Yes, it exists and is absolutely amazing.  I am not in anyway looking to get married anytime soon, but if a man presented this to me I would be inclined to say yes to his proposal… now where are the Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Firefly engagement rings?

Amelia Riedi passed away in the early hours of June 18.  As if she knew I wanted to be with her when the time came, Amelia waited for me to come home from being out of town before it was time.  I will miss her adorable nose, amazing perseverance, and sassy attitude – she taught me so much and I am beyond grateful I was able to be her mom, even though it was just for a few months.  Rest in peace, sweet Amelia, and know you are loved and deeply missed.

Remember back in March when I adopted my office cat, Amelia, as a hospice situation due to her failing health?  Well, she is still kicking and more spunky than ever.  Please enjoy my official family photo of my three fur babies!

That’s right – I am in a date auction benefiting Austin Pets Alive! Myself and nine other animal lovers are putting ourselves on the bidding block in hopes to raise some funds for the cats and dogs in the amazing programs at APA… if you are in the Austin area on Thursday, June 7 stop by Mohawk between 6 and 9pm to meet the lovely ladies and bid on a chance to go on a fun date with one of us.

I recently attended an animal welfare conference and it was a great opportunity and I am extremely grateful for the scholarship I received so that I could attend.  I learned a lot, met some amazing people, and truly do not regret going one bit despite the lack of sleep.  But there was a noticeable difference with some of the speakers and a few of the attendees there then at other animal welfare conferences I have attended.  There was a negativity a small, put powerful, minority had towards those not exactly like them.  Several speakers were openly against the movement and words “no kill” which I get can be uncomfortable since the opposite of no kill is kill.  But instead of feeling targeted or threatened by those terms, shelter and rescue leaders should instead see it as a challenge to work towards better programs and policies to help increase adoption and retention and decrease euthanasia, strays and surrenders.

We all want the same thing.  We all want less animals killed and more animals in loving homes.  Whether you want to call that “no kill” or “no more homeless pets” or an “adoption guarantee”, I really do not care.  And neither should you or anyone else for that matter.  Why are we wasting so much time, energy and resources on this ridiculous in-fighting?  We should instead focus our attentions on doing the absolute best we can for these amazing creatures that depend on us and continuously strive to improve.  We should be sharing our successes and failures so that others can learn from the victories and mistakes.  There are lives at stake, so we cannot afford to waste a single moment on anything other than saving them.

Don’t forget to vote today, Austin!  FixAustin.org is an amazing group that put together this Animal Welfare Voter Information Guide – please use it when voting today and help keep Austin no-kill.

This video has gone viral over the past few months and I can see why, it’s a beautiful, emotional and amazing story.  The disconnect between seeing this video and being grateful these dogs are now free and then recognizing that YOUR actions are why these beagles were in the labs in the first place still astounds me.  Yes, be happy these pups are now living the lives they were meant to, as companions to loving families.  But also see the issue of lab testing and make a change so you are not supporting this cruel, unnecessary torture.

It’s very easy to avoid supporting lab testing in consumer products.  PETA has a great list of products that do not test on animals available on their website here.  Please use this list as a shopping guide so you can avoid supporting any companies that still test on animals, a completely barbaric and unnecessary practice that should have been banned decades ago.

A fun part of having an office at an animal shelter is I get to have an office cat.  Soon after my first office kitty, Stumpy, was adopted, the cat counselors kindly started recommending a new kitty companion for me.  Next thing I know, I have a deaf and mostly blind cat with hyperthyroidism in my office with me.  Amelia is a gorgeous cat who adorably loves to be held just like a baby.  Her purrs are incredibly loud and she makes hilarious noises when she sleeps.  I instantly loved my new “boss” at work.

Only after a few days in the office we learned she was having kidney issues and I took her to our vet clinic for blood tests.  The results were not good and, coupled with other evidence of her failing health, I learned from our vet at APA that she only had a few weeks left at best.  I decided that night to adopt Amelia and brought her home to live out her days knowing she has a family and is deeply loved.

A lot of negativity has been surrounding my life the last few months and Amelia has taught me that life is too short and unpredictable to deal with the crap that can be avoided, to own my situation and change things if they are not what I need/want.  She has inspired me to do things I would not have considered before.  I am so honored to be her owner and mom.  She is such a beautiful, loving, charismatic little creature.  No matter how long she lives, it will not be long enough.  As each day passes, she is a little more frail, a little more sick, and soon I will have to make the humane decision to help her rest peacefully and pain-free.  I am terrified of what is to come, but I owe it to her to be strong and be a good pet parent.

Welcome to the family, Amelia Riedi.  Please make yourself at home and stay awhile.

As you may have seen on the news, Austin Pets Alive! will be losing their main facility on Manchaca road due to the landlord wanting to develop the property.  Below is the email from their Executive Director, Dr. Ellen Jefferson.  Please take a few minutes to read and then PLEASE consider sending in the email to city council and/or attending the meeting on Monday:

We really need your support this week to help Austin Pets Alive secure a new home to continue our operations.  We have been told that we need to move out of our Manchaca location in May.  We thought we would have it for 3-5 years but unfortunately (for us) the economy has turned around a bit and the owner of the complex will be developing the site.  So that means we need to find a place to move all of our operations asap.

Our board is looking for rental locations that might be suitable but they will all require a large amount of work (just like what we created at Manchaca).  And that is only if we find one that will take us in.  It took 2.5 years to find Manchaca.  We have a capital campaign planned for 2013 but it takes a lot of preparation and we can’t launch it until then.  

For an immediate solution, we have proposed to City Council that we move all of our existing operations into Town Lake Animal Center for the rest of our contract with them (until May 2013) so that we don’t have to stop operations in order to retrofit a new rental or downsize if we don’t find a building at all.  TLAC is vacant except for our animals that are already there and is about 3 times the size of our Manchaca facility.   There is no additional cost to the city (cost neutral) and there would only minor retrofitting.  

This seems like a perfect solution for us so that we can seamlessly continue saving lives but the bad news is that there is controversy because we rescue lives from areas outside the city limits.  Even though we are saving as many lives as we can from the Austin Animal Center, there is still an undercurrent of unhappiness from other rescue groups that don’t think we should use city land if we save animals outside the city.  

Saving lives from places like Bastrop, Williamson County, Lockhart, and San Marcos doesn’t impede our ability to help Austin (exemplified by the fact that Austin was at a >90% save rate for all of 2011 while we were saving animals from other counties in addition to Austin’s) but there is a perception that it does.  

I think we all agree that using our resources that we have built up over time to save lives anywhere near Austin is worth it to those animals that need saving and to us as caring humane citizens.  It doesn’t make sense to not save lives when we can.   No matter where they come from.

I am sincerely asking for your support in one of two ways (or both if you can!):

1.  Come to the Animal Advisory Commission meeting on Monday at 6pm at Austin Energy.  We need lots of speakers and speaking opportunities are limited so please contact me if you can speak on APA’s behalf.  You can simply express support for saving lives.  It doesn’t have to be long.  There are spots for 20 speakers but we need many more people there just to crowd the room.  Please wear your APA t-shirt if you can (not mandatory).  Nothing speaks louder than a room full of people that all want the same thing.  Remember that there will be people there who oppose us so we need to show up in droves to outnumber them.  Please come even for 1 hour!  No rsvp needed but email me if you can in advance so I have a general idea of how much support we will get.

2.  Write a letter to the Austin Animal Advisory Commission and the City Council to express support.  You can email the AAC at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/boards/results.cfm?bid=2 (obviously, you don’t need to include me and Palmer Neuhaus).   You can email all of city council at once at  http://www.austintexas.gov/mail/all-council-members .  We posted a blog about this subject yesterday at http://www.austinpetsalive.org/2012/02/a-letter-from-the-executive-director-apas-request-for-full-use-of-the-tlac-space/ which will give you lots of information.  And I have attached the handout I used for the Health and Human Services Subcommittee meeting last week.  For simplicity we have crafted this email that can be copied and pasted into an email to city council or feel free to write your own:

“Please support Austin Pets Alive in saving animals throughout Central Texas.  APA has made Austin attain a 92% save rate and the only way they can continue to offer that support to Austin is if they have a home.  Please allow Austin Pets Alive to use the vacant Town Lake Animal Center until the site needs to be used by the city.  This will be at no cost to the city, will save thousands of lives, and will keep Austin at a 92% save rate.  If APA doesn’t move into TLAC, Austin risks losing status as the largest no kill city in the country.  Your vote is the difference between “Austin No Kill” and just plain Austin.”

Thank you all so much.  We really need you on Monday and your emails before Monday.  If this passes at the Animal Advisory Commission level, we will need to go to 2 more City Council meetings to show support. I will keep you advised of when those are.  If this does not pass, we may have to downsize a lot of our operations which will mean many fewer lives saved.  I cannot emphasize enough how much we need you right now.

Ellen

“Great spirits will always encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds” ~Einstein

I just love this quote too much to not share it.  My brain is otherwise fried due to the very exciting storm we had here in Central Texas last night and my dog’s decision to, after five years of perfect calmness, be totally and utterly terrified of the storm.  Happy Wednesday!