So I watched an episode of Dogtown on the National Geographic Channel a few days ago about the Michael Vick dogs that were being rehabilitated at the Best Friends Sanctuary in Utah. The sanctuary became home to 22 of the “toughest cases” including Cherry, a young male who was likely used as bait and was terrified of humans, and Georgia, a female prized fighter whose teeth had been removed somewhere along her life presumably so she could be forced to breed. The transformation that these dogs made at Best Friends was nothing short of amazing and really speaks volumes of the animal spirit. It goes to show how kind hearted an animal’s nature (in most cases) is, all they want is love and affection, and it also goes to show the length some dogs will go to please humans, even if it means putting their own lives in danger (dog fighting).
After watching this episode I did some research online about dog fighting. I was under the assumption that dog fighting was no longer prevalent in the US, and if it was being practiced anywhere it was in the deep south (sorry, don’t mean to offend anyone!). I was astounded to find out that dog fighting has been actually increasing in the US, the Humane Society estimates that there are an estimated 40,000 people involved in the “professional” high-stakes organized rings while at least 100,000 more people participating in informal dog fighting. WOW! Really!? Damn that’s sick.
Somehow my research took me to this website, http://www.puppyprofits.com. Their heading says “Canine sport fighting for fun and profit”. What the heck, is this for real? “Dog fighting has never been so fun or profitable”. Really, how is this legal? Please tell me this is a joke.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
7 Creative Ways to Help Animals in Need
1. Be an animal’s hero. Report animal cruelty and neglect to your local authorities. If you see a stray or an injured animal take time out of your day to help ‘em out. While not creative per se, it’s well worth mentioning because I feel that a lot of people overlook such simple things. Report animal abuse and neglect!
2. Ask people to donate in your honor. This year for your birthday or during the Holidays ask that in lieu of gifts that friends and family donate to your favorite animal charity. Or donate to a charity in an animal lovers honor on their birthday if they won’t accept gifts!
3. Donate things around your house. Do you have old blankets or towels lying around? Donate them to your local animal shelter. Most shelters have a list of little things they need from a day to day basis. Check that list out, you may be surprised what's on there.
4. Shop on iGive.com. Go to http://www.igive.com/ and search a list of charities by state and/or cause type. Select your favorite cause and shop at brand name stores (i.e. Barnes & Noble, Gap, Best Buy, etc.) and a portion of each purchase is donated to your cause.
5. Recycle. Can't afford to donate money out of pocket? Donate money you receive from recycling household items. My mom recycles the household’s papers, glass, plastic bottles and aluminum cans and averages about $30 monthly with two 55 gallon trash bins full of various recyclables. That’s almost two bags of Equine Senior you could donate (for you horse people out there)!
6. Visit theanimalrescuesite.com. http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/, a partner of Petfinder.com, has a button you can click on their website that will prompt a sponsor to donate money to various animal rescues/sanctuaries for food and vet care. You can click this button once a day, 365 days a year, and 100% of the sponsor money goes to charity. I have posted this button at the top right hand corner of my blog- so clickity-click away!
7. Volunteermatch.com. A good ol’ fashioned way to contribute is to volunteer your time and love. Sign up to be a dog walker at your local shelter, a cat socializer at a cat sanctuary or an adoption counselor. Volunteer your time just one day a month, or when ever you can fit extra time in. Many organizations allow kids to participate in their volunteer opportunities so brings the kiddos too! My favorite site to find volunteer opportunities is http://www.volunteermatch.com/ where you can search for non-profits and charities by zip code or cause.
Here Kitty-Kitty......
Finally, a remote control for cats! At last, my prayers have bean answered!! (snicker, snicker) Control-a-Cat Remote Control has an astounding 21 commands including 'Retract Claws', 'Catch Mice' and the oh-so-handy Stop Hissing. Simply point remote at your cat, press one of the comand buttons (hope for the best) and voila, you are a cat whisperer supremo! Get yours now at http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/supplies/b640/.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Captain's Story
One of the reasons I felt compelled to start this blog was because sometimes it feels like no matter how much you give, donate, contribute, pray, etc. you can never do enough to help animals in need. No matter how many good people out there doing what they can to help there are five more people who continue to abuse, neglect or discard their animals. It can be discouraging to say the least. My hope is to have a network of people all over the country (or world!) who are making a difference, even in just one animal’s life. Even if it's just one life it's worth it.
Throughout the month of February I have been following a blog called Saving Faith (check it out here http://savingfaithgws.blogspot.com/). I'm sure many of you are already aware of this blog, but if not I recommend that you read it, it’s really something. The blog is written by a woman who rescued a horse from a lonely, neglected life and the struggle she is facing to get Faith (the horse) healthy and content, justice served to the man who neglected Faith and awareness of animal abuse and neglect spread in her community. One thing that I love about this blog, besides the fact that I’m rooting for Faith, is that the blogger touches on how saving an animal affects you. It really, really does move your soul, it’s an amazing experience.
I have been lucky enough to experience this first hand. My very first horse was a gelding that my parents purchased from a lady who was trying to downsize her herd. Somehow we heard about this bay gelding for sale, named Captain, and we quickly went to check him out. The day we went to see him, trailer in tow, is forever inscribed in my mind. The owner didn’t live on the property and had a small pipe corral arena that she kept a handful of mares in along with Captain. All of the mares were larger then the little bay gelding and he stood off alone in a corner, a dull glaze over his eyes. With what little food this lady was feeding her horses and the mares bullying this little gelding around, he was reduced to a boney miserable existence. I remember thinking this wasn’t at all what I expected, but there’s no way we could have left him there. Needless to say we took Captain home that day and my life would never be the same because of it. After a couple weeks of proper nutrition and lots of TLC Captain was blossoming into a little firecracker of a horse. He was alive again and soaking up every ounce of love that I, and anyone else who wanted to join in, was showering him with. Horses do something for our souls. People would always say, "he is so lucky to have found you!" and inside I would always think, "I am so lucky to have found him". That little man taught me so much and helped shape me into the women I am today. I hope everyone has the chance someday to experience the miraculous journey of helping an animal in need. You may be surprised to learn that maybe you needed them as well.
Below is a poem that my Dad wrote in honor of Captain:
A Tribute to Captain: Of Horses and Daughters, A Father’s Perspective
The search began four years ago
Megan was thirteen and all aglow
With visions of a well trained horse for her to show
Where it would take us how could we know
We searched near and far for the perfect steed
And could never find the one that filled the need
Then we heard of a half Arab gelding that had shown indeed
So down the coast we headed with Godspeed
A fourteen-year-old gelding was the quest
And rumor had it that “he was the best”
As we pulled up to the corral I said in jest
Poor excuse for horses now where’s the rest?
At the back of the enclosure all alone
Was a pathetic looking creature all skin and bone
Let’s take a closer look I said with a moan
Was this the gelding that had been shown?
His eye was huge his heart was big
And before I knew it he was loaded in our rig
When it came to emotion a deeper hole I could not dig
So we headed down the highway without a zig
He was ten years older than what we’d been sold
And a good hand shy of what we’d been told
But how could any father be so cold
As to fault his daughter for being so bold
Yes, Megan’s project he soon became
It was out of love not for fame
The days passed quickly and then when it came
She showed him proudly with no shame
And then the stifle injury oh what a blow
All the way to UC Davis we did go
The results were inconclusive so how do you know?
Would he be sound again and able to show?
And then the good Vet he did tell
Put him out to pasture for a spell
Let him graze the hill and dell
He may get better you can never tell
Almost a year was the toll
Before the gelding could lay down and roll
To watch him in the pasture troll
Was something that would touch the soul
One last show for Captain Crunch was ahead
Megan worked him steadily and kept him well fed
That he wasn’t ready could not be said
They earned at that show a blue and a red
After that show there was something I did detect
As they walked side by side on that trek
She spoke softly into his ear with an arm over his neck
She’s outgrown her sweet Cappers; they’d played out the deck
Then came that fateful Spring day for the vet we did send
And heard the prognosis a twist in the intestine they could not mend
And the realization that no matter how much we care all life does have to end
I said goodbye to our little man, my daughter’s best friend
Captain if you’re ever traveling back down this way
And need shelter at night or a cold drink in the heat of the day
Your stall is always open and there are carrots and hay
Until then old boy in our hearts you’ll always stay
Before
After (at 20 something years old!)
See what a little TLC can do?
Throughout the month of February I have been following a blog called Saving Faith (check it out here http://savingfaithgws.blogspot.com/). I'm sure many of you are already aware of this blog, but if not I recommend that you read it, it’s really something. The blog is written by a woman who rescued a horse from a lonely, neglected life and the struggle she is facing to get Faith (the horse) healthy and content, justice served to the man who neglected Faith and awareness of animal abuse and neglect spread in her community. One thing that I love about this blog, besides the fact that I’m rooting for Faith, is that the blogger touches on how saving an animal affects you. It really, really does move your soul, it’s an amazing experience.
I have been lucky enough to experience this first hand. My very first horse was a gelding that my parents purchased from a lady who was trying to downsize her herd. Somehow we heard about this bay gelding for sale, named Captain, and we quickly went to check him out. The day we went to see him, trailer in tow, is forever inscribed in my mind. The owner didn’t live on the property and had a small pipe corral arena that she kept a handful of mares in along with Captain. All of the mares were larger then the little bay gelding and he stood off alone in a corner, a dull glaze over his eyes. With what little food this lady was feeding her horses and the mares bullying this little gelding around, he was reduced to a boney miserable existence. I remember thinking this wasn’t at all what I expected, but there’s no way we could have left him there. Needless to say we took Captain home that day and my life would never be the same because of it. After a couple weeks of proper nutrition and lots of TLC Captain was blossoming into a little firecracker of a horse. He was alive again and soaking up every ounce of love that I, and anyone else who wanted to join in, was showering him with. Horses do something for our souls. People would always say, "he is so lucky to have found you!" and inside I would always think, "I am so lucky to have found him". That little man taught me so much and helped shape me into the women I am today. I hope everyone has the chance someday to experience the miraculous journey of helping an animal in need. You may be surprised to learn that maybe you needed them as well.
Below is a poem that my Dad wrote in honor of Captain:
A Tribute to Captain: Of Horses and Daughters, A Father’s Perspective
The search began four years ago
Megan was thirteen and all aglow
With visions of a well trained horse for her to show
Where it would take us how could we know
We searched near and far for the perfect steed
And could never find the one that filled the need
Then we heard of a half Arab gelding that had shown indeed
So down the coast we headed with Godspeed
A fourteen-year-old gelding was the quest
And rumor had it that “he was the best”
As we pulled up to the corral I said in jest
Poor excuse for horses now where’s the rest?
At the back of the enclosure all alone
Was a pathetic looking creature all skin and bone
Let’s take a closer look I said with a moan
Was this the gelding that had been shown?
His eye was huge his heart was big
And before I knew it he was loaded in our rig
When it came to emotion a deeper hole I could not dig
So we headed down the highway without a zig
He was ten years older than what we’d been sold
And a good hand shy of what we’d been told
But how could any father be so cold
As to fault his daughter for being so bold
Yes, Megan’s project he soon became
It was out of love not for fame
The days passed quickly and then when it came
She showed him proudly with no shame
And then the stifle injury oh what a blow
All the way to UC Davis we did go
The results were inconclusive so how do you know?
Would he be sound again and able to show?
And then the good Vet he did tell
Put him out to pasture for a spell
Let him graze the hill and dell
He may get better you can never tell
Almost a year was the toll
Before the gelding could lay down and roll
To watch him in the pasture troll
Was something that would touch the soul
One last show for Captain Crunch was ahead
Megan worked him steadily and kept him well fed
That he wasn’t ready could not be said
They earned at that show a blue and a red
After that show there was something I did detect
As they walked side by side on that trek
She spoke softly into his ear with an arm over his neck
She’s outgrown her sweet Cappers; they’d played out the deck
Then came that fateful Spring day for the vet we did send
And heard the prognosis a twist in the intestine they could not mend
And the realization that no matter how much we care all life does have to end
I said goodbye to our little man, my daughter’s best friend
Captain if you’re ever traveling back down this way
And need shelter at night or a cold drink in the heat of the day
Your stall is always open and there are carrots and hay
Until then old boy in our hearts you’ll always stay
Before
After (at 20 something years old!)
See what a little TLC can do?
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