Kasey’s Cure

I have good news to report.  After several weeks of treatment, Sugar is returning to the farm.  She will need a corrective boot to protect her hoof from further damage but other than a new fancy shoe, she will be sound. 

Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions and advice — it was helpful and appreciated.  A special thank you to Robin and her husband who sent in a donation to assist with her care.  Your kindness, support and friendship mean the world to us.  A shout out to Carrie (our farrier) and Steve Harris (our vet) who nursed her back to health and were patient with all of my questions.

I will try and upload video of her return, so you can see for yourself her recovery.

There’s been a lot of talk in the media over the past week or two about Senator Obama’s promise that, once the election is over, the family will get a new dog.

The American Kennel Club quickly jumped on this, and weighed in with a list of “pure” breeds that would be good for the Obama family to buy from a pet store or breeder.

Best Friends would like to propose that the Obamas NOT buy a dog – instead, that they adopt their next dog from a shelter or rescue group.

Go to – www.obamafamilydog.com – where you can sign a petition encouraging the senator to save a life by adopting a homeless pet.

Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, left-wing or right-wing, please sign the petition, and encourage all your friends and family to sign it, too.

Congratulations to our friends at Best Friends for the amazing rehabilitation work they are doing for several of the Michael Vick pit bulls at their sanctuary in Utah.  Here is an update in today’s Washington Post:

At Best Friends’, McMillan, the veterinarian, has developed a “personalized emotional rehabilitation plan” for each dog and measures how they exhibit such traits as aggression, fearfulness, calmness or friendliness. True to their “people soft” nature, all but two of the Vick dogs are on “green collar,” meaning they are open and friendly to human visitors. About nine have begun to have supervised play dates with other Vick dogs.

Anderson Cooper of 60 Minutes did a story (a re-boardcast of an earlier piece) on a group of rare gorillas that are being slattered in the Congo – they are victims of a civil war that has been going on for decades. 

There are fewer than 700 mountain gorillas left on the planet, and their numbers are dropping dramatically. They live in eastern Africa, in a forest that straddles Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda are relatively safe, but those in the Congo are threatened by the civil war and human encroachment.

What can be done to save these gorillas?  Donations made to Wildlife Direct — wildlifedirect.org — pay the salaries of the park rangers who protect the endangered apes in the Congo.