St. Thomas Dog Blog

The sources below on “no-kill” shelters were provided by Chris as a comment on my post Redemption about the work of Nathan Winograd in establishing truly humane animal shelters.   I thought this annotated list of links on what’s happening in Canada and the US merited being an actual post.  Chris is a member of the City of St. Thomas’ animal control advisory committee and is active in cat rescue.  Thanks Chris.

“No-Kill News” (www.no-killnews.com), the independent blog that tracks places that have reached a 90% or better live release rate for at least a year, has changed its name to “No-Kill Communities.” It kept the same website, but a few months ago it became defunct.  The new blog, by the same author, is called “Out The Front Door” http://www.outthefrontdoor.com - “Listing 129 (and counting) communities that report saving 90% or more of shelter animals.  More to come!”

This is important documentation because there are still people and groups out there saying successful no-kill shelter operation is not possible.

Much of the info on the original blog was moved to that new site. So far the info on Calgary, Nova Scotia and Lanark County, Ontario has not been moved there. That info may be available in cached form on the old blog.

The information about the Nova Scotia SPCA’s efforts to create a no kill province using Winograd’s No Kill Equation is quite remarkable and inspiring.

If you visit the NS SPCA site they are quite transparent with their information and progress, including some house cleaning (or pruning) they needed to do at a branch that was not on board. They have achieved greater than 90 percent live release rate overall, averaged between cats and dogs, I believe.

Many people in St. Catharines, Ontario want to reform their animal control, currently run by a branch of the Ontario SPCA. The group “No Kill St. Catharines” has a Facebook page with a “Files” section where they post their press releases. They are very informative and include support from the real experts on creating a no kill community – people that have already achieved it. Example:

“4th NKS Press Release: Nova Scotia SPCA Past-President Weighs in on No Kill Policy in St. Catharines”

– ST.CATHARINES, ON (November 11, 2012) – What is “No Kill” and does it really work?

By: Sean Kelly, Past President, Nova Scotia SPCA (NSSPCA)
– https://www.facebook.com/notes/no-kill-st-catharines/4th-nks-press-release-nova-scotia-spca-past-president-weighs-in-on-no-kill-polic/520474337963765

Another example: “5th NKS Press Release: No Kill Community in Texas Speaks Out in Favour of No Kill in St. Catharines”

– by Michael Kitkoski, Director of Rockwall Pets, Rockwall, Texas
– https://www.facebook.com/notes/no-kill-st-catharines/5th-nks-press-release-no-kill-community-in-texas-speaks-out-in-favour-of-no-kill/527439917267207

Relevant to this, Texas appellate lawyer Ryan Clinton helped turn his community of Austin, Texas into one that saves more than 90 percent of animals that go through their municipal shelter.

Ryan has several excellent posts for reform advocates on his blog, “O is for Onward”.

“When to Call B.S. on an “Expert”:
WHAT ANIMAL ADVOCATES, POLICYMAKERS, AND THE PRESS CAN LEARN FROM THE TEXAS SUPREME COURT” – is one of my favourites.
– http://oisforonward.com/2011/08/ipse-dixit-texas-appellate-lawyer/

“… there are some expert opinions that are helpful, meaningful, material, and probative of whatever it is the expert is speaking about, and there are other expert opinions that are merely the “ipse dixit” of a credentialed witness. The former are helpful; the latter are devoid of any merit whatsoever regardless of source. The rub is distinguishing between them, and that’s where the Texas Supreme Court comes in.”

… If certain criteria are not met, then the expert’s opinion “is unreliable and, legally, no evidence” at all. It amounts to nothing of value.”

“… And when you can have a real conversation— based on actual facts— to determine what is best for animals, the animals win.”

Leo was filthy.  His hair was long and matted.  He smelled.  But cold weather and his arthritis made me reluctant to take him to his groomer.  “What about we try bathing him in the tub?” my husband said.

I had only before clipped his feet and around his eyes between salon visits.  We had hosed him off a couple times when needed.  But bathe and shampoo him completely?  Never.

“Worth a try,” I said.  I gave him a preliminary clip first.  I figured it would be easier to wash him without long hair in the way.  So an afternoon of clipping while he lay on his side.  Then I had to get him to turn over.

Next day, bath time.  A length of hose borrowed from some other plumbing in the house to go over the faucet.  Jim in the tub awaiting Leo as I lift him in.  Leo’s feet scrabble wildly but he gets a foothold.  Charlie, the other dog who detests baths, kept very quiet and far away outside the bathroom door.  He hoped we wouldn’t notice him but he wanted to see what was going on.  (His ploy didn’t work:  he got bathed next.)

Leo was very good and stayed still for us.  He slipped a few times.  We realized we should have got a rubber mat for the tub so he could get a better grip.  With his hair shorter, it was easier to shampoo him and to rinse him thoroughly.

Jim lifted him out to me, I wrapped a towel around him then let him go to shake himself.  It was a mild sunny day so he air-dried.  While not ideal for poodle hair, we thought it was best to not torture him with a hair dryer.  I have only a small hand-held dryer, not a powerful one like groomers use.  Leo doesn’t like dryers and it would have taken so long with my dryer that it didn’t seem worth scaring the wits out of him.

After he was completely dry, I brushed and brushed and brushed him.  When he was all fluffy, I clipped again.  I only used blunt-nosed dog scissors.  I don’t have groomer clippers nor do I know how to use them.  Because it’s winter, I didn’t want him clipped really close.  I left the hair on his body about an inch long (more or less depending on my accuracy) and trimmed his legs to about the same length.  I trimmed the base of his tail short and left his pompom long.  I neatened up his ear fringe at the bottoms but otherwise only brushed them.  I left the hair on the top of his head and back of his neck and shoulders long.

When it’s warmer, he will go to his groomer.  Considering that this took me the better part of two days and Leo began running from me when he saw scissors or brush in my hand, I think the money spent on a professional grooming job is well worth it.  Groomers do more than I can do, and do the whole job better.  Poodles need the hair inside their ears plucked to avoid infection and I don’t have the confidence to try that.  But for an occasional clean up job, I think what I call Leo’s “casual sporty clip” looks just fine.  So does he.

Five years ago today at 2:15 pm ET, my beautiful German Shepherd Jack died.  We had his vet euthanize him before his body did it by itself.  It was getting pretty close; I don’t think he would have survived another night.  He had a number of physical ailments; we don’t know exactly what all but I suspect a fast-growing cancer was involved.  He was only 9 3/4 years old.  He had been my best friend, teacher and “baby-dog” for 9 1/2 of those years.

One problem he had in his last year was arthritis in his hips.  He would get up slowly and painfully.  He would shift position a lot, trying to get comfortable.  He began taking Medacam for it.  I don’t know how much good it did because other ailments began developing soon after.  His arthritis became the least of his problems.

My dog before Jack, Jamie, had developed severe arthritis in his legs.  Poor soul got so he could hardly walk at all.  Lying down was almost as painful for him.  At the time, the only thing I could give him for pain relief was a Bufferin once a day.  He could have had cortisone shots but I didn’t want to due to the bad side effects of steroid drugs that I had heard about.  In retrospect, I might as well have tried it.

Leo, one of my present dogs, is arthritic now.  X-rays a year ago showed severe damage to his hip joints and his spine.  So we are getting to know all the pain relief medications that now exist.  There are a lot more than sixteen years ago when poor Jamie needed something so badly.

Leo started on Medacam.  It can work wonders but not for Leo.  So he went to Deramaxx, another anti-inflammatory.  Again, when it works, you can see the change and, again, there wasn’t a visible improvement.  So now he’s getting shots of Cartrophen in addition to the Deramaxx.  It is said to mend cartilage.  His doctor said you should be able to see a difference after a couple of shots.  After three shots – don’t know.  We will ask about the next level of treatment.

Jamie and Jack showed classic signs of arthritis; stiffness when rising, limping after exertion.  Leo’s early symptoms were quite different.  He began slipping even when standing.  Because Jack had developed severe problems with his paw pads getting paper-thin, I first checked Leo’s feet.  They looked fine.  We googled it:  can be due to arthritis.  His vet explained:  even slight movement isn’t easy with stiff joints so there can be a loss of balance.  Slipping, if not falling, can be the result.

I read in “Maggie’s Case History” (see Arthritis) that the elderly Golden Retriever could no longer squat to do her business and would do it while continuing to walk.  I hadn’t thought of that being connected to arthritis in the back legs but it makes sense.  Restlessness, moving from place to place to sleep, can mean arthritic pain.  All these may be less obvious signs of osteoarthritis.

Our present dogs came to help all of us, including the cats, fill the void created by Jack’s death.  They have done that and more, but our happy, very silly boy is never forgotten.

A lot of dogs in Newtown, Connecticut will be working overtime in the solace department.  There are children and adults who will need the love of their pets to help them cope after losing a sibling, a son or daughter, a mother or wife.

The pets will need comfort themselves.  They too have lost a beloved member of their family.  Roxie, a Black Labrador, is one.  Victoria Soto, one of the teachers killed in Friday’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, was her person.  Ms Soto died protecting the children in her classroom.

Trying to learn about Newtown, I went to the municipal website.  In the menu under the “residents” tab, I saw they have been raising money for a dog park called Park & Bark that is scheduled to open in late 2013.  It was sad, yet uplifting, to look at the people looking so proud of their fundraising efforts and happy about building a place to play with their dogs.

If you wish to let the people of Newtown know in a practical way that you are thinking of them, consider donating to their dog park.  There’s a donate button on the page.  While it’s not directly related to the tragedy they are enduring, the town and people and dogs will go on.  I hope that Park & Bark will open on schedule as a symbol that Newtown has survived this unspeakable loss.

There’s also a donate button on the home page for the United Way Sandy Hook Support Fund.  And there are funds set up for individual families – a search for any of the names should find them easily.

Don’t give a dog as a Christmas present.  At least not as a spur of the moment gift.  But if you are planning to get a dog anyway, why not?  If you are aware that your “present” is alive and, with luck, will live many years, you will give an enormous gift to the dog as well.  A home – permanent and loving.

On December 15^th St. Thomas Animal Services and local cat and dog rescue groups will host an adoption day at the City Animal Shelter,100 Burwell Road, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  The City now gives you a $75 spay/neuter rebate when you adopt an eligible pet.  Wherever you live, if you can give a dog a home, please do.

Adopting from a rescue group or pound rather than a pet store or off Kijiji or Craig’s List means you are also not supporting puppy mills or backyard breeders. Support “No-Kill” (but adopt from any kind of shelter).  Don’t let more dogs be killed just because they couldn’t get adopted in 3 or 7 days.

If you can’t have a dog, give to an animal shelter or rescue group.  Money is always welcome, or ask what is needed.  They always have a wish list of goods they need most.

If you’d like a connection with a specific dog but can’t have one, sponsor a shelter dog.  You give a monthly donation in the name of that dog and you’re welcome to spend time with “your” dog.  If your shelter doesn’t have such a programme, you can do it unofficially.  Shelters generally always welcome volunteers who will play with dogs, walk them and clean kennels.  That’s a way you can spend time with your special dog and help all of them.

If you could have a dog but can’t commit for the long term, consider fostering. You’ll have to give him or her up when a permanent home is found, but you’ll have the fun of canine companionship until then.  It’s work too.  You have to properly socialize the dog, but you’ll learn as much as the dog does.  If you’re a post-secondary student in the St. Thomas/London area and wish you could have a Puppy (or Kitty) Room at home, talk to ABCR.  They’re advertising for students to foster dogs and cats.

If you like driving, volunteer with a group such as Open Arms Pound Rescue.  They need people to drive animals to new homes or to shelters where there’s a better chance of finding homes.  If you’re a pilot and love excuses to go flying, check out Pilots N Paws (US or Canada) or talk to your buddies about setting up something similar in conjunction with a rescue group or shelter.

Everything above also applies to cats, horses and other domestic animals.  There are rescue groups for all of them across the country.  Give an animal somewhere a very happy holiday season.  It will make you happy too.

Get your gifts wrapped at Tabby’s Treasures, 335 Talbot St., St. Thomas. Tabby herself, at left, will not be doing the wrapping!  Buy beautiful gifts there too – tax free!  Proceeds to Animal Aide, right next door.

Preparing a will isn’t what most people consider a fun thing to do.  And even for those who do, it still takes a lot of time and thought to get it right.  You don’t know when your will is going to take effect or what the circumstances around it will be so you have to balance specificity and generality to ensure that it can be satisfactorily fulfilled.

If you have pets you need to think about them.  Just leaving it to vague hope, or even a promise, that a family member or friend will look after Fluffy isn’t good enough.  The hope that everyone loves Fluffy as much as you do may be only in your own head.  And a promise might be meant sincerely when it’s given but you want to get it in writing, as it were.  Circumstances change and, after you’re dead, there’s nothing you can do if promises aren’t kept.  So think about it very carefully and talk to a lawyer about it.

When I was making my will, I initially decided on an amount of money aside for the care of each animal based on health, age, size etc.  The animals would bring their legacies to their new carer.  My lawyer said no right off the bat.  “Next day, they say ‘cat got hit, thanks for the money’.”  So we came up with a plan where money would be held by the executor in trust for the pets and doled out accordingly.  More cumbersome, but better assurance that the animals will be cared for and their new people properly recompensed.

But you still say, my kids love Skippy.  Volunteering at a St. Thomas shelter, I answered the phone and a guy said “My dad’s gone in a home and I’ve got his dog – either you people take it or I have it put down.”   And yes, I asked enough questions to learn the father had dementia and neither knew nor approved of his son’s actions.  The shelter had no space, but I was new there and hadn’t yet had hundreds of such calls.  I couldn’t let this dog’s blood be on my hands, even if her so-called caretaker could, so I took her home. Maggie was a sweet elderly Miniature Poodle.  She found a home with another couple and their teenage daughter.  All three seemed as smitten with Maggie as she was with them.

Maggie’s person hadn’t died, and already the son was getting rid of her.  This brings up another important point: your power of attorney, generally prepared with your will.  If you are incapacitated mentally or physically, you need someone you trust to act for you.  The person, in essence, becomes you.  If you still have your mental faculties and realize that person is not acting in your best interests or doing what you wish, you have the right to give your power of attorney to someone else.  If you are mentally incapacitated so that you don’t realize that, there’s very little that can be done.  As well as control over your banking, place of residence, personal care and medical decisions, that person also has control over your possessions and assets, including your pets.  So choose carefully, based on a person’s integrity rather than sentiment.

There’s a book that can help with planning for your pets’ life after you are gone.  Co-authored by Toronto lawyer Barry Seltzer, Fat Cats & Lucky Dogs can help you plan for your pets.  There’s also an article here about the topic.

The top photo is of my Dad, my dog and my cat.  All are now loved in my memory.  The other photo is Maggie.

Bureaucratic comedy just writes itself.  Below are the more interesting new rules for the 2012 Santa Claus parade in St. Thomas (see registration).

The no candy rule:  is it for the sake of kids’ teeth or because a lot of the litter left on the streets after the parade is candy wrappers?  If the former, shouldn’t that be between the children, their parents and their dentists?  If the latter, with the volume of garbage left for the sweepers, the candy wrappers really don’t make much difference.

The diapered animal rule:  oh, I’d pay to see that!  Except that, in reality, it’s just so silly and unnecessary.  My dogs and I have been in the parade with the STDOA float several years.  We’ve actually walked the parade length then back again to the beginning just because the dogs were high on the crowds.  If there had been horse or dog droppings, Leo (a connoisseur of poop) would have found them.  In fact, he finds more on a walk down Talbot Street on an ordinary day than he ever has at the Santa Claus parade – and there are fewer dogs and, by and large, no horses on an ordinary day.

All the dog walkers have plenty of poop bags and the horse people seem to take care of that end of their business as well.

Please, Optimists, be optimistic about this!  Close your eyes, and picture a main street as free of dung this year as it has been every year.  Please don’t make Trigger wear a diaper, and give the kids some candy!

Next Saturday, Oct. 13^th, there is going to be a huge indoor garage sale, bbq and bake sale to raise money for two local animal rescues.   It will be in a warehouse at 94 Woodworth Avenue in St. Thomas from 8 am to 4 pm.  There is a lot of good stuff – collectibles, antique china, furniture, photography gear, computer equipment and household items.

The STDOA is sponsoring it, with proceeds going to cats and horses.  STDOA, in keeping with its mandate to work on behalf of all animals, has branched out in the past year.  We still are involved with the dog park and dogs, but serendipity has led us into projects for cats and horses too.  In part, it was due to our Caring Pet Cupboard, when we found people who could use all the excess animal food that we had.

Under the subgroup name of Charity Cat, STDOA established a TNR fund for feral cats in our community.  Wild cats are trapped, neutered, given their shots and returned to colonies or tamed and found foster or forever homes.  The wild ones returned to colonies are ear-tipped so that they can be recognized as members of a cat colony  – neutered and cared for.

St. Thomas Horse Rescue, the newest subgroup of STDOA, works with the Fields of Glory Horse Farm in Southwold to care for 16 horses plus a donkey and barn cats.  The horses have physical and/or psychological damage done by their years on the track or by abuse or neglect.  Most are Standardbreds but there are also Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses.  A former track groom, who had grown up in harness racing, started Fields of Glory about 15 years ago under its previous name Equine Rehabilitation and Adoption Farm.

STDOA, since the beginning, has worked with dog and cat rescue organizations in St. Thomas and Elgin County.  Helping with feral cats and horses seemed a logical, and needed, extension.  There are so many animals who need help and, indeed, so many people giving that help who could use a hand.

You can help in many ways.  On Facebook, join the groups for Charity Cat and St. Thomas Horse Rescue.  Vote for STHR in the Aviva Community Fund.  Donate money.  Help catch cats and transport them to and from the vet clinic.  Build cat shelters for the colonies.  Help paint a barn or muck out stalls.  Bring a bag of cat food and play with the barn cats at Fields of Glory – the cats love attention.

And come to the Fall Frolic – have a snack, find something you always wanted and you’ll be helping animals and the people helping them too.  Rain or shine!

Eileen Key’s Dog Gone (Heartsong Presents – Mysteries 2008) is about purebred dogs disappearing from a boarding kennel and their own yards.  Cleaning lady Belle wants to help her friend, the kennel owner, keep her business alive so she enters the world of dogs and dog shows.

It’s a well-intentioned story about dog breeding and showing and dangers to such dogs posed by an unscrupulous black market in purebred dogs.  But I felt important issues about pets and show dogs and dog breeding were muddled in their presentation.  Puppy mill, research labs and dogfighting fodder were mentioned as possible fates for the stolen dogs.  The value of microchipping was stressed, as was the fact that chips are not like a GPS that track the dog.  You have to have the dog in order to read the microchip.

My biggest problem was with the dog owners.  All the dogs were from champion bloodlines.  All were used for breeding and all were beloved family pets.  The expected revenue from puppies of the central dog was the means for financing the college education of the dog owner’s daughter.  Yick, I said to myself, are these people concerned about losing their pet or losing an income source, one that they stress cost a huge cash outlay to acquire?  Visions of backyard breeding to recoup the cost of an overpriced puppy danced through my head.  The people who say “I paid $2000 for that dog, you know”,  “I can sell those puppies on Kijiji for $800 each, you know”.

Further on, we learn that the college girl and the other dog owners enter the dogs in AKC shows and in field trials.  But they all have just one or at most two dogs each and those dogs live as family pets. The amount of money involved in dog shows is made clear by Key, both the outlay required to participate at the top level and the rewards for having a Champion.

Ok, there are people in the hobby or business of dog shows and breeding that do not have large kennels.  But they are pretty few and far between at the top championship levels.  Living and breathing dog shows is what most ‘reputable’ breeders do, and Key’s dog-owning characters don’t seem to do that.  So that’s why I was never quite sure if I was being asked to care about pet owners who enjoyed competing at dog shows or who saw their purebred as a money-making machine.

Belle, our sleuthing heroine, is a self-confessed non-dog person.  I suspect Ms Key is as well.  She thanks kennel owners and vets in her acknowledgements and I think they gave her a good crash course in the world of dog shows and pet care.  The other tip off is that the author blurb does not mention any dog, something that seems de rigueur in doggy books.

There is a strong Christian message throughout the book.  Rereading the publishing information, I saw Barbour Publishing’s mission is to provide “inspirational products offering… biblical encouragement to the masses.”  It fits in because Belle is a Christian and was a pastor’s wife.  I like Belle, and it’s a good light read.

My brother and I conducted an experiment recently on heat build up in a car.  We didn’t plan to, but what happened while he was waiting for me in a parking lot proved instructive.  It was a pleasant summer day, a nice breeze, no humidity and a temperature of 22^o Celsius.

The dogs weren’t with us but, with that temperature, I wouldn’t have worried about leaving them while I went into a store.  Instead, I left my brother in the car. After maybe 20 minutes, when I was just leaving the checkout, my brother came in.  “Too hot to sit in that sun” he said.

He had been in the driver’s seat and the sun was hitting the windshield.  Even with the windows completely down, it got unbearably hot.  “When I got out, it was 10 degrees cooler outside.”   Wow.

My dogs ride in the backseat and stay there when I’m not in the car.  If I have to leave them in the car on a sunny day, I park so the sun is not hitting the back window.  But it doesn’t really matter, I suppose.  If the front can heat up enough that quickly to bother a full-grown man with windows wide open and a decent breeze blowing through, it must be just as hot in the back seat.

So it’s not the temperature alone, humidity or breeze or lack of, it’s sun hitting glass.  I wonder if the windshield shades help keep the interior temperature down?  I’ve thought people use them just to keep the front seats from getting burning hot.  But if they do that, do they keep the whole space cooler?

Never leaving your dog in a car on a hot day is not a realistic thing to ask all the time all summer.  You are going to combine dog park outings or walks with other errands.  Nothing wrong with that, I think.  So instead of having police time occupied with releasing dogs from overheated cars, change the attitude to parking spots.

Large mall lots often have trees planted along their thoroughfares for the sake of appearance.  Redesign the lot so the trees are in the middle of the parking area, not along the roadway.  One side of the tree or the other will have shade. They can be anywhere in the lot. If you have no room for trees, make parking spots by the side of the building and build a canopy.

Most malls and streets already have areas that could easily provide shaded parking spots.  But usually they are marked as “no parking” or “loading zone.”  I’m sure there are easy ways of converting part of those areas to shaded parking. Mark them as “for cars with dogs”. Unlike other special needs spots, they don’t need to be by an entrance or special curbs.  We just need the social will.  That, after all, is how we got “handicapped” and “mothers with small children” reserved spots.  There’s no point in making dogs suffer and charging good owners with animal cruelty when simple design changes can alleviate a real problem.  Shaded parking isn’t a total solution; summer heat and dogs in cars still don’t mix well.  But it would help.

On July 20^th in Brisbane, Australia, Smoky the little war dog was awarded posthumously the Australian Defence Force Tracker and War Dog Association medal for military service.   At the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, US Consul General Niels Marquardt accepted the medal on behalf of Bill Wynne, Smoky’s person.

The ADFTWDA Secretary, a tracker team veteran of Vietnam, read a poem in remembrance of all Military Working Dogs, especially those left behind.  It was Connie Chronister’s  I Wait By The Gate:

In a strange land I was sent, not knowing my fate;

In a pen I was put and I sat by the gate.

I watched and I wondered what do I do now?

Then I looked up and saw you, as you walked up with a smile.

We trained and we worked and I showed you my best;

You rewarded me and petted me and I did the rest.

Through trails and paths and roads we did go;

And I was to smell, for traps that would blow.

Many times I stopped you from ending your life;

From an enemy trap wire that was set to end your life.

Never have I thought that we would ever part;

Because of the love that we had in our hearts.

Oh, I was proud to walk by your side;

With all of your friends and being your guide.

Then one day you put me back into my pen;

You smiled, you petted me, you said, “Goodbye my friend.”

You looked back one more time,

and I saw the tear in your eye;

And I knew it was the last, and was your way of saying goodbye.

My life, it so changed when you went back home;

And I stayed behind to a fate still unknown.

It’s been over 30 years since I’ve seen your face;

But I never forgot you, my friend and my mate.

So please don’t worry, I’m waiting by Heaven’s gate;

For my best friend, my brother, but mainly my mate.

The tracker dogs who served with the Australian armed forces in Vietnam were not brought back to Australia.  They were Caesar, Janus, Juno, Mercian, Mila, Trojan, Cassius, Julian, Justin, Marcus and Tiber.  According to an Australian government site, it was because of American military reports of their dogs dying from a disease believed to be transmitted by ticks.

An accidental soldier, Smoky’s wartime action saved lives and time and later, in peacetime, she entertained thousands on stage and through television.  She also worked her magic individually in hospital and nursing home visits.  Those visits showed the value of a dog in recovery and wellbeing, both physical and psychological, and led to official recognition of therapy dogs.  I think the littlest war dog will never be forgotten. I hope that the other dogs remembered in granite statues and in soldiers’ minds mean that no Military Working Dog will ever again be the soldier left behind.

See also Yorkie Doodle Dandy, Living “Equipment” and Dogs in War in our site.  Thanks to Mr. Wynne for sending me a video of the ceremony, it was truly lovely.

I don’t know if St. Thomas dog people and City Hall are still battling about the weeds in the dog park.  Please God, I hope not!  Of all the issues that may cause problems between the powers that be and dogs running loose, tall weeds should not even register on the fight-o-meter.

No one has suggested clear cutting the woods or leveling the ravine.  All that was asked was to keep weeds and grasses to a manageable height so that dogs, and their poop, cannot get lost in them.  No one wants a dog or a small child to get a stick in their eye while running through an area where they can’t see where they’re going.  No one wants ticks on their dogs, their children or themselves.  And in case you’re wondering, park users aren’t permitted to just cut the weeds themselves.  Only City employees can do so.

Two weeks before the weed cutting battle was raging at St. Thomas City Hall, the King’s County Record in Sussex NB published this article entitled “Thirsty pooches should be pleased”.  The town council approved the expenditure to install a water fountain for the dogs, replace the snowfencing with chainlink and create a small dog area in the town’s dog park.  I don’t know what kind of negotiations preceded this decision, but it was nice to read Mayor Marc Thorne saying “There are a lot of dogs in town, and residential properties don’t have the amount of space they need to get a healthy workout.”

St. Thomas Mayor Heather Jackson has been a good friend of the Lions Club Dog Park since the beginning, as have been Council members and Parks & Rec staff.  That’s why it seemed so odd that such a battle over its “landscaping” ever developed.

The Sussex Bark Park terrain is totally different from St. Thomas’ park.  It is on a hill and could be improved further by planting a few shade trees.  But, as you can see from the picture, the dogs in it can run.  There ain’t no waist-high weeds.