by Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

Top of the mornin’ to you – St. Patrick’s Day is upon on us – that means lots of wearin’ of the green, parades all across the Island and fun dog costumes. Wait, what? That’s right many dogs, cats and horses will be sporting the green in honor of the festive Irish season. This looks adorable and fun, but might not be so much fun for the pet. Make sure if you are heading out to Montauk on the 20th for the big St. Patty’s Day parade that: 1.) your pet doesn’t mind wearing clothing, bandana, sunglasses, etc. (some pets are not happy with clothing, don’t force it); 2.) that your pet has proper ID with both your home and mobile number on it and is attached to their collar; and 3.) that your pet is well behaved, and has been around large, very noisy crowds before; 4) and use a proper 6-foot leash (leather or cotton is best) to bring you dog with to the parade.

Parades are a lot of fun for us, but our four legged friends may not enjoy the experience at all. If you have never brought your dog before, maybe for safety’s sake, yours, your pets, and the crowd’s – leave that pup home. Dogs that are well adjusted, trained, and socialized may and can do just fine, but people tend to bring their dogs that aren’t or have never been exposed to what a parade can bring. Dogs can easily get frightened from bag pipes, fire truck sirens, drum core, people petting the dog without asking and could snap someone or some child, slip away and could get lost.  (I have personally seen dogs completely freaking out and squirming in their owner’s arms at parades.)

With a parade almost every weekend for St. Patty’s Day across Long Island, if you insist on bringing your pet, pay attention to them. If you dog seems terrified or is pulling away, stay back from the crowd, or better yet, bring him home. Dog’s ears are more sensitive than human ears, so a blaring fire truck could send him running for the hills, or make the dog just plain uncomfortable. So enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day and think about leaving Buddy at home.

I had a Doberman that I brought with me almost everywhere, and she was well behaved and didn’t mind, crowds or noise, kids petting her, etc. at a parade (and happened to love, love, love horses!). But I always watched her body language and paid attention to her behavior while there. If she seemed off or uneasy (which was very rare for her being a well adjusted dog and not to mention Doberman), we left. The dog I have now is way too much of a scardy cat, and I would never subject him to the noise, crowds and other people’s unruly dogs.  So I can enjoy the parade and festivities and he stays home and sleeps!

By Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

The Long Island Pet Expo drew in large crowds from across LI on Saturday, March 5, 2011, and with rain in the forecast for Sunday, expects the same turnout.  There is something for every type of pet or animal lover, whether you like dogs, pot bellied pigs, turtles, snakes, parrots and other wild life – this is the best place to see everything under one roof!

If you are thinking of adding a new pet to be a member of your family – there are rescue groups from all areas of LI with pets that are available for adoption from adorable little Yorkie, cats and kittens, amazing American Pit Bull Terriers, wonderful mixed breeds, ferrets and more.  Stop by each booth and get to know your local rescues, you may just find you new best friend.

One of the sweetest, adorable Pit Bulls looking for a Furever home at the Expo.

There are also fantastic educational shows and demonstrations for kids and families alike, like the Rainforest Reptiles Shows and the Birds of Prey Program.  You will also be oohhh and ahhed watching the flyball, dancing dogs, agility dogs, and the famous poker playing dog “Jilli Dog” and her friends. The bleacher stands were packed full of families watching and cheering on the different shows.  If you love cats, there is a cat show going on at the same time – some cat breeds you may have not seen in person before.  Tons of vendors too – if you are looking to purchase pet products for your pets.

If you were not able to make it today, the Pet Expo is taking place on Sunday, March 6 as well from 10am to 6pm at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, NY.  For more details, cost and directions click here.  Be sure to pick up your complimentary copy of the ‘Pet Press’ published by the Long Island Press.

Also see Sunday’s schedule below.

SUNDAY – March 6

Dog Ring

10:30 AM       Agility & Frisbee Demonstrations by Doggie U

and LI Road Rage

11:15 AM       Dog Pals Dog Trick Show

12:00 Noon    Classic K9’s

12:45 PM       Dancing with Your Dogs

1:00 PM         Jilli Dog

1:30 PM         Agility and Flyball Demonstrations by Doggie U

and LI Road Rage

2:15 PM         Classic K9

3:00 PM         Dog Pals Dog Trick Show

3:45 PM         Dancing with Dogs

4:15 PM         Classic K9 Dog Show

5:00 PM         Agility, Flyball & Frisbee Demonstrations by  Doggie U

and LI Road Rage

Stage

11:00 AM      Rainforest Reptile Show

12:00 Noon   Petland Discounts Traveling Pet Show

12:30 PM      Birds of Prey Program

1:00 PM        Rainforest Reptile Show

1:30 PM        Dog Pals- How to Use Feeding Time to Train your Dog

2:15 PM        Pet Safe Coalition – “Leave No Animal Behind”

3:00 PM        Rainforest Reptile Show

3:30 PM        Petland Discounts Traveling Pet Show

4:00 PM        Birds of Prey Program

5:00 PM        Rainforest Reptile Show

Cat Ring

TICA CAT SHOW 10:00 am will continue all day until conclusion

by Pamela Fitzpatrick, of YourDogWalkers, shihtzu58@optonline.net

I recently joined the ranks of the more than 15 million ipad users and stepped into the world of tablet computing.  I am amazed at what the Ipad can do!  Entertainment, productivity, organization;  it is incredible how useful a tool this is.  I am writing this article on my Ipad to test out the word processing functionality. (So far, so good).

Out of curiosity i searched the Apple Itunes store for apps related to “pets” and came up with 128 results.  The majority are games or educational (lots of kids games and cute wallpapers), but there are some interesting and potentially useful ones that petowners might be interested in. I have downloaded some and just read the descriptions of others, so this isn’t a review, just a sampling of what’s out there.

Free apps are the best…Life for Ipad, Humane TV and Daily LOL pets are a few of the free ones I found.  Your preschooler can dress up cartoon cats with Dress Your Cat HD, or feed play and accessorize a puppy (Pet Puppy). Your whole family can enjoy great animal photos on LIFE for Ipad or take the breed quiz on the I know Dogs Breed Guide and quiz game.  Looking for a dog park in NYC?  There’s an app for that. (Long Island would be better, for any app developers out there).

Pet related apps run the gamut; cute, fun, useful, or strange.

Want the security of a barking dog to protect your home? The Barking Dog Home Security App can do that.

For the more organized pet owners among us, there are several options to track your pets medical history and vaccination records.  Check out Dog Medical Agenda for Ipad, I pet Care, or My Dog.  Horse owners may like Horse Medical Agenda for Ipad.

Om Nom?  Can my dog eat it? (or OMG my dog ate it!) looks like a really useful guide either before or after the fact.  i just downloaded it, and at first glance the information looks factual and comprehensive.  Cant be used as a substitute for vet advice, but a handy guide to have.

If you have an Ipad and pet(s) check out the pet and animal apps.  If anyone has any  favorites apps, please let me know.
shihtzu58@optonline.net

by Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

Long Island happens to be home to thousands of feral cats – and this winter has been a tough one for many colonies across LI.  Many of these cats and kittens are cared daily for by devoted volunteers of rescue groups that try to help deter the problem by trapping them, spay and neutering them and re-releasing them back into the colony their were trapped at. This is also know as Trap-Neuter-Return or TNR.  There are exceptions that some younger cats or kittens that are not quite as feral and can be rehabilitated back into living in a home, are giving the chance to be put up for adoption.

Some may wonder where do all these cats come from?  Why do we have such a problem with feral cats across our Island?  Some contributing factors are people have the false information that cats can fend for themselves and dump cats they no longer want, or were not supposed to own if they were living in an apartment complex or college dormitory.  Domesticated cats do not do well when abandoned, and many die from getting diseases that they were not exposed to before, get hit by cars or attacked by other animals.  Other factors are people that have or live near a colony of feral cats and just feed them and never ask for help to have them spayed or neutered or know about rescue groups that offer low cost spay and neutering – and as nature would have it, kittens keep coming.  I personally remember one house in Lindenhurst while taking my niece and nephew trick or treating a few years ago, there had to be at least 50 cats and kittens living around this house.  The word was the owner of the house was feeding the cats continually but not doing anything about the overpopulation.  This was in a neighborhood of close quarters and those cats were all over the neighborhood.  It was quite sad as the cats were very feral.

Interestingly many of our college campuses have a feral cat problem as well.  Stony Brook University actually has a program called SBU Cat Network in which faculty and students volunteer in to help the cats living on the University’s campus. In 2002, Associate Professor of Psychology, Dr. Nancy Franklin founded the program based on Stamford University’s model on how college campuses deal with feral cat colonies.  The SBU, is solely dedicated to helping the cats on their campus, and is not an animal shelter.  They do offer advice to people and other rescue groups about feral cats, but say that Stony Brook is not a dumping ground for cats, and they cannot take in unwanted cats.

Since the inception of SBU, they have rescued about 350 cats in which half were placed in homes and half were trapped, spay or neutered and released back to their colony.  The campus currently has about 30 colonies on the grounds and each colony has an insulated shelter the cats can go into for warmth and to get away from inclement weather.  The volunteer students and faculty feed the feral cats 365 days a year and also participate in fundraising for the group and TNR.  And as with many other rescue groups raising funds is a challenge in this economy and our currently running in the Shelter Challenge.

Many of the cats that end up as part of a feral colony on the campus are a direct result of some students keep them illegally in dorms and then letting them go when the year is over.  As part of the SBU Cat Project outreach, student volunteers do try to educate other students that dumping cats on campus is neither acceptable nor humane – and let them know they are not allowed to keep pets on campus.  There are about 25 very active student volunteers in the program, 10 faculty volunteers and many other volunteers throughout the campus. Franklin said, “The University has been very gracious to us while we have been running this program and our volunteer students and faculty members have been wonderful.”

Another organization which serves the towns of Riverhead and Southold is SAVES (Spay, Alter, Vaccinate, Every Stray) a 501 c 3 all volunteer non for profit organization.  Like SBU they have no shelter to house cats or kittens, but do have limited foster homes for feral cats that are suitable for homes (that become domesticated).  SAVES main focus is TNR, care for the feral cat colonies in both towns – in which there are approximately 40 colonies with a total of about 500 cats.  SAVES provides food, winterized shelters, medical attention (besides spaying and neutering) and have volunteers go to feed and check on the colonies daily.

The winterized shelters were originally provided by Shoreham Wading River High School, teacher Dave Driscoll, who and now is at Shoreham Wading River Middle School. Mr. Driscoll wants to work with SAVES to offer humane educational programs, and to help motivate the students to build new shelters.   The winterized colonies are now built by a family of SAVES volunteers, but could use additional help in the building process.  There are singular shelters and multiple cat shelters made with openings sized for cats to go in and out of, but not big enough for raccoons to get it, the shelters are also up off the ground to help protect the cats from bad weather.

SAVES President Al LaFrance said, “We get about 40 phone calls a week from people who need help with feral cats on their property or looking to re-home cats.  We help people living in our territory with TNR, but do not have the resources to help with re-homing.”

SAVES has been going to Kent Animal Shelter for low cost spay and neuter for a while and in 2010 had about 250 spayed and neutered there and had approximately 600 cats spayed and neutered for the entire year about 96 of which were done for free by Helping Paw (a mobile unit) that came to Riverhead to help them.  Others were spayed and neutered at the North Folk Animal Hospital and Mattituck Laurel Animal hospital – who they also go to for medical care for the cats.

Their main outlet for adoptions is at the Riverhead Petco in which they house cats and kittens available for adoption through SAVES.  Volunteers go Petco 7-days a week 2-times a day to care for them and this past year they have adopted 177 cats.  There is an application process that potential adopters must fill out and be approved, as SAVES is looking for permanent homes for their cats with proper care.  SAVES is opposed to de-clawing and adopts cats out that will live indoors only.

The focus for them for 2011 is to have more feral cats spayed and neutered by continuing with working with Kent Animal Shelter and their other veterinarian partners, and set up free clinics with Helping Paw. They also plan to offer more humane educations programs and presentations for schools, and boy and girl-scout groups.

So what can you do to help?  If you see a feral cat colony that no one is caring for, i.e. no shelter provided, no food or water provided and kittens continually being born, contact a local animal rescue group to let them know about it.  (See below for list).  If you have feral cats, and are just feeding them, you are very well adding to the problem – reach out to the public animal rescues for help with feral cats in your yard, facility or business.

Another way you can help is by making a monetary donation or donate much needed cat food to help the cats make it through the winter.  If you are a cat lover, think about fostering a kitten or two to help them find new homes.  Feral cats can very well become the best cat you may ever have had-they don’t all stay in the feral state into which they were born into.  I speak from personal experience, taking in a feral kitten from the age of 3-months, who lived a very spoiled 16-years and was a very sweet, smart, funny and dog adoring cat.  And yes, her name was “Kitty!”

All About Spay and Neuter – A full service TNR 501 c 3 non-profit all volunteer organization that does 100% TNR servicing Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk.  They are not a shelter but can be called for help if you have a feral cat problem in your area.  They do about 90 TNR’s a month and since their inception in 2004 have helped just over 5,100 feral cats of which about 850 have been adopted into loving homes.

Kent Animal Shelter – Has low cost spay and neuter.

SAVES Inc. – See above.

Kitty

by Pamela Fitzpatrick, of YourDogWalkers, shihtzu58@optonline.net

Pet Therapy

Have you resolved to do something for someone else in 2011?  Maybe you and your dog can team up – if your dog has the right temperament, he or she may be able to be a therapy dog!  Therapy dogs are specially trained to provide comfort and affection to anyone in need: people in hospitals, retirement and nursing homes, special needs schools and more can all benefit.

Dogs of any size or breed can be a therapy dog.  The single most important characteristic of a therapy dog is its temperament. A therapy dog must be patient, friendly, calm, confident, gentle, and comfortable in all situations. Therapy dogs are “people” dogs; happiest when they are in contact with people (familiar or unfamiliar), petted and handled, albeit sometimes clumsily.

Therapy dogs are trained to allow unfamiliar people to make physical contact with them, and most recipients enjoy the contact! Children in particular enjoy hugging animals; adults usually enjoy simply petting the dog. The dog might need to be lifted onto, or climb onto, an individual’s lap or bed when invited and should be able to sit or lie comfortably there upon command. Some therapy dogs contribute to the visiting experience by performing small tricks for their audience or by playing carefully structured games.

My friends Chris and Cynthia Buckley live in Colorado and have a gorgeous Goldendoodle named Custer who recently qualified as a therapy dog.  Custer went through a rigorous training program through Pet Partners, which is sponsored by the national Delta Society and now regularly visits residents of a local senior living center.  In addition to basic obedience, Custer learned not to react to loud noises, pulls on his tail or ears, or sudden movement.  Custer’s calm temperament made him an ideal candidate for the program. Chris, Cynthia, and Custer trained for several months, and Custer passed the test last spring, earning his official Pet Partner’s Delta Registration status.  As you can imagine, Cynthia and Chris are very proud of their dog, and happy that he brings joy into the lives of others.

If you think your dog might be a good candidate for a therapy dog or just want to learn more, Long Island Dog Directory (LIdogdirectory.com) is a good place to start.  Click on the therapy tab for more info.