EBHS Unleashed
Staff and volunteers of the Elmbrook Humane Society will be blogging about what's going on at the society, as well as other observations about life in Wisconsin.
The mission of the Elmbrook Humane Society is to promote the human-animal bond through adoption and education, to provide shelter to homeless animals, and to prevent animal cruelty and neglect. EBHS services the city of Brookfield, the villages of Butler, Chenequa, Elm Grove and Nashotah, and the towns of Brookfield and Delafield. EBHS shelters unwanted pets and strays, and rescues injured domestic animals and wildlife, provides resources for individuals with companion animals and provides Humane Education to schools and civic groups.
Visit our web site at www.EBHS.org.
Welcome to EBHS Unleashed!
If this is the first time you are reading EBHS Unleashed (or the EBHS Insider from our webpage) we welcome you to our shelter blog! This blog helps keep the community involved in the day to day goings on at Elmbrook Humane Society, your local animal shelter. We have some happy stories, some sad stories, but we always have animal stories to share. We hope all animal lovers will enjoy being a part of world!
Today was a rather exciting day for a few of our animals. Three of our cats, and one of our dogs were asked to participate in a photo shoot for Abbott Labs Animal Health Division. O'Malley, Atticus, Ginger and Larry were photographed at the Saturn Lounge Photography Studio, and all of them did very well. They all seem to know that they are stars now!
Milez to go....HOME!!!
Milez went home today! Many of you are already familiar with the plight of Milez. He is a 5 year old Husky that was recently surrendered to the shelter when his owners could no longer afford to pay for his seizure medications (about $50 a month). On top of everything else, poor Milez is about 30 pounds overweight.
Fortunately, a super lady came in today and fell in love with this beautiful dog. She is committed to maintaining his medications, and exercising him, and we know that he has found the perfect forever home. A few tears of happiness were shed when he left today. Shelter animals already have so many things stacked against them, and to have a medical condition, with a weight problem would definitely be a hindrance to most adopters. We love people that can love an animal the way our animals love us - with all of our faults, problems, and bad habits. There are no perfect people, and no perfect animals, but there sure are many people and animals that are perfect for each other! Here are photos of Milez, and Milez and his new mom!
Can Homeowners and Wild Animals Find a Way to Cohabitate?
Mondays are such a busy day at the shelter! We have had a ton of visitors, lots of phone calls, and one really upset lady with a fox problem. It seems that a family of fox had taken up residence in the yard of a neighbor who was out of town, and she wanted us to come and remove them immediately. She also said that this fox family had eaten all of the cats, squirrels, chipmunks and other small animals in the neighborhood. She had been on the phone all morning with the DNR, and the police, and felt that someone ought to come out and remove these animals and could not understand why no one would. She hung up on me and I felt badly that she was so frustrated and felt like no one would help her.
Elmbrook Humane Society will always respond to phone calls about injured wildlife. It is out job to pick those animals up and make sure they receive the proper medical care. Often times, we will transfer injured wildlife to our good friends in Oconomowoc, Wildlife In Need. We will also come over and remove an animal if a resident finds a wild animal inside of their home. This occasionally happens with raccoons down chimneys, and sometimes bats.
When Being an Animal Lover Spins Out of Control...
It is raining cats at EBHS. Today we took in 10 cats from a hoarding situation in a home where there were 180 cats. The cats are stinky, and some have ear mites, but they are all friendly and once they have been cleaned up, and are spayed and neutered and receive medical treatment, they will be made available for adoption. This hoarding situation was bad, but since the animals seem to be placeable this tragedy will not be made worse by having to euthanize the animals, which is the unfortunate result of many similar cases.
Many people are quick to condemn animal hoarders. It is very difficult for most of us to understand how someone can go from one or two animals to 180, while living in the conditions that 180 animals create in a home. There has been extensive research done on people who hoard animals and there are three types of personalities found in hoarders:
Charity Begins at Home
Today I received a call from a gentleman who wanted to know how much money another animal charity gave to us from the money he sent to them each year. He stated that he sent money to an animal welfare organization based in New York, and that he received appeal letters from them every year, and he sent money to them thinking that these funds would be given to animal charities in Wisconsin, specifically to Elmbrook Humane Society. He also said that they mailed him return address labels and he felt he needed to pay for them by sending money to this charity.
Many of us receive lots of mail from charities all over the state, and even the country. I seem to get a lot from animal welfare organizations, which I presume is in response to getting on mailing lists from products I buy or places I sign up to go to with my dogs, and through my professional affiliations. I also see a lot of television commercials on at night with sweet little animal faces, and sick puppies for national animal charities. The sad music plays and there are slow motion shots of sick, injured or sullen dogs and it is hard for you not to run over to your check book or grab your credit card and call the number on the screen.
Atticus and the Front Office Follies
Atticus is a beautiful 4-year-old cat that came to us as a stray from the Milwaukee County Domestic Animal Control Center. He is a really striking cat, very large, and fearless. He also seems to not realize that he is a cat. He also happens to be our current front office mascot. This is a picture of Atticus.
Things I Have Learned Since Last Thursday...
CarMax really does care! The CarMax Cares volunteer team came out to work with me bright and early Sunday morning. I have to give a shout out to the whole group - Meaghan, Shelley, Nick, Sandra, Andrea, Cheryl, and Bridgett. These nice folks not only came out to the shelter early on a Sunday AM, they worked so hard cleaning, weeding, scrubbing, sorting and assembling a small kennel with absolutely no instructions whatsoever. Not only did they make the place look awesome and get us caught up on some chores that we let get away from us, but they also brought in a bunch of items from our wish list, and then made a very generous donation on the first big check I ever got! They also got to socialize a bunch of the animals and take the dogs for walks. I cannot tell you what a great time I had working with them. A big EBHS thank you to the whole group!
Wisconsin needs more bats! I had to do yard work this weekend, and I am fairly sure that I have contracted either Malaria or West Nile virus right on my front lawn. Where are they treating for mosquitoes? I am going to paint a target on my roof for the next time they fly over with the larvicide! I have no standing water on my property, yet I am covered by mosquitoes from head to toe as soon as I walk out my front door. I had to cover myself with "bug dope", as my husband calls it, just to get the newspaper! I hope my neighbors understand that I will not be doing any yard work until the first frost. I am going to hang some bat houses up in the woods in my yard to attract more of Mother Nature's natural mosquito control to my yard.
