Animal Shop 101

I’ll be speaking be about Shelter Strategies for Pit Bulls at the Pacific Northwest Animal Care & Control Conference this coming Friday and Saturday. If you live in the area and are curious about better ways to help pit bulls, please set part of your Saturday aside to be there. Sat’s session is open to rescue groups and wanna-be rescuers. This is my first-ever time to Seattle, and I’m dying to know, will I get to see a wild orca? (Please, please, please)

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I heard Tim chattering away in his shop today and wondered about the long conversation he was having with the foster dogs. What were they talking about? Turns out he was video-blogging. My resourceful guy. Here he talks about the barn raising and why he’s looking forward to having a place for the dogs to wrestle besides under his feet while he carves (And YES, that’s a sneak-video-peek of new arrival Daisy May!)

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This has been a weird summer of celebrating and grieving. The dogs from the Missouri centered dog fight bust have been front and center of our activities and brain space and, while many of the released dogs are doing well, others that have come with difficult medical or behavior issues have not had the happy endings we all like to celebrate. We’re big on doing compassion holds for these dogs, one at a time. Our volunteer crew has been especially giving with their hearts this summer and while we keep these dramas on the down-low, behind the scenes we’ve been working hard to maintain our optimism and after having good cries from the belly, moving on to the next dog or group of dogs that need us. I don’t want to use this entry as a macabre list of dogs that have died (although we will talk about certain special darlings at some point) but I wanted to start to prepare pit bulls lovers for the inevitable .. Through no fault of their own, a LOT of victims of cruelty from the big raid are going to die this summer/fall. We promise to do everything we can to bring dignity to the dogs whose deaths we’re able to be a part of.

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I sure needed me some Mavis this morning. We came back from the midwest with a THUD and have been having a bit of a time climbing out of the jet-laggin’ hole and back into business as usual. But Mavis – Photo Contest Diva from Madison WI – She put it all back into perspective with her photo and owner’s words. Thank you, darlin’!

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We hope everyone is enjoying the daily arrivals of the My Dog is Family calendar photo contest as much as we are. Some have suggested that we find an additional way to get the contest entries in front of public eyes. Thanks guys – Great idea. We’re spinning some thoughts around and will see what we can come up with. Hopefully we can find a fun way to show off a bigger number of these heartwarming pix, outside of our 2010 calendar.

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Mom Nature gave us a nudge yesterday. Just as our contractor stopped by to discuss those final details on the barn’s design, she dumped a good rain on us as a reminder that we just better get a move-on with this project. Point taken!

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Claremore Animal Shelter makes the news
It was great to see Oklahoma’s Jennifer Cummings in the news, for her part in helping the bust dogs. And in the Washington Post, no less. Congrats Jennifer .. And thank you again for your good deeds. WA Post Article + Photo

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An article in today’s Salinas Californian is a great example of how the media and animal control can use a bad dog experience to educate the public rather than hype up hate and alienate dog owners….

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