While waiting in my chiropractor’s office this morning, I came across an article in the July 2010 issue of Ohio Magazine called, “Canines of Comfort,” by Ohio author Jane Miller. The article related how Miller, a psychotherapist and licensed social worker, had been working with psychiatric service dogs to help abuse victims, veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and others with panic attacks, depression, or severe emotional disabilities lead better lives. The dogs allowed these people to have lives that were not ruled by their emotions, anxieties, or fears.

Service dogs have been used to help people with many physical disabilities, but this is a new field exploring how dogs can help people with emotional and psychiatric disabilities. The dogs provide comfort and acceptance and are trained to specifically help their owner with their specific disorder. 

Most of us who have animals in our lives know firsthand how much pets can help when we are feeling unhappy or anxious. I often say that my cat, Oswald, absorbs all my stress from the day when I pick him up upon arriving home. Once his furry body is against me, all my negative energy dissipates. I have joked that his poor little body should be covered in warts and tumors from sucking up my bad emotions. But, Oswald, being the cat he is, takes it all in and makes it all good. 

That is the power of our companion animals. 

To find out more about psychiatric service dogs and the power of these canines to heal, read “Canines of Comfort” or visit Jane Miller’s web site: Healing Companions

Being presented by Dogtime, The Petties 2010 are awards given for the best pet blogs in four categories: Best Pet Blog, Best Dog Blog, Best Cat Blog, and Best Cause Related Blog.

I would encourage you to take a look at some of these blogs and also vote for your favorite. There are some really interesting views on dogs, cats, and the world of rescue. 

BlogPaws is a group of pet bloggers who have banded together to help each other and the animals they love. So check them out. And also vote for your favorite blog to win a Pettie: Vote for The Petties

I have to warn you, next year, I want all of you to make this blog so popular that B and O will have a nomination (and a win) in the Petties!

Because of what happened with Carol’s cats, I went online to look for information on what to do to save pets in case of a house fire. 

The one thing I discovered, that I am going to check on for our fire department here in Plain City, is pet resuscitation masks. I am not certain if they are currently available for use by our local emergency staff. 

I found a very interesting site, started by a 10-year-old girl, which raises money to purchase pet rescue and resuscitation oxygen mask kits.  The kits are then donated to firefighters and other emergency personnel. The site, PetMask.com, allows you to purchase mask kits for your fire station by becoming a sponsor donor. 

As the site explains, human oxygen masks do not fit properly on animals. Pet oxygen mask kits include masks in three sizes (small, medium, and large) and can be used for dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, and birds. 

While these masks could not have been used to save Carol’s cats, because the firefighters were unable to get any of the cats out of the burning house, I still plan to purchase and donate a kit to the Pleasant Valley Fire Department in honor of the Gaul kitties. Perhaps, in this way, their deaths in a fire will help to save another pet from the same fate.

I would encourage you to check to see if your local fire department has pet resuscitation masks and if they do not, please sponsor a kit. If you do sponsor one, think about doing so in honor of Carol’s eleven lost babies.

Aisling and Pangur Ban in a scene from "The Secret of Kells."

 

Joe and I went to see a movie that was listed as part of the Drexel Kids Series. However, although the movie, “The Secret of Kells,” was animated, it was the most gorgeous “cartoon” I have ever seen. The film, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Animated Feature, tells the story of Brendan and Irish monks working to create sacred texts in the Abbey of Kells. Of course, the most splendid of these is The Book of Kells, an intricately penned manuscript spilling forth calligraphy and elaborate artwork in the form of knots, spirals, and intricate borders. All of the same artwork weaves its way across the movie screen. 

My favorite part of the movie, besides the fairy, Aisling, and the hypnotic drawings (which were done by hand, not computer generated), was the little white cat, Pangur Ban, with one green eye and one blue eye.

Pangur Ban comes from an Irish poem of the same name written by a monk in the ninth century about his little white cat (“ban” actually means white and “Pangur” would have been the cat’s “formal” name). The poem speaks of the monk working on copying words into books while his cat keeps him company–a very similar premise to the movie where Pangur Ban watches over the monks creating The Book of Kells. The last line of the poem relates how the monk is “turning darkness into light,” an underlying theme of the film. To read the complete poem: Pangur Ban poem

You must watch this beautiful scene where Pangur Ban becomes like a wisp of mist and goes where Aisling cannot go to save the hero, Brendan: Aisling’s Song

I promise, you will not be able to get Aisling’s Song out of your head or the image of Pangur Ban out of your heart once you have been drawn into “The Secret of Kells.”

Freekibble and Tails Magazine are trying to get a Presidential Proclamation to make April 30th, “National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day.” But to do this, they need your help. They want President Obama to receive 100,000 letters and emails by September 30th asking that this day be set aside to honor shelter animals. You can go to the Freekibble web site to read more about this initiative or go directly to the Tails Magazine site to send your emailed letter: Send a letter to the President

For every letter that is sent, Halo, Purely for Pets, will donate a meal to shelter dogs and cats–up to 50,000 meals! So far, over 44,000 emails and letters have been sent.

You can send an emailed letter each day to the President, up until September 30, so stop back at the Tails web site each day to remind President Obama that the animals are depending on him.

And don’t forget: while you are on the Freekibble web site, make sure you answer the dog trivia question and the cat trivia question at the Freekibblekat site. Each time you pick an answer (even if you are wrong), food will be donated to shelter dogs and cats. This week, July 12-16 is Presidential Pet Trivia Week to celebrate the letters to the President.

 Fruit Bat with her new mom. Fruit Bat was a bit distracted–there were kittens (hurrah, kittens!) playing in a cage in the waiting room at Noah’s Ark.

 

Fruit Bat is no longer wearing casts and she is also no longer a girl looking for a home. Dr. Kim West has adopted Miss Fruit Bat and our little chihuahua will be enjoying the good life with her sister, Tupelo, (and several kitty siblings, as well as some guinea pigs and turtles) the rest of her days. 

Fruit Bat’s legs and ankles are still a little weak after the surgeries and from being in casts. So it will just take some time for her to regain strength in them. Her back ankles will always be a bit weaker than her front ones. However, if Dr. West never lets her walk anywhere (yes, she is spoiled, but she has the right to be) and transports her in the Baby Bjorn where her feet never touch the ground, it might take a bit longer for those ankles to fully recover. But our girl can walk and that is what is most important.

Fruit Bat and Dr. West would both like to thank everyone for all the love, donations, and healing thoughts that were sent their way. They were overwhelmed by the fact that so many people cared and wanted to help. 

On Tuesday, July 6, In Defense of Animals (IDA) is asking everyone to join together for an International Day of Action for South Korean Dogs. South Korean dogs are slaughtered and eaten and kept in horrible conditions.

I won’t get too graphic in this article, because my focus has always been to keep animal issues positive. I think many of us who love animals get burnt out and deeply distressed after seeing so many horrible photos and videos of animals in peril. Often, I think, the very people we want to educate are turned off by gruesome pictures. While there is a place for these kinds of things, it is not here on my blog, which I want to keep as a safe zone where people want to visit. I know I cannot force myself to look at photos of animals in pain. The images flash back in my mind over and over and I have nightmares.

So I am just asking you to keep the South Korean dogs in your thoughts on July 6. These dogs suffer endlessly as there is a belief that the more pain and torture the dogs go through prior to death, the more “virility” a man obtains from eating the meat.

To read more about the International Day of Action for South Korean Dogs, visit IDA’s blog site: Help South Korean Dogs

If you can stomach the photos, there are images of a dramatic rescue of some of these dogs on IDA’s site.

On July 6, please join activists around the world and send good thoughts and much love to the South Korean dogs.

Additionally, you can sign a petition to express your concern and ask that these dogs stop being tortured: Stop Killing Dogs Petition

The groups, United Dogs and Cats joined with Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA), responsible for this petition are trying to gather one million signatures to present to the South Korean government. They are about halfway there, so please add your signature, as well.

To learn more about IDA and other issues they support, you can also visit their web site: In Defense of Animals

I was reading the June 2010 issue of Guideposts and came across a super story about a disabled dachshund who works as a therapy dog. Super Lance was just a normal, happy “wiener dog” until he woke up one morning and and could not walk.

The vet diagnosed Lance with a ruptured disc that was pressing on his spinal cord, a condition that is common in dachshunds and is usually easily corrected with surgery. Lance’s parents went forward with the surgery, but his spinal cord had been severed and Lance was permanently paralyzed.

I cringed when I read what happened to Lance. I, too, had a ruptured disc in my back that pressed on a nerve (not the spinal cord, thankfully) and caused severe pain. I also had back surgery. Thankfully, I was not paralyzed, but I cannot imagine a little dog going through the pain that I went through. Lance certainly is Super Lance–heroic and magical.

From this horrible set of circumstances, God worked amazing miracles in the lives of Lance and his family. Lance was outfitted with a wheelchair for his back legs, produced by Eddie’s Wheels. With his new rolling back legs, Lance was off and about again, seeking new adventures. Nothing could slow him down.

And his new adventures led him to become a therapy dog, working with children and seniors in hospitals, visiting schools and nursing homes. Super Lance gives out books to the kids telling his story and providing them with a reminder of the little dog who overcame many obstacles to bring happiness to others in need.

To read the complete Guideposts story: Super Lance in Guideposts

To see more photos of Super Lance in action and download the book he gives to kids, go to: Super Lance’s web site