Ask Roxie

Words of Advice from an ‘09 Pet

we move on. First thing, they want to pet the dog. And my first question to them is: 'Do you have a pet?' and they'll bring out their phone. We just have a conversation!”

Bella and Bonnie are a volunteer team with Pups n' Planes, where “comfort” dogs and their owners offer distressed travelers a little sugar.

“People are waiting, their flight has been canceled, or they may have a four-hour wait, and they are upset. ”

“One time, two little girls stopped to pet the dog, and I looked up, and the mother was crying. Her husband was being deployed. I spent probably a half-hour with them, and the dad thanked me so many times because it got them thinking about other things, ” Bonnie says.

Airport staffers implemented the idea after learning how well it worked at the Los Angeles International Airport. Pups n' Planes has been reducing blood pressure and turning frowns upside down for six years.

“In the car, she knows that we are almost at the airport. She gets so excited! Her job is to make people smile. She does that job. ”

And if you saw Bella, you would smile, too. The girl team also spends time at the airport USO, softening the loneliness and longing of our troops, so familiar to military life.

While Bella offers kisses, Canine Explosive Detection Supervisor Sgt. Andres Lopez, and his police dog Keyno, provide safety and security.

“We are there to make sure that the traveling public is safe, the dog makes that any threats associated with aviation there aren’t real threats, ” says the airport K9 police officer.

Lopez and Keyno “nose around, " sniffing out threats that could come from a parked car, a suitcase, or a person. “Dogs are about as mobile as you can get, ” says Lopez. He means the nose is mobile.

Above: Goats enjoy their work because eating is what they love to do! Right: Goats naturally eat invasive species plants.

Bella is a volunteer with Pups n' Planes, the airport greeting committee. She wears her little p coat, cheering up tired travelers at the San Antonio International Airport. GOAT MANIA! ink

A natural way to cut back your yard Workin' BY BERIT MASON for a Living!

Dogs with Jobs

This coming spring, the Brackenridge Park Conservancy BY BERIT MASON has hired “Rent-a- Ruminant” to come clear out some brush.

What is a “ruminant”?

“Animals with two stomachs,” says board member The San Antonio International Airport is HUGE! Charlotte Mitchell of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, and It recently broke a record, flying s“animals,” in this case, are goats. ome 15,000 people A DAY, for a total of 10.36 million passengers in 2019. Goats are what you call “indiscriminate,” meaning that Passengers most certainly frequent the airport, but pups do too.they’ll eat just about anything. So across the country, goats Meet Bella. are being employed to come and eat up some brush. Bella is a petite dog with light, wavy hair, offering everyone she meets the sweetest smile. Several hours a week, Bella and owner Bonnie Gioiello roam the airport, searching out the tired, the weary, and the bored. “If they look up and smile, they are a dog lover. If they don't, “Brackenridge Park needs help,” says Mitchell. “There are a lot of areas that are neglected because city funding for parks is greatly reduced. And, one of the things that we have wanted to do for a long time was to address the invasive species of plants that have taken over a part of the park that has hiking paths.” “They are heavily wooded … but when you get back in there, you feel a little too isolated.” So, herds of goats will arrive to eat and clear invasive species of plants to remove the extra brush. “This will create a nice line of sight and bring back that feeling of being out in more of a forest,” says Mitchell. The 120-year-old park is operated by the City of San Antonio. It is 349 acres, including a stretch of the San Antonio River, the Japanese Tea Garden, Sunken Garden Theater, the San Antonio Zoo, ball fields, the golf course, and the Lions Field Adult and Senior Center. “Goats are used everywhere to help with this kind of land clearing, so we thought it would be actually fun to have goats in the park and to accomplish this goal.” “And because of the proximity to the river, we thought using

Airport therapy dogs help soothe people who may be upset because of a long wait, delayed or cancelled flight.

goats was a much safer way,” says Mitchell. It’s a better option than using chemicals and leaf-blowers to cut, mow and trim, which are noise polluters and carbon emitters.

It will also help to restore ecological health to the park.

“We can avoid using heavy equipment, which would be very expensive and difficult to get in between the trees.”

Parks around the country, like the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, are hiring goats.

Funding the goat project is part of “The Big Give” citywide fundraising effort.

“They’ll bring paddocks to move, and they will concentrate in one area, and then they move the paddocks, and then start on the next area. They are protected by dogs that herd and dogs that protect.”

The owners camp out in trailers to be near their herds, shepherds, and their flock.

Rent-a-Ruminant arrives in spring because goats won’t travel in cold weather.

And oddly enough, the goats will NOT eat the plants that the park wants to keep but will devour the plants the park wants to evict.

Botanical experts from Austin’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center evaluated the ecology of the land to identify invasive plants and which are “flora,” native ones.

“Plants that are native tend to grow a little faster, and they won’t be choked out by the invasives,” explains Mitchell. “So, if you get the invasives down, you can get the natives to come up and take over from the invasives—kind of like reversing roles.”

Mitchell says there may be as many as two hundred goats, and you are invited to come and watch them chomp.

Brackenridge Park hosts more than a million visitors a year.

Until next month! Woof, woof! Roxie November 7-13 National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week

Johnny Kothmann, DVM 1051 Austin Highway, San Antonio Chris LaBrie, DVM (210)828-3935

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