Wednesday, January 27, 2010
No Kill Animal Rescues in Greene County, TN
The subject came up recently on another discussion board that there was a lack of no-kill shelters in Greene County.
I responded to that post, and my response was removed, so I am going to post as much as I can remember once again here, and I am sure I will expand on the subject.
There are many no-kill shelters operating in Greene County. With the exception of Greeneville-Greene County Humane Society, these shelters are not supported by the community, and the people who run them are constantly stressed by their need for funding, volunteers and other support.
This stress load does not stop them. I know many hard working rescue people who have been at it for years. Many of them live in personal poverty, but still work at rescue. The animals in their care come first.
I am also thrilled to report that many new young people are becoming aware of the horrible situation for animals in Greene County, and doing rescue themselves. New rescues have sprang up in the past few years, and many young women try to work with all the rescues. BRAVO!
The animals in their care are the cast asides that people thoughtlessly dump on our county roads, or move off and leave sometimes chained up or locked in a building. We are a monstrous society when you think about how many people treat animals. I pray that some day the laws will be strong enough to stop the senselessness of not spay/neutering, of willfully abandoning or abusing any of God's creatures.
I will list many of the active rescues that I personally know about:
A Voice for Pets
423.416.482
Bright Hope Animal Rescue
423.278.8758
Dead Dogs Walking TN, Inc.
Phone: 423.639.1315
Feral Friends of Greene County, Inc.
423.639.7353
Forgotten Angels Animal Rescue
Greene County Animal Control
990 Hal Henard Rd
Greeneville, TN 37743
423.798.1777
Greeneville-Greene County Humane Society
423.639.4771 or 423.787.1771
GreenePets Foster Network, Inc.
on Petfinder
423.552.1416
Helping Paws Mountain View Rescue, Inc.
423.638.4278
Imminent Danger German Shepherd Rescue
LoveHandlers
423.329.0554
Mustang Alley Horse Rescue, Inc.
423.552.5988
Sheltie Rescue of East TN, Inc.
on Petfinder
423.525.2945
Please select a rescue from the list and remember:
Every rescue needs financial support.
Every rescue needs volunteers helping with animal care, fundraising, and grant writing.
Every rescue needs donations of food and supplies.
Every rescue needs help with veterinarian bills.
You can call the vets in Greene County and find out which ones are working with which rescues. Then please donate to that rescue at the vets office. Please then inform the rescue of your donation.
423.972.4163 Animal Medical Center of Greeneville
423.639.9677 Animals West Veterinary Hospital
423.639.9594 Brookfield Animal Hospital
423.639.1421 Crestview Animal Hospital
423.638.5382 Duckworth Animal Hospital
423.620.3701 Eastside Veterinary Service
423.639.1621 Greene County Veterinary Medical Center
423.525.5699 Rocky Top Veterinary Hospital
423.639.9200 Stonehill Equine Clinic
423.638.2273 Vet Care Animal Hospital
Our state mandates that in order to rescue dogs and cats the rescue is responsible for the spay/neuter. No animal is to be placed unless the surgery has been performed. Yes, veterinarian fees are expensive, but guess what, not spay/neutering is even more expensive.
Anyone placing an animal in a new home without spay/neuter is only adding to the problem. New homes sometimes don't work out, then the animals are on the loose again able to breed.
We have many wonderful veterinarians who are working hard with these rescues, and they are trying to keep costs down to the rescue, still there will always be a never ending supply of abandoned dogs, cats and horses that must be dealt with by someone.
Contact the above rescues and see what you can do to help.
Oh, and another thing. Feral Friends not only rescues and places cats, but they are dedicated to maintaining colonies of feral cats around the county. These cats have all been captured at one time or another, spay/neutered, and vaccinated. To maintain a colony, they are visited on an ongoing basis, and fed. Feral Friends has been doing this for years, I am sure they need colony volunteers. 423.639.7353
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Where can you Volunteer and receive Double the Benefit for your Efforts
Did you know you can Save a Dog and at the same time Empower a Person?
Puppy Raising for CrittersWork Service Dog Partners does just that.
The dog you mentor for CrittersWork will have the best opportunity of becoming a service, assistance, hearing, psychiatric assistance or therapy dog for some person who desperately needs the skills this dog could provide.
Your efforts will not only give this dog a forever home that creates an extremely special relationship for person and dog, this dog becomes a life changing partner.
Recent statistics report that more than 19 percent of our population over age five suffer from a disability. Together we can benefit the daily lives of many people by partnering them with a Service Dog.
This all starts with YOU, Puppy Raisers are an essential part of our organization. The Puppy Raiser fosters a service dog candidate under the age of sixteen months from anywhere between four to fourteen months.
Be part of the solution!
Service Dogs are capable of retrieving items, opening and closing doors, pulling wheelchairs, stabilizing a person who needs assistance walking, alerting the hearing impaired to important sounds, and even searching for a person afflicted with Alzheimer’s or Autism.
Help us make changes in two lives.
You’ll be glad you did.
423-552-1416
Email: volunteerinfo@critterswork.org
Help us break the cycle of destruction of adoptable dogs and at the same time empower the life of a disabled person.
Introduction
Our Online Store is now Open!
http://www.crittersoncloudnine.com
Katherine "Kat" Rollins, CPDT
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright, quoted in Reader's Digest, June 1995
Kat's K9 Cadets Dog & Puppy Training
Training
Behavior Modifications
Natural Foods & Treats for a Healthy Pet
CPDT - Certified Pet Dog Trainer
www.greatandsmall.net/Training/train.html
Memberships:
APDT - Association of Pet Dog Trainers
AKC - Canine Good Citizen Evaluator #23859
PCSA CPCT - Pet Care Services Association
ABMA - The Animal Behavior Management
NAPEW - National Association of Professional & Executive Women
Celebrate Your
Graduate of
Dog Trainer Search
http://www.dogtrainersearch.com/dogtraining/Kats-K9-Cadets-Dog-Puppy-Training.html
APDT Listing
http://www.apdt.com/po/ts/us/details.aspx?slne=3559
Classes Page
http://www.dogtrainersearch.com/dogtraining/Kats-K9-Cadets-Dog-Puppy-Training.html
Kat's Blog's
http://www.boardingkennelmanager.blogspot.com/
http://dogtraineracademy.blogspot.com
http://www.greenepets.blogspot.com
http://www.greatandsmallkennels.blogspot.com
http://critterswork.blogspot.com
Kat's Calendar
http://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=k9cadets%40gmail.com
423-552-1416
800-887-6592 fax
CrittersWork Service Dog Partners
Katherine Rollins, President/Ceo
Training Assistance, Hearing, Therapy and Search Dogs for the Disabled.
Natural Foods & Treats for Your Healthy Pet
"Witness the Miracle of True Partnerships in Action"
423-289-5987
800-887-6592 fax
All Creatures Country Club
Boarding / Grooming / Training
Natural Foods & Treats for Your Healthy Pet
"Treat Your Pet to a Vacation in the Mountains"
PCSA - Pet Care Services Associaton
423-639-2920
800-887-6592 fax
http://www.greatandsmall.net/accc/accc.html
All Critters Bed n Biscuit
Boarding / Grooming / Training
Natural Foods & Treats for Your Healthy Pet
"Come Camping With Us!"
PCSA - Pet Care Services Associaton
423-639-5975
800-887-6592 fax
http://www.greatandsmall.net/acbb/acbb.html
President/Executive Director
GreenePets Foster Network, Inc.
800-887-6592 fax
www.petfinder.com/shelters/TN258.html
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Rescues Are Dropping Like Flies
It is astonishing how many rescue links are dead out there on the web.
This is scary stuff. At a time when dogs are being dumped in our mountains in record numbers, rescues themselves are going under as quickly.
Our own GreenePets has had to stop taking in dogs, only the occasional Service Dog trainable candidate makes it through our doors, because due to lack of funding my husband and I personally support nine dogs five of which we never asked for.
One thing about small rescue organizations, everyone is hidy ho on the start up, then the volunteers and board members usually walk away down the road leaving the originator with dogs who are not adoptable but must of course be cared for, exercised, fed, socialized and veted. (My case.)
We can't support any more dogs, my husband and I are currently supporting 5 rescues in our kennels with no hope of adoption, and four personal dogs who travel back and forth from our kennels to our home daily. Some of the rescues we have had for five years.
All of our personal dogs are rescue, even though I did adopt one purebred Dachsie from a rescue in Nashville and had him trucked in for my husbands birthday two years ago. Even our little Houston was a rescue who had been dumped in Georgia when a puppy mill went under. He is a very special little guy, who still has issues two years later due to lack of adequate socialization during the critical learning periods. My reason for this adoption was an article I read about older men needing small dogs, and my husband has always been partial to the little Dachsies who have kenneled with us.
Please, we know that everyone is in a terrible crunch right now, but at least spay and neuter the pets you have. Don't be responsible for bringing more lives into this world with no one to care for them.
Consider when you do adopt taking on a dog who is older. You can see the temperament you will be living with when you adopt an older dog. You won't be going through all of the puppy capers that many people are clueless about and which usually result in the teenager dog getting dumped along a country road before his is a year old.
Please, Please, Please support the rescues out there. These dogs have no one to speak for them, and people in rescue really can't afford to do what it is they do, still the dedicated ones keep going.
Kat
Stop the Frivolous Lawsuits!
There has got to be a way to stop these lawsuits. Even though the defense wins, the small business goes out of business, and everything you have worked for all your life while struggling to stay afloat goes to the lawyers.
If the people bringing these suits would have to reimburse who they are suing when the suit is either thrown out or they loose, this nonsense would stop! You would not find the suers so willing to go ahead if they had a penalty staring them in the face.
People can sue for any reason under the sun, and it doesn't cost the suer a dime to get the lawsuit into court, but it does cost the defending party, usually everything in trying to get the suit dismissed.
I am going to be posting these as I find them. I feel very strongly about this that things have to change, and I think change will have to start with our state legislatures. We the people have the power in numbers. Please write your legislature before you too are sued by some lowlife looking for a free handout or just to hurt you because they don't have a life other than harming others.
They stated on Fox News just last night that the person bringing the majority of the frivolous lawsuits against Sarah Palin worked for Obama during his election. There is an awful lot of hate building in our country, whatever happened to Love Your Neighbor? Sarah Palin has already spent in excess of 1/2 Million dollars defending herself against nothing. In no case was she guilty of any wrong doing, and she should never have had to waste all that time and money in the first place.
The lawyers have brought this about, because they get paid no matter what. And what better way to drum up business than clogging our court systems with stupidity.
I am currently being sued, and so like Sarah Palin, and Sidney Helen Sacks, I fully understand the costs, frustrations, business time lost, lack of sleep and health destroying aspects of finding myself in a situation where I am having to defend everything I have striven to do right in my life from some lowlife who has decided he can try to take it away from me and also close my business.
Stop These Frivolous Lawsuits!
Why join an organization?
Organizations like APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), PCSA (Pet Care Services Association), and CCPDT (Certification Counsil for Professional Dog Trainers) help bring about changes for the good and standardization in our industry.
The people who volunteer and work for these organizations are to be commended for their level of committment to us and for ourselves in making the committment to be doing the best we can do for our clients.
My membership with the Association of Pet Dog Trainers has helped me to stay up on the latest sciences of training behaviors, meet other positive trainers, and meet the some of best people in the business.
Attending our six day very intense extremely long-day conference is something I look forward to all year long. So much is learned, and so many new friendships are formed. I return home with tons of new things to think about and many new talents to add to my bag of tricks.
I arrive at the conference dreading how exhausted I will be by the end of the day, though each new day finds me up and at it again, I can't wait to get the new day started. I must confess that I have not been able to stay up to watch my favorite program Hannity while attending a conference, I am out like a light as soon as my head hits the pillow and I wake up sometime way into the night to turn the TV off. Getting old I guess.
The APDT brings together trainers who are serious about their craft. We are availed of the opportunity of meeting the best trainers in the business who take time out of their own lives to present at our conferences.
It is really wonderful to be able to sit in a session with one listening to one of your favorite authors present the latest and greatest on their speaking topic.
I am praying that I can find the finances to be able to attend this fall. For several years I have been wanting to meet Steve White, and he and his wife Jennifer will both be presenting this year in California.
Gosh!
Come Camping With Us!
Nestled on a private lane, secluded from the traffic, your pets will have a wonderful camping trip with us!
Indoor/outdoor covered runs allow your dog to choose which part of his suite he wishes to recline in. Our graveled exercise yards are a step from the veranda.
Lots to see and do plus many friends to enjoy companionship with.
Give us a call: 423-639-5975
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Dog Trainer Apprentice Programs
I am a positive dog trainer, and my methods encompass Classical and Operant Conditioning. Our apprentice programs will take you from a raw recruit if that is where you are now, and expose you to the science behind positive dog training.
I use clickers as event markers for training new behaviors, and the mechanical aspect of using this tool is also taught to our Apprentices.
During the Apprenticeship, you will work with rescue dogs, students dogs, and potential service dogs as you develop your own positive training skills.
Our goal is to train our Apprentices to the point where they too can become Certified Professional Dog Trainers.
There are three levels of the Apprentice program, and you can go through as many or as few of the levels as you choose. There is also a "Pre-Apprentice" program which will help you to decide if dog training is really for you.
Trained dogs seldom find themselves abandoned. Dog training saves lives.
Dog training and working with dog lovers is the best thing I have ever done in my life. The dogs really appreciate you helping train Mom & Dad.
Critters On Cloud Nine Store is Open
Currently we are carrying many of following brand names online:
Ark Naturals
Canidae
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul
Diamond Naturals
Natures Variety
Old Mother Hubbard
Primal
Solid Gold
Taste of the Wild
Timberwolf Organics
Wellness
Those that don't appear at our online store will be coming soon, we hope....
All of the above brands are usually in stock at our All Critters Bed n Biscuit store at 113 Kennel Lane, Greeneville, 37743. To check an availability, please call 423-639-5975.
Taste of the Wild and Natures Variety are both grain-free products and we are having excellent results feeding these products to our allergic dogs. Thus far, we have itchies fairly under control, and we have yeasty ears totally under control with Taste of the Wild products.
We would all appreciate your input on what is working for you that is not causing the immune systems of your dogs to become worse, which are such treatments as steroids and antibiotics.
Chemicals are the cause of our dogs problems and our health problems as well. We live in a toxic world.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Welcome to all
A little about us. My husbands family has owned the land our farm is on since 1810. I can't imagine living anywhere else, though I was not born in Tennessee.
In the early 1990's I really wanted out of the corporate world, and wanted to go back into training dogs. So, I started a game plan that included becoming a certified positive dog trainer, and I started researching kennels and kenneling.
I guess the best way to handle this blog is to work forward from the starting point.
A. I hated the corporate world.
B. I still had to eat.
C. I was pretty sure even back then that being one of the "boomers", I was never going to get to
retire and kick back.
D. This brings me to the big hurdle, what was I going to do that would be able to keep us eating and a roof over our heads.
E. I won't go into just how it came about that it would be a boarding kennel, but suffice it to say that was the direction I headed in.
F. Time for research, writing a business plan, planning the facility, building the facility, writing the operations plan, and learning everything I could about dogs and kenneling. I spent over three years in this phase.
G. Breaking ground on the boarding kennel facility, this was June of 1997.