Home Zookeeper

I find out all kinds of things listening to talk radio. Did you know that pet owners lean toward McCain for President? I think that’s so funny.

Dog owners specifically favor McCain over Obama 42 to 37 percent. People who own no pets favor Obama 48% to 34%. McCain has a lot of animals…I had no idea…

He has a veritable menagerie, including Sam the English springer spaniel, Coco the mutt, turtles Cuff and Link, Oreo the black and white cat, a ferret, three parakeets and a bunch of saltwater fish.

I LOVE turtles…aren’t those great names!?!

Are people who own pets inherently better people? I don’t know…there are plenty of bad people who own pets (uh…Hitler to name one evil one). But apparently the perception is that a candidate who owns pets is more responsible and compassionate. I suppose, but in my view I think owning pets is just sort of frosting on the cake … if a person is already good then owning pets makes them that much better. *grin*

While most of us will be celebrating this 4th of July with BBQs, hotdogs, fireworks, and a cold drink or two…animals at our local shelter will be facing off with the clock. Don’t wait until after the holiday if you have plans to adopt.

Go visit today or tomorrow and bring a new family member home.

Herd County animal shelter in Georgia has the most beautiful little Siamese kitty. I wish I could bring her home! Trooper would enjoy her as a snack. She would make a wonderful companion, as would the other sweet kitties and doggies in danger of being put down this Friday.

And Saving Shelter Pets needs your help!!! They have 52 - FIFTY TWO - puppies to rescue and transport. That is a lot of sweet, adorable, and adoptable puppies to save.

Look at that face!!! My heart melts. If you can spare it, please make a special Puppy Promises donation. I donated $25 yesterday and wish it could be $2,500! So far, most of the sales from my Etsy shop have gone directly to SSP. Don’t tell my hubby!

Thank you Hounds Good for your hard work to find these animals homes or rescue. You have inspired me so much in the last few months and I put in my application yesterday to be a foster mom. =) I’m nervous but excited and hope that I can make a difference and save lives! The minute I get approved I am going to start blogging about our experience.

Oh and I’ll also be asking for help and advice!!! =D LOL You can be sure of that.

Today in the Pacific Northwest it is in the 90s. It’s a “dry” heat, which means absolutely nothing to me except that I know humidity is just more miserable. We’re not used to this kind of weather though. Summer has been slow in coming, and while I was getting tired of clouds, this heat is no fun for me or the dogs.

Animals can so easily overheat in this kind of weather. I was sick to my stomach yesterday as I drove home. I saw two different trucks with their dogs in the back beds. The dogs looked absolutely miserable - completely out in the open with no shelter (not to mention no security…but that’s another topic altogether) and I presume no water. Their tongues hanging out, panting so heavily I just wanted to roll down my window and yell at the drivers. It was worse because it was stop and go traffic on the freeway - it just seems hotter surrounded by all that pavement.

I was thinking about those dogs this afternoon when I took Quinn with me to the Post Office. I’m sure someone thought I was being abusive to her - taking her out in this heat. What they don’t know is that Quinn LOVES heat. Seriously LOVES it. She will lay out on our deck even in the hottest weather and won’t come in unless we force her. She was born in a hotter climate (Spokane, WA has much hotter summers) but she’s still a black and white dog. She will come in panting like mad but she just loves it. I wonder if the heat feels good on her old bones.

Anyway, my point is that I know my dogs and I knew that she could handle the short trip to the Post Office. I left all the windows down (it wasn’t too busy so I felt safe doing that) and could see her from the post office as I waited in line. I watched her carefully and was prepared to go back out if she looked distressed. She didn’t even pant for the first few minutes. And she purposely stayed in the sun with her head hanging out the window. She’s so cute. By the time I got out to my car (no more than 10 minutes) she was panting (not heavily) but still in the sun with head hanging out. I offered her a drink of water from my water bottle and she wasn’t that interested.

I know how my dogs react to heat. I could never have taken Trooper or Kodiak on that short trip. Both would have been absolutely miserable. I also know Quinn’s limits and if I’d left her much longer she would not have been comfortable. All animals have different tolerances.

We can’t even walk the dogs in this weather. In 70 degree heat they get so hot that after we’re done they go immediately to their kiddie pool. Trooper and Kodiak spar to see who can get in and dig around the fastest. It’s hilarious.

Quinn rarely gets in the pool.

So now, in this heat, we have our small air conditioner (window unit in the bedroom) going full blast with the fan blowing on high and the dogs are still inside panting. Our house gets full on sun until around 4 p.m. so it heats up very hot. I need to get curtains to keep the sun out and keep the house cooler. The only reason we got the AC unit was for Trooper. Before we got it the house would get to over 100 degrees. With all his extra fur he’d probably get heat stroke.

While the dogs are miserable, my cats are in heaven. They love to sun bathe and at their new house with grandma I hear they are enjoying laying by the sliding glass door in the sun even in this hot weather. But even cats can get overheated.

Stay cool everyone!

My heart is as big as can be when it comes to pets and animals. However, I think that logical dictates that some animals have more value than others. I do not value a fish as much as I value my dogs. I do not value the life of the stray, unneutered Chow that wanders my neighborhood more than the lives of my dogs and would kill that dog (if necessary) if he attempted to harm my pets. Though Quinn would certainly do her best to defend us all.

Likewise, human life (okay, most human life…there are some humans I wouldn’t value more than slug slime) should be valued more than animal life. If my house was on fire and my husband passed out I would do everything in my power to save his life first. If he were okay I would then do what it took to save my dogs without killing myself. If I were unable to save them I would mourn like nobody’s business, but I would continue living, and probably one day get more dogs. If my husband died, life would not move on in the same way.

What’s my point?

I believe that there is a point at which so called “animal rights” activists go too far. Acts of violence against humans or human interests do nothing to further the goal of making sure animals are treated fairly. I don’t want animals tortured for unnecessary purposes like testing mascara. But I do believe science has a commitment to discovering new and better ways to treat humans (and animals for that matter). Doing so humanely is important, but the extremists don’t want any scientific progress whatsoever if it involves the use of animals.

What about pound dogs and cats? I have heard stories of people “adopting” animals and then taking them to a lab to use in testing. I have very, very, strongly mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I absolutely hate the idea of a potential loving pet being taken to a lab and used for experimentation. On the other hand, is it better to allow these animals to be euthanized with no benefit because there aren’t enough homes for them all? At least with testing they may be part of a cure or discover to help us all.

I do not think that animal testing will end anytime soon, though it would be a wonderful thing if science could instead use computers to test their discoveries. In the meantime, PETA and animal rights extremists should work harder to get dogs, cats and other abandoned animals new homes. It will do a world of good!

I get paid to write on this blog (not a lot but something is better than nothing right?). It’s one of the reasons I decided to join 451 Press but I also wanted a dedicated blog to write about animals and especially my dogs.

I am thinking that I want to donate all the earnings from writing here to Saving Shelter Pets - a non profit organization that tries SO hard to rescue dogs from kill shelters and place them in loving homes.

I earned a little over $7 last month (I know…big bucks!) so I’ll round up and donate $10 to their latest group of rescues in desperate need of funding.

Can you help???

SSP still needs over $700 to save this group of dogs who, through no fault of their own, are trapped in a bad situation and desperately want a loving home of their own. Every little bit helps - even just $5.

And all donations are tax deductible. I guess I should be keeping track every time I send a few dollars. Oops. I’m so bad at tracking those kind of things.

Every time you visit me here at Home Zookeepers I earn a few more cents that will go to save the special animals that wind up in shelters. If you have time, please visit every day. I will do my best to have something interesting to say.

I found this interesting article via Instapundit.

My dogs are of course the smartest dogs in the universe *grin* but apparently being smart isn’t necessarily a good thing for animals in terms of evolution and life span. Of course the scientists used fruit flies in their experiment (what is it about fruit flies?). I honestly don’t know how their results truly translate to larger mammal populations.

“…the very act of learning takes a toll. The scientists trained some fast-learning flies to associate an odor with powerful vibrations. “These flies died about 20 percent faster than flies with the same genes, but which were not forced to learn…”

I know I feel pretty drained after learning anything new. Ha! I just hope I’m not shortening Trooper’s life span by teaching him new things in Agility Training. =)

I wonder how this study would apply with cats. If Fade can learn how to play dead (*grin*) he has to have some smarts! I know that my kitties are so smart that they even clean their own litter boxes (that’s another story for another day).

This bird is at a shop in Maui and I had so much fun feeding him. The shop keeper told us he was a “bipolar” bird and to be careful when handling him. I thought a bipolar bird was hilarious…being that I’m bipolar myself. We were told to carefully wiggle our first finger until the birdie put his head down and then we could scratch him.

Another lady came over and tried to pet him directly and he bit her! *giggle* Okay, it’s not funny but she didn’t follow directions and she was warned. There’s even a sign!

We had a great time at this shop and bought a lot of plants…two of which have already died. We just don’t have very good luck with tropical plants. But we still have two Plumerias that are hanging on to life. I hope they live!!!

Visit the other Camera Critters participants and see fun critters!

We have a lot of tree frogs that hang out on the porch, especially at night. This little guy was hiding in the Dora umbrella and was a little startled when I opened it.

I snapped a few pictures then helped the him down. Then Rae had fun touching him and watching him hop away. She has since talked about the frog a lot. Those few minutes spent with him made an impression on her.

The other night there were four frogs around the front door. I think they were hanging out waiting for dinner to be attracted to the outside light. They sure are cute little fellas.

My niece’s horse hurt her foot recently. They went by the vet who gave them something to put on it to ease her pain while it heals. Apparently it is quite challenging to administer medicine to a horse. They got it done but will have to repeat the process for a few days.

It makes me glad we have small animals that are a lot easier to treat when they are hurt or sick.

Lately I’ve been thinking about our holiday photos. I really want to take our two-year-old’s picture at a nice location. After snapping these some photos with the pumpkin and the cats, I thought about taking some holiday photos with our pets as well.

I’m not sure how cooperative our cats will be but it’s worth a shot. It’s not like I’m going to try to take them to a studio to have their picture made. I would just like a nice photo to add on our Christmas card. This is the first time I plan to include the pets in a holiday photo. It is something to think about now since the holidays will be here before I am ready!

We went to the fair last week, and this was our favorite part. It was the petting zoo. My two-year-old loved it. I nearly went broke buying carrots and feed, but she had a great time.
Here is the llama who was very patient and allowed us to feed the goats first before getting to her. She didn’t spit once.

Here are those hungry goats. I couldn’t even get the feed out before they had devoured it all. I learned to place my hand first and then put the quarter in to get the feed.

Here I believe is a mountain goat. I can’t remember exactly. Anyway he dwarfed the other goats there.

It was a fun day, and it makes me really wish the local zoo had a petting zoo. This was a great experience for Rae. Hopefully we will get the chance to do it again before the fair rolls around next year.