Merry Christmas, Baby...

With all of the sadness and unwanted dogs in shelters, it's been kind of hard to catch the Christmas spirit this year. I don't think I've ever seen so many helpless animals. I must admit, it got to me today and I started to cry. I was feeding the birds and Persia, my little cockatiel, walked over to me and stuck his beak through the cage. I leaned down and he gave me a kiss. That's all it took. The tiny little kiss from a bird.

Sometimes that's all we have to give. Persia taught me a lesson today. We may not be able to save the world, but we can love one another. I have so much to be grateful for today.

I have a shrine upstairs which contains the ashes of the ones no longer with me. Roy, my beautiful yellow tabby who lived to be 20 years old, is there. Alamo, the little white parakeet from San Francisco animal control is there. Little Piggles, Junior, T-Rex and Mookie.

Today, on the day before Christmas, I am very grateful for the animals here. Pip is here from Bakersfield. She was all up and down the coast of California and in boarding and shelters for two and a half years. Now, she's here with me in Texas and waiting for that perfect home.

Rowdy Cowgirl is healthy and precious and will turn 13 this year. I remember when I'd walk her back to her cage at SFACC, not knowing when her time would run out, yet promising I would not let her down. Rebel is live and kicking and going on 16! Tex and Cubby are happy and healthy. Fernando, Germ, Buddy, Martha and Candy welcomed a litter of kittens who've decided to take up residence with us.

Merry Christmas from the family!

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I'm Dreaming and Dreaming and Dreaming of a White Christmas

Murmur and her devoted partner, Barbara

We are dreaming of a white Christmas today and that dream came true for two Reunion pitties and one wannabe. Murmur is not a pittie, but she was on the short list at Kern County in Bakersfield a couple of years ago. Without even meeting her, Barbara opened her heart and home to Murmur. By the way, she was scheduled to be pts at the high kill shelter because she had a grade five heart murmur. Hence, the name Murmur.

Misha at Mount Shasta

Barbara and Murmur have moved to chilly frosty Marietta, Minnesota. Murmur has literally blossomed in the sub-zero climate. Barbara's early Christmas present to Murmur was a pair of booties so Murmur can go tromping in the snow.

Misha was saved by Sara from Antioch Shelter. After a year long scare with tumors and cancer, Misha is healthy and enjoying life. We treated her condition with homeopathy and a raw diet.

Faris was saved in secret from San Francisco Animal Control since Reunion Rescue has been banned from pulling dogs for many years. Faris, like so many dogs and puppies at this city pound, was going to be euthanized for food aggression. We were unable to help the three 12 week puppies they killed last month. Longtime subscribers to the Sue Sternberg plastic hand, SFACC put Faris on the kill list. We were able to pull him ourselves, but thanks to good friend and fellow rescuer Astrid, he was saved at the last minute and fostered to a young woman. Sunni and Faris have relocated to her home back in Virginia and sent us this video of 'dangerous dog' Faris tearing up the snow:

and Merry Christmas to you and your pitties, too!!!

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Ban the Ban in Van!

Van, Texas is in a panic. The city is considering a pit bull ban due to an incident last Halloween in which Douglas Wolfe's granddaughter was mauled by a dog thought to be a pit bull. Understandably, Mr. Wolfe is distraught and rightfully so. However, an outright ban has never worked and will never work. 

Pit Bull Rescue Central, longtime well-respected online community advocates, claim when breeds are singled out, the responsibility is removed from the dog owner which is where it belongs. Historically, these offenders escape punishment and simply switch to another breed. 

Sound solutions to outright bans are listed on the Stop BSL site such as containment laws. A leashed or crated dog doesn't break the law. This site is chock full of safety education tips with a reference to the Australian Cornwall/Chapman study controlled trial to prevent dog bites in children.

Imagine sitting at the dinner table when a knock sounds on the door. A representative from the local animal care and control asks to see your dog. Maybe your hound is a mixed breed with that telltale wedge head or a white blaze across his chest. He's never committed a more serious felony than drooling while you try to eat. The animal control officer apologizes and informs you he must confiscate your pet. Why? Because he resembles a pit bull and a ban has just been passed in your town.

Sound crazy? Maybe so, but this happened to over 3400 dogs in Denver, Colorado. These dogs were all taken from their homes and died alone at the hands of strangers. 

Congress, breed specific legislators, dog owners and pit bull advocates all agree about one thing....something needs to be done. However, that something should not be enforcing a pit bull ban which only hurts the innocent. Communities should come together on a common ground and promote education and training, spay/neuter programs and breeding regulation of all animals.

Texas is one of the few states in which BSL is not legal. We have an opportunity as citizens and as a nation to work together and effect change rather than react impulsively and out of fear. 

Merry Christmas everybody....and their dogs!

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Chat Room

Experiment chat room today. Please write in with comments and questions about pit bulls and other animals.

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The Sashas and Rescue Gone Wrong

Yesterday, I got a fabulous photo of Sasha, adopted by Adena and Matt, my old neighbors. Even though Reunion Rescue didn't have a Halloween contest, Sasha is hereby awarded first prize.

And today, I receive a plea for a wonderful girl...another Sasha. This Sasha has had everything bad in her life...ears cut off and when she refused to fight, abandoned. This girl just wants to lay in your lap and eat cookies. 

This Sasha is in Washington State near Bainbridge Island outside Seattle. There are so many mistreated dogs, abandoned and abused right now. With all of the world's progress, it seems like we are going backwards in regards to animals.  

While I'm over here on the downside, I'll share a bit of sad news about one of our own. Years ago, when Reunion Rescue was just getting started, I met a wonderful group of people in Berkeley, CA who had also formed a rescue dedicated to helping the cats and dogs no one else wanted. 

Astrid, Judy and I had a lot in common. We would save those ones about to be euthanized for all kinds of reasons. The ones who were automatically placed on the kill list for illness, we would grab and board with our good friend, Kay of Noah's Friends Animal Sanctuary outside Fresno. The four of us became close over the years as many animals brought us together time and again. In our world, the true animal lovers become close and stay close. 

The group Judy and Astrid founded has been taken over by some corporate types. They are no longer saving the old, the tired and the sick ones. In fact, they farmed out the sanctuary animals Astrid has provided a safe place for, two dying in the transition. Astrid and the animals she's managed to keep will be leaving the home she's lived in for a decade, forced to leave the state. This new version of rescue is evicting their founder...along with the animals they've been collecting big $$$ donations for over the years. 

Performing a simple charity check from the Guidestar site, rescue has become big business with some groups like this one taking in several hundred thousand dollars a year! 

On days like today, you just have to hope for a better day.

22 Hartford, Conn pit bulls SAVED!!!

With all of the bad news coming across my computer screen every day, I am thrilled when I see a story like the one about Hartford, Connecticut. Not too often do you see a community, a shelter and the media working together to save lives and especially not pit bull lives. If only more people would take a page from this city's book and help their local animal care facility.

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/hartford_cty/22-desperate-conn.-dogs-all-find-homes#

Too often, the shelters think the dogs and cats are property of that facility and treat the public like an unwanted intruder. I know firsthand how that feels. I have spent years dealing with shelters who do not and will not work with rescues and the public. I have answered many a call from a concerned citizen who took a stray pit bull to the local pound for lack of anywhere else to go. There are no resources for these dogs. So frequently, the caller is upset because they've been told the dog is out of time and failed his/her temperament test. I will hear time after time, "The dog was so friendly and gentle. He played with my dog and let me pick him up."

I'm not saying that these shelters are wrong about every dog, but landsakes, there couldn't be that many vicious dogs in population. In my book, Pit Bull Nation, I talk about the number of dogs who fail temperament tests in these shelters. If that many dogs are that vicious, you would need to quarantine the entire city.

I am happy today for these dogs and the town that saved them.

Arthur Account of Events

June 4, 2010 Fostered Arthur to Menlo park couple....


They met Arthur at mobile adoption with his foster home, my volunteers. Both are on my board and longtime RR volunteers/fosters and members of RR online. Also, foster and volunteer for my friend, Pali's group, Rocket Dog Rescue in SF.

Spoke to foster at length on volunteer's cell phone how our system works and sent her the intro not once but three times..

Over the next three plus months I sent a weekly email..in all that time I received three total emails from the fosters, all sounding suspiciously re-worded ... didn't check her refs, but she claims to have known the three refs for over five years. She graduated from Harvard in 2007 which would mean the refs would all have had to attend the same school and all four people hire on with the VA..not plausible.

Volunteer and I both email and phone to try and set up the second home check..phone not working and no emails returned.

This is when I get scared.

Volunteers visit the home and find it dark and shutters drawn, no one at home.

Two more of my reps visit the house the next day accompanied by a VA Police ... all three chased off property by VA security who owns the home.

Foster woman emails me starting out with living on federal property, etc. Nothing about Arthur.

Rather than answer the letter, I ask my longtime attorney to call her. They speak for 45 minutes, my attorney in the capacity of mediator, not attorney. My attorney actually takes the side of of the foster and pleads their case. At this point I want the dog looked over, too many suspicious events.

Foster woman sends another email, cc'd to me and attorney, attacking my attorney on every level, personal and professional..she did some digging and hit below the belt. My attorney was pretty broken up. At this point, I tell my attorney to drop everything on my behalf out of concern for her wellbeing and protection of our longstanding friendship.

I then begin the long and painstaking jumping through the hoops of calling VA police, Peninsula Humane, the police, every entity between SF and Santa Cruz all of which just say hire a lawyer, can't even get a wellness check to make sure Arthur is alive and healthy.

I finally get that fuzzy picture of a dog no one can even make out. The foster woman lies to the police and to Peninsula Humane saying she never spoke with me, that my board member and volunteer, a very savvy financial analyst..just gave Arthur to them. My volunteer has written an account of what actually took place June 4 which will be used in court.

We cannot get help from the local animal control, from the police, from the media and the property where the couple lives is owned and patrolled by police department on the same payroll. All events surrounding Arthur's foster are rife with red flags. The fosters have lied on the application, to the police and to animal control. We are terrified for Arthur's wellbeing and need your help to raise the necessary funds to hire Bruce Wagman, an excellent attorney and animal rights activist.

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/15647652


http://reunionrescue.chipin.com/arthurs-defense-fund