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Jeb’s Journey
No one at OAS could remember just when the young, scruffy black Staffordshire terrier mix with the black-spotted tongue showed up. It seemed like he’d always been there. Was it New Year’s? Christmas? Maybe Thanksgiving – yes, probably around late November. He didn’t know much then – he sure needed work on his manners. And he was both so scared and excited to see people that he couldn’t control his body; he wiggled and jumped, and sometimes he urinated or just dropped to the floor. But there was a real sweetness to him that soon made him a volunteer favorite.
We named him Jeb, and Jeb loved his treats. He would do anything for a biscuit. That food fondness made him trainable, and in short order he was sitting at doors and looking at his handler, doing quick “downs” and not jumping quite as much. He also began to gain confidence at the shelter and no longer had those fear “accidents.”
Volunteers and mentors took him on outings to Park Street in Alameda, where he got a lot of good attention from the public. He especially liked to go into Dog Bone Alley, where he got lots of treats. At first, crossing busy streets was a little scary for Jeb, but with a volunteer on either side of him, he got brave. And week after week he enjoyed those outings.
Months passed, and Jeb had the chance to play regularly with several other dogs at the shelter. He was so good at reading them, and he lured the shy ones to interact with him but backed off from the ones who didn’t seem to like his style. What a good dog! Yet month after month, no one came to adopt him. You see, Jeb was a black dog, and a pit bull mix – and there are many people who couldn’t get past those attributes to the sweet soul wiggling for their attention.
Sadly, we find that the pit bull mixes are often the slowest animals at the Shelter to be adopted. People who like pit bulls usually want a full bloodied pit, while those who are tentative about the breed look for a non-pit mix – therefore, these dogs often sit for months waiting for a home.
Then in June there was a big adoptathon at the shelter, and Jeb was one of the first dogs picked to go to a forever home. But it wasn’t forever because his adopters weren’t really ready to add a new member to their family. And so Jeb came back to OAS two weeks later. Volunteers went to the family’s home to try to work out a plan for Jeb to have another chance with them. But it didn’t work out, and the stress of being at the shelter was causing Jeb to have some behavioral issues.
By August things looked bleak for the boy. But two volunteers couldn’t just sit and watch him languish in the back of the shelter any longer, and so they approached Best Friends Animal Society, an enormous animal sanctuary in Utah, to see if he could be placed there. And although there were no slots available, the team leader for their “Pitbulls: Saving America’s Dog” campaign went to work to try to find a placement for Jeb where there were adequate resources to work on his behavioral issues. The OAS staff and volunteers were on pins and needles for a few weeks, and things didn’t look good. But then came the call: the Longmont Humane Society in Longmont, Colorado, could take him into their shelter and have their staff behaviorists work with him in hopes of getting him a home.
On Saturday, Sept. 18, two volunteers got Jeb ready to leave. As he was wagging good-bye to some of the staff, one of them said that he was the favorite of Patty, an animal care attendant, and that she would be upset that she didn’t get a chance to say good-bye. But Jeb had to leave for San Francisco Airport for his flight to Colorado. The flight was financed by Friends of Oakland Animal Services (FOAS), the nonprofit that funds surgeries for sick animals and does countless good things for the shelter inhabitants. Before he was loaded onto the plane, a volunteer asked Jeb to be brave and strong, to make those of us who love him so much proud of him, and to be good to his new people. She promised him new things to learn, new dogs to play with, a comfortable bed and good food.
Before he could take off, his crate (with him in it) was weighed – a whopping 93 pounds! That put our little porker at about 88 pounds, probably 25 above goal weight. Seems like he had been scarfing up those treats that no one could resist giving him.
Jeb arrived in Colorado that night and had his first play group the next day. And then the really big miracle happened: Patty, the OAS attendant, used to live in Longmont, and her ex-husband and daughter still live there. She called and asked them to visit Jeb. They did and, like Patty, they fell in love with him. And they’ve adopted him!! Now Jeb is at home on a big ranch with a new loving family that includes horses and other dogs. And he’s still in the OAS family. Jeb’s long journey turns out to have a fairy-tail ending after all.
Jeb in his new home in Colorado!
Leo Shares His Pit Bull Love
Leo is one of fifty Vick dogs confiscated from the Michael Vick dog fighting bust. He was given a new life by our partner Our Pack and a new, compassionate job to do – therapy work with cancer patients. He’s making a big impact on the lives of a lot of people and getting national recognition to help people truly understand the loving, sweet capacity of the pit bull breed.
Watch Leo and Marthina at work HERE.
Photo from http://www.examiner.com/dogs-in-oakland/pit-bull-101-with-bay-area-rescue-group-our-pack-inc.
Kramer
Update 4/13/11: We just learned from Harvest Home that Kramer died today. He was a fixture at Oakland Animal Services for several years. He will be missed.
Original Story:
Kramer is a taiwanese fighting cock that the Shelter confiscated during a cock fighting bust about five years ago. He had an injury to his head during a fight. Kramer recuperated but was never quite right. He sleeps standing up, drinks upside down and has trouble staying balanced. Shortly after Kramer arrived, we introduced him to a personable red hen named Chicken Little. He was quickly infatuated with Ms. Little and followed her everywhere.
When Chicken Little died, Kramer went into a deep depression. He stopped eating and wouldn’t get up – we were sure he was dying. However, fate intervened…that same day a citizen surrendered a scraggly easter chick who had been dyed pink. She had grown out of the “cute” chick phase and was a gangly, long legged white chicken and her adult feathers were coming in. We decided to introduce “Pink” to Kramer. We set her down next to Kramer who was lying on the cement with this head drooping down. Pink went up to him and Kramer suddenly hopped to his feet! In seconds, he was years younger and truly a happy rooster. He strutted around the courtyard and showed off his new chicken. He followed around his new girlfriend every day. She adored him to….if Kramer was put back inside before Pink, she would literally wail until she was reunited with him.
Pink, a broiler chicken – a type of chicken who has been genetically altered to grow quickly and extremely large, grew and grew. Soon, Pink was enormous and began having trouble walking and holding up her weight. Broiler chickens have a very short life span. We found Pink dead in her cage yesterday morning with Kramer draped across her. Once again, Kramer is alone and is going into a depression. We are now working fast on finding him a new mate.
UPDATE: We sent Kramer to Harvest Home to be surrounded my girlfriends. He has been reunited with Doris – the disabled chicken. Doris used to live at Oakland Animal Services and used to flirt with Kramer all of the time. However, Chicken Little got a little too jealous of Kramer’s advances so Harvest Home took her in. Now, Kramer and Doris are back together again!
Babies of Easter Rabbits
Each year, about this time, we start seeing baby bunnies in the Shelter. This is often because people get a couple of baby bunnies for Easter and then a few months later one or both of these rabbits have a litter of babies. The gestation period for a bunny is only 30 days and they can become pregnant again in only half an hour after giving birth! These babies end up in local shelters like ours. We encourage people to spay and neuter their bunnies! This will not only prevent more bunnies but will also improve the behavior of the bunny. We currently have close to 40 rabbits and need to find them homes. If you’re interested, please come visit – especially on the weekends when our wonderful volunteers can introduce you to them. We partner closely with Save a Bunny to help us find placement for the many rabbits we get. Please consider donating to them.
Story: http://oaklandnorth.net/2010/08/24/too-many-bunnies-at-the-oakland-animal-services-shelter/
Compassion and Teamwork: An Unbeatable Combination
Petey, if he could talk, would tell you about the strength of compassion. That and teamwork can carry you a long way toward remedying a difficult situation. And Petey, to say the least, has certainly found himself in a difficult situation–one that, thanks to both compassion and teamwork, may yet land the small dog in a much better place than wherever he has been.
This Chihuahua terrier mix was recently abandoned at Oakland Animal Services (OAS). OAS staff didn’t need to spend much time with the newly arrived but spunky tri-color boy to know something was wrong. His tail, instead of being centered over his hindquarters, was all the way to one side. And a quick look at his underside further revealed that his penis wasn’t normal either, and it appeared as if he were urinating out of a hole in his back.
The veterinarians at OAS determined that “Petey was sweet, definitely socialized, and loved at one point. He looked like a healthy guy until we examined his belly and below his tail,” Martha Cline, animal care coordinator, related. “But Petey had not developed normally as a fetus and was born with a congenital defect called perianal hypospadias. His urinary and reproductive systems didn’t fully form. His tail deviated to the left, his anus wasn’t quite normal, and where his penis and prepuce should be, there were only remnants.”
Furthermore, doctors discovered, Petey’s urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body, ended just below the anus, which was more in keeping with what one might expect to see on a female. The urethra, the vets and vet technicians noted, should have continued down and around the dog’s pelvis, inside the penis and prepuce, facing forward between his legs. But for Petey it didn’t.
OAS medical personnel referred Petey to Dr. Tim Sellmeyer at VSA in Dublin. From his review, Sellmeyer recommended that Petey be placed in a foster home where his routine could be observed. If it was determined that he was able to urinate and defecate normally, as everyone hoped, Sellmeyer felt the small dog would be an excellent candidate for surgery.
After a short stay in foster care, Petey’s foster mom reported back that he was doing well and was able to control his own elimination needs—as an indoor dog would be expected to do. It was at that point that Friends of Oakland Animal Services—the foundation arm of OAS—agreed to pay the cost of the discounted surgery at VSA. And Dr. Sellmeyer did a wonderful job; Petey is nearly completely healed now and, hopefully, will be up for adoption in about a week!
“Petey will continue to need some care to help him stay clean,” Cline points out. “He can’t control his urine stream like a normal boy and sometimes gets urine on his legs. But he will make a wonderful addition to any home.”
Relating Petey’s story of success in a few paragraphs doesn’t seem adequate to the amount of compassion and teamwork it has taken to get him to this point—the thought, the caring, the effort, the know-how. But what it does express well—and certainly Petey would relate this, too—is something about the strength that comes from the convergence of compassionate, like-minded people. It can be an almost unstoppable force . . . and Petey is the better for it.
Compassion and Teamwork: An Unbeatable Combination
Petey, if he could talk, would tell you about the strength of compassion. That and teamwork can carry you a long way toward remedying a difficult situation. And Petey, to say the least, has certainly found himself in a difficult situation–one that, thanks to both compassion and teamwork, may yet land the small dog in a much better place than wherever he has been.
This Chihuahua terrier mix was recently abandoned at Oakland Animal Services (OAS). OAS staff didn’t need to spend much time with the newly arrived but spunky tri-color boy to know something was wrong. His tail, instead of being centered over his hindquarters, was all the way to one side. And a quick look at his underside further revealed that his penis wasn’t normal either, and it appeared as if he were urinating out of a hole in his back.
The veterinarians at OAS determined that “Petey was sweet, definitely socialized, and loved at one point. He looked like a healthy guy until we examined his belly and below his tail,” Martha Cline, animal care coordinator, related. “But Petey had not developed normally as a fetus and was born with a congenital defect called perianal hypospadias. His urinary and reproductive systems didn’t fully form. His tail deviated to the left, his anus wasn’t quite normal, and where his penis and prepuce should be, there were only remnants.”
Furthermore, doctors discovered, Petey’s urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body, ended just below the anus, which was more in keeping with what one might expect to see on a female. The urethra, the vets and vet technicians noted, should have continued down and around the dog’s pelvis, inside the penis and prepuce, facing forward between his legs. But for Petey it didn’t.
OAS medical personnel referred Petey to Dr. Tim Sellmeyer at VSA in Dublin. From his review, Sellmeyer recommended that Petey be placed in a foster home where his routine could be observed. If it was determined that he was able to urinate and defecate normally, as everyone hoped, Sellmeyer felt the small dog would be an excellent candidate for surgery.
After a short stay in foster care, Petey’s foster mom reported back that he was doing well and was able to control his own elimination needs—as an indoor dog would be expected to do. It was at that point that Friends of Oakland Animal Services—the foundation arm of OAS—agreed to pay the cost of the discounted surgery at VSA. And Dr. Sellmeyer did a wonderful job; Petey is nearly completely healed now and, hopefully, will be up for adoption in about a week!
“Petey will continue to need some care to help him stay clean,” Cline points out. “He can’t control his urine stream like a normal boy and sometimes gets urine on his legs. But he will make a wonderful addition to any home.”
Relating Petey’s story of success in a few paragraphs doesn’t seem adequate to the amount of compassion and teamwork it has taken to get him to this point—the thought, the caring, the effort, the know-how. But what it does express well—and certainly Petey would relate this, too—is something about the strength that comes from the convergence of compassionate, like-minded people. It can be an almost unstoppable force . . . and Petey is the better for it.
Kitten adopt-a-thon and FREE spayed/neutered adult cats!
Free “Wise Whiskers” Cat Adoptions! Sat. Aug. 7
Come meet our wonderful older kitties in the “Wise Whiskers Lounge” on Saturday, August 7, from noon to 5. Every adoption of a cat 8 years or older comes with a free gift package courtesy of Pet Food Express and two years of discounted vet services from Cheshire Cat! Your adoption also includes spay/neuter surgery, microchip, and vaccinations—FREE! Indoor cats often live into their teens or even their 20s! They have lots of love left to give!
Oakland’s Only Wildlife Rehab Center
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