UPDATE 2/23/03 on the Montana Collies
Statement by AWCA President Jean Levitt
*Permission to crosspost*
Volunteers
The AWCA Board of Directors by unanimous vote has honored a request of the “core”
volunteers in Shelby to ease their burden by hiring laborers from the Toole
County job force to clean the dog pens. This back-breaking task is critical
to the health and rehabilitation of the animals, requiring a lot of lifting,
bending, shoveling, and reaching into the pens, which have tops on them to secure
the dogs.
We have made arrangements with the Toole County Sheriff’s Office to hire
personnel for up to 4 hours/day, 7 days/week if necessary. On weekends, when
more volunteers are available, we may not need to hire anyone. The Sheriff’s
Office will determine how many laborers are needed on which days. We pay the
bill for this work directly to the TCSO.
These workers will free the volunteers to spend more quality time with the dogs
as soon as they have fed, watered, and washed the stainless steel each day.
There will now be more time for the volunteers to exercise, socialize, and maintenance
groom the dogs.
Compliments
We send our compliments to the majority of you who are exhibiting restraint
and respecting the directive of Undersheriff Don Hale in Montana to only phone,
fax, or email authorities when your communication will enhance the prosecutorial
process. I was in the TCSO the day after the mistrial when communication avenues
were overburdened, especially between the two prosecutors’ offices, because
of extraneous calls, faxes, and emails by persons encouraging the authorities
to hold another trial. These well-meaning but misguided communications served
only to slow down progress toward a new trial. Again, we thank you for your
restraint. Trust the authorities to do their job. I have made arrangements to
go back up to Montana for the new trial. I will update you from there as before.
Grooming
We are presenting further articles on the grooming, with delight, because grooming
has made such a big difference in the physical and emotional health of the animals.
From the very beginning of this rescue mission, the AWCA veterinarian cautioned
us that doctors have no way of knowing what is under matting of this incredible
magnitude. We were advised to be “ready for anything.” The AWCA
veterinarian advised us to have a veterinary technician in the SAR building
with us during the grooming of the worst cases. That precaution proved to be
necessary on several occasions. More than a few times I hurried across the street
to the TCSO to have the dispatcher call in Dr. Hardee Clark, as did Rev Oakes,
Captain of the AWCA Professional Grooming Team. Dr. Clark always came promptly
and advised our vet tech on the further care of certain conditions. In some
cases, Dr. Clark took the dog back to his clinic for treatment. Today we present
a particularly interesting case, beautifully written for you, by Rev Oakes.
Sam-I-Am!
By Rev Oakes
One day early in December, the SAR people brought us, the groomers, several
dogs. We’d asked for some girls, to test our system and methods, so they
brought us three who’d been sharing a pen at Camp Collie. One young sable
seemed especially terrified. Kay Bullard got her into the tub, trying to soothe
and calm her – and holding carefully just in case she tried to bite in
her panic. We decided two had better work on this girl, whom someone had nicknamed
“Sarah” for her spa day. We didn’t yet realize the reason
for her fear. Kay Bullard’s sweet voice seemed to calm her magically,
so she kept up a constant soothing monologue while they worked.
The groomers soaked and sprayed and worked through the coat with their hands,
finding filthy, matted coat inches thick especially underneath the abdomen and
tail, restricting movement and surely causing considerable discomfort when trying
to move. After working for some time on that part, suddenly Kay said “Uh-oh,
what do we have here?” It seems that underneath all that packed and tangled
hair this little girl was most definitely a boy!
Laughing at the joke on us, we promptly gave “Sarah” a new nickname.
“This isn’t Sarah, this is Sam! Sam-I-Am!” We guessed that
Sam-I-Am may not have been fully developed when examined earlier, so that the
thick matted coat had easily covered the evidence. There was surely enough dense
hair to cover even substantial “evidence.” He was also more like
the older girls in size. Sam-I-Am made it through the rest of the bathing and
drying, and when brushed and trimmed, looked like what he was – a small
golden sable boy.
Sam-I-Am was young and bouncy, so we put him into an extra-sized X-pen where
he could play a bit, and he did. He obviously felt good and full of beans, now
that he could move without discomfort. He teased the crated big boys next to
him, he played cat and mouse with his Nylabone, he attacked and killed some
recalcitrant towels – and every time a person approached, he cowered away.
Yet it was odd...he seemed to want to have people near, but just couldn’t
bear it. Somehow, watching him carefully, we figured out that his fear was focused
on hands. Experimenting further, we discovered that the hands didn’t have
to be approaching him, or even very near. We found that if we hid our hands
behind our backs, he would even come shyly up to see us, his sweet face smiling,
eyes alight and tail waving. But let a finger come into view, and he was instantly
huddled back against the far side of the pen.
We kept Sam with us for a few days, and did our best to teach him that hands
were Good Things. We gave him body rubs and scritches, tossed treats into his
pen, everything we could think of to ease his fear of those terrible Hands.
We made little progress, though he became much more eager to approach us, as
long as our Hands were hidden. He wasn’t afraid of us, just of Hands.
He seemed to enjoy his stay enormously. Every morning we came in to find his
X-pen moved and rearranged, and as we entered, he happily rearranged it some
more in greeting.
Sam-I-Am was difficult to walk on leash. There was a Hand close by at the end
of every leash, and the leash prevented his escape, so he went into absolute
panic, bucking and pulling frantically. It was risky to try to take him for
his necessary walks. Finally Kay and I each put a leash on him, placing him
between us, and took him out. He was terrified and still pulled and struggled,
but Kay used her Magic Voice, and soon he was turning toward her in his fear.
Gradually he was able to walk without so much panic, to think less about the
Hands, and finally even began to show interest in the smells and sights and
other dogs we encountered. Always he checked back frequently with Kay for reassurance,
listened intently to her voice, and calmed each time.
Sam-I-Am returned to Camp Collie after a few days – to a different pen
– and became just Number 153 again, but we heard later that he could be
walked more easily. When I visited him in January, though, he still feared Hands.
I can only hope that one day, Sam-I-Am will eagerly run to reach loving Hands,
and wriggle contentedly as those Hands find every delicious place to scratch.
And I hope, too, that he finds a Magic Voice to help him feel safe wherever
he is.
Thank you, Rev, for your devotion to the animals.
Calmly,
Jean Levitt, President AWCA
Lisa King, AWCA Director AWCA Rescue
Officers and Members of AWCA
If you would like to assist AWCA with this rescue effort, you may send a check
to:
Bethany Burke
AWCA Treasurer
2807 Lee Trevino Court
Shalimar, FL 32579
Make the check out to AWCA and in the memo area note: collie rescue-medical,
collie rescue-stainless steel, or collie rescue-general.