Introducing Thor the Burglar

Thor was a stray found by one of my neighbors.  He had a microchip which led to the discovery that Thor's owner had passed away several months ago, and Thor was in need of a new home.  And so somehow I found myself saying "I can keep him until he's adopted".  Thor is eight years old, and he has terrible ear infections in both ears.  Have you ever had to put ear medicine into a dog's ear twice a day for two weeks?  It is a challenge - especially when the dog is in pain, which Thor is.  It helps if the dog is small, because it's easier to hold them in place.  However Thor is a 103 pound German Shepherd, so holding him in place while trying to dispense the medicine is not so easy.  I'm thinking that the whole experience burns enough calories for both of us that we don't need to exercise.  That's my excuse for this week anyway.

Today Thor decided to expend a little bit of extra energy to reach a goal.  He doesn't like to be outside unless I'm with him.  I went in to answer the phone while he and the other dogs were outside, and then a few minutes later I heard noises coming from down the hall.  I didn't think much about it, because I have two new cats in one of the rooms, and thought they were probably just playing.  But after I got off the phone, I went to check on them.

When I found both cats sleeping and no evidence of anything they'd been doing to make noise, I thought to myself it was nothing, but just to be sure I would check Ziggy's room, which is right across the hall.  Ziggy was outside in the front so the room should have been empty.  So I was more than a little surprised to open the door and find three dogs inside the room.

Scene of the crime

I had left the window open to get some fresh air into the room, and Thor decided he wasn't going to let a little thing like a brand new window screen stop him from getting back into the house.  It's true that I have no proof it was Thor.  But Ziggy wasn't in the back yard, so I can't blame him, and none of the other dogs have ever minded being outside without me.  They've also never forced their way through a screen to get inside.

So much for that window screen

What's odd is that there were six dogs in the backyard, and the three I found in Ziggy's room were all German Shepherds or Shepherd mixes.  Does this mean GSDs (German Shepherd Dogs) are more sneaky than other breeds?

Sadly, Ziggy will not be getting any fresh air into his room until I get his brand new window screen repaired.  A 103 pound dog leaves quite a big hole in a screen!

Introducing Dora

Dora is a three year old Black Lab/Border Collie mix.  She came from a rural shelter, and was heartworm positive.  She's been in another foster home while undergoing treatment for heartworms, and once her treatment was complete she came to my house so she could start going to adoption events.

Big black dogs like Dora are often difficult to place.  I expected to have her for awhile.  But at her very first adoption event last weekend, she was a big hit.  Although she didn't find a home, she did get a lot of attention.  So when we had the chance to attend another event during the week, I took Dora along with Chloe the pit bull, Jefferson the Shepherd mix, and Midnight the cat.  Again Dora was very popular, and by the end of the event she had an application for adoption!

Dora is now in her new home, and doing very well.  She was only here for a week, and it was great to find a perfect home for her so quickly.

Although Jefferson and Chloe did not have so much luck getting adopted, they will hopefully soon find new homes thanks to a photographer from Shelter Me Photography.  She took photos of both dogs at the mid-week event, and hopefully that will get them some attention when people are looking at dogs on the adoption sites online.

Chloe

Jefferson

Shelby update, and Thank You

Shelby is feeling better!!  She has not had any more seizures in the last 24 hours, and she came home from the E-clinic and is doing well.  She is still ataxic, but that is hopefully just due to the medicine she is on.  If you don't know what ataxic means, well, here's a hint:

Ziggy enjoys a beer.

Unlike Ziggy, Shelby hasn't been drinking, but she walks around like she's drunk, bumping into things and occasionally falling over.  But she's starting to act more like her old self, and hopefully within a few days will be back to normal.  She'll be on seizure medicine the rest of her life, but that is not too expensive so she should be able to be adopted without much trouble once she is recovered from her heartworm treatment.  Someday she will have her Happily Ever After!

Merlin the cat is also fully recovered from his run-in with Ziggy.  Thanks for all of your well-wishes!

Rescue is expensive, and I'm grateful to work with a rescue group that covers all foster pet medical expenses as well as providing dog food for the fosters.  Shelby's emergency vet bill was over $600, and that doesn't include the several hundred dollars it will cost for her heartworm treatment.  Her adoption fee is only $125, so as you can imagine, the rescue group relies heavily on donations from the public in order to continue to help animals.  It always amazes me how many people out there are happy to give just a few dollars to help when they can.  Without so many people giving, we couldn't save dogs like Shelby.

It's great when people donate to the rescue, which by the way is tax deductible, but recently something even more amazing happened.  A very special person read about the problems I've been having with my foster dogs escaping my fenced yard.  Living in a rural area is wonderful, except for the mindset many people have about animals.  If people see stray dogs, they are as likely to shoot them as call the owner, even when the dogs are wearing collars and tags.  So when a neighbor stopped by to warn me that my dogs were going to be shot if they got out of the yard again, I was desperate.  I was out of work and couldn't afford a better fence, but had nowhere else for the foster dogs to go.  So I bought a fence and shared my concerns about paying for it.  I love writing this blog because I get to share the good and the bad of rescue, but I never expected what happened next.  Jess from At A Glacial Pace created a wonderful fundraiser to help me buy the fence!  She spent so much time and hard work, just to help keep my foster dogs safe and me sane (well, relatively sane).  The fundraiser was a lot of fun - an online Valentine's Day Party - and many people in the blog community donated.  I am grateful to each one of you who participated and made this a successful event.  My fence is up and is working perfectly to keep the dogs in the yard!

Shelby in the back yard

Thank you Jess, and everyone who contributed!

Jefferson - trying to help build the fence!

Happily Ever Afters

Sometimes we all need to hear about the Happily Ever Afters.  When things are tough, it always helps to remember why we work so hard to save homeless animals.  The reward of seeing them with their new family, or in their new home, makes the work and the heartache of rescue worth it.  

This is Amber the Pointer mix with her girls.  She's a happy dog, and her family says everyone who meets her just loves her.  

And this is Scout (now named Henry) the Beagle/Shih Tzu/Brussels mix with one of his girls.  He's a very snuggly 43 pounds!

And then there's Casey.  He is loving his life with his best friend Noel the cat.  Casey started out being rescued after being hit by a car and having both of his front legs crushed.  He had steel plates put in his legs, and had a long recovery.  He also had to recover from a tick-borne disease and heartworms.  It was expensive to save him, and a lot of work to nurse him back to health (thanks Leslie!), but he's so happy in his new life and it makes all of the work worth it.

These stories give me hope.  And right now, I need hope.  I have to believe that Shelby will pull through and get her own Happily Ever After too.  Last week Shelby tested positive for heartworms, so she'll need several months of heartworm treatment before she'll be ready for adoption.  That made me sad for her, because heartworm treatment is painful for dogs.  But then to make matters much worse, she started having seizures on Wednesday.  I knew she had a history of seizures before she was turned into a shelter, but she had not had any problems until Wednesday.  I woke up when she had a seizure while lying next to me, and immediately called the vet.  Shelby then went outside and crawled under the deck.  I couldn't get to her so left her there until it was time for her vet appointment.  I still couldn't get to her and she just stood there looking confused but wouldn't come to me so I finally had to break out the wood lattice under the deck to get to her.  We went to the vet and they started her on seizure medicine.  Then a few hours later she had another seizure.  And after the vet closed, she had three more seizures, each one worse than the last.  She had convulsions, emptied her bladder and bowels, did paddling of her limbs, and ended up stumbling around in circles, running into things and doing "head pressing" where she would press her head against a wall for long periods of time.  At midnight we went to the emergency clinic where they gave her more drugs.  She stayed there and I went home alone.  She had more seizures at the emergency clinic, and between seizures is still not herself.  She's temporarily blind and still confused and hurting.  We aren't sure if the seizures are caused by a brain tumor or something else, but at this point we just have to wait and see.  She may come out of it with no ill effects, or she may end up with permanent brain damage, or she may not make it.  I'm worried about my girl.  I so much want her to have her Happily Ever After.  

Introducing Ashlyn

Amber the Pointer mix was adopted last weekend!  I also managed to find the cutest puppy in the world (yes, really!) and I stole her from another foster home.  It's true - I used my amazing powers of persuasion to convince another foster home that this puppy should come live with me for awhile.  It was selfish, but I couldn't resist this face!

Ashyln is a nine week old pit bull puppy.  She's extremely cute and so small.  I haven't been able to stop carrying her around since I brought her home.  In fact, when I volunteered at a garage sale fundraiser this weekend, I carried her around in a sling most of the time:

She seemed to love it. She enjoyed all of the attention as well!

In addition to looking adorable, Ashlyn is a true entertainer.  If you're having a bad day, just watch this video of Ashlyn at the garage sale playing with a toy bigger than she is!