Dogged Blog

Are people who bring their cats to shelters ' abandoning ' them?

Is someone who takes a cat to a no-kill shelter because they have lost their job and their home "abandoning" their cat?



That's what a no-kill shelter in a southern state just posted on their Facebook page. This is something that's been driving me nuts for a long time now, but maybe it's just me.



So, what do you think? Has that cat been "abandoned"?

Memphis city attorney threatens pet blogger covering abuses at city pound

The situation for animals in the Memphis city pound is a nightmare. I'm not just guessing; after a high-profile sheriff's raid on the facility in 2009, the city installed webcams in the shelter's back areas, allowing concerned animal lovers everywhere to see for ourselves what's happening there.



Blogger Shirley Thistlewaite has been covering the story at MAS (stands for Memphis Animal Shelter, although there's precious little "sheltering" going on) for a long time now, and if you're not following it, you're missing out.



Shirley had also been raising funds to help rescuers pay for the care of animals rescued from this kill factory -- they kill more than 70 percent of the pets they take in -- but she's shut that effort down after receiving a legal threat from Herman Morris Jr., the Memphis city attorney, who apparently thought it was a valuable use of the city's time and resources to dig through the law of Shirley's home state and find one that sounded scary enough to get her to shut the hell up.



Set aside the fact that Shirley wasn't even doing what she was being accused of doing. Set aside the fact that the Memphis city attorney has no power to do one damn thing about a law in another state. Set aside that aforementioned massive waste of resources, and just ask yourself in what universe it's anything short of catastrophically stupid to stop people from trying to help animals saved from your hell-hole of a "shelter"?



You can read the letter and Shirley's response to it here. I wouldn't have shut down the donation drive; I'm not an attorney, but I don't see where Shirley was soliciting donations on behalf of MAS without their permission; she was creating a fund to help rescuers pay for medical care for pets rescued from MAS.



In fact, this whole thing stinks of  a SLAPP -- a legal threat followed by a lawsuit intended to silence public criticism, AKA, a "strategic lawsuit against public participation." Why else would an attorney in the city of Memphis be writing threatening letters about a law in South Carolina?



In fact, I think I'll call him tomorrow and ask that exact question.



Photo: Webcam shot of Ranger, the only dog Shirley's fund was able to help before the Memphis city attorney sent out his threat.

Even pneumonia is easier when your dog is tired

It's good to be back in the country, especially now that my lungs are threatening to explode.

I had some kind of hideous virus weekend before last, and while I was recovering nicely, I kept having a fairly nasty cough. Then a few days ago, it started getting worse, so the lady next door threw me in her truck and took me to the local urgent care.

They did some x-rays and said I had gone into pneumonia, probably a secondary bacterial infection related to my earlier virus.

So I'm feeling guilty for blaming my little nephews for my constant stream of respiratory infections in recent years, since apparently my airways suck all on their own. However, one thing that doesn't suck is being back in the country.

Because when I'd get sick in San Francisco, poor little Rawley would start climbing the walls because I couldn't take him  to the park, and here, I can just open the door and let him tear around this lovely wooded fenced property. I sit curled up with a blanket indoors, watching him through the walls of windows, and getting up just to let him in when he's exhausted.

I can't honestly imagine living in the city again, although I said that years ago, and to my complete surprise did end up back in San Francisco. I wonder, though, if that would have happened if not for my mom's declining health.

Another thing about "the country" I'm living in here in Michigan compared to "the country" I lived in when I was in California -- Pescadero in San Mateo County, Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz County and Cazadero in Sonoma County -- is that here, they keep their beautiful, quiet, peaceful country properties conveniently tucked into the woods not far from the Interstate, shopping, gas stations and restaurants. I have two totally darling towns within a five minute drive, Clarkston and Holly. The urgent care was around 4 minutes away, as was the Walgreens where I filled my prescription.

Not that such places don't exist in California; they do. They're just never anywhere I want to live, or anywhere I can afford to live.

Anyway, I've now totally exhausted myself sitting up long enough to type this. I'm going to take a nap with my tired little Deerhound!

The secret about Kindle's marketing strategy that only your dog knows

Why does my dog keep eating my Kindles?

That's not a real question. I know the answer, or answers: One, because I keep leaving them where he can get them. Two, because he's enjoyed chewing them up in the past, so when he sees one, he thinks, "Fun! Tasty! Yay!"

It's not like dogs I've had before have not eaten my books. My Deerhound Raven was a dedicated reader, as was my mom's Deerhound Doughal. And while over the years no other dog has shown the single-minded bibliophilia exhibited by those two, I've lost more than a few dozen books to the maw of a Deerhound.

But I am now on my fourth Kindle, and I just plucked it out of Rawley's jaw. I'm on about my sixth Kindle cover, counting this one, which he fortunately destroyed without doing more than putting a few teeth marks on the Kindle itself.

Now, one of the things I treasure most about the Kindle is that it doesn't have a backlit screen. I spend all my time on a computer, laptop or iPhone, and the last thing in this world I want is my leisure time reading to be on yet another back-lit screen. So, a lighted cover is a must, since the lighting in a lot of restaurants and even many airplanes isn't always the best.

But those little light attachments must have dried liver powder embedded in them or something, because Rawls cannot resist them. And I can't seem to stop putting them in harm's way, because really? He got the Kindle this morning when I stood up from my chair, put the book on the arm, walked ten feet away into the kitchen, poured a cup of tea, and came back.

In those few seconds, he totally chewed up the light on the cover.

What's really funny is that the light on the cover prior to this one stopped working right after I got it, and Amazon sent me a new one. After the new one was on its way but before it arrived, Rawley ate up Kindle number three, a well as the non-functioning light on its cover. I have to send the malfunctioning cover back to Amazon now that new cover has arrived -- you know, the one he just destroyed? -- and how likely is it they'll believe me when I say the destruction happened AFTER I'd reported the light not working? I mean, aren't they just going to send it back to me with a terse note, "We've concluded the reason your light stopped working is a large carnivore chewed it up"? I mean, I would.

For now, my latest Kindle is fine. But I'm going to have to get a new cover, and the lighted ones cost $60. I guess I'm going to just give up and get a non-lighted one, at least until I can get a trainer out here to break me of my habit of leaving my Kindle where Rawley can get it. Because while I'm sure it's possible to train a dog to ignore the existence of a Kindle or a Kindle cover, I have no clue how to do it.

Or... am I really to blame? Did Amazon in fact manufacture their products with liver powder embedded in the plastic? Am I blaming my innocent dog for something he really had no control over at all?

So, is this poison ivy? Or not?

I recognize poison oak no problem, but here in the Midwest they have poison IVY, which I've never seen. But I know I have it on my property, because I have that familiar rash I associate with poison oak.

I've been staring at photos of poison ivy, and not only do none of them look exactly like any plant I have here, none of them look exactly like each other. So obviously poison ivy, like Lady Gaga, has more than one "look."

So tell me, Midwesterners and Easterners and anyone else from the lands where poison ivy roams free... is this or is this not the plant?