Welcome to this month's issue of Sonoma County Animal Care and Control Paw Prints! You are receiving this e-newsletter as a new subscriber, or as someone who has interest in the Animal Shelter. If you no longer wish to receive these e-newsletters, please visit the Subscriber Preferences page.

Message from the Director

By Robert Garcia – Interim Director, Supervising Animal Control Officer

SCACC Director Recruitment

Not a day goes by without someone asking about the vacant ACC (Animal Care and Control) Director position. On Monday, November 22, 2010, the recruitment for the new ACC Director was opened and will be open until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, January 9, 2011. The oral interview examinations are tentatively scheduled for Thursday, January 20, 2011 with the department selection interviews tentatively scheduled for Friday, January 21, 2011.

The County is seeking an experienced individual with exceptional leadership qualities to effectively oversee, manage, plan, organize, and administer a comprehensive animal care and control program and budget with continued development and implementation of state of the art best practices.

With the operation of a municipal shelter, the ACC Program is responsible for caring for sick and injured animals and sheltering animals no longer in the care of their owners. In an effort to reduce pet over–population ACC has introduced and continues to develop public spay/neutering services and education.

ACC provides shelter and animal control services for the unincorporated area of Sonoma County, the city of Santa Rosa and the town of Windsor, providing community education and responding to complaints concerning cruelty, neglect, and inhuman treatment of animals. ACC is responsible for enforcing local, state, and federal laws and regulations and administering state mandated programs that pertain to animals, their care, licensing, and public safety. ACC is located within the Department of Health Services – Public Health Division.

Handsome Dalmatian Guy Pongo

By Sally Miller – Animal Shelter Volunteer Extraordinaire

Tyson made the mistake of saying to his co-worker, Animal Shelter Volunteer Gal Sal, that he was considering getting a dog. I swooped in and told him he must, just must, go to the Sonoma County Animal Shelter and get his new companion. I told him he needed to look at Pongo; a pathetic, emaciated, and road rashed Dalmatian that was a man and his ranch's best friend just waiting to get out of the kennels. I even showed Tyson the irresistible picture of Pongo with cone, bandages and all on the website.

Tyson agreed to go to the shelter to take a look at Pongo and the other doggies. Three hours later Tyson called to say he had stayed in the kennels just sitting by Pongo until closing, and was now at the pet store getting all the doggie accessories and would be adopting Pongo the next day. He went the next day, adopted Pongo, and took him back to his forty acre new forever home. Pongo still had bandages, road rash and was skin and bones, but he had an awesome new forever home and was ready to start a new chapter in his "doggies tails" of life.

It has been smooth sailing for Pongo ever since. He is now a bright-eyed, handsome Dalmatian of respectable Dalmatian weight. He "rules the ranch" and Tyson the rancher too. He loves to play, sleep in his big cozy bed, but under the covers in dad's bed is his favorite place. He recently posed for a picture on the ranch next to dad's new bicycle. He was such a handsome Dalmatian guy that the company that makes the bikes posted his picture on their website. Pongo can be found at this link http://www.republicbike.com/gallery.asp or just go to the Republic Bike website -- click on "gallery" and then scroll down until you see a picture of a handsome Dalmatian dog looking at a bicycle in front of a barn and that is PONGO!

From shelter dog to Internet fame all in a year, what a great year for SCACC who took such good care of Pongo until adoption and an even better year for Pongo.

Every Dog is Special Adoption Event

By Cathy Fenn – Animal Shelter Supervisor

Well it’s finally happened; we are experiencing results of our bad economy. For some reason it took a couple of years for it to reach us, but now it’s here. What I’m talking about is the increase in the number of animals being turned in to our shelter and the decrease in animals being adopted.

Before the summer of 2010 you could walk through our adoptable dog kennels finding only a handful of dogs available for adoption. This was because there just weren’t that many dogs coming in to the shelter. Now our kennels are full, sometimes to the point we have to double up dogs. Earlier this year we received authorization through the Board of Supervisors to reduce our adoption fee for dogs to only $25 if our population exceeded 80%. (This was already in place for our cats). We took advantage of this opportunity by holding two $25 dog adoption specials this year.

The first event occurred in July. We had 40 dogs available for adoption, and we successfully adopted 34 of them into their forever homes in one day! The next event was more recent and occurred on November 6. This time we had 45 dogs available for adoption and adopted out 36 of them on that day into their forever homes! As a bonus, 8 cats were also adopted this day.

At both events we had cars lined up down Century Court waiting for the gate to open at noon. Once the gate opened, there was a mad dash towards the kennels to get first choice in our selection of adoptable dogs. Some adopters came out a day or two before each event to view the dogs that would be available at the special. Nine dogs were actually adopted in the two days prior to the special on November 6 because the adopters feared they would miss out if they waited.

We were only able to achieve these numbers by having the help of all our wonderful volunteers at both these events. Our volunteers assisted potential adopters by handing out applications, directing them to the adoption kennels, helping them in choosing the dog that best fit their family and answering any questions they may have had.

It was obvious that the price of the adoption fee matters during these hard times. We were happy that we were able to reduce the price enabling wonderful families to come and adopt a new member into their family.

OSCAR & MARIA

By John Strathman, DVM – Shelter Veterinarian

A few months ago, a furry little black male Pomeranian was surrendered to the Sonoma County Animal Shelter. The surrendering party stated that the dog had injured his leg and the owner could not afford the surgery that was recommended to treat the injury. Radiographs (x-ray images) that were taken at a local veterinary clinic revealed a dislocated hip. The little Pom also had some minor scrapes and bruises on his face. I began to wonder if the dog was a victim of abuse. We gave him pain medication and kept an eye on him for a few days.

Then one day, the little black fluffball was presented to me by a technician who said "look at this!" A huge chunk of skin was coming off the dog's back! What the heck??!! What is going on here?! We anesthetized the little guy, removed a generous chunk of dead, black, nasty skin that covered a large area over his back, then cleaned and bandaged the wound. In the "before" photo, which was taken a few days later, the wound is still huge and ugly, but the nice pink bed of granulation tissue that you see looked beautiful to me. This is healthy tissue, free of infection, and all the tissue there looked fabulous, ready for surgery to close the wound.

After cleaning and disinfecting the wound, I made an incision all the way around and loosened the skin, so that I could move it over the defect. I was able to "walk" the skin, bit by bit, tacking it down to underlying muscle with lots of stitches, until the wound was closed. Thankfully, most dogs have a lot of loose extra skin in a lot of places which lends itself well to reconstructive surgery. The result - a big "H"-shaped incision held together with staples.

By the time of surgery, our little hero had begun to feel much better and show some personality. He caught the eye of Maria, one of our veterinary technicians. She fell in love with him and named him "Oscar." She took him home to complete his recovery. The wound healed beautifully and Oscar grew his hair back, long and thick, hiding his scars.

The dislocated hip? Well, Oscar uses the leg very well and he's tiny, does not have a big load to pack around, so he will not need surgery after all. What happened to him? I think he was most likely attacked by a big dog, probably picked up by the skin of his back and shaken, which crushed the skin and caused the big skin slough.

You never know when you are going to meet that special "someone," fall in love, and become inseparable. Maria did not "need" a dog, was not looking for one, but Oscar cast his spell upon her with his charm and good looks. An adorable little dog, down on his luck, needed a bright future, and along came a sweet, compassionate lady, who did not know that she needed him too. Win win!

 

A Pig’s Tale

By Shirley Zindler–Animal Control Officer

The call had originally come in about a limping goat on a property visible from a busy road. The stock owner wasn’t home but his young son showed me the animals. The goat had a minor deformity to the leg which caused a little hitch to its gait. It did not seem to be in pain, was in good overall condition and there was food, water and shelter available. I then checked on the rest of the animals on the property to make sure that their conditions were acceptable.

The place was pretty run down with sheep, goats and poultry wandering among rotting boards, wire and other debris. The animals appeared healthy though, and I was preparing to leave when I heard the sound of a pig squealing. I hadn’t seen a pig and began trying to locate the animal. I followed the sound to a pile of produce boxes and other garbage. I could see a large plastic bin of about 4 X 4 feet and about 3 feet high, the kind you see full of grapes during harvest season. It was sitting haphazardly among the junk, tilted slightly as if it was just thrown there. It was covered with a pallet and had a piece of plywood thrown over the top.

Peering in, I could see a pig trying desperately to shove her nose up through a gap in the boards. Flies and yellow jackets buzzed as I moved the board aside a little bit and looked in. The pig was a young Duroc, one of my favorite breeds, with a bristly red coat but she could only move a couple of steps in any direction. The box was filthy and the floor was rotting out into a cesspool underneath. There was no food or water, so I grabbed a hose and filled her tipped over bucket. To my surprise she wasn’t thirsty, she had probably been watered that morning and then tipped her bucket over in the tiny space. She was more interested in playing in the water and interacting with me. She actually looked quite healthy, bright eyed with good weight and coat.

Pigs are highly social, intelligent and playful animals and her conditions were unsanitary and unacceptable. I tried calling her owner on his cell phone but he did not answer. I pointed the box out to the young son and told him that the pig could not live there and needed to be moved into a suitable pen or she would be confiscated. If there had been any other place to move her, I would have moved her myself. I gave him my card and asked him to have his father call me immediately.

I hated to leave her but because she appeared healthy, I had to give the owner a chance to rectify the situation. I took photos of the conditions and put some straw in to give her a dry place to lie down. I drove away, wishing that I could take her with me and give her a wonderful life.

I felt a little subdued all evening at home with my family. I kept thinking of the pig, unable to even see another animal or walk around or enjoy the sunshine and dig in the mud.

The next day I returned and met with the pig owner. He took me out to see what he had done. I was delighted to see that she had been moved to a spacious pen with access to sun and shelter. She had a tub of sparkling clean water, fresh food and plenty of room to move around. There were sheep and goats on the other side of the fence to socialize with and a fat duck waddled through her pen. Not as good as another pig, but some companions none the less.

There was also a cool dirt floor to root around in, satisfying her need for physical and mental enrichment. The pig was in the middle of a major excavation project at that moment, with her front legs down in her hole and piles of dirt around her. She looked up at me with a little mound of dirt still balanced on top of her rubbery nose and umph umphed at me with satisfaction. As I watched, she flopped down in her hole and sighed with contentment.

This pig’s owner was not a monster, just very uneducated in the basic needs of animals and the law. He was willing to work with our department and the quality of life for a needy creature was greatly improved because of it. In the whole scheme of things this is not huge, but it sure made a difference to one little pig.

Leann Mannie

By Greg Mortensen – Volunteer Coordinator

There is much we could not do without the outstanding support of all of our dedicated volunteers. Among our many excellent volunteers, this month we are spotlighting an individual whose contributions have not gone unnoticed.

Leann Mannie has volunteered at the Sonoma County Animal Shelter for over nine years and has donated a lot of energy, hard work and time during those years. Her main job has been volunteering as a Canine Kennel Assistant – Dog Walker, but Leann takes it much more seriously than the average volunteer. Leann comes to the shelter with her main focus on the dogs that are hard to place and that spend an extra long time at the shelter because they are either too big, too young (or old), too hyper, too strong, too “generic” or all of the above. She is able to come and give them the concentration and guidance that they need.

Leann has also taken many of these dogs into her home and business over the years, giving them a rest from the shelter environment. Many times she has helped find them a forever home as they have gone on walks, to work and to the dog park with her. Leann understands that some dogs just need a little more time to develop the manners that will get them noticed by a potential adopter.

Though Leann’s heart is mainly for dogs, she has also fostered many of our feline friends over the years, worked at fund raisers, mobile adoptions, spay-a-thons and special events. Simply put, Leann is always willing to do whatever it takes to help all animals, including the shelter animals. For example, during the month of November, Leann was here at the shelter eight times at 7 a.m. checking in cats for surgery. No wonder Leann is such a wonderful dog walker. She not only talks the talk, but she walks the walk – dog in hand.

We’d like to take a moment and thank Leann for all that she does to help the animals at the Sonoma County Animal Shelter. Thank you!

If you are interested in volunteering at the shelter, please contact Greg Mortensen at (707) 565-7116 or visit us on-line at www.theanimalshelter.org for more information.