New guys in town
By Mauri Formigoni, June 29, 2007

Adorable to the Max 

We all love our stable of cats and dogs who grew up at the shelter. But when new puppies or kittens arrive, we are so fickle. We “oh!” and “ah!” and curry their favor shamelessly. Our newest stud, Max, is a rat terrier/beagle mix, eight months old and very spunky and playful.

He spent the day in the lap of our volunteer Marie, who cooed to him until he swooned. He is very macho and tries to be the leader when walking on the leash, but he is just insecure and needs to learn his place. Soon to be neutered, he then will be able to listen with his mind rather than his genitals—one of the many benefits of sterilization.

He is small, yet fully grown and fits nicely into your lap, if not your purse. He is a prince among young dogs

Sushi, anyone? I met the kitten Sushi this morning, and she is a dream. An eight-week-old creamy Siamese female with light blue eyes who loves people and prefers to ride on your neck. I would take her in a minute and so might you. She will be adopted quickly, but I wanted you to know that she is available right now as are many other unspeakably adorable kittens.

Temperament testing

In Dallas I went to a seminar called “Are Puppies Clean Slates?” taught by Susan Sternberg, a trainer about whom I had heard great things. She has deep compassion for animals, and I admit that I am the biggest bleeding heart at the shelter. I insist we can train that puppy to be adorable while often overlooking the imperatives necessary to maintain a smoothly run shelter. However, we need to consider what will happen when those babies grow up and are not adopted. “Keep them!” I yell. “But where?” the Board asks, rightly. To help make those decisions there is something called “temperament testing” to which I previously objected. Tests given to shelter animals that have fought all their lives to survive in the streets by stealing food are never without fear. Susan said you do not test starving or stressed animals, but wait until they feel safe and at ease. She showed us physical signs of aggression which even I acknowledge made one wary of the possibility of certain puppies becoming safe pets for families. One of those tests is with a fake hand which grabs food away from the puppy. If he attacks, he is suspect. Other signs include hard, fixed stares—which I only do with my dogs when I am angry and they have stolen food from my table. Puppies who display this stare betray their hierarchy in the dog world. They should acknowledge an older dog that has more “merit” in the dog world: a dominant male, a dominant female, older puppies or people. One who feels he is the dominant animal in the room should be watched. Rigid body alignment is another consideration. And most animals approach each other from a diagonal angle glancing with eyes from the side. Not a direct confrontation. (All common sense deductions.) Hoarding resources, such as food, bones and toys is another indication of dominance. We saw puppies that pranced in with adult dogs, took all of the toys, kept their tail’s proudly high and waving and ignored the advances of other dogs. It was powerful to watch—and painful. I came back looking at our precious puppies with new eyes. Fortunately, we seem to get cute puppies that acquiesce to others and only hope to survive, but it has made me re-think a “no-kill” shelter. We want them all to live and grow and find homes, but we will watch to see who is gentle, kind, playful and worthy of a good, loving home.

Animal lovers wanted

We are at Los Pinos 7 just off Calzada de la Estación and are open Mon–(N)Fri from 10am to 2pm. Come visit and see for yourself. Call me at 154-5930 with any questions or call the SPA at 152-6124 for an appointment at the clinic.