By Sheba Keefe
Mom is letting me write about the fun adventure I had this past Sunday! Our local humane society, the Upper Valley Humane Society, was having their annual fundraising Walk-a-Thon, and this is the first year we have been able to go! Mom collected some donations. Dogs are welcome on the walk, and Mom had to decide who she could take with her. You could do a 1 mile or a 4 mile walk, but Mom and Aunt Lynn, who was going too, really wanted to do the 4 mile walk. That meant they couldn’t take Kobi, who usually gets to go to these things because he is the most social. Kobi is getting older and long walks are getting harder on him. Cricket and Moses are pretty shy and timid, and Mom was afraid they couldn’t handle the crowds. I am a little shy and timid too, but not as much as them. I had done another fundraiser walk last year with Kobi and I did pretty well. So I am the one who got to go!
This photo courtesy of Upper Valley Humane Society.
It started at 11am and was held a couple towns over from where we live. I was a little bit nervous. I don’t like riding in the car so I just lay in the back (Mom puts the seats down for me) and hold on for dear life (hee hee). When we got there and Mom got me out of the car, I wasn’t sure where we were! At least it wasn’t the vet’s office….phew! I had never been here before and it was kind of in the city (well, as city as it gets in our area). We walked over to the park where everything was starting. There were lots of people and dogs, and all kinds of booths sat up. Me and Mom sat on the park bench for a few minutes, so I could get comfortable, and waited for Aunt Lynn to meet us. We were a few minutes early so then we walked around to some of the booths and people liked me and petted me! They were selling dog treats and had demonstrations and information on all kinds of dog related things. They tried to give me some free samples of treats but I was a little too nervous to eat anything right then.
Then I saw Aunt Lynn! She still had to register so we walked around some more while waiting for her, then we got started on the walk. The walk was on the rail trail, which is a great recreation path that runs through a lot of the towns in our area. Here are photos of some of the highlights of our walk:
This is where the rail trail starts in Lebanon, you can see how far it is to our town of Canaan!
Even the nice crossing guard had his dog with him!
There were lots of other Golden Retrievers on the walk!
We crossed over the river a lot.
And we were able to go swimming!! My favorite thing!! Lots of people took their dogs down to the river to cool off:
We didn’t stop here:
Nope, we went all the way to the end!!
Me and Mom!
There were several water stations on the way, with water for dogs and humans. Sometimes there was even a waiting line for us dogs!
There were dogs of all shapes and sizes:
Even some beagles, and one looked like Kobi!
I made special friends with this handsome Husky. I kept passing him on the walking trail! I think he liked me!
Once we got back from the walk they had a very nice lunch for the humans. We got to sit on the grass and have a picnic. I ate some treats then and got lots of drinks of water from all the bowls they had around (I refused to drink on the walking trail, I didn’t want to look like a wimp, hee hee, but Mommy wasn’t happy with me!)
We hung around for a little while. Mom and Aunty Lynn took some pictures and talked to some people. We took a walk around the booths and then we headed home. It was a fun day….I like doing fundraising to help out other dogs!
We had a normal day on Sunday, hubby and I puttering around the house, and of course the dogs got lots of ball playing in that afternoon. Monday morning we were starting our painting projects. We had the kitchen and dining room to paint, and this meant moving appliances around and having a ladder in the house. Sheba and Moses hate when things are out of place. The kitchen is their route from my office where they mostly hang out, and they hate maneuvering around different things. Our weather had taken a turn for the worse again, Spring backtracked to early Spring, and the temperatures outside were only in the low 50′s at best, and cloudy. But the whole time we were painting, Sheba and Moses just laid out on the deck sleeping. Cricket went in and out a few times at first, but once she figured out we weren’t going to be playing ball, she went back in the office and slept. Nothing perturbs Kobi, so he was laying right out in the kitchen with us, on the dropcloths and under the ladder…..no superstitions for that dog!
The biggest expense is the veterinary bills. Our cats are indoor cats so we save on vaccinations there, since indoor cats don’t need to get all the ones that outdoor cats do. When they were younger we only took them for a checkup very 3 years when they needed shots. Now that they are older (10 and 14) we will take them annually for their check-ups. Luckily for us (knock wood) our pets have been mostly healthy. There have been some issues where we had to pay for a lot of tests, but in the end nothing serious was found wrong. One of my sisters often asks me how we do it, paying for all the vet bills. My answer was simply the truth: we don’t think about it, we just pay it. If we couldn’t afford to have and care for 6 pets, then we shouldn’t have 6 pets. So we just do what needs to be done and try not to worry about it. We are by no means rich, but we are comfortable enough, and I don’t even have to work full time.
I’d say the biggest difficulty with multiple dogs is training. It’s hard to find the time to train that many dogs, when for the most part any serious training has to be done individually. It’s really the time factor. So our dogs are not the most well behaved or well trained dogs, they don’t do a lot of tricks, but overall I think they behave pretty well. Sheba has learned not to jump on company, which had been one of our biggest challenges. They know “stay” and “come” and for the most part they all listen very well.
Cats are a bit different than dogs, and other than the expense, I would say one or four, what difference does it make? My hubby might disagree, however, since he’s the one that takes care of the litter boxes. If you have two cats, you need three boxes, or so they say. We have three and Conrad still chooses not to use them all the time. Also, we have weight issues from time to time. It’s hard to be sure that your indoor kitty gets exercise, especially when you also have dogs that would cheerfully eat any little cat toys left lying around. So I take that back. Now I have been trying to add cat play time to my days also, and I’m not doing very well at it.
Through his page, Buddy and his Mom advocate for abused, neglected, and injured animals. They try to increase awareness of important issues and needs in the dog world. They share many, many shelter animals in need of being rescued from high kill shelters where they could be put to sleep. Buddy has over 6,000 followers and he asks that they also share these photos, and that if they are able, they pledge money to help get these dogs out of these shelters and into rescues and hopefully ultimately homes. He doesn’t ask for a lot….just that if people can, they pledge even a little bit to help.
Some people may not be aware that there are rescues all over the country working hard to get dogs out of shelters before they are put to sleep. These rescues rely on contributions to cover the costs incurred with this difficult work. Pledges given on a page like Buddy’s are used to cover basic needs for rescued dogs; fees for pulling, rabies shots, transport, and boarding, as well as additional medical care that might be needed. If you pledge to help a dog through Buddy, you are not required to pay that pledge until Buddy has let you know that the dog has been brought to safety (you don’t pay if they are adopted from the shelter, or sadly, put to sleep). Buddy will share a “freedom pic” of the dog when he gets it from the rescue that pulled the dog. He mostly works with repeat rescuers who are reputable and have pulled many dogs from shelters. He trusts them and I feel safe pledging money to help dogs through Buddy.
