Walk For Animals

[BarbaraRose]

On May 1st, Moxy and I will be participating in the annual "Walk For Animals" fundraiser for our local Humane Society. We have done this for the past couple of years and we both have a great time! Moxy just loves all the animals, kids, and tons of attention! The walk is about 5 miles but we don't make it all the way because we end up being stopped all the time by people wanting to ask questions, take pictures and hold Moxy. I usually carry him in a little pouch but sometimes he either sits on my shoulder (or head) or he'll walk for awhile (not usually in the right direction, tho!). Last year they had about 5000 people and 2500 animals walking! If you would like to make a donation or just check out the website to see photos from last year (some people dress up their pets and decorate the kennels/wagons). Please don't feel obligated to donate if you can't afford to, but take a look at the pics on the site anyways. It is a good time! I can't wait! I put a little red bandana on Moxy's neck and he looks so adorable!

http://events.animalhumanesociety.org/s ... afId=15970

[mitch5252]

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Gosh, Moxy's sure cute! And charitable, too!
Have fun - I'm sure you two will!

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[AlmostThere]

Aren't those walks fun!? It's crazy how some people push their pets in baby strollers and dress them up!
Oh, and on The Animal Planet I saw a special on ferrets. OMG they are so flexible! And the guy was showing how electricians use them to thread rope through pipes so they can then attach their wires to the rope and pull it back through. They did a race between the ferret and his handler, and two electricians, and the ferret did it in like 3 mins. The guys took over an hour! Very interesting little creatures, indeed.

[BirdbyBird]

I usually always enjoy meeting and spending time with other "animal" people that appreciate the critters that share our lives.... On our HS's dog walk I have been known to make the dogs carry pictures of their "shelter" cats that live at home with them.....I would cover the photo's in a clear plastic sleave and decorate them. The y dogs were nt always thrilled but they did it and never seemed to mind the extra attention.

[BarbaraRose]

I missed that Animal Planet show! Wish I had known about it. Yes they are very flexible! They used to use ferrets for running wires thru ships and airplanes too. And for Princess Diana's wedding, they used a ferret to run TV cables under the church so they could televise the wedding. I have several tubes for my guys to run thru. One is a long, clear, flexible dryer vent type tube that they love to chase each other thru and, because it is clear, I get to see what they are doing in there! Very entertaining!
Moxy doesn't much care for the bandana but it looks so adorable on him! I take loads of photos so I will have lots to share! Last year there was a wallaby, a couple of goats, a monkey, a boa constricter, a few other ferrets, and other unusual critters. Surprisingy, there were quite a few cats! One cat got scared by a dog and ran off into the woods and up a huge pine tree. We stood by and watched a couple of guys who were attempting to climb the tree but the cat kept going higher. Then it lost it's grip and fell, hitting branches all the way down until it landed on a lower branch, where one of the guys was able to grab it. The cat was checked out by a veterinarian who happened to be right there and, other than a few missing claws, was OK. It was sure harrowing to watch tho! I would never bring an animal there that didn't thoroughly enjoy being there. Buster would totally freak out so I leave him home.
Hopefully, the weather will be good!

[bikerchic777]

I enjoyed the photos, Barbie! Looks like a blast! Wish I could join you, but as you know, I will be workamping. I had a ferret when I was about 18. His name was Oliver. I went on a trip to CA and my mom found a home for him, because she was too scared to take care of him I did get to see him again and the lady just loved him so much, so I felt better about it. He had a little stocking hat and scarf on! So cute!!! She said he was litter trained and was head of the household....over the cats! He slept with her daughter. He did have a strange smell, but I guess it's from the oil they produce. I met someone with a pet skunk once. It walked on a leash. I think the brown ones are pretty cool! I do support my Animal Rescue League back in IA. Rags and Gizmo are both puppy mill rescues from NE.

[BarbaraRose]

Ferrets don't smell too much anymore, now that they remove their scent glands when they spay/neuter them. Sometimes I notice a slightly sweet, musky scent on blankets they lay on, but it is a pleasant smell when not very strong. I have been around ferrets that haven't been neutered or descented and whew!!! Almost worse than a skunk!! I always thought it would be cool to own a pet skunk too. I hear they are a lot like ferrets but less rambunctious. I had a pet racoon when I was a teenager but they don't make good pets after their first hybernation - their wild instincts kick in and then look out!

(Awww, I just caught Zoey snuggling up with Moxy! So cute!)

[bikerchic777]

I would like them much better descented! They are the cutest little guys! I was allowed to have some unusual pets when growing up. Here is a list...not sure if I'm forgetting something: dogs, fish (several aquariums full), hermit crabs, box turtles, mice, guinea pigs, ferret, crows, and duck. I couldn't have cats until I left home because my mom is allergic, but I have had them, too. I almost had my dad talked into letting me have a goat. I raised the crows and duck from babies and was very responsible and a good mommy even in grade school. I remember worrying about them when I was at school and hurrying home to tend to them. Great memories! When I go to class reunions, people still remember me having a crow (one got killed by an animal) because Jill would follow me and my brother to school and fly in the windows and take pencils. I hope I get to meet Zoey and Moxy someday! Rags would like them and I don't think for lunch

[BarbaraRose]

When I was real young, my dad came home with a monkey he got from some guy in a bar. Charlie was the cutest little Squirrel Monkey! I still laugh when I think of all the crazy antics he did! I used to dress him up in my doll dresses! He didn't seem to mind tho. We only had him for about a year or so. He died from pneumonia. (And my mom thought us kids brought home some strange pets!) Of course, growing up on the lake, we had lots of turtles, frogs, salamanders, snakes, etc. The one pet I always wanted but never got was a horse I had never even heard of ferrets until 16 years ago when I went to visit a lady I worked with and her son showed me his ferrets. I told him, "I don't know what these are, but I've got to have one!!" The rest is history. I've owned 6 of them now (Lucy, Greta, Bailey, Yogi Bear and now Buster and Moxy). I could never live without animals! That's what I love about this group. You can all relate!

[Nasoosie]

I, too, once had a crow named Joe-----he helped me re-roof the old log cabin I lived in before I moved to the house where I am now. As I loosened the old roofing nails, he learned to pick them out of the old shingles and drop them into the coffee can I had up there! I loved having him flying free around my house. One day he just never showed up, and I never did discover what happened to him.

I have also raised baby racoons over the years, from newborn (dead mother) through their second year, and then acclimated them to the environment while I lived in a tent for 6 months. I taught them how to catch grasshoppers, turn over rocks in streams to catch crayfish, and more. They stuck around the tent all summer, and then disappeared as winter came on.

I left them alone in my house one day while I hurried to the store to get more supplies for them! BAD MISTAKE!!! All the faucets had been turned on and were running full blast, the sugar bowl was turned over and sugar was all over the table where the 4 of them were foundering on it! The house looked like it had been ransacked by a bear! And I was gone all of 5 minutes!

I was living in a tent when they were babies, and my husky dog became their surrogate mother after I fed them from bottles, and would clean them off and make them poop as their mother would have done. I have some neat pics of Ki and her 4 racoon 'puppies' following her around! Babies had to get fed every 3 to 4 hours all day and all night, with me warming their milk up on a Coleman stove, and also heating water for the plastic jar "mother" to keep them warm overnight. It was an adventure! Years later, I also raised two other baby racoons to adulthood. My first 4 were named, Boy, Girl, Wild One, and Spastic. Then I had Dooner and, lastly, Rocky.

I have raised ducks, geese, tons of birds, (Rockin' Robin attended all the Little League games one summer with me as he ate CONSTANTLY from sunup to sundown----worms and nightcrawlers!) preying mantises, turtles, salamanders, rabbits, snakes, spiders, you name it. Nobody told me when we got ducklings for Easter one year that they can live to be 20+ years old! I have permanent damage to the blood vessels in my legs from carrying buckets of water to them all winter for 17 years until I found another home for them!

[Liz]

I, too, once had a crow named Joe-----he helped me re-roof the old log cabin I lived in be, and would clean them off and make them poop as their mother would have done. I have some neat pics of Ki and her 4 racoon 'puppies' following her around! Babies had to get fed every 3 to 4 hours all day and all night, with me warming their milk up on a Coleman stove, and also heating water for the plastic jar "mother" to keep them warm overnight. It was an adventure! Years later, I also raised two other baby racoons to adulthood. My first 4 were named, Boy, Girl, Wild One, and Spastic. Then I had Dooner and, lastly, Rocky.....

I have raised ducks, geese, tons of birds, (Rockin' Robin attended all the Little League games one summer with me as he ate CONSTANTLY from sunup to sundown----worms and nightcrawlers!) preying mantises, turtles, salamanders, rabbits, snakes, spiders, you name it. Nobody told me when we got ducklings for Easter one year that they can live to be 20+ years old! I have permanent damage to the blood vessels in my legs from carrying buckets of water to them all winter for 17 years until I found another home for them!

I think you have a story to tell, Soos. Sounds like a retirement project....write a book!

[AlmostThere]

As a farm girl I guess I raised/owned allot of animals, too. I never had any luck with trying to raise baby birds. As kids we did raise 4 raccoons: Charlie, Petey, Chuckles and Louie. Yep, after hibernation they all turned very mean. One hung out in one of our barns and would attack anyone that came in. My dad finally had to shoot him as he may also have carried rabies and he didn't want to take that chance.
I had a pet baby skunk, Waldo. I didn't keep him long as I wasn't sure what to feed him and he was better off on his own on the farm. We played with all the different insects we could catch. Walking sticks were the weirdest. The farm was a magnate (? sp?), for every stray dog and there were always lots of barn cats with baby kittens to try to catch.
The ducks seemed to run wherever they wanted but the chickens had their coop. We had horses to ride and when they got too old I used to ride some of the cows that were handraised and very tame. Even put a saddle on Little Orphan Annie! It was slow going as she only moved as far and as fast as the next clump of grass!
We had a huge slough and played in that water almost every day. We'd have jugs filled with frog eggs to watch hatch. Then jars filled with tadpoles. I remember some tiny frogs that were only the size of my pinkie fingernail!
Gosh, we had it good as kids on that farm! The summer days seemed to go on forever! When it was rainy we had the machine sheds, cribs, barns (one for cows/one for the horses), and hay mows to play in.

[bikerchic777]

I'm lovin' this forum more and more every day! I can't believe I've found other women with interesting lives/childhoods! A monkey? I wanted one so bad when I was a kid. I had a stuffed one that I would pretend was my baby...lol. I've come to half my senses now and have decided a monkey may not be a good pet in an RV I would have loved to have a horse, too, but we lived in the city. Luckily, we had a big wooded acreage behind our house, so kind of like the best of both worlds. There was a little stream that ran through the woods, my brother and I would go down and look for salamanders. I love the raccoon and bird stories! I believe we can tame wild animals for awhile, but nature eventually calls them back. Jill left when mating season arrived. She brought her mate back with her a couple of times and they ate at our bird feeder, but I couldn't get her to come to me anymore I was sad, but knew she was happy, so it made it easier. My duck, Ducky Duddle, disappeared at Thanksgiving time and all I know is we didn't have roast duck for dinner. I never heard who did. She was so much fun. I raised her from a fuzzy little yellow duckling. She followed me around like a puppy. I was her mommy One time we went up to Spirit Lake and when we came home she was walking and falling down. I was so worried, wondering what was wrong with my Ducky Duddle! My dad said, "she's drunk!" Apparently, she had eaten some berries that fell of of a bush and fermented on the ground. I made her a nice comfy bed with straw in a baby bathtub and sobered her up I wish my kids could have experienced similar experiences. They were military brats, so had to stick with dogs, fish, and hamsters. My grandkids love bugs more than anyone I've known! Lexi, the oldest, even gives the neighbor kids bug tours. The other moms think it's great that their girls now like bugs, too, instead of creeped out by them. I love to take the girls kayaking and let them explore. Brayden is getting old enough now to go, so that will be fun! I look forward to having them visit me up at Saylorville Lake this summer! I've never bought them many "things". I let their other grandma do that. I give them experiences that they will remember

[Bethers]

Went with my g/f back as children when she adopted a skunk from a research facility. On a first date with one man, she brought him along. He got along with the guy - hadn't with any others before - got along so well, that at one point the skunk went over into the mans lap and peed This is the unbelievable part - this man eventually married her.

I love anyone who gets involved in their humane societies fund raisers. Before going full time I was on the board of directors of my humane society (after being a volunteer with them for much longer, and working with them in fundraising). One of our fundraisers was the walk and I always enjoyed it. I loved that many would come out with animals you wouldn't expect. It was such a fun day. I hope yours raises much needed money.

[BarbaraRose]

Many years ago, I started volunteering for our local wildlife rehabilitation and release program. I took classes on first aid for wildlife (ever tried putting a splint on the hind leg of a rabbit?? Not easy!!). Because I have always lived in apartments, I haven't been able to do any rehabbing so I have done transporting and rescue. I do a lot of rescues on my own such as escorting duck and goose families across busy roads and highways. I have rescued dozens of turtles of all sizes! Also some injured squirrels, seagulls, etc. One time, my girlfriend and I rescued two baby skunks who's mom was hit by a car. They were so little and adorable! They were too young to spray but they tried! They were raised and released by a rehabber in our group. Someday, I would like to rehab racoons, squirrels or bunnies. When I first told Steve I wanted an RV, he rented the movie "RV" with Robin Williams for me, to make sure I really knew what I was in for. When I saw the racoons in the RV, I said, "Yep! That's the life for me!"