The Economic Crisis Hits Animals Too

We see evidence of the home foreclosure crisis everywhere. There are few blocks in Michigan without multiple "For Sale" signs in front of them and most of us know someone who can't sell their house even though they may have moved out of state in search of work months ago. Foreclosures hit pets too. 18 cats and a dog were recently found in a Grand Blanc storage unit because. Their owner's home was foreclosed and, she says, she had noplace else to keep them. The cats had upper respiratory infections and every one was euthanized, but the dog, Leo, is now up for adoption. The owner agreed to surrender him to animal control to avoid criminal charges, but she wants him back so he can come live with her and her son. In their car.

Many shelters are overcrowded due in part to the economic crisis and even purebreds are being surrendered or abandoned by once-loving owners who can no longer afford to care for them and many shelters are no overcrowded. The Humane Society is over capacy with cats and at capacity with dogs and as this article illustrates, financial hardship of their previous owners is a major contributor to the situation.

The Oakland Pet Adoption Center, located at 1700 Brown Road in Auburn Hills has more cats than it can handle and its foster homes are also overcrowded. They are desperate need of supply donations and foster homes for cats and kittens especially. They have greatly reduced adoption fees and held many recent promotional events in an effort to help alleviate the overcrowding. Residents of Oakland County are encouraged to contact the Oakland Pet Fund to find out how they can help through volunteering and donations.

Dogs in the News

The Top doggie news today is the release of Beverly Hills Chihuahua which seems to be making a smash at the box office. I might go see this at the cheap theatre in a couple of weeks,but no one in my family is excited enough to pay premium movie prices for it. It looks cute.

In other show biz/doggie news, Nick at Nite hosted their first annual Fido Awards yesterday with a bulldog named Gabe winning the day with such remarkable tricks as toilet flushing and skate boarding. Buddy, the German Shepherd to dialed 911 when his owner had a seizure just a few months ago was given the Hero Award.

A golden retriever named Pepper found his way home this weekend after travelling 400 miles from Atlanta Georgia to St Petersburg (Virginia??) where he was taken in by some folks at a travel agency, vetted and scanned and his microchip discovered. He's been gone since Christmas.

It reminds me of a dog named Chile who we discovered in our back yard when we moved into our new house two years ago. Once we'd calmed him down enough so that we could handle him, we walked him to the vet 3 miles away because there was no getting him in the car. Sure enough, he was microchipped and his family was ecstatic and so was he! He'd been missing three months and had travelled over 50 miles.

The moral of this story, folks: Have your dogs microchipped!

Bring Your Dog to Church Day

A church in North Weymouth, Massechusettes is opening its doors to dogs and other pets and is offering a blessing of animals today. According to an article in the Boston Globe, the Reverend Rachel Bickford, herself the mom of a menagere of furbabies, was inspired by psalm 148 and 150 which says 'Let all wild animals, creeping things and flying birds give God praise.' and 'Praise the Lord, let everything that breathes, praise the Lord.' respectively.

Apparently inviting dogs to church isn't as easy as it sounds. The insurance company originally forbid the attendance of pitbulls, but Rev Bickford was able to change their minds by showing them a little more green.