Pet Monologues

My grandmother is ill and cannot care for her aging Yorkshire terrier.

Editor’s note: This is a letter to Cary Tennis, advice columnist, Salon Magazine

Dear Cary,

I am stressed and wrestling with an ethical dilemma: Would it be right to put down the 11-year-old dog of my grandmother, who has middle-onset Alzheimer’s disease?

It’s the eve of Thanksgiving and my grandparents are both here, with this dog, a tiny, whiny Yorkshire terrier who has learned to beg constantly. It’s not her fault; my grandmother forgets that she has just fed her, hears her whine (oh the sound of that whine!) and gives her another largish helping of steak or chicken or cookies, or whatever anyone happens to be eating at the time. As a result, the dog is overweight, out of shape (she will not walk more than five feet before stopping and dragging her feet), largely incontinent (I just wiped up hot dog pee 10 minutes ago), and the most annoying creature on the planet. I mean, I don’t have kids yet (I’m 24), but if this were my kid I would send it straight to boarding school.

Unfortunately, though, this dog is the center of my grandmother’s small and dimming world, along with my grandfather, who is in fine mental condition but has some cardiac problems — I think she likes to feel that the dog needs her and isn’t judging her for mental lapses (not that the rest of the family is, I think we’re doing a good job of stimulating and caring for her). My mom asked her once whether she would be more upset if she (her daughter) died or if the dog died, and she indicated that the death of the dog would make her more upset. Read the rest of this entry »

Ellen DeGeneres’ former dog Iggy, a 5-month-old Affenpinscher mix is returning to the spotlight, shooting a new Public Service Announcement for pet adoption awareness—and appears to be very happy.

Iggy on Entertainment Tonight; John Spellman/Retna Ltd.

The dog first made headlines in October after DeGeneres, with the best of intentions, gave the adopted dog away to her hairdresser. Because the move was against the Mutts and Moms pet adoption agency’s policy, the dog was taken back.

Keith A. Fink, an attorney for Mutts and Moms, says Iggy is now “doing famously very well and in a loving home,”

Fink would not reveal the dog’s whereabouts “for the safety of the adoptive family,” but stressed that Iggy has been placed “with a family that is a loving and takes great care of him.”

Added Fink, “Iggy likes to play with overstuffed animals and has a special preference for a stuffed turtle.”

Editor’s note: more background? Noted, this does not seem to be a happy ending for many people. PM is glad for pet adoption awareness however.

Source: US Magazine

Ellen Degenres brought “rescue” and “shelter” to the media. A good thing because when people talk, issues are better understood. It’s been a week. Let’s review.

Public reaction
The public response was swift, polarized, and far reaching. There were few surprise reactions with the exception of Craig’s List pet forum. PM was somewhat surprised by how the pet forum responded. Because this pet forum is an experienced, emotional, pro-adoption group, we expected the forum to attack the shelter for taking dogs away from a home, from children. On the contrary, CL sentiment was that Ellen should have read the contract, called the shelter, and not take this public on her show. The shelter got death threats.

The skinny
The inevitable inaccuracies are identified. We learn that her new dog was at a dog trainer for most of the days under Ellen’s care. That the shelter, Mom’s & Mutts, didn’t go to the media first. That the dog was finally, and confidentially, placed. That taking this to the airwaves is not going Ellen’s way a week later. That the shelter has not budged telling Ellen “If Ellen wants to place dogs and decide what’s a good home, then she should start her own rescue group. But I’m the one doing this and I know what I’m doing.” We learn that Ellen has given away a pooch(es) before.

Rearview mirror
It could be concluded that this was a fight between a star and an animal rescue group. Both sides trying to do what they thought was best for the dog. That there are two sides to whether the animal should be returned to the shelter: The American Humane Association “recommends” a more open adoption process that does not require the animal be returned to the shelter. Mom’s & Mutts, among other shelters, are standing fast: return the dog to the shelter. Most everyone stresses that the shelter or adoption agency should be kept in the loop and made aware of the pet’s whereabouts. Read the rest of this entry »

Animal art has been on our brain for several weeks when we got sidetracked with World Animal Day. Then last week we visited “Watermark” and found, yes “Cats in art” which inspired this post. We will title this “Cats in art” also so it will be easy to find. A good place to start is Egypt.

A wall painting fragment in the tomb of Amenemheb at Thebes in Egypt depicts the deceased nobleman standing in his boat and driving the birds from a papyrus swamp with a stick. Just in front of him his hunting cat has caught two birds in its front and hind claws and is holding the wings of a third bird in its teeth. [c. 1450 B.C., wall painting fragment, Thebes]

The cat was sacred to the Egyptian goddess Bast. Cemeteries containing the bodies of mummified sacred cats have been discovered with bronze statues of cats. We were, and are, simply divine. [c. 600 B.C., bronze, Egypt]

Cats are known to have been a part of Egyptian households by 1600 B.C. although they were not deified until much later. This touching portrayal of a mama cat with her kitten provides a glimpse of domestic life in the good old days when cats were everyday objects of worship. [c. 600 B.C., bronze, Egypt]

Source: netserve.com
Inspiration: Watermark

Ellen DeGeneres gives a pooch away to her hairdresser because it didn’t get along with her cats.

In doing so, DeGeneres violated an agreement with the Mutts and Moms dog rescue agency by not informing them of the handoff.

Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres performs her monologue to open the 79th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo

“I guess I signed a piece of paper that says if I can’t keep Iggy, it goes back to the rescue organization, which is not someone’s home, which is not a family,” she said in a show transcript provided to The Associated Press.

“I thought I did a good thing. I tried to find a loving home for the dog because I couldn’t keep it.”

“Because I did it wrong, those people went and took that dog out of their home, and took it away from those kids,” a sobbing DeGeneres said on her show. Read the rest of this entry »

This post celebrates World Animal Day and Bless the Animals. Follow the links to learn more about PM’s initiative which started on October 4.

Here is a story by Stu Bykofsky, columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News

I am an elephant.

I was not born for your amusement any more than you were born for mine.

If you see me in the zoo, and especially in the circus, which arrived here yesterday, I am not there willingly.

I was kidnapped and carried far, far away from my home and my family. I might have been an adult, but was more likely a baby when captured. Some “brave” hunter might have killed my mother—who could be dangerous—and sold me to a zoo or circus as an orphan.

Elephants have large families, as you may know, each headed by a female. When a female is born into the family herd, she never leaves.

Closely and happily, we travel together, eat together, play together, rest together. For elephants, every herd is a “village” in which the baby is cared for by its mother, and her sisters, and her mother. Being connected to family is as much a part of our being as our floppy ears. It harms us to be separated from our family. Can you understand that? Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter 9: The stories that nourish a newspaper.
By John Armstrong

[This is the ninth of 14 excerpts, running Tuesdays and Thursdays, from John Armstrong's memoir of the working life: Wages.]

When a cement truck lost its brakes on a hill and ploughed through someone’s backyard, you needed the parents and relatives of the dead and wounded, the name of the driver, the owner of the company, the neighbours (to fill out the background and describe the terror they faced daily with Big Trucks roaring though their neighbourhood) and someone from government licensing to comment on why he and his department hadn’t checked this truck’s brakes.

It was also important to get the Opposition critic for that department who would describe how the government had failed so tragically in this case, despite his repeated warnings that such a disaster was coming, and how his party would do things differently if they were in office….

The same was true of any local tragedy whether it was the man who hacked up his wife and mailed her postage due to her parents or an immigrant woman who spoke and read no English and bled to death in the emergency room because she couldn’t fill out the admittance papers. Read the rest of this entry »

I found during the past 18 months there were six deaths from dogs being dragged to death. Few were accidents and I have been hesitant to post these stories. Just too darn sad and maddening. And when I do see pets, animals, children, sitting in the back of a pickup truck, it makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t think anything should be back there that cannot survive a rollover, a sudden stop. And yet, the dead dogs were leashed to the vehicles and your dog, Jackson, was not.

And then this story! Count your blessings!!!

The story…

Well, one of my worst fears took place yesterday afternoon. Jackson fell out of the truck. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s better than a soap opera.

Since late March, my neighbors and I have been privy to the continuing saga of the trials and tribulations of a family consisting of papa and mama osprey and their very hungry, very noisy young. There are three of those.

Don’t think it’s easy to keep that growing trio of fledglings fed. It’s not as if the parents get to drive to a fast-food restaurant to pick up burgers and some chicken for supper. On the contrary, a lot of hard work goes into providing enough fish for three growing youngsters, plus the mother who gets to baby-sit while the babies are still defenseless.

It’s been estimated that one juvenile consumes close to 200 pounds during a typical season; multiply that times three and it is apparent the life of an osprey adult is not easy.

Last year an osprey pair nested on a snag farther down the river and although we were able to see some of the action, we were only able to observe them through binoculars. My neighbors, Paul and Phyllis, decided a closer nest would be a good addition to our neighborhood and last year they had an artificial nesting box put on a convenient snag closer to their house on the banks of the South Umpqua River. Read the rest of this entry »

Mama moose bashes through woman’s door.

(AP) POCATELLO, Idaho Anita Ovard moved to her small home in this town in the western foothills of the Rocky Mountains because she wanted to see more wildlife. Read the rest of this entry »