I love the smells of fall, the chill in the air, the sounds of fall with the geese going south, and the sounds of the leaves falling and rustling in the trees. The sights of fall with the gorgeous leaves changing their dynamic oranges, reds, and golden yellows. It's all so beautiful! I love the pumpkind and fall decorations, I love the feel of the smooth yet lumpy pumpkins, and the feel of the crunchy leaves beneath my feet. Raking all the leaves into a HUGE pile so the kids and I can jump in...fantastic! My favoritist time of the year, hands down.
I love Halloween and Thanksgiving and cannot wait for them to be here. Fall also brings, my husband's 28th birthday, so happy birthday to him. Wendesday my daughter turns 5 (how can that be! Oh my!) and Saturday is her party, she's asking her friends and famiy to bring a donations for the animal shelter because her furry friends at the shelter are always in need of things like: Dog food, bleach for keeping kennels clean, dog shampoo, collars and leashes of all sizes, dog toys, and whatever else you can think of a dog might need! She plans on making some dog treats to take to the shelter to share with her furry friends for her birthday too. She's so excited.
Speaking of Halloween....are you dressing your dogs up? Molly is going to be Little Red Riding Hood, and Karmen is going to be a Wolf in Sheeps Clothing. Hopefully my furry girls are cooperative with their costumes, I'm pretty sure they will be though lol they don't really care.
There are several really cute dogs at the shelter that are needing out. Last weekend the shelter was so full that 4 had to be put down. It broke our hearts. Every single person at that shelter was devastated. We had tried to get them out, but the rescues we contacted were full, fosters were full, and we didn't know quite what else to do. The dogs that were put down had been there for weeks. I don't lie when a dog gets put down, the community needs to know. Why? Because the community is both the PROBLEM and the SOLUTION. They are the problem because they don't spay and neuter their pets then they have PUPPIES that need homes. And just because you find homes for all of your puppies, doesn't mean they aren't going to end up at the shelter. People move, people get sick of their pets, so on and so on. They get dumped and get picked up by the shelter. People don't keep ID tags on their dogs either so they end up at the shelter. How do we know who the dog belongs to if you don't get your dog microchipped or have ID tags on your dog? The dog can't talk. He can't tell us his address. That's up to the owners to be responsible. We scan for micro chips, we go by the info on the microchip. So if you have a dog that has been microchipped...and you give it away....you might want to make sure you get that micro chip information up to date for the dog, otherwise your dog might get returned to the wrong owners. Keep things up to date, be on top of things. If your dog goes missing, the first thing you should do is call the shelter and leave a description and contact info, better yet bring in a photo ID of the dog. Any unusual markings or other info etc. Put an ad in the paper, hang up flyers in your neighborhood, and grocery stores. Post it on Facebook, there are a multitude of local swap shops in our area! Moberly Swap Shop, Moberly Pet Swap Shop, Lost and Missing Dogs, if you don't know of any, just ASK! Stop by the shelter page and leave a photo of your lost dog. There are many many things you can do. But don't NOT look for your dog and then get upset when you find out your dog has been in the shelter the whole time and got put down. Where were you? Were you REALLY looking for your dog? I know not everyone nows we have a shelter, but atleast call the police station for crying out. And I'm pretty sure if you are reading this, then you know there is a shelter, obviously. We don't like seeing dogs sitting at the shelter. Some dogs come in and you are like I KNOW this dog has an owner. We exhaust our avenues of finding their owners. We post on swap pages, blog, twitter, the shelter page, we call vets and groomers to see if they know the particular dog. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. So then a dog sits, and sits.
Right now the dog I am fostering, he came into the shelter skinny and in need of a bath and hair cut but other wise, you can tell he's been somones baby! He's perfect on a leash. He's does good about being potty trained, he is ok in a kennel, great with kids and other small animals. He is bad about running out the door as soon as it is open though, he's done that to us multiple times but thankfully we've found him each time. Where are his owners? I have no idea. He's been posted. We're waiting for someone to call. Do you know Tator (Obviously not his real name as he had on no id).
Do you go out the door withour your ID every day? Do you always have your drivers license on you? Incase of an accident where you are unresponsive they would need that ID to know who to call in your family. Your pet is no different. They can't talk to us and tell us what we need/want to know so keep ID on your pets.
Another thing that bothered me is the amount of people who got mad at the ACO for having to put down 4 dogs. Really people? Come on. Where were you the weeks upon weeks these 4 dogs were sitting in the shelter? I didn't see you stepping up to take them off our hands. Flynn was at the shelter for over a month. His sister got adopted, and poor Flynn he sat. Not every dog at the shelter can get into the HOUNDS program. Dogs need to be adotped. If they don't get out of the shelter, and it gets full, dogs die. We need FOSTERS in order for this not to happen. We are trying to work more and more with rescue groups so this doesn't happen, but there area LOT of dogs that need rescue groups that aren't JUST IN Moberly, there are dogs all over the state and country that need help. You can't expect every rescue group to drop whatever and take in our dogs. They take care of a LOT of dogs.
We aren't like the Columbia Shelter. Far from it. We do not have the funding to spay/neuter/microchip/give shots to every single dog that comes in. We only have 25 kennels. Those can go from empty to full in just a weekend. What do you think happens to shelters when they get full? We magically make more kennels? They just go away to great homes? No. They die. We don't have enough fosters, and even then, after they are in foster homes they STILL need to get adopted so other dogs can go into those foster homes they shouldn't just sit and sit and sit. Foster need to be able to take the dogs out to help get them adopted, be available so people can come see the dog.
I was very appalled by the fact that so many people got mad at the ACO. She is doing the best she can. She doesn't like dogs dying either. Unfortunately, gassing is the method the city chooses to put down dogs. If you want them put down humanely why not donate the funding to take them to the vet. The shelter doesn't put dogs down often, especially not for quite awhile. Do not blame the ACO for the COMMUNITIES problem. You are just as responsible. If you don't like the fact we're a gassing facility (and I think we can all agree no one likes the idea) then take it up with your city council. Not the ACO, she doesn't get to make those decisions.
If we didn't have a shelter we would have stray dogs EVERYWHERE. They would become a public nuisance and could make things dangerous. Stray dogs wandering into the school yard what if your kid got bit? Stray dogs coming into your yard, what if they attacked your dog or your cat? The shelter keeps these dogs off the streets. Because apparently people can't keep their dogs on a lead outside, or in a fenced yard or in the house. They apparently can't spay and neuter or keep ID on their dogs either. So then there are tons of dogs running amuck. Is it the dogs fault? No. People. People are to blame. I think people need to stop and think about the way they and their pets impact the town, and how the shelter has to deal with it all and handle the many dogs that come in. The ACO and the shelter volunteers work their butts off finding rescues, finding adopters, finding the rightful owners of the dogs at the shelter. We come out and walk the dogs, we come bathe the dogs, photograph the dogs, play with the dogs, socialize the dogs. Everything we can to help them. Chances are the nay sayers aren't doing a single thing to help.
Stop picking on the ACO. She's there every day to feed those dogs and water them, and give them treats and give them attention, she helps make sure their pens are clean, she gives the puppies their worming and parvo shots (which is a hell of a lot more than the owners apparently did for the puppies!) if a dog needs vet care, we find a way to get that dog vet care! She allows the volunteers to come in (granted it 's only one day right now but it's a heck of a lot more than it was last year!! Which was never!!) She allows me to come in and photograph the dogs, she has taken dogs to adoption events too. She drives the dogs to the Hounds Program and takes those dogs to the vet when they need to go. She's out in the heat, or rain picking up stray dogs. Do you thank her? Next time you see that Animal Control van, why don't you tell her THANK YOU for helping to keep our community safe and for what you are doing for the dogs. The new ACO just started in May, and she's doing really good!
I know there has been a lot of negative things said about our shelter in years past, but I am here to inform you that the shelter and volunteers are working hard to turn that around and allow these dogs to have a great life in new fur ever homes!
I've also had comments been said about how people are glad that owners love their dogs, but they are tired of hearing about the animal shelter. Really? Tired of hearing about it....We've JUST starting talking about it!! We've only JUST begun. We have a looong way to go. SO you better get used to seeing our posts and stuff all over the place. If I can post about the shelter, I will. Dogs at the shelter deserve a better life than roaming the streets or being in the shelter. And if owners loved their dogs "so much" why do the dogs end up at the shelter?
Love your pet? Spay or neuter.
Love your pet? Get them micro chipped and keep dog tags on them.
Love your pet? Get them their shots.
Love yout pet? Train them, socialize them, play with them.
Love your pet? Adopt your next one from the animal shelter and give those dogs that love.
So at the risk of making everyone in the world mad at me I'll get off my soap box. Afterall, this is MY blog and I can post what I will. Right? It is still a free world? Animals and children are two things I'm very passionate about. I hate to see bad things happen to them. So I am going to step up and say what I think when it comes to matters like kids with cancer, or dogs in a shelter.
Oh and I am going to share this too. It's for Parks and Rec here in town, the "Bark in the Park" (not for the shelter unfortunately, but thought it looked like fun so thought I'd share it! Not sure if my gals and I will be attending or not, we'll see).
October 6th- Bark in the Park
5k Run/ Walk and 2k Dog Walk
Race will begin at the Dog Park
Registration: 8:30 am, Race 9:00 am
Online Registration is now available--Go to www.moberlymo.org, click on Living in Moberly, Moberly Parks and Recreation, Events, then Register Online
All participants will recieve a t-shirt and giveaways for their 4- legged friend!
Early Registration $15, after September 28th $20
Anyway, below are dogs at the shelter! I didn't get to stay too long on Friday since I had to leave due to an emergency, but I think I only missed photographing 1 dog.
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| JoJo the stud muffin he's "sexy and he know it" LOL Love this dog he such an awesome personality. |
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| Poor Hoss is a gooorgeous and HUGE German Shepered. He's very scared and unsure and needs a lot of love and attention. He either has mange or a very bad skin allergy. You can smell the yeast infection on his skin poor boy! |
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| Poor Reuger back in the shelter AGAIN, is there a rescue group that can take this sweet boy? |
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| There are two pups about this size but I had to leave early Friday due to an emergency and I didn't get the other dogs photo. There is this sweet white and brown pup and there is also a black and brown brindle pup. |
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| This little pup...breaks my heart. He's so tiny. So small. In need of love and attention. I hate seeing these itty bitties in the shelter absolutely breaks my heart! |
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| A gorgeous shepered, ain't she a beaut! I wonder if she has owners out there searching for her? She's so well taken care of it looks like. Not sure what her story is, how she found herself back at the shelter. |
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| Little Weenie is back at the shelter too :( Not sure what brought him back to the shelter either, but he is back. I would have brought him home with me to foster but I already have a foster dog at home. Hoping he just ran away from home and is waiting for his owner to come get him. |
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| And my little foster dude. Tator. Super sweet pup! Needs a date with the groomer though and he is a super picky boy doesn't like any of the dog food I give him. Making it difficult to put some weight on this boy!! He's perfect on the leash, great with my small kids, and great with my small dogs and kittens. Pretty sure he has had a family! Just been unsuccesful in finding them! |
Mahala
Shelter Volunteer
Photographer
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