Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Pets or Just A Different Kind of Friend

Shelters are seeing an increase in adoption and fostering rates right now since nobody wants to be #SaferAtHome alone! Tell us about your pet. If you don’t have one, tell us about your ideal pet!

ADOPT?

I have 4 four-legged friends living in the house with me. One dog and 3 cats. Plus two parrots. Having 3 cats was not exactly planned. The first cat showed up in the barn 3 springs ago after a desperate storm threw a couple feet of snow at up over night.I left her in the barn for a day thinking she would leave after two days of sunshine but she did not. Lots of times over the years animals have taken shelter for a day or two in our barn then went back wherever they came from. This cat stayed and yowled at me and followed me around like a street person who needed a dime. End result I took her into my home where she happily became a resident. I took her to the vet who gave her a rabies shot and informed me she was nurtured.

Last spring my daughter was looking for homes for kittens that were dumped in her yard. I took one of those too. It turned out to be a Bengal Kitten. It's now bigger than my dog and full of mischief. She had her shots and neutering last summer.

The third is a nurtured male out of a shelter near my daughters home. My granddaughter had to give him up because her step dad says he developed severe allergies to cats. These are all very nice cats. If they did not live here where would they be? I have an unheated enclosed balcony where I keep cat boxes and food. There are cat doors that are open all year round so they can get onto the balcony whenever they want. I chore the cat boxes 6 days a week. Not on Sunday.

Around here cats show up all the time. At one time it was a really desperate situation. If they don't get neutered spring finds more and more feral cats around. For awhile Anna Shelter took a hand and started neutering cats for free if the shots were paid for, so people took to catching cats getting their vaccinations (About 12 dollars a cat) having them neutered then turning them loose. Some people are willing to control feral cat colonies and feed them. I had to put a stop to it. There are a lot more cats without homes than dogs.

Shelters frown on the elderly adopting a pet. They would not let my daughter's mother-in-law adopt a dog but, I think I heard that situation was taken care of last year. People don't want me to have another dog. Which I would really like to adopt a second dog.

I have a small mix between a Pomeranian and a jack Russel terrier. He goes out with me for walks, He has all kinds of obedience training, and alerts when someone is on the road or property or at the door. We play with his toys when it is too cold to go out which keeps us both exercised.

Dogs should be guarding homes, but not asked to give up their lives in some kind of ridiculous sic'um attitude. Given to them by an owner who does not really understand dogs don't like to hurt people.

I have read and heard on news reports that they are still euthanizing 7 to 10 dogs a day. Because they can't find enough homes. Now, they are saying how many people are getting dogs because they are at home. Will the shelters be getting those animals back when people go back to work? How well will those animals be kept when they are at home alone all day?

I took a kennel course when I was 21. It was a mail order course, which I still have. Then in the 70's I took a Vet assistance course. In the 60's I learned how to give my own inoculations to horses from a Vet who treated our stabled animals. Plus, when I lived in Texas all my friends were animal people. A groomer took me under her wing and taught me professional dog grooming. I've lived with more animals throughout my life than people. You would be surprised the amount of professional people who give out good solid animal treatment and training clues if you are sincerely interested in the well fair of creatures.

All the parrot info I learned was through books and magazines, and of course the internet. Wild bird counting I learned from numerous sources.

In 1917 a free pets Facebook group I belong to had many free dogs on it. At one point they were warning people not to give away dogs because a dog fighting ring had started up and they were using cats to bait and teach dogs to kill each other and other types of animals. At this point I began to think of the people as the animals.

And, last year online I discovered that many of the shelters in the North East were joining in an effort to take every dog into a shelter that did not have a proper home. Now the restrictions for adopting have been tightened. And the fees for adopting have been raised. The free Facebook page doesn't have anything but cats and small animals anymore.

Of course I'm presently out of the loop when it comes to adoption. Still it would be nice to have another large dog to back up my small dog. I find the animal situation more controversial as the years move forward. So many pros and cons to proper animal care and proper adoption procedures.

I think if an animal stays in a shelter for a very long time before it is adopted it will have to go through a culture change before it feels at home in a new forever home. Crate training should be a must but the owner should be taught about the pros and cons of using a crate in the right and wrong ways.

They are our little alien children no matter what species you are harboring take good care of them and you have a friend you can trust.