My First Personal Pet Story.........by BJ

JOSHUA SHANE: 1979

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Dedicated to Joshua Shane: Wherever you are, our sweet boy!

For my wonderful daughter, Renee. Josh became her wolf, because they had a very special bond. She will always love & miss him. She has supported endangered wolves most of her life. Joshua was very special to her.
Renee grew up to be an animal lover & advocate. Besides their pets, she & her husband have rescued other animals & did what they thought best for them.
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This story is about my first experience with a pet of my own, as an adult. As a child, I had a couple of pets but, for some reason, they didn't stay long. My Dad liked dogs, but my Mom didn't care about having pets, especially in the house, so any type that my dad got, was an outdoor pet.

As I grew older & my children were 9,11 & 13, we made a decision to go to the humane society & at least look at the animals. I had no expectations & told them not to. As I was looking at the dogs in their cages, my eyes caught this beautiful big husky looking grey, white & tan dog with big yellow eyes. He looked menacing, but turned out to have a sweet pleasant attitude. His looks could intimidate you, but his personality was anything but.

He was so friendly & loving and if we weren't careful, he might have knocked us over, trying to lick us.
Although we may have been a little nervous about him, That was it. I fell in love & wanted to take him home with us. We called him Joshua Shane.

None of us had any idea what a wonderfully sweet animal he was. He devoted himself to us & just seemed excited every day to be with us. He was protective if he thought one of us threatened, like play wrestling, but his growl was worse than anything else.

I don't know how anyone lost track of this awesome wolf dog. No one had tried to claim him either. They told us he was "supposed" to be a hybrid cross between a husky like dog & a timber wolf. He had all of the features & markings of a true wolf, even the yellow eyes. He was beautiful.

My oldest daughter, Renee & Josh had a very special bond & they ended up being best buds, so he was deemed her pet eventually.
Whenever we left him alone for any amount of time though, we found out he was not happy about it. He ate the corner of a chair, shoes & knocked over the Christmas tree, which was in front of the big window & kept him from watching and waiting for us to come back.He never did anything like that, until we left him alone.
We loved him so much we laughed instead of getting angry.

One day, a couple of policemen were in our neighborhood for something & they stopped by to look at & comment on Josh who was outside with the kids, because he loved to watch them play. The police thought he was beautiful, but a little intimidating by his looks & asked about his personality. I told them that all they had to worry about was him licking them to death. (And he tried to).

I don't know anything about Josh's past, as he was approximately 1 & 1/2 when we got him. He moved with us on several acres in the Michigan. I got him a female malamute puppy for a playmate & partner. Her name was Brandy Shalamar. They had several of our cats to play with too & Josh was always very gentle with them.

Josh always stayed around the house & never wandered by himself, but Brandy, as pups sometimes do, led him off to visit elsewhere. Often we put adds in the paper for them & sometimes our neighbors even put adds in the paper for lost & found. We collected them from a couple of areas that were almost a mile our house. All of our neighbors got to know them after that. LOL! But they were animal lovers too.

A couple of years later, we decided to stop renting out our house in the city & move back in it. We had a high fence around the yard, but it was nothing like what they were use to in the country. Josh & Brandy had a litter of puppies before we left & we easily sold all of them for a small profit. We were more worried about who took them, so we didn't want to just give them away to anyone.
Brandy hated the city & she turned jealous over Josh & mean to other dogs, including her pups. We decided to sell her, because she was terribly unhappy there & needed more land to run. We also felt the same about Josh, but he also needed more room with someone to devote himself to, because he had so much love to give.

Finally we decided to let him go with a young man who seemed to have a great rapport with Josh. He said that Josh would have a great home & would travel all over with him. Josh seemed to like that idea, because when the guy opened up his truck door, Josh jumped in & sat right up like he belonged there. You could just tell that he would have a wonderful life. I knew that I would always miss this awesome animal, but I felt he had deserved a super life, he was so wonderful.
To this day, Joshua has been my daughter's all time favorite pet & she supports wolves in wildlife, as I do. It may not work for everyone, but it did for us.
Our loving time with Joshua was gift from 1978 to 1982.

This story was written & submitted by BJ of EXPRESSIONS and KRAFT KORNER on ARTFIRE
BJ loves quilting,crafting,making jewelry & her cats. She also donates to animal charities, including her local humane society, adopts her pets, helps rescue & care for abandoned & abused animals in her area & is a columnist for the bi-weekly column, "Our Personal Pet Stories".
As always we invite you to send us your pet or animal rescue story to share with the members & followers of Crafting for Animals.

Animal and Human Rights

Can't we all live in harmony?

One question that is asked repeatedly is, "do non-human animals have rights?"  Some believe that animals have inherent rights to be free of human interference in any manner whatsoever, meaning that animals should not be used in research, for human consumption or use, or kept as pets.  On the other side of the fence, some believe that animals were meant for use by humans.  I've heard it argued that God gave animals to humans for their use according to the Bible, so there is nothing wrong with using them for whatever we humans may think we need them for.   

What I ask is this:  Is the suffering of one of God's creatures for the betterment of another of God's creatures right?  Are we humans so egotistical to think that we are somehow "better" or "above" other animals and therefore can treat and use other animals any way we choose, simply because we CAN?  Are we somehow better because we have more cerebral cortex?  Because we are on the top of the food chain?  Ok, I agree that we are on the top of the food chain, and the reason is that we can think, reason, analyze, and be logical.  However, because we are on the top of the food chain, and because we can think, reason, analyze, and be logical, don't we have a duty to our fellow animal brothers and sisters?  Does that not make us responsible for their ultimate survival and care?  

Humans are taking over the world, or perhaps it is fair to say that we have taken over the earth.  We have made lakes where there were none, re-routed rivers that were in our way, we have chopped down forests and built roadways, we have industrialized and polluted the air and water that all of earth's creatures need for survival.  We have pushed animals out of their homes so that we can have our own homes, and then we kill the animals because they live too close.  Was it not their home first?  What gives us the right to do these things?  

Recently I had a petition up on my Facebook page to encourage others to get on the movement to help save wolves and keep them on the Endangered Species list in accordance with the Endangered Species Act.  I received a comment on my post from an acquaintance that stated that she disagreed because she had a "wolf problem" in her area and wolves stalked her young granddaughter.  She wanted the wolves removed.  Who has more rights in this situation, the wolves that had lived there for decades, or the people who moved into the area and now fear them?   And because of this fear, is it right to remove them from the protection of the Endangered Species Act so that they can all be removed from their homelands and/or killed?  

Is the fear of a human, or humans, worth the loss of a species of God's creatures?  How many other animals are now extinct because of man's fear of them?  How many other of God's creatures, including humans, have been ritualistically killed for sport, from war, from human fear or hate?  Why can't we humans learn to live and let live?  I suppose I may never understand that way of thinking.  Yes, I do care about the child who was stalked; I have great compassion for mankind in general, but I also have compassion for the displaced animals.  Who has more rights?  I believe we all have equal rights to survive, after all, we were all put here on this Earth to live with each other, and I think we, as caretakers, can find a better solution than to kill or remove the wolves in this situation. 

It is my belief that all of God's creatures have rights and we humans have brains, logic, and the reasoning skills that it takes to make the earth "work" for the betterment of all of God's creatures, from the tiniest amoeba to the largest primate, from the core of the earth to the ends of our atmosphere.  I do not and can not believe that we are here to use animals as we wish or think we need to, nor are they here to be sacrificed for human "betterment."    It is my firm belief that humans have the ability to survive and progress in a "humane" way and in harmony with all living beings, and in some ways we are working towards that with legislation slowly moving in that direction worldwide, but I think that we can do better, quicker. My heart cries when I think about how us humans are slowly killing not only other animals and living things, but ourselves as well.  

Please note that the opinions in my post are those of myself and not necessarily the view of the Crafting for Animals Artfire Guild as a whole.  Thank you for reading, I look forward to your comments.


Tsilos,
Owner, TS Beading

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