More Returns!

One of the challenges of rescue is taking back previously adopted dogs when their owners can no longer care for them.  Since I volunteer with an all-foster home group, we have no shelter building to house the dogs.  If a dog is going to be returned, we hope that the person who originally fostered the dog will take him or her back.  But if that isn't possible, then everyone in the group works together to find a place for the dog to go.  I am fortunate enough to work with a wonderful group of volunteers, and someone is always stepping up to help whenever is needed.

Returns don't happen very often, but sometimes it seems as if when one happens, it is immediately followed by many more!  In the past two weeks, we've received several returned dogs, and it seems that most of them have been mine!  The good news is that Nosey, the blind Beagle puppy who was going to be returned, ended up going to a family member of the adopter and is no longer being returned.  Also one of our new foster volunteers stepped up to help out by fostering Bogey when he was returned.  He's doing wonderful in his new foster home!  It also helped that Allie and Natasha's adoptions are both working out, and in addition Trooper the Black Lab and Libby the deaf Jack Russell Terrier were also adopted!

Jax is one of the returns that I took in last week.  He is a great little guy - only 8 months old - and already I'm forcing him to earn his keep by collecting donations at adoption events.  So far he's earned around $40 over the past two adoption events - not bad for a dog!

Jax

The other returns that ended up coming back to my house are Louie the Black Lab mix and Gemma the deaf pit bull mix. Both were returned because their owners could no longer afford to care for them.

Louie is a year and a half old, and was part of the "Donald Duck" litter.  

Louie!

He is now all grown up.  He's very nervous around new people at first, but he's quickly learned to trust me and has become my constant companion, even sleeping on my bed at night.  

Louie looking nervous during an adoption event.

Gemma is the other recent return.  She originally came from a shelter in Kansas City, where she was going to be put down without ever being made available for adoption due to being deaf and heartworm positive and having some health issues.  Fortunately the shelter has a great rescue coordinator who shared her and when I saw her on Facebook I immediately said I'd take her.  She had been hit by a car prior to being taken to the shelter and has some nerve damage in her front leg which causes her to limp.  However she completed her heartworm treatment and is in good health other than the continuing issues with her leg.  Gemma is a very sweet dog - she is affectionate and loves everyone she meets.  The other family who fostered her previously wants to take her back as soon as their current foster dog is adopted, but in the meantime she is staying here with me.  I am enjoying having her back!

Gemma

The other exciting thing that happened this week was Zara, Ziggy's littermate who was adopted out three years ago, was lost and came back for a few days until we could locate her owner.  She is now safely back home!

Zara

For those of you wondering, Ziggy and Zara used to love to play together.  I wanted to give them a chance to play together again while Zara was back, but it turns out that they're much more mature now, and Ziggy was too busy worrying about if Zara would steal his stuff to actually want to play.  So Zara played with all the other fosters for a few days and seemed to have a great time visiting everyone except Ziggy!

Catching Up

Between the holidays and recovering from a cold, I have fallen way behind. So here's a quick update on everyone, and going forward I will do my best to keep up with new pictures and stories!

When I last posted, I had ten dogs at my house. As of right now, I still have ten, but not the same ten! I still have Lacey and her five puppies, now named Nike (chocolate female), Puma (smallest black female), Buster Brown (black male), Teva (yellow female), and Avia (largest black female). The puppies continue to be brilliant and extremely advanced for their age of less than five weeks old! They already have distinct personalities. Nike is the most vocal and demanding - she's like the big sister to the rest. Puma is the quiet one, content to sit back and watch what is going on. Buster Brown is the sweet one who is the most affectionate of the bunch. Teva is the adorable one who likes to be in the middle of whatever is going on, and Avia is the hungry one who is always first to the food bowl! The pups are growing quickly and new pictures will be coming soon.

Ziggy is still at my house. He's almost completely destroyed his bachelor pad, including destuffing the dog bed, finding and eating several dewormer pills (20 times the dose he should have had - of course it had no effect on him), and managing to burn out every lightbulb except one. I'm not sure how he pulled that last one off, but I'm sure it was something he did. He received a wonderful Christmas gift from Blueberry's human, and I'll tell you all about it as soon as I download the pictures off of my camera.

Lucky the deaf dog is also still at my house. He actually went out on a trial adoption. It lasted a week, which is seven days longer than I expected. He was returned for wanting to eat the bird, among other things. Poor Lucky isn't having the best luck. Fortunately the bird was uninjured.

Allie the extremely energetic Akita mix was also adopted. She's currently on day 5 of the trial period. This is 5 days longer than I expected! If there is any dog out there that needs a home (besides Ziggy), Allie is the one. So I am praying that this trial adoption works out... and I'm considering changing my phone number just to be sure. Just kidding.

Natasha the extremely-obsessed-with-me Poodle mix also is out on a trial adoption. She has a lot better chance of success, but being that she's in a home where I don't live, there's no guarantee. This is the dog that has gone to two different homes for at least three weeks each, then come back to me and never even looked back at her previous caretaker. And yet if I take two steps away from her at an adoption event, she goes nuts. It's kind of scary.

On the other hand, Libby the deaf JRT sees me at an adoption event and looks right through me.  She's still at another foster home, where her foster mom reports she gets the same treatment.  This does not make it easy for Libby to get adopted since she ignores anyone and everyone equally, but at least it makes me feel better that it isn't just me that she treats this way.  And it sort of balances out Natasha's behavior. 

Trooper the Black Lab I found on the side of the road is back at my house now too.  He's recovered from his broken spine due to being hit by a car, and he is now available for adoption.  Trooper is a good dog and gets along with everyone except Lucky, so currently I have to keep Ziggy, Lucky, and Trooper apart from each other at all times. 

The only other dog that Trooper didn't get along with was another deaf white dog named Ozzie.  I temporarily fostered him for a few days, and Trooper and Ozzie became mortal enemies during this time.  Ozzie is a Westie mix we think, and he's the cutest little dog who is a typical terrier and willing to take on dogs three times his size.  He is now back in his original foster home and I have to admit I miss the little guy!  He is available for adoption and hopefully will find a forever home soon! 

I also have another male foster dog named Jax.  Jax was adopted out as a puppy and recently returned because he didn't do well with children.  Since Ozzie also didn't like Jax, Jax came to my house instead of going back to his original foster home.  I really like Jax - he's friendly and well-behaved and happy and easygoing and smart.  He gets along with all the other dogs too.  I'm going to take his picture one of these days and get him up on the website so he can get adopted.  Sometime soon. 

As if these five adults and five puppies weren't enough, I recently received some sad news that two of my previous foster dogs are being returned.  The first is Nosey, the blind Beagle puppy I fostered in October.  The family who adopted him have to move out of state into an apartment that doesn't allow dogs, so Nosey, now named Radar, will be coming back to me sometime soon.  The other return is Bogey, the very shy dog.  He has been in a foster-to-adopt situation for two months but the foster family finally decided that another dog would be a better fit for their home. So Bogey returns on Saturday.  In an ironic twist, I just realized that the same blog post where I introduced Bogey last February, I also announced Allie's original adoption.  Now I'm announcing Bogey's return and Allie's second potential adoption almost one year after that original post. 

If you've managed to read this far, thanks for hanging in there, and I promise to provide shorter posts in the future, along with more pictures.  You're welcome. 

Wordless Wednesday





Allie Is Strong... and getting Stronger!

My foster dog Allie is a ninety pound Akita/Border Collie mix.  She has the size of an Akita, and the bark of a Border Collie.  She has the intelligence of both breeds, which is quite scary.  This is the dog who learned to open the back door and come into the house anytime she wanted by grabbing the door knob with her mouth, and leaning against the door while turning her head. 

In addition to her intelligence, Allie is quite the energetic and inquisitive dog.  She does not like to be left out of things, and this is never more obvious than when she is in the back yard and someone stops by.  The six foot privacy fence makes it difficult for her to see into the driveway to find out who is visiting. 

The picture below is taken from the driveway, looking toward the back yard. 

You can click on the picture to enlarge it.  Why would you want to do this, you ask?  Well, think of it as a Where's Waldo game, only in this case we'll call it "Where's Allie?" 

Keep in mind that this six-foot fence has the posts on the outside of the fence, so from the backyard there are no posts - we did this purposely to keep the dogs from using the crossbars to launch themselves over the fence. 

Here's a closer picture.

This is what she does when she wants to see what is going on in the driveway.  She jumps up, puts her front paws over the top of the fence, and hangs on!  At first she could only stay up there a second or two.  But she's been practicing. 

She's up to about seven or eight seconds of hang time before gravity wins and pulls her 90 pound body back to the ground.  She also seems to be gaining height as time goes on.  I've decided the best solution to this, other than keeping her in the house 24/7, is to feed her more.  If she eats more, she'll weigh more, and won't be able to jump so well.  This is my theory, and she seems quite happy to go along with it. 

Re-Introducing Allie

Last December I went to a local animal shelter with a friend, and we rescued two puppies. I took home Allie, a Border Collie/Akita mix. She immediately dug out under the fence and ran away. I looked for her and posted signs and worried for two days. Then she turned up at a neighbor’s house, and I brought her back home. Then she got sick, and threw up a large amount of roundworms in my lap. I couldn’t even be mad at her, because she was sick. She got pneumonia and had to go to the emergency vet for a couple of days. I think she was doing her best to make sure she was one of my most memorable fosters. Although I only had her for about a month before she was adopted, she accomplished her goal.



Innocent look perfected


Recently the family who adopted her had to return her. They brought her back during an adoption event, and although I knew she was coming back, I didn’t recognize her until someone said her name. She had gone from a small puppy to an 88-pound giant. And although she has the size and curly tail of an Akita, she has the high-pitched bark and the drive and intelligence of a Border Collie.

Lucky and Allie are almost the same size, and unfortunately they felt an instant dislike of each other. So that meant keeping them separate, which is tough to do, especially when one of the dogs is an extremely intelligent and very large dog (the other one is just very large). The first time I had Allie behind a very tall baby gate while letting Lucky out into the backyard, when she pushed the gate out of the doorway and went after him. The next time when she was in the back yard, and he was inside, she got her mouth on the doorknob, turned it, and pushed open the door to enter the house. I started having to turn the deadbolt every time just to keep her in the yard. Fortunately within a few days I was able to integrate them and they became good play buddies. That didn’t stop the escapes though. Allie later climbed a fenced area and talked Lucky into following behind her so they could go explore the neighborhood. And a few days later, she managed to open the latched gate in the privacy fence and stroll right on out of the yard. I have to say I really prefer the not-quite-so-intelligent dogs – they are much easier to care for!

Allie has settled back in at my house quite well, other than the many escape attempts, and she already has a potential adopter!  I hope they're ready for a challenge!

Hairless Dogs - We've Got 'Em!

Charlie

My foster dog Charlie went to the vet to get checked out for some missing hair, and we learned he has demodex mange.  This is not contagious to other dogs, but it will require several months of treatment.  So in addition to medicine for the mange and medicine for secondary skin infections, Charlie will also be receiving weekly baths.  Poor guy is not very happy with me right now!  

 Charlie's not the only hairless dog around here though.  Meet Bogey, a Shar-Pei mix.  He's missing a lot more hair than Charlie, but he doesn't have mange or any other skin conditions that the vet can find.  They're doing some tests to try to determine the problem, but it may just be that Bogey is going to always be mostly hairless.  

Bogey

Bogey came to my house after escaping his previous foster home and going on the run for a week.  He had countless volunteers out looking for him and was spotted several times but was too shy to approach anyone.  Eventually he was caught in a live trap and came here.  He used to be best friends with Charlie at the shelter they both lived at, so I thought they might like seeing each other again.  However Charlie seems to think that since he was here first, he should get all the attention and he's not making Bogey feel welcome.  Poor Bogey is very afraid of me, doesn't want to play with the other dogs, and just looks really sad all the time.  

He's also getting medicine for ear infections and an injury he received while on the run, so I'm playing doctor a lot these days.  Hopefully Bogey will start to settle in soon and feel better.

In happier news, we've had several adoptions lately, including Allie the Border Collie mix puppy, Roo the pit bull mix, and Molly the Min-Pin/Puggle mix!  

Update on my fosters... part 2

In addition to the foster pets in yesterday's post, I also have the following:


Molly

 Molly is a Puggle/Min-Pin mix that I've been fostering for three months now.  She's very talented at jumping, she furiously tries to scare away the vacuum cleaner every time it's turned on, and she loves to bark ferociously at Ziggy - but only when he's walking away from her.  Molly has become very attached to me, and she will not look at anyone else during adoption events.  This makes it challenging to find her a home.  I also can't leave her alone during the events because she gets snippy with people (imagine a three year old child throwing a tantrum and screaming "Where's my MOM?  I WANT MY MOM!")  That's Molly.  I'm taking her to training classes and we continue to work on socialization (other people are nice too, Molly!) as well as basic obedience.  She's a very smart dog, and one of these days I'm sure she's going to figure out that the vacuum cleaner really won't hurt her. 




Ziggy, the deaf and slightly famous pit bull, is continuing to work hard at agility classes, and was recently promoted to the Intermediate-Advanced class!  Okay actually he's still in the intermediate class because there is no intermediate-advanced class, but when I asked his trainer when we'd be ready for the advanced class, she said he was at an Intermediate-Advanced level now, so I'm considering that a promotion.  Ziggy is proof that pretty much any dog can do agility.  Not because he's deaf, but because he's slow and not very athletic.  Other dogs get all excited in class and jump around and run - Ziggy just patiently waits for the treats to appear, and does the agility routines solely because it gets him food.  Oh every once in awhile he jumps over an extra jump when he doesn't have to - but even then I doubt he's doing it for fun - I think it's because it's the shortest way to get to me and the treats.  We still have a lot of fun together though, and it's good exercise and good mental stimulation. 

Allie

A rescue friend recently invited me to go with her to a shelter.  She wanted to pull a young dog as a friend for another young puppy she had recently rescued.  Of course I said yes.  I know some rescuers who hate visiting shelters because it makes them so sad, but I enjoy going there as long as I can take at least one of the animals home with me.  It's great to take them from their small steel cage where they are scared and alone, facing an uncertain future, and take them home where they can live in a house and get all the affection and attention that they want.  I know that their uncertain future just became a whole lot more certain of a happy ending, and although it's hard to leave the others behind, I always focus on the joy of the one I can save.  In this case, I knew my friend was going to pull a puppy, and I decided I had enough dogs at the moment but could take in a cat.  So off we went to pull a dog and a cat.  We looked at the dogs first.  It didn't take long until she found the puppy she wanted, but we finished looking at the few other dogs that we had not seen yet and quickly saw a second one that we both fell in love with.  I agonized over the decision for several minutes (okay actually it was more like 10 seconds) and then said she should take the first pup and I'd take the second one.  She quickly agreed that sounded like a fantastic idea, and I said "at least it will keep me from pulling a cat".  The idea being since I was pulling a new dog, I really didn't need to pull a cat as well.  But even as I said those words, I felt sad about leaving without a cat.  So while the paperwork was done for the two puppies, I headed over to look at the cats.  And I guess you aren't surprised to learn that I came home with both Allie the puppy and Theo the kitten. 

Unfortunately both Allie and another puppy who had been pulled previously came down with pneumonia.  They both ended up at the emergency clinic overnight, but are doing better and are both back at their respective foster homes now.  Allie is getting two different kinds of medicine, and she's having to get a nebulizer treatment three times a day, but she's feeling much better.  I'll have her for at least a few more weeks while she fully recovers, then she'll be able to go to the vet to get her vaccinations and be spayed, and then she'll be ready for a home of her own. 

  

Allie


So those are my seven foster dogs currently.  I was going to give a status update on my two foster cats as well (Theo and Charlie) but Charlie really needs a whole post of his own, so I'll share that another day.

Why I've Been Slacking...

The truth is, I just haven't felt like talking lately.  There's been a lot of things happening that have made me sad, scared, angry, and frustrated, so I've been spending my free time doing things that don't require thinking - things like reading, or playing computer games, or going on walks with Ziggy.  But I've slacked off for long enough, so it's time to start writing again!  Here are a few of the things that have made me so anti-social lately:

- My new foster puppy Allie got out of my yard and disappeared for two days.  She eventually turned up at a neighbor's house, but those were a very scary two days.

- I've started job searching, since I've been laid off at work as of the end of the year.  It's difficult to find a job that is going to be anywhere close to where I'm living now, which means a long commute and no one to help with the foster dogs while I'm gone for 11+ hours a day, so I'm dreading actually finding a new job.  Then again being out of work with two house payments doesn't seem like such a good idea either.

- My best friend was also just laid off from her job, effective in a few months.  She's been at her company for over 30 years, and the company decided to move her job to India, so they could save a few dollars.

- My foster dogs continue to find new ways to escape the fenced yard.  It is a temporary "hog wire" type of fence and the dogs are digging out underneath, or in some cases actually climbing or jumping it.  They then proceed to lead me on a merry chase around the neighborhood.

- After running through a field behind my house, they end up in the Bad subdivision.  I call it that because one of the residents there came and complained about the dogs and said her neighbors would shoot them on sight.  I understand complaining about the dogs - they shouldn't be allowed to run loose, although in all fairness I have spent many, many hours trying to keep them contained.  But threatening to shoot my dogs makes me angry.  I was told that they would shoot the pit bulls because they were afraid of them.  The sad part is the pitties I have would never hurt them - it's the Min-Pin/Puggle that they should be scared of!  Regardless, I am now going to have to get a regular wood privacy fence in order to keep my foster dogs safe.  I was hoping to put off this major purchase until I found a new job, but that's not going to be an option now.

In spite of these many stressful and scary events, I am still constantly reminded to be grateful for all that I have.  My family and friends, good  health, a place to live, food to eat, and the ability to help those less fortunate.  I am blessed and have not forgotten it.

There's one more recent "event" that made me want to throw up, but then it made me finally decide to write another blog post even if I wasn't feeling up to it.  Because when bad things happen, who better to share them with than friends right?  Good.  So fortunately for you I did not take any pictures.  But if you're easily grossed out, you may want to skip this next paragraph.  Especially if you've been considering fostering but haven't decided if you can handle it or not.

Today I was taking Allie to the vet because she has not been feeling well.  I was driving down the highway and feel something warm and look down to see I'm completely covered with partially digested puppy food, really gross digestive juices, and to top it off, two or three roundworms swimming around in the puddle.  Do you know what it's like to be frantically looking for somewhere to pull over while watching these long yellow worms swim around in a puddle that is quickly soaking through your jeans and onto your legs?  It easily qualifies as my most disgusting experience of 2011 - if not of my entire life!  Hopefully 2012 will be a better year!