“Who, being loved, is poor?” –Oscar Wilde

It was love at first sight with this rather unsightly creature – a dog who signifies so much of why we exist and the things we do for love.

In this one dog we have…

Neglect: He’s emaciated, skin and bones. He stands on 3 legs. His back paw is broken, bleeding, and infected. He has a cut above his eye and many old wounds He even has that neglected dog stench.

Overpopulation: He’s a pitbull in a community where there are more than we can find homes for.

Abandonment: He was found running loose in a troubled neighborhood, one with an abundance of stray and forsaken dogs.

But he knows none of this and surely hasn’t seen himself in a mirror lately. He has no idea why we funny humans are looking at him with such worried faces or why the rescue guy is taking his picture.

I think it was 13 degrees outside the day he was picked up. Can you imagine living outside amidst freezing temperatures, bony and injured, and still able to maintain a cheery disposition?

But he looks back at us with pure joy in his heart. He smiles. He wags his tail. He goes crazy for pets from our intake staff, practically falling in Jess’s and then Kaia’s lap. I am astounded by his resilience and trust. Despite his appearance and smell our incredible staff lavishes him with love and praise as if he were an Adonis.

He is moved to our isolation area so he can heal. I secretly visit him daily to give him treats and belly rubs. He’s always happy. Patty, our Animal Care Coordinator, has fattened him up quickly. (One thing we witness all too frequently is the speed at which a starved animal gains weight while in our care.)

But when I went to visit him yesterday he was gone. Well, not really gone. Just missing.

I found him in our Veterinary Clinic having his infected paw delicately and deftly cleaned out by one of our great vets, Dr. Allen. He’d also been neutered… so he can go up for adoption!

That is what is so amazing about HSHV. This dog, of a maligned and overpopulated breed, emaciated, broken, bloody, and infected, is headed for adoption…

…simply because we love and he loves back.

So I give him the name Valentino, after the approaching holiday because, while a walking emblem of human apathy, he is also a celebration of love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Deb and Figaro

The coolest thing about HSHV is that we have all of these wonderfully smart and talented people–but they are also people with real heart, and Deb is no exception. She is dedicated, hard working, super talented and full of love and passion for what we do.

Sadly, Deb lost her much beloved cat Figaro suddenly last week. She was understandably devastated. He was her baby. But working here Deb knows that the cats can’t afford for us to linger too long in our grief. There are just too many who need us now. So within a few days she found a cat that came here as a sickly itty bitty kitten and has been passed by for so long that he’s now an adult. No matter the great care we give, it’s always sad when an animal stays so long that they grow up here.

She picked him largely because he needed her. But it turns out Murphy is the perfect cat. A playful and delightfully happy guy, he lies in her arms like a baby and stretches out for big belly rubs. Why he was passed by for so long is a mystery. But Deb, in her willingness to open her injured heart to another cat so quickly, found herself a hidden gem. She knows he won’t ever replace her Figaro, but he will help repair her heart.

Deb and Murphy

I have six cats–all very different in temperament and personality. But the one thing they all have in common is that they all love me… no matter what I look like, no matter what I say, no matter how I screw up. There are no conditions on their love. Now, of course, they could have been looking at me and thinking, “Get off the floor, you crazy woman!” But my interpretation was “It ain’t so bad, mom, we love you.”

How many of us have people in our lives who don’t judge or criticize us? Our companion animals give unconditional love and so much more. Research is now overwhelmingly showing that companion animals give to us in ways that make us both happier and healthier humans.

With the holiday season upon us, it is the perfect time to reflect on our gratitude for the many gifts they offer us.

Mood enhancement. Studies show that pets provide an effective defense against depression. It’s hard to be grumpy around a wagging tail or a soft purr. According to one study on men with AIDS, those with pets were 50% less likely to report symptoms of depression than those without.

Stress reduction and reduced blood pressure. A recent article reported that pets were actually better than medication at managing spikes in blood pressure due to stress. Another showed that people performing a high pressure task experienced less stress with a pet present than with a supportive friend or family member.

Exercise. Responsible dog ownership requires that you enjoy a walk and offers great opportunity to stop and talk to your neighbors. Aerobic exercise and social connection… a double benefit! (Not sure if cats help here. How often do we sit longer than we should because a furry someone has claimed stake on our laps? Maybe the benefit is on the flip side – demanding that we sit still every once in a while.)

Cure for loneliness. Pets help people lacking social supports. Nursing home residents reported less loneliness after spending time with a dog than they did after spending time with other people. Another study said that women reported finding greater emotional support from their cats than from their husbands or kids.

Cardiovascular health. In a study spanning 10 years, cat owners showed a 30% reduction in heart attack risk. While another study recorded immediate improvements in functioning in heart patients after spending just a few minutes with a therapy dog. (When my father had a stroke his biggest motivator for getting well wasn’t his wife, 6 kids, or 8 grandchildren; it was his little dog!)

Longevity. Another study said that cat owners live an average of seven years longer than non-cat owners.

Help for kids with disabilities. From helping children with autism communicate to helping those with learning disabilities learn to read, pets make a big difference in lives of kids with special needs. (There is a mother who brings her daughter with autism to HSHV to visit with our cats. It is her reward for accomplishing some specific task and her mother says it is the highlight of her week.)

This holiday season, let’s give thanks for the companions who give us so much and ask for so little in return.

If you would like to honor these amazing creatures by helping out the most vulnerable among them, the ones that are thrown away or abused, please visit our website for holiday giving ideas.

If you are looking at this list of benefits and thinking you might have time for an animal, please come see us soon. We’re sure you will find unconditional love within our walls.

Wishing you peace and joy this holiday season and all year round.

Our old shelter (scheduled to be a pile of rubble within a day or two) looked like a jail. It was sick, cramped, and stressful on people and animals. It repelled adopters because it was too sad to visit and, even though our staff and volunteers took extraordinary care of the animals, it didn’t elicit much confidence.

Our new state-of-the-art facility is designed to be a healthy space focused on comforting and healing the lost, unwanted, hurt, and abused. It is also designed to be a supportive space for staff and volunteers to do their important work, and a welcoming space for adopters looking to meet their new best friend. In fact, one of the greatest benefits of a new animal shelter is the increase in adoptions that occurs because people want to visit.

An excited visitor commenting on our new digs last week said, “It is so nice here. You don’t even feel sorry for the animals anymore.”

While I agree, I don’t want people to forget that as lovely as this place is, it is still a temporary shelter. It is not a home and it can not be a sanctuary. However comfy we are, to effectively serve our community’s homeless animals, we must have room for the next animal that comes through our door… because they never stop coming.

Our mission’s success depends on animals getting adopted.

However, we don’t want folks adopting simply out of sympathy. Do we want people committed to adoption because it saves innocent lives? Absolutely. But when it comes to selecting a new family member, we want to help families find good matches. Animals have unique personalities and needs, just like humans. We want everyone, two-footed and four-footed, to be happy.

We are not against responsible breeders. But our desire is to see everyone make adoption their first option when looking for a new companion animal. Nationally, about 20% of the population get their pets from animal shelters or rescue groups. Just raising that to 30% will have an extraordinary life-saving impact.

My older sister is a big animal lover with an penchant for Black Labs. Historically she has purchased her Labs from a breeder because she thought shelter dogs were “ruined”. Certainly an abused animal can bear scars, but for the most part, animals are incredibly resilient and forgiving. On most days, I would say more so than humans.

Boopsie

It is important to know that the animals we have available for adoption are here through no fault of their own. Usually human shortcomings or an uncontrollable life crisis have brought them to our door. They are no different than a companion animal you can get anywhere else: they require patience, attention, exercise, and training. In return, they give unconditional love and loyal companionship.

Take the cat Boopsie, currently up for adoption. A sweet and graceful 8-year old girl, she was abandoned outside when her family moved, left behind to fend for herself. This is quite common, especially with cats. With plenty of life left in her, she deserves a second chance at a loving home.

Cinderella

Or Cinderella, just a pup. Her owner was driving with her in the back of his pick-up truck and she jumped out. A Good Samaritan picked her up from the middle of the road and chased down the driver of the truck. It turned out that he didn’t want her back. So here she sits, waiting for someone to take her home.

These animals, and all the others at our shelter, deserve another chance at a happy life. Having a community proudly committed to adoption helps ensure they have that chance. And, hopefully, having a welcoming shelter will make that choice a lot easier to make.

Please come see us soon!

Around here I am fortunate to be a member of an elite group of staff and volunteers that are cat crazy.

I wasn’t always so. Though I have had cats all of my adult life, I was a bit more of a dog person. The dog we had growing up was my best friend. My family is full of dog nuts—the kind that make homemade birthday cakes for their dog’s half-birthday.

It really wasn’t until I got to HSHV that I began to truly appreciate the unique qualities, and the great suffering, of our feline friends.

I spoke to another shelter director who said she went through the same metamorphosis. The job turned her into a cat nut. Part of it came from the vast exposure allowing us to truly know these majestic creatures. The other part, we agreed, came out of the mistreatment that we see within our communities and, sometimes, within our own shelters.

Because their communication is more difficult to interpret and their affections typically hard won, cats are still quite misunderstood. They also have many more prejudices against them than dogs. I talk to a lot of people who “hate cats” but rarely hear the same sentiment about dogs. My mother, a superstitious woman of Italian descent, thinks cats are bad luck and are disposed to suffocating babies–a more common myth than one might expect. These types of ignorances tend to lead to abuse and neglect.

As far as mistreatment in shelters goes, this is largely due to bad design and inadequate space. Historically shelters have been built for dogs…cats more of an afterthought. Old, loud, cramped shelters with small cages are torturous for animals that hate change…do not appreciate ruckus…and require by instinct places to run, jump or hide when scared.

As such, cats are often terrified in shelter settings and quickly become very sick as a result. Leaving us to wonder if the “cure is worse than the disease”.  At HSHV our current 60 year old facility is the epitome of bad sheltering for both cats and dogs. It is nothing more than a warehouse, working against us at every turn. At least half our cats require medical treatment solely as a result of being a resident at our old shelter. Our new shelter will be worlds better for animals and people.

Exacerbating the problem further is the severe over-population. While many communities have gotten their dog population under control (pitbulls being one large and sad exception), the overpopulation of cats is still widespread and the majority of homeless cats are still being put down for no other reason than the shelter is full.

According to the 2008 Michigan Department of Agriculture report, the Michigan Humane Society (which has no affiliation with HSHV and serves animals in Wayne and Oakland County), euthanizes about 72% of incoming cats and kittens. This rate and higher are common in most animal facilities that handle stray animals.

At HSHV we are proud to say that the percentage of cats euthanized is now less than 20% (down from 60% four years ago) and we are committed to even greater decline.

But, if I can say without too much hubris, HSHV is special. We have a renewed passion for saving lives and generous donors supporting innovative programs and practices that are implemented by out-of-this-world volunteers and staff.

You shouldn’t have to be a special organization, however, to have alternatives to needless euthanasia. The “no-kill” movement has mistakenly put the blame for euthanasia on individual animal shelters. While all organizations should continuously strive to do better, the responsibility for needless euthanasia falls on the shoulders of the entire community and the insufficient resources and policies put in place to address (or not address) the problem.

Sadly, I do not believe we can ever end animal abuse and homelessness. Not unless we can end all of the many human frailties and ailments that put their animals in the crosshairs. But I do believe there are important steps we can take to reduce the numbers of homeless cats and ensure their humane care.

Cats are very prolific creatures. They can have 3 litters in one mating season and some scientists now believe that global warming may be extending that season.

Cats get the chance to procreate because their owners fail to have them sterilized. Then, with the cats’ drive to reproduce still raging, owners do one of three things. Let them outside. Lose them outside. Or, abandon them outside.

Their babies flood our shelter or, if not brought in and socialized early, become feral (largely untamable by 5 months of age) and within less than a year’s time are having babies of their own. Like most, our county has thousands of feral cats.

Tragically, in many communities these perfectly innocent and beautiful creatures are trapped and put to death because the same foolish species that caused their proliferation also finds them a nuisance. Their only crime being that they are great survivalists.

The fact that people are allowed to breed animals completely unfettered, intentionally or not, while millions of animals are being put down for lack of homes defies logic.

The most surefire way to improve the value and treatment of cats in our society is by reducing their numbers, and the only way to do this is through spay and neutering. Communities need to find more ways to mandate or to at least strongly encourage spay/neutering.

Two years ago HSHV became one of the only humane societies in Michigan to create a Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) program for feral cats. Through this nationally recognized model program, funded solely by donors, we end the needless killing of healthy animals and institute the ONLY proven method for reducing over-population. Such programs should exist in every community.

If you are a cat nut like me or if you are just an animal lover that wants to help end needless suffering of companion animals there are lots of things you can do to help.

• Please make sure your companion animals are spayed/neutered and encourage your friends, family and neighbors to do the same.

• Become a volunteer for our TNR program. The rewards are immeasurable.

• Provide financial support to spay/neuter programs.

• Consider bringing a cat or two into your family, they are great for your health and please always make adoption your first adoption.

• If you are in a community that routinely euthanizes feral cats, start educating your policymakers about the effectiveness of TNR.

After she recounted her school day to me yesterday, I gave her the good news that we won another prosecution against someone who was mean to their animal (see press release). She then asked me what the person had done wrong. I debated internally for a moment with my usual concern about how knowing these harsh realities might affect her and said gently, “She starved her dog until it died.”

And she said, without missing a beat and as if I were the stupidest idiot on the planet, “God, mom, of course we won. That’d be like you starving me!”

I find that children understand the immorality in hurting animals much better than adults–their sense of honesty and goodness is still simple and clean. As adults we get caught up in emotions and politics and excuses for all sorts of wrongs. Children seem to know quite intuitively that animals are innocent and defenseless, and make no choices about their situations. I believe they see in them their own vulnerability.

But what I haven’t told her yet, because I want her to believe that people get punished for terrible wrongs, is that I have yet to see one single person spend one single day in jail for hurting an animal. This is not because we don’t have good laws or sympathetic prosecutors or judges. We do. I am told it is because of things like sentencing guidelines and full jails.

But in my heart I cannot believe it isn’t really because we as a society do not value animals or take responsibility for the suffering that we humans create. Animal abusers don’t get put in jail because they are not considered a true threat to the community.

I wonder how things would be different if children were doling out the punishments?

With its passing, Ypsilanti Township now has one of the most progressive animal ordinances on the books, not just in Washtenaw County, but in the State of Michigan. Differential licensing has been used increasingly by forward-thinking communities as a way to address pet overpopulation at its root.

Spaying/neutering is the most effective way of combating pet overpopulation and the suffering that results. We see a lot of stray, abandoned, starved, and unwanted cats and dogs coming from all ends of the county, but the east side is disproportionately represented.

Spaying/neutering makes sense in so many ways. It keeps our animals healthier. It reduces their urge to run stray. It improves behavior. It reduces aggression (the number one commonality in serious or fatal dog attacks is that the dog is an un-neutered male). It helps curb professional dog fighting. It reduces unnecessary euthanasia.

Spaying/neutering also saves vital community dollars. While reputable breeders exist, unsterilized animals mostly create costs for the community: costs in animal sheltering, animal control, law enforcement, and court fees. It only makes sense that if you choose to have an unsterilized animal, then you pay a premium for that choice.

The ordinance also calls for stray dogs to be given microchip identification before they are returned to their owners. Identification is the best way to quickly reunite a lost pet with his or her owner. Like sterilization, the speedy return of a lost animal is good for everyone. The animal goes home sooner, costs to the owner for boarding are reduced, and the cost of sheltering a stray, paid by taxpayers, is saved.

Ypsilanti Township community should be very proud of this ordinance and the people who have done the work to put it in place! This is a great step forward for animals and people in our community.

**HSHV has a low cost spay/neuter clinic that will be expanding in our new facilities. While spaying/neutering should be a part responsible pet ownership, we don’t want expense, especially in this economy, to be a deterrent.

**Read the full text of the ordinance.

Brownie in recovery

The outpouring of support, financial and otherwise, for Brownie has been incredible and, to me, quite deserving. Like small children, companion animals are completely innocent and dependent upon us for their safety and well-being.

They make no choices about where or with whom they live.

If no one feeds them, they starve.

If no one takes them in from the cold, they freeze.

And when someone decides to kick them, strangle them, or beat them with a tire iron, they cannot move out or call 911.

Sadly, I have to say that I believe Brownie’s story only unique in that she was found before she died, and that we have someone willing to come forward and tell us what happened to her. The Ypsilanti Police Department has done an outstanding job with this case. Had they not shown such great concern and diligence, we may have never known that our unidentified injured stray dog was really Brownie.

We see abused and neglected animals every single day. Beaten, abandoned, thrown from car windows, locked in closets, tied out back behind the garage with no food, etc. Domestic abusers often hurt or kill family pets as a way to control, intimidate, or silence their human victims.

Too often these animals suffer in silence.

HSHV has a fantastic Animal Cruelty and Rescue Department, paid for solely by donations. But it is only when someone comes forward to report the abuse that can we seek protection and justice for the animal.

We rely on the community to not just pay for the cruelty investigations and care of these animals, as so many have generously done, but also to be our eyes and ears, and, ultimately, to be their voices.

We are so grateful for those who help us do our jobs and for those who have the courage to speak out for our four-legged friends.