Amazing Gracie captures a heart … and goes home for Christmas

Gracie is a black, two-year-old Lab/Pit bull mix with deformed knees who has spent almost her entire life at the Second Chance Animal Adoption shelter in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

Gracie has a new address now — at Almost Heaven Ranch with my dad, Dr. Marty Becker and my mom, Teresa.

My dad and I, along with the staffs of North Idaho Animal Hospital in Sandpoint and Lakewood Animal Hospital in Coeur d’Alene, spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day visiting our local animal shelters and bringing toys, greats and other gifts to the homeless pets there. It was our way of trying to make these special pets have a happier day.

On the way from Panhandle Animal Shelter in Ponderay to Second Chance, my dad was talking to me in the car about how he wanted to get a new dog in the future. He said he wanted to wait for the right dog, one who really needed a home. Some of my work as a dog-trainer is at the local shelter, so I said that I’d be on the lookout for him.

When we got to Second Chance, we were busy handing out gifts. Dad posed for photos with a black mixed-breed dog named Gracie. Although she was far from lap-sized, she let him hold her in his arms, totally relaxed — almost collapsed.

At one point I looked around and realized my dad had vanished. I walked back to the kennels and found him sitting in Gracie’s run. She was cuddled up next to him, staring up at his face while he petted and held her. The treat-stuffed Kong toy we’d given her for Christmas did not mean nearly as much to her as it did just to sit next to my dad.

Although there were dozens of people in the area, it felt like there was no one else in there at all, like it was just the two of them. I was witnessing something amazing.

When I asked dad what he was doing, he answered me in a voice I’d never heard from him before. He sounded like a little kid excited to open his stocking on Christmas.

“She’s a special dog, Kel,” he said. “She’s just really touched me. I don’t know what to do, but she has really stolen my heart. I think she might be the one!”

I knew then and there we were bringing home a new dog for Christmas. She and dad had an immediate connection, as if they were soulmates.

As soon as dad, after a few minutes of deliberation, decided he was taking her home, the entire staff and volunteers were in tears. They said they had all spent many anxious nights worrying about Gracie and if she would ever get a home with her special needs. They figured she had a good chance of always being a shelter resident.

Instead, it turns out she had just been waiting there for the special person who was going to be her forever friend.

On the way home she was sitting in my lap, but kept inching closer and closer to my dad in the driver’s seat until half her body was lying in the center console so that she could have her head resting right by him.

When we got home to Almost Heaven Ranch, dad marched in with her, so much vigor and joy in his step. He reminded me of a little kid who just got his first pet, or even like a mom who just brought her new baby home from the hospital.

My dad speaks at veterinary meetings and conferences about the connection people have to our pets and how much we love them — he calls it “The Bond” — to help motivate veterinarians to improve their connection to pet owners as well as pets. I’ve always known how sincere he is about that, but this weekend I’ve seen it in action in a way I never have before.

I see dad looking at Gracie and seeing past her crippling ailments to the pure soul that lies underneath. I see him crying while he holds her in his lap, Gracie just staring up at him with such calmness, such a sure sense that he is going to protect her from now on.

This Christmas, we thought we would be giving out presents to pets  to make their day special. I never expected one pet would steal my dad’s heart at first sight and, as my mom said yesterday, turn out to be the greatest Christmas present he has ever had. I know each day with her will continue to be a gift.

Welcome home, Gracie!

More video of Gracie and our Christmas shelter visits under the jump…

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Old year, new year … and a big breath between one and the other

December 28, 2010

We never used to close the blog, not ever. But then, we started shutting down for holiday weekends. And now, look where that trend of sloth and irresponsibility has led us:

We’re shutting down completely until David’s first newswrap of 2011, which he’ll post about 5 a.m. PT on Monday, Jan. 3.

Our Dr. Becker will continue to post to his Facebook page, his Twitter account and to his discussion area on AARP.org.  And if you sign up for his free e-mail newsletter, you’ll get that, too.

But otherwise … Christie and I need a breather, and we also have some other deadlines to attend to. So we’re giving ourselves and everyone else here a holiday break.

For recalls, keep an eye on the PetSitUSA and the VIN Recall Center, both with links to your left.

As for the PetConnection blog team … we’ll see you next year!

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Heartwarming rescue stories make the holidays even brighter

The Los Angeles Times‘ Rene Lynch has an intriguing review of a new book about a successful rescue. “Oogy,” written by attorney Larry Levin, is one of those tales that restores your faith in the power  of healing, love and the effort required to look beyond outward appearances.

When you’re done with that, check out Amy Worden’s post in Philly Dawg about Stanley. Again, a reason to hope for people’s capacity to make a difference.

When we first met Stanley last year he was a mangy guy with serious eye problems locked in a high kill Los Angeles shelter. Thanks to two small rescue groups and a gripping video, things are looking far brighter for Stanley this Christmas.

For all the homeless animals with no family to call their own this holiday season and for anyone who does not believe one person can’t make a difference, let Stanley’s story be a symbol of hope.

Doing wrong in order to do right? KC Dog Blog thoughtfully spotlights the dilemma of embedding a spy inside a dogfighting ring in order to bring the ring down. In this instance, it’s the case of Terry Mills.

A couple of months ago, a story was launched in several alternative newspapers around the country about Mills. In 2008, Mills worked for the FBI on their domestic-terrorism task force. As a part of the job, Mills spent 18 months under-cover in order to break up what became the largest dog-fighting bust in the history of the United States — getting a couple of dozen people arrested, and saving more than 500 dogs from their dog fighting operations.

As a part of the undercover operation, Mills and his team became a part of the dog fighting culture…and as a part of that, began training, and fighting, their own dogs.

At the time, and even now, I wrestle with the ethics of their decision. While breaking up the dog fighting operation is certainly commendable, it’s extremely hard for me to stomach the idea of the “good guys” training dogs to fight and forcing them to endure such torture. It just seems as if there had to be a better way without purposefully putting more dogs in the ring.

This is the same kind of difficult position that Donnie Brasco faced while embedded with the Mafia. The answers aren’t always so easy. Bravo to KC Dog Blog for talking about the issue.

Best blog post this week: Stop me if you’ve heard this before….the best piece of writing in the pet blogosphere comes from Shirley at YesBiscuit. There’s a lot of meat to it, and it deserves a LOT of discussion. It’s a case that appears to have been preventable, and at the same time the real facts at hand are not entirely clear. Shirley’s lede sets the table.

44 dogs “rescued” by HSUS from a home in AL early this month.

So you can see how it gets thorny. I’d love to get your thoughts on it.

RIP Splash: The late Senator Ted Kennedy was a devoted owner of Portuguese Water Dogs Cappy, Splash and Sunny. They went everywhere with him, from the deck of his yacht Mya on Nantucket Sound to his Capitol Hill office.  Bo Obama, himself a Portie, was a gift from the Senator to the President. Last week, Senator Kennedy’s widow Vicki announced the passing of Splash at the age of thirteen. We extend our condolences to the Kennedy family.

Pet travel tips: Are you traveling with your pets during the holidays this winter? Our friend Arden Moore, a.k.a. The Pet Safety Lady, offers timely tips.

Happy Petmas: Pawcurious give us the 12 Days of Petmas.

Year in review: From the genius factory of icanhascheezburger: 2010, The year in Lolcats.

Note: This is the last news roundup of 2010. Have a safe, happy and healthy New Year. My next newswrap is  Monday, Jan. 3.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories. Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credit: Oogy cover, Grand Central Publishing.

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Ursa the foster puppy goes home for Christmas

Ursa, the German Shepherd (here’s mom -- and she’s available for adoption still ) and Labbamaybe puppy I’ve been fostering for Greater California German Shepherd Rescue, just left with her new family. Yes, on Christmas Day. How perfect is that? The couple already had their approved application in, and they passed the home check with flying colors last week. All they had to do was meet Ursa in person, and that went … well, she’s an adorable 12-week-old puppy, so how could it not go well?

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In the meantime, up in north Idaho, Dr. Becker and his daughter, Mikkel Becker, are making the rounds of area shelters with toys and goodies for the pets waiting for adoption, along with folks from the North Idaho Animal Hospital in Sandpoint and Lakewood Animal Hospital in Coeur D’Alene. We’ll have a wrap-up of the visits here on the blog tomorrow, but you can follow the progress today on Dr. Becker’s Facebook page.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Update:

I’m guessing getting along with the cat isn’t going be a problem. Here she is having her first meal in her new home:

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Another gift for Christmas: The cat came back

Clara disappeared around Thanksgiving of 2009. Despite collar and ID, despite microchip, despite county license, despite “lost” ads and flyers, trips to the county shelter and even a careful reading of the roadkills logs she never, ever turned up again. A couple times I thought maybe I’d caught a glimpse of her on the acreage behind my home, and a couple times my neighbor Judy also thought she’d seen her. But in the end, I had to admit she wasn’t coming back, not ever, and I would never know what happened to her. I was sick to my stomach thinking of the possibilities: A neighbor with a trap and a “shoot, shovel and shut up” attitude about cats or  a coyote who’d come up the creek behind me from the American River Parkway. Either way, not a pretty end for a sweet little cat who was mostly fur and all purr. Because I do not keep my cats in, I knew the fault was all mine.

Ilario, a/k/a Teh Big Orange Kitteh, a/k/a T-BOK, is not a roamer like Clara was. If he wasn’t sleeping in the rafters of my attached garage, he was sleeping on the top shelf of the cat tree in my office, or snoozing in the sun on the roof of the chicken coop. If he was out, he came in after dark every night, jumped to his preferred spot on my bed between FayBee and McKenzie and purred himself to sleep,  kneading his paws against McKenzie’s belly. As least once during the night I’d be sleeping on my back, and he took that as his cue to move onto my stomach. He’s a big cat, and the weight of him would always wake me, but I never moved to dislodge him. Sometimes I’d fall back asleep with a big lump of orange cat warm against me; other times, I’d turn on the light and read until he moved back into his warm spot, nestled into McKenzie’s belly.

As for what he did while he was out, there was no mystery: He hunted. Never once did I see him track or catch a bird, but the mice and rats attracted by the chicken feed disappeared shortly after he decided killing them was his life’s work.  (And here’s photographic proof that he was good at it!)

Affection has always been on his terms — and I have the claw scars to prove it. While Clara loved snuggling any time, Teh Big Orange Kitteh decides when and where he wants to be petted. And while Clara tolerated baths, nail-trims and flea-treatments graciously, the only way T-BOK tolerates anything is in a “kitty burrito,” wrapped firmly in a towel, his eyes smoldering with a look that made me think he’d kill me in my sleep that night if he could. Despite that, he was a pussycat at the veterinarian’s, purring in the tech’s arms during his visits. No muzzle, no towel, no trouble. Crazy cat!

Last month, the same weekend to the year that Clara disappeared, I went to Southern California, leaving the animals in Judy’s care as always. When I came back … no Ilario. He had simply vanished without a trace, just as Clara had the year earlier.  No one had seen him, although one of my neighbors told me she suspected the office building that backs up to the acreage behind my home trapped and killed “nuisance” cats, based on a little trap-neuter-release experience we had last spring.

No matter what I guessed had happened, Ilario was gone. Both my cats were gone, in a year’s time. I  was catless, and heartsick about it.

I was grieving and guilt-ridden, having nightmares about their fates. I determined that there would be no other cats until I could finish the long-standing cat patio project so no cat ever left the property.  In the meantime I kept looking, kept hoping, kept thinking Ilario would pop in the dog door again after dark.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

A month passed with no sign of him, and then last Wednesday night, I saw him walking down the street in front of my house. He never went out front, and yet, there he was. I rushed out and called him, and he looked at me, uncertain. He froze while I approached him slowly … and then ran like hell.

Still … I knew he was alive, and I hoped I could get him back. I went out to dinner, and when I came back I let the dogs out. As soon as he heard my voice, he started meowing from the area of the chicken coop. Wherever he’d been, he was back, but not sure about where his home was now. I’d call, he’d meow, again and again and again. He seemed fine, but he wouldn’t let me get close. I brought out food and let him be. I have a cat-trap for TNR, and I figured I’d have to use it to get him back. But I’d let him settle in for now, because I knew I’d have only one chance at trapping him.

On Christmas Eve, he was at the back door as if he wanted to come in, but again, he fled when I approached. His food and litterbox have always been in the garage, accessible through a cat door from the kitchen. So I set the cat door so it would let him into the garage but not back out, opened the back door and went to bed.

It worked, and he’s now trapped in the garage.

Yesterday, he wouldn’t come out of the rafters. This morning he let me pick him up and take him in the house.  Wherever he was, he ate well: He’s in good weight and good health.

As for his re-entry: You can see the delight on my face, and the uncertainty on his, but I’ll keep working on it. In the meantime, he’s not going out again … ever. Because when you get your cat back for Christmas, you understand the message: Don’t push it, sister. Keep the cat in the house.

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Check collars, tags now for a safer New Year

December 28, 2010

It’s a New Year’s tradition on Pet Connection: The annual pet collar and ID check. Gina Spadafori has the story — along with some cool new collars and tags –  in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature:

Consider the collar first. For dogs, a buckled or snap-together collar made of leather or nylon webbing is the best choice, and the proper fit is comfortably close, but not too snug. Make sure your dog’s not wearing a “choke” or prong collar for everyday wear — if you use these, they’re for walking and training only, and are dangerous if left on an unsupervised dog.

For cats, a soft collar with an elastic insert and a slide-on tag will prevent a dangling ID from catching on anything.

Next look at the collar carefully, especially the holes and the fasteners. The collar is weakest at these spots, so if you see signs of excessive wear or strain, you’ll need to replace it.

Then check the ID tags. A license is great, but since many lost pets are picked up by people in the neighborhood, it’s a good idea to supplement the license with an ID tag that has a couple of phone numbers — yours and the number of a friend or relative. Check to make sure the information is current and legible, and if not, order a new tag.

Your pet’s ID tag is best supplemented by a microchip. Talk to your veterinarian about this permanent ID that has helped many a pet find the way home.

Our Pet Connection reviewers especially liked a few specific collars and tags in 2010…. read about them here!

And from Dr. Becker and Mikkel Becker, surprising news about how dogs recognize their owners:

Dogs recognize their owners by facial features. A study published in the journal Animal Behavior showed that dogs recognize and pay attention to their owners’ faces. When the owners’ faces are covered, dogs have a difficult time recognizing them.

Read this week’s entire Pet Connection here!

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