100th Blog Post Surprise: Meet Lucy!

Intake photo, volunteer photo, & FREEDOM RIDE PHOTO!

I can't think of a better way to celebrate my 100th blog post than introducing our very first California foster! Meet Lucy, a ridiculously sweet 1 year-old beagle mix from San Jose Animal Care Center. Lucy came into the shelter on St. Patrick's Day. An officer picked her up as a stray on the 87 (a major freeway) right by our house. She has a fractured pelvis and femoral head, likely from being hit by a car. In addition to that, she's very underweight. It was love at first sight for Drew, despite her awful intake photo. We planned to take a break from fostering for a while, but Drew couldn't resist so I pulled the trigger. We sprung Lucy from the shelter Monday night courtesy of St. Francis Animal Protection Society, a fabulous local rescue group I've begun to get involved with.

Lucy's first evening with us

Miss Lucy is scheduled for FHO surgery on April 1. We didn't want her to sit in the shelter all that time, so St. Francis got us the go-ahead to bring her home and then take her back in next week for the procedure. The shelter is bringing in a surgeon from SAGE, a highly regarded veterinary specialty group in town. This is the same operation Cap'n Jack just had with us back in Atlanta, so we know pretty well what to expect. It's a quick and simple recovery, all things considered. With some easy physical therapy exercises, two weeks is the typical recovery time from an FHO. Remember, this is the surgery where they remove the round head of the femur bone that fits into the hip socket. The result is a free-floating femur, which sounds weird but is MUCH better than a splintered, fragmented, fractured bone that is painful and prone to infection. Lucy will adapt in no time flat. For more information on FHO surgery, check out the blog post I wrote when we went through this with Cap'n Jack: http://ohfortheloveofdogs.blogspot.com/2014/01/lefty-on-road-to-recovery.html

Somebody's a snuggle bug...

Unfortunately, FHO is not the only obstacle Lucy has to overcome. She's also got a fractured pelvis. The only thing that will help it is time, but pain meds and rest certainly don't hurt. Lucy is on Tramadol and Rimadyl for pain management. The Tramadol makes her a bit sleepy, so that also helps for healing. Basically, this poor girl's entire back end is a mess. We had an 18 hour window during which Lucy was off her medicines between leaving the shelter and visiting the vet St. Francis uses. The combination of no pain meds for broken bones plus the transitional stress made for a pretty rough night. Despite her severe pain and confusion about her new surroundings, Lucy integrated well with our pack. Normally we'd hold off on the introductions, but Lucy requires constant monitoring right now so this way is safer.

A handmade blankie, just for me!

On top of the stress and pain, Lucy's got significant separation anxiety. She had herself panicked into a frenzy in her crate, so Drew sleeps with her in the guest room to be sure she'd quiet down and not further injure herself. We'll continue this until she begins to feel more secure here, then we'll face the uphill battle of transitioning to crate sleeping. This is rather backward, but Drew gets up for work super early so sleep is sort of a must around here. Her anxiety should improve as she continues to settle in with us. After the vet, Lucy and I stopped by Miss Melissa's house to pick up a wonderful care package put together from St. Francis donations. Lucy wants to thank everyone who donated these items to St. Francis. She has some great supplies now, including a Thundershirt, Pet Naturals of Vermont calming chews, and a DAP collar to help with her anxiety. Someone even made her a super cozy fleece blankie! She's finding comfort in all of these items so far. Miss Melissa also included a shrimpy squeaky toy, tasty treats, a pretty pink harness / leash / collar, and glucosamine to help support her good leg while it endures extra strain. How awesome! So thank you, St. Francis folks, from the bottom of little Lucy's heart.

I think we have a Thundershirt model in the house!

Last but not least, we're slowly helping Lucy regain weight. She weighed a measly 11.7 pounds at the vet yesterday. That's less than what my [albeit porky] Chihuahua weighs. Although we see [and hear] a lot of beagle in Lucy, she's mixed with slighter framed breed. Whippet? Chi? Italian Greyhound? We'll never know for sure, but she really is cute with those long legs. So although she's not going to be as big as your average beagle, I'd like to see her hit 18-20 pounds. It's important that we help Lucy increase her weight gradually in order to avoid shocking her system. Her shelter paperwork has her recorded at 16.8 pounds when she arrived last Monday. That's five pounds lost in six days, probably due to extreme pain and stress. We've got her on Merrick Thanksgiving Dinner canned food, which is one of the highest calorie premium foods available. She eats four small meals per day, totaling one cup each day. She also gets a spoonful of Nutrical gel each day for some bonus easy-to-digest calories. This feeding regimen should start to make a difference before long. Then we'll be able to transition her to a normal meal schedule based on dry kibble. 

Lucy definitely had a home before she wound up at the shelter; she came in wearing a nice collar and remnants of pink toenail polish. I don't know which is more sad: the ones that had a family and lost them or the ones that never had anyone at all. Anyhow, she's been through a ton in a very short time. It will all get better for Lucy from here, thanks to St. Francis.

If you'd like to help St. Francis continue saving animals from SJACC in honor of Lucy, please follow the ensuing link. Their website provides options for paypal donations as well as an Amazon wish list: http://stfrancisanimal.rescuegroups.org/info/donate

San Jose Animal Care Center: A Breath of Fresh Air

SJACC Lobby

After living in California for a full month and getting somewhat settled, I finally ventured out last week to explore the AC/rescue scene around here. Take a look at San Jose Animal Care Center, my local shelter. That's right, it's beautiful. It's so impressive that I had to ask the front desk people if I was in the right place the first time I walked in. It's not a sanctuary. It's not a humane society. It's not privately funded. SJACC runs as a division of our city government. It is the City of San Jose's animal control facility. That's the pound, folks. Feel free to let your jaws drop for a minute. Mine certainly did. Coming from the dire straits of AC hell at DeKalb County Animal Services in Atlanta, to say I was completely blown away by SJACC is a massive understatement. I'd like to use this post to shine a light on what SJACC is doing RIGHT, not what shelters elsewhere are doing wrong. Having said that, the only way I can do that is by comparison through my own experience. I'm not going to post pictures of what DeKalb looks like. You guys can google that. I try to use my own photos in my blog anyway and I never really took any of the inside of DeKalb. It's been in the news enough. Please know that there are amazing people who work at DeKalb and devote many hours of their lives to helping the animals in every way they possibly can. It's not their fault, so please know that anything I say here is not said against them, but against the situation at the shelter. I promise you, they wish DeKalb looked like this as well. Now, on to the relative Utopia of animal control that is SJACC...

Small animal habitats, kitty cubbies, volunteer lounge, & kiosk

SJACC is gorgeous. Shiny floors, fresh paint on the walls, natural light galore, and abundant green space are all just the first few features that catch your eye. The facility's design is really innovative. The lobby is an open atrium with a large skylight (shown above) that is very inviting and easily accommodates crowds on high volume days. Brightly lit small animal habitats greet you as you walk in the door. This draws attention to the small animals in a fun way. There's a "find-a-friend" touch screen kiosk that allows visitors to browse adoptable animals easily. There's even a large volunteer lounge equipped with computers to track our schedules, update animal photos and bios, and print out adoption charts. The best part of the volunteer lounge is the quiet space (shown in bottom left photo in above collage). It gives volunteers a special place to chill with extra shy dogs so that they can enjoy human attention free of any scary/startling distractions. The top right photo in the collage above shows some of many "kitty cubbies" that house adoptable cats. It's a really great way to show off the kitties in all their whiskery glory. Just so many great ideas...who needs a pet store when you have an adoption facility like this?

One of many kennel rooms: bright, clean, and fairly inviting.

Rather than having one giant "main ward / gen pop" room full of animals, there are kennels featuring adoptable animals housed in several small rooms all down each side of the building. Having a bunch of small rooms like this is absolutely brilliant. It cuts down on the noise, smells, and the overwhelming visual volume that smacks you in the face in shelters that have one giant warehouse-style kennel room. Inside the kennel rooms, there's no standing water (note the hose tidily kept off the ground on its reel in the picture to the left), there are no roaches scurrying about, there are no mice or rats squeaking in the drains underneath the dog runs, and there are no abominable grated floors in the runs. The absence of grated kennel floors is HUGE. Although grated floors make high volume cleaning easier, they cause discomfort for the dogs' feet and often lead to musculoskeletal development problems in growing puppies. Imagine being a senior chihuahua with teeny tiny arthritic toes splayed across the grates or a puppy who now has "frog feet" because his stance and alignment were so compromised. The dogs at SJACC don't have to suffer these issues. The dog runs at SJACC are pretty spacious too, especially considering most of them only contain one dog. Another major thing: there is generally only one dog kept in each run. Sometimes they'll pair up lonely dogs or really small dogs, particularly friendly Chis. In the collage above, you can see a metal divider behind the black Chi in the bottom right photo. Each kennel has a dividing wall that can be lowered so "roommates" can be separated while they eat. That means no fighting over food!

Toward the back of the building, you'll find the vet clinic, wildlife, staff lounge, dispatch and field operations, different quarantine and recovery wards, and of course storage. There's also a full laundry room with industrial washer/dryer where volunteers and staff are constantly washing bedding. Each dog is given fresh bedding every day so they can have a little bit of comfort. The little dogs especially appreciate having somewhere cozy to burrow so they can escape the stress around them. Volunteers also provide each dog with a frozen stuffed KONG on a daily basis. At the end of the day, the KONGs are all collected, soaked in hot soapy water, sterilized in the industrial dishwasher, re-stuffed, and frozen for the next day's distribution. In the world of animal control, that's above and beyond.

Just a sampling of SJACC's outdoor space

Feast your eyes upon the outdoor space at SJACC. Top left photo shows just one of the three fenced play yards. Volunteers can bring dogs out here for a romp, but the SJACC animal behaviorist also holds play groups in this space three times a week. Play groups give him a chance to evaluate how each dog interacts with each other and take notes on their personalities. Then volunteers know what each dog needs to work on individually. These efforts combine to help SJACC appropriately match dogs with suitable adopters. The middle left shows the doggy courtyards, where potential adopters can meet and get to know pups they're interested in taking home. Both of the photos on the right side of the collage show the outdoor cat courtyards. These spaces are totally wired in so that the cats can get some playtime in the fresh air without risking escape. How awesome is that? Cats get very stressed if they don't have mental stimulation, just like dogs if not even more so. Getting them outside in a safe manner is a great way for them to fantasize about snagging birds as they fly past, bat at butterflies, and just get a genuinely good sniff of the outside world. In the bottom left picture you can see part of the outdoor hallway going down one side of the building. Along this side of the hallway are several more kennel rooms that house mamas with litters, orphan pups, and pregnant moms.

Rockin' the volunteer swag (snerk)

I could go on forever about SJACC. Yes, it's still animal control and they still euthanize, but I really think this is about as good as AC can possibly get. I love knowing that the dogs are well-cared for, even though I desperately wish they were all in homes instead of kennels. I love what a strong volunteer corps there is and how everybody really works together. I love that SJACC is so well-staffed. They've got fantastic employees who are always milling about doing whatever is needed. Where I come from we had one vet, not three. We didn't have a dedicated administrative / front desk person, let alone a couple of them. There was even an extra bad time where we only had eight field officers and ONE person to handle all of the adoptions and rescue coordination. They were spread so thin due to chronic under-funding. So to me, seeing how many wonderful people go to work every day at SJACC is really an incredible thing. So yes, we are lucky enough to have the funding here at SJACC to do these awesome things. San Jose is the capital of Silicon Valley; I realize this is an area with a high concentration of wealth and a mindset geared toward the environment. But we can see these changes elsewhere! Look what can be done when we take responsibility for our overpopulation mess, when we focus on the environment and caring for the creatures in it, and when we allocate adequate city/county funds to improving the animal welfare climate. Having a building that the public wants to visit makes such a huge difference for our homeless animals. No people coming in = no animals getting out. SJACC is a place where families can feel comfortable coming to adopt a new addition. It is clean, bright, welcoming, organized, and minimally depressing. I so desperately hope that someday there will be no more DeKalbs out there, that someday soon our whole country will be able to devote enough focus to animal welfare, and of course that someday we will finally get a handle on our overpopulation problem. Call me an idealist, a tree-hugger, a hippie, or an overzealous Californian. Call me whatever you want, but I'm an animal lover and I'm super mega proud to be an SJACC volunteer.

To see all the wonderful adoptable animals at SJACC, click here: 

http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=1389

For more information about volunteering, feel free to ask questions in the comments below or click here to be re-routed to SJACC's volunteer page:

http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=1395

In Memory of Colby

**This post is dedicated to all homeless animals facing loneliness, fear, and death every single day, but especially to the animals of DeKalb County Animal Services in Atlanta, Georgia. I am in awe of your ability to love us unconditionally despite the situation we've created for you. It is my utmost hope that someday soon we will make up for our irresponsibility and ignorance by creating a society where each of you is valued.**

Calling All Chi Lovers: Chihuahua Party!

In this edition of The Crazy Dog Lady, I'm going to tell you all about today's adventure at the dog park. Mr. Flea went to a Chihuahua party! Drew found a meetup group called South Bay Chihuahua Meetup that holds a monthly Chi party at Ed Levin Dog Park in Milpitas. It's the second Saturday of each month, weather permitting. Today is a gorgeous day so we took our Chi, Flea, and had a blast. I was a little nervous that Flea might not be well-behaved enough, but he fit right in with all the other crazy Chis. It was fantastic! There were Chis and Chi mixes of all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages. Some were teeny tiny, others (like Flea) were medium to larger sized. Some were young and others nearing fossilization. Some had on rockin' outfits and accessories, others just brought their sassy personalities. My personal favorite was an ancient 2-3 pound cutie who had on one-piece pajamas (butt-flap style, except no butt-flap necessary). There was an adorable long-haired dapple Chi named Milkshake and her sibling French Fry. And I can't forget to mention the oh-so-teeny-and-timid Nugget and her pink tshirt. There's even a pair named Rat and Brat who are having a birthday party next month! 

A handful of party-goers (including Flea) showing off

Flea was in hog heaven. He spent most of the time sniffing and marking the fenced perimeter. Occasionally he'd have a little stand-off with another feisty Chi, but all in good fun! Butts were sniffed, tails were wagged, dirt and grass were kicked, and everyone was in their ferocious glory. I am SO proud of Flea and super excited that he had such a great time. If you're in the South Bay area, find us on Meetup and come out next month if you want to witness a real spectacle! It's a great way to socialize your Chi without having to worry about their feisty antics being misunderstood. It's also super entertaining and a nice way to meet new people!

Somebody is all played out...