Unconditional Love

I am having a crappy day at work. Heck - I am having a crappy year.

As with most folks - it impacts how the rest of my life goes. It affects my relations with my husband, my family and my friends. However, it really doesn't impact how my relationship is with my dogs. A friend recently gave me some words of wisdom . . . "You cannot control how others treat you. But you can control how you react to their treatment of you."

Dogs have this luxurious capacity to dwell in the present tense. They are happy you are finally home. They are happy you are feeding them. They are happy you are taking them outside. They are really happy you are talking to them in a strange voice that they don't understand but sounds good.

Their eyes and their tails belie this happiness. The warmth of their bodies are comforting when your world sucks.

I have read many an article, as I am sure you have too, about abused, neglected dogs who are rescued from the clutches of certain death . . . and sometimes from a situation worse than death. And yet, the dogs do not turn on their rescuers. They express happiness in a new found friend. Certainly there are those who have issues moving past what they have experienced. But far and away most dogs respond to the love and compassion that is bestowed upon them by returning it with equal measure. This is no more obvious than in the rehabilitation of the Vick dogs and the wonderful accomplishments they have made. Proof positive (or is that pawsitive?) that even in the "worst" of cases you can drill down to that original depth of emotions in the dog.

And so today when I return home from my awful Monday, bitter and stressed, I know that Sasha and Sparky will be just as happy to see me as when I return at the end of a good day. They will relate their happiness solely to the fact that I am home. In their eyes why shouldn't I be happy too? And when I look into their eyes I will have a hard time remaining bitter and stressed. I will seek comfort in their warm wiggly bodies. I will find humor in their actions and peace in their kisses. I will remember why I go to work...to earn more money for kibble and chew toys :-)

And I will lay my head down tonight and go to work tomorrow with renewed vigor and vitality.

Unconditional love.

World Rabies Day - September 28th

Meant to post this earlier, but yesterday was World Rabies Day. Amazingly, 55,000 die worldwide every year. More information can be found on AVMA's website. Another page has some great information about rabies prevention and what to do if you are bitten by a dog or your dog bite's someone else.

Another senseless death

When are people going to wake up and become responsible? In 2007, Youngstown, Ohio passed an ill-planned breed ban which has never been enforced. The ban was put in place to ensure that another child wasn't harmed by a dog with the appearance of a pit bull. Bravo Youngstown. You chose to focus your efforts on one type of dog rather than focusing on the total pet owning population. When you could have been educating and enacting preventative measures, you instead chose to spend your efforts on a witch hunt.

Yesterday a 3 day old baby paid the price. The three day old infant was left alone in a bassinet while the father went to another room. While the father was out of the room the family's Husky grabbed the infant, inflicting multiple bites to the head and neck. The baby was dead at the scene.

Please people, do NOT leave a child alone with an animal....EVER. Why is this such a difficult concept for people to grasp?

Dogs and their routines

I was reading a post on the Happy Pit Bull blog - about her dog Dozer and how he was depressed when they were packing suitcases for a trip. That got me thinking about all the dogs I've ever had and how they so quickly fall into a routine. For example, every night, without fail, our two dogs get up at 10 PM - looking for their last meal of the day. They could both be crashed out, twitching with their doggie chasing rabbits dreams at 9:58 but two minutes later, at 10, they're both up looking for food. How do they know??? Cracks me up. Likewise, Sasha simply knows when we are leaving - before even heading to the door, just getting ready to leave at a certain time of day and she gets in her crate. It's both sad and funny at the same time. Sparky's usually completely oblivious but that's a whole other story :) Anyway, what about your dogs - do they do anything like that? I'm sure they do, let's hear 'em.

Just do it - get involved!

I know it's sometimes difficult, when facing a large problem such as dog and cat overpopulation or irresponsible dog ownership, to get frustrated and overwhelmed - not knowing where to start.  I've definitely felt that way at times in our work starting up HELP FIDO and other issues in the past (both animal related and non-animal related).  However, everyone in HF has come to realize that the key is to simply get started.  For example, we had been talking for a couple months about having a low-cost microchip clinic in Whitehall Ohio.  After Anna sat in on teleconference with Ken Foster (the author of "Dogs I Have Met" and other books) we followed his advice to "just do it" and went ahead and set a date of September 13th to have a microchip clinic in Whitehall.  Some members of HF had done this in the past but we hadn't as a group, so the logistics of everything were a bit intimidating at first.  But, with a deadline in place, we had no choice but to make it happen.  And the result? A rousing success!  We microchipped 44 dogs (just about every breed under the sun) at $10 a piece and everything went off without a hitch; we also were able to talk to people about the importance of spay/neuter and other issues.  BTW - if anyone else out there is thinking of doing something like this, feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to give you some advice on things we learned. 

Likewise, we've also found that the key to getting involved in your local communities and working to influence citizens, City Council, State Legislatures and Congress is really simple - go to meetings, stay after, talk to your respresentatives, call or email their offices (calls are more effective).  Thanks to Brent Toellner, Michelle Davis and others for that piece of advice. Honestly, most people will listen to you and are receptive - not all, but most.  Just by doing these things, HF has already accomplished so much in a short period of time and we look forward to doing more.