Valley Pets 2013

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2.6.13

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W er inn Mary Speck’s dog wins this year’s contest.

Photo by Laura Speck

WANNA IGUANA? Exotic pets thrive in Wood River Valley PROBLEM PETS Trainers transform feisty canines CAPABLE KITTIES Special felines find forever homes

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WEdnEsday, FEbruary 6, 2013

pets

Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley

28th annual

paw ‘n pole Saturday, February 24, 2013 10:00 am at the new Croy Nordic Trails Right across from the Shelter!

X-C and snowshoe races with your dog on a leash

This year’s theme: We Are All Super Heroes!

Don’t have a dog?

Partner up with an Animal Shelter dog!

Best costume and Silly Pet Tricks contests.

Race entry fees: $5/child; $10/adult; $25 family Includes lunch and raffle ticket entry for the 2013 North Valley Trails pass.

Lily the iguana might look exotic, but she’s a native—an imported one, anyway. shipped via delta from a Colorado shelter, Lily now lives in bellevue and stays warm by sunbathing indoors and using ultraviolet lights. Express photo by Roland Lane

For more information call the Shelter: (208) 788-4351

Walk on the wild side

ANIMAL SHELTER OF THE WOOD RIVER VALLEY 100 Croy Creek Road Hailey ID 83333 www.animalshelterwrv.org

Exotic pets thrive far from home

By Tony Evans Express Staff Writer

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eptiles are not known for their cuddly behavior, but a 14-year-old green iguana named Lily in Bellevue breaks the mold.

“Lily knows me and loves to be petted. She closes her eyes when I do,” said 31-year-old Mandi Patterson.

“She’s not just a cold-blooded reptile that does not know her owners. My dog protects my iguana. They get along great and love one another.”

Patterson has kept iguanas since she was 18, but researched widely before adopting Lily four years ago from the Colorado Reptile Humane Society at a cost of $200, flying her to town on Delta Airlines.

“Don’t adopt an iguana unless you know what you’re getting into,” she advised.

Lily has to be kept at warm temperature and under ultraviolet lights or else her bone density will decrease.

She loves the sunlight and will crawl down off the shelves and into the sunlight when it’s sunny out. After all, she was born for the tropics.

Lily is strictly vegetarian, living mostly on fruits and vegetables. She does her duty on a tray with newspapers, like a cat, or in the bathtub.

Lily is not the only cold-blooded reptile to have made a home in the sometimes frigid Wood River Valley. Houdini, a 12-foot long Burmese python, has lived north of Ketchum for 23 years. He became world famous a few years ago after swallowing a queen-sized electric heating blanket, and surviving the ordeal.

“At least he unplugged it first,” said his owner, veteran ski instructor Carl Beznoska.

The story of Houdini’s unhappy meal first appeared in the Idaho Mountain Express and then went viral.

Beznoska fielded calls from California; Mumbai, India; and the BBC News in London.

“It was a hectic time. One day I had three TV crews here at once, including Good Morning America,” he said.

Houdini has also made special guest appearances at the Montessori School in Ketchum, where he outweighed most of the students.

Beznoska first kept snakes while cutting ironwood for railroad ties in the Australian outback as a teenager.

He bought Houdini in 1990 from a student in Boise who could no longer care for him. Today Houdini lives in a big terrarium with a heated floor and water.

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Owner Carl Beznoska wrestles with Houdini, the 60-pound python who ate a queen-sized electric blanket and lived to tell the tale.

Houdini and Carl live north of Ketchum, Houdini spending much of his time in a large terrarium. Express photo by Roland Lane

Rio the Brazilian Caique parrot hangs out with his buddy, 6-yearold skylar runswick. rio cannot imitate human speech, but does squawk to get attention. Express photo by Willy Cook

“When he comes out, usually when he’s hungry, he heads for my bedroom. The most he will do is clear off some shelves. He’s very unaggressive. You can drag him around like a fire hose.”

Beznoska’s two German shepherd dogs get along fine with Houdini, sometimes getting nose to nose.

“It’s a strange kind of relationship they have. Sometimes stretched out in the same room together,” he said.

Fortunately, Houdini only eats rabbits, one each month.

“When he’s hungry it only takes abut two seconds,” Beznoska said.

A Brazilian Caique parrot that can also normally be found in warmer climes found its way to the valley.

“Rio” has lived in the Heatherlands north of Hailey for three years, bringing joy and antics to the home of Deida Runswick.

“She’s always the life of the party,” Runswick said.

“She lays on her back, cuddles, kisses and loves everyone she meets. We also have three dogs. She likes all of them.”

Rio, 4, belongs to a species that does not learn to mimic human speech, but she will squawk when she’s being ignored. She was brought to the Wood River Valley from a bird sanctuary in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Runswick and her husband pulled one of Rio’s green, orange and white feathers in order to have her sex determined by DNA testing. Rio’s wings are clipped every month or two to keep her from flying into something and getting hurt.

Rio eats pellet foods and pasta and chicken and eggs, and a lot of fresh food, but no avocados, which can poison her. Runswick had many birds while growing up in the Wood River Valley, learning not to feed them too much bird seed, which can cause heart disease.

“She’s a naughty bird,” she said. “She will pick buttons off things, pick at cell phones, knock over wine glasses and drink your beer.”

Rio loves water and takes showers with her family members, including 6-year-old Skylar Runswick, who raises money for bird sanctuaries and dolphin rescue programs.

“If my daughter could have a dolphin in the backyard, she would have everything,” Runswick said.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013

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Arlo, a former shelter kitty, leaps for a toy, seemingly uninhibited by his missing front leg.

Express photo by Willy Cook

Shelter finds home for kitties with disabilities

Arlo, Team don’t realize they’re different

By Terry Smith Express Staff Writer

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rlo doesn’t seem to know he only has three legs, and Team doesn’t seem to know he’s blind.

Otherwise, they’re just two happy cats that recently found homes, thanks to the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley.

Arlo was brought to the shelter last April with a front right leg so badly mangled that it had to be amputated. Team was brought to the shelter in November with eye infections so serious that his eyes had to be removed.

The disabilities don’t seem to slow either of them down. Arlo can jump with the best of them and Team uses his other senses to help him navigate.

Shelter personnel are quick to point out that Arlo and Team are exceptions to the type of cats that are brought to the shelter. Most are just normal cats.

“The reality is that most of the cats that are here are fine and healthy, but the circumstances for their humans changed and that’s what brought them here,” said shelter Executive Director Jo-Anne Dixon.

The shelter currently has about 15 cats waiting for adoption, ranging in age from 7 months to 12 years.

Arlo, now about 9 months old, was adopted out to shelter bookkeeper Meghan Faherty last summer. She describes him as a “handsome orange tabby.” Arlo is one of those somewhat pesky cats who likes to get into things and craves attention.

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Team was brought to the shelter after having been abandoned in Carey. He was suffering from severe eye infections that rendered him permanently blind. Photo courtesy of the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013

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Living it up

Photos put ‘joie de vivre’ in focus By you Wood River Valley pet lovers

When Idaho Mountain Express editors saw this photo of Mary Speck’s golden retriever, Georgia, we knew it had to be the cover of the annual Valley Pets special section. Photographer Laura Speck said she snapped this shot following a hike to the Bench Lakes, just after Georgia had finished a refreshing swim.

All of the entries this year perfectly captured the joie de vivre our pets feel about living here, and the deep joy we all find in playing outside in our spectacular valley.

From little dogs on big hikes to big dogs frolicking in a little snow, our entries run the gamut of things to do in and around the Wood River Valley. We couldn’t fit all of the excellent submissions in this section, but all of the submitted photos can be viewed on our website, www.mtexpress.com, under the “Pets Slideshow” button.

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Clockwise from upper left: Charley was caught having a fantastic time in the mud by his owner, Paul Richards. Richards says Charley thinks everything is his business—mud, snow, the river—and takes work very seriously.

Photo by Paul Richards

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Lissie, a Scottish Fold, celebrates AllAmerican Fourth of July with her owner, Patricia Campbell. Photo by R. Campbell Emerson, Sneakers and Sunka do wind sprints near Trail Creek in this photo by Brooke Bonner. Bonner said her dogs like nothing better than rolling in dirt and sagebrush after a dip in the creek. Photo

by Brooke Bonner

Celina Moreno captured this shot of her dog, Rio, howling with joy in the Sawtooth Valley. Photo by Celina M. Moreno River, owned by Jed Lyttle, enjoys an exciting hike up Buttercup Mountain in Hailey last spring.Photo by Jed Lyttle

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Above Cody, a small poodle mix owned by Mia Edsall, jumps for joy near his home in Bellevue. Photo by

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Below Judy Webb’s “girls,� Rosebud and Poptart, keep a look out for big trout during a fishing trip on Silver Creek last May. Photo by Judy Webb

Bottom Sage and Saffron were two of the kittens cared for by the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley last year. These two snuggle bugs have since been adopted. Photo by Brooke

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ome days, it seems like everyone else in the valley has the perfect dog. When our own dogs are misbehaving, pulling on the leash and barking at everyone who passes, all other dogs seem to trot perfectly and obediently just to the left heel of the owner.

But many of these dogs were not always so perfect. Local dog trainers and behaviorists say they have turned many dogs around from furry terrors to confident, obedient companions with nothing more than knowledge, patience, dedication and some ground rules.

Feli and Wolf Funke-Riehle, former owners of Bigwood Bread, had no idea they were getting what Feli calls “the dog from hell” when they adopted a cattle dog mix from the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley. The couple had wanted an athletic dog that could keep up with their active lifestyle, so they brought Undi home from the shelter about a year ago.

“That was the beginning of getting the dog from hell,” Feli said.

Undi, whose name means “joy,” was named after a Sherpa climber who Wolf had met when on an expedition in the Himalayas. Undi soon proved to be about as adventurous as her namesake, dashing over berms and across highways and rivers in pursuit of her “prey”— mountain bikers, motorcycles, horses, chickens and cars.

The dog’s speed, coupled with what Feli felt was her lack of control over her pet, almost led to Undi’s surrender, either to the shelter or to a friend.

“Last summer, I spent a whole day doing beautiful portraits of her because I was going to put her on Facebook,” she said. “We felt that we were not enough owners for her, and we should find her a working ranch in Shoshone, that we should just admit defeat.”

Luckily, the couple didn’t need to.

They had worked with dog trainer Barb Williams of Hailey before, and decided to turn to her for help.

Williams, owner of Dogs Play ’n’ Train, said she has worked with dogs with issues including near-feral lack of socialization, fear aggression, alert barking and, as in Feli’s case, owners who could not gain control over their dogs.

With obedience training and attention drills, Williams was able to give Feli and Wolf the confidence they needed to control Undi, as well as to give Undi jobs—apart from chasing things. Soon, Undi was a new dog, Feli said.

Williams and other local trainers say that while no two dogs are alike, setting rules and giving dogs outlets for nervous energy are often the best ways to turn misbehaving dogs into paragons of doggie virtue.

Hillary Hayward, Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley behavior and training coordinator, said her dog, Darlin, was so bad when she arrived at the shelter that none of the staff wanted to take her out of the kennel.

“It was the classic too-smart-forher-own-good, too-much-energyand-nowhere-to-put-it,” she said.

Hayward began working with the dog constantly, teaching her tricks, basic obedience, whatever Hayward could think of to keep Darlin stimulated mentally and physically. Now, Darlin is what Hayward calls a “shelter ambassador,” traveling to schools and other areas to show local residents how great shelter dogs can be.

Hillary Hayward, a trainer at the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley, hugs her shelter rescue dog, Darlin. Hayward said Darlin was “too smart for her own good” when they met.

With training and patience, Darlin became the perfect shelter ambassador.

Express photo by Roland Lane

“I love the turnaround of a dog that was pretty much abandoned, who had too much energy and no obedience,” she said. “With someone committing to her, she became just a different dog.”

Hayward said dogs need structure in order to function properly.

Dogs look for direction from their owners, she said, and tend to make poor decisions without rules.

“It takes the stress away from them,” she said. “It keeps them from living in chaos. The more rules, the less responsibility. It makes it easier on dogs.”

“I LOVE THE TURNAROUND OF A DOG THAT WAS PRETTY MUCH ABANDONED, WHO HAD TOO MUCH ENERGY AND NO OBEDIENCE.” Hillary Hayward Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley

Of course, rules aren’t the only thing that guarantees a well-behaved pet. Hayward said exercise is a major component, too, as it gives dogs a healthy outlet for some of their energy.

Hayward said that while shelter

pups sometimes are nervous due to previous trauma, they are more likely to be shy or rambunctious due to neglect or lack of exercise.

Jill Bryson, who conducts agility training at the Sawtooth Animal Center in Bellevue, said teaching dogs to run an agility course can be a great way to help the animals blow off some steam.

“What it is, is taking your kid to the playground under control,” she said. “They are out having a good time, and it gives them a job.”

The dogs are taught to wriggle through tunnels, jump over hurdles and climb over ramps. Bryson said the classes provide the dogs and owners a chance to work together, reinforce their bond and give the dog lots of positive reinforcement.

“In theory, the dog works a lot harder than the human, and you go home with a tired, happy dog,” she said.

Fran Jewell, certified dog behavior consultant and owner of Positive Puppy, said leadership is the most important component to a happy, adjusted dog. But she advocates a theory known as the “total dog puzzle,” which includes components such as overall health, exercise, commitment and consistency on the part of the owner.

“You have to work on all pieces of that puzzle,” Jewell said, adding that sometimes things like pain from hip dysplasia can cause a dog to display behavioral problems.

Sometimes, however, problems can be due to trauma. Williams said that one of her dogs, Kimber, came to her as a stray that found its way to the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office 12 years ago. Kimber went to several different homes in the county before see DOGS, next page

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Before being found with a mangled leg at a campground in Carey, Faherty said, Arlo had apparently been around people before.

“He wasn’t fearful at all,” she said. “He was ridiculously outgoing from the start. He’s pretty good buddies with my dogs. I think he thinks he’s a third dog in the family. He goes on hikes with us, so he’s quite close to us.

“He doesn’t have any special needs. He gets into all sorts of trouble. It doesn’t slow him down at all. He jumps as well as any cat.”

Faherty said Arlo seems oblivious to the fact that he’s missing a leg.

“He doesn’t know about it, so I hope he doesn’t read about it in the paper!”

Team was brought to the shelter after someone found him in a box on the steps of a church in Carey. He seemed to have been around people, Dixon said.

“He didn’t seem to be scared,” she said. “He would rub against the cage and want to be petted.”

Team’s blindness stemmed from severe long-term eye infections that Dixon said had already blinded the cat. As a result, she knew she had to remove the cat’s eyes to prevent further infection.

“He came in as a stray with a real bad eye infection that had been going on for a long time,” she said. “His eyes had shrunk down to nothing.”

After surgery, Dixon said, Team was quick to start chasing and playing with a small bell.

“He acts like he can see,” she said.

Team was adopted out in early January.

An Internet search shows that blindness in cats is common. It sometimes afflicts kittens such as Team that have bad eye infections, but it’s even more common with older cats whose eyesight deteriorates with age.

The Internet offers lots of helpful information for taking care of a blind cat. It’s best not to move furniture or their food bowls around since they navigate by memory. If there’s another pet in the house, tying a bell to it will help the blind cat locate the other animal. It’s best to talk to the cat before touching it, so as not to startle it.

While both Arlo and Team have their disabilities, shelter personnel point out that Meghan Faherty, neither is a “special needs” cat. Instead, they Animal Shelter of the Wood make the most out of the abilities that they River Valley have.

“These animals are ones that don’t have any hang-ups,” Dixon said.

“Arlo doesn’t know he only has three legs and Team doesn’t know that he can’t see.” VP

“HE DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT IT, SO I HOPE HE DOESN’T READ ABOUT IT IN THE PAPER.”

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Better Food • Better Price • Better Service Kimber, left, and Mallie were strays before they were taken in by Dogs Play ’n’ Train owner Barb Williams. Williams said Kimber’s past made her so shy and insecure that she started to become aggressive. Now, Kimber has learned to trust Williams and look to her for guidance when frightened. Express photo by Roland Lane

Dogs

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Williams took her home and realized Hayward said the last two dogs that early neglect and instability had she can think of with more difficreated an unstable dog. cult behavioral issues were a goofy “Fear built aggression,” Williams Labrador that needed guidance and said. a shy Siberian husky-German shepWilliams taught Kimber to feel herd mix that had likely been tied to safe and to trust a tree for most of her, slowly workher young life. ing with her to inBoth dogs went still confidence. on to find happy “It takes palong-term homes, tience and building and the owners still trust, but it’s so reupdate the shelter warding,” Williams with tales of their said. pets’ exploits. TalHayward said lulah, the shy mix, shelter dogs, despite even met Santa their reputation, Claus over Christare not inherently mas, and Hayward troubled.

Somesaid Tallulah’s stotimes they have ry is one of her abBarb Williams, been surrendered solute favorite tales Dogs Play ’n’ Train because the ownof doggie rehabiliers did not take the tation. time to socialize them or did not set “She still is a shy dog, and she still rules, but that doesn’t mean the dogs gets startled,” Hayward said. “But won’t become the very models of it’s a complete turnaround from the doggie decorum, often even during nervous little coyote that she was their stays. when she came here.” VP

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“IT TAKES PATIENCE AND BUILDING TRUST, BUT IT’S SO REWARDING.”

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1. Zoey, 2. Darius, 3. Denali, 4. Trinity, 5. Percy, 6. Girlie, 7. Delvy Grace, 8. Norton & Wookie, 9. Kylie, 10. Bazz, 11. Rocket, 12. Luna, 13. Quantum, 14. Bella, 15. Dixie & Monkey, 17. Stella, 18. Saxton, 19. Murray 15

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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

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Snow dogs

Pets who love the powder almost as much as we do The number of photos we received of dogs in snow, on snow and with snow on their faces was almost too high to count. A few stood out from the pack, including one very active bunny. We figured we couldn’t have a Valley Pets section without showcasing a few pictures of pets playing in the precipitation that gives many of us our livelihoods.

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Clockwise from top: Auggie poses for owner Cydney Conger at the Warm Springs golf course. Conger said she adopted Auggie from a shelter three months ago, and his new favorite spot is the de facto dog park near the old Warm Springs Restaurant. Photo by Cydney Conger

Brutus’ owner, Laurie Fitzpatrick, said Brutus is quite the hiker, trekking to Alice Lake in the Sawtooths and to the top of Silver Peak in the Boulders on a regular basis. Photo by Laurie Fitzpatrick

Jennifer Wonder’s dog, Prada, might have a fancy name, but she’s not too posh to play around and fetch tennis balls in fresh powder. Photo by Jennifer Wonder Izzy loves to run and jump in the snow, sniffing and exploring miles of trails with owner Connie Aronson. Photo by Connie Aronson

Libby, a shelter alumna, loves to hike and chase snowballs thrown by her owner, Bridget Cimino. Look at those ears!

Photo by Bridget Cimino Lola and Fritz dash through the year’s first snow by the Hulen Meadows Pond in a photo by owner Echo Christensen.

Christensen said the pups clearly know how lucky they are to live in the valley. Photo by Echo Christensen Bun Bun, the 9-year-old Netherlands Dwarf Rabbit, is quite the Sun Valley bunny! Though seen here by the Snow Creek Condos in Sun Valley, Bun Bun is very active, going hiking, biking, fishing and even golfing with owner Terri Randall.

Photo by Terri Randall