Major veterinary drug recall gets even bigger

This is scary stuff!

Link: http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2010/01/13/major-veterinar y-drug-recall-gets-bigger/
(sent via Shareaholic)

click on the links for the other articles too..

Bring to your vets attention, PAWlease..
Be well my friends..

with LOVE, angel mica & mirra

addendum...
http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2010 /01/13/major-veterinary-drug-recall-gets-bigger/

PAWlease help shelter dogs.. & PROJECT POOCH

https://projectpooch.tofinoauctions.com/poochinthepub/

ht tps://projectpooch.tofinoauctions.com/poochinthepub/donation _items

hello everyone..
our mckenna is very active with Project Pooch..
this event is a big one in their year.. and comes up this NEXT week..

it's a phenomenal organization, and does much good..
especially in the lives of unwanted shelter dogs!
if anyone is interested and can help out, PAWlease do..
take a look..

thanks..
mel, mirra & angel mica

3 years with WINGS

Thanks Koda.. not sure about your suggestion mate, so will have to run that by HQ.. and Tulah.. The good prankster Sunny Lee asked the same, and we're amenable, but heard that raffles are tricky. When we ask those we think KNOW more for assistance, we just never hear anything back.

Definitely open to the concept, just want to make sure it's done right..

Remdyru (The family of Remington, Ladysmith & Angel Ruger) wrote this weekend to tell us a human had come into the hospital in Wisconsin.. striken with multiple tick-borne disease, and to ask if Babesia could strike dogs, because of the wretched HA (hemolytic anemia) it causes.

Not only can it, the timing seemed too odd. Some may recall we wrote diary and forum entries after losing a member of mica's team to IMHA caused by Babesia, as a bait dog.. JUST like several of Michael Vick's DOGS. It was just this weekend we learned the news of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles team signing him, and thinking about those poor dogs who were lost to IMHA because of him.

The thought of his actions going so far as to cause multiple cases of IMHA, let alone ONE makes our mom feel "AS SICK AS A DOG."

Sometimes when I write these entries, I find it hard to write as one of the dogs. You all know it's me anyway.. so I aPAWogize for not being clear or flip-flopping.. I just have a lot to say and don't do it that well anyway.

Tomorrow mica will be gone 3 whole years. That means little to most, because your own pets are what mean the world to you anyway, right? But it means everything to me and it still hurts, so much, I can't begin to tell you. Her life was cut way too short, and IMHA is still out there, taking dogs, cats and people. I have wished for better many, many times, but prayer and wishful thinking won't get the job done. It will not likely be eradicated any time soon without MUCH more medical research. Yet even though IMHA ranks high among disease worthy of study (meaning on average it strikes a great number of companion animals, and takes the majority it strikes), funding for veterinary research doesn't come easily. The majority comes from the private sector.

Even though many have been hard hit in these economic times, most are not devastated by them. The companion pet industry is worth something upwards of 8-9 million dollars a year, PAWhaps even more so someone has a few dimes to rub together out there. We find it terribly sad that people are more willing to buy absolute non-essentials like 'dresses' or designer sunglasses for pets than they are for something [LIFESAVING] like this.

Even the smallest portion if given by the maximum number of individuals adds up SIGNIFICANTLY. I think about what I have been willing to do without for 3 years now, atop the vet bill that took years to pay off, (it was 6 days and well more than 2x that amount in dollars) that went into retirement savings to cover. We did without many things, but we still did alright. We were fortunate enough a year later to have mirra come into our lives too.

And none will bring our girl back. Even the thousands I have donated- not making even one dime in 3 years time.

I don't have enough money nor time, nor even patience anymore to do it alone any more. We ask until we are blue-in-the-face and are criticized for it besides. That's really nice folks.

But it can't be done by the same small handful who have given-and some, again and again. They know who they are, and in case you are interested, they are color-coded on mica's team photo (or at least most of them).
Some of them, like the same GSD owner who lost his former partner (a k9 officer) to IMHA who refuses to give his name. Just does it to try and keep the attention on the disease, and advocates for it for your corrals. Gives money, wants no attention in return.
wow. if only more than ONE person went that far out of their way.

So, for mica, from mirra & their mom, we thank you who have given a damn and yet we will still ask everyone else to get involved. If not in our cause, in something for the welfare of those who enrich our lives so much, JUST by their mere existence.

It doesn't even have to take away the next pizza you order yourself in luxury to make a difference, either.

And, chances are, and we're even willing to bet that your dog will will probably wish you'd done something better with the 50 bucks (and likely more) that you spent on the most recent frilly dress it doesn't want to wear hanging in some closest somewhere..
Honest.
and finally,

We love you Angel, and we MISS you so very much.
Thank you for all you did in life to make me do what I do now, ON behalf of others because I had the chance to love you, and be loved by you. I wish that every companion and service animal could inspire their people to do good things for others.
Imagine what a world that would be.
-mom & mirra

Lights, SIRENS, what should be fun is more a cruel memory..

Just yesterday was the parade here for aurora days- the very day our mica took ill..
Although not the same day as 3 years ago, a terrible memory nonetheless..
Hearing the sirens and seeing the frivolity go on and on, is almost cruel.

It was then 6 days later she left us..
Then, it was Saturday the 12th, then Friday the 18th 3 years ago… so it’s coming.
just like clockwork. I wonder when, rather IF it EVER gets any easier.
I should think not, given what I know.
Just a very sad time here. In some ways it's like living it all over again.. we have been very quiet around here, and we’re sorry if we’ve missed a special time for others.

If you truly need us, I’m sad to say you may need to keep trying.
Meanwhile, the MIRRAcle is a blessing.
Thank you Mica.. you sent her to us & we LOVE her too.

Love, m, m & angel m

PAWlease help PROJECT POOCH

Undoubtedly you've seen these types of requests before, where you click on a site to benefit a shelter or organization. Well, here's one VERY FURRY near & dear to our hearts, because our big sister is involved with PROJECT POOCH.

We're hoping our mates will step up & help us help dogs & kids in need.

They do good work, but check them out FUR yourself, ok? If you're local to the Portland Oregon area, their BIG fundraiser is up in September & maybe you can come by!

Project Pooch

Meanwhile, here's a little About Project POOCH, Inc.®
For 16 years, Project POOCH, Inc.® has successfully paired hundreds of unwanted shelter dogs with incarcerated youths.

The youths (guided by professionals) train shelter dogs that have been abused and/or neglected in the past, groom them, and find them new adoptive “forever homes.”

The dogs leave the program ready to be great pets, and their trainers re-enter the community with new job skills and an increased compassion and respect for all life.

*************************************************** ************************
NOW...Here's in part, HOW you can help!!

The Animal Rescue Site is awarding $100,000 in grants to eligible Petfinder.com member rescue organizations. The grand prize is a $20,000 grant and there are many more prizes ranging from $1,000 for weekly winners up to $5,000 for the runner-up. There will be a winner in every state as well as other grants!

The Petfinder.com rescue organizations with the most votes will win. You can click to help animals at the Animal Rescue Site, and then vote for your favorite participating Petfinder.com shelter. Clicking and voting are free, with no registration required.

YOU CAN VOTE ONCE PER DAY during the Challenge, so PAWlease bookmark and vote often..

Visit the Animal Rescue Site to learn more. It's free, and only takes a moment of your time. Thank you!

We appreciate your assistance on behalf of others guys..
LOVE,
angel mica, mirra, the purple girls of oregon, their big sister mckenna & mom, mel

thanks

we're writing en mass to say thanks to all the pups & their families who have recently written or sent gifts to us. we always write individually, but of late have been remiss. it is not due to neglect, and we aPAWlogize to any & all who have not heard a word of thanks from us.

with woof,
angel mica, mirra, tpgoo & mel

a friend in need is a....now also our DOD!! best wishes- Rowdy

Our mom spent the better part of 2009 with a pair of extruded lumbar disks..
All in all, a PAWticularly painful experience, to say the very least. The idea of any furry loved one feeling this kind of pain is beyond comprehension. We felt that we could offer some support this cute mate’s way, when we learned of his plight in the Health Forum yesterday.

Nearly broke our mom's heart.

A handsome little mate, just two years of age, meekly holding out a paw, quietly but kindly asking FUR a wee bit of help to cover some unexpected expenses for spinal surgery-also *HQ Approved!** PAWhaps we could help?? Donate some ecollage® art towards his recovery to be auctioned off, FUR charity? We also have asked some of our big-hearted & talented mates to join us. Some of the usual suspects were there in a flash. Many thanks outright to Daisy Mae & Sassy!

If you can give something back to his mama FUR taking such good care of him, then PAWlease lend a paw.. they strike us as the sort who would PAW it FURward later on too.. Some dogs just strike a chord with you. WHEN we can help one another, the load we bear is not quite as heavy? We have met all kinds of dogs in this playground, some good, some not so much, but we know that the special ones out number the others, and we so often feel Blessed knowing many of you out there.

But because it wouldn’t be a good day without coming to the need of those in need, we have to go one step further and ask..if you can offer Mica’s IMHA Research Fund anything while you're in the spirit of giving, we’d be much obliged. WAY TOO many are still losing this battle. I know mica would appreciate any kind effort made on behalf of others, like mirra & I would too. Each and every day comes the same task in our world, and honestly it is not a road easily traveled. Until a cure is found, we'll need to be up early taking the long road to where we need to be.

Meanwhile, Bless you little buddy, now just GO & get well! You have our PAWrayers & POP, and then some. CUZ Well, the Dogster Dog must have also heard some widespread Pawrayers, and just made you our Dog of the Day!.. May you enjoy your special day in the limelight-make many new mates & find the blessings that you & your kind family need, today & beyond.. with LOVE-

PAWlease meet our new mate Rowdy

**HQ APPROVED**
Thank you too Dogster Dog!!

Angels, PAWleas welcome ANNA, the newest Angel from IMHA- (again)

We recently discussed the most recent dog that came to call with IMHA. It is with sadness we write and request prayers for another good Angel ANNA, 11 years a faithful pet & member of the family. She was a GSD, her disease deemed idiopathic after extensive testing, none was enough to save yet another good dog from IMHA.

I'm sorry mica, on the date you got your wings- the 18th, less than a week from diagnosis. We can't do enough I guess, to find the cure too many still need.
PAWlease, Rest in Peace, Angels.

The family wrote:
We sent our 11yr old GSD girl ANNA to the bridge today. She just could not fight this horrible disease.

Please still keep a comforting thought for a family in need. It still is the time to ask others to join us in finding a cure for IMHA. Preventing it altogether would be grand too.
Love, mica's family

PAWS a minute & PAWrotect your FURRY loved ones (& those- with less fur too)

It’s flea & tick season. Some places, it ALWAYS IS. There are many dangers to our furry LOVED ones in the form of tick-borne diseases (TBD) but there are also dangers in the toxic chemical repellents used in industry today. We’ve added a link here to the second part of NRDC’s Poison on Pets II
There is also a link where you can check to see HOW YOUR product rates.
Check YOUR PAWticular product here
Making informed decisions about the use of toxic chemicals should be a priority in the lives of anyone, PAWticularly those with children present. Our mom is severely disabled because of an exposure to a mixture of solvents on the job many years ago.
The mixtures are those similar to pesticide formulations in hundreds of OTC products.
We often wish she didn’t know all she does, because then she’d (hopefully) be well.
We take her as is though, but because she HAS to know alternatives to common household poisons, for her own health, it helps her also take MUCH better care of us.
Thanks FUR listening mates.
If you want to learn more, do a search first on Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Maybe we’ll talk again later. We practice a diligent version in our lives, and PAWlease, don't be fooled. There are many who propose chronically reaching for something they can buy off a shelf in a store. Just think of this first.. words that end in 'cide' mean death to whatever "PEST" you're seeking to eradicate.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The English suffix -cide denotes an act related to killing. From Latin caedere "to cut, kill, hack (at), strike". In its wider meaning, it may also signify the destruction or dismantling of an object or concept. When attached to a word indicating an animal or plant considered to be pestilent, the combined word is frequently used to indicate a substance used to eliminate the pest in question. E.g. Pesticide, insecticide and herbicide.

Next, consider this.
Even natural products can be dangerous if used UNwisely. Taking time to think what your needs are and making a plan to effect whatever change you need takes time and thought. The very last means to employ FUR us EVER gets to anything that ends in 'cide'..
but even though we have learned alot of how to DO things differently, which safeguard mom's health, we still spend MOST of our free time working on finding that CURE for what took mica..
you might surprise yourself when you learn how simple it is to find the other ways & means.. Meanwhile, be well & stay as healthy as you can as long as you can. Taking good health FUR granted should never be what anyone does.

Once you lose it, you can almost never get it back.

Love, m, m & angel m,
who never use chemical input but have also been Blessed to be doing something right,
and pray it remains so.

1001 days now with Wings

this was actually posted yesterday, but once this many days goes by, what's in a number anyway?

may be way too long for most mates to feel like reading, but it is a day that something more needs saying..

we owe it to the wonderpup..
first, TY, always!! Daisy Mae & Margaret.. i wish that we could say few understand what you know- having lived with IMHA... but that would NOT be true. i can hardly keep count anymore, as there are SO many that we have met in 1007 days. most, though i'm sad to say have LOST their battle, but regardless of how IMHA touches you, ANY number beyond 1 is far too many FUR us.

today it is 1000 days since mica got her wings.

a milestone of a thousand days without her love & smiling face is STILL unbearable, and i feel the pain as much today as when it was day 1. mica was my first dog. she deserved better than what she was dealt.

then again mirra does too.
in a few weeks (30 May) she’ll be 2!

how much time have I already lost with her ‘raising awareness and funds’ for IMHA?
PAWhaps if we had found a cure, or PAWhaps rallied more than the few supporters we have, then maybe the difference would have been worth it.
but WAY too many OUT THERE SIMPLY rely on ‘the others’..
too many never come back- to give something back that might benefit some other dog. maybe yours.

they want what they need for their own loved one, but the rest be BLAHBLAHBLAH.
I hate to say that but damn it it’s true.
and it’s sickening.
I hate the way it makes me feel too.

since we lost the wonderpup, i HAVE come to want to spare even one person, even one dog we may never EVEN know- the pain & sheer indignity of the disease called IMHA.. if i could have spared mica what it did to her and taken it upon myself to bear i'd have done so in a blink of an eye.. i thought of that very thing on mothers day- [which] was also mica's 12th birthday.. and I have at least a thousand times since we lost her too..

she WAS the picture of health..
no inkling that within days she was eaten alive by her own immune system..

just the thought of the rupture of your own red blood cells, that carry the most simple and complex (simultaneously) aspect of life-functions.. AIR!

we take FUR granted, most of us, each breath we can take..
don’t we?
we don't know which one may be our last.. but as a mother, i wanted to look after my baby the best I could.. give her every chance to live, free of pain, free of disease.

so these last thousand days have in part, been dedicated to trying to make some frigging difference..
because I couldn’t spare mica, that maybe we could spare your dog…..

************we know that there are a handful that understand, but it is STILL a mere handful.***************

there is always an excuse, or a denial..
as if 50 cents or a dollar- even IF given once for Christ’s Sake, would be too much to bear.

those few have helped support our undertaking, and have done it in part in mica's honor, or also FUR your own loved ones taken by IMHA and or one of its companion blood diseases..
or did so because they LOST a loved one too, to a different disease, and know what little it takes sometimes to make a difference. we are so proud of you guys.

but at a thousand days out from our LOSS, I’m here to tell you it's a war that we're losing mates.. it needs MUCH more than it's receiving.. the fight is blinding!
i can no longer see.

the degree of interest and funds to study it is all but ignored.
and why is that?

i take SO MUCH time away from the sweet angel mirra, who helped spare my life in absolute grief, and who sincerely deserves my time and resources that afford your dog or cat a chance.. i believed i owed that good dog named mica- more than what i see most others give their own, alive or not. i believe that if we share the burden, it isn't as heavy as if it is carried alone, and because I DO feel that we can make a difference. there are times I still believe, and others like today, I say, why?

I have to question what kind of mother I am, really. I try and balance it, but the more I fight for the masses, the less I have to give my own. I don’t see where the trouble I go to is really helping all that much. PAWhaps when it no longer helps me, it’s time to throw in the towel? I mean, what on earth am I getting out of it?
loss of sleep, time away from my family, donating all of my time, art et al, to build a foundation? the building blocks of undertaking a fight such as this must be strong going in, or the foundation would crumble under its own weight.
I don’t have any more to offer, and my poms-poms need time off.
I don’t speak the right language it seems, to generate the enthusiam a battle –rather, a war like this needs. I wish there was some glimmer of hope on the horizon out there..
something.
and to top it off, when we have to pay back a benefactor for mates withdrawing a corral, well, I question whether all it means is PAWhaps I have rocks in my head for doing any of it.
nothing hurt more than that.

i want to honor mine.. so i'm torn, mates.. if i honor the angel mica, on her 1000th day of her wings, i leave here- and help the newest SOS- that appeared only yesterday- a 10 yr old GSD.. to drop everything to get her pawrents the best tools we know how to offer- and hopefully save her life.. mica would be proud, and smile that intense Belgian smile, knowing she has saved a few lives around here.. single-handedly.
then, some of them say so, but do they lift a paw?
no, they don’t.

they talk about it. they ask others to pony up, but they themselves couldn’t be bothered. they, like most, won't come back and give back a little of what they received, and help another..
i could name dog after dog.
and what good would it do?

makes me want to growl, honestly.
or do i simply say a prayer and wish my angel a good day without us, and spend the rest of the day with angel mirra, who always deserves better than she gets, because we spend so much time for everybody else. i'm tired of doing it all the time. i'm tired of the bottom line.. either we keep it up or the flame on the candle of hope goes out, FUR good.


so it’s a little like being between a rock and a hard place.
i feel as though it's about time i hand the reins over to someone else.. i've spent a thousand days now, and part of the 6 more we spent, watching her literally waste away and life FUREVER leave that glorious belgian body of hers...

i won't hold my breath though, seeing who steps up. we got involved because we saw how little was being done.
so, PAWhaps it’s best to thank those who stood up on behalf of mica's memory, FUR their own, regardless of whether it was IMHA, or a loss to cancer or no loss at all- because whether you had lost or not, you still GAVE something FUR someone else..
which is more than most of you ever do.

I stop then to think about what your life is about. is it always about you, does it ever count unless you are involved? my family doesn’t have a lot of money, but we still give. it makes me feel ill thinking that some people never know the depth of goodness that giving to others feels like. I suppose that we all do things differently, and we have different expectations when it comes to charity.

I am sick of the PAWson who chronically asks me for a handout BUT would never, and never has given one in return. I feel like hoping to do good things can make you feel really jaded now and again. I don’t like the feeling either but I’m losing faith in others. they talk the talk, but they have no clue about walking the walk.

mica nor mirra would ever utter such words.. they’re good dogs, and if they were people, I’d be proud of them still. i take and bear the full responsibility for any and all words herein myself. but before you cast the 1st stone, make sure you your glass house can handle the brunt of what comes next.

mica and mirra's mom, mel
p.s.
i bet 10 to 1 too that no one outside the regular parties who are members of mica's team will bother to utter a word here. mirra just said, mom, you never know.

i love my dogs...
we checked back since yestrday.
there was no reply whatsoever.

sorry mirra, i like your upbeat attitude, but, i'm sorry to say i was right.
sorry mica, we tried baby.