Helping Us!

We, the human species of this rescue are in a bit of a spot right now and could use some help getting back up. If you find yourself in a position that you may offer us some aid we greatly appreciate you!

We lost most everything due to smoke damage and \ or water damage from the fire at our home \ rescue the day after Christmas this year.

All of our food had to be thrown away, and all the dog beds are in the process of being treated for smoke, which is lengthy and costly and sadly the gentleman we are purchasing our home from did NOT have insurance as he claimed to have - so this is ALL on us $$.

Phoebe Peppercorn is being treated for smoke inhalation damage and we ask for your prayers in her recovery more than anything else we may need.

The Red Cross stepped in and aided us immediately with temp housing and food\clothing - wow - that was really nice of them, they were Johnny-on-the-spot with voucher and credit card to help - but sadly that aid has ran out.

We have set up a PayPal Button for donations (monetary), if you are able to donate furniture, pet items, please contact: 

Sheila@Beltania.net
We are located in Landrum, SC

Thank You and Have a Fantastic New Year!

The lesson of siren

The concern had already been expressed about sirens and the critters after the fire December 26th of this year (yea, last week), and as to not disappoint the observation of such; yesterday a emergency vehicle came within close proximity to the motel room and the animals acted very much the way one would expect after such trauma on such a personal level. Their little heads were lowering to the ground as the ears acted independently of each other and scanned the horizon like a satellite dish. Not just one or two cats are doing this but absolutely - all six are slinking towards the lowest point on this realm they can reduce themselves to. The three dogs are alert, ears scanning much in the same way the cats are, but they aren't reducing their physical presence, they are the guardians and true to their job description they will stand fast to face any danger that comes their way. The cats are our dragons and will run to the farthest point away from danger and "poof" magickally turn into beasts that can fly away from danger (or so they seem to think).

The siren lasted only a short time, it was a good training exercise as the kitties learned that the noise didn't always accompany us going through hell.

Am extremely thankful that they didn't have to experience this alone and had us humans to comfort them through the event.

Grrrrr run and hide

Heard a door slam shut, then grrrr muffled under a kitty's voice and then the sound of little feet running across the carpet of the motel floor - lots of little feet - actually the 'feet' are paws that I hear running across the carpeted floor of the motel room. There will be one or two under the dresser, no doubt there will be lumps under the bed covers, one behind the bathroom door and the rest by the base of the bed letting the bedspread give them cover from whatever the unknown holds.

They are terrified, they don't know what is coming around the corner and that breaks my heart. Where is our sanctuary now - oh my! This is big, and it is just sinking in - our home caught fire and we have basically the clothes on our backs and all of our beating hearts. That's what is most important - the beating hearts - the rest can be replaced. Most of our items can be salvageable from the smoke damage, the water damaged items are completely lost. The fire was contained between the floor of the top level and the ceiling of the second level - where it started -electrical wires being pinched by a settling house.

The firemen took a chainsaw to our home, they cut several holes in our floor, chopped a really big hole in the walls and knocked out a window to enable them to locate the source of the smoke and smell - they found it!

Our little charges are terrified of things that go 'bump' right now and will take a lot of patience to ease out the anxiety they are feeling.

Our Phoebe Peppercorn is on powerful steroids right now and taking more medicine to keep her breathing airways opened up, she was rescued from a high bathroom window that had a bit of 'fresh' air at - but she still suffered smoke inhalation.

Beltania was already on a regime of steroids before this happened so we are keeping it going because of her 'hot spot', we can't stop her healing at this point. We are keeping her tranquilized for everyone's sake, gave a twinkle pill to Lil' Man last night to just keep the peace in room, for if he is in a good place he doesn't go looking to make trouble with Beltania. If he leaves Belle alone, then she doesn't have episodes of pulling out her fur and they are quite towards each other. Usually it only takes medicating one or the other, recently I discovered that if you did both at the same time that the peace felt in their presence was relaxing. It worked I slept all night long and feel very rested now and ready to start pulling pieces of our lives back together and infuse the rescue with some serious healing energy today.

Beltania, when we lived in Greenville

Lil' Man is finding this all very stressful to him, he is our senior kitty and I would like to place him in a more stable home.

If you are wondering where the dogs are - they are all still asleep - in bed - with their daddy and there is peace in here until they all start to stir...

Emotional Support Animal

First I will explain what this title means:

(according to: wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_support_animal )

An emotional support animal (ESA) is a US legal term for a pet which provides therapeutic benefit to its owner through companionship and affection. Emotional support animals are not specially trained to ameliorate disability as psychiatric service dogs are. They require only as much training as an ordinary pet requires in order to live peacefully among humans without being a nuisance or a danger to others.
In the U.S., two federal laws grant special rights to some owners of emotional support animals.

The 2 laws that grant these special rights are:

Fair Housing Act

The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 (42 USC 3601, et seq.) establishes a procedure for modifying "no pets" policies in most types of housing to permit a person with a disability to keep an animal for emotional support. In housing that allows pets but charges supplemental rent or deposits for them, these fees must be waived. The ESA's owner can be charged for actual damage done by the animal, but they may not require the applicant to pay a fee or a security deposit in order to keep the animal.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity investigates complaints from the public alleging denials of reasonable accommodation requests to live with assistance animals.

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Air Carrier Access Act

The Air Carrier Access Act establishes a procedure for modifying pet policies on aircraft to permit a person with a disability to travel with a prescribed emotional support animal so long as they have appropriate documentation and the animal is not a danger to others and does not interfere with others (through unwanted attention, barking, inappropriate toileting, etc.)

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Now, at this point let me state that I am not a disabled person, my claims are pending, they will be granted and my animals will be certified as Service & ES Animals. As a trainer I am qualified to train Service Dogs and therefore can apply and be granted the same access as a legally declared disabled person - in regards to taking this animal anywhere I would eventually go once disabled - for training purposes. Emotional Support Animals need no more training than a pet except in crowded social settings and thus for falls under the above clause.

Phoebe Peppercorn has been registered as my Emotional Support Animal and thus can travel anywhere I go as my assistance animal, she can not be denied access, she can't be charged any additional fees. This truly does open life up for me.

This accomplishment is on a personal and professional level, not so much that I am a professional animal trainer because I don't take money for what I do and I only train my own charges but because it means that my passion has raised me up to a level of professionalism... just without the dough...

On a personal level this would enable to me to go visit family and not have to borrow money to get my cat home. (so thankful- know that)

Phoebe in training harness, she was started at a very young age to walk on leash and to be harnessed.

Phoebe Peppercorn born on the 4th of July
She is what you could call my 'Liberty' kitty!

One would think that I should go into training animals for money but naw, it will all work out - trying real hard to take the monetary value off of animals and that would just go against what I believe in so - not selling my values short to make anything easier. Not everything easy is the best for us and there is sweet rewards for the job well done the old fashion way - with integrity and personal sacrifice.  Oh and tears - almost forgot the tears. (how could one forget the tears)

With my animals at my side I do believe I can take on anything - I believe - just don't throw it all at once!

Monday morning

Monday morning on the ole homestead, okay so it's not really a homestead yet - but it will be - soon enough. Took the girls out after 36 hours of non-stop rain and they were all full of sniffing the air and the ground, they played for a bit. 

Paca

Caroline

Paca has a clean bill of health and will be entertaining adoption applications the first of the year.  Her vet appointment Saturday confirmed her NEG heartworm status - whoop whoop!! She weighed in at 66 lbs, one of the staff called her a butterball - I let it go for a change - tired of fighting with everyone on the fact she is part English Bulldog and is suppose to be chunky - gee whiz! I mean really - have you ever seen a skinny English Bulldog...

Perfect size and weight for her mixed bred heritage.

The dogs kept going into the open earthen basement so I had to go check out what all the excitement was about and looks like someone has been snooping through my recyclables. Good thing I'm such a clean freak that I clean my recyclables before storing away - but - really need to get some chicken wire and build me some easy peesy storage cages.

Caroline says "someone's been in the trash"!

Checking out this direction.

Checking out the other direction.

Most of the animals in our rescue have jobs, the dogs are guardians and it is their job to keep this place safe from harmful intruders - I don't expect them to distinguish so they just keep ALL things away. They aren't allowed to attack another living creature but sure they would disobey me if a human walked up on us not invited - and I would probably encourage that. Not a fan of violence, but all about keeping me and mine safe, can't do it all alone so I have help - they work for kibbles and pats. Caroline has to double duty as she is learning to be my service animal.

May the rest of the week be bright and beautiful, may everyone enjoy their holiday ~ Peace & Love!

We will take that as a success!

Recently, Paca injured herself playing in our new yard and her dew claw was in bad shape. It took a bit of time to raise extra funds but we were able to get her and Beltania into one of the local vets in our new area. The fees were more than reasonable and the staff was very eager to be of assistance, we were blessed with Donna G. Raines, D.V.M. as the vet who seen our two girls today.  She listened to me. I told her right from the beginning that I was a small and privately funded rescue who just recently moved and every dime was being double worked, that I needed to know the price of each procedure and there was a strong possibility that some things (tests, shots, etc.), would be eliminated due to an extremely tight budget.

Like I said - she listened, she didn't charge me any unnecessary fees and she didn't try to steer me towards certain foodstuffs - WIN \ WIN \ WIN - like all the way around!!!

Everything was moving along so well I was able to afford a heartworm test for Paca, she hadn't had one in over a year and that one was positive. She has been through many regimes of medicines and some of them actually help in killing the adult worms, plus a heartworm lives for only two years - so any that survived all of her medicines just lost their battle the old fashion way - they died of old age. Her test came back NEGATIVE, that's correct - NEGATIVE - as in Paca has absolutely no heartworms inside of her taking away precious time.

We have been doing a happy dance around the rescue today! Paca has a clean bill of health, no bugs - no bug's friends, etc...

The doc listened to me on Beltania as well, we went over her file and the notes I have on her dealing with her pulling out her hair and how the Buspinol works wonders, and we addressed the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy concerns of mine on Belle. Belle doesn't have any heart conditions - whew - the doc agreed on the Buspinol and prescribed her such, advised me to put Belle back on the Prednisone for a round or two to clear up a hot spot.

Both girls were okay on their weights (my book - all that matters), Belle is at 9 lbs and Paca is getting close to 70 lbs - which is no doubt a good bit of muscle giving how hard her and Caroline have been running and playing. One of the techs called Paca a butterball, I let it go...

Paca is now on Heartgard Plus for heartworm preventative and that was one of my happiest purchases ever - buying her - her very first box of heartworm preventative! I know I'm just a wee bit on the ole crazy side but what the heck!

Such a Good Girl!

Paca is healthy!

Paca's pretty fast for a bulldog!

I did what I said I was going to do - I healed her, didn't happen over night, but it still happened all the same. In the time it has taken me to heal this dog from all of her physical ailments I have also done my very best to heal the psychological ones too.

For these things I am blessed.

"Hello"

Haven't declared a phone greeting for the rescue yet, it will go along the lines of "Gargoyles Animal Rescue & Dragon Sanctuary, this is Sheila, how may I help you".

Some more things need to be in place before we get all official so for now it is just simply "hello".

This morning I answered the phone, not even guessing at whom was on the other end - a game I play sometimes. A sweet voice answered back calling me by name so I started to try and indentify the voice when she started telling me about a young kitten who lost her momma to death by vehicle. The woman went on well into her story before I could get in the fact that I couldn't offer sanctuary for the baby. She called the right place - the kitten was very feral and was only starting to respond to this woman because the kitten was starving.

This lady was willing to get the baby vetted, spayed and shots, she just wanted a place for her to go to that would mean life for the young cat.

The lady told me that she wished she could keep her but she has a special needs child and there was no way she could handle both.

"To be completely honest mam, you are the best chance this kitten has at any sort of life - period". Was my response to this lady, short and straight to the point - when you call me you aren't going to get any fluff, your not going to get rose colored anything - you will get the truth, you will get cold hard facts.

After an half hour conversation I assured Angela that she is more than capable of being everything and then some that this kitty needs. That she could handle both her charges and I would aid with advice, that she could call upon me for help with all things feline, she doesn't have to go this alone.

Also told her that if things started to get too rough that my rescue would sponsor this kitty and list her on our website, to find her a forever home without fear of death at the shelter.


It does my heart good that this lady is going to attempt, for that I am willing to offer her my ear and my years of experience.

Not able to do much to help animals right now, hell can't even get Paca to the vet yet (that sucks), but I did help a lady who is helping a kitty and that makes me feel a little bit better.

PayPal button for Paca

This donate button has been set up for anyone who wishes to help out Paca without wishing to purchase any items. We greatly appreciate your support, if you wish to have a receipt mailed to you please state in provided text box (message to seller).

 

To have emergency dew claw removal on Paca, bulldogs need help too!

Paca's dew claw

Last week Paca hurt herself while running outside, Art noticed a change in her play but her being a bulldog and being tuff and all that she didn't let on to something being wrong until a bit later on in the day when I noticed her constantly licking her dew claw. Upon investigation it looked like the claw was split, there wasn't really anything that could be done about it except to remove the whole claw - a declaw. She was keeping it clean and I'm sure soothing herself because it no doubt hurt - even a tuff bulldog like Paca.

The next day she re-injured her claw, this time I was supervising and I seen exactly what caused injury and it was a spike nail sticking up out of some landscape timbers that were almost completely decayed or just missing wood. It was bleeding but other than being split there wasn't a big concern, it would heal and she would heal it herself. If there was an extra dime I would feel better taking her to the vet for a tetanus shot. I tended to the spike nail and every other potential hazard I could pound into the ground with a small sledge hammer. The dogs seemed to get a kick out of me cursing the metal that hurt my Paca girl as I pounded them bastard nails into the ground.

Then today I found a bit of blood on the dog bed. I called Paca over to me and sure enough her claw looks horrible, something has happened for the worse, the whole area is swollen, the nail looks very funky - she needs to go to the vet.

I haven't been able to recover financially from our move and will sacrifice my lunches and my own medicine for the next week to get her to the vet - but sadly that isn't enough. I will be calling tomorrow to see how much an office visit is and we will go from there. Her dew claw is going to have to be amputated, there will be medicine (for her), and who knows what else.

Not going to cry, not going to make Paca feel any worse than she does. I'll suck up my end, but could really use a helping hand to get Paca to the vet - she doesn't deserve to suffer.

The pain before was nothing compared to what she is suffering right now.

We just moved to this area and I haven't had a chance to secure us a new vet, was working on two located fairly close, didn't want our first visit to be like this - oh well - some things you just can't plan - eh!

Really didn't want to pick our next vet by a low office charge - but guess what!

In the morning I will be posting what few items (of value), I have left to eBay and craigslist to get together enough funds for this emergency vet visit. Poor Paca!