Smiling Dog Farms

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Celebrating at Smiling Dog Farms...

I am writing this a little early in the day because I am looking out the home-office window at the sun, as it is setting in the western sky! It seems impossible that a day ago we were anticipating the worst as Hurricane Ike hurtled across the Gulf toward us.

I wrote last night that it seemed like we had dodged the bullet. Today I can confirm that!

Everyone here at the farm is celebrating that the storm missed us. Jacqueline decided to dress up in her pink summer sun dress, wearing the strap provocatively low on her shoulder!

As the night passed and the hurricane relentlessly pressed across Galveston Island and then up into Houston, we were fortunate to have only a few mild rain showers, and an occasional wind gust. We lost our power very briefly around 2:00 AM -- but the generator turned itself on and in less than half an hour, we were back on the power grid. So we never skipped a beat.

This morning, the extent of the damage to the farm consisted of one tree completely knocked down and one tree with a major limb torn off. Other than leaves and twigs scattered across the property, that was the only damage!

The day dawned clear and dry. Clarence, our team leader, came in early on his day off and did a quick tour of the property. All was well everywhere. For the animals, it was an uneventful night like any other.

We are very grateful that we were spared. We realize that many of our friends in Houston and Galveston and other parts of the state did not fare as well as we did. Our hearts go out to those whose homes were damaged or destroyed, or who will live without electricity for several weeks as the massive damage from Hurricane Ike is repaired.

Jay Hellerich, executive director
smiling dog farms
a 501(c)3 corporation
wharton, texas
979-257-3377
www.smilingdogfarms.org
http://smilingdogfarms.blogspot.com

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Friday, September 12, 2008

The Power of Prayer!

Those of you who have been praying for us have proven the power of prayer!

It is now 12:30 AM and it is not even raining here!

Our good friend, Deana Flak, called earlier this afternoon to say that the tracking system her husband's business uses was showing Ike coming in at Galveston and going up through Houston. That would put us on the "good" side, or the "clean" side of the storm, with less water and wind damage.

We have followed Hurricane Ike on The Weather Channel and local Houston news throughout the day. As the afternoon wore on, we were still scurrying around the farm collecting anything that could turn into a missile in hurricane winds, boarding up a few more windows, securing all the animals' housing units one last time. I kept expecting our work to be halted by heavy rains running ahead of the storm.

But those rains never came.

Ike is a fearsome storm. As early as 2:00 PM this afternoon, the coastal village of Surfside was completely under water. By 6:00 PM, the water was 12-15 feet above normal levels, and covering the stilts beach houses are built on and lapping at the front doors of many homes.

We saw a newscaster reporting from the Galveston seawall, where the water level was near the top of the seawall (it is normally a long drop down to the beach -- at least 10 feet, possibly more) and waves were crashing into the cement seawall, spraying high into the air!

Some 300,000 people are without power, throughout metropolitan Houston. But not here. Our generator sits at the ready outside our house, but we are still operating on Centerpoint Electricity.

We have a brisk wind outside that has picked up a little bit in the last hour, but nothing with any destructive force.

It seems to me that if we were going to be included in the damage from Ike, we would have felt something by now. Many communities to the north and east of us have.

They are predicting the eye will make landfall around 2:00 AM, our time. We are thinking that if we still have no ill effects by then, we have dodged the bullet!

I will make the final Ike Report tomorrow!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Ike Saga Continues... Better News Today...

I am sure you must be weary of hearing about Hurricane Ike day after day! But Ike is the proverbial elephant in the room. We can ignore him, but he is not going away!

I think our situation improved today. When we got up this morning, the storm's predicted landfall had been moved north and east again, moving past us up the coast to Galveston and Houston.

That was really good news for us. If the eye of the storm makes landfall north and east of here, it means we will be on the left side of the hurricane, the "good side" with less wind and less water than the "dirty" side of the storm on the right.

I did not go to meteorology school, but one thing I have noticed since the Weather Channel began tracking this storm is that it rarely has gone where they said it would! I am not saying the Weather Channel always gets it wrong. I am saying in this case, this time, they are getting it wrong -- consistently.

A week ago, they were showing its greatest probability was to turn north at Florida and head up the coast, using pretty much the same path as Hannah, last week's "hurricane of the week". Then they predicted that it would be likely to head due west, toward northen Mexico and Brownsville.

On a daily basis, their choice of destinations for Ike has had to be changed!

One thing I have noticed is that Ike consistently has turned further north and east than they expected.

So I am going to put on my Jeanne Dixon hat and make a prediction: by tomorrow, the Weather Channel will be showing Ike predicted to make landfall somewhere around Beaumont. That is the logical movement, based on the daily adjustments of Ike's course, always to the north and the east.

If my predition is correct, then Galveston and Houston would be on the "good" side of the storm, and in far less danger than if the storm tore a path through Galveston on up to Houston. And we would almost be out of the picture, in that event.

Three years ago, Hurricane Rita was predicted to come up Matagorda Bay and head inland through Wharton County. And this storm seemed stable and predictable throughout the week precediing its landfall. But at the very last minute, it veered sharply to the north and east and landed between Beaumont and the Louisiana border! In that hurricane, most of our babies were still at the Arizona farm and had not been moved over yet. We took the 25 dogs living here and headed off to Odessa -- the only place that had a motel room for Ricky and me, and a kennel facility that could accommodate 25 dogs! When we returned, we saw that not only was there no damage, but our power did not even fail!

Ike could be different, because it is such a massive hurricane. I heard the Weather Channel folk say tonight that Ike was occupying 80% of the Gulf of Mexico right now! Think about the size of this storm! So even if it makes landfall at Beaumont, I don't doubt we will see rain. But we would be far enough away to experience only the outer bands of this hurricane.

We spent today making preparations. We have something of a dormatory of crates in our living room! We have already brought inside the dogs whom we know are fearful of regular thunderstorms. And we have room for many more, who may escape their yards during the storm.

One of our best staff members, Joel Garza, will be staying at the farm tomorrow night, to help Ricky and me with any situations that may arise.

Ironically, today was another beautiful day in south Texas. Sunshine and temperatures in the 80s. And as I write this at almost 1:00 AM Central Daylight Time, the skies are clear and it is a perfect evening outside. The predictions are that this will change radically sometime tomorrow afternoon, as the first bands of rainstorms enter the region.

I am more optimistic tonight than I was last night. I hope that Saturday night I will be writing to say that the storm has come and gone uneventfully, and all is well at Smiling Dog Farms!

Thank you to everyone who has sent emails or made phone calls to us in the past couple days, and to those who offered to help us evacuate.

The News About Ike Just Gets Worse

I guess tonight's blog will again be about Ike, the hurricane heading our way. It seems only fair, since all our waking moments today and into the weekend will be consumed by Ike -- a name we will not soon forget.

I have lived in hurricane prone regions before. I am not unfamiliar with hurricanes. In 1983, I was living in the Houston area when Hurricane Alicia struck. It was not pretty, it was not fun, but we survived and went on with our lives.

We get a lot of hurricane "scares" in these parts. By that I mean, media like The Weather Channel always dramatize hurricanes and this season alone, we have been told more than once, already, that we were in dire danger and we better pull up all the stops and get out of harm's way. Up until now, we have not had so much as a rainy day from Dolly or Eduard or Gustav.

I watched Ike with some detachment a week or so ago when we were all worried over Gustav, which ultimately ended up in Louisiana. At that time, the computer models showed Ike as far more likely to go up the East Coast.

But as time has passed, Ike has continued to confound the models. It dropped down further south than anticipated, and then spun out into the Gulf. Early models which showed Ike heading due west toward Northern Mexico were then abandoned for the more northerly path. For a while it looked like Corpus Christi was in the center of the targeted landfall possibilities.

But as the predictions have crept slowly, inexorably up the coast, Ike has gotten closer and closer to us. As it stands now, I expect by morning The Weather Channel will be predicting that the hurricane will make landfall at Matagorda Bay and then make a bee-line up Hwy 60, where it will culminate at 6915 S State Hwy 60! (That is our address!!)

This thing is aimed right at us, now.

People have been asking me for the past day and a half, "Can we help you evacuate?". Sadly, evacuation is just impossible for us. We have far too many animals. Over 300 dogs. 18 horses, 3 donkeys, 2 sheep, 4 pigs, 12 cats, assorted chickens, ducks and geese and Alma cow.

IF there were enough places to take them all (and there are not)... IF there were enough volunteers to take them there (and there are not)... IF we had enough money to pay for all this transport (and we don't)... it still would not matter because there is not enough time to move that many animals!

Ricky and our team spent today securing the property... moving into the garage and storage barns anything that could turn into a missile in a storm. We are double checking on every dog's housing unit to make sure it is secure and at least 8" above grade level.

Ricky has corralled a bunch of crates and arranged them in the pool house and our living room, for dogs who need to be moved during the storm, or for dogs who escape their yards. (Some of our babies are afraid of storms and will escape and run to our house.)

We have the generator tank filled with 100 gallons of diesel and another 25 gal in yellow cans, should we use up all 100 gallons in the tank.

We have commitments from our team that they will be staying in town and not evacuating, so they will be available to help. One of our team members has agreed to stay at the house with us through the storm!

I think we have done all we can to prepare, and yet it is still frightening -- because we just don't know how strong and how damaging this storm will be, and we have all viewed the grim scenes on television of hurricanes' aftermath.

We know there will be no storm surge here. We are way too far inland for that. But I am less confident about wind damage today than I was yesterday. If the hurricane turns into a Category 4, our 50 mile security blanket from shore may not be sufficient to blunt the damage from the winds. That is the big question mark at this stage -- how much wind damage can we anticipate?

The greatest damage will probably still come from the rains. Hurricanes bring prodigious amounts of rain. Our Texas gumbo soil does not absorb water like normal soil. Water accumulates on top of it. A hurricane that dumps 18" of rain will leave more or less 18" of rain on the ground in these parts. And that would be the ultimate catastrophe for us. Flooding is a far more likely and more formidable nemesis here than even wind damage.

But we will not know how bad it will be until the storm has come and gone.

Our farm is too rural for cable TV or DSL lines. So we count on satellites for both high speed internet access through Hughes Net and satellite television through Direct TV. The only real downside to satellite providers is that when it rains, you do not have reception. Our internet access and our television both disappear in a heavy rain storm.

So if you email and do not hear back from me, it does not necessarily mean that a tree fell through the bathroom ceiling while I was brushing my teeth and took me out! It probably means that we do not have internet access because the satellite is not receiving through the rain.

I will continue to write the blog and answer email as I am able over the next few days.

Meanwhile, pray that the storm goes somewhere, anywhere else but here!

Post Script

It is approximately 3:00 AM, Central Daylight Time, as I am finishing up today's blog when Ricky informs me that our dryer nearly caught itself -- and the house -- on fire! He is not sure what is ailing it, but the utility room was filled with smoke and the back of the drier was dangerously hot!

We depend on that dryer for drying our dog towels. It runs pretty much 8 hours, give or take, per day. Ironically, Coin Mach, Inc. of Houston is generously donating a commercial grade dryer that they even converted to propane gas, since we do not have natural gas out here in the country. We just have not been able to go pick it up, and there will be no time tomorrow as we prepare for the onslought of Ike Friday night or Saturday morning. We will have to come up with some kind of stop gap dryer tomorrow, to get through the weekend with dog towels.

It is not bad enough we have a Category 4 hurricane hurtling toward us at Mach speed, for which we will be fortunate if we have one more day to prepare, because Friday will undoubtedly be non-stop rain until Ike's arrival. No, that is not quite enough to fret over. Let's throw in a near-house fire, and the incapacitation of the dog towel dryer, one of the most important appliances in the house.

I am beginning to feel like Job.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Hurricane Ike and How It Will Affect Us...

Tonight's blog is a departure from the usual format. I have taken a number of emails today from folks who are worried about our dogs, given that we are in the direct path of Hurricane Ike. I thought it would be a good idea to explain our situation, and how we prepare for a hurricane.

We are located in Wharton County, Texas. We are not a coastal county, but an inland county. That means that a hurricane would have to make landfall in Matagorda County, to the south of us, and then travel all the way through Matagorda County and about half of Wharton County before it would be knocking on our door.

Hurricanes weaken quickly, once they hit land. Going over Cuba the past day and a half, Ike was downgraded from a Category 4 hurricane to just a Category 1 hurricane, with winds only 2 mph over the threshold of what it takes to even be called a hurricane. And part of Ike was on land and part was over water.

A hurricane will likely be a tropical storm by the time it reaches our farm. That is still not good, but it is nothing like being socked by hurricane winds on the coast!

We are far enough inland that there is no chance whatsoever that we would be affected by a storm surge, one of the deadliest aspects of a hurricane. The storm surges -- raising water levels by 10' or more in strong hurricanes -- will affect only the people living in coastal areas.

We should be far enough inland that we will not have hurricane force winds -- only gusts of wind that could at times be damaging -- but nothing on a level with what the people in coastal regions will experience!

Our greatest fear with the hurricane is the rain... and the flooding on our property that will come with the rain. Many of you know that we have Texas gumbo soil here. If you are not a Texan, imagine that instead of soil, your yard was coverd with fiberglass or stainless steel -- or some other substance that is completely impervious to water intrusion and repels water like a duck's feathers. THAT is the kind of soil we have here. Unlike our prior farms in San Diego and Phoenix, where water percolates down into the soil and is absorbed, Texas gumbo is impervious to water intrusion! Water just sits until it evaporates from the sunshine!!

All of our outside dogs' housing is raised off grade level by at least 8" and in some cases as much as 24". An 8" elevation should be sufficient to keep all dogs high and dry, even if copious amounts of water are dropped on the farm.

As of 11:00 pm Tuesday, the Weather Channel was still forecasting an area just north of Corpus Christi and just south of Matagorda County as the most likely place Ike will make landfall. There could not be a much worse place for Ike to hit, as far as we are concerned.

That would put us on the northeast side of the hurricane and we could expect to be pummeled with torrential rains from the storm. We do have a new ditch that has been dug to carry water away from parts of the property and divert it to the pond. We are hoping this will be helpful in a storm.

We are unable to evacuate our animals from the property. There are just too many for evacuation to be practical. The process would take too long, and there is no where for them all to go. And don't forget that our animal population includes horses, donkeys, sheep, pigs, Alma cow and the chickens and ducks and geese. Evacuating our farm would require something on the scale of Noah, and I am not even sure if his ark would accommodate all our babies... after all, he only took two examples of each species!

We purchased a huge generator back in 2005 when we moved here. It is monstrously large and occupies a housing unit the size of a small room. Our generator is powered by a diesel engine that could power an 18-wheeler. The idea was to have a generator which would allow us to continue life as we know it without skipping a beat. The electric well pumps will operate, providing water, the stove and refrigerator and washer and dryer will all operate, and the air conditioning units will all continue to do their jobs.

We have at least four of our staff members who have promised to stay in town and not evacuate for the storm, so we will have personnel here to provide care for all our babies. Clarence even offered to come in on Saturday, his scheduled day off, if we need him to help.

We are stockpiling dog food, and other animal feed, just in case stores are closed for a few days after the hurricane hits.

All things being equal, I think we are prepared for this storm.

The most helpful thing anyone can do for us now is to pray! Pray that the hurricane turns and goes somewhere else, so that we do not get the rain that comes with hurricanes!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Dog on the Blog: Tasha Was One of a Kind

In Memoriam

Tasha, circa 1993-2007

Tasha came to live with us when we were still in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She had been placed in five different homes, and had been returned all five times. When we took her home, she was living in a local vet's office because none of the rescue's foster homes could cope with her.

Tasha was part dog and part gymnast. She would use her amazing acrobatic skills to perform daring escapes from homes and yards. That was pretty much the reason why she was unsuccessful in her previous adoptions.

Tasha did not like to be left alone. She would escape when she was left by herself. During her first week with us, I left her to roam the house while I went out to run an errand. The only window that was open was in the bathroom, where there was a solid screen firmly in place. And that window was on the driveway side of our house. The driveway descended toward the garage in the back at a fairly steep angle. The distance from the bathroom window to the driveway was easily 14'.

When I arrived back home, I called for Tasha and got no response. I went to every room, every place she could be, and there was no Tasha. Then I saw the bathroom window, and realized that Tasha had pushed out the screen and leaped to the ground, 14' below!

Frantic, I drove slowly through the neighborhood looking for her. Three blocks, tied to a porch railing, was Tasha. The man sitting on his porch said she came meandering by, so he figured she belonged to someone and he just tied her up to his porch!

Our solution for her "separation anxiety" was to match her up with a friend. We chose Samson. (See blog, Aug. 10) Once Tasha had a friend to stay with while we were gone, her need to flee dissipated.

Tasha adored Samson. They played in the yard together, and ran the fence line together. Tasha was a large girl and needed room to run.

We learned early on that Tasha could easily mount the kitchen counters. Note in her picture, above, she is perched on the bathroom vanity. She jumped up here all by herself. So I would put any baked goods on top of the refrigerator, instead of on the countertop, so that they would be out of reach for Tasha.

I thought!

I remember coming home to an empty package of cream horns that had not even been opened. The packing and wrapper were spread across the kitchen floor. And the cream horns were mysteriously gone! Apparently, Tasha mounted the countertops, and then stood on the counter to reach the top of the refrigerator! We just hoped that she shared them with Samson!!

When we moved to Arizona and bought the farm in Eloy, south of Phoenix, we brought Samson and Tasha to the house and put them out in the yard to play. Someone left the gate open, and Tasha was off and running! Ricky chased her for easily a mile, across the desert and finally onto the Indian Reservation land. Finally, about 45 minutes into the chase, she just stopped and let us catch up to her. She was smiling and proud of herself! Then she happily walked home on a leash with Ricky!

While we were still in Arizona, Tasha developed a large, softball-sized lump on her chest. It was really messy, too. It turned out to be Valley Fever, a uniquely Arizonan malady. Even though it was theoretically in several southwest states, our vets in New Mexico and San Diego just shook their heads and said they have never seen a case of it. We had a total of 8 cases among our dogs.

Valley Fever is like herpes. Once you have it, you have it forever. You can control it with a wonder drug called Fluconazole, but the dogs who have tested positive for the disease will always carry it. We are still treating some of our dogs here in Texas. It is caused by a fungus in the earth, and when a rain storm stirs up the ground -- or when the dogs dig in the earth -- that fungus can transfer inside through the lungs. And Valley Fever is born. (And, yes, humans can contract the disease as well, in exactly the same way -- by stirring up the fungus in the soil)

The really bizarre thing about Valley Fever is that it affects different dogs (and people) in different ways. Lola was our first baby to be diagnosed with it. In Lola, the symptom was a deep cough that would not respond to conventional drugs. In Andy, the fungus manifested itself in his bones and joints, making him stiff and sore; his neck was turned 30 degrees to the right and he could not move it to the left.

For Tasha, the disease showed up as large, softball sized growths on her neck that "weeped". Because her symptoms were so strange, the diagnosis was missed for a long time. Her neck finally "healed" because the fungus went into remission. But here in Texas, she had another episode of the same thing. Fortunately, Fluconazole is amazing at treating and eliminating the symptoms of the disease. Tasha's lump slowly went away with Floconazole treatment.

But I have always wondered if Tasha left us before her time because somehow the Valley Fever fungus in her body weakened her system.

It was on the 4th of July, 2007 that we lost Tasha. We had seen that the end was near, because she was getting grey around her muzzle and slowing down. But I was still surprised that we lost her when we did, because the end came rather suddenly.

We had moved her upstairs to our bed, and I spent a part of the 3rd of July laying next to her, stroking her long fur, and talking gently to her. She was aware that I was there, and she smiled at me. But she was very weak.

The next day, Ricky and I stayed with her. And in the middle of the day, she slipped silently away from us.

Tasha had a good life here. She loved Samson, and she and Samson were always among the dogs who traveled with us. She loved the beach, and she loved when it was her turn in our bed. She lived exuberantly and joyously.

But she was gone too soon.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Dog on the Blog: Caitlyn Finds Her Way Home

This is our Caitlyn. She is a big girl -- part greyhound, part great dane. She has soft velvety fur in some of the most beautiful shades of tan, grey, taupe and white.

Caitlyn came from an excellent rescue organization in San Antonio. She had been placed for adoption five times, and she was returned five times!

One of her placements took her to Austin. Somehow, Caitlyn got out of the yard at her new Austin home and disappeared. Her new family looked frantically everywhere they could think of, but there was just no sign of Caitlyn.

Then one day she showed up -- at the San Antonio home of her foster family! Somehow, Caitlyn had managed to travel all the way from Austin to San Antonio by herself.

Caitlyn is an amazing girl.

But after so many failed adoptions, the rescue decided that Caitlyn was probably not destined to succeed in adoption, and they looked for other options. That is how they found us. Heather drove Caitlyn from San Antonio, and Caitlyn came to live with us on the farm.

(Caitlyn is trained on a seagull flying overhead in this photo.)

We were told she had a bit of an independent streak and could be difficult sometimes.

That was like saying Bill Cllinton likes girls! Caitlyn has a stubborn streak that would make any mule proud. Coupled with her size, she can be intimidating. When Caitlyn decides she doesn't want to do something, it takes a lot of willpower and resolve to dissuade her!

Because she is temperamental, Caitlyn is one of our "special" babies who cannot be put out or serviced by any of our workers, here at the farm. Caitlyn will only respond to Ricky, me or my son, Doug.

When Ricky and I are able to go to Galveston, Caitlyn is one of the dogs who always comes with us. Because no one could take care of her if we left her at the farm!

You can see in these pictures that Caitlyn enjoys being in the surf. We always keep our dogs on a leash at the beach. We would never risk letting them run loose and possibly getting into trouble with another dog or another person on the beach.

So we run with her down the beach as fast as we can go, and we know that she is just "dogging" it for our benefit, because we cannot keep up when she tries to run flat out!

Caitlyn is not real fond of other dogs, either. So for the most part, she is a single girl. But when we are at the beach, we take Caitlyn and Todd out at the same time, and Caitlyn has been developing a friendship with Todd. She will jump at him, trying to engage him in play with her. Todd responds in kind! They ignore one another at the farm, but when they are at the beach together, they play and enjoy each others' company.

When it's Caitlyn's turn in the bed, she stretches all the way from the top to the bottom of a king size bed! She really enjoys snuggling in the covers!

Caitlyn lives inside with our "house dogs". She is our special girl. Caitlyn has found her way home for good!