We lost our Bassett Hound in 2003 after 13 years. Our son was grown and 11 years later we were thinking about adopting a kitten. We’d never had a cat before. We came across a kitten named Dapper Dan at HSHV. When our son was little (late 1980’s), they had a doll-like toy named Dapper Dan which taught the child how to dress. Came with laces for shoes, buttons, zippers etc…our son loved it! In fact, we still have it in his keepsakes. We hadn’t thought of Dapper Dan for years and now all of a sudden this cute little
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Monthly Archives August 2020
Miss Izzy the Lovebug
I adopted Miss Izzy when she was 10 years old. Her previous owner had passed away, her son tried to take her but he had 2 big dogs that made her nervous. I am grateful he brought them to HSHV. She has FIV so she needed to be an indoor cat. But that’s okay, because I am pretty much home bound myself. It didn’t take her long to be comfortable in my apartment. She is so loving. We were meant for each other. She turned 14 this year. Miss Izzy or just Izzy
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Ava becomes Lady Marmalade
My husband and I said goodbye to his sweet, 17 year-old cat Peaches and we felt a definite hole in our hearts. We go to the shelter often to visit the animals, and waited months for our perfect old lady. When we saw Ava’s (now Marmalade) picture on the site, we knew we had to have her. The next day, we went in and fell in love and brought her home that day. We were notified of Marmalade’s health issues, poor vision, no teeth, and lesser kidney functions. We took her to our vet and have been giving her subcutaneous
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Senior to Senior
As a HSHV volunteer I would periodically visit the animals. That is when I met Donut. He had been at HSHV for a long time and was 12 years old with early stage kidney disease. My husband and I decided to adopt him (Sept 2019) and give him an enjoyable life for what ever time he had left. We are approaching our one year anniversary with Donut. He is so sweet and is always at our side waiting for us to sit down on our lap. This dear senior cat continues to provide lots of love to us seniors. ❤️
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Setting Yourself up for a successful trapping: Pre-scouting an area
August 10, 2020 – Before you begin trapping in a new area, a great way to set yourself up for success is to do some pre-scouting to understand the environment in which the community cats you are helping live, and to create a trapping plan. Pre-scouting can help get a better sense of how many cats are actually in an area. As we all know, estimating the number of cats around is always difficult, and often people asking for help don’t have a true sense of the scale of their community. This also gives the cats in the area a
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Henrietta’s New Oasis
Our family has always had a love for amphibians. We recently built an outdoor pond area and were looking for the perfect turtle to rescue as we know so many outgrow their small spaces in tanks. She’s now living her best life in a 150 gallon pond with lots of space to explore. She really loves her new basking spot. We are already in the works to recreate this space in our basement for the winter months.
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How to get your dog to trim his own nails (Part 1)
Do you and your dog both dread toe-nail trims? Then why not give your dog the opportunity to give themselves a pedicure on their own by making it into a simple trick? By taping some sandpaper to a plywood board or something similar, you can create a canine nail file! It is easy to train a dog to swipe their paw on the sandpaper, and as they do so, they will end up filing their own nails. Doing a few swipes a day a couple times a week can keep nails from getting unmanageable, and reduce how frequently you need
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How to get your dog to file his own nails (part 2)
(Did you miss Part 1?) We show you how to train your dog to file their own nails by swiping at a sandpaper board… and while it is often relatively easy to teach the dog to file their front paws, teaching them to swipe with their rear feet can be a little more challenging. So we like to introduce a little environmental help! Sit on a chair, couch, footstool, etc. and prop your nail file board up at an angle in front of you. Have your dog in front of you and the board. Use a food lure to have
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4 things everyone should consider before adopting a second (or third…) cat
Thinking of adding a cat or kitten to your feline crew at home? Here are some things to consider: Energy Level! – Adopting a kitten or cat with a similar energy level to the resident cat(s) is generally the best fit. Have a cat who lived with cats previously but it’s been a long time? Pick a cat with a positive known history with other cats. Cats don’t automatically like other cats just because they liked another cat at one time; the introductions still need to be slow and managed. Adopting a kitten for an older cat who’s lost a companion or to liven
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Why we use the training method we do
HSHV has long been an advocate for positive reinforcement-based training methods, and new research continues to support that this is the most effective approach. A new study has found that dogs trained from a variety of cues – including coming when called when off-leash – responded more reliably and faster when trained using positive reinforcement than when dogs were trained the same behaviors using aversive devices, such as shock collars. Read more about the study here.
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