Rest In Peace Cleopatra

"QUISPAMSIS - An unusual situation involving a quarantined pooch, a dog-knapping, a safe house and a possible search warrant is playing out in Quispamsis.

At the eye of the emotional storm is a two-and-a-half-year-old boxer/Labrador mix named Cleopatra. The dog is scheduled to be euthanized on Saturday at 9 a.m., but the circumstances on how this came to be are puzzling.

*** ****** is Cleopatra's owner and is upset at the way the local animal control officer and the town have treated her and her pet.

Cleopatra's story began on Feb. 29 when the first of two biting incidents involving the dog occurred at ******'s home. Another incident involving a bite and aggressive behaviour on Cleopatra's part occurred not long after.

"I voluntarily decided to put my dog down because she had become aggressive and territorial," ****** said.

In accordance with the town's animal control bylaw, ****** contacted animal control officer Ralph Raeburn. Whenever a dog bite is involved, the animal is quarantined for 10 days to determine if a case of rabies is involved.

Rayburn came to *******'s home, took the dog and when ******* asked when she could visit her pet, she said she was told she could not.

"I was told I would have no access to my dog," she said.

Raeburn took Cleopatra to a kennel located on his property on the Kingston Peninsula. Upset about not being able to visit Cleopatra before she's put down, ****** said she made tearful pleas to the town. The town conceded and allowed two half-hour scheduled in-home visits for ******.

Janet Foster, executive director of the Animal Rescue League in Saint John, said often times owners are allowed to quarantine dogs in their homes and, if they are put in a kennel, allowed to visit them.

On Monday, the day of the first scheduled visit, Cleopatra entered ******'s home and has not been seen since.

******* confirmed she had the dog taken to a safe house outside of Quispamsis and will have Cleopatra put down Saturday at 9 a.m.

"I played by the rules and now I'm doing it my way," she said.

Now she's waiting to see if a search warrant will be issued and executed on her home to find Cleopatra. ******* said she was informed such a warrant was being sought by the town.

******* said she's upset with the town for a couple of reasons. First, the kennel used by Raeburn is located on the Kingston Peninsula and not in the town where she pays her taxes. The second is what she describes as the inhumane treatment of Cleopatra and herself by the town.

"I want an apology and I think I deserve and apology for the inhumane way they've treated me," ******* said.

Calls to the town's animal control officer and town administrator Mike Brennan were not returned."

As reported in The Telegraph Journal Wednesday,May,14,2008

Cleopatra is my mother's dog who was euthanized yesterday at 9am.There is more to this story that was not told like the fact that Cleopatra nibbled the first couple times and it was after she actually bit was when my mother volunteered to put Cleopatra down.Cleopatra was from a litter where this aggressive characteristic was prevalent and also noticed in another of the dogs from the same litter that was not raised by my mother there seemed to have been a genetic defect in the litter where the dogs would almost become aggressive out of the blue and be sweet as pie the next minute.This defect did not become noticable untill both dogs were a little older..My mother was responsible with her dogs,the dogs were fixed,vaccinated and she had electric collars on he dogs.Cleopatra will be missed and my mother loved her a great deal so much so that she would joke about loving her dogs more than her children and she threw a 1st birthday party for them in her hair salon which all of her client participated in gleefully.Many of my mothers clients also loved Cleopatra so much that they cried about her impending death sentence.My mother will miss her lil Cleo girl so much and I pray God is with her at her time of loss.

REST IN PEACE CLEO,YOU ARE LOVED AND MISSED GREATLY

(When my mother asked the town where the kennels were that Cleopatra was taken to they would not tell my mother where the kennel was.It makes me ask what is wrong with the kennels since they would not tell her where they were located.)

Driving,Walking And Other Transportation

Today Has been a great day compliments of "Al" since he let me have his car for the day while he was at work which was wonderful for me.Lately I have been away from the Internet so that I would be more motivated to go walking and do the workouts that I used to do. A few months ago I was not feeling well having no energy at all and went to my doctor and he told me that everything like my sugars and cholesterol are great but I knew that there was something wrong since I was always tired.Instead of waiting for my energy levels to deplete any more I decided to do something about it before the problem got any worse.For the last little while I have been eating much healthier by eating salad,chicken (boneless,skinless),salmon, Smart Pop popcorn,almonds,bran,lots of water and other low fat and low calorie foods.since I know that simply eating healthy is not going to make me feel better I have been getting out 3 times a week for half hour walks and everyday I have been doing what I call my mandatory 20 minute workout,believe me it is not easy at 7:30 in the morning to get up and go for the walk then do a 20 minute workout but I am doing it.So far I have only lost 5.5 pounds,but I have noticed that I feel better,my clothing fits more comfortably and I am less jiggly.This morning when I weighed myself at my mothers she told me not to got by what I see on the scale,but more so how I feel,she is worried that I will focus too much on what the scale says and lose my resolve.No matter what the scale says I will keep up with what I have started with better health being my goal.

Bizzare Occurrences,Another Blog Vacation

There seems to have been a blogger malfunction of sorts because I recently change the URL of my In Depth blog which is now "angela-in-depth" (I took my last name out) and when I did my old URL seems to have become a site for random links and possible objectionable material.I can guarantee you all that the old URL is not one that belongs to me and if you search my name it currently leads to this "angela-mccaskill-in-depth" so ignore it.The reason I am letting you all know about this bizarre occurrence of my hijacked URL is I felt it was my responsibilty to make you aware since there could be links that lead to PC viruses on the old URL.

I am going on another blog vacation now since there is a personal project I am working on and my online addiction has inhibited me from completing it.As I said before I will try my best to keep up with my favorite blogs and comment.Some of you I will try to keep up with via IM.I'll miss you all.

Before I go I do have a couple of new posts to leave you all with "Judgement Is Absence Of Compassion" and "Do As I Say,Not As I Did" .Goodbye for now!

My New Brunette Life (A Spring Change)

Now that spring is here I needed a change so I chose to dye my hair alot darker.My mother dyed it two weeks ago and you can see how it looks *here* .Spring is definately here I seen the street sweepers out this moring!It was so nice here "Al" and I went for a lovely walk yesterday.

"The Deadly Fitness Shop"

This is a local business and it's name struck me as funny and somewhat ironic.