Cats

Categories Cats, Dog

Hemopet

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I know.  Those of you who aren’t dog owners are probably going “WTF is Hemopet???”  Heck, an awful lot of dog owners are probably doing the same thing.

Hemopet is a multifunction non-profit:

They run one of the largest canine bloodbanks in the country, filling 40% of the nationwide need for canine blood for transfusions.  Yes, dogs need transfusions.  Not only because of injury, but because of surgeries, or medical problems.  If you’ve ever had a dog require major surgery, eat rat poison, be diagnosed with parvo, be diagnosed with IMHA, or any one of bunch of other issues, its very very likely your dog has received a blood transfusion, and there’s a 40% chance that blood came from Hemopet.

They provide a select list of blood testing, including one of the best thyroid labs you can have your dog’s bloodwork sent to.

They have run a variety of studies in vaccine efficacy, most recently proving that small dogs only need about half a dose of the standard vaccine package, reducing the load on the immune system for tiny dogs.  They are also helping with a study to look at the efficiency of the rabies vaccine, to prove that (like the other core vaccines) the rabies vaccine lasts far longer than the 3yrs that the laws allows for.  Hoping to reduce the number of dogs put down for rabies exposure just because their rabies vaccine had “expired”.

Unfortunately they’re in trouble.  The state of CA audited them, and decided that they owe sales taxes, despite their status as a non-profit.  A state Senate bill was created to ensure that non-profit canine blood banks were added to the list of not needing to pay taxes, and the Assembly modified it to state that they still owe BACK taxes, which would still require Hemopet to pay approx $81,000.  Since they came in -$90,000 in 2015 anyway, $81,000 is more than can be come up with.  Being forced to pay it would result in the shut down of Hemopet.

The country would lose 40% of its canine blood supply.  Us owners would lose one of the best places to have a variety of bloodwork done.  Not to mention the research they’ve been working on.

If you live in CA please go to the link above, follow the links, and send a letter to the committee that currently has control of the bill that controls Hemopet’s fate.

Categories Cats, Gardening, Nothing Much

General update

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The broccoli survived the cold, I keep forgetting to take pictures, I’ll try this weekend.

I started my hot pepper seeds this week, I’ll wait another week or two before starting the tomatoes

I’m still torn over what exactly I want to grow this year.  I both want to narrow down my growing choices and at the same time I want to try 20-100 new things……

I think I’m going to try potatoes again this year.  One of the things I picked up at the end of last season was one of those “make it yourself” cedar raised bed kits for about $25 (which is cheaper than buying the lumber would have been).  It’s designed to be stacked so you can make it tall instead of wide, or both, so I’m thinking I’m going to try it for a potato bed.

Our snow is mostly gone.  And has been replaced with nasty freezing rain.  Which isn’t actually an improvement.

Shadow (the Siberian cat) has been diagnosed with a possible grade 2 or 3 heart murmur.  His workup to confirm the murmur and how bad it really is has been scheduled for the first week of March.

Trouble (the calico cat) had a fairly large bump appear out of nowhere on the side of her face, right between eye and ear.  This is a really bad spot for this sort of thing no matter what it is as there’s not alot of spare skin there, never mind the nerves for eye and ear being so close.  So the bump was removed, biopsy says it’s a benign “inclusion cyst”, so as long as it doesn’t grow back there shouldn’t be any further issues.

For some reason I’m not looking forward to taking the dogs in for their yearly checkups this year.

The appointment with my primary care doctor to request a new referral to a new rheumatologists office went well.  I did my best to be as honest as possible about both how I handled things and how I perceived the doctor and office handling things.  And she was still pretty darn peeved for me.  Which made me feel better cause it wasn’t just me being over-reactive or something.  Now the wait begins to see how long it’s going to take to get into the new office.

In other news we now have confirmation that when I get really really stressed and frustrated my blood pressure tries to go through the roof.  I normally sit below 110/70-60 and occasionally even lower.  So when I walk in with a blood pressure of 140/98 they get pretty upset.  Talking to the doctor helped though, before I left they took it again and it had already dropped to 132/78.  I know there are folks with blood pressure much higher, but for me, that’s high.

 

Categories Cats, Dog, Politics

Nebraska Dog (and cat) Law–proposed amendment!

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Text of the proposed amendment here.

Current status here.

This amendment will allow the court to sell, donate to a shelter, or destroy any animal thats been seized for PROBABLE CAUSE of abuse or neglect BEFORE the owner has their day in court.  And if the owner is then found not guilty they do not get their animal back.

This amendment will also, if the court does not decide on the above, to allow the court to set a “bond or security” that the ACCUSED owner must pay, to cover the costs of caring for the animals while the court case is pending.  And if the owner is found not guilty the funds will be returned to them.  HOWEVER, failure to pay those funds in the first place (because, you know, court costs alone are expensive) the animal is forfeited REGARDLESS of the outcome of the court case.

Categories Cats, Dog, Fail, Politics, Rants

Dog/animal pending law change in New Hampshire (and maybe Maryland too)

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This one’s for you NH people.  I know there’s at least a couple of you who read here.

House Bill 0624 is going to modify the process of what happens when an animal is seized for abuse or the like.  I just did a quick scan of the text, but at least one problem jumped at me right away.

Apparently current process: your dog is seized for abuse, you go to court, and if you’re convicted you’re expected to pay for the costs of the care for the animal while it was in custody.

What they want to do: your dog is seized for abuse, you get handed a bill for the care of the animal before you even get to court, and if you can’t pay that bill you lose custody of the dog regardless of whether you end up convicted or not.  Cause you know, guilty till proven innocent or some such……

I can sympathize that caring for an animal, especially a sick or injured animal, while waiting for a case to go to court isn’t cheap and eats up the limited resources of shelters, but this isn’t the right solution either.

There have been SO MANY cases of reports of abuse that aren’t anywhere close to such.  People who see an animal with “an obvious health problem” where the animal is under the care of a vet for the condition and the owner is taking the appropriate steps to care for the animal.  And sometimes there isn’t a “health problem” at all beyond the reporter’s imagination and lack of knowledge of life.  

Its not bad enough that you’re spending alot of money on the vet bills and medications that your sick animal needs, but now, cause some idiot reported you for abuse and it went viral (which happens WAY TOO OFTEN cause people are fucking stupid), and the local ACO gave in to pressure, they seized your dog, so now you have to pay a ton of money in legal bills to get him back and clear your name……but now they want to  charge you for caring for the dog (which you were doing properly at home in the first place) and if you can’t pay that bill TOO you’re going to lose your dog no matter what the outcome of the court case……

Maryland folks, I’m being told that there’s a similar bill(s) pending in your state as well, I’ve not stopped to read them yet, but consider this a heads up you’ll want to check on!

Categories Cats, Dog, Rants

No sympathy

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I’m to lazy to dig out all the news articles, if you really want to read them doing a search for “elbridge dog shooting” will get you most of them.

On May 31st an Elbridge woman shot her neighbor’s dog when the dog went after her cat.

Police declined to charge her with animal cruelty from the get go, charging her instead with firing a gun within town limits.

A couple days ago they dismissed those charges, stating that the law was aimed at reckless firearm discharge, and that people were still allowed to fire a gun in defense of self and property.

Of course, the dog owner is having a cow.  Upset that there won’t be justice for her dog.  Her grandkid is devastated.

Took a bit of digging, but I was able to confirm that Elbridge does indeed have a leash law.  Unlike alot of such they do make allowances for a dog to be under voice control of the owner.  However every single news article makes it clear that the dog was NOT under voice control at the time of the incident.

According to the above linked article the dog has multiple counts, confirmed by court records, of acting aggressively against the neighbors.  AND there have been multiple reports of the dog running loose and out of control.

While I have some sympathy for the grandkids, I have zero sympathy for the dog owner.  She repeatedly allowed her dog to run loose, despite repeated incidents of aggression by the dog and despite local leash laws.  If she had just taken the basic steps of containing and controlling her dog after the first incident this wouldn’t have happened.  Its not that hard, it just takes a little more effort on the part of the owner.  A dog who has a history of acting aggressive and is still allowed to run loose is not going to survive long, that is plain and simple fact.

Having said all that, I have to note, that the easiest way to ensure that your cat isn’t attacked by a local dog is to not allow your cat to run loose….

Categories Apollo, Birds, Cats, Gardening

Quick update

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Not a whole lot going on right now.  Or rather, what is going on I’m better off not talking about in public till its settled…..lets just say that attempting to screw with my career cause you have issues with women in power is a really bad idea.

Anyway, to top off my lovely New Year I’ve just found out that the one and only antiperspirant that I’ve found that I can wear reliably without breaking out into a rash has been discontinued.  Their clear gel version is still availible, so I may have to give it a try.  I’m not a fan of the gel antiperspirants, but its better than breaking out in a massive rash on a regular basis….

I have some very happy pepper seedlings:

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And Shadow is definitely becoming more comfortable in our house:

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though we’re still trying to convince him that Arty isn’t really devil spawn.

 

The birds have been clearing the feeders almost as fast as I fill them, hard to blame them, its been a hard winter:

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Turns out they’ve had help with the feeders though:

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we’ve not had much of a squirrel problem the last few years, but I’m pretty sure I recognize that particular one from last year…..Apollo was also very happy to “scare off” an opossum the other night.  I think it was  me flipping on the lights that really made it decide to leave the feeders, but Apollo’s sure that it was responding to him barking at it.

The deer have been back, though I don’t have time right now to upload those photos, I’ll do it later.  They’re looking skinnier, not sure if they’re just shedding their winter coats, or if this winter is finally taking its toll.

Categories Cats, Dog, Rants

NYs new animal rights law

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Text of the bill is HERE.

ALL it does is allow local municipalities to enact stricter punishments than the state law.  Seriously.  After reading it I didn’t  understand why all the Animal Rights people were jumping for joy over it.

Then I read THIS article.

Money quote:

“I think any police officer should be able to pull over and say let me see your license and paperwork. And if that dog is not spayed or neutered, it would be wonderful if they can fine that individual,” says McNeely.

Christine McNeely is the executive director of the local Humane Association of Central NY.

There are SO MANY things wrong with that statement its not even funny.

First off, can you say HUMAN rights violation, for the cops to be able to stop you and ask for “your paperwork” just because you happen to be with a dog??

Then lets look at the stupidity of mandatory spay/neuter laws, which do NOT work.  If you have a decent low cost spay/neuter program then the only folks who haven’t spayed or neutered their dog or cat either aren’t going to anyway, or don’t know about the program.  All the law does is fine them, force them to give up the animal when they can’t afford the fine, at which point they go to the BYB down the road and get another puppy.  Meanwhile the dog they gave up is sitting at the local pound and probably getting put down for “space”.

And then there’s recent research on the fairly serious negatives of spaying/neutering dogs at an early age, with some research pointing out negatives for spay/neuter at ANY age.  Seriously, we’ve known for a long time that the removal of hormones does bad things to HUMANS, why we ever thought it wasn’t going to do bad things to other animals I do NOT understand.

And, basic fact of life here, if you legislate out all the responsible hobby breeders by making it so incredibly expensive to breed, the only ones left breeding will be the puppy mills who can afford to pay for whatever permits are needed, and the BYBers who don’t care or don’t know about the law and slide under it for various reasons!  Yup, laws like this just make it MORE possible to find a puppy from a puppy mill.  Not less.

If they REALLY want to put the puppy mills out of business then they need to forbid the selling of cats/dogs in petstores or other retail settings, and they need to forbid the selling of them online.  The GOOD breeders don’t sell online, they list their litters planned, and show pictures of the pups, but no transactions are done via the website.  

But of course that won’t happen, cause the folks behind the puppy mills have money, and money talks when it comes to politics!

Categories Apollo, Artemis, Cats, Dog, Rants

*headdesk* aka the reason I have very little respect for most animal rescue groups…

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Back at the end of January we had to put Janie down.  It hurt, but she was miserable, and nothing was helping any more.

One thing I started doing, almost immedietly, was looking for a new cat.  Not because I wanted a new cat so soon, cause really, I didn’t.  But because in order to fit into this household a cat is going to have to fit some fairly strict criteria, and I knew it was going to take time to find a cat who did.

The problem of course is Arty’s prey drive.  He understands that he’s not allowed to chase MY cats, but any cat he doesn’t ID as mine is fair game, and I’ve not been able to break that yet (and may not be able to ever).  Any new cat that enters my house will have a period of time where, if it makes a “prey like” move Arty will attempt to pounce, it IS going to take me time to get him to realize this is MY cat.  SO: No kittens, they’re to small and helpless and to likely to do things like scamper accross the floor in a mad dash…..I’d prefer a young adult cat, between 1-3 years of age.  The cat needs to already be dog savvy.  And a larger cat is probly a good idea.  A laid-back temperment is also required, to put up with Arty.

Now I already knew that my local shelter had a strict policy of not adopting dogs into a home with an intact dog.  The fact that the dog I’d been looking at was already spayed had no bearing on their decision.  Apollo’s intact and thats that.  But surely it was different for their cats…..

Nope.  Intact dog, therefor no cat for me.  I shook my head and started casting my net wider.

And repeatedly ran into the same policy.  Apollo’s intact, therefor MULTIPLE rescues will not adopt an already “fixed” cat to me.

Guys, I promise Apollo has no taste for rape, much less cross-species rape, and the Tibetan Meow-stiff is an urban legend, I swear……

Its so bad that when I run across a new rescue I no longer email asking for more info on specific animals, and I no longer fill out the adoption application.  Instead the first thing I do is email asking if they will adopt a CAT into a home that has an intact DOG.

I haven’t found one yet.

These same rescues constantly go on about not being able to find homes for all their animals.  These same rescues can’t understand why people end up getting their next cat or dog from some BYB on Craigslist.

They do it to themselves.

Categories Cats

I haven’t posted much about my cats

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The dogs tend to be more photogenic, so its easier to focus on them.  But a cat update.

For Trouble not much has changed.  She still lives up to her name, enticing Arty into chasing her and then swatting him with claws when he does, and trying to eat any piece of plastic bag type material I miss when cleaning up.

Unfortunetly the same can’t be said for Janie.  Her health has continued to deteriorate.  We keep having to adjust her thyroid meds.  She’ll be stable and then her thyroid will go screwy again.  One of her last sets of bloodwork showed some odd numbers that the vet thought MIGHT be indicitive of Addisons disease.  Addisons is REALLY rare in cats, but its inevitably fatal if not treated, so we tested for it.  Came back negetive for Addisons, but possibly positive for Cushings (which is basically the exact opposite).  Except its only possibly positive.  And while Cushings is technically easily treatable, when you add in her other problems (random pancreatitus, kidneys slowly failing, an out of control thyroid, occasional IBS) we don’t know how the meds will work with her.  I HIGHLY suspect that the REAL cause of her out of control thyroid isn’t that her thyroid is getting worse, its that her kidney’s are getting worse resulting in improper dosages of medication actually getting absorbed.  But checking her kidney’s requires another ultrasound, which means another day spent at the vets, and every time we do that she comes home sicker from the stress, and we have to re-integrate her into the household cause she smells so odd that none of the other animals want to deal with her…..and I think she’s heading into another bout of pancreatitus on top of needing her thyroid meds adjusted again…..the bad days are starting to outweigh the good ones, and I’m not sure its fair to her to keep prolonging the pain and misery…..