Brett's Blog

Lost and Found, Licensing and Micro-chipping

I just got off the phone with my neighbor Gretchen.  She had called to say a police officer was at her house with a male chocolate lab who was lost.  It wasn't her Zeke, but she was calling a few neighbors before the officer took him to the Humane Society.  She knew it wasn't mine, but thought I might know who he belonged to because I'm known in the neighborhood as the animal lady/humane society volunteer and all around helper of animals.

I thought it might be Bella, the Vander Aark's dog, but it wasn't.  I told her to have the police  officer drive him down to my house and I'd take a look at him to see if I recognized him.  A few minutes later Daisy and Dingo erupted into loud barking and I went outside to see him.  My husband Tom came out and said it was probably the Jordan's who live across Country Club Road. 

Sure enough, Rick Jordan had been looking for him and the very kind police officer drove the dog home.  A very happy ending.

Unfortunately, not all endings are this happy.  Hundreds of thousands of animals are lost every year, not all are found.  Many are hit by cars and suffer unspeakable tragedy and often painful deaths.  If you have a pet PLEASE get them licensed, put identification tags on their collars and get them micro-chipped.  This saves lives and countless hours worrying.  A good site to check out is America's National Lost and Found Database.

If your pet is lost, the first thing to do is call your local police department and report the animal as missing, call friends and neighbors to alert them, call your local animal shelter and any rescues in the area to file a missing report (they want your pet returned to you as well, otherwise they take up space needed by other stray and abandoned animals). Once a report is made, if the animal is found and someone calls, they know to call you, or if the animal is lucky enough to be brought to the shelter, they will call you before the animal gets adopted out (if he's lucky) or PTS'd (Put To Sleep).

If you don't have a dog license, call your local municipality or visit them online to obtain a license.  Low-cost micro-shipping is often provided at animal shelters and rescues as well.  Check their website for clinic dates and times.  Locally, HSHA has them monthly.  Many veterinarians are now offering this service to their clients too.

Rescues and other great places to get a pet...

All of my animals have come from a rescue group or the Humane Society of Harrisburg.  I do not believe in purchasing a dog, pure-bred, or God forbid a puppy mill dog.  Daisy my yellow lab, pit-bull mix came from a rescue in Virginia.  She and her brother had been rescued from a high-kill shelter in North Carolina where her mother was put down, or in shelter terms PTS'd ( put to sleep).  Dingo came from the West SHore shelter of HSHA.  My daughter's Girl Scout troop did a huge pet food drive about four years ago and donated all the food to HSHA. I told them I shouldn't go in to shelter because "something" would end up coming home with us.  The girl at the shelter assured us we could put the food in the garage and I didn't have to see any animals.  We brought several cars and trucks filled with food and they raised the garage door...wouldn't you know there were two crates in the garage!  One had Dingo it.  He had an injured paw with an open sore and his big brown eyes looked longingly at me.  We dropped off all of the food and left, but I couldn't get him out of my mind.  I ended up going back for him and he's been with me ever since.  He's a mama's boy and is very loyal.

Lucy, Miss Tigger, and Muffin all came from the Castaway Critters.  Pudgie came from my sister-in-law's farm in Dillsburg.  He was one of six cats a stray mama cat had given birth to under front porch.  We picked up Ozzie at a Rutter's in York on the way home from our beach house a few summers ago and of course you know about JoJo from my previous blog.

There are several rescues in Central PA alone and hundreds more across the state, including Humane Societies and SPCA's.  A great resource for choosing a pet is Petfinder.com, which lists animals by breed, type, location and usually gives a description and photos.  Unwanted animals are a result of overpopulation, so before buying a bred dog, I urge anyone who is thinking of adding a pet to consider adopting from one of these animal rescues. For every dog that is purchased another dies.

And don't forget, PLEASE SPAY and NEUTER!

HSHA needs you and HSUS needs me...

The Humane Society of Harrisburg Area (HSHA) ZooToo points are holding at #4.  We really need this shelter makeover and hope to win this contest.  All it takes is a few more people to sign up - it's free, to put us at the top. 

Often times I get junk e-mail asking me to register to win, or to "earn" something on another website.  ZooToo's shelter makeover isn't like the rest.  Their site is devoted to helping people to help their pets and helping homeless animals and shelters across America.  This is one cause I passionately believe in.

As I'm approaching graduation and looking for a job, I am drawn back to what originally inspired me to go back to school and get a degree...helping animals.  I've  been surfing the net looking at all sorts of jobs and employment services.  I happened to land on the Humane Society of the United States' website www.hsus.org and found a wealth of information and job openings.  Many of the jobs are in Gaithersburg, Maryland and I hadn't really planned to relocate as I love Camp Hill.  However, my heartstrings are tugging unusually hard.  Gaithersburg is only aboout 30 minutes from Georgetown where my daughter goes to school.  How convenient is that??  Our weekend farm is about an hour from Gaithersburg, so that would still be a hike. 

I never thought about leaving Camp Hill, it's where all my memories of raising my daughter are, our friends and our life.  Sometimes life throws a curve ball just to see if I'm paying attention.  I am a deeply connected, intense person.  The past year has been incredibly rough for me.   When Alex went to college I felt like my heart had been ripped out.  It's hard to imagine leaving a place that has so much meaning to me; coaching her softball teams, soccer teams, cheering her on at all of her tennis matches, being her Girl Scout Leader, watching her earn her Gold Award, watching her perform in all of the school musicals, watching her go from reporter, to copy editor to editor in chief of her school newspaper, watching her win numerous scholarships and feeling the tears of joy stream down my face at her graduation.  I loved every minute of being her mom, but now it's time to let go and watch her find her way at college and for me to spread my wings to see where they take me.  My first love is Alex, my second is all of the homeless animals who need advocates.

The Humane Society of the United States will hopefully receive my resume and cover letter on Monday.  I hope to hear from them soon before I change my mind about leaving this place I call home.

 

ZOOTOO

My love of animals has taken me many places.  My latest adventure is at www.zootoo.com. Right now ZooToo is running a contest for animal shelters across the country to win a $1million shelter makeover.

Since I am huge supporter of the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area, www.humanesocietyhbg.org , I am trying to help them win a shelter makeover.  Last year HSHA was forced to close its West Shore shelter due to finacial constraints.  The shelter needed many upgrades and it was no longer suitable for housing animals.  This created a crisis at the East Shore shelter and it has ben overcrowded ever since.  They are working with new management and a a relatively new board to get the shelter back on track.  They are also planning a capital campaign to raise money to add on to the East Shore shelter.  Winning this makeover would be a big help as the price tag for renovations is more than a million dollars.

It is very easy to help them win this makeover and it costs nothing!  There are several ways to help: by logging on to www.zootoo.com and registering, automatically gets the shelter 100 points, once registered you can add up more points by posting photos of your animals, writing a review or even volunteering.  Again, it is completely free, but helps a worthwhile cause.

We are currently in 4th place so your registration will really help.  My profile is BrettMiller, so check out all the photos of my many animals and I hope to see you on ZooToo!

Animal stories...

This morning I woke up to find Daisy, my yellow lab/pit bull mix licking her paw incessantly.  Upon looking at it I found she had torn a toenail and it was barely hanging on.  She's my wild girl.  She loves to run like a crazy nut, hence the nickname "Crazy Daisy." She must have torn it on the ice and now the pink quick is entirely exposed.  I wrapped it quickly and she was off again to play in the snow.  Sometimes I feel like I should have been a veterinarian, I have so much experiance caring for animals.

My animals are near and dear to me and have kept me entertained and on my toes for years.  Last May I decided to adopt another cat from the East Shore Shelter of the Humane Society.  I had been at the shelter working on grants and there were so many cats in crates from the floor to ceiling, it just broke my heart.  I told Kelly I wanted to adopt one, it didn't matter what it looked like, but I wanted a cat who had been in a crate, or at least at the shelter the longest.  She said that would be "Jo", a 10 year old gray and white male cat who had been there for more than a year.  He was an owner surrender and just wanted to spend his remaining years with a family to love him.  The next day I came back with my cat carrier and brought "JoJo" (my new name for him from the Beatles song "Get Back") home to meet the rest of the crew.

JoJo adapted beautifully and we were more than happy to love and take care of him. JoJo had big beautiful green eyes, until one day in November I looked at him and noticed his left eye was brown.  I did a double take because I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.  I took him to the vet where she gave me the bad news.  It was most likely staining from cancer and the eye had to be removed before it metastisized.  I was crushed.  My vet recommended I take him to a veterinary opthaolmologist.  After seeing the opthalmologist he confirmed the worst and said it was a 65% chance that it was cancer and the eye should be removed.  My husband thought we should put him down and I just couldn't do it.  I didn't know what to do because there was a 35% chance it wasn't cancer and we would be removing the eye for nothing. 

After several weeks of weighing the options I made the decision to remove his eye.  The surgery went well and I prepared myself for what I thought he would look like.  When I picked him up the next day I realized I hadn't prepared well enough and was shocked to see a huge incision and swelling the size of a golf ball.  All I could think was "what had I done?"  I was beside myself and felt like an unfit mother.  JoJo adapted beautifully to having only one eye and he wasn't in pain anymore.  Animals are so very resilient.  My vet called me later in the week with the pathology results, it was malignant melanoma.  I had done the right thing and saved his life. JoJo now spends more time socializing with us and the rest of the cats than he did before.  He's not in pain and is enjoying life!

I Love Animals...

Most students at Penn State Harrisburg who know me, know that I'm a huge animal lover.  I have two dogs and six cats, all rescues.  I'm married and have a daughter, Alexandra, who is a freshman at Georgetown University.  My animals were a great source of comfort when my daughter left.  The house didn't feel so empty.

I have been a volunteer for the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area www.humanesocietyhbg.org for the past five years. I am on the FurBall committee which is our huge fundraising gala in the fall.  I have also helped to organize their grant files and written a few grants for them. 

There are far too many animals suffering in the world due to overpopulation, starvation, cruelty and neglect.  I hope by volunteering my time and raising awareness of these issues we will be able to eliminate the suffering of homeless animals.

More to come...