Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Just One Day

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One day.  Twenty four hours. One thousand, four hundred, forty minutes.  Eighty six thousand, four hundred seconds.

For some dogs one day will make the difference between living out their lives being loved and cherished or the end of their life, abandoned and alone in a shelter.

A dog but for the stroke of luck could have been our own sweet Delilah.

The only picture I have where she even remotely resembles a puppy.

The only picture I have where she even remotely resembles a puppy.

 

Thankfully American Lab Rescue pulled her from the High Kill Shelter she was at and put her in foster care until she could be transported to us.  American Lab Rescue is one of only seven shelters/rescues in the state of Connecticut that have taken the Just One Day Pledge and vowed Now and Forever.

Just One Day takes place every year.  They work year long spreading the message and asking shelters to take the one day pledge.  They will assist shelters by providing model press releases, promotion plans, and a guide to help them adopt their way out of killing.  All of these are provided free of charge to any organization that takes the pledge.

From their website, “To most people, June 11 is Just One Day. But, June 11 is a day that will change everything for about 10,000 companion animals, and a day that can change the world. On June 11, 2013, we can be a No Kill nation.”

10,000 animals!! Sounds good doesn’t it?

But they need our help.  Just about every town in CT (169) have a dog pound or shelter, yet only seven have taken the pledge to be no kill.  And of those seven, they are all, with the exception of one, rescues.  No Humane Societies, no Shelters.  I find that appalling.  And I intend to change that for next year.   I’m going to be recruiting my CT friends to assist me in getting the Just One Day challenge out to shelters in our state so more of them participate next year.

How many shelters in your state participate?  Go to their website and see if your favorite shelter/rescue does, if you don’t see your favorite on the list, contact them, ask them to take the one day pledge.

Together we can make this a No Kill Nation, if only for one day.

Another way you can help shelter animals is to join the Tuesday’s Tails Blog Hop and shine the light on a shelter animal, a dog like Duke here.

Duke is 6 or 7 years old and was abandoned at a truck stop.

Duke is 6 or 7 years old and was abandoned at a truck stop.

 

Poor Duke, he sat for hours at the truck stop where he was dumped waiting for his heartless human to return.  Duke gets along with children, and dogs, walks well on leash, and he’s very attached to his foster mom’s elderly mother.  You can read more about Duke on his Petfinder Page, he’s currently in foster care in New Fairfield, CT.

10,000 animals in one day seems like a big undertaking, but shelters were closing their doors last year because they had adopted out all their animals.  Imagine, a shelter with no animals. Wouldn’t that be a great ‘problem’ to have?

 

The Post in Which I Speak Deer.

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The past two weekends we’ve had crappy weather.  Memorial Day has to be one of the coldest on record, at least since I’ve started keeping records.  Last week it got hot and humid.  Between both weekends it was hard to find the motivation to get out and walk the dogs.  Except for yesterday.

Tropical Storm Andrea (the weatherman pronounced it On-Dre-Ah, I don’t know about you, but I have a cousin named Andrea and we pronounce it An-Dree-Ah, but I digress.)  Tropical Storm Andrea blew through here starting Thursday night and all day Friday, and it rained.  I mean, it rained.  Actually it poured.  Buckets.  It rained so hard on Friday that even my dogs didn’t want to walk, and they walk in any weather.

Yesterday however dawned clear and cool, a perfect day for walking.  I pulled up to the park and a car pulled up behind me, there were two young men inside.  They apparently thought it was a beautiful day too and were attempting to gather some friends together for football in the field.

I plotted out our walk and thought we’d hit the field first, then catch a trail from there, thereby avoiding the field once the boys were using it.

I try to keep the dogs away from the edges of the fields to avoid poison ivy.  Sampson was being a turd and running the edge of the field.  I called him three times and then decided to run with Delilah.  Sure enough, we’d run about 10 feet when I heard him jingle up behind us.  I turned to treat him, when all of a sudden he stopped.  His head and tail stood at attention.

I assumed the boys had made it to the field, but Delilah and I turned to look and she snapped to attention.  A deer ran into the field.

I braced myself for what was to come, Sampson took off, heading for the deer.  The deer tentatively began her run across the field, Delilah crouched, prepared to get her run on.

“Nooooooo!  Sampson.”  He continued forward

“Stop!” I shouted.

They all stopped.  Sampson, Delilah and I on one side of the field staring at the deer.  The deer on the other side of the field staring at us.

What a perfect picture.  Instinctively my hand reached around to my back pocket to grab my camera. it was empty.

Too late, I realized I’d left it sitting on the couch at home.

This photo is courtesy of Wendell on Flickr under Creative Commons.

This photo is courtesy of Wendell on Flickr under Creative Commons.

 

By the time I pulled my cell phone out and activated the camera, the deer said, “Sorry, no photos please, there are hunters in these parts, you know,” and ran back into the woods.

Whew.  I slipped my cell phone back in my pocket and realized a second too late that Delilah was still intent on catching that deer.

Have I mentioned you need strong bones to walk a Lab?  Thankfully my Calcium supplements are working and my wrist the leash was looped around held up.  Still I think I jerked a few steps forward.

I called her back, “Do you really think you can catch that deer?”  She nodded.

Okay, I made that up.   But if she could have nodded her head, she would have.

I un-clipped her leash and gave her permission, after all the deer had a good head start and if I needed to I could have just told it to run faster.  I mean, it understood Stop.

Willy or Won’t He?

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Dogs N Pawz

Today we join our friends Teddy, Scout and Ash from Dogs N Pawz for the Tuesday’s Tails Blog hop. 

As Lisa says, “This is the Blog Hop that features shelter animals. Find a cat, dog, rabbit, etc. at your local animal shelter or rescue and feature them on this Blog Hop! Come join the fun and help a furry friend find a forever home! And while you’re at it, don’t forget to visit the other blogs and share their doggies, cats, rabbits, and all the other animals that need forever homes on your social media sites. Please spread the word!”

Inspired by Kim from Golden Pines, I’m focusing my efforts on helping Senior Black Dogs find their forever homes.

How one wonders does a senior dog find themselves without a home?  Well sometimes it’s as heartbreaking as an owner dying without having made arrangements for their pet’s care.  Sometimes there is no-one in the family willing or able to assume responsibility.

This is what happened to Willy.  Willy is a Senior boy currently at the South Windsor, CT police department.

Willy Willy is between 10 to 12 years old.  Petfinder says, “There is no one in the family that can care for him. He needs exercise and someone to help him through his loss.”

Poor sweet Senior is grieving the loss of his owner, and needs someone to help him through it.  Will you be the one?

Willy or won’t he find a home to live out the rest of his sweet Senior years?

You can help him by sharing this post on your social media sites and asking your followers to share it on theirs.  One never knows when a friend of a friend of a friend……:-)

This is the Tuesday’s Tails Blog Hop, hosted by Dogs N Pawz.

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