Tammy Grimes of Dogs Deserve Better arrested

On Monday, Sept. 11 Tammy Grimes, founder of Dogs Deserve Better, was arrested for saving the life of a dying dog.

After repeated attempts, by different people, to have East Freedom, Pennsylvania animal control officers rescue a dog that was chained and dying, Grimes rescued the dog named Doogie. She took the dog to the vet for treatment and then took him home. When she refused to return Doogie to his owners, she was arrested. Police and animal control officers were not interested in seeing the video evidence of how she found the dog. She was later released, but she is due in court on Sept. 21 to face charges of theft, receiving stolen property, criminal mischief, and criminal trespass.

What she did was save the life of a dog who’s owners were leaving him to die. How on earth can that be wrong? The dog’s owners are the ones who should be behind bars, not Tammy!

Breeding hypoallergenic cats

I just read an article this morning about a company that’s breeding hypoallergenic cats. They say they’re doing it because there is a need - a need people have to buy cats they won’t sneeze over. Right! I think the “need” is for the company bigwigs to put money in their pockets.

According to Reuters, the company spokesman says that one of the main reasons cats are given up is because of allergies. So…I guess breeding hypoallergenic cats is going to put an end to cats being put up for adoption or going to shelters. Wow! Is that all it takes?

I do feel bad for people who are allergic to cats (I’m one of them) but come on - honestly - is breeding a new and improved ‘hypoallergenic’ cat going to keep any cats out of the shelters? I seriously doubt it. And, as if breeding them isn’t bad enough, this company is going to start selling franchises early next year! Any of you who have read my blog, know I’m not a fan of breeding cats & dogs, but selling cat breeding franchises…I don’t know…it just seems downright wrong to me. The whole thing does to be honest.

Service dog asked to leave Wal-Mart

The big bully of big box stores is at it again…

Gina Pettrow, and her service dog Chloe were asked shopping in Wal-Mart recently when a two store managers asked them to leave. Chloe is a pit-bull and therefore, according to the managers, an “unstable and vicious breed.” Apparently the fact that Gina’s dog is a service dog, trained to help her get around, did not even enter into their decision. Despite being reminded of the fact that denying a service dog access to any public area is illegal, the managers insisted she and Chloe leave the store.

Personally I’m sick of Wal-Mart thinking they can do whatever they darn well please - whether it’s moving into an area and forcing all the Mom & Pop stores out of business, treating their employees like dirt, or denying service dogs like Chloe access to their store.

Why do some people have dogs?

I don’t quite understand why some people have dogs…or any type of pet for that matter. I was taking care of a couple of cats over the weekend and since one of them has health issues whenever I take care of these two I go twice a day. It’s not their people I have a problem with…it’s some folks who live in an apartment I walk by to get to my client’s apartment.

I’ve taken care of these guys for the last few years, and every time I go over there I either see or hear a little dachshund outside in a small enclosed yard. I’ve never seen a person out there with him, but I hear the little guy barking his fool head off. I say “barking his fool head off” although he doesn’t bark nearly as much since he had to live with a shock collar for quite a while. The thing is, every time - and I do mean every time - I walk by this place, I hear the dog barking. I didn’t always see him though, and the yard is small…maybe 5′ x 8′ so there aren’t many places where he can hide. I thought at first that he was inside barking through an open window but all the windows and doors were always shut tight. It wasn’t until this past weekend that I heard the little guy barking and finally saw that he was stuck in a small crate outside!

Now I’ll admit, I haven’t spent an entire day watching what these folks do with their dog but like I said, every time I walk by that apartment I hear the dog and sometimes I see him and sometimes I don’t. When I heard him, and then saw that he was in a crate, the only conclusion I could come to is that this is how this little guy spends most of his time. It hurt to think it’s a very real possibility this little guy spends most of his time cooped up in a crate.

I know it’s not right to compare what other people do with their pets on how I live with mine, but sometimes I just can’t help but wonder WHY? Why have a dog if he’s not part of the family. I just don’t get it.

Leaving dogs in hot cars - DON’T DO IT!!

If you’ve read my blog in the past, you’ve likely seen me write rant about people leaving dogs in cars only to find them dead when they come back. Well, here ya go…here’s another one about two geniuses in Maine who left not one, but two dogs in a car while they went shopping at Home Depot. Sure, they feel bad about it now, but why didn’t they think about what they were doing before they left their dogs in an oven to die a grueling death?

Authorities are investigating the deaths of two dogs left inside a car during this week’s hot spell.

According to Ellsworth Police Lt. Harold Page, a mother and her adult daughter parked their car at a Home Depot on Wednesday afternoon and left their dogs inside the car while they shopped. When the women emerged from the store about 45 minutes later, the dogs had died from heat exhaustion, police said.

[…]

According to the Bangor Daily News, the dog owners said they left their dogs inside the car but kept the engine and air conditioning running. When they returned to the car, the engine and air conditioning were not running. Police later observed the air-conditioning controls were in the on position and the keys were in the ignition.

Davis Instruments has information from a study done in 2002 on how hot it can get in parked cars. Does this really sound like something you want put your pet through?

Finding: On a day when the outside temperature was 73° Fahrenheit, it took only 20 minutes for the temperature sensor inside the car to reach a lethal level of 107° Fahrenheit.

Finding: On a day when the outside temperature was 86° Fahrenheit, it took only five minutes for the temperature sensor inside the car (placed in direct sunlight) to reach 132° Fahrenheit.

Finding: On a day when the outside temperature was 86° Fahrenheit, it took only 10 minutes for the temperature sensor inside the vehicle in the shade to reach a lethal level of 109° Fahrenheit.

Please, if you have your dog with you and you feel you MUST go in somewhere, either take the dog in with you (some places allow this) or take the dog home. Or if, as in this case, there are two or more of you, have one person stay outside with the dogs. Use your head a bit folks, if it’s too hot for you to sit in a hot car, it will be for your dog too. And, your dog doesn’t know how to turn the A/C back on if it goes off!

I’ve been tagged!

Johann the Dog tagged me a little while ago after she got tagged by The Dog Log. The deal with this tag is to name seven annoyances, and then tag some of my blogging friends so they can do the same. I could just copy Johann’s list since they also annoy me, but that would be kinda boring, so here are 7 new ones…

1. People who leave pets in cars when it’s hot outside.
2. Not having enough time to do all the things I want to do.
3. People who talk on cell phones while they’re driving, in restaurants, or in movie theaters. (what’s THAT important?)
4. Gas prices (but thankful I don’t have a gas-guzzler!)
5. Traffic
6. trying to read emails from people who don’t use any punctuation or capitalization making run on sentences that just keep going on and on making it really hard to understand what the heck they’re trying to say
7. Thinking about things that annoy me.

Since I’d rather think of other things than things that annoy me, I’m going to add 7 more things that make me smile

1. Seeing my dogs wag their tails.
2. My cat lying next to me, purring.
3. The smell of the forest in the fall and the crunch of the leaves under my feet.
4. The satisfaction of a job well done.
5. Surprising someone by doing something nice for them.
6. A beautiful, sunny day.
7. Money in my bank account!

And, here are the people I’m tagging - hopefully they’ll play along.

My dog was attacked by another dog

As I’m sitting here typing, my dog Lydia is lying next to me sleeping peacefully here on the couch. She’s perfectly fine now, and hopefully having some pleasant dreams as her feet twitch every few seconds. A few weeks ago though, we were nursing some aches and pains from a dog attack.

We went out for a walk, on the route we’ve walked for years. She was on a leash, walking quietly, minding her own business, when all of a sudden a dog lunged on top of her. Neither of us saw it coming. There was no warning whatsoever - no growling, no barking - absolutely no warning at all! As it attacked, there was just a flurry of dog, and a lot of yelping and growling mostly by Lydia. It was nearly impossible to know what to do and left me feeling so absolutely useless. There was no way I was going to reach down and try to pull them apart so I just yelled for help and tried to pull Lydia back. It was useless though because the dog had a pretty good hold on her. Eventually someone came and pulled the dog off of Lydia and I was able to check her neck to see if she was bleeding. There wasn’t, thankfully.

The dog owner, who saw the attack, is an idiot. He didn’t check to see if my dogs or I were ok. Nor did he apologize. And, after taking Lydia to the vet, the guy wasn’t interested in paying the bill. After talking to a couple of the neighbors though, none of this is surprising. The guy has had a few complaints to animal control because of the dog getting out and doing the same thing. Animal control won’t do anything though since there was no permanent damage to either one of us.

The way the current vicious dog ordinance in Austin is written, this type of dog is not considered vicious, and therefore all animal control can do is to give the owner a little ‘dog owner responsibility’ speech. In other words - nothing. There’s a new vicious dog ordinance being worked on though, which I’ve posted about before. Many people, including me, are unhappy with some of the language in it because it makes the ordinance too vague. Once the ordinance is finished though, hopefully animal control will be able to take some type of action when something like this happens.

The good thing is that Lydia is feeling a lot better now. She was limping for a few days, and had some scratches and small puncture wounds on her neck, but she’s going to be OK.

Technology can be a bad thing for business

Yes, you read that right…technology can be a bad thing for a business owner…if it’s not used properly. Specifically, I’m talking about cell phones.

Pet sitters and dog walkers don’t sit around in their offices very often - at least that’s the goal! They’re mostly out and about taking care of pets, and meeting new clients. And, thankfully, because of cell phones, being on the run doesn’t have to mean missing calls like it used to. They can be a real asset to a business owner whose business is mobile.

Cell phones can be a real detriment too.

A few days ago I had a guy come to my house to give me an estimate on some work I need done. It had nothing to do with pets, but it does have something to do with a cell phone. As we were talking and I was pointing out what needed to be done, his cell phone rang. He looked at his phone and at first I thought, “OK, he’s just looking but not going to answer it.” I was wrong! He answered the darn thing, which meant I was essentially put on hold…as he stood in MY house…he put me on hold for some unknown caller.

There was no, “excuse me I’ve been waiting for this call” or “this is an emergency and I need to take it” … nothing! He simply stopped talking to me and answered his phone. (I would have understood an urgent call.)

He obviously didn’t realize his little call was the kiss of death as far as getting the job was concerned! Oh well.

The chit-chat only lasted a couple minutes, he hung up, and then went back to our conversation as if nothing happened. No apology, no acknowledgment of the interruption…nothing whatsoever. Is that like…Rude…with a capital R or what?!

He gave me the estimate but it didn’t matter at that point. I was so absolutely insulted by his actions that there’s no way I’d hire him. I’ve hired the guy who seemed genuinely interested in getting the job…and didn’t answer his cell phone while he was here!

I firmly believe that consultations with a potential client should be just that…consultations with the client…not a free for all where a ringing phone takes priority. Whether it’s a pet sitter meeting a client, a home remodeling person giving an estimate, or some other type of meeting, the client (or potential client) should be the priority during that time. If the business owner is truly interested in gaining that person’s business that means putting them first - and possibly even turning the cell phone off.

Personally, I think people get too addicted to the ring of their phone and dismiss what’s right in front of them in order to answer it. I see it with people talking on their phones in stores, in the movie theater, while driving, and obviously…in business meetings. Use one at the wrong time, and it could just cost you some business…just like it did the guy who didn’t get mine!