Jacki Skole's Blog, page 5

Dog Tales: Stories about dogs written by the children who love them

This is the seventh in a series of stories written by young people. Writing encourages children to explore their relationships with pets and works to strengthen the human-animal bond. After all, today’s youth are tomorrow’s pet owners.

Stories have not been edited for spelling or grammar. Each story belongs wholly to its author.

Title: Letter to Annie

Author: Kathryn, age 9

Dear Annie,

Why do you jump like tigger, and instead of chasing your tail, why do you chase your leg? Also, how can you jump to the top of the big fence but you can’t jump over the small fence. Whenever we talk about our old dog, Murphy, you would jump up and start to wimper. I don’t know if you can interact with him from the dead, but whatever you do, I think you and Murphy would be great friends. You remind me of Murphy. You jump like him, you look like him, you love me like him, but most of all I am glad I adopted you, just like him.

Your Pal,

Kathryn

Kathryn and Annie

The Unintended Consequence of a Bathroom Renovation

My husband and I put off renovating our master bathroom for years. Not because it didn’t need a facelift, but because other rooms in our house needed one more. However, when Kevin could no longer jerry-rig the shower’s glass doors to keep water from pooling on the floor, time had come.

Our master bath is a design anomaly. It consists of an alcove—open to the sleeping area—that houses a vanity and sink. Inside the alcove, to the right, separated by a door, is the toilet and shower. For someone like me, whose hair frizzes with the slightest hint of humidity, the set-up actually works quite well. But it made the renovation a little tricky.

We knew we wanted to tile the floor in the shower/toilet area. But tile in the alcove, which is more bedroom than bathroom, violated what little sense of interior design we have. And because the rug that stretches from the bedroom into the alcove would be destroyed when the old vanity was torn out, we needed to choose a new floor covering for the alcove. My initial thought was hardwoods. But that would mean rug, wood, and tile co-existing in an excessively small space. Kevin nixed that idea. In the end, we decided to rip out the bedroom carpet entirely and replace it with a wood-inspired laminate that has a farmhouse feel. I love it!

Galen doesn’t.

And thus, the unintended consequence of our bathroom renovation.

Galen, in the hall outside my bedroom.

Galen hates hardwoods. She has from a very young age, so on our first floor, which is entirely wood, she travels deftly from area rug to area rug, avoiding the floor as much as possible. Years ago, she stopped stepping into the kitchen. Kevin and I wondered how she would handle this new challenge.

Now we know: Galen refuses to enter the bedroom.

A quick web search showed me that Galen isn’t the only dog freaked out by wood floors. There are online chat rooms where pet owners plea for help getting their dogs over their wood floor fears. There is a YouTube video showing a trainer teaching Buddy, who looks to be a Lab mix, to get over his “wood floor phobia.” And there are products, like Soft Paws and Show Foot, that purport to help dogs navigate wood floors and other slippery surfaces.

The consensus seems to be that dogs dislike wood floors because they are slippery and because dogs don’t like hearing their nails click-clacking on the floor. Interestingly, once Buddy overcame his phobia, he also stopped clicking.

Now comes the dilemma. If we work with Galen to conquer her fear, she will not only enter our bedroom, she will return to our bed, and Kevin has enjoyed not having fifty-eight pounds of dog nestling up against him, waking him in the middle of the night. I, on the other hand, miss her; when you’re in and out of the house all day, nighttime is together time. (Of course, that’s easy for me to say, as I’m not the one she wakes.)

For now, though, we’re doing nothing. I’ve ordered an area rug, and perhaps that will be enough to lure her back. If not, I suppose I will have to put Kevin’s need for sleep ahead of my desire to have Galen back in the bed. Ugh! Sometimes life presents us with the toughest of choices!

(For more on the pros and cons of canine co-sleeping, click here and here for past posts.)

Cuts for a Cause

For more than seven decades SAVE, an independent non-profit animal shelter, has been caring for homeless dogs and cats in the Princeton area. The organization, which will soon move into new digs in Montgomery, depends primarily on private contributions to fund its many programs.

This Sunday, you can do your part to donate to this worthy cause–and get a new do at the same time.

The talented stylists at Princeton’s Salon Pure will host a cut-a-thon from 12-4 at their Palmer Square salon. Reservations are not necessary; just show up! Cuts will cost $25, with the entire amount going to SAVE.

And… to learn more about America’s complex relationship with dogs, pick up a copy of DOGLAND. I’ll be there selling the book and donating all my proceeds to SAVE.

Hope you’ll stop by! (SAVE may be bringing some of its dogs, too, so stop by for some puppy and doggy love! You never know… you might not want to go home alone.)

 

 

Read today, Listen tomorrow

Sometimes you want to share your own good news. For me, that sometime is now. So here goes:

Thank you to Sheila Boneham, the creator of Writers and Other Animals, a fantastic blog that features authors who write about… you guessed it! Animals. My post, Adopter Beware, is now on her site. You can read it here.

I also want to thank Jill Reynolds of KRFC FM. She interviewed me about DOGLAND for her show Critter Patter, and that interview will air tomorrow (November 5) at 8:30 p.m. You can listen here.

Thank you for indulging me!

The Letter

Some dogs are “dog dogs”—given a choice between playing with dogs or people, they’ll choose their fellow canines every time. Other dogs are “people dogs”—they prefer people.

Galen has always been a people dog. I often think she’s downright rude to dogs who introduce themselves to her—she may allow them a quick sniff nose to nose or nose to you-know-where, but then she walks away. And it literally pains me when a friendly dog tries to engage her in play and her response is the canine equivalent of the cold shoulder. I often yell, “Go! Play! Be a dog!”, but she doesn’t listen.

Which is why Galen’s whole-hearted love for doggy day care might seem nonsensical. I mean, what is doggy day care but a gathering of canines of every size, age, and energy level? Of course, a group of canines, like any group of young kids, requires adult supervision, and therein lies the root of Galen’s devotion.

When I picked up Galen from day care the other night, Mark, one of the adults Galen has wrapped around her little gray paw, handed me a folded sheet of paper. I instinctively looked at Galen and asked, What did you do?  It was a natural reaction, I suppose, because when a hand-written letter comes home from your dog’s daycare provider—much like when one comes home from your kid’s school—you assume someone got herself into a bit of trouble.

It’s been several years since I received a note about Galen. When she began attending day care five years ago—she was five months old—the notes came regularly. Mostly they were about her “accidents.” Galen didn’t, and still doesn’t, like peeing anywhere but our backyard. Now that she’s comfortable at day care she relieves herself there, but in those first months she refused. So come afternoon, while resting or napping on the floor, muscles relaxed, she’d release small puddles of pee—and I’d read about it.

I said good-bye to Mark, and per my routine, I grabbed some pieces of dried hot dog from the cookie jar atop the counter. I fed them to Galen, and we left. When we got home, I read the letter.

I just thought it would make you happy to hear that Galen was extra playful today at daycare, especially in the morning. She was playing a lot with the other dogs. She loved the Frisbee, and played tug with a few friends. Usually she likes playing and getting pets from her human friends, but today she had lots of fun with her doggie friends. It made me happy to see, and I thought it might make you happy also. –Nicole

When I teach Introduction to Journalism, I often use the example journalism instructors have long used to explain to students why some events are newsworthy and some are not: Dog bites man isn’t a story, I tell students. It happens all the time. Now, man bites dog… that’s a story!

Nicole’s note reminded me about that lesson. Galen’s playing with other dogs was so unusual, so out of the ordinary, that Nicole wrote me a story about it. And she was right, it did make me happy.

I like dogs. I want my dog to like them, too.

Cuts for Canines (and Cats)

If you are in need of a haircut and you live in the Princeton, N.J. area, here’s a great opportunity to spruce up your do and do good at the same time: Salon Pure will be hosting a Cut-a-thon at its Princeton salon on Sunday, November 15, from 12-4 p.m., to raise money for SAVE, A Friend to Homeless Animals. All cuts will be a $20 donation.

I’ll be there promoting DOGLAND. All proceeds from book sales will also go to this fantastic non-profit, which does so much to help homeless dogs and cats find the loving homes they deserve.

Hope you will stop by! –Jacki

 

 

Dog Tales: Stories about dogs written by the children who love them

This is the sixth in a series of stories written by young people. Writing encourages children to explore their relationships with pets and works to strengthen the human-animal bond. After all, today’s youth are tomorrow’s pet owners.

Stories have not been edited for spelling or grammar. Each story belongs wholly to its author.

Title: The Dutchess

Author: Catherine, age 11

“Woof Woof” goes Dutchess. She is a dutch shepard with three legs. Why does she have three legs?

Let me tell you.

It all started with her other owners. At their house Dutchess had four legs and was happy. When the owners were not paying attention to Dutchess… “Bang!” She got ran over by a car. The owners took her to the vet and decided they didn’t want Dutchess anymore.

The owners never claimed Dutchess and the vet took her to the animal shelter. My mom saw a dog online. It was Dutchess! So my family and I went to the animal shelter and we took Dutchess outside. Also my family and I played with her!

We took the three legged Dutchess home, and now she is happy and safe.

Catherine and Dutchess

***

Catherine’s mom says Dutchess is about eight-years-old and shows no sign of slowing down. “She’s fine. It’s like she doesn’t miss her other leg. She can still run very fast when she wants to. And she loves walks when it’s not hot outside.” 

Shelters often find it hard to find homes for large dogs–and it’s especially hard to find homes for special needs dogs, like Dutchess. So, a special thank you to Catherine and family for giving Dutchess the loving home that this beautiful and brave dog deserves.

 

 

The strongest bond: homeless humans and their canine companions II

Part two of Glenn Greenwald’s report on the bonds between Rio de Janeiro’s homeless and their dogs is now online. As with part one, there is both an article and a short film.

This time, Greenwald’s audience is introduced to Karollyne, a black trans woman who makes her home in a large, abandoned structure tucked inside Rio’s Tijuga Forest. Karollyne moved into the crumbling edifice with her sister in 2009. Today, she lives with eleven other people, nineteen dogs, and four cats. They form a unique family in which everyone’s basic needs—for food, shelter, and companionship—are fulfilled.

Greenwald writes, “Karollyne’s life has been shaped by unimaginable, continuous suffering and struggle: early childhood abuse, a prison term in her teens, harassment for being a trans woman, all endured during years of living on the street. Rather than producing bitterness or self-pity, those experiences have made her extraordinarily empathetic to the suffering of other vulnerable living beings.”

Those beings, we learn, are the stray dogs and cats, and the jungle monkeys who cross her path.

“I get my happiness from taking care of all animals who are suffering,” Karollyne says. “We try to feed and care for them all here. It’s my purpose.”

Part two, like part one, is worth reading and watching.

 

The strongest bond: homeless humans and their canine companions

For news nerds like me, the name Glenn Greenwald brings to mind news stories about Eric Snowden. That’s because Greenwald, a former reporter for the Guardian newspaper, was one of the reporters to whom Snowden divulged all that classified information about the NSA’s spy programs. So when I read the following tweet by Greenwald: “Our new film and article: How Dogs Forge a Bond With Rio’s Homeless That is Life-Saving for Both,” my curiosity piqued. An issue of national security, this is not, of life and death, it may be.

It turns out that Brazil—where Greenwald, a native New Yorker, lives with his partner—has the second largest dog population in the world. (The United States has the largest.) And many of those dogs belong to the country’s homeless men and women, thousands of whom live in Brazil’s urban centers, like Rio de Janeiro. The dogs, Greenwald writes, “were previously living as desperate, unwanted strays on the street” until they were befriended by their humans, who “care for them as well as, and in many cases better than, the average middle-class family with a pet. The profound bond that forms between them is like nothing else one will find, and is thus deeply revealing.”

The story documents just how strong that bond is, but it’s a story that is by no means unique to Brazil. Here in the United States, the organization Pets of the Homeless estimates that five to ten percent of homeless people have pets, and in some parts of the country nearly 25% do. And many of us have read the news stories of homeless men and women who develop such strong bonds with their dogs that they will often forego moving into an apartment or house if their canine can’t move in with them.

In DOGLAND, I introduced readers to an innovative program out of the University of Tennessee’s School of Veterinary Medicine that is bringing essential veterinary care—including spay/neuter—to Knoxville’s homeless pet owners. Vets for Pets of Homeless Owners (VPHO) is making it possible for these “families” to stay together, and for the dogs to stay healthy.

Accompanying Greenwald’s story is both a short film, featuring a homeless man named Birdie and his two dogs, and an interview with the filmmaker, Heloisa Passos. Greenwald writes that a second story and a second film are coming soon.

DOGLAND in the Spotlight

Thank you to The Penmen Review, Southern New Hampshire University’s online literary magazine, for featuring an interview with me about the processes of writing, publishing, and promoting DOGLAND.

You can read the full interview here.