Dogged Blog

One thing and another...

I joined a few caregivers email lists recently, although I've unsubscribed from all of them. I'm sure there are plenty of groups out there that aren't populated by neurotic, resentful, manipulative whiners -- I just had bad luck with the ones I checked out first.  I hope.

I'm not saying that I don't feel resentful at times, nor that I don't whine. But I like to think I'm neither neurotic nor manipulative, although I guess mixing protein powder into my mom's food without telling her might qualify as manipulative. But yo, woman cannot live on 10 grams of protein and 400 calories a day, and WTF else can I do?

See, I told you I whine.

Anyway, I went down to Los Angeles two weekends ago to talk to the SoCal BARF group. They're the Southern California equivalent of my own beloved SF Raw (which is, by the way, having a great September membership drive that you should check out; best source of humanely and sustainably raised meats and dairy products in the whole Bay Area, at incredible prices -- food for humans as well as pets), but they are more organized as a club than SF Raw is. They hold periodic educational events, and they invited me down to talk about my 23 years of holistic care and raw/homemade diets for my dogs and cats.

Now, I love public speaking. I feel a little nervous right before, but basically, I just love it. This one ran from 9-4 PM with a lunch break, and that was maybe just a tiny bit longer than I'd have liked it to -- my voice was a bit hoarse in that last hour -- but overall, I enjoyed it, and the audience seemed to as well.

My friend and colleague from Pet Connection, MSNBC.com pet columnist Kim Thornton, drove over, and seeing her made it even more fantastic -- as did spending the evening before with my friend Travis, who also lives in LA. I also got the chance to meet a friend in person I'd only talked with online, which was wonderful.

The club not only flew me down there and rented me a car, they put me up in a really lovely hotel -- well, lovely in every respect except the walls were made of paper and the noise was incredibly annoying. Given how utterly sleep-deprived I've been since my mom got sick -- as in, I haven't had enough sleep once in months -- I was really looking forward to my night in a hotel. Sad that it didn't happen.

But that aside, the most incredible thing to me was that the minute I got down there, I felt like myself again. I think that one of the hardest things for a caregiver is both realizing/remembering that there's a world outside the little bubble of illness in which we live with our loved one, and that we are still who we were before engaging in this task. I think that walking down the street with Travis and Jan looking for a restaurant was the first time I realized that yes, I'm still myself. Because while I probably wouldn't have phrased it this way, I think that there was an unconscious assumption that life will be like this forever now, and I'll never have my own autonomous existence ever again.

Of course I knew on an intellectual level that's not true. Either my mom will respond to her treatment -- which is what seems to be happening right now -- and she'll have more independence and thus, so will I, or she won't, and this will end in a less happy way. And ultimately what she has isn't curable, although we're all hoping that she's going to be one of the lucky majority who gets years rather than months of good quality of life while being treated.

Since we started seeing the oncologist at UCSF Breast Care Center and my mom began taking Femara, her fractures are healing or healed, and her pain is almost gone or at least, under control. Given the months she went without being diagnosed and no treatment for the crippling, paralyzing pain other than Advil, that's a miracle. All her current symptoms are really related to either her medication -- not the cancer drug, but the opiates she's being given for her pain -- or to a constant battle we're having with bladder infections.

Unfortunately, those problems aren't minor, and result in a majority of nights being sleepless for both of us, many trips to the ER and the doctor's office, and a lot of pain and tears. But right now, as far as the cancer and the terrible pain go, she's much better, and we're about to begin the difficult task of helping her rebuild her strength and stamina after months huddled in a chair, trying not to even breathe because of the incredible pain in her fractured sternum.

I feel and, I think, sound pretty happy today, but last night I was a fall-down mess. That's the other thing I've realized, that I live not just day to day but moment to moment. That's good, because when things are good, I feel it. It's bad, because sometimes I don't see the overall progress of the situation, and can become a little reactive instead of having plans -- even though of necessity all plans have to be very flexible these days.

One thing the trip to LA taught me is that caregivers need to leave the bubble periodically, to connect with life and friends and normalcy. That trip really recharged me not in an energy way -- I came home pretty tired -- but psychologically. It made me feel normal again. Unfortunately, the minute I got home, and I do mean MINUTE, my mom kind of crashed with one of her medication side effects. I was up with her all night long, and then we spent 12 hours the next evening and night at the ER, a story I'm not going to tell here because it's too aggravating, but let's just say it sucked utterly and leave it at that.

Once that crisis was over, I began interviewing respite caregivers until I found someone my mom and I both liked and trusted. It wasn't easy -- we went through quite a few until we found this person. The agency requires a minimum of 12 hours a week, which is really pushing it for me financially, but I'm giving it a try. It gives me a few hours in the week I can truly count on being free of interruptions (barring an emergency), which allows me to do things like schedule interviews and get on conference calls and meet deadlines. It's not enough, and it's more than I can afford, although I did recently discover that I can deduct it on my taxes. Not sure how much that will save me, exactly, but at least it takes the edge off.

There is a lot more going on, but delving into it is so depressing I'll just cut it short there. I will say that I was pretty disappointed in the local Scottish Deerhound community. I asked for someone to bring a deerhound to visit my mom, as we've lost our last deerhound Rebel and she needs some cheering up, and not one person in the Bay Area came through. I heard from people all over the country who said they wished they were closer, and one breeder who has some puppies being placed out here soon who said her new puppy buyers will bring them by for some kisses when they get here, so that's lovely, but still... after more than 2 decades in the breed, it's kind of broken my heart that no one could do this for my mother.

Okay, last thing, I promise. (Can you tell I'm a bit starved for conversation, LOL?) I have puppy fever BAD. I realize that my life is too chaotic and stressful to bring a puppy into it, and even an adult would be rough since they, too, need a period of acclimation and it would be awfully rough on my Borzoi, Kyrie, to go through that right now, as she'd had to make a lot of adjustments already since my mom got ill and Rebel died. But when I lie in bed at night trying to shut off my mind and fall asleep, what does it for me is remembering raising my first litter, the sheer joy of having all those tiny deerbabies scrabbling up my legs to get to me, of seeing their mama dog nuzzling them with her long nose... those were some of the happiest days of my mother's and my lives.

Hmmm, maybe I really do just need a puppy after all...

Puppy photo is of Geordie, who wasn't actually my puppy, but was sired by a dog I bred. He was 6 months old when his breeder/owner took the photo.

Night of the Living Mandatory Spay/Neuter Bill: SB 250 inexplicably passed out of committee

California's legislators have their craniums up their posteriors in a thousand different ways, most of which have nothing to do with animals and so I'll forbear to list them.



But when it comes to mandatory spay/neuter, it seems that no matter how carefully you connect the dots for them, no matter how many times they're shown the proof that MSN does not work to reduce shelter intake or killing, no matter how often you point out that these bills hurt dogs, cats, and people -- they keep trading away their votes on them to make points with the bills' sponsors. Just like they did today, on straight party lines, when they passed SB 250, the latest incarnation of  forced spay-neuter  to be pushed in the Golden Sate, out of the appropriations committee.



Of course, if California's legislators had any guts (yes, that's a euphemism) in the first place, the state's economy wouldn't be in free-fall and its infrastructure wouldn't be on the brink of total melt-down. I just hate like hell to see dogs and cats and their owners caught in the cross-fire.



Laura at Save our Dogs promised an update soon on what happened, so watch her site (and this one) for more news.

Eulogy for Ted Kennedy, who loved his dogs

Ted Kennedy died yesterday, and the press, pundits and talking heads are using all kinds of words to describe him: lion of the senate, the last brother, the great liberal.



He was all those things, and others less complimentary, to many people in this country, but I'm going to set that and all political words aside and say this: Senator Edward Kennedy loved his dogs. From a 2006 Boston Globe profile:

Follow the senior senator from Massachusetts, known for beating up tobacco lobbyists and conservative Supreme Court nominees, into his Capitol Hill office - the inner office, the one decorated with a framed, handwritten note from John F. Kennedy as a child, with pictures of Edward M. Kennedy standing alongside Martin Luther King and past presidents - and he quickly morphs into 8-year-old Teddy Kennedy. "Do you know how much I missed you? Do you KNOW how much I missed you?" Kennedy coos at Splash, his Portuguese water dog who has been awaiting his owner's return from a Senate committee hearing. Kennedy bounces a tennis ball, sending the large, curly-haired canine running around the bustling office before settling comfortably next to the senator.

It seems the Senator loved his dogs not in a general, what-politician-who-wants-to-get-re-elected-doesn't-love-dogs, absent-minded kind of way, but in the silly, devoted, sometimes slightly crazy way that we do.



He took his dogs to work every day. He let himself be made foolish by his dog in front of a reporter. He laughed when his dogs barked at other senators who were getting a little hot under the collar during caucus. He even let his Portuguese Water Dog, Splash, write a book about him, "Me and My Senator." And of course, he's the guy who made America's First Dog a Portie, too.



Rest in peace, Senator Kennedy, dog lover.

ASPCA on Vick: Now you ' re talking like an animal welfare organization

Their earlier statements on the matter -- like this one -- were full of mealy-mouthed platitudes, but the ASPCA came out swinging today on the subject of Michael Vick. So here we present another chapter in my ongoing saga, "This is how an animal welfare organization should talk about Michael Vick":

Several months ago, Mr. Vick's PR representatives approached the ASPCA to help educate America about the heinous act of dog fighting following his release from prison. We were the first animal welfare organization given the opportunity to work with Mr. Vick but immediately turned him down due to the unique knowledge we had of his indescribable and barbaric acts of animal cruelty where he and his associates savagely electrocuted and beat dogs to death after they lost their brutal fights.



The ASPCA's general consultation and our specific role in processing the forensic evidence in this case were key elements that resulted in Mr. Vick and the three other defendants all pleading guilty to felony crimes. As such, this organization and I personally have seen the acts of cruelty committed by Mr. Vick first hand -- acts so heinous that the public has never laid witness to them. And now that Mr. Vick has spoken out for the first time since his release from prison, the ASPCA wants to make clear why this organization chose not to partner with him in his supposed rehabilitation efforts. We are simply not convinced that Mr. Vick has demonstrated compassion toward animals as living beings or the necessary remorse for his criminal actions against them.



60 Minutes provided a convicted criminal a national platform to selfishly focus on his own recovery when, in fact, the animals, the victims who cannot speak for themselves, should have received the attention. CBS did a grave disservice to the animal welfare community by failing to show the ugly truth of Mr. Vick's actions and the horrors of dog fighting and animal cruelty in this country. The continued attention paid to Mr. Vick is only reinforcing that criminal behavior does not destroy fame and fortune.

You can read their (admirable albeit tardy) full statement here -- and kudos to the A for not sending this out via email until it was available on the Web for linking. I wish more folks looking for bloggage were so savvy!



Photo: Leo, one of the Vick dogs, now  a therapy dog.

Canine influenza: Scary news everywhere you look -- but what ' s the real story?

The world is full of terrifying emerging diseases, food shortages, climate change leading to flooding and drought, the re-appearance of once-controlled diseases due to war and poverty, the collapse of the world economy and turmoil in the US health care system... it goes on and on, although I will, mercifully, cut it short there and ask one simple question.



Where exactly do so many people get so much energy to freak out over things that really matter very little in the normal course of their lives?



I could be talking about any number of "sky is falling" veterinary health warnings, some of which originate from the drug companies who seek to scare you into buying their products (yes, I mean you, Ft. Dodge), and some from the apparently endless Internet rumor mill ("new" parvo comes to mind). But today I'm talking about canine influenza, which has all my email lists and even the Washington Post talking in dire terms about illness, contagion and death.



Which I found kind of hard to understand, since as far as I knew, canine influenza was just one of many bacteria and viruses that cause the dog version of the human cold, what we mostly call "kennel cough." After it was identified in Florida, it turned out it was pretty much all over the country, and to date has been discovered in 30 states and the District of Columbia. In other words, it's out there, folks, and has been for quite some time. We just didn't know to look for it.



At least, that's what I thought. So why all the press and scary warnings?



As I did with "the new parvo," I checked the facts with Melissa Kennedy, DVM, PhD., DACVM, a clinicial virologist at the University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching College and infectious disease and immunology consultant for the Veterinary Information Network.



Now, I can understand Dr. Kennedy thinking canine influenza is hot news. She's a virologist, and this is the first time an influenza virus has mutated to be able to cause disease in dogs. I'm guessing that's the reason epidemiologists and immunologists would be all over it, too, along with the vaccine manufacturers. But is this something average dog owners need to worry about? Have I been wrong about this one?



"Canine influenza virus (CIV) is a contagious viral disease spread most commonly among dogs with close contact or shared airspace, much like our influenza," she said. "Pet dogs at home are at very low risk. Dogs that board or frequently comingle with other dogs could be at risk."



What kind of risk are we talking about? "CIV is generally a mild disease, with typical symptoms of cough, some lethargy, fever, and perhaps nasal discharge," Dr. Kennedy told me. "As with the human influenza, there is a risk for secondary bacterial infections which can be serious. This risk is highest among puppies and elderly dogs, where immunity may not be as good as in healthy adult animals."



Bottom line: "For most pet dogs, and probably most cases, it causes mild disease."



Dr. Kennedy confirmed that canine influenza is probably one of many causes of "kennel cough," although she used its more correct medical name, canine respiratory disease complex. "There are several viral and bacterial agents that may play a role in this disease complex, of which canine influenza virus is one," she said.



I asked her about the new vaccine, just approved in June. It's a killed virus vaccine and does not actually prevent infection with CIV. Nor does it protect your dog from becoming ill, although it might make his symptoms less severe (or not). And it also doesn't mean your dog, sick or not, can't infect other dogs, even after he's been vaccinated.



She said she does not consider the new canine influenza vaccine a "core" vaccine that should be given to every dog, but rather a tool that might be helpful in shelters, kennels, or other environments where dogs are housed in close quarters and high numbers. She also agreed that vaccinated dogs, who can still be infected, could carry the disease home to other dogs.



Of course, influenza viruses are tricky things, and can mutate rapidly and unpredictably, so anything we say about CIV today could be wrong tomorrow.  This virus could become nastier, or less nasty, over time; we really don't know. But for the moment, it's basically no bigger danger to our dogs than kennel cough is, which is to say, in most cases it will cause mild symptoms (or none), but in some dogs, particularly the very young, very old, and immune-compromised, it can cause more severe illness and even death.



It can also be a real threat in crowded environments such as shelters and anywhere dogs are kept together in a confined space, and the new vaccine may have a role to play in those kinds of settings. But the average couch-sitting, yard-playing, park-walking pet probably isn't going to benefit from this vaccine, and probably isn't at much risk of severe illness from the virus, either -- any more than you or I are from the common cold.



Oh, and the sky isn't falling. I just thought I'd mention that, too.

Dear Philadelphia Eagles: Did no one tell you about teh google?

Via Shirley Thistlewaite at YesBiscuit! (one of the best watchdog blogs on animal policy issues and shelter reform -- if you're not reading it, fix that now), John Sibley outsmarts the Philadelphia Eagles, who apparently weren't too happy to have dog lovers contacting their corporate sponors and complaining that they had signed an unrepentant dog killer and torturer to the team:

Oddly enough, the Eagles seem to have removed the list of corporate sponsors from their website. Fortunately... teh Google, I haz it. Let's get straight to the festivities using the current information from the Eagles' website. Links go to contact information/form whenever possible.

You can read the whole thing here, and use John's handy contact information to suggest to the Eagles' sponsors that you'll be giving your dog-loving pennies to someone else as long as they give their corporate bucks to any team that includes Michael Vick.



Or, as Shirley so succinctly put it: game on, bitchez.

This is how an animal welfare organization should talk about Michael Vick

I've had a hard time with the way the big animal organizations have issued their lame little statements mewling that they sure do hope Michael Vick has learned his lesson and will be a better person from now on. ("Hard time" is the phrase I came up with after I deleted the language I can't use on this blog.)



Note to the big animal welfare groups: You are not on this earth to speak for Michael Vick, or advocate for him. He has PR hacks to do that. He has his NFL babysitter, Tony Dungy, to do that. He has the whole NFL and Philadelphia Eagles' media machines -- and apparently almost every sportscaster in America -- doing it.



You guys are supposed to speak for the dogs. Remember them?



So if you'd like to know how it should go, this is what real animal welfare advocates, the folks on the ground in Pennsylvania, have to say:



Sue Cosby, director, Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals:

Philadelphia is a city of dog lovers and, most particularly, pit-bull lovers. To root for someone who participated in the hanging, drowning, electrocution and shooting of dogs will be impossible for many, no matter how much we would all like to see the Eagles go all the way.

Bill Smith, founder of Main Line Animal Rescue in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania:

Michael Vick is coming to a city with some of the strongest and most outspoken animal advocates. In a city where thousands of pit bulls are destroyed every year because we don't have the resources to rehabilitate them, it's shameful that we are willing to rehabilitate Michael Vick.

Tom Hickey of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Dog Law Advisory Board:

Over the last three years, Pennsylvania has made historic strides in bringing attention to the abuse and neglect that so many dogs suffer in this state and throughout the country. For the Philadelphia Eagles, knowing the heinous crimes committed by this man, to sign him is unconscionable.

HSUS, ASPCA, I hope you're taking notes.



Photo of Johnny Justice, one of the rehabbed Vick dogs, courtesy of Bad Rap -- who had this to say about the Eagles signing Vick.

Whole Foods Market? You are dead to me now

Via aptoklas over at DailyKos, Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey shooting off his big stupid mouth about "ObamaCare" in the Wall Street Journal today:

(T)he last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.

"Individual empowerment"? Really? You think that's the cure for a corrupt system that seeks to make health care -- which is a basic human service like public roads and education -- into a profit center, and one that's based on the idea that every dollar spent on actual care is something that has to be explained and justified to stockholders and boards of directors, rather than the whole reason you exist?

Nice try. I guess it will screw you hard over there at your big corporate headquarters in Austin, to see the nightmare that is this nation's health care system finally get wrenched out of the control of an industry that manages to find some technicality that alows it to cancel HALF the coverage of people who submit a major claim -- people who believed they had insurance and were paying for it?

An industry that is rapidly pricing itself away from the ability of anyone to afford, including small businesses and individuals like me -- mine is EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS A MONTH! That's the system you think can be fixed by "individual empowerment" and HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS?

I don't know if you're smug, evil, out of touch, or just a greedy corporate whore. But I do know Whole Foods Market has gotten its last dollar from me.

Can black dogs break the color barrier?

In my column this week for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com, I tackle the infamous "big black dog syndrome," and talk with a few people who are trying to do something about it:

If you're like me, you probably chose your dog based on something like the melting feeling you got when he held one ear up and one ear down the first time he looked at you, not the color of his coat. But when Petfinder.com, an online database of more than 300,000 adoptable pets, declared August 12 national "Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Day," they discovered that finding homes for black dogs, particularly larger ones, was a real problem for their 12,681 member shelters and rescue groups.



"In our July 2009 survey, 54.2 percent of our respondents told us that they had experienced 'big black dog syndrome,' where pets were harder to place for that very reason," said Kim Saunders, head of shelter outreach and public relations for Petfinder.com.



The good news is that black dogs have a lot of friends. Petfinder launched a campaign telling adopters that dark furred pets make it easier to accessorize. "After all," said Saunders, "black goes with everything!" The Black Pearl Dogs Web site offers rescue groups a place to list their available black dogs and tries to educate the public about the problem. And last month, PR and marketing expert Heather Rosenwald launched Start Seeing Black Dogs, which offers free marketing and PR services to help shelters and rescue groups put their available black dogs in the best possible light to potential adopters.



"It's not that people are rejecting black shelter dogs out of hand," said Rosenwald, who owns two adopted big black dogs of her own. "It's that they just don't realize the problem exists. Whenever I do some kind of public education, like appearing on a radio show, and talk about black dogs, there's an immediate increase in the adoption of those dogs from the local shelters and rescue groups."

The closest I've ever come to owning a black dog is Kyrie, my black and white Borzoi, or my very dark gray Deerhound Raven. Gina's the one carrying the flag for black dogs on this blog. But when you read the article, check out the story of Cobie, and see if you don't get the urge to adopt a big black dog of your own.



You'll find it here.

Pit bull hater recruiting for his cause -- on government stationery

Wow. Via Selma Mulvey over at Caveat, a really nasty piece of paranoid pit bull hate from Kory A. Nelson, the Senior Assistant City Attorney for Denver, offering to help other jurisdictions fight off, ignore, and circumvent the court of public opinion when it comes to pit bull laws.



First, he offers his assistance in helping other communities fight the scourge of, well... us, and what he calls our "irrational emotional rhetoric," which he says makes it "easy for any government official to become confused."



He warns them that "First, you have to understand that the anti-BSL pundits organize over a number of web group sites that help distribute mass emails to all their registered members." This sounds extremely seditious to me... until he names the ringleader of them... and it's a freaking YAHOO GROUP (bolding mine):

While you could find these groups on any major web group site, one I recommend to examine and sign up for is [email protected]. I find this site to be a good source of information and strategic intelligence gathering. If you have been targeted by these groups (most likely how I found out about your recent interest in this topic of BSL), that (sic) your organization will be flooded with emails, letters, and telephone calls from members of these groups. You should contact your leaders and advise them of this, as it has been my experience the same members will send emails, letters, or telephone calls to each jurisdiction reviewing this issue in hopes of intimidating them into a full retreat away from the issue. I can cite you specific examples where these groups have promised to bring litigation against local governmental entities, but failed to follow through with the threat when their threats bad been called. Many of these emails and letters will have either fake or bad names and/or addresses, as our attempts to respond to them resulted in this discovery.

The revolution apparently will not be televised; it's gonna be on YAHOO GROUPS. And you'd better warn those government officials that the bad scary pit bull people are going to... are you ready?... send letters and make phone calls! Obviously, a matter to be looked into under the Patriot Act.



But don't worry, foes of the irrational emotional rhetoric of the pro-pit insurgency! Mr. Nelson, he started his own Yahoo group, now apparently defunct or renamed, but once known as [email protected]. Ooooh the counter-insurgency! It's OMG exciting like watching the Matrix, but with dogs and stuff.



So, where do we get the money for all those emails and letters and phone calls? We are being super-sekritly funded by dog fighters, of course:

Second, many of these groups have questionable funding sources, as they are usually willing to take donations without keeping records of the true identity of the donor. For this reason, the rumors of big donations from dog fighting proponents have been unconfirmed. But it would make sense that with all of the money involved in the illegal dog fighting circles, those involved would be donating funds to support their straw man advocates.

And why do we do this? Because we're animal lovers. That's right, dear readers; it is a very very very bad thing for animal lovers to express our beliefs as they relate to legislation. Remember that the next time some devil whispers seductively in your ear, using his best dog fighter-financed oily charm, that an email to your town council about breed-specific legislation would be a good thing to do:

Many of these animal control personnel have either come from or have been trained by non profit animal welfare organizations.... The ongoing “political correctness’” involved within this field would prevent any organization from admitting the obvious truth that “The Emperor Has No Clothes”, because these organizations are heavily dependant upon the donations of charitable individuals who are either incapable or unwilling to learn the truth, and are more susceptible to the emotional rhetoric of anti-BSL advocates.

Why is it exactly that we animal lovers are such a threat? It's because we're organized, and our foes (AKA, people who have been bitten by dogs) are not:

(T)here are no known organized groups of victims of dog attacks. Only plastic surgeons, prosecutors, and a few brave legislators appear to be the publicized advocates in favor of BSL.

It's a PDF file, but definitely worth the read -- check it out here.