classic poems about dogs

Tonight a good friend gave me a small book of old poems and pictures about dogs. It's called 'A Classic Illustrated Treasury; Dogs'. The illustrations and poems date from the 1890s to the 1950s.

I think my favorite would have to be the one by Rudyard Kipling

When the Man waked up he said,
"What is the Wild Dog doing here?"
And the Woman said,
"His name is not Wild Dog any more,
but the First Friend,
because he will be our friend
for always and always and always."

I thought that was a pretty good summary of a hundred thousand years of history - or fifteen thousand, depending on which archaeological study you believe.

And...I just noticed it is Rudyard Kipling's birthday today!

looking after the dogs of military personnel

It must be the week for reading feel-good stories about dogs. I loved reading about a charity in the US that looks after the dogs of military personnel who are posted overseas. It was lovely to browse the site and see all the happy dogs that are NOT in search of a new home! Their humans will be coming back to get them, as soon as they can, I'm sure.

German animal lovers help pets in need

Penny was eating her breakfast as I sat reading The Age newspaper today. When I read an article about a German organisation called Tiertafel I realised how lucky we are to be able to feed Penny well.

With times so hard all around the world, many people are having to make the hard decision to give up a much-loved pet because they have to choose between feeding themselves (or their children) - or feeding the pet.

Many elderly pensioners are in this sad situation and we all know that if an old pet is given up to a shelter it's unlikely to be adopted.

Tiertafel was set up to stop people having to make this awful choice. Pet owners in financial difficulty, short term or long term, can get free food for their pets.

There are about 19 of these free food outlets in Germany now. I had a look at a lovely feel-good video clip showing the 'pet soup-kitchen' in action in Berlin. Even if you don't speak German, it's a nice video to look at. First it shows 'two-legs' patiently queuing with their four-legged pals and then explains that people need to prove they are in need. Then we see volunteers bringing in donations and a lady explains that she's donated some food because she feels for people in this situation.

Verein "Tiertafel" - Menschen helfen ... @ Yahoo! Video

Animals suffer just as we do

I just opened my regular email from 'Word of the Day' and it ended with this quote:

All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals.

The quote is from Peter Singer, philosopher and professor of bioethics (b. 1946)

This last few weeks or two I seem to have been confronted by the suffering of animals. First I read a short story by Annie Proulx that had something horrible in it, and even though I know it was a symbolic, mythological event, it disturbed me immensely. Then I received an email that was doing the rounds, describing something I couldn't believe humans would do to animals.

And I've been shopping for Christmas, determined to source only meat from animals that have not suffered during the time they were raised as a food source. Let me tell you, it's not easy to find meat that you can feel sure about.

So the thought for today seems very apt to me, as we celebrate Christmas together - I'd like to think we can live ethically alongside the other species that share our planet.

K9 Kompany christmas party 2008

Yesterday we attended the end-of-year party at K9 Kompany in Lilydale. It was great fun.
Penny was awarded second prize for doing tricks - weaving around my legs in a figure of eight.





We didn't enter the dress-up competition, because Penny shakes off any 'human' items if we try to put them on her.

The winners looked good, though!



I had great hopes for the 'Gambler's Agility' - in this game you race around the agility course, scoring points of different value, depending which activity you choose. The score goes back to zero if you choose an activity that the dog refuses - that's the gamble. Penny, as usual, did everything that was asked of her, so we should have done well - except that she did the weave poles in slow motion. Really s-l-o-w motion. Oh well, at least we gave the onlookers a good laugh.



We both had a great time. Here we are, laughing together.

lost dog visits and Penny has fun

Each time we've found a stray dog and brought it home, Penny has been unfriendly. However, today I brought home a lovely little fellow who was wandering along a busy street and, surprisingly, Penny was overjoyed to have him here.

I'm wondering whether she behaved well because I had taken the visitor through the house and put him in a crate in the bedroom, closing the door and locking Penny into the other end of the house - I was late for an important appointment and didn't have time to take him to his owners. By the time I got home two hours later Penny was desperate to meet him.

They went for a stroll around the backyard before I took him home. Well, he strolled. Penny flew around him in circles, begging him to play. (He didn't.)

Melburnians unite to save the Lort Smith animal shelter

The Age newspaper reported recently that the Lort Smith Animal Hospital will no longer be allowed to operate as a pound.

VICTORIA'S largest animal hospital has been banned from finding new homes for cats and dogs lost in the City of Melbourne, as local pounds brace for a sharp increase in the number of pets dumped over Christmas.

After helping to rehouse abandoned pets for the past 75 years, Lort Smith Animal Hospital has suddenly been ordered by Melbourne City Council to transfer all seized animals to a North Melbourne pound.

I think it might be that someone realised there was an agreement that councils would licence only one pound in each municipality and once that information was reported the Council had to act on it. I'm not quite sure whether this is the exact story behind it, but it does beg the question - couldn't whoever noticed the problem have kept it under his or her hat till after Christmas, when we humans celebrate by treating animals as disposable goods?

This is what Lort Smith says about the present situation.

I have enough faith in the humanity of our councillors to imagine that they are dismayed to have to act in such an inhumane way right before Christmas, the season of pet abandonment and cruelty. I'm hopeful that they are working hard to resolve the issue. But it never hurts to let them know we care.

I went to the site where the email addresses of the Councillors are listed and wrote to them all.

If you would be able to write a letter to the Melbourne City Councillors, it would be great. If you want some ideas, there are letters that others have written, here and here.

I said:

Dear

I have read that the Lort Smith Animal Hospital has been forced to cut back its shelter operations due to a Melbourne City council decision, as reported in The Age newspaper.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/council-pounces-stripping-lort-smith-of-its-pound-status-20081213-6xy5.html

For some years I have been a supporter of the work done by the Lort Smith Animal Hospital and I would like to register my disappointment with the Council’s action.

I realise that the decision may have come about through a discovery that the Hospital was inadvertently not complying with regulations, but I would hope that Melbourne City Council can work with the Hospital to urgently put some arrangements in place to care for lost animals at this critical time of the year.

Lort Smith provides an essential service for us all, in making Melbourne a place where animals are treated humanely, so that we can take pride in our city. If the Lost Dogs’ Home has to take on the numbers of animals who would otherwise have been sheltered at Lort Smith, I fear there will be an even greater number of innocent animals euthanased.

If Lort Smith has operated as a shelter under successive Councils for 75 years, without anyone acting on this discrepancy, it must appear that this newly elected Council is overly bureaucratic and inhumane – not a good image.

I urge you to work with the Hospital to resolve the issue in an imaginative and humane way, so that Melburnians can have faith that you are the leaders we want you to be.