Provence, France - Day 3 - Visiting Ancient Rome

The Mistal continued to blow as we caravanned to Glanum http://www.softseattravel.com/Glanum-Roman-Ruin-in-Provence.html the site of some fascinating Roman ruins that were buried for centuries then discovered in the 1920’s.

After strolling the ruins we walked to the nearby Asylum Saint Paul de Mausole where Vincent van Gogh was hospitalized for a year and where he painted some of his most famous paintings, including Starry Night. That was quite the depressing place! Blood-letting, ice baths and other treatments of that time were described. Makes getting a root canal without novacaine seem tame in comparison!

In the afternoon, Preston, Sarah and I navigated our way back to the train station in Avignon to pick up Sue who was just arriving. Her departure for France had to be delayed 2 days as she awaited the return of her husband from a 4-month stint in Iraq. I love Sue’s attitude. “Hi Honey, welcome home from the warzone . Here’s the kids – I’m off to France for a vacation. Have fun!”

Back to that navigation thing. Finding our way to the train station was definitely an adventure especially not understanding the road signs, the roundabouts (which we sometimes went around 2 or 3 times before figuring out which road to take) and the crazy drivers. A near miss with a vespa vs our bus, some dirty looks for the “American tourists” and we finally found the station….and Sue!

On the way back to Goult we stopped at the local wine cave (pronounced “kav”, meaning the wine cellar) to fill up on rosé. “Fill-up” literally. Check out the pictures!

That evening we took the first of several evening walks into the village of Goult that always ended at one of the village restaurants for a nightcap. In the village I discovered – guess what? Cats! No surprise there I’m sure to most anyone who knows me. Cats were snoozing on the sidewalks, in the streetside gardens, on the stone walls – kitties seemed to be in every corner. And, much to my relief they were almost all healthy, friendly kitties. And, yes, I immediately checked out the most important thing – nearly all were spayed or neutered! Whew! I would not have to stay behind when everyone went home to implement a French spay/neuter program! My camera started going crazy snapping pics of the kitties. More on the Cats of Goult to follow.

For pictures of today's adventure go to http://fieldhaven.phanfare.com/4165236#imageID=74092656

Provence, France - Day 2 - Market Day at Isle sur la Sorgue

Sunday, June 21 – Market Day!

The markets in France are similar to our Farmers’ Markets but much more “authentic” – each town has a market day and this is where the restaurants get their fresh produce. On Sunday we went to one of the largest markets in Provence; Isle sur la Sorgue. This market is known for vendors that sell everything from fabrics to antiques.

It is here at the market where I had my first encounter with a French chat (cat). You see, there was this sweet mom cat with 2 kittens that one of the vendors was displaying in a little wooden cart along with a puppy and a miniature goat. Was this perhaps the French version of a pet store or even a rescue of some sort? Since I couldn’t read a work of the signage I had not a clue. I picked up a darling kitten (and very healthy looking) for a cuddle and a much needed kitty fix. The proprietors of the cart chatted away to me in French, thrusting boxes of candy into my face. I had not a clue what they were saying since I understand barely a word of French. After a quick snuggle I put the kitty down and strolled away with the people continuing to talk to me. I presumed they were trying to get me to buy the kitten or donate to their rescue.

It was later that I learned that I had just fallen for one of the biggest tourist traps in the French Markets. Vicky, who speaks fluent French, apparently got an earful from them and they were not happy that I hadn’t paid to pet the kitty! Now there’s a new angle for fund-raising – charge to pet the kitty. We ought to try that at FieldHaven! These people are gypsies who live in RVs traveling around to the markets with their cute and cuddly animals, convincing tourists to give them money. And, from what I learned, they also use the animals as a diversion for distracting tourists while they pick their pockets. At least I didn’t get caught in that scam but leave it to me to get in “trouble” over a kitty my first day in France!

After the market we retired back to the mas for a lunch of some tasty paella from the market, some lazy time by the pool and more rosé – lots more rosé.

That evening we had a fabulous catered dinner by Helen, a local woman originally from England. Helen can create a fabulous meal!

For pictures of Day 2 go to: http://fieldhaven.phanfare.com/4158044#imageID=73850442.

Provence, France - Day 1

Following is a journal from a 12 day trip to France Preston and I took to celebrate the 50th birthday of my oldest (length of friendship, not age) friend, Sarah Boudreau (aka “Jones”). There were 10 of us in our group. The trip was organized by Sarah’s sister, Fran, and her step-mom, Vicky. Also accompanying us was Stu, Sarah and Fran’s dad, Fran’s husband, George, Leann and Paul , friends of the family and Sue, a friend of Sarah’s from Norfolk.

Because I was “forbidden” to bring along a computer (insider joke) I couldn’t write up my journal until our return to the states. Of course, I could’ve done it the “old-fashioned” way of Vicky and Fran by hand-writing it everyday. But since I often can't even read my own hand-writing that may have been a fruitless effort. So here I am post-vacation recreating each day in my mind. Now, there’s a challenge for this almost-49 year old, menopausal brain!!

I’ll do a blog entry for each day – may take me a couple of weeks to get the whole trip done.

Day 1 - Saturday, June 20 – After flying all day Friday and overnight then losing 9 hours of time (6 for Sarah) Preston, Sarah and I arrived at Charles De Gaulle in Paris early Saturday morning. Somewhat – no – a LOT tired as we met up with the rest of the crew at the high speed train station. A 3 hour, super fast trip through the French countryside brought us to Avignon in Provence.

Here is where we learned what the “Mistral” is in France. Here in Sacramento we’d call it a Delta Breeze on steroids. Bright sunny skies with a wind forceful enough to knock you off your feet if you weigh less than 100 lbs (not me).

The rental car process was a lengthy one but the monotony of waiting was broken up by the eye-candy at the rental counter in the form of some very darling Frenchmen – all in their 20’s. Nicholas’ transparent blue eyes – oh, we talked about them all week.

Our rental cars were 2 Mercedes “buses” and a VW. One of the buses had a lengthy scrape down one side and was missing some molding. We’ll revisit that fact later in the week.

A 45-minute drive to the village of Goult and we found our mas (farmhouse) down a quiet dirt road near some vineyards. The mas was everything described to us and more! Just an absolutely quintesstial 1700’s stone house with all the period charm but with every modern amenity. Even a (very slow) wireless internet connection.

Preston’s and my accommodations were a remodeled pigeonnier (yes, a pigeon house) that opened right to the pool. Cute, cute, cute!

Fran and Vicki bought out the local market of some wonderful fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese and rosé wine. Yes, rosé. One of the first things we learned about France is that rosé wine in a staple in France. No, we’re not talking about the socially-unacceptable White Zinfandel that all of us Californians cringe at when our out-of-town relatives order at a restaurant embarrassing us to no end. Yes, we are wine snobs. But in France It’s cool to drink rosé. And, just wait til you hear how it’s dispensed!

Enjoy the pictures of our first day at http://fieldhaven.phanfare.com/4157904#imageID=73845913

A Tale of 2 Cats and 2 Years (and the importance of microchips)

Blake went missing nearly 2 years ago from the home of his adopter. The teenage black kitty had been adopted from FieldHaven just a few short months prior. Blake was on the “shy” side and one day he scooted out an accidentally left open door. His family searched and searched, postering the neighborhood, checking the shelter – anything to bring this kitty home. A kitty whom they had fallen in love with in spite of the fact that he seemed to not be fond of human affection. As time marched on their hope waned and they adopted 2 small dogs into their family.

Last week I was just stepping out of a meeting at Placer County Animal Services when a staff person stopped to let me know that a semi-feral cat had been surrendered in a trap that morning. At first he seemed destined to be classified as a feral but, alas, a microchip was found – a microchip that had been implanted by FieldHaven. Thank you PCAS for checking for microchips on all incoming animals no matter how un-owned they may appear.

I quickly checked the chip in our database and found his adopter’s contact information. The adopter was surprised by the call – after all Blake had been missing for so long they didn’t harbor any hope that he’d be found. She was ecstatic and told me her daughter really missed that silly shy cat. She said she’d love to bring him home but was concerned about the 2 new canine family member – would Blake be comfortable with them?

After a conversation with her we elected to bring Blake back to FieldHaven where we could all work together to work out the best solution for him.

We have found that Blake has reverted back to his mostly feral state. Volunteers are working with him to see if he can be re-socialized enough to return to his family or if a different living situation would be better for him. But, thanks to his microchip, he is safe and cared for. And, his family is comforted by knowing where he is.

River was found by a jogger wandering in the open space behind the Lincoln Home Depot in October 2007. He was skinny and starving. A neutered male that obviously belonged to someone at some time but he was not microchipped and a search did not turn up an owner. Several months later River was adopted into a great home. But River knew he didn’t belong in that home. He let his adopters know that he didn’t want to be there in that unpleasant way cats do – he peed everywhere he wasn’t supposed to.

The adopters tried everything; a medical workup, the pheromone plug-ins, trying to reason with him, whatever they could try they did. But to no avail.

Tearfully, they returned River (now known as Linus) to FieldHaven after a year. That was 2 months ago. We did another medical work-up in the hopes something had been missed. Nope, River was just a chronic bad kitty!

We love River but, heck, do you know how hard it is to adopt out a 5 year old, black/white, slightly overweight pee cat? We’ve been down this road before and we just try and keep the faith. You just never know when “that person” will come along. Sometimes it takes months and months but we just keep trying.

River hasn’t had the best of times at our PetSmart Adoption Center – he gets stressed there and doesn’t put his best face forward to the public. Instead he hides somewhat and just sits there. No head-butting “take me”s against the adoption center windows for this guy.

This week Jen decided to try River again at PetSmart just to see if he would like it any better. Who would’ve known how that decision would turn out.

Last night Kristian was shopping at PetSmart when she wandered by the adoption center and began looking at kitties in the adoption center. When she saw River sleeping in his bed she thought of her family’s black and white kitty, Charlie who went missing shortly after they moved to Lincoln nearly 2 years ago never to be found in spite of months and months of searching.

When River lifted his head to look at Kristian she was stunned by what she saw – a black nose and a black dot in the center of his white chin just like Charlie. It was Charlie!

Admittedly, we were skeptical when Kristian called last night. Could she really recognize her black and white cat after 2 years? Kristian came to FieldHaven today with pictures – no doubt about it – it’s Charlie.

Today Jen and I had the most incredible joy of witnessing the reunion of Kristian and Charlie. These are the times in rescue and animal shelter that make our hearts swell with love and pride for the work we do. How can it get better than this?

Charlie/River/Linus now has a microchip. But we hope he never needs to use it.

The Lincoln News Messenger was also there to witness the reunion – watch for the story in next week’s paper.

Please microchip your pets.

Kristian and Charlie - see the black spot on his chin?

Tackling the Biggest Killer of America’s Pets – Is a Law the Way to Put an End to Euthanasia?

Before I get into a discussion on whether I support CA SB 250 or mandatory spay/neuter laws in general I must emphasize that any opinion expressed here is solely my own and does not necessarily represent the opinion or position of FieldHaven Feline Rescue in general. While I am the President of the Board of Directors of FieldHaven (and volunteer Executive Director) the Board has not discussed nor positioned themselves on SB 250 or other mandatory spay/neuter legislation.

OK, now having gotten that out of the way. How do I feel about SB 250?? I am definitely sitting on the fence and heavily leaning towards the opposing side. What?, you say. Me, the self-proclaimed spay/neuter “nazi” who never hesitates to ask someone if their cat or dog is fixed and is downright evangelistic about spaying and neutering?!

Yes, you heard right. I am NOT convinced that a law to require everyone to spay and neuter their pets is the best way to get the job done. That job being putting an end to euthanizing of 4.5 million dogs and cats a year for no reasons except there are not enough homes and there are too many irresponsible people letting their animals breed.

We all know it is an American tragedy that these animals are killed each year and I think (hope) we all agree on 2 points; all cats and dogs should by spayed and neutered unless a breeder has a responsible, purposeful breeding program and that puppy mills need to be shut down and done away with.

Beyond that, there seems to be 2 definite factions – those that are for mandatory spay/neuter and those that are opposed. I lean towards the latter and here’s why:

Access to low-cost spay neuter – Not all areas in California are as fortunate as we are in Placer County with our low and no-cost spay/neuter programs. For example, several counties in the Central Valley have very limited or no low cost spay/neuter clinics or programs. Veterinarians will not provide discounted rates to anyone and many will not even accept feral cats for spay/neuter. How can we enact a law when there are no provisions for people who want to comply with the law but cannot afford to? How can we put a law in place that doesn’t even provide a reasonable means for people to comply? Wouldn't that would be like mandating that everyone has to get a driver’s license but putting DMV offices 200 miles apart.

A Law will Discourage Citizens from Helping – In a survey by Alley Cat Allies it is estimated that 82% of owned cats are already spayed/neutered. But only 3% of stray and feral cats are fixed. We have found through our spay/neuter assistance program (SNAP) at FieldHaven that a majority of the cats are strays and ferals that caring citizens have taken on the responsibility for. Sometimes, these people are unable to continue caring for them and we then assist them in trying to find them homes. But, more often they are very willing to continue caring for the cats once possibility of them multiplying has been addressed. My fear is that these caring people will not be so willing to help the cats if a law has now made them legally responsible for them. What happens if a new cat shows up that isn’t fixed? They may now think it much less complicated to call animal control to pick up the stray since they don’t want to risk any legal issues than to get the cat fixed and continue caring for it.

A Law Will Not Reach the Target Audience – I think most educated, intelligent law abiding citizens in America “get it” with respect to having their pets fixed. Do we really think the population of people that have the majority of unfixed pets are of the socio-economic group that are going to go “oh, it’s now a law honey – you better get your pit bull neutered”? Let’s be realistic here….... those are the people that we have hand-hold through the spay/neuter process by making it extremely easy and attractive for them to get the animal fixed. A law is only going to alienate them and make them even more resistant .

What about the couple in rural Lincoln who had 42 adult cats spayed/neutered through FieldHaven’s SNAP this spring, none of which were their own? All cats that had wandered onto their property or people had abandoned in the area. They are happy to continue caring for them now that they are all fixed. They didn’t need a law to do what they feel is morally right – they needed the financial assistance to get the job done.

We need to focus our efforts towards providing access to low-cost spay/neuter. For people like the couple with the 42 cats in rural Lincoln. That’s 42 cats that are not being euthanized at animal control. For people that would like a pet but don’t understand the importance of spaying and neutering, we need to provide education and easy access to low-cost spay neuter. For the busy family that finds a stray female cat in their yard we need to make it very easy for them to get the cat spayed and keep the cat in their family rather than making it complicated so that it becomes easier for them to just drop the cat at the animal shelter.

If all of the money spent by everyone supporting or opposing mandatory spay/neuter were to be put towards providing low-cost spay/neuter with easy access I think we’d be a lot further along in our effort to decrease the euthanasia rate in shelters.

Am I too idealistic in believing we can accomplish our goal without laws? I have a good friend who once told me, tongue in cheek, that my optimism reminded her of Pollyanna. Maybe I am too Pollyanna-ish – what do you think?

Here are some websites from both sides of the fence for you to peruse to form your own opinion:
http://www.yesonsb250.com/sb250-home.php
http://network.bestfriends.org/california/news/33373.html
http://capwiz.com/alleycat/issues/alert/?alertid=12987106&PROCESS=Take+Action&external_id=10519.0
http://www.akc.org/news/index.cfm?article_id=3802

PS: I am NOT opposed to requiring breeders to pay for an annual breeder’s license fee. But only if that license fee would be put towards accessible, high-volume low-cost spay/neuter programs.

More Fun and Learning at HSUS (and wearily heading home)

Yesterday's most enlightening session was on one of the most current trends on the internet - Social Networking. I have dipped my toes into the waters of this booming craze with this blog, a facebook page and a LinkedIn page but, no, I have not TWITTERED yet. I found out that I am oh so out-of-date and I better get my tweaking my tweets because I could be missing out on lots of Twitter friends! New friends who could be FieldHaven supporters. Oh NO, I guess I better get twitting, twigging and tweating!

This morning’s session was another brain-burner (ie, giving me lots of good info…..and ideas). It focused on feline behavior and how to rehab cats in shelters with the goal of making them more adoptable presented by Miranda Workman of Purrfect Paws Animal Behavior Center in New York. The Erie County SPCA has a great program called AdvoCats. I think we have some AdvoCats at FieldHaven! Let’s give the FieldHaven team a name – any suggestions for a catchy moniker?

Alrighty then – time to head to the airport. I am READY to come home!!

HSUS Animal Care Conference in Las Vegas

Since Sunday night I've been in Las Vegas at the Annual Humane Society of the United States annual Animal Care Expo mingling with hundreds shelters, rescue and animal organizations. I've been staying at Bally's on the strip. LV is really isn't my kind of town!

On Monday I was across town at the Rio presenting at a medical record conference with my partner Jan. But, Monday evening I put my shelter hat on and dug into learning as much as I can at HSUS.

Here’s just a few of the interesting things I’ve learned, observed and experienced so far this week:

New Shelter Pet Campaign

HSUS is launching a HUGE adoption campaign in July! There are about 4,000 shelters, rescues, etc in the US today all working hard to end pet overpopulation. Much progress has been made in the past 2 decades but there are still 3.7 million cats and dogs being euthanized each year in shelters. This number has been slowly decreasing but not fast enough for all of us working towards the goal of No More Homeless Pets. Consider this: only 20% of household pets are being adopted from shelters! When people are thinking to add a pet to their family they need to think first of the shelter! HSUS, Maddie’s Fund and the Ad Council are joining forces to launch the Shelter Pet Project to basically ingrain it into the American public that a shelter is the best place to get a new pet.

Stay tuned as preparations for the campaign launch unfold – this is going to be exciting!

Pets being surrendered to shelter due to economic hard times

Every shelter is seeing the impact of the economy in more pets being turned in with the most common reason being “we have to move and the new place doesn’t allow pets”. Some solutions offered in one of the round table discussions I attended:

· PetCareInsurance has a policy for renters to cover any damage made by their pets.
· One organization posted inquiries on Craig’s List for pet-friendly rentals then compiled a list.
· HSUS has a brochure called “13 Steps to Finding Rental Housing that Accepts Pets”

Adoption Returns

We are definitely not alone with this problem. No one had any great solutions in spite of a variety of adoption screening practices among the group. A couple of points:

· Don’t alienate people returning animals. No matter how hard it is to “bite our tongues” sometimes we should look at this as another opportunity to educate, educate, educate so hopefully those people will think twice about the commitment before adopting another pet.
· Another reason to not alienate – this person could be a future donor or could say positive things about the organization to their friends.
· Shelters that have done studies on home visits vs no home visits prior to adoption do not report any decrease in returns when they do home visits.
· Same for imposing “waiting periods” before an adopted animal can go home.

I attended a fabulous session in the afternoon presented by Drs Hurley and Newbury of UC Davis on shelter statistics. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details of that session but, being the stat geek that I am, I came away with some great ideas!

The exhibit hall also had some terrific networking opportunities. This being Las Vegas and the land of the $4 cup of coffee and $8 scoop of ice cream (yes!) I decided I should suck it up and try the food HSUS was offering for lunch and dinner. You know, it actually wasn't so bad. Don't know how they make that "chicken" taste like chicken but it was pretty tasty. But I have to draw the line at the fake shredded cheese. I can really understand being a vegetarian but veganism ......hmmmm....I just don't have that much willpower.

OK that was Day 1. I’ll fill you in on Day 2 (today) later tonight (or tomorrow morning).