Who Is Broken Promises SW?

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Joy Jones

Broken Promises SW is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization seeking to end animal overpopulation by spaying and neutering animals in Las Cruces, NM and Dona Ana County. We offer spay/neuter assistance, help with addressing feral cat overpopulation humanely through TNR, and rescue of injured pigeons, doves, chickens, and other birds. We operate a sanctuary that is home to rescued cats, doves, pigeons, hens, a few roosters, and a turkey named Sorrell. We also have two resident feral cats, Gary and Alan, who keep an eye on the sanctuary while we’re tending to other things.
We don’t “take” cats from people’s property – all the cats we trap are returned after they are surgically sterilized, ear tipped, and given rabies and FVRCP vaccines. We sometimes will take adoptable stray cats and young feral kittens to socialize and adopt out through one of the rescue groups we partner with when time and space allows; these occasions are rare given the volume of feral cats we regularly trap, but openings do pop up on occasion.

Our services are offered at no-charge, but we are a small organization that runs on donations so any amount is appreciated. If you are unable to afford a donation it will have no affect on the quality of care and help you and your cats will receive. We accept cash/check donations at our PO Box and credit card donations through Paypal here.

You can visit us on Facebook here as well.

This post was sent in by submitted by Joe Miele with Broken Promises SW. If you’d like to write a post about your non profit org, we’d love to see it! Just check out our submission guidelines at this page.

Dog’s Day Out – The Adventures of Sahara and Brinly

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Joy Jones

Your Pet Space is a boarding facility that operates out of New Mexico, but we have visitors to this blog from all around the world, so I wanted to reach out to the East Coast readers who are unable to use our New Mexico facility and are looking for somewhere to take your pets for a day out. Say you want something beautiful in the mountains, something different from what you have experienced before. You’re not looking for simple trails, you want to have food, new experiences and a great view, all rolled into one. I have just the place for you.

What Is The Biltmore Estate?

It took six years for George Vanderbilt to build the 250-room French Renaissance chateau, but once it was completed, it was a masterpiece in every sense of the word. He took a location that had been practically emptied of trees by the surrounding settlers and put Frederick Law Olmsted (yes, the man who made Central Park) in charge of creating a new, natural landscape to complement his home. Between Olmstead’s work on the grounds and the stunning architecture of the buildings themselves, there is no place in the country like Biltmore Estate, America’s largest privately owned home, especially since you can bring your pets along.

Horses and Pets Are Welcome

Biltmore has always been famous for hospitality, a tradition that is being kept by Vanderbilt’s descendants to this day, but it isn’t just humans who are welcome on the grounds. Horse owners can bring their horses and use the riding trails while pets are welcome to explore the beautiful scenery on garden and hiking trails. There are some rules, of course. You must keep your pet on a leash at all times and only service animals are allowed in the house and in most buildings. Still, if you are going for the scenery, what better way to enjoy it than with your four legged friends?

My wife and I are year round pass holders, so we visit frequently, often taking others with us to tour the house or winery, so on the days when we feel like a picnic in the mountains, we usually pack up the dogs for a day trip. The journey is three hours long and we tend to leave very early in the morning in order to get the most out of our visit, but Sahara and Brinly never seem to mind. In fact, they typically hear us saying the word “Biltmore” and become very excited for the upcoming adventure.

Most visitors start their day with a tour of the house, but since it is off limits to pets, we generally drive past and park in the lot at the garden shop. You can ask an attendant if there are places available in the Dianna lot, which is within walking distance of the house, but most often it is simply easier to drive through. Here’s a helpful tip: If you want to drive PAST the parking attendants, turn your emergency blinkers on when you come to the parking areas, this means you do NOT wish to park and attendants will wave you through.

If you would like to walk around in front of the house first, or climb the hill to the Dianna Statue, the lot behind the Garden Center is a great place to park, as you only need to walk through the beautifully kept gardens to get to the front lawn and all the sights there. When we have guests with us who want to visit the estate, one of us will stay out on the lawn or wander the gardens with the dogs, while the other goes through the house with our friends. When this happens, our dogs are greeted by the staff as we wait at the door, and true to Vanderbilt’s tradition of hospitality, Brinly and Sahara have even been offered cookies on occasion.

If you are looking for something to eat, the stable area at the side of the house offers outdoor seating that serves not only the Ice Cream Parlor, but also the Courtyard Market and the Bake Shop. Here you can have a snack and wait for the rest of your party to join you, eat some lunch, or just relax with a drink or dessert before starting the rest of your day. There is also an outdoor café behind the Conservatory, in the garden area where we park.

We usually wander around the gardens first because we prefer to picnic in the large, open area beyond Biltmore House. Guests to the Estate are allowed to bring an outside picnic as long as it does not contain alcohol and as long as they picnic in appropriate places on the grounds. You can also order a picnic basket ahead of time from the Bakery, Conservatory Café, or Creamery.

Once you have finished eating, there is so much to see, it is almost overwhelming. I can guarantee that you will never get everything done in one day and highly recommend that you purchase a year round pass if you plan to make one or more return visits in the year. We are talking about taking day trips with our pets, after all, and there is simply no way you can see everything in one day on the Estate.

Around the house itself you and your pets can visit the South Terrace, the Italian Garden, the Shrub Garden, the Spring Garden, the Walled Garden, the Rose Garden, and the Azalea Garden. All of that includes many paths that split off to give you variety on your journey.

In the gardens we have seen all varieties of birds as well as some squirrels and rabbits. We even saw a beautiful black snake once, making its way through the bushes along the creek that runs through the Azalea Garden. Away from the gardens we have even seen beaver and ground hogs. Our dogs love this variety and are always stimulated by these new sights and smells, even though they are used to some of them from spending time in our yard at home.

Not all of the animals in the garden area are wild, though. Sahara always insists that we stop by the Italian Garden, nearest the house, and will pull and tug quite frantically if she thinks we are going to walk past it. Why? Up until recently we had goldfish in our house and true to her motherly nature, Sahara insisted on fussing over our fish. On her first visit to the Italian Garden, Sahara realized there were fish in the pond. Not little fish like ours, but giant beauties, perfectly suited to their magnificent setting. Since that day, we have always had to visit them.

If you are feeling up to a little bit more of a stroll, you can take one of the trails that leads to the Bass Pond and still get back to your car in reasonable time. The easy path is through the gardens. It is on a somewhat gentle slope and meanders through all varieties of life mentioned above. That way is paved and it is easy to get around. The colors are different in every season, but are especially stunning in spring, when all of the flowers are in bloom.

Those who are willing to take on a bit more of a challenge can take the Deer Park Trail, which begins just at the edge of the Shrub Garden and South Terrace, wanders along the open area by the house and takes you down the hill to the Bass Pond. Be prepared to go down a rather steep hill to get to the pond, but as is the case with walking through the gardens, the view along the way is gorgeous, especially in the fall, when the trees are in full color.

Once you get to the Bass Pond your exploration of the areas around Biltmore House is nearly complete. At the pond you can sit along the edges of the water to get a rest and take in the view. There are many who picnic here or who read a book before going on their way. We typically continue on to the waterfall, which is just beyond the pond. To get here you walk along a woodchip path, which is marked out. There is a little loop here, which follows a bamboo shaded creek and then turns back to the house again.

By the time we get here, the dogs are usually looking for a drink, and this is the perfect place for them to find refreshment. We usually decide to take our rest here instead of on one of the benches along the Pond, simply because it is remarkably peaceful, though it can be rather busy at times.

Some trails from the house reach all the way to other parts of the estate, but I only recommend those to avid hikers, as they can be steep and long. They are especially hard on Sahara, with her short legs and stocky build, but we do hike them on occasion. I think it is important to note here that they ask you to pick up after your animals at Biltmore. There are trash cans throughout the garden area, but once you are on the actual trails you are on your own, so bring bags that will hold up for the long journey!

If you choose to walk from the house to the Winery and Farmyard, follow the Deer Park Trail away from the House and Pond. This trail winds back and forth through fields and eventually gives you a view of the lagoon. Once the Deer Park Trail meets up with the Lagoon Trail on the French Broad River, the walk gets much easier and is paved, but it is QUITE the hike! Putting the two trails together makes about 3 miles of walking (one way) and is listed as a moderate hike. We have only walked from the house to the Lagoon once with Sahara. We had to make many resting stops along the way.

If you prefer to drive to the Winery and Farmyard, be prepared to be amazed. The winding roads are just as beautiful as the trails are, though you don’t get to see as much from inside the car. You will cross several other trails, including those for bikes and horses, so be on the lookout for those notifications.

The trails here form a web around the entire area and vary from flat and easy to steep and difficult, providing you with many hours of beauty to explore. The Inn at Biltmore Estate has its own trail, which links up with the others and wanders the grounds of the Inn. The Farm trails are all generally flat and easy, many are paved or follow gravel roads, and most of the six miles of walking space lies along the French Broad River. If you feel like long hikes that blend difficulty levels, you can take the Farm Trail to the Arbor Trace Trail, a path which progresses from easy to moderate to difficult and then loops around back on the same path. There is also the Westover Trail system, which wanders through both gentle and steep terrain while taking you in and out of the wooded areas of the estate. This trail system has three loops, an easy, a moderate and a difficult trail, which all intersect with each other at various points along the way. It is on these trails where we encountered an example of Biltmore’s continued dedication to being environmentally conscious and self sustainable, spotting a solar farm as we made our way.

All this walking will probably make you hungry and put you in need of some rest. No worries! Visitors to the Antler Hill Village, where the Farmyard and Winery are located, will find all kinds of shopping and eating experiences and children will love going in to the Farmyard and meeting some of the animals. If you are hungry when you arrive, the Smokehouse and the Creamery offer outdoor dining and there are plenty of places to sit around the green if you are interested in simply having a rest. At certain times of the year there is live music as well.

Even though their website clearly states that pets are not allowed in the buildings, we have found two exceptions. Once, while we were parked at the Gardens, we stopped in to the Gardener’s Place and were told that next time we came in we could bring our dogs, as they were welcomed there. On another visit, we were at the old Barn past Antler Hill Village, my wife went inside to shop, but was quickly sent back outside by the cashier and told to bring us in. Be aware that these are exceptions to the “no pets in the buildings” rule. If you are curious about your pet going to shop with you, ask before you enter. Though there are places to eat that provide outdoor seating, and some stores do welcome animals inside, not all have those allowances. We have never walked in to a building with our dogs without being invited.

A Favorite Doggie Day Trip

With all of the sights to see and the excellent hospitality, Biltmore Estate is one of our favorite Doggie Day Trip destinations. I have yet to experience a time when our Sahara and Brinly were reluctant to explore the grounds and they have yet to have the same experience twice. Here your pets can experience the beauty of the mountains and the hospitality of a family who keeps their private home open as an amazing historical landmark. At Biltmore pets can take in the quiet of the hills or the bustle of the barnyard. They can hike to their hearts content, or even visit with Cedric, the Vanderbilt’s favorite Saint Bernard, who is immortalized in the form of a bronze statue outside of the tavern that bears his name. This is one doggie day trip destination that cannot be missed.

Mirrani Houpe, our Small Animal Editor, has had rats since she took home her first little boy once they both completed the second grade. Since that time she has owned, rescued and bred many kinds of rats, from many backgrounds. She may not be a vet, psychology major, or scientist, but her babies have her very well trained when it comes to how to care for them. She is constantly working with her family’s veterinarian to come up with new and innovative ways to love and care for the most often misunderstood rodent in the pet world. You can e-mail her at mirrani@yourpetspace.info

Greyhounds vs. Coyotes

Posted on July 11, 2015 by Joy Jones

The Unspoken Battle of the Midwest

In our culture, hunting coyotes has become popular for their pelts, and general defense for pets and ranch animals. Due to their speed and ferocious behavior, however, hunting them can be difficult for marksmen. As an alternative to the traditional form of hunting, many have taken to seeking help from their canine companions: that is, Greyhounds. Greyhound dogs are an exemplary hunting animal capable of reaching top speeds of 40 miles per hour and exhibiting great obedience skills. These characteristics of the dogs make them an ideal choice for hunters to exploit the animals when seeking wild coyotes. Coyotes can also reach very high speeds and usually hunt in packs, making them very dangerous for livestock or even local pets in rural areas.

Many organizations, like Project Coyote, don’t support the hunting of these animals, although there are many reasons as to why they are hunted regularly. For starters, just like rats and birds, coyotes carry disease from eating rotting carcasses and sick animals that may not be able to defend themselves. This disease can spread from other animals and even to humans, in some cases. In the Southwest, the growing population of these animals also makes it very difficult to hunt for small game due to the high density of coyotes hunting them before we may. Regardless of these reasons, it is still wrong for people to take the initiative to train their dogs to hunt for their canine relatives.

Coyotes are not natural enemies of Greyhounds, and hardly interact unless through coincidence, considering their habitats differ significantly. Forcing dogs to hunt coyotes is cruel and should not be as prevalent as it is in our society. The main problem is that many people are not even aware of these killings. The fact that so many see coyotes as a nuisance also creates the illusion that they aren’t animals that deserve humane rights. To hunt the animals to defend livestock is one thing, but to have them hunted down by another animal for sport is unethical. Although Greyhounds are marvelous animals, so are the coyotes they are forced to fight. These hunters gain an adrenaline rush from watching the canids fight in what becomes a life or death matchup. The practice is easily considered dogfighting and is illegal in states like Washington and Colorado.

The events that take place during these hunts are atrocious, and some people have the audacity to record and post these videos onto sites like YouTube. I had the opportunity to witness a few of these videos and heard the jeers of laughter and approval coming from the hunters and their friends as their trained greyhounds would fight and kill coyotes. These greyhounds endure injury even when they win the skirmishes they are set for. A profile was done on a cattle rancher named John Hardzog, who is an avid practitioner of coyote hunting and exploits his own dogs for their hunting abilities. To him, the dogs are expendable and he often boasts about the hunting he participates in, calling it “natural.” Hardzog has been hunting coyotes since the age of seven and is now nearly seventy years old, with the idea that having his greyhounds do the dirty work is a natural sport for the animals. The cunning coyote “always has an escape route,” says Hardzog, who uses the wits of both animals to justify the abuse he puts his pets through. Having around forty greyhound and greyhound mixes at his disposal, Hardzog says he eradicates the coyote nuisance for free and is not ashamed of his actions at all. He is only one of the many hunters who use the greyhounds in an inhumane practice that a lot of us are just barely hearing of.

Many organizations like the Greyhound Companions of New Mexico have taken notice of these illegal activities and have spoken up about the damage that coyote hunting could do to greyhounds. The organization has a website dedicated to the mistreatment of greyhounds involved in dog racing and illegal hunting. They try to spread awareness of the abuse these dogs face and collect donations to benefit the animals. Judy Paulsen, the director of the GCNM, stands out against greyhound abuse and understands that getting the word out to the public is half the battle.

The abuse of the greyhounds goes further than just damage from the coyotes, but also the injury they sustain from the chase. Many of John Hardzog’s dogs come back from a hunt with open wounds from barbed wire and the terrain they travel through on the hunt. He usually treats them with penicillin and steroids to reduce infection. The “sport” that Hardzog practices is not banned in his home state of Oklahoma yet and he fears that it might be soon. In states like Colorado, these hunts are considered dog fighting which is illegal in all fifty states and I believe it shouldn’t be too long before these hunts become just as illegal. Hardzog has put a lot of effort into his expertise and has a specially made pen in the back of his pickup trucks for the greyhounds to spring from and hunt. What leaves worry in a lot of people is the fact that John is not the only hunter who participates in these cruel activities. There are hundreds of people who are doing this on their own and not facing any consequences for the deaths or injuries their greyhound dogs endure.

People like John don’t see their wrong doing because for the most part they haven’t been opposed. Legal action should be taken against the men that treat these dogs like simple slaves to do their dirty work. The greyhounds are raised believing that what they are doing is okay, and may never lead a normal life. John has accounted for having some of his dogs run off a cliff while in pursuit and had no regard for their well-being. They aren’t his pets, but more like his workers in his twisted game of fate and violence. According to men like John, he is doing people a favor for disposing of the wild coyote that may pester household pets. Regardless of what he believes he is doing for the public, the fact that many of his animals have broken their necks or several other bones as well as received large lacerations and even died show a lot about how he cares for the greyhounds in his possession.

Furthermore, the greyhounds are in a state of danger being used to hunt an animal with the cunning and speed that the wild coyote possesses. In order to help these animals, people must become aware of the mistreatment and be willing to help the cause. Organizations like GCNM and many others have projects to fund and care for victims of animal abuse. Donating and rising against the problem is easy and I encourage anybody who would like to see this problem stopped to help however they can. One selfless act can benefit more than just one of these greyhound dogs in need of help from the tyranny of egotistic men with an agenda to hurt rather than to heal.

References:

Critics try to ban coyote hunting contests

Coyote vs. Greyhound: The Battle Lines Are Drawn

Lazarus Gomez, an aspiring writer from Phoenix, Arizona has been freelance writing for local newspapers and is currently majoring in journalism at New Mexico State University. He has always been an avid animal lover and has two large bulldogs named Levi and Diesel. Included in the pack of animals he owns is a small cat named Mary. He currently resides in Las Cruces, New Mexico and is hoping to pursue his passion in sports writing.

Helping a Smart and Picky Rat Adjust to Big Change

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Joy Jones

North, figuring out how his fountain works and telling us to turn it on for him.

Regular readers already know of my rat North, who suffered a serious case of pneumonia almost a year ago. Since then, because of the resulting lung deterioration, he has become a rat with special medical needs. He has always been a rat with special emotional needs because he is too smart for his own good. Now I know all rats are smart, they are easily trainable and extremely curious, it’s one of the things that make them appealing as pets, but when we brought North home we knew he was going to be different. From the very beginning, he and his brother Whisper began to train US.

Rat Rules of the house as dictated by North and Whisper:

1) “If I pull on your sleeve, it means lift your arm so I can run on it to someone else’s arm or to something close by.”

2) “If I stand on your hand and lift my nose at someone else, it means I want them to lift their arm.”

3) “If I am riding on your shoulder and tap your cheek with my nose, it means I want you to turn that way.”

4) “If I tap really fast, it means you’re not moving fast enough and you’d better hurry up.”

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Both Whisper and North do these things, but Whisper is always very calm about it, using the commands only when he most needs to get his point across to us. North, on the other hand, quickly began to use them with a purpose.

It wasn’t long before North worked out our daily routines. Most rats get used to the regular schedule of their humans, but we soon realized that he hadn’t just figured out that after dinner we watch TV, he figured out that starting at 8pm we watch TV. He began coming to me for a snuggle after dinner, at exactly 8pm, lasting until exactly 8:30.

North’s Routine:

1) Go to my first human and tap on her to get her to pick me up.

2) Climb across her shoulders and pull her sleeve to indicate I want to go across to the snuggle chair.

3) Cross to the snuggle chair and settle with my other human.

4) When snuggle is over, climb other human and pull on sleeve to indicate I want to cross to the first human again.

5) Cross the first human and climb down onto sofa for the rest of my play time.

If no one was available to get him to my chair, or if I wasn’t in the chair to start with, North would go on a frantic search for a human who could fix the situation. One evening, he even jumped on one of our guests, who promptly gave him to my wife. Once in her arms, North tugged on the FRONT of her shirt, pulling her to where I was, down the hall, working in the computer room. By this point we all knew what this meant and North was brought in to me, with much eager cheek tapping.

Whisper and North settled down on their table next to the snuggle chair.

A TV Watching Rat

After a few months of all of this it became so much of a habit with us that we mindlessly lifted our arms and snuggled into blankets without thinking anything of it. We completely failed to notice that on certain nights, instead of sleeping inside of his nesting box, North would climb on top of the box and face the TV. By now you can guess that I am about to tell you he had memorized the schedule there as well, but it took us a while to realize there were certain shows he would “watch.” Most of the time North cares little about the television, but he has two favourites that he literally cannot live without: Hell on Wheels and Sleepy Hollow. These two shows he will not miss and when their regular seasons are on air, he is settled in his TV spot just as the show comes on. And when he is sick? Well, he snuggles down in his blankets and watches reruns of both. Sometimes this is the only way we can get him to eat food!

North watching Hell on Wheels from his nesting box.

His absolute favourite is Sleepy Hollow, which he still watches on Monday nights, even though the season has finished. When I come home on Monday he is desperate to get my attention, running all kinds of ways, standing up on his back legs, waving his arms in the air. At the mention of Sleepy Hollow he settles down, but heaven forbid I should forget to put on a rerun for him at exactly 9pm! North has actually become somewhat famous for his Sleepy Hollow watching, as a video of him has gone around one of the rat groups I belong to, and even surprised our vet, who was stunned to see how attentive North was being.

North eating banana, recovering from a bout of pneumonia, watching Sleepy Hollow.

Recently things changed at our house. In January our ceiling caved in and needed to be repaired. Unfortunately for all of us, North can’t live in the dust and paint of construction, and with the insulation out as well, the house was much too cold for his recurring pneumonia, so the rats and I had to move out. With a rat this particular about routines, relocating was much more complicated than getting the spare cages and hauling things into a temporary home at my mother’s house. Along with all of his regular food and cage supplies, I had to pack baby food and yogurt, medications, and therapeutic items like North’s heating bed. Of course, the move required taking a computer for him to use as a television set.

North and Whisper watching an episode of Evolve with John Edward, another of their favourite shows. It’s an episode I’m in, actually, and one in which they are mentioned.

Many would ask why I went through all of the trouble. It seems ridiculous that I should cater to the needs of a rat in this way. Few realize the anxiety North displays when even one part of his routine is out of place. For a little fur creature who tells time and depends on that understanding of his schedule to lower his stress, it was a vital step to take. I knew we were going to be away from home for an undetermined number of days, I knew that my wife wasn’t going to be with us and I knew that the unfamiliar surroundings would prevent North from feeling comfortable. I also knew that as soon as he is uncomfortable it becomes difficult for him to breathe and he begins to lose color in his limbs. These stresses prevent him from regulating his body temperature and reduce his appetite, so I was prepared to keep strictly to his routine, even when we were away.

So this meant watching episodes of Hell on Wheels, Evolve, and Sleepy Hollow. It meant continuing with his steam treatments in the morning and in the evening. It also meant learning new rules, such as “When I come out of the steam you will NOT have the fan on. It’s bad for me to have the cold air after humidity!” This is a recent addition to North’s list of regulations, something he taught me just the other night, when he came back from his steam as usual, but wouldn’t eat. Instead he ran frantic circles around the dish and gave me such determined, intense glances that it looked like something out of a horror movie. I kid you not, I sent a message to my wife, filled with concern over his behaviour. It wasn’t until he looked up at the fan above him that I noticed I had forgotten to turn it off. Once I did he settled down again and waited for his “movies.”

Watch North Watch His “Movies” Here

While some things have changed (the time we watch TV together and where we do it) I have tried my best to keep as much of his routine the same as it has always been. For a while it was touch and go, but I am happy to say that even though we are still not back at home, North is alive and well. I am also happy to say that as I write this, we only have one more week of construction and then we’re back to everything he knows best, his own cage, his own chair, his own reruns. After having been gone for three whole months, I will no doubt have to help him adjust to life at home, but something tells me it isn’t going to take him long to settle in this time.

Product Review: Bentoball

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Joy Jones

Sahara with Bentoball

When you have a dog who displays a fear of the typical dog toys it is difficult to find something that is durable and engaging. Sahara, our oldest dog, was a rescue and we did all of the things you do when you rescue a new animal, including purchasing new dog toys. We can only guess at the type of environment we saved her from, because she was terrified of everything we gave her. Simply picking up a dog toy would send her cowering into the next room, trembling as she desperately sought a place to hide. Just getting her to chew on a rope toy on the ground took months and having her chase sticks took even longer. We always wanted to get her a busy ball of sorts, something that would dispense treats and keep her engaged when we were at work and unable to provide interactive stimulation. Nothing we tried ever worked and all of Sahara’s brand new toys ended up going to our neighbor’s dog when he came for a visit.

Brinly

We recently got another dog to be a companion for Sahara. It took a lot of looking and a lot of work to find just the right companion for her. We needed a younger dog that she could care for (Sahara had puppies before she came to us and her mothering instincts are VERY strong – I’m sure you will hear more on that in some other post) but we also wanted the dog to be old enough to show Sahara how to “be a dog.” In the end, we got Brinly, who is energetic and only two years younger, but became the perfect fit. Soon Brinly had Sahara running at dog parks and regularly playing with rope chew toys. The key there is the word “rope.” Brinly came to us unwilling to play with anything that wasn’t soft, so again we had a dilemma. Neither of our dogs would have anything to do with hard chew toys or treat dispensers. It was a very frustrating situation.

What Is BentoBall?

Enter the BentoBall! While standing around in the pet store one day, it happened to catch my eye. This was a treat dispensing, chewable toy that would help clean their teeth and keep them entertained… if only we could get them to use it! The surface looked softer than your typical rubber toy and I wondered if that would make a difference. Hoping for the best we purchased one ball for the two of them to share, mostly because we had been down the road of giving away all the toys before and we wanted to go the way of caution this time. As it turned out we had to go back the next day to get a second one.

Brinly with the Bentoball.

The girls loved playing with this thing! Brinly went at it right away because it was a softer, chewable material that had some give to it. Sahara watched Brinly for a good hour or so, then cautiously took a turn for herself. The rest, as they say, is history.

So what is it about this ball that is so appealing? I’ll start from the dog’s point of view, which is that this bright, bouncy ball has a large “everlasting” treat at its core. These treats are easy to replace and refills are easy to get your hands on. While the one side of the ball holds this large treat, the other side has a hollow pocket, which you can fill with any kind of munchies that your dog loves, making it stimulating in two ways. A dog can either work at having the ball dispense their favorite treat OR they can lick and chew at the large “everlasting” side. The dispensing side has a customizable hole, which allows you to snip off parts of the opening to make it larger in order accommodate the treats of your choice. We decided not to customize this opening and left it as it was, which seems to work just fine for bits of cookie, since I have to keep filling it.

From a human’s point of view, the ball is free of latex, vinyl and phthalates, the textured surface helps to clean teeth and the ball itself is dishwasher safe. The “indestructible” material this ball is made out of certainly seems to be just that, but without being hard or harsh. Our best chewer has worked on it for a month straight and it looks brand new. When it comes to describing the feel of the material, it is easiest to describe it as a sort of stiff gummy bear; it is soft enough to have some give, but hard enough that it doesn’t rip. The large chew treat is wheat free and the ridged texture also provides some dental health benefits. Most importantly, this ball provides hours of fun for dogs like Brinly, who are very high energy or have nervous behaviors. Want more benefits on the human side? This product is made in the USA.

Now, you’ve fallen in love with this product based on what I’ve told you, how do you use it? That part is easy, since it comes with one chicken flavored dental treat already inserted in the ball. All your dog needs you to do is open the package. From that point on they can happily chew away on the dental treat. If you want to mix things up a little bit, or if you need to encourage your dog to play with the ball, you just stick a cookie or favorite treat out of the dispenser side. This is what we had to do with our dogs. I put a whole cookie in the dispensing hole, making sure that it stuck out halfway, to make it obvious. Once Sahara and Brinly discovered this strange thing gave them their favorite treats, it was virtually impossible to get them to stop playing with it. Constant use also meant that the dental treat needed to be replaced the next day, which brings me to say that when you get one of these balls, you should go ahead and get the refills while you are at it, because while the dental treats do last a long time, that first day or two really wears them out faster due to your dog’s fascination with their newness.

Replacing the dental chew is easy; you simply get the edge of the treat wet just a tiny bit and insert it into the large opening. While the toy is stretchy, there is a little bit of elbow grease involved if you want to just push the treat in. I would personally recommend using a knife or some other thin tool to help you insert the chew. We found that sliding the knife around the rim of the opening helped pry the rubber with much less effort. Once you have the treat in, the packaging recommends that you let it dry before you give the toy to your dog, but otherwise, you are done. It really couldn’t be much simpler.

Overall, I can’t say how happy we are with this product. It has given our most fearful dog the confidence to enjoy play and it has given our most active dog an outlet for that activity. Though we have had it for only a month now, I can safely say that even with the dogs chewing on empty balls, there are no marks of wear and I have no reason to believe they will rip easily. Treats of all varieties fit inside the dispensing compartment and the large dental chew isn’t too much trouble to get in, but provides hours of pleasure for the dogs and is certainly not easy for them to get out. Keeping the balls clean is easy, since they are dishwasher safe. I highly recommend this toy for active or timid dogs everywhere.

Final Scoop On the BentoBall

Pros:

Sturdy construction

Long lasting treat

Cleans teeth and keeps dogs engaged

Dishwasher safe

Cons:

People with lower hand strength or a disability affecting their hand/coordination may need someone to help them put the dental chew in the toy.

I am Sahara, and I approve this message.

What Is Freedom From Panic?

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Joy Jones

When we think of freedom for our pets, we imagine long, rolling fields of wildflowers where they can run freely, leaping about to their heart’s content. We might even think of this happening without their collar being on. But freedom also implies the absence of fear, and the provision for freedom of choice.

The 4th of July is a celebration of freedom everywhere in the US. Everywhere, often, except our own backyards and living rooms. For our pets can feel anything but free from panic. And we sometimes do not think about all the choices we might for how to alleviate this.

No one really knows how many pets flee in a panic from their homes during holidays like the 4th of July and Labor Day, where fireworks are present. Animal shelters all over simply report that they are inundated with pets that panicked at the noise and fled their yards or homes, winding up lost, injured…or even killed.

Tips to Keep Your Pet Safe On Fireworks Holidays

Keep your Pet Indoors–To you, fireworks might be the highlight of the summer–but to your pet, it can be terrifying. Dogs never known to have jumped fences or walls,or ever have broken from restraint, can go to amazing lengths to get away when they are panicked.

Leave Your Pet at Home When Going To See Fireworks–Pets that are normally quite calm can become quite desperate to get away in crowds of strange people and smells, fireworks not withstanding. And, as we know, leaving them in a car is not an option, either.

Another Choice For Pets

If you cannot keep pets comfortable at home or leave them home alone during holiday festivities, find a safe, secure boarding facility (preferably, cage-free) where they can have a lot of fun and never know anything happened. This way, you can enjoy the holiday yourself, knowing they are being kept somewhere securely and are enjoying themselves. And don’t forget that people often set off fireworks a day or so before–and after–the holiday.

NEVER Keep or Use Fireworks Around Pets–Most people realize pets can be injured by fireworks. But did you know that even unused fireworks can be hazardous? Some fireworks contain potentially toxic substances such as arsenic, potassium nitrate, and other heavy metals.

Thundershirt Is Not A Person

Many pet owners have success with using the Thundershirt pressure wrap to calm their pets during storms as well as the fireworks holidays. But it doesn’t work for all dogs…and you must follow the instructions on getting your dog used to wearing the device. Noted animal behaviorist Temple Grandin, who helped develop the Thundershirt, has also stated that after about 20 minutes, its effectiveness diminishes. So if an extended episode of noise is in the cards for your pet, this might not be the best option, even if it has worked for brief periods.

I read a story the other day of a woman simply hugging her dog during storms and fireworks–not restraining the dog, but offering brief, comforting pressure. This worked so well that the dog would return to her when it was panicked, for more hugs!

So keep in mind…a thundershirt is not the same as having a human there to give comfort. Pets absolutely know it is we that protect them.

Signs of Panic in Dogs

One Paw Raised–cute, but denotes worry
Half Moon Eye (white of the eye shows in a half moon. Looks like the pic above.)
Displacement Behaviors (behaviors that substitute for panic aggression) such as:

yawning when not tired
licking chops without the presence of food
sudden scratching when not itchy
sudden biting at paws or other body part
sudden sniffing the ground or other object
wet dog shake when not wet or dirty

Avoidance Behaviors:

gets up and leaves an uncomfortable situation
turning head away
hiding behind person or object
barking and retreating
rolls over on back in submissive way

Other Behaviors:

tail between legs
tail low and only the end is wagging
tail between legs and wagging
tail down or straight for curly-tailed dog (husky, malamute, pug, chow chow, spitz-type dogs etc.)
ears sideways for erect eared dog
ears back and very rapid panting
dog goes into another room away from you and urinates or defecates

Things To Know About Panic In Cats

A cat’s sense of hearing is far more acute than that of dogs and humans! A cat can hear sounds up to 64,000 kHz. By comparison, dogs can hear sounds up to 45,000 kHz, while humans hear sounds only up to 23,000 kHz. For this reason, sounds are much more intense for cats. Here are some tips for your cat:

Create A Hideout!–This can be a chair covered with a blanket, a comfy nest in the back of the closet or bathroom, anything that feels like a cozy wild cat den. If you can, notice the place they typically hide when they need to get away, and use that. Shelter it from the noise and light coming in at windows, and get your cat to seek out this safe zone before fireworks begin. Stimulate positive feelings in this place with treats and cuddles. You can even use catnip, as long as your kitty is the type that gets relaxed with it, and not hyper. It’s also a good idea to turn on the lights around the house, which will help mute the flashes from fireworks.

Be Cautious With Adding Sounds–Sometimes, pet parents think if they turn up the TV or stereo so it’s louder than whatever’s going on outside, they can fool their pet into thinking they’re safe. But the resultant noise is usually more stressful than helpful. There is a variety of calming music for pets. It’s a good idea to get your pet used to this special music at least a few days before you have need of it. After a time, they will come to associate it with peace and calm.

Check these links to see what we recommend.

Through a Dog’s Ear

Through a Cat’s Ear.

Homeopathic Remedies–Feliway (cat appeasing pheromones), Spirit Essences, HomeoPet, and Pet Rescue Remedy are extremely helpful. You can find these at most health food stores or animal supply stores. Applying a few drops to their food, water, or directly into their mouths BEFORE the booms begin can do wonders for stress levels! Essential oils such as lavender and valerian can also help with various anxieties. You’ll want to check with your veterinarian before using any of these, for their thoughts on what is best for your pet.

Signs of Panic In Cats

Immobility
Body – crouched directly on top of all fours, shaking
Belly – not exposed, rapid breathing
Legs – bent
Tail – close to the body
Head – lower than the body, motionless
Eyes – fully open
Pupils – fully dilated
Ears – fully flattened back on the head
Whiskers – back
Vocalisation – plaintive miaow, yowling, growling or silent
Hissing, growling, shaking, drooling
Involuntary urination, defecation
Aggression if approached

We certainly hope this article has helped to give you some choices for your pet to keep them safe and relaxed during the summer holidays. Please feel free to call or e-mail me at any time with questions and comments.

Joy Jones, our Editor In Chief, is the Vice President of Your Pet Space, a cage free dog boarding facility serving the greater Las Cruces, NM area. She is also a syndicated columnist living with her husband Dave. When not working on Your Pet Space, she writes a metaphysical column, as well as urban fantasy and humor. You can e-mail her at joy@yourpetspace.info as well as send her a friend request on Facebook.

Toby, the Curious Rat on Broadway

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Joy Jones

The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time wins Best Play 2015.

What Does a Rat Have To Do With The Tony Awards?

The 2015 Tony Awards have come and gone. Hosted by Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth, the evening celebrated a year in the theatre and many awards were given out from categories like lighting and set design to all of the usual “best” categories you come to expect with award shows. One show, The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time, took home Best Lighting Design, Best Scenic Design, Best Direction of a Play, Best Lead Actor in a Play, and Best Play, yet one of the cast is probably completely unaware of the hype. The reason for that is simple: she’s a rat.

The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time began as an award winning book by Mark Hadden, about a 15 year old boy named Christopher who has an unstated special need. Though one can assume he has a version of high functioning autism or something similar, the book is not about that condition specifically, it is actually a rather unusual murder mystery. Someone killed a dog in the neighbourhood and Christopher, a fan of Sherlock Holmes, is determined to solve the case. The book is written entirely from his point of view, which gives the reader a unique perspective on so many levels, but what made me pick it up was Christopher’s pet, a rat named Toby. I can’t resist reading a book with a rat as a character and I wasn’t disappointed with this one. Here rats are treated well and are deeply loved.

“How much does it cost to get a ticket to London?” (Alex and Toby)

When I heard that the play had cast a real, live rat I was shocked. I have friends in New York City and knowing the thought process up there, the first thing that went through my head was, “No one in the City is going to want to work with a rat!” In a way, that was true, even Lydia DesRoche was uncertain of rats when she got the job of training the one who would portray Toby. Still she soldiered past her fears and did some research, eventually rescuing a female who was destined to become snake food and casting her in the role of Christopher’s beloved pet. Over time working with the rat called Toby has helped change her opinions of these smart and entertaining animals and now, when you read interviews, you see the typical devoted rat owner and not someone who hears “rat” and immediately envisions something skittering in the subway while leaping into a chair. The same is also true of the cast, who were mostly anxious and unsure at first, but are now happy to be members of Toby’s extended family; happy to let her crawl on their arms and even get kisses.

What happened to Toby’s trainer is what happens to us all once we allow ourselves to really take a moment to learn about what a rat really is. Once we snuggle with that first rat, our lives are forever changed. “Without even trying, I have become a big advocate for pet rats,” explained Lydia, when I asked her to describe this transition in her personal experience with rats. “Sharing my experiences with them has prompted many of my friends to want their own rat(s). They are like tiny little dogs who can go everywhere with you.”

Toby photobombing Dr Watson, the puppy from Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time.

The similarities between rats and dogs can actually make training a little easier. Lydia uses the Behavior Adjustment Training method, which observes an animal’s behaviour and helps gently transition it into the action that is desired. This sweet little white rat isn’t being forced to perform. She jumps willingly into her carrier when she hears the call “Five Minutes!” Her rewards don’t involve treats or snacks either. In observing her personality, DesRoche noticed Toby responded best to human interaction, so a job well done earns her introductions to new people. And when her big kiss scene comes up? Well, sometimes she feels like doing it, sometimes she doesn’t, but she is always a crowd pleaser. Toby has fans from all walks of life and from all around the country. Some are twelve, some are eighty, but all have fallen in love. In fact, it has almost become quite the thing for celebrities to come meet her after a show. Some of the more well-known visitors on her list include Whoopi Goldberg, Katy Perry, Allison Williams, Lupita Nyong’o, Sara Bareilles, Michael Urie, and Jason Biggs. Even Gloria Estefan recently tweeted a back stage photo she took with Toby after seeing the show.

When you think of casting, you generally think of finding that specific look that defines the character, but that wasn’t exactly what happened with Toby. The rat currently playing Toby is a smooth coated albino, while her understudy, Calvin, is a black and white rat with a curly coat. Toby was chosen first and a lot of research and thought went in to the decision. Lydia wanted a female because they had less smell to them, a statement I can confirm, as an owner of four adult males. (It’s not that they stink, but they can get territorial and that pee marking can get to be quite strong in a day or two!) When it came to color, it was the cast, crew, and audience that came to mind, not the character of Toby. “I chose a white rat because I wanted a rat that looked as different as possible from the rats we see in the New York City subway. Ultimately it was the right choice but for different reasons. Being a female rat, Toby was very curious about everyone and everything around her. I think that her being white had the desired effect on most of the cast and crew. Almost everyone warmed up to her pretty quickly. I don’t imagine that happening had she looked more like a subway rat.” Now that everyone has come to know Toby the white rat, Lydia says that they have changed their minds about other rats as well. “Many of the cast and crew have commented to me that they have changed their feelings about subway rats. Instead of running as far away as possible people have told me that they will actually watch the subway rats and find them interesting.” So it looks like Toby the black and white rat can feel safe in the knowledge that he is equally loved when his time comes to shine.

Calvin, Toby’s understudy

Life as a rat on Broadway is hard work, between making appearances and all that training and time under the lights, but it has its perks too. Toby has her own dressing room (which she shares with the puppy who is also in the show) that is filled with all the wonders and toys a rat could dream of, as well as coffee and fresh roses. She also gets her own ride. “We travel to and from the theater by private car. She likes to sit on my lap or my shoulder on the way to the theater. On the way back home Toby likes to sit on the driver’s shoulder and navigate. I always keep a hand on her to make sure she is safe.” Her safety is also considered on stage. If you ever see the cage get jostled, don’t worry. “They switch to a fake rat in an identical cage for any potentially dangerous scenes,” Lydia assured me. “One night one of the actors dropped the cage with the decoy rat in it. I made sure to bring Toby out to meet the audience after the show because I knew that there would be questions and I wanted to let everyone know that she had not been in the cage when it fell. There were lots of sighs of relief and chin scratches for Tobes.”

“Back to work. Tobes is all fired up. The day off is never long enough for me.”

As a rat owner I had to wonder what the actual audience response was to having a living, breathing rat on stage in a city like New York. I had images of front row ticket holders jumping up and running for the door as soon as Toby came out, but Lydia corrected that image for me. The occasional freak out comes mostly when someone thinks the rat is being harmed, but there are a few exceptions. “Once there was a woman in the front row who fell back in her seat every time Toby appeared on stage. More often than not there are lots of giggles and gasps when she does the kiss.”

Yes, that big kiss scene gets mentioned again. This came about from the folks at Curious on Broadway actually wanting to expand Toby’s role once they realized how clever and crowd pleasing her actress really was. Originally the associate director saw Toby running along Lydia’s arm and wanted to include that in the show, but although Lydia is certain the rat would not run off, others are concerned for what could happen if she were out of her cage. So, for now, her only out of cage stage-time has consisted of popping her head up and giving Alexander Sharp a little rattie kiss in one of the scenes. Not only does the audience love it, but it gives Toby a chance to be an ambassador for her species. “Recently a sophisticated older couple approached me and Toby after the show to tell me how much they enjoyed her performance and especially the little kiss,” Lydia recalled. “The husband said he had a rat as a child but had no idea they could be so open and friendly.”

Alexander Sharp, winner of 2015 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

Friendly, loving, curious… All words that rat lovers use so often to describe their fur babies, but up until this point one aspect of rat ownership has been left out. When I contacted Lydia about doing this interview, I had one major question burning at the back of my brain. We have had plenty of theatrical rats in our house, who love to play sick or pretend to be dead to get extra attention. I couldn’t help wondering how much does the rat that plays Toby actually do when it comes to theatrics? Did Toby react to the audience in any way? Was she as much of a character as our rats? “Sometimes when Alex [who plays Christopher] opens the cage she puts her little hands on the cage and scans the audience. I like to call it her ‘Evita’ move. I’m not close enough to see whether she’s reacting specifically to the audience or just smelling around but she does love to greet her fans when she comes out of the stage door.” In this story I realized that Toby is quite happy to fall into the role of diva as well, as I got treated to a story of typical rat antics. “She has never played dead,” Lydia told me when I asked if Toby was a prankster, “but she has pulled all of her roses out of the vase so that she can steal my coffee while I’m cleaning up more than once. I now make sure that my coffee is well out of reach when she is on the dressing room counter.”

“Toby takes time to smell the roses.”

Falling in love with rats and their antics is something that the cast and crew of The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time have mastered with flying colors. Everyone has taken a chance and everyone has come out a winner, with all that extra rattie love now warming their hearts. The distance between running from a subway rat and letting a pet rat scamper onto your arm is a huge one to cross and they have reached the finish line to a hero’s welcome from rat owners. In the not so distant future more rats named Toby will be cast to travel the country and begin introducing the sweetness and intelligence of rats to audiences beyond the Big Apple and London. These rats, their trainers and co-stars, are the ambassadors of the species, just as Lydia DesRoche is an ambassador for all people who used to be afraid. She told me she was converted when Toby gave her the same look that dogs give her when she meets them for the first time and “they know that I’m going to be their cultural liaison. I’ve always been a big fan of listening to animals before trying to tell them what to do. The more I observed her and responded to her communication the more she was willing to tell me.” If more people get to meet Toby, one of her understudies, or a rat-actor traveling with the touring company, will they get the same message? So far, that seems to be the case. May it continue for many years to come.

Congratulations on your Tony, Toby. Theater is meant to touch people and with this show, you and your humans have definitely earned this award in many ways.

Staff Sergeant Reckless, A True Marine

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Joy Jones

In this day and age of technology, where tanks and drones have made combat much less personal, many have forgotten the times when horses, mules, dogs, even camels and birds served their country, putting their lives on the line, along with the soldiers who worked with them. Many assume that animals no longer serve alongside their human counterparts. It is for this reason, and because we are who we are here at Your Pet Space, that I would take this day to share a story with you about an animal who served her country. She was once famous enough to have television personalities begging for her to come on their shows, but now the horse who was a household name has begun to slip through the fog of fading memory. She is becoming a forgotten warrior from a forgotten war and it is my hope that this post will begin to change that. With no further babbling, it is my pleasure to introduce Staff Sergeant Reckless.

Reckless loaded with a reel of communication wire.

Born in Korea and originally named Ah Chim Hai (Flame-of-the- Morning), Reckless started life as a racehorse, training at the Seoul Racetrack. When war began, her owner, Kim Huk Moon (a pseudonym used at the owner’s request to remain anonymous), found himself faced with a very hard decision. He could keep the horse that he so desperately loved, or sell her to the United States Marines for $250, money he desperately needed in order to purchase a prosthetic limb for his sister, who lost her leg when a mine exploded near her. In what must have been the most difficult choice he would have to make, he sold his horse, sending her on a journey that no one would ever have expected.

War began in Korea in 1950 and it didn’t take long for American troops to enter the fight on South Korea’s behalf. We were fighting against communism and we fought hard. At the war’s end in 1953 nearly 40,000 soldiers were killed and 100,000 wounded. If you were to combine the losses of all soldiers and civilians from both sides, your count would reach nearly 5 million. As the battles raged, the Anti-Tank Company of the 5th Marines faced a serious problem. Terrain where they were stationed around Kamon-dong was steep and they were fighting with a recoilless rifle, which is basically a six foot long, 115 pound tube that sits on a tripod and fires 75mm shells. It was designed for use on the front lines and you would think that would make it easily portable, but the opposite was true. In the steep terrain in the area of fighting around Panmunjom, using a recoilless rifle was unbelievably loud, backbreaking work that required firing a few rapid shots, dismantling the rifle and hauling it to a new location before it was able to be targeted by incoming fire. In the icy Korean winters, trucks simply weren’t an option for moving the rifles up and down the inclines, so men carried the weapons and volatile ammunition on their own. It took several of them to do the job, often two would carry the gun, one would take the tripod, and the ammunition (each round measuring 4 and ¾ inches in diameter, 29 inches in length, and weighing 24 pounds) would go on the backs of the soldiers, typically two rounds per man and these rounds were live.

Reckless with 75mm recoilless rifle and pack saddle.

It was the commander of the platoon, Eric Pedersen, who realized a horse would make this work a lot easier and was given permission for the purchase. When Ah Chim Hai arrived the soldiers named her Reckless, after the recoilless rifle that she would carry. The men built her a bunker to standard specifications, covered her with a green Marine blanket at night and on the especially cold nights, allowed her to come into their tents and sleep by their stoves. She eventually became so familiar with the marines that she came and went into tents as she pleased, making them part of her herd.

Reckless at Chang-dan, Korea, with TSgt. Joseph Latham, the Marine who put her through ‘hoof camp.’ A Seoul race pony, she thrived on bacon and eggs.” Caption courtesy the Saturday Evening Post.

Just like any soldier, Reckless was put through training. In “hoof camp” she was taught to step over wire, lie down, kneel, and shown how to take cover into a bunker when there was incoming fire. She wanted nothing but to please her new herd and she worked hard to learn all of these skills. Eventually she was fully capable of ducking and covering just like any human Marine in her platoon. They prepared her as much as possible for actual combat, but when the time came it was certainly hard on her. Even though she was carrying about 150 pounds at the time, Reckless jumped completely off the ground when she encountered her first taste of real weapons fire from the recoilless rifle. By the third blast she had calmed enough that she no longer flinched, but she sweated horribly, a sure sign that she feared for her life. Still, under all of that stress, she and her handler delivered 5 loads of ammunition before the battle was over.

Reckless took part in many other battles and grew as accustomed to the noises as was possible for a Marine. (Though it has been noted she had nightmares, even after she retired and some Marines believed she was reliving those days the way she kicked and ran in her sleep.) New accommodations had to be built for her everywhere she went and at times her fellow Marines would throw their own flak jackets on her to protect her from incoming fire. Everyone did these things willingly, to protect one of their own who was fighting by their side. In these battles Reckless would repeatedly climb the steep terrain, carrying the ammunition for their rifles on her back. Over and over again she would take a running start and go as far as she could, pause, then move on when she was able. Often she made these trips on her own, with no one leading her. She made the choice to take the ammunition to the Marines and return again for another load, and she did it with all of the strength she had in her, sometimes from daybreak to sunset, all while carrying up to 144 pounds of live ammunition on her back.

Reckless on the Battlefield.

battle for outpost Vegas

It was the battle for outpost Vegas that she is best known for, a battle that is thought of as unequal to any other when it comes to the savagery of war. This was the defining battle of the Korean War, one that saw Reckless climbing a 45 degree incline at a trot or a gallop, desperately trying to maintain her balance with the extreme weight of the ammunition on her back. Some of the men were helping, but Reckless made two trips for every one of theirs and she carried eight rounds at a time. Through all of her fear at the incoming fire, Reckless never went slack on her duties, she charged up the hill again and again, ducking down with the Marines in their bunkers when enemy fire hit, then heading back down the hill once she was given the all clear. On occasion she was given a rest and rub down, taking some food and water, but for the most part, she continued on bravely, sometimes rescuing a wounded man from the fighting and carrying him down to safety only to be loaded with ammunition and head back up the hill immediately after.

It was on two of these trips that Reckless was wounded. On one climb up the hill, shrapnel cut her head, just above her left eye, and on another she was struck in her left flank, but like a true Marine, she continued on, wound and all. At the guns she was treated with iodine and sent back down for more ammunition. Again she went willingly, though by the end of the battle she was beginning to slow her pace. To quote the book by Robin Hutton, “No matter how tired she was, the mare with an almost incomprehensible sense of duty just kept going.”

In that one day Reckless made 51 round trips, carrying 386 rounds of ammunition, and walking more than 35 miles up and down that hill, most of the time on her own through heavy fire. Many marines talk about what an inspiration it was to see that small, Mongolian mare climbing the hills by herself, coming with everything they needed in order to continue to fight. She worked so hard and kept the men so well stocked that the barrel of one of the guns actually melted from use.

Reckless is promoted to sergeant. On the platform (L to R: Gen. Pate, Capt. Andrew Kovac, Col. Elby D. Martin Jr. listen as MSgt. John Strange reads the citation. Standing beside Reckless are Sgt. Lively (L and TSgt. Dave Woods (R).

When the war was over, a campaign was started to bring Reckless to American soil. In her time in Korea Reckless had been officially promoted to the rank of Sergeant and had been given the appropriate ceremony for said promotion. This was not an honorary title, this was the real thing, as was befitting a marine who had earned two Purple Hearts, a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, a Presidential Unit Citation with Star, a Navy Unit Citation, a National Defence Service Medal, a United Nations Service Medal, a Korean Service Medal with three stars, a Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, and the French fourragere, awarded to the 5th Marines after World War I. She wore all of those decorations, and her sergeant stripes on her specially made red and gold blanket. At this time Reckless was a household name and when she finally came to her new home in America, she came home as a hero.

Who needs cake when there are carnations? Reckless eats the centrepieces. (Reception at the Marines’ Memorial Club and Hotel).

There is so much more to say about Reckless; how she continued to work with the Marines at her new home in Camp Pendleton, how she attended official functions, made public appearances, and was promoted one last time to Staff Sergeant. In all of this time she was treated as a the true marine she was: some would salute her and no one that she outranked was permitted to lead her at official functions, as that would mean they were giving her orders. Reckless became a mother four times over, giving birth to three sons, two of which (PFC Fearless and Private Dauntless) were given ranks, while her third son Chesty became a trail horse. Sadly, her unnamed daughter died prematurely and all of her sons were gelded, so there are no grandchildren to carry on her bravery and determination to the next generation. All of these things (and many more) can be found in Robin Hutton’s book Sgt. Reckless: America’s War Horse. What I would like to conclude with is a note on how you can honor this brave marine.

Dedication of the Reckless monument at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and Heritage Center.

Robbin Hutton and others have fought for years now to bring the bravery and determination that was Reckless back into the public eye. In July of 2013 the Marine Corps finally unveiled a statue titled “An Uphill Battle,” a statue of Reckless created by Jocelyn Russell. The statue resides in the grounds at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and Heritage Center in Triangle Virginia and contains in its base a small sample of the hero’s hair, installed there by Robbin herself. The statue came about through generous donations to the Sgt. Reckless Memorial Fund (including donations by Betty White and William Shatner), a process which continues to the day of this writing in order to install a memorial at Camp Pendleton.

I encourage everyone who reads this to pick up Robbin’s book and properly experience the life of Sergeant Reckless in a way I am unable to do here. I would give you a more in-depth review, but this story is about Reckless and I know Robin would want it this way. I will say that almost all of my knowledge of Reckless came from devouring the pages of her book.

If you are so inclined, you can join the Sergeant Reckless fanclub on Facebook or go to the official webpage and make a donation to her Camp Pendleton Memorial Fund. On this Memorial Day, let us decorate the grave of a true Marine.

Thank you for your service, Staff Sergeant Reckless.

All photos and captions in this post come as printed from Sgt. Reckless: America’s War Horse and were contributions from the Author. I would like to thank Robin Hutton for her help in sharing this story with us.

My Animal Talks!

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Joy Jones

Stories Of How My Pets Communicate

We have all seen videos of pets making a noise that sounds like human speech. Dogs howling “I love you”, cats yowling “Hello”, and of course we all expect birds to pick up some vocabulary when they are around us. Do these animals really know what they are doing? Most don’t, of course, but there are some animals that do communicate in ways we consider to be language, like the gorillas that have learned to sign. So unless you have a gorilla, you’re out of luck when it comes to communicating with your pet, right? Not if you learn to talk the way your pet talks.

Animals have a language that is all their own and each species often has a different kind of language from the others. Just like humans, some are capable of learning how to “talk” in other languages, which is usually when you see those mixed species animal friend videos go viral on YouTube. How does that dog seem so happy with that deer? They have found that common ground in language between their species. I watch the videos and though my eye is untrained, I have no problems picking up some ideas rather quickly. Among other observations, the most obvious is that the deer has learned some of the dog’s playful body language and the dog has learned some of the deer’s neck grooming behaviours. There is just enough common ground between them to maintain that friendship, partly because they have learned to “talk” in the other’s language.

It is possible for humans to do the same thing, if we allow ourselves the time to learn. Animals will quite happily study our behaviours, mostly out of genetic necessity. Take our local deer; they freeze in place and stare at whatever strange thing is moving around them to try and decide if they should dash away for their lives. This is their nature. It is what keeps them alive. If the deer in your neighbourhood don’t do this, they have probably become too used to the human activities around them, which can be a dangerous situation with any wild animals.

We are lucky enough to live out beyond the rural boundary, where the deer haven’t adjusted to life with humans in a way that is unnatural for them. Still, loving animal communication since I was a child, I wanted a way to let them go about their lives while we went about ours without disturbing them too much, the way they would coexist with a bird or a squirrel. I didn’t want to open my door and walk to my car, terrifying an entire herd of deer in the process, so I began whistling when I saw them. It wasn’t a tune or anything, just a note once or twice, occasionally making sound. In this way I would move about my yard, not really looking at them or paying them too much attention at all. At first this confused them, but after some time they began to appreciate it. They are still wild animals, they remain unsure about my intentions and they do move deeper into the woods when they see me, but they aren’t dashing out into the country roads in a panic, to be hit by an unsuspecting driver who is coming around the bend at 45 miles an hour. They have learned that my typical behaviour is to exist in the yard, occasionally making a whistle sound and that this particular behaviour doesn’t harm them. They hear me and will casually wander into the woods, flicking their tails a little in agitation that I have disturbed their peace. The same trick also lets them know I am coming down the private drive we share with other families. A short whistle out the window lets them know I see them and I move forward while they shuffle into the trees. Most astonishingly, in recent years, the older deer have actually come to expect that we should announce ourselves to each other. If I do not see them, they will snort at me to let me know they are there, then flick their tails straight up and trot off into the woods, alerting that they aren’t comfortable with this unusually quiet behaviour on my part. This actually startles some guests at night, so be aware if you come visiting.

The deer aren’t my pets, and I wouldn’t ever want them to be, but I use them to prove the point that all animals have the capability to learn the behaviours of others, even the human variety. If we think about it, this should be obvious. When we see a bird in our yard, don’t we expect it to eventually fly off? Don’t we all know that a fish out of water is going to flop around in a desperate struggle to get back in? We know these things because we experience them in some way, either in life or on video. Well, our pets experience us regularly too. They have seen us get food from containers, they expect that we will sleep in the big rectangular fluffy thing instead of on the floor, and they know that we all love looking at that noisy light box on the wall or tapping our fingers on the smaller light boxes that we hold in our hands. If we are doing these things regularly, that must be the way of life. So when my rats, for example, hear me shuffle boxes around or move a plastic bag, they instantly expect that food is being handled, even if the plastic bag is being put in a pocket to use for the dog’s walk.

How do we increase our communication with our pets?

Some animals can be trained to respond to commands. Dogs are trained to sit, stay, beg, and do any other number of nifty things. They hear a word, they learn the behaviour that is expected at the mention of that word, then they do the thing required. It’s that simple. Sometimes you can go beyond that training and teach them to express themselves with the word they have learned. For example, one of our dogs, Sahara, loves belly rubs. She flops over, holds her short little leg up in the air and waits. You rub, then stop, and she turns to look at you as if to say, “Well? Where’s the rest?” I went a little farther with this expression, knowing that she was trying to ask for more. I taught her that if she touched her cheek when someone had given her a belly rub, she would get more belly rubs. It was an extension of the paw waving behaviour she was already displaying, so she picked it up quickly. When she realized I only rubbed her belly when she touched her cheek, and not when she put her paw in the air and looked at me, she transitioned to asking for “more” on a regular basis. Recently she has tried this once or twice when getting treats or dinner, all on her own, without prompting. We have created a monster.

I have also learned to “talk” with my cat, Sekhemkare, and some of my fish. With cats, of course, there are usually no issues at all in communication, since they either leave humans alone entirely or have no problem what so ever in telling us what to do. In the case of our cat, the story comes from replacing his favourite toy, “Piggy”, which had become filthy. We got him a new one and picked up the old one to throw away, only to discover in the morning that the old Piggy was happily resting in the middle of the living room floor while the new Piggy was drowned in the cat’s water dish. That message was clear; death to all imposters.

With my fish, communication has been an interesting ride. The best results came from Nix, Hydra, Pluto, and LaForge, who all learned how to get my attention by spitting into the corner of their tank. They quickly discovered that this sound would instigate my making sounds (talking to them) and moving closer to where they were. Each of them began to use this technique to “call” me the way you would call a dog or cat. LaForge was an only fish and Pluto was also alone for a time, and they were often perfectly content to have me walk over to the tank and sit beside them for a while. In their case this was a way of saying they wanted that “schooling” feeling of having another living thing there with them. Nix and Hydra are my current fish and use this “call” to tell me that I have forgotten to feed them at exactly the time that they expect to be fed. If I ignore the “call” they will often leap slightly from the water and knock into the lid of the tank, which I have decided must be their version of swearing at me for not hurrying up about it.

Deimos

How My Pets Communicate: The Rats

Now we come back to the rats, who are probably the best communicators of any of the pets that I have. Their minds work more like human minds than just about any animal I have ever encountered. This is one of the reasons rats are so often studied in order to help humans. There are so many stories when it comes to rats talking with us that it is hard to pick one or two to share. We have had rats tap our cheeks or pull on our clothes to tell us where they want us to take them, we have had rats who have dictated exactly where they expect us to leave their food by dragging their dish to the proper place until we finally got the idea, we have a rat who learned to let himself out of his cage, but would only chew a tiny notch in the furniture, then go back inside and wait for us to notice. “See? I let myself out again. That’s three times this week, in case you are counting, like I am.”

Two of our rats have been such good communicators that I gave serious thought to teaching them to use technology to actually speak. Archie was the first of these and sadly he passed away at a very young age, before his training went very far. I learned of his abilities when I realized that he would actually listen to individual words and seemed to work out their meaning within a week or so. I would talk to him and when there was a word he was unfamiliar with, he would tilt his head and look very intent. He would do this repeatedly until he had learned the word. What do I mean by this? Take the word “water” for example. To sum up his vocabulary skills quickly, I will shorten his learning process to a few sentences, but it went something along these lines… I would be talking to him and say something like, “I’m going to get your water, be right back.” He would tilt his head and shift his ears forward, a clear sign he was listening to me. I would repeat the word I thought he was trying to learn: “Water?” If he repeated the head tilt, I knew this was the thing he was focused on, so I would then go and get the water bottle, put it in his cage and repeat the word “water”, usually in a sentence, sometimes on its own. After about a week, if he heard the word water, he would go to either his bottle or the sink, even if we weren’t talking to him. After some time of this, he began to tell us when he wanted fresh water by bonking his head under the bottle if we didn’t talk about water when cleaned his cage. He would stick his head under the bottle, lift it up, drop it and wait. If nothing happened he would do it again and repeat the action until someone said the word “water.” Usually in the form of the sentence: “Okay, Archie, I’ll get you water, just wait a minute!”

Archie

In a few months there were many words that Archie knew and several he was fond of. “Water”, “treats”, “kisses” and “snuggles” were all favourites, but he also knew the meanings of “yes” and “no”, along with many other useful words. He could also tell the difference between a single “no”, which we used to emphasize new rules, and “no, no, no”, which we used to remind him of rules he already knew how to follow (like no rats on the floor). I began to work with this increasing vocabulary, certain that there would be a way to help him call to us like the fish did or to express his needs. I bought little jar lid attachments, intended to help the blind label things. You record a short message then push the button to play it back. I began teaching Archie to push the buttons and that pushing the buttons would give him the reward of the thing that he had “requested.” The hardest part was helping him understand that when he heard the word “kisses” come out of the device, it meant he would GET kisses, not that he should GIVE them. Sadly, just as he was learning this he became sick and then passed away, so I will never know how far this training could have gone with him.

North

Our latest boy, North, will be featured in another article about helping animals adjust to new routines because his communication is the strongest when something is supposed to happen and doesn’t. For instance, when the power goes out and we then can’t turn the lights on when it gets dark, he dashes around looking up at light bulbs and pulling on our arms. His communication is always very clear. In this case you can almost see the speech bubble over his head: “Stupid humans. It’s dark, make it light again!”

The point of all of this is that I have had many people tell me they wished they could have the same connection with animals that I do. Often they ask me what my secret is. How is it that even as a three year old child I seemed to be able to interact with animals in a way that they completely understood? How did I get them following me around or “listening” to what I was telling them to do? There is only one answer: observation. It’s something you need for any language. In order to learn how to say “teddy bear” in such a way that someone else understands it, you have to figure out what word the other person uses for “teddy bear.” The same is true when “talking” with animals; you just have to switch your mind into a different, physical, form of communication. Sometimes “I’m so glad you’re here!” really sounds like water slapping against the glass of a fish tank. Accepting that is the first step to really “talking” with the animals around us.

Product Review: Top Fin Large Aquarium Vacuum

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Joy Jones

Regular readers will recall a similar post that I made some time at the end of last year. In my review of the smaller vacuum, I had stated I would be needing a larger one and would review that product as well. Now that my goldfish, Nix and Hydra, are permanently moved from their “starter tank” to their home in a 60 gallon aquarium at school, I needed to upgrade my gravel vacuum, so here I am again.

Assembling The Aquarium Vacuum

Assembly of this vacuum is exactly the same as the smaller variety, a very simple process that even my pre-schoolers could figure out rather quickly. The kit consists of two tubes, one longer, one shorter, the bulb, and a clip to hold the longer tube in your bucket, all the same parts as the smaller version, they’re just bigger. This can make them a little harder to fit together tightly, but with the proper fiddling and a little bit of extra squeezing, it works out in the end. Remember you want a tight fit between the bulb and the hoses so that they don’t fall apart on you while you are using them. Also, make sure you follow the arrows that are printed on the side of the bulb. You want the water to follow the in/out direction indicated on the side.

I found that the longer tube on the x-large version doesn’t seem to have the extra length to it that the small version did. When I cleaned Nix and Hydra’s tank with the small vacuum, I seemed to have extra tubing winding all around the inside of my bucket, but there have been a few times when I have almost pulled the tubing out of the bucket when using the x-large vacuum, so be aware that it is somewhat easier to accidentally pull your tube from your bucket when you are cleaning. Normally I would put this down to being an issue with the height of my tank, however it is on average the same height of other tanks of comparable size and volume, so I’m not sure that is the entire cause of the seeming lack in hose length.

The speed of the water flow seems to be much more rapid compared to the smaller vacuum, probably due to the larger size of the intake nozzle. This is both a help and a hindrance, since I have had to empty my bucket much more frequently than with the smaller version. With the small vacuum I was able to watch the intake tube, but with the larger one I find myself putting more attention on the bucket, which between pulling the tube out and overflowing from rapid intake, can become a distraction to the actual removal of waste from the tank. After many tries, I have found that the trick to slowing down the flow is to actually encourage the intake hose to become partly filled with gravel. Water still comes through, but at a much slower pace, however, this means you are not taking out as much waste as you would like. It isn’t ideal, but it does work. Figuring out what works best for you might be a little bit of a puzzle, but it shouldn’t take long to come up with your own tricks of the trade.

Water Replenishment In Your Aquarium

The overall amount of waste that the x-large vacuum collects seems to be proportionally equal to that of the small vacuum, meaning I am spending as much time and effort per gallon as I was with the smaller tank setup. Having changed Nix and Hydra’s water regularly since January, I can say that the tank continues to look as fresh as the day I moved it in to my classroom. It should be noted that I vacuum the tank once (sometimes twice) a week, which brings me to the only serious issue that I have with using this vacuum on a large aquarium: Water Replenishment

Nix and Hydra live on well water, which comes from my house, outside of town. Their tank is a good 10 minutes away from the water that fills it. This is my choice, because to me this is the healthiest option for my fish. I have never fully trusted purifying droplets or evaporation techniques that are supposed to make city water safe for my fish to swim in. The down side of this healthier way of living for them means that I have to haul over 36 litres of water per tank change from house to car, from car to school and up a flight of stairs to the tank. That number is for only a quick, sloppy job, if I intend to do a more complete cleaning, I have to make several trips back and forth. This is a process that I am quickly losing fondness for, but it is one of my own making, so I can’t really complain. What I can do, though, is contemplate how others would refill the aquarium after cleaning it out. I would suggest that before fish owners purchase this vacuum, they consider their water source carefully. It is important to freshen the water in the tank, so changing the water out when you vacuum the gravel makes a lot of sense, but if you are looking for a vacuum that will take out less water and more gunk, you might want to find another version. Personally, I would love to have one, slower vacuum for cleaning the waste only where it piles up frequently, and another for actually cleaning the tank with. For now, the setup I am using works, but I am giving serious consideration to finding yet another vacuum that can conserve water on the days when I need to.

Overall, I’m really happy with the x-large vacuum. It is still safe for the fish and is just as easy to use, even if it takes a little bit more getting used to than the small size. It’s a great vacuum for total tank cleaning, but I’d find another if you intend to use it for spot-cleaning.

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MISSION CONTROL For You And Your Pet

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