I was a fish geek when I was very young, that was a while ago, but I see that the fun of it remains stored inside of me. I got Maria a fish tank for her birthday some months ago, and we have had the usual ups and downs with acclimation, hard water and sensitive fish.
Things have settled down we have two charismatic and beautiful Calico gold fish. I’ve learned about Maria that she is always a visual person, she isn’t interested in the fish nearly as much as the color and style of the fish.
She loves to sit and watch the tank. I sometimes meditate next to it.
I’ve also had fund exploring the ways to have a natural and creative tank. I found this “Moss Monster” on Etsy, a site called AquaBonsai with some of the most original and creative aquarium designs.
These sculptures are covered i moss (good for any tank) and made out of non-toxic lava rock, a material that helps bring oxygen into the tank. Since Maria opened a shop on Etsy, I’ve done more of my shopping there, from desk organizers to a medic alert necklaces my doctors have been pestering me to get.
I also got Maria a beautiful Staurolite necklace there and she got me one in return. I have to be careful about Aqua Bonsai, it is not expensive, but there are too many things I’d like to buy. For that matter, I need to be careful about Etsy, they do bring creativity to life.
I remember about fish that they are soothing and one can be creative about how the tank is constructed. Ours is filled with natural plants and has become a beautiful and kind of restful place. I like the Moss Monster peering out of the leaves. And he is very good for the snails we have to eat the algae off the tank and keep it clean.
Evie, the brave and battered 10 year-old Chihuahua who has never known a loving home, and who was destined for almost certain euthanasia, has been adopted.
Even the Friends Of Homeless Animal/RI workers who took Evie out of notorious shelter that had been raided by the police did not expect her to be adopted, they thought she would end up as a sponsored dog in Foster Care.
They did not know the Army of Good. We do the impossible every day. I admit that I took Evie’s plight as a very personal challenge, and also an opportunity to explore the ethical and practical realities of animal rescue.
Her vet and rescuers call Evie “Sweet Evie.” That bodes well for her new human.
The motto of FOHA is “rescuing small dogs with big hearts.” I think it takes a big heart to bring home one of these poor animals.
I told myself that someone would rescue Evie if I did my job presenting her dilemma well. I had faith in that. I also recognized that if this is not something I can do, it is something I can support.
Last night I got a message from Debra Otto, a blog reader from a suburb of Minneapolis. “My name is Debra…Your blog about Elvie is wonderful and heartbreaking. I will adopt her and give her a wonderful loving home. In fact, one of my friends tells me he wants to come back in his second life as one of my dogs. I am in communications, a writer and photographer. I have two dogs, Rose is an English bulldog who happens to be deaf. Her owners didn’t want her once they realized she was deaf. She is happy and knows many commands. I also have a French poodle named Marcel. He is a wonderful and smart guy.I promise I would give Evie a wonderful loving home. When I know something is right I know.”
She sure rounds right to me.
Debra connected Carol Johnson of FOHA, the woman who saved Evie – she has become a good friend – and brought her to the Southern Arkansas Veterinary Clinic and Dr. Jonathan Bradshaw. They have treatments for heart disease, a skin infection, pneumonia and hernia. Another blog reader is picking up Evie’s health care costs. (Another asked to adopt her this morning.)
I spoke with Dr. Bradshaw yesterday and he said he expected Evie to recover from all of her ailments (I don’t know any details about her heart condition) and be fine for adoption. He said she is doing beautifully and the photo above shows the progress after just a couple of weeks, the one below shows Evie the day she was taken out of the shelter.
This makes me think that anything is possible.
You can see for yourself what Carol an Dr. Bradshaw have already accomplished.
Evie When Rescued
Carol said she just couldn’t bear to leave Evie alone in the shelter to die. She believed she deserved to have a loving and caring home for the first time in her very sad 10 years of life. The family that owned her simply left her off at a shelter, they didn’t want to pay for her medical care, so she had no treatment.
Like me, FOHA is into lost causes. We will have fun working together.
Sylvie is growing a coat and already has some hair. All of her problems are treatable, according to her vet.
“It’s something of a miracle,” Carol told me this morning. “I thought it would be almost impossible to find a good home for her.We are so happy she is going to have a home like this.”
Carol is putting Debra through the usual hoops, but it looks very promising.
Debra told me she is not an impulsive person, but when she commits to something right, she is certain of it, and she is quite certain about adopting Elvie.
Evie has to get to Minnesota once she is well, and I volunteered to pay the transportation costs to get her where she needs to go. Debra has said she will to anywhere to pick her up.
Evie is suddenly an important transitional figure in my life now. She is challenging me to look at the way in which I think of dogs and of rescuing dogs. She is challenging me to learn and thank and grow and change.
I am not at all certain that I would adopt a dog like Elvie, or doubt the mercy of euthanizing her in the shape she was in. We can’t save all of the dogs, and morally, I am not sure we should. I believe penning dogs up in crates for the rest of their lives is inhumane, a form of social and sanctioned abuse.
I would rather put my dogs to sleep than to see them live like that just so human beings can pat themselves on the back for being righteous.
But like Carol, I am touched by the idea of the unadoptable and highly vulnerable dog and the fact that this poor and blameless creature has never had a single day of being loved in her life. I think Debra will have an immensely satisfying and meaningful experience.
There is something wonderful and uplifting about animal rescue, I think it makes us better humans and it give me much hope for the world. It asks us to understand ourselves and our own emotional lives.
Carol and I have agreed to continue working with one another. I am interested in writing about the hardest cases, the homeless and sick dogs that people like Carol plug from death and love and work to find homes for.
Why does one kind of dog get adopted, and another, left to their fates?
It is a wonderful feeling to know I helped Evie get a home, but I also intend to continue thinking and writing about rescue and the many dilemmas it raises. Are we turning support of our emotional lives over to animals? It is appropriate to spend vast sums of money on sick and dying dogs when we are constantly cutting back on caring for education, the vulnerable and the poor?
How can we manage the emotional impact of animal rescue on ourselves and our psyches?
The homeless people in our cities don’t have other people swooping down on them to re-home and rehabilitate and care for them. They rot in the street for years. Have our own moral values become inverted by the ease and comparatively low cost with which we can change dog’s life, and the great complexity of affecting the lives of people?
I meet people all the time who tell me they have given up on trusting or caring for people, they have absolute faith in the love of their dogs. I don’t want to be one of those people, dogs and people belong together, they compliment one another, they can open us up and lead us to other people, it is not one or the other for me.
I’m not giving up on asking about these questions and writing about them, but I have also decided to work with FOHA/RI permanently and help as many of these dogs as I can, within reason.
As many of you know, I have spent much of the past couple of years working to help the nation’s embattled refugees and immigrants. I’m adding homeless dogs to the list. It seems more in balance that way.
I am so happy to think of Evie getting a home I hope Debra will send us a steady stream of photos, and thanks so much for your interest in these days and for supporting and understanding my work.
It does take a village sometimes I think of Evie abandoned in Texas, Carol rushing from Arkansas to bring her to safey, Debra in Minnesota, me on my farm. People really want to do good when give the chance, that is the gift of our hard times.
This has been an intense few days for me, for Ali, for the Army Of Good and my bank account. Monday, I wrote a check for $3,000 to the Albany Academy cover the difference between Sakler’s scholarship grant and the total tuition due.
So far this week, I’ve send the school $6,357 dollars – thank you Army Of Good. This a commitment I have undertaken for the next four years.
Sakler’s tuition for 2018 is now paid. He will start school as planned.
Tomorrow, I will open a Sakler Moo Education Fund account at my local bank and start saving for next year. Any additional money that comes in will go to the fund for next year’s tuition, and if there are additional expenses this year.
I want to keep this tuition money separate and accounted for, i will be visiting Sakler and collecting the money over the next four years.
Each month, all the money that comes in is examined by a bookkeeper and a New York City accountant. We make sure everything goes where it is supposed to go.
Every person we help must agree to be photographed so that everyone can see and know where their money is going and to whom. That is our contract, our way of documenting our work.
This week, I took over the $2,000 payment to the school that Sakler’s mother, Lae Pwy, hoped to make each year.
It’s a serious commitment, I am happy and proud to make it.
Lae Pwy, a sweet and loving mother, was very anxious about the money. I could see how torn she was between wanting Sakler to go and the reality of her life, the life of the refugee in America.
The only income from the family comes from Sakler’s father, who is a goods stocker at Wal-Mart. Lae Pwy is a brave and loving woman, and a very devoted mother, but I was not comfortable leaving her under so much pressure, I couldn’t get easy about it, and I thought it would be easier for me to raise that money than for her.
When I saw the look on her face of relief and happiness, I knew it was the right decision.
Monday, I bought her and the family lunch at a local restaurant to celebrate. I realized it was the first restaurant meal of her life. She is making dinner for Maria and I next week, Ali and Caroline are coming as well.
This will be a profound experience for Sakler and his family. I can’t say I have ever felt much better than this, there’s doing good and there’s doing good.
Law Pwy is saving money for the incidental costs that accompany life in a private school.
Supporting Sakler: Ali, Sakler, Ehkuidoh, Law Pwy
I was also glad to forestall one of Sakler’s elementary school teacher, Caroline Espinoza, who was about to sign a contract also to commit to sending some of her money to the school.
I know what teachers make in Albany and she has two very young daughters. Teachers like this need support, not more pressure and obligation.
Caroline has been telling the Academy about Sakler for several years now, and lobbed effectively and persistently for his admittance. She embodies the very best tradition of the teacher.
I thought the simplest thing was to take over these payments, they will come to between $5,000 and $6,000 a year. Lae Pwy wants to support Sakler, but she was immensely relieved.
Elementary school teachers with two small children do not have a lot of money lying around.
I’ve received more than $5,000 from donations so far, and I expect more to arrive at my post office box in the next few days. If anyone wishes to help, you can: Please send a contribution to Jon Katz, Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. Please mark your check or donation Sakler Moo Fund.
Starting next week, when the account is opened, all money for Sakler over the next four years will go there, and stay there until it is needed.
Sakler went to the school for his second day of orientation today, classes start around September 7. He says he loves it, he is a little daunted by how smart the other kids are. He will not have a problem.
Then some unexpected and unwanted news:
While I was at a retinal eye specialist having my eyes examined, Ali called and said the red van we purchased to ferry the soccer team to gaves and other activities was in some trouble. He had that regretful voice he gets when he needs to ask me for money. He never asks for anything wasteful or unnecessary, but he hates to do it.
He told me that the van needs four new brakes and ball joints, as well as a tire rotation and three other things I can’t quite remember.
The van is essential to the life of these children, and to Ali and our work. So when Ali asked if I could help, I knew i would need another $2,000, that is the mechanic’s estimate, and he is a good person who has given us many breaks on repairs for the van.
He has to be paid in the morning. He will be.
The van needs to be ready by noon tomorrow to get to soccer practice. I’ll figure it out tonight. When it rains, it does pour, and Ali, as always, was upset at asking for money this week. We are still basking in Sakler’s triumph.
I told him life happens, the measure is grace is not that we have no trouble, but that we handle trouble with dignity and acceptance. I’ll get that money together. Life happens to everyone, and quite often, much worse than this.
So contributions are still very welcome and still much needed. He’s got to buy uniforms as well.
If you wish to help Sakler Moo in his journey through this very prestigious private school, you can make a contribution to Jon Katz/Sakler Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. Please mark the check “Sakler Moo Fund” Thanks.
Audio: Life Happens. The Big Red Van Needs $2,000 In Repairs
Today, he left Dr. Jonathan Bradshaw at the South Arkansas Animal Clinic, he was spayed and just had his final heartworm shot. In 30 days, he will be tested for the heartworm bacteria, if the test is negative, he can come home to us.
Carol Johnson of FOHA and Dr. Bradshaw are miracle workers, they take sick and abandoned and unadoptable dogs and just flip them over, they work hard to make them healthy and spare no expense on their treatment.
I can’t believe the progress they made with Bud in just a couple of months. When he was taken in by FOHA he was an emaciated and terrified wreck, traumatized by the very sight of men. That is no longer the case.
Everybody who deals with Bud loves him, he is a sweetie.
FOHA specializes in caring for homeless heartworm dogs, they are worthy of support.
They take the toughest cases, which means they are the most important and most interesting cases to write about.
Once Dr. Bradshaw clears Bud, he will be put in a huge FDA approved truck and he and other animals will come up from the South to be dropped off at various urban sites. One of them is Brattleboro, Vt., about 90 miles away.
Dr. Bradshaw told me today that Bud isa very fine dog, sweet and smart and easy to be with. Sounds great. Carol says the same thing. He has formed some sort of devilish pact with a cat, she knocks bags of chips off of the counter and Bud steals them and tries to hide. When he’s caught, says Carol, he gives the “stinkeye.”
Anyway Bud, I recorded a short message to you, perhaps Carol will play it so you can hear my voice. I hear you are a terror when you play with other dogs. Fate is waiting for you.
Evie is a dog that stretches the boundaries of rescue for me, I can’t imagine myself adopting her, yet I wake up thinking about her and am hoping one of the many dog lovers out there will want to give her the first loving home of her life.
Not every dog deserves to live forever, often suffering, and at great expense. Very few humans are given that gift.
But I am thinking that Carol Johnson of FOHA/RI is right about her, Evie is not ready to leave the world, she is ready to experience the love of a dog and animal lover with a big heart, and I know many. I am trying to do some good these days, and I want to do some good for dogs.
Carol and the vet techs call Evie “sweet Evie.” She is a sweet dog.
We’re getting close. Carol Johnson (of the Friends Of Homeless Animals rescue group [email protected]), is handling Evie’s adoption and medical treatment. She says a half dozen people have called to ask about Evie, but no one has yet asked to adopt her.
An anonymous angel appeared yesterday, a reader of the blog.
Carol told me and made a big donation: “We had a wonderful person who wants to anonymously pay her current vill at the vets. This was over $600. They also will pay for her heartworm treatment. We are over the moon about this. We have many kind donors but this is special. They saw the story you wrote….”
I think I know this person, but will not say.
I do not believe there is only one way to get a dog, nor do I accept that the only more way to get a dog is to rescue one. The only moral way I know of is to get the dog I want and become its steward, offer a healthy, loving and meaningful life.
The best dog to get is the dog you most want. Evie is an admitted wreck, she has suffered every one of her ten years on this earth, yet she is sweet and forgiving, in the way only dogs can be.
I talked with Dr. Jonathan Bradshaw at the South Arkansas Veterinary Clinic this afternoon, he told me that Evie had contracted pneumonia, common in poorly ventilated shelters that are worm and with dogs in close quarters.
He said Evie would recover. She will be fine, it will just take a while.
I asked her if Evie would get healthy enough to be adopted, and he said yes, absolutely. Evie is the dog that has never known human love, says Carol, she was dumped off in a shelter and was in horrific condition, the photos are almost unbearable to look at. She had no hair and could barely stand up.
Because of her health problems and age, said Carol, she will be a very difficult job to place. We’ll see what me and my blog are made of.
Under Dr. Bradshaw’s loving treatment, she has made enormous strides already, she is being treated for heart disease, she has a hernia and heartworm.
And now, pneumonia.
It will take about three months to heal her, when she will be able to be transported to a new home (FOHA pays for transport.) The donation request for Evie is $299.
Is there a place in our dog scheme of things for an animal like this?
Is it going too far?
Maria said if Bud weren’t coming, she adopt Evie in a minute. So there must be other people out there would also adopt he and are taking more than a minute.
Late this afternoon Carol posted this message about Evie:
“Sweet Evie is recovering from spay and hernia surgery. We will begin heartworm treatment as soon as medically appropriate. First step will be 30 days of antibiotics to kill the detris produced by heartworm.”
We’ll see what happens. I know the people who read my blog, and I suspect one of them will want to provide that home, and wherever she goes, I hope to know how she turned out..
