My new glasses were too strong..I wasn't even going to get glasses, but opened up the dryer door and hit myself in the head. My poor glasses which were on their last legs flew across the room, 1/2 one way and 1/2 the other way.
I tried to tape them together with electrical tape, but immediately got a headache due to offsetting my vision. I went to Lenscrafters and had to get my eyes re-examined since my last one was over three years ago. They upped my perscription and I got new glasses, but had that headache for the next few days.
We were treated to tickets to see John Mellencamp and all I can remember is how blurry he was and how bad my head hurt. I finally went back today to change the perscription and can already tell a difference.
It really hurt to write at the computer, so I cut back on the blogging, but kept up with the articles.
I wrote one Sunday on debunking the pit bull myth:
I am so committed to writing these articles. It feels to me as if I miss writing an article a day, I'm missing an opportunity to help save a life.
In the article today about networking is the story of two dogs and the people who try to save lives by tirelessly networking through Facebook and email lists.
Onyx was euthanized and Roxy is going into rescue. This is the nature of the beast of rescue work. There is no payoff, at least for the truehearted. The Best Friends and huge groups who label their work as 'education' and 'outreach' are never ever seen on these lists. Occasionally, there will be an automated response. One funny day, a founder of a pit bull group actually responded and asked to be removed from rescue.
I had to laugh. I thought they'd been removed from rescue years ago.
I made a big old pot of spaghetti and ate like a pig. Then, I went to spend some time with the kittens..who are huge now at almost a year. I expect they'll be one year old June 2. They love the smell of spaghetti and licked my mouth with their little sandpaper tongues.
Today was rather uneventful...for me, anyway. Still trying to get my Facebook landing pages in order so I can begin to fundraise for the pitties. I would imagine they like spaghetti, too.
My spot on KEYE was cancelled...oh, well. I guess TV will be boring tomorrow.
Cassie at two
So many dogs need out right now. They're pulling in Devore and begging people to take. Where are all the adopters? It's such a rotten time and people are still buying dogs and cats. Gross.
Here is a photo of Cassie when she was two. What a beautiful girl.
Amazing what the right diet all of her life might have done. Cassie was about 11 when she passed away. She was lovingly cared for by Doug. He'd managed to get her on a complete raw diet and nursed her through the loss of her hind region and kidney failure.
I believe all disease and behavior is caused by diet and vaccine. Cassie would probably still be alive and walking around even had Doug gotten to her sooner.
I do know she passed away magnificently. Clare did a communication with Cassie upon her passing:
Bless her - she says she got enough strength back to finish her work here on earth, and then got very exhausted very quickly and just decided to quit fighting. She got fed up with "scrabbling to keep my paws on the earth, clinging on with my toes till they cramped.
"It felt like such a relief to relax my toes, then my feet, then eventually my whole body....just relaxed everything and then drifted away with no struggle at all. What on earth was I hanging on so desperately for?
Cassie
This is a breeze! Lighter than air and happy as a dream, carried away on a whisper."
The heavy frontal headaches lifted immediately and there is a lightness in her eyes, with no pain behind them.
"I'm sorry I was a bit of a moaner, a grumbler towards the end, It was the pain, and the effort of hanging on, the tight grip that became bigger than the will to live. I'm smiling now, smiling from ear to ear, whirling around you all from one to the other, one last big lick before I go. I can run with the others now, and it feels so free..."
She says to feel for the sensation like a breeze on the skin when there shouldn't be one (indoors, or on a still day) it will be her, brushing past one last time.
Lovely girl, blessings her way, but she really doesn't need them -
she's a Good Dog, who lived a Good Life, and is now as happy as can be!
Raspberry lived with me for over a year. She is the third to last chapter of Pit Bull Nation, the book about my 12 plus years rescuing pit bulls and other animals. In fact, Raspberry's story is significant in that she taught me all about rabies vaccinosis. This has become key to the very core mission of my work and Reunion Rescue itself.
In short, Raspberry was saved by a regular person who worked in the shop where I bought my tea. Brian and his girlfriend fostered Raspberry for three months allowing her to roam freely with their small terrier. Brian would let Raspberry run alongside his bicycle as he rode through town and ending up at the dog park where Raspberry was friendly with every person and dog she met.
Raspberry and Doug
When Brian and his girlfriend had to leave for vacation, Raspberry had nowhere to go. I volunteered to let her stay with me as my recent foster dog, Joe, had been adopted. The minute Raspberry settled in, she went into heat.
I scheduled a spay appointment and took her in the next morning. The dog I picked up that afternoon in no way resembled the Raspberry I'd dropped off. She was guarded and skittish. I blamed the surgery and drugs, but that night she went for my husband's face.
I'd never seen such aggression in all my years of rescue. What started that day was a year long trudge to hell and back. To be honest, I probably would have failed to make that journey had I not been finishing Pit Bull Nation.
First, Raspberry had to be quarantined as dogs spayed during the heat cycle still attract intact males. Should the dog be mounted, it can result in death.
She got no exercise that first couple of months. I had several AC, animal communications, performed on her since that first night when she returned from her rabies shot and spay. I learned that she loved the color red and wanted a red collar and blankie. She loved stuffed toys, so I brought all these things home for her. Her excitement that night when I came in the door with those items was sheer delight. It was much like the joy one experiences when their previously kibble fed dog first encounters a raw meal. It's like, 'you get it! You get what I need. Now you know what I'm talking about.'
Raspberry went into a long dillution/succussion homeopathic protocol. This here rabies vaccinosis was some serious and severe stuff. I began to study and what I learned was horrifying. My Nutrition Page on the Reunion Rescue website began to resemble a Dr. Bronner's soap bottle. It became my passion to share this information with other unsuspecting pet owners.
More and more calls and emails began arriving which described not only the same aggressive symptoms as I was experiencing with Raspberry, but about other issues, issues like skin tags and lipoma tumors which are derivative of over-vaccination. I began to read about dogs who were perfect at the shelter or home and then began to exhibit immediate and strange reactions such as obsessive wood chewing or fear of shiny objects. Pip, who's here with me now and took Raspberry's place in the music room, experienced a huge reaction to her vaccines in this regard. She was temporarily fostered to a woman who had a house filled with antique mirrors. Poor Pip about went through the rooftop.
After a year of walking Raspberry in a gated community and the only place I could find which observed leash laws, I began to notice the slightest difference. We'd attended three different dog obedience classes including one local extraordinaire which asked us to leave. They were afraid of Raspberry. That group left us $400 poorer, but was responsible for the Kong document on our training page, Junior's Page.
Enter, Linda DesMarais, dog trainer and certified emotion code practitioner. Linda began working with Raspberry with the help of Jayne Athey and her amazing reiki work. What followed afterward is nothing short of a miracle. The story of Raspberry's amazing journey is not only documented in Pit Bull Nation, but in Raspberry's testimonial on Linda's site.
Raspberry and I met Doug, the amazing real life dog whisperer, where the work with Raspberry was put to the test. After the final and main ingredient, Waiora Cellular Defense, was administered, Raspberry passed the human test with Doug and met the fifty some odd dogs at his daycare and boarding facility that Saturday.
The silver lining in Raspberry's story is her adoption by Doug. In the state of Texas, every dog, sick or old, over or even vaccinated only once, must have yearly vaccines. Raspberry was forced to undergo another rabies vaccine, but was immediately put on the Waiora protocol. Thanks to Raspberry, we are reaching out to all those other innocent animals who must undergo horrible vaccines. I recently became a distributor for Waiora, not to make my next million, but in order to buy the product at half price..that's about $11 per dog. To me, to Reunion Rescue and all those other animals we are trying to outreach and help, that is pretty cheap insurance.
Imagine being able to talk those people who are about to leave their family pet at the shelter and mention our protocol. With a few simple suggestions and a cheap healthy diet, I'm seeing over a 50% success rate in the phone calls and emails I receive on a daily basis from around the country. And all this thanks to Raspberry.
Just like the fruit, a little bit sweet and a little bit tangy, Raspberry has a naughty side. She has figured out a way to wiggle her wiggle butt out of Doug's compound. Raspberry has been sneaking out and taking along some of her daycare friends. Just today, she did it again and talked some poor unsuspecting old boy to run along with her...just like a female, right?
Doug has resolved not to trust Razz again and is hard at work building his new fence which should be in place by summer. Sorry, Razz, but your roaming days are just about over.
Raspberry's and my song...we used to listen to it when we came home from dog training..just her and me against the world ...
After the Peninsula Humane Society's "veterinary vice president' over vaccinated a dog recently..and knowing Darla had just JUST received a vaccination at Martinez has my panties in a huge wad. Ok, so I wear big panties.
This place, like so many others, is over-vaccinating and over-vaccinating sick dogs. This is wrong and must stop at once. Just because you have a fancy shmancy zip code does NOT give you the right to hurt animals.
Dr. Ronald D. Schultz, Ph.D. "Annual revaccination provides no benefit and may increase the risk for adverse reactions. The percentage of vaccinated animals (those vaccinated only as puppies) protected from clinical disease after challenge with canine distemper virus, canine parvovirus and canine adenovirus in the study was greater than 95%." Current and Future Canine and Feline Vaccination Programs. Dr. Ronald Schultz is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine, UW-Madison. Schultz, R.D. - Current and Future Canine and Feline Vaccination Programs
This is the same place that REFUSED to do a wellness check on our dog, Arthur, who is suspected of being used for animal experimentations. Ken White, the overpaid director of PHS actually laughed on the phone at my request for a visit to the animal experimenter's home where Arthur was fostered.
Here is a recent Yelp article about a sweet dog who was euthanized due to a ruptured skin tumor!
NOTE: these skin tumors are common among over-vaccinated animals....something all pet owners/guardians should be made aware of as well as so called "humane" societies and shelters. To vaccinate an animal when that animal has received a vaccine within a year is criminal.
I had the worst experience with Veterinarian Renee Fenty on Saturday, March 19, 2011 when I brought my beautiful Border Collie Bernese, Sierra, in due to a ruptured skin tumor on her back which she ruptured rolling on her back.
When the tumor was examined a year ago, the vet I took her to said it appeared to be a lipoma but it was also much smaller then. Since this vet wasn't open, a friend took us to Veterinary Specialists of the Valley.
My first impression of Fenty wasn't positive. She was speaking so slowly and her voice was grating. She showed no emotion when she came back into the examining room to tell me that Sierra is old and she could do an ultrasound and blood workup, but since she hasn't been able to walk for a couple of months, the tumor is cancerous and it has probably spread...ALL SPECULATION WITH NO CONCLUSIVE SCIENTIFIC PROOF THAT TESTS WOULD HAVE PROVIDED.
She said the tumor was necrotic and would have to be removed, but only on the condition that I pay $5,800 or 75% of the $7,800 estimate up front. I couldn't believe. First, I didn't know anything about her or her skills (she has been a vet five years) and her interpersonal skills are sorely lacking, no compassion, empathy or concern for either the pet or pet's guardian. She had the nerve to say when I said, "we can pay the $1,100 for the diagnostic testing," to which she responded,
"I think that would be a waste of money when that money could be used to save a two-month old puppy with parvo who could have a longer life future."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This is my beloved pet you're comparing to a two-month-old puppy with parvo that isn't even in the picture here. What an unkind thing to say.
Then, my friend called a few rescue friends and told her the vet was saying if we transferred her to another vet for another opinion, the tumor could rupture and Sierra would be in a bad situation (blood poisoning, I guess), so she pressured me to have her euthanized which I reluctantly did and have regretted it ever since Saturday.
I have filed a complaint with the clinic letting the owners know, young vets with less than a decade or more experience need to be coached on how to interact with animals and their parents...her behavior was unconscionable as was the $5,800 demand up front. and the reluctance to perform an aspiration on the tumor, and other tests to see if there was spreading of the cancer she claims Sierra had.
The inability to get up and walk was due to hip dysplasia and she was going to be receiving accupuncture when I was able to afford it. I take full responsibility for my current financial devastation to be unable to pay for all the medical bills, but I don't think Sierra was given a chance and Fenty actually seemed to enjoy giving her the Propofol to euthanize her. Look her up at Tufts University and see for yourself a photo of someone who may have personality issues...
I am livid and am going to report this to the CA DVM Board. I had two previous experiences with "weekend" vets at another clinic. Tracey Brown and a Dr; Steed, In 30 years of adopting animals that were overlooked at a shelter or returned, I suppose three bad experiences can be expected, but veterinarians shouldn't be in that field if they don't have compassion for the animal and unable to control their personal opinions and bias when dealing with the pet's owner.
Something like 400 plus emails to greet me this morning with many only moments left to live. I can only help so many and this becomes discouraging and sad. I have to hope for little nuggets of peace to get myself through the day.
I fed my birds...now they get a quality homemade mash of fresh chopped greens, carrots, yams, broccoli and all kinds of home grown sprouts. I grind up nuts and seeds, fresh fruit and herbs for birds..the same kind of plants they'd hopefully be eating in the wild. Wild parakeets, what a novel thought. I'd love to be in that place. We are so accustomed to overbred parakeets as caged birds that the mere thought of wild flocks of parakeets is such a lush and awesome thought...another little nugget of peace.
I fed the cats. They eat ground emu (free range and organic) along with chopped organic free range chicken necks. Sometimes I throw in some grass fed tripe and other chicken innards I get from a local free range farm. The guy says, 'a wonderful life with one bad day.' I hate to feed and will not feed kibble or processed food. No pet food company can guarantee the sources to be as humanely treated as the meat in which I feed my cats and dogs.
The kitties are total nuggets. As I watch them eat, I'm thinking, here is a litter that no one can harm. They have never known a bad day. I can't save all the animals, but I can insure that these precious cats, almost one year old, will have a beautiful life and enjoy all their days with their siblings.
It's amazing to me how they integrated with Martha, Buddy, Germ, Fernando and Candy. In fact, the elder statesmen get along better than before the kittens came. Buddy is now gone, but I think he's watching us from above.
By now, the animal loving nation knows about the South Carolina massacre which occurred on March 4. I got the news on one of the days, which can be just about any day, when another death puts you over the edge. You rescue and you network and everyone you know is rescuing and networking and it's just not enough. There is never enough time in the day, room at the shelters. We are living in a horror movie, only it's no movie. Movies end and this one just keeps on going on and on.
I got this letter tonight with the story from one of the volunteers who was there and who helped dig up the warm bodies of the animals who were brutally murdered that day in Chesterfield, South Carolina.
This message is being brought to you by the Commonwealth Humane Society or Fairfax Virginia, in the interest of the seriously suffering animals of South Carolina. CHS has worked with the people who broke the story of the Chesterfield massacre, and have over the years come to understand the depth of love and caring Debbie Farhi and her associates at Paws & Claws.
Commonwealth is concerned about all animals, especially those suffering and being brutalized by public servants charged with taking care of them.”
What happened in Chesterfield South Carolina cannot be allowed to slip under the mat and those involved must be punished to the full extent of the law. Here in its entirety is the message from Debbie Farhi and the Paws & Claws team. Thank You.
My name is Debbie Farhi and I am a volunteer with Paws & Claws a 501c3 rescue based near the Chesterfield Animal shelter. I am writing today to beg for any assistance you can provide to Paws N Claws and the Chesterfield, SC animals.
On Friday March 4th, I arrived at the shelter with a heavy heart, knowing that some dogs had been euthanized. What they told me when I arrived was shocking and horrific. The ACO’s had loaded 22 puppies and adults into their truck and taken them across the street, where they shot them. These heinous acts are not acceptable in modern civilized society and are not to be tolerated in this day and age. Living, breathing dogs should never be used for target practice. I could not believe what I heard. I called two other volunteers and we drove to the site to see for ourselves.
We set to work with heavy hearts and soon we dug up the recently shot dogs, some still warm and despite tears streaming down our faces we managed to take some pictures. Our worst fears were confirmed. They had been shot in the head, and some had multiple gunshot wounds.
We knew right away that this tragedy could not be allowed to be buried along with the pitiful furries, so we contacted the media immediately. As a result, we have received a lot of local and national press these include newspapers, television and a blizzard of e-mails. We have attached links to some of the articles and can provide more should you request same.
Knowing the scale of the brutality we had uncovered, we have mobilized our volunteers to contact the state and local government in SC and demand change. We will not rest until this change occurs. Our fear is that by standing firmly against these barbaric acts, that it will cost us our access to the shelter. ACO staff is on administrative leave and we are trying to find rescue commitments and donations for all of the dogs and cats that survived the massacre. We must get them out before these butchers return.
Please take a look at our Facebook page, “where hope lives - paws n claws”. This has the most up-to-date urgent album.
I did not want to delay in asking for help. If you are a supporter, please send this email to everyone you know that may be able to donate, our pay pal is:
If you are a rescue, please consider taking in some of our animals.
If you are a transport provider, please let us know if you will be doing any special runs, or would consider donating any time to helping us move animals.
Please call, email and forward to help create real change for the animals of South Carolina and throughout the southern United States. There are several media links below as well as contact information for government officials.
Your assistance will save precious live and is greatly appreciated.
39 Broad Street
Suite 300
Charleston, SC 29401 Phone: 843-727-4525 Fax: 843-793-6839
Office Hours:
8:30am - 5:30pm (M-F)
Columbia
1901 Main St
Suite 1475
Columbia, SC 29201 Phone: 803-771-6112 Fax: 803-771-6455
Office Hours:
8:30am - 5:30pm (M-F)
Greenville
105 North Spring St
Suite 109
Greenville, SC 29601 Phone: 864-233-5366 Fax: 864-271-8901
Office Hours:
8:30am - 5:30pm (M-F)
Washington D.C.
167 Russell
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-6121 Fax: 202-228-5143
Office Hours:
9am - 6pm (M-F)
DC Address:
The Honorable Mick Mulvaney United States House of Representatives
1004 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4005 DC Phone: 202-225-5501 DC Fax: 202-225-0464
