I can't believe your animal control said that - how do they think the cats ended up there to begin with? You might want to try speaking with the Humane Society, or whatever group you've got there, to see if they can help you with the cats. I love cats, and have 4 of my own, but I would draw the line at a feral cat population in my yard. Obviously, if the cat food was gone, the skunks would wander away. I found an Oklahoma animal control company that has links to feral animal rescue organizations - I hope that something here can help you. One other thought - it might be worth a look at your town ordinances about having things that attract wildlife to your yard. There are a couple people here in NJ that are having fights with their towns because their cat/bird feeding is attracting rats, snakes, skunks, and heaven knows what else. Maybe the ordinances might help get your town involved. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Ok based animal control with links

Similar to an earlier posting, my pool company said that the residual germs and microbes from one dog in the pool are equal to those left by about 40-50 humans. They also said that dog hair will damage the filter. We let a friend's dog into our salt pool once for about 15 minutes. It took five days to remove all the dog hair and oils and no one wanted to use the pool for those days. I will no longer allow a dog in the pool for basic hygiene concerns. Here are a few interesting links: http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/rwi/rwi-what.html Many other RWIs (eye, skin, ear, and respiratory infections) are caused by germs that live naturally in the environment (water, soil). In the pool or hot tub, if disinfectant is not maintained at the appropriate levels, these germs can increase to the point where they can cause illness when swimmers breathe or have contact with water containing these germs. Why doesn't chlorine kill these RWI germs? Chlorine in swimming pools does kill the germs that may make people sick, but it takes time. Chlorine in properly disinfected pools kills most germs that can cause RWIs in less than an hour. Chlorine takes longer to kill some germs such as Crypto, which can survive for days in even a properly disinfected pool. Here's info on crypto (Cryptosporidium): http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/zoonoses/gik9fel/crypto.html It looks like giardia may also be transfered in pools: Giardia is a one-celled, microscopic parasite that lives in many different and often unexpected water sources, including ponds, lakes, streams, backyard swimming pools and even tap water. Giardia has even been found on contaminated animal haircoats. When ingested, it infects the intestinal tract of pets and humans, causing fever, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as other potentially serious and painful gastrointestinal problems. Although any pet can contract the disease, dogs most at risk of becoming infected with Giardia include puppies, outdoor dogs, hunting dogs, farm dogs, city dogs, adopted strays, dogs that live in kennels and dogs in multi-pet households. Many researchers believe there is even the possibility of transfer of Giardia infection between pets and people.

Edited to add: Paxil is very handsome! You both will do fine. :) Also, to look at me I don't look disabled. So I did have one person call me out and she was just a customer in a grocery store. Basically she wanted to know how she could bring her "very well behaved dog who just got his Canine Good Citizen's certification" in the grocery store. She told me I wasn't disabled because she couldn't see my disability. Ha! Seriously, just like a poster above, I took the high road and just said that you can't always see disabilities and then extricated myself form the conversation. That was the only confrontation I had like that. Now onto my original post.... My Boxer was a service dog for me. You don't often see Boxers as service dogs so people could have had issue but only one store ever did and we went everywhere together. Grocery stores, restaurants, etc. The only store we had a problem with was Sears and it was because someone had been in with an unruly "service dog". I had heard about this other person before from other vendors but never ran into them. Once I explained to the people at Sears that Champ was, indeed, my service dog, the person asked her manager who was fine with him being there. Quite honestly, I probably wouldn't have left if they asked me to. Champ was his usual stoic, very well behaved, self and I knew the law was on my side. Champ was my dog before I needed a service dog and he was trained specifically for my disability when he was three years old. He was privately trained and I sent away for his service dog certification and card. I know some people abuse what is available online but some people do not. When I first started going out with Champ, I was self conscious of how he would be accepted or if we would be in people's way, etc. But before long, I was used to him and he was like glue by my side. The only issue I had with people out was them wanting to pet and or touch him. I would often talk to people who asked about him but they weren't allowed to pet Champ because he was working. He knew the difference. Every now and then I would run into an old friend and give Champ his "off duty" command and he would start bouncing around like Boxers do to say hi to my friend. Then it would be back to work when I called him to it. I did enjoy talking with people though, especially if they had had Boxers before. If there were kids present, I would sometimes put him through his paces so they could see what he did for me. If there were kids who were afraid of dogs (which we ran into often), I would have him lay down and let them come pet him because he would stay stock still for them. I guess my whole point is that the more you are out, the more comfortable you will be in the presence of others and the different establishments. People like service dogs. But most people know that they are not to interfere with the person and their dog and they respect that. That might have been part of the non-response you got from the people in the waiting room. I'm feeling melancholy reminiscing. Champ got cancer when he was was a few months short of seven years old and we lost him two months after that, just shy of seven years old. I have not replaced him. Here he is with my Grandson. The second picture is Champ at Target when he was first being trained by the trainer.

A dozen! They 'think' that she's finished, but will be keeping an eye out on her. She was predicted to have a large litter. For those who haven't watched SDP, the tending of the puppies is quite a group effort. These littles will have 24/7 human care for weeks....or should I say, the mothers will have round the clock human assistance. The SDP is a non profit organization that 1) breeds and trains Great Danes to serve as service dogs for children and adults with mobility problems or other issues that a large, calm, and gentle dog can help with. The dogs are donated. Any dogs that aren't suitable as service dogs are given the designation Perfect Pet, and sent to live happily in a forever home, quite often with one of many volunteers who work there. HERE'S the latest roster