Altar to Honor Shelter Dogs

Dias de Los Muertos 2009

Dias de Los Muertos 2009
Originally uploaded by Calsidyrose

I have been making yearly altars for Dias de los Muertos since the early 1980s. This year's offrenda honors my Shelter dogs who have crossed the rainbow bridge: Queeny, a Queensland Heeler girl who died of distemper, and JoJo, a fawn pit bull boy who had to be euthanized due to aggression.

Although this altar is dedicated to two individual Shelter dogs, it is also a memorial for all the millions of dogs euthanized or killed each year in American animal shelters.

This altar features most of the traditional elements, including marigolds, religious items, representations of the dogs, candles and a dog dish full of Milkbone biscuits. The collar contains tags recalling my various foster dogs for 2009, including the dogs which I have placed in new homes. The small clay muerto dog is from Mexico, while the cloth painted dog is my own creation.

This year, I purchased a new piece of oil cloth and a lovely cotton runner from Casa Ramirez in the Houston Heights. This family-owned hub of Mexican culture hosts a yearly Dias de Los Muertos procession.

Shelter Dogs Head to Aggieland

Texans take their college rivalries seriously—the faithful alumni “bleed” orange (UT Longhorns), maroon (Texas A&M), or scarlet (Texas Tech). We have slogans with hand signals: Hook ‘em Horns; Gig ‘em, and Guns Up! Our mascots are animals: Bevo the brown and white Longhorn, Reveille the collie (who is the highest ranking Cadet), and Midnight Matador the coal black quarter horse (ridden by the Masked Rider). And a “House Divided” is one where one child attends A&M and the other attends Texas Tech.

My son is a junior at Texas Tech, but I have to give a big kudos to those Texas Aggies. Yesterday, our Shelter embarked on a new program—thanks to the connections of our Off-Site Adoption Team Leader—we are sending the first round of 10 female dogs to the Vet School at Texas A&M in College Station (70 miles north of our Shelter) where the dogs will be fully vetted and spayed as part of the school’s hands-on training program. If not adopted by the students or staff in Aggieland, the dogs will be returned to our Shelter, where we will find them homes. The University covers the costs for all aspects of their involvement.

I spent yesterday at the Shelter, helping Dr. Ryan, our Director and Veternarian select and prep the dogs. We focused on adoptable dogs from the Blue Room. We also tried to select a mix of fairly healthy dogs in order to boost their chances for placement through their exposure at the University . This task was harder than it sounds.

We have mostly Black Lab mixes, and many of our dogs are badly infected by mange. Others are heartworm positive. And a disturbing number of our current dogs are heavily pregnant. While we crouched in front of the kennels—me holding the quivering dogs while Dr. Ryan pulled the blood samples for the SNAP heartworm tests—a stoic American Staffordshire was giving birth to a litter of puppies in a kennel shrouded with a blanket to give the birthing mom a little privacy.

When I peeked in on the dog, she had eight tiny puppies of all different colors, each about the size and just as floppy as Beanie Babies. She was licking the tiny pups clean of afterbirth and gave me a serious eye.

Meanwhile, we worked up kennel cards for each of our 10 females—we did the heartworm tests and gave vaccinations, and in some cases gave names to dogs that had none. An air-conditioned van will come from the University to fetch the dogs and those who aren’t selected by adopters will be returned next week. Small medical complaints will have been addressed and the dogs will be clean and well-rested, and the next 10 dogs will head out to College Station. Meanwhile, we now have 10 slots in the Blue Room for new dogs. This is a good thing because we’re overloaded with incoming animals.

So to the Vets at Aggieland, I gladly give a “Guns Up!” Thanks, Aggies, for giving our dogs a second chance!

-*-
Photos of Texas College Mascots courtesy of the Interwebs

This Time “Girl” Deserves a Real Home

I remember when “Girl” arrived at the Shelter. She is a hound mix, with a docked tail and butterscotch colored spots. An owner-surrender, “Girl” was quickly adopted because she was healthy, well behaved, and housebroken.

However, two weeks ago, she was returned to the Shelter in horrible shape. Now skin issues are very common here in humid Southeast Texas (I’m battling rough spots on my Miniature Pinscher’s ear right now with a steroid cream). But “Girl” is red and raw all over. Click on the photo to see the rawness on her ears, elbows, hindquarters and inner legs.

How on earth can someone let a dog get to this point? Can they just not see her discomfort? Her raw skin and the bloody red scratches? This is mange complicated by secondary infection.

“Girl” is being treated at the Shelter, and we’re hoping to get her into a foster home so she can recover more quickly. She’s made tremendous strides in just two weeks. The Shelter Vet estimates “Girl” needs another month before she’ll be ready for adoption. Amazingly, her spirit hasn’t been crushed. “Girl” is a sweet dog, who craves attention. She deserves far better than she’s had.

In the chaos of the Intake line, there is no telling what happened to the former adopters—at this point, the County doesn’t allocate much in the way of resources to prosecute animal cases like this. The Shelter volunteers have rallied around “Girl,” and we’re going to make sure that t once “Girl” is out of the shelter that she never goes back.

-*-
Photo by Linda Monk.

How Some Things End

On September 16, 2009, JoJo, a three-year-old fawn American Pit Bull Terrier was euthanized, thus ending a dog’s life. He lived long enough to touch the hearts of several people in the Shelter, entering the system on January 30, 2009 as a stray. JoJo’s dog-on-dog aggressiveness was his undoing. His Pit Bull bloodlines were a liability. His unknown background and experiences were a hindrance. But the spirit in his dog heart remains, burning pure and bright, flickering as a reminder that as human we pay for our hubris in the deaths of dogs deemed unsafe.

I drew the portrait on myWacom tablet. I’m still a beginner with this tool, so don’t know how to blend the colors yet. JoJo’s spirit rests easier now, even if mine doesn’t.

The Pit Bull Blues

I've got the Pit Bull Blues, oh yeah.

For those of you who have been following this blog, you may recall previous posts about a Shelter dog named JoJo, an American Pit Bull Terrier (pictured as he looked on Saturday). JoJo is a fawn-colored 3-year-old male dog who I placed in an APBT-savvy foster home in mid-April. Late last week, Ms. A., the foster, called me to regretfully report that JoJo has become increasingly dog-on-dog aggressive.

Ms. A. explained that JoJo had instigated four separate attacks, including one that injured her own female pit bull (puncture bites on the dog’s neck, and half an ear tip torn off). In the first attack, JoJo charged an (alleged) Gotti line pit bull belonging to a neighbor, pinning the dog to the ground. Ms. A. did not witness this attack as it occurred while her high school age son had JoJo in the front yard. No one was hurt. The third attack came when JoJo harassed a mastiff by biting down on the dog’s snout. Both dogs suffered minor face punctures.

The forth attack came while Ms. A. was walking JoJo on leash on a path. Another dog of a similar size (but not a pit bull) approached (on leash with its owner), so Ms. A. pulled JoJo onto the grass median, and worked to keep his attention off of the approaching dog. Ms. A. isn’t sure if she tripped or if JoJo tripped her, but she lost hold of the leash and charged the a mix-breed dog on the walking path, pinning and clamping down on this dog by one hind leg. Ms. A. was able to pull JoJo off and neither animal was injured, but the other dog’s owner was badly frightened by the swiftness of the attack.

As JoJo has regained weight and strength (he was in bad shape when he left the Shelter in April), Ms. A. said he became increasingly dog-focused—straining toward and staring down dogs his size or bigger. When he launches an attack, JoJo does not growl, bark, or raise his hackles. He just fixes a hard stare, whines deeply in his throat, lowers his head and prepares to launch. Another dog need not even act in an agressive way to prompt this.

I witnessed this personally on Saturday morning, when I met JoJo and Ms. A. at the Shelter. We were waiting for the staff person to locate JoJo’s records, and were seated in two chairs, with JoJo sitting calmly beside us. Ms. A. had JoJo’s leash tight and I had one hand on JoJo’s collar. Someone walked another dog by, and I felt JoJo’s body tighten. His head dropped, neck extended and I felt the intensity building in his body. I’ve seen this intensituy before in a dog--in my 17-pound Miniature Pinscher, when he’s got a freshly killed rat. It’s a whole different thing to see it in a 70-pound, muscular, young dog. Ms. A. shook JoJo out of and got his attention to focus on her. I suddenly realized that JoJo is what the dog-fighters call “game.”

We went with the Shelter Director, Dr. Ryan, into one of the offices and Ms. A. outlined the nature of the attacks. Ms. A. did not feel that JoJo could be safely adopted. We were both in front of Dr. Ryan because we knew that the reality is that JoJo needed to be euthanized.

The Shelter does not have the time or resources to retrain one dog, especially a Pit Bull. I’m not knocking the breed, but it is challenging enough to find homes for the Pit Bulls and Pit mixes already in the Adoption Room. And JoJo had a bad track record.

Dr. Ryan explained that every dog deserves a fair evaluation and she wanted JoJo to be seen by Mr. G., our Shelter’s dog trainer. However, Mr. G. and I had already spoken about JoJo, and Mr. G. was already familiar with the dog from his time in the Shelter. Mr. G. has rehabbed several Pit Bulls in his private business, but the rehabilitation (regardless of what Cesar Milan might say) often means life at Spindletop, one the few APBT/Bully breed Sanctuaries in our part of Texas. And Spindletop is expensive and has a waiting list.

“If I had six or eight months to devote just to him, maybe I could change the behavior,” Mr. G. said, “but no matter what we could never fully trust him.”

Ms. A. and I had already taken JoJo on a good long walk. I had hugged him and let him kiss me—he seemed to remember me—and took a dozen photos. We turned the leash over to the Quarantine Room staff person, a man who also remembers when JoJo was in the Shelter. He led the dog away. I hate losing a dog this way.

I stopped by the Shelter today, but JoJo’s fate remains up in the air. He is being held in a Quarantine Kennel, awaiting an evaluation from Mr. G. But Mr. G. feels that the Shelter Director is trying to forestall the inevitable. He had a good life, as his foster said, for several months.

We don’t have the resources for a dog like JoJo. And now, he’s in limbo. I realize the Shelter Director has a veterinarian’s viewpoint—save the dog if it’s at all humanly possible. But I can’t hardly bear to think of JoJo in the Quarantine room. It is also the E.U. (Euthanization) Room, and it must reek of Death.

I will post an update on JoJo as soon as possible.

What's Not to Love?

Here's a sampling of the dogs available now at the Montgomery County, Texas, Animal Selter. From left to right: 1) "Dudley" #A112614: A spunky senior red Dachshund mix male with soft curly fur and a pudgy body that makes you think, "There's a Milk Dud!" Obviously well-fed, he is an owner surrender. 2)"Riley: #A114398. That typical Heeler quirkiness is evident on "Riley's" face. This young Blue Heeler boy is wicked smart and needs a day-job. 3) "Willis" #A11835 has the "Benji" look on a taller, lean body. He needs some groceries to fill him out, but he's still a smallish dog, about the size of a foxhound, with wheat-colored wiry, terrier hair and stylishly pricked ears. What's not to love about these dogs? Check them out at The MCAS website.