Covid is even affecting our pets

But this pet story has a happy ending.

My son Jack found Rufus (or Russel) on our front doorstep Saturday afternoon. I think more and more pets are being abandoned these days.

A while back a subscriber recommended I write more articles about pets. This, I agreed, was a good suggestion as most people love their pets. Today, I can share a recent pet story that might actually be germane to our New Abnormal times.

On Saturday, I was trying to take a nap when I heard a commotion. Jack, our second grader, had found a puppy on our front door step!

Nap-time over, I investigated and, sure enough, cowering in the corner of our front porch was a frightened, very-dirty, little puppy. 

Maggie, our sixth grader, had placed a bowl of water next to the pooch and already seemed to be having success convincing him there was no need to be overly anxious.

Needless to say, the kids’ immediate consensus was that we should adopt this canine orphan although we already have a dog, Annie, an 18-month-old Corgi-terrier mix who helps edit my Substack newsletter (although not very well).

I was touched to observe the compassion of our children who remained prone on the front porch for two hours, talking soothingly to the little puppy (who might have had a great grandfather who bore a faint resemblance to Scooby Doo.) 

Gradually, the little dog seemed to understand this particular set of humans were her friends and that she’d picked the perfect doorstep to seek shelter.

Maggie quickly named the dog Russel, while Jack kept calling him Rufus.

By the time a thunderstorm blew in, Maggie had developed enough trust in her new friend to pick him up and bring him inside, where my wife gave him probably the first bath he’d received in the three or four months of his underprivileged life.

The bath made a huge difference and, according to my wife, Rufus thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated it. (For pet shampoo, my wife used kitchen sink detergent, which she’d read doubles as excellent flea-killers).

All clean, we brought Russel/Rufus into the den and let him air dry on a cozy quilt we placed on top of a doggy bed Annie never uses (she prefers human beds).

The next fun adventure was watching Annie and Rufus/Russel get to know each other. A few dueling barks were followed by Annie inching closer and closer to our guest until eventually the two dogs weren’t snapping at each other, but were, nose- to-nose and then, before we knew it, little Rufus was licking Annie, who, we could tell by her return licks, wasn’t jealous at all and seemed to understand that this new puppy just needed some friends.

While the little mutt with the big paws might not meet everyone’s definitions of cute, he did seem sweet and was soon exploring the house even as I bellowed, “Don’t let him pee on the rug!”

As it turned out, it wasn’t Rufus who did No. 1 on our Oriental; it was Annie, who I thought was house-broken by now, but the excitement of a new dog must have been too much for her.

While all the sniffing, licking, exploring and peeing was going on, my wife, Carrie, was busy making posts on Facebook to see if anyone wanted to adopt a puppy. (It was clear to us this dog had not been lost. He was simply a stray, who by some miracle, had survived for who knows how many days or weeks.)

In about 30 minutes, Carrie found a lady who said her family would love to adopt little Rufus/Russel. 

(See? Facebook actually has a few redeeming features. It’s also good that my wife - unlike her husband - was never banned from the social media platform).

Freshly bathed and perhaps sensing that good might exist in the world, Rufus was off to his new home and, we hope, a happy life including many treat treats and tummy rubs. 

(We later got an update from the new owners, who have seven kids and recently lost their family pet. Per our report, the family had stopped at McDonald’s on the way home and Rufus got his first order of chicken nuggets, which he really liked).

After Rufus was gone, we all started pondering how this little puppy ended up on our door step. Of all the houses in all of Troy, why did she pick ours? 

(My wife had posted photos on Facebook and one of her followers said this dog looked like a puppy that had been wandering around the college amphitheater many days earlier. Since that amphitheater is at least five miles from our house, it is a miracle such a stray puppy could have dodged cars until it found the refuge of our home).

Later that evening, my wife saw another Facebook post from a family that had, similarly, found two puppies on their doorstep.

This revelation made me think that puppies and dogs all over the country are probably being abandoned by their owners, almost certainly because the previous owners can no longer afford them.

Of all the unintended consequences of our Covid lockdowns (and ensuing rampant inflation), I bet few people have thought of the havoc this has inflicted on innocent pets.

One hopes most dogs (and cats) have found good homes like these, but one also knows all outcomes have not had happy endings.

At least from my observation, many citizens don’t seem to care much about whether Covid vaccines might be causing deaths or life-altering ailments in their human neighbors or loved ones.

However, it’s possible some of these citizens might become fighting mad if the thought occurs to them that the policies of our experts have caused harm and suffering to God’s four-legged creatures … which, clearly and sadly, they have.

Pet Story 2 …

If it had taken, say, 10 days (not two hours) to find Rufus a good home this probably would have been enough time for Rufus’s big, kind eyes to work their magic on us and we’d have probably ended up being one of those two-dog families I’ve heard about.

But there would have been one difference between Rufus and Annie. When we took Rufus to the vet for his obligatory new-dog check-up, I would not have let the vet give Rufus his rabies vaccine.

In just the 18 months since we’ve had Annie, I think I’ve become a full-fledged anti-vaxer … and this includes all the pet vaccines.

I don’t know when the thought first hit me that the rabies shots are probably a scam, but that’s what I now think.

At some point, it occurred to me that in my whole life I’ve never heard of a dog in my town who actually got rabies. I’ve definitely never heard of the horror story that must underpin the billion-dollar rabies vaccine industry - a scenario where a dog is bitten by, say, a rabid raccoon and develops rabies and then the rabid dog bites his owner, who gets rabies and then has to get those painful 14 (?) shots in his abdomen.

To be clear, I know this scenario must have happened, I’ve just never heard a personal story where this happened.

The odds of a family pet, that spends 23 hours of every day inside on the couch, getting rabies from a rabid creature must be something like 1-in-5 million.

Maybe in the past - back when dogs used to roam freely through neighborhoods and explore any nearby woods - this happened from time to time.

But, today, most dogs - often confined by an invisible fence - never even go into their neighbor’s yard. Plus, Annie is so quick, I can’t picture a raccoon or opossum ever biting her even if one did wander into our back yard.

And I’ve also never seen a double-blind, placebo study of adverse effects that pet vaccines must cause. I would bet a year’s supply of Alpo that far more dogs have died of adverse effects from rabies vaccines than died from actual rabies.

If nothing else, the shots must hurt like the dickens.

Still, probably 75 percent of pet owners dutifully get their dogs and cats rabies shots, plus boosters every couple of years. (I’ve done the same thing with several dogs … but not anymore).

I’ve read that some cities or states require proof of rabies vaccines for their pets, which makes me think the veterinarians’ lobby (and/or Pet Big Pharma) has plenty of political clout.

A final true story …

Several months ago, I visited a local vet’s office and overheard one of the animal nurses talking on the phone to one of the clinic’s clients.

“Our records show it’s time for Rex to get his flu vaccine,” she said.

I wasn’t drinking a soda at the time, but if I had been I would have spit it all over the lobby floor.

“Pets get flu vaccines?” I asked after she’d booked the immunization visit.

“Oh, yes, sure,” I was told.

When I got home, I apologized to Annie for making her get her rabies shot, but I assured her we wouldn’t make her get any flu shots.

When I told her this, she jumped up on my lap and gave me a big, wet lick on the mouth, just like she’d licked Rufus/Russel, the sweet little orphan mutt rescued by Jack and Maggie.

***

(Author’s note: Any typos in this story are Annie’s fault as she’s in charge of copy-editing. However, Annie does the best she can and Substack subscriptions and Ko-Fi tips also help pay for her meals, be they from Purina or the Golden Arches).

Ko-Fi Human/Canine Tips:

https://ko-fi.com/billrice