Poodles are a breed above the rest

Surveys show that an overwhelming majority use baby talk to communicate with their pets â€” that high singsong tone of voice, accompanied by silly, made-up sounds and words by mothers (and fathers) the world over when speaking to their human infants and their young children,” writes Jana Kohl, Psy.D. in her book A Rare Breed of Love.

Kohl’s book is an interesting read for pet owners like me who have searched high and low for that perfect pet companion.  And, in that search, the discovery of puppy mills much like Kohl describes in her book, is just as common here as it is in the US.

A puppy mill is a place where dogs (of different breeds and sizes) are kept in cages. Depending on the size of the property owner, and the number of dogs and breeds for sale, the cages are piled one on top of the other so that as more puppies come, more space is available.

I remember a few years back that I had my eyes on a Miniature Schnauzer I had seen on the Web.  There was one breeder that I visited that changed the way I looked at dog breeders for life.

I remember the rows and rows of cages and the stench that came from the area as I saw where the dogs were kept. I left in a rush — and since then have never surfed the Internet for a dog again.

In the book, Kohl relates how she had been warned against buying dogs from breeders who ran puppy mills. Kohl shares that she did not pay much attention to what her well-meaning animal welfare advocate friends said.

 Kohl was in search of a Poodle because she wanted a small dog that could travel with her.  She stays in LA but had seen the cutest Poodle in Texas, and so had flown there to get the dog.

“As soon as we stepped out of our car, the horrible sounds greeted us — the desperate cries of hundreds of dogs barking from within two wooden sheds. I felt a terrible sense of dread in the pit of my stomach,” Kohl writes. “They don’t mind being locked up. Animals don’t have feelings,’” was how Kohl remembers the response of the puppy miller in Texas.

From that day, Kohl knew that she had to stop puppy mills and the inhumane treatment of animals.

And baby makes two

Kohl did research on puppy mills and gathered all the information she could. After a year, she found a Poodle, the breed she wanted, available at one of these puppy mills.

That’s how she found Baby, a roughly nine-year-old poodle who had been locked in a cage.

Baby has only three legs — she lost one following years of mistreatment at the puppy mill.

When Kohl first met Baby, she wasn’t sure she was ready to get Baby for $200, because she feared that it might be hard to handle an older dog.

Baby could no longer be used for breeding purposes, which was why she was available for cheap.

It was only when Kohl was given a last option a few months later that she finally made the decision to get Baby.

Baby’s leg had to be amputated due to years of abuse.

But what Kohl saw and learned through her experience with Baby led her to devote her life to protecting dogs and shutting down puppy mills.

I have met my share of animal advocates in the years that I have been writing this column and I know how hard sell many of them can be. But A Rare Breed of Love is not written by that kind of an advocate, and it’s perhaps one of the reasons why I really enjoyed reading it: Once upon a time, Kohl wore fur and was basically indifferent toward animals. But her one experience at a puppy mill redefined her life.

When Kohl finally took Baby in, the unofficial “spokesdog” for the Humane Society of the United States was born.

Today, Kohl takes “spokesdog” Baby with her wherever she goes.  The adventures of Baby and Kohl hobnobbing with celebrities, lobbying politicians, and inspiring an entire movement to end the kind of animal abuse she suffered for so many years are well documented in the photos in the book.

Kohl and Baby travel around the US lobbying for reform on the issue of puppy mills. A Rare Breed of Love contains more than 60 photographs of Baby with many of her high-profile fans — from Barack Obama to Judge Judy to Patti LaBelle, as well as original essays from Alice Walker and Gloria Steinem about the special love we all have for the pets in our lives.

Kohl took Baby to Capitol Hill and met with both Republicans and Democrats. Senators Ted Kennedy, John Ensign, Dick Durbin, Maria Cantwell, Rick Santorum, Elizabeth Dole. Many, many others met with Baby and Kohl and, as Kohl explains, there were many teary eyes during the meetings.

In A Rare Breed of Love, Kohl and Baby offer practical advice on what each of us can do to raise awareness, make a difference, and stop animal suffering everywhere. But more than just advice, what the book shows us is that there is something we can do to stop cruelty to animals if we really want to.

Heart melter

Baby made Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler sing. She went on the air with Paul Harvey. She palled around with Martina Navratilova’s dogs and hung out with Jim Cramer on the set of Mad Money.

From stars, to politicians to athletes, what Baby had done is put a face to animal abuse and neglect — and she has made many take notice of how real all these are.

And, as Kohl explains, her tours across the country also touched thousands of everyday people.

One experience Kohl shares in her book involves an encounter with a homeless man. “He charged down the sidewalk toward us, screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs, ranting unintelligibly,” Kohl writes. But upon seeing Baby, the man stopped and questioned Kohl about the three-legged dog, before suddenly becoming an advocate for her.

 â€œâ€˜You’re taking good care of her, right?’ he asked, looking at me squarely. ‘You aren’t going to hurt her,’ he added. I felt my throat tighten and my eyes well with tears for the empathy this troubled man was offering Baby, someone he identified with and wanted to protect, someone who, for that moment, inspired him to put aside his own agony and feel the pain of another. In the two years since I adopted her, I had never seen a clearer example of Baby’s transformational power to elicit love, kindness, and empathy even in the face of one’s own suffering. It is a power that animals singularly possess to heal the human soul.”

I loved all the pictures in the book, which will touch anyone with a heart. The stories will open a place in your heart that you may have never thought you had. Not only did Baby lose one leg, her vocal chords were also removed with scissors so she wouldn’t annoy her keepers by barking.

Back in 2005 when President Barack Obama was a US senator, he was one of the politicians who agreed to meet with Kohl and Baby. He agreed to the photo shoot and pledged to Kohl that when he brought a dog home for his family, it would be a rescue dog — not one from a breeder. And now, it seems, the president is living up to his word.

And from another part of the world, even Mahatma Gandhi knew about the importance of animals in our lives. “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

If only we would listen — and take action.