Kerry's Latest Update – Pets Alive Middletown

Sanctuary Animal Updates – Middletown
Since my last update all the way back in February we took in 210 dogs, 81 cats (not counting the Itty Bitty Kitty Rescue), and 3 farm animals. We adopted out 196 dogs, 61 cats and 5 farm animals. Winter are the slowest months, but I am still happy with those numbers here at the Middletown location.
Highlighted adoptions must be that we adopted all our Jack Russell trouble terrors (Ummm, I mean TERRIERS). There was Hercules – very senior JRT – ADOPTED! Then we adopted out Zippy (who could be nippy!), we adopted out Aaron (who was not house trained) and we adopted our Mr. Parker who was senior AND blind (although we got him a surgery that has now enabled him to be able to SEE out of one eye!!). So it was quite an eventful month for our little white terrors!

Itty Bitty Kitty Rescue:
When Pets Alive saw little kittens being killed by the dozens every day the the Animal Care and Control (ACC) shelters, we knew we couldn’t sit still and let this happen.
We stepped up and offered to take ALL the kittens, nursing mother’s, and bottle babies that the ACC had – and over the next two weeks we helped them get through kitten season by rescuing 108 lives!
Additionally we took in multiple mother’s and kittens that people emailed us about from Montgomery, Middletown, Goshen, Chester and more!
Since we now have two facilities, the intake was manageable for us to split the numbers, and thanks to many foster homes that stepped up, all the nursing moms, with their babies were placed into foster!
We were very happy to be able to save all these lives. Please spay and neuter your pets. Pets Alive alters ALL animals that come into our care and we take this very seriously. These 108 lives are a product of too many cats being unaltered. We have also started a TNR program in Wallkill and Middletown to help anyone in need of controlling populations. Please reach out to us if you need help with TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return).
Farm Animal Update:
We had a great few months for farm animal adoptions! We adopted out Darby, our mini horse, we also adopted out both our pigs – Daisy and Delilah and all four of our goats were adopted! We already took in another pig named Jeter (with the Elvis hair) and we’ll probably be taking in more goats very soon as well. We’re really happy to see our farm animals going to great homes!

Medical Update – written by Janet Pirog
Robert—it is now just over two months since Robert returned from his spinal surgery. Even though we had all hoped that his surgery would reverse his current hind end paralysis, we have seen some major improvements!
Robert is now starting to bear weight on his hind end, and he does have the ability to “kick” or drawer his legs toward his body. While providing daily epsom salt soaks to his healing wound on his foot, Robert would vehemently try to keep his foot out of the foot bath. Also, as most folks have heard, Robert has been increasingly releasing urine while out on walks in his cart. It is not enough urine as to empty his bladder, but this increase is indeed encouraging. We do still currently express his bladder manually a couple times daily, but we have not had to catheterize him in several weeks! This alone is promising news. Even though we keep hoping for a miracle, we will gladly take any and all positive occurrences that come Robert’s way. (For more information about Robert and his amazing recovery, please visit the Pets Alive blog
).
Mr. Parker—the 12-year old Jack Russell who came to us blind several months ago, had surgery last week to try to recover some sight. Parker had an intraocular mass within his left eye while a cataract covering his right eye left his sight highly impaired. His ophthalmologist knew that his left eye needed to be removed, but depending on further tests on his retina (in his right eye), Parker was a potential candidate for cataract surgery. Poor Parker waited a lengthy time for his procedure to take place since he fell ill right before his initial surgery date. It took him a couple weeks to fully recover from a bad upper respiratory infection in order to undergo anesthesia. On May 3rd, Parker spent the day at the ophthalmologist and was indeed able to have his cataract removed!!!! It has now been 10 days and Parker is healing very nicely. He is on many different eye drops to promote healing and reduce swelling and can now see at of one of his eyes. He was also just adopted!
Jess—the little silly overlooked Puerto Rican princess, needed to have her toe stapled together last week. Initially you would never know that his girl had a nasty cut on her paw as she continued racing around her run with her cagemate! We believe that the neighboring dog may have been the culprit and probably grabbed her toe through the fence. Jess’ paw had been bandaged for the first few days, but she decided the bandages were no longer needed and kept removing them herself. She is healing very nicely though and is back to running around like a crazy little woman. The one thing I just can not wrap my head around is how is the gem of a dog still not adopted!!! Small, sweet, playful and loving….come on now, how come her forever family has forgotten to take her home? Her bags are all packed and she is ready to go!!!

Mikey—the extremely emaciated Rottweiler who was found by police tied to a tree only a couple miles from Pets Alive, has had his share of ups and downs. Within the first two weeks of being brought to our facility, Mikey gained over six pounds. He has now gained over 12 pounds! He also gained the affection of all our volunteers. Mikey had his own personal group of chefs cooking for him daily. Ground beef, turkey, and chicken! He was eating better than many of our staff! Unfortunately one morning, our dog manager arrived to find a large amount of blood all around Mikey. He rushed him to our vet and it was determined that the blood emanated from his nose. After a few hours, his (now) slight bloody nasal discharge had almost completely stopped. But why was this happening to begin with? Initial x-rays had not revealed much information. But a subsequent ultrasound found growths on both kidneys. Our wonderful volunteers did not want Mikey to have to spend even one more night in the shelter and teamed up to care for him in their home, taking shifts so that he always had someone close by. About two weeks ago we decided to switch Mikey’s medication as he started having great difficulty getting up, and he seemed to be in discomfort. The steroids he was placed on helped to perk him up quickly and gave him back his quality of life. Although we are not completely certain as to how long Mikey has, the one thing Mikey knows is just how loved he is. He in fact, was just adopted!!!! Now Mikey will never go through one more day (or night) alone. And I’m sure he’ll keep eating much better food than the majority of us reading this!
Boo Boo—our handsome sleek tuxedo cat was recently having a lot of issues. Our cat staff noticed one day that he had projectile vomit, extreme lethargy and anorexia. We took his temperature (which was normal) and gave sub-q fluids. The next day, he seemed to be getting better but then the vomiting continued. Several day passed where Boo Boo needed to be forced fed and given sub-q fluids daily. He was not gaining his appetite back on his own. Boo Boo had a bit of crusty discharge around his mouth, yet his teeth (from as close as we were able to get) did not seem to be in bad shape. We finally sent Boo Boo to stay at our Westchester location where they have a full time veterinarian on staff. Just after a day or two, Boo Boo was eating on his own again. He did stay on fluids and had bloodwork performed, before finally being able to undergo a dental. He is now feeling a lot better.
Kittens — we received an entire bushel of kittens from the NYCACC. These kittens were scheduled to be put down. Unfortunately after agreeing to take these kittens we learned that two kittens (out of a litter of 5) tested positive for Feline leukemia. Feline leukemia is a highly contagious and (typically) deadly disease that affects cats. The prognosis for cats infected with this disease is not good. These 4-week old kittens were so adorable and asymptomatic we could not just let them get put down without trying. Even though we are being extremely cautious as to not cross contaminate, we are hopeful that these kittens are simply showing maternal antibodies and will test negative in 12 weeks. Until we can be completely certain that they are negative, we will keep them housed and cared for in a separate building. A fecal exam revealed that they have a parasite called coccidia which they are being treated for right now as well.
Improving Adoptability Update – Written by Pat Whitacre
Some dogs can spend their lifetime under the cloud of a bad “history” which produces an ever shrinking world and reduced opportunities to maintain, let alone improve, their skills . The best way to change this is to build a new history. By teaching dogs to enjoy a basket muzzle the same way they do a leash, a food bowl, or a treat pouch we can give them a safe, easy way to accomplish this. The muzzle does not just open the window of opportunity, it can fling the doors open wide! With proper supervision the dogs can interact with anyone from a grandparent to a young child. This can simultaneously enrich the dog’s life, provide practice of social skills, and build a new history that can change where his life can go from here.

Sammy and Glacier are at a point where they need equipment training. Glacier needs more practice with his muzzle, and we want to teach Sammy to wear a head halter to make walking him more manageable for the public.
Forest, Plato, and Pancake are ready to move out of the special “improving adoptability” training area. We should expect that Forest and Plato will return to their old behaviors if the interactions with the public support those behaviors but we can tell any potential adopters that they have both have shown the ability to behave politely if they follow our suggestions.
Pancake enjoys his new level of interaction so he is less likely to return to his old avoidance/indecision habits. (In fact as of this writing, Pancake has been adopted!)
We are preparing to move Donnie into the program, as recently he growled at a volunteer and would not let her take his harness off. He has also been exhibiting rude behavior when staff puts his food in his run.
Wonka would be another good candidate since volunteers do not seem able to leash him without help. So he will be joining our program this week.
Josh is another possibility for our program. He is getting better with the staff, and has made some good progress with a “petting wand”. Although he is not one of our dogs that is on the brink of adopt-ability but he is one that could spend years here if we do not change his habits now.
Ronan is doing great with is muzzle, and others can now walk him with me tagging along. He still tries to hump a leg when he gets excited but with the muzzle it is easy to hold the leash low to keep him on the ground until he calms down. We really need volunteers to come and work with him to get him out more. He is very social and polite meeting people when out.
Bear is now wearing his muzzle on walks as we finally have one that will fit him comfortably. This week children were feeding him through his muzzle and Bear did very well.