It was a terrible thing to lay in bed at night and think about this cat suffering for so many weeks in so much pain, and no one doing anything for her.  I can’t even imagine the pain and I keep hearing over in my head the little  whimper she made as I held her when we we first got her here at Pets Alive.  At the time we didn’t think too much of it, but by the next day, when we found out what was wrong with her, it was deeply unsettling to us all.  With that fueling us, Pets Alive went on the attack.  John Sibley, a regular volunteer at Pets Alive and also a web blogger who first told us about Gloria, also had a lot to say about the issue – check out his blogs here.

Normally I would just attack via social media and it might spread viral across the web and a lot of people would know about it, but this time I decided to try something else.  I called them and asked them about it.  I have a person I would call a friend at the ASPCA and I said “How did this happen.  How could this happen.”  And you know something?  She was aghast.  And astonished and just as upset as I was.  And she turned it over to her superiors and you know what happened?  They looked into it.  They did a complete investigation as to what happened and why and how and they came to some conclusions.

Are you ready for this?

They said: We were wrong.  We made a mistake in this situation, and we’re putting in place change so something like this can never happen again.

Here is the press statement that is being released by the ASPCA in response to Gloria.

The ASPCA has conducted an internal investigation into why Gloria, a stray cat with a broken leg who was abandoned in front of one of the ASPCA’s mobile spay/neuter vehicles, was transferred to NYC AC&C.

So let’s take a look at this.The ASPCA brought Gloria the cat to the ACC because that was standard protocol. The cat was a stray and if the owner was looking for her the only place they can find her is at the ACC. So that is where they bring her and they TELL them the cat needs care immediately.

It appears that by this statement, the ASPCA is taking full responsibility for maybe dropping the ball on Gloria, but my mind really goes to the ACC. The ASPCA had the cat, diagnosed the cat, followed protocol and brought the cat to the ACC where she was….what? Neglected for three weeks and then put on a death list. But I digress.  This is about the ASPCA.  The ASPCA followed their protocols.

Pets Alive has similar ones. When people bring a stray animal to us, we always tell them it has to go first to the local humane society so that if the owner is looking for the pet they have the best chance of finding him or her. Then we do monitor the dog or cat, because once an animal steps foot on this property we wind up all feeling a bit of a sense of responsibility to that animal and if they go on to a death list we will pull and take them here, but at least their owners had the best possible chance of recovering the animal! So we can’t really attack the ASPCA for doing that. I understand the part about bringing a stray to the place the owners can find their pet, should they be looking. And they told the ACC about this and why should they not have expected the ACC to treat Gloria? After all the ACC is responsible for the animals in NYC aren’t they? Darnit, I digress again.

But in this case the ASPCA issues this statement and they CHANGE that policy – my friends this is completely astonishing.  This press release says to me, if I were to sum it up: “Wow. We messed up on this one. We should have done things differently. We are upset about this and we’re damn well going to change things and do things differently from now on”.

And then they acknowledge US and ask for people to make donations to us?  How gracious is that? But more importantly than that they are changing their protocols. If an animal crosses their path it won’t be standard any more to bring to the ACC. Instead they will take responsibility and care for that animal. Should they have done this in the first place? Yes. No question in my mind. Yes. An animal needs medical care and you have a medical facility well then help the animal. Then again, no one ever really believes what a crummy place the ACC really is. This is just more proof.

When I got the call from the ASPCA to tell me this, they sounded very upset about the whole thing.  It wasn’t a snow job. I completely felt that they meant it.  They had launched an investigation.  They had gotten to the bottom of what had happened. They CHANGED their protocols.  I was completely astonished.  My contact at the ASPCA said to me “When it is about the animal, and everyone remembers that, the right thing WILL happen”.

This isn’t about the ASPCA.  This isn’t about Pets Alive.  This isn’t about an “image” for the media. This isn’t even about the ACC (ok, it is but I’m trying to make a point here).  This is about Gloria.  It was about failing Gloria and then fixing that. I will be the first one out there attacking and reporting when I’m upset with the way things are being handled by other organizations and if I am going to do that then I also have to be the first one to say “I’m impressed.  GREAT job” when they do something right.  In this case the ASPCA did something right.  They admitted fault. They fixed it going forward.  And I will tell you that as the director of Pets Alive I have made many mistakes over the years.  I like to think I never make them twice. But there is no way you are always going to do everything perfectly and neither will our staff.  When we have screwed up, we acknowledge it and we fix it going forward.

I’m impressed with the ASPCA in this situation.  And yes I’m grateful that they will help us with the costs for Gloria, which has been financially staggering to us…but that isn’t it.  It isn’t about the money. I’m over joyed that they looked into this. Were upset about it. Fixed it. And contacted me about it.  I’m super impressed with this press release. It means a great deal. It means a lot. Read between the lines at all the meaning behind this. And be impressed too.

Now, ASPCA if you would just get behind CARA, we would be happy to rename the proposed law to “The ASPCA is FREAKING awesome ACT of 2012“. Whaddya say?

And ACC?  Really. The ASPCA, in my opinion, had MUCH MUCH less responsibility in this situation. You examined Gloria THREE times. Yet they stand here and take the blame for this. They had Gloria just a few hours. And THEY are standing here accepting responsibility. You had Gloria in your “care” for more than three weeks. YOU examined her three separate times. You let her suffer like this. YOU need to step up and make changes to make sure this never happens again.  Will you? What changes can you make there to make sure cats like Gloria don’t slip through the cracks?

(Damnit. I made it about the ACC again. I can’t seem to help myself.)

But anyway, thank you ASPCA for stepping up. Responding to this. And fixing it going forward. It is what we needed for you and we’re glad that you addressed this.

(I personally love the press release part where you mention Pets Alive!!!!!! – can we throw in a URL there? A donation box? No? Ok, Yeah that would be pushing it.)

I’m surprised that people don’t understand this.
Surprised that some of YOU don’t understand it, and I felt that writing a blog would help to overcome some of the misconceptions.

Have you ever read Pets Alive mission statement?  Oh don’t bother to go and look for it, let me post it here for you:

Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education.

That’s our mission statement.  Short and sweet.

One of the key words? COLLABORATION. Meaning?

1. the act of working with another or others on a joint project
2. something created by working jointly with another or others

So when we are approached by ANYONE to help them save the lives of animals, we need only consider our mission statement before saying YES.

I don’t disagree with everything the ASPCA has done.  They have done a lot of good.  They have a kick-ass spay/neuter program in NYC that spays, neuters and vaccinates pit bulls for FREE,  all the time, not just “on special”.  They do humane education. They offer low cost spay and neuter for other breeds via their mobile clinics.

I’m not going to be a commercial for the ASPCA.  I can’t sing.  (OK, *I* think I can, but other people tell me I can’t).

You all are well aware of the MAJOR issue that we have with them, but to not help 100 little furry lives in Arkansas because we have issues between us is completely disgusting, reprehensible and absurd.

Our mission is to help animals. We would never ever turn away help to do that in any way.  Why should we?  Why would we?

Look at all the faces in this blog. Without the ASPCA’s help this time around, there would be NO WAY our rescue could afford to get them here.  It is costing between $5,000 and $10,000 to do so.  Our budget has absolutely no where near that sort of excess in it.  We struggle each month to pay all our bills and have a little left to buy needed operational items.  Our tractor just died.  Our gator barely works. Without a tractor the boys do everything manually.  When the gator goes, I can’t even imagine the extra work, especially with the farm animals.  Right now the axle of the gator is held together with a wrench that is permanently attached and can’t be moved. It’s a matter of time….

So when another organization steps up to the plate and says yes they will help and they have the money and the power to do so, then I say jump on board and let’s take this ride, because there are a lot of little lives counting on us.

Last year we had some major disagreements with Best Friends.  Yet when they needed help with saving all those beagles from the laboratories we said YES, bring them here, we will help. And we did.  And together many lives were saved and we adopted out over 100 beagles in less than two weeks. What was the answer for those dogs if we had not stepped up?  If they had not stepped up?

We don’t have a lot of money but we ARE an adoption machine. The organizations that DO have a lot of money can work with us to save more lives, more animals AND more quickly and more efficiently.  So it behooves us all to work together to do that.

In this case we are working with the ASPCA, and Southwind Veterinary Hospital and another animal organization in Arkansas called AARF and I’ve also reached out to another organization in Arkansas (thank you Joy McMannus!) to help us go forward and be backup support for the rescue we are taking the 100 dogs from.  As they close their doors they will need support if any more animals get dumped on their doorstep.

It is all of us working together that will save these lives.

We could not afford to do it on our own.  The other organizations also couldn’t do it alone – they need someone to step up and take the animals in.  I’m forever grateful that we have our Westchester Facility with so much space, that we ARE able to do this.

Alone we can save a number of lives.  Working TOGETHER we can save vastly more.  The numbers are actually limitless.

So what do you choose?
Save a few here and there?  Or save them all?

You have also asked if it is difficult to work with groups we have argued with and so vehemently disagreed with in the past.  That’s a good question.  I will admit it can be awkward and uncomfortable at times, but in this case and in the case with Best Friends, while we disagreed with decisions their upper management were making, the people on the ground, shoulder to shoulder with us, working in the trenches, scooping the animals up and working on solutions – were exactly like us.  No different.  They all loved animals.  They all wanted to see them safe.  They all hoped for the best and hoped for the future of the animals that were suddenly put into their arena and that they suddenly took responsibility for.

We are all the same.  We are all different.

But putting aside differences to work on saving lives CAN be done, and done well.

I genuinely like the people I have been working with at the ASPCA on this mission.  Very much.  And I genuinely like the people I worked with on all the Best Friends joint ventures we have done.

We won’t ever forget our differences and it is likely our organizations will never agree with each other, but I find it inspiring and commendable to see us all come together when the lives of animals are at stake.  To put aside our differences and in front of us see ONLY that set of eyes that has no where else to turn. I’m not going to let those little eyes down.  None of us are.

So in this case all I can say is:
“Hey ASPCA – you ROCKED IT!  Thank you!”

So in conclusion what does this mean? Well to the dogs in Arkansas? “We got yer back little furry ones. We’re all here to be a soft landing for you.  I can’t wait for you to get here on Tuesday and to start to send you on your way to some warm and loving homes.”

And because of us, and because of the ASPCA and because of Southwind Animal Hospital,  100 dogs will find a safe place to land for Christmas.

Look at the pictures on this page.

They are worth anything.

They are worth everything.

I’m talking about well meaning rescuers that have let their hearts lead the way and they put their logic and their finances aside to try to help “just one more”.

I’ve seen so many cases where people were living in absolute squalor, all their resources gone, all their money gone, their homes in foreclosure and still much of the rescue community looks at them like they were heroes.

“They gave their WHOLE lives to the animals”.

I’m not impressed.
These people don’t impress me. I pity them. Not only that but they are HURTING us, our no-kill movement, they make us all look bad and “suspect”, and they are not good for the future of the animals in their care.

Now that they have lost everything, what will happen to those animals that they accepted responsibility for? What will happen to the future ones that they could have saved if they had the sense to develop a plan, stop taking animals in when it became more than they could handle, and prepare for the future for themselves and the animals?

We have had to stop working with people in our own organization, or had to let them go because they had this same mentality. “I will stay up all night and drive 48 hours straight to save a dog!”. And there is applause everywhere. Huh? I say yes save that dog, but be smart. Network the dog. Ask for help, board the dog for a day, drive safely, don’t use the last cent you had. And if your mentality is “just one more” in some cases this can be a good thing (if you think outside the box and make it work) and on another it can be a bad thing – when you have animals stacked on top of each other, living in cages, living in filth or you don’t have the means to address their medical or care needs.

Be smarter. Plan. By doing so you will save ten dogs instead of one, and then 100 instead of ten.

And when you are out of money, space, or resources, learn to say no. It doesn’t mean ever giving up. You can network that animal, you can offer suggestions, you can ask the people to hold or foster on your waiting list but when you are out of space and out of energy and out of creativity and out of money, you must recognize that.

That doesn’t mean ever accepting death is the answer, it just means that maybe TODAY that YOU might not be the answer. But with your help, someone else could be.

One time we heard of a mother dog about to give birth in a high kill shelter. We couldn’t get her. She was very far away in another state and she was due to give birth any second and she was scheduled to die the next day. We couldn’t take her. But we networked like crazy and found someone that DID.

Never give up. Always keep striving to do better, be better, and work better and smarter…but KNOW your limitations and when you hit them, get help. I like to believe that when we can reach out for help we then HAVE no limitations and we CAN save them all. But you personally, alone, can not. You must form partnerships, alliances, friends and allies, and be able to reach out and ask for help when needed. Your community should be involved, your volunteers can be helping you and supporting you if you are willing to work with them and LET them.

It is also not ok to take in animals when you can not provide for all their needs. You can not warehouse dogs and cats. You can not stack them in crates or in runs and interact with them briefly once a day when you feed them. If you are starting a rescue you MUST be able to meet the animals emotional and mental needs as WELL as their physical needs. You must play with them, walk them, provide toys and mental stimulation. You must meet these needs EVERY DAY until you have placed them into a home.

In many cases there are really bright, really well meaning people that for years have helped animals and saved lives. Many times they run the operation out of their home. They have no succession. And when tragedy strikes, there is no plan for what to do with sometimes hundreds of animals. This happened here too. Pets Alive. Five years ago. Founder is dying. No one to take over. No one to help. No funds put aside. Not even a book with logins and passwords and accounts. I sat with Sara in the hospital as she died and thankfully she had a good memory, and dictated to me lots of helpful information. But still. Why was there no plan in place?

Look, no one EXPECTS to die. No one WANTS to die, no one THINKS they will die. But one or two people running a rescue with over 100 animals could be slammed into by a truck and wiped off the planet in seconds. If there is no plan in place, what do they think will happen? And yet we see this constantly. If you are going to start a rescue – ESPECIALLY OUT OF YOUR OWN HOME – you absolutely must have a plan for what will happen. Don’t assume anything. Don’t think that someone else will step up. Everyone has their own lives and as much as they may WANT to help or as much as they love to volunteer, your dream isn’t necessarily their dream.

We are down in Arkansas because there was no contingency plan. Best Friend saved Pets Alive because there was no contingency plan.

Get a plan.
Get a board.
Get a list or a book or all the important things about your rescue – banking information, website logins and details, email passwords, mailing list accesses and databases. Help people to save the animals you loved, if the worst were to happen.

And set it up ahead of time.
Get legal paperwork stating what happens and how things will be handled in the event something befalls you.
Don’t assume that “someone’ will step up.

There are no “someone’s”.

Additionally you must STOP being so picky about every single application. I can not tell you enough how many rescues shoot themselves in their own foot because they make adopters jump through hoops to adopt animals. It is a source of pride for them to brag about how hard it is to adopt an animal from them, how many checks are done on the people and how many people they turn away.

This disgusts me.
This angers me.
This makes me weep with despair over how many animals are dying while rescues turn away loving homes because of absurd reasons.

To rescues and shelters I tell you – make it EASY to adopt your animals. Make your application as short as it can be for you to get a good understanding of the people. Then get them on site. Rejecting people based on what they put on paper is absurd. Meet them. Talk to them. THAT alone will tell you more than a 15 page application will.

I see rescues that will not adopt a dog to a home without a yard.
Really?
Tell me….who interacts more with their dog?
The person that opens a door three times a day to let the dog go outside?
Or the person that walks their dog three times a day – takes a long walk with their dog and spends time with their dog doing that?
Which dog is more social? The one that meets and greets people as they pass them on the street and meets and sniffs and says hello to other dogs on the sidewalk? …or the one sitting alone in a yard never encountering strangers or other animals?
Yet you see this time and again. No yard? Well that equals rejection for many rescues. How sick.

You see people rejected because of other silly reasons too that on the surface SOUND good but in retrospect are absurd. They put YES that they will declaw the cat they want to adopt from you. Well instead of turning them down, have them come in. Show them pictures of what declawing is. Talk to them about it. Watch their face and see if they get it. So many people have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE WHAT IT REALLY MEANS TO DECLAW A CAT! They think it is just clipping the nails way back. And if they get it and they don’t care or they don’t agree for whatever reason they think is important, then take a look around your shelter. How many declawed cats do you have? Show them THOSE cats. If everything else about this family is perfect and they are a good home, then don’t let this stop you from giving them a cat, adopt a cat to them that is already declawed. What a win. A cat gets a home and another one does NOT have this barbaric surgery performed.

Let’s look at one more scenario that I see rescues rejecting people for, under the guise of “protecting” their animals from them.
“I work 8 hours a day”.
DING DING DING – rejected. MANY MANY rescues reject people if they answer this question this way.
Well hello. Newsflash. I’m sorry to say that almost EVERY household has people that work that long – every day, often BOTH parents.
TALK to the people.
What is the plan for the animal?
Do they have a dog walker that will come in?
DO THEY WORK FROM HOME?????
Do their children come home at 2:30 from school?
Do they take their pets to work?
Is the dog an older dog that can manage being alone?
DO THEY HAVE OTHER DOGS IN THE HOUSE FOR COMPANIONSHIP to this one?

Please rescues, it is 2011. It isn’t the life of when we were young, and moms were often home all day and dads went to work. Times have changed. If you are looking for people that are home all day, take their pets on vacation with them, and have yards and have disposable incomes then YOU are responsible for a good number of animals that are dying in shelters every day.

Be proud of a less aggressive adoption policy.
Be proud of adopting to people and TALKING to people when there are “flags’ on their application.
MEET people before judging them from their paperwork.
TRUST people.
Truly – really – honestly – think about it. Do you really believes that 60% of the people coming to you to adopt an animal are vicious animal killers that you must protect your animals from?
They aren’t. Yet in many rescues up to 60% of applicants are rejected.
Probably 99.9% of time these are great people, struggling to get by and just want a pet to share their lives with.
Trust the public to care for the animal and then YOU can go and save another one.

So with very little, Jim and Peg tried to help. They ran into trouble a few years ago – the usual that we see so often. Too many animals, not enough resources. Another rescue stepped in then, taking 65 dogs from them with their promise to slow down or stop rescuing, as Peg had become sick with a cancer that would be terminal. Somehow the rescuing didn’t stop. Perhaps they tried, but Jim said every time he went to the mailbox there would be a box of puppies and he couldn’t just leave them there.

So here we are a year later, Peg has very little time left and Jim is desperate for help. It is a small community and the Southwind Animal Hospital (Justin and Dr. Corey Key) that have always cared the the animals there, were worried. They reached out to Pets Alive and asked us to help.

Could we take some animals?

We reviewed the situation and we realized how desperate it was. What would happen to the animals there when Peg passed on, and Jim was the only caretaker with no help and very little money.

It was also a very familiar scenario. Our own founder, Sara Whalen had also died of cancer, and also had no contingency plan for the animals. What would have become of them all if Best Friends had not come to help us and to save them? And when Best Friends forgave our debt to them, all the money they had spent here, their CEO at the time, Paul Berry said to us, when we wept in gratitude….”Don’t thank us. We did what we do. Instead take this, and pay it forward. Help someone else in the future. Save more lives”.

So….I immediately called Joy, the Executive Director from Pets Alive Westchester. Did they have room to house 100 dogs and Middletown would take them 10 and 20 at a time as room allowed, here? Joy didn’t even hesitate. Yes they had room and yes they would help.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with our facilities, our Middletown facility can house about 100 dogs, but our Westchester one can house 300. We try not to keep that many onsite for just this reason – the ability to step up and do a mass rescue as needed. It seems the time had come and we were needed. Everyone at both locations is stepping up, including our volunteers – who have already asked what is needed, what can be done, and where can they go to help.

We thank you all for your love, compassion, kindness and unwavering support. Thank you.

So watch this space, I will be posting updates as we make plans and move this rescue mission along.

The current plan is that on the 10th I will fly out to Arkansas along with John Sibley (a volunteer for Pets Alive) and Pat Whitacre, the canine behaviorist and trainer from Best Friends. Both John and Pat are coming as volunteers – Pat is on vacation, and John took some time off from work to help. We will fly there and see what the situation is, how many we can get back at once, and how many still need vaccinations, testing, spaying and neutering. The vets at the Southwind Animal Hospital are donating their services to get much of that done.

We immediately sent out 100 Pets Alive microchips so the dogs can all get chipped – once chipped, that is our commitment to them for the rest of their life.

The ASPCA has agreed to cover the cost of transporting them back to Pets Alive – a huge help because frankly I’m not sure how we could have gotten them back here, our little rescue, with our small annual budget definitely couldn’t have covered that cost.

Even so, before even getting there, Pets Alive has spent $3500, and when we get them back here everyone has to be checked, examined, dentals done if needed, any other veterinary care they may need, any grooming and other needs met. Plus the cost of housing them, caring for them and covering staff hours to work with them. The cost to us, to rescue this many dogs will be high.

We are appealing to you all to help us. Even $5 would help.

Please help us to tell these dogs that we “got their back”. That we won’t let anything else happen to them. That now that they are coming through our doors, and into our arms, and that for THEM, that the world has just become a better place. For now…and forever.

Thank you for your help, your support, your love. We could not do this if it wasn’t for you. Those lives couldn’t be saved if not for all of you that read this and help us.

I will keep you updated each day via this blog, twitter and Facebook.
Stay tuned.

…and to all those 100 little faces – we make a promise to you that we won’t let you down. You were discarded once, now you will find nothing but love.

Hey Paul….you out there somewhere?
We hope you’re proud.

Chrissy Beckles was a volunteer with our organization, and with Manos Por Patas.  For over a year we had a very amicable relationship, at one point even offering her a paid position which she opted to not accept for various reasons.  When we disagreed on some basics philosophies, Chrissy decided to start her own rescue.  We were glad to see her continue rescue and glad to continue to support her doing so. Personally we have great admiration and respect for Chrissy. She is a passionate, loving person with a generous spirit. While Chrissy and Pets Alive no longer share a common dream, we do share a common goal, and that is to save the lives of dogs in Puerto Rico who are abandoned and abused. I know I speak for everyone at Pets Alive when I say that we wish her nothing but success in this mission.

However, the problem was that her new rescue was started under the Manos Por Patas name and was raising donations with that EIN#.  This is not legal, as Pets Alive is legally responsible for all donations to that EIN.  We are responsible for your tax receipts, we are responsible for claiming those donations on our 990’s, and responsible for many other federal regulations.  We asked her to stop raising money under that EIN and things didn’t go well from there.

We HAD discussed turning over the name and EIN to Chrissy and allowing her to continue to run as Manos Por Patas, and all of us resigning, and leaving it to her alone,  but in the end this was not possible as our organization had to at least complete the year and file our 990’s and handle all donations legalities, and then we found out a bunch of other legal issues that made it very complicated to now separate from that EIN and “DBA” (Doing Business As).  Our board voted to continue running Pets Alive Puerto Rico under the current EIN – JUST AS WE RUN PETS ALIVE WESTCHESTER under the EIN# of the Elmsford Animal Sanctuary (Central Westchester Humane Society.)  That TOO is a separate EIN from Pets Alive Middletown.  We have DBA there as well.

We are very sorry that there has been confusion about this and some people do not understand all these issues and believe that somehow we have done something unscrupulous.  I assure you that this is not so.  Pets Alive works closely with many other organizations.  We always do.  As for  “stealing ideas”, we don’t even understand that accusation.  At Pets Alive we give ALL our ideas to ANYONE that can use them.  Recently we came up with the Christmas morning pet delivery idea, and asked YesBiscuit! and other bloggers to blast it out so other shelters could make use of the idea.  We share every single one of our legal forms, applications, adoption contracts, waivers and anything else we can think of with other organizations and tell them “Don’t recreate the wheel – take our logo off and slap yours on and use our stuff!”.  So I’m unsure what ideas we supposedly stole, but I assure you that if we have an idea you want – TAKE IT!! USE IT!  SAVE ANIMAL LIVES!  If we stole yours (like our calendar idea we first saw at Boxer Rescue and we loved it and used it) then we apologize if we have somehow overstepped in some way but we use any great idea we see and we encourage others to use ours.  TOGETHER we can save more lives, and any idea we have taken, or given, we hope has been to that effort – to save lives.

So I hope that clears up misconceptions.
This blog will now be closed for comments because this is the last comment we will make on this issue.  So far in all the years we have operated, have we ever lied to you or steered you wrong?
No.  We are upfront and honest with you.  At this point our reputation and our history should speak for itself.  So we address this, this ONE time and will make no further comment on it.

We couldn’t believe it.
Santa?  Calling US?
HERE?? From the North Pole?????
Oh my goodness.

We immediately started to think about the previous year.  Had we been good?  Are we on the good list this year?  Was he calling because we were on the naughty list for fighting with some big organizations this year?

I admit it.
We were nervous.

We gathered all the staff around and put Santa on the speaker phone.
The first words of of his mouth were:  ”HO-HO-HO Pets Alive!!”

We all laughed with glee at his jolly voice!

Santa said that indeed we had been VERY VERY VERY good this year.  So good that he had selected us for a very special mission.
He was making us all “honorary elves”  and empowering us to help him deliver some Christmas cheer!

We were shocked and delighted.

US???

He went on to say that he had a lot of little boys and girls that were getting dogs and cats for Christmas, but that he didn’t want to leave them in a box under the tree all night! He asked if there was any  way that Pets Alive could help him this year.

Well, when Santa calls you, and asks you to help him, you do NOT say no! EVER.

So this year, Santa will visit Pets Alive on Christmas Eve. He will leave with us, all the dogs and cats, and puppies and kittens and rabbits that are going into new homes this season.

If you are a parent and you have already told Santa it is ok for your children to receive a pet this holiday season all you need to do is fill out our application, get approved, come down and select your pet (within a week of the holiday). Pets Alive will tell Santa and we will drive up to your house on Christmas morning, (with the Pets Alive MAGIC BUS) and knock on your door.

DING DONG!
::door opens, little boy looks up. There we stand in Santa hat, with clipboard, big MAGIC BUS behind us::

Us: “Hello, is this the house of Susie and Timmy So-and-So?”

Little Boy: “Yes. This is. I am Timmy So-and-So”.

Us: “Well, Timmy, get your sister, because we have a very special delivery from Santa for the two of you!!”
::We turn, whistle and out of the bus comes Santa’s Elf with Fido!! ::Us: “Timmy and Susie – Santa asked us to take care of your new dog, Fido. He stopped by Pets Alive so that Fido didn’t sit under the tree in a box all night! He asked us to deliver him to you this morning! Merry Christmas Timmy and Susie from Santa and Pets Alive! ….. and Merry Christmas to YOU , Fido, for you my sweet little furry friend, have finally  found your forever home!”

See you on Christmas morning!

Click below to see available animals – more added every day, check back frequently:

• Available dogs
• Available cats
• Available rabbits

(Some restrictions apply, must be within a reasonable travel distance from Pets Alive Middletown or Pets Alive Westchester)

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When the time came for the Pets Alive Humane Education Team to choose a canine ambassador, and after much consideration, Zena was our choice for several reasons. Zena came to Pets Alive in Middletown, NY about 1 1/2 years ago as part of a group of seventy dogs rescued from a hoarding situation in West Virginia. She is thought to be a Pitbull terrier/ Mountain Cur mix, presently about 2 – 3 years old and still awaiting adoption. Zena is a volunteer favorite because she is so well behaved, gets along with everyone and just loves to hang out at the picnic table, content to have human company. As a Pittie mix she is a wonderful representative of the breed, and in our Humane Education classes she will certainly help us to educate the students as to the good nature and love that is the real heart of the Pitbull terrier.

In order to fill the position of Canine Ambassador, it was decided that this dog should undergo training and be a certified Canine Good Citizen,(CGC).Through arrangements made by Pets Alive volunteer Alina Melendez and with the support of Positively Pets Dog Training, LLC, located in New Windsor, NY, we were invited to attend the six week training course which began September 10, 2011. CGC training is a program of training developed by the American Kennel Association, (AKC), with specific criteria that must be met by the dog and tested for by AKC/CGC certified dog trainers before certification is granted. Our certified instructions, Lois and Stasia created an environment for learning that was not only educational, but fun for us all. Their knowledge of training techniques became clearly evident in the results that all the class members achieved. Included in our class were Alina and Richard Melendez with their Saint Bernard, Zoe, as well as several dogs that were previously adopted from Pets Alive.

On the sixth week we were tested on the ten items required in order for Zena to be CGC certified. The ten test items are as follows: Accepting a friendly stranger, sitting politely for petting, appearance and grooming, walking on a loose lead, walking through a crowd, sit and down on command and staying in place, coming when called, reaction to another dog, reaction to distraction, and supervised separation. To our delight, Zena passed and is now officially an AKC Certified Canine Good Citizen!

Those are the facts, but the experience yielded a much higher reward for us, and for Zena. When we began this endeavor, Zena could not focus on either one of us, even with the temptation of holding a piece of frankfurter between our eyes. She did not know how to connect. How could she know. But now, after six weeks that included one hour car rides, many walks together and endless treats while training, in addition to compassion and lots of love – now Zena knows. Her transformation and our relationship with her has been the real reward.

Although Zena was chosen to be certified as the Pets Alive Humane Education Team Ambassador, we would be thrilled if her success here would open the doorway to her new family and her forever home!

Lauren Jones and Joanna Seere
Pets Alive Middletown Humane Education Team

I like to believe, and perhaps this is arrogant, that I don’t make a whole lot of mistakes when it comes to decision making about an animals life and his or her welfare.  Other things, yes, but not about animal care. If an animal NEEDS it, then we get it done. Period.  Somehow if they need an expensive surgery, we figure out a way to raise the money. If they need a special diet or food, we make that work.  If they need a special sort of emotional or mental stimulation, we try to make sure that happens.  These decisions aren’t difficult.  These are the easy ones.  These are black and white.

Sometimes it isn’t easy. Sometimes we have meetings and we decide things as a group because some decisions are tougher than others, but still I make them, with input, knowing that my heart is in the right place, and that right or wrong I am doing what I believe to be the best thing for the animal.

Recently though I was wrong.  I made a very bad decision for an animal in our care.  I don’t know why I feel the need to share it with you.  Maybe part of my self flagellation, or maybe in the hopes that another rescuer might read this and see him or herself in this blog and make the RIGHT decision for that animal.

This is the story of Tyson.

I first saw Tyson on the euthanasia list at the NYC ACC.  The CACC (Center for Animal Care and Control) in NYC is really little more than a killing machine.  They do try to place animals, and they do try to work with us rescue groups on getting animals out, but whatever is wrong with their system needs a heckuva lot of fixing because every day there is a euthanasia list with dozens upon dozens of dogs and cats on it. This week ONE day had over 100 animals set to be killed that day. If you’re an animal lover it breaks your heart.  If you’re a rescuer it just about destroys you. You start thinking “where can I fit one more” all the while knowing when you start thinking like THAT, then you MIGHT be on the path to being a hoarder because part of being a responsible rescue is saying NO when you have to, and not piling animals on top of each other when you can’t afford them or provide for all their needs.

So seeing the list every day is tough.  For my own mental health I have them all go to a private folder on my hard drive and don’t even READ that folder unless I KNOW I have space.

So here we were with a little space and so I checked out who was dying the next morning at the CACC.  I saw Tyson. He was being killed for “temperament” which at the CACC can mean anything from SEVERELY vicious to maybe nipped or cowered when being examined by strangers, in a  strange place with strange things, and terrified, and hungry, and…and…and… but ah, I digress.

I closed the folder and decided not to take in any of the dogs that day and decided instead to pull from some other local and non local rescues. Lord knows we didn’t need any more “issue dogs” here. We had a ton already.

But see, here is the thing.  Tyson was a Jack Russell Terrier.  Any of you that follow Pets Alive, or come here, have met Jasper and Ernie.  They are two of my five dogs and they just happen to be JRT’s. (I might add that they are the CUTEST dogs in the entire world and their picture should really grace every canine magazine, but, ah, I digress again).

And so I lay in bed and 11pm got to be 12am.  And 12am got to be 1am.  And 1am got to be 2am.  And I couldn’t sleep, thinking about this poor dog, dying the next morning at 8 am.  And I wondered if my own JRT’s might have a bit of a temperament “problem” if I dumped them there and they were in a cement run, and a ton of other dogs were barking and howling, and it smelled like fear and death, when their life to that point had been in my living room.  How would THEY act?  Maybe Tyson was just terrified.

And I went back and forth …. and at 3 am I got up and called the CACC hotline and pulled him.

“Pulled” is rescuer language for called up and agreed we would accept him into our facility.
And finally I was able to sleep.  My mind and heart both at peace.

So Tyson arrived and he was not in a good way.  Very agitated, stressed, nippy, restless, just not a picture of good things.  He also wasn’t up to date on shots or neutered.  He was very thin. So we had to get all that taken care of right away, which made him just distrust us even more.

Eventually Tyson got to a point where he could be handled and he even got adopted.  He was returned for biting.  Twice. The people never really bonded with him or him with them. He was always distant.

Tyson did ok here.  He ate and went for walks and was a typical dog although he could have bouts of frustration that resulted in biting and eventually a lot of volunteers didn’t walk him any more. Staff still did, but he was definitely a handful to get leashed as he was really unwilling to interact with you.  He wanted you to leave him alone.  He was angry.  Pure and simple.

But we still demanded he have a quality of life here and so against his will, one was provided for him.  But he was never a truly happy dog.

So five months later – we got a call from a man who claimed to be his previous owner. He said his wife saw him on our site and they wanted to come and adopt him back.

Hmmm.

You dumped your dog in a kill shelter.
He had no shots.
He wasn’t neutered.
He was underweight.

Now you want him back??

Our adoption coordinator and I discussed it and felt that this person was an irresponsible pet owner and we were unwilling to consider this request.  How do you abandon your dog to a place that kills almost everything that walks through the door? I’m sorry but right there you have a strike against you that is written in BLOOD to me. No matter what happened to me, I’d never abandon my animals.  If for some reason someone DOES have to, I would expect them to work with a no-kill, or a friend, or take the time to find the animal a decent home.  Not walk over and hand him to a place that will turn around in 5 days and kill him, or less – as owner surrenders can be killed immediately.

We were disgusted.

But the man and then a woman started calling, and wouldn’t stop.  She kept calling and DEMANDING we surrender HER dog to her. She threatened us with legal action, she threatened us with all sorts of things.  We basically said “bite me” in a nice and not so nice way.

My adoption coordinator sent me this in May:

>>The Tyson (original owners) people are ALREADY ridiculous. Two calls so far.  Multiple emails. I already went off on the man….supposedly the reason why he surrendered Tyson to the CACC was because of an eviction…and he told CACC that he basically just wanted to board the dog there for 1 month, and then come back to pick him up. I told him well sir, if you looked INTO what the CACC really is, and what they do, you would have NEVER left your dog there thinking he’d be in the same, ‘safe’ spot you left him.  The CACC even told him they would likely put the dog up for adoption, and the man STILL surrendered him. He said there was miscommunication and the CACC wasn’t honest with him. I told him he was not very smart to NOT look into boarding facilities if 1 month was really the reality…

Now, after 5 months, they find Tyson and want him back. I say no. The man says, ‘oh, I see he is neutered now’ and I said yes, WE rescued him, and WE are taking care of him until a wonderful family comes in to take him home. I actually have an appointment for Tyson Saturday oddly.

Ugghh, I even decided to give them a chance and said fine, give me your new landlord’s name and number so I can verify that they allow dogs and he said she doesn’t speak English very well at all and that she won’t call me back if I called her. I hate people.<<

Then a week later she sent me this:

>>He keeps calling me and wants Tyson back! He is now YELLING at me and I apologized MANY times but we do not agree with giving him his dog back! I refuse to speak with him anymore.  He wants to take the dog ‘all over the world’ with him…yet….months ago he dumped him at a kill shelter, and even though they KNEW he might not be there when they surrendered him, they left. For months. He gave up his dog in November 2010, and now April 2011, wants him back?  Give me a break.  I am more angry at these people because Tyson was super thin when he arrived here, unneutered, and also did not like us to put a leash around his neck at ALL. I understand dogs are nervous when they arrive and sometimes hate us…but he was not nice at all for weeks! <<

Then the woman started calling.  Begged for the dog back.  Said dog was not thin when he went to the CACC.  She asked me to let them have her back.  I said no.  That Tyson was doing well, and that we didn’t feel that they should have left a dog with the CACC, that they were irresponsible on many levels and we felt Tyson would do better in a different home.  I told her to stop calling here as we were at the point that she was harrassing my staff. She claimed she had no idea what the CACC was.  No idea that he could die there.  She thought the words CARE and control meant they would CARE for him. And about him.

In July I got this email from staff:

>>Previous owner is still calling on a consistent basis. Called today very upset and crying. Claims that she was told she could get him back from the shelter where she brought him originally but when she went back he had already been transferred out. Is very upset and misses him terribly just wants to know what she has to do to get him back.<<

And then I got a letter in the mail from her.  It had poignant and wonderful pictures of a very happy Tyson with them and in their home. There was a letter too and it said this:

Dear To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing this letter because I would like to adopt a dog that you have put up for adoption his name is Tyson (breed:  Jack Russell), which was actually my dog.

First, I would like to explain my situation and why I thought giving up my dog to the shelter was the best decision. About a year and a half ago I had a couple serious health problems. I had two procedures on my kidneys. My recovery was very hard – I couldn’t take care of myself. In addition because of the huge costs of the operations my financial situation was also bad. Because of these conditions I decided to give up Tyson. At that time I thought this was the best solution. Tyson has been living with me since he was a couple weeks old, and taking him to the shelter was the hardest decision I ever had to make. I’ve always treated him like a family member because I loved and still love him very much and gave him all the attention he needed. To prove he was living in place were he was loved I am sending you photos of Tyson and me.

Before I gave him to the shelter I discussion with one of the employee’s – we came to an agreement – that until my situation doesn’t get better I would be able to adopt Tyson back, if no one adopted him before.

I found Tyson on petfinder.com. I have been trying to re-adopt my dog for the past few months and won’t give up because he is my best friend. I am willing to pay back the costs of Tyson’s stay in your shelter and any other just to get him back. I know he will be happy to be back home.

I know you are a shelter that helps animals find a good home where they will be loved and properly taken care of, please help Tyson come back home. Thank You in advance for all your help. And if possible please contact me as fast as you can.

That’s it.  Who tries for almost three months to get their dog back?  Even after I was hostile and rude to them at the end.  Who keeps this up?  And in looking at the pictures, this was a Tyson we didn’t know.  He was HAPPY.  Grinning.  Laying in their arms or chewing a bone on their rug.

Could I be mistaken about these people?

I called a staff meeting and we discussed it.  We decided that Tyson was NOT happy here, had few options for a home and maybe we needed to talk to the family again about this. No question they were irresponsible – at least at some point –  but clearly they had seen the error in what they had done.  They searched all the petfinders for MONTHS – five MONTHS – trying to find him after going back to the CACC a few weeks later to get him back and being told that he had gone to rescue.  The CACC (thank you!) would not give the name of the rescue, so the family searched until they found him at Pets Alive.

Is it possible we were wrong?

Is it possible this family made a grievious error, almost immediately felt it, and tried to reclaim their dog only to find out he was gone? Is it possible the thinnness was due to him being at the CACC and not eating for a week in grief and terror and fear?  Was it possible that they were just your average pet owner that didn’t kow neutering is something that should be done?  Is that so wrong?

I don’t know.  And I decided that I was focusing on the WRONG issue.  It wasn’t ABOUT these people.  Or our judgement on them or what they had done.

This was about Tyson.

What was best for HIM.

What did Tyson want?  If he could talk, what would he want?
He was unhappy here.  Two adoptions had failed. He was getting more aggressive to the point of being a RED caution dog.

And so we decided to let HIM decide.
We said bring the woman here. If he sees her, we will know from his reaction what is right.
I think that it will be crystal clear to us what the right answer is.  Maybe we are wrong in keeping him from this family that is desperately and determinedly trying to reclaim him.  Let’s see.

And so today, Grace came to see Tyson.

Unfortunately I could not be there, but Sue sent me this to describe the interaction:
Just want to say the Tyson reunion was one of the most emotional things I’ve ever seen! I’m so glad I got to be there. When Grace arrived I asked her to wait in the volunteer lounge and explained I would go get Tyson. I went to get him and of course it took me 30 minutes to leash him. I had Daniel try to help for awhile but that just made it worse since Tyson was more afraid and agitated with two people in his run. He just backed all the way into the corner and growled most of the time at me.

I talked to him and just kept getting closer and closer until I could drop the lead over his head…Yay – finally have him!!!

When I get to the camp Tyler gate I see Grace is now standing near the picnic table anxiously waiting. We get about half way from the gate to the table and she starts yelling for him and squats down opening her arms. Tyson stopped for a split second and you could actually see something change in him, his tail went up and he bolted for her! I let go of his lead knowing exactly where he would go.

He jumped into her arms and started licking her face like crazy, his tail and the rest of his body wagging! She was crying telling him, “I’m so sorry, so sorry, I didn’t know, I really didn’t know, Please forgive me, I love you, I love you”! She just kept crying and hugging him like she would never let him go again! They were both so happy that I wanted to cry..and that’s pretty had to do! I wish I would have got the entire thing on video but who would have known that it would be so wonderful!

In this “business” we get cynical. We see the worst of humanity so often that we automatically suspect and expect people to be horrible and most times in this field of animal care, we are not disappointed.

But there was a huge lesson here.  When we stopped judging the people by our past experiences and past histories, and remembered to think about the animal and what was best for HIM, then maybe, just maybe we can admit we are mistaken.  And we can try to rectify that.

I will never approve of abandoning an animal.

But that doesn’t necessarily make people evil or not decent. Everyone makes mistakes.  In this case they saw that, suffered, and tried to fix it.

I’m glad that we, as an organization, decided to see past human fraility and error and go back to the roots of doing what is best for the animal.  If you look at this picture….can you tell me this was a mistake?  A dog that would bite you as soon as look at you, with a grin ear to ear, knowing his people didn’t give up on him, and came for him.

I am not an easy person to battle.  Be at the end of my wrath and you will feel the sting.  I am unforgiving, and I am hostile if I feel you have not done right by an animal.  I was practically vicious with this woman on the phone and STILL she didn’t let it stop her.  She knew the love of a dog.  That dog knew the love of a family.  Neither would stand to be separated and BOTH made it clear.

Who are we to judge?

Good luck Tyson.

I firmly believe that you are where you belong and in the arms of someone that has moved heaven and earth to get you back and won’t ever let you go again.  Be happy little boy.  You deserve it.

It has actually defeated me a little bit and slammed me to my knees. I’ll get back up again and dust off and go on, but sometimes we need some time to sit in the dust and cry. This is one of those times. Tomorrow or maybe next week I’ll be back with my fists in the air, but this week I’m feeling rather defeated.

First we had to say goodbye to Glen. Our wonderful, very senior horse. He had been battling a series of medical issues since we had taken him in a few years ago. Cancer, severe malnourishment, inability to absorb protein and much more. He was a tough case and we spent a lot of money and time and love on him. Last year, we even had to remove one of his eyes and still he valiantly fought on, grazing, hanging with his goat friends, and greeting EVERYONE who approached his fence. He was a special horse and we all loved him dearly. It was difficult to let him go and I still miss him and feel a pang in my heart when I see the gate to his pasture just standing open and empty. No matter how many years I am here, I hope that never goes away. I hope that it always hurts to lose one, and that I will always feel this terrible loss when we do.

Moving on, we got three mama cats and their kittens in. One “mama” cat was still pregnant and gave birth this week. Four kittens, all premature, three dead at birth, and the last one likely to not make it. Tough to see a little cat, no more than a kitten herself, really, give birth and lose her babies. Please. This is terrible. Please spay and neuter your pets. This poor baby didn’t need to be having babies of her own.

A staffer also noticed one of our feral cats was sick. We trapped him and vet said he had a massive tumor in his mouth that was not operable. We had to let him go.

Then my own dog Sera, named after Pets Alive founder Sara Whalen, was diagnosed with a bad form of cancer and we’re likely to lose her very soon, even though this week we will do an amputation to attempt to buy us some more time.

And Pets Alive PR’s Chrissy B’s dog is seriously ill as well this month. A little dog that I have grown to love a great deal. (Go Boomer, I KNOW you can beat this!)

Then one of our birds, Olivia, who is 68 years old, looks like she might be in liver failure. Vet took blood today and we’ll know in a few days. She is my office bird and I’m definitely not ready to say goodbye to this girl. This girl who taught me to LOVE birds. I never much cared for them before I met her and she totally changed my world in that regard. She is very wise and we often have conversations about the state of the world. I’m hoping it is nothing, and she will continue to greet me each morning with her diabolical laugh.

Earlier in the month we had a dog get badly hurt in our kennel. Our kennel is dilapidated. No matter how often we patch it up, band-aid it, duct tape or pray, it is falling apart and now dogs are getting injured. Second serious injury in two months. We walked through it and looked around and know that there isn’t anything to do that can make it safe. The very way it is built, invites tails or legs to go through to the other runs where they can be grabbed or pulled.

A new kennel would cost about $300,000. We don’t have anywhere near that. I called a couple of companies and got quotes to redo the inside. They ranged from $50,000 – $90,000. Sigh. That is just the INSIDE. And that is just materials.

I don’t think we are left with ANY choice. We are going to have to postpone our medical building and put money into redoing at LEAST the inside of our kennel. The dogs need it. When they come here they should be ok. Safe. No more injuries or even risk of injuries…just good stuff.

The kennel has to be redone and we have no where else to pull the money from other than the medical building funds. We have been scrimping and saving and putting money aside whenever we can for that building and we’ll just have to start over. There is no compromise when it comes to their safety. But the dream of a medical building is stalled now.

Then we got a dog in that tested negative on all her tests from the sending shelter, and yet we came down with some sick dogs, and couldn’t find out where it came from or what it was we had. Lots of backtracking found it to be this dog which we tested AGAIN. Turns out this time with US running the tests, she was POSITIVE. This after having all negative tests and after going through our own quarantine period with no symptoms. However, while here she infected three other dogs. One of them died today.

Our dear, sweet, Shadow. You fought so very hard. Rest in peace, baby. I’m so sorry.

Look. We are a shelter. We get it. We understand this. Do YOU? In a shelter like ours where we are bringing in 60-80 dogs a month, we are GOING TO GET ILLNESSES and CONTAGIOUS diseases. There isn’t a year that goes by that we won’t see parvo or influenza or kennel cough.

This is part of running a shelter. Sure, we could be totally safe and only take dogs that come from foster homes where they have lived for 60 days but um…that’s a bit impractical wouldn’t you say? And diseases don’t JUST come from other shelters. We could take in a dog from a family home and have it be ill and contagious.

We have EXCELLENT quarantine protocols. In fact we have the astonishing credit of being one of the ONLY shelters in the United States to ever get a serious case of influenza and equine streppococous that did NOT SPREAD IT TO EVEN A SINGLE OTHER DOG in our facility. That is almost UNHEARD of in this business. Unheard of. And we have had parvo multiple times and didn’t lose any of the dogs and didn’t spread it.

Yeah. Seriously.
We’re good.
REALLY good.
We take tests on all incoming dogs and we make sending shelters send us all results on them before they even send the dogs. But there is NO WAY that we can always prevent EVERYTHING.

Our kennel staff are all HIGHLY trained in quarantine protocol. They suit up in TYVEK suits to handle the dogs on quarantine. They don’t use the same bowls, or pooper scoppers in those runs. We have different mops. NOTHING used in quarantine is ever brought OUTSIDE quarantine.

And if even ONE dogs shows sick – they ALL stay in quarantine another week to make sure they are all safe.

This next part is going to get a little dull, but read it anyway because it is important to understand.

Most shedding periods are from 5-7 days…so if you have no sick dogs in 7 days then it stands to reason that all is good and they can move into the general population. MOST places only quarantine for 3 days. We can’t understand that. If shedding periods (shedding = when a dog can contaminate others) could be 5 or even 7 days for most diseases then why would you not monitor a dog for that time period?

In fact because of our “too lengthy” quarantine period we were REJECTED by the PetSmart’s Rescue Waggin’ – where they would transport dogs to us for free from other shelters that were kill shelters. They wanted us to change to 3 to 5 days quarantine periods. We said no. They rejected us. Said that we wouldn’t move dogs quickly enough if we held on to them that long. Really? Seven days to be sure all were safe? Really? OK, then keep your dogs, we’ll work with grassroots movements like the Freedom Train and ARF and PILOTS FOR PAWS – all awesome volunteer transport services that do this for FREE and for the LOVE they have for these animals. Ah, but I digress (wanted to give them a plug though!)

We have been known to ask volunteers to LEAVE when they violate our quarantine protocols or enter an area that we say is off limits. We take it seriously. It isn’t a joke. We have 100 dogs here. You infect ONE, then we could have a full blown contagion on our hands.

We had that happen once. A volunteer violated our protocol, entered an area they should not have been in, and then went and hung out in the volunteer lounge. We HAD influenza at the time. When we found out what had happened, we had to assume that volunteer had infected our kennel. We couldn’t risk it.

So we shut down for two weeks to make sure NO dogs came up sick and we started seeing a bunch, so we treated EVERY SINGLE dog.

Ouch. THOUSANDS of dollars in medical costs and THOUSANDS in lost revenue for the weeks we were closed.

But we’re serious about this. We are probably the ONLY shelter that would do such a thing. You think most others would shut down? Have you HEARD of such a thing? Probably not.

Even NO KILL shelters would likely euthanize the infected dogs and continue on. None of us can really afford to be closed. Yes, no-kill means you CAN euthanize for serious medical or for behavior issues so many that call themselves no-kill could still kill these animals and not violate their mission statements. Here, we don’t though. Our mission statement is TRUE no kill.

If we can fix it, we do. We don’t kill animals here.

The dog that came in was negative for everything.
So how could she then be positive?

Well there are a few ways. Say she came into the shelter that had her and then they did a test and sent it out for results. In that time she lived there for a week. She was exposed to a sick dog. Even though she was negative at the time of her test, she was then exposed and THEN became positive.

This can happen. Of COURSE this can happen. Or perhaps the lab didn’t run the test right. This is possible, just like in humans.

We can sit and wonder forever how it can happen, but in this case it did.

Oh, to add to the problem? Did you know that 20% of dogs can be infected with a contagious disease BUT NEVER EVER SHOW ANY SYMPTOMS? Yep. This is true. 1 in 5 dogs could have influenza or distemper or equine strep and never show a single symptom, but pay attention to this part – THEY CAN STILL AFFECT OTHER DOGS! Dogs that DO then develop the disease and get sick from it and do show symptoms and can also infect other dogs.

Wow right? Our job can be really rough.

And yet except for that one volunteer incident, we have NEVER EVER had a time when we KNEW we had something that it spread to even a single other dog.

I am telling you – THAT IS UNHEARD OF.

We are truly good at this and truly an exception to most shelters. Thanks largely to Janet, who is absolutely amazing and the training that she has given the kennel staff who thank goodness follow her protocols exactly and diligently. They are AMAZING. (Juan, Marcos, Daniel – we LOVE you guys!).

So let’s add some more problems to the mix, shall we?
Come walk in our shoes a little more.

Vaccinations don’t kick in for about two weeks. So vaccinating a dog at the sending shelter and then sending them here means nothing really. Oh and for distemper and parvo? The dogs NEED to have a series of three shots. It isn’t ok to vaccinate them ONCE a year. If they didn’t have that initial 3 year series as a puppy or if you don’t know – THEY NEED it to build immunity to that disease.

Here are more interesting statistics. Remember that 20% number? Well 20% of dogs that were vaccinated for a disease aren’t immune to it. So yeah. We can have a dog on this property for 3 years, vaccinate them every year and they aren’t immune to certain things they have been vaccinated for.

Should you be scared?
No. I don’t think so.
The risk IS very very small.
These diseases CAN be contagious but we’re really good at what we do and you can probably pick up more disease at your local vet, groomer, pet store or DOG PARK than at our shelter!! SERIOUSLY!! I kid you not.

But should you have your dogs vaccinated and should you use precautions if you are a volunteer here? Of course. That is simply common sense.

Some staff here strip down every day in their garage and throw their clothes in the wash before entering their house. Just a precaution. None of us have ever had any problem, nor any volunteers that interact with our dogs here but every volunteer should know that just like bringing your kid to day care where they can catch the flu from other kids, your dog can catch the flu too if you bring him to the vet, dog park or groomer etc.

So on top of all the hell we’ve had this month, the loss of income, the EXHORBITANT expense of treating sick dogs and proactively treating “not sick” dogs “just in case”, I had a volunteer call me up today to try to lecture me about our quarantine protocols.

You know, I TRIED to be gracious. I did. I actually REALLY REALLY like this person. A LOT. I guess I don’t have it in me. Maybe it is a character flaw. But seriously, do you know how many hours, Janet and I have spent on the phone with vets this week? We talked to specialists ALL OVER THE COUNTRY FOR HOURS about disease and time and how to protect everyone, and we researched on the web and we sent blood samples from EVERY SINGLE dog on the property to be tested (talk about expense!).

Do you have any idea of the stress, the time, the expense, – all to make sure we were doing everything we could and everything right? (oh and don’t forget our biggest fund raiser of the year is in a few days and we are running around like rabbits without a head ALREADY!)

And other then the dogs we had that were sick (and pulled immediately) – not a single other dog has shown it. Then we stayed closed an ADDITIONAL week to make sure. And the volunteer told me that she could no longer “trust Pets Alive” because we sent a dog out to Humane Education class.

Never mind that the dog was not exposed.Never mind that the dog went the day BEFORE we knew we had something wrong. Please read that sentence again. The dog went the day BEFORE we knew we had anything here. Never mind that this particular illness can’t live in the environment for longer than an hour or two so EVEN if the dog was infected and EVEN if the dog was exposed and EVEN if the dog touched a kid that had a dog at home, there was no chance their dog could have gotten anything.

But she felt the need to take me to task for not “informing her” and that it was disrespectful.

Wow.
Blown away.
Seriously.
So even though the dog she was handling had nothing to do with anything here and even though we didn’t even know until the next day, and even though we are only TEN people strong here, we should have stopped what we were doing, stopped all the precautionary work, stopped all the phone calls, research and meetings to deal with this the best way we could…we should have personally called her to tell her what was happening?

I’m not getting this.

Volunteers are our lifeblood. We tell you everything we feel is important but we don’t tell you every detail of our work, what we are doing and all our decisions. I don’t HAVE that kind of time.

You either trust us to do the right thing, or you don’t. Our track record is 100%. If you don’t trust us then that is on YOU, I definitely won’t ever feel it is on us. I know we do the right thing.

Do we make mistakes? Sure we do. Recently volunteers came to us and said that we had wrong size igloos in some of our runs. Big dogs, but medium igloos. Huh? What? I went out and looked. DAMN if they weren’t right!! Seems the staff had moved a whole bunch of dogs around and about and matched some up, etc, and DIDN’T MOVE THE IGLOOS with them! We immediately addressed it, talked to staff about it and fixed the problem. We COUNT on volunteers to tell us this stuff, point out where we could do better, help us with providing the BEST care we can for every animal here.

But we don’t want to hear how you think you can do everything better either. If that’s true, then this is my suggestion – PLEASE – go start your own rescue. The world can use more of us. We’ll support you and help you and hold your hand and do whatever we can to see that you succeed. But make sure that before you come to us and tell us how we’re doing it all wrong, or how we SHOULD do it, that you at least have your facts and your information straight. Because we’re really busy. We do what we can and the best that we can. We could ALWAYS do better. We will ALWAYS strive to. But work WITH us, not against us, and understand ALL the challenges that we face, and not just the ones in your part of what we do here.

OK, now I have to go and wipe this dust off, wipe the tears away and get
my fists back up. I have work to do. We all do.

And one last time…to our staff and dedicated volunteers – THANK YOU!

When Huckleberry arrived, we were amazed at his stunning good looks and his gentle loving personality.  This boy will find a home quickly, we thought.  He waited patiently, and he watched as all of the dogs that made the journey north with him were adopted.   New dogs came and went, but Huckleberry barely got a second glance.  He was beginning to get restless, and had began pacing in his kennel run.  He wanted out of the kennel.  He wanted a quiet place to rest.  He wanted company.

One night as we were making our rounds in the kennels, we found Huckleberry whimpering in his run,  in obvious pain.  We could see that his leg was broken.   By following the trail of blood in his run, we theorized that he had climbed to the top of his run, gotten his leg caught and finally fell to the floor.

We rushed him to the Animal Specialty Center, where he underwent surgery.  He would need 6-8 weeks of low activity in order to allow the leg to heal.   In a kennel environment, low activity means cage rest.  For a dog like Huckleberry, that would simply not be possible.

Luckily for Huckleberry, his surgeon fell in love with him and asked if she could foster him while he mended.   Of course we said YES!  So Huckleberry spent his days at the office hanging out with two golden retrievers owned by one of the other doctors, and he spent most nights cuddled up with his doctor. Life was good for Huckleberry, except on the nights when the doctor could not take him home.  On those nights, Huckleberry was kept in a run at the hospital.  It became clear that Huckleberry could not tolerate being in a kennel run or a crate, and even the wonderful staff at the hospital could not get him to settle down when confined.

Fast forward 8 weeks to today.  Huckleberry has recuperated.  It is time for him to come back to us.  His surgeon loves him, but she knows that her work schedule of long (sometimes 12 hour) days, and a tiny apartment are not what huckleberry needs.  She wants more for him – he NEEDS more.  She would like to see Huckleberry go into a home with other dogs.  He loves their company and finds great comfort in having them around.   She has also noted that he is content to explore  in a fenced in yard, and shows no signs of trying to escape even when left alone in the yard.  So access to a yard through a doggie door would be ideal for this boy.  She tells us that in the house he is a perfect gentleman.  He is calm, affectionate, loves to snuggle and is house-trained!  He is also energetic and very smart. He does love to be near his people, though, so would need someone who is home much of the time, or who can take him along.

We have moved Huckleberry to Pets Alive Middletown because we have spacious outdoor runs that he can live in with other dogs and to help alleviate the stress for him.  We are hoping this move will help him to overcome his fears of being alone and/or confined.

Won’t you PLEASE consider opening your heart and your home to 18 month old Huckleberry?  HE NEEDS YOU RIGHT NOW. In return, he will love you unconditionally and be your faithful companion.    Please send email to adoptions@petsalive.com if you are able to give this boy the life he deserves.