Category Archives: Pet

I was lucky enough to get a great rescue dog nearly 20 years ago. When we moved to a small condo, after a couple years of training because she’d been abused and was afraid of men and children, we ventured out into our new neighborhood. There was a five acre “pocket park” we began to walk through. The mothers and kids at the tot lot were not friendly at first as I walked her through the park (not the tot lot) on a legal 6′ leash.

Then Park and Rec demolished the tot lot an made a new one with current (at least then) safety equipment and spongy turf instead of sand.
that’s when we began to meet people. One of the first was a new friend and her 3# Yorkie Savannah. Savannah had a mind of her own and she began to have a set of clothing most women would die for: as she was smaller than any retailer made clothing for, a milliner friend designed clothing just for Savannah. July 4th she had a reversible denim/red gingham dress with matching baseball cap.

The human friends I made at this park are mainly older. Many are gone now, as are their beloved pets. Years later and several moves later we still keep in touch with a few of the humans.

Nearly ten years ago my dog died. One day she brought her favorite toy out to the park, and she’d never brought a stuffed animal out there before, but later I figured that was her goodbye. She died the next day with no warning. All our friends were so helpful and kind but walking out there to the park the next day was torture until I got there and was hugged. They all bought the city a tree in my dog’s honor and there it sits with better views than any of our homes had! The tot lot kids who yelled “it’s Chani!” every day felt bad saying “It’s Chani’s Mom” so settled with a muted Hi, Dee.

We played with Makai, Gigi, Sunnegga, Gus, Woody, Harley, and many other neighborhood dogs. Savannah was always special. One day she decided to go out on her own because two very large, vocal Rottweilers were barking their heads off. She faced off with them, spoke a few words in Dog, and they shut up. This three pound dog silenced two huge hulking beasts and they didn’t eat her. Of course they didn’t, as the “she” in question was Savannah.

All of us came to this park years ago seeking friendship and neighborliness. Unfortunately others thought a group of widows with bichons and other dogs were a threat to the community so made sure to call the authorities on us at every opportunity. Most of us remained friends, but now the last dog of the group is gone. It is the end of an era. The tree belongs to Savannah, Makai, Woody, Dolley, Lucy, Micey, and every other dog that lived and died by our park, including my dog Chani. To our Best Friends, Dee

I’m no drama queen and have lived quite a solid and some may say, boring life. But some things get my blood boiling. Yesterday morning a neighbor told me she was out with her 30 lb pup and a guy dropped her dog with pepper spray. This dog is a year old and cares for nothing outdoors but her Frisbee. Yes, she was off-leash but had a Frisbee in her mouth and did not get near her attacker.

Then, my friend was talking to the attacker with the year-old pup sitting at her side on leash. The man said he should have used the pepper spray on my friend, then hit the dog with it again. We believe this is a man who lives in the neighborhood who has a history of threatening women and their dogs. He taunts the owner until she puts her hands on him, then they go to court and the woman gets fined.

It’s not funny that this is happening and is strange that what lights this guy’s fire is torturing small animals and the women who walk them until he can provoke a response, then the woman gets punished for responding.

My training comes in leadership and training from some of the best people and friends I’ve ever met. They are gays and lesbians who learned community organization the hard way, by losing their partners and friends, and then using it for other things that required politics to reach their goals, like legalizing what goes on in nearly every park in the country, off-leash dog activity closely monitored by owners and with rules and responsibilities. It’s like a soldier being trained by the Mossad.

So, we’re formulating our plans here with unique circumstances and locale, we believe we already know name and address, have people on the lookout, and will accompany the owner of the attacked dog to the police station and make sure she’s safe. I don’t know the laws here and what legal action we should take but I’ve had bullies stalk me, let air out of my tires, call the police when my car was on the street for 1/2 hour and find a notice saying that it’s a vehicle abandoned for over 72 hours and will be towed. I’ve had people send moles to pretend they’re reporters or dog owners asking questions when their stories were so flimsy I’d just say “I don’t know” or make stuff up.

When my dog died over 40 neighbors and friends paid to put a tree in her favorite park. I was a VP on the Foundation’s board that handled these bequests. The people who hated dogs fought the donation, even though Park supervisors dictated the size, type and placement of tree, which was fine with me. But the haters fought tooth and nail and lost. They need to lose. Anyone who spends their lives hating others and taking it out on people and animals smaller than themselves needs serious help. First, they have to be taken off the streets so they don’t hurt others. Dee

Yes, our dog Zoe caught a live mouse last week and Jim snapped the leash and she relinquished it. Normally our family adopts cats and dogs that have no hunting instinct, except for cat Hobbes (RIP) and our Zoe. The mouse scurried away but probably not without injury.

Many years ago I went to visit my sister in CA and she wondered why all these cats were gathered around her small home. Mija, her cat, was in heat, I explained. Shortly thereafter my brother flew across country with a five week-old kitten in his pocket. Surprise! My sister had offered me a kitten and I declined, I’d just moved to NYC to a new job. She didn’t send me the one she offered in the first place, but a runt who fell off the 7′ shelf in the garage and Mija stopped feeding him at two weeks of age so my sister put him on solids.

I was an inveterate “dog person” at the time and knew nothing about cats. I knew nothing about food, litter or milk replacement formula. I bought one book that said to only give cats frozen raw kidneys, frozen four days to eliminate bacteria. I threw that away. Then I got a book that told me to make a mouse.

One-sixth of an animal is internal organs so we need some liver and kidney and heart et al. The fur provides fiber. So I bought a chicken and roasted it and saved the breasts for me and the rest for Nathan (Nathan’s hot dogs, or Kevin Kline’s character in Sophie’s Choice). I added kelp, brewers’ yeast and a ton of things to make a week’s worth of food for him in ice cube trays. He wouldn’t eat it.

Over the years I still tried to give him quality food, and ended up with Innova, which has no meat by-products or corn. Do you know what he liked? Fancy Feast. So on his birthday and Christmas I got him a can of Fancy Feast as an illicit treat. He was with me for 13 years and I never got the last word in a discussion. He was part Burmese, a gorgeous cat with a beautiful coat.

He got out of the house one day and went to visit a neighbor, came back and got a cough that became pneumonia. Coupled with congestive heart failure I had to do the right thing so held him for a while even after he was sedated and euthanized.

Sometimes a cat doesn’t appreciate the whole mouse as a human sees it. Luckily our dog, after multiple tries at food she would eat, relishes her raw lamb with carrots and blueberries and squash. It’s frozen solid and she’s a happy camper! Cheers, Dee

Dear Maddie’s Fund Employees and Board Members,

Thank you for thinking of my old home town. Rural areas are problematic, not that Buffalo is rural but I grew up in Erie and Chautauqua counties and both could use assistance. Education is always the key, and this comes from a shelter volunteer and long-term volunteer at San Diego’s Feral Cat Coalition clinics (I ran volunteers at Recovery for years).

I wanted to thank you and HSUS and the Ad Council for the Shelter program. Some of the greatest joys of my life have come from rescues or shelters. My first cat, Nathan, was a “gift” from my sister, transported across the country. He was a Burmese mix and a talker (I never got in the last word in an argument) and was with me 13 years. When my parents’ dog died I started volunteering at a shelter and met my first dog there, abused her first year by a law enforcement official and in the shelter her entire second year where I visited her every week even when I was in a neck brace and couldn’t walk dogs. I heard from a staffer/former volunteer that there was a meeting about euthanizing her and the decision was put off for a week. I had her home the next day. I challenged her to trust me and gave her unconditional love and she was with me for ten years before I held her as she bled out and was humanely put down.

My kitten, adopted at nine weeks from the same shelter, was named Mick Dundee because he was fearless. He lived with me seven years before I gave him to neighbors whose dog he loved (all dogs came to visit us and they played on the lawn) as my husband is allergic and now Mickey is gone.

We adopted an Aussie/Border Collie pup over five years ago from another shelter. Zoe (Greek for “life”) is with us today in Utah. We’re really glad we got her because she would have been euthanized if the shelter or most owners learned at five months of age she had the worst hip dysplasia her surgeon has ever seen. Two FHNO’s later, she’s grown her own hips and is a bit clumsy but the happiest animal I’ve ever met. We tell people they can spend $1,200 on a purebred or $75 on a mutt and the rest on surgery! We love her dearly.

So, will we get a shelter pet next time? You bet. Kudos to the Duffields, Mr. Avanzino and staff for a great and noble venture. I interviewed your legal staff when you were at SFSPCA and was so impressed…..

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I changed the photo due to a technical glitch. Maddie’s Fund is in partnership with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS.org) and the Ad Council to encourage folks to adopt their next pet from a shelter. I’m signing it and hope you’ll consider doing so as well. Too many adoptable and treatable animals are euthanized each year simply for lack of a good home and because owners didn’t spay/neuter their pets. Let’s try to do our best to end this cycle. Thanks much, Dee

Cheers! Dee

When she was a pup, we’d get Zoe one of those rawhide bones and she’d sit there for six hours and finish it, drink water like crazy and probably be sick afterward.  So I started getting her tiny ones that might take ten minutes to demolish.  Now she has three 6″, thick rawhides tied in a knot on both ends.  She’s five years old and no longer eats them.  She guards them from us then hides them in plain sight.

Right now I’m in the living room.  One is behind me, behind my guitar.  Another is between the sofa and end table, easily visible.  The third is either down here between the fireplace and bookcase (nope) or upstairs I’ll guess under the bed on my side or in the guest room somewhere.

We thought it strange behavior (and saw a magnet today in a gift shop stating “Warning: Strange Dog” which is apt) but she may get it from me.  For our day trip I wanted both the camera, to capture the beauty of our brief journey, and the binoculars to view wildlife.  Before we left I put new batteries in the camera and looked in vain to charge the batteries that were in it.  I knew exactly where the camera case was, on a shelf above the laptop cases.  But I looked everywhere, more than once for the binocular case.  Moments before we left I found it in a drawer, a “safe place” hiding nearly in plain sight.

Whenever I put something in a safe place, I tell Jim where it is then we both forget!  So let’s allow Zoe to do  her thing and hide her rawhides out in the open.  If we touch one, even with a shoe to get it out of the way of the vacuum cleaner, she picks it up carefully and walks around with it in her mouth for 20 minutes or so before depositing it in a new location visible to humans.  No, she’s not blind, to which the chipmunks and marmots and dogs can attest.  Just clueless, like her “mom.”  Cheers, Dee

p.s. Now the binocs case is next to the camera case, which is next to Zoe’s thick health file and others.  Safe at last.