Updates on Alaska Beagle Ranch. Also, how to handle grief with the loss of your pet.
Updates on Alaska Beagle Ranch. Also, how to handle grief with the loss of your pet.
Alaska Beagle Ranch
Episode 31
Hello everyone and welcome to the Alaska Beagle Ranch. I’m Dave Dorsey and I manage the ranch located near Wasilla, Alaska. There are presently 17 beagles and 1 basset at the ranch right now. Alaska Beagle Ranch is the only rescue in Alaska dedicated to beagles only.
Thank you to all our listeners. This week we welcome new international listeners from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and Campina Grande, Paraiba, Brazil. In the US, we have new listeners from Omaha, Nebraska, and Mineral Bluff, Georgia. Of course, our largest listener groups are here in Alaska. Welcome and I hope you like what we have for you here. We do appreciate your support. The Alaska Beagle Ranch has over 1100. downloads since we started doing our podcast last November. We are available wherever you listen to your podcasts at.
Sorry for not having a podcast last week. It wasn’t a good weekend at ARB and I’ll explain in a little bit.
While we’re talking about it, will you take a moment and write us a review. Tell us what you think, how we are doing and maybe what you would like to hear more about. Help us get the word out about the Alaska Beagle Ranch.
You also can help support our podcast by donating on PayPal @Beagle Ranch 907.
ABR Update: Pay close attention. It can be a little confusing and very sad. It was a challenge just to write it up.
We’ve been very busy around the Alaska Beagle Ranch this week. On Tuesday, I picked up 2 pups at the Anchorage International Airport from Nome, Alaska. If you don’t know where Nome is, it’s where the finish of the world-famous Iditarod Sled Dog Race is. As the bird flies it’s 540 miles away from Anchorage. There are no roads connecting with Nome. It’s called off the road system. Everything that goes to Nome goes by plane, barge, or sled team.
One of the pups, Cofo, is for ABR and the other, Elmo is for another rescue called Best Friends Animal Rescue. Cofo is an 11-year-old beagle mix whose owner was injured in an ATV accident and isn’t capable of caretaking him. No one else would so the humans mother contacted PAWS of Nome. PAWS reached out to AARF who got in touch with me. PAWS sent him for me to pick up at the airport.
Elmo was headed to Fairbanks for its forever home. Last week I got a call from a family that needed to rehome a beagle named Milo. Their family had a new baby addition, and they couldn’t give Milo quality time. So, I took Elmo to Fairbanks on Wednesday and picked up Milo. 630 miles round trip and it took 12 ½ hours. It was a long day.
On Thursday I picked up Gooch, a 10-year-old beagle whose owner passed away. He’s intact, so we’ll have to get him neutered soon.
CoFo had a wellness check at our vet Thursday afternoon. He has a large tumor on his rear end and it’s beginning to affect him going #2. We have surgery scheduled for July 6th and we’re currently running a fundraiser to help pay for it. His eyesight isn’t too good, and he has a cough. His bloodwork should be back on Monday.
On Sunday, Coho started to not do too well. He had his cough, he seemed to not see too well and was very slow to get around. He would walk down the hallway towards the bathroom, which is basically a dead end and would just stand there or he would go down the basement stairs and stand at the bottom where the door was closed. I think he was confused because he couldn’t see well and was in a new home. If he went out to go to the bathroom, I had to help him up the stairs to come back in. He didn’t eat all day to include treats or people food. Monday, I called our regular vet office to make an appointment, but we couldn’t get in until Tuesday morning. He wasn’t doing any better and couldn’t get comfortable. He moved from dog bed to dog bed trying to get comfortable. I went to make breakfast for the pups, and he came into the kitchen and laid down. I went to pet him and noticed some light blood on the floor. I examined him and found nothing. I grabbed a tissue and swabbed his nose and that’s where the blood was from. It was pinkish because it was mixed with other fluids. I rushed him to the emergency hospital, and they took him right in. He was having heart failure. Because of his age, we decided it was best to help him cross over the bridge. He died peacefully in my lap. It was a very sad day.
I’ve lost 2 beagles in June. One was Macy, the first beagle of the Alaska Beagle Ranch. The second was Cofo. Even though he was here for less than a week, it still hurt. The following I got from the Human Society of the United States at www.humanesociety.org
How to cope with the death of your pet
How to take care of yourself, your family and other pets when you've had to say goodbye.
When a person you love dies, it's natural to feel sorrow, express grief and expect friends and family to provide comfort—but although people often feel the same feelings of grief when they lose a beloved pet, it might go unacknowledged by others. Know that your grief is normal, and it’s OK (and even important) to mourn the relationship you had with your pet.
The grief process.
The grief process is not linear. You may meander in and out of the stages of grief, going back and forth, rather than experiencing each stage in sequential order. It’s not uncommon to start to feel better, and then feel like a wave of grief has washed over you again. The process typically begins with denial, which offers protection until individuals can realize their loss.
Some caregivers may try bargaining with a higher power, themselves or even their pet to restore life. Some feel anger, which may be directed at anyone involved with the pet, including family, friends and veterinarians. Caregivers may also feel guilt about what they did or did not do, or they may feel ashamed to be so upset.
After these feelings subside, caregivers may experience true sadness or grief. They may become withdrawn or depressed. Acceptance occurs when they accept the reality of their loss and remember their animal companion with decreasing sadness. Remember, healthy grieving does not mean that you forget or “get over” your friend. It simply allows you to accept that they’re gone and eventually smile at their memory.
Coping with grief
Although grief is a personal experience, you do not need to face your loss alone. Here are a few suggestions to help you cope:
Acknowledge your grief and give yourself permission to express it. Allow yourself to cry. If you live alone, the silence in your home might feel deafening, but acknowledging it will allow you to prepare for the emotions you might feel. Suppressing your feelings of sadness can prolong your grief.
Try not to replay your last moments with your pet. It can be common to ruminate on your pet’s final days or moments, especially if they were traumatic. Instead, focus on the life you shared with your pet and some of your favorite memories with them. Remember, your pet’s pain has passed. You are the one in pain now, and you must lovingly care for yourself.
Reach out to others who can lend a sympathetic ear. Do a little research online, and you'll find hundreds of resources and support groups that may be helpful to you. Some of these include:
· The Pet Compassion Careline, which provides 24/7 grief support with trained pet grief counselors.
· Laps of Love, which provides grief courses and 50-minute one-on-one support sessions with a grief counselor.
· Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement support groups, available at specific times throughout the week.
· If you are part of a congregation, ask if your place of worship offers bereavement support for pet loss.
· Memorialize your pet through a bereavement ritual. You might:
o Spread your pet’s ashes somewhere special, or reserve a place in your home for your pet’s ashes and photos of your pet.
o Plant a native tree or flowering shrub in memory of your pet.
o Create a memory box with your pet’s collar or favorite toys.
o Purchase a product that incorporates your pet’s ashes into a memorial necklace, bracelet, ring or suncatcher. (Search “pet cremation jewelry.”)
o Commission a painting, statue, memorial stone or plush animal representation of your pet. (Search “pet memorial” on Etsy.com for a wide range of options at all price points.)
o Practice your own culturally significant expression of grief, like creating an ofrenda.
o Write about your feelings, or write a letter to your pet about all the things you’d like to say to them or how you’d have liked to spend your last day with them.
o Write an obituary for your pet.
o Share photos and memories of your pet via social media.
BEAGLE SPOTLIGHT: Cofo was found in the caves of Puerto Rico after a hurricaine by a woman hiking. She gave him to his soon to be forever human. They went through the process of shots and vet care to send him to San Diego. He was named Cofo after a pizza parlor named Cofo Pizza where tourists would feed him. Cofo and his new human became buddies. They took road trips to Nevada and Tennessee and eventually moved to Nome, Alaska to mine for gold on the largest dredge in the Bering Sea.
On June 11, Coco’s human had a bad ATV accident. He received some head injuries and a broken collar bone. Paws of Nome was called to get Cofo because there was no one to care for him. Through a few connections, Paws contacted me and Cofo came to the ranch. The rest of his story is at the beginning of this podcast.
I had Cofo cremated. His remains, a paw print in clay and some hair clipping is being sent to Cofo’s human’s mom to get to him.
Shoutout! Shoutout to all our FaceBook and Twitter supporters who donated money for gas for our trip to Fairbanks and back. You guys really pulled through and it’s definitely appreciated. Also, thank you to those who donated for Cofo’s surgery. Though its not going to happen, after asking if people wanted their money back and no one said yes, the money was used for Cofo’s emergency vet bill and cremation. What was left will be used for other expenses.
The Alaska Beagle Ranch is a nonprofit and we depend on donations to help us with our mission. What is our mission? Our mission and our goal are for every beagle, especially in Alaska, has a happy home. For our beagles to be happy, they need to be healthy. We only adopt healthy beagles, so we need your help in paying medical bills to get or keep them healthy so they can find their forever home. Beagles that can’t be adopted become resident beagles at ABR. Their medical, food and upkeep can be costly. We know that the economy isn’t as good as we would like it to be. Just a few dollars add up and goes a long, long way. Go to our Facebook page of Alaska Beagle Ranch and you can find out how you can donate through PayPal or Amazon.
Thank you for listening to the Alaska Beagle Ranch. If you know someone who is looking to get a beagle, please share our podcast with them. All the episodes will tell you what you need to know about beagles. If you have any questions about beagles and if they are right for you, email me at akbeagleranch@gmail.com or call us at 907-202-4226.
You can follow us on Facebook at Alaska Beagle Ranch or on Twitter at @beagle_ranch. If you would like to support the Alaska Beagle Ranch, there are links on how to on our Facebook page. Our show notes can be found at alaskabeagleranch.buzzsprout.com.
Be sure to like, subscribe and maybe give some feedback. See you next week. Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July weekend!