Just One Dog - Part I: Euth List

Adele, Chi II, & Roxanne at Rasta's Spring 2012

March 14^th 2012 marked the beginning of change, unknown to us, as volunteers from the Valencia County Animal Shelter in Los Lunas, New Mexico delivered the first round of spring puppies to Rasta’s Rescue Ranch in Santa Fe: Adele, Roxanne, and Chi II. 

After wellness checks and getting over a bout with kennel cough, the girls were taken to their first adoption event at Petco.  Adele found her furever home within 3 hours and Chi II caught the eye of a devote dog-lover while stopping at a friend’s shop in route back to the Ranch.  It was love at first sight for Francine at Petco and the owner of Craft Cut.  Francine and her husband had just been to a big adoption event at PetSmart, where the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and other rescues had dozens of dogs available for adoption.  Francine had looked and looked, but didn’t find her dog.  On the way home she just happened to say to her husband, “Let’s just check Petco.”  We were the only ones there that day and as soon as Francine saw Adele (now Ade) she knew and visa-versa. 

Note here, on 3/12/12 time was up for Adele, Roxanne, and Chi II, all three pups, three-months and under, were on the ever-present euthanasia list.  Figurative or real, the Euth List exists at kill shelters throughout the United States.  In some places it’s created in the mornings, very early, prior to opening, and dogs of all kinds are pulled from their tiny cement block and concrete pens, not always by human hands, but sometimes a tool and thereafter given their lethal dose of sodium pentobarbital or other lethal drug combination by a euthanasia technician.  And some places still shamelessly pile animals into gas chambers.

Every day rescues, cross-posters, transport coordinators, and volunteers work tirelessly to the last minute to pull dogs and cats from kill shelters.  They take pictures and videos, and then post them on Facebook, websites, blogs, and YouTube.  They share their stories across the country, reaching out to fosters, reaching out for help, because they know so much has gone wrong with the shelter system.  They know something must be done and do what they can.  They give where others have failed, they fight an endless tide, because for some ignorance is bliss.

Some fail to spay and neuter because they think those cute puppies they dump at the shelter will find homes.  Some get a dog then realize it doesn’t come trained.  Some must move and can’t take their dog with them.  And the list of reasons, for some, continues.  Not realizing there is help, many turn to the taxpayer funded county shelter, which is usually underfunded, understaffed, and overwhelmed.  No sign on the door reads: “Owner Surrenders Will Be Euthanized Within 24 Hours” or in some places immediately.  No sign posts the kill rate of the shelter, be it 90% or 60%.  No staff member recommends checking with local rescues.  Rarely do they offer free spay and neuter clinics, though often low cost clinics are available.  No real honesty exists because the truth would hurt the sensitivities of enough that the community might get in an uproar and start protesting, exposing, and deconstructing to find a better way, to get answers, to change what is.  That’s what happened on April 30^th 2012 over just one dog….

Stay Tuned for Just One Dog - Part II

Mizunderstood

She looks at me adoringly, big brown eyes seeming to wish to say so much.  When she first arrived she told us her story:

My name is Bella and I have been here and there, had one family and then another.  Not too sure why they couldn’t keep me, because I really did love them so.  I was loyal, a good girl, protective, especially of the children.  I like kids.  They don’t scare me like the big humans do.  I can’t tell you why I’m so afraid, but I am, because I've been here and I've been there and now I’m just elsewhere.

We did our best to let her know she’d come to a safe place.  It was a long haul though of convincing this one-year-old pup.  She was anxious as could be, scared, really, like anyone else would be after going from home to home in such a short span of her life.  This was one reason her previous owner didn’t want to take her to a shelter, Bella’s fear could have readily been misunderstood.  Combine that with a little pit mix in her genes and the system, we’ll call it, might have necessarily had to say “not adoptable.”  She growls at strangers, even barked and growled at C when she greeted her at the car.  She’s food aggressive, toy possessive, and overall just wouldn’t have passed the adoptability test.

Uncle Ru & Bell Summer 2011

In time she found she at least liked us and Uncle Rudy approved her for the pack.  So that was all good, but still with strangers so terribly nervous.  No way could we take this girl to an adoption event.  For a while the question was: what to do with Bella?  As a rescue part of our job is the placement of animals, finding a home, a family, and we felt Bella deserved and would love to have her own family.  How do you take a nervous girl, who appears aggressive and find her a suitable family?  Was it even possible?

Nap time with "12"

At last help arrived, Debra Moody, Faithful Friends Dog Training, known around here by the humans as Deb, as for the dogs, they just call her the Treat Lady!  Deb had called us out of blue, offering her services.  Wow!!!  We needed it, especially with Bella.  Although a sweet girl with us girls, Bella’s anxiety and fears needed to be dealt with.  

I’d started taking her to work, thinking going out meeting people and seeing things would be good for her, but she’d bark and growl at clients and try to hide under my seat in the car, not good when driving!

Bell & Tigs Super Bowl Sunday 2012 

Deb began working with Bella, one on one, and most importantly showing us how to curb that anxiety that would just overcome her.  Sometimes it takes time, but we’ve seen miracles happen.  The dog that would jump crazily at the windows, barking and screaming at whatever activity was outside, now possesses a certain calm.  The girl who would bark and growl at strangers now waits for assurances.  

The food possessive pooch still eats alone, but can take treats with her other friends around, and the toy defender now surrenders for her pal Tigger.  

She’s a smart girl, learns quickly from Deb, and always wishes to please.  Her progress has really been amazing.  We can’t thank Deb Moody enough and could not be more proud of Bell.  Rasta’s Rescue Ranch was her third

chance and with time and patience she’s shown that given love, attention, affection, and a little extra effort she was just misunderstood.

Bella December 2011

As for being adopted, well, the consensus is, I’ve been adopted. 

*When in doubt consult a dog trainer, especially with a rescue dog.

**The title is based on Pink’s album.  If I could make a video for Bell, I’d use that song.

Real World 101 - Lesson 13

“Oh, yeah, they put puppies down too,” I broke the news to the young man hired to do yet still more fencing reinforcement for Rasta’s “Big Dog” yard.

“But they’re just babies,” the young man said, gazing at Rasta’s newest rescues, three more pups from the Valencia County shelter pulled from death row. 

I confirmed then a thought I’ve long had in the back of my mind, most people just do not know or realize the reality of the city pound or county shelter.  I remember as a kid my mom telling me that she’d take the remaining kittens to the pound and being they were so cute they would find homes.  Maybe they did find homes, then again, perhaps not.  Well, here we are forty years later and mothers and fathers are still telling their small children: “we’ll leave them at the shelter and they’ll find homes ‘cause they’re so cute’," “because they’re just babies,” “because who can resist a kitten,” and so forth. 

Cash: 4 months old, 2 weeks in the shelter, owner
surrender, time was up....

At some shelters a box of kittens or puppies dropped by a family are simply labeled “owner surrender.”  In the world of rescue that can mean those animals are placed on death row immediately.

Sometimes on Rasta’s page, people complain about the short notice in the life or death of a dog, often this happens because their owner has surrendered them.  Shelters don’t tell the owner when they leave their animals that they have twenty-four to forty-eight hours before they’ll be put down, or in some places even less.  I suppose this truth isn’t spoken because then people would be more inclined to just leave that box of puppies on the side of the road or behind the store or dump their dog or cat in a rural setting.  But, hell, people already do that. 

Why are we so afraid to educate people, to tell them the reality of the ways of the world?  In raising my daughter, of course, I’ve often been told you have to teach your children for adulthood, prepare them for the “real” world.  Well, here it is, shelters put down puppies all the time, brand new babies, days, weeks, sometimes just hours old.  Shelters are over run and strive to be kill free, but again with people not taking responsibility “kill free” is often just plain “unrealistic.”  Perhaps more would take responsibility if actually told the truth.  

Rasta’s Rescue has removed 13 puppies from death row at just one shelter in New Mexico.