Author: Paul Handover

Return to the movies!

Another movie, another dog! Correction: another world-famous dog!

Monday’s post Hail the Hero was about Max.

Max, a feature film by the producers of the doggie classic Marley and Me, intends to explore a soldier dog’s journey that doesn’t end with this heartbreaking image of a pup chasing down his fallen brother, but rather begins with it.

So it’s rather nice to welcome a guest post from Emily Ridgewell that features a dog that became known far and wide thanks to television and the cinema.

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An Incredible Rescue: An Often Forgotten “Tail” From The Golden Age Of Hollywood

By Emily Ridgewell

In the shadow of recent world tragedies, and long before cute puppies and kittens graced the internet, there were former movie legends in the form of incredible canines that found their way onto the big screen in the golden age of Hollywood. Think of adorable dogs like Toto from The Wizard of Oz or Lassie from many different types of these movies and television shows.

But there’s another “tail” (pardon the pun) about a German Shepherd named Rin Tin Tin who stole America’s heart and eventually had millions of fans all around the world long before the advent of the internet. Few of us today know the real-life story of this precious little puppy who was rescued from a war zone long before Toto or Lassie gained their fame and fortune as canine celebrities.

According to a historically-related biography published long-after this rag-tag dog shot to fame in the late twenties and early thirties, there was a young American soldier stationed in Europe shortly before the end of World War I. Corporal Lee Duncan was traipsing through the aftermath of formerly German-occupied farming village in France when he came across a single building, actually it was a kennel, that remained somewhat intact after a devastating bombing had leveled the entire town.

After cautiously entering the building, the young trooper painfully walked over more than a dozen dead German Shepherd dogs. These canine soldiers were trained for combat and left behind by the Third Reich. Corporal Duncan heard whimpering coming from deeper inside this solitary structure and continued on with his mission. To his amazement, Lee discovered some unlikely survivors of this terrible tragedy.

AFTER THE UNTHINKABLE – LIVING & LOVABLE

Lying in the rubble, there Lee saw a female shepard with five young puppies who were just a few days old. Corporal Duncan was no stranger to abandonment since his own father had left him and his mother to fend for themselves back in 1898. Just a year later, his Mom took him and a younger sibling to an orphanage. Perhaps this tugged on his heartstrings and he couldn’t leave behind this young family so he took them all underneath his wing.

He took the entire brood back to his barracks in a living and loving rescue effort. The young Corporal quickly realized he couldn’t care for all of them and found loving homes for all but two of the pups. He kept a little boy and girl, named them Nanette and Rin Tin Tin, both titles given to good luck charms found in France.

THE CANINES AFTER CHAOS

Lee continued to care for his beloved best buddies as the chaos of the war continued. After the conflict had concluded, Corporal Duncan was bound and determined to take his little war refugees home with him. Imagine the red-tape he was faced with and, long story short, he lost Nanette to pneumonia after bringing them both home to the states.

The WWI veteran got a job in his home state of California and began training Rin Tin Tin to perform some tricks in their spare time. After some filming occurred, the former Corporal wrote a screenplay and the rest (as they say) is history.

There’s an old saying (later turned into a Beatles song – also from many days gone by) that rings true in this case, you “Can’t Buy Me Love.” And that’s the whole point.

You can’t purchase the love and affection of an animal, but if you rescue one, you’ll find unconditional love that lasts forever. You might not become rich and famous after rescuing an animal, but you’ll never find a deeper love and connection with your four-legged best friend.

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Emily Ridgewell is an arts professional and a pet enthusiast from sunny LA. Emily has a creative energy and an aesthetic sense of living, where everything beautiful is worth sharing. She loves her yorkie Olivia and writes original and fun articles on ways to learn and improve your pet-best friend’s life. She finds exciting new things to explore and experience! Don’t forget to connect with her on Twitter: @ridgewell_j

Picking up on that ‘old saying’ with regard to The Beatles makes it easy to close today’s post. (And sorry if this makes some of you feel old!)

Here’s a little bit of music history:

Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 29 January; 25 February; 10 March 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick

Released: 20 March 1964 (UK), 16 March 1964 (US)

Can’t Buy Me Love was The Beatles’ sixth British single, released with the b-side You Can’t Do That. It was written while the group were in Paris for a 19-date residency at the city’s Olympia Theatre.

Ah! Nostalgia!

One calculating dog, and

… one unsuspecting human.

The title and sub-title are almost the complete sub-title to a book from Colin Chappell. As sub-titles so often do, they offer the flavor of the book to come.

OK! Let me start properly!

Some time ago, Colin and I agreed to do a book swap and then review each other’s book. We duly exchanged books and Colin held to his side of the agreement! I sent Colin Learning from Dogs and Colin sent me Who Said I Was Up For Adoption?

For reasons that now escape me first I gave the book to Jeannie and she read it and very much liked it. I was going to ask Jeannie to dictate a review for me but, oh I don’t know why not, that never happened. To add to me embarrassment, I still haven’t read the book myself plus Colin ages ago published his review of my book over on his blog Me and Ray.

So when author Deborah Taylor-French reviewed the book on her blog Dog Leader Mysteries I held my breath very tightly and asked Deborah and Colin if I might republish her review here.

I am delighted to say that both were very happy for me to so do! Here it is.

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Overcoming challenges to adopting, Ray

By Colin Chappell, Guest Blogger

When Ray came to live with us, he brought with him many issues. We had been advised that he had no social skills. We had ascertained that he had no training relevant to living in a home, and we knew that he was very cautious around people and other dogs. It was not long before he displayed “Startle Response” (never touch a sleeping Ray!), and “Fear Aggression”. The “Fear Aggression” was Ray’s way of handling uncomfortable situations such as being close to other people and dogs. Ray was a fast learner at home with us and, while he made some mistakes, he was trying to adapt to his new life. He did seem to want to please us, just as we wanted him to be happy. The first thing we had to do however was to arrange for him to have a full medical. When the vet called us to discuss the results, we knew we had a problem.

His dog’s diagnosis? Read about a heartbreaking medical condition.

Medical professionals assess Heartworm status as Stage One to Stage Four. Stage Four, the most advanced, is considered terminal. They estimated Ray at Stage Two, which provided hope that treatment could be successful. Treating heartworm is very expensive and offers no guarantee that the dog will survive the treatment, and so we now had to make the difficult decision of how to proceed with a dog that had lived with us for only a short time. There were some theoretical options for consideration.

1. Commit a lot of money to a treatment program, which may kill Ray? – We were fortunate in that we could manage the estimated $3500.00 financial burden of the treatment program, but did we want to? Ray had not been with us very long and was carrying a lot of emotional “baggage” from his past. While it would be nice to believe that he would adapt to be a lovely family pet, nobody could offer us that guarantee so that we would be investing a considerable amount of money in a dog with unknown potential. Furthermore, treatment consisted of a series of deep muscle injections with an arsenic-based compound, which should kill all the heartworms, however, when heartworms die, the pieces of worm can cause restrictions or even a blockage.

There was a significant possibility that Ray could die from congestive heart failure. To reduce the risk of this potential outcome; a dog must be kept as calm as possible to maintain a very low heart rate. Life for Ray, and for us, would be complicated for the next six months or so.

2. Do nothing? – An option but, in reality, a cruel and irresponsible decision. His quality of life would have slowly deteriorated as the heartworms spread, causing damage to his lungs and other organs throughout his body. Death would have been his only escape.

3. Return Ray to the shelter? – We knew they would have taken him back, but that raised some issues. We would be avoiding making the difficult decision by transferring the responsibility to the shelter. This rationale is against my core belief of accepting one’s responsibilities. Returning him also had some very questionable ramifications in that they would probably not be able to adopt him out again.

Who would want to take on an unknown dog with a serious (and expensive) health issue? Would the shelter be prepared to finance the treatment of a single dog when they are dependent on voluntary financial contributions and are constantly fund-raising to maintain their day-to-day services?

Given our excellent relationship with the shelter, we presented them with our dilemma and asked what they would do if Ray were returned. The answer was, not too surprisingly, very diplomatic. They would not be able to make any decision until he had been reassessed as a possible candidate for future adoption. They also made it clear that whatever decision we made, they would support it wholeheartedly. While their support was appreciated, my feelings were that his future would probably not be too long if returned.

4. Euthanize Ray? – The thought of euthanizing Ray gave me a lot of problems because of Skeeta, my first cat in Canada. Skeeta always seemed to love the company of pretty much anybody and her original owners did not feel that they had the time for her any longer, and so were looking for an alternative home for her. She made a tremendous impact on us all but, after only three months she was distressed. The diagnosis came that she had feline leukemia. Her condition considered untreatable, so the medical staff recommended euthanasia. Looking back, I still struggle with Skeeta’s death. (Terms like “euthanize”, “put down”, and “put to sleep” are all gentle words that only mask the reality of killing.)

The issue with Skeeta was not that her life could not be saved, but that it was far too easy to euthanize her. To have an animal killed, regardless of the justification, should take far more than signing a piece of paper and handing over a relatively small amount of money. Such a simple process was somehow offensive to me in that it resulted in the death of a living creature that had displayed an unquestionable ability to connect with us on an emotional level.

The more I thought about Skeeta, the more I decided that Ray deserved an opportunity to live and it would be my goal to ensure that he had that opportunity. My decision, therefore, was to keep Ray with us and start treatment as soon as possible. Fortunately, Carol had come to the same conclusion, and so treatment was scheduled for the summer.

It did cross my mind that Carol may not be able to justify the cost of the treatment so while I was not anticipating an issue over this, I had made plans to cover the cost on myself. Less than three years old, Ray had not enjoyed a good start to his life. Now Ray worked hard to adapt to our family environment. This big dog had already made a niche for himself in our family. Ray showed signs of wanting to stay with us.

Most importantly to me, Ray was a dog who had invited me to be his friend**.

Friends for life, rare and welcome as love and kinship.

What sort of friend would I be to walk away from him, and leave him to whatever fate would await? Ray could well die during the heartworm treatment, but then he could also survive it. I committed to whatever became necessary to ensure that he had the best chance possible of a long and happy life. I suddenly realized just how important he was to me. I loved this guy!

** The details of this life-changing moment (for both of us) are in his book.

About Colin Chappell: Born in England, part of the post-war “baby boomers” Chappell moved to Canada in 1975 with a wife and two children. Through no planning, he happened to fall into a position that included a mandatory deduction for a pension plan. Less than 30 years later, he retired and pursued new interests. When his children had grown he chose a fresh start. Chappell explored music and, due to lack of finances, he bought a “fixer upper” for his new home.

All photos by Colin Chappell

A few years later, Chappell found himself in a new relationship. The question of owning a dog often came into their conversations. It resulted in him being adopted by Ray, and their lives have never been the same since.

Experiences and day-to-day incidents with Ray prompted starting a blog using Word Press, Please visit meandray.com Writing this blog he got the idea of writing a book about Ray. Find this book on Amazon at Who Said I Was Up for Adoption?

Chappell’s writings continued and, after experimenting with some poetry, decided to put together a book of simple, but hopefully thought-provoking, verse.

Just Thinking by Colin Chappell

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Colin, I do hope this makes up somewhat for me not sticking to our agreement!

In fact, me reading this post out aloud to Jeannie yesterday evening, and being most moved by your words (and photographs), makes it easy for me to read your book without delay!

Hail the Hero!

A Marine Died In Battle, But What His Dog Did After The Funeral? I’m Speechless!

That subtitle is the main title of an article over on the site: Dogs Make Life Better For You.

The article was brought to my attention by Julie back in England who sent me the above link.

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A Marine Died In Battle, But What His Dog Did After The Funeral? I’m Speechless!

A dog is the only thing on earth who loves you more than he loves himself – so imagine a soldier dog’s mourning when his handler dies in the line of duty!

Max, a feature film by the producers of the doggie classic Marley and Me, intends to explore a soldier dog’s journey that doesn’t end with this heartbreaking image of a pup chasing down his fallen brother, but rather begins with it.

Max, a precision-trained military dog, loses his handler Kyle in Afghanistan. Max is too troubled to continue to fight, and the only human willing to take the dog in is the late Kyle’s little brother, Justin. Fortunately, Justin is able to relate to the troubled pup because he has problems of his own.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen military dogs do great things after their time serving our country overseas – and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Watch the trailer for the full-length feature below, and tell us in the comments: Would you watch the film Max?

Please SHARE this powerful story of a soldier dog’s heroic journey after war with all of your friends! Military dogs deserve to be treated like heroes both during and after wartime.

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OK, it’s a plea for people to watch the film and, frankly, why not!

WikiPedia have a good summary of the film:

Max, a Malinois used to help U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, is handled by Kyle Wincott (Robbie Amell) (Marine MWD). Kyle is questioned when weapons seized by his squad go missing. Realizing his friend Tyler Harne (Luke Kleintank) is among those involved with the shady dealings, he warns Tyler that he cannot cover for him. The two then go into the battlefield with their squad, with Max on point. While advancing on a suicide bomber, Max is injured by an explosion. In the ensuing gunfight, Kyle is shot and killed.

Kyle’s brother Justin (Josh Wiggins), who makes money selling illegally copied video games, their mother Pamela (Lauren Graham) and their father Ray (Thomas Haden Church) are informed of his death. After Kyle’s body is brought home for burial, the other Marines notice that Max is only calm when he is around Justin, apparently sensing that he is Kyle’s brother. The family adopts the dog, who would otherwise be euthanized for his disturbed behavior. Justin initially wants little to do with Max but eventually warms up to him. While meeting up with his friend Chuy (Dejon LaQuake), Justin meets Chuy’s cousin Carmen (Mia Xitlali), who offers to go to his house and show him some handling tricks for Max. Little by little, Max’s behavior improves around other people.

Tyler visits the Wincott’s one evening, provoking an aggressive response by Max. Later, after the Fourth of July, Ray asks Tyler what really happened. Tyler implies that Max turned on Kyle and caused him to discharge his weapon on himself, leading to his death. Justin decides to investigate the matter. Calling on one of Kyle’s old friends, Sergeant Reyes, for help, he is given a DVD of Kyle training Max that moves him to tears.

The full details of the plot can be read on that WikiPedia page.

There is also a movie trailer on YouTube; presented here for you.

Whatever one thinks about this specific film, or films like this in general, that doesn’t alter the fact that all of us who live with dogs understand the capacity of dogs to offer unconditional love to us.

Picture Parade Two Hundred and Fourteen

Returning to Tanja Brandt’s gorgeous photographs.

Republished with Tanja’s very kind permission and copied from here.

They are so very special!

Ingo and Friends.

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I could gaze at these fantastic photographs for the rest of my life!

More to savour in a week’s time.

And still we save dogs!

Well done, Larry Osborne!

On Thursday I published a post entitled And We Save Dogs.

Then yesterday, I read this piece as seen on the Care2 site and knew it should be shared with all you good people today!

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Hero Hikers Rescue Senior Dog Stuck on Mountain for Weeks

By: Laura Goldman   September 28, 2017

About Laura   Follow Laura at @lauragoldman

When a 14-year-old dog named Chloe ran away with another younger dog over six weeks ago, Larry Osborne and his family spent weeks searching all over the mountain town of Alma, Colo. for her. The younger dog came back, but Chloe seemed to have disappeared. Her family thought they would never see her again.

“I was not optimistic at all,” Osborne told CBS4.

But on Sept. 21, a hiker who was about a thousand feet below the summit of 14,177-foot-high Mt. Bross/Lincoln could hear a dog crying above her.

“The dog may have fallen off above a crevasse and become injured or trapped. It sounded in pain,” user lydiamreynolds wrote in a forum on the 14ers.com website. The term “14ers” refers to hikers who like to climb mountains with elevations of 14,000 feet or higher.

The hiker was too exhausted to climb up and locate the dog, so she called 911. “I wish someone could go up there and rescue it,” she wrote. Most of the responses to her plea figured the dog was actually a coyote, since no one had reported losing a pet on or near the mountain.

But when Trinity Smith read about the crying dog on the 14ers Facebook page, she decided to take action. “I had no sleep the past two nights, because all I could think about was a poor dog stuck in harsh conditions, at 14,000 feet,” she told CBS4.

Smith drove almost 20 miles from her home to the mountain and climbed it alone. By the end of the day she could hear, but not reach, the dog.

But Smith wasn’t about to give up. She returned the next day with her boyfriend, Sean Nichols, and climbed the mountain again. They spent four hours calling to the dog as they tried to find her.

“For three hours, I climbed up every chute, trying to keep myself from creating massive rock slides, calling for the dog,” Nichols told The Dodo, “and right as we were about to head back the dog finally gave a faint bark, giving away her location.”

The dog was stuck on the edge of a ledge in steep terrain. Nichols was able to grab her, and he and Smith carried her down the mountain.

“We got her!!!!” Smith wrote on the 14ers Facebook page Sept. 22. “After hours and hours of yelling and climbing, Sean Nichols & I finally brought this sweet, scared, hungry girl down to safety.”

After rumors of a dog crying & 2 days of scrambling along the side of a 14er, we finally brought this sweet baby down to safety. This poor thing has been stranded high up on a cliff for over a month. She was once a 90lb dog who now weighs 26lbs. Glad to have her off that mountain and back with her owner’s!

Chloe’s owners met Smith and Nichols at a store in town, where they were tearfully reunited with their long-lost dog.

Chloe, who normally weighs 90 pounds, had dropped to just 26 pounds. She was checked out by a veterinarian and has already gained back 10 pounds, according to Smith.

“She’s a fighter and an inspiration to all!” Smith wrote of Chloe on her Facebook page. The same is true of the two heroes who saved her life.

“It’s really good to know that with all the bad in the world, there’s still a lot of good,” Chloe’s relieved owner said. “So I thank those guys a lot.”

filming for Inside Edition today with this superstar. Chloe has already gained 10lbs back, she’s a fighter & an inspiration to us all!

14ERS SAVED ANOTHER STRANDED DOG IN 2012

This wasn’t the first time 14ers saved the life of a dog stranded in the Colorado mountains. In August 2012, as Anthony Ortolani hiked with his German Shepherd, Missy, on rugged terrain near Mt. Bierstadt, the dog’s paws became so badly blistered that she could no longer walk.

Ortolani carried Missy for a while, but as a storm approached, he left her on a ridge at an elevation of about 13,000 feet. He said he contacted the sheriff’s department, but was told the storm was too severe to send a rescue party. Nearly a week passed, yet Ortolani never returned to retrieve his poor dog.

Fortunately, two hikers came across Missy. They bandaged her paws and gave her water. But they were unable to carry her down the mountain themselves, so they left her behind, posting her photo and a call for help on the 14ers.com website.

It didn’t take long at all for some heroes to step up, literally. That same night, some 14ers climbed the mountain but couldn’t find Missy. The next day, seven 14ers persevered through a heavy snowstorm and located the dog. They put her in a backpack and took turns carrying her down the mountain.

As for Ortolani, he was charged with animal cruelty. And as for Missy, she’s now enjoying life with one of the hero 14ers who rescued her.

Photo credit: Paul Schadler

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It’s really good to know that with all the bad in the world, there’s still a lot of good,

And if that isn’t a great Saturday Smile then I don’t know what is!!

Book Two – Clarity at last!

This is where you all come in!!

From time to time I have let it be known that I had a second book stewing on the back burner. The title that had first come to me was: ‘Of Pets … And Of People’. The book idea and initial title had come to me from visits to our local Lincoln Road Vet Clinic where I had sat in on both Dr. Jim Goodbrod and Dr. Russel Codd as they saw pet patients. As I described it in my original post when I introduced the idea in June:

Some time ago, when we were visiting Lincoln Road, it struck me that the detail of what takes place ‘behind the counter’ of a busy vet clinic is most likely not commonly appreciated by those that visit said clinic.

I asked Russel one day if I might be allowed to spend time watching and listening to what goes on behind the scenes; so to speak. Russel said that he would be delighted for me to do that.

Dr. Jim at work

 

 

I subsequently started publishing posts under the general title of Visiting the Vet.

Back to the book.

Recently it came to me that the title was wrong. Because it didn’t speak directly to the potential reader about dogs.

So I came up with a different name: An Insight into Dogs and Owners.

Here is the Vision for this next book:

An examination of the world of the veterinary clinic including those who care professionally for our dogs and an insight into those people, from many varied backgrounds and circumstances, who have dogs in their own lives.

The first section, dipping into the extraordinary work that goes on in a modern vet’s clinic, is inspired by my belief that the majority of dog owners have very little idea of such work and the skills displayed by DVMs.

But let me move on by sharing with you the Introduction to the book. Firstly, these paragraphs:

There’s a tiny amount of domesticated wolf in all of us. The relationship between canids and humans goes back nearly 40,000 years, when dogs split away from wolves. With our dogs, we have traveled the ancient track from hunter-gatherers to modern humans. That track that in this 21st century sees us having untold numbers of dogs in our lives. In the USA alone there are: “In 2017, a total of about 89.7 million dogs lived in households in the United States as pets. In comparison, some 68 million dogs were owned in the United States in 2000.” 1

Yet a surprising number of those who have dogs as pets and are lovers of those same dogs admit to not really understanding what goes on behind the scenes in a busy veterinarian clinic. Yes, they know what happens when they take their dog to their vet but that view is almost certainly from the perspective of that dog and the specific reason why that animal had to to be seen by a vet.

An Insight into Dogs and Owners seeks to broaden the understanding of the reader to the range of treatments and procedures that are undertaken in a modern veterinarian clinic.

OK! More or less what I explained earlier on in this post.

But!!

But here’s where I do believe (fingers tightly crossed) many of you dear readers can help.

Back to the remaining part of that introduction:

But just as dogs do not live in isolation then nor do we humans. So the book sets out to explore the range of relationships that humans have with dogs. Perhaps better put as the book exploring the range of human circumstances that have led to people having a dog in their life. The homeless, those disabled persons who care for their dog, the service dogs that are, for example, the eyes and ears of the partially sighted and the hard-of-hearing. But not excluding exploring the relationship between police dogs and their handlers, those who work with cancer-sniffing dogs, and all the way through to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Public having a pet dog or two.

1The Statistics Portal

“.. explore the range of relationships that humans have with dogs.”

If, dear reader, you fancy working with me and can comfortably reply to the following questions, then I want to hear from you!

  1. Where were you born?
  2. Were there dogs in your family home from an early age?
  3. When did you first have a direct relationship with a dog?
  4. Describe that relationship.
  5. Do you presently have a dog in your life?
  6. And if so, what is the name of your dog and how did this dog come into your life?
  7. Finally, can you articulate more or less in a single sentence just what having a dog in your life means to you?

These questions can apply equally to persons who have a dog in their life as part of the family and to those who work with dogs in their professional lives, those who train dogs, hunt with dogs, and those who care for dogs.

If all of this hasn’t put you off then email me at paulhandover (…at…) gmail (…dot…) com putting ‘Book Two’ in the email title. I will then contact you directly looking at the best way to listen and record your answers to those questions.

THANK YOU!!

And we save dogs!

Only right that we save dogs as well.

(I couldn’t have asked for a better post to follow yesterday’s post on dogs saving us.)

As seen on the Lady Freethinker’s site.

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Tiny Dog Rescued from Mexico Rubble 6 Days After Quake

Posted by Nina Jackel | September 26, 2017

Six days after Mexico City was ravaged by an earthquake, there seemed little hope of finding anyone alive among the rubble.

But a Japanese rescue team was thrilled to find one more tiny survivor — a schnauzer, who they managed to pull from the ruins of a collapsed apartment building.

The lucky dog was checked out by vets, and had somehow managed to remain in good health. Authorities now hope to reunite the schnauzer with her family as soon as possible.

Thank you to rescuers who travelled from around the world to save lives — both human and animal — in the wake of this tragic disaster.

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The video and news item was carried by the New York Post and for reasons I am unsure about I couldn’t include the video in this post. But you can view that video by going here. Luckily other newspapers carried the wonderful event and the following photograph appeared in The Independent newspaper two days ago.

A schnauzer dog who survived the quake is pulled out of the rubble from a flattened building by rescuers in Mexico City 24 September. ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images

My guess is that dogs and humans have been saving each other for thousands of years and long may it continue.

Dogs save us in many ways.

With the recent earthquakes in Mexico being a glorious example of that!

Nobody would have missed out on the news of the terrible catastrophe of the  recent earthquakes in Mexico.

As seen on the NBC news site.

Mexico Earthquake Death Toll Climbs as Dozens Sleep on Streets

by The Associated Press

JUCHITAN, Mexico — The death toll from one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Mexico rose to at least 61 early Saturday as workers scrambled to respond to the destruction just as Hurricane Katia struck its coastline.

The 8.1 quake off the southern Pacific coast just before midnight Thursday toppled hundreds of buildings in several states. Hardest-hit was Juchitan, Oaxaca, where 36 people died and a third of the city’s homes collapsed or were otherwise rendered uninhabitable, President Enrique Pena Nieto said late Friday in an interview with the Televisa news network.

It’s impossible to truly appreciate the terror of such an event unless one has had the misfortune of already living through such an earthquake. Likewise, almost as difficult to appreciate the terror of being trapped.

But thank goodness for dogs that are trained to sniff out those trapped persons. Such as Frida who saved so many lives down in Mexico. Here’s the account of Frida’s special deeds as carried on the Care2 site.

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Frida, the Heroic Rescue Dog, Saves Lives After Mexico’s Earthquake

By: Laura Goldman,   September 25, 2017

About Laura   Follow Laura at @lauragoldman

Photos and videos of a rescue dog named Frida have gone viral — complete with her cute-yet-necessary work uniform: doggie goggles, vest and four protective, Velco-strapped booties. She has become a four-legged symbol of hope during these dark times in Mexico.

Although, contrary to some early news reports, Frida didn’t really rescue 52 people after the devastating 7.1 earthquake struck Mexico Sept. 19, the 7-year-old yellow Labrador retriever has nonetheless become a media sensation.

What’s true is that prior to the earthquake, Frida (she’s named after the artist Frida Kahlo) had helped rescue 12 people and recover the bodies of 40 people during her career as a disaster rescue dog with the Mexican Navy’s (SEMAR) Canine Unit.

Working with 14 other dogs in the unit, she has located 12 victims of the Sept. 19 quake so far.

Frida’s first mission after the earthquake struck was to find survivors at the Enrique Rebsamen School in Mexico City. Eleven children were found alive by other emergency workers. Tragically, 19 children and six adults did not survive.

Frida suffered from exhaustion after searching the school Sept. 20, her handler, Israel Arauz Salinas, told the Los Angeles Times. After napping and drinking plenty of water with electrolytes, she was in better spirits the following day and ready to go back to work.

Frida has two colleagues in the Canine Unit, Evil and Echo, who are both one-year-old Belgian Malinois dogs. Because Frida is getting on in years, Evil and Echo enter collapsed buildings before she does. If they find someone, Frida enters and spends no longer than 20 minutes inside the building.

The disaster rescue dogs can reach areas that are inaccessible to human responders, including spaces that are less than 20 inches high. When they find a victim who’s alive, the dogs bark. Otherwise they stop and slowly approach the body. “They act afraid,” Salinas told the L.A. Times. “That indicates to us that there is a cadaver.”

Like the other dogs in the Canine Unit, Frida began training when she was just two months old. The skills the dogs show in training determine whether they will go on to detect people, narcotics or explosives.

To train dogs to find people, they are first taught to fetch toys and balls. Once they learn how to do that, their trainers run with the toy or ball in their hands. The dogs learn to associate the smell of the person with the reward of the ball, Salinas told the L.A. Times. Before they’re ready to be dispatched to disaster areas, the dogs train for about three hours a day for a year.

Just two weeks before the Sept. 19 earthquake, Frida helped locate the body of a policeman after a massive 8.1 quake struck Juchitan. She also worked in Ecuador after an earthquake there in April last year.

Before Frida won the hearts of the rest of the world, even the president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, was a fan of hers (or at least the person in charge of his official Twitter account was).

“She is @Frida, belongs to the #SEMAR_mx and has helped save 52 lives in various natural disasters at the national and international levels,” says a @PresidenciaMX tweet on Sept. 13.

ooOOoo

I’m going to finish off today’s post with a recent video aired by Quebec News. (Actually, a series of still photographs.)

Quebec NEWS Published on Sep 21, 2017

Thousands of emergency services, military, and civilians are currently searching through rubble across the country for survivors. Among them are Frida, a rescue dog who has saved 52 people throughout her career, according to the office of Mexico’s President. Frida’s adorable outfit has a purpose. The goggles are to protect her eyes from smoke and debris, while the boots protect her feet from rough terrain. A massive 7.1 earthquake rocked Mexico earlier this week,It was the second major earthquake to hit Mexico in two weeks

 

What your views mean to me!

Reflections on the results of the survey.

I have approached this by looking at the responses to each question, and the message that it offers, and then speaking of my overall conclusions.

But once again, let me offer my warmest thanks for your feedback. What a great family of readers you are!

Total number of votes

You good people contributed a total of 245 votes. Fully 42% (102) of those votes were responses to Questions Eight and Nine, the survey questions that sought to understand what your reading preferences were.

Question One

For how long have you been reading Learning from Dogs?

83% of you have been readers of this blog for fewer than three years.

I don’t find that surprising because one can only actively engage in a blog for so long before it becomes fairly predictable. I, too, have blog posts that come into my ‘in-box’ that frequently are not read. Yet for some reason I do not want to cancel that subscription.

Question Two:
For how many years have you had a pet animal/s in your life?

86% of you have had pets in your life for more than ten years. That is fabulous.

Question Three:
Do you presently have one or more pet dogs in your life?

73% of you have a dog in your life! Again, that is fabulous.

Question Four:
Please indicate to what extent having a dog improves your life? (Please answer even if you currently do not have a dog in your life but, nonetheless, have a view.)

81% of you declared that having a dog offered a huge improvement to your life.

(Let me jump straight to the results of Question Seven for it connects with Q.4.)

Question Seven:
Please read the following statement and then record your reaction to it: “Having one or more dogs in my life allows me a much better connection with and awareness of my inner self.”

89% of you agreed (56% strongly agreeing) that having a dog in your life offered that better connection.

Question Five:
On the ‘About’ page of the blog, it is stated that: The underlying theme of Learning from Dogs is about truth, integrity, honesty and trust in every way. We use the life of dogs as a metaphor.

85% were comfortable with the blog conforming to that theme. That is very good news for the founder of Learning from Dogs! 😉

Question Six:
Not infrequently blog posts are published that do not refer to dogs. Please indicate your views on these other ‘non-dog’ posts?

80% found this mix acceptable.

Question Eight:
Please indicate, by ticking the relevant boxes, which dog and animal topics you would like to read more of on Learning from Dogs.

The top four categories that you readers desire are:

Animal rescue, 22.72%
Dog training, 20.34%
Humorous animal stories. 20.34%
Specific dog breeds, 15.25%

Question Nine:
Please indicate, by ticking the relevant boxes, which non-animal topics you would like to read more of on Learning from Dogs.

The top four categories that you readers desire are:

Environmental issues, 20.93%
Philosophy, 18.6%
Regional articles from around the world, 16.28%
Technology. 13.95%

Question Ten:
Do you believe the blog could be improved for you?

No 42.86%
I don’t have a view. 35.71%
Yes 21.43%

Now while 43% said the blog could not be improved that left 57% with differing views or no view.

But there were in the end two comments as to a possible improvement.

I enjoy getting LFD very much. However, I also get many other emails and subscribe to various news, politics and lifestyle blogs. (Yes the Internet takes up far too much of my life and my iPad is practically like a conjoined twin! ). I would prefer that LFD came only twice a week.

and

Very interesting feedback, including the comment. Because I have almost 400 blogs I haven’t had time to read and have kept mine to once every week or two, the comment resonates for me as well. I struggle to read anyway but those that post daily won’t always get my time. I have to do two things at once as it is. I do love coming here and “learning from dogs”.

My overall conclusions

  1. Maintain the mix between dog and non-dog posts more or less as it is.
  2. But focus on increasing the number of dog story topics that are about animal rescues and dog training.
  3. Then when it comes to non-dog posts be more selective and choose stories that feature Environmental issues, Philosophy, and Regional articles from around the world.
  4. Last, but by no means least, explore reducing the number of posts published each week.

This last finding is extremely useful. None of you would be surprised to hear that writing or coordinating a daily post is hard work. Extremely rewarding but nevertheless hard work.

Then this coming October I have to keep my head down for a couple of months because I want to finish the draft of my second book by the end of November. Thus, reducing the number of posts published would be a great help in the book-writing department!

However, and this is key, this blog only functions because you, dear reader, read the flippin’ thing!

So let me reflect on a few ways that I might reduce that number of posts and offer those options to you perhaps in a further survey.

Thank you all so very much!

Here are your thoughts!

Thank you all of you for participating in the survey.

I am going to use today and tomorrow to reflect on what your views mean for me.

Today, I will present the ‘raw’ data, so to speak, and tomorrow my analysis of what you good people are saying.

So here are the poll results as at 13:00 PDT yesterday Sunday, 24th September.

Question One:
For how long have you been reading Learning from Dogs?
Less than 1 year, 43.48% (10 votes)
More than 1 year but fewer than 3 years, 39.13% (9 votes)
More than 3 years but fewer than 5 years, 8.7% (2 votes)
More than 5 years. 4.35% (1 votes)
I don’t recall for how long. 4.34% (1 votes)

Total Votes: 23

Question Two:
For how many years have you had a pet animal/s in your life?
More than 10 years, 86.36% (19 votes)
I don’t currently have a pet animal in my life. 13.64% (3 votes)
Fewer than 5 years, 0% (0 votes)
More than 5 years but fewer than 10 years, 0% (0 votes)

Total Votes: 22

Question Three:
Do you presently have one or more pet dogs in your life?
Yes 72.73% (16 votes)
No 27.27% (6 votes)

Total Votes: 22

Question Four:
Please indicate to what extent having a dog improves your life? (Please answer even if you currently do not have a dog in your life but, nonetheless, have a view.)
My dog is …
A huge improvement to my life, 80.95% (17 votes)
I have no view. 14.29% (3 votes)
A moderate improvement to my life, 4.76% (1 votes)
Neither an improvement nor a deterioration to my life, 0% (0 votes)
A moderate deterioration to my life, 0% (0 votes)
A huge deterioration to my life, 0% (0 votes)

Total Votes: 21

Question Five:
On the ‘About’ page of the blog, it is stated that: The underlying theme of Learning from Dogs is about truth, integrity, honesty and trust in every way. We use the life of dogs as a metaphor.

How well does Learning from Dogs conform to this theme?
Very well, 45% (9 votes)
Excellently, 40% (8 votes)
Fairly well, 10% (2 votes)
No view. 5% (1 votes)
Poorly, 0% (0 votes)
Badly. 0% (0 votes)

Total Votes: 20

Question Six:
Not infrequently blog posts are published that do not refer to dogs. Please indicate your views on these other ‘non-dog’ posts?

I find the mix of topics perfectly acceptable, 80% (16 votes)
I would prefer fewer non-dog posts, 20% (4 votes)
I would prefer more non-dog posts. 0% (0 votes)

Total Votes: 20

Question Seven:
Please read the following statement and then record your reaction to it: “Having one or more dogs in my life allows me a much better connection with and awareness of my inner self.”

I strongly agree with the statement, 55.56% (10 votes)
I agree with the statement, 33.33% (6 votes)
I neither agree nor disagree with the statement, 11.11% (2 votes)
I disagree with the statement, 0% (0 votes)
I strongly disagree with the statement. 0% (0 votes)

Total Votes: 18

Question Eight:
Please indicate, by ticking the relevant boxes, which dog and animal topics you would like to read more of on Learning from Dogs.

Animal rescue, 22.03% (13 votes)
Dog training, 20.34% (12 votes)
Humorous animal stories. 20.34% (12 votes)
Specific dog breeds, 15.25% (9 votes)
More articles on cats, 8.47% (5 votes)
Articles on wild animals, 8.47% (5 votes)
Articles on horses, 5.08% (3 votes)

Total Votes: 59

Question Nine:
Please indicate, by ticking the relevant boxes, which non-animal topics you would like to read more of on Learning from Dogs.

Environmental issues, 20.93% (9 votes)
Philosophy, 18.6% (8 votes)
Regional articles from around the world, 16.28% (7 votes)
Technology. 13.95% (6 votes)
Writing and Authors, 9.3% (4 votes)
Space and the Stars, 6.98% (3 votes)
History, 6.98% (3 votes)
Health, 6.98% (3 votes)

Total Votes: 43

Question Ten:
Do you believe the blog could be improved for you?
No 42.86% (6 votes)
I don’t have a view. 35.71% (5 votes)
Yes 21.43% (3 votes)

Total Votes: 14

Finally, if you answered “Yes” to Q. 10, do please write your views in the box below.

There was one comment offered:

I enjoy getting LFD very much. However, I also get many other emails and subscribe to various news, politics and lifestyle blogs. (Yes the Internet takes up far too much of my life and my iPad is practically like a conjoined twin! ). I would prefer that LFD came only twice a week.

See you tomorrow with my sense of what I am hearing from you.