Dogs Make It Better: Goldendoodle Puppies Bring Joy to Sandy Hook Survivors

The pups, who were born on the day of the tragedy, find homes with school staff.

Three weeks after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, Laura Feinstein, a teacher at the school, received a letter from a breeder in Texas. She had a litter of nine Goldendoodles. They were born Dec. 14 -- the same day as the massacre. The breeder wondered whether there were any "Sandy Hook staff, families, victims' families, first responders, or anyone in the community affected by the tragedy who might find some comfort in taking on a pup."

There were. Feinstein responded to the breeder, saying that survivors would be delighted, according to a story she wrote about the affair for WTOP.

"I just knew this was going to be a new beginning for my family," she writes. 

Photos were sent, and people picked out their dogs. Feinstein and her family chose a male pup and named him Zeus, "Protector and Ruler of the Heavens."

As the staff waited for the pups to grow up enough to be adopted, the breeder, who is unnamed in the article, sent weekly updates and photos. These offered a bright spot in a school and community under such strain. 

"Those of us on staff who had agreed to take pups were often found huddled during our lunch period sharing photos, a temporary distraction from the struggles we faced adjusting to our new location and our new lives," Feinstein writes. "Whenever I was having a bad moment, I found myself going to the camera roll on my iPhone to sneak a peek at Zeus, who was the positive association I used to overshadow negative thoughts."

On Feb. 16, when the pups were nine weeks old, they arrived at a local airport, where "the reception emotionally overwhelming. It was simply beautiful to see smiling faces and tears of joy."

"I have to say when Zeus was handed to me I smiled like I hadn't smiled in more than two months. His puppy breath and warm little body all snuggled up to you puts you in instant relaxation mode."

Watch a video of Zeus playing with Fernando, Feinstein's black Labrador Retriever:

Feinstein now cares for Zeus with her college-age daughter, and doing so has brought them closer. She ends her article by thanking the breeder for her kindness, and for reaching out: 

"We will never forget what happened on Dec. 14, but a very special person, who had a team of others to support her efforts, did a kind and generous thing for a community of people who were in tremendous pain. I will be forever grateful for that."

Via WTOP

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K-9 Comfort Dogs Bring Relief to Connecticut After Killings

The team run by Lutheran Church Charities plans to visit those affected by the tragedy all week.

The massacre in Connecticut last week was unthinkable, to say the least. The human suffering still to come is also unthinkable. People close to the victims and their families need whatever help they can get. So bring in the dogs.

Over the weekend, a team of comfort dogs visited people affected by the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lutheran Church Charities, which has a division of K-9 Comfort Dogs, dispatched the dogs and their handlers on Saturday, and 10 Golden Retrievers made the 800-mile trip from Chicago to Newtown. 

K-9 Comfort Dogs has a long history visiting people in hospitals and nursing homes.

"The dogs have become the bridge," said Lynn Buhrke, one of the handlers, according to the Seattle Times. "People just sit down and talk to you."

Tim Hetzner, president of Lutheran Church Charities, said, "Dogs are nonjudgmental. They are loving. They are accepting of anyone. It creates the atmosphere for people to share."

On Saturday night, they first stopped at Christ the King church and visited with Pastor Robert Morris.

On Sunday morning, they met with the congregation, then went into town. That evening, they attended vigil at Newtown High School, where President Obama spoke.

"You could tell which ones ... were really struggling with their grief because they were quiet," Hetzner said. "They would pet the dog, and they would just be quiet."

The dogs are spending the week visiting other schools in the area as well, comforting all who were affected by the massacre. 

"I asked [one man] how he is doing," said Hetzner. "He just kind of teared up and said, 'This year, I've lost five loved ones, and now this happened.' The whole town is suffering."

On a radio show on WBEZ, Hetzner said the dogs have met with families of victims and first responders. Asked how people were reacting to the dogs, Hetzner said, "For some of the children -- we have been told by their parents that this has been the first time they've smiled in days, since the event. It was a chance to bring some relief to the children and the adults."

Via the Seattle Times

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Photos: Our Marketing Gals Bring the Adoption Message to NYC Advertising Week

SAY Media (Dogster’s pawesome parent company) is at the IAB MIXX conference for NYC Advertising Week, and to channel Dogster’s core values, they invited the Brooklyn Animal Foster Network to join them and host a mini adoption event at their booth!

The fine folks at BAFN brought five kittens and three pups, and with any luck, some of them will end the week with new homes! (Paws crossed.) Below are some photos from the Say/Dogster booth — we hear it was the hit of the conference!

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Fluoride Awareness Week, a great time to bring awareness to the dangers of fluoride in our water supply.

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Are people who bring their cats to shelters ‘abandoning’ them?

Ok now my previous post isnt showing up…I think there are little gremlins in my computer trying to drive me nuts. Little do they know…I’m already there…….one more time:

“Is someone who takes a cat to a no-kill shelter because they have lost their job and their home “abandoning” their cat?”

Yes.

Granted, a no kill shelter is a much better option than a death camp (kill “shelter”) or leaving a pet who hasnt learned how to survive outside like ferals, where they are without someone to care for them.

But this B.S. about “Oh, I lost my job, or home, blah blah yadda yadda, so I cant keep my cat or dog” is just a cowardly, irresponsible, excuse.

You’ll notice that these frauds arent abandoning their human kids, dropping them off somewhere, forever leaving them heartbroken and missing their family, yet they do it to their four legged babies because alot of society has a severe case of ignorance (technical term: Headupthebuttitis), in which the four legged souls of this world are considered “disposable”, whether they are murdered and thrown away in death camps, or dumped off somewhere, it is simply WRONG to violate the promise that one essentially makes when adopting a pet:

To always love them, care for them, protect them, be there for them, and to NEVER abandon them.

If you have money to afford food for your chubby kids, you have money for your cat(s), period.

I once emailed a woman who wanted to give away her cat because “she didnt have money” and reminded her that she was online, paying a monthly fee for having an online service,and that she would save enough money to take care of her cat, if she sold the computer, and thus saving on the monthly fees, and kept her cat.

She had nothing to say.
Because she knew I was right.

If you arent leaving your kids behind, dont leave your cats behind. Period.

If a hotel doesnt accept cats, dont accept the hotel, and find one that DOES accept cats. Many many do.

Adopting a cat is like giving birth: You are FOREVER responsible for your new baby.

There is a double standard that deadbeat pet parents cling to, and it is rooted in the same prejudice that shelter killing is rooted in: Speciesism.

When searching for the right answer to any question, we must put OURSELVES in the position of OTHERS (Treat others the way YOU want to be treated), and in this case, we must ask ourselves this question: “If I was in Morris’s or Fluffy’s situation, would I want my family to abandon ME?”

If the answer is “No” (if you’re honest, it IS “No”), then dont abandon your cat, because they are equally as important and precious as You, I and the rest of us.

Now, if an old 89 year old woman who is confined to a wheelchair and has degenerative
arthritis, is unable to care for and feed her cat properly, then that is a different situation, and a NO kill shelter might actually be better for the cat’s well being, even though He or She would badly miss their loved one.

But using money as an excuse for abandoning your cat or dog, while you still spend money on your human kids, is cowardly and wrong.

Bottom line: If you can take care of, and have room for 190-225 pound human family members, you can take care of, and you have room for a 10-15 pound cat.

To say otherwise is to condone abandonment.
Abandonment is wrong.

Just put YOURSELF in the pawprints of the abandoned, and tell me, how would you feel if YOUR family abandoned you?

Your cat would feel the same way.

Treat others like you would want to be treated.

Society must stop finding excuses to kill and start finding ways to save lives, and society must stop finding excuses to abandon pets, and instead find a way to keep them.

They love you, and need you.

Ask not what our pets can do for us, ask what we can do for our pets.

P.S. If I were the head of a No Kill Shelter, I would tell anyone who wanted to dump their pets off at my shelter, what I just told everyone else, but I would MAKE CLEAR that if they STILL wanted to abandon their cat, I’d glady take Him or Her and show them what having a TRUE loving family feels like….a family who will love them, like cats love us….unconditionally, forever.

“We humans could learn alot from the higher animals”

Comment by Matt — June 24, 2011 @ 8:28 pm

Matt, your arguments are simplistic and unrealistic.

First of all, it would be ILLEGAL for a parent to just “drop their kid off somewhere” and leave them behind. You CAN legally do that with an animal. You CANNOT legally do that with a child. You may believe that is wrong, but that’s YOUR value system speaking out. Whether or not YOU agree with it, the LAW grants a higher standard of protection to children than to animals, and legally, leaving a child behind is just not something a parent can generally do.

Second, a good share of the programs put in place to help those in need (homeless shelters, food kitchens, etc.) prohibit animals. If you feel THAT is wrong, you’d be in good company with many others here. But presently, that’s the way it is. And if a family in dire financial need wants to get the available help, their pets become a hindrance in this situation, so many make the decision to leave their pets at a shelter in order to obtain shelter for their children.

(And no - someone without a steady source of income cannot simply go blithely “hotel-shopping” to find one that accepts pets the same way a person with a dependable income can. The unemployed person is looking for whatever they can afford, and that’s not likely to include allowing animals. Again, if you think this policy is wrong, you’d be in good company, but so far, that’s the way it is.)

You say “Society must stop finding excuses to kill and start finding ways to save lives, and society must stop finding excuses to abandon pets, and instead find a way to keep them.” and I certainly agree with you there. Take the example of FEMA and Hurricane Katrina.

We all remember the tragic images of pet owners having their beloved animals pulled from their arms before being pushed onto the evacuation buses, and other images of owners sitting on their rooftops with the animals they refused to leave behind - hoping either for rescue or the receding of the flood before they ran out of their food and water.

Congress took note of the human cost resulting from FEMA’s inflexible “no pets” policy and passed the “Pets Evacuation and Transportation
Standards Act of 2006” and so now the FEMA policy says “The Post-Katrina Act amends the IHP provisions of the Stafford Act by authorizing search, rescue, care, and shelter of pets and service animals as a type of essential assistance to be provided after a major disaster declaration.”

In other words, in a disaster, pet owner may no longer be forced by FEMA to leave their pets behind.

It’s a start, and we need to keep up the pressure to get homeless shelters, hotels, motels and landlords to end their “no pets” policies and find ways for food providers (so-called “soup kitchens”) to accomodate pet owners without running afoul of Health regulations.

But we’re not there yet, and so in today’s world with today’s realities of life after catastrophic financial loss, families with pets are put at a MAJOR disadvantage (in addition to those they already face). Rather than having THE ENTIRE FAMILY continue to starve and be homeless, the RESPONSIBLE thing to do is to provide shelter for the pets by leaving them somewhere safe which permits the rest of the family to seek the available help and resources that are out there. That way ALL of you can survive.

And if THAT isn’t an example of “FOREVER responsibility”, then I don’t know what is.

Comment by The OTHER Pat — June 25, 2011 @ 6:07 am

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‘Good dog’ rules bring up sweet memories

I love this time of year for the outrageously funny things that find their way into my e-mail Inbox. One recurrent favorite of mine is the list of things dogs must remember in order to be a “Good Dog.” I received it earlier this week and it both warmed my heart and brought to front of mind some of the most precious memories of my life. It’s moments like these that remind me what a privilege it is to share days and nights, ups and downs, highs and lows with furry four-leggeds. I’d like to share a few of these stories, smiles, and memories …

To be a Good Dog I will remember:

The sofa is not a “face towel.”The garbage collector is not stealing our stuff.I will not eat the cats’ food before they eat it or after they throw it up.

Micah, my very first dog as an adult, was a heat-seeking missile when it came to food (matched only by my current Golden Retriever, Farrah). He and my cat of that time, OJ, had a deal. Periodically OJ would eat too quickly and erp up his breakfast or dinner, providing Micah with an extra “snack.” They were in cahoots for all the years they lived together.

I will not play tug-of-war with Mom’s underwear when she’s on the toilet.I must shake the rainwater out of my fur before entering the house — not after.The litter box is not a cookie jar.

Mollie Mae was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She was a very sweet, very petite Saint Bernard — only 85 pounds — and we had an idea early on that she would not attend MIT. We found out late in her life that she had a condition we generally associate with tiny dogs like Chihuahuas and Yorkie –  hydrocephalus –  also called “water on the brain.” When the neurologist called following Mollie’s brain MRI she said, “The good news is that Mollie does NOT have a brain tumor, and the bad news is that Mollie dosen’t have very much brain at all.” We joked that Mollie had only one neuron, and it fired backward. She really seemed able to hold only one thought in her brain at a time. Her favorite “one thought” was the memory of where the “crunchy granola bars” lived. Inspite of scooping litter pans twice daily, Mollie Mae regularly managed to raid what was, for her, her favorite “cookie jar.”

I don’t need to suddenly stand up straight up when I’m under the coffee table.I will not come in from outside and immediately drag my butt across the carpet.I will not roll on dead seagulls, fish, crabs, etc., just because I like the way they smell.

Cimarron was our genetically deaf Australian Shepherd. She was the product of two blue merle parents and was relinquished to us when we refused to kill her for the sin of deafness. She was mostly white with two blue merle patches, and loved nothing better than throwing her pristine whiteness onto something long enough dead to be really stinky, but not long enough dead to be returned to the dust of the earth. In spite of the nastiness, we had to smile at her delight in visiting outdoor “cologne bars.”

I will not sit in the middle of the living room and lick my crotch.The cat is not a “squeaky toy” so when I play with him and he makes that noise, it’s usually not a good thing.Sticking my nose into someone’s crotch is an unacceptable way of saying “hello.”

Murphy was an amazing dog (that’s Murphy with me in the photo). She was diagnosed at 5 years of age with osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in her left front leg. Following a bone transplant to keep her leg and IV chemotherapy, she lived a completely normal life until her second osteosarcoma three years later. This tumor was in her right rear leg, and was treated with radiation therapy and a second round of IV chemotherapy. She was in remission until she died, five years after her first bone cancer diagnosis, when her heart stopped while she slept.

Murphy was the most gregarious Great Dane I have yet met. And her favorite way to say “hello” was to use her head as a battering ram into that most private area of a human’s body. Ultimately, we had to warn our male friends to wear their steel cups when they came to visit.

What a joy it has been to witness this steady stream of characters into and out of our lives! Each day is a new adventure with them. How wonderful it is to share space with animals.

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