Patience Required when Adding a Pet to the Pack

Patience Required

when Adding a Pet to the Pack

by Blake Herzog

Pet people being who they are, when they bring a new one home there’s a pretty good chance of there being another animal in the household already. Q

Here are some tips for making the transition as easy as possible for everyone, though variables like species, age and size of the animals also will be factors.

INTRODUCING A DOG

ƒ Set realistic goals for the first introduction based on what you know about each animal’s background and how they’re likely to process the interaction. Keep the first meeting short.

ƒ Stay in control of the introduction, and if possible hold it in a neutral location unfamiliar to both animals. When introducing two dogs, keep them leashed and use reliable barriers such as doors or solidly installed baby gates to keep the animals apart between meetings.

ƒ Gradual introductions help to prevent bad behaviors from becoming entrenched and difficult to root out.

ƒ Never leave two new-to-each-other pets together unattended. The mood or interaction between the two of them can shift with no warning.

INTRODUCING A CAT

ƒ Bring the new cat home to a small “safe room” with all necessary items — food, water, bed, litter box, scratching posts or boards and toys.

ƒ Allow your resident pets and new pet to get acquainted by coming up to the closed door to sniff at and hopefully play together, though some hissing or growling at first can be expected. Once they are used to each other start having them play with each other’s toys.

ƒ Once the pets are used to each other’s scent and don’t respond negatively to it, allow them to see each other through a baby gate, screened door or door propped open a couple of inches. Place their food dishes close to each other so they can get used to eating together.

ƒ When the pets are relatively calm around each other, let the new cat out of the safe room and allow the pets to get to know each other.

Keep dogs leashed for the first meeting.

stories written or compiled by Loree Walden, Marketing Manager, Yavapai Humane Society

ELLA IS THE Dog for Me! by Frank Cunningham

I knew nothing of Ella’s history. I had no idea she was something of a celebrity having been in Prescott Living Magazine, The Daily Courier and a special friend of Leza Live & Local on Magic 99.1!

My girlfriend at the time saw her on her FB feed and showed her to me, and I knew. I knew she was my dog. Now, let me say that we had just arrived in Prescott the day before having driven 18 hours straight from Montana. Jamie had never been to Yavapai Humane Society’s Facebook page, had never heard of the place, but yet it kept coming up as she was scrolling through looking for a job!

Once I read Ella’s story, we jumped in the truck and headed to the shelter. We were greeted as we pulled in by a gentleman who asked if we had an appointment. I said, “No,” but Jamie piped up and said, “We’re here for Ella.”

The man teared up and instantly opened the gate. Before we could get out of my truck, we were greeted by another person who said, “Are you here for Ella?” I said, “Yes,” and this man teared up.

Ella came to me like we’d known each other forever. It was like Ella decided right then and there I was her new human.

The entire staff made adopting Ella one of the easiest things I’d ever done! They were all amazing and all in tears. I’ve been in a lot of humane societies and shelters throughout the country, and I have to say that this is the cleanest (and best smelling) shelter I’ve been in. Also, I’ve never seen a group of staff members care so deeply about their animals. Every employee working that day came to say goodbye to Ella. We put her in the truck (up front of course), and she sat in the middle just as happy as a dog could be.

We had only been driving for a few minutes when Ella leaned in toward me and gave me kisses on my arm. When I looked down, we made eye contact. That’s when the tears came from my eyes. She just needed someone to love her, and I AM THAT SOMEONE!

Jamie and I aren’t together anymore, but through it all, I had Ella! She seemed to understand that I needed her. I will always be grateful to Jamie for finding Ella for me.

Ella’s certainly not a puppy because she’s roughly 9 years old, and apparently that’s a big deal for a dog hoping to be adopted. Ella is active, which keeps me active. We have our time together outdoors and, in the car, and then we have our time just chilling out together watching a movie or her cuddling with me as I read. I think it’s a shame people don’t consider adopting older dogs.

When I went to Yavapai Humane Society that day, all I wanted to do was rescue a doggie in need. BUT she has saved me every bit as much as I saved her. You can rest assured that Ella’s final chapters are going to be happy ones!

This is what Yavapai Humane Society does: They care, they love, and they want to make sure every animal in their care finds a home like Ella did with me! Thank you, Yavapai Humane Society, for taking such good care of my girl until she could be home sweet home with ME!

I never thought life could be so paw-some! I’m a happy pup! My name is Ella, and this is my absolute best friend in the whole wide world. His name is Frank. We go everywhere together!

This is me sitting in the front seat of the truck with Frank when he was taking me home sweet home with him! I felt like the luckiest doggie in the world!

PATIENCE LEADS TO Unconditional Love

The Yavapai Humane Society posted on its social media pages about one of our dogs who really needs a home (and still does.) His name is Kane.

YHS always receives many comments on our posts — some positive and some not, especially when it’s a post about a dog that may have certain “issues.”

But Sandra Baugus commented on this particular post, and it touched our hearts. She wrote:

“I adopted a dog from you guys. It took three months for her to come out of her shell. In those three months, she chewed up my son’s PS game controllers. The pedal of my exercise bike. Three pairs of pants, two pairs of shoes, every carpet in my house. I can go on and on.

“My point is that when I adopted this dog, she became part of my family and whatever problem she was having it was up to me to help her fix it. I am so glad I did. There is no reward or joy more than when I come home and her entire body is wiggling because she is so happy to see me. She has turned out to be the sweetest, smartest and most loving dog.

“Her transformation is nothing short of amazing. All it took was a boatload of love. That’s it, just love. When she chewed something up, I ignored her. She had a hard enough life; if chewing things up made her feel better then chew away. It’s just stuff and can be replaced. She can’t.

“When you adopt a dog it’s for life. Fix their problems don’t throw them away. Put yourself in that dog’s position. Think about how scared they must be. Dogs are a gift. They need to be treated as such. Oh, I forgot about my backyard. She totally wrecked it. She dug up my sprinklers. Lol. I can’t remember how life was before her. I would never give her up. EVER.”

We wrote back to Sandra, and told her I wanted to share her message. She said, “I can send you pics of my backyard if you want. LOL. She has such a small, sweet mouth you would never think she could chew like she does.” Blue

Sandra, all of us here at Yavapai Humane Society thank you for giving Blue the chance she needed, the time she needed and the love she needed!

HAVE FUN IN THE SUN

with your Furry Best Friend

One of the best things about Prescott and Northern Arizona is how many activities there are to do outdoors and the fact that most are pet friendly! It’s the time of year when we want to spend more time outside enjoying fresh air and beautiful weather.

We have so many beautiful trails and most all of them allow you to bring your dogs with you as long as they are on a leash. Exploring mountain trails or those at the various lakes is a great way to spend time with your dog, and what makes it even more fun is every time you hit a trail it’s different because nature changes every day!

There’s always something happening at our Courthouse Square, and dogs are usually welcome! (Some events may not allow animals, so it’s a good idea to check if you are going to a specific event.) At any given time when going downtown you’ll always find people walking around with their dogs.

Prescott is known for having many pet-friendly restaurants. BringFido.com states there are 31 such restaurants here and will send you a list. Still, it’s probably a good idea to check directly with the restaurant to make sure your furry best friend is allowed.

If you’re going to be outdoors, you’ll want to make sure you can be reunited with your dog if you get separated for some reason. Make sure your pet is microchipped, and don’t forget to keep it updated.

Always keep an identification tag on your dog when you are out. Many dogs are able to be reunited with a simple phone call, if they have identification on them. We can make a custom ID tag for you in our Adoptions Lobby at YHS for $5.

Be sure to have plenty of water on hand for you and your furry best friend. Watch for signs of them getting overheated so they don’t fall victim to heatstroke, and make sure to stay aware of the temperature of the ground so that their delicate paws don’t get burnt. (If you place the back of your hand on the ground/pavement and can hold it there for second seconds, it’s safe.)

Remember, if it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for them. Grab a leash and head out for some fun in the sun!

YA LEARN SOMETHING New Every Day

1. Cats are believed to be the only mammals who don’t taste sweetness. 2. Every dog’s nose print is unique, like a fingerprint. 3. Cats are nearsighted, but their peripheral and night vision are much better than that of humans. 4. A person’s blood pressure goes down when petting a dog. 5. Cats have an extra organ that allows them to taste scents in the air, which is why your cat stares at you with her mouth open from time to time. 6. Forty-five percent of U.S. dogs sleep in their owner’s bed. 7. Cats use their whiskers to “feel” the world around them to determine which small spaces they can fit into. 8. Seventy percent of people sign their pet’s name on their holiday cards. 9. Cats walk like camels and giraffes: They move both of their right feet first, then move both of their left feet. No other animals walk this way. 10. All dogs dream; studies show puppies and senior dogs dream more frequently than adult dogs. 11. A slow blink is a “kitty kiss.” This movement shows contentment and trust. 12. Yawning is contagious. Research shows the sound of a human yawn can trigger one from your dog. And it’s four times as likely to happen when it’s the yawn of a person he knows. 13. Cats have a unique “vocabulary” with their owner — and each cat has a different set of vocalizations, purrs and behaviors. 14. All puppies are born deaf. 15. Cats have up to 100 vocalizations — dogs only have 10. 16. Dalmatians are born completely white, developing their spots as they get older. 17. Cats may yawn as a way to end a confrontation with another animal. Think of it as their “talk to the hand.” 18. A dog’s sense of smell is legendary. Did you know his nose has as many as 300 million receptors? A human nose has about 5 million. 19. When dogs wag their tails, they may be expressing happiness. But this isn’t the case for cats! When your cat wags her tail, it’s her way of warning you that you are getting on her last nerve. When dogs kick backward after they go to the bathroom it’s because they are marking their territory, using the scent glands in their feet.

20.

FINDLAY SUBARU

Helps Find Homes for Pets

For every new Subaru purchased or leased between Nov. 18, 2021 and Jan. 3, 2022, at participating Subaru retailers nationwide, Subaru donated $250 to the customer’s choice of charities.

The customer could choose one of four national partner charities — the ASPCA®, Make-A-Wish®, Meals on Wheels America and the National Park Foundation — or a local charity chosen by the local Subaru retailer.

Findlay Subaru chose Yavapai Humane Society as their local charity, and we were honored to have been presented with a check for $21,116 in April. Thank you to everyone who chose Yavapai Humane Society for their donation, and thank you to Findlay Subaru for always supporting us.

We’ve had numerous successful adoption events at the dealership where new furever families were formed! Findlay Subaru truly cares about our community, and we are so proud to be a partner with them!

THANK YOU for Sharing the Love!

Continued from page 69 Q

Prescott LIVING: You’ve received a lot of support for not just the concept but the realities, and it’s coming from outside Prescott. What accounts for that?

Jon Haass: Since coming to Prescott in 2013, I have retained contact with colleagues, companies from both the Boston Area as well as Silicon Valley and Washington DC. Through participation in competitions such as the high school cyber patriot national finals, working with the state of Arizona agencies, being active with the organizations seeking to grow our workforce in Arizona I have been able to harness energy and funding from beyond the local community.

Partners include Yavapai County, NACOG (Northern Arizona Council of Governments), and the Arizona Commerce Authority to name a few at the state level. Innovation centers and incubators are now recognized as valuable to rural communities such as Prescott, Prescott Valley and this attracts interest. We can compare with SCAPE located in Durango Colorado which started 9 years ago and boasts more than $15 million in funds raised, much of it from individuals and organizations outside the immediate town.

Prescott LIVING: Broadband is such a critical part of this.

Jon Haass: Companies today require reliable and high speed internet connection in order to meet the demands of their customers, vendors and partners. In Prescott we have experienced outages due to the single set of connections down to Phoenix through New River. A second fiber path is planned through Wickenberg and is critical to providing not only redundancy but also higher speeds. In order for a 24/7 operation as we have with the new organizations in the area the quality of electricity, gigabit ethernet and of course reliable water is a must.

And in the near future we will see 10 gigabits as commonplace. This will allow for applications like immersive virtual reality to design and interact in real time. It will allow telemedicine including remote surgery bringing the world’s best skilled workers to our health care locations.

To put this in perspective, a typical Netflix video may be 3-7 mega (million) bits per second while a 10 gigabit connection would be needed for 1000 of these videos to play at once without interruption. This would enable cloud data storage centers, or a 24/7/365 security operations center (SOC) to be located away from a metropolitan center.

With the coming Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSMC) facility off I-17 near 303, we will be closer than Chandler (the location of Intel) meaning that suppliers and vendors to TSMC could be located here and offer great jobs for our young men and women. This is an exciting time to invest in these future opportunities.

Prescott LIVING: OK, put that in lay language for people who don’t know the difference between one bit, gigabyte.

Jon Haass: Most of us on our phones, if we’re doing something like Netflix or YouTube, we might be utilizing between one and five million bits per second to have reasonable high-quality TV, HDTV. And so with a gigabit, that’s 1,000 times more bandwidth. And what that would mean is that you would be able to have multiple people within an organization having high-quality, two-way video conferencing and audio conferencing and be able to support that simultaneously. Ten gigabits, that’s the state of the art in terms of being able to do things like laparoscopy where you have one of your doctors sitting at Boston General help do a surgery here at Dignity Health. And we are taking advantage of that right here.

Right now satellite internet doesn’t support that for the individual. And then, of course, at the end of it you need what is effectively a modem. Instead of being a cable modem, it’s a fiber modem, and then that’s flipped out to distribution device, a router or a switch that people are familiar with from either Sparklight or CenturyLink at their homes, but more sophisticated.

Prescott LIVING: How close are we to it?

Jon Haass: The state and federal funding for the Arizona Broadband initiative is working to make these changes within the next several years. First expanding along I-40 and I-17 and then projects such as the one along state route 89 through Wickenberg and Yarnell or Skull Valley.

Prescott LIVING: Remember when that fiber was cut last year? It was just a disaster.

Jon Haass: We can’t afford that. When you are 24/7, you can’t have it go down even for an hour or a few hours.

Prescott LIVING: The government passed a stimulus package intended to help the economy. Is that going to have an impact on you?

Jon Haass: I sure hope so because the Economic Development Agency is one of the agencies, as is the USDA, that will be given funds to help with rural economic development, and at least until the next census, Prescott and Prescott Valley are less than 50,000, which is the cutoff for rural. And so we will be able to, just like we did with the two grants we currently have, qualify as a rural innovation.

And one of the programs is earmarked for innovation centers and incubators. It’s written into the law that that’s what some of that money should go for.

And so we’ll be taking advantage of writing to that very thing, and I have already made sure that our two senators are aware of us, our House of Representatives’ person is, and the governor, of course. I met him a few times. I am on the governor’s Arizona cybersecurity team.

And also then Arizona Commerce Authority knows us, as does Teri Drew at Northern Arizona Council of Governments.

We have a partnership with the University of Arizona Center for Innovation. It has a strong history and can provide us connections, as well as funding opportunities. We are presently submitting another federal grant together.

Prescott LIVING: Can you speculate where you’re going to be in six months? Is that just too far out there?

Jon Haass: We will be offering trainings for students ranging from middle school through post graduate as part of our agreement with Yavapai County. Additionally we will be working with towns and cities across the state for awareness and support since the cyber threats are expected to continue to grow in the next year.

We will also lay the groundwork for our Phase III building near the regional airport.

So that puts us into spring 2024 for having the building occupied.

We have a developer interested in building and then would lease back to the center and its company partners to repay the investment. The more we can raise through philanthropy, grants and other funding, the faster we can move forward. We hope that the different local municipalities, regional and state agencies will see the wisdom of investment. Similar to the regional airport, the Center for the Future project will impact the entire area and be accessible from north 89, south and east from 89 and 89a. Ultimately much like Yavapai College we imagine multiple campuses co housed with other partners.

That means a lot of groundwork to do between now and then. I have a major grant being put together for the Economic Development Agency. It will focus on the rural innovation concept. We’re looking at requesting up to $5 million.

This year we’ll be taking over an additional 1,600 square feet there at our current site. We’ll take over that building at 216 S. Marina St., where the City of Prescott’s finance department is right now because it will be moving to the new City Hall. That’ll bring us up to 5,000 square feet there, and we do have intermediate plans to grow additionally, if we need to, before getting the bigger building. Five years from now we anticipate having at least one building and 300 jobs. And with 300 jobs you need more than a single building, so I envision a campus so there will be a hub where people come, and they’re attracted to this, too, because they have a local supply chain: “Oh, you need cables? Oh, we have a cable company here. Oh, you need drawings? Oh, we have an engineering company here. Oh, you need cybersecurity? Yep, we’ve got a cybersecurity company here.”

So that we have actually have a little ecosystem of companies able to interact with each other. And we have a good airport.

Prescott LIVING: What else would you like to share, Jon, that you want readers to know about the center and what you’re doing?

Jon Haass: I think the thing that excites me and keeps me going is that I see what is possible when you have young people and they’re given challenges and not bound by people saying, “Oh, well, you can’t do that,” because they don’t think in those terms. They see a problem and they say, “Solution available.” They can pluck that solution and innovation out of the great place where all ideas emanate, and we can see a really important change here and something sustainable in areas that aren’t going to go away, like cybersecurity, autonomy, supply chain, block chain. These are the kinds of things — water technology, health technology — that will be with us throughout this whole century.

The young people who are graduating today, they’re going to be building and their ideas are going to be planting the seeds for the next company and the next company. That’s what excites me.