Sanctuary animal updates:
Since our last update on August 17th, we have found homes for Monique, Bisquit (YES!!! – our old, sweet, 14-year old pit-bull went to a FABULOUS home!), Dixie, SIX puppies, April (YES! APRIL!!!!!), Nicky, Bandit, Snoopy, GoGo, Louie, Aretha (she went to a wonderful home that will be doing therapy work with her in senior homes, kids hospitals etc!), we found a foster home for Mitch, and one cat went home – KitCat. Thank you to Kerri for all the really hard work she has put in these past few weeks. Linda adopted April and we’re so relieved. April is such a great dog and we’ve never understood why she has been here so long. Linda comes every day to care for and love our dogs, even the most difficult dogs adore her and she them. April could not be in a better home than where she landed. Perhaps she waited all this time so that she could be with Linda and Nick. Worth the wait.
Molly
That was the positive news. The negative is that ANOTHER of our horses has taken a turn for the worse. I know that almost all of our horses are very old, arthritic and in their extra senior years but it is still hard to see their bodies give way to that when their minds still seem so strong.
Sweet Molly, a horse that lived the first 21 years of her life in a junkyard (you heard me right – she was a ‘junkyard’ pet) with no human interaction has been here for a number of years. She has retained her skittish and shy nature but some of us can halter her and then she meekly comes along and tolerates all sorts of things like bathing and grooming and hoofcare. Our staff noted her rolling a lot the other day and not acting right. I thought it was colic and we called the vet out but while waiting for the vet we noticed she had an impaction. She could not pass stool. The vet arrived and manually removed it but said she felt something worse further up and wanted Molly at the hospital for IV fluids and monitoring. We brought her and three days later she is still there, still not passing stool or urine properly, and other vets were called in for some input as she was also acting neurological (falling over, not moving properly). They surmised that Molly has either a spinal tumor or EPM.
Neither of these are good. A spinal tumor would be inoperable for her and EPM is a very deadly disease and if we choose to attempt to treat it, we are looking at $800 in meds per month….and no guarantee of success. To TEST for EPM is $200 and so is the medicine for a week. We’ve decided to treat her with the medicine for a week and see if she can recover enough to gain control of her bodily functions and come home – at least until a relapse. So far, Molly’s vet bill is soaring at about $1000. We would really appreciate the help with that and the $200 for medicine for the first week. Ultimately it may be that we will be forced to let Molly go. Many horses DO manage ok when treated with meds though, and we are really hoping that if this week of medication work for her, that we can find a sponsor to cover the cost of her meds for a few months.
This sort of things weighs on my soul. The Molly’s of the world have had lives that were just horrible for years and years. This poor horse has been through hell and none of her life was basking in the love and attention of a person to love her. Her shyness also makes her not a volunteer favorite as they can not catch her to groom or spoil her and so she has lived most of her life in isolation and fear. It breaks my heart, truly, that Molly has never been able to overcome her fears enough to trust many people. When I do groom her, or Katie does, or Chris, she is sweet and pliable and so appreciative. She was deserving of a better life, a home, and love and affection. We never found that for her and I always feel that the animals that die here – we let down in some way by not finding that for them. I take some solace in the fact that since Best Friends came here over a year ago that Molly has been treated and cared for properly and also matched with a horse that loved and tended to her. Her friend Murphy was just what she needed. A big strong man that offered her comfort, peace and protection. I hope he will continue to be that for her when/if she comes home.
Carrie and Baxter
We recently told you of a seizure of 18 horses in a cruelty case up in Albany. We took two horses from there – a mama and her baby. The case went to court this week and UNBELIEVABLY the judge has given the woman BACK six of the horses – her choice! She has chosen to take back Carrie and Baxter. THIS after Pets Alive got them in terrible condition, spent over $800 in medical costs and feed costs to get them to where they should be and when they are doing so well now. The baby comes running up to you now and the mother is letting him become more independent. I am just SHOCKED that any judge would return these horses when the woman has been warned and fined for over a year and allowed two horses in her pasture to starve to death. We are absolutely at wit’s end and I admit to contemplating all sorts of things to try to not let them go but the fact is that this is a court order and we have no choice. Matt is planning on trying to hire one of the best Animal Rights lawyers in the country to try to appeal this decision and we have already made an offer of $2000 (THAT WE DON’T HAVE!) to try to BUY them from this woman. I am literally sick over the thought of her being able to take them back. PLEASE HELP US! We just can not return them. $2000 is way below market value but we are praying she will take it and leave us with these horses. She probably assumes she could sell them for more than that though. We will keep you posted – please watch the blog on the petsalive.com website for additional information as we progress with this. We are beyond despair at the thought that any judge would consider these animals no more than a product that can be exchanged and there has been no allowance to even repay the cost that Pets Alive has put out to get these horses back in physical well being. If you have any thoughts or advice, please go to our forum and post. We have been having a really bad “horse” month at the sanctuary. We could use some good news.
A walk to honor Aileen Hurley – THIS Sunday
In October of last year a very special person passed away. Her name was Aileen Hurley and she was a terrific champion for animals. Her family and friends sent donations to Pets Alive in lieu of flowers. Recently her friends have established the ‘Aileen Hurley Foundation’, and on September 7th at 9:30 am, there will be a walk in her memory. Pets Alive will be the recipient of the contributions collected. Aileen was a NY city detective and was loved throughout her community. We are hoping this event will be a great success and invite you to lend your support, or attend the event. The 5 mile walk goes from Trinity Irish Pub (573 Gramatan Ave in Fleetwood, NY) to The Garth Road Inn (96 Garth Road in Scarsdale, NY). You can walk, bike, roller blade, bring your kids, bring your pets – whatever you like!
Also on September 27th (rain date September 28th) Pets Alive is hosting a HUGE yardsale. We have been collecting HUNDREDS of items for sale and our volunteers headed up by Becky (we just ordered her a t-shirt that says “Stop me before I volunteer again”) has been marking up all the prices and storing it all away. It’s going to be a great event – so please donate items to us to sell or come down and buy some things! Please also spread this around to any local newspapers that will post a yardsale blurb for us!
Now Available!
Have you seen our 2009 calendar? Made up of images from 2008 – a lot of these are pictures of volunteers and animals you’ll remember and be touched by. Becky and John took almost all of these pictures, and I think they speak for themselves. This is really a very neat tribute to the Pets Alive volunteers and animals we have all come to deeply love. Be sure to click the display to view ALL the months pictures! BUY IT NOW!
Queens Cats Need Help!
Pets Alive is trying to help save 87 cats from euthanasia. We will be holding these cats for one month to enable them to be vetted and find homes for them. There is a tremendous need to find them homes as quickly as possible. The four people involved have drained all their financial resources in caring for the cats but remain passionately committed to finding homes for these kitties.
Please read the whole story and possibly donate to help these cats.
Latest Needs:
Our industrial law mower in on the way out. We’ve repaired it dozens of times but it’s at the end of it’s lifespan. We have a donor that is willing to pay to buy a good quality used commercial mower. Does ANYONE have any contacts that we can trust to make such a buy? We don’t know a lot about this and don’t want to get cheated. We are looking to buy something similar to what we have – which is something like this: http://www.scag.com/swz.html. At least that is what it LOOKS like, although I think the guys have some sort of foot pedals that they stand on and ride around on. Anyway, if you know anything about this sort of thing, can help us get a good price on a used one, or can lend us information on what to look for, how and where – we’d appreciate your help. Please email us.
We have a copier that is on the fritz. It’s a huge copy machine that acts up sporadically. Does anyone know how to repair these? Currently, even though it has a lot of toner, each copy gets lighter and lighter. Sometimes it jams on every copy, other times it does not. We really need someone to look at it and see if it can be fixed. It’s a Panasonic DP-2500 (Workio).
Thank you:
Well any of you that have been here know that we have always hated the run that we have Meeshka in. We really think it’s too small for her and wanted something more like what her natural habitat would be. We decided to convert the old pig area into a HUGE space for Meeshka, that even went back into the woods. It was a HUGE project and we needed help. I remembered the crew Julie W had dug up for us once before and begged her to try to get them back to help with this project. She said she had the prefect plan – she was going to a party that weekend and would wait until everyone was in good spirits and had helped ingest a few spirits and she would appeal to them THEN. PERFECT! She did it too.
The next weekend Duane, Maggie, Jack, Pat, Ray, Leslie, Arthur, Jill, Sharon and Mike showed up ready to roll. And roll they did. The cleared our the area, put up or braced fencing, helped set the rocks…and much more. Then later that week, Chris looked up proper housing for Meeshka and she, Juan and Marcos (and CHARLIE!!!) built the most AMAZING shelter for her.
We invite you to come and see it. I didn’t take a picture because it just wouldn’t do it justice. It’s amazing. Really. Everyone who sees her new environment is floored by it. It is – stunning! Meeshka is really happy too. No more pacing – she is relaxed, calm and loves the new area. We are really happy for her and so very appreciative of the crew that came down to help. Thank you all so much. You are so wonderful! (by the way – personal note to Mike – Stan the cat is still waiting for your decision as he sits and wishes for a home…no pressure though! 🙂 )
Thank you so much to Mike at gotshirts.org. Mike does the t-shirts for Pets Alive and he does the most amazing job – super fast, really great quality and he charges us what has to amount to barely over his cost. He’s just a wonderful guy and I want to give him this plug in the hopes that any of you that need shirts made up will go to him – tell him Pets Alive sent you.
Thank you also to our shed moving crew, Tom, Jos, Tom, Matt and Juan (? – I hope I got that all right!)
We have been boarding a very elderly horse, Glen, who is also a stallion. He was emaciated when he came here and we discovered he had very bad teeth and other issues where he could not ingest hay or regular feeds.
Chris and Chris helped us develop a plan for him and in the past thirty days he has really filled out and looks great, but Glen has spent his entire life ALONE (being a stallion). He is a very gentle stallion though and very old and we feel he might one day be able to live with Kingfish and Moonray (since their herd recently lost Maureen and Blackie). We have started the process of introducing them and the area we needed to put them was short a run-in shed. We needed to get a run-in shed from one pasture all the way to another – a distance of about 800 feet. Ugh. How the heck were we gonna do it? Then we remembered our “Julie crew” who moved a smaller shed for us…could it be done the same way? We approached some strapping looking young men and asked their opinion. They said point them to it…they’d get it there.
Here is the picture of the move (girls, you can thank me later – and we can all thank Becky the photographer). That is Jasper monitoring and lending advice. They did it. Got the shed over there in less than an hour. They even took fences down and put them back up again. End result….Glen has been able to argue now over the fence with Moon and King. They’re already starting to get over it though. It’ll be this way for a long time still but it’s a start. At least he can touch horses over a fence now and interact with them which is much healthier for him.
Thank you to Sharon for the donation of car. It’s an older car but it runs great and we can definitely use it around here for various errand running! What a coup for us. Thanks to Karen K for the donation of stamps with the Pets Alive logo on it! So much fun! The thank yous will all go out with them on it now! Thanks to Frank and Frank for the endless donations and care for staff and pets alike. Thanks Angela and Rose for CONTINUED and constant support in many ways! I know I am missing a lot of people this update but I wanted to get this out about Molly and the other major issues and I don’t have my reminder notes available here! So sorry if I missed something – I’ll get it into the next update!