Don’t Abandon Your Bunny: Spay/Neuter!

Our domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) are derived from an ancient line of the wild European rabbit. European rabbits live in warrens (a series of underground tunnels excavated by family groups) in an established territory. A domestic rabbit who has been abandoned in a park that looks inviting and safe to a human has been sentenced to a cruel death

** s/he has no warren in which to hide from predators or from the elements

** s/he has no family, and if there are already resident feral rabbits in the area, s/he will most likely be attacked ferociously because she is not a member of the warren.

** If s/he survives the threat of predators, cars, humans running their dogs and other immediate dangers, s/he runs a high risk of succumbing to parasites, disease or starvation.

Turning a rabbit loose in a wild area is not much different from turning a human loose, naked, in the most dangerous neighborhood in town. Don’t consign your rabbit to such a fate.

A domestic rabbit depends on human care. No matter how appealing a “natural” environment appears to a human, the most likely outcome of a rabbit turned loose there is suffering and death. Before you consider abandoning your companion rabbit to “the wild” or to a shelter when he or she matures and becomes willful and difficult to manage, give him or her a fair chance to be a wonderful companion: have him/her spayed or neutered. You will experience one of the most delightful, intelligent, loyal, affectionate and entertaining friends you could hope to know.

original copyright 1998 by Dana Krempels
Updated August 2009

Learn more at Triangle Rabbits

Do you wish your dog could talk?

Well in a way he does. Every day your dog uses body language to convey his feelings; his tail wags when he is happy, it tucks under his belly when he is frightened. He licks his lips when he is a bit apprehensive or confused. He approaches you or another dog in a curve to avoid conflict. His eyes, mouth, tail, ears, body position, all tell a story into his feelings. If you can learn to read him, it’s alot easier to train and you will have a better relationship.

Training Tip of the Month
by Debi Krakar, CPDT
Austin Dog Alliance

Meet Your Match at PAWS Chicago

By adopting your new homeless dog through the Meet Your Match™ program, you and your new best friend will be a match made in heaven. Rather than choosing your lifelong companion on qualities such as looks, breed, age, or sex, the program matches your lifestyle and expectations with each homeless dog’s lifestyle. This enables you to see which pooch will be the perfect match for your home.

Visit “>PAWS Chicago for additional information.

A place for orphaned pets

In the News

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICAL
A place for orphaned pets
SPCA program places animals in new homes

Delfin Vigil, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, June 5, 2006

Most age-old questions — Do all dogs really go to heaven? Does a cat really have nine lives? — may never be answered.

But the San Francisco SPCA can answer one: What happens to your pet if you die?

The Sido program, named for a collie-sheltie mix who narrowly escaped a death sentence in 1979 after her owner committed suicide and left a will demanding that Sido be put to sleep, finds new homes for orphaned Bay Area pets.

“Apparently, this woman believed that no one could possibly love or take care of her dog the way she could,” said Katy Volz, an SPCA employee who coordinates the Sido program. “Well, it turned out there were plenty of people here at the SPCA who believed they could.”

Richard Avanzino, San Francisco SPCA president at the time, took custody of Sido and said he would defend the dog’s life “even if I have to go to jail.”

Sido (pronounced like Fido) became the unofficial patron saint of Bay Area pooches in 1980, after a probate court judge denied her owner’s wishes. Gov. Jerry Brown then signed a special bill designed to take pets in similar situations off of death row.

In the years since, Sido, who died in 1985, has saved hundreds of other lives. Joan Donlon signed up her cocker spaniel Dolly for the program last year, filling out a pet biography that included tips on “favorite toys, games and activities, reactions to new people.” When Donlon died in December, she knew the SPCA would put Dolly in a new home that would meet her needs.

“I don’t even want to think about what could have happened to Dolly if it weren’t for the Sido program,” said Dolly’s new owner, Robyn Paret. “First of all, she’s an older dog — and she had a cast on her leg at the time. Dogs like that don’t get adopted very easily.”

Robyn and her husband, Alexander, knew all about Dolly’s personality, with the help of the Sido notes. They knew what she did and didn’t like to eat and what her favorite toys were.

“And we knew she loved music,” said Paret. “We also sing ‘Hello Dolly’ to her every day.”

Small familiarities like that can make a big difference to a confused and distraught pet, said Louisa DeRosa, Sido’s animal grief counselor. “Heathcliff here was so depressed when we got him,” she said of a Sido cat currently up for adoption. “He’d put his face up against the wall and just stare at it.”

The Maine coon cat refused to eat, became anorexic and had to be hospitalized; his lifelong friend Tang, a Siamese mix, paced and cried, worrying about Heathcliff on top of dealing with the same loss, said DeRosa.

Once she used the Sido tip sheets to ease their pain, the two cats, who can only be adopted together, needed only a few weeks to adjust to their new lives. It would have taken much longer without that information, DeRosa said.

“They belonged to a doctor here in the city who left us with instructions on exactly what each cat needed,” said Volz.

Now open for cats and dogs, the Sido program has saved hundreds of animal lives since the 1980s. Hundreds more still don’t make it because many pet owners don’t think of their animals when they die.

“I hear it all the time — things like, ‘My auntie died, and she left us all these cats that we don’t know what to do with.’ Well, now you know what you can do. Sign them up in the Sido program, and we’ll make sure they find happy homes,” said Volz.

How to participate

The San Francisco SPCA Sido program helps Bay Area pet owners include animals in their wills and ensure that the pets find a new home. To sign up a cat or dog, the SPCA suggests a $25 annual donation. Pets, who must pass health and behavior checks, are limited to two per household. (415) 554-3000 or our website.

Email Delfin Vigil.

Read more about Pet Trusts

Pets and Health Benefits

Pets Help to Lower Blood Pressure

A recent study at the State University of New York at Buffalo found that people with hypertension who adopted a cat or dog had lower blood pressure readings in stressful situations than did those who did not own a pet. (Dr. Karen Allen, State University of New York at Buffalo)

Pets Help to Reduce Stress

Walking with a pet helps to sooth nerves and offers instant relaxation. Studies conducted worldwide have shown that the impact of a stressful situation is lesser on pet owners, especially males, than on those who do not own a pet. (Josephine M. Wills, Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, United Kingdom)

Pets Help to Prevent Heart Disease

Because pets provide people with faithful companionship, research shows they may also provide their owners with greater psychological stability, thus a measure of protection from heart disease. (National Institute of Health Technology Assessment Workshop: Health Benefits of Pets)

Pets Help to Lower Health Care Costs

People with pets actually make fewer doctor visits, especially for non-serious medical conditions. (National Institute of Health Technology Assessment Workshop: Health Benefits of Pets)

Pets Help to Fight Depression

Pets help fight depression and loneliness, promoting an interest in life. When seniors face adversity or trauma, affection from pets takes on great meaning. Their bonding behavior can foster a sense of security. (Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship)

This information is listed on APPA’s website.

Talk to your dogs

American Animal Hospital Association poll showed that 33 percent of dog
owners admit that they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave
messages on an answering machine while away.

Do you talk to your pets?

The Debate Over Indoors or Out For Cats

There is probably no single issue in cat care that generates stronger debate among pet owners than the question of whether Kitty should be allowed to spend time outdoors.

Animal welfare associations and most veterinarians urge cat owners to keep their pets indoors, where they will live longer, safer lives. The statistics are sobering: more than 1 million outdoor cats are killed each year by dogs, traffic, and exposure to disease. The average indoor cat lives longer than 12 years, while the average outdoor cat survives for less than five years.

Alternatives to roaming
A growing number of cat owners, concerned about the health and safety issues of unsupervised roaming, have found alternatives to provide Kitty with outdoor time – from fencing the backyard to provide a safe outdoor play area, to providing Kitty with access to a screened porch or balcony, to teaching her to walk on a leash and harness. For more suggestions on creating safe outdoor alternatives for your cat, see www.21cats.org.

It takes patience and work, but, the experts say, an outdoor cat can be turned into a perfectly content indoor pet. The key is to make the transition slowly and to provide lots of attention and stimulation while the cat is indoors. Gradually replace those outside excursions with special periods of play time with you. Introduce new and intriguing toys that will satisfy Kitty’s desire to prowl and pounce.

For tips on helping an outdoor cat adjust to the indoor lifestyle, visit the Humane Society website at www.hsus.org

Keeping safe outdoors
It’s hard to deny that outdoor cats are at much greater risk for injury, disease and death. Still, many cat owners believe that their cats simply won’t be happy unless they can go outside to prowl and exercise their natural hunting instinct.

If you decide to provide an indoor/outdoor lifestyle for your cat, you must be willing to supervise his outdoor play time to ensure his safety from the many hazards of the “great outdoors”:

Don’t allow unlimited access to the outdoor world. Limit the time your cat spends outdoors to a few hours each day.
Never leave your cat alone outdoors when you are away from home.
Always be sure your cat is wearing proper identification when he is outdoors. A cat can disappear in seconds and ID tags increase the chance that he will be safety returned if he is lost or injured.

Best Friends Pet Care Post Summer 2001 Newsletter – Between Friends!

Arcadia Bird Sanctuary & Education Center

Welcome to The Arcadia Bird Sanctuary. A 501(c)3 non-profit avian rescue.

OUR MISSION

Arcadia Bird Sanctuary and Educational Center is a shelter and we house all our birds on premises. We do not foster out our birds, but we are a sanctuary, offering a permanent home for companion birds that are no longer suitable to be pets. Many of our residents have been abused or neglected. Some are elderly and deserve a ‘forever’ home. Some will be adopted to the perfect family. We never make a determination on any bird until we know that bird well.

All our parrots are vet checked every six months and are also micro-chipped. Some birds will be with us for many months and many for years.

Knowledge is power and the more people know about parrots, the better off birds will be. People need information in order to make intelligent choices: about what kind of bird to choose, about how to keep the bird and how to treat the bird.

Arcadia Bird Sanctuary and Educational Center conducts presentations and seminars to teach people about parrots. We believe there never can be too much information or too small an audience.

Click here to learn more about this organization.

Care of Desert Tortoises – Introduction

The California Turtle & Tortoise Club provide care information on their website.

INTRODUCTION

This care-sheet provides information on caring for adult desert tortoises and their hatchlings. The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is endangered in the wild and is protected under Federal and State laws. It is illegal to buy or sell desert tortoises, or to take them from the desert. In California, a permit is required to possess desert tortoises. Obtaining a permit is simple. Contact the California Department of Fish and Game, or the California Turtle and Tortoise Club for a permit application. The California Department of Fish and Game provides a tag to attach to the tortoise, and this is a useful way of identifying your tortoise if it should stray. California Turtle and Tortoise Club Adoption Chairs now tag all tortoises that are placed through the CTTC adoption programs.

For good reason, it is against the law to release captive desert tortoises back into the wild. Released captives have a low survival rate, and may pass diseases into the wild population with devastating consequences. Contact the California Turtle and Tortoise Club if you need to find a new home for a tortoise.

Ferret Care Tips on Hygiene

Dookie’s House
Ferret Care Tips

HYGIENE: Ferrets require routine maintenance to keep them happy and healthy.

It’s best to trim their nails at least every 2-3 weeks. Nail trimming is important because a long nail will get caught in fabrics causing a painful injury as they struggle to get free. To clip their nails, put some Ferretone on their tummies and let them lick it off. Meanwhile you can clip away while they are preoccupied with the Ferretone. This works very well and is a nice way for you and your ferret to spend some quality time together. Make sure to cut above the red vein in their nail. To be safe, always cut conservatively. A special scissors type nail trimmer for cats or birds is available in pet stores but the standard human fingernail trimmer works well too.
It’s best to bathe ferrets every two months or so. Bathe them under a faucet in a sink with the faucet continuously running at lukewarm temperature. Use a tearless baby, cat or ferret shampoo to avoid eye irritation. Avoid the strong deodorizing ferret shampoos. These are unnecessary and are uncomfortable to the ferret. It is very important to rinse thoroughly. Rub them dry in a fluffy bath towel starting at the head. Lots of coaxing, reassuring words and patience helps the bath process go a lot smoother.
Bathing a ferret too often will dry out their skin. This will cause them to secrete more oil to make up for the oil you keep washing off, and thus they end up smelling even more than if you’d leave them go without a bath. It’s much better just to change/wash their bedding often (at least weekly). Giving baths without changing the bedding will defeat the purpose.
Ear cleaning is best done monthly or after each bath once they have dried and settled down. Ferrets do not like to have their ears cleaned! To control them you must hold them by the scruff or back of their neck (like a mother would carry their young). This is called “scruffing” and, unlike most adult animals, this will NOT hurt the ferret. When “scruffing” use 3-4 fingers and the side of your thumb to spread out the pressure. When “scruffed”, most ferrets will hang there totally relaxed. Then, take a Q-tip moistened with cat/ferret ear cleaner or clean water and put it into their ear canal and carefully wipe it out while rotating it. It may take a couple Q-tips to get each ear clean. Examine the Q-tips under a magnifying glass to check for ear mites. They are tiny white objects that you will see waving their arms. If you see mites, follow-up with some ear mite drops in the ears.
A bit of Ferretone or a raisin following ear cleaning helps soothe the upset feelings. You can also tell them how sorry you are for having done such a terrible thing to them and praise them for being soooo patient with you.

Contact Information:
Dookie’s House Ferret Rescue & Shelter
Pat Elmore. Director
4230 Piedras St.
Cocoa, FL 32927
407-314-4432
email
Be sure to include the keyword ferret in your email.
Click here to visit their website

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