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Meet Danielle. She’s the newest resident in a foster home specializing in downed weenies. (shown here with her foster mom’s daughter, using a borrowed cart)

You may remember Zoe, who was a paralyzed weenie dog featured in another column several months ago. Danielle is in the same foster home, along with a third paralyzed dachshund. Their foster mom refers to them as downed weenies. I admit it – the name makes me think of erectile dysfunction commercials.

But Danielle and her foster siblings are no laughing matter. Each of them came into foster care after they arrived at the shelter already paralyzed. In Danielle’s case, she was brought to the Montgomery County Animal Shelter by her owners, who asked that the shelter euthanize her.

Why?

Well, she lived in the backyard with several large dogs, and the big dogs kept hurting her, and she couldn’t defend herself well. But this little girl is so sweet and happy that the shelter volunteers asked the family to allow them to try to help her. She’s only five years old, and even with limited mobility can have a very happy life in the right home.

The family signed her over to MCAS and walked away. All we know about her is that her condition was the result of an old injury. If her people has taken proper care of her at the time of her injury, the veterinarians say she might well have made a full recovery.

Unfortunately, they did not.

The result is that her hips and back legs do not have full range of motion. She can move her back legs, but the spinal damage has left them curled forward under her body in a sort of club footed position. Her hips are pulled down and forward as well, making it almost impossible for her back to flatten into a normal position.

Danielle’s amazing foster mom is doing physical therapy to help this little girl stretch her damaged joints and regain some flexibility and range of motion. The more flexible her body is, the easier it will be for her to use a cart and the more comfortable she will be.

I’m told that Danielle’s calm, sweet personality could easily lend itself to being a therapy dog. She is devoted to people and wants nothing more than to be close to a person who will pet her.

If you follow my blog, then you know that I have a soft spot for the special needs dogs. So many people reject them for their differences, but most special needs dogs can live great lives, if they find families who are willing to care for them properly. This particular foster mom is a special miracle for these little dogs, because in most shelters, paralyzed dogs don’t make it out alive. Danielle and her buddies are still breathing because someone was willing to step up for them.

But Danielle still needs a forever home. And her foster mom could use some help with basic supplies like food, dog diapers. Donations for her vet care and the purchase of a cart (canine wheelchair) are also needed. If you might be interested in helping Danielle and her friends, send me an email at me@shannonlhill.com for more information.

Meanwhile, let me leave you with one more request. Don’t discount the special needs dogs because they “might be more work” or “might not live as long” or out of fear that people will look at you funny in the park.  Special needs dogs offer such huge rewards to the people who see past their disabilities to who they really are.

Just ask Danielle’s foster mom.

(Zoe, Marilyn, Danielle – the Three Downed Weenies)

As the privatization of the Montgomery County Animal Shelter approaches, I find myself answering a lot of questions from readers.

Here are some of the questions:

• How does privatization benefit the animals? What can the management company do that the county can’t?
• Isn’t it just re-allocating the same money to a different management group?
• Why doesn’t the shelter get more money from the county? (OR: Doesn’t the shelter already get lots of money from the county?)
• If we want to donate directly to the shelter, what is the best way to do that?
• What kind of donations are needed?
• What will cash donations be used for?

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to use my lengthy answers to those emails to form a single cohesive answer to the most common questions I’ve been getting. I don’t have the answers to every question, and in some cases, the county and Care Corporation are still working on the language of the actual final contract. But I’m happy to tell you what I know.

Thank you for asking!  Here goes…

Right now, the shelter is in a transitional phase between being a county entity and a private one. I don’t know every detail of the process, but as I understand it, at the moment, the county directly funds the shelter. They impose restrictions on the budget that designate what almost every dollar can be spent on (salaries, facilities, etc.). The shelter is left with roughly $66,000 a year in discretionary funds. They have to use that to feed and treat over 20,000 animals, as well as to pay for facilities repairs, cleaning supplies, and any incidentals or unexpected expenses. Given our tax base, we are grossly underfunded. I’m told that on the average, county shelters get about $8.50 per capita; we get about $2.77.

What will happen is this. The shelter will transition to a private management company (Care Corporation). The county is basically hiring them to run the shelter, so that instead of the county paying all expenses individually, they will pay Care Corp. an annual amount, which Care Corp. will administer. This gives the shelter much more flexibility in terms of personnel and use of the money, which we believe will benefit the animals majorly.

One area where we will get a lot of benefit is in personnel. Under county management, we can’t have part time employees. We can’t choose what insurance plans suit the shelter’s needs. We are locked into civil service, which means that is it hard to hire and hard to fire.  Under private management, we can hire part timers, we can shop the insurance, and we can more easily hold employees accountable. We can also offer performance bonuses for exceptional work, which will encourage better service to the public (more adoptions as a result) and care for the animals.

Another major area where privatization helps is in applying for grants. Right now, when we apply for a grant, we have to list our annual budget as the budget for the entirety of Montgomery County’s government, even though we can only access a tiny piece of it. By privatizing, we can list our actual budget when we apply for grants. This will make us eligible for many financial opportunities we’ve never had.

To the best of my knowledge (I am not completely familiar with the terms of the contract with the county, as it is still in its final revisions), Care Corp will get paid the same budget we had before. Only now we can allocate it to suit our needs, rather than being locked in to pre-determined stuff that may or may not be right for the shelter. It also frees us from a lot of bureaucratic red tape that was costing time, money, and lives. For example, right now, if we let someone pay for an adoption with a credit card, it goes to a holding account, then to the county, then eventually to the shelter. This drastically extends how long the shelter has to wait to get access to its own money. We can do a lot of streamlining of processes like these that will make the shelter more responsive to the needs of the community and better able to serve the needs of the animals.

DONATIONS: Your two best options for making sure the money directly benefits the shelter are these:

• Donate stuff. Food, blankets, beds, towels, etc. We always, always need those. (Please, make it decent quality food. Avoid Old Roy and other low grade brands. Shelter dogs cannot handle the added stress on their bodies of trying to digest food loaded with filler and red dye.) Cash donations, per the contract, will have to go through the nonprofit (see below).
• Donate to the Montgomery County Animal Society. We are the only nonprofit directly and officially affiliated with the privatized shelter. Our mandate is to provide life-enhancing care to the animals, which means we will pay for veterinary needs and other projects to make the animals happier, healthier, and more comfortable.

(Side note: I do not wish to diminish the work of the many good non-profit agencies that have helped the shelter over years. However, the existence of this new nonprofit, the Montgomery County Animal Society, is a contractual necessity for the privatization process, as Care Corp. needs a nonprofit arm to accept charitable donations and administer the distribution of those funds for the direct benefit of the animals in this and only this shelter.)

The Society will very shortly be establishing paypal accounts, bank accounts, etc., for the purpose of managing donated funds. If you would like to donate, please contact me at me@shannonlhill.com for details.

I hope this helps answer some of the questions…feel free to email me if you have more! I’ll answer what I can.

Gracie is a true survivor. After wildfires that swept through Montgomery and Grimes Counties last year, Gracie wandered up to a home near Navasota. She was bone thin, terrified of most people, and wearing a collar that was a size too small.

The nice people who found her took her to the vet, who told them that Gracie has almost certainly been displaced by the fires. There were burns on her feet, legs, and body, and she had obviously walked a long way.

Gracie’s next stop was a foster home. (Her foster mom and I both work with the man who found her.) Her foster mom has put considerable time into socializing her and teaching her manners. She has been taught to ring a bell by the door when she wants to go outside, and she has learned how to play with other dogs, something she apparently had not known in her previous life. She is interested in her foster mom’s cat, but not excessively so. They co-exist quite peacefully.

The vet who originally saw Gracie when she was first rescued recognized the kennel name on the tight collar she wore. He identified it as a “bad” kennel that had been under longterm investigation for animal neglect or cruelty. Per the vet, local rumor had it that the kennel had simply turned all their dogs loose and abandoned them when it became necessary to evacuate the fire zone. Multiple efforts were made to contact people from that kennel, but to no avail.

After doing some research, we believe that Gracie is a Plott Hound. Check out this Google image of a Plott, and then take another look at Gracie’s picture.

Gracie is still on the timid side with new people. She is incredibly sweet natured, and really wants a home in which someone will treat her kindly, love her, and spend time with her. She can go to a home with other dogs or cats, and would do fine with older children who would understand that she needs time to become comfortable in a new situation.

Want to give this sweet girl a forever home? Email me@shannonlhill.com, and I will connect you with her foster mom.

This New Year’s Eve, do yourself and your pets a favor. Make sure that every pet is indoors and safe. Most pets hate fireworks, and if your neighborhood is like mine, it will sound like Beirut in the 80′s for several hours on New Year’s Eve.

Something most pet people don’t seem to know is that January 1^st and July 5^th are the two biggest days of the year for the reporting of lost pets. Think a minute – what do those two days have in common? You guessed it. Both follow a night of crazy people lighting things on fire to watch them go boom.

Pets don’t like it when things go boom. Calm, normally well-behaved pets can go completely berzerk. They may dig out of the yard or climb over the fence. They may hurt themselves trying to get out of a crate. They may become sick from stress, with results that are bad for both your pet and your carpet. I’ve even heard of panicked pets tearing up furniture or other household items.

With some forethought and planning, these disasters can be avoided.

A few years ago, I was on my way to town one rainy morning in early January when I was forced to stop traffic to get to a terrified poodle shivering in the middle of the road. I ended up boarding the poor little guy at my vet’s office for a week while we searched for his owners. I had just about given up the search and resigned myself to bringing home another senior dog when one of my students happened to mention that a family in her neighborhood was missing a poodle.

Thank God. It was the right family. This little old guy has been in the yard, with their other dog, when the fireworks started. The dogs were often left overnight in the yard when their people travelled, with access to shelter, beds, and food in the garage. It had always been fine before. But they had never been gone on a fireworks night. Apparently he freaked and clawed his way through the fence. When I found him, he had been out for two days, was 8 to 10 miles from home, and would have had to come through some very dangerous territory to get there.

He was lucky. He got to go home.

So how do you protect your pet?

• Don’t leave your pet alone if you don’t have to, especially if it’s his first exposure to fireworks.
• Don’t leave your pet outside.
• Don’t crate your pet unless you know how he will react or can be there to supervise – some dogs will try to claw or chew out of the crate and can do themselves serious damage in the process.
• Do put your pet in the quietest part of the house – even if it’s a walk-in closet. Use the walls and doors to muffle the sounds of explosions.
• Do talk to your vet about sedation, if you know your pet panics when the noise starts. Benadryl (diphenhydramine hydrochloride) is a common option. Check with your vet before you use it to confirm a dose, but the standard dose is 1 mg per pound of bodyweight.
• Do use the television or the radio to provide cover noise for the fireworks.
• Do offer treats to help keep your pet calm and focused on food instead of sound.

The bottom line is that your pet depends on you to keep him safe. Please, don’t let him down. Especially not on New Year’s Eve, when it’s cold outside and there are fireworks all around.

This evening was a very important one in the world of animal welfare in Montgomery County, Texas. It marked the first board meeting of the newly formed Montgomery County Animal Society.

You may recall the recent debates over privatizing the shelter. The county commissioners made the decision to privatize, and granted the contract to Care Corporation. As a corporation, the new management company will also need to have a nonprofit (a 501c3) affiliated with the shelter.

That’s us.

It is my privilege to have been elected President of the brand new board of directors. Other members currently include Diane Mayne (Secretary), Danice Berger (Treasurer), Minda Harris, and Laura McConnell.

One of our first tasks was to define our function, which will be to raise money for ways to improve the chances and comfort of the animals passing through the shelter. Care Corporation will be responsible for meeting the regular needs of the animals – food, water, shelter, and ordinary medical needs. Montgomery County Animal Society will focus on a few major areas:

• Providing funds for major veterinary needs like emergency surgery for injured animals.
• Working on ways to increase adoption rates, through special events, publicity, and providing funds/treatments that will make the animals more adoptable.
• Working on making the shelter more comfortable for the animals, which will help keep them happier and healthier, and thus more adoptable.

This represents a major change in the institutional structure of the animal welfare system for Montgomery County. I absolutely believe that Care Corporation will implement significant improvements in the shelter itself. They’ll improve the working conditions for the employees, make the shelter hours more accessible to the community, and be able to hold the staff more directly accountable for maintaining the facility and the animals in the best shape possible.

We (the Montgomery County Animal Society) will come in when there are extraordinary needs. When that animal who was hit by a car comes in, we will be able to provide funds for the necessary surgery. When an animal with acute mange arrives, we can authorize the funds for treatment. When the shelter needs equipment or beds or toys that are not in the regular budget, the Montgomery County Animal Society will hopefully be able to provide those items.

Once 2012 arrives, I ask that you would donate money to help the Montgomery County Animal Society get off the ground. That’s the thing about a nonprofit organization – we rely on the generosity of the public to help us meet our goals. The more donations we receive, the more animals we can send to the vet for life-saving procedures, and the better we can help make life for the thousands of animals who will come through the shelter doors in 2012.

I know this is a huge change. I believe it’s going to be a great one, and I’m thrilled to part of it. But we can’t do it without you.

The Montgomery County Animal Society can legally begin to accept contributions after January 1, 2012. Want to donate? Email me at me@shannonlhill.com for information.

As a veteran of the animal welfare world, I often find myself trying to explain AW to people on the “civilian” side of the equation.

Communication is one of the biggest issues “civilians” complain about. And from their perspective, I can’t blame them. So I’ll attempt to shed a little light on the subject, and maybe make a couple of suggestions.

The scenario usually goes like this (and I have been on both sides of this one)…

“There’s this stray dog…I could catch him, and bring him to the rescue group. I’ll even donate the cost of his care. But the rescue won’t call me back!”

I admit it. It’s frustrating. It’s bad business not to return phone calls from potential adopters or longtime donors. From the consumer viewpoint, trying unsuccessfully to reach someone at a particular group makes the organization looks unprofessional, negligent, hard to deal with…you get the idea. And frankly, not responding in a timely fashion or at all to communication from potential adopters or donors will cost the organization money, because eventually potential adopters and donors will get frustrated and take their money to more responsive groups.

But let me try to explain it from the insider perspective.

Most rescues are all volunteer organizations. Most volunteers have full time jobs, personal pets, and kids, in addition to their rescue responsibilities. The spaces between those obligations are filled with rushing to and from shelters and vets, washing dogs, walking dogs, medicating dogs, cleaning up after dogs, doing the laundry generated by the dogs, buying dog food, checking out potential adopters’ references, arranging off-site adoption events, and too many other things to list.

Even those organizations with paid staff are understaffed. Their people run full speed from dawn till dark and then some. Animal care always, always comes before people. And if we’re going to be completely honest about it, some of the people who are the best with the animals are …not so good with people.

Suggestions…

For the civilians: Don’t call. Email. Rescue people often can’t get to the phone easily during normal human operating hours. We tend to answer emails in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. You don’t WANT us to call then. If it’s an emergency, be persistent. Mark the email urgent. Keep trying. And try to understand that there are always more dogs than spaces in rescue groups. If they can’t take in the stray you found, it’s not a personal rejection. It simply means that your stray either does not fit their intake parameters, or that they have no room at the inn.

For the rescuers: I know how easy it is to bog down in the details of caring for the animals. But those people whose calls and emails you didn’t return might have been the perfect adopter or the biggest donor you ever had. You HAVE to communicate to keep your adoptions up and the donations coming in. If the main players in the organization don’t like dealing with two-legged animals, designate one of your more social volunteers to field calls and emails. Like any charitable endeavor, running a successful rescue program requires a certain amount of interaction with the public. And a large part of that interaction will be educating people about things we assume they should already know.

Rescues need to remember that good communication from their organization benefits the animals, and the general public simply must understand that rescue is not a 9 to 5 office job with long lunches and paid holidays.

And those of us in rescue need to step up to bridge that communication gap…for the good of the animals.

On December 10^th, a truck was stolen in Houston, near I-10 and Bunker Hill.

That’s not particularly unusual. And they found the truck shortly thereafter near 225 and Allen Genoa, although I don’t know in what condition. What they did not find was the Golden Retriever who was in the truck when it was stolen.

Her name is Maggie. She is an eight year old girl, adopted from Golden Retriever Rescue of Houston. She is, of course, spayed and microchipped, and she was wearing identification when she was taken with the truck.

If you see her or hear anything about her, please contact GRRH at grrhrescue@hotmail.com.

Everywhere I have gone lately, I have seen dogs left in vehicles. And far too many of those dogs are in vehicles with open windows (and therefore functionally unlocked). Since most of them are friendly, tail-wagging, and barking hopefully at anyone walking by, they are pretty much an animated welcome mat for car thieves.

We all know that you can’t leave pets (or, for that matter, small children) in cars during hot weather. Vehicles heat up an alarming 19 degress in just ten minutes, and 34 degrees in 30 minutes. And that’s in ambient temperatures of about 80 degrees. Think what must happen in a hot Texas summer. And the studies show that cracking the window does little except make the vehicle more accessible to thieves.

However, in cooler weather, people stop worrying about weather and don’t think twice about leaving pets in cars. Please don’t do that.

Here are just a few things that can go terribly wrong…

• Most people’s vehicles have all kinds of detritus under the seats. An unrestrained pet may go exploring and ingest who knows what. And you may never know they did until they get sick.
• There have been cases of unrestrained pets knocking a parked car into gear. Try explaining that one to your insurance company. Or to your spouse!
• If you leave the window cracked, your pet might inadvertently hang himself by snagging a collar or wedging his head into too small a space and getting stuck. Or if you leave a slightly larger gap, you might have an escape on your hands.
• And then of course, there is the possibility that your vehicle might be broken into. They may just steal the pet (especially if the animal is an obvious purebred like Maggie) or they may take the vehicle with the pet in it. And if your pet attempts to defend the vehicle, they may hurt him.

Please, keep your pets safe. Leaving them alone in a vehicle, even for just a few minutes, puts them in danger.

And do me a favor. Keep a sharp eye out for Maggie, especially if you live in that part of Houston. She’s already been rescued once. Let’s bring her home one more time.

Those of us who live and breathe animal welfare spend a lot of time deeply appalled and confused by the things humans do to animals.

People regularly throw pets away at the shelter because they get “too expensive.” I regularly hear comments about how no one else would take the time, energy, and money I do to care for Bumble the Special Child. Someone very close to me was recently told by a man that he didn’t want to date her any more because she has dogs and will always want to spend time, money, and energy on them.

And these are the milder examples.

Those of us in the animal welfare world fight a constant battle against ignorance, neglect, stupidity, and outright cruelty. We get frustrated and worn down, but we never quit, because we can’t.

Below is an open letter written by fellow Pekingese aficionado and rescuer Carl Grossman. With his permission, I’m going to share it here. He very eloquently says what most of us have wanted to tell all those people who just don’t get it.

“Dear Idiot at the vet’s office yesterday,

You were aghast that we have 12 dogs. That we have taken in strays and worked with a rescue organization. You said you could not imagine having enough time and love and,oh, all that work. That having one old dog was nearly too much for you and that if the bill was too much this time you would put that dog to sleep. I corrected you at that point. It is not “to sleep”. It is putting the dog down. Euthanasia. Dead. No longer alive.

At that point I might have been a bit animated. The office lady was looking at us. I then told you about Roadie. The boxer we found in the street. Scared, starving and sick. Our first rescue. How we did not have enough money to have his heart evaluated and the mange he was covered in treated. How we turned to friends who donated to help. How he now lives on a farm in Texas.

I told you about Elvis Pupsley. My dog. My best friend. Who died despite the $2500 we spent to find out what was wrong with him only to find out that we could not have done anything to stop the embolism. How I miss him. Every day. I know you really thought I lost it when I teared up. I tried to explain to you how when people have a pet they have an obligation to care properly for that animal. To love that animal.

They brought Mugsy out to me. You saw this old dog, older than yours, who has a skin issue. You asked me how old he was. I said he was about 13 or so. We really did not know because he was a rescue. You were surprised that we did not “buy”him because he is obviously a purebred. He was, at one time, a perfect Pekingese looks wise. Now he is old. We just keep him comfortable and fed. He likes that.

I moved to the counter to pay my bill. I heard your “Oh my goodness” when the office lady said “That will be $214, Mr. Grossman”. You asked me “How can you afford that with 12 dogs?”I answered you…

“How could I not?”

You went into the exam room and I started to leave. Thinking it over, I turned and came to your exam room and knocked. I told you that if the expense of your dog exceeded what you could honestly afford, that the vet had my name and number at the front desk and I would see what I could do to help. I also offered to adopt your dog on the spot if you wished to avoid the expense (yes, I love weiner dogs and Chub is the twin of our Limo) and trouble any further. I was polite and you thanked me. As I left the room your wife spoke. For the first time. She told you to shut up, the dog was hers too and that he would be getting whatever he needed. You were not putting him down. She loved him even if you didn’t. The last words I heard her say were “I can’t believe I married a selfish idiot.”

Me either, lady. Me either.

Sincerely,

Carl”

One of the most important factors in the success of shelters and rescue groups is the foster program. Fosters get the dogs out of shelters and into homes where they can develop social skills, get better food and living conditions, be treated for any veterinary issues, and generally learn how dogs should live in a home where people love them.

Fosters are awesome. They spend their own time, money, and emotional energy to care for and rehabilitate animals that they then have to give up. The reward is huge, but it often comes at great emotional cost.

When you decide to become a pet foster parent, you take on certain very specific responsibilities.

First, the obvious responsibilities include taking excellent care of the animal, keeping him safe, teaching him acceptable behavior (and hopefully house training), monitoring interaction between foster pets and permanent pets, and helping to find the right adoptive home for him.

Depending on the structure of your foster program, you may be called on to help promote adoptions, screen adopters, administer medication, do physical therapy, deal with behavioral issues…the possibilities are endless. But regardless of the nature of the program, you will eventually have to let your baby go to a forever home. That’s what it’s all about.

Let’s talk about some of the less understood rules of fostering. These are the ones that are often not thoroughly addressed in orientation materials, and fosters may not be clear on their legal obligations under the foster contract.

For the program to work, everyone has to follow the rules.

• Rule 1: The foster does NOT own the animal. The shelter or rescue group is the legal custodian of the animal. The foster is authorized to care for and house the animal by the custodial organization.
• Rule 2: The custodial organization has the right to make decisions about the placement and veterinary care of the animal. If the organization decides to move the animal to a different foster, they can do that. If they ask that the animal be returned to their facility, they can do that. Failure to surrender an animal to his legal custodian constitutes theft.
• Rule 3: Paperwork matters. Rescues and shelters can be audited. If they can’t account for where every animal is and for the money spent on that animal, there can be penalties. They can lose funding, they can jeopardize their nonprofit tax status, they can lose pull privileges. Always keep up with your paperwork.
• Rule 4: Every organization gives its fosters authorization to make certain decisions about the animals in his or her care. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what you, as the foster parent, can and cannot do. This is one case in which it is NOT better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Being a foster parent is something you do because you are called to help animals. The more carefully you follow the rules of your organization, the more animals you can help. Flouting the rules can hurt the organization, and it can even result in the organization removing animals from your care and taking you off their list of approved fosters.

And that helps no one.

I don’t mean to make fostering sound rigid and rule-bound. It really isn’t. But I have recently observed problems in several organizations I’m acquainted with because fosters refused to follow the rules. Please understsand that the rules are there to protect the animals and the organization. Follow them, so that you can continue to help more animals.

Isn’t that why we volunteer in the first place?

I got home a couple of hours ago after taking Bumble the Special Child for his weekly laser therapy session, fed the animals, and then went outside with Oliver and Elizabeth for their evening walk. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement under the neighbor’s truck. Since skunks, possums, and other not-dog-friendly animals are not uncommon around here, I paused to take a look.

And here she came. A tiny, rumpled dustbunny of a kitten.  She made a beeline for me, meowing pitifully in her very small voice.

Oliver and Elizabeth were beside themselves. A kitty! And a little one at that! As far as they were concerned, she was an animated squeaky toy.

She was not impressed with them. So she kept her distance, but followed us down the street, talking up a storm. So I took the dogs in the house (they were not pleased) and went back outside. Itty bitty little girl ran straight to me. When I picked her up, she was shivering from cold, and under her Raggedy Ann fur, she was painfully thin. She crawled inside my jacket and settled herself on my shoulder where she could purr in my ear.

You may not know that I have “rescue radar.” That is the invisible force that draws stray animals in need of rescue directly to my door. It’s brought me a half-starved Golden Retriever and a mange-ridden Anatolian Shepherd puppy (both of whom now live in luxury with my parents), a feral cat who appears at my door whenever he’s injured and needs help, and countless homeless animals over the years. 

This time it brought me a tiny but very assertive and very affectionate kitten.

The thing is, I already have three dogs, one of whom is supremely special needs. I also have Minerva Louise ( a former feral cat who is now a pudgy middle-aged floozy) and the Hitchhiker, a people-friendly, animal-hostile tomcat who is trying to decide whether to live here or just vacation with us. (If he hangs around much longer, his attitude will be surgically adjusted in short order.)

The last thing I can afford to do is adopt another animal. But there was categorically no way that I could leave a shivering, hungry, lonely kitten outside all alone in the night, especially not after realizing that she would be easy prey for an owl or hawk. My Rescue Radar drew her to pick me instead of one of the other people out walking their dogs. (I have to admit that sometimes I wish the Rescue Radar was a little less accurate…)

The vet clinic will keep her until I can either find her a home or get her into a rescue.

I called my cousin, another victim of Rescue Radar Syndrome, and asked her to keep the kitty overnight and take her to the vet clinic in the morning. She is now tucked in for the night in my cousin’s house, after a good dinner and lots of attention.

Much purring. And one tiny little smack to the nose of my cousin’s inquisitive dachshund.