There are just a few things that I did not want to forget about ...
Cobi's Neopolitan Mastiff, Klause ... This is a huge dog & every time I came around him with another staff member, they asked Cobi to put him on a chain so I would not be afraid. Little did they know that I had played with Klause almost every day because he was always near the puppy enclosure! I learned very quickly not to get him too excited though because I still have huge bruises on my legs where he scratched me! He did not mean it badly at all .. he is just so big!
Fermin's dogs ... Fermin has several dogs that are his & will stay at the shelter for all their lives. They live in the entry way & they get to see everything that happens coming & going. One of the dogs is a gypsy dog named Laura & she adores Fermin & seconly Ahmed ... she is partial to men! She actually hates Maria Jose & will bite her ... Maria Jose said she tried to catch her for a year! Anyway, the little galga actually let me pet her a few times & once at length ... Maria Jose said "What is this???" and Fermin said that he would have to talk with Laura about letting me pet her ... We decided that I am so tall that maybe she thought I was a man! :) Not very flattering for me, but it amused them all & I think that they need a good laugh or two every day! :)
Ahmed asking about the term "to hell" ... this was rather funny because Ahmed saw a movie that used the term & he was confused about how to use it in a sentence. Claire & I finally got the gist of what he was wanting to know and instructed him ... so he said "To hell with Maria Jose!" and smiled ... I told him that I was going to tattle on him to his boss & his eyes got pretty big! I let him off the hook ... :)
The wire haired fox terrier! She came in the day before I left & was probably about a year old. She really liked me & had the typical terrier "don't take no for an answer" attitude. She broke out of her enclosure twice & followed me all over ... the surgery room, down the hall, the kitchen .... anyway, they agreed to just let her roam the courtyard with Fermin's dogs for awhile & whenever I would sit down she would jump up on my lap! Too funny! I could also call her over & she would jump up & I would catch her in mid-air .. then she was content for me to carry her on my hip all over the courtyard. She was a lovely girl!
I will post more as I remember it! :)
8 comments:
Hey Jen,
We really appreciated your help, especially on the first day when you were so tired. I'm sorry about not being more helpful with the puppies and am glad they are doing well, but remember, I had my reservations because they had recovered from what Cobi had said was parvovirus so the possibility of them being carriers of the virus was a risk since the particles can survive for a long time in the right condition - months even if the animal appears normal. Even if they weren't sure it was really parvovirus, the possibility of them having had that was enough for me not to want to take the chances that it was not, with it having the chances of being such a severe disease (I have seen many puppies die because of parvovirus!).
Whatever Fermin said to you regarding their health, you did not relay to me. Not only that but the boy had a cough and I had acknowledged that I had not seen the girl in the email I sent Abby but stated it was the boy I was worried about and didn't want to take any risks. I discussed this with both Laura and Natascha, also veterinarians, who also agreed they would make the same decision if they were in my situation.
Also - sorry you got puked on but remember I fed Aventura and she had no problems and you took the kibble to give to the puppies - I did not feed them by hand myself!!! The little boy was also coughing a lot on the trip up.
Anyways, I'm glad the trip went well and just wanted to clear some things up so the wrong impression is not given.
Thanks again for your help,
Crystal
p/s Also do not forget when we first looked at the puppy we said he had impetigo and a cough but would recover on his own after several weeks. You had yourself said he had a snotty nose and cough during the time you spent with him. When you said he had just recovered from parvovirus remember Natascha asked you to remove him from the surgery room due to the risk of contaminating the area should he be carrying the virus particles still. We did not just say "he's fine", because while his illnesses at the time were mild, there again were those risks.
In regards to the flight, the conditions we flew in that day were 3 degrees celsius, very cold; and a long flight with no food/water or coats for them like that is always stressful on animals particularly young ones. I worried that if the boy was sick that the stress put on him by the flight could exacerbate any illness he had, however mild, particularly with respiratory compromise; not just the possibility that he may infect other animals that could've been on that flight as well. So again; there were many factors taken into consideration before I made the decision (and remember, I discussed this with both Natascha and Laura, both veterinarians); I didn't just flippantly disagree to help just to cause you problems. Claire had also mentioned to us that they had homes already in France, so these were all the factors I was going on before making what I felt was an informed decision.
Again, I'm happy to hear they are doing well; just understand that there are reasons why I made the decision I did. Thank you for your help.
Crystal
Crystal,
I feel that I must comment back on some of the things you have posted because I think they are misleading to my friends & family who are reading my blog.
Regarding the puppies having a home in France, that was certainly not the case. The puppies belonged to a rescue in France/Passion Levriers ... Virginia at P.L. is the person who I adopted my Podenco from. She had contacted me before I left for Scooby to make sure that I looked at the puppies. She had stated that she did not have the money to get to Scooby to see me or to get the puppies. She is one of the contacts I had to make the day before we left & Fermin talked with her as well to make sure that she would release them to me. Obviously, she did. If the puppies had actual adoptive homes in France, I never would have insisted that they go home with me. After returning to the U.S., I have been in contact with Virginia so that she could remove the puppies from her adoption website.
As far as me not relaying information to you, that would be because I never realized that you were making the decisions as to what dogs could return to the U.S. .. not only that, but I went on the entire day working on getting them home with me & you were well aware of that. At no point did you ever tell me that you were going to tell Abby at GRIN that they were to sick to travel. I only found that out via a phone call from Abby late in the evening after leaving Scooby. If you would have let me know that you were going to try to stop them from coming home with me, then maybe we could have both put all of our cards on the table (so to speak) & had an actual conversation about all of these concerns.
Lastly, I never fed the puppies on the morning that we left. This is really not of great importance, but I just want to make sure that we are all straight on this ... you went & got some food for Adventura & fed her. You had some left in your hand & came over & let the puppies eat out of your hand. I was holding them both in my lap ... didn't even have a hand free if I wanted to feed them. Again, not of great importance, but I am just not going to get blamed for something that I did not do.
This blog is to promote Scooby & inform my friends and family about my trip & my experiences. It is not about egocentricity. I would prefer that it stay fairly positive. That being said, if you have any further thoughts or concerns, I would appreciate a direct email & not a posted comment to my blog.
I appreciated your help at Scooby as well.
Thanks, Jen
Jen,
if you are going to be mentioning my name in your blog and the situations that happen then it should be no problem for me to post publicly as well. I am just trying to clarify the situation.
Don't forget that when you approached me that evening about the puppies I had told you my concerns and that I wasn't comfortable bringing them over as I felt there were many associated risks. That was the night before you the day when you went ahead and decided to work to arrange the puppies to come to the US. So I had already told you my concerns the night before, and yet the next day you went ahead and arranged things. At the end of the day you suddenly told me you had made all the arrangements to bring them over.
This was frustrating for me because I had voiced my concerns as a professional and you chose not to respond to those concerns. As a volunteer veterinarian for GRIN, it would have been irresponsible for me not to discuss things with Abby. After all, you had spoken to Abby first without consulting me about bringing the puppies as well, so I dont understand why it was a problem that I spoke to her about my concerns without consulting you. After all, you had never mentioned anything of the puppies' illnesses to Abby, so it was necessary for her to hear all perspectives in the case so she could decide the action that GRIN was going to take.
Lastly I still don't recall feeding the puppies. I do however recall that you took a handful of kibble from the scoop when I set it on the kitchen table. This is a minor thing but when you say that you being puked on was a "price to pay" for the trip up, I don't agree with that, particularly when you didn't offer to help share the cost of tolls etc.
In any case - I'm just trying to clarify the situation so there are no wrong impressions given. You may email me if you have any other concerns too, but remember, if you are going to post about me and comment on my professional judgement on your website, then don't be surprised if I want to make things clearer about why I made the decisions that I did.
Crystal
Crystal,
I have said everything that I wanted to say. They are here & fine. Again, I never would have consulted with you because I did not know that you were in charge of the trip or what dogs were returning with us. No one informed me of that. Needless to say, neither of us will ever need to be troubled with this again.
Please check with Laura about what I paid her for the tolls & for riding in her car. Just because you didn't see me hand money over to her for my "share" of the tolls & vehicle, does not mean that it did not happen. If I needed to consult you on that as well, I apologize.
Jen
Jen,
If the dogs were flying under my ticket then yes, Abby and I had the final say on the dogs because if anything were to happen, I would've been the one associated with them. I wasn't interested in dealing with that potential problem, particularly since the subject of the puppies being transported cropped up ONLY on the second last night we were there (a month before we got there Abby had informed me I was only taking 4 dogs back and there was no mention made of a possible 2 dogs that you were checking out).
As for the tolls - I apologize for that comment - I had paid all the tolls and did not realize you had given money to Laura.
In any case - yes, we won't have to deal with this problem again. Glad those puppies are fine, and hopefully all animals that ride cargo on that same plane afterwards do fine too. All I wanted to do was share my perspective, not start any arguments, because as you know, it's very easy to portray one side without explaining the other. Good luck in whatever you choose to do.
Crystal
The GRIN credit card was under my ticket, as would have been whatever animals that traveled with us. It was not that I was in "charge", but I would have been the person and GRIN representative responsible for these animals arriving safely and being transported in complete health and humanely under the cold conditions, no matter how lenient the airline was.
Remember, we told you that if you wanted to bring the dogs back, you could - we did not try to "stop" you in that regard as it was clear you were going to do whatever you wanted regardless of what opinions we had. If that were the case and I wanted to deliberately prevent you from flying with those dogs, I would have said at the airport forthright that those puppies did not have their certification from a veterinarian stating that they were healthy enough to withstand temperatures as low as 20 deg F like all the other dogs had, and that would have prevented you from bringing them on the plane.
I just want you to know that my decisions weren't personal attacks - we were just playing it safe for GRIN and for any other animals traveling on flights after our flight since there is always the potential chance of leaving viral contaminants behind. I just did not want to be the one responsible for that. Hope that clears things up.
Crystal
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