Dirty Little Secret

This is Indie, and she was a victim of abuse. After being with me for a month or so, she will just now walk into her kennel without coaxing, jump into the truck without being leashed, and enter her crate without food offered.

I suspected she was abused with a shock collar the first time I saw her on sheep. Her stop was just too mechanical, her expression too wary, and she gave ground to my pressure out of fear. I knew who had started her, a San Diego County, so-called dog trainer who is notorious for shocking dogs. The owner called the abuser, and confirmed it after I shared my suspicions. She made this excuse: "Indie wouldn't mind me." Indie was 12 months old at the time.

Now 15 months old, I tried to get Indie to sit up for these pictures, but she is far too submissive for that. It is an accomplishment just to have her jump on the rock. Previously she would have run to hide if she thought I wanted something from her.

Her owner is not responsible for this. He had no way of knowing what would happen when he put her in training. Indie was sent home, with the explanation that she was just too soft to be a sheepdog. She is a daughter of Alaisdare Macrae's Nap.

My experience with Indie is that she is a keen, stylish bitch who is afraid to use her talents. As much as her instincts tell her otherwise, she is more concerned about me than determined on her stock...but she's changing. My experience with her abuser is that Indie was too much dog for her, so she shocked her into submission to make the job easier. In other words Indie was abused out of laziness.

As I work Indie, we do lots of walking, and wearing sheep with much shushing and encouragement from me. She is beginning to come right, but it will be a slow process. I love to watch her run out, because that's where she is least afraid, with plenty of speed, style and scope. Indie is learning her whistles, off balance flanks, and has just been introduced to the concept of an inside flank. I have to be so careful not to scare her.

It may take more time, more patience, many more steps, more sheep, different fields, but there is always, always a better way. Do NOT stand by and watch dispicable individuals abuse dogs, not your dog, not anyone's dog. Do not turn a blind eye, and convince yourself that it's OK. How could you?

Shock collars are what one successful sheepdog trainer refers to as "the dirty little secret," and they are the one exclusion in his return policy on dogs he sells. If you use a shock collar on them, he will not take them back, and he can always tell. 

Border Collie Butt

Thank heavens an honest to goodness retailing giant like Nike is finally making a sincere effort to change the paradigm of women's shape. Now if they would only make the clothing patterns to go with it. But to use a Border Collie to further their goal? Now that just hits really close to home, and is almost, maybe, just a little bit too good to be true...and a little weird. Speaking of this butt; "It's a Border Collie that herds skinny women away from the best deals at clothing sales." Well, I just don't know what to make of that, but I find it fascinating that Nike has encorporated 2 huge aspects of my life in an ad campaign, my butt and my dogs. My, what an unlikely pairing, and yes my profile falls closely in line with the one pictured here...without the padding up top. But never mind that.

This woman's butt is also a space heater, and an embassador. What's the difference, do you suppose, between an EMbassador and an AMbassador? I don't know, but I'm so taken with the ad that I'm just going with it. "An embassador to those who walk behind me." An embassador of what, I wonder? EMbarrassment, because that's how I feel whenever I suspect someone is looking at my big ol' C-shaped space heater. And the cute little panties she's wearing? I promise you, she didn't wear them for long, and the first thing she did after the photo shoot was pull them out, I mean off, and slip into something a whole lot more comfortable, like a pair of men's boxer shorts or some cotton Hanes "No Ride Up" briefs, because they're the only ones that cover instead of encroach.

As if women with bodies like the one pictured here would actually wear these circus tents. No, it's just those of us with butts like a Border Collie who must choose hard reality over every man's wet-dream. So, what about those clothing patterns? Because I promise you if I try on Nike sportswear in another retailing giant, like, say Sports Authority, not only will there be too little material to cover my EMbassador, but the pants will have to be shortened by more than a few inches. Well, it's a start. First the lie, I mean impression, that women with Border Collie butts feel comfortable enough to strut them, then fashion follows function, right? I'll believe it when I "C" it.

Ranching versus Reality

I went out the other day to bring my sheep from their over night pen, down my dirt road, across a small, paved easement road into a small grass pasture where they spend lazy days doing what sheep do, browsing, sleeping, drinking and waiting to go back at night. Seems simple enough, right? Beyond my property, there are 4 or 5 other homes that share the easement road, and all the occupants, it seems, have become accustomed over the last 3 years to the sight of me moving my sheep.

More than once one of them has stopped to watch while I work my dogs, and sometimes they stop to talk or comment about the dogs and sheep. I even have one neighbor who used to feed the sheep yard clippings, which isn't the best for them, what with pesticides or fertilizers mixed in. But he really enjoyed feeding my sheep, so for his benefit, I put a metal trash can on his side of the fence and filled it with grain and a scoop so that he could throw out an offering now and then and satisfy his compassionate side. It got to the point where my sheep would run up the fence whenever they heard his car.

This particular morning was no different than any other, and I chose a young prospect in training to accomplish the task of relocating the sheep. Efficiently he gathered them up from the over night pen, hustled them out the gate and down the lane. Once on the easement road, I whistled for him to start them away from the gate, uphill along the easement road, so that I could get to the gate and open it without sheep trying to force their way through and tearing up the gate in the process. I noticed the car that was just starting towards us from the top of the hill and assumed the drive would stop in the name of safety for my animals and wait the 45 seconds or so it would take me to get everyone inside the pasture. I was wrong. She, (yes it was a woman, a 20-something woman,) approached going too fast for our little drive and showed no intention of either slowing or stopping and was now dangerously close to my dog. The sheep I wasn't so worried about. They would avoid the car, but the dog was busy...and very focused. Car...what car?

I thought; "what the hell?" and then I started towards her. I was speaking and in none too nice of a tone, but my words are lost to me now. She didn't care about me either, because next she began to steer around me onto the dirt shoulder and was now headed straight for the dog. And that, my friends, is when I went straight to Crazy-ville. It's a place that I inhabit less frequently than in days gone by, but once I cross that line, I'm in my element. I'm home. I began waving my arms, and pointing my fingers, and screaming obsenities, and questioning her sanity in no uncertain terms. I got her attention and that together with the fact that her little car was not going to fare well at all on the road's shoulder, which is really a berm, made her stop and put up her hands in surrender. She waited until the sheep were away.

Then I went back to the house and happened on an online article from the LA Times called Ranching, Recreation collide in the great outdoors. Similar to my run in with suburbanites, it is the story of a woman and a sheep rancher in Colorado, who unfortunatley collided over their rights, their safety, their recreation and their livlihood. Everybody lost in the collision. Well, all except for the attorneys. I'm sure the attorneys made a small fortune. Read the story and draw your own conclusions, but the recreating woman was mauled by 2 valuable livestock guardian dogs who were killed as a result.

The woman was just riding a mountain bike. The dogs were just protecting their flock, a job they have been bred for centuries to do. The woman moved from Chicago with her family. The rancher has been running sheep in the same area for 30 years. The woman rode into a flock of sheep 1,300 stong and the protective dogs attacked and injured her. The dogs were killed and the rancher stated he will never use dogs again because of the liability. The woman learned that she could not sue in civil court because in Colorado, there is protection for ranchers when a guardian dog bites. So, she and her husband hired an attorney who sued the rancher in criminal court where they only had to prove that a bite occurred.

The judge in the criminal case attempted to mediate a reconciliation, but the woman and her family would not have it. They wanted the rancher punished. The rancher lost 2 valuable guardian dogs, but avoided jail time. He was sentenced to 500 hours of community service and made to pay a $500 fine to charity. Without protection provided by the dogs, the rancher lost 26% of his flock to predators.

Where does our food come from? Are we so used to buying it processed, packaged and stacked neatly on store shelves that we don't know? The livestock industry and livestock as a whole have come under attack in the last few years, but where do you think your next lamb chop will come from? Or your next shearling-lined coat? Or your next set of sheepskin seat covers? If I can't cross the road with a few head of sheep without being threatened by an impatient motorist with a long shopping list and not a moment to waste, what chance does the rancher have?

Do me a favor

Please send this post to anyone you know who may be considering abandoning a dog because they are having a baby. There are no bad dogs, only poor owners. Please, always consider adoption first, then get the help you need to raise a cherished, well-mannered dog that will stay in your loving, forever home.

Thanks to Real Time Canine subscriber, Deb, for sending me these gorgeous photos.

Enough already!

The more I know, the more incensed I become. It's not enough for the AKC to cause wretched suffering in dogs by virtue of their whimsical breed standards, they are funding their whimsy on the backs of innocent dogs. The puppies in these videos are bred for the "retail sector."

That's the same "sector" the AKC Chairman, Ron Menaker, referenced in his September, 2008 Chariman's Report where he states:

"Management has been directed by the Board to aggressively pursue all dogs eligible for AKC registration. We intend to reach out, communicate, and educate those in the retail sector as to why an AKC puppy is the gold standard and why they should be registered with American Kennel Club."

So, where does the "retail sector" get those "gold standard," AKC registered puppies? Have a look at the ABC Nightline expose'.

The "Gold Standard"

In an earlier post I quoted the AKC Chairman, Mr. Ron Menaker, from his 2008 Chairman's report, where he asserts that to stay in business, the AKC must reach out to the "retail sector" and advise them that AKC registered puppies are "the gold standard." I don't know, Mr. Menaker, these dogs don't look golden to me and there were 285 of them rescued by the ASPCA on February 11 from a Tennessee puppy mill, one of the operations that supply "the retail sector."

Here is a quote from the related story on the ASPCA website.

More than 285 small-breed dogs—including Boston and Jack Russell terriers, Pomeranians, shih tzus, Chihuahuas, poodles, miniature pinschers and schnauzers—were recovered from multiple buildings on the raided property. According to Dr. Merck, the dogs are suffering from a general lack of basic care, such as little to no food or water, feces-encrusted pens and lack of proper ventilation in enclosed areas. Conditions such as matting, sores, mange, poor teeth and abscesses are widespread. Dogs in critical condition were examined immediately on the scene and in the Mobile Animal CSI Unit, and those needing emergency care were transferred to local veterinarians who have volunteered their services.

Dog over population increases by 2000 puppies an hour in the US alone. It is widely reported that over 2 million dogs are killed in shelters each year as a result, and as many as 30% of them come from diabolical operations just like this one. When you support the AKC, you support the wretched suffering of dogs like these and I would like to suggest that you support the ASPCA instead.

I will be donating money to the ASPCA from new subscriptions to The Real Time Canine received during the month of February. For as little ast $2.50 per month, you can help them care for dogs like these and get ideas to help yourself raise a great dog. If you choose not to subscribe, please visit the ASPCA website and make a donation directly to them with my thanks. That's what I did.

AKC & The Stark Reality

In the September, 2008 AKC Chairman's Report, Mr. Ron Menaker makes the following assertions:

"The American Kennel Club faces enormous challenges in reversing the continuing decline in registrations. Today, we are losing market share at an alarming rate, especially in the retail sector. We are being challenged competitively and financially. The declining registrations and associated core revenues, if allowed to continue, will fundamentally change our organization going forward. Make no mistake, the very future of the AKC and our sport is at risk..."

"Management has been directed by the Board to aggressively pursue all dogs eligible for AKC registration. We intend to reach out, communicate, and educate those in the retail sector as to why an AKC puppy is the gold standard and why they should be registered with American Kennel Club. In achieving this objective we intend to continue to “raise the bar” by vigorously enforcing our policies. This action is essential to protect and preserve our leadership..."

"AKC used to dominate the marketplace. Even places like Macy’s and Gimbels sold AKC puppies. Many pet owners who bought these puppies, and I was one of them, tried their hand at showing and breeding. These owners who purchased their first purebred from a retail outlet, not only added to AKC’s registrations, but those who wanted to advance in the sport, then sought out fanciers to continue their journey."

The AKC solution for remaining in business is to promote registration from puppy mills. It has been well documented that breeding to their arbitrary standard causes disease, misery, suffering and painful death in dogs. So what could possibly be the purpose of this American dinosaur that makes it worthy of such a high price to dogs? The registry simply tracks parentage and does so with the sole purpose of accumulating wealth with resulting power, and delusional prestige.

While the AKC revels in excess, myopic selfishness, aggrandizement and deceit at the Westminister Dog Show, I see its evil underbelly and nothing more.

Please don't breed dogs while shelter pets die. Please make an informed decision about adoption before buying. Please make the effort to train your dog so that it may become a cherished family pet and find a loving, lifelong home.

Does this look like a "Herding" Champion to you?

At the American Kennel Club's, Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show today, this breed of dog won the "herding" group. So, I went to the AKC website to read about its abilities as a working dog. What I found were 757 words used to describe the appearance of the Puli, also known as a Hungarian Water Dog. Not one, single word about the ability to complete a job, any job, let alone a job involving livestock. Here is the "breed standard" for just its head:

"The head is of medium size in proportion to the body. The almond shaped eyes are deep set, rather large, and dark brown with black or slate gray eye rims. The ears, set on somewhat higher than the level of the eyes, are hanging, of medium size, V-shape, and about half the head length. The skull slightly domed and medium broad. The stop is defined, but not abrupt. The muzzle is strong and straight, a third of the head length, and ends in a nose of good size. The nose is always black. Flews and gums are black or slate gray. Flews are tight. A full complement of teeth, comparatively large, meet in a scissors bite."

The commentator reported that the the "herding" group judge has over 40 years of experience with German Shepherds. Experience breeding them to a standard? If so, then experience completely unrelated to livestock led him to select this breed as a "herding" champion, and I personally wouldn't want him in the same building with one of my dogs, especially one as large and utterly grand as Madison Square Garden. If by simply glaring and strutting, that pompous fraud is able to determine whether the champion's "muzzle was a third of the head length," let alone capable of a full day's work, then I'm Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Ch Borderfame Signature, The Border Collie in today's competition, won't be going on to "best in show" because it didn't make the cut in the "herding" group. It didn't even place. Even though the commentator described it as the premiere "herding" dog, and the one that best "manipulates" livestock it was beaten by the Puli, a Bouvier des Flandres, Rough Collie and Old English Sheedog.

Clearly, the "herding group" has nothing whatsoever to do with tending livestock. It is readily apparent to me that the only things it does have to do with are money, deceit and self aggrandizement.

Rosettes to Ruin

This is a great article that I have re-printed here with permission. I could not agree with this writer more.

To read more of what P. Burns has to say, please visit: www.terrierman.com

Bulldog and terrier crosses, which once had powerful jaws well-placed to do important work (gripping and holding semi-wild bulls and pigs so they could be altered or slaughtered), were rapidly transformed at the turn of the 20th Century to the point that the jaws of today's Bull Terrier, while still massive, are now no longer set at a proper angle to do the work the dogs were once bred to do.

If you look at the Fox Terrier, you will see a similar transformation over time -- once small and supple dogs transformed into large, stiff-legged creatures unable to move properly in the field and with chests too deep for the animal to go to ground after fox. This is what show ring breeders do -- they ruin working breeds. And it is not just the AKC show ring, either -- it's the UKC show ring and the JRTCA show ring as well. Give any show ring enough time, and it will ruin any breed of working dog -- it always has and it always will. Go through John Broadhurst's excellent new book, "Terriermen & Terriers" (ISBN 0-0687296-1-4) and look for Welsh Terriers, Border Terriers, Wire Fox Terriers, Smooth Fox Terriers, Cairn Terriers, Lakelands, Skye Terriers, West Highland White Terriers, Cairn Terriers. They are simply NOT there.

Instead you see terriers that are not registered or are unregisterable -- Jack Russells, Fell Terriers, Fell-Border crosses, and the black Fells called Patterdales. There's even a Dachshund. The only terrierman named working a Kennel Club breed (53 terriermen are profiled) is a single fellow who recounts a Border Terrier story that is now more than 30 years old. "Working" terrier breeds? Ha! It seems they are all gone -- shot dead by the show ring. Former AKC President Kenneth Marden has acknowledged the role of the show ring in killing off working breeds: "We [the AKC] have gotten away from what dogs were originally bred for. In some cases we have paid so much attention to form that we have lost the use of the dog." In the February 13, 2002 edition of The New Republic magazine there is an article entitled "The Westminster Eugenics Show" in which the author writes of the Search And Rescue dogs trotted into the Westminster Ring in New York after the September 11th terrorists brought down to the twin towers of the World Trade Center: "The problem is that Westminster does not judge breeds for those traits which rightly make a breed a breed. The Pointers aren't asked to point (even though the logo of the Westminster Kennel Club has been a pointing Pointer for over a century). The Bassets and Bloodhounds do not track. The Otter Hounds are not tested to see if they could kill, let alone identify, an otter. And so on and so on.

"With the exception of a handful of breeds who were bred to do nothing but either keep your hands warm or wait until some Aztec chef could cook them, not a single breed at Westminster is expected to do what it was bred to do. The beautiful German Shepherd in the competition last night no doubt looked at the visiting search-and-rescue dogs the way Alec Baldwin looks at people who actually know how to read, and said, 'I wish I could be like them.'

"The cohost of the Westminster broadcast repeatedly declared 'This is not a beauty contest... because we have definitions for how a dog is supposed to look and feel. "Someone needs to tell this blow-dried Afghan-breeder that that makes it more of a beauty contest, not less of one. Simply writing down the criteria does not make a pageant any less of a pageant." The number of working dogs ruined by the show ring grows every year. Irish Setters, once famed at finding birds, are now so brain-befogged they can no longer find the front door. Cocker Spaniels, once terrific pocket-sized birds dogs, have been reduced to poodle-coated mops incapable of working their way through a field or fence row. Fox terriers are now so large they cannot go down a fox hole. Saint Bernards, once proud pulling dogs, are now so riddled with hip dysplasia that it's hard to find one that can walk without surgery in old age. In recent years, protectors of at least two working breeds -- the Border Collie and the Jack Russell Terrier -- have gone to war with the AKC in an effort to protect the working qualities of their dogs.

Unfortunately, those seeking to protect the gene pool of working dogs -- and the tradition of breeding worker to worker -- lost and both breeds are now found in the AKC show ring. While there are still working Border Collies and working Jack Russell Terriers, the number of honest working dogs of either breed in the AKC show ring is small and is falling rapidly. In time it is likely that these two breeds will in fact split off from their working roots as has happened with gun dogs where there are "working" labs and "show labs" and "working" pointers and "show" pointers.

Lesson One in the world of dogs is that if you put anything above breeding for utility, you will start to lose working abilities.

Work is a tough task master and it shows no favoritism. Fox and pheasant do not judge "up the leash" nor are they taken in by fads. Quarry is not much interested in nose or eye color, the set of the ear, or the "expression" on a dog's face as it creeps up a hedgerow.

In working dogs, utility is beauty, and "beauty is as beauty does."

E.L. Hagedoorn, a Dutch consulting geneticist to dog breed societies around the world, believed the show ring would ruin working dog breeds, and time has proven him right. As he noted in his 1939 book: "In the production of economically useful animals, the show ring is more of a menace than an aid to breeding. Once fancy points are introduced into the standard of perfection, the breeders will give more attention to those easily judged qualities than to the more important qualities that do not happen to be of such a nature that we can evaluate them at shows. Showing has nothing to do with utility at all, it is simply a competitive game."

A noted breeder of alpacas said much the same thing, noting that when farm stock is judged on the basis of wool or meat it is a different standard than that used at shows:

"Breeding animals for the shows is a very peculiar business, because of the fact that it is wholly competitive. Whereas the breeder of utility sheep or utility pigs produces something that has a certain market value, which is not changed very much even if ten of his neighbors start in with him to raise the same sort of sheep or hogs, breeding animals for the shows can only pay the man who succeeds in producing such stock as is pronounced by the judges of the moment to be the most beautiful and the most fashionable." The "judge of the moment" in a show ring may know very little about real terrier work. In the AKC, for example, most judges are experts in a half dozen breeds. In the terrier ring, it's almost a guarantee none has ever owned a deben collar or cut a shoulder into a trench in order to get down another two feet. As a rule these authorities are experts by dint of having spent far too many nights in bad hotels attending show trials. In 20 years of owning dogs, they have logged a thousand miles bouncing around show rings in plaid skirts and blue blazers. They may have driven to the moon and back to pick up rosettes, but few have driven 10 miles out into the country to even see a fox den, much less put a dog down one or dig to it. A few will claim expertise because they have bought an airplane ticket and attended a mounted hunt or two in the U.K.. They have seen "the real thing" they will tell you, and know what is required of a working dog thanks to their two-week vacation in Scotland! Just don't ask them how to extract quarry from the stop-end of a pipe or how to treat a bite wound.

Theory always ends where reality begins, and it always seems to have been this way. The very first Kennel Club shows occurred in 1873 in the U.K., and 1874 in the U.S.. By 1893 Rawdon Lee Briggs was writing in his book, "Modern Dogs," that: "I have known a man act as a judge of fox terriers who had never bred one in his life, had never seen a fox in front of hounds, had never seen a terrier go to ground ... had not even seen a terrier chase a rabbit." By the AKC's own estimates, a majority of newcomers to the sport, obsessed with championship ribbons, stick with it an average of five years. When they give up or move on to a new hobby, they leave behind a trail of dogs that were not systematically bred to do a job -- they were bred to produce ribbons and often by people who never completely finished reading a book on their own breed. Most of these back-yard-and-hobby-show-breeders do not do any genetic testing on their dogs, and when asked are quick to say their bumbling acquiescence to the destruction of a working breed is OK because "No one's hunting birds to feed their families any more," "We don't need strong jaws on a bull terrier, we have barbed wire now" "No one hunts fox anymore -- it's illegal in the UK you know."

I would suggest to these people that they get deeply involved in breeds that are not working breeds -- Shit-zoos, Peeking-ease, or Pappy-yawns, perhaps. Miniature Schnauzers or Minature Pinschers are nice dogs -- give them a try. Or better yet, get a dog from the local shelter and train it in to a high degree of perfection in agility, flyball or even circus tricks. But please stay away from breeds that are working dogs!

As for those actually interested in terriers as working dogs (and if not, please read the paragraph above), we would do well to remember that we did not create these wonderful little dogs, and we do not 'own' a breed anymore than we 'own' anything in this world. Like most worthy things, we inherit our dogs from our forbears, serve as custodians for their gene pool in our lifetime, and have a responsibility to pass on this gene pool in a reasonably good condition for the future. In the modern world, passing on the gene pool means breeding dogs that are the correct size as determined after you have done some real earth work. It also means doing genetic testing (CERF, OFA, BAER) before breeding any litter. For those looking to buy a terrier -- especially a Jack Russell or Border Terrier which are two breeds which still have some pretensions to being working dogs -- I would suggest embracing a working standard, not only for the dog but for the BREEDER as well. If the breeder doesn't own a deben collar, a $50 shovel, and a digging bar, I would suggest giving that kennel a pass. Ask to see pictures of the sire or dam in the field. No pictures, no cash.

A serious breeder takes the work of their dogs seriously, and a serious breeder will work their dogs at least a few times just to make sure they have the drive, the size and the temperament to actually do the job. The standard for a working terrier is NOT in the ring, but in the field and it is only in the field that a dog can be judged worthy of being bred.

I close with the very succinct and dead-on standard for working terriers published by The Fell and Moorland Working Terrier Club in their "Year Book and Club History: 1998-99". No better parody of the Kennel Club "standard" exists, nor does it leave out a single thing required of a working terrier.

A Working Terrier Standard A working terrier should be terrier-like in appearance and should have an acute and powerful motivation to work. HEAD: should be strong, and encased in the skull should be a brain capable of showing intelligence and a fair amount of obedience and respect with some affection. NECK: should be strong and muscular, joining the head to the body. CHEST: should be big enough to hold the heart of a lion, but small enough to enable its owner to follow the quarry into extremely tight corners. LEGS: should be long, or short, according to the work envisaged by the terrain of the area where he is to be employed. The legs should be powerful enough to carry the owner through a hard day. FEET: four, one at the end of each leg, with extremely tough pads. COAT: whether rough or smooth, white or colored, should be dense and tight, to keep its wearer warm and facilitate cleaning without holding too much earth and water. BACK: strong and supple. TAIL: for preference, a working terrier should have a tail. EYES: of great assistance above ground. EARS: yes, two. NOSE: should be able to detect and evaluate any slight scent. TEETH: should be as large and as strong as possible, firmly secured in a muscular jaw, capable of biting powerfully and holding a firm grip. In temperament, the animal should be fairly docile and tractable, with a tremendous staying power and great love of his task. He should enjoy going to ground and should not appear at 10 minute intervals to see if his owner is still waiting for him. He should disregard wounds and see his job through at all times. He should be of sensible disposition and not easily ruffled or upset.

We Appreciate Your Support

My business partner, Nancy, and I are participating in a walk on March 25, 2007 to raise money for a local humane society. I'm sure you have a needy shelter in your area, but we would appreciate your support. I have worked with this group before and they are caring and professional. I worked with them once to obtain donated medical care for a crested cockatoo that had been abused. Peaches spent a couple weeks in the hospital before going to a parrot rescue. Because of his behaviors, he could not be adopted into a home. Another time they cared for a poisoned stray I found running down a busy street. They tried but were unable to save that little girl but she was not scared and alone at the end, like she was when I found her. If your dogs are warm, dry and loved, you and they are Blessed. We have a modest goal of $250.00 so any small donation is greatly appreciated. Every little bit helps and makes a big difference in the lives of homeless animals. Please visit the URL below to make a donation with your credit card. www.firstgiving.com/coldwellbankercrittercare