First dogs (and first cat?) to return to The White House

Have you heard of DOTUS? It stands for ‘(first) dogs of the United States,’ and there will soon be two new canine residents in The White House. Of course, there are two important new human occupants, the dogs’ owners, President-in-waiting Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden, who are due to move in from late January, and they will be accompanied by their pair of rescue German Shepherds, Champ and Major.

 

Champ and Major are the first four-legged occupants for four years, as Donald and Melania Trump did not have any pets. Such is the anticipation of these welcome new arrivals, that they already have their own Instagram account, first_dogs_usa, with 66.8k followers! Here’s a recent post featuring both of these very photogenic dogs:

 

 Copyright Instagram and first_dogs_usa

So what do we know about these new canine residents? Well, firstly, Champ is 12, and Major is two. Champ was adopted as a puppy from a shelter after Biden was elected vice-president in 2008. Younger Major was adopted from the Delaware Humane Association. Both are clearly very loved family members. Biden tweeted in October 2019, “It’s time we put a pet back in The White House,” no doubt knowing the power of winning round animal-lovers!

Copyright Instagram and first_dogs_usa

 Dr Jill Biden, pictured with Major and Champ on the dogs’ Instagram page.

  Interestingly, the first dogs may not be the only animal residents once the Bidens move in. Jill recently stated that she “loves having animals around the house,” and would “love to get a cat.” So we will watch with interest to see if there will be a new first cat (COFUS?), too!

Socks, pictured below, was the Clinton’s cat. Will there be a successor to follow in his feline footsteps? In the UK, we have Larry, the number 10 Downing Street cat, and Dilyn the Prime Minister’s rescue dog, who are no doubt hoping to see their US counterparts in position soon.

 

 Socks, the ‘first cat’ during the Clinton presidency in 1994

© ASSOCIATED PRESS / MARCY NIGHSWANDER

Larry and Dilyn, the current residents at no 10.

Pioneering research is training dogs to sniff out Coronavirus

 

Floki, training to sniff out Coronavirus. (Copyright Getty Kelly Barnes)

Floki is no ordinary Springer Spaniel. He's one of a very special group of dogs being trained around the world to sniff out Coronavirus from human sweat, and is helping to identify people who are infected before they even know it themselves.

This pioneering training is being carried out in various international locations, including Adelaide, Australia, Helsinki, Finland, and in Lebanon by a French-Lebanese research team. There's also a team in the UK, led by Medical Detection Dogs, working in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University, that is developing training for dogs who can passive-screen people for signs of the virus (with no physical contact).

Trained sniffer dogs are certainly not new, and they are already being used successfully in the detection of other diseases such as cancer and malaria. They also work alongside airport security teams to detect explosives and drugs.

Trained dogs could provide a rapid, non-invasive way of screening for COVID-19, without using up health service resources. One dog could screen up to 250 people per hour, providing a valuable resource for airports, public arenas and stadiums, for example.

The dogs themselves are at very low risk, as they are not susceptible to the disease, and their training use deactivated 'dead' virus samples. In a real detecting situation, the dogs sniff the air around a person without being in direct contact, and such is their olfactory power, they are still able to to detect signs of the virus. A dog's sense of smell is extraordinary - research by Medical Detection Dogs shows that a dog can detect the odour of disease equivalent to one spoonful of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools of water!

                                             Copyright Medical Detection Dogs and bbc.co.uk 

       

Let's hope this pioneering research, using the amazing power of scent that dogs have, eventually helps contribute to our battle over Coronavirus, enabling us to return to a more normal way of life.

Yet another reason to be grateful to man's best friend!

If you think that your dog could be a Covid detective, why not give scent training a go? 

'Detector Dog' from expert dog trainer, behaviour consultant, and HM Customs & Excise detection dog handler Pam McKinnon, takes you and your dog through each stage of scentwork, from the basics, to the advanced, opening up a whole new world of activities for you and your dog to enjoy together.

For a great insight into the invaluable work our canine compadres undertake for us, Nan Walton's 'Partners' is the book for you. Nan draws upon her hands-on experience from 20 years spent in search and rescue, forensic crime scene recovery, canine narcotics detection, and therapy dogs, to bring you 25 stories from professional canine handlers. Not only will you find heart-warming stories of loyalty, courage and perseverance, but also examples of working dog behaviour, and - the real story that 'Partners' delivers - the unity and trust between dogs and partners.

                                             

                                            

What it’s like to help a dog survive cancer by Laura Hamilton

With a big smile, I’m watching Lily, my Golden Retriever. She’s already run around with her mother, Pilot. Now she’s jumping over her visiting playmate and larger litter-mate, Bentley, my daughter and son-in-law’s dog. Bentley has thrown himself upside down onto the grass for Lily, enjoying her play-growls as she chews his ear. It’s a sight I thought I’d never see ten months ago when Lily was diagnosed with cancer.

 

 

Diagnosis

 

I had been brushing Lily on Tuesday afternoon, 15^th October 2019, when I found what I thought was a big knot of hair on the back of her left leg near her tail. But it wasn’t hair. It was a lump under her skin. Knowing what that might mean, I made an appointment for her at the vet’s for the next morning.

 

Two vets examined Lily’s lump and immediately took a biopsy. A week later, I was phoned the news I’d dreaded: Lily had hemangiosarcoma, a highly aggressive cancer which could quickly spread to her spleen, heart and liver. Without treatment, Lily’s survival might have been months, if not weeks.

 

 

Surgery

 

Lily was quickly referred to AndersonMoores Veterinary Specialists. A week later, she was there for a consultation with an extraordinarily gifted surgeon before her operation scheduled for that same afternoon. I signed the permission form for Lily to have surgery.

 

Watching Lily being led away for the preliminary CT scan, I felt a surreal mix of relief, because she was going to be helped, and disbelief, because she was leaving to have surgery. For cancer! Everything had happened so fast. It had been only 16 days since I’d found her lump.

 

Back home, I waited nervously for the surgeon’s call to tell me how Lily’s operation had gone. But when he phoned, he said he’d postponed the operation for a day, because her CT scan raised concerns about her spleen. He’d biopsied it and needed the results before proceeding in case her spleen was cancerous.

 

Thankfully, the spleen biopsy result, back the next day, showed no cancer so surgery to remove the lump went ahead. Lily came home the following evening.

 

      

                         Lily just after her surgery

 

Chemotherapy

 

Surgery was just the beginning. Lily also needed chemotherapy so one month later, she began 18 weeks of chemotherapy, 6 cycles, each 3 weeks long. Lily’s oncologist was brilliant, incredibly knowledgeable, and extremely reassuring about Lily.

 

Before every treatment, Lily was weighed and her blood tested.  Each cycle began with Doxorubicin by infusion, one of the most powerful chemotherapy drugs ever developed. Two weeks later, she had Vinblastin by injection. A week after that, she started the next cycle with Doxorubicin again, and so the cycles continued, month after month after month.

 

After every Doxorubicin infusion, Lily had loss of appetite, nausea and diarrhea. Her oncologist provided tablets to cope with these.

 

Often Lily needed coaxing to eat. It once took two hours for her to have breakfast. Sometimes I had as many as 12 foods to tempt her like chicken, salmon, sardines, ginger biscuits, scrambled eggs, doggie ice cream and juice from roasted fillet.

 

Lily lost so much hair (all grown back now) that she wore her fleece-lined waterproof jacket for walks in the winter and the spring. I didn’t risk having her catch a chill. Or, indeed, catch anything. Concerned that chemotherapy might depress her immune system, I kept her away from dogs other than Pilot and Bentley, and attached a fluorescent yellow lead slip to her lead reading MY DOG REQUIRES SPACE.  We were experts at “social distancing” months before Covid-19 necessitated it.

 

 

                         Lily during her treatment with her nurse

     

     Lily lost a lot of hair during her treatment

Monitoring

A week after Lily’s final Vinblastin injection, she had a CT scan. It still raised concerns about her spleen, so she had another biopsy which, happily, showed no cancer. Lily was declared clear! There was great rejoicing at AndersonMoores and at home.

Three months later, Lily had another CT scan. To everyone’s delight, there was no sign of cancer.

Her next scan will be just over a year since the day I found her lump.

                         Lily and Laura after the 'all clear'

 

Cost in time and in money

 

Lily has had a lot of help on her road to remission. First, I found her lump early. Then intuitive local vets rapidly referred her to AndersonMoores. There her surgeon, her oncologist and their colleagues gave her exceptional care.

 

Lily had me with her at home all the time and at all her appointments, cherishing her and caring for her.

 

Her pet insurance also covered almost all of the cost of her most comprehensive care which, to date, has been nearly £17,500.

 

Was it money well spent? It certainly saved Lily so that she could enjoy a life worth living. As she plays with Pilot and Bentley now, I smile. Yes. It’s been worth every penny.

                         Lily back at home, happy and fully recovered

Beautiful native hares are threatened by hunting

One of Britain’s most recognised but elusive wild creatures is the hare. Often associated with symbolism and mystery, these beautiful animals deserve to live peacefully in our countryside, but, sadly, are threatened by illegal hunting.

 

There are three native species of hare in the UK. The brown hare with its distinctive black-tipped long ears, the mountain hare, whose russet coat changes to white or grey to blend into snowy surroundings, and the Irish hare, a sub species of the mountain hare found only in Ireland.

                                            Brown hare © Norfolk Wildlife Trust

 

These timid and elegant creatures are in danger of being victims of hare hunting packs. In England and Wales there are 71 registered hare hunting packs, and in Northern Ireland, seven. Scottish mountain hares have protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, if properly enforced. But hunters are notoriously tricky to catch, and evade the law.

                                           Mountain hare © I Campbell GWCT

 

  

The League Against Cruel Sports is campaigning to strengthen the Hunting Act 2004. Whilst offering some protection, it still allows loopholes to be exploited by unscrupulous hare hunters, who may claim that they are hunting rabbits (legally) whilst ‘accidentally’ killing protected hares. Hunting with dogs is cruel, causing suffering to the hares who naturally live above ground (unlike rabbits), and are chased to the point of exhaustion.

The brown hare is listed as a conservation priority in the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan, so everything possible should be done to help him thrive. In Scotland, mountain hares are illegally hunted to protect grouse moors, and in Northern Ireland it is still legal to hunt hares.

 

Read more about how to help the campaign to  educate law enforcers to identify this cruel activity and  give hares better protection under the law on the League Against Cruel Sports website. 

Let’s hope that the campaign gets the support it deserves, to help protect these iconic and beautiful wild creatures.

                                            Irish hare © Irish News