It's so deeply frustrating to watch rescues on social media dumping so much money into horribly chronically ill animals that end up dying anyway after prolonged suffering when all that money could have been better spent saving several other animals instead. Rescues' resources are so slim as it is. I get that people want to preserve life as much as possible and if there is a terribly sickly kitten they want to hero complex it better, but so many just die anyway after hundreds or thousands of dollars have already been dumped into their care. How many other not doomed cats could have been saved instead? Or rescues that use up kennel space on an aggressive dog they refuse to euth, but can't adopt out because of its issues and a shelter environment isn't exactly luxury and is often too stressful for these dogs.

Before I say anything else, I am with you 100% on the frustration, and the cruelty to the individual animals. Also the misguided goals of the cruelty. However--

You know how charities throw lush, conspicuous-consumption galas? They do this because it attracts people who will donate, like, 75% of the next year's budget all at once.

When a suffering-but-rescued animal goes viral, SO MANY people want to help. If it gets tge right spin, the amount they can raise will cover not just the cost of that one animal's care, but many more. So it's wasteful, and it's not good for the suffering animal, but despite being wasteful it might end up helping over & above that one animal's needs.

Does going viral happen often? Well, sure, we see it like once a week, yeah? Does it happen every time? Hell no. Is it the motivation for rescuing the animal, or treating it? Probably not, because the rescue is trying to do it already. Are they hoping it will go viral and be a huge influx of funds for their rescue? Oh absolutely.

Is there a better way? Well... what gets rescue animals in front of a lot of eyeballs attached to people who will be affected enough to want to help? It has to be strong enough to make them care, and to keep them focused long enough to find space in their budget then go through a donation process. Usually, it's something horrific or unusual that can make seas of people want to offer assistance.

Have you got a better way than outrage to make tens of thousands of people spontaneously hit "reblog"? The rescues haven't found one. The misinformation marketers haven't, either, and they're actively testing. People are what they are; we can't change 'em en masse, and this plays out very predictably with every animal that catches the attention of the general public.

It's not a good thing. It's not a guaranteed win. A lot of animals suffer. It's not right. It's not how things should be.

But when it hits all the right notes, it's so effective.

figured it's time to elaborate on my post about dipper's lovely little trip to the e-vet!

wednesday night my mom and I rushed dip to the e-vet bc she swallowed something dangerous. a needle.. I was slightly careless (and still feel incredibly guilty) and fumbled the needle, dropped it, and dipstick, being the little mischief weasel puppy that she is, grabbed it the second it hit the floor and ran outside. she is very fast and my father has not trained his puppy hardly at all, she has no recall or off/drop command and doesn't listen anyway, so by the time I caught up to her in the backyard she had already chewed the guard cap off and swallowed the needle.

so off to the e-vet we went at 7:30pm. x-rays showed that it was indeed in her stomach but thankfully looked like it had not perforated or punctured anything inside. and some $3,300 split across several debit and credit cards later, they did emergency foreign body surgery and got the needle out with no complications.

the worst part of all this (aside from my emotions) is going to be her recovery. 14 dreaded days of crate rest and strict activity restriction for the trouble puppy.

if anyone would like to help us out, it's not necessary but would be greatly appreciated since it was quite expensive and money was tight even before this <3

cashapp is $ mouseypopp

paypal is @ ryemouse

(if you do send some money please lmk your tumblr handle so I can thank you please!)

Vet with oz now. His neck wound opened up massively overnight and the vet is concerned. Vet appointment 7 we're on now I think? If anyone can donate to his care my PayPal is rebeccaannyates@hotmail.co.uk. We have a long long long road ahead of us now that both his neck and paw aren't healing great

Hi guys I've been asked for my paypal details for Oz's treatment, I wasn't going to, but I didn't expect that I'd have to leave Oz behind and have to pay for 4 taxis instead of 2 (£100+ in taxi fare)

My PayPal is rebeccaannyates@hotmail.co.uk

Thankyou 😭

We've got a lot more appointments in our future, Friday is our next one. He'll probably have his stitches out over a series of appointments. If anyone can help, the boy will appreciate it and so will I ❤️

Hi guys I've been asked for my paypal details for Oz's treatment, I wasn't going to, but I didn't expect that I'd have to leave Oz behind and have to pay for 4 taxis instead of 2 (£100+ in taxi fare)

My PayPal is rebeccaannyates@hotmail.co.uk

Thankyou 😭

guess who has a $6000 leg 🙃

i paid the deposit to have the surgery done and i’m down to $300 in my bank account 💀 cool cool cool cool cool good feeling

my debit card didnt go through so i had to call my bank to get my spending limit raised and i told them what i needed it raised to and the customer service rep on the other end paused and told me, in a very concerned voice, how much money was in my account

trust me ma’am i am painfully aware 💀

Some of you have offered to send donations to support PS5 and I can't say enough how much I appreciate that.

For those of you who don't know her, this is PS5, the best and most important puppy of all time. If she could meet you, she would wiggle her entire potato-shaped body at you and try to lick you with her tiny baby tongue. She's three months old and her favorite things in the world are looking at cats and falling asleep.

Unfortunately, PS5 broke her leg in a freak accident this past Thursday. Earlier today (3/29/2022), she underwent surgery to repair her leg, and will be staying at the hospital overnight tonight.

I emptied my bank account this morning to pay the required deposit for the procedure. Between last week's emergency vet visit and the cost of her surgery, we're going to end up paying at least $6000 in vet bills.

If you've enjoyed my past Tumblr Funnyman Posts about:

or my significantly less funny posts about antisemitism and Jewishness, and you would like to leave a tip on our Ko-Fi, we would really appreciate it. If you're unwilling or unable, we would really appreciate a reblog.

I can't draw or write particularly well, I'm not especially creative, I can't offer commissions or handmade crafts in exchange for donations. The only thing I'm particularly good at, unfortunately, is making Tumblr posts, which is not a very marketable skill.

The only thing I can think to offer is this: for years, people have been asking me to post pictures of Meatball in his sweatervest and his Hanukkah sweater.

If there's anything else that would incentivize you to make a donation, please reach out to me and I'll do my best.

I'm sorry if this seems slightly lame. I just want our puppy to be OK.

Ko-Fi

Skull-cat's adopters sent my shelter some photo updates!

She's doing so good. :3

That mohawk is "natural" in that we advanced skin from her scruff up to cover her exposed skull. As neck fur is longer than head fur, this is the result.

Because someone's cytopointe wore off, and because that someone chewed herself an enormous hotspot today, she will now be wearing the shirt of shame until probably at least Friday of next week. The soonest her vet could get her in is this upcoming Tuesday.

She is extremely upset about this. But this is also a perfect example of why I almost euthanized her when she was 3 years old for quality of life issues. For an entire year while we desperately hoped for apoquel to come back on the market Alyssum had to wear an e-collar, a t-shirt, and socks tied to all 4 feet, 24 hours a day, every day. Environmental allergies are no joke.

Hang in there, Alyssum, help is coming.

Ooooh yeah, I adopted Yvaine pre-Apoquel, and we really struggled with her environmental allergies until Apoquel suddenly appeared, and was the most magical thing that had ever happened in her life. (It would have been great if Cytopointe were similarly effective.)

The worst struggle was during the month she went off antihistamines and steroids entirely, for her allergy skin test. Trying to keep her from clawing and biting herself bloody was challenging. I started with jammies and socks, which worked for about three days, but every day she got worse.

I eventually added longer legs to the jammies, thick fleece socks (several sets, because they came off or wore through or she chewed through them), and added snaps to the socks and legs of the jammies to hold the socks on.

She also got daily baths of one kind of soothing stuff or another, none of which helped. Two weeks in she developed an ear infection, which happened absolutely every time her allergy meds failed throughout her life.

She was miserable for every second, and I was so relieved when I could give her back her meds.

Otto, my parents’ rescue whippet, was four layers of red extremely thick fleece from death at the jaws of a greyhound today 😳

I bought the fabric because I liked the colour and it was a Christmas gift for his first Christmas in our family. I didn’t think it would be thick enough to stop canines tearing out his throat. Or that it would need to be.

Otto was playing with the people’s other greyhound, his friend Bruno, and at some point came to my parents who were chatting with the greyhounds’ owners. The newest addition to their family, a white greyhound Bianca, at lightning speed grabbed Otto’s throat and began shaking. She didn’t manage to get through all the fabric but as Otto struggled free he lost a chunk of hair on his throat. The handful was still within the turtleneck of his sweater. The bald spot looks quite raw but there are no holes.

Apparently the people were told by the rescue organisation or shelter that Bianca’s sweet and timid and friendly with all dogs. They weren’t offered a muzzle despite having a dog at home already. Bruno is completely dominated by the new dog. They ordered a muzzle online but due to the current situation in Europe and lockdown it’s going to take time to get to them. Bianca was leashed. Otto didn’t come to her face to face, he just stood at an angle, looking lovingly at my mother, apparently he got into space considered by Bianca as “Bianca’s only”.

Yesterday Bianca bit a poodle on the nose, they were just passing each other and absolutely nothing foreshadowed the chomp. Nothing that anyone picked up at least.

Now this little brave guy (showing off his red fleece sweater that possibly saved his dear young bright life) is afraid of dogs. We hope it will pass. He is sore, after all, bruised on the right side of his throat and on his entire ego.

I wonder, has anyone out there had to deal with the aftermath of a dog attack? How to start from here? We’ve had problems with introducing a dog to the society after being attacked before. To help my parents, the whole family is getting a crash course in dog training; how to do it right with this brave but delicate fella. He has incredible memory so he should remember that next time we are staying away from Bianca. But twice he walked today after the happening and twice he was terrified of dogs he knows.

@doomspaniels I thought you could use some pictures of Olive happy to have her momma and sister home. Mom’s knees are her favorite headrest and it always reminds me of your shoulder spaniel tag.

I hope Yvaine is doing okay after her surgery.

YES I COULD 😍 THANK YOU!

Have a t i n y b l e p in appreciation:

We are still anxious about whether there will be any answers from pathology (they sent the abscessed cyst, too). We need to know why Yvaine's body suddenly went berserk and how to make sure it doesn't happen again.

In the meantime she seems much better than she has since things went south, not entirely herself yet, but much improved 💕

Waiting until it's time to send Yvaine off to the surgeon. Yvaine snuggles me. Yvaine loves all of you.

We couldn't sleep any more. Tristan's Fetch and Tug Buddy is calling in sick to work. We can't think straight. We know that she'll have less pain, and maybe we'll get some answers, and that's the most important thing right now. We desperately hope she has the physical resources to recover, even though we don't know what is wrong.

But after the June eye surgery, the multiple eyedrops four times a day that she accepted so patiently, the medications, the careful administration of exactly what the vets suggested... the almost absorbed skin graft, all the work we all put in, all the treatment she went through... this feels like failure. I failed her. She was all right, and I let it go wrong somehow. We still don't know how.

Yvaine is home, mostly okay for now, but completely exhausted. We're also completely exhausted from stressing all day. Tristan had an upset stomach for the first time in about half a year, either because we were stressed, or from Yvaine being gone all day for the second day in a row.

The problematic cyst was also removed, and it's swelling unusually, we may need to take her back and have them put in a drain. They want her to get Rimadyl which means she can't have oral steroids, so she's going to be frantically itchy around her face. Bad place to be frantically itchy right now, even with a cone.

Collapsing now. Yvaine loves you, each and every one.