Rod and I saved an entire family Thursday night...

... a family of opossums! It was tense for a moment as I slammed on my breaks and gripped the wheel, praying not to feel the bump of the tire over the soft little body of the opossum that was sitting in the middle of the road. As my car screeched to a halt, Rod said, "Oh, no, there are babies." So, with headlights in the distance behind us, we jumped into action. I popped the trunk and instructed him to pick up the babies off the road while I got our "car box", which I keep for just these occasions. Dumping its contents in the trunk and grabbing the leather gloves (by now there are cars lining up behind us), I ran to Rod and gave him the gloves, holding the box while he encouraged momma opossum inside. She went with little prodding. We then jumped back in, babies in the floorboard and mom in the box, and pulled off the road. I got the flashlight from the trunk to check the roadside for more babies (we had recovered 2, one was smashed on the road), and after about 5 minutes of looking and finding none, Rod calls to me "Uh oh, can you bring the light here and see if you still see these 2 on the floor board? I think one has crawled away." Sure enough, one was there, and the other was NO WHERE to be found. After about 20 minutes of searching, frantically, and listening to baby's hisses to try and pinpoint his location, I just knew that he was somewhere in the inner console of the car, unretrievable, and we'd just have to leave him there to die, at which point we'd have to go to Ford and pay them lots of money to disassemble my interior and remove its dead stinking body. Just then, Rod informed me that he could see it. It was behind a panel covering up some wiring. After ripping his fingernail off trying to remove the screws holding on the panel, a dime finally did the trick. We got it off just as the little booger was crawling behind some wiring... 30 more seconds and he would have been gone. Rod was able to grab his hind legs and pull the little guy out. RELIEF!

NOW what? Well, we headed home and called the local wildlife rehabber, Lynn Sciumbato. She said she'd be happy to take the babies, and after we described the apparent condition of the mother after both seeing her while scooping her off the road (her rear right leg was twisted 270 degrees and sticking straight out behind her), she said it sounded like euthanasia was her best option. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to perform that service, and said we'd probably have to wait until morning. Not wanting her to suffer, Rod called the 24 hour animal emergency clinic, and explained the situation, thinking surely a capable individual would be sympathetic to this suffering animal and gladly send her to a better place. Silly us... the vet who answered (who, oddly enough, just so happened to be OUR personal vet, Dr. Herring) was quite the opposite. He made it VERY clear that they were a privately owned business and operated FOR PROFIT, and if we wanted to pay $75 for a bit of euthanasia he'd do it, but really had no interest in it. He was rude and curt and unaccommodating; we will be writing a letter to Wedington Animal Hospital and requesting Haley and Scooter's records and changing veterinarians, as we would rather support a vet who actually cares for living beings and is not just out to turn a buck. Good for you Dr. Herring, hope you're happy, we've been clients for seven years, and now we'll be patronizing a more caring veterinarian.

In a round about way, we ended up getting the police department to page the on-call animal control officer, who just happened to be Tony Rankin (who we'd dealt with before)... NOW things were going our way! He is SUCH a nice guy who works at the Fayetteville Animal Shelter and gives so much. He agreed to leave his home 20 miles south at 10:00 at night and meet us at the shelter to euthanize the opossum. Well, apparently the opossum miraculously healed. He dumped it out on the shelter counter, and we quickly saw that more babies were still attached to her (Virginia Opossums, Didelphis virginiana, are our only marsupial! They are fascinating, extremely misunderstood animals who get a bad reputation for no reason.), which relieved me, as I knew it was doubtful she only had three and was worried I'd missed some that had crawled into the grass by the roadside. She didn't put up too much of a fight, and he looked her over really good, and unbelievably she was FINE! Ha! What a good ending to all of this! He said he'd have the vet look her over in the morning, just to be sure she was unharmed, then he'd take her to his house on several acres with a brushpile she could live in. Mr. Rankin - THANK YOU!

Human Trafficking and Homeless Pets

First off, I hope every one had a truly blessed Easter. After church, Rod and I had lunch with five friends, saw a matinee movie (Taken), and spent a Maggie Moo's giftcard one of my students gave me for my birthday (peanut butter and chocolate ice cream - yummmmm). I recommend Taken- very intense, but tells a story that needs to be heard. Many young women are trafficked worldwide each year in a sickening yet lucrative business. The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women states "The United Nations now lists Mexico as the number one center for the supply of young children to North America. Most are sold to rich, childless couples unwilling to wait for bona fide adoption agencies to provide them with a child. The majority are sent to international pedophile organizations. Many times the children are snatched while on errands for their parents. Often they are drugged and raped. Most of the children over 12 end up as prostitutes. Hector Ramirez, a former deputy, or Mexican Member of Parliament, stated that "many of the state and city authorities [are] doing absolutely nothing to stop what is going on." (Allan Hall, The Scotsman, 25 August 1998)". It is absurd that acts such as these go on all around us every day, and truth be told could probably easily be controlled.

On another depressing note... why can't we as humans clean up our act and clean up our streets of homeless animals? If you want a pet, ask yourself- do I have the time and energy to devote what it takes to this new family member? And, will I view it as a new family member, or an object that I simply want to have power and control and ownership over? And, do I want it just because it's a cute cuddly furball at 15 pounds but once it becomes a slobbery 65 pound adult dog will throw it in a pen in the backyard and other than tossing food to it every day I'll have no interest in it? Or, perhaps, it's a cat, so if I decide I don't want it I can just turn it out on the streets. Argh! There is an orange and white kitty hanging around our house that seems to have no home. She's pretty friendly, if you take your time with her, but a bit timid. We see her sporadically, and yesterday noticed she's pregnant. We called the Fayetteville Animal Shelter to evaluate our options, and found out that they are SWAMPED - they received SEVENTY animals in a SINGLE DAY last week. A single day! This is one shelter in one city in one state in one country - and they received seventy unwanted unloved animals in one single day. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that 3-4 million dogs and cats are euthanized in the U.S. each year. This is inexcusable. PLEASE make sure, if you get a pet, that you are getting it for the right reasons! And PLEASE adopt from an animal shelter! Contrary to what many believe, animal shelters don't harbor nasty stinky ugly flea-ridden scoundrels, but some of the nicest dogs and cats, mutts and purebreeds, that you'll ever run across! Don't support breeders (and potentially puppy mills)- adopt a pet from an animal shelter! You can see pets for adoption in your area on Petfinder.com (and can even look them up by breed, age, etc.).

We got a GREAT dog from the animal shelter a year ago, who became fast friends with our old girl Haley. Scooter has really rounded out our family!

If anyone lives near Fayetteville and wants a sweet orange cat, leave a comment with your email/phone and I'll make it happen!

Oh How I Love Spring! (Why can't it be like this year round?)

There's nothing better than waking up to a sunny day with cardinals singing and being able to walk out on your back deck in a t-shirt and feel the warm sunshine! I pulled on my jeans and tennis shoes, grabbed the dog's leash and headed out to hike the Frisco Trail, part of Fayetteville's new multi-use walk/bike trail. I hit a sweet spot full of birds, and stopped to pish them in: Northern Cardinals, White-throated Sparrows, Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, Carolina Wrens, Carolina Chickadees and Ruby-Crowned Kinglets came to check me out. I was lucky, because the kinglet decided to give me his full-on display, flashing his ruby-crown at me numerous times. Haven't seen that in a while! After walking about 1.5 miles from my car and back, we proceeded to the Fayetteville Farmer's Market, where I saw my friend Richard from the Fayetteville Animal Shelter (with some adoptable dogs on display) and Marcia from Spay Arkansas (who, by the way, is hosting an art sale today if anyone is interested!). The place was packed! Most vendors were selling handmade crafts or cut flowers, but I did purchase some free-range eggs. If anyone is looking for something to do in the area on a beautiful spring day, check out my article on Travel in Northwest Arkansas.