When you hear “service dog” what do you think of? I imagine a guide dog helping his owner safely navigate a busy intersection, or those ubiquitous plastic dogs in supermarkets accepting change to support Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind. But in reality, service dogs fill many roles — some of which may surprise you.
This morning, I got to do something I haven’t been able to do for a year and a half: I greeted a volunteer. She was so happy and so was I. During the pandemic, to protect our staff and thereby our ability to care for animals, all but our super-essential foster volunteer program were suspended. Slowly, though, volunteers are returning and it’s wonderful!
Before the pandemic and ubiquitous Zoom meetings, I would sometimes work late, attending committee or other meetings. As I would leave, visitors and staff would have gone home. The animals would be asleep, or at least quiet. The building was big, empty and lonely, almost like a mausoleum. The shelter was designed to be a meeting place for people as well as a safe haven for animals, and when there are few people, it feels, well, a bit sad. That is how it has sometimes felt through lockdowns and health precautions over the past year and a half.
The Ottawa Humane Society (OHS) has made the difficult decision to cancel its annual Wiggle Waggle Walk and Run for 2021 due to the ongoing public health crisis.
To ensure essential resources are available for the animals, the OHS is turning the event into an online fundraiser where would-be walkers and runners can raise money for the animals through their own fundraising campaigns.
After a relatively mild July, August is turning into a scorcher. Whenever it gets this hot, I worry about dogs — specifically dogs trapped in overheated cars. We here at the Ottawa Humane Society do our best to get the word out. This, and every summer, we launch public campaigns with dual messages: don’t leave your dog in a car; if you find a dog trapped in a car, report it immediately. This year, we even made a video. But still I worry. I have witnessed the effects of excessive heat exposure in dogs. It’s horrible.
High temperatures forecasted for Ottawa this week pose a great danger to pets left alone in cars, warns the Ottawa Humane Society (OHS).
“Dogs die in hot cars,” said Bruce Roney, OHS President & CEO. “Temperatures in vehicles rise extremely quickly — even with windows open. Pets can quickly overheat, leading to brain damage and even death.”
The global pandemic has created multiple crises in our community, in Canada and across the world. The OHS has not been immune — the last 16 months have felt like our work has been full of small crises.
A growing crisis at the OHS is a lack of foster homes. Foster volunteers are a large and essential element of our spectrum of care for Ottawa’s animals.
The recent reports of deceased cats were certainly unsettling to me and everyone here at the OHS. There are persistent theories that the killer is human, but the OHS has come to believe that the evidence points to the perpetrator as a coyote or coyotes. Here is the case:
Earlier this month, Sunny, a five-month-old Yorkshire terrier, arrived at the OHS with a broken leg. An X-ray revealed that Sunny’s elbow had a complicated fracture and that amputating the damaged leg was in the puppy’s best interest.
The Ottawa Humane Society is calling for more people to provide temporary homes for Ottawa’s animals by signing up for the organization’s foster volunteer program.
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