I know you will delight in seeing this short video of Dixon, at Farm Sanctuary. Enjoy! Share with others!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA-rPS5KoFU&feature=youtu.be
Showing posts with label save. Show all posts
Showing posts with label save. Show all posts
Friday, August 14, 2020
Friday, June 24, 2016
"They Say Ruby You're Like A Dream" (song title from movie)
As I look around my house, I see the photographs of my pre-Dixie dogs ... some of whom resided in Connecticut with me, one that bravely traveled in my truck with me and a bunch of household items during my move from Connecticut to Knoxville in October of 1986, and several other wonderful dogs that I acquired after I got settled in at my first Knoxville house. Their framed pictures were carefully preserved in moving boxes in 2004 when I moved from one side of Knoxville to another, twice. In the days and weeks after Dixie passed into spirit, I took comfort in getting the dog photos out and putting them where others and I can see them. Faith Rose "Rosie" is looking down at me right now from the wall above my computer ... she's in a reddish brown frame (to match her poodle hair color). I'll have to get the picture scanned so I can put it in the computer (she's sitting in the 1974 Ford Courier pickup truck that made the move).
I had some multi-faceted talks with myself about whether to have another dog ... and "when" the time might be right. I found myself sitting on the benches in the park Dixie and I had frequented ... and I would sort of "borrow" people's dogs as they walked by. Petting a dog is such a soothing, spiritual experience.
During the second week of May I saw an ad in the Bargain Mart featuring some of the dogs at Young-Williams Animal Center (Knoxville and Knox County's animal shelter). One of the faces peered out at me and I went to the main facility to see if she was still there. Yes, and the staff told me the sad story about her past. No wonder she hardly would look at me in the "get acquainted room". I kept talking to her in soft tones and petting her. She was at the shelter for a second lengthy time, after being confiscated from her first owner and then brought back in by her next owner. She was suffering from heartworm. Some kind soul had paid the money for her treatment (expensive) and her adoption. God bless the person or persons who saved her! Her fur was growing back in at the two shaved sites of the medicine injections. The Shelter staff was fond of this 90 or so-pound dog and coddled her, though no adopter was choosing her. Probably it was a combination of her size, age (8 years), color (black dogs are the last ones to be adopted for some nutty reason), her heartworm recovery process, and what seemed to me to be her trust issues. I took a leap of faith and filled out the adoption papers.
A trip to the pet supply store yielded toys, leash, collar, and dog food. Next day I went back and got her. She was happy to get into my truck and seemed right at home lounging in the back seat. The first several weeks were rigorous for me because I had to leash-walk her around my hilly yard to keep her physical activity minimal (until the safe-date had been reached regarding her heartworm treatment recovery). Once June arrived, this sweet dog could safely walk and run off-leash in our fenced-in backyard and everything got much easier for me. Her personality has blossomed and bloomed! She is very affectionate, very smart, and IMO very beautiful.
A trip to the pet supply store yielded toys, leash, collar, and dog food. Next day I went back and got her. She was happy to get into my truck and seemed right at home lounging in the back seat. The first several weeks were rigorous for me because I had to leash-walk her around my hilly yard to keep her physical activity minimal (until the safe-date had been reached regarding her heartworm treatment recovery). Once June arrived, this sweet dog could safely walk and run off-leash in our fenced-in backyard and everything got much easier for me. Her personality has blossomed and bloomed! She is very affectionate, very smart, and IMO very beautiful.
I would like to introduce to my readers my awesome, wonderful girl -- her name is Ruby.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
This Man Is A Hero ...
... a hero of the sort we don't hear or read about every day. If you love dogs a lot (or even a little), you will want to visit http://www.rescueroadtrips.com/Rescue_Road_Trips.html. Please read all of Fido's letter! A Google search for Greg Mahle Road Rescue will be worth your while; you can read how he started this mission and the bittersweet joy it brings him. A true hero, it is estimated that Greg has rescued and transported northward to new homes more than 55,000 southern dogs -- healthy, affectionate dogs who were in southern "high-kill" (low adoption rate, high euthanasia rate) shelters. At Rescue Road Trips, you'll be thrilled and thankful to see the photos and read the ongoing story of one man's courage and devotion in saving the lives of wonderful dogs by bringing them northward to waiting homes. I will explain a bit about that here.
During the early 1990s and on into 2004 (after serving for three years as a volunteer), I worked as humane education director for a regional animal shelter here in the south. It was a heart-breaking job and I still see the faces of many of those sweet dogs and cats. If they were owner-surrendered they were usually euthanized immediately (probably while the pet owner was driving away); if the pet was a stray, he or she was kept for a mandatory three-day period during which it was hoped (!) that the owner would come looking for the animal, pay the citation for letting him/her run loose, and take the pet back home. Most of the time the owner didn't come (or came too late). The physical attributes of the shelter, itself, were ghastly and the dogs in the top row of concrete compartments had it the worst (no access to the outdoors). During my volunteer years there, I went there three times a week to carry frightened dogs from those top cages to the outdoors where I would put a leash on them and let them walk around on the grass and relieve themselves. With the largest dogs, I would sling them over my shoulder like a bag of potatoes (holding on to their rear quarters) in order to bear their weight and carry them through two rooms to access the outdoors. I remember one female rottweiler who was crammed in a top compartment and who had the word "please" in her eyes. I remember her clinging to my shoulder on her way outdoors. I loved each one of those dogs, so my heart was continually aching. The cat room needed attention too and, as often as I could, I'd stop in there and pet the cats. The main problem across the board was overcrowding due to lack of spay and neuter by owners. Puppy mills and backyard breeding added to it.
I came to Tennessee from Connecticut. The need for spay and neuter for dogs and cats had been preached and promoted there for a number of years. By the time I moved here (late 1986), the northern states had a pretty good head-start on spay/neuter. And that is why, now in 2016, the pet overpopulation there is greatly improved. Here in the South, we got a later start, especially in the deep south areas. My job (mentioned in an above paragraph) was to educate every part of the human population that I could get access to (classrooms of kids, youth groups, colleges, adult civic groups -- I was even invited to speak at birthday parties) -- about spay-neuter, adoption of shelter animals, general animal care, and the animals' need and right to be loved by his/her human family. Knoxville now has a beautiful, well-functioning animal shelter, a world apart from the former building, ownership, and leadership. People still need to be reminded that spay-neuter (getting them "fixed") saves animals' lives and gives them many health benefits too.
I am very grateful to Greg Mahle for being a devoted Angel who saves dogs. I hope you will go to the several websites that tell about him. What a wonderful, wonderful human being. He can be e-mailed at gmahle@mac.com and the subject line should say RRT main page. We love you, Greg :)
During the early 1990s and on into 2004 (after serving for three years as a volunteer), I worked as humane education director for a regional animal shelter here in the south. It was a heart-breaking job and I still see the faces of many of those sweet dogs and cats. If they were owner-surrendered they were usually euthanized immediately (probably while the pet owner was driving away); if the pet was a stray, he or she was kept for a mandatory three-day period during which it was hoped (!) that the owner would come looking for the animal, pay the citation for letting him/her run loose, and take the pet back home. Most of the time the owner didn't come (or came too late). The physical attributes of the shelter, itself, were ghastly and the dogs in the top row of concrete compartments had it the worst (no access to the outdoors). During my volunteer years there, I went there three times a week to carry frightened dogs from those top cages to the outdoors where I would put a leash on them and let them walk around on the grass and relieve themselves. With the largest dogs, I would sling them over my shoulder like a bag of potatoes (holding on to their rear quarters) in order to bear their weight and carry them through two rooms to access the outdoors. I remember one female rottweiler who was crammed in a top compartment and who had the word "please" in her eyes. I remember her clinging to my shoulder on her way outdoors. I loved each one of those dogs, so my heart was continually aching. The cat room needed attention too and, as often as I could, I'd stop in there and pet the cats. The main problem across the board was overcrowding due to lack of spay and neuter by owners. Puppy mills and backyard breeding added to it.
I came to Tennessee from Connecticut. The need for spay and neuter for dogs and cats had been preached and promoted there for a number of years. By the time I moved here (late 1986), the northern states had a pretty good head-start on spay/neuter. And that is why, now in 2016, the pet overpopulation there is greatly improved. Here in the South, we got a later start, especially in the deep south areas. My job (mentioned in an above paragraph) was to educate every part of the human population that I could get access to (classrooms of kids, youth groups, colleges, adult civic groups -- I was even invited to speak at birthday parties) -- about spay-neuter, adoption of shelter animals, general animal care, and the animals' need and right to be loved by his/her human family. Knoxville now has a beautiful, well-functioning animal shelter, a world apart from the former building, ownership, and leadership. People still need to be reminded that spay-neuter (getting them "fixed") saves animals' lives and gives them many health benefits too.
I am very grateful to Greg Mahle for being a devoted Angel who saves dogs. I hope you will go to the several websites that tell about him. What a wonderful, wonderful human being. He can be e-mailed at gmahle@mac.com and the subject line should say RRT main page. We love you, Greg :)
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