Here's a direct link to my Soundcloud account for those curious: https://soundcloud.com/amina-gibic
As always, thanks for your support!
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Good afternoon everyone! I now have a playlist I have embedded into my blog on the right hand side for all to listen to! It features "All Things Rescue Dogs," which includes an informational on the adoption process, a quick interview with a rescuer, important stats pertaining to shelters and the animals they house, a news-bit on the recent and tragic Humane Society fire, and finally a story on Jay Jerrier and his excellent efforts in helping the Humane Society recover via hefty donations. Hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I did making them.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Thursday, February 18, 2016
$20 Spays & Neuters
While I know a lot of you are probably not from the Fort Worth/Dallas area, I couldn't help spreading the word about this awesomely fantastic deal! The Texas Coalition for Animal Protection is offering $20 spays and neuters for you dog or cat for all through March with either the purchase of a FULL ROUND of vaccinations for $25 or a $20 microchip! I'm not exactly the biggest proponent of vaccinations (other than the essential rabies shot, of course), so I'd recommend the microchipping instead. Either way it's a great deal and a huge money saver, and I can't stress enough how important it is that you spay/neuter your pet as a responsible pet owner. I don't care if you think you want cute puppies rumping around down the road in the future and you think you know people who you could give them away to, there's more than enough puppies and kittens already born out there waiting to be loved on! So be part of the solution, not the problem and SPAY & NEUTER!!
Here's the website link: http://www.texasforthem.org
And the number to schedule an appointment: 940-566-5551
From a Flood Comes a Bud
Hey guys! Today I have a story about a pup that made it out of the Beaumont shelter and into a loving home thanks to Oscar Camarillo, enjoy!
"In May of 2015 the Beaumont area experienced a series of floods that caused a lot of pets to be lost from their homes. The Beaumont pet shelter had no more room for these animals. On May 30, 2015 I went to volunteer at the shelter to help these pets find homes. Among these pets included a newly born litter of Labradors with no mother. That is when I saw the most beautiful blue eyes that I couldn’t say no to. That day I went to help the shelter find homes for these animals, not knowing that I would become part of a home for one. I will never forget those blue eyes when I picked up this beautiful brown Labrador puppy. She was roughly two to three weeks old and could not eat regular dog food. I still remember the sleepless nights bottle feeding her. Josie is a great addition to the family and she now stands at 9 months old."
And since you have to see pictures of the cute little fur balls in a doggy rescue story for it to really hit home, here ya go.
"In May of 2015 the Beaumont area experienced a series of floods that caused a lot of pets to be lost from their homes. The Beaumont pet shelter had no more room for these animals. On May 30, 2015 I went to volunteer at the shelter to help these pets find homes. Among these pets included a newly born litter of Labradors with no mother. That is when I saw the most beautiful blue eyes that I couldn’t say no to. That day I went to help the shelter find homes for these animals, not knowing that I would become part of a home for one. I will never forget those blue eyes when I picked up this beautiful brown Labrador puppy. She was roughly two to three weeks old and could not eat regular dog food. I still remember the sleepless nights bottle feeding her. Josie is a great addition to the family and she now stands at 9 months old."
And since you have to see pictures of the cute little fur balls in a doggy rescue story for it to really hit home, here ya go.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Meet Mala
Since I have two rescue dogs, where better to start than with their stories? I will start with the more recent one, Mala, a German Shepherd I found last summer. I was driving down a road dotted with ridiculously deep and wide pot-holes that borders a forested park with trails I frequently took (and continue to take) my two (now three) dogs walking. That's when I happened upon a wolfish looking thing darting out of the woods. Not normally heavily trafficked, that road had several cars cross it that day as I scrambled to catch Mala in hopes of finding a tag on her collar with a phone number I could call. As my luck would have it, she didn't even have a collar on.
Since it was already pretty late in the evening and the sun setting, I normally would not have done anything and let Mala fend for herself. However, the potted road she kept pacing up and down ran parallel to a major highway, with only a thin patch of vegetation separating the two. It became evident that someone had dropped her off at the park, which, according to many local park goers, wasn't an uncommon occurrence since a lot of people in the area knew dog owners frequented the park. Worried that she would get run over, and about her thin figure (you could see her ribs) I attempted to coax her into my car (after which I had no idea what I would do with her). While curious at first and appearing somewhat willing to step into my car, Princess and Chiwi (my two dogs that were in the car impatiently waiting for their walk) quickly changed Mala's mind through their vicious, yet harmless barks.
I ended up having to call my sister to pick up Princess and Chiwi so that I could get Mala into my car. MUCH, MUCH easier said than done. It took me THREE HOURS to get that devil into my car. Keep in mind people that the sun had long since set within the first hour, and by the time I left with Mala in my car, it was after 11 o'clock at night. A deserted, heavily forested park isn't exactly the ideal place for a 19 year old gal to wanna be by herself at night. So you can see why I resorted to trying to grab her after attempting to use the paddle board car straps I had in my trunk as a leash didn't work. Not to worry though, she snapped at my neck to make sure I didn't try to pull my dicey endeavor again. And so, that was how it went for a couple of hours that night, Mala endlessly pacing up and down the road, following cars that passed by for a distance and then turning around, only to repeat the process, and me, sweet-talking and making nice, doggy noises (whatever that may be) to try and get her to come to me. While she did cautiously approach me several times, and even went so far as to allow me to pet her, she would quickly retreat when I took any sort of initiative to gravitate her towards my car.
At long last, the brilliant idea of using food to cajole Mala into my car happened upon my unimaginative head. I called up a friend and had him bring bologna to the park. Although that took another hour's effort of her haphazardly stepping into the car to snag a piece of meat only to quickly jerk out of the car (I swear I had never met a more non-trusting dog up until that point), my friend and I finally managed to shut the car door behind her in time.
As I got in the car after Mala that night, I couldn't help but think how this beast could attack and potentially rip my head off on the drive home because she felt confined and threatened in a car that was completely foreign to her. Luckily for me, she didn't attack me and we managed to get home safely. Now, the only reason I took her home and not to the shelter was because everything had way since closed. I didn't dare bring in another dog after having brought Chiwi back with me from a soccer game to my family's dismay (that's a story for another post). So you can imagine my surprise when my brother said he was going to keep Mala, after everyone got over the shock of my audacity in bringing another animal home. Now, this probably had something to do with the fact that Mala reminded him of his old German Shepherd, Mali, that he had to put down at the age of 10 after having an unsuccessful surgery for his hip displacement, among other health conditions. (Mali in Bosnian means small, which Mali was as a puppy in comparison to his siblings, and Mala is the female version, how original, right?)
I won't go into detail on how Mala managed to escape from our backyard that night after we gave her a bath and how we had to chase her throughout our neighborhood (me by car and my brother on foot armed with a bag of turkey meat), but I will say I lost a $150 paddle for my paddle board in the process, which I'm still very spiteful about to this day.
Oh, by the way, low and behold my brother didn't take Mala with him when he moved into his new house. I guess it's for the best though considering my brother's temperament isn't exactly the best and Mala's now a monster who eats anything and everything left on counters or tables and will knock over anyone who doesn't brace themselves for her excited greetings. Nonetheless, I love her to death. She is the most loyal dog I've ever had, fiercely protective to the point of growling at any passerby when we go running, and she has restored a sort of playfulness in my thirteen year old dog, Princess, when it comes to good ole games of tug-a-war. Sometimes when we go on long walks, Mala gets too far ahead, and there's nothing that pains me more than the panicked look she gets we she doesn't see me in sight. And it's during these moments I realize I will never abandon Mala after she has placed so much trust and dependency on me when she had little reason to in the first place, having been deserted once before.
Since it was already pretty late in the evening and the sun setting, I normally would not have done anything and let Mala fend for herself. However, the potted road she kept pacing up and down ran parallel to a major highway, with only a thin patch of vegetation separating the two. It became evident that someone had dropped her off at the park, which, according to many local park goers, wasn't an uncommon occurrence since a lot of people in the area knew dog owners frequented the park. Worried that she would get run over, and about her thin figure (you could see her ribs) I attempted to coax her into my car (after which I had no idea what I would do with her). While curious at first and appearing somewhat willing to step into my car, Princess and Chiwi (my two dogs that were in the car impatiently waiting for their walk) quickly changed Mala's mind through their vicious, yet harmless barks.
I ended up having to call my sister to pick up Princess and Chiwi so that I could get Mala into my car. MUCH, MUCH easier said than done. It took me THREE HOURS to get that devil into my car. Keep in mind people that the sun had long since set within the first hour, and by the time I left with Mala in my car, it was after 11 o'clock at night. A deserted, heavily forested park isn't exactly the ideal place for a 19 year old gal to wanna be by herself at night. So you can see why I resorted to trying to grab her after attempting to use the paddle board car straps I had in my trunk as a leash didn't work. Not to worry though, she snapped at my neck to make sure I didn't try to pull my dicey endeavor again. And so, that was how it went for a couple of hours that night, Mala endlessly pacing up and down the road, following cars that passed by for a distance and then turning around, only to repeat the process, and me, sweet-talking and making nice, doggy noises (whatever that may be) to try and get her to come to me. While she did cautiously approach me several times, and even went so far as to allow me to pet her, she would quickly retreat when I took any sort of initiative to gravitate her towards my car.
At long last, the brilliant idea of using food to cajole Mala into my car happened upon my unimaginative head. I called up a friend and had him bring bologna to the park. Although that took another hour's effort of her haphazardly stepping into the car to snag a piece of meat only to quickly jerk out of the car (I swear I had never met a more non-trusting dog up until that point), my friend and I finally managed to shut the car door behind her in time.
As I got in the car after Mala that night, I couldn't help but think how this beast could attack and potentially rip my head off on the drive home because she felt confined and threatened in a car that was completely foreign to her. Luckily for me, she didn't attack me and we managed to get home safely. Now, the only reason I took her home and not to the shelter was because everything had way since closed. I didn't dare bring in another dog after having brought Chiwi back with me from a soccer game to my family's dismay (that's a story for another post). So you can imagine my surprise when my brother said he was going to keep Mala, after everyone got over the shock of my audacity in bringing another animal home. Now, this probably had something to do with the fact that Mala reminded him of his old German Shepherd, Mali, that he had to put down at the age of 10 after having an unsuccessful surgery for his hip displacement, among other health conditions. (Mali in Bosnian means small, which Mali was as a puppy in comparison to his siblings, and Mala is the female version, how original, right?)
I won't go into detail on how Mala managed to escape from our backyard that night after we gave her a bath and how we had to chase her throughout our neighborhood (me by car and my brother on foot armed with a bag of turkey meat), but I will say I lost a $150 paddle for my paddle board in the process, which I'm still very spiteful about to this day.
Oh, by the way, low and behold my brother didn't take Mala with him when he moved into his new house. I guess it's for the best though considering my brother's temperament isn't exactly the best and Mala's now a monster who eats anything and everything left on counters or tables and will knock over anyone who doesn't brace themselves for her excited greetings. Nonetheless, I love her to death. She is the most loyal dog I've ever had, fiercely protective to the point of growling at any passerby when we go running, and she has restored a sort of playfulness in my thirteen year old dog, Princess, when it comes to good ole games of tug-a-war. Sometimes when we go on long walks, Mala gets too far ahead, and there's nothing that pains me more than the panicked look she gets we she doesn't see me in sight. And it's during these moments I realize I will never abandon Mala after she has placed so much trust and dependency on me when she had little reason to in the first place, having been deserted once before.
Welcome & Prepare Yourselves
Hey all! When I first started thinking about what I wanted to make my blog about, a lot of ideas came to mind-- yoga inversions, tea concoctions and their health benefits, coffee, the best Texas state parks to visit, I even considered Starbucks: How College Kids Can Learn to Afford It (since it's such a great, little known secret, I'll go ahead and give y'all the insider scoop: you can get a short cup of steamed coconut milk for 60 cents, YUM!!). But in the end, I realized I wanted to write about something that mattered, something that had a purpose. And if there's anything I'm passionate about to the point where I easily get into heated arguments, it's the ethical treatment of animals. However, I knew I had to narrow this broad topic in order to create my niche, so I decided upon rescue dogs, since it's a topic that hits so close to home.
That being said, this blog will mostly focus on warm, fuzzy stories about dogs who found their forever homes--whether intentionally or unintentionally. However, in order to stress the often times forgotten, yet continuous need for volunteers, fosters, and adopters, I will venture into the Beaumont Animal Shelter and feature some of the long-time residents there that may not have a happy ending to look forward to. By doing so I hope to make my readers face the harsh reality of euthanization and support adoption instead of breeding, which often times occurs via cruel puppy mills. Hope I make some sort of a dent in your position on shelter dogs (and I guess on cats for those of you who aren't dog people)!!
That being said, this blog will mostly focus on warm, fuzzy stories about dogs who found their forever homes--whether intentionally or unintentionally. However, in order to stress the often times forgotten, yet continuous need for volunteers, fosters, and adopters, I will venture into the Beaumont Animal Shelter and feature some of the long-time residents there that may not have a happy ending to look forward to. By doing so I hope to make my readers face the harsh reality of euthanization and support adoption instead of breeding, which often times occurs via cruel puppy mills. Hope I make some sort of a dent in your position on shelter dogs (and I guess on cats for those of you who aren't dog people)!!
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