a voice for the voiceless
Monty and Amy
The weekend before last there was an ice storm, so no sanctuary visit. It is only January and already I have missed a week!
This past weekend the weather was chilly but still nice. We have a couple new regulars on Saturdays now. One is young man, Eric, who went vegan just a few months ago, after seeing Forks Over Knives. It’s always interesting to pick the brains of people who are new vegans, and to see the various influences that led them to veganism.
Eric, taking a quick break in the pig yard
He was talking a bit last weekend about his transition, which was about as abrupt as possible. He went to see Forks Over Knives as an omni, and while he was in the theater watching the documentary, he basically said to himself, “well, that’s it, you’re going vegan.” And he did.
Hearing stories like this always makes me wonder how it is that there are people like Eric (who is into weight-lifting, and had been “the biggest meat eater” by his own description, prior to going vegan) who make that connection at lightning speed and change their life to realign with their new-found convictions, where I can only assume that the vast majority of people sitting in that room with him either didn’t make the same connections, or simply didn’t have it in them to act on it, despite being presented with the same information and images. What makes the difference between those who act and those who don’t?
Well, that’s the eternal question, I suppose. And it likely has to do with the entire tapestry of their lives, rather than the one snapshot in time. Which leads me to the related question: what made Eric, and the others in that room, choose to watch a documentary that they must have known would present them with information that could have a strong impact, strong enough to convince them to make major changes? Or am I wrong about that? Do people think about that before watching documentaries? Maybe that is just me.
The other new regular is a long-time supporter and (occasional) volunteer of the sanctuary, who recently decided to make his volunteering a regular thing. He also happens to be a world-famous author, who writes about pleasure in the lives of animals – Jonathan Balcombe. I’ve enjoyed his books and always enjoy talking to him when I see him at the sanctuary, so I know it will be fun to hear some of his observations of the animals as we do chores, especially as he gets to know them more as the weeks go by.
Jonathan and Lenny
Marius is the king of the hill in the goat yard, but in my experience he’s really sweet to the humans in his area, even as he chases upstart goats around. Contrast this to Lenny and Jeremy, who seem to think that we are goats, and who we’ve learned to not turn our backs on! We often have to put them in one of the stalls while we clean the yard.
Bad boys! But Marius, when he’s not sweet-talking the girl goats, will do his best to get his share of attention from us. Last week I happened to capture a couple shots as he approached Amy.
The Approach...
It reminded me of how our dogs and cats will act, moving so that the conveniently free hand dangling at the side of the human just happens to end up right on their head or neck or back, and the human typically will start petting them. That’s exactly what Marius did, and of course it worked like a charm.
Success!
Hamlet did his usual “come pet me” grunt as we were emptying our buckets from the horse barn into the spreader.
Hamlet and Amy
Hamlet is such an interesting case, because he’s – I hate to say it – the ugliest pig you have ever seen. He has weird flaky dry skin, and this funky hair that goes in all directions at once and seems to trap just about everything imaginable in it. (Last weekend it was food pellets in addition to the usual hay and grass!) He tends to be off doing his own thing, and doesn’t really come up and ask for attention…until we’re out of the pig yard. He knows that we’ll be emptying the muck buckets from the horse barn into the spreader right near the pig yard, so he’ll go and wait and get attention then. Perhaps he likes that there will be no other pigs around to compete with for attention.
For whatever the reason, I think many of us have a soft spot in our hearts for this particular pig, who is so ugly he comes right back around to being cute. Two different people independent of each other (as far as I know) have come to the sanctuary to visit with the animals and to choose who to sponsor, and have ended up sponsoring Hamlet specifically because he looks so ugly! I thought I’d told his full story in an earlier post, but now I can’t find it. Figures!
The short version is that he was bought to be killed for a pig roast, but that particular year there was a delay between when they brought the pig home and when they were to kill him…and in those few days, with Hamlet following the people around like a dog, they decided to release him to Poplar Spring instead of killing him. The wife of the couple came to PSAS periodically to visit Hamlet for a few years, and always insisted that Hamlet was different, that he was special, that he (and he alone) had “deserved” to be saved from being killed.
Essentially he’s the last pig you’d really expect someone to put the hat of exceptionalism on, and yet the people who bought him did exactly that.
Whatever this blog accomplishes (and I’m never sure exactly what it might accomplish), I hope that it shows people that these animals have individual personalities. They are not machines, they are not automatons, they are not commodities, and they are not products. They are individuals, and they have their own likes and dislikes, their own wants and joys and disappointments, they have all the idiosyncrasies that comes along with being an individual.
And yet, they are not exceptional. They aren’t the chosen few who “deserve” to be rescued while the rest “deserve” to die. These rescued residents are all just like the billions who are not as lucky. All of those billions “deserved” to be rescued, they all have lives they want to live, they are all individuals, and they all want the same thing as we do – to live, free of harm, free of exploitation. At sanctuaries, we meet those lucky and rare rescued few. We meet those few we’ll ever be lucky enough to get to know.
Timmy
It was a little chilly this weekend. Icicles hanging from the brush used to clean the water buckets in the goat yard were a good clue, in case we weren’t already huddling in our winter layers!
Parker eating pizza, courtesy of Leesa
Leesa, one of the regular Saturday volunteers, brought pizza for Parker, an elderly pig who has been getting picky with his breakfast in recent weeks. General consensus is that it’s mostly that he has learned that if he refuses his breakfast he’ll get some treats. So he’s spoiled, and why not? If anyone deserves to be spoiled in their old age, it’s these great big gentle pigs, dealing with arthritis with a remarkably happy spirit. Parker is one of the sweetest pigs at the sanctuary (I say this about a lot of pigs, I realize!), and he’s the special favorite of Leesa. So when she heard that Parker had eaten with gusto a pizza brought for him last week by one of the weekday employees, she picked up a pizza for Parker for Saturday. She waited until we were all in the pig barn before feeding it to him, lucky for us!
Nellie was being pretty goofy. She’s grown so much since she came last year – she’s almost as tall as one of the adult female dairy cows, Lily, and I don’t think she’s done growing yet! When I was emptying a bucket into the spreader, one of the pigs by the fence grunted at me. That’s pig for “Hi! I’m over here and I’d love a back rub!” So as I was scratching him through the fence, Nellie was curious to see what I was doing.
She ended walking right over the trailer hitch a few minutes later, something that I don’t think any of us have ever seen before! She checked out the pig yard through the fence, but I don’t think she figured out what had drawn me over to the fence. She and Aggie were pretty cute checking it out though.
The young deer came through the chicken yard again, but spent most of the time hanging out in the woods with a couple friends. We didn’t even see the other two deer at first – they were laying down, relaxing, and it was only when they moved their heads that we noticed they were there. It’s not often we see them so relaxed. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that we weren’t hearing guns going off? Perhaps they simply know that the humans hanging out near the chicken barn are no threat at all.
Can you see the three deer in the woods? Click to see a bigger version.
Edward
It’s that time of year when the peacocks display constantly. To anyone, and everyone, and sometimes just to leaves or blades of grass.
Up until very recently, Edward was obsessed with one of the guinea hens at the sanctuary, Angie. This had been going on for a couple years. She’s mostly indifferent to him, but his devotion has caused a lot of conflict between Edward and the male guinea, Gerald. All the guinea girls are Gerald’s domain, from Gerald’s point of view.
Edward and Irene
Well, this past weekend Edward seemed a lot more interested in Tilly and Cosette, the young turkey girls! And when Irene, a little hen, was nearby, he was happy to display for her also. I moved to a vantage point to catch some of it in pixels, and it was a bit of a comedy at that point. Irene was ignoring Edward and concentrating on looking for food in the grass, so he was coming closer and closer to us both, rattling his tail feathers.
Edward and Tilly
Meanwhile Tilly was very interested in the little Flip video camera I was using (you’ll see in the video!), so she was coming up to me and pecking at the camera. Cosette approached from my other side, pulling at my coat, pulling things out of my camera bag, and finally pulling some of my hair out of the haphazard knot I tie it in.
It was really hard not to laugh! I was trying to hold the video steady all the while this was going on.
We had another visitor to the chicken yard as well. One of the deer who was born on the sanctuary in the spring, who tends to hang around the chicken yard and will walk right into one of the barns to finish off the crumbs of the leftover chicken food, came around while we were working in the chicken barn. I love seeing these sanctuary deer. I like to think that they know they’re safe at the sanctuary. If only they were safe everywhere.
My little princess, Tempest, is 13 years old now. For the most part she is doing great, and I’m thankful for that every day.
Bright-eyed, a pretty decent weight (we’ll ignore the saggy belly), full of energy and interest in the world when she’s not napping…she still isn’t thrilled that I brought in companions for her, but overall she’s very happy and her health is good.
A few months ago I noticed a little bit of a limp. Little enough that I had to watch closely for a few weeks to be sure of what I was seeing. A little stiffness, it seemed. Given that the boys chase her, and given that she’s never been a good jumper and has always been a bit of a klutz, she has missed her target now and again, so I wasn’t sure if she was just bruised or if it was something long-term.
I started to notice how careful she was when she jumped down from things. She would jump so that she’d land with both rear feet, and sometimes she’d still stumble on landing.
I noticed her start to use her left rear leg to scratch at her ear, and stop after she’d moved her foot about halfway to her ear.
I noticed that she wasn’t missing her mark just because of being a klutz, but that her ability to jump onto relatively low things, things she didn’t have a problem with just a few months ago, was diminished.
All little things, but the picture was pretty clear after a while – she likely was developing arthritis.
I did some research. Warm beds, steps to help her avoid the jumps that were sometimes just a tiny bit out of reach now, and thus avoid potential falls, joint supplements…
We went to the vet on Monday to make sure it really was arthritis and not something more serious. Or just something altogether different.
The vet did a very thorough physical examination of her joints and muscle tone. We watched her walk around the examination room. Her limp wasn’t noticeable – she’d been having a good weekend – but you could still see that she was stepping gingerly.
I agreed to have xrays done. These aren’t cheap, of course, and the vet had felt for tumors and thankfully found none, so there was no reason to think it was bone cancer or anything other than arthritis, but I wanted the xrays so we’d have something definitive. Also to have something to compare against in the future, if necessary. The peace of mind is worth the cost for me, though I think the physical exam would have likely been enough at this stage if the budget had been tight. (Pet Insurance might cover the cost of the xrays – I’ll submit a claim and see.)
The vet was excellent at explaining the xrays to me. I really appreciated the time she took to show them to me and walk me through everything we were seeing. We looked at Tempest’s good side (which looks really good), and then compared to her bad side. There was no joint swelling, but there were what the vet called “joint mice” in the knee joint, and the patella wasn’t as smooth as would be expected in a healthy joint. They hadn’t been able to get an xray of the hip on her bad side because they were worried about causing her pain by extending her leg to get the xray, but the vet expects that there were similar “joint mice” in her hip joint.
The “joint mice” are minor at this point, and her symptoms are relatively minor as well, so I decided not to see a specialist yet. The vet recommended joint supplements (which I expected and which I had ordered last week) and a few weeks of rest followed by some careful exercise to make sure she doesn’t lose muscle on her bad side. The supplements very handily come in treat-form, which hopefully she will like. It will take 4-6 weeks for the supplements to begin to have a positive effect, and she’ll need to be on them forevermore. They’re not medicine, they’re nutraceuticals, which is apparently somewhere between a nutrient and a drug. I’ll be keeping a close eye on her, monitoring her mobility and comfort. She’s a princess, so this is exactly the kind of attention she sees as her due.
There’s only so much that can be done about arthritis, from what I’ve read, though the vet did mention surgery if the arthritis gets bad. Surgery for an old cat is not ideal, however. I’m not sure if mild pain killers are an option for cats – it’s something I’ll research for the future. I did come across an article about cold laser treatment, which is non-invasive and apparently has great results. (And I also happened to see that my pet insurance covers it, which is nice!) Right now Tempest’s arthritis is mild, and hopefully the joint supplements and the rest followed by exercise will help keep her joints from further deteriorating, or at least keep the deterioration slow. So far she likes the heated bed and hopefully it will keep her comfortable when I’m not around her for her to nap on. She already likes the steps I got her and makes good use of them. I’ll continue to address potential problem areas in the condo to make them Tempest-friendly and Tempest-safe. I saw reference to a book on healing touch that I am going to look into also.
It’s hard to see our beloved companions getting older, but the march of time is relentless, so it’s up to us to make sure that their golden years are as bright and shiny as possible.
Here are a few articles I’ve found so far on arthritis in cats:
This is the first time I’ve dealt with arthritis. Has anyone else had experience with arthritis in cats? Any advice to offer?
WordPress sent me stats about my blog for 2011 – 21 posts. Not even 2 per month!
I always have the intention of posting at least once a week. I am at the sanctuary every week, after all, and even if it’s just a picture or two, it seems it would be easy enough to accomplish.
I had 15,000 visits in 2011, which doesn’t sound like much (and really isn’t much compared to popular blogs), until you consider those visits were for my measly 21 posts. Though I think I would have had 14,000 visits even without those 21 new posts, since most of those visits were for posts written 4 or more years ago (two of the ones I wrote on Pet Insurance, and the one I wrote on Palm Oil). I don’t know what to think of that, really!
One of the newest arrivals to the sanctuary is a 4-month old calf, named Aggie. She’s very cute, and very sweet, though a little wary of people. She’s happy to approach to see if we have treats, and will lick our hands whether we have treats or not, but she isn’t comfortable with anything other than her nose being touched.
Here’s Terry’s intro to Aggie:
Aggie, our newest rescue, is a young Red short horn calf. She most likely escaped from the livestock auction, because she appeared at a home about a mile from the auction on sale day, as a tiny one month old calf. It seems she followed the railroad tracks to a farm where luckily a kind woman made the efforts to find her a sanctuary home. The local sheriff’s dept. and animal control wanted to take her and sell her for slaughter, but the woman kept her safe for several months until she was tame enough to lead onto a trailer. We picked her up yesterday, and she is very friendly and sweet, she loves to lick people. We can’t wait to introduce her to the other rescued cows, and here she will be able to spend the rest of her life in peace and happiness.
She spent a few days in quarantine, and once she had a clean bill of health she was introduced to the other cows. Cows being cows, it was very low drama. They were curious for a few minutes, and then it was business as usual, and that quickly Aggie was part of their community.
So far I have weekly pictures of hands in her mouth. Ah, as long as I’m entertained by the pictures I am taking, right?
Going back in time one week, I spent Christmas Day at the sanctuary, as usual. As usual there were a lot of volunteers helping out, so it’s a bit of a party, and then we have a little potluck after. The animals all get special treats as well, and below is a video of the goats and sheep getting some popcorn:
Spending the day at the sanctuary is certainly the best possible way to celebrate the day. Every day, in fact.
Really, that’s why I am there every Saturday: to celebrate the lives of these amazing beings.
All proceeds will be donated to the sanctuary.
Coupons: http://www.lulu.com/current_specials?cid=eng_advent_specials_112210
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