animals

‘Pets and the City’ by Dr. Amy Attas is a wonderful book filled with “True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Veterinarian” that reads like a novel

/ Pamela Kramer

It’s difficult to write nonfiction that is so engrossing and relatable that it reads like fiction, yet that is just what veterinarian Dr. Amy Attas manages to do in her book “Pets and the City: True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Veterinarian.” This collection of anecdotes and personal history ranges from the why—the reason Attas wanted to become a veterinarian and how she accomplished that—to the many famous people who were/are her clients. From Joan Rivers to Billy Joel, we read about the connections that the uber rich and famous have with their pets. But we also read about those not in that stratosphere of economic wealth, and how money doesn’t dictate how much we love our four-legged (and sometimes three-legged) pets.

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Picture books with dogs, dogs, dogs

/ Pamela Kramer

Kids love picture books and especially picture books featuring dogs. All of these books have adorable dogs in them, one also has a cat, and one has a host of wild animals! All have wonderful messages about patience, acceptance, and learning from a dog; and one special book is about why a dog is a better pet than a wild animal! Perfect for children like my grandson, who wants to have a home filled with wild animals he will care for.

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‘A Farewell to Arfs’ by Spencer Quinn: Another delightful Chet and Bernie mystery

/ Pamela Kramer

While Spencer Quinn’s very popular, very enjoyable, Chet and Bernie series is filled with marvelous mysteries, including the newest one, “A Farewell to Arfs,” we read the novels for the pitch perfect narration by perhaps the most lovable of canine characters, Chet. This story begins with Chet and Bernie’s elderly neighbors, the Parsons, losing their life savings.

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Changing the Lake County ordinance regarding feral cats and TNR needs Lake County residents to show up

/ Pamela Kramer

PLEASE JOIN US:

Lake County Board of Health Meeting on Wednesday, August 28, at 6pm at 3010 Grand Ave, 3rd floor Board Room, Waukegan, IL 60085 IL.

Illinois law: 510 ILCS 5/2.16, supports TNR (trap/neuter/release) of feral cats and protect “caretakers” (feeders) from ownership laws. Lake County’s ordinance deeming “owners” as anyone “feeding an animal 7 days or more” does not support the TNR process.

What is important for taxpayers to know?

TNR saves taxpayers money! TNR is not just about saving cats, it is about population control and disease control. Each female cat can produce up to 10 kittens three times a year. TNR sterilizes cats thus decreasing reproduction. Each cat going through the TNR program is vaccinated for rabies and distemper. Decreasing the feral cat population through sterilization saves taxpayers the cost of euthanasia, which is what LCAC does for feral cats (they are euthanized). TNR organizations cover the costs of both sterilization and vaccinations which saves taxpayers money!


PLEASE SHOW UP AND HELP CHANGE Lake County’s lamentable lack of support for TNR. Lake County’s ordinance needs to mirror the State of Illinois’ TNR language.

For more information about TNR and this issue in Lake County, please read the previous blog post. Instead of supporting the trapping of feral cats so they can be sterilized, vaccinated, and returned back to their home area where they know how to find food or where there is a colony caretaker who provides food and shelter, Lake County animal control recently charged a Lake County resident with having animals at large.

Toward the goal of changing or amending the Lake County ordinance, concerned residents are urged to attend the meeting of the Health Department this Wednesday, August 28th, at 6:00 pm, at 3010 Grand Avenue in Waukegan. Please attend if you can to show your support for the feral cats who have no voice of their own. Supporting TNR policies saves taxpayers money, reduces the spread of disease, and at the end, is the humane way to deal with the feral cat issue.

D.C.’s Humane Rescue Alliance’s mass firing of volunteers is retaliation, they claim, and hurts the shelter animals

/ Pamela Kramer

At rescues and most shelters, public and private, across the country, volunteers are the lifeblood that pumps the shelters with energy and free work hours enabling those entities to save dogs. At least that’s the way it’s supposed to be. In too many cases, when volunteers blow the whistle on shelter practices they see and believe are detrimental—and perhaps even cruel—to the animals the shelter is supposed to be caring for, the volunteers are fired. And this is what volunteers at Washington, DC’s Humane Rescue Alliance claim happened to them.

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Pet food, the AAFCO, and the FDA: Important information for pet owners and everyone

/ Pamela Kramer

This is not my usual post, but we all love our dogs and/or cats. This is important information, even if you don’t have any pets.

I am sharing information provided by Susan Thixton, a natural pet food advocate, whose newsletters I have read for many years. She advocates for transparency regarding ingredients and manufacturing of pet food, and her list of best pet foods is one that I use and highly recommend. The following is her most recent newsletter. Please pay special attention to the information about krill meal, which can contain harmful chemicals and is fed to farmed salmon that humans also eat. Also, note the information about how the FDA appears to be preventing pet food manufacturers from providing important information about possibly harmful ingredients in the pet food we buy. If you find this information useful and informative, please subscribe to her newsletter and visit her website: truthaboutpetfood.com. Note that AAFCO stands for Association of American Feed Control Officials.

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‘The Secret Language of Birds’ by Lynne Kelly is a tender story of a girl who finds her place through her passion for animals

/ Pamela Kramer / 1 Comment

Lynne Kelly, author of “The Secret Language of Birds,” is one of my favorite authors for a very simple reason: she writes about kids and animals. Her first book, “Chained,” is a wrenching story of a captive elephant and the boy who saves her. Then she penned “Song for a Whale,” about the loneliest whale in the world and the deaf girl who can’t seem to find her place in the world just as this misfit whale can’t communicate with other whales. It seems a natural progression to go from a jungle setting to an oceanic world and then to Texas, which Kelly calls home, to share the story of whooping cranes. Her inspiration came from a new article about a pair of whooping cranes just east of Houston who nested there, the first time whooping cranes had done so in over a century.

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‘Familiaris’ by David Wroblewski is a weighty prequel to “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle”

/ Pamela Kramer

The New York Times bestselling author of “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle,” David Wroblewski, just released the prequel to that tome, “Familiaris,” itself a weighty read at just shy of 1000 pages. As was the case with his debut novel, this second book, sixteen years later, is receiving much acclaim. Like its predecessor, this book was chosen for the prestigious Oprah Book Club. Oprah’s tongue-in-cheek comment to the author when she called to let him know his book was her choice for her book club: “I’m gonna choose it for the summer book club because it’s gonna take people all summer to read it.”

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David Rosenfelt’s latest Andy Carpenter Mystery, “Dog Day Afternoon,” is another generous gift to Andy’s many fans

/ Pamela Kramer

Amazing, isn’t it. “Dog Day Afternoon” is author David Rosenfelt’s twenty-ninth entry in his Andy Carpenter Mystery series. And I’ve read either twenty-seven or twenty-eight of them. (It’s hard to remember because they appear so quickly one after another, and Rosenfelt is so prolific.) Yet even though the same cast of characters peoples every single mystery, and even though the novels all have the same basic structure, I consistently look forward to reading the next one and then the next one. And I am never disappointed. Every one inspires, or even forces, laugh-out loud responses from its readers. Including me.

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‘On Her Watch’ by Melinda Leigh is the eighth murder mystery in the wonderful Bree Taggert series

/ Pamela Kramer

Melinda Leigh consistently features fascinating female protagonists in her novels, and Bree Taggert, in the eponymous series, is the perfect example of that. She struggles with work life balance just as some of us do, and she cares deeply about both her job and her family. And for Taggert, the “caring for family” part is an accomplishment because she never thought she’d have a family. In “On Her Watch,” the eighth murder mystery in this series, Taggert continues caring for her niece and nephew after the murder of their mother, Taggert’s sister. She had moved to upstate New York to care for the kids and is now the sheriff, working to be seen, heard, and considered to be the woman in charge.

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Urgent: Help needed to ensure TNR is enshrined in Lake County law as it is in Illinois law

/ Pamela Kramer / 1 Comment

While TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) is old news in much of the country, apparently the Lake County Board and the Lake County Health Department are still living in the days when feral cats were caught and killed, as most are unadoptable. To any Lake County Board members; Mark Pfister, Public Health Director; and Robin Van Sickle, Director of Animal Control; who might be reading this, TNR is a real thing. It’s even enshrined in Illinois law, which states:

Sec. 2.16. Owner. “Owner” means any person having a right of property in an animal, or who keeps or harbors an animal, or who has it in his care, or acts as its custodian, or who knowingly permits a dog to remain on any premises occupied by him or her. “Owner” does not include a feral cat caretaker participating in a trap, spay/neuter, vaccinate for rabies, and return program. (Source: P.A. 101-295, eff. 8-9-19.)

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How to save an injured piglet

/ Pamela Kramer

The owner of a petting zoo goes to buy a pig from a farmer. The farmer throws in the injured sibling, whose leg is hurt. The piglet won’t put weight on it and limps on the other three legs. The guy figures he’s buying the pig some time and maybe the leg will get better.

Three weeks later, at a farmer’s market, I noticed a petting zoo with farm animals and saw that one of the animals in a pen by itself was a baby pig. He was the size of a medium dog, about 30 pounds. I went to pet him and realized that he couldn’t walk on his left front leg. I asked the girl working there what was wrong with the leg. She explained, “It’s a rescue and he came that way.” I asked if he had been seen by a veterinarian, and when she responded in the negative, I asked if he was going to be seen by a veterinarian. The answer was no. Then I asked whether they would be checking out anyone who wanted to adopt the pig and was told that he was for sale for $50. “So it’s not a rescue, and anyone can buy him. Even if they just want him for bacon?” I asked. She replied in the affirmative.

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