Want to Help Animals? There Are Many Ways You Can
It may be that when someone talks about volunteering to help animals in a shelter, that the average person imagines herself walking dogs or cleaning cat boxes in a shelter facility. Those are tasks that shelters can often use! But there is literally no end to the ways that people can help homeless animals.
Lessons From the Camp Fire Aftermath
At the peak of the Camp Fire emergency, over 2,000 animals were in temporary shelters in a number of locations. This included large animals horses, donkeys, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and llamas who were all taken to a local fairgrounds, where they were held in pens much like any they had ever been held in. I'm sure they experienced some anxiety, but given that their feed and housing was not much different than what most of them had experienced before, I would hazard a guess that they were more or less none the worse for wear. I'd guess the same could be said for the barnyard poultry: hundreds of geese, ducks, and chickens who were also evacuated or rescued from the fires. Lots of these birds were held temporarily at the shelter where I spent the most time volunteering, and they all seemed mentally and physically just fine, even the ones being held in crates in the medical treatment rooms while under treatment for injuries or illness.
Foster Puppy Update: Not Quite Ready for Prime Time
When I last told you about the puppies, I was at the U.C. Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) with the largest pup, who has something going on with one of his eyes.
New Year’s Resolutions for Dog Caretakers
I had to check last year's blog posts to see if I had published any New Year's resolutions last year; I didn't, so I don't have to admit how much or even whether I met any of my resolutions. But this year, I want to give public resolutions a go, to see if it will help me get any of them done.
Thoughts from a UC Davis Veterinary Hospital Waiting Room
I am back at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital [VMTH] at UC Davis, just a week after my last visit. Last week, I was here with a dying puppy. This week, I'm here for an emergency ophthalmology consult for another puppy from the same foster litter. Not quite three weeks ago, the biggest, strongest pup in the litter suddenly developed a big swollen eye.
Frustration and Heartbreak on the Road to Saving Sick Puppies
I wasn't certain the pup would make it through the night, but she did. And while she had, as the vet put it, reduced mentation
Updates on Dog Food Recalls, the Camp Fire Aftermath, and My Sickly Foster Pups
In my neck of the woods, we still have a huge ongoing mess to sort out with trying to reunite animals with their people following the devastating Camp Fire. Currently, there are three temporary emergency shelters that are caring for hundreds of dogs and cats (and other animals). It's hard to get exact figures, but more than half of the animals have not yet been identified by any owners, for many reasons.
Camp Fire: More Notes from a Disaster Area
Tens of thousands of people and animals have been affected by the fire, and thousands of people are helping those displaced. Several emergency shelters were hastily set up to contain pets. Some of the pets were left at the shelters by owners who were themselves homeless and staying in shelters; many more were rescued and brought to the shelters with either an address or rough estimate of where they had been rescued from.
Camp Fire: Notes from a Disaster Zone, Part Two
I am having trouble keeping track of what day it is today
Camp Fire: Dispatch from a Disaster Area
By midday November 8, the adopt the puppies" project was forgotten; all local media and social media was about evacuation
Some Dog Food Recalls Are More Critical Than Others; This One Is Critical
On November 2, the FDA announced a voluntary recall by Nutrisca pet food. Three sizes of a single variety of Nutrisca dry dog food, Chicken and Chickpea, was found to contain dangerously high levels of vitamin D. The FDA also announced a voluntary recall by Natural Life Pet Products, whose Chicken and Potato dry dog food in 17.5-lb. bags was also found to have dangerously high levels of vitamin D.
A Glut of Puppies at My Local Shelter
The shelter broke up this litter of 10 into two groups, and altered the four largest, healthiest puppies first; this happened two weeks ago. Those four puppies went up for adoption while I was out of town for six days, and every day while I was gone, I checked the shelter website to see who got adopted. Not ONE got adopted!