"Hello It's Me"

Once upon a time there was this post: "We're going to BlogPaws!"

It was published in the middle of May and I was so excited to be heading to BlogPaws to meet new friends and old pups and learn all sorts of cool stuff so I could come back here and tell you all about it.

But then I came back from BlogPaws and worked every day for the next 6 weeks. Long days. Every day. (Well okay, to be honest, I did take Memorial Day off.)

Hmm. This "work" thing does not sound conducive to my play plans.

And then Bella got sick.

But then she got better.

And then the heat-waves started.

But we have air-conditioning.

And now I have had a nice recuperative vacation, Bella's feeling her Cheerios again and we are finally able to to get back to all those ideas BlogPaws helped inspire. I've got an overview of the event and some product reviews planned as well as a very special auction coming up.

But first I wanted to give a real quick follow up on Bella's health issues for everyone who's been wondering or worrying.

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When last we spoke, Bella was having tummy troubles that were exacerbated by the medication we were using to help treat a shoulder injury. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on that post because you all put my fears at ease and we did actually start her back on the Metacam for her shoulder once her tummy settled down.

I'm sorry, but I just love her crazy ears.

We started her on a lower dose as many of you said your veterinarians had recommended. She's had a few more bouts of diarrhea but no more vomiting (and certainly no more blood, thank dog!) and we've figured out how to work with the meds, our vets and her diet to maximize the pain relief without tipping over to upsetting her tummy. Whew.

When all is said and done, Bella's shoulder feels so much better she has started initiating play with me again and romping around the backyard. Our agility trainer has let her start doing the A-Frame again, raising the bar on some of the jumps and Bella's enthusiasm for the sport has returned in abundance.

Bella even did the teeter-totter in full last week. My camera kind of blew up so we didn't get it on film but I was so proud of our little girl that I replayed the two runs over and over in my head for days afterwards. Way to go, Bella. Way to go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm happy, healthy and ready to go.
So, we're gonna go now, right?

So that's where things stand right now: Bella is feeling better tummy- and shoulder-wise, mom is having what we call an "awakening" about priorities and life and we are all enjoying our summer together. Lots of exciting stuff coming up so thanks for sticking with us while we've had this kind of crazy Spring.

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On a final note, today is the 3rd quarter "Blog the Change for Animals" event for 2013. While I was unable to pull it together enough to participate, I do want to support the effort by shouting it out and sharing the Linky here.

One post I thought was particularly good was Something Wagging This Way Comes' "Puppy Mills Harm People Who Hate Dogs." I'm not usually swayed by arguments that require putting humans above animals to make their point but Pamela does a great job of laying out specific human reasons why puppy mills hurt everyone, why we need everyone to care and most importantly, how we can get everyone to do so.

Go. Read. Enjoy.

And thanks for visiting.

PS - Thank you, Todd Rundgren for the title of this post.

Saving the Satos - BtC4A

Today we're participating in "Blog the Change for Animals", a quarterly event where bloggers are asked to write about an animal welfare issue near and dear to their heart.

Rather than focus on a specific rescue group, I want to talk to you about the Satos of Puerto Rico.

It is estimated that 100,000 stray dogs, called Satos, roam the tiny island of Puerto Rico. These dogs face unrelenting hardship: starvation, disease, neglect and abuse. They die on the beaches, along roadways and in shelters every day. They are poisoned by business owners and tortured by bored and apathetic youth.

Bella is a Sato.

In writing Bella's story, I worry that I am doing a disservice to these wonderful dogs and their terrible plight. It's very important to me that people understand, while Bella is a Sato, not all Satos are Bella.

When Jan and I were first considering adopting Bella, we met another young dog, let's call him Henry. Henry was also a scared-y dog and when we met him at his foster family's home that first time, neither Jan nor I were able to touch him. Henry was an adorable dog but, while Jan and I knew we wanted a special needs dog, we opted for Bella instead of Henry.

A couple of years later, we met Henry again at our trainer's studio where his owners (now failed fosters) were also getting help. In fact, our trainer said we were lucky to have Bella because Henry was "a mess".

Ha! Has she met Bella? Oh wait, actually, yeah, that's right: she had.

My point is that Henry was not a Sato. He was just another fearful dog who needed special people to take care of him.

Bella's not crazy because she's a Sato. Bella's crazy because she's Bella. Just like Henry's not crazy because he was a Boxer-mix from the south. He was just Henry - a damaged dog.

Satos are good dogs

Satos in general are known to make wonderful household companions. They are often described as tough and resilient but so very sweet and loving. They are always described as incredibly smart and quick to learn.

"Living with a Sato often means an element of surprise, but they are almost always loving, affectionate dogs who are good with all family members." -- Dogster.com

I want to write today about the many lovely Satos I've met and of their owners who love them to pieces. I want to talk about their amazing ability to love even though they've lived with and seen the worst in us. I want to just post pictures of rescued Satos and their adoring families.

Why should you care about Satos?

I know there's controversy in some parts of the animal welfare community about saving dogs from areas that are not your own.

Some of the things that have been said to my face about Bella would make your hair turn grey. Some of the things I've read online about saving the Satos has reduced me to tears. And some of the lies being told about them and the efforts to rescue them have made me so angry I can barely speak.

But I don't understand how anyone can dismiss the value of a life based simply on where that life happened to begin.

Some facts about Puerto Rico:

• Puerto Rico is a U.S. Territory.
• Residents of Puerto Rico are U.S. Citizens and have been since 1917.
• In 2011, Puerto Rico's ranking on the Animal Legal Defense Fund's list of animal protection laws improved by 91%. -- Source: 2011 U.S. Animal Protection Laws Ranking
• In New York, the euthanasia rate of shelter animals has decreased to "33%, down from 69% in 2003."
• In Los Angelos, the kill rate is 30%.
• In the shelters in Puerto Rico, it is 99%.

99%.

Of course, saving the dogs of Puerto Rico requires more than just moving them from there to here.

It requires humane education that begins with school children who will grow up to change their world. It requires access to low-cost spay/neuter programs as well as sterilization of the dogs on the streets. It requires continued improvement in the laws as well as strict enforcement of them. And it requires many hands and many hearts working together to improve the lives of these wonderful little dogs.

Jan and I have pledged to help Satos in many small and various ways. We hope the people who learn about them through us will be inspired to do something, however small, to help as well.

Share their story. Buy a t-shirt. Write the Puerto Rican government or better yet, the board of tourism and urge them to enforce their animal protection laws.

But most of all, if you ever get the chance to adopt a Sato, please don't hesitate to do so.

All we really want is a warm bed and someone to snuggle with...

Rescuing Bella did little to help the Satos of Puerto Rico. But telling her story shouldn't hurt them either.

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Blog the Change for Animals

Or, "If You're Too Sick to Blog, Share the Blog Hop" so folks can go out and read all these fantastic posts about how each and every one of us can make a difference in the lives of animals.

I really wanted to participate in the quarterly "Blog the Change for Animals" event but am under the weather and heading to bed. BtC4A's brings together bloggers once a quarter to talk about animal issues that are near and dear to their hearts.

I would invite you to please check out these other blogs though. There is a lot of good stuff here.

You'll be inspired.

Have you heard? About July 23rd?!?

Today is Be the Change 4 Animals' quarterly "Blog the Change" event and this quarter the goal is to make bloggers (and blog readers) aware of the upcoming "Bloggers Unite for Dog Rescue" global event addressing the importance of dog adoption.

It took me a few reads to make sure I understood what's going on here today - I'm writing a post today to tell people they should join me in writing a post next week to talk about how important it is to adopt your next dog? Okay, I think I get it - takes me a few tries sometimes.

But actually, I do get it and here's why. Back in June when Pedigree Foundation was running its "Write a Post, Help a Dog campaign, I found out about it on the very last day of the campaign. A few of my readers mentioned they knew nothing about it either. So today, BtC4A is giving everyone a week's notice for the "Bloggers Unite" event by getting bloggers to tell other bloggers about next week's campaign. Very cool.

So here's the deal:

On July 23rd, BtC4A, in coordination with Dog Rescue Success and Blog Catalog, is hosting a global blogging event to promote dog adoption. "Bloggers Unite for Dog Rescue" invites everyone to spread the word about how important dog rescue and adoption is to the lives of so many animals.

And here's where YOU come in:

Have a blog? Awesome! Write a post about a rescue or shelter in your area or any dog rescue-related topic that interests you. You DON'T have to be a pet blogger to participate. In fact, that's the whole point: we want to get every blogger to write a post so everyone who reads blogs of all kinds will see these posts and learn why dog adoption is so very important.

If you don't have a blog, you can still participate by tweeting blog posts and sharing them on your Facebook walls. Stick posts on Pinterest, ♥ them on Tumblr, "Like it!" on StumbleUpon or the who knows how many other social media platforms available. (Don't use any of those social media tools? Got email? Share posts that way!)

The goal is to reach as many people as possible about the importance of dog adoption.

But just why is dog adoption so important?

Did you know:

• "Millions of dogs are euthanized" every year "because not enough people are adopting dogs through local rescue groups and shelters."
• Many people still buy dogs at pet stores (or worse - online!) even though most pet store dogs come from puppy mills.

We here in the pet-blogging and animal welfare community know most of this already but so many people outside our circle remain uninformed. And since pet stores often go out of their way to misrepresent the facts and confuse the consumer about where their puppies come from, even people who want to do the right thing may not realize the dog they are buying comes from a puppy mill.

It's our job, our responsibility, to get the facts out there so everyone knows. So pick a topic about dog rescue and join us next week to tell the world how to save a life by adopting their next dog.

Bella says "Thank you."

Thank you!

Don't just feel bad, do something!

We're participating in the April "Blog the Change for Animals" (BtC4A) campaign.

It's a great idea that gives bloggers a chance to make a real difference in the lives of animals using the skills they have: writing, photography and video. And it's that idea, the idea of using the skills you have to make a difference, that I want to talk to you about today.

Sometimes I wonder if it's human nature to focus on the negative, the things that are wrong, the things that are bad, the things that overwhelm us and feel too difficult to repair. We see the SPCA commercials, the ones where Sarah McLachlan makes us feel downright suicidal and, wishing things were better but knowing we can't possibly bring another animal into our lives right now, we nod our heads and change the channel.

But that's where BtC4A comes in. How many of us have thought about the things we can do to improve the lives of shelter animals? Don't think you have anything to offer? Have you seen this?

Copyright, The Pit Crew, Illinois Rescue

The point is, we all have something we can do.

Don't have money to donate? Maybe the next time you're cleaning out your linen closet, you could take those old sheets and towels to a local shelter?

Do you have extra time? You can walk the dogs, play with the cats, clean the kennels. You can make phone calls.

Technically savvy and socially engaged? You can blog, you can tweet, you can share stories on Facebook, raise funds or simply awareness.

You can talk to (and recruit!) your co-workers and friends. Hang a rescue calendar on the wall of your office or cube then just wait and see how many conversations come from it.

Are you good with a camera? Maybe your local shelter or rescue could use someone to take pictures of the pups that would make them more appealing to someone looking for a new dog?

Do you have a car? Every week, dogs and cats are rescued from high-kill shelters and driven to safer havens. You don't have to have a big SUV to participate. Get on the mailing list and just sign up for the animals you can fit - someone else can take some of the others. The more people on the list of volunteers, the more flexibility the transport coordinator has to make the route work.

Sure, shelters and rescues need money and they need fosters and forever homes but they also need volunteers. They need people willing to man booths promoting the organization at local festivals, to handle the dogs at "meet the dogs" events, they need people to keep their websites up to date, to screen applicants, to visit prospective adopting families, to move dogs from a shelter to their new foster homes.

And of course, they need volunteers to walk, train and socialize the dogs, cats, bunnies and other critters that find themselves out of a home.

Landing in a shelter doesn't have to be the worst thing to happen to an animal. In fact, if that animal finds itself a new home with a family that truly wants them and promises to love and care for them for the rest of their lives, it could turn out to be the very best thing possible.

Just ask Bella.

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To everyone who gives a little of their time, a little of their heart, a little of themselves to make the world a better place for animals, thank you.

BtC4A: Petland USA, Stop Selling Pets!

I'm going to assume you care. I'm going to assume you just don't know. I'm not going to cover this page with horrifying pictures of puppy mill dogs - I'm going to assume you've seen them. What I'm not going to assume is that you know where puppy mill puppies are sold.

Today is October's "Blog the Change for Animals" event and bloggers everywhere are banding together to ask you for one thing:

"Tell Petland USA to Stop Selling Pets!"

Do you know where that doggie in the window came from? Petland USA wants you to believe they come from responsible breeders who treat their dogs with care. They don't.

"Investigations have exposed that 95 percent of the puppies sold in Petland stores come from commercial breeders who treat their animals like crops -- stuck in appalling living conditions, often with inadequate vet care, deprived of exercise, socialization, and even protection from the elements."

(Read the original HSUS investigation from 2008 here:    http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2008/11/petland-puppies.html
and the follow up investigation from 2009 here:    http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2009/06/new_petland_investigation_062909.html)

In this Petland USA video describing where their puppies come from, they say repeatedly that their puppies come from "USDA Licensed and Approved" breeding facilities. That's nice but what does it mean?

According to this May 2010 report from the Office of the Inspector General who "conducted an audit of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Animal Care (AC) unit...responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act (AWA)" it means very, very little:

At a facility in Oklahoma with 83 adult dogs, AC cited the breeder for a total of 20 violations ...during 5 inspections from April 2006 to December 2007... Despite the continuing violations, AC did not take enforcement actions...

During our visit to the facility in July 2008, AC cited the breeder for another 11 violations (including 1 repeat and 3 directs). One of the direct violations involved a dog that had been bitten by another dog. The first dog was left untreated for at least 7 days, which resulted in the flesh around the wound rotting away to the bone. The breeder admitted the dog had been in this condition for at least 7 days. The inspector correctly required the dog to be taken to a local veterinarian who immediately euthanized it

AC did refer the case to IES for investigation, but only after another direct violation was documented in a subsequent inspection after our visit...However, as of early June 2009—11 months after our visit—the violator had not yet been fined. "

You can read the full report here. Note: Some images in this document are very disturbing:    http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/33002-4-SF.pdf

Here's the point I want to make today:

Petland USA talks about using only "USDA Licensed and Approved Breeding facilities". Bully for them.

Did they read the report? Are we supposed to believe this means something?

It's a cop-out. It's like saying "I didn't do anything illegal" knowing full well what you did was morally indefensible.

The fact remains: Petland USA sells puppy mill puppies.

In a recent poll by the ASPCA , 75% of the respondents said "they knew about puppy mills and view them negatively" yet "78% were unaware that most pet-store doggies in the windows come from puppy mills". Now you know.

If you don't want to support puppy mills, don't buy puppies from Petland USA and ask Petland USA not to sell them. The only way to stop the devastation of puppy mills is to stop selling the puppies they produce.

Petland Canada vowed to do just that. Why won't Petland USA? Sign the petition below and you just might make that happen.

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

Other ways you can help:

• Write to Petland USA on Facebook and Twitter and tell them to stop selling pets.
• Use the following as your status update on Facebook and Twitter (and everywhere else!) today:

  Tell @Petland USA to Stop Selling Pets! Sign the Petition: http://chn.ge/qT2HNs #BTC4A #Change

• Don't even shop at pet stores that sell puppies and tell the owners why. Sign and share the ASPCA's "No Pet Store Puppies" pledge.
• Visit the blogs participating in today's Blog the Change for Animals event and share them with your friends.