But No One Camps Out for the Pit Bulls

Young pit bull mix, waiting for his fate at the Clovis Animal Shelter

Bucksnort and I went down to the animal "shelter" last week to return Gracie's cat carrier so that someone else could use it. We said we wouldn't go back to look at the animals, but Buck wandered off and came back with big eyes, saying you've got to see this. She insisted, we went, I saw.

We knew we had to rescue that tiny Chihuahua mix pup, huddled in the back of his cage and trembling, trembling. There was so much noise from the big dogs, the desperate and doomed pit bulls, that the tiny pup just couldn't stop shaking.

The shelter's policy is to hold strays for five days to give their owners a chance to claim them. The pup's five days would be up the following Monday and he would be available for adoption at 10 AM when the shelter opened its doors. The policy also states that no dogs can be "reserved" ahead of time--it's first come, first serve.

The shelter people said that several people were interested in the tiny pup. Figuring that he would end up with a home, I would have given up at that point, but not our Buck. At 10 PM on Sunday night, she parked her car up against the locked gates and camped out there all night. I came down at 8 AM bringing coffee and was the 3rd car in line. Just before 10, when the place was due to open, a big pickup bypassed the line of cars (now numbering five), parked up ahead, and its occupants hopped out and stood at the gate ahead of Bucksnort's car.

It looked bad there for a moment, especially since the woman and her daughter said that they had been promised the tiny pup by shelter staff on Friday (not true). But the good guys won (that would be us, of course). The shelter staff knew that Buck's car had been there first and knew that the lady was lying about having been there at 7:30 all alone. Lies, lies, lies. She was setting such an awful example for her little girl.

So, thanks to my wonderful sister, little Bertie-Pierre arrived and is scampering around playing with the big dogs and Gracie. The other cats scare him. He has a great home and a wonderful Auntie Bucksnort.

Bertie-Pierre

But, sadly, no one camps out for the pit bulls. Most of the cages of the shelter are filled with them because apparently the people around here who own them don't get them spayed or neutered and let them run free. I'm sure it's a nice life for a dog until it gets lost or hit by a car or scooped up and taken to the "shelter," where it is surely doomed to die.

The Arrival of Bertie Pierre

Bertie Pierre plays with a patient, and much larger, Leny

In the book, Love Over Scotland, by Alexander McCall Smith, six-year old Bertie has traveled from Scotland to Paris, and has just made some new friends:

"But we should introduce ourselves," she went on. "I'm Marie-Louise, and this," she said, turning to the other young woman, "is Sylvie. He's called Jean-Philippe. We shorten him to Jarpipe. And what, may I ask, is your name?"

Bertie thought for a moment. It seemed to him that the French put in their second names, and he did not want to appear unsophisticated. His second name, he recollected, was Peter, and he did know the French for that. "I'm Bertie-Pierre," he said quickly. It sounded rather good, he thought, and none of his new friends seemed to think it at all odd.

Naturally, when we added the latest rescue dog to our little crew, his name became Bertie Pierre. It does sound rather good.

*****

Be sure to see the Complete Adventures of Bertie Pierre

Adopting from Animal Shelters: The Starfish Story

I thought about President Obama's starfish story (below, part of his recent speech on community service) the other day when visiting our local oxymoronically-named "kill shelter" with my sister. There were so many lost souls there hoping for rescue. I knew that it was kill day and that we already had enough dogs and cats at home. Even so, we brought home Gracie, who was still lactating from a recent litter, and was extremely thin and scrawny. 

Gracie has been eating and resting and grooming herself. In just over a week she is looking much better and is starting to play with the other cats. 

It was all I could do. We left so many behind, but we were able to make a difference for this one. 

To find an animal shelter in your area, go to http://www.animalshelter.org/shelters/states.asp.

The Starfish Story

An old man walking along the beach at dawn sees a young man picking up the star fish and throwing them out to sea. "Why are you doing that?" The old man inquired. The young man explained that the starfish had been stranded on the beach by a receding tide and would soon die in the daytime sun. "But the beach goes on for miles," the old man said. "And there's so many! How can your effort make any difference?" The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and without hesitating threw it to safety in the sea. He looked up at the old man, smiled and said, "It will make a difference to that one."

Down at the Dog Jail

"People think this is a Humane Society shelter. It isn't. It's a dog jail. That's what it is, a dog jail." The kind-faced man in the uniform at the Clovis Animal Shelter was telling me about their facility when I visited yesterday. I had just seen a photo of the Pet of the Week, a little blond chihuahua mix, and had talked a new acquaintance into accompanying me on a visit. To tell the truth, I dreaded going there, because the Clovis facility is a self-described "kill shelter" where dogs and cats are housed for only a few days before being gassed. There just isn't enough money to keep animals for longer than three days for owners to claim lost animals and another three days to get adopted. After that, time has run out for another life. Local animal welfare groups are working toward death by needle, at the very least.


In the meantime, there is a loosely organized bunch of local people who are doing everything they can to save these animal lives. From fostering dogs and cats temporarily, to putting information on the Internet daily in both Petfinder.com and in the local paper, to volunteering at free weekend spay/neuter clinics, to adopting even more dogs and cats themselves, they work tirelessly to make a bad situation better. New Mexico has a lot of poverty and I can understand that a family concerned with putting food on the table for their kids is probably unable to even consider paying for rabies shots and spaying or neutering of their pets, so the pet overpopulation problem continues. It is rumored that some well-intentioned people who have decided they can no longer care for their pet might just let him loose somewhere, rather than taking him to the shelter and a pretty good chance of being killed. Of course, a dog or cat suddenly dropped off somewhere probably has an equal chance of being run over, of being eaten by a predator, or simply starving to death.


Is it like this everywhere? I can tell you from personal experience that it is not. In New Hampshire, there is actually a shortage of adoptable dogs and cats due to an extremely successful spay/neuter movement statewide, so dogs are even brought in from kill shelters in other states. The shelters in New Hampshire are humane societies that are well funded by volunteer donations and staffed by both paid and volunteer animal friends. Take a look at the website for the New Hampshire SPCA in Stratham, NH at http://www.nhspca.org/index.html. This is not a kill shelter. Animals are housed in comfortable surroundings until they are adopted; animals with behavior problems that might make them unadoptable are retrained. Volunteers come in to walk dogs and to play with them. There is a large cat socialization area. I have visited this shelter many times without the awful pressure of having to save lives right now. The dogs and cats here are the lucky ones; they are assured of the chance at a good home. Prospective adopters are interviewed, and other pets in the family are brought in to be sure that they are compatible with the new animal. A fairly large adoption fee is charged, with puppies ($235) costing more than adult dogs ($160) to encourage adoption of often-overlooked older animals. There is a low cost program for senior citizens to adopt senior animals. All dogs and cats are spayed or neutered before leaving the facility. Here is a photo of my dog Leny (short for Magdalena, New Mexico), a loveable lab/Sharpei cross who was brought to New Hampshire from a kill shelter in Ohio, and adopted from the Stratham shelter in 2006. She has added so much to our lives.
Could such a shelter program exist in New Mexico? Certainly the wealthier communities are moving in that direction. The Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society (http://www.sfhumanesociety.org/index.php) has a two building, 100 acre facility that includes two five-acre dog parks, hiking trails, and lots of room for walking dogs. It's a place that encourages dog owners and prospective adopters to visit again and again. They take animals from crowded rural shelters and run a mobile spay/neuter clinic that visits smaller and poorer communities.

What can you do to change the situation here in New Mexico? To help out with the shelters, such as the one in Clovis (http://west.petfinder.com/shelters/ccac.html), I would encourage you to visit and to talk to the good people who do the hard jobs there. Donate the materials that they need. Clovis is looking for "blankets, towels, dryer sheets (such as Bounce), raised/waterproof beds, liquid laundry detergent, bleach, pet shampoos, etc." They are unable to take cash donations. Campaign for a dog licensing program to raise money for shelters. Tell everyone you know to consider adopting a shelter animal, rather than paying for a pedigreed one.

When you take a look at your local shelter, visit the animals. It's not an easy thing to do. When you know that so many lives are at risk, it's hard to look into their eyes. Ask what you can do to help. Take an animal home and give it a good life.

Back to my visit to the Clovis "Dog Jail." My friend and I took the tour, although I was hoping that a nice staff member might bring out just one dog for us to see so we didn't have to face all those doomed eyes. I ended up paying "bail" for two little dogs, one for me and one for my friend. There were plenty more left, waiting and hoping.

Here's our new little Weetzie: