June 10, 2008
Update on Murray
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Murray is doing exceptionally well in our home! We did have an incident of breaking out of the crate one day but just found him snoozing in the middle of our bed. Now that we have made room for his big crate in our bedroom he is much more comfortable. He is currently getting vitamins and some meds to bring him to health for his neuter. His chest x-ray indicates that he can have his neuter prior to his heartworm treatment. Our initial concerns have been allayed and we have a good routine and "crowd control" set up now for all the dogs and our cats to live harmoniously until Murray finds his forever home. |
Posted by kimw at 08:57 AM
May 12, 2008
Murray, Sitting Under a Tree...
Being a regular cat foster and infrequent dog foster, I really wasn't prepared for last Sunday...
My husband saw a pit bull chained to a tree in a vacant lot a few blocks from our house on Saturday, so we called the SPCA. Come Sunday morning, the same dog was still chained to the tree. He had just a little water and no food in sight. Murray -- yes we've named him... -- submissively approached me when I came towards him with food. My husband and I worked to remove the heavy logging chain, large master lock, and heavy hasp tethering Murray to the tree.
Murray had several scars running down his spine (healed over burns, according to the vet) but he was not a fighting dog; his ears were not docked and he showed no evidence of fighting. We treated him to an eventful day: He went to the pet store, where he had clearly never been in his life. He went to the SNAP Wellness Clinic where he entertained everyone for 3 or 4 hours while we waited. He got his vaccinations and heartworm test which was, not surprisingly, positive. We gave him a heartworm preventative tablet and will start heartworm treatment soon. We are now working on getting him neutered at the Houston Humane Society (for free, thanks to the support of PetSmart Charities).
This big guy has yet to show the slightest aggression. He definitely enjoys humans and seems to feel the same about other dogs. We are not ideal fosters for a pit bull, having other dogs and cats at our home but we are crating him and allowing him to run the yard with supervision. It sure beats life at the end of a weighted down chain.
We really have no way of knowing why Murray was left chained to a tree -- whether it was some nefarious plan or simple, awful, neglect but we couldn't walk away from him even though it is going to be tough to foster him at our home. We are looking for other resources right now but he will stay with us for the long haul if necessary.
I work hard to continue to believe the best about people but I know that the person who "owned" (if such is the word) this dog was neglecting him, that he had tormented him. I guess we still have a lot of work to do.
Posted by kimw at 08:44 PM
May 11, 2008
The tale of Gimpy
Gimpy is one of several of the HOPE special needs cats and dogs
This week we were expecting to see one of our HOPE dogs as pet of the week in the Village/Southwest News but instead had the pleasant surprise of finding one of our special needs kittens listed. His name is Gimpy and he was born with Swimmer syndrome which prevents his back legs from becoming fully developed. This results in a swimming or paddling movement when he tries to use his back legs.
Little Gimpy almost missed the rescue bus to HOPE. His siblings had been taken in by a kind woman who found them at the front door of her apartment complex. After searching for the mother cat she determined that someone had abandoned them at her doorstep. The next day as she was leaving to take them to HOPE, she spotted one more tiny kitten. It was Gimpy. She scooped him up and brought him along with his two siblings to HOPE not realizing that he had anything wrong with him.
Upon evaluation it was discovered that Gimpy had Swimmer syndrome. Everyone held their breath until Gimpy received the all clear by Dr. Rigoni at All Cats who said he would never know he was any different than the other kittens. From there Gimpy and his siblings went to live with their wonderful foster mom where he proved to all of us that he could do just about anything that he put his little mind to... like finding a forever home: Gimpy has received a lot of interest since he appeared in the paper and it looks like he will be adopted to a loving family very soon.
HOPE has other special needs kittens and cats. The most common are those that test positive for FIV (see this page at Best Friends Animal Society for more background and facts on FIV). These HOPE kitties need a home with no other cats or a home with an existing FIV+ cat(s). They are very healthy other than testing positive for FIV. FIV+ cats that are asymptomatic could easily live for ten or more years with the virus.
HOPE also has some deaf special needs cats and dogs that are looking for homes. Their handicap takes a little getting used to [Ed.: although it does sometimes work to their advantage] but this does not prevent them from being adopted to a loving home with the right family. Please consider the special needs cats and dogs if you feel you might be able to offer them the time and attention they need.
Posted by caroleb at 09:39 PM
Racquel's Journey
Would you adopt this cat?
Racquel on her first day out of her cage.
How about now?
Racquel 5 weeks later
What do you do when someone brings you a feral baby who is just so cute, you know you can't let her go back to life on the streets? You take her in and make her your mission to prove everyone wrong... Everyone with more rescue experience than I kept telling me it was impossible. Well, here we are 5 weeks later and the little darling -- former demon -- passed her temperament evaluation, meaning that she is ready to come meet her forever family at adoptions.
It wasn't easy for either of us, but it paid off handsomely as Raquel patiently sat on her evaluator's lap in the midst of a Broadway-esque singing and waving performance neither fazed by the noise, movement or disturbingly off-key a capella performance... While maybe not ready for anything, Raquel has shown that she has learned to trust people (and their occasional musical foibles).
Raquel is now focusing her energies on helping socialize her sister Damita while taking time off on the weekends to come to HOPE mobile adoptions to find a forever family.
Posted by tammy at 06:12 PM
May 30, 2006
It's tough being a blind mom!
One of the cats currently being fostered in the program is Betty -- an adorable blind mom cat with her four kittens. None of them will be ready for adoption for a while, but their progress has been the source of much interest and curiosity: it is quite amazing how good a mom Betty is, even though she couldn't see her kittens, she was able to give birth and take care of them from the day they were born -- doing all the motherly cat things that she needed to do. But, now that the kittens are getting mobile, she's in a little bit of a pickle: she can't just jump up to a high perch to get out of their play or to get some quiet -- she can't see. They have also taken to stealing some of her food while she's eating, so we have to keep the kittens occupied when she gets her wet food snack. She does get even by eating the kittens' baby cat food but, on the whole, Betty has been having to work harder than a sighted mom cat would -- and she has been doing an excellent job of it! Some more-or-less current pictures of Betty and her kittens are posted in her photo album.Posted by cwirving at 09:26 AM
August 09, 2005
Cross-species (mis)communication
In The Other End of the Leash, Patricia McConnell talks about how humans and dogs miscommunicate. Here Sage -- a cat in the HOPE program -- demonstrates that it also happens between cats and dogs. Specifically, she is demanding grooming in cat language (by walking up, lowering her head and expecting licks on the forehead) while Sprite (the dog) is wondering what this all about and is desperately trying to avoid eye contact with her. In this case, with a submissive dog, it is all harmless and funny, but you can definitely see where inter-species communication can go awfully wrong when their body languages are so different.
Of course, you could say that cats and dogs get along just fine -- as long as everybody knows that cats rule the universe. Sage thinks so, that's for sure.
Posted by cwirving at 09:51 PM | Comments (0)