Meet me at SAKS BH tonight to support Seniors and Their Pets!

Over the past year I have had the pleasure of working with St. Vincent Meals on Wheels.

We deliver over 4700 meals to those in need who live in the Los Angeles area regardless of age, illness, disability, race, religion or ability to pay. Many of our clients have pets and we have come to find that 80% of seniors who own pets share their meals with them, often feeding their pets before themselves.

Tonight St. Vincent Meals on Wheels is partnering with Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, and Miss Lilly’s Trading Company- a dessert company that donates a portion of proceeds from cookie sales to provide seniors in need with food for their pets.

Saks will donate a percentage of all sales between 6 pm and 8pm tonight to St. Vincent Meals on Wheels! Moreover Miss Lilly’s Trading Company Cookies– which are being sold through the holidays at Saks– will be offering special cookie gift tins as well as their exclusive polo and tennis shirts.

Please come join me at Saks tonight. Ranger and will there and at least one of us will be live blogging! Your support would mean a lot.

This could be the perfect excuse to buy that new pair of Louboutins you had your eye on! Come on… it’s for charity!

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Bath Time Anyone?

I wish Ranger enjoyed bath time this much…

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Finding a ‘Sway’ Dog

Venice Beach

Halloween night my friend Amy sited a beautiful what looked to be German Shepherd puppy darting in and out of traffic on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. With thick fog, drunk, costumed bar patrons and fireworks, Venice was not exactly the ideal spot for a stray pup.

In her car, and at times literally getting out of her car with the lights flashing to stop traffic to try to get him, Amy tracked the dog for a good 30 minutes during which time she called me.  And while we’ve been friends for an eternity, we usually communicate by email of Facebook chat or text. So, knowing that she was basically as dog-obsessed and I, as soon as I saw her name pop up on my phone I knew…I bet there’s going to be a dog involved in this call. In fact I think I answered, “So what did you find?”

She was still mid-pursuit when we spoke and while I encouraged her to continue, I also wanted to put her at ease in case she was unable to catch the dog. Dogs on the run are often hard to convince that you’re their best option and I’ve almost killed myself and embarrassingly, some pedestrians in coming to that truth.

Thankfully with Amy’s determination and the help of another Venice dog lover she was able to wrangle the little guy, get him on a leash and into her car.  And while that is always a huge victory, it’s also when the real challenges begin.

Finding a dog can be a somewhat intimidating process even for me who to has found a lot of dogs including my own angel Bella who I found running in downtown LA. Is the dog going to be nice? Is he going to have tags? What if he does have tags and the owner is puke? Does this mean that I’m going to have to go to the shelter (p.s. I don’t’ do shelters because I’m wussy) and bottom line how much is this going to cost me.  I was relieved to have a partner in this rescue; I knew Amy would step up to the plate. There is nothing worse than when someone finds a dog, calls me and then won’t do anything to help me deal with the aftermath.

Once the dog was safely in her car, Amy and I went over the options. She would of course work to find the owner if there was one (Craigslist, flyers, Pet Detective etc), but what would she do for the right then and there…where would she take the dog for the night?

She could take him to the shelter, keep him for the night or board him at the vet.  While her dog Bernard, a Katrina rescue, is sweet and gets along with most dogs he can be a little edgy unless he’s properly introduced so we opted for a night at the vet. Moreover we needed to take him there to be scanned for a Microchip. Microchips are just as they sound small chips that are implanted underneath the dogs skin, usually on the back of their necks, and upon these little magic chips can be recorded all of the owner’s contact information. They are essential in the

With that we were each off, she from street corner in Venice and me my bed.

When Amy opened the car door the sweetest faced, scared little shepherd mix slinked out. He clung to the floor but as soon as we made it inside, he immediately started to warm up, let his tail out from between his legs and give us and the techs kisses, kisses and more kisses.

As I assumed would be the case, the little guy wasn’t chipped.  Part of me was relieved though.  One of my biggest fears is finding an owner only to hate them and still have to give them back their dog.

At that point again we could and some would have said should have brought him to the shelter (people will often look at shelters as their first option when looking for a lost pet) and as shelters go the West LA shelter is pretty swanky. But neither of us could do it.  Amy wasn’t too keen on the idea and even having done rescue for almost a decade, I am somewhat shelter-phobic. So seeing that the little guy was in relatively good shape, we hoped that he was just a neighborhood dog that got spooked by the fireworks and weird Halloween energy prompting him to escape his yard.

Although Amy was a little teary at the idea of leaving him behind at the vet, we knew it was the right thing to do. Amy went home and posted a somewhat limited (i.e. without a pictures) ad on Craigslist. Only worse than giving the dog back to a bad owner would be giving him to some unscrupulous person pretending to be his owner. And the pup was so cute you never know what you’re going to find.

Within an hour of Amy’s posting she received a desperate email from a man in her neighborhood that his dog must have gotten out while he went out for the evening and he had been desperately searching for him since. He attached a picture and indeed it was a match.

The dog’s name was SWAY and thankfully he had a nice owner who I am hoping has by now gotten Sway micro-chipped and for that matter a new collar with his information prominently displayed.  And while tags are good place to start, to be sure your dog is traceable back to you, tags are often come off when a dog goes on the run. So a good back-up means of identification are embroidered dog colors like these :

The proceeds from these collars go to support what else but dog rescue, in particular it’s a group I’m proud to be working with called Wags and Walks. Click here to find out more about Wags and Walks!

So the morals of my little Halloween story are the following:

-Get your dog mircro-chipped, and if you find a dog get it scanned for a microchip at your local shelter or vet.

-If there are fireworks or other craziness in your neighborhood, be sure to keep your dogs safely inside. You can even talk to your vet about giving your dog a light sedative. Checking for dosage of course, something as easy as an over the counter Benadryl can make them just the right amount of dozy.

-If you find a dog be sure to post it in the Lost/Found section of Craigslist.

And finally…

-If you find a dog and you call me, you’d better be like Amy and be willing to help!

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Unleashed NY, May 18th!

I am so happy to tell you about a dog rescue/girls empowerment group that I’m involved with called Unleashed.

Unleashed’s Mission is to  ”Unleash” the power and potential in girls, empowering them to be social change agents, using animal rescue as their leadership laboratory. Unleashed works in both public and private schools in the New York City area to help girls develop strong interpersonal skills as they help puppies, pulled from High Kill Shelters from across the country, get socialized and find happy loving homes.

This group does some truly amazing work and they are having a fundraiser ($50 which includes nibbles and lots o’wine) this Wednesday night, May 18th at NYC’s Moore Brothers Winery (33 East 20th Street New York, New York) and best of all the event is being hosted by the one and only host of Talk Stoop, Cat Greenleaf!
Cat is not only a fellow Crossroads graduate, media darling, and mom of the cutest babies (canine and human alike) but she has a new show coming out soon called Cause Celeb through which she will spotlight the good work celebrities are doing on behalf of their charities of choice!

So come down to Moore Brothers, drink some wine, meet Cat and support Unleashed!

In case you’re in NYC and looking for a puppy that has “graduated” from unleashed CLICK HERE to check out our adorable adoptables!

And CLICK HERE to buy your tickets for Wednesday night!

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Teaching Kids about Dogs: Martha Speaks

Martha Speaks

I have been a dog person since I can remember. My parents had a rescued Sheltie Shepherd mix named Foxy when I was born- one of father’s fraternity brothers from PENN (who he incidentally had dinner with this week)  had found the dog after the 1971 earthquake and somehow convinced my parents, neither of whom had ever had a dog, to adopt him.

Foxy was awesome- smart, playful and ever-patient as I am sure I was not exactly a gentle or delicate kid. He along with the Woody–the  puppy we got when I was 3– were my constant companion as a child. From that point on I was just drawn to all things dog…particularly dog rescue.

Kids & Dogs

But for normal kids how do they find out about rescue… what happens at a shelter… how to treat and properly care for dogs?

Today the answer is most likely an amazing show on PBS called Martha Speaks. The series and the books follow a family dog who eats alphabet soup and gains the ability of human speech. In addition to its mission of vocabulary development–always a good thing– the series aims to educate children 4-to-7 about shelter animals, and inform families on pet ownership and responsibility.

I love this show, and I’m particularly excited about its new season premieres on September 14th.  Over the course of the new episodes, viewers will see a two-part episode that further explores Martha, the title character’s days as a shelter dog and other new episodes that present strong anti-littering/pet safety messages in a way that is accessible to kids. Here is a preview of the episode airing today

A woman named Susan Medaugh created Martha Speaks.  The idea behind came one day over lunch with her then-seven-year-old son when he asked what would happen if he fed their family dog his alphabet soup. From there Meddaugh has educated and inspired so many kids and families about dogs. She is truly a role model for me. I hope the work I do with my book (The Complete Single’s Guide To Being A Dog Owner, Adams Media 2009) and this blog might make even a fraction if the impact she has had on helping to protect and cherish the dogs of this world!

Be sure to tune to your local PBS affiliate (even if you don’t have kids) today, September 14th!

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Americans Consider Pets Part Of Family

AP Poll: Americans consider pets family

Me & Woody circa 1979

By MEGAN K. SCOTT – 1 day ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Susan Jacobs and her companion Kingston both like chicken and collards, chilling on the couch and riding in her convertible with the breeze tussling his curly black hair.

Kingston, it should be said, is a black poodle. But for Jacobs, 45, of Long Beach, Calif., he is like a child.

“The next time I travel, I’ll probably take him with me,” said Jacobs, a Mary Kay consultant and freelance writer. “I’m just used to him being around.”

An Associated Press-Petside.com poll released Tuesday found that half of all American pet owners consider their pets as much a part of the family as any other person in the household; another 36 percent said their pet is part of the family but not a full member.

And that means pets often get the human touch: Most pet owners cop to feeding animals human food, nearly half give the animals human names and nearly a third let them sleep in a human bed. While just 19 percent had bought an outfit for a pet, 43 percent felt their pet had its own “sense of style.”

Ranger and his girlfriend Idaho

Nathan Nommensen, 19, a college student who lives with his parents in Winthrop Harbor, Ill., said their golden retriever Molly sleeps in his parents’ room, goes with them on camping trips and appears in their annual family Christmas photo.

He doesn’t consider her a full member of the family, though. “She’s part of the family but not a human part of the family,” he said.

Singles were more likely to say a pet was a full member of the family than married people — 66 percent of single women versus 46 percent of married women, for example. And men were less likely to call their pet a full member of the household.

For some single women, pets become surrogate children, said Kristen Nelson, a veterinarian in Scottsdale, Ariz. She said men are also attached to pets — but are less likely to admit it because it’s not seen as masculine.

Debbie Jablonski, 50, of Wilmington, N.C., talks about her cats like a mom talks about her children.

My Son Ranger

Milkshake, who sleeps at the foot of her bed, sticks his cold nose on her eyelid and touches his paw to her face at 4:30 a.m. to wake her up and feed him. The other cat, Licorice, sleeps on the couch and has a habit of sitting on her newspaper when she is trying to read it.

“If you try to budge her, she will not move,” said Jablonski, laughing. “You will have to practically pick her up and move her.”

Jablonski, who works for a laboratory equipment manufacturer, celebrates the cats’ birthdays, includes photos of the cats in holiday cards and watches home movies of them playing.

Most pet owners don’t go that far, according to the survey. Only a little over a quarter celebrate their pet’s birthday or the day it came to live with them and just a third have included a pet’s photo or name in a holiday card.

Still, 42 percent of pet owners have taken a pet on vacation, with dogs more likely to accompany the family than cats. Dog owners were also more likely to take their pets to work (21 percent) or somewhere the animal wasn’t allowed (18 percent).

When it comes to feedings, nearly half of all dog owners and 40 percent of cat owners admit giving their pets human food at least sometimes.

Jimmy Ruth Martin, 73, who sells real estate in Louisville, Texas, said she gives her border collie Samantha table food: chicken, steak, potatoes, salad, ice cream. “She’ll eat anything I’m eating,” she said.

She said her dog has gotten so fat, she can’t climb up on the bed. “The table scraps have done that.”

Helen Reed, 60, of Clearfield, Pa., said her cat Sadie has personality — she is not a lap cat, sleeps at the foot of the bed and likes to be in the same room as her. But she doesn’t dress her up.

Martin doesn’t squeeze Samantha into cute outfits, either, though she said the dog does have her own sense of style. “She’s still a dog and I know it,” she said.

Bernice Miller, 71, of Springfield, Mo., said she likes to dress her Maltese up as a pumpkin on Thanksgiving and Santa on Christmas. She has a photo of she and the dog on her wall, signs his name “Tully” to cards and gives him treats on his birthday.

“He’s the best little thing,” said Miller, who is retired. “He just begs to go with me, so I don’t leave him too much. He’s just like a little kid.”

The AP-Petside.com poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from May 28-June 1, 2009. It is based on landline and cellular telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,110 pet owners. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

Associated Press polling director Trevor Tompson contributed to this report.

• http://www.petside.com/petspoll

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It’s Confirmed: I Love Dogs

Betsy Rosenfeld Class of 1995'ish

I went back to visit my alma mater, The University of Pennsylvania last week and in the few short hours I was there, I had one of those “DUH” realizations. That just makes you kind of laugh at yourself that you have missed such an obvious truth for so long. In this case, it was my truth that I love dogs, and how much their sheer presence impacts me.

I was not exactly a good student in college. I worked harder at not studying than I would have had to if I had just done the assigned work. But truly, I kind of hated the school part of school. Sitting still, reading endless pages of meaningless (or what I assumed would have been meaningless as I didn’t read them) assigned texts and writing papers in stodgy academic speak… YUCK. Instead I concentrated on boys, parties, and manipulating the PENN educational system to my benefit…who else turned 3 weeks in Greece and Turkey (including 5 days on a cruise) into 2 classes-worth of credits.

Halloween 1993

In the midst of this mire of academic waste, sorry mom and dad, a few classes do stand out… European Film… it reminded me of my high school film class at Crossroads, and my favorite teacher Jim Hosney. Women in Film because I dated my T.A. (technically after I turned in my last paper but I did get an A-) and finally a Communication class my senior year about First Amendment and Free Speech.

I always think of that class as a time when I actually did the assigned reading and participated in class. (As an aside, Elizabeth Banks was also in that class.) While I happen to now work for a first amendment scholar (Tracy Westen at the Center for Governmental Studies www.cgs.org) it doesn’t have much to with my later use of the material. To tell you truth I kind of never thought much about why I decided to pay attention in that class, that is not until last week’s visit to PENN when I felt compelled to seek out the professor of that class. Dr. Carolyn Marvin did I finally make the connection.

Over coffee, I showed her my book and we talked about what I’d been doing for the last (gasp) 14 years.

If you’re still reading, you’re probably wondering what the hell this has to do with my love of dogs. Well, Dr. Marvin aside from being an amazingly dynamic woman with a fantastic southern accent and a sassy attitude who taught an amazing class, she had a German Shepherd named Megan that came to class each week.

I of course remembered Megan fondly– she was an older shepherd girl with a fluffy coat belly made for tummy rubs—however it wasn’t until Dr. Marvin jokingly suggested that maybe it was Megan that helped me concentrate in her class that I made the connection.

Could it be that having a Megan in class pushed things over the top for me? Could being able to pet her while listening to a lecture, or give her a quick pat before taking a test have put me at ease and lessened the stress of school for me enough that I got past my otherwise ADD approach to school?

Abso-effin-lutely.

Just as dogs just have a calming presence for heart patients, for me, the presence of a dog can make you, or at least me, go above and beyond where I might have otherwise stopped. And nothing is a better testament to that than my book, The Complete Single’s Guide to Being A Dog Owner.

The Complete Single's Guide to Being A Dog Owner

For a girl who would have an anxiety attack about writing a 1000 word paper in school, I turned in the equivalent of 183 such papers when turning in my manuscript. And they were good papers too!

So I guess the moral of this little story is for the love of a good dog you can do almost anything!

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Happy Dog Story

My friend Ryo was walking her dogs on Sunday, she when saw a dog run into traffic and get hit by a car. The driver sped off and the jogger walked right by him. What’s wrong with people?!?!? She wanted to help, but her dogs can be a bit dog aggressive, so she tried to run back home to put her dogs away first. Immediately “Ziggy” (named after his zigzag tire marks on his back) got up and started running towards her! Her dogs went into attack mode, but all Ziggy wanted to do was play. He play bowed and rolled over, jumped side to side… such a silly-pit!

Sweet Pit found in Traffic

 After 10 minutes or so, her neighbor heard her and came to help… at that moment, Ziggy saw a cat and started to chase, but as soon as they called him, he came right back with his happy wagging tail.As Ryo was full up with rescue dogs at her house, she brought Ziggy to the North Central Animal Shelter for the requisite 5 day hold. While she assumed his owner wouldn’t be claiming him, she gave them the benefit of the doubt and besides that was 5 days during which time Ryo with the help of her rescue friends could figure out something to do with him.

 Aside from the tire marks and loss of hair where he was hit, he looks like he was well-taken care of… Ziggy knew his sit and responded well to his handler. He was super friendly and such a goofball of love.

 For a rescuer this is a quite a common story. Somehow we always seem to find dogs, but rarely do we ever find these babies’ original homes, nor would those homes be places we’d want to send them back to. Yet sometimes even us jaded rescuers get thrown a curve ball, and this case it’s a good one!

Found Dog Flyer

 24 hours after finding sweet Ziggy Ryo found this:

 “Ziggy”‘s real name is Francis, and his owners have been looking for him all night and day! He was named after the daughter’s father who passed away recently (and that’s why they just moved down here).

The mother called to let Ryo know she “saved” her family… that her daughter hasn’t been able to eat or talk to anybody since yesterday. She promised me she will be going to the shelter first thing tomorrow morning and said she will get him microchipped and get him tags. And yaaaay, he will be neutered before the shelter releases Francis to his family!

Ahh… finally a happy story to start my day and yours!

Betsy!

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Off on A Trip

I am sitting in the airline club waiting to start a 10 day trip- Denmark, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and then home. Aside from my panic of making sure I haven’t forgotten anything, I tend to do that, I am very much missing my sweet Labrador, Ranger.

My Boy Ranger

This is really  the first time I will be leaving him for an extended time and I mean I knew I loved him, but I didn’t realize how attached I had become to him. I guess I was focused on mourning Bella, but with his big brown eyes and sweet demeanor the little guy has stolen my itty bitty heart.

Gladly Ranger is staying with my rescue partner Amy who I trust 100%. She by the way is available to dog sit in the LA area at your house or hers.

I’ve checked in about 4 times in 12 hours and Ranger is having a great time. I’m sure he doesn’t miss me at all! But I won’t hold that against him

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Debate: Do All Dogs Go To Heaven?

Follow the debate being played out in a southern town between Our Lady of Martyrs Catholic Church and Cumberland Presbyterian, a fundamentalist church.  From top to bottom see the response and counter-response…

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2228641/posts

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