No Excuse

I've blogged about animals on many occasions, and well what can I say? I love furkids, deal with it. Besides it's been said ones true character is revealed in how they treat animals. So you know what that means... yes that means Greek Girl is a Good Person ;o)

Seriously though besides having four furkids of my own (used to be five until our ten and a half year old Maltese "Itty Bitty" passed unexpecedly of congestive heart failure back in September of last year) I am involved with rescue. Sometimes fostering, and often do home visits for potential adopters for a few different rescue groups. A home visit is necessary to make sure the animal does not end up back in a dangerous situation. Because as you might have guessed not everyone out there is what they appear to be. Or for whatever reason their wires get crossed in their noggins and decide it would be OK to dump their pet in a shelter. So home visits are necessary and vital to make sure rescued furkids truly do go into forever homes.

After all the things I have seen in rescue nothing really surprises me. However, I was particularly upset this past week when I saw a story in the news about an outrageously horrific situation involving craigslist. I would hope that most people understand why it's never OK to put an ad on craigslist for an animal, especially for Free. It's sad but stories like the one I'm about to share happen often these days. The following link is about a story of a man who was recently arrested for having been found in a motel room with multiple animals he had dismembered. Animals he had obtained from craigslist.
Don't believe me... here ya go:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/jason-brown-adopted-dogs-dismember-motel_n_5592267.html

I know life can be chaotic, especially in the times we are living. The economy is rough and people have life changes, I get it. However I'm not sure why when some people start to cut back they jump to something as severe as dumping a family pet in a kill shelter. There are always options, there is always a way, it's just a matter of if someone is willing to make the effort to make adjustments that will allow them to keep their pet. Some people just don't want to be bothered.

We have an epidemic of puppy mills producing millions of puppies that are shipped to pet stores. Backyard or kitchen breeding dogs to make an extra few bucks. Then add to that the ones who refuse to spay and neuter either for financial reasons, or even worse they don't want to make their pet an "it", are just a few of the absurd justifications I have heard. When you add it all up it equates to five to seven million animals and growing being euthanized in shelters across the country every single year. The only way this is ever going to change is to change the law. Make Puppy Mills illegal, and not allow backyard breeding. Have mandatory spay/neuter and for anyone who is interested in betterment of the breed and who wants to breed, make them have to be licensed. The license would be a very hard test like a Dr. and include a high yearly fee which would keep the backyard breeders out. Believe me I'm for LESS Government control not more. The government wants to control almost every aspect of our lives i.e.: health care, cap and trade to regulate how much energy we consume, food, medicine, etc. Yet they allow the rampant torture of Gods creatures in Puppy Mills. It boggles my mind, that however is a blog for another day.

My point here more than anything is why is it that at the first sign of trouble or inconvenience, people's first instinct is to throw up their hands and "dump" the family pet? They wouldn't ever do it to you, you wouldn't do it to a child, so why on earth do it to a helpless creature who only wants your love? I'm really beginning to think that God must be rethinking the whole part where he gave man charge over the animals. I can just imagine with all the evil things that go on every day, he must be sitting up there thinking maybe it should have been the other way around. It'd probably be a lot less cruel of a world.

As you can imagine there is no circumstance where I would ever give up an animal, period. Trust me and it's not like I'm rolling in the dough either... I'm an Independent Recording Artist. That means there's no label or big machine pushing my music all over TV, radio & social media. I do the best I can with what I have and work my pants off. I built my following brick by brick, fan by fan, and work social media like mad. Like everyone else out there working for their dreams I do what I have to do and try to live my life according to my moral compass. That for me means even if I were homeless on the street, I'd be in my cardboard box with my four furkids. That's just how I roll. Animals are family, there is never a reason to "get rid" of them, period. That may sound extreme to some people, but a living creature that can not survive without you that you made a commitment to is not something to be taken lightly, or to be forgotten when life changes. It's called making adjustments. I thought it would be interesting to post a few meme's that quite bluntly demonstrate some of the illogical thinking regarding dumping pets. Some also that dispel some of the misconceptions about what happens to your pet after you dump it at a the "shelter".

The Truth

How do these people sleep at night?

There is No Excuse.

Can you imagine?

Every day they die waiting...

More ridiculous excuses.

You can make a difference.

Pets Do not Belong on Craigslist - Ever!

Trust, Love. Unconditional that never ends... Don't fail them.

You can make a difference. Not only be being vigilant to furkids in need around you, but also with social media. Sharing helps place dogs. Giving even the smallest amount, even $1.00 to a rescue who has just taken in an animal with obscene medical bills makes a difference. There is strength in numbers... if everyone who cares and has liked a page gives even the small amounts when a rescue asks instead of scrolling past, just think of the number of animals that would be saved.

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com

Safe and Sound

Just after the "Ava Aston" Doggie Rescue Ambulance picked up little "Scotty"

So I'm minding my own business Saturday afternoon running around with my very favorite person in the whole wide world. We were hungry and decided to stop to grab a quick lunch somewhere that would be fast. Since we didn't want "fast food" we decided to stop at a place that was a little off the beaten path, right next to a grocery store that has healthy made to order grub.

We walked up to the door when at the same time a man tied a little dog to a cigarette pole outside the entrance to the grocery store and the place where we were about to eat. It was less than 20 degrees outside, the dog was under ten pounds, not wearing a sweater or collar, and had a beat up old leash tied around it's neck. It was shivering uncontrollably and looked like it was suffering. My husband looked at the dog, looked at me and I could literally see the words in a bubble over his head "oh no here we go again." Being that this was not my first time to the rescue rodeo, of course I walked right up and started petting and talking to the little guy trying to see what was going on. My gut told me this was a very irresponsible dog owner, and that this dog was not safe with the man who had just tied him to the pole.

My husband sat down with the dog on the bench and the dog put his little paw on my husbands leg as if to say "please don't leave, help me". Then about 10 minutes later the guy comes strolling out with his $200 headphones on wearing Nike sneakers that cost upwards of $150. He proceeds to say "Oh you loving on him, you like him?... you want him? I gotta get rid of him - he cost me too much money. He broke a lava lamp and he's too much work." I tried and really wanted to have a rational conversation with the man but once he told me "cut his nuts off, no way I would never do that, take away his manhood - that is cruel" when I had asked him if the dog was neutered; meanwhile complaining the little dog was too "rambunctious" (which neutering would solve that issue he was complaining about calm him down - but that would be you know "cruel") I knew there was no rational conversation to be had. Best thing to do in my noggin, get the dog away from him, and to safety. The man literally gave him to us right there just like that. So even though we were visiting my mom out of town, have four dogs of our own that were visiting with us, and my mom has two dogs, making for a grand total of six dogs staying in her house already.... I scooped him up into my arms and away we went with little  Mr. Scottish Terrier/Dachshund mix.

Look at that little face... here he is after a bath,                           a good meal, and a warm bed.

Next thing, to text my mom a picture to make sure we didn't get lambasted when we walked in her house with a strange little doggie. The poor thing smelled like a giant cigarette, was dirty, starving, skinny as a rail and was so cold. I wrapped him in a blanket, then we got him a hamburger, a new red collar, matching step in harness and leash, some food and off to grandmothers house we went to give him a proper bath.

He met all the fur kids and well lets just say it was one great big fat muckery sandwich. None of our fur kids liked him. Probably the fact that he was not neutered and his constant humping might have had something to do with it. We were thinking to maybe keep him ourselves having lost a furbaby to congestive heart failure a few months back, but the fur kids not taking to him and in fact two of them trying to kill him made that an impossibility. We decided it would be best to re-home him to a safe loving forever home. So after a fun filled night of having him sleep in a crate, taking him out about a dozen times during the night to potty, several chaotic episodes including almost setting my moms power cord on fire when he dumped a can of soda onto it... a friend who runs a reputable rescue agreed to take little "Scotty" and make sure he gets a loving forever home, after he is fully vetted, gets all of his shots, and is neutered. They won't just let anyone adopt, they take applications, screen potential adopters, as well as do vet and home checks to ensure the adopters are going to be forever homes where the pet will be safe. Check em' out at HubbardsHounds.com

So after 24 hrs of muckery little "Scotty" is now safe and sound from a very unsafe situation. Who knows what kind of life that little guy might have had if we had not decided to go to lunch where we did that day. Turns out we never even ate there as we left as soon as the man said we could take him, and after all of that ended up eating "fast food" the very thing we were trying to avoid in the first place via Wendy's, and little "Scotty" had some too. Just before he went onto have his bath and organic, human grade fur dog food at grandmothers house of course.

The moral of the story... so many people just walk on by when they see something that seems a little off. They think in their mind things like: I'm too busy, it's not my problem, someone else will do something. You know what?... Sometimes that "someone else" is YOU. Don't ignore your gut and that little voice telling you to do something. You might just be the answer to someones prayer. I know we did the right thing that day by helping that little doggie. Yes it was time out of our plans, yes we spent money to buy him things and donate to the rescue who would pay for his vetting, but it was well worth it to change that little dogs life around. Think you can't afford to help like we did? Think again... even if he were taken directly to a local shelter (which would have been free), he would have still been a million times better off then with a man who would make an approximately six month old dog walk in freezing cold weather malnourished with no protection from the elements and then tie him unattended to a pole.

Yes we are dog savvy and knew things to look for and do before ever exposing him to our own pets for safety reasons, as well as de-worming him in case he had any worms, not allowing our dogs to be in contact with his poo, and all that stuff. At the very least even someone who isn't "dog savvy" can help a pet in peril by simply reporting the abuse or abandonment to the proper authorities, or just take it and instead take the pet to a shelter or rescue.

So many people think of pets as dispensable, or even worse as a cash cow, pets are not for making money. They are God's little creatures and we were given charge over them to care for them. Not to make a living from by backyard breeding the heck out of them. For the life of me I can't understand why people do not spay/neuter. There is just no excuse, low cost options are available almost everywhere. Not giving shots and flea/tick prevention is inexcusable as well. Almost every chain pet store holds low cost shot clinics monthly all over the country. If you can't afford to keep a pet up to date on shots and properly protected from fleas, ticks and heart worm, then you shouldn't have a pet.

I'm not for "more regulations" but there is a very simple solution to the epidemic animal abuse and overpopulation. Stop selling dogs/cats in pet stores, period! Stop breeding for profit, pets are not money making machines. For anyone who wants to show dogs and breed for betterment of the breed, showing, etc. they can take a test like a Dr. and get a "license" and pay a high yearly fee. This will keep out the people who overbreed for money, puppy mills and the "backyard or kitchen breeders".  Unless someone is dedicated to betterment of the breed and trying to get to the Westminster Dog show then they have no business breeding their dogs.

Animal shelters and rescues are beyond full. People do unthinkable things to animals daily, abuse, dumping senior pets at high kill shelters when they are done with them for a new puppy, dog fighting, leaving out in elements, etc. Every day thousands of pets are put to sleep in shelters all over the country simply because there are not enough people to adopt them all and too many ignorant people are still out there breeding making more. I'm beyond disgusted with how little regard people in our world give to Gods creatures.

BTW who gives a flying flip about what "breed" a dog is?... All dogs are beautiful! ~ Don't shop Adopt! ~ It's Super easy... just go to petfinder.com

OK stepping down off of my soapbox for now, I'm so happy that little "Scotty" has a new leash on life and it is my prayer that one day all animals will be safe, sound and loved.

Here is little "Scotty" at Hubbard's Hounds Rescue          meeting some new friends.

Blessings, Love & Music  ~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com