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I don't know what the heck is in the water in Georgia, but I am impressed!!
Brothers’ winnings benefit animal rescue group
By SANDY ECKSTEIN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When we last checked with Zack and Thomas Eller in December, the two Milton boys had raised more than $1,200 for a rescue group.
This month they increased that amount substantially with a $5,000 donation, thanks to their mom and parenting magazine Wondertime, which held a Littlest Volunteers Contest.
“I saw the contest and filled out the application without even telling them,” said Tracy Eller, who has helped sons Zack, 13, and Thomas, 9, with their burgeoning dog biscuit business over the past two years.
The boys started making them in 2006, and soon were selling the peanut butter, applesauce and wheat doggie goodies at local stores and adoptions for Aiding and A-Petting, a group that fosters dogs and cats until they can be adopted. All the proceeds, about $1,700 so far, have gone to the rescue group. Founder Karen Brinker said they were blown away by the $5,000 award, which came from the magazine and the Walt Disney Co.
The boys’ only reward was a photo shoot and being featured in the magazine this fall as one of three grand prize winners. But that was enough for them.
“This helped us raise more money to give to the pets, so we were really happy,” Zack said.
Of course, the Eller boys aren’t the only animal-loving youngsters in the North Georgia area. In fact, there are so many we can’t write about them all. But here are a few more who are working hard to help homeless pets:
Her own book. Ansley Burnette, 8, of Blairsville volunteers with a group called Castaway Critters Pet Rescue. That’s why she knows so much about homeless pets. And also why she wants to help them.
Ansley wrote a book called “Frisco Finds a Forever Family,” about a homeless dog finding his forever home. Of course it helps that her family owns a publishing company that printed the book. But Ansley, a home-schooled fourth-grader, wrote the story and found another student, Deborah Mullen of Ellijay, to draw the illustrations, which Ansley then colored. Her mom, Dawn Burnette, is understandably proud.
“She loves to write, so she decided to write a book to raise money for the shelter and help raise awareness at the same time,” she said.
The hardback was published in April and has raised more than $1,100 for Castaway Critters. Other groups also can buy the book wholesale and sell it and keep the profits.
Ansley has held book signings, and is working on a program to take into schools on responsible pet ownership and the importance of spaying and neutering.
A rock solid fund-raiser. Claudia Crawford, 10, of Cumming came up with a different way to raise money to help homeless pets — she sold rocks at her school, Settles Bridge Elementary in Forsyth County.
A teacher supplied the rocks, which included semi-precious stones, and for the past two school years Claudia has sold them to fellow students for 50 cents to $20. The most recent sale netted about $200 for SmallDog Rescue and Humane Society, where Claudia has been volunteering since she was 8, cleaning cages, walking dogs and helping with fund-raisers.
“I really love animals, and I don’t like to see dogs in humane societies, so I raised money for the dogs,” said Claudia, who has four dogs of her own.
Anne Stockton, president of the rescue group, said it has a number of young volunteers, including ones that regularly work at adoption events or the shelter.
“We are one of the few rescue groups that works with youth volunteers,” Stockton said. “We feel it is vital to the rescue effort to have the youth of today learn about responsible pet care. They are our future.”
Dough from doughnuts. Another school project that’s helping Georgia’s animals is the doughnut sale by the eighth-grade Beta Club at Creekland Middle School in Lawrenceville. With the blessing of Principal William Kruskamp, about two dozen students, led by teacher Suzanne Cross, hold regular sales. At the end of the school year the club donates the money to SpayGeorgia, which funds low-cost spay/neuters for pets whose owners otherwise couldn’t afford them.
This year the class donated $2,100.
“That will spay or neuter a lot of animals,” said Cindy Lindsey, founder of SpayGeorgia. “We are so impressed with these kids and their teacher and the school for allowing these kids to fund-raise for us.”
While most people knew Skip Caray as the Braves announcer, those in the animal community also knew of his love for animals. He and his wife, Paula, adopted several rescue dogs, including one from SmallDog Rescue and Humane Society. And SmallDog was one of three groups listed by Caray’s family for where donations could be made in his memory. Anyone who wants to donate can go to www.smalldoghumane.org.
Today's 'feel good' story made me a little teary-eyed, If you can watch the video, it is even more amazing than the written story itself. I tried to embed it here, but it just won't go. So I linked to it instead. Dog lovers, grab a tissue!
The dog left on the doorstep of the Granada Hills pet clinic was sick. The letter left with him was heartbreaking.
"Dear Drs., please forgive me for this horrible transgression. I have no where else to turn so I ask you to mercifully, gently and lovingly please help him sleep. His name is Kaiser and he's 16-and-a half years old. He's been my friend, my teacher, my pupil, my lifelong loving and loyal companion," the letter said.
On the envelope, the author of the letter said that he thought Kaiser had two strokes the night before.
"Be good to him as you would your own child, for he's been mine for a loving lifetime," the envelope read.
Inside, the writer continued to pour his heart out.
"We've been together 24-7 365 days a year since he was 8 months old. He's gentle, smart, and I'll miss him more than I could admit. Saturday evening, without warning or any outside influence, he began rolling on his back on the floor, all four legs extended, rigid and thrusting wildly in all directions. I saw fear and panic in his otherwise unrecognizable eyes. His head was pulled down to his right, and he seemed unable to do otherwise. If I had to render a guess I would say it appeared as though he had a stroke. He can stand, but 85 percent unsteady. He's fearfully reacting to attempts to get him to drink water. He refuses food as though he's totally lost knowledge of what to do with food."
"I'm a homeless disabled vet, and I know when it's time to say goodbye to a friend, and it's time now. He's such a part of my being, I'll once again be alone in my life. I love you Kaiser, thank you for caring, sincerely, Kaiser's Soul Mate."
Debbie Herot, a manager at Pet Medical Center Chatoak in Granada Hills, found the letter and the dog on the clinic doorstep as she came in to work last week.
Though she tries to keep an emotional distance from the pets she sees, in this case, she couldn't do it.
"After you're in this business for so long you learn to look the other way, because we have to euthanize animals. This one i couldn't euthanize," Herot said.
Instead, Herot tried to turn another loss into a gain. Last year, 23-year-old clinic employee Eric Flesher died in a car crash. Herot said he used to hate seeing animals come in that couldn't get treatment because their owners couldn't afford the cost of the care. So after his death, his family set up a fund to help animals like Kaiser.
Herot said it turned out that Kaiser hadn't had a stroke, but a much less serious illness from which he is now almost fully recovered.
With Kaiser doing better and the words of the letter still ringing in their heads, clinic employees set out to find Kaiser's owner.
The story of the homeless vet's letter eventually made it into the Daily News. Bob Mikolasko showed up at the clinic. He had seen the story in the newspaper. After correctly answering some questions about Kaiser that only he would know, Herot became convinced they found Kaiser's "soul mate."
Before he left, Mikolasko thanked the stafff and - summing up his feelings - proved to be just as poignant with the spoken word, as he had been with the written.
"When you leave your house in the morning and go to work and you don't see them until you come back, well, that's one lifestyle. You develop a rapport.
"I spent 11 years in a motor home living on the streets here, 24-7 with him. There was no baby sitter. There's no break. There's no summer vacation. There's no going to work. When I go to work, he goes with me," Mikolasko said.
Regardless of what you think about pit bulls in general, as has been said many times on my blogs, I believe (and I know a lot of you out there do, too) that it is the RAISING of the dog that, in many instances, makes or breaks them. Now, that said, some dogs are born after generations of breeding for aggression, and it just seems impossible to get it out of them. And also, dogs are like people, in that sometimes there is just one that isn't quite right in the head. They can be the most loving dog one minute and then just seemingly "snap". But remember, they don't have any way to communicate to us when they're having a bad day, or are tired of having their ears and tail pulled by the family's 2-year-old, etc. They communicate the way they would in THEIR world .. with a snap at whatever's bugging them.
That said .. we all know the story of Michael Vick. In my opinion there is no punishment fitting enough other than maybe .. MAYBE .. if the afterlife is governed by dogs. :) That said, you may remember a blog I posted a month or so ago that showed the lives some of Vick's dogs are leading now. It takes, in my opinion, a very special kind of person to adopt a pit bull - ESPECIALLY one that was brought up as a potential fighter. I don't think I could do it. I'd always be just a little afraid, especially when kids come over. But you know what? Bless those who have done it. Because without them, there'd be no Leo.
Beaten-down dog from Vick case has his day
Pit bull rescued from famous dogfighting ring now helps cancer patients
NBC News and MSNBC
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - It’s a dog’s life. And for Leo it couldn’t be better.
Leo — rescued from heavy chains that confined him as one of the pit bulls in former NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring — is a lover, not a fighter. He now happily frolics in a clown collar as he makes the rounds at the Camino Infusion Center, where he brings comfort to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Despite his training as a killer, Leo is a sweetheart as he visits his friends on the ward.
“He is wonderful, and all the patients love Leo,” said Paula Reed, the facility’s oncology director. “They really love his eyes and gentleness.”
Six months ago, Leo should have been dead.
When officers raided Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels in Smithfield, Va., last year, they found dogs, some injured and scarred, chained to buried car axles. Forensic experts discovered remains of dogs that had been shot with a .22-caliber pistol, electrocuted, drowned, hanged or slammed to the ground for lacking a desire to fight.
Vick, an All-Pro quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, was suspended indefinitely and is serving 23 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in August to bankrolling the dogfighting operation and helping to kill as many as eight dogs. Three co-defendants also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison.
About 50 dogs were rescued.
Animal advocates are divided over whether fighting dogs can be trusted to have new lives as pets or working dogs. One of the dogs seized at Bad Newz was put down as too aggressive, but the others were dispersed to sanctuaries and training facilities across the country.
An ‘incredible’ difference with patients One of them was Leo, who ended up in the care of Marthina McClay, a certified trainer and counselor in Los Gatos, near San Francisco. McClay is president of Our Pack, an advocacy group for pit bulls.
“He was a little like a caveman at a tea party,” McClay said. “He didn’t have a lot of training.”
But after five weeks of intense instruction and supervision, and more weeks of acclimation, Leo is now — with all due respect —a pussy cat. He loves putting his head on a patient’s lap and batting his big brown eyes.
“The difference that he’s had with our patients has been incredible — the smiles on their faces, the joy when they see him,” said Reed of the cancer center.
“Leo is a survivor and our patients are survivors, and I think they can relate to each other,” she said.
Leo also touches young people on probation at the Alternative Placement Academy in San Jose, where the young men seem to identify with the former tough guy.
“I think they saw this dog’s awful background, and it communicates to the kids that you can end up being what you want to be,” McClay said.
It’s the age-old story of second chances. By living his, Leo helps tear down entrenched stereotypes that pit bulls are irredeemable killers.
“Leo is definitely an ambassador to the breed,” McClay said. “The staff at various facilities will say, ‘I will never see pit bulls the same again.’”
Click here to watch a 2-minute video of Leo in action. I challenge you to watch it and not get just a little misty-eyed, thinking about how he was raised, how he was starved and beaten and trained to kill for his entire life until 5 months ago, when someone finally showed him love. Think we "advanced humans" could be so forgiving? Dogs rock!
Today's "feel-good" stories are about one of my favorite subjects: people helping animals. Here's the thing ... I hear a lot of people say (and it's even stated by a DNR official) that you can't get close to wild animals because they don't know if you're trying to help you and they'll hurt you. I don't buy it. Yes, I think at times a wild animal's fear response may well override everything else. Yes, I think it's silly to try to approach a wild animal with the only reason being that you want to pet it or get your picture taken with it or whatnot. But when an animal is hurt (and sometimes even when it's not), I most DEFINITELY believe they know when someone means to do them harm and when they don't. Animals are not stupid. I have lots of my own little stories to back up my beliefs, but let me share these with you instead. They're more impressive! Some are old, but that's ok. They're still feel-good stories!
If you've seen the movie "Bambi", you know how difficult it can be for a deer to stand on the ice, but if you saw a deer struggling on a frozen lake, would you risk your own safety to help it?
David Cook, who lives on Sand Lake north of New Auburn, Wisconsin, said he didn't think twice about helping the deer. His plan of attack was set and his wife caught the whole rescue on tape.
On Saturday morning the Cook's woke up to a deer struggling to get to it's feet on the frozen lake. "This is not something you experience every day" said Mrs. Cook.
"My wife spotted the deer out on the lake and it wasn't getting up so we decided I'd go out there and see if I could help it off the ice somehow" David Cook added.
It's something John Dunn with the Department of Natural Resources doesn't recommend. "Regardless of what type of animal it is it's not really worth risking a human life" Dunn said.
When David got to the deer he just had to help. "It had ice on it's eyebrows, it had ice around its muzzle so probably it had been out there for part of the night even." David quickly earned the deer's trust. "First it was pretty scared obviously" David said.
"The animal doesn't know that you're trying to save it and you just don't know how they're going to react" explained Dunn.
This deer was all for the help and the two quickly made friends. Cook was even able to pet it. David said he may have even done Santa a favor. "I kind of think this is Rudolph that was out there and you know doesn't hurt to rescue Rudolph before Christmas."
Even though the deer and David weren't hurt, Dunn recommends if you come across a stranded animal to call the fire and rescue squad in your area to help it out safely.
Liverpool Man Rescues Ducklings
As soon has he saw a duck hanging out with a small group of people Saturday night, Matt Heath says he knew what happened even before he pulled his car into the parking lot of the Chase Manhattan Bank on the corner of Buckley Road and 7th North Street in Liverpool.
Nine ducklings had fallen into a sewer grate, and the mother duck was beside herself, Heath said.
"She was just quacking away, walking around and sticking her head down into the grate," he said. "The ducklings were about 8- to 10-feet down, trying to hop up."
Health, 21, got help from the state police and the Liverpool Volunteer Fire Department, and rescued the ducklings.
Mother and ducklings were reunited, and last seen waddling off together into a grassy area on the side of the building.
For more about the rescue, see story in Tuesday's Post-Standard.
And More Ducklings Were Rescued!(Apparently storm drains are big problems for little ducks)
Animal control officers rescued ducklings Wednesday from a storm drain in Garden Grove, California. Authorities said a passerby reported that 14 ducklings fell into the drain.
"Once they've fallen into a situation like that, it is difficult for the ducklings to get out," said Orange County Animal Care Services Director Jennifer Phillips. Officers scooped the ducklings into a box, which was lowered through a manhole.
The mother duck waited nearby on a sidewalk and followed animal control officers to a pond. The ducklings were released into the pond and reunited with the mother and father.
Black Lab Saved From Icy Pond (I guarantee you, nothing would have stopped Jeremy and I from going in after either of our dogs in this situation, either).
Cameras were rolling in Salina, Kansas Tuesday night as an animal control officer and a teenage boy, tried to rescue a dog from an icy pond. And during the process they fell in too.
Trapped in the icy pond, unable to pull himself out, Porter, the black lab was struggling just to keep his head above water. "His eyes and he was crying and I just couldn't let him drown out there in front of me," said Gabe Siem, the dog’s owner.
In an attempt to save his dog, Siem, had already fallen into the water three times by the time emergency crews responded to a 9-1-1 call. "I was just standing there freaking out," said Siem’s friend Jacob McBride who made the call.
Once on the scene, Jane Trostle, an animal control officer, and Siem tried to rescue Porter using a tree branch, but both ended up falling in themselves. "The officer said that Porter couldn't make it much longer out there, he was gonna drown if we didn't get him out within 4 minutes, 5 minutes," said Siem.
That's when Trostle decided to tie an extension cord around her and shimmy back out on the ice. "My thing was I didn't want the boy to go back out on the ice and I knew I had to do something or otherwise he would have," she said. But once again just as Trostle reached porter she fell in. "I felt the coldness and was thinking oh gosh hurry up lets get out of here and get out," Trostle recalled.
And thankfully, both Jane and Porter managed to swim to safety. Jane was whisked away to an ambulance and once cleared went back to work. As for Porter, he's much better too, his family grateful that Jane risked her life to save his.
And Jane, who says she was acting on instinct, still believes she would do it all again. "It just comes to you naturally when you love animals so much."
Anyway, I hope something in here made you smile. :) And maybe also helped those of you who have failing opinions of people sometimes realize there are still good ones out there. ;)
An Essence Portrait. That's what this is. When I was looking around for some old artwork recently, I ran across it. It was painted by a very interesting and talented woman named Sofanya. If you'd like to know more about her, please definitely click on the link to her web site.
According the the sheet included with my painting, Sofanya helps people discover their Spirit Guides, Animal Totems and Soul Mates through her paintings. Basically, I was at a Psychic Fair in Reno, and I saw this and thought it sounded really interesting. So, I sat for her for about oh, maybe 1/2 to 1 hour, and she just painted what she saw in my aura (I think). Whether you believe this stuff or not, it really was an interesting process. There was an older Asian man that was watching almost the entire time I was being painted, and when it got toward the end, his eyes lit up and he excitedly told me how fantastic it was that I had so much white in my painting! I really don't know much about it, and prefer not to take myself too seriously, but I have to admit, this was a neat experience. :)
I'm not sure how much detail you'll be able to see in the painting when you enlarge it, but afterwards she drew in some of the animals and faces she saw. This was done in 2001, and I had completely forgotten about it, but many of you who know me, know of my love of the raptors in this area, photographing them and such. You'll see 2 birds if you look close. The main one is in the crux of the lighter area, its head coming up out of the middle. Another is just up and to the right of that, riding what almost appears to be a wave, above my face.
There are peoples' faces all over. Eight in the panel around my face and five in the other yellow/red panel. And another in the blue streak going up and to the left of my face, it almost looks like a person's elongated body, with a face up at the top.
I also find it interesting that the painting is very obviously split in two, and I'm a Gemini (sign of the twins). I don't remember whether I gave her my birthday or not prior to her starting, though.
Do I believe in it? Well, I do believe there are a lot of things happening around us that we don't understand and most of us can't even see. I also believe some people are just more in tune with that side of things and are able to sense things some others can't. I guess I'd sure like to believe that maybe raptors are my totems, and that's why I get so excited about them, and I would love to think I have some spirit guides helping me with some of my decisions. So .. believe it? How about I just say, I'd like to believe it's possible. :)
This weekend, Jeremy and I discovered a wildlife refuge right in our back yard! Well, kinda. It's in north Reno, but close enough. It's called Animal Ark, and they rescue wild animals (primarily predators) who are unable, for whatever reason, to remain in the wild. What an incredible place! Every animal there has a story. From the tigers who were destined to be tv stars (but didn't make the cut) to wild animals who were taken in by humans and raised as "pets" and then somehow escaped or were abandoned (or in some cases, abused by their "owners"), to wildlife that was found hurt or abandoned (in the specific case of the baby coyote, who was one of two babies found without a mother, by a local rancher), to a small black bear who tried, but just couldn't make it out in the wild. The stories are great, and the hearts of these people who are caring for these animals in such a generous manner, are greater. They strive to make sure these animals have as natural a habitat as possible, to the extent of arranging for the cheetahs to go on long runs, chasing after "prey" being towed by a high-power winch, in order to ensure maximum digestive and emotional health and well-being.
To read about some of the other animals' stories or find out more information about this unique refuge, please see animalark.org.
An Essence Portrait. That's what this is. When I was looking around for some old artwork recently, I ran across it. It was painted by a very interesting and talented woman named 
