What I Didn't Know About Petland

I bought my Shih Tzu at the Petland on College in Fort Myers four years ago. She was small and sick, but she put her two front paws up against the glass as I went to leave and I was totally smitten.

She nearly died. She was on antibiotics by mouth every so many hours. I was still with Randy and we cared for her like she was our baby. Because she was.

It was very much touch and go at first. I kept her crate at eye-level so we could see each other all night. Every morning I was afraid to open my eyes; but Bodhi pulled through.

I had asked employees if Petland bought puppy mill puppies and they said absolutely not.

About two months ago my friend Mark asked me to meet him at Petland - he wanted help choosing a puppy. He was newly separated and in desperate need of company.

He chose a beautiful little white Maltese and named him "The Boss." The vet gave the puppy a clean bill of health.

The Boss seemed to thrive. Mark was a doting dad, took him everywhere, catered to his every whim. One night The Boss started coughing. Mark took him out of his little crate (he kept it right there on his bed) and cuddled him.

The Boss coughed one last time and died there in bed next to him.

Mark was inconsolable.

The vet said his heart gave out - probably due to overbreeding.

Today I got this from The Humane Society.

https://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=28998582

If you love animals, please read the information and sign the petition. I do not have the strength to watch the video.

I went to Petland's site and found this:

"Petland is aware of the many animal welfare issues in the news today. We know that members of some animal rights groups would have you believe that all pet store puppies are bred and raised in substandard facilities. This is untrue."

BULLSHIT.

My little Bodhi is starting to demonstrate some symptoms that concern me. She is only four years old. She should live to 17. I wonder if she will live to half that.

I don't like saying this. I have never said it out loud. But now I know it's true - she is my little puppy mill girl.

The gray and white dog to the right of this page - that's Princess. She was a rescue. I found her online. The rescue people kept her two years before deciding to give her up. (?) They said she had been abandoned in an apartment building in New York.

They said she was a ShihTzu, but everyone tells me she's a Lhasa. I think she's a mix - she does a ballet spiral every time she pees.

The rescue people said she had separation anxiety, but she was anxious to come home with me and Bodhi. She's sweet, beautiful and she will probably outlive both of us.

My friend Rachael bought her two dogs at Petland. I remember when we first talked about it, she said "Pet store puppies need love too." That's very true.

But we both agree this has to stop.

If you've been looking for love in all the wrong places, please go to a shelter. Or rescue a pet from someone who can no longer afford to care for it.

Buzzard Rescue

(From last Thursday ...)

We spotted a "turkey buzzard" at the office last week and tried to catch it. Pretty big bird. He appeared to have an injured wing.

I have a friend - a guy - who works at Fort Myers airport with other guys. The airport is virtually across the main road from here. I emailed asking if he had any critter rescue people over there and he wrote back "hey - when we find wild animals, we don't call writers."

I snapped back "oh, I forgot you were one of the boys who was throwing rocks at clumps of grass in the twilight because you thought they were an alligator."

Somewhere during the emailing, the bird disappeared. We hoped he flew home.

He was large. I'm guessing he had a 5' wingspan.

Saw him again today, still walking ... much weaker. We were able to capture him after much screaming and thrashing. (Us.) Four of us chased him around the building ... then three of us cornered him, one threw a blanket towel over his head (it had a giant parrot on it, which some considered humorous) and put it in a big box.

People from the other offices had their noses pressed against the glass.

Rescuers included me, an account person and a media buyer. All female. The guy account person split mid-capture - the bird scared him. The boss gave us a look like he truly believed we were insane. He said "you know that's a vulture, right?!"

Yeah, we knew. We also discovered vultures smell like shit.

I drove him to the Crow sanctuary on Sanibel for repairs. It's about a 40 minute drive from work - www.crowclinic.org/ He was banging around in the box making me really nervous the whole way there.

I prayed my coworker had the box properly taped, I did not want to have him loose in my tiny Saturn. Apparently he had never been in a car before.

I mumbled Buddhist chants (with the occasional gross profanity) while driving. That actually seemed to calm him down a bit. Except for the profanity part.

Dropped him off, filled out the necessary intake forms and we hope they can fix him. Crow thanked me profusely for bringing him in. He has a patient number so we can check on him.

Back at the office I was running late for a big meeting. I made up jokes all the way back to the office about "flipping them the bird", "winging it", "eating crow" etc. Non-rescuing co-workers scoffed me upon my return.

Some horrible nickname may come from all this. "Buzzard Whisperer" or "Vulture Chanter" or something.

Then I had gung pao chicken for lunch, which felt sort of hypocritical.