May,  2007

Dear Friends:

I hope all of you are in good health, with no major colds or discomforts due to the crazy weather. We are all kind of hanging in there – 87 degrees one day, freezing again with snow a few days later At least we are alive to make the best of it!

It’s been a very turbulent month at the Shelter. A few weeks back one of our dogs was adopted. The new owner had taken “Bear” for a general check-up and was told that the dog had heartworms, which could have been contracted as early as last year, when he was still in our care. We normally are pretty good in giving the animals their monthly heartworm preventative, but since he had not been in our care all of last year, we did not know about his condition. So, just to be on the save side, all of our dogs had to go in for a checkup and blood tests! Mike took them in, one by one, with the exception of four dogs, which are either too shy or not exactly trustworthy. Dr. Slack promised to come out to the Shelter to check them out right there.

The good news is that none of our dogs had heartworm. The bad news is that Lady, the mother of Bear, the previously placed dog, Lady is still with us, has Lyme Disease. She is being treated for that. The really bad news, of course, is the huge vet bill we will have to deal with 25 dogs for checkups and blood tests. This is going to be a low hit in the stomach.

On top of that I just about maxed out the credit card by buying over $500 heartworm pills, and another $280 for flea and tick preventatives. Thank God we have not had any flea problems at all at the Shelter. We put those little vials on the back of the animals' necks at least in the beginning of summer, to make sure they do stay flea-free!

Since we have gotten a very good deal on the flea medication, Biospot, I thought you may want to save a little money too: Many of you buy Advantage which is a lot more expensive, but has the same ingredients as Biospot. We have been using Biospot since about 1995, and are very happy with it.

Doctors Foster and Smith have a special going right now: a six month supply of Biospot for $25 and get another three month supply free! So for $25 you will get nine month of flea and tick preventatives, that’s a little over $2.50 a month. You can’t beat that! Shipping on our whole order was only $3.99. If you would like to order some for your own dogs and cats, here is the phone number: 1-800–826-7206. You can also order directly on the Internet www.DrsFosterSmith.com.

More good news came in the form of much needed laundry detergent: Shaw's Distribution Center has been poring the detergent from broken bottles into a 50 gallon drum, and donated it to our Shelter! So to all the ladies who buy detergent for us and bring it along to the fundraiser: Please spend the money on something else this year, we will have enough detergent for at least a year! Hopefully Shaw's will continue this practice.

Chicken Jerky Tenders

Paw licking good JJJ

Always needed are treats: I had bought a load of “Chicken Jerky Tenders” [see column one photo] for the dogs last month, they are not cheap, but the dogs love them. So far they are not on the black list. Wal-Mart sells them in small and big pouches. Compared to the small pouch the large 32 oz. bag for $12 is much cheaper. They seem to be made in California, ingredients are chicken breast fillet, seasonings, and that’s it! No weird Chinese ingredients.

I will start putting tickets for the fundraiser into next month’s newsletter. Of course we will do it again, most likely in October, at the church where we had it last year. Lots of space, no cost other than a donation. I promise we will put up signs so that no one gets lost this time.

Something new for those of you who may be interested in sending their donations via Internet to us: Charley, our webmaster, and I are working right now on getting an account set up directly through our website. This may help us bring in some donations from “strangers”, who happen to run across our website and decide we are worthy of their money. It will be a Paypal account, no cost for you. You will see an icon for it on the home page soon.

CAT REPORT – MAY 2007

The good news this month is there isn’t much news. Your cats have been mostly pretty good – we won’t talk about the way a few of them have acted out – and pretty healthy.

Christopher went back to the doctor to have his thyroid level rechecked, and it’s back in the normal range. However, he’d a lost a little more weight, which he shouldn’t have – weight loss is a common symptom of hyperthyroidism, so he should be gaining again now. Heather recommended continuing the medication at the same level, as long as he seems to feel well. These last few days he’s been fussy about taking it on top of a dab of canned food. I’ll let him get away with skipping a dose once in a while, but if he keeps it up, he’s going to find me shoving a dropper into his mouth.

I thought I had mentioned the cat tents Karen found for the mob, but looking through back reports, I see I didn’t.  They’re made from nylon or some similar light-weight but tough fabric and have openings in the front and sides. I have one on the bed in the back room upstairs, where it’s very popular.  Sometimes two cats are inside, and at least once there were three. Recently, Robin has started lying on top of it, collapsing it, not infrequently with Lisa, Peter or someone else inside. I

thought I had mentioned the cat tents Karen found for the mob, but looking through back reports, I see I didn’t. They’re made from nylon or some similar light-weight but tough fabric and have openings in the front and sides. I have one on the bed in the back room upstairs, where it’s very popular. Sometimes two cats are inside, and at least once there were three  Recently, Robin’s started lying on top of it, collapsing it, not infrequently with Lisa, Peter or someone else inside.  

There’s a cloth cube on the bed, too, which Lisa still especially likes, and now there are two cubes in the back room downstairs. Two of the FIV+ cats, not Buddy and Tommy, they were innocent, for once – started fighting over the one Karen gave them, and I had to make a late-night run to WalMart (I was in town anyway for a concert, so it wasn’t quite as desperate as it sounds) to buy a second one. Then, of course, both cats preferred the new one for a day or two before deciding they were cubed out and would sleep elsewhere for a while.

Buddy hasn’t noticeably lost weight, so I still pick him up and hold him for the last half of every meal, when he’s emptied his dish and the other cats are still eating. He must be frustrated, but he’s awfully good about it and sits and purrs, and when I’m wearing a short-sleeved shirt he’ll lap my arm affectionately (or maybe he’s considering it as a substitute for cat food?).

In addition to the tents, Karen bought food for the cats, as did P. A. Lenk and Olivia Charles.  Roberta Chaves clipped and mailed coupons from Massachusetts, Teresa’s sister sends them from Pennsylvania, and Irma Simon got some from the local papers. Considering that the price of cat food is going up about as steadily as the price of gasoline, I’m always pleased to save a few cents. My thanks to all of them, and as always to the rest of you out there who are doing so much for our cats and dogs.

ADA Fence, Palmyra

Anne Tappan, Cambridge

Betsy Anderson, Framingham

Carole parker, Stoughton

Charlotte Travis, Saugus

Cindy Herrick, W. Newton

Cindy Houston, Woburn

Dale Critchley, S. Weymouth

Doris Lary, Hartland

Dorothy D’Alessandro, Ossipee

Dorothy Eckstein, Medford

Elizabeth Johnson, Sanford

Emile Jorgensen, E .Boston

Enid Hayes, Halifax

Francis Archer, Canton

G & R. Welch, Stonington

Harriet Snyder, Brockton

Inge Maiellano, Marblehead

Iris Martinello, Tewksbury

Irma Simon, S.China

Jackie Lowney, New Bedford

Jean Catignani, Conway

Joe D’Alessandro, Tuftonboro

Jon & Barb Anderson, Augusta

Joseph Blake, New Bedford

Josephine Ford, Holden

Josephine Smith, Woburn

Judy & Al Smith, Belmont

Judy Rohweder, Northport

Karen Rapallo, Wakefield

Kellee Lowney, New Bedford

Leslie Tucker, Reading

Linda Merriam, Dresden

Lisa D’Alessandro, Raymond

Lorena & Harry Clark, Beverly

Marcia Post, Wakefield

Marcia Smith, Bucksport

Marian Delarue, W burn

Marlene Kaplan, Melrose

Michael Kane, Greenewood

Michael Rizzo, Oxford

Nancy Capone, Wakefield

Naomi Teixeira, Jay

Pat Thain, N. Billerica

R. D. Bournival, Nashua

Roberta Chaves, Westport

Rust Pappathanasi, Swampscott

Sandra Nicholson, Beverly

Victor Santos, N. Reading

Viola McDonald, Woburn

Werner Eckstein, Woburn

We received a donation from Mary Klayda in memory of her brother, Charles. Also, Mary’s 85th birthday is coming up this month. Happy Birthday Mary, and many happy returns. Stay as young as you look!

Thanks to a very determined Judy Smith, we also received a donation from V-DAC, which is the vehicle donation I mentioned a couple of months ago. It seems like this company, who takes “your” vehicle, sells it on auctions and gives the money to the charity you pick, also wants quite a handling fee. So the charge in the case of Judy Smith’s car was evidently higher than what they deemed the car was worth. So they were not going to give us any money. Judy was not going for that! After all kinds of calls from a very mad Judy, they actually decided to send us a personal check, a donation of $200, with a long letter stating that they would do this only once for any charity. I imagine the “poor” president of V-DAC now has to live on bread and water for a few weeks JJ 

This brings me to the end of this letter. Wishing you a great month of June – lots of sunshine, few mosquitoes and black flies. Take care of yourselves and stay healthy and happy.

Gabriele, Mary, Karen, Ted, Mike and Jim

  Return to previous page