We found a stray yesterday....I walked the neighborhood for an hour looking for his owners (I had to go to my dads house)....I asked everyone I saw if they knew the dog...I had no luck....I could not keep the dog in my house because it was flea infested, unfixed and kept trying to mate with my dog...and I did not have an appropriate outdoor place to put him....a couple down the block said they thought they knew who he belonged to and would try to ask when they saw her ...well....last night a couple of men came to my door and said they heard I found a dog...I went with them and showed them the people I had left him with and owners and dog were reunited. Made me feel good ...plus I met alot of my neighbors.

annz, cynthia and lily316 What I've been telling you is not a story it is real and it has been killing me for a long time. Its hurts me more when you tell me I'm part of the problem when I've cried and set up nights worried sick but did not know what to do. You don't understand, where we live you don't mess with anyone's things but your own. I have to be very careful because I have a home and family that I have to protect. This person is right beside me. My heart has been so hurt with this that I don't know if I can come back and hear you say its my fault. I understand your hurt because that is what I've been living with only much worse because I have to live beside it and see. Where we live everyone keeps their dogs outside and most chained. I don't like it but that is the way it is. I wish it was not that way. We use to have a dog. We loved her so much. After about 16 years she got sick and died. The vets could not get over how well we took care of her each time we took her for her check up. They always would brag on her. She had regular baths and never without food and good. We did not keep her chained and she was an outside dog but only in the day. We would bring her in the garage in the evening and close the door. If we left for vacation our family came every day to take care of her. We kept a really good very thick bed for her in the garage attached to our home. We would bring her in from time to time. She was our baby. We love animals and take very good care of them. We have a cat that stays in the house with us now. She has never been out. We love her and take the best of care of her. So, we love animals and take them regular to the vet. I'm sorry that you feel that I'm part of the problem. I know you feel for them because I'm just like you. I hope it helps you with your hurt to know when I say we will try to do everything we can for the dogs. There is nothing here to help animals but one animal shelter which in a few days if no one comes to get them they kill them. I know that can be better than living in some cases. I don't think very many people go there to get animals. They were shut down for terrible things they were doing themselves but have now reopened. There is nothing here but the sheriff. It is so different her than other places when it comes to animals. I have family that live in other states and the laws protect their animals as much as people almost. There are so many neighbors all around you but here its not that way I'm the only one beside this owner. If something is done he knows its me. I will come back and let you know.

I do feral cat rescue; my most recent aquisition (more than two years ago) had been severely injured by an animal (possibly a raccoon) in addition to having acquired a tumor in his inner ear by the time he appeared, half-dead, in my barn. I had the ear surgically debrided and was thinking he might eventually be a candidate for adopotion when one day I went out to the holding room and noticed what at first I thought was a rat-sized black animal one the floor. (Newly rescued ferals can't live inside with my permanent cats until they are tamed-down and ready for adoption, so they live in a special, heated, space in the former bulk-tank room.) I was stunned when I discovered that the black furry thing was actually two-thirds of his tail that had simply been so badly injured that it lost circulation and died and finally fell off. The stump required a bit more surgery to clean and close up, but he healed quite nicely and now he's my all-black, chatterbox "bob" cat. I hope your cat was previously vaccinated for rabies and that the vet has given him a booster if there's any chance he might have been injured in a fight with a wild animal. If you can figure out how to turn Ralphie into an indoor cat, you will be doing him - and yourself and your wallet - a big favor. You can also consider having the cats out every day, but under your supervision. They will adapt quite well to a regimen like that. Some of mine go out like that. I live on a farm, way off the road, but there are still too many dangerous things about to allow complete freedom, even for these formerly wild-living cats. When I first moved out here almost 25 years ago I inherited a gang of about 30 barn cats who lived outdoors in the dairy barns. The attrition for even spayed/neutered, well looked-after, quite beloved outdoor barn cats was too high for me. I lost several to coyotes, one to an owl, all of the remainder became FIV+ from exposure to feral cats, some simply disappeared and only a few of those, even after weeks of desperate searching, were ever found alive again, and then there was a steady run of fights with raccoons, porcupines, stray dogs, etc. Not to mention the constant need for Frontline to ward off ticks being brought into the house. After few years of regular tragedies - and huge vet bills - I switched the remaining ones to all-indoor living and for that reason even though they had FIV, they lived to be 15-18 years old. After all of the first lot had died I decided that I wouldn't consider keeping any more outdoor cats. I have contemplated fencing off about 6 or 8 acres immediately around the house and barns, but even then I think that letting them out w/o observation would always be a risk as cats are so agile and a fence would be little barrier unless it was capped. Now I walk with them in smaller groups, or have a couple out with me when I'm in the gardens or barns. But I no longer just turn 'em loose to go where they will. Cats are also very hard on the native populations of wild birds and small mammals and reptiles and amphibians. While it's a benefit to me, an avid gardener, to have them catch voles all day long, it comes at the price of them also killing snakes, frogs, birds, etc., which is too much by-catch for me. Cats, after all, are a human-modulated, non-native species. I'm sorry everyones' tempers were frayed during the vet visit. However I think your assumption is incorrect that anyone with more than a few cats is by definition a hoarder. I happen to have 10 indoor cats at present, all excellently cared-for, well-vetted, all spayed or neutered, etc. In my case I will take animals that can't be adopted for physical or behavioral reasons (for instance I have an inveterate and serious biter who wouldn't be alive today if I wasn't willing to handle him, albeit very carefully). I am definitely NOT a hoarder, which to me is someone who takes in more cats than they can care for, particularly when they allow them to breed unchecked. Cats who appear here are always neutered or spayed straight away. I hope your cat will continue to recover with no setbacks. Lack of a tail has not slowed down my guy. One of the things pets teach us is to see beyond the surface of things. Ralphie is still Ralphie; you'll see. L.

Remy continues to improve and is about 90% "himself". He went for a walk this morning, and I'd even say he was jaunty ;-) Another good sign is that he's barking at all things that pass by the front of our house. He's still on Rimadyl for a couple more days, and of course is finishing out his antibiotics. The wounds are healing nicely, with the largest one still weeping a bit, but that one was really gaping. Remy's getting lots of love and attention (and home cooked meals), and is able to sleep on the bed with us again. I think that has been really helpful for him to do his normal nocturnal snuggling. Thanks for all the well wishes! Stitches removed in a few days.