Big Dog Saves Her Little Pal from Clutches of Hungry Owl

Sadie (left) ran to the aid of her 7-pound friend when the little dog was attacked by an owl. Shown here with the family's rottie, Eli. (Photo: Michael Smart, Sun-Times Media)

When a 70-pound boxer named Sadie saw a great horned owl drop out of the sky and sink its talons into her 7-pound Shih-Tzu/miniature poodle mix friend, Ramadi, she leapt into action to try to save the tiny pooch from the owl’s clutches.

The dogs’ owners heard barking in the backyard and went to see what was going on. It was dark, but they could see that Sadie was on top of something. Then Ramadi came running inside, dragging that something, with Sadie chasing after it. When they got near enough, their owners could see the odd parade up close:

There was little Ramadi, and attached to her was an owl. And attached to the owl was Sadie, who was trying to help get the owl off her friend. They pried Sadie off the owl, and someone pinned the owl to the floor with a foot while someone else ran to get some thick gloves.

It took some work to detach the owl from the dog, but miraculously the dog was not injured. Her owners think her thick coat kept her safe. That and Sadie, who probably prevented the owl from really digging in. Then they shut the owl outside.

Amy Evans, who had just gotten back from an Army tour in Iraq, holds her dog, Ramadi. (Photo courtesy Patrick Evans, via the Chicago Sun-Times)

But it was not the last they would see of the raptor.

“The owl stood outside the sliding-glass door looking at the smaller dog as if he wasn’t leaving without it,” said Pingree Grove (Ill.)Police Sgt. Rich Blair. That could be pretty creepy for the little dog.

The officers were able to capture the bird in a fishing net and turn it over to a rehab center. Sadly, it turned out that the bird had significant injuries consistent with trauma from a car accident. Rehab veterinarians said the bird was extremely thin and its eye was terribly infected. It was euthanized the owl because vets said there was no hope for rehabilitation.

The owl’s injuries could have explained why it went after a dog.

“Most of the time they want nothing to do with humans or dogs,” said Sandy Fejt, education site manager at Willowbrook Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center. “With its sight impaired, it was probably very hungry and looking for easy prey.” Poor owl.

Ramadi was not the only canine victim of owl attacks in the town recently. It was the third time in three days that an owl had gone after a dog; one dog died. It was likely the same bird.

The dogs of Pingree Grove can probably breathe a little easier now. But it would have been a happier ending if the owl had lived and would be back to its normal, canine-free cuisine after healing.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

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Yogurt, lasagne, meatloaf: If it’s not one thing, it’s another

(Cross-posted from my personal blog at GoodFaithRanch.com)

A few weeks ago my 14-year-old Sheltie, Drew, started to increase his drinking and decrease his eating. Shortly after, my veterinarians confirmed my sad suspicion: My dog’s kidneys were shutting down.

As deaths go, kidney failure isn’t a bad one. A couple years ago my father faced the choice of dying of kidney failure or liver cancer, and after being completely informed about them both, he chose the former and refused dialysis. He passed peacefully at home a few days later, and I’m still in awe of his brave decision to choose the time, place and manner of his demise.

Of course, that’s what many of us do with our companion animals, and I’ve seen enough people bungle the decision to know how difficult it is. Over the years I’ve made the decision for all of my own animals and a few belonging to friends and family. I’ve come to believe that I won’t personally make a Hail Mary pass for myself or anyone else, animals included, and that I would rather help an animal to the other side a week early than a minute too late.

That said, I truly believe in hospice. For people and for pets.

I recently wrote for Vetstreet about the hospice movement in veterinary medicine, focusing on Nancy Hurley, a woman who had cared for her own 14-year-old Sheltie for months after a diagnosis of cancer in the dog. She and her husband had to have Savannah euthanized on the day Drew entered a state of hospice, a situation which I found incredibly powerful, as if Savannah’s fight had moved across the country to my own dog.

Hospice is often about managing pain, and I’m glad that I’m not having to do that with Drew. I went through it with my retriever Heather a couple years ago, and it wasn’t easy for either of us. Like Savannah, Heather had cancer, and like Savannah, I had to let Heather go when we couldn’t control the pain any more.

For Drew, hospice is considerably less stressful. Every morning he gets 500 ml of IV fluids, delivered from a bag hung from my dining-room chandelier through a needle to a spot under the skin and over his shoulder blades (top picture, but you have to squint a little to see the clear IV bag). Drew usually falls asleep on a towel on the table while getting his fluids, a process which, thanks to a nifty product called a pressure infuser, takes just a few minutes. A couple weeks after starting with daily fluids, Drew’s kidney values are normal. It won’t last, I’m told, but it was very good news indeed to get last week.

While Drewbie doesn’t mind the fluids at all, we are having one hospice difficulty: Getting him to eat. Pets (and people, for that matter) with end-stage kidney disease typically don’t have an appetite, and not eating can hasten their deaths — rather quickly, I’m told.

Drew is on a prescription appetite stimulant, but it doesn’t seem to help much. He is also getting a little medicinal marijuana (legal here in California), which appears to help with nausea but not with appetite, at least for Drew.

Typically, he’ll eat a little of something really yummy for a couple of days, then stop. Rare roast beef, deli turkey, yogurt with peach slices, beef lasagne, pasta with beef balls, cheese, baby food, apple slices with peanut butter … I’ve been rotating through them all. I’m afraid the other dogs and I will put on some weight snarfing down the leftovers when Drew walks away from something he ate happily the day before.

Friday night, my housemate (Ed Murrieta, who’s a writer and a trained chef) made him a special meatloaf, after Drew showed enthusiasm for store-bought meatloaf from the Whole Foods takeaway counter. That’s a picture of it. It’s made from ground turkey, Honest Kitchen‘s Embark dehydrated raw food and Nuzzles treats, eggs, and my friend Jill Gibbs’ JillCookies, chopped fresh tomatoes, grated apple, and cheese.

Today, Ed’s experimenting with some sort of baked liver puree.

So far, so good …

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Could a Dog Derail Mitt Romney’s Presidential Campaign? Newt Gingrich Hopes So

A man in South Carolina tries to steer people away from voting for Romney

In 1983, Mitt Romney packed the station wagon with his family to drive from Boston to their vacation home in Ontario, Canada. The dog came too, only he didn’t ride in the car. The Irish setter, Seamus, rode in a kennel strapped to the roof.

Romney had built a windshield for the dog, but the dog did not seem to enjoy himself. Partway through the 12-hour drive, one of Romney’s sons noticed brown goopy stuff coming off the top of the car. Seamus had had diarrhea, likely from the stress of bombing down the highway at 60 mph. Papa Romney’s solution? At the next service station he took the contraption down, got the dog out, hosed everything off, put the dog back in, and continued on his way.

An interesting article on the ABC News website talks about the physics of the situation — in other words, how uncomfortable it likely was for Seamus. Between the extra pressure exerted on him (equivalent to having an extra three pounds of weight on his head) and the wind whipping around the windshield at unpredictable velocities, it was probably a very stressful ride for the pooch. (There’s no word about where the dog rode on the return trip.)

Oh, and from what I’ve read, the dog didn’t get a bathroom break. Well, not one at speeds under 60 mph at least.

The issue came up in the last presidential election, and now Newt Gingrich — clinging on for life in South Carolina —  is bringing it up again in a big way. His people have created a new web ad called For the Dogs. Check it out below. (The dog part comes a little bit into it and continues to the end)

If Romney had owned up to the fact that it was a stupid idea by a busy family man who didn’t know better in that day and age — and it was a different world for dogs back then — maybe wouldn’t be taking the hits he is now on various blogs and forums. But he has defended his actions, saying Seamus enjoyed it up there, and joked that it was better than riding with his kids. And in the video above, he says the dog was in an “airtight” kennel. It’s not easy to breathe in an airtight anything.

What do you think, Dogsters? Would this affect your vote? Why or why not?

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People Giving Up Pets Because They Can’t Afford Them

January 5, 2012 at 5:40 pm

I’ve read several articles in the news about people giving up their pets because of the tight economy. More than 80 dogs have been dropped off at a single shelter in West Virginia. Other shelters have seen a sharp increase in people dropping off pets because they can no longer afford them. And, because of the economic scares, fewer people are adopting pets.

It’s hard to understand giving up a family pet because money’s tight. I’d have to be missing some meals before I could give up my fur-kids.  I know there are situations in which the pet truly cannot remain with its owners, and for them I am deeply sorry. Knowing that adult pets are far more difficult to find homes for - and many of them are put down at shelters - I hope that if there’s no money for pet food, there’s also no money for cell phones, cable television, clothes, bottled water, movies and sweets. If there’s money for that stuff, there’s money for your dog.

The decisions we make in the emotional moments after losing a job or filing for bankruptcy are sometimes life-and-death decisions for our pets, who have no say in the decision making process.

Let’s not toss them aside too quickly.

Before you drop your dog off at a shelter, please think about what it really costs to keep your dog. If you already have a leash, collar and crate, what does it really cost? For a healthy dog, it only costs food and heartworm/flea medication. There may be areas in which you can save money that are often overlooked. Do you mow your own lawn? Do you have bottled water delivery? Can you reduce your cable/satellite or Internet service package? How often do you go to Starbucks?

In other words, are the discretionary things you spend your money on worth your dog’s life?

Our dogs give so much, and they don’t ask for much in return. Let’s at least provide a safe home for them with the people they love.

Be the first to like this post.Entry filed under: In the News. Tags: afford, budget, can't, dogs, drop off, economy, expensive, give up, no longer, owners, pets, shelter, surrender, tight.

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Bagging it: The long, slow goodbye

This morning I woke up realizing that this blog and my 14-year-old Sheltie are in the same place: Dying gracefully, and not in any real hurry to go.

The story on our blog moving  you know already. The story of Drew … here you go:

Drew, a/k/a Drewbie a/k/a The Drewbinator, came into my life about a decade ago, after the death of my 15-year-old Sheltie, Andy.

I had figured Andy for the last of a long line of Shelties.  While I had shared my life with Shelties for many years and had run the local Sheltie rescue for a time, I had long since migrated towards the sporting breeds by the time Andy died. But then I met Drew.

He’d come back to my friend Tami, who bred him, after bouncing through a couple of homes for reasons no one could ever figure, since Drew was — and is — perfect in all ways. He’s friendly to all (not a given in this breed, which tends to distrust strangers), beautiful and well-mannered. I was visiting Tami when Drewbie danced over to me, put two perfect white paws on my knee and looked me right in the eyes.

“Who is this?” I said.

“Drew. I need to find a home for him,” said Tami.

“You just did,” I said.

***

Drew hasn’t set a paw wrong since. He has charmed every person who has ever met him, behaved beautifully in every situation and been a healthy, happy and well-loved member of the family here since the day he arrived. The worst health problem he has had until now is going deaf. That happened so gradually I can’t even tell you for sure when it happened. Drew is so bright and observant that although I guessed he was hard of hearing, I had no idea that he was completely deaf until he went to stay with my friend Susan Fox while I was on the national book tour. In his own home, Drewbie could “fake it.” In a new environment, however, his disability was more obvious. Not that it mattered to him and everyone who loves him … which is to say, everyone he meets.

About a month ago, Drew started getting picky about his eating, and his thirst increased. After a couple rounds of veterinary visits and diagnostic rule-outs, the only thing left was bad news: Kidney failure. Terminal.

The grim diagnosis came on the day when another 14-year-old Sheltie died, one I’d written about in relation to the idea of home hospice for pets to sustain a high quality life for those who can be treated but not cured. The day Savannah crossed the Rainbow Bridge, Drew took her place on the riverbank.

So far, so good. Drew gets IV fluids at home twice a day, and an appetite stimulant to get him to eat a little more. After a couple of days the fluids had a profound impact and now Drew is feeling very, very good, and although still very picky about what he eats, will happily eat enough chicken, pasta, tripe and peaches to prevent death from starvation. He doesn’t mind getting hydrated at all, especially since it’s a chance to be the absolute center of my attention for 15-20 minutes twice a day. The IV bags hang from my dining room chandelier, and I’m feeling optimistic enough about Drewbie to order a case of supplies.

It’s a sweet time for us both, really.

I don’t know how long this site will be here, and I don’t know how long Drew will be here, either. For now, that’s just fine with me.

In the meantime, the Lorem ipsum is up on my new personal site, and blogging of a more personal and generalized nature will start there soon.

Top image: Drew from a few years ago. Bottom image: Drew this week, with the IV bag hanging from the chandelier behind him.

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Looky Looky at What Dallas Firefighters Did to New Car with Two Dogs in the Trunk

Dallas firefighters didn't care that the Hyundai Sonata they pried open was new. They just wanted to get the dogs out of the trunk. (Photo: WFAA)

Leave your dogs in your trunk in Dallas, and don’t be surprised if your car looks like a roughly opened can of sardines when you come back. That’s the lesson John and Danika Shipman learned when Dallas Fire-Rescue pried open the trunk of their new Hyundai Sonata to get their two Yorkies out.

Joey and Eric, brothers-in-law who asked that their last names not be used, had passed by the car and heard barking. They traced it to the trunk, and  were worried about the condition of the dogs, and how long they’d been in there. So they called 911.

“If they had just been in the car, maybe with the windows down or something, I think they would have been okay,” Eric says. “But I felt the trunk was just very inhumane.”

Brothers-in-law Joey and Eric (who asked that their last names not be used) called 911 when they heard barking coming from the back of the car (Photo: WFAA)

Firefighters did what it took to open the trunk. And what it took was some serious prying. The Shipmans are not happy about their condition of their car. They say firefighters went too far, and are suing the city for $5,000 in repairs.

The Shipmans say that while all this was going on, they were enjoying lunch at a restaurant, celebrating John’s birthday. They say they had put their two Yorkies in the trunk to protect them. “I put them back there because I didn’t want them in the cabin, because [someone] will unlock the door,” John Shipman says. “Those pups cost about $1,000 each. I don’t want somebody to just reach in there and steal them.”

They say they left the back seat tilted forward a little for air, and that they love the dogs (all $2,000 worth of them) and would never do anything to harm them. Fortunately the temps were not bad — 61 degrees — and it was cloudy. The dogs appeared unharmed.

What do you think, Dogsters? Did firefighters do the right thing? Looks like the Shipmans won’t be putting any dogs in the trunk for quite some time. At least until their trunk gets repaired …

Danika and John Shipman are suing Dallas because of what firefighters did to get the dogs out of their trunk. (Photo: WFAA)

Update 9:30 a.m. PST 1-17-2012: Carma Poodle flagged us to a story on KTEN, which says John Shipman is now facing animal cruelty charges that come with a possible $10,000 fine.

The Shipmans say the dogs are like family; they sleep in their bed and sit with them on the couch. The dogs aren’t left behind for anything, he says. “The dogs come to work with me every day and I travel a lot with my work as well. They travel with me wherever I go,” John Shipman said. He maintains that the dogs were not truly in the trunk, but that the backseat was tipped forward adequately.

“The dogs were not locked in the trunk of the car. The person that was the so-called witness to it says he saw us lock them in the trunk of the car. Had that person maybe said, with two sentences, ‘Hey, did just lock your dogs in the trunk of the car?’ I would have been more than happy to say, ‘No, absolutely not. Come here, let me show you.”

(Source: WFAA, KTEN)

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Aggressive dog: What to do?

August 29, 2011

I guess I wasn’t quite done blogging here yet. My sister just called me with a dog problem, and I thought some of you might have some good advice for her. Susie lives in El Dorado, a rural area just outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. None of the homes in the area have fenced yards, except maybe for courtyards. Each home is on two or more acres. Susie likes to go for walks and just recently a dog belonging to one of the neighbors has started to menace her. She describes him as big–”more than 50 pounds”–and thinks he is a Chow mix.

So far, she has done all the right things, especially for not really being a dog person. The first time, she stood still, was careful not to stare at the dog and backed away slowly. She yelled for help but no one came out. She ended up just going back the way she had come to get back to her house. The next time, the dog waited until she was on the road in front of his house and ambushed her, running out at her and barking. She had brought bear spray with her this time. The spray seemed to startle him and he backed off to his house but was still barking at her, so she didn’t think it disabled him any. She sprayed it from quite a distance, though (15 feet, maybe), and unfortunately sucked in some of it herself.

Other people, including children, have been threatened by the dog. Animal control has been called but they’re on the other side of Santa Fe County and by the time they get there the dog is inside and the people won’t answer the door. The dog apparently belongs to the homeowner’s live-in boyfriend. The homeowners association has been notified and has gotten a lawyer, but so far the people have ignored demands to confine the dog.

I suggested that she get an air horn to blast at the dog but am otherwise at a loss if animal control and the HOA have already been notified and even a lawyer and the threat of a lawsuit haven’t made the owners budge. I don’t want to get a call that she’s been bitten or worse, and I don’t especially like the idea of her getting a gun and blasting away at the dog (at the neighbors, maybe).  Advice?

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