September 17, 2014 / by Leann
Friends, my rescue mentor and dearest friend accompanied us on our trip to the puppy mill auction this past weekend, and she wrote a post that she asked me to share with all of you. I have to say that this auction was even more stressful than the previous one, and I honestly don’t know what I would have done without her, our wonderful friend, Shannon, and our friends from North Star Shih Tzu Rescue.
Gretchen writes –
I’d like everyone who contributed to the recent puppy mill auction rescue to know how CSTR volunteers did in coordinating and pulling off this amazing feat.
In an environment of sights, sounds, and SMELLS that would rock the timid-hearted, CSTR volunteers kept their cool and did an amazing job maximizing the positive results. Those auctions are NOT friendly places, and although they know Rescue folks are there, they stress (ad nauseum) how we’d better keep our mouths shut and be well-behaved during the spectacle of greed and distress. The auctioneer belabored his personal relationships with all local police, judges, and politicians and pretty much dared anyone to try to take pictures, video, or otherwise make trouble.
Still, keeping their eyes on the end goal of getting as many of those babies as they could out of that hellish lifestyle, the volunteers supported each other and kept on track. Whispers of outrage and encouragement were nearly constant, as the auctioneer kept up a pace so confusing that it was hard to tell what the winning bids were in some cases, and who had chosen which animals in most cases, The animals were terrified, smelly, and handled without dignity.
Fortunately, I was charged with acting as the banker, so most of my work was in counting, subtracting, and keeping track of how much of our rescue funds were left for each dog. Our well-rehearsed plans were shattered by the addition of new dogs and the rearranging of priorities as nearly every female was said to be “possibly bred”. Males and females were kept in cages together in the back room during the event, so mating continued, actually delaying one dog’s appearance on the auction block.
My hat goes off to the ladies who kept their stress under control and managed to maximize the impact of the donated funds in an environment designed to confuse and hamper the well-intended. It was an honor to have worked with all of you.
September 10, 2014 / by Leann
Did you know that 80% of dogs over the age of 4 have some form of dental disease?
As with people, the main culprit is a build-up of plaque, which eventually hardens into tartar, leading to gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) and periodontal disease.
The result? A bacterial invasion of the gums and tissues supporting the teeth, damaging them and ultimately causing tooth loss. This bacteria can also invade the bloodstream, potentially damaging the lungs, heart, kidneys and liver.
Did you know that, as responsible owners, you can lower your dog’s risks by following a program of conscientious oral care.
Before you start, have the vet examine your dog’s mouth for signs of hardened plaque and/or dental disease. If your dog suffers from either condition, once the dental disease is treated and/or the plaque professionally removed, your home care program can begin.
Ideally, you should begin caring for your dog’s teeth while he’s still a puppy. Brushing his teeth is the most effective way to control plaque by breaking it up before it hardens into tartar.
Choose only those toothbrushes, tooth pastes and oral gels designed especially for pets. For the more difficult ones, there are “rubber finger brushes.” If your dog refuses to accept any of these “tools,” use your own finger. It’s the act of brushing or rubbing which provides the most benefit.
Brush your dog’s teeth at the same time every day. Begin slowly, praising him often, stopping if he becomes agitated, then beginning again. Increase the amount of brushing time slowly, day by day.
If your dog absolutely refuses to have his teeth cleaned, add specially formulated antiseptic oral rinses (although they’re more effective when combined with cleaning) to his water.
Dogs love to chew, and this has the added benefit of helping to keep their teeth clean. There are dozens of specifically formulated oral care products for them, including dental chews, chew toys and treats.
There are also special dental diets shown to reduce plaque and/or tartar build up. They work by physically cleaning the teeth more efficiently than regular kibble (theirs is less likely to crumble upon chewing) or by the addition of chemicals to prevent the hardening of plaque into tartar.
Weekly inspections of your dog’s entire mouth can also help avoid both dental disease and costly and invasive medical procedures in the future. Ensure that your vet includes a thorough examination of your dog’s mouth, gums and teeth in each annual check up.
Be alert to such problems as bad breath, drooling, red or puffy, bleeding gums, yellow tartar crusted along the gum line, discolored, broken or missing teeth, bumps in the mouth, and changes in chewing or eating habits.
If you’ve been neglecting your dog’s dental health up to now, it is never too late to start.
Author: Nomi Berger
September 7, 2014 / by Leann
Millions of dogs go missing each year. Unfortunately, very few of them are ever reunited with their owners. Many of them become and remain strays. Others are taken to pounds or shelters, where they are either adopted out to new homes or, all too often, euthanized. Now protective pet parents, no longer content with relying on collars and tags alone, have begun microchipping their dogs.
It’s a simple and safe procedure. A veterinarian injects a microchip designed especially for animals — the size of a grain of rice — beneath the surface of a dog’s skin between the shoulder blades. Similar to a routine shot, it takes only a few seconds and most dogs don’t even seem to feel the implantation. Unlike other forms of identification, a microchip is permanent and, with no internal energy source, will last the life of the dog. Once it’s implanted, the dog must immediately be registered with the microchip company (usually for a one-time fee), thus storing his unique, alpha-numeric code in the company’s database.
Whenever a lost dog appears at a shelter, humane society or veterinary clinic, he/she will automatically be scanned for a microchip. If there is one, the screen of the handheld scanner will display that dog’s specific code. A simple call to the recovery database using a toll free 800 number enables the code to be traced back to the dog’s owner. But in order for the system to work efficiently, all owners are cautioned to keep their contact information up-to-date.
The most complete microchips comply with International Standards Organization (ISO) Standards. These standards define the structure of the microchip’s information content and determine the protocol for scanner-microchip communication. They also include the assignment of a 15-digit numeric identification code to each microchip; 3 digits either for the code of the country in which the dog was implanted or for the manufacturer’s code; one digit for the dog’s category (optional), and the remaining 8 or 9 digits for that dog’s unique ID number.
As with anything else, however, problems can and do arise. Not all shelters, humane societies, and veterinary offices have scanners. Although rare, microchips can fail, and even universal scanners may not be able to detect every microchip. Accurate detection can also be hampered if dogs struggle too much while being scanned or if either long, matted hair or excess fat deposits cover the implantation site. And because there are an ever-increasing number of pet recovery services, there is, as yet, no single database that links one to the other.
Since no method of identification is perfect, the best way owners can protect their dogs is by being responsible owners. By always keeping current identification tags on their dogs, never allowing them to roam free and microchipping them for added protection.
Author: Nomi Berger
September 2, 2014 / by Leann
“Fostering a dog is not a lifetime commitment, it is a commitment to saving a life.”
This is the watchword of rescue groups everywhere.
To foster a dog is, quite simply, to save that dog’s life. A foster home provides that same dog with a safe, temporary place of refuge until he is ultimately placed in a permanent, adoptive home.
Most rescues rely solely on a network of dedicated, volunteer foster homes, and could not survive without them. And rescues NEVER have enough foster homes.
Why? Because there are more dogs in need than there are foster homes available to meet that need.
There are many benefits to fostering, many pleasant surprises and many unexpected rewards. Foster parents, past and present, describe it as one of the most memorable and gratifying experiences of their lives.
Fostering is both a way of enriching the lives of the dogs and people involved, and a constructive way for people to give back to their communities. Fostered dogs can provide hours of entertainment and love for their humans, and provide valuable life lessons for adults and children alike.
By taking a deserving dog into their homes, fosters increase that dog’s chances of being adopted. Foster families have the time and the ability to transform their foster dog, through one-on-one contact, exercise and training, into a pet any person or family would be proud to call their own.
Fostering provides a needy dog with a stable environment, coupled with love, attention and affection. While the foster family provides the food, the rescue usually provides everything else, including payment of all medical costs to ensure the dog’s ongoing health and wellbeing.
Fosters are the essential eyes and ears of rescue. By spending every day with their foster dog, fosters will learn all they can about his particular personality. They will be able to identify any behavioral issues that need to be addressed, then work on addressing them.
If fosters already have a dog – either their own or another foster — in residence, all the better. The more animals their foster dog meets, the more socialized he will become, the more easily he will handle stress, and the more relaxed he will be around strangers. And it’s a simple matter to add another warm, furry body to their own dog’s daily walks, meal and potty schedules.
For those who have never owned a dog, fostering provides them with the unique opportunity of seeing if they themselves are suited for permanent pet parenthood. But fostering a dog is NOT a form of trial adoption for that particular dog. There is even a term for it: foster failure. The most successful fosters are those who, despite being emotionally invested, know that they are a stepping stone towards their foster dog’s future. And that as one successfully fostered dog leaves their home, another needy and deserving dog is waiting to enter it.
Ultimately, then, fostering a dog saves not just one life, but two.
Author: Nomi Berger
Interested in learning more about fostering? Click here for more information!
August 30, 2014 / by Leann
How many times have we humans heard the expression, “You’re only as old as you feel”? And why is it that some days, despite our actual age, we feel younger than we are, while other days, we feel older, much older?
So it is with our canine companions. What constitutes a senior in one breed may be an adult in another – with plenty of room for peppiness in both. Although most veterinarians agree that a dog is considered “senior” around the age of 7, what matters more is the size, not the number. Small dogs mature slower, tend to live longer than large dogs, and become seniors later in life. Dogs weighing less than 20 pounds may not show signs of aging until they’re around 12. Fifty-pound dogs won’t seem older until they’re around 10, while the largest dogs start “showing their age” at around 8.
But if wisdom comes with age, so do benefits. And in the case of those lovingly dubbed “gray muzzles”, the benefits of adopting a senior dog are many. Think puppy at heart without the puppy problems. Because in adopting a senior dog, you CAN judge a book by its cover. What you see is what you get: a mature animal whose physique and persona are fully formed — no baby teeth to gnaw on your furniture, no yappy energy to wear you out – allowing you to see, within moments, if yours is a mutual match or not. Although, as with everything else, there are always exceptions to the rule, opening your home to an older dog means opening your heart to an experience akin to instant gratification.
Calmer than their younger counterparts, older dogs are house trained and have long since mastered the basic commands of “sit,” “stay,” “down,” and “come.” And contrary to popular belief, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. Dogs are trainable at any age, and older dogs are just as bright as younger ones, with a greater attention span, making them that much easier to train. Older dogs are loyal, loving and experienced companions, ready to walk politely on leash with you, run gaily off leash (with good recall) in the dog park, and play frisky games of fetch with your new tennis ball or their own, well-worn one.
Less demanding of your attention than younger dogs, they are content with their own company for longer periods, then will lavish you with all of their adoration and affection when it’s cuddling time. Due to their lower energy level, senior dogs are easier to care for and make superlative companions for senior people. They also make friendly and gentle playmates for children — particularly if they were once some other family’s cherished pet.
One common misconception about older, adoptable dogs is that they are “problem dogs”. And yet, most of them have lost their homes, not because of their behavior or temperament, but because of changes in the lives, lifestyle or circumstances of their original owners.
Sadly, for many senior dogs awaiting adoption, age IS seen as a number, even if that number is only 5, and even if that same dog has 10 years or more to live, to love and be loved. More difficult to adopt than younger dogs, and just as deserving of a permanent home, they are all too often overlooked and for all the wrong reasons.
Senior dogs seem to sense when they receive a second chance at the rest of their lives. And anyone wise enough to adopt one, will not only reap the benefits, but will be the lucky recipient of a love as unconditional as it is enduring.
Author: Nomi Berger
August 29, 2014 / by Leann
Crossroads Shih Tzu Rescue is committed to helping shelter dogs, and so we when we saw the photos of the dogs we would call Domino and Zac in their kennels at Chicago Animal Care and Control, we new we had to get them out of there if at all possible. I mean, how could we pass up these faces?? Domino was an owner surrender whose owners said they just didn’t want him anymore. We cannot understand it because this boy is wonderful. Adorable Zac’s pleading face from his CACC kennel just about broke our hearts, and so we took him, too, once his stray hold was up. As you can see, both boys are doing fabulously after two weeks in their foster homes, and now they are ready to start looking for their forever homes. Their profiles will be up soon on our Petfinder page, and they will be available for adoption in the Chicago area.
Just look at these sweet boys!
August 27, 2014 / by Leann
The problem of pet overpopulation is a global one and requires a solution on a global scale. But like every journey that begins with a single step, this particular journey must begin with every pet owner. Those who do their part and act responsibly by spaying and neutering their cherished family pets.
Spaying (removing the ovaries and uterus of a female dog) and neutering (removing the testicles of a male dog) are simple procedures, rarely requiring so much as an overnight stay in a veterinary clinic. Because half of all litters are unplanned, and because puppies can conceive puppies of their own, spaying and neutering them before the age of 6 months can help break this cycle.
According to SPAY USA, an unspayed female dog, her unneutered mate and their offspring (if none are spayed or neutered) result in the births of a staggering 12,288 puppies in just 5 years.
The inevitable outcome? Hundreds of thousands of dogs being euthanized through no fault of their own. Why? Because they are the tragic, but avoidable, result of over breeding and overpopulation. Why? Because there are too few shelters to house them and too few homes to either foster or adopt them. Why? Because there are still too many dog owners unwilling to spay and neuter their pets.
The positive effects of spaying and neutering far outweigh the negatives. Females spayed before their first heat are 16 times less likely to develop mammary cancer than those left intact. Early spaying is also their best protection against conditions like pyometritis, a potentially fatal bacterial infection of the uterus, as well as ovarian and uterine cancers. Early neutering of males protects them against testicular cancer, and helps curb both aggression and other undesirable behaviors. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association Task Force on Canine Aggression and Human-Canine Interactions, 70 to 76 percent of reported dog bite incidents are caused by intact males.
For years, reputable rescue groups have been spaying and neutering the animals in their care before even putting them up for adoption. More recently, in an effort to address at least part of this ongoing problem, various organizations — large and small, urban and rural, public and private — have been springing up across the country. From the ASPCA to local humane societies, spay/neuter clinics are opening and operating. Mobile spay/neuter clinics are reaching out to those unable to reach them. Many rescue groups now offer their own Spay Neuter Incentive Programs (SNIP), which provide assistance to low income households.
Imagine if there were more regional, local and mobile spay/neuter clinics. More Spay Neuter Incentive Programs. Imagine entire communities across the country, where every pet owner took personal responsibility for spaying and neutering their pets. Imagine what we, as part of the global community, could accomplish then.
Author: Nomi Berger
August 25, 2014 / by Leann
WILL YOU VOLUNTEER WITH US?
WE NEED ADDED HANDS AND ARDENT HEARTS!
WE are, therefore, reaching out to you and asking for your personal contribution to our rescue and our refuge.
WE are asking for your compassion, your creativity and your commitment by joining our dedicated team of volunteers.
WE are asking you to set aside some time for us. To set your own agenda as you work with us.
WE are asking for your own unique voice, perspective and talent as you lend all three to our own unique organization.
THE more volunteers we have, the more we can accomplish, the more activities we can host, and the more funds we can raise.
THE more volunteers we have – including volunteer foster homes — the more lives of desperate and deserving, sick and senior dogs we can save.
THE more volunteers we have, the more power we have. The more power we have, the more chance we have of continuing to realize our rescue’s goals.
NO two volunteers are the same, but the experience of volunteering is. It can be one the most satisfying and fulfilling experiences of your life.
WON’T YOU ADD YOUR HANDS AND HEARTS TO OURS?
WE invite you to learn more about volunteering with us by visiting: www.crossroadsrescue.org or emailing us at: cstr.board@crossroadsrescue.org
August 23, 2014 / by Leann
Why adopt a rescue pup or dog? Why not buy one from an ad on the Internet or from a pet store? Why not buy one from a breeder? There are many reasons — all of them humane.
The growth of the Internet has spurred the growth of ads selling pets. But it also provides anonymity to a more insidious growth: that of puppy mills and so-called “backyard” breeders. It helps them avoid accountability when they sell unhealthy or mistreated pets to unsuspecting, over-eager buyers. And it only serves to confirm the axiom: “buyer beware.”
Each time a dog is bought from an ad on the Internet, a homeless dog is left without a home.
Many pet stores rely on both puppy mills and “backyard” breeders. Like the Internet, they rely on impulse buying. A child ogles a playful puppy through a pane of glass, and that old song, “How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?” begins. Few parents can refuse the insistent “Please! Please! Please!” of their children.
Each time a puppy is bought from a pet store, a surrendered dog languishes in a shelter.
There may be thousands of legitimate breeders throughout the country but there are just as many unscrupulous ones. There are no laws regulating who can and cannot breed. There are no inspections of their facilities. Even a certificate from a recognized kennel club means only that the breeder has “agreed” to its code of ethics. A piece of paper is simply that: a piece of paper.
Each time a dog is bought from an unscrupulous breeder, an abandoned dog moves closer to death in a pound.
Why, then, adopt a rescue dog?
There are tens of thousands of healthy, happy and balanced dogs available from thousands of rescue organizations across the country. Contrary to popular belief, they include purebreds as well as crossbreeds and mixed breeds. And for people intent on a specific breed, there are rescue groups devoted exclusively to a single breed of dog.
Adopting a rescue dog is saving that dog’s life. Rescue organizations are usually the last refuge for abandoned and abused dogs, surrendered and senior dogs. They are often a dog’s only escape from a puppy mill, shelter or pound. These rescued dogs are placed in loving and experienced, volunteer foster homes, where they are socialized with people and other animals.
They are spayed or neutered, de-wormed, updated on all of their vaccinations and microchipped. They receive whatever veterinary care they need, and are either trained or re-trained before being put up for adoption. And everything is included in the rescue’s modest adoption fees.
It is said that saving a dog makes that dog doubly grateful. By extension, then, anyone who saves a dog will be doubly blessed.
What better reasons could there be to adopt?
Article written by Nomi Berger. Nomi is the best selling author of seven novels, one work of non-fiction, and two volumes of poetry. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and now devotes all of her time volunteering her writing skills to animal rescue organizations throughout Canada and the USA.
April 12, 2013 / by Leann
On April 20 in a town in Missouri, 87 dogs, including many Shih Tzu, will go on the auction block at a puppy mill auction. We at Crossroads Shih Tzu Rescue were horrified to read that one of those dogs is a 10 year old Shih Tzu who is “visibly pregnant”. We would like to save her and her unborn puppies from that horrible cycle in a puppy mill by purchasing her at the auction. To do that, though, we need your help. We need to raise as much money as we can before Monday so that we have chance. Our Livia and Carly were saved from the same fate in February, but we need almost the entire $1500 we raised to do so. We’re hoping to raise the same amount this time to save this poor 10 year old girl and give her a warm, safe and loving home for the remainder of her life. Please help us by donating ASAP. Thank you.
Friends, my rescue mentor and dearest friend accompanied us on our trip to the puppy mill auction this past weekend, and she wrote a post that she asked me to share with all of you. I have to say that this auction was even more stressful than the previous one, and I honestly don’t know what I would have done without her, our wonderful friend, Shannon, and our friends from North Star Shih Tzu Rescue.
