WONDERFUL STORY re people who care for old animals

Wednesday, October 6, 2004
Kindred Spirits Helps Old, Abandoned Animals
By Helen Gaussoin
For the Albuquerque Journal

The greeter at the gate of the Kindred Spirits animal sanctuary on state highway 14 is named Lorenzo de Santiago de Campostela Camino.

The big, black mix of friendly is the "resident poet" and "mentor" of the dozen dogs receiving elder care and, eventually, hospice care at the sanctuary for old and abandoned dogs, horses and poultry.

Lorenzo is named for the mysterious black dog that travelers sometimes see on the 500-mile pilgrimage on the Santiago de Compostela Camino in Spain.

"The black dog of the camino means different things to different people," said Ulla Pedersen, Kindred Spirits founder. "To me, he means wisdom and durability and pulling on your inner resources to overcome hardship. That's what that black dog means to me and I'm reminded of that every day."

Visitors to an open house at the sanctuary on Saturday and Sunday will have a chance to meet Lorenzo and his fellow canines, the chicken Highway Rita, some 70 other fowl, and the horses Bo and Loki at the compound a half-mile south of the Lone Butte General Store.

"We provide horses, dogs and poultry that are old and discarded with care and a home to help them die with a sense of being loved and cared for," Pedersen said.

While Pedersen has been providing hospice and nursing care to animals for a decade, she only incorporated her operations as a nonprofit organization in the last two years.

Kindness of strangers

She relies on her own income, private donations, volunteers, grants, discounts from business and a strong relationship with veterinarians to operate the center. It also helps that she has strong connections to the city animal shelter and other shelters as well as her neighbors, who have been supportive despite noisy peacocks and early rising roosters.

Kindred Spirits has no cages, but several different spaces to keep the animals safe. The poultry have two spaces, one with a large, spreading juniper that most of the birds choose to roost in at night and another with an inside roost where the walls are covered with posters and magazine covers for the birds' "enrichment" and pecking pleasure. Both spaces are covered with heavy netting to stop predators.

Small dogs also have a yard covered with netting and a space for sleeping and playing that is separate from the space for large dogs.

The horses have a paddock and corral where volunteers exercise the animals but don't ride them.

Pedersen said all of the animals receive high-nutrition diets and appropriate medicines. The animals are particularly responsive to volunteer-provided acupuncture, massage and other body work, Pedersen said.

"The quality of care is very important. We don't have any luxuries but we are very hands-on. This is not a shelter but a sanctuary," she said.

In addition to maintaining the grounds and grooming, feeding and providing animals with basic care, Pedersen and about 10 volunteers provide the animals with daily "rest and cuddle time."

Scattered throughout the grounds are flowers and shady areas, Buddhist prayer flags and a statue to St. Francis, graves for past residents, information signs on current residents and a pile of well-chewed dog bones known as the "shrine to the cosmic cow."

But no cats.

"I don't have the right facilities and I don't really know them very well," Pedersen said.

Most of the animals come to her through other shelters, which have a hard time placing older animals, or from owners who have no other choice because of a death, illness or forced move.

Although she takes in the kind of animals the Santa Fe Animal Shelter is most likely to euthanize, she praised the city shelter for its work.

"There is no such thing as a no-kill shelter when there are too many animals," Pedersen said. "Like me, no-kill shelters are selective; they don't take every animal. The Santa Fe shelter takes every animal. They are not the bad guys. The only bad guys are the ones who don't have their animals neutered."

She gets several calls a day from owners and others hoping she will take in high-need dogs but she is limited by space and resources. She also is frequently asked to take in horses that can no longer work.

"That is the way the culture values horses. They must be useful," she said.

Many times, she counsels the callers on their responsibility and provides them with advice on how to care for an elderly animal.

"Those animals should stay where they are, where they are comfortable and with their families," she said. "Most people will find a way if they have support and resources. When people call, it is because they still care."

She tries to find families for the animals and has been able to place older animals and younger animals nursed back to health.

Most of the animals that stay die naturally, but Pedersen will euthanize an animal when its suffering cannot be alleviated with love and medicine.

She grieves when she loses an animal, but she doesn't find it hard to be around animals that she knows have only a short time left to live.

"I cry; I'm a terrible crybaby," Pedersen said. "But I feel it's a real privilege to be with them. It's a real joy. They teach me so much about being in the present."

Nature takes over

She has a ritual for letting an animal go.

"Animals hang on for us if we don't give them permission to die. I always give them permission. I thank them for all the gifts they have brought me and tell them we will miss them but they have my permission to go back to the spirit," she said.

An animal will let its owner know when it is ready to die, she said.

"You must be open to what they tell you. Sit with the animal and ask for a sign you can understand. Then you must be strong and have the courage to act on it," she said.

She said she understands it's sometimes hard for an owner to let an animal die. An owner can feel guilty or become convinced that they shouldn't have another pet, she said.

"So many people have said they needed support when they went through the death of a pet. A lot of family members and friends will say, 'Just get over it,' '' she said. "The letting-go process is always difficult. It is such a heart-breaking event but in a way it can be a gift to us. There is a lesson in being in the presence of one of the great mysteries. If the owners have a little support, they may realize that this was a gift on another level."

She would like to use additional funding to expand her counseling services and she is setting up one room at the sanctuary as a place for owners to stay with their dying animals and receive emotional support. She also hopes to set up a "senior-to-senior" program that would bring elderly animals and elderly humans together.

"In caring for animals, we are caring for their people. It's a full circle, to the end and through the end," she said.

Pedersen said hospice care for animals was a natural progression from her work as a critical-care nurse.

"I've always been drawn to working with the elderly. I was always drawn to their quiet wisdom," she said. She said caring for the elderly is part of the culture in her native Denmark and she has always loved animals.

"Being with that unconditional love and close to nature has helped me so much in my own development," she said. "As I've gotten older, it has kind of come naturally."

She moved into it gradually. She finally made the decision to drop to part-time nursing hours and put her energy into the sanctuary when she began to dream about a difficult dog that came to her after being returned to the animal shelter several times and that died in her care.

"She reminded me this was what I needed to do. This was my passion," she said.

She said owners who take the responsibility to care for their animals to the end learn more about life.

"We get to know about our living and dying," she said.

Kindred Spirits Animal Sanctuary offers "End-of-Life Care for senior dogs owners meetings on Saturday mornings for those who don't want their dogs to suffer.