that point, showed me she understands the value of the babies she and her crew are watching over.

I don't know what Kahlua was thinking because when we got home he pranced around the entire apartment and sometimes appeared to be checking if all of it was still..there. He jumped from couch to couch, checked for his toys and then went and settled in for a good long sleep.
 
Subsequent  separations got easier and my phonecalls less frequent. He took about three visits to actually befriend the doggie pool and when he did, they promptly called me to check the doggie cam if I could. And sure enough the lab in him had come out to play!

The best phonecall I've received so far was to ask me this: "Shalini - you do know your dog has a little bit of a wild child in him ?" I cracked up. He had been playing in the pool like crazy and refused to be kenneled at the end of playtime. Every time one of  the playgroup humans came to get him, he'd jump in the pool to escape them. They would eventually need to wade in to grab him.

So he has a blast when he is boarded. But it's still rough for me. I feel guilty for leaving him, even if it's just for two days. The last time I dropped him off  there, I left but watched through the window. (Don't ever do this, it's stupid.) He was refusing to go into the facility from the reception area.  He just sat there, looking lost. Finally one of the crew  gently picked him up and took him in. I was crying as I drove away feeling like the worst mother in the world. But hey, two hours later I got the wild child phonecall!

Adoptable 4 year old Lab mix - Thelma

What do you feel when you leave your fur kid behind ? Do you have any fun boarding stories ? Do you prefer that someone house-sits for you ? Please share your thoughts with me via comments! They will undergo moderation so don't be disappointed if you don't see your comment immediately :)

Both dogs in this post are adoptable through Wakulla County Animal Control. There is a special place in my heart for black dogs because they're often not adopted or often treated poorly due to their color. There is also a special place in hell for the humans who do that to these beauties. Please email FriendsOfWCAC@gmail.com to adopt either one. If you can't adopt, email anyway to see how you can help. Please share this information with your friends and family too. Visit their FB page  to see more adoptable dogs and cats.  You may just save a life!

Pre-weekend-Wigglebutts- Happy Hiatus

There will be a post coming real soon, about a fun topic! I am on vacation from work and consequently keeping a safe distance from computers, tablets, phones and all such weapons. More time with the family and my sweet labradane. But, do stay tuned and don't forget about us!

Social Media: Friend or Foe ?

The answer - I don't know.

Disclaimer: This post is not related to rescue directly. But it will point you to rescue related posts if you read on. It however might be an interesting read anyway, and I would love to hear your  thoughts.

Very recently, I deactivated my Facebook account. I don't know if or when I will return to join the circus.  I thought I would miss it you know? I thought I'd have the jittery fingers, the irate reactions, the withdrawal headaches and all that fun stuff and finally succumb to the Social Media giant and it's invincible-ness (word? no.). But I don't. I honestly do not care, and it feels great. Kahlua still has his account, but we have signed in once in the last week amidst battling Turbo Tax to file our taxes one night because face it - that stuff gets boring quick.

Ofcourse there are a million pros to Social Media. Specially in the world of animal rescue where the power of the FB share can mean life or death for a shelter dog. (Other ways to help are Transport, Donations, Volunteering, and more..). And, I cannot emphasize enough what it means to have Social Media at your disposal when you live 10,000 miles away from your family, and your closest friends are scattered all over the world. If I do rejoin the bandwagon, it will be for these two reasons.

But I have a theory on how things like Facebook can affect your psychology and your mental health and I shared it with some of my colleagues this morning and they too had great inputs. It was great having a conversation about the world of Social Media with an intelligent group of technically sound and well informed people, most of whom have college degrees in something related to computers and programming, and see that they too share similar concerns.

First off, kids. They no longer go out to play. They do not experience other kids, fresh air, a football, a frisbee or whatever other strange object that might bring amusement. I don't think its healthy mentally and physically to be constantly battling flying creatures with some vivid high tech gun or well lit sword and calling it a game. (Please excuse my lack of knowledge of games - the only thing I ever played was Super Mario, and Tetris. Even today, my very close  to new Nintendo Wii is used about once a year to play Tennis when my overseas friends visit and we have had a few too many and then some more.).

Next, adults. How many 'friends' do you have on FB ? How many of those actually call you - yes, how many actually use that phone to make a real phone call on  your birthday ? And I am bad at this myself. Very. I had also become of the frame of mind that wishing someone on FB, was what made it official. Just like wedding invites these days. I think it's cheesy to have your wedding as an 'Event' on FB. Yes, I do, and you can judge me for it.

More, adults. What's your FB personality ? Oh come on, we all put our best paw forward on FB ! We all showcase the best events in our life - weddings, babies, puppies, trips abroad and all the good stuff. I am guilty of this too! My colleague had a very interesting theory of how this can affect one's audience, for the worse. People tend to compare these 'FB lives' to their real lives, and might tend to feel worse about themselves. It's easy to forget that people are on FB who they choose to be on FB. They choose to showcase those events. This does not mean that they have the most perfect, most beautiful lives that their Timelines show!

Even more, adults. Would you really, and I mean in the offline world, be aware of what 400+ people say or think? Would you really have that much connectivity, that much insight into someone's 'comments', 'likes' or other such preferences ? No. Should you care what they think, now that you do because you are on FB? No you shouldn't. But you do! Because you are human. So yes, if someone was rude to you on FB, it might affect you negatively even if this someone is not someone you really care about in the real life. I guess my point is there is all this extra baggage that you wouldn't otherwise carry. FB wars, Cybercrime, all that good stuff.. ! You become party to all this because of your constant online presence and accessibility.


I honestly believe that we are slowly and knowingly (yet, ignoring-ly) moving toward some sort of crazy online world domination. Like being in a Sci-Fi film where the major Social Media and Search giants of today, will use all of this information to control our every move. And I am not sure there is a solution. I am not even sure that this is a problem. Weird much ? I don't know. Maybe it's what's supposed to happen - like evolution ?

The best part about being offline, I think happened to me today. I got news that it was someone's birthday and my offline self had to get her phone number to send her a text message to wish her. And you know what? I absolutely LOVED doing it.  And I am sure there is more to come :) It's already begun, with personal email exchanges, phonecalls, and whatsapp messages from overseas. One on one meaningful conversations. No extra unwarranted comments etc.

Alas, the bittersweet symphony here is that I can't share this post on FB, which was where about 90% of my traffic came from. Still, I'm hoping people will somehow find this and it will strike a chord somewhere.

Puppies of the Humankind

This is all over the internet, but I still don't think it's talked about enough, so I decided to write about it. And I have been meaning to for a while but I guess the topic found it's way into the depths of my subconscious until a little girl, with outstretched arms, and all the love in the world to offer, came charging toward Kahlua yesterday bellowing "Puppppyyyyyyyy". Hmm.. familiar much ?

Kahlua believes, that the solution to all things scary is to hide behind Mom. This makes me one of the more fortunate fur parents. Do you have a dog that would react differently ? How do you deal with such situations?

Children maybe God's gift to mankind, or God in disguise, or little angels or whatever..but the truth is they move unpredictably, at high speeds,  emit loud sounds and are often found zooming around on these loud, strangely shaped monsters with wheels. Heck, they scare me, why wouldn't they scare a dog ?

If you are a parent (the non fur kind), I request you, please, teach your children to respect a dog's space. I know some parents who do a wonderful job of this. Their kids come up to me and say "May I pet the puppy?" first. We take it from there and these kids never, ever, enter his personal space. They even understand that shelter puppies often have fears that we as humans cannot comprehend. I've met kids who time and again have tried to befriend my baby but they do it in baby steps. They accept when he chooses to hide under a table when he sees them. They even feel a little bad, but they still understand. They understand because either they have dogs of their own, or their parents explained  to them to approach with caution, if they must indeed approach and always ask the human first.

On the other hand, I've encountered kids who notice that their bike or the little scooter that they so confidently whizz by on, is scaring my pup, and they choose to come closer and at higher speeds, to gain some sort of silly thrill out of a poor creature's fear. This is when I need to step in and request the child to please wait while we leave the scene and go the opposite way. Who is raising these kids like this ? And why ? (The problem in this situation, in my opinion, is bigger than 'just' thriving on the 'pleasure' of scaring an already scared puppy.)

My point is that an animal's space needs to be respected as much as a human's. Just because we are human does not mean we have some sort of natural right of way. Infact, we have the more complex emotions in place to actually 'yield' right of way to those more in need. Unfortunately, not many people actually think like this and then accidents happen. What would you do if I sat by you, for an hour, and kept jabbing you with a pencil. You'd go Hulk on me, correct ? What would you do if some unfamiliar person came charging at you screaming unintelligible words? That's exactly how a dog feels when his/her personal space is invaded. Let's break the notion that all dogs are natural nannies. We need to recognize that it is not true and children and dogs need to be introduced to each other in a positive environment. The dog needs to associate the child with happiness, and not fear. We respect that there are humans who are scared of dogs. Why can't it be accepted that it can be the other way round too ?


I don't mean to blame anyone or sound like some self righteous animal freak. These are things that I did not know before I adopted Kahlua. So I understand that some people and some kids don't know that they are scaring the dog. And if they did, they would check their actions. Hence the post. I want to talk about this more. I want this to be spoken about more. I want to spread this message as far and as wide as I can. So please help me.. please use the share buttons below this post.. you might just be preventing yet another puppy of the human kind from being hurt, and a puppy of the puppy kind from suffering the consequences.

 

 

Image Credit: http://sassystickers.com/images/yin-yang-pawprint-handprint.jpg

Serene Sunday- Kahlua says Happy St. Pa(w)trick's Day!

 

Alright everyone, Mom is a little busy today so I'm doing the responsible thing and updating you all on her behalf. Tell me - why is everyday not Sunday? 

Mom and I went on the most wonderful hike today. It was not very long, but look how lovely!

 

 

  Today is St. Pa(w)trick's day and I would like to wish you a happy one! Be green, enjoy yourself but also be safe, ok ? Many happy tails depend on you.

I am SO pretty in green! I'm all set to go out and celebrate, but hey look at the beautiful guy below! Don't you want him to find a safe home on this special day ? Did you know, the animal shelter is waiving all adoption fees for Pitbulls today ? Mom says Pitbulls have the most beautiful smiles. I feel a little green when she says that, but you know what? I secretly agree.  Some of my closest friends are Pits! Go get yourself one, and complete your family today!

Friday Fleatles: How can I help ?

Today's title is based on one of the Text From Dog jokes. Here it is -

Thank God it's the Fleatles!

Anyway, let's ignore my poor sense of humor for the better of all mankind, and get to talking about today's topic: What are the different ways to help the cause of Rescue ? What can I do ?

The first and most obvious thing is - adopt! But I won't go into detail about this because there are lots avenues where you can get this information. The local animal shelter, rescues in your area, your local radio station are just a few.

The second thing that you probably already know of,  is to foster. I have a lot of acquaintances who do foster and who write about their experiences too. Fostering is great and really means you're saving lives, making space at the shelter, rejuvenating a dog's life (and yours). It is a very selfless deed. Another advantage to fostering, specially for novice pet parents like myself is that it actually allows you to experience the joy of having an animal, and also the responsibility associated with it, without actually making a lifelong commitment. Before some heckles are raised let me make my statement crystal clear - I am not saying fostering is not a commitment. It is a means to allow yourself to actually find out if you are a good pet parent, and if this is what is really good for you and the dog; without there being a case of owner surrender, and all the negative implications it has. In the event that you do actually figure out, that it's not for you, the responsible and adult thing to do is dedicate yourself to finding that forever home (a great one) or a better foster home, and accept gracefully that the time is not right for you.

So now what ? You still want to help the cause, your heart is in the right place - what do you do ? Lots ! Here goes -

Take your time... and give it to them.
Visit your local animal shelter's website and fill out their volunteer application. There is a need for all types of people with all kinds of callings. If you are not really experienced with animals, but are a people's person, you can be a 'greeter'. Are you a great event organizer ? You're needed at adoption events. There is a plethora of options on the website. Usually, the shelter interviews you and takes you through an orientation process. If you factor  even a few hours each week into your routine, you are helping the cause. You're helping the animals find homes.  Time is essential and the clock is ticking, specially for shelter animals. Donating your time, is helping save lives.

Sit Happens
Are you experienced with animals ? Did you do a behavioral training class with your own pup? Can you teach basics like "Sit", "Down", Stay, "Heel" ? Use that knowledge to train a shelter dog. Knowing basic commands will help the dog become more adoptable and find it's home. Show off the dog's skills at adoption events you take it to.You might just be able to find that forever home!

Love that Lens?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. It is not unheard of, that a great picture has resulted in an adoption. My inspiration behind writing this is Betsy Sasnett. Betsy is a talented photographer who donates huge amounts of time and effort to the cause. She goes out to shelters in the area to photograph adoptable animals and showcases them on her website. You will see Betsy at adoption events, tirelessly taking pictures of people and their pups and donating her proceeds to rescues in need. You can do the same. Check with your local shelter if they need their animals photographed. With today's World Wide Wildfire and the power of the FB Share, you may just save a life!

Do you dabble ?
In web programming? Know a little http ? You can help maintain your shelter's website.

Is your pen mightier than your sword ?
Do you have a way with words? Help write up descriptions of the dogs you help train or simply  those that catch your eye at the shelter. Did they do anything particularly cute?(they always do!) .. write it up with a couple of catchy sentences and unleash it on Facebook.


"Girls I'm going to Harvard!"
"You mean like on vacay ?? Let's all go..ROADTRIP!!"
[I originally just wanted to title this "Roadtrip", but it's my third coffee of the day and a scene from one of my favorite movies "Legally Blonde" popped into my head.. so you had to bear the brunt of the combination. Also, I ain't going to Harvard just yet. *sigh*]
I'm talking about transport. Today, geographical separation is no deterrent (The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman). Rescues can pull urgent dogs from across the country and adoptions can cross state boundaries. You can help get pups from shelter to safety. It's easy! Each trip is divided into multiple legs and each leg is on an average 80 miles long each way. Take a couple of friends (depending on how much four legged cuteness you need to transport).. make a day of it! You get to meet some really nice people.
One place to start is the Compassionate Animal Rescue Team.
Here is some of my precious cargo from some of my trips with my bestie Nandita who shares my craze for canines!

Money for something, and your tax for free
I should stop with the bad titles and the coffee. But hey - donate! All shelters will give you a receipt for that time of year. Itemize it under tax free donations. Most rescues and shelters have wishlists on Amazon or on their website. Put a smile on someone's face and make a few tails wag by shipping a bag of dog food or flea and tick meds. Spring time is puppy time - so keep this in mind. Many shelters will be having some sort of "stuff the crib" type donation now. Contribute!

Confessions of a Shopaholic
Shop to help! Can it get any better than this ? Look for websites that donate part of their proceeds to animal rescue. One such website is the Animal Rescue Website. They have stuff from all over the world. Trust me, if I had a dollar for the number of times something "Made in India" turned up at my doorstep and I laughed (because hey.. i'm Indian.. I don't just laugh at a whole country.), some rescue would be getting a few bags of food today!
Order checks and address labels from the ASPCA. Looking for a Car ? Get a Subaru! They donate part of their proceeds to the ASPCA. All the dogs on their advertisements are adoptables/rescues.

And last but probably the most important
Are you resourceful? Can you network? Can you recognize that someone's need is someone else's superpower? Connect the people. Your strongest resource is the people you know, their strengths and their abilities - you never know when someone can help your cause. Talk to people at events, network, tell them about rescues you've touched upon, share contacts, introduce people to people. Never rule out a person or a possibility. The grapevine is more powerful than you know.


Let me zip it now, but not before I bring to your notice a business, with wonderful people who have several times  helped the cause:

Out U Go
Need a professional and trust worthy pet sitting service ? Reach out to the Elizabeths at Out u Go!  Yes there are two of them, and I'd trust Kahlua's life with them.