The parking lot is nearly empty. Only four cars excluding the truck I drive takes residence here. The space is covered in misshapen grey rocks most likely put there to not burn the bare feet of those who walk it daily. No one is in the front room of the building. This makes getting in easier. My companion and I, though mature for our age but under the age sixteen rule that governs this facility, enter with no reserve. We sign the consent form on the table, of which we could’ve written anything to nothing on, like we would have if we came every day. The consent form is here to release the facility from taking any responsibility for what happens here. Signing without hesitation is understood. The privileges signatures provide is what is sought.
A worker barely glances at us as we make our way to a room of the building’s inmates. The walls are painted in three horizontal stripes. The top is May green, the middle is a thin white stripe, and the bottom is a sky blue. The walls could have been very cute at one time, but the paint was peeling in a way an abandoned house does; with clear signs of scratches and dents on the walls (provided by the inhabitants). The third wall was not painted this way. Instead, it was a chalk board. On it was a colorful listing of all those who were living in the room. The list contained four; three boys, one girl. After doing some recon, it was determined that only three actually lived here; two boys, one girl.
One of the inmates comes up to us and judging by the description on the wall, she is a four or twenty-four year old girl, depending on which time you go by. She is “Brown” and her name is Tora. The description was lacking. Looking closely at Tora you could see that she was actually multiple shades of brown. She also had some more prominent features; she had tan triangles on the top of her head and chin. She was nice and liked getting scratched. Something particularly noticeable was her skin. You could tell just by touching it that she had lived outside before coming here. It was thicker and tougher, like it was ready to take damage. After a few minutes of pampering, she got tired of it and decided to relieve herself of us. It was if she thought walking away wouldn’t work. She immediately bites my friend and begins grabbing her arms and scratching them. She walks away, tail swishing at us. Once she’s far enough away, she starts cleaning herself to get the “dirty” human off of her. My friend Hinata claims cats are her enemies, but are also her allies. She may not have known it, but she perfectly described how lots of these relationships work.
There is a misconception about how cats age in comparison to humans. Cats do not age seven years to our one. Cat’s first two years of life are sped up in aging. Their first six months equivocates to our first ten years. When considered junior cats, they are still aging faster than they will for the rest of their lives. Approximately every three human years will be twelve cat years for them. Judging a cat’s age is similar to how a human judges another human’s age, from just trying to guess their age, to someone giving an autopsy. Most of it is based on looks and body function. White teeth means older, and soft hair indicates youth. If cat’s eyes are clearer and lack eye discharge, they are younger, if not then the reverse is true.
Traveling through the Warrick Humane Society we come upon another room. The room is about the same size as the “Kitty Lounge” but looks completely different. Empty dog cages are stacked all over the room. There is no paint on the walls, and the floor is plain cement. Two dogs live in this room, but only one is present as the other was with the workers for reasons unknown. The dog is a small, brown pug and is in one of the cages that are not stacked. He hides in the back of the cage hunkered down and growling, threatened. This room is much louder than the cat room. The barking of the dogs in the “Big Dog Room” is echoing and close, sounding as if they were all in the hallway. We close the door. The dog whose name is a mystery immediately relaxes, though he still did not come to our side of the cage.
Did you ever hear someone say, “I can smell fear?” It is not a myth, lie or an exaggeration…. for dogs. Dogs have a sense of smell 1,000 times stronger than humans. To be more specific, they possess 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses to our mere six million. The dog’s part of the brain that is devoted to analyzing smell is, proportionally speaking, forty times greater than humans. Dog’s eyesight capabilities outrank humans in many aspects as well. They are much more sensitive to motion at far greater distances than humans. When humans are surprised or scared, their brain activates the fight or flight response. In this instance the body becomes tense, paralyzed for seconds. In response to acute stress, the body’s sympathetic nervous system is activated due to the sudden release of hormones. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal glands whereby triggering the release of catecholamine, which includes adrenaline and noradrenaline. In simpler terms, your heart beat and breathing will speed up as your body prepares enough oxygen and energy for the danger. This results in sweat. Moreover, this sweat has chemo signals in it. Dogs and other animals recognize this scent as fear. Other physical indications of the fight or flight response are dilated pupils, pale or flushed skin, and trembling. Dogs truly can smell fear.
“When one dog howls, they all howl.” One line, and a communication method for dogs called the “Midnight Howl” is in 102 Dalmatians. This line may seem a truth among truths, but it’s not. Sure dogs may certainly bark when they hear other dogs bark, but not all do. Some dog’s growl threateningly, some are too scared and are quiet, others try to attack, and some just ignore them. For a clearer image, picture this in the same way people interact. Some people are extroverted, outgoing people who must be heard while others are introverted, quiet people who are content in reading a book. Some people have pieces of both or neither. Now replace the dog description with people. See the correlation?
The Big Dog Room was just that…loud, quiet, and pure chaos. The room’s layout was built specifically for holding animals. The floor was cement with drains located throughout. Walls were big, thick blocks similar to those you find in most gymnasiums. It kind of made the room feel like an impenetrable fortress. There were long walls running down the middle of the room with cages positioned on each side, doors facing out. The cages were made like horse stables. A thin metal was covering the bottom half of all three side of the cage. It was high enough that the dogs could only see each other if they were standing five feet on hind legs. The cages had no tops making them less claustrophobic. The door had bars like a cage. It took a lot of tries to open a cage with such confusing locks. First, there was an odd barrel bolt latch that connected to the inside of the cage. The door didn’t open from the obvious location. There were a number of places it could be locked or opened from. They were all a disguise for the giant latch that actually lifted to open the door.
Hinata picked the first dog to walk. The papers that are taped to every cage have this information describing the traits and characteristics of the dog on them. This one was a male/neutered tan furred mix with one white stripe starting from the top of his head going down to his muzzle named Akino. Hinata said she picked him for two reasons. One, because his name was Akino which she told me meant autumn, her favorite season. Second, she thought he seemed calmer than the other dogs.
In the early 2000’s the humane society was set up so that to walk the dogs you’d just take them to the back of the building where they had lots of grass and a small dog park. In 2019, it was a bit different. They have a new outside cage area to put the dogs outside when it’s nice and a relatively big area of grass for people to take the dogs, usually people who are adopting the dogs. They also have a grass trail that goes completely around the building. The building’s exit to walk the dogs around the building is also the entrance of the building forcing the dogs, people, and possibly more dogs a little panicky or excited. River knows the path we are supposed to take and happily takes us to it. A weird thing about walking dogs is that we humans say “I’m walking the dog,” when it should really be that the dog is walking us because they’re always the ones in front, leading.
After some good-behavior path following, my partner in this crusade lets him take us through a nearby field of wild flowers and grass. He liked it. We walked while Hinata did a narrative for him. Passing other dogs received peaceful acknowledgement from both parties. Akino wanted pet so he climbed onto Hinata’s lap. Before he’s back in his cage, his lack of previous family time comes to light even more. The only thing that needs to be said is that he had no idea what a ball was or what to do with.
“Dogs can hold things in memory for a long time, but why they remember it has a lot to do with context.” This is a quote from Monique Udell, an assistant professor at Oregon State University. An example would be a dog’s ability to remember where food is. This is believed to be one of their instincts from before they were domesticated. It was a means of survival. One means that is still needed for about 70% of the dog population in the U.S. alone. This characteritic of their memory allows them to remember things that are out of sight. As Udell explained it, “If someone walks by a trash can and throws away a hamburger, you might not be able to see if anymore, but [dogs] can remember that there was a hamburger, and they can look for it in the last place they saw it.” The part of their memory that works even better is associated with bonding. Whether it’s from a dog’s blood family, another dog, a cat, another animal, or a human, once they have bonded with them, they have become part of their pack, their family, and they will always remember. Take for instance when an owner has to leave for military service. Their human can be gone for years at a time, yet even with that large time gap the dog will remember them. Cats possess this same memory trait.
Hachi, the Japanese dog legend, is a great example of a dog’s memory. His owner was not in the military, but he did “leave” Hachi when he had a heart attack and died at a hospital. Hachi always believed he would come back. He spent the rest of his life at the train station where he used to meet his human. A statue was made in Japan in honor of Hachi and his loyalty.
Another case of bonding and memories is between a cat and a dog both named Bobby. Their story takes place in New Orleans when hurricane Katrina hit. Their owners had abandoned them when they fled New Orleans. They tied Bobby the dog to the outside of the house so he wouldn’t run away. They let Bobby the cat free, but he didn’t leave. He stayed next to the dog throughout the entire storm. After the major part of the storm ended, Bobby the dog finally broke the leash with Bobby the cat still by his side. They were found weeks later still together.
There were so many dogs who resided in the facility and so many dogs to walk. Bull was a large, dark gray bulldog mix. He loved the outdoors and thoroughly enjoyed human affection. He did not want to go back in his cage. Next, we walked a black and white speckled dog named Trotter. Boy, he lived up to the name. He tried to run the entire way. By the time the lap around the building was finished, only Hinata wasn’t having an Asthma attack. Putting him back in his cage almost resulted in chaos. Turns out, he and another dog had switched cages. Trotter was actually Shiba. We walked further to a small, light brown dog with no papers. Walking him didn’t happen, but he was able to get a little “loving”. He had not received his rabies shot yet and wasn’t allowed out of his stall. While we were at his cage, though, nearly every other dog in every other stall disappeared. We chose one of the few remaining dogs to walk, and upon our return, all of the dogs were back too. It was quite surreal.
Humans are funny creatures. While sitting on the floor, in a span of only fifteen minutes, at least five people asked us questions. They ask about the humane society residents, the walking of the dogs, and how long we’d worked there. Presence, casualness, confident speaking, and above all else, the air of “supposed to be there” is usually enough for others to believe what you are doing is allowed.
A young group of three kids, no older than nine, came into the Kitty Lounge. Overheard in conversation the boy wearing the scarfs name is found to be Konohamaru. The kids are well-behaved and don’t hurt the cats or make a ruckus. The one girl of the group explained that they had been visiting for the past two or three months. Momo, the black and gray cat who had not come out of his hidey hole, came to greet the kids. Momo could have come out for a multitude of reasons. He could have simply wanted pet. He could have thought children were safer, or possibly his previous owner had small-ish children.
It is a fact that cats like children and babies. They like to lay in baby cribs for warmth and comfort. It is a myth that they try to “steal baby’s breath.” If a baby were to die from a cat, it would be from snuggling. Cats and dogs alike recognize that kids and babies are different from adult humans. They realize they are less careful, rougher, and more fragile. Cats and dogs see the kids as either their sibling or their pack’s child. Their job is to protect and comfort their family.
Barking increases tenfold when entering the Big Dog Room. They’re yelling at you, trying to get your attention. Jumping, pounding, whining, or anything that would get them noticed. Something stopped all the dogs in the room form doing this. Two humans had entered one of their cages. The room was dead silent. All of the dogs were trying to look into the cage containing three inhabitants. The dogs were so shocked that none of them even barked when a worker came in. After some time, the dogs grew accustomed to the two newbies. The dog Biscuit, whose cage was currently being shared, started to act really affectionate. It was like he was comforting them in their new home. The dogs thought that we were now stuck there too. They thought we were now of part of their group. Dogs are relatively blind to species. Enemies can come in any species. Packs can be made up of any species. They accepted us as part of their dysfunctional family in the short time we were there. Even when we eventually had to leave, they didn’t bark, growl, or jump. They watched us go like we were one of the dogs who just got adopted…like we were kids leaving home for the first time. They were parents who were happy for their children, but also sad. It was both incredibly warm, and comforting, and incredibly haunting. We left the humane society then, both getting invited to work full time there.
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Cuddles. Warmth. Wet noses. Growls. Bites. Purrs. Fur.
From the few words I suspect you know what I am talking about. Dogs, cats, pretty much pets in general. “A dog is a man’s best friend.” A man’s best friend? Than why might I ask do humans kill 670,000 dogs and 860,00 cats a year. The people who do this don’t even have the honor to say kill. Instead they use the word “euthanize.’ Changing the word does not make the action any better. I understand that these dogs at that time don’t have homes and are lots of work to take care of, but I think killing them is just inhumane. Animals deserve the right to live too. Just because people find it difficult or troublesome to take care of them is no excuse. It you think about it, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, parrots, ect, were all lived in the wild at one time. Over years and years, it was humans who domesticated them. It was humans who took almost all the land. It is humans who still pollute the planet. With all these things that humans have caused it more than makes sense that we should take responsibility for our actions. We caused so many animals to lose their homes, to take them away from their home we should at least have the decency to not kill them for not adopted by a family or to just being older.
When people adopt an animal the humans will become part of their pack or flock or pride. To pets when they are bought into a family they become family. Of course the humans have to treat them well and give them love to make this happen. But one of the things that hurt me is when one of these families throws their pets out into the street. They don’t even take them to a shelter, they just kick them out. These animals don’t know how to live outside on their own. They had them living in a house you didn’t prepare them for this. The reasons why people do this are usually absurd. “The dog growled at me.” “The cat scratched the curtains.” “The bird’s to loud.” “The snake’s too big.” The list goes on. I am going to say one of my favorite movie quotes to sum all of this up perfectly, “Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” –Lilo and Stitch. Animals deserve rights too. I think we can give them the right to live.