A Path With Paws

This is an article I wrote last year that deserves to be posted again with the 4th approaching.

The 4th of July is rapidly approaching. Unfortunately for many of our animal friends this can also be a stressful time because of the loud fireworks that many people set off when the clock reaches midnight. For many animals, fireworks can seem like the world is ending and every year animals injury themselves by trying to escape out of houses or by running away and getting lost or hit by cars.

If you have an animal who is afraid of fireworks or a new animal in your household this is a good time to be home with them if at all possible. Here are some things you can do to avoid stress and injury to your furry companion. Not everything works for every animal and many of these suggestions can be used in combination. Some animals get such severe anxiety that they need to be sedated with medication, so if your animal falls under that category this is the time to call your veterinarian. Most of the suggested products below can be purchased at natural pet supply stores.

1. Put on loud music or turn up the television to cancel out the noise. If your animal is prone to stress I would suggest classical or other calming music.

2. Use pheromone sprays such as Feliway for cats and DAP for dogs to calm them down.

3. Spray a natural lavender product around the house. Lavender can be very calming but make sure you use a natural product and not one full of chemicals. Do not spray directly on your animal.

4. Bach flower remedies such as Rescue Remedy can be very helpful for stressed animals. If you are working with a holistic veterinarian they can make you up a custom remedy for your animal. These are homeopathic in nature and very safe for even the oldest of animals. Put a few drops in their mouth or on the ear and a few drops in all the drinking bowls in the house.

5. Animal Apawthecary has a great line of herbal essences. Tranquility blend works well for many animals however check with your veterinarian if your animal is on any medications or has any major health issues before using this.

6. If you are home, talk to your animal calmly and rub them gently. If they become agitated try to stay calm. Your stress will only make them more stressed.

7. Make sure all windows and doors are closed. Do not leave your animal outside.

Have a wonderful 4th and thank you for visiting!

My good friend Pamela made the news while I was away. Here is the story and news clip, Seattle woman helping feral cats.

Pamela does more to help these feral animals than anyone I know.

It is so nice to see real people doing good work make the news!

By the way Pamela is looking for translators in the Seattle area to help her work with some of the immigrant communities and can always use help socializing and fostering feral kittens. If you can help contact her at feraltrapping (at) gmail (dot) com .

In less than two weeks I will be getting married, and I am realizing that my ability to post is becoming more and more limited. In the next few weeks you will be seeing very little new material from me. I promise to return to normal posting speed after the honeymoon.

And I promise to post some wedding photos!

Thanks to everyone who has continued to frequent this site! I appreciate having you come!

Why do some many of our domesticated animals have floppy ears and spots? Have you ever stopped to wonder why you almost never see these traits in wild animals yet if you look at domesticated cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, horses, cows, and pigs they are very common?

It turns out that these are some of the physical changes that are brought out when animals are selected for domestication in any species. Not only that, but in two or three generations animals can radically change their physical traits and appearance when humans select in this way.

Here is a fascinating article, Clever as a fox, on the domestication of animals and the Dmitri Belyaev fox experiments on domestication.

Do you have something to add to Path With Paws?

If you have a story about an amazing animal you know or an animal living with disability or illness you would like to share please send it to me. If you have photos to go along with it even better.

Do you have an idea for an article? Is there something that would be helpful to hear about? Let me know.

Is there a resource that I should add to the resource and links page?

I would love to get your suggestions, stories, and ideas. You can send them to me at lena (at) pathwithpaws (dot) com or post in comments.

Sometimes I get so caught up in my little world of very well treated dogs that I tend to forget about all the ones out there suffering. In the Seattle area we are being given an opportunity to make a difference for those who don’t have the wonderful lives of the animals I know.

Thank you Margo for bringing this to my attention!

King County is considering an ordinance which would make it illegal to leave your dog chained outside continually. Here is a detailed article from the Seattle P-I, Law would prohibit pet owners from continuously confining dogs. Right now there is nothing within the law to help these poor animals which are left on the end of a chain for their whole lives being denied the love and family they long for. Not only is this a sad and horrible life for these dogs but chained dogs tend to have more issues with aggression and are more likely to bite and harm children and other people. In fact there is a group called Mothers against dog chaining dedicated to this issue.

Here is a wonderful explanation by Cesar Milan on why dogs should not be tethered.

If you are in the King County area please take a moment to contact your council member. For a list of the names and contact information of these folks, please visit The King County Council Directory. If you are not in the Seattle area consider contacting your local council folk to see if they will address this issue in your area.

Here is a copy of the letter Margo wrote addressing some of the horrible situations she has seen in her work with animals.

Dear Councilmember,

First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to consider this
important issue.

Chaining a dog as a way of life is both cruel to the animal and dangerous to
humans, especially children. The dog most likely to attack and seriously
injure or kill a child is a chained, un-neutered male. For more on this,
please go to Mothers against dog chaining .

As someone who has observed and tried to help a number of chained dogs over
the years, I can say I have yet to see a chained dog that has adequate food,
water, shelter or a remotely clean living area, let alone socialization,
exercise or vet care. Many dogs suffer profound neck injuries and even death
when embedded chains finally sever their windpipe. Most people seem to think
their dogs are somehow weatherproof as well.

Just a few examples of what I’ve seen personally:

A young boxer who was chained because the owner said she jumped on his two
year old son. Inadequate food, water, shelter and feces everywhere. She was
kept out in sub-freezing weather, and you could see her visibly shivering.

A pitbull chained to a tree with no food, no water and no shelter. The chain
was so heavy she could only move her eyes.

Two pitbulls at another house, one chained to the front step, and another
chained to a doghouse in the backyard. There was so much mud, the dog
refused to leave the doghouse. Both were on extremely heavy chains.

A husky-cattle dog who was chained to a tree, and wrapped himself up so
tight he couldn’t move. The owner said “Yeah, he does that”. Dirty water, no
food, and he couldn’t even get to his doghouse.

The German Shepherd whose owner would walk out the back porch and throw raw
hamburger into the dirt. The police ended up shooting and killing the dog.

The Saint Bernard who simply laid on his side in the dirt, never moving, the
picture of utter hopelessness and defeat.

The people in the P-I article never cease to amaze me, either.

The woman in Snoqualmie who got herself a young, high energy spaniel-lab,
which she sentenced to living on a chain because “he’s hyperactive”.

The couple in Maple Valley whose yellow lab is chained because “he’s not
housebroken and he sheds”.

The dog in Rainier Valley who is occasionally fed rice and has been chained
the last five years.

The fourteen year old husky mix who has probably been chained to that fence
in Enumclaw his entire life. His crime? “He runs away”.

All these people have abdicated their responsibility to exercise and train
their animals. It is simply easier to chain them and forget about them,
while blaming the animal for the problem the human has created.

The man and his son in Maple Valley who are training attack dogs. The photo
showed a young pitbull in a plywood shack of a doghouse. They did have
enough money to crop the dog’s ears, however.

The breeders and others who will yell and scream at you that it’s their
right to chain their dogs are merely keeping them as cheaply as possible
until they sell them and make a quick buck. They are no better than puppy
millers in the sense that they don’t care one iota about the well being of
the dogs, nor do they consider the possible damage the animal could do
if/when the dog becomes aggressive due to being kept chained and
unsocialized.

I hope you will pass a real anti-chaining ordinance that has, pardon the
pun, teeth.

Sincerely,
Margo W.
West Seattle

Today is spay day and in honor of this very important day my friend Rose DeDan wrote a beautiful and very moving article on her blog, Dare to Care, the Life You Save May Be Someone’s Future Pet. If you get the time please take a moment to read it.

Many of you know that I spent my first three years as a veterinarian working at the Seattle Humane Society. While I consider it some of the most rewarding work I have done, I am still haunted by nightmares from the euthanasias I performed. It is never easy to take an animal’s life and although I think my work there saved far more animals then I had to kill it is still difficult for me. Many times I would end up curling up on the floor at home sobbing after having a particularly hard day.

I remember in particular a litter of five beautiful orange tabby kittens who came in with their mother and father, also very striking orange tabbies. The whole family of cats had been surrendered. We always tested every cat who came in for FeLV and the dad of this family came up positive. Because FeLV can be spread through drinking water and this whole family had been together they all had to be euthanized. My staff and I were heartbroken but there wasn’t anything we could do. It would take six months to know for sure if mom and the kittens were infected or not and we did not have the resources to keep them that long.

I swallowed by emotion the best I could and euthanized dad and then took one kitten at a time away from mom and euthanized them. At the end I went back to get mom and couldn’t do it. I looked her in the eyes and realized that I had just killed her whole family and for the first time in my shelter career I just couldn’t. I ran back in tears and quickly explained that I needed to leave for a while, retreating to the bathroom to cry. Someone else took over and I didn’t have to face mom but I will always remember that day.

Please, please spay or neuter your animals. I hope for a day when shelters will no longer have to euthanize animals and those who work there will be able to help without killing.

I have many tales I could tell about the animals on death row who passed through my bathroom as foster cats and went on to live and the two who never left and are still living with me. My very precious Melody and Rudy, both with chronic upper respiratory infections. But today I want to share my sadness in the hope that it helps prevent more unwanted animals from entering this world

Thanks to Pamela for forwarding me this important legislation pending in Washington State.

If you are in Washington State please check out Save Washington Pets for information on how to contact your lawmakers and support these bills.

Pawsitive Alliance, a volunteer organization devoted to ending the killing of adoptable dogs and cats in Washington state, is proud to support two bills currently in the Washington State Legislature: Senate Bill 5329 and House Bill 1406.

If passed, these bills would enable low-income owners to spay or neuter pets for a co-payment of only $10 for cats and $20 for dogs, likely resulting in a drastic reduction in the number of homeless dogs and cats living in Washington state shelters. Presently, shelters report that because of overcrowding, over 1,000 dogs and cats are euthanized every week in Washington.

The bills do not make spay/neuter surgery mandatory. Instead, they encourage people to spay/neuter their pets by making surgery affordable and accessible.

This aggressive statewide spay/neuter program would be funded by a fee paid by distributors who ship more than one ton of pet food in a six-month period. On the consumer end, the direct financial impact would
amount to less than a penny per meal for most pets. To put this in perspective, the fee’s direct cost would typically be less than $10 per year for a family with one dog and one cat.

Members of the community can easily and effortlessly support Pawsitive Alliance and 50 other animal welfare advocate groups in their efforts to make this crucial legislation happen by going to Save Washington Pets

For anyone who was outraged by the recent puppy mill seizure, cares about animals, believes that they should not be killed because of a problem with our system, or simply wants to save taxpayer money, now is the time to help in this small way!

“Apart from the humane aspects, which should bother anyone, the cost of handling and euthanizing unwanted animals from litters is staggering—and less affordable than ever for many people in these difficult economic times,” said Washington Senator Craig Pridemore, the prime sponsor of SB 5329.

Pridemore points out several problems that could be solved by the legislation, “First, it reduces the number of unwanted animals that are needlessly killed each year. Second, at a time when many people are struggling to make ends meet, it helps those least able to afford to spay or neuter their pets. Third, it reduces shelter costs and frees up money to house strays until they can find homes, instead of destroying them.”

Eight other states have adopted similar spay/neuter programs for pets of low-income residents. After New Hampshire founded a comparable program in 1994, the state saw a 75-percent decrease in euthanasia and a 34-percent decrease in shelter admissions in its first few years. This is in addition to significant taxpayer savings from reduced animal impoundment costs due to the program.

“We’ve all seen the pictures of lonely pets in cages and without owners, and we know the only fate waiting for most of them is to be put down,” Pridemore said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. This is a problem we can solve for pennies.”

I don’t often post links to videos but this little guy is so cute! Meet Kingsford the pot belly pig! The music is a little scary.

Do you know we have a pretty amazing pig rescue called Pigs Peace Sanctuary outside of Seattle? I have never been there myself but have friends who have gone out to volunteer and help Judy with the pigs.

I never knew that pigs could be litterbox trained. Pigs are smarter than dogs, in fact they are consider number four in intelligence behind chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants! You can train a pig to do anything you can train a dog to do and more. Pigs contrary to common belief as very clean animals.

Unfortunately many of these little guys are purchased when they are small without people realizing that they can get to 200lb or more. There are many organizations that help with pig rescue and information. If you are thinking of getting a pig contact them first and do your research.

I had to add this picture after seeing it on our wonderful local news source The West Seattle Blog. This little guy ran away from home and was picked by the Seattle Police. He ended up enjoying himself in one of the holding cells. I guess if you can’t find a plant to eat, toilet paper is the second best thing! I treat a couple of dogs who also enjoy an occasionally toilet paper binge. Here is the full story, Happy reunion, after Southwest Precinct got someone’s goat .

We are seeing more and more goats in the city and there are many services, like The Goat Lady , that will rent you a herd for doing some pruning. A while back there was a whole herd of them at the local elementary school eating back the blackberries. There were always a constant stream of people who would stop to watch and comment in high pitched voices.

“Look at their fuzzy little ears.”

“They are so cute!”