I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the last couple of years reading about shelter animals and rescue dogs, and the number of puppies and kittens that are brought back to shelters after the holidays is staggering. I’m not going to get on my soapbox for long, but I would like to make a request in that I’d like for anyone that is considering a puppy this year to consider a couple of options.

One option is to consider a fully grown dog or cat from a shelter or a rescue site. Dogs are often trained and do well with children. They can be just as cute and cuddly as puppies and need just as much love. They are silly and friendly and sweet. They also piddle on the floor a lot less. Cats are independent and don’t need much to be amused. They are easily potty-trained and if you ever wanted to know what to do with empty toilet-rolls, now you know.

If you absolutely must have a puppy or kitten, please find them at a shelter, if you can. Shelters are overrun in the cold weather and the number of animals that are put to sleep is astounding.

Lastly, when you get your new animal, please take care of it’s doggy/kitty parts and make sure it can’t procreate. It helps keep the pet population down and animals from being stuck in poor situations.

My dog, Sophie, is one of the joys of my life. She was rescued by a family about 2 hours from where I live and I wouldn’t trade her for anything. When I’m sick she sleeps by my side. When I wake up in the morning she cuddles me. When I leave the house, she cries because she can’t go with me. As I type this, I sit cross-legged on my recliner. Sophie is at my feet. She wasn’t a puppy when I got her and she’s not the most beautiful dog in the world. I love her tremendously and she is one of my best friends.

You can see my right sidebar for Dogs in Danger, which is a site that lets you know about dogs that are in Kill shelters and need a home near you. You can also donate to the humane society there. You can google for shelters in your area and Petfinder.com often allows shelters to use them as a resource.

Please help save an animal this season. Dogs, cats, turtles, you name it, need a good home. If you choose an animal this year, please be a responsible pet owner.

So, please read this post. You’ll be glad you did. It speaks to the heart of how Nashvillians feel right now.

Hello America Letter

Really, don’t.

I got emotional and upset and hugged my dogs even closer. The truth of the matter is that animals get the short end of the stick quite often. I have three of the most amazing creatures I have ever met and one smart aleck cat who hates me. Animals are important to me and always have been. If you’ve been reading, you saw what happened when I got attached to the chickens. This has been true for every animal I’ve ever had. Except for Francis. Anyway, I know that there are important diseases and people give money to charity all the time. They don’t want to be harassed into parting with their money for something like animal care and prevention of animal cruelty. I can’t explain to you why this is more important than health care or scientific research, except to say that when I’m sad or hurt, my animals help me more than any human I’ve ever met. They soothe me like nothing else. They understand, listen and hug in a way that I need without judgment. Sometimes, the things that seem unimportant in life are the things that get you through when you need it the most.

With that in mind, I’d like to organize a small donation in the amount of $250 for the ASPCA. This is on my heart and if you can give even $1 per person, I’d make this in no time. If you can give more, you help for those that can’t right now. I’m not giving up until I meet my goal, so the sooner I meet it, the less you have to hear about it. Also, if you have an animal that is important to you, I’d like to hear about him or her.

EDIT: I called the ASPCA, as donations were not showing on the widget, and apparently donations do not show up for TEN days. If you email me the amount donated, I will keep a running tally without divulging your name on the post. Sorry about that.

Running tally: $30

Lies. Propaganda. If you have a pet that has hair, you, too, can be the proud owner of fleas. A.J. isn’t Pigpen from Charlie Brown and our house isn’t a shack, but our pets are what they are and that is filthy little buggers who love to roll in some grass.

The first clue that you might have fleas is when your dog snaps at it’s own arm like it’s a marinated turkey leg. Your dog may also make the noise “Om nom nom nom” or say aloud “That’s tasty.” You will wonder what the problem is and gently look for ticks while your dog glares at you for interrupting snack time.

The second clue will be the “tag jingle.” The tag jingle sounds like the Salvation Army bell at Christmas time and it will occur at roughly 3am from under the bed, just out of your reach, and continue for around 4 hours while you threaten to take the dog to the nearest foreign country that is willing to eat them. I don’t actually know of any country that will eat dogs, but I am certain there are starving people out there that might think my dogs are tasty. And if not, there may be some hill folk somewhere that do. Who am I kidding? Even hill folk would be angry about the tag jingle.

The biggest clue that your dog has fleas is going to be the one that is going to gross you out. It will make you wince, squint your eyes like you just saw the nasty cup video on the internet (please, for the love of God don’t google that) and turn your head away. It’s called “the butt scrape.” It’s where the fleas have permeated the patookas area and the dogs have failed to reach that area to scratch. It would be like us trying to lick our elbows.

I’ll wait while you try. Go on. Lick your elbow. Did you youtube that? I’d like to see it if you did.

Back to the Butt scrape. The butt scrape is where the dog places it’s forelegs in between it’s back legs and scoots it’s behind across the floor like there’s a sickness and the only remedy is butt scrapin’. People with carpet freak out because “my dog is getting nastiness on the carpet!” People with hardwood, like myself, shrug and figure “what’s the point of that? You’re just looking for a splinter in a place I’m not pulling it out, dog.” However, if your dog is doing this, it’s probably fleas or worms or even anal sac issues (ick), and none of them is a good thing. If you can’t see fleas, it’s probably time to go to the vet.

So, what do you do if you have fleas?

The recommended method is flea shampoo that you leave on for 10-15 minutes, so dried skin that the fleas feed on is removed. Most shampoos also have some sort of insecticide that is going to kill the flea for you.

Unfortunately, it’s not just the pet that’s been affected. The home has been permeated as well. If you have fleas, you’ll need to vacuum the entire house to get rid of any flea eggs that have been laid. If your pet has a bed or sleeps with you or on a rug, those must be laundered and you’re probably going to need to use a spray or fogger to get random eggs that have been laid around the house.

Lastly, you can treat your yard with sprays and insecticides that may help prevent the little buggers from re-emerging.

One note here: Please don’t blame your pets. They didn’t purposely attract the fleas and it’s not their fault they got them. Too many animals are abused by adults that don’t understand the mechanics behind animal issues. If you choose to have animals, then you are choosing to accept that they are going to have issues just like we do. Now go clean your house. It’s a pigpen.

I’ll take this one from neatorama. She looks nice and scared. She can come home with me.

Here’s what would happen if I took Tubby home, though. She would first pee on my clothes while rubbing on both Leon and A.J. and destroying my dogs and their will to live. Then she’d eat all of my food and pee on my furniture, only in the places where I sit. Every time I bothered to look at my husband, who would be her new human, she’d glare at me with a look that said “I’m waiting until you die so I can eat your face.” Would you like to know how I know this? Check out this page and see the header “Francis.”

The only thing you really need to know from all of this is that I love animals of most sorts. Not all animals. PETA can come hate on me whenever they want. There are certain animals that scare the bejeebus out of me and that won’t change no matter how much paint or food coloring you splatter on me.

I have a particularly tender heart for animals, actually. I’m one of those people that love my pets like family and care about their well-being. So, for someone like me, the internet can be an unusually hazardous place to navigate. It also makes me angry beyond belief and right now my heart is breaking and my temper is lit like Times Square on New Years Eve.

After reading this article, I am troubled. There is no doubt in my mind that the media used the most flippant picture they could find of this young girl, but it’s hard for me to not want to reach through the computer and tell her some things. In the article, the girl, who is 17 years old and named Cheyenne, said that she roasted her ex-roommate’s kitten to death in the stove as a joke.

A joke.

She roasted a kitten alive as “a joke.” Normal people do not consider this “a joke.” This is after they broke into the person’s apartment and trashed it. That was the beginning of the joke. Then they threw the cat into the stove and left it there to burn. The article, written by Lisa Coleangelo, Erica Pearson and Bill Hutchinson states that she was charged with “aggravated cruelty to animals, burglary, arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.” They then released her into her mother’s custody, where she obviously has freedom to do whatever she wants in the first place.

Ok, let’s cast a little aspersion on character for just a small second here. Who, in their right mind, considers what this person did a sound idea? A just idea? When people start harming animals in adolescence, it often leads to stronger issues in adulthood. Of course, they don’t mention if she had any kind of mental check, but they won’t release that kind of information. We have to assume they didn’t or, if they did, she checked out just fine.

Where do we draw the line? If someone is 17, almost an adult, and they show this lack of judgment, what does that mean, if anything? We have graduated licenses for those drivers that aren’t quite ready for the responsibility, what about graduated adulthood? Granting those teenagers that show wise judgment the rights and responsibilities of adulthood and putting those that do not on a graduated course that they, ideally, should have already taken in economics, parenting, society and good common sense, in high school?

I know, I know. It’s a strong statement, but I’m feeling strongly about this today. Thoughts?

In this story, the poky little puppy wandered to another land, far, far away. A place where puppies aren’t safe. A place called South Korea. And in this place, the Poky little puppy had his DNA cloned and merged with genes similar to those of a sea anemone, which is an underwater creature. This was done by a scientist who said that he was was doing it to produce a puppy that, because of a long lifespan, might help cure human illness. However, what this merging did was TURN THE PUPPY INTO A GLOWSTICK!!!!

For comparison: The glowstick

Glowstick 1.0

The puppy:

Poky puppy 2.0

Please, enlighten me?

The focus of the show was on a program called “Puppies behind Bars.” The program gives puppies to inmates in prison and has them train dogs to be service dogs for disabled, handicapped and ex-servicemen from the military who have needs. The show focused on how the dogs change both the lives of the prisoners and the lives of the servicemen for the better.

Now, I have no problem showing emotion, but I was doing everything could to hold it together for this one because if I let it start, it wasn’t going to stop. Dogs are special to me because I know what they can do to heal someone’s spirit. I’ve long considered using my dogs in therapy and it may yet happen. To watch these incarcerated men, some for violent crime, break down and weep because of these dogs, was heart-wrenching. To see someone with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder slowly healing with the help of a dog was humbling. We all want unconditional love, don’t we?