The Sanctuary For Senior Dogs

"THE SANCTUARY FOR SENIOR DOGS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the rescue, adoption, and lifelong care of senior dogs abandoned in shelters and pounds. All of our dogs live in Sanctuary-approved foster homes until a permanent home can be found. Senior dogs too ill to be safely adopted stay in a Sanctuary hospice foster home for life. All senior dogs are spayed or neutered prior to placement.

All Sanctuary dogs live in foster homes with families to care for them and love them; we do not house our senior dogs in a shelter.

You can meet our Sanctuary dogs and your next best friend at our Adoption & Education Center in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland on the last Sunday of each month between 2 & 4 PM (except December).

To meet a special sanctuary senior dog at any other time, just call and we will gladly set up an appointment

Many of our dogs attend Adoption Sundays, the last Sunday of every month except December. If you want to meet one special dog, call us first to see who is scheduled to attend."

Rescuing The Rescuers

"Local animal rescue organizations that rely on private donations are grappling with an unprecedented increase in abandoned animals and a steep drop in private donations.

The Santa Cruz Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which adopts out 100-120 animals per month and runs entirely on private donations, has received about half of its normal cash donations and about 75 percent less in animal food donations. Hummer Ranch Pregnant Mare Rescue, which houses horses at a small Aptos ranch until they can be adopted, has run out of cash. And, Project Purr, which spays and neuters feral cats, may not have enough money to stay open until its next fundraiser in May.

"Donations are down at least 65 percent," said Lisa Carter, director of the SPCA. "We're having to think of drastic measures in order to stay afloat. It's pretty grim. Because of the economy, we're looking at having to rescue less. More and more people locally are being impacted by the economy."

Carter, who has been with the SPCA for six years, says she's never seen such a big drop in donations and such a demand for animal shelter services. The agency gives out cat and dog food each month to about 150 people who can't afford to feed their animals."

Do Dogs Dream ?

You've probably seen it happen—your sleeping dog suddenly lets out a woof as his legs begin to twitch. Is he dreaming?

Many scientists say there is evidence to support the idea that dogs do, in fact, experience dreams. Researchers using an electroencephalogram (EEG) have tested canine brain wave activity during sleep. They've found that dogs are similar to humans when it comes to sleep patterns and brain wave activity. Like humans, dogs enter a deep sleep stage during which their breathing becomes more irregular and they have rapid eye movements (REM). It is during REM sleep that actual dreaming and, often, involuntary movements take place. Dogs may move their legs as if they are running, whine or whimper as if excited, and breathe rapidly or hold their breath for short periods.

Not all dogs dream equally. Research suggests that small dogs dream more than larger dogs. A Toy Poodle may dream once every ten minutes while a Golden Retriever may only dream once every 90 minutes. Dreaming also seems to occur more frequently in puppies. This may be because they are processing huge quantities of newly acquired experiences.

Iams Home 4 the Holidays

Iams Home for the Holidays has set a goal to place 1 million orphaned animals into happy and loving homes during this year's holiday season from October 1, 2008 to January 5, 2009.

Award-winning actress and pet parent Felicity Huffman has teamed up with Iams Home for the Holidays to help raise awareness for the millions of homeless dogs and cats throughout North America.





- Celebrating its 10th Anniversary, Iams Home for the Holidays is among the world's most successful pet adoption programs and includes nearly 3,000 partner animal organizations from around the world that are dedicated to helping raise awareness about the importance of pet adoption and educating people considering a new pet.

- Since it began in 1999, Iams Home for the Holidays has helped place more than 2 million pets into happy homes. Last year alone, Iams Home for the Holidays helped nearly 500,000 families experience the joy of pet adoption.

- Every cat, dog, puppy or kitten that is adopted during Iams Home 4 the Holidays will go home with an Iams Adoption Starter Kit.

- Founded by the Helen Woodward Animal Center and supported by Iams, Iams Home for the Holidays began in 1999 with just 14 participating animal shelters in San Diego County. Today there are nearly 3,000 shelters in 15 countries around the world helping orphaned animals find loving homes and families.

Veterinary Emergency Funding Mission

"Have you had a crisis with your pet that required you to seek emergency veterinary care? Have you been in the awful situation of not having the money to pay for it? Sadly, many pet owners cannot afford the treatment that their animal needs. Some of you had no one to turn to and were forced to choose inadequate care or even euthanasia. We want to hear your story. No pet should be denied emergency care because an owner has fallen on hard times. Let us hear from you, to help kick-start the birth of the Veterinary Emergency Funding Mission. Help us meet our target
start-up date of January 1, 2009."

"Lack of sufficient funds can leave an owner faced with euthanasia for a beloved companion. The Veterinary Emergency Funding Mission (VEFM) helps locate these funds."

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

"With these kinds of movies, it's been my experience, at least, that people always love seeing the dogs," said Mike Alexander, the head trainer and animal coordinator of Birds & Animals Unlimited, a handler whose work has been instrumental to several films and television productions over the past 20 years.The red carpet trip marks yet another amazing step for Rusco, the dog who plays Papi in "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." In an @ The Movies interview Wednesday, Alexander said his new canine star is the one who almost got away.That's because Rusco was at an animal shelter when Alexander found a photo of what believed could be the dog he was looking for. The problem was, after months of searching, the esteemed animal trainer as behind such hits as "A Night at the Museum" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (he helped orchestrate the film's elaborate squirrel scene) found himself racing against the clock.

"Because there are so many potential dogs to cast out there, it's hard for us to review every single source every single day," Alexander said. "We had one, small picture that I was able share with Disney, and when we got around to calling the shelter, they said, 'Well, he's been here for about two weeks, and that's about as long as they stay here, and we don't reserve him over the phone.' By then, it was about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and I got in my car and rushed down to the shelter, but since it was so far away, I had traffic to deal with."Unfortunately, Alexander arrived at the Moreno Valley Animal Shelter about 60 miles from Los Angeles just a little too late."When I got down there they were just closing the doors and wouldn't let me in," Alexander recalled. "So I went back the next morning and Rusco was still there. So after spending a little time for him, I knew right away, that this was going to be Papi."

Animal Shelter Contest

Care2.com, the largest online community of people passionate about making a difference, will award the grand prize of $10,000 to the animal welfare group that receives the most votes via the contest website. In addition to the grand prize, Care2 is awarding $3,000, $1,000 and two prizes of $500 to the four runner-ups respectively. Winners will be announced the second week of November.

To ensure every shelter and rescue group has an opportunity to win a prize, Adopt-a-Pet.com is also giving prizes of $1,000 at random (not based on votes) each week during the contest period.

The contest started on Monday, Sept. 22 and ends on Saturday, Nov. 1. Through the contest website people also can invite their friends to vote for their favorite shelter. Visitors can track who has recruited the most friends to vote for their favorite shelters. The top 20 people who recruit the most friends to vote will each receive a $50 gift certificate sponsored by Adopt-a-Pet.com.

“Care2 and its members have shown unwavering support of animal welfare issues throughout the years and are devoted to improving their plight, like our organization,” said David Meyer, president of Adopt-A-Pet.com. “We have 6,000 animal shelters across the country seeking to find homes for pets in their care, and the number of homeless pets on our site is increasing each month. By partnering with Care2 for this contest, we can further our goal of raising awareness about animal shelters and finding good homes for these animals.”

ASPCA: Petition

"

"The ASPCA has recently launched CATvsDOG.org, an online campaign to raise awareness about some of the most critical animal welfare issues today and to urge animal lovers across the country to support its drive towards ending animal cruelty.

"The goal of the nationwide online campaign is to incite one million Americans to sign a pledge to prevent cruelty and abuse," said ASPCA President & CEO Ed Sayres. "By signing the pledge and casting their vote, people are helping the ASPCA ensure animals have a voice in the upcoming election."

The campaign highlights eight important animal welfare issues such as puppy mills, “dangerous breed” bans, pets and family violence through the eyes of candidates Mittens-the-Cat and Rowdy-the-Dog. Candidate Mittens and Rowdy take humorous, opposing positions on each of the issues through intriguing debates that are summarized with facts to bring light to the seriousness of each topic.

"The ASPCA will deliver one million signatures collected from the online campaign to the newly elected president shortly after the presidential election is concluded," said Mr. Sayres. To date 366,533 signatures have already been collected.

Wildlife and the Killers

I would like to share with you a recent comment that was left by a very informative reader.

"What is now "Wildlife Services" (under the USDA) used to be called the Biological Survey. In the 1900's, W.S. went on an all out war to exterminate wolves and other predators to 'sanitize the West" for livestock owners! They hired people to do the killing who were generally low life kinds of people desperate for money.

These federal agents would kill wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, foxes, and many other animals deemed to be "a risk" to the livestock industry by any grisly means possible, poisoning, trapping, shooting....

Every year, Wildlife "Services" kills over 1.4 animals on behalf of the livestock industry (mostly). This includes the killing of about 10,000 MAMMALS per year -- foxes, coyotes, wolves, carnivore bears, beavers, mountain lions, and more. The worst part? They use OUR TAX MONEY TO DO IT! I am very sorry but that is NOT OK with me! Feel free to contact the agency in D.C. to get figures. They will refer you to their website which they have INTENTIONALLY made difficult to get that kind of information.

The Safari Club, (the most elite trophy hunting organization with millionaire members) helped Sarah Palin with her promotion of aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska, financially backing the state promotion of it. Palin used taxpayer dollars to promote it as well for a total of over $700,000! They've killed 800 wolves so far since the program began (5 years ago?) by aerial killing. They run the wolf to exhaustion and then shoot it. They often have to shoot it several times to kill it, so the animal writhes in pain and agony. It's brutal -- it's horrible -- and it should be illegal. In fact, twice -- voters in Alaska voted it down -- and both times, hunting interests pushed it through! Now how can that happen except in a corrupt government?

It's not "hunting" in the sense that they're "hunting" them for food, etec. But they are hunting them to "get rid" of them to increase the moose and caribou population as Alaska gets a lot of money in from both in and out of state hunting licenses. Palin wants to ensure her hunters will get the moose and caribou they want. The problem is - it's at the expense of the wolves! And the taxpayer's money!

Back to "Wildlife Services." They are funded by taxpayers with the primary intention to protect the livestock industry. That is how they started, that is still what they do at their heart. It's wrong to use taxpayer money in this way -- they will actually go out in airplanes and shoot coyotes from airplanes IN ADVANCE of "calving season!" They're killing coyotes before the coyote even went after an animal.

Wildlife Services has no shame what they do to our animals. It's interesting though because they have recently made it much more difficult to find out how many animals they kill per year as they know it's BAD PR."

More about this on Monday. Stay tuned.

Palin: Champion Barracuda

"As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has championed aerial gunning of wolves and bears. Using powerful images of this needless and brutal practice -- and the indisputable facts about Palin's promotion of it -- we've created a hard-hitting new television ad to educate voters about what Governor Sarah Palin really stands for.

As governor, Sarah Palin...

Proposed paying a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf.

Approved a $400,000 state-funded propaganda campaign to promote aerial hunting.

Introduced legislation to make it even easier to use aircraft to hunt wolves and bears.

Help run our new ad and support wildlife-saving efforts across the country. Please donate now!

Palin and Painful

"The wolf is an intelligent, handsome creature and, for many visitors to Alaska, an integral part of the state’s wild appeal. Wolves live in complex social structures, mate for life and don’t attack humans — it’s easy to see in them the family resemblance to mankind’s best friend.

That’s what makes it so painful to look at the video of an aerial wolfhunt in Alaska that has been circulating since Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was nominated as Sen. John McCain’s running mate on the Republican ticket."

Please watch the video here.

Houston SPCA

" Noah would feel right at home at the Houston SPCA, which has taken in about a thousand animals from communities enduring a major beating from Hurricane Ike.

In addition to hundreds of dogs and cats, the shelter collected horses, ducks, goats, iguanas and even a bear as part of its menagerie in the days leading up to the storm — which crashed ashore before dawn Saturday.

Houston SPCA President Patricia Mercer compared it to the Biblical ark, and the rescue center has taken in the Galveston Island Humane Society animals as well as those from the Brazoria County and Bay Area SPCA in Galveston County, she said. Some of the staff from the other organizations accompanied "

Cat Reunited With Family

"A couple have been reunited with their missing cat after nine years, the RSPCA said on Wednesday.

Dixie, a 15-year-old ginger cat, disappeared in 1999 and her owners thought she had been killed by a car.

She was found less than half a mile from her home in Birmingham after a concerned resident rang the animal charity to report a thin and dishevelled cat who had been in the area for a couple of months.

RSPCA Animal Collection Officer Alan Pittaway checked her microchip and confirmed it was Dixie. She was returned to her owners, Alan and Gilly Delaney, within half an hour.

"In 29 years of working for the RSPCA I have never seen anyone so excited and happy as Mrs Delaney," Pittaway said. "It made my day to return Dixie to her owners."

The couple were "overjoyed" to be reunited with their missing cat after so many years."

George Bush: Endangered Species

"For more than 30 years, the Endangered Species Act has protected wildlife at risk of extinction. Now the Bush/Cheney Administration wants to make some serious changes to this landmark law -- changes that would eliminate vital checks and balances that are crucial to protect our wolves, polar bears and other imperiled wildlife.

Speak out now for polar bears, wolves and the nearly 1,400 species currently protected under the Endangered Species Act! Fill out the form below to urge your U.S. Representative and Senators to do whatever they can to stop this eleventh-hour assault on protections for our endangered wildlife.

We’ve provided some text below to help get you started, but personalized messages will be most effective. Please be sure to include any personal…

* Education or special expertise on wildlife
* Experience that informs your opinion
* Beliefs that shape your views on protecting wildlife"

Palin and the Polar Bears

This woman scares me more every minute.


"Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has ignored research showing that polar bear populations are declining in the quest to plumb new sources of energy, according to scientists, and environmental groups who fought to put the bears on the endangered species list.

The 44-year-old Palin, a beauty pageant winner and former mayor of a small town in Alaska, is an advocate of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has infuriated environmentalists for her support of the aerial shooting of wolves as a way to build up herds of moose and caribou. She's also sued the Interior Department for putting polar bears on the endangered species list.

In the lawsuit, filed this month in federal district court in the District of Columbia, Palin argues that the government's move to list polar bears as endangered is not based on sound science, and restricts oil and natural gas development. The Interior Department had put the bears on the list in response to a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, who argued that the bears are being threatened by global warming."

Sick Safari

"Most people had never heard of Sarah Palin when she was named the Republican VP nominee. But I'd been hearing her name all too often, because I belong to a group called Defenders of Wildlife -- and in her time as governor of Alaska, Palin has used her position as governor of Alaska to ruin the Alaskan wilderness in every way she could.

Her most recent "victory" came on Aug. 26, when Alaska's voters defeated Measure 2, an initiative that would have banned hunting wolves from airplanes for sport.

Palin organized a campaign against Measure 2 and funded it with $400,000 of state money. For most of us, the idea of zooming around in a private airplane over snowbound wilderness just for the chance to spot a terrified wild dog and blow it apart with a high-powered rifle is insane. But there's a whole culture out there in love with the idea. Palin did her part by playing the tired old Alaskan pioneer card, saying that lower-48 naysayers who dared to object to the idea of dive-bombing wildlife didn't "understand rural Alaska."

There is so much more about Palin here.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Despite strong scientific, ethical and public opposition to aerial hunting, Governor Palin has…

• Proposed paying a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf.
• Approved a $400,000 state-funded propaganda campaign to promote aerial hunting.
• Introduced legislation to make it even easier to use aircraft to hunt wolves and bears.

Stop The Killing

God's Beautiful Wolves

Happy Labor Day

Sarah Palin: The Wolves

Sarah Palin, the recently appointed VP of McCain, is the Governor of Alaska.

She has allowed the aerial gunning of wolves and a practice called "denning" whereby a family of wolves in a den is stalked, watched, and when the adults come out, they are shot. The little pups are then shot in the head by the Wildlife service.


"This woman, whether credible or not, is dangerous. We need to get the word out hard, fast and repeatedly to every animal loving republican we know that Ms. Palin offers $150 for left forelegs of wolves.

As a dog lover, I can tell you this more than disgusts me. Her beauty queen exterior belies her cruel interior."