Okay.... I've got a justified rant here.  I hope that every summer vacationer in New York State reads this one!  I write this, you see, while listening to yet another radio plea from our local SPCA begging the local population to come in and adopt an animal or if you can't, to drop off food.  This happens every year at this time as the shelters...all of them, are bursting at the seams because they are suffering from a situation that once again hit my house at the end of July this year.... that being the annual pet dumping from the vacationers that come up for a month or two, get a pet for the kids and then dump the pet when it's time to go home. 

 

Yes, this year we adopted a "dumped dog", not because we wanted another dog or needed another dog but because somebody thought it would be fun to have a puppy around for a couple of months and when it was time to go home, dumped him at my son's girlfriend's house.  Having three dogs already and multiple cats, they couldn't keep him.  The SPCA at the time turned them down because they were already full and it was only the end of July.  The choices for this dog were to either be re-released and suffer the fate of a stray in this area... not good, or come live with us.  We thought that he was  4 months old then.  Turns out he was probably only 2 1/2 -3 months old.  His teeth were cracked and broken at the time, he suffered from worms and poor nutrition.  As a stray, being  unvaccinated and having bad teeth, he probably wouldn't have lasted too long.  He would have either died of malnutrition or by this point, disease, or, if he was lucky would have been hit by a car.  The ones who have lasted this long and aren't in shelters or  have been dumped on locals, now face hunting season.  Stray dogs this time of year are shot because they pose a huge health risk to humans and the game that many families in this area rely on for food.  If they're lucky, they won't make it through deer season.  If not, they face certain starvation and disease as the winter sets in, along with suffering from exposure.  Winters get real tough up here.

 

Yesterday wasn't like that for our "dumped dog" and his buddy, the Cairn Terrier pup we already had.  Having had all of their shots and wormings, yesterday was the day for neutering.  Now, as we already had a pup and a geriatric shepherd (also a dump we adopted years ago) living with us, we had only planned on the expense for one puppy to go through all of this with.  Financially, there was no way we were going to be able to swing the neutering for both dogs.  So I made some phone calls and got a little creative.  There are organizations that offer neutering certificates to assist with the cost of neutering your pet.  I went with the "Friends of Animals"  online for ours and ended up paying a total of $108.00 to have the boys fixed.  This was a savings of roughly $300.00 on what the normal fees would have been in my area.  The only problem is that the closest vet who would take the certificates was 1 and 1/2 hours away.  So yesterday morning at 7:00 we left to drop the dogs off.  I then came home... total drive time 3 hours, and dropped my daughter off.  Then I had to drive another hour down to the doctors for an appointment for me....total of 2 hours there and back.  To end the day it was another 3 hours to go get the dogs and bring them home. 

 

My driving ended at roughly 9:30 last night.  Total of 8 hours driving for the day.

 

Now we have three dogs, all vaccinated and neutered.  Thank you summer people for leaving us with a life that you felt would be entertaining but you took absolutely no responsibility for.  Black Jack is now 5-6 months old and weighs 60 pounds.  We're looking at a dog that will probably reach 100 pounds by the time he is full grown...but that's okay because you know what?  His teeth are in good shape, he's eating well, he has been vaccinated and is now neutered.  He isn't sitting in a cage at the SPCA waiting for them to realize, once again, that their "no kill" policy doesn't work at this time of year and put him down.  He isn't a target for a hunter or another accident waiting to happen for a driver at night.  He isn't living off of what garbage he can find and he isn't wondering if he's loved.  He is loved and he knows it, not because of what you did, but because he was lucky.  We had the room in our home and our hearts to accept responsibility for him. 

 

The thing that worries me about this is not what's going to happen to Black Jack, it's what's going to happen next summer.  You see, you'll be coming up again next year.  My house is full and there will be a whole new crop of "dumped dogs and cats" for my county to contend with.  What are you going to do about it, summer people?  What are you going to do?

 

A Mom in America

 

  

 

 

If any of you are visiting OIFVet, you may already know about this.  We have a new addition to our household as of last night.  Yet another dog has chosen us to be his new family.  He is a black lab mutly named Black Jack who we are calling BJ for short.

 

We live in an area where there is a very large influx of people every summer.  People come from the city to get away from the heat and the noise and stay for a month or two, then leave.  A very large portion of our economy is based on this annual migration and the area tends to make allowances for the behavior of these people.  There is one, though, that has been a consistant problem every year that begins right about the end of July, beginning of August.  It's the annual summer pet dumping.  BJ is a product of this favorite festival. 

 

You see many of the people who come up, decide that it would be great fun to have a pet while they are here, so they get a free puppy or kitten for the kids to play with.  The problem comes in when their vacations end.  They go home but the animals don't.  Many are left to wander as strays that just don't survive the outdoors because they are still too young and haven't had their shots.  They die of malnutrition or disease.  Many are dumped along the highway to face the certain death of being hit by a car going 70 miles an hour on it's way back to the city.  Some, like BJ are simply taken to a farmhouse and dumped on the porch in the hope that the family will be able to find a home or pay the fees at the animal shelter to dispose of the animal.  And yes, many of those not killed by disease, vehicles or euthanasia are shot during hunting season because of the disease factor and the fact that they do attack when they have grown up in the wild.

 

BJ was dumped at my son's girlfriend's house the night before last.  Having three dogs at their house, she brought him here in the hope that we could give him a home.  BJ is going to have to have all of his shots, neutering, and worming an expense we were not expecting at this time.  He will probably live the spoiled life of a dog in our household for the next 15-20 years, a commitment we were not expecting at this time.  Retirement is approaching quickly for us and quite frankly, we were kind of looking forward to traveling with our Cairn Terrier Willie.  A black lab is going to make that process a little more challenging in a compact car.  I guess we're looking for a van now.

 

Thank you summer people.  He's a beautiful animal with worms and no shots who never asked for any of this.  Neither did we, but we will gladly accept him into our household because I'd rather know he has a good home than see him dead on the road at the end of the summer.  It's just sad that this happens every year.   Life should be treated with more respect than this.

 

-A Mom in America 

Has everyone noted the cute little picture of Willie?  Willie is our Cairn Terrier.  Well, actually, Willie is my husband's Cairn Terrier that I gave to him for my birthday.  And that's about as far with that one as we're gonna go!

 

Anyway, as I've stated, Willie is a Cairn Terrier.  The origin of the Cairn is quite interesting and useful in these circumstances that we now face.  You see, long ago, in Scotland, the Scottish would mark places of burial or improtance with a big pile of rocks.  This pile of rocks was called a "cairn".  Being an agrarian society when they weren't at war with each other or building piles of rocks, the Scottish began to notice a problem with the cairnes.  They seemed to become infested with vermin that were very destructive to their herds and crops. 

 

Therefore, the Scottish, being the noble and extremely intelligent people that my husband assures me invented everything worthwhile on the planet, decided to breed a dog to control the problem in the cairnes.  Thus the Cairn Terrier was developed over painstaking centuries, when the Scottish weren't warring or building piles of rocks or developing and sampling whiskey.

 

Every dog must have a job, and the Cairn is quite adept at his, or at least Willie is.  The Cairn actually goes into the rock pile or brush or burrow, hunts down and locks onto the vermin then pulls it out and brings it to it's master.  If the vermin has not been ripped apart in the process, the master disposes of it appropriately.  If it has been...oh well, there's always more vermin.  Cairnes live to go get stuff like that and bring it home to their masters.  They are tough, tenacious little dogs that don't give up and dont' fail at their tast, no matter how elusive the vermin is.  It truly is an amazing thing to see one of these little dogs in action!

 

Now kids, and yes, this is being directed to all of our kids out there participating in the world in a positive way through military service, I know that each and every one of you is particularly proud of your branch of the service.  I am too!  The thing we need to discuss is this bulldog thing.  Marines have this whole bulldog thing going and the Marne division in the Army had one too...I'm not sure if they still do, but they did.  The point is, I don't think the current job calls for bulldogs.  In the mountains of Afghanistan and the shifting deserts of Iraq, (and yes I know Iraq has mountains.  It's a poetic mind set thing...work with me here!) I think what we need to have is a Cairn Terrier...a mascott that can get into those rocks and hard places and pull these vermin out.

 

Continued in Part 2

Kofi Annan, at the UN, today has decided that the violence and suicide bombings need to stop. (How many years have we been waiting for him to decide this?)  He even mentioned that perhaps the terrorists should think about participating in the positive growth of Iraq and it's government. (How many people have died in this thing?)  Today, the terrorists have taken an enormous step forward in the evolutionary growth of their culture and decided that instead of blowing themselves and others up all over the place, they'd start gunning everyone they could think of down.  Like that's an improvement...

 

Not for nothing, but you guys really need to get with the program here.  The world  is deciding, right now, that thery are not going to listen to you until you start playing nice.  Blowing yourselves and others up is not responsible.  Gunning people down is not responsible.  In case you didn't get the common thing the world is looking for here, let me help you.  It's called personal responsibility and maturity.  That means you respect other people in your actions and your words.  No one is going to listen to you or even consider anything you have to say until you start showing them you have this.  And as far as governing others?  Don't even think about it while you're behaving like this.

 

I strongly suggest that you put away your toys, get a responsible representative...and here's a clue, bin Laden, al-Zakarwi and al-Sadr are not what the rest of the world would consider good candidates, and start learning how to participate in a way that will help move this world, Iraq and Afghanistan forward.  Or, you could burrow down into the rocks and sand and try to hide.  We'll just send Willie after you.  He's not a bulldog, but I have yet to see him come home without getting his prize.

 

Yes, America, I did just do what you think I did.  Gave them the story of Willie.  Complete and Unabridged!