Category Archives: Pets

Animals, Family, Life, Local, News, Pets, Resources, Winona

WAHS Providing Free Pet Supplies

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With a return to work looming for many new pet owners, the Winona  Area Humane Society is doing everything they can to ensure newly adopted pets get to stay in their forever homes including support for pet owners such as free kennels, food, treats and other pet supplies.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to shut down many facets of people’s everyday lives, people searched for something to fill their free time.  For some it was day trading, for others it was trying to bake the best loaf of sourdough, and for others it was adopting a pet.

Humane Society Facilities Manager Susie Marshall said, “We had up to twelve dogs at once when we typically have five.”

“They all come in from Arkansas or Texas since Winona doesn’t have a stray problem.”

Marshall said in her ten years of experience it was extremely rare to house more than five dogs.  The WAHS typically houses 50 cats at any given time, and saw that number drop as low as 19 during the peak of their pandemic adoption boom in summer of 2020.

“We previously were going to the Walmart distribution center in Tomah every quarter to six months to stock up on food for our animals, now we go every two months.” Marshall added.

The WAHS is offering free food, treats, leashes, cat litter and litter boxes to any owner who needs it and will give enough to stock for the entire winter, assuming they have the stock on hand.  They offer contact-free pickup and will load a cart of whatever amenities are needed and will try to keep the same brand across all items, just call in advance and leave a voicemail.

Supplies offered to pet owners by the WAHS.

Marshall predicts an influx of returned pets when normalcy returns.  “I see people return dogs even when they are home,” Marshall said.  “People aren’t as disciplined as they need to be kennel training, because ‘he looks so sad’ but then they come home to destroyed furniture.”

Some ways for owners to help the transitions for their pet is to not get to work super early, and conversely, coming straight home after, and if possible, during lunch.

Marshall said she swears by the phrase, “a tired dog is a good dog, a rested dog misbehaves” and walks her own dog for three miles every day regardless of the weather.

Winona State alumna Pam Leber, who now resides in Palatine, Illinois, with her husband, Mark, and daughter, Michala, adopted a dog during the pandemic after many phone calls, e-mails and google searches.

Michala, who recently graduated from DePaul University, was adamant having a dog would help with her anxiety, especially during quarantine.

“Michala had been asking since third grade, she did a presentation for us, but my husband didn’t want a dog because he’s allergic, so the dog needed to be hypoallergenic and it’s a lot of work and responsibility.” Pam Leber said. “But he really began to see being home during the pandemic how it affected her, and he started to get soft.”

It didn’t take much more convincing before the family drove to an Amish farm near LaPorte, Indiana, to look at a litter of five puppies, and after a short getting-to-know-you period with the dogs, one that had lurked in the back worked his way to Michala’s side, emblazoned with the name tag “Rebel.”

“Our last name spelled backwards; we took that as a sign” Pam Leber said.

Michala Leber with Bentley

With Michala still searching for post-graduation employment, the costs of supplies for newly renamed Bentley are split between her and her parents, who were fortunate enough to receive a hand-me-down cage and bed from a family friend.

A run to the pet store can sometimes cost more than $100. Pam Leber said she recognizes how hard the situation can become.

“We got a dog when I was 13 and we had to give it back because we were too scared at the time, now looking back, that would be heartbreaking,” Pam Leber said.  “You’ve given this dog a warm place and a loving home, do you want to give that up?  Do you have a friend or family member it can stay with?”

Susie Marshall is a former dog trainer and willing to answer all questions as well as share training tips via her email

wa****@hb**.com











.  The Winona Area Humane Society can be reached via voicemail at 507-452-3135.

Animals, Campus, Health, Life, Pets, Winona State University

Animals Help Students

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By Erin Jones 

Nothing quite resembles the bond between a person and their dog.

Or the bond between Winona State University junior, Violet De Stefano, and her emotional support hedgehog, Phillip.

De Stefano, public health major, and Lynda Brzezinski, who has been a counselor at Winona State since 2000, have experienced firsthand the positive effects that pets have on people.

De Stefano sees this positive impact on herself with the help of her quill-covered companion.

For Brzezinski, the impact is seen on the faces of Winona State students, faculty and staff who come to visit Winston and Aiden, the university’s on-staff therapy dogs.

“Winston is a very intuitive dog,” Brzezinski said. “There will be times when I have a student crying in my office where he will get out of his bed and just go sit calmly next to the student. Very amazing.”

Brzezinski added that despite Aiden’s being new to the university, he has done an exceptional job with the students.

“Aiden is a cutie who loves to snuggle. This was his first semester doing ‘Afternoons with Aiden,’ and I think students had a lot of fun with him,” Brzezinski said.

But dogs are not the only pets who love to cuddle.

De Stefano, who has borderline personality disorder, said Phillip loves to snuggle her, especially when she feels alone or anxious.

“One of the things with my case for borderline personality disorder is I struggle with abandonment. I have a really hard time when it comes to people leaving me in my life, whether it’s perceived leaving or them actually leaving me, so it’s really good to have Phillip around because he is an animal that is always there,” De Stefano said. “So if I’m feeling lonely or I’m worried, I can pick him up and it provides that calm space where I can watch him run around and he’s super cuddly and adorable.”

And though the positive effects of having pets is apparent in these cases, both De Stefano and Brzezinski said there was still a process to getting their pets allowed on Winona State grounds.

Brzezinski said that her process with Winston started when he was a puppy going through obedience classes at Family Dog Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

“[Family Dog Center] offered the therapy dog class and evaluation,” Brzezinski said. “Winston loves people and he is smart, so he passed the test with flying colors and was registered as a therapy dog at the age of 1 [the minimum age].”

Brzezinski added that once Winston passed his tests, she continued training in animal-assisted therapy and animal-assisted activities and cooperated with campus legal services so Winston would be permitted to work in counseling services.

“I had to do research, get letters of support and make a formal proposal to be allowed to have therapy dogs on campus,” Brzezinski said.

With Aiden, Brzezinski said, the training process was longer, as he failed his first certification test and needed time to “grow up.”

According to Brzezinski, working intelligence levels are different in all dogs, which helped explain Aiden’s need for extra training.

“Winston is an Australian cattle dog/rat terrier mix. Heelers have 95 percent working intelligence and can learn a command in five or fewer times,” Brzezinski said. “Aiden is a pug/boxer mix and they have something like 30 percent working intelligence. It can take a dog like Aiden 30-50 times to learn something, but most dogs can learn if given enough time and patience.”

Though both dogs are certified now, the process hasn’t ended. Brzezinski said training for therapy dogs never ends, as the training must continually be reinforced.

Brzezinski added that for Winston and Aiden to remain on-staff, she must follow strict rules.

“I have a lot of guidelines I need to follow – the dogs must be bathed and groomed, nails trimmed, I need to vacuum, there needs to be signage, I hold malpractice insurance that covers the dogs, they always need to be on a leash, etc.,” Brzezinski said.

De Stefano had to follow a similar process when getting Phillip approved to live on campus with her. Phillip did not have to go through training to become an emotional support animal.

De Stefano’s process started in April 2018, when she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

“[Borderline personality disorder] is complicated. It’s kind of like bipolar disorder, but much quicker. So I will go through periods of mania and depression and it can be within hours of each other,” De Stefano said. “It’s stressful because when you wake up, you’re not sure if you’re going to be manic or you’re going to be depressed or you’re going to have no motivation or all the motivation in the world.”

De Stefano said she had been having symptoms of the disorder since eighth grade but wasn’t certain until she consulted a professional.

“In April I was dating a guy and he and I had just broken up, and I panicked,” De Stefano said. “It was my first bout of extreme suicidal ideation, which was pretty scary. I ended up going to the hospital at Winona Health and I admitted myself into the Department of Behavioral Medicine because I was like, ‘OK, we gotta get something figured out here.’”

After receiving her diagnosis, a social worker at the hospital referred her to a local therapist, with whom she could talk about what she was going through.

This was where she first considered the possibility of getting an emotional support animal, specifically; a hedgehog.

De Stefano said that with her borderline personality disorder, one of her impulsive behaviors is to self-harm, especially when she fears someone is leaving her.

Because Phillip’s quills are sharp, De Stefano said, when holding him she feels she receives the same stimulus as self-harm but without actually hurting herself.

“I know it’s interesting. It’s not something that people normally think about and when I talked to my therapist and was like, ‘Hey, this is what I’m thinking,’ they were like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting, I wouldn’t have even thought of that,’” De Stefano said.

Since De Stefano adopted Phillip last June, he has helped her cope with her borderline personality disorder but getting him into the dorms wasn’t an easy feat.

De Stefano first had to obtain a statement letter from her therapist, listing her qualifications to have the animal and recommending it.

She then had to do an intake meeting with Access Services so they could determine whether she would be able to support the animal and if it would be a disruption to other students.

Eventually, De Stefano did get Phillip approved to live in the dorms, but that wasn’t the hardest part for her.

“[Having Phillip] wasn’t necessarily a problem, but it was. I had to acknowledge what I was struggling with and what I was going through because I had to have that conversation pretty constantly of ‘Oh, I have an emotional support hedgehog. The reason I have it is because I struggle with X, Y and Z,’” De Stefano said.

Despite these uncomfortable conversations, De Stefano said jumping through all the hoops to get Phillip has been worthwhile.

“He’s also taught me a lot of patience and compassion because hedgehogs are so time-consuming. I have to spend time with him every day to get him to warm up to me and to be comfortable and cute like the little Instagram hedgehogs that I follow,” De Stefano said. “You have to spend time with them and eventually, I’ve noticed that his quills will lay down when I pick him up. It’s taking a lot of time, but it’s incredible.”

So as it turns out, De Stefano helps Phillip as much as he helps her.

And, as it turns out in Brzezinski’s case too, Winston and Aiden do more than just comfort the students, faculty and staff of Winona State.

“We are the first university in the Minnesota State system to have therapy dogs on ‘staff,’ which I’m very proud about,” Brzezinski said. “There is often a lot of negative stigma around mental health and counseling, but I think the dogs help break down barriers and give [Counseling Services] a more positive image at times.”

 

 

 

Erin Jones is the former copy editor for Winona State University’s student-run newspaper, The Winonan. She expects to graduate in May 2019. Before being copy editor, she was one of The Winonan’s news reporters. Jones is majoring in mass communication-journalism and minoring in criminal justice. After graduation, she hopes to find a career in which she can use both her major and minor. She is also interested in being a feature writer or an editor for a magazine.

Animals, Outdoors, Pets, Winona

Cold Animals Receive Warm Welcome

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In the frigid winter, humans rely on jackets, hats, mittens and scarves to keep themselves protected from the harsh weather. Animals have an advantage with their furry bodies, but during below-freezing temperatures, this may not be enough.

In Winona, animals found in the cold are collected through Winona County Animal Control, or brought into the Winona Area Humane Society.

Kelly Sackmaster, cat director at WAHS, works with the 100-plus cats that are currently at the humane society. During winter months, Sackmaster said she has noticed a trend of cats being considered insignificant.

“What has surprised me the most in the winter months has been how many cats are brought to us with frostbite, or they have been found in the cold, or they were burned on a car engine because they were trying to warm themselves; it is all because people view them as disposable.” Sackmaster said.

When considering the percentage of cats and dogs in the shelter, the reclaim rate is taken into account. The reclaim rate is the number of animals that are taken back by their owners after staying in the shelter.

“The reclaim rate, how many animals get brought here and then are reclaimed by their owners, for dogs in Winona is 70 to 75 percent. For cats, it’s less than three percent.”

Jingles the cat waits for a forever home while staying at the Winona Area Humane Society.

According to Sackmaster, freezing weather confuses and shocks the animals, which causes them to get lost. In addition to the frostbite and car engine burns associated with winter weather, the stressful and freezing conditions can increase the risk for upper respiratory infections.

Due to the lack of veterinary professionals in their staff, the WAHS is not equipped to treat these injuries. When an animal arrives with frostbitten paws, Sackmaster said it is immediately sent to Pet Medical Center. Dr. Deb Finnegan, a veterinarian at Pet Medical in downtown Winona works closely with WAHS and has treated animals with weather related injuries.

Most of the injuries seen by Finnegan in winter are frostbite related. According to Finnegan, animals with frequent blood circulation through their feet and fur on their paws, like squirrels, have a better chance of surviving during the winter. Animals like cats and dogs with shorter and thinner fur have a high risk for frostbite.

This winter, Finnegan provided medical treatment for a kitten brought in by the WAHS who was experiencing severe tissue trauma from frostbitten paws.

“We treated a little kitten who was sloughing off her leathery pads because of the tissue trauma related to frost bite. I wrapped her feet and she will grow her pads back, but she will be more susceptible to tissue trauma so she will have to be an indoor cat.

Finnegan also said microcuts on paw pads created by ice melting salt increases the risk for frostbite and burns. According to Finnegan untreated frostbite can lead to gangrene.

The WAHS relies on Pet Medical to provide proper medical treatment for animals within the shelter. According to Sackmaster, the WAHS spends close to $5,000 a month on their medical care for sheltered animals. The medical treatment for animals is paid through donations to the WAHS.

“We are funded 99 percent by donations,” Sackmaster said. “That means every dollar that is donated is going toward the animals directly.”

When treating stray animals from the WAHS, Finnegan offers a 50 percent discount for the procedures.

“We are meeting each other half way,” Finnegan said.

The WAHS and Pet Medical take care of the animals found outside.  Sackmaster said she believes the community is also responsible for watching out for vulnerable animals. When protecting animals from freezing temperatures, Sackmaster said there are two important aspects to focus on: investigation and action.

“When you have that little voice in the back of your head that says, ‘I should check this out,’ or ‘I should pull over my car and see what is going on,’ you should try and listen to that voice,” Sackmaster said. “There are so many times where we have heard stories from people where a cat has been hanging around outside of their apartment building for three weeks and then they bring it in and it is missing half of an ear from frostbite.”

Maze, a cat staying in the Winona Area Humane Society’s Yellow Bay area for cats, is one of the many cats waiting for forever home in the humane society.

Sackmaster said fast action is important when helping animals, because she said many of the animals exposed to extreme winter weather do not make it to the WAHS in time.

If an individual cannot bring one of the stray animals inside, Finnegan suggested setting out food and fresh water, along with straw or blankets the animals can nest in.

“Animals are designed to nest. Providing a bed made of straw also helps protect them from the cold surfaces,” Finnegan said. “Surfaces like concrete and metal can increase the risk of frostbite.”

The winter is not only a dangerous time for lost or stray animals. Winter can be a difficult time for house pets as well.  Besides the weather, animals can be hurt by different products used to combat the cold temperatures and icy roads.

“Don’t leave antifreeze around. Pets are drawn to that because it is so sweet smelling, but it is also poisonous,” Sackmaster said. “After you walk your dog, wipe their paws off, because they will lick their paws and the salt that they use to melt the ice is also poisonous.”

Sackmaster suggested keeping cats indoors and clothing dogs with booties or sweaters if necessary.

“If it is too cold for you, it is probably too cold for your animals,” Sackmaster said.

According to Sackmaster and Finnegan, providing shelter, food and water are all sufficient ways to help animals. Finnegan said the best way to solve the problem is to decrease the number of stray animals.

“The best thing we can do for these animals is population control,” Finnegan. “Spay and neuter your pets. If there are stray animals outdoors, less of them will be at risk for these temperature related health issues.”

Video of Animals Staying in Shelter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puIadk5qlKk