ron sims, rat lover

recently, king county executive and shelter advocate ron sims stopped by to give some props to the kcac employees and volunteers. besides being a big hugger, we also discovered that he's a fan of pet rats, which he had as a kid. yay for ron, and yay for rats everywhere.

a birdalicious afternoon

the quince bush in front of our house was chock full of these little finches this afternoon, all singing and hopping around. it was so neat, especially because we'd just gone to see the jean-luc mylayne exhibit at the henry and all his photos contained birds. a nice little diversion.

your tax dollars at work

i know that few of you, friends and family of mine, have been spared my ranting about the recent citizen's advisory committee/witch hunt evaluating conditions at king county animal control, in which shelter employees were portrayed as negligent, animal-abusing retards, even though none of us were given the opportunity to tell our side. we were recently treated to another reaming at the hands of nathan winograd, a private consultant that the county hired to investigate the shelter, for which the county paid him just shy of $50,000. winograd is the author of the book redemption, in which he claims that there is no pet overpopulation problem, and that the blame for the tragic euthanization rate of our country's unwanted pets lies in the hands of shelters, not with breeders, puppy mills, pet stores or lack of spay/neuter.

mr. winograd was at the shelter a total of 5 days. the staff he spoke with were the shelter director, two of the supervisors and the shelter vet. he did not interview the officers who work in the trenches with the animals, nor did he bother to verify many of the claims he made about what negligent retards we are. while it is true that the shelter is in need of a makeover, winograd's report contained exaggerated, sometimes fraudulent claims, some of which i know from personal experience to be untrue. call me crazy, but wouldn't that 50 grand have been better spent on improvements to the shelter? x-files conspiracy theory moment: the council has been talking about shutting us down for some time, so isn't it handy that the consultant they hired to condemn us had a preexisting bias against open-door shelters? hmmm.

i won't go on here: if anyone has questions i'd be happy to discuss it further. if you happen to be chatting about this--or the inflammatory article that just came out in the PI--with your friends and neighbors, please reassure them that we at the shelter are doing the very best with our limited staff and tiny budget. we care about the animals, that's why we work there! if anyone is in a civic-minded mood, feel free to contact the council and urge them to help us by allocating us more staff and resources. thanks for listening.

what the??

this tiny puppy came in to the shelter yesterday and we all fell in love with him. he never made a normal puppy noise even though he talked a lot -- i think at one point he even said "redrum"...

my new favorite thing

i may be the last frequent flier on the planet to use this, but how sweet is farecast? it analyzes trends and notifies you of the best time to buy an airline ticket. for example, in its infinite wisdom (confidence 80+%), it is telling me to wait to purchase a flight to isla holbox in mexico for an upcoming (may) spay/neuter clinic. okay, psychic farecast, i await your direction . . .

howdy, pardner

yay for horses! today lise took me out for a trail ride at beautiful lang's ranch near mt. vernon. perfect weather, nice horses and a great guide. many options, especially in summer, for various rides, classes and overnites. and of course they gladly accept volunteers . . .


wahoo


yummy fern snack


lise and digger share a laugh


i'm walkin' here


300 acres of trails in the woods


the rider becomes the ridee

a gorgeous president's day in the PNW

perfect for a hike! this is for the poor saps that don't work for the county and had to go to the office today. Here's what y'all missed . .


the first mosquito of spring! like a little bloodsucking groundhog.


bruno on lookout, scoping the scene for something to pee on


jupiter loves cougar


ava, hold still so i can take a picture


could that sky be any bluer?


i love fungus!! tastes nasty but looks so cool. this one is growing in the hair moss on the side of a tree.


these fungi are just around an inch tall. beautiful!

back and tan

today my friend marilyn the shelter vet and i were discussing our next trip, and it got me to thinking about why people like to volunteer. not only do we opt to work for free and cover our own expenses, we're often willing to pay an extra fee to the group we're helping out. are we martyrs? animal lovers? looking for a life less ordinary? or, as marilyn's son puts it, just "do-gooders"? maybe a little of all. ultimately--at least for me--it's self-serving, because knowing i played a part in bettering a life feels pretty sweet. and of course how totally cool it is to make friends with a monkey?!

"Altruism is selfishness out with a pair of field glasses and imagination." - Christina Stead

hola mazatlan

it's 80 degrees, so why are we cold? must be the wind and the cold ocean water. this place is bizarre; hotels and resorts along the beach are huge, and the whole golden zone (along the beach where we are) feels like it was created for tourists. lots of tan gringos wearing senor frog's tee-shirts and drinking beers. not so tropical, feels more like vegas, a manufactured oasis in the desert.


it's our hotel! not. this is one of the swankier places on the strip. we're just pretending that we live here.



the shelter! amigos de los animales is small but surprisingly clean and pretty well functioning -- kennels for the dogs, a communal cat area and a tiny treatment/surgery area. they have a full time vet (they're called "medicos" here), a shelter manager and 2 employees who feed/clean cages/take dogs for walks. also volunteers help when they are available. we met 2 women from canada who fundraise and take some animals back to canada to find them homes. of course since it's latin america it's not as hectic as shelters in the states. they take in about 35 dogs a month and adopt out 25, cats 10 - 15 out and 100 in per month. many of the cats are feral or semi-feral so they do a lot of spay & release, and euthanasia of very old or sick cats. the staff are dedicated and nice and seemed glad to see us, but i felt a little redundant -- i was doing stuff the medico could easily have done himself and he just sat back and watched me, so it seemed like they didn't really need help. hmm, a little confusing. either way they're a good group and their goals are admirable, especially in a town where animal welfare is not a big priority.


el perro azul! this dog and her sister were owned by a local artist who painted them blue.


soaking up some rays


cat room

medico juan surveys the meds i brought


checking the incision of the previous day's neuter


treating an anemic pit mix. sweet dog with white gums. when we left she was still tired but doing alright.


giving IV fluids and glucose to laika, a street dog who had been in residence for 2 weeks and was depressed and anorexic. sometimes when street dogs are brought to the shelter they become depressed because even though it's safe and warm and there's food, they aren't used to being indoors and it weirds them out.

another day at the office

couldn't resist posting pics of these little freaks who came into one of my clinics for dentals yesterday. seriously, don't you just want to eat them??


"we're up to no good"


professional driver on closed course. do not attempt at home.

walk like . . . well, you know

more fun in the spay/neuter clinic! shelter vet and fellow costa rica v'teer marilyn just got back from egypt and she brought us gifts, including these fetching beaded head adornments.


dr. m brings glamour to a cat neuter


officer elvis isn't afraid to wear gold beads with a white tee while i make like the bangles


oh, the humanity

that's me, lazy magoo

since i'm home with a cold today and didn't take any new pics, here's from our fabulous 40th bday party 2 weekends ago.


foxy hubby thad the DJ

collectively we're 160 years old


we're hung over, let's go get udon noodles with fresh straw!