Sleepless in Midland

Animal Shelter and No-Kill Policy

A lot of animals pass through Animal Services in Midland, Texas, each year, and one experience many of them encounter is euthanasia. Director Paul O'Neill has a plan to try to save many of those animals. Last night he addressed a large group of interested citizens with a plan to establish the Midland Humane Coalition as a non-profit entity which would coordinate the efforts of Animal Services and the various area animal shelters. The goal is to get an animal adoption facility constructed next to the Midland Animal Services building.

It's a very ambitions project, and if implemented as Mr. O'Neill anticipates, the city would contribute the land and construct the building. And the new entity would provide the staff and upkeep with a grant from Maddie's Fund.

Reporters swarmed the place, so rather than rehash Mr. O'Neill's remarks, I'll simply refer you to the links below. But there was one particularly memorable statement he made to emphasize how difficult a "no kill" status is to achieve. He cited San Antonio Animal Control, which is a Maddie's Fund participant, as an example. SAAC's Policies and Directives say, among other things:

ACS will partner with ALL qualified Rescuers. We will support and build our rescue network, both local and national, in order to achieve NO KILL status.

Mr. O'Neill cautioned the audience that SAAC placed so much significance to the no-kill objective that to try to meet their no-kill goal they discontinued picking up stray dogs.  Therefore, they sacrificed one objective for another without much consideration for which was better for the population affected

No-kill is a goal that could never be reached. But as the old saying goes, it's better to shoot for the moon and miss than shoot for a skunk and hit it.

News Links:
Midland Reporter-Telegram report
CBS7 report
KWES9 report
Permian Basin 360

Animal helpers:
Midland SPCA
Lone Star SPCA
Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary
Animal Outreach.

Bark in the Park

Yesterday the Midland, Texas, branch of the Alzheimer's Association held a Bark in the Park event for both humans and canines at Hogan's Run Dog Park. There were some great looking dogs there, and of course, they stole the show.

Here are a few shots.

 

The black Cocker Spaniel holds the distinction of being the first pet placed in a new home by HospiceMidland through its new Pet Peace of Mind project. He's missing one hind leg, but he hops along happily on his remaining three legs. They named him "Cassidy." Get it?

 

Best in show, every one of them.

Buddy the dog -- good boy! good boy!

Most of us with canine companions enjoy their company even if we suspect they are more likely to cause an emergency then solve one. And along comes this feel good story that should touch every dog lover. But isn't everyone a dog lover?

Ben Heinrichs was working on truck parts at a workshop near his house at Casswell Lakes, Alaska, when a spark ignited some gasoline. Ben suffered burns on his face and hand as the workshop burst into flame.

"I just took off running," Heinrichs said. "I said we need to get help, and he just took off."

Link: Anchorage Daily News.

Buddy, the German Shepherd, ran down the road until he met up with a state trooper who he back to the burning house. Take a look at the trooper's dash-cam video in the press conference video. to see Buddy running lickety split, leading the trooper back to the house.

A night time house fire shouldn't have been that hard to find, but look at the Google map/satellite and imagine how hard it would be to navigate to any particular house in that complex of roadways.

Alaska State Troopers held an award ceremony yesterday and gave Buddy a new bowl and a rawhide bone. Buddy probably appreciated the gift although he doesn't show it.

But we can appreciate this good dog story and daydream about our own pampered pets saving the day like Buddy the dog.  Good dog.  Good dog.

Help hospice patients keep their pets

Remember the post last month about a program to help hospice patients with their pets? See What if you die before your pet (part 2). Well, here's something you can do to help, and no, you don't have to shell out any money.

Hospice patients have plenty to worry about already, and they shouldn't have to worry about the household pet(s), too. HospiceMidland recently became involved in a project called Pet Peace of Mind whereby volunteers will help with hospice patients' pets to let them continue having the pleasure of pet ownership but relieve them of the burdens.  It's a wonderful program and should be a great benefit to the community.

The program originated with the Banfield Charitable Trust, and HospiceMidland has applied for and expects to receive a Banfield grant for $5,000 to help get the program up and running locally.

Well, here's a way to help the Banfield Charitable Trust replenish its fund. Dr. Delana Taylor McNac explains it in her blog post titled Can You Spare Three Minutes a Day in April to "Help Hospice Patients Keep Their Pets"?

PepsiCo, Inc. is conducting a contest in which the project receiving the most online votes will win a quarter of a million dollars. As of this moment, Banfield is in 16th place and needs some more votes. Anyone over the age of 13 can go to the Help Hospice Patients Keep Their Pets portion of the contest website and vote. Dr. McNac explains that you have to register your name and provide an email address, but any one person can vote once a day up to ten times between April 1 and April 30, 2010.

Pepsi's money is just sitting there waiting to be grabbed. If this looks like a program you could support then go vote.

Good luck, Banfield Charitable Trust!

This one's for dog lovers

This is really cute. A baby in a crib starts crying, the dog howls, and the baby stops crying. Maybe the baby was afraid. More likely the baby just needed some attention. 

Watch it at this youtube site. Someday the kid will see this and realize he was raised by wolves.

Via Ace.mu.nu .

What if you die before your pet? (Part 2)

Hang out with dog owners long enough and you'll hear someone refer to a dog's owner as the dog's parent. Sounds silly at first, but dogs and cats serve a great purpose for humans because that unconditional love they have for their owners provides a feeling the humans may not get anywhere else. (I'm not that sure about cats, but let's give them an equal opportunity here.)

According to a U.S. Census XLS spreadsheet, 43 millions households (37.2 %) had pets in 2006. The pet breakdown came to 72.1 million dogs, 81.7 million cats, 11.2 million birds, and 7.3 million horses. The average (mean) veterinary expenditures per household amounted to $356. And there's a bristling business in pet food, toys and accessories as childless people and empty nesters pour their money and affection onto their animals.

Pets and people don't age at the same rate, and most pet owners have dealt with the death of a beloved pet. Check out some of the online memorials to deceased pets, but first, go get a box of tissues. BTW, those grieving pet owners shell out $25 per year for each of those memorials.

Cancer centers have discovered the benefits of canine therapy. And a dying person's own pets provide tremendous comfort to them. But sometimes the pet owner may be too sick to care for the animal. And there's the added pressure of not knowing what will happen to the pet when the owner dies.

There's a fascinating new program catching on, and HospiceMidland, the only nonprofit hospice in Midland, Texas, could become the first hospice in the state to get involved with it. It's called Pet Peace of Mind.

The other day a group of about a dozen HospiceMidland volunteers engaged in a conference call with the program creator, Delana Taylor McNac in which Ms. McNac gave an overview of the problems faced by pet owning hospice patients and how the plan can help them.

A dying pet owner has enough problems to face. And while they may still enjoy the love of an animal, sometimes the animal may get neglected. So that's where the program comes in to help where it's needed, whether it's feeding, trips to the vet, providing a little companionship, or finding a new home for the pet. But most importantly, it provides peace of mind to the pet owner.

Pet Peace of Mind, once implemented, will be a great benefit to pet owning Midlanders.

Previously, see What if you die before your pet? (Part 1).

What if you die before your pet? (Part 1)

Leona Helmsley really must have loved her dog. But don't we all love our pets? Helmsley anticipated that she might die first, so she left $12 million to a trust fund for Trouble, the Maltese. Unfortunately, a cat fight broke out over the will, and the resulting settlement trimmed the dog's share to $2 million, according to Foxnews.com. What will that money buy? Reuters says:

Carl Lekic, the general manager of a Helmsley hotel in Florida and now Trouble's caretaker, said $2 million would be "enough money to pay for the dog's maintenance and welfare at the highest standards of care for more than 10 years," according to an affidavit.

Lekic said the money would cover annual costs of $100,000 for full-time security, $8,000 for grooming and $1,200 for food. Lekic is paid a $60,000 annual guardian fee out of the inheritance.

Not bad for a dog. And hopefully Trouble is living the good life, if he is still living. And we know he's looking good if he gets eight grand worth of grooming each year.

It's fun to poke fun at this, but Helmsley was onto something. A few years ago the media hammered us right and left to prepare end-of-life documents. But what about the pets?

Many states allow trusts for pets, and the State of Texas has a statute for that at Texas Property Code Sec. 112.037. The trust would provide for care of the pets, and if the caregiver wasn't measuring up, anyone else interested in the animals' welfare could petition the court to replace original caregiver. The trust would terminate when the last of the animals dies.

If you've read this far you obviously have an interest in the topic, so I would direct you to Texas Tech law professor Gerry W. Beyer's Estate Planning for Pet Owners where you can find sample trust provisions and all sorts of stuff.

So how much money would your pet need? If you want him/her to live the life of Trouble, $169,200 per year should about do it.

Updated:  See What if you die before your pet? (Part 2) -- pet care for hospice patients.

Teresa McMahan back in the news

Long time Sleepless readers will remember Teresa McMahan for her splendid on the scene reporting about the making of the movie, "Friday Night Lights." Well, she's back in the news.

Ms. McMahan is a Midlander who loves dogs, big dogs. Very big dogs! She has some prize winning Mastiffs which she entered in a dog show here recently. And another local hero, Krista Lander of CBS7, did a sports challenge with her there. Click here to watch the video. Nice going Teresa and Krista!

To read Ms. McMahan's reports on the making of "Friday Night Lights," click the links below. The most recent ones are listed first, as follows:
"Friday Night Light", film crew moving on...;
"Friday Night Lights" Follow Up;
"Friday Night Lights" - First Hand Report!;
On the scene: "Friday Night Lights".

Backing out of death's doggie doorway -- A New Year's canine miracle

How much is a dog worth? Dog dealers put price tags on certain dogs on the presumption that they inherited some intrinsic value from their ancestors. That aside, a dog really isn't worth a lot in dollar terms.

But you can't put a monetary value on a good pet, because the joy and happiness that an animal can provide is priceless. Every pet owner has a story to tell, and here's one to ring in the new year on a happy note.

Almost twelve years ago he followed me home from school. Really. I was jogging past a school early one summer morning, and he started following me. The newspaper ad and the utility pole signs didn't locate his true owner, and that was fine with me -- I would give him a good home.

He has one brown eye and one blue eye -- named him "Old Blue Eye" -- and he has been a wonderful companion.

So it was distressing when he developed arthritis a few years ago, and the initial flare-up was so severe he couldn't sit or lie down comfortably. Rimadyl and Deramaxx (NSAIDs) did wonders. But this cold winter the arthritis came back like gang busters, so the Deramaxx came back into his daily intake.

Then a couple of weeks ago he went into a zone. His condition worsened, and things looked grim for the old boy. He staggered around, bumped into things, knocked over tables, broke lamps, and generally wrecked the whole house. He lost interest in everything he had previously enjoyed, including food. Toilet habits vanished, but the most disturbing aspect was the way he would walk into a corner and just stand there leaning head first into the wall. He seemed unaware of his environment. A steroid shot didn't seem to make any difference -- he was in zombie land.

The Vet said he has seen that behavior in animals with a brain tumor or that had had a stroke. So in mid week last week the dog started getting daily doses of Prednisone (a steroid) and Senilife (a doggie dementia drug) in the hopes that he could get a little relief. And his home became a barricaded bathroom as I stood by on death watch hoping to make his final days comfortable. He was in a make shift hospice, he was dying, and it was killing me.

But something funny happened. I walked by his room early yesterday morning, and his big ears shot up -- he was awake, aware and ready for interaction. This was a consciousness I had not seen in well over a week, and he just kept getting better. Today he even pranced around the backyard to put the birds and squirrels on notice not to rule him out too soon.

So what was it that sent him for a loop? If it was a stroke, I sure wish humans could snap back like that. Or if it was a brain tumor maybe the steroids shrunk it. Or maybe it was all simply a reaction to the arthritis drugs -- sites all across the web warn against them. But whatever it was, he dodged a bullet, his lease on life got extended. And I'm ecstatic.  Old Blue Eye is back!