My friend and I were picked up at Cape Town airport by a driver to take us to a small town just outside of Cape Town called Stollenbosch. This quaint and charming place is basically the center of South Africa’s ever growing wine country. WOW do they have a beautiful wine country! I have read up a bit since coming back and South African wine is starting to make some appearances here in the states. If you are a wine lover, give one a try! You won’t find a big selection as shipping to the US has proven to be difficult for them but the ones I have found here are not bad. We spent a few days touring this part of South Africa and the views were breathtaking! Stollenbosch is also home to the Cape Town University which has an amazingly beautiful campus, a great rugby program, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest in Africa.

From there we went back to Cape Town and spent a few days learning about their history and their culture.  We visited townships that were created during the apartheid and we saw youth projects in these townships that were designed to help teach their younger generation that there is more to life than drugs and the life that comes with. These townships were crowded and many who were forced out of their homes during the apartheid are still living in the run down shacks while trying to earn enough to make a better life. We spent a full day at Robben Island-the prison where Nelson Mandela and others were kept and we learned about Mandela’s release and the ending of apartheid. I met many people my age who have lived through this era and most of them pleaded to us that we go back to the states and tell our people that they are a peaceful and happy nation full of forgiveness and hope. Along with learning the history we drove down the coast and visited the Cape of Good Hope-the southern tip of Africa. During our drive we also stopped and saw the penguin preserve where a colony of penguins, who swam over from Antarctica, live happily on the beach, and we stopped and saw the famous Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Both amazing sights for sure!

Next and last on our trip was our visit to Kruger National Park for safari. THIS was my dream come true. By now you all know what an animal lover I am and to see these big, majestic, beautiful animals in their natural habitat was amazing and truly beyond words. Many times I was moved to tears as we watched the elephant move together and root for food, the male lions laying in watch over their territory, the pride of lions feasting on the cape buffalo they caught, the leopard in the tree laying on his springbok he just killed and narrowly escaping the pride of lions waiting to kill him at the base of the tree he was in, and so much more! So instead of trying to describe to you what I saw out there in the wild, I am painting it for you.

Please join me during my journey as I post the paintings from South Africa, their progressions, and the stories that go with them on Howland Studios web site at  www.howlandstudios.com. Also, if you like what you see, please sign up for our newsletter under Contact so that we can keep you up to date on the shows and other exciting news coming out of the studio.

Cheers!

April

What???

That’s right.  I am not April Howland.  Don’t worry.  April Howland doesn’t have a split personality or an alter ego.  She isn’t involved in some kind of federal witness protection program.  April Howland is a wonderfully, talented painter and all round great gal, if you ask me, but she is not a writer.  As easy as it is for April to pick up a paintbrush and bring out images of happiness onto a canvas, putting pen to paper isn’t so easy for her.

My name is Erica McBeth.  I am a rescuer of animals, a jack of all trades and most notably a writer of fiction.  About a year and a half ago, I suggested that April write a blog for animal lovers so they could understand more about the animal rescue community.  I volunteered to ghostwrite it, thinking it was going to be purely informational, no big deal, but somehow it morphed into a conglomeration of stories about my life.  The stories seemed to be WAY more popular than the informational stuff so I just kept doing it.  Before long, there seemed to be some confusion and we didn’t really know how to stop it without making everything more confusing than it already was.

And now, as we are approaching the end of 2011, the winds of change are beginning to gust around us.  The Howland Studio’s easel is now housing paintings of things besides animals!  Which is crazy, right?  Creatively, April’s trip to South Africa had a profound effect on her and she’s been busy painting away on subjects other than animals.  They are still paintings designed to make you feel happy and I’m so proud of her.  She’s really developing into the artist she’s meant to be.  She continues to take commissions for pet portraits and if I were you, I’d lock her in on a pet portrait fast because right now, April Howland is enormously popular and she’s only getting bigger.   She has gift certificates available for the holidays.  You can find more information about her gift certificates here:  http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=39d0a124f21bc6214aad7a365&id=d2f7560dce.  Or feel free to contact her directly at howlandstudios@mac.com.

Or if you have become a fan of this blog and would like to read more of my fiction, you can order my book, “Her Blind Ambition” at http://www.ericamcbeth.com/Novels.html.

And now you know our little secret.  We hope it hasn’t shocked you too much.  We’re just two creative girls who have found a unique kinship and we hope you have found it as special as we have.

Over the past year, Abby, the once raucous, independent dog became sedentary, spending long hours curled up in “her” leather chair.  She also began to seek me out in ways she’d never done before.  The dog who had always wanted nothing from me but to play games, now wanted to curl up beside me on the couch.  She wanted me to lovingly stroke her head.  I think she knew something was wrong too.

And then a month ago, my husband began having difficulty getting her to eat.  He tried everything.  He separated her from the other dogs.  He would feed it to her piece by piece.  He tried changing foods.  He began mixing her food with rice and then soft dog food.  All the while, Abby continued to go from lean to skinny to skin and bones.  Then, last Thursday she wouldn’t eat. 

Friday morning I drove her to the vet trying to ignore what every fiber of my being already knew; that this was the end.  I was already crying before I walked through the door to the vet’s office and it only took the vet a second to look at Abby and say, “She has a mass in her stomach.  I can see it from here.”  I cried patient, fat tears that fell down my cheeks.  My husband, without taking his sunglasses off, laid his face in his hands and sobbed.  He’d picked Abby out of the litter when she was two days old.  He’d greeted her at the airport when she was old enough to be separated from her mother and flown to Arizona.  She’d been his sole support system when his first wife had left him.  I met her when she was almost three.  I may have been the stepmom but for all practical purposes, I was the only mom she’d ever known.

It’s been rough for us.  Abby’s presence seems to be with us at every turn.   Daisy Mae, the fourteen-year-old beagle, took Abby’s spot on the bed which was only fitting since Abby had kicked her out of that spot over a year ago.  Things have just started to get back to normal.  The tears have subsided.  Routines have been re-established.  I have been noticing that Daisy Mae’s belly has been getting a little portly and knowing that Abby had an abdominal mass, last night I decided to take a feel.  And there’s something there.  Something below the surface poking out on Daisy Mae’s left side.  She looked back at me while I was massaging it with a look on her face that said, “So now you know.”  My heart withered up like a raison.  I had been trying to prepare myself for an empty spot in our household for over a year.  I’m not ready for another one.  Not this soon.  Well…really not ever but I suppose it’s inevitable because the worst part about loving a dog is having to let them go.

Beatrice not only had a head tilt but she had trouble walking in a straight line.  She would fall over.  She had facial paralysis on her right side.  Her tongue hung out.  She had trouble eating and in the beginning, Pam had to feed Beatrice with a syringe because Beatrice would get frustrated with her inability to eat and simply give up.  Beatrice also couldn’t turn left – only left.  Beatrice found out that if she simply turned right far enough in a circle, she could eventually go left.  She was a disaster!  But through it all, Beatrice’s tail kept wagging and she really was the sweetest little girl.

A bout with tick fever delayed her spay surgery and dental.  Then Beatrice’s preliminary blood work showed that her blood was as thick as fudge…which would explain why she’d had a stroke.  The veterinarian tried to thin her blood at the animal hospital and when that didn’t work, he sent her home with blood thinners.  Weeks passed as Beatrice continued to take the blood thinners but it made no difference.  The veterinarian was baffled.  Finally, Pam and the vet agreed that they were just going to have to move forward with the surgery.  It was a big risk.  It was likely that Beatrice would have a life threatening seizure on the table while in surgery so both Pam and the vet took a deep breath.  The vet promised to do the surgery as quickly as he could.  On that day, Beatrice was spayed.  She had eighteen rotten teeth removed as well as some mammary tumors.  While in surgery, the vet also discovered that Beatrice had a ruptured eardrum, an injury that had gone untreated.  It was a difficult surgery to do quickly but somehow, Beatrice managed to come out alive.

You would think that a dog with that many maladies would be considered “unadoptable”.  Most people would just put Beatrice into sanctuary, letting her wait until the end of her days.  But Pam Heine is not one of those people.  Pam received an email from a former adopter.  The couple had once adopted a seventeen-year-old Shih Tzu from her.  That dog had passed over the rainbow bridge and they were looking for another special needs dog to adopt.  They asked about Beatrice.  Pam was honest with them.  She told them Beatrice had an entire laundry list of maladies and with her blood so thick, there was nothing preventing her from having another stroke.  The couple decided they wanted Beatrice anyway.  That was all the way back in January 2011.

In July, Beatrice started going downhill.  She was constantly getting infections.  Her blood work was all over the charts.  The vet gave Beatrice maybe two weeks to live and everyone braced for the worst but they were comforted in knowing she was going to pass away in the arms of someone who loved her – not alone in shelter.  Well it is now November and little Beatrice is still around and kicking.  Who knew?  It’s amazing how well a dog reacts when they are loved.  And thank goodness for people like Pam Heine and Beatrice’s mom and dad.  They just prove that no dog is truly unadoptable.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time Mogli has run off.  The first time he was adopted, his new owners took him for a walk on the very first evening they had him.  Another dog came out of nowhere and Mogli bolted.  Luckily, since he was lost in a neighborhood, people were kind enough to keep an eye out for him and a week later he was lured back by his foster mom, Sharen.  This time the rescue hasn’t been so lucky.

Mogli was part of twenty-one dogs that were rescued from a cruelty investigation down in Tucson, dogs that were unsocialized, fearful and untrusting of strangers.  These dogs have also been deemed “runners” because Mogli isn’t the only one who has turned up missing.  Madison, one of my own former foster dogs, also escaped from the backyard of her new home within twenty-four hours of being placed there.  Luckily, Madison found her way back and is now happy living in that new home, but the twenty-four hour search looking for her was excruciating.  I truly believe it was one of the most terrible days of my life so I can’t imagine the pain Mogli’s foster mom, Sharen is going through right now. 

Mogli is timid and likely won’t be coaxed over to someone other than Sharen.  But he’s probably hungry.  Hopefully, he’s found a water source.  Let’s all pray that he’s crouched under a bush somewhere hiding from predators and traffic.  He was last seen near Queen Creek and Greenfield Road.  If you see him, please contact Sharen at 602-339-7663 or Jane at 602-930-9384 immediately.  He is microchipped and listed on all the appropriate websites.  I just feel like my heart has fallen into the pit of my stomach over this little guy and I really want to do everything I can to make sure he is found.

About three years ago, the husband’s father suddenly passed away.  The entire family was beside themselves with grief particularly the husband’s mother.  Even though her children gathered around her as much as they could, the new widow was lonely and she began to consider getting a puppy to counteract the desolate nights.  This alarmed the couple in question.  The husband’s mother was in her upper sixties and in no shape to care for an energetic puppy.  So this couple made the ultimate sacrifice.  They offered to give the older woman their own two dogs, dogs she already knew and loved in order to make her feel more comfortable.  And it worked.  The husband’s mother felt less alone.  She stopped inquiring about getting a new dog and the issue seemed to be settled.

Except for the fact that the couple missed their dogs.  They were used to having the pitter-patter of four-legged feet running around their house so after a few months, they began to look for a new dog.  They found one at a local shelter.  Then, they found a second one who was in desperate need for a home and suddenly, everyone’s life was full again…and without any issues.

Until a few months ago, when the husband’s mother found out she had cancer.  She’s now unable to care for the two original dogs so the couple in question took the two dogs back.  There was no doubt about it really.  They loved these dogs.  They wanted to care for them.  But as soon as they took the original two dogs back in, they began to have problems.  Problems which have escalated.

One of the two “newer” dogs has taken to attacking one of the “older” dogs.  Usually, it is when the energy in the household has changed, (like when people are coming over), but it has now also been happening when the atmosphere is seemingly calm.  And these incidents are severe enough that both dogs have had to be taken to the vet to be patched up.  They’ve had to hose down blood off their patio.  They now realize they have inadvertently created two separate packs of dogs.  They’ve tried walking the dogs as a pack together to remedy the situation because this can’t continue.

As someone who has lived with two dogs who never got along, I can emphasize with this couple’s situation.  It’s a tough, tough thing to live through and maybe even tougher to admit there’s a problem.  I’ve said my peace on this matter already but I thought it would be interesting to toss it out to you, my dog-savvy friends.  What would you do if you were in this situation?  I’ve had various people ask me about this scenario over the years and I’m still uncertain as what to say because there don’t seem to be any clear-cut answers on this one.

FIVE WEEKS OLD??? 

My eyebrows knit together and I ask her if she knows that five weeks old is way too young for a dog to be separated from its mother.  She tells me she knows.  She tells me she’s hand feeding the dog every couple of hours.  And I am stunned.  So I can’t help but ask the question:  “Where did you get this dog?”  And she proceeds to tell me that there was a pregnant woman who was trying to give the dog away.  The woman told Katie that if she couldn’t find a home for the little dog that she was going to take it to the shelter.  No money exchanged hands.  Katie simply said, “Gimme the dog,” and the woman did.

And suddenly my view about the entire situation shifts.  I know a five week old puppy in the shelter that has to be hand fed is likely to be euthanized.  It’s hard to find fosters for such labor intensive work.  Very few people will take it on and here’s eighteen-year-old Katie braving her way through a situation that most people wouldn’t even consider.

Now, generally speaking, I cringe every time I hear of anyone under twenty-five who is considering getting a pet.  I try to explain to them that their life is going to change in ways they can’t anticipate or imagine.  Usually, my opposition is met with a blank stare but a girl has to try, right?  Anything could happen.  I try to explain that a person should wait to get a pet until they are settled. 

At twenty-two, I thought I was settled.  I’d graduated from college, gotten a job and an apartment.  I got a beagle puppy and over the last fourteen years, Daisy Mae has lived with me through marriage and divorce apartment living and homeowner’s status.  She’s been with me through poverty and abundance but mostly Daisy Mae has witnessed my life in a way no one else has.  There are always going to be those young adults, (or kids as I look at it) who will give up their pet as quickly as they get tired of the responsibility or when their life changes, but there are also others who despite all odds take that responsibility seriously.  I’m hoping Katie is one of these.  She’s certainly gotten off to a good start.  There aren’t many eighteen-year-olds who can say they’ve saved a life and no matter what happens in the future, I think that’s a level of compassion I’d like to see in more people, period.

AND DON’T FORGET ABOUT OUR FUNNIEST PET PHOTO CONTEST WHICH RUNS THROUGH OCTOBER 31, 2011.