“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially where the welfare of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict upon our soul when we look the other way.”- Dr. M. L. King Jr.

I came to a startling realization at work the other day.  As I sat at my desk working, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small child walking into the office.  Monty (my dog) freaked out and tried to get as far away from the child as possible.  Luckily for Monty, the toddler did not press the issue of wanting to pet the puppy and amused itself with other things in the room.  I have always known Monty was not a fan of children.  It all stems from a horrible first encounter with the mini versions of humans when six neighborhood children stormed into my yard and chased him around to the point of pure terror which ended in him running full speed into a closed door in an attempt to get away from them.

While I understand this is mostly my fault for not working harder on socializing him to children after that, I never thought it was necessary since I never plan on having children or ever being around them.  But this was my startling realization at work:  what if I get pregnant?  (someone go revive my fainted family please)  Sure, it’s not in my life plan, but things happen – and I would only have a few months to get Monty from terrified to accepting a baby as a family member.

So how does one do it?  How does one prepare the family dog for a baby?  All too often I’ve seen animals surrendered to the shelter because the expecting parents are worried they won’t get along or the dog/cat is not doing well with the new bundle of joy the parents recently brought home.  This is all avoidable – you can prepare your dog and/or cat for a baby and make it a successful transition for the entire family.  And, yes, even Monty can learn to (at the bare minimum) tolerate the little ones.

Set up the nursery area as soon as possible.  The entire room:  furniture, clothes, toys, diapers, baby powder… whatever supplies you plan on using.   The purpose is to give your pets time to adjust to all these new sights and smells.  You should also prepare your pets for the new routine that will take place once the baby arrives.  What will happen to the dog’s feeding and walk times once the baby comes?  Make these changes now so your dog can adjust.  Also, about a month or so before the baby arrives, keep the baby’s room closed so the animals learn to leave it alone and that it’s not their space.

It is also a great idea to invite friends over who have babies so your pets can get used to the sounds a baby makes.   If you don’t have any friends with babies, get an audio of a crying baby to attempt to desensitize your pets to all the weird and new sounds a baby makes.  It’s also not a bad idea to have a family member bring  one of the baby’s blankets home a day early so the pets can get used to the baby’s smell.

Once the baby arrives, do not forget about your pets!  You are going to be very busy, but they still need their walks, play time, and attention that they are used to.  And never, NEVER leave your pets alone with the baby.  No matter what, no matter how great the dog is when you are around.   And definitely give your pets time to adjust.  This is a big change in their (and your) lives.

Today, I am bringing in the new year at work preparing for our New Years adoption event. Austin Pets Alive’s event today features “Name Your Own Price” adoption fees for animals six months and older, with a $25 adoption donation minimum as well as a free raffle for an amazing prize of a two-night stay at a Kimpton hotel and champagne with every adoption. We here at APA! hope that Austinites looking to adopt an animal for a New Year’s resolution will take home one of the wonderful pets available here. Which brings me to what I want to write about today – shelter hours. The no kill philosophy tells us that we need to make the animals easily accessible for people, and being open later on weekdays, on weekends, and on holidays is vital as these are times when people have off and have time to look for their new family member.

I find it absolutely depressing when a shelter’s hours end at 5 or 6pm, or when they aren’t open for one of both weekend days. And as much as I know it sucks for the shelter staff – it is horrible when they are closed for holidays. These are the times people are looking to adopt, shelters should not make it hard for them. Austin Pets Alive did 30 adoptions on New Years Eve. 30. That’s 30 animals who are now in their forever home instead of spending another night in the shelter. That’s 30 more spots we have open at the shelter for animals who need a place to stay. If we had been closed, or closed early, the 30 dogs and cats would still be here and the 30 that take their place would be without shelter.

Between yesterday, today and tomorrow our goal is 100 adoptions and I personally believe we will surpass that goal. And Austin Pets Alive isn’t the multimillion dollar shelter or the city funded adoption center. APA! is the grassroots rescue group 95% run by volunteers. Any shelter can do this if they just change their mindset and their hours. Check your local shelter’s hours: If they are not set up to be accessible to the public, write or call and let them know that as a donor, you want them to be open later and on the weekends.

Happy New Year

Just like humans, dogs need their teeth brushed!  Here are some easy steps to dental care.

First, do not use human toothpaste for your dog.  This toothpaste was not designed for animals and could have bad side effects if used.  Your local pet store will have toothpaste made especially for your pet.  You can use a human toothbrush if you want, although at the pet store you can find a toothbrush that fits over your finger and then you just rub your finger on your dog’s teeth.  Depending on the dog, this may be a better option for you.

Like with most new things for your pet, I recommend taking things slow and gradually so they can get used to the idea of a brush in their mouth.  So start by just putting a little bit of toothpaste on the brush and letting your dog lick it off.  Next, put the brush into the side of their mouth and rub it a few times against their molars.  Since you are doing this as baby steps, make sure to praise your dog after each small thing she lets you do!

The first few times you brush your dog’s teeth, it will be very quick and probably not that productive in the area of actually cleaning the teeth-but that’s okay!  You are building up their trust in you and their tolerance of a brush in their mouth.  Eventually your dog will be okay with you completely brushing her teeth.

I recommend you do this at least once a week.  It is also a good idea to provide toys such as bones and rope chews that help rub off plaque buildup as well.

Meet King Louie!  He is my current foster who also happens to be FIV+.  Many shelters will kill any cat that comes through their doors and tests positive for FIV.  Why?  Personally, I’m not sure I can even understand their reasoning for this because it seems so ridiculous to me.  However, I can explain what FIV is so you can see that it’s nothing to fear and definitely not anything worth ending a life for.

FIV stands for Feline Immuno-deficiency Virus.  FIV is a cat-only disease and cannot be spread to humans or other non-felines (so Fido is completely safe).   Cats who have FIV most often live long, healthy, and relatively normal lives with no symptoms at all.  FIV is not easily passed between cats as it cannot be spread casually (like in litter boxes, water and food bowls, or when snuggling and playing).  It is rarely spread from a mother to her kittens.  The virus can be spread through blood transfusions, badly infected gums, or serious, penetrating bite wounds (bite wounds of this kind are extremely rare, except in free-roaming, unneutered tomcats).  Unfortunately, many vets are not educated about FIV since the virus was only discovered 15 years ago.  FIV-positive cats should be kept indoors and free from stress as well as fed a high-quality diet.

So as long as King Louie stays inside and lives the cushy life he deserves, he will live a long and happy life with his forever family.  Louie is an absolutely amazing cat who shows affection with true gusto.  He loves to get a good chin scratch and curl up next to me on the bed, sometime kneading so hard from joy I can feel it through the mattress.  It is impossible for me to imagine killing Louie being the humane thing to do because he has some virus that affects his immune system.  He is happy, healthy, and extremely loving and I know for a fact he is going to be a cherished member of an amazing family, giving them as much bliss and happiness as he will receive.

Please educate yourself about FIV and spread the word – tell your local shelter it’s no longer acceptable to kill an animal because they have this virus.  Louie thanks you!

***information about FIV has been taken from Best Friends

In previous years, I sent out a fund raising plea every fall for Elmbrook Humane Society, but this year I am doing it for an even more worthy cause, Austin Pets Alive (APA)!  This organization is working to make the city of Austin a no kill city – where no companion animal is killed unless it is terminally ill and suffering or extremely dangerous to itself and others.  How they mainly do this is they have an agreement with the local municipal shelter.  This shelter, known as TLAC, will give APA it’s “kill list” the day before the animals are to be killed.  APA then comes in and pulls as many of these animals as it can!  Because of this, the kill rate of the entire city has gone from 50% to under 30% in just two years and is continuing to drop!

APA has recently moved into their first brick and mortar facility (yes, until a month ago, every animal pulled from TLAC went to a foster home – they have over 800 foster families!!) and with this new facility, they project to save an additional 1,000 animals more than the 3,000 already projected for the next year!  But to save these animals, they need the money to do it.  It takes $100 for APA to save an animal from TLAC.  They are now doing a Save a Life Drive, where they hope to raise $50,000 total to therefore get the funds to save half of those extra 1,000.

I am writing to you to ask that you please donate to my Save a Life Drive page.  Every amount counts, so even if you can only give $10 it goes a LONG way at Austin Pets Alive (trust me!!).  Please give what you can – maybe skip going out to dinner one night next week and donate what you saved so that you can help save a life.  You can donate here:  http://www.razoo.com/story/Sa-L10-Jenna-Riedi.  And you can learn more about APA here: www.austinpetsalive.org.  If you know of anyone that may be interested in learning about Austin Pets Alive and possibly supporting them, please forward this message to them!  Thank you for reading this, learning more about the amazing organization I work for, and (hopefully) considering to support such a worthy mission!

Thank you!
~Jenna

“I am sometimes asked, ‘Why do you spend so much of your time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men?’  I answer: ‘I am working at the roots.’” – George T. Angell

Working in animal welfare, it is rather common for people to question why my efforts and anyone’s money should be going towards animals when there is so much suffering in the world for humans.  Many times I have heard people say something along the lines of:  “why don’t you help your own kind first, and once that is done we can move on to animals”

One of the things that really frustrates me is when talking to someone about my work, they ask me some question like “if someone held a baby and a puppy over a cliff, which would you choose to save if you could only pick one?”  Seriously?!  Unless someone is completely deranged and sets this situation up, there will never be an instance where I have to choose between saving a person and saving an animal.  No one is going to hold my dog and my brother over a shark-filled pool and say I can only save one.  So let’s stop using that ridiculous question of “who would you choose” since it’s pointless.  This is not a contest about which I care about more, humanity or the animal kingdom.  There is absolutely no need for there to be a choice, and I personally believe the two are irrevocably connected.

I am working to make this world a better place.  A place where we value other lives as much as our own, whether it be another human, a dog, or a guinea pig.  Yes, there are many horrible things happening in this world, genocide still occurs despite our “never again” from the Holocaust, dogs are still being skinned alive for “fashion”, war still rages on even though we fought a war that was to end all wars, both people and animals alike are dying of starvation every hour, and daily there are murders of almost all species.

All these horrors are connected.  They all require us to be understanding and care about something we cannot directly relate to – yes, you don’t look like that woman in Africa and you will never meet her, but it’s your duty to stand up for her when her country tries to unjustly kill her.   And true, that cow seems stupid to you so why care that it lives in a factory farm, but we have just tipped the very deep iceberg in terms of understanding the intelligence of other species and even if it’s not intelligent that doesn’t give anyone the right to torture.

We all need to open our hearts and minds to make improvements in this world.   I work tirelessly to teach compassion and save lives.  Yes, the lives are not human, and some of you will argue it’s less of a life, but human lives are positively affected by my work, too.   If we stop killing dogs, we’ll stop killing people.  And if we stop torturing people, we’ll stop torturing animals.  Trust me.  Compassion is contagious.

Meet Bosco, the current foster kitten in my life!  It literally warms my heart to know this little guy was going to be killed, but because of Austin Pets Alive and me (!!), I picked him up the day before his slated euthanasia.  He is alive and well and will now get to live out his days in a loving forever home.  The poor little guy had an upper respiratory infection (URI) that turned into pneumonia, but with some serious TLC he has made a full recovery and is now looking for his permanent home.

If Bosco could be described in one word, it would be “sweet”.  He is the sweetest little guy you will ever meet (and the softest)!  Quick to purr and soft to pet, Bosco loves any attention you give him.  While a little shy at first, he becomes very playful and affectionate once he knows the coast is clear!  He gets along great with his foster dog brother, Monty (who is very respectful of Bosco) and wants to be friends with his foster cat brother (but, as always, Loki is not a nice guy to little Bosco) as well.

And, yes, for those that noticed:  Monty did receive the infamous Texas dog “summer cut”.  A week ago after playing our daily game of fetch at dusk, Monty collapsed on the walk back to our apartment.  He suffered from heat stroke and it scared me sick how quickly he overheated.  So he has his new hairdo and we only play catch if it’s under 80 degrees at dusk.  Otherwise, it’s only walks for Monty until it cools down a little.  Monty and I were only outside for about 15 minutes and I only threw the ball 10 times for him.  Animals cannot sweat, so they overheat much faster than you would guess.  So, PLEASE, be mindful of the heat and of your pets!