HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

Trivita is offering a free sample of Nopalea cactus juice and challenging people to a 30 day challenge to see the results of drinking the juice for themselves. But there is an asterisk next to “free.” You pay a $9.99 shipping fee. I have seen all of the products offered on television and I swear you are not actually getting anything free. Rather, everything is built into the cost of the shipping.

In this case, the shipping charge might be closer to legitimate with the rising prices of postage and the shipping weight of 32 ounces of liquid in a bottle. The liquid equates to about 2 lbs, plus the weight of the packing materials and the bottle itself. That part of it isn’t prickly.

The juice isn’t touted as being a cure of any sort specifically, but there is a chain of reasoning that because it contains betalains, which reduce inflammation and toxicity, and inflammation can cause illness, then the juice must improve overall health and wellness dramatically?

Betalains can also be found in:

• Spinach
• Rhubarb
• Beets
• Quinoa
• Other Cactus Fruits

In other words, this juice isn’t your only and last chance to take advantage of a certain level of nutrition, and in fact, eating these other foods regularly can give you a larger amount and greater nutrition.

If you are not allergic to secondary ingredients, a fruit or vegetables based fruit or juice is worthy of a try, but keep in mind, overall health and diet is the most important. There is no magic bullet. No one food, even oranges for Vitamin C or Tomatoes for Lycopene are going to protect you against aging or disease. It takes a balanced diet full of variety and balance.

(At Left: Murphy is a handsome Cattle Dog Mix who is up to date on his shots. He came from a home somewhere and is a well mannered, HOUSEBROKEN  and very lovable boy and appears to be in excellent health.  UPDATE: A rescue is stepping up for him, but he needs a home to bunk down in for two weeks in order to meet his ride and make his jailbreak possible. Please contact the volunteers below to help. Adopters also welcome if you would like to give him a permanent home.)

The dogs and cats…especially the dogs…at Clayton County Animal Control in Jonesboro, Georgia, need your help. Many pets at many pets need your help. Euthanasia happens at least twice a week, but this past week, a third day was added. 54 dogs were on the list. An offsite vet comes to euthanize and if they are there and an owner turn in dog comes in, that dog doesn’t get any time. There is no “three day hold” for them when the shelter is filled to the brim. Dogs just keep coming in.

However, the bright light is that the volunteers that help this shelter are extremely organized and have a system. If you are a member of a rescue and make intake decisions and can take even just one beautiful dog, please contact jm doro (at) earthlink.net.  They have a Facebook page called Partners with Clayton County Animal Control. There is a folder called ANIMALS IN NEED OF RESCUE/ADOPTION that the volunteers do their best to keep up to date. This week, there was a Great Pyrenese, many purebred Chihuahuas as well as beautiful “Pure Bred Georgia Brown Dogs.” So, please visit the shelter if you are local to adopt or if you are a decision maker at a breed or all-breed rescue, the volunteers are there to help you help them. They are standing by now and waiting for your offer of fostering a dog for a few days or weeks, accepting a dog into your rescue or if you see a dog and know that they are “the one.”

All charities appreciate cash donations. Most charities also have a “wish list” of items that you can donate in lieu of cash as an “in kind” donation, particularly small grass roots groups and animal charities. Several church and childrens groups look for suitcases for foster children to carry their personal possessions in when traveling to a new foster home. Homeless shelters look for hotel sized toiletries to give out to guests as well as provide for those who need to carry them along.

If you are short on cash and want to donate something meaningful to a group, sometimes you can stretch your donation in one of several ways if you purchase items.

1) Join the loyalty program at the supermarket for pantry donations and at pet stores. They are worth a few cents or a few dollars off promoted merchandise. This seems automatic when you are have pets, but if you don’t but like to lend a hand, it is worth having. This also goes for toy stores if you regularly purchase for children’s charities or Toys for Tots.

2) Use coupon codes online. Dog food can be expensive to buy on the net with shipping costs, but there are free shipping offers, discounts for bulk purchases and offers for buying in multiples. I once found Purina coupon codes for items that a shelter was asking for. They preferred the brand because it was easy for people to donate as it was so widely available, and because a store once donated a quantity to them and they wanted to continue. I never thought of buying it online, but the deals made sense.

3) Buy seasonally. Some charities cannot store items for a length of time, but if you can set aside a bin for donation, hold onto frequently requested items to donate later. Buy basic office supplies, such as paper and pens at Back to School time. Sometimes the stores announce when they will issue their deepest discounts. After Christmas, purchase elf collars for pictures with Santa or wrapping paper for the next wrapping booth if your local group wraps presents at the mall for donations.

4) Ask your charity about upcoming events. Usually, a group is planning an event a six weeks to a full year before it is announced to the public. If you know a group is having a Dog Walk in 8 months or a charity auction in 6 months, you can be on the hunt for bargains for specifically needed items.

Remember to ask for a receipt twice. Make sure you print out your receipt when buying online or ask for one at the register. It is helpful to keep it for when the charity issues you a donation receipt for your taxes, you will have a record of the purchase amount.

Of course, you can always gather up gently used items, but in some cases something brand new is called for. How have you cut corners without cutting corners?

Many items in our food pantry and garden can act as natural and dietary remedies for people and pets, and conventional medicines also have some carry over in differing doses. Parsley added to dog treats or salads can safely freshen breath for both species, and aspirin can soothe aches if not taken with certain other medications, nor where other counter-indications are present.

One of the latest questions is if the antioxidant juices people drink can be good for pets, even as a last resort. One question in particular is if Nopalea, which is made from the juice of the Nopal cactus, can be also used for canines and felines who are suffering from inflammation. Firstly, the Nopal cactus comes from the Opuntia family, more properly, Opuntia Ficus Indica. The Opuntia is a tree cactus. According to the ASPCA, Opuntia is nontoxic to dogs and cats. If a pet accidentally eats a small piece of the plant, the results might be prickly, but there will be no poisoning.

Although the plant itself does not pose a high toxicity risk, the juice itself is not formulated for pets. Cactus juice, which as a slight laxative effect, is not sold in its pure form. To be palatable, Nopalea juice includes other ingredients as well as supportive antioxidants. The other ingredients, and not the cactus juice, makes it potentially highly toxic to dogs. The following is the list of Nopalea ingredients. Outlined in bold are ingredients helpful to humans but toxic, or possibly toxic to dogs and cats.

Proprietary blend of Water (filtered), Opuntia concentrate (nopal concentrate), Agave Nectar, Grape Seed extract (vitis vinifera), Raspberry extract (rubus idaeus), Strawberry extract (fragaria chiloensis), Cranberry extract (vaccinium macrocarpon), Apple extract (malus domestica), Apricot extract (prunus armeniaca), Mango extract (mangifera indica) fruit, Orange concentrate (citrus aurantium) juice, Papaya concentrate (carica papaya fruit with papain), Tomato concentrate (lycopersicon esculentum) fruit, Kiwi concentrate (actinidia chinensis), Guava (psidium guajava powder), Lemon concentrate (citrus lionum juice), Opuntia concentrate (nopal concentrate) powder, Peach concentrate (prunus persica) juice, Pomegranate extract (punica granatum with ellagic acid and punocaligans), Green Tea extract (camellia sinensis), Beet (beta vulgaris) juice, Bilberry concentrate (vaccinium myrtillus), Acerola cherry extract (malphigia glabra), Amylase, Cellulase, Hemicellulase, Proteases [bromelain from pineapple (ananas comosus) and papain (carica papaya) from papaya, lipase, phytase], Stevia extract (stevia rebaudiana) leaf, Guar gum, Maltodextrin, Natural flavor, Cherry powder, Xanthum gum.

• Stevia can be upsetting to the stomach or even fatal to dogs.
• Grapes are known toxins, which can cause hypercalcima, anorexia, lethargy and kidney damage.
• Parts of the prunis family, such as the leaves, stems and pits are toxic. The prunis family includes apricots, peaches and cherries. The actual fruit is not toxic, but in the blending process, other pieces of the fruit could potentially intermix.
• Healthy dogs produce their own Vitamin C. The jury is out on whether C supplementation is harmful or helpful, or may only be helpful in severely ill animals.

Before giving your pet a “home remedy,” note that their systems are not completely like ours. Read the ingredients very carefully. Not all products that do you good will do your dog or cat good, even if they are “natural.” Enjoy a glass for you, but don’t be tempted to give Mittens or Duke a sip.

Looking for the right tutor can be daunting, with schedule coordination being the biggest obstacle at times. If you are in the UK and are looking for a tutor for anything for Math to computer science or even anthropology, there is an online resource called Tutor Hub. You can find home tutors that will meet with you online.

The rate works out to around £20, but you can hire a tutor for a shorter length of time by the minute. Either you can search for a tutor, or post a question in Q&A about what you are looking for and receive responses from tutors that match your subject. Rifling around, I found folks asking about human resources exams, compounding interest and classical design. You are sure to find something today…or at 3:00 am.

I walked into my neighborhood sandwich shop and there was a lost dog alert posted on the bulletin board. It was not a handmade sign, but rather a formatted print out with the dog’s photo, microchip number, description and contact info on it. It was a Pet Amber Alert that had been faxed to all the businesses in the downtown district.

What is a Pet Amber Alert? The “America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response” code was named for missing child Amber Hagerman. Like a human Amber Alert, a Pet Ambert Alert sends the word out far and wide when a pet is lost. While your pet may not make it to the radio airwaves, the service does contact local shelters and rescues, and faxes alerts to local businesses to widen the net and possibility of your pet being recovered. A phone alert reaches local neighbors and businesses, too. The pets hit social media outlets,too.

There are other plans that include just phone alerts or just poster alerts.  For $49.95-99.95, the service can cover more ground than you can in a matter of minutes or an hour or two before the pet leaves the area. A pet detective also works with a database sifting through leads as well for you.

In the past, I wouldn’t have considered a service, but after having now experienced how the service really works in my community and having found numerous “lost” dogs, it would have cut down on the time between when I found the dog and found the owners. In the case of one dog, I never did find the owners after very diligent searches. If my dog was lost, I know that I couldn’t possibly cover the ground quite as quickly. You never know if its best to drive through the neighborhood calling your dog and looking or to wait at home hoping they are on their way.

In my experience, for every story about a dog or cat that traveled across the country, there are anecdotally 100 more that were near home after all, either picked up by someone on the next block and adopted as someone’s own without first looking for the family, a dog or cat becoming trapped in a lot close to the house and unable to break free or neighbors seeing a dog or cat roaming, but not thinking anything of it. It’s great news for Chicago, Los Angeles, West Central Frogstump and philadelphia lost dogs and cats…or really pets from anywhere.

Would you consider a service like Pet Amber Alert if your beloved family member was missing?

A few different health and wellness products for dogs and cats are frequently mentioned here. Just like some human shampoos are not available worldwide, or have different package styles of formulations from country to country, pet medicines sometimes are available under different names or not at all. The one product that seems to be quite international is Frontline flea treatment . It is the number one seller for flea and tick treatments in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

The formulation for the United Kingdom for cats includes a 10% concentration of the active ingredient firponil, which is a synthetic insecticide which kills adult fleas during the effective period. The version available in the USA has a 9.8% concentration. Virtually, it is close enough to be the same.

In my travels, I have found flea and tick preventative in wider use for dogs than for cats. It is equally if not more important to treat cats for fleas, especially if you have a cat that travels outdoors. Even the feral cat that you have been feeding could benefit in order to protect him or her from diseases carried by fleas and ticks.

In the United Kingdom, ThePetMedicineCompany.co.uk is an online retailer that services chiefly mainland addresses throughout the United Kingdom. Whether you live in the UK, or you wish to send flea and tick preventative to an animal charity in the UK, you may want to visit their site for details on payment and shipping.

Though I am glued to my cell phone, it is not really possible to take a good pulse for a person or pet in an emergency using my cell phone timer. Nothing beats a sweeping second hand.

More and more, I am going back to wearing a watch. After my cell phone conked out and my clock on my car was naturally not set since the last time the battery was replaced, I was a little lost. Did I have time to stop and charge my phone somewhere or not? I made it to my appointment in time and charged it there.

I recommend including a traditional time piece in your emergency kit. It’s best to wear it, but having it in your glove box or wildlife rescue emergency kit, or even your emergency kit for car emergencies is so important. It is not only important to have an idea what time it is, but to measure time if you are checking a puluse.

Some watches are up to the task of dog slobber and extracting exuberant Labradors from decorative fountains and some are not. I was not aware of what all of the

Bulova Precisionist Watches are rated for water resistence up to 30 meters and my vintage Timex, well…who knows.

Here is the low down:

• If a watch is rated for 30 meters, you can be caught in the rain, get your wrist slobbered on by a dog, but you can’t dive with it or swim with it.
• If the watch is rated for 50 meters, you could swim with it on. Stay away from deep sea diving and snorkeling The watch will not hold up to the change in pressure for deep sea diving, nor the consistent immersion.
• If you really want to do any diving, select a rating of 100 meters or greater, with only ratings of 300 meters or greater suitable if you are using a scuba tank.

The bottom line? Save any watch with no rating for the night out. If you are looking for a good all around watch for working with animals, choose a water resistant model for the occasional water trough spill.

So…have you gone retro?

At the age of 12, I proudly showed off my American Quarter Horse Association anatomy chart and coloring book that I received for free. My savvy little self wrote a nice postcard to the folks at AQHA asking for some. Too old for coloring books? On the contrary, the book was educational and provided many hours of tracing horses onto other mediums. To this very day, I still have the anatomy booklet.

Normally, I would not have pressed my luck, but I was emboldened by a wonderful leaflet that had lists and lists of things you could send away for, either for free or for the cost of postage or an SASE.

The little catalogs have all but disappeared, replaced by sites like ReallyFreeSamples.com and the like. Even though the internet is crowded with free free books online and free downloads, getting them does not feel like the personal victory my first coloring book did. Granted, you can get online freebies by mail where you will await a sample trial of toothpaste or a pocket schedule from your favorite team, but clicking a button doesn’t seem as much “give to get” work as actually writing in for something and waiting for your Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring like Ralphie did.

What have you found lately for yourself or your pet that was absolutely free?