Be an Animal Advocate

I'm reaching out to all my scrapbook friends here...

I know you have a room full of older scrapbook supplies that even your local church or preschool doesn't want anymore, right? Does the Kindergarten teacher look away when she sees you coming with a box?

Maybe you don't want to scrapbook anymore (I still do) but you're looking for something different? Or maybe you're just stuck?

Why not visit your local animal shelter, meet a homeless dog, cat or other pet and make a small page for them. Help them get noticed. Help them find a home.

Stay away from the puppies and kittens, they'll be adopted.

Stay away from the dog and the cat that have been there the longest. I can guarantee that if you ask ANYONE that works or volunteers in the shelter, "Which one has been here the longest?", they can point you to the longest resident. I bet they'll be so excited that you asked and they will walk you over to their kennel. Even my husband, that has set foot in the shelter ONCE, can tell you which dog has been there the longest.

Find an animal that is older, marked BITER (in most cases, the bite happened during the time they were picked up as a stray or a child wasn't be properly supervised and they're still awesome dogs) or find an animal that maybe isn't the cutest, like Hennesy (below) who has scars and hair loss and is just brown. She doesn't have any specials spots or stripes or special descriptions like brindle, merle, redtick or bluetick.

She's just brown.

And she is a Pit Bull.

How many second glances would you give to a dog that looks like her?

I think she's cute as a button but that's because I "know" her.

I just met Hennesy a couple weeks ago. When I looked her up on the internet, I was surprised and saddened to see that she has been in the shelter since January 28. I thought she was new. What were you doing on January 28? Do you even remember? It was so long ago that I can't remember what I was doing. Imagine what two months is like for a homeless pet that only live 15 years (if they're lucky). I had never seen her before mid March.

That's a LONG time to wait.

When I walked Hennesy, the first thing I noticed was that she was a little jumpy and anxious when I got her out of her kennel. She scared the heck out of my daughter to be honest.

I have learned that living in a shelter is not something all dogs can do. Some make it longer than others and some go kennel crazy. The small walls, the constant barking, the lack of friendly human contact and the strange people that stare or poke them with needles get to some animals more quickly than others.

Hennesy freaks when she is being taken out of her kennel. The SECOND you get her outside, away from that confined and noisy area, she is fine.

She is so happy on our walk that she actually jumps and prances a little. A butterfly flew by and she tried to pounce on it. She didn't pull on the leash and she knows how to sit.

When we sat for "cuddle time", she sat down beside me for me to pet her and for her to give me big slobbery kisses.

If you were walking by a kennel and saw that someone had taken the time to make a little page about a dog or a cat would you stop and take a second look?

I would!

Would you think a little more about this brown dog with scars and hair loss if you knew she liked to chase butterflies and give kisses?

I would!

Do a little something for a homeless pet. Even if you do one a month, you're helping a pet, that most people would walk by and not pay attention to, get noticed.

and you'll feel good about it, too. I promise.

Thank you.

What we did during Spring Break

I know there are several moms out there that don't like it when their kids are home from school, but I'm the opposite. I love it.

This is what we did. Believe me, these kids were worn out every day. Ha!

We walked dogs. Lots of dogs. Here is Kat and Trent with Temp.

 

We played with the PACC office cat when no one was looking. 

We took pictures of dogs and did everything we could to get them to sit still.

Lola wanted to cuddle up next to Kat. It was one of the only ways we could get her to sit still.

 

This is Trent with Indie. He had to lay down on the fake grass to get Indie to chill next to him.

We sat in cages in order to attract people to look at certain cute little white terriers as their next pet.

 

and then, when we tried to take a break from dogs, we found stray dogs in our yard.

It was a busy, busy week and Kat still wanted to go back to PACC today even after she had been to a sleepover last night. We're exhausted but it was a good week. I even saw Trent smile a couple of times.

Close to Mommy

Shannon, having gone through all the electronics available to chew in the bedroom found herself in a difficult spot.

She was surrounded by stuffy toys, Kongs, and shoes but none of them appealed to her. Her mouth was watering for something new.

Suddenly, one ear went straight up and she had an idea! Mommy's glasses! They smell like Mommy and they'll be perfect. I'll give them a little chew. I'll make them look better.

Ooops, I swallowed one of those round plastic things. What are those red sparkly things in the corners?

This is what I came home to. We never found the other lens.

"Where do you think it is?"

Kat says between giggles, "Digesting in Shannon's stomach."

and how do we know it was Shannon????

I had a red rhinestone stuck to each corner of the frame. One was still on the frame and the other we found on her belly when she rolled over for a rub.

*sigh*

I sure know how to pick 'em, huh?

Spring Break

It's Spring Break here and what are we doing?

Walking dogs.

Yep, there are 200 dogs now at PACC and they need to be walked every single day.

We're short volunteers so not all the dogs get to go out every day. You can usually tell the ones that don't get to go. They're still the ones barking at noon when the public comes in.

It's such a nice feeling when all the dogs get walked and when you walk through the kennels, it's actually quiet. The quiet only lasts a few seconds, but it's the nicest non-sound ever.

Here is a picture of Kat that Trent took. We had just given a dog a bath and she was in the puppy meet and greet drying it off with a towel and making it look so cute and irresistible that someone would have no choice but to adopt it. Not sure if she was adopted yet or not.

Kat and Trent walking dogs. This dog's name is Temp. She was so sweet but ended up in sick bay with a doggy cold, aka URI.

Later my father joined us and he and the kids did adoptions. I took a dog with Parvo to some vet's office on the south side of town and then picked up another one from there to bring back to PACC.

Yeah, did you read that? Parvo. Go get your dogs all their shots if they don't have them already. There is no reason for your dog to die from Parvo.

Tomorrow we're going to Pima Paws for Life. They have asked me to take photos of their newest dogs. I love that they asked me to do this. :) It's hard work but it's always very rewarding. All dogs should have good pictures that help them get adopted.

Then on Wednesday, we're back at PACC walking sick bay dogs.

One of these days, I'd like to get back into scrapbooking. I have so many pictures and so many ideas but I'm just running out of time these days.

Oh well, at least I'm sleeping better from all the walking and running around we do. That and my heart feels good. I feel like I'm finally doing something to help animals and that is a good feeling.

Take care everyone!

Hanging with Greyhounds

I volunteered to take some pictures for Southern Arizona Greyhound Adoption during the Oro Valley Festival of Arts.

We learned all kinds of things about greyhounds!

For example, I had no idea that racing greyhounds' ears are tattooed.

This girl's ear is tattooed "37C". That means she was born in March 2007 and the "C" means she was the third of the litter to be tattooed.

The other ear has a tattoo of her ID number.

I've been taking photos of dogs for months and I always get them to sit. I was told that greyhounds really can't sit. They can kind of get into that position, but their butt never touches the ground. They're better at lying down.

Also, when a greyhound is hurt during training, he/she is automatically retired. Sometimes they're given to greyhound rescue, sometimes they are abandoned in the desert and sometimes they are "disposed of" in other ways.

Some dogs don't even like to race. If they are more apt to run up into the stands for a hotdog, they are retired as well.

I was also told that once they're retired, they're big ol' couch potatoes.

These are beautiful dogs and they were very welcoming to everyone that stopped by. What else was interesting was that there was no barking. Every owner there had a story about how their greyhound rarely barked.

It was a really windy day but otherwise it was beautiful. The sun, the dogs and all the nice people I met made it great!

So, what's new?

Oh, are you asking me?

Well, I've been doing dogs 24/7. It's all dogs here. All day. Every day. Dogs.

This last week I was asked to take photos of all the dogs at Pima Paws for Life. I was honored and I took on the challenge.

It took hours. It felt like I had a full time job. They have 47 dogs and I think I filled up my card with about 600 photos. I thought I would add some doggie photo out-takes but right now all I want to do is go to bed. I'll save doggie out-takes for another day. I can't put all my good stuff in one post anyway, right?

It's been a whole month since I've updated my blog. Like I said above, I've been taking lots of photos of dogs and cats and posting them on Flickr with little goofy stories. I'm still writing, I'm just writing stories about dogs on Flickr.

Here's the link to my dog pictures from Pima Paws for Life...here

I've also been taking photos of dogs from Pima Animal Care Center...here

I had fun this week with the dogs at PPFL. I loved getting to know each of the dogs. I've learned all kinds of new tricks to get dogs to look at me. I've made noises with my mouth that I've never heard before and I've done it so much that I'm no longer embarrassed if someone is standing close to me. I've squeaked a million squeaky toys and fluffed thousands of stuffy toys. I've held almost every dog treat known to man and dog alive. I've left PPFL covered in dog hair, slobber, poop and treats under my fingernails.

I've learned to balance a treat in one hand, a squeaky toy in another hand and my camera in another hand all while holding a leash. Wait, that was three hands. I only have 2 hands. I messed up somewhere.

My hands are raw from hanging on to taut leashes but my heart is full and happy tonight just like Ruby's (below). :)