What a lovely afternoon....

An Adventure In Belize

No, I am not travelling to Belize.  However, collegues in the animal welfare business Dr. Jessica Bolahood and Deborah Muise are.  Since my blog is feeling a bit neglected lately, I thought that any readers I may have left might enjoy reading Deborah's blog.

Jess and Deborah, as part of the World Vets team,  are in Belize running a free spay/neuter clinic for the people of San Pedro.   They'll be leaving tomorrow, so read on to follow their adventures!!

http://belize-sunsharksandaneuterclinic.blogspot.com/

 

The Story of Chloe

 
It was dark when the truck slowed and stopped on the side of a remote dirt road.  The door opened, and a small dog was forced out onto the shoulder.  The truck sped away, leaving the dog behind, alone in the night.

Hours later, someone driving home along the road saw the forlorn figure of a dog and pulled over.  The dog was still standing there, waiting for the people she thought loved her to come back.  The driver put the dog in the car and took her home.

Chloe, as she was named, was found to be almost hairless.  Her eyes were swollen and hazed over from infection.  Her rescuer surmised that there was no way Chloe had gotten to the side of that remote road on her own.  Someone must have found Chloe's health issues too much to deal with, and instead of seeking help, simply abandoned her and drove away.  Unfortunately, Chloe's rescuer was also unable to provide her with the help she so desperately needed, and that's when the Northumberland Humane Society became involved.   Chloe was surrendered to an animal cruelty investigator and taken immediately to a veterinarian, where she was found to be suffering from severe skin dermatitis and swollen eyes.  One of her eyes had an ulcer over much of the cornea, impairing her vision considerably.

Chloe's residence at the shelter has been punctuated by daily administration of 4 kinds of eye medication.  She was put on anti-biotics to control her skin and eye infection.  The vet requested medicated baths for Chloe every other day and placed a cone around her neck to stop her scratching at her already damaged eyes.

On the follow-up visit, the vet was pleased with Chloe's progress.  The staff at the Northumberland Humane Society had been diligent with the little dog's medications and because of this Chloe's eyes were less swollen, allowing the vet to ascertain the probable source of Chloe's eye issues - she had entropion, which is a condition where the eyelids roll downwards, causing the eyelashes to scrape the surface of the eyeball each and every time the eye blinks.  Chloe had most likely been suffering from this condition for a long time, so long in fact that her corneas had become ulcerated.  

Chloe, in spite of her health issues, has shown a remarkable and resilient spirit.  She takes in stride the application of eye drops and salves throughout the day, every day.  She tolerates standing in the tub soaking in medicated shampoo, she bears with being sprayed with strong smelling solutions to help  her skin heal, and even forgives having pills forced into her on the occasions when she won't eat them in food.  She still wears the cone around her neck to prevent her scratching and seems accepting of it.  She enjoys going on short walks and spending time with the staff and volunteers.  She loves riding in the van, even when these trips usually end with another visit to the vet!  Physically, Chloe is responding well to her treatments.  Her hair is slowly growing back and her eyes are clearing.  It's thought that her right eye in particular will never be normal, having been scraped by eyelashes for too long, but there is marked improvement noticeable.  Surgery will correct the entropy, and at last Chloe will be able to live without the torment of her cornea's being scratched each and every time she blinks. 

One of the most rewarding things about working in the the field of animal welfare is being able to help animals like Chloe.  Once her treatment is complete and she has recovered from her surgery, we will be looking for a permanent home for her.  She will most likely need to eat a hypoallergenic food for possibly the rest of her life, and some permanent vision impairment will remain, but other than that, we are hopeful that Chloe will be able to live a normal life.  Chloe will never again have to know the despair of being left, ill and alone, on the side of an unfamiliar road.

Like all Humane Societies, the Northumberland Humane Society is a non-funded facility.  It relies on donations and it's own fund-raising efforts to survive and help animals like Chloe.  If you would like to donate towards Chloe's treatment and surgery, please go to www.northumberlandhumanesociety.com , call us 905-885-4131, or mail us a cheque made out to Northumberland Humane Society.

As you can see by the photos below, we think Chloe may be part Shar pei.  Her face however, leads us to think she may have some pug in her ancestry as well.

 

 

 
 

 

The Menagerie.....

It occurs to me that, over the years, Dave and I have had our share of pets, both usual and somewhat unusual.  I guess working where I work it was inevitable.

Even prior to the Humane Society however, there were animals.  My Siberian Husky dog, Chimo, passed away when I was about 16 years old.  Two years later, along came Sylvia, Siberian Husky #2 -

 
Sylvia was about 8 weeks in this photo.  I was 18, I think.....hard to remember that far back!

 

Dave and I developed a habit of rescuing more exotic fauna.  The first was an iguana, which eventually grew to around 6 feet in length, tail included.  This peaceful creature enjoyed munching on dandelion and collard greens until it developed cancer at about the age of 5 years old and had to be put down.

 
Love the welding gloves!

 

Garity (so named because he was born on St. Patrick's Day) is a chinchilla and is still going strong to this day.  At 14 years of age he has lasted longer than any of our pets.

 
Munching on an apple......

 

Photos do not exist of the Green Anoles and the Russian Drawf Hamster, all of which have passed on.   But one of this pair of aquatic Black Mystery Snails is still with us -

 
They're bigger than they look.  The larger one was about the size of a tennis ball when it died last autumn.

 

And we're still enjoying the company of our Desert King Snake -

 

As well as two doves and one remaining cat.

I should mention again that I'm not in favour of exotic creatures as pets, for reasons outlined here.  All of our unusual animals have landed in our care because of someone else's negligence.   We have spent alot of time researching how to care for these animals, and it takes money and effort to house and feed them properly. 

 

Global Pet Foods in Cobourg Fundraises for a Good Cause

Please click the link below to read the article in the Northumberland News.

http://www.northumberlandnews.com/news/article/171188

 

Akbash Puppies!

It's hard not to get excited over puppies, even while I wish people would stop allowing them to be born when they can't take good care of them.......

These are Akbash pups, crossed with possibly Golden Retriever.  They are currently residing at the Northumberland Humane Society.  Hard to believe by the size of them that they're only around  8 weeks old - these are going to be BIG dogs!

Look here to learn more about the Akbash dog......

http://www.canadasguidetodogs.com/akbash.htm

 

 

 

I just rescued this gorgeous hawk from where it was caught by one talon on the front grille of a van at a local dealership after hitting a window. Hoping that it's merely stunned and a night of cage rest will set it right and ready for release tomorrow.  Stay tuned.....

Adventures on the Ark

Louisa remarked to me recently that, what with a cage of doves on the filing cabinet and an aquarium containing a turtle on my desk in my office, I'm acquiring quite an Ark here!  Yes, this office is small and crowded as it's shared by me, the company's Investigations Agent and the aforementioned doves and turtle.  In addition, it's temporary home to various critters that arrive and need a corner to stay in until they can be transferred or moved into the the adoption room.

 
 The red-eared slider is one of the most common pet turtle species sold.  It is alot more work to care for them properly than many people imagine.......

 

 

 
In summer, when this photo was taken, my doves get to spend alot of time outside in a large but safe cage.  Now, in December with the temperature hovering around -11c, they have to stay indoors.  They seem to not mind this.  Their cooing often gets so loud I can't hear anyone on the other end of a phone conversation!  Often I leave their cage door open so they can come out and flutter around the office if they want to, but they usually choose not to.  Probably safer with all the cats in the next room.......(photo by Sara Tanner)

 

 

 
 This poor red-tailed hawk was picked up on the side of Hwy 401 by Animal Control this AM and dropped off here at the Humane Society.  It's currently at a local vet, awaiting transport to a Wildlife Rehabilitation facility.  From time to time we get hawks, and I never tire of seeing them up close, although it's sad to see them injured. 

 

 

 

This is going back a few years!  But yes, we get orphaned fawns from time to time.

 

Here's some video footage of some farm birds that were rescued and recently spent the night with us.  As you can see, we're not really set up for ducks, geese, chickens and roosters, but at least they got some food and water and got to spend the night somewhere warm before being transferred to a local hobby farmer.  No, these scenes did not take place in my office, but actually in some dog runs!

Download Farm birds

 

  

 
Yes, we do get ordinary cats and dogs as well!  (photo by Sara Tanner)

 

Very insightful article about why de-clawing of cats is of absolutely of no benefit to the cat. Why anybody thinks it's OK is beyond me....I guess inanimate objects like couches and chairs are more important than something that's actually alive and can feel pain. It's that sanitized version of everything that some human beings seem to need....they want a cat, but only one that will behave exactly the way they want it to. Like those people that put out bird feeders but then get upset when birds arrive that they don't approve of, or people that move to the country and then declare war on all of the local wildlife that they don't like or understand......

http://www.twobitdog.com/drfox/De-clawing-Harmful-to-Cats

Snakekeeping

I have to say first off that I'm not really in favour of keeping snakes as pets.  Well, I should maybe refine that statement a bit to say that I'm not a supporter of the exotic pet trade in general.  It's not that I have anything against these interesting creatures, in fact, I love snakes.  I was one of the few kids in my Kindergarten class who would pick a snake up in the playground, even some of the boys were too afraid to!  I remember asking my Mom and Dad to get me a stuffed snake for Christmas when I was about 5ish.....and I got one too!  Gods knows how many stores they had to scour to find stuffed snakes, but my sister and I both got these wonderful, huge stuffed snakes; they were too big to wrap so Mom draped them over the chairs and they were the first things we saw when we rushed into the living room early on that long ago Christmas morning.  Mine was green, my sister's was pink.

Nowadays, Dave and I keep a desert kingsnake(a live one) and as this animal has rapidly outgrown his glass habitat, we're on a mission to find him (or her...yes, I have no idea which it is so if I use him/her/it interchangeably in this post, do forgive me) a new one.   Having done my research, I find that many snake-keepers keep their pet snakes in small containers where they can coil up and that's about it.  True, our snake doesn't do a whole lot more during daylight hours than lie buried under the substrate, still, I think he deserves a nicer habitat.  It would also tend to look a whole lot more decorative than a tupperware container with holes drilled in the top.

But back to exotic pets for a moment, and why I'm not in favour of them.  Many of these types of animals don't belong in the homes of humans and should stay where they belong, in their own natural habitats.  As much as many exotic pet keepers are responsible and good care givers, others just are not and the animal ends up living a short, miserable life of deprivation and neglect, or gets turned loose into a habitat not it's own, where it either perishes or aggressively flourishes, often to the detriment of native species.  You know it's a problem when piranhas end up in the Grand River, or when giant Burmese pythons are running rampant in the Florida Keys.   And what about degus.....some may argue that these rodents that look a bit like giant gerbils are hardly exotic, but they serves as an example that they had a brief spurt of popularity as pets before people found out how neurotic and destructive they can be.  Then animal shelters everywhere ended up with cages full of them.  The point is, we often just don't know enough about what exotic animals truly need for habitat or food.  I'm sure there are plenty of folks out there who disagree, and are probably, if they've bothered to read this far, asking why I have a snake.

The answer to that is that our snake came from an animal shelter, the one I work for, in fact.  It was in need of care and a home, and as it could hardly be turned loose in Southern Ontario for the reasons outlined above, and as we lacked the funds to drive it back to it's native Mexico or Southern Texas, Dave and I adopted it.

 

The desert kingsnake is a mainly nocturnal creature, and in the wild would hunt rodents, frogs and other snakes for food.  Our snake seems to thrive on a diet consisting solely of dead, defrosted mice.  As you can see by the below photograph of our snake enjoying the sun on a lawn chair while his cage gets cleaned out (yes, he was being closely watched to make sure he didn't slither away and disappear) he is getting quite large and is at least several inches longer than when we first acquired him.

 

We use, in common with many snakekeepers, the Carefresh substrate in our snake's cage, which is a recycled paper product.  He loves to burrow in it and creates quite a network of little tunnels.  It's also very non-toxic and safe.  I also have a layer of bark below the Carefresh, and below that some sand.  The sand is really only to insulate the bark and Carefresh from the heat of the undertank heater.  The light and aforementioned heater turn off on a timer at night in an attempt to replicate a day and night cycle.  The snake has a small water pond and a couple of hide areas to crawl under. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oliver!

I guess it's about time I focused a bit on where I seem to spend most of my time - my place of employment, the Northumberland Humane Society.  I have a looooong history with it, beginning in the early 1970s when my Mom became a member of the fledgling local branch of the OSPCA (Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), then called the Ontario Humane Society, and began volunteering at their small fund raising thrift shop.  (Just a side-note that is probably of no interest to anyone but me - but hey - my blog, my rules! - my Grandmother's sister, Kathleen, was a member of the English Royal Society for the Protection of Animals, and I'm proud to be the now owner of her membership pin.  She passed away a number of years before I was even born, but I would love to have known her.....my Grandmother once told me that Kathleen, a small, determined woman, would confront and berate people in the street who were mis-treating their horses.)

But back to the Northumberland Humane Society - by the 1980s, the thrift shop had raised enough money to open an animal shelter on Ward Street in Port Hope.  I was about 14 then, and used to volunteer from time to time.  After a long hiatus, I returned to volunteer again in the early 1990s, and have never left......now I'm supervisor of the shelter.  The shelter is very small but what it lacks in size and space it more than makes up for in ingenuity and enthusiasm, thanks largely to my awesome staff (guys if you're reading this, you totally rock) and a large number of volunteers (guys, if you're reading this, you also totally rock).   Find out more here -

www.northumberlandhumanesociety.com

People ask me how it is that I don't have a houseful of pets, with the temptation of a constant parade of wonderful animals coming through the doors of the shelter.  Well, it's simple.  Dave and I have three pets, and this is what we can reasonably afford to take good care of.  Adopting anything above and beyond that would just not be responsible.  However, if finances and space were not issues, I would definitely have taken this guy home by now - (thanks to Sara Tanner, animal photographer extraordinaire, for the pic.) -

 

 Oliver was the pet of an elderly lady who passed away last December.  Her brother, visiting from B.C while taking care of her estate, had charge of Oliver until it was time to return home.  He arrived at the shelter with this fat little beagle in tow, and before he left, he bent down to give Oliver, probably his last link with his sister, a final farewell. 'Bye Buddy - I wish it could have been different.'  He said.  Oliver and I watched the elderly man walk away back to his car, with the aid of his cane, looking sad and somehow defeated, I think he had become attached to Oliver and felt bad leaving him behind.

But Oliver had a light in his eye and an engaging swing to his step - his tail rotated like a helicopter blade - defeat was clearly the last thing on his mind!

Oliver was eventually adopted out, but had to be returned due to his inability to see eye to eye with the family cats.  (Another good reason why he wouldn't fit in at our house.)   Oliver clearly doesn't like cats and isn't adverse to attacking them.  In addition - he apparently can be a little aggressive with men - he would be perfect for a single female who is looking for a companion who will give complete and utter loyalty.  And he's just so darn much fun - watch these short videos and see!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arIHeaNA1uk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeqgvn6PDGg

Pretty good for a senior!  I hope I have that much energy when I'm.......let's see........70 odd years old!