Gretchen

I'm worried about one of my previous foster dogs. Gretchen was adopted out as a 10 week old puppy. I remember her well. She was part of a litter of 8 puppies, and she was the sweet, quiet, shy one of the bunch. She was more independent than the others, and was least likely to ask for attention or affection. I worked hard to get her over her shyness, and quickly became very attached to her.

Gretchen is now almost two years old. Sometime in the past year and a half, Gretchen has learned that if she's in trouble, the best defense is a good offense. Her owner called me and said he was worried about the safety of his children, because Gretchen had started growling and snapping at people if she was in trouble. Not having seen it for myself, it's hard to know the exact cause. I can't blame a parent for putting the safety of his children first, but I also don't blame Gretchen for using a method to protect herself that she has found works for her. It may simply be a case where with some training, Gretchen can learn better ways to interact with people and feel safe. Unfortunately the family wasn't able to work with a trainer, and had to turn in Gretchen to a shelter. All of the area rescue groups are full right now, so Gretchen ended up at an open admission shelter. She will most likely fail her behavior evaluation, at which point she will be euthanized.

This is the hard part of rescue. What do I do? My living situation aside, it's still a tough choice. If I pull her and foster her, I could be saving a dog that will be very difficult to adopt out. Remember Lizzy the Child-Eating Border Collie? Dogs like Lizzy and Gretchen, who show aggressive behaviors like growling or snapping because they are afraid, are very rewarding to work with. To watch them change and get over their fear, and to learn better ways to deal with fear, is amazing. But they're also very hard to find homes for. They usually need adult-only homes with responsible adults who are patient and willing to work with the dog. Unfortunately there aren't many people like that looking to adopt a difficult dog. So while Gretchen lives with me, it'll keep me from being able to save others. If I consider it by the numbers, it'd be better to spend the time and money that Gretchen would require on the five or eight or twelve dogs that we could save in her place. But rescue isn't always about the numbers - otherwise Ziggy wouldn't still be entertaining me with his antics and driving me crazy with his Ziggy ways. It is a fine line between using your head and using your heart when you do rescue. If you always make decisions based only on emotions, you become either a hoarder, with more animals than you can care for, or you eventually fill up with unadoptable animals and are unable to save any more. And yet if you only make decisions based on what is logical and economical, you will miss out on a lot of really wonderful, deserving dogs, and completely miss the point of rescue.

I hate these types of decisions. This one is made easier by the fact that I haven't moved yet and can't take in Gretchen right now, no matter how much I want to. I've asked the shelter if I can come evaluate Gretchen. I want to see her and get the image of her as a puppy out of my head. That will make it easier to accept whatever happens. I also want to see for myself what she is like, and whether or not I may be able to work with her and help her. Then depending on the evaluation, I can either beg some rescue friends to make room for her until I move, or let her go, knowing that I did all that I could for her. Either way, it will be helpful to see for myself what she is really like. I hope to go see her on Friday.


In other news, I found another home! This one is in Foristell, MO, on two fenced acres, and should be almost perfect for fostering. In fact a previous owner of the home fostered dogs there as well! It is very private and has no restrictions, so I don't have to worry if the dogs want to go outside and bark at the squirrels. It even has "in-law" quarters in the basement, which I could rent out for extra income, if I could ever find anyone crazy enough to want to put up with all the dogs and cats making noise upstairs. Okay, it's safe to say I probably won't be able to rent the downstairs out. But it's a perfect house for me, and I am totally in love with it. I will hopefully be closing on it at the end of the month if everything goes well.

Lizzy was adopted!

Lizzy met a very nice couple at PetSmart last Saturday.  They wanted to see how she did with their other dog, so last night we went to their house and Lizzy got to meet their dog and their neighbor's dog.  Everything went so well, that they decided to do a two-week trial adoption!  I am hopeful that it will work out and that Lizzy has found her forever home this time. 

I already miss her though.  This morning as I fed the dogs, I stood in the middle of the kitchen with an extra bowl of dog food in my hands, looking for Lizzy.  I'm so used to her being there - it's hard to come home and NOT have her there to greet me.  But I know she has a wonderful new family, and I really hope everything works out.

Dogs have issues too...

Some dogs have normal issues. Lizzy's issue is fear of strangers - normal for a dog who wasn't socialized at a young age. My previous foster dog Murphy has a fear of the outdoors, and loud noises - still not uncommon. Dogs like Lizzy and Murphy seem to see the world as Dangerous Until Proven Otherwise. Other dogs, like my Noelle, see the world as their playground - they have no fear, and every new thing is an adventure.

Recently I met a dog with very interesting issues. He does not seem to have the normal fears of a dog picked up as a stray. He isn't afraid of people. He isn't afraid of the outdoors, or loud noises, or other dogs. This is what he is afraid of:

 This dog, named Bobby Hill (to go with the foster family's theme of a popular TV show family), is the sweetest little beagle. He was picked up as a stray and taken to a shelter. When he was brought from the shelter to an adoption event, we all remarked on how sweet he was - and how skinny. Here's Bobby Hill at the adoption event.

So of course, being the typical soft-hearted rescue people that we are, we started trying to give him treats, to help fatten him up. If there's one thing that we tend to use a lot of at adoption events, it's treats! So bring on the donations - we'll use 'em. :-) Bobby Hill ate one small piece of soft chicken treat, and ignored the dog biscuits we offered. Then he ignored the rest of the chicken treats we offered. Well no wonder he is so skinny, if he won't even eat the yummy treats, I thought. A couple of times he walked up to the water bowl, sniffed it, then walked away. Very strange. But then Kenny, one of the rescue group volunteers, realized he seemed afraid of the water bowl. He poured some water on the ground, and Bobby Hill lapped it up. So we tried giving him water from a water bottle, and he lapped that up too. After drinking an entire water bottle full of water, Bobby Hill felt much better, and even started eating treats again. He had been so dehydrated that he wasn't able to swallow the treats before that! No wonder he was so skinny - the poor guy probably had not had anything to eat or drink since being taken to the shelter. He was so afraid of the water bowl that he was literally dying of thirst with the water right in front of him all the time. He must have been living on his own for awhile, scrounging food where he could get it and drinking from puddles. I have no idea what could have caused him to identify bowls as a scary object - but fortunately Kenny figured out the problem, and then proceeded to take him home as a foster dog where he could get him fattened up, and teach him that bowls really aren't so scary after all!

It takes a lot of patience to help a dog with issues. Bobby Hill has progressed from eating dog food off of a piece of newspaper on the ground, to eating out of his foster sibling's food bowl. He's also gone from drinking out of a cupped hand, to drinking from a small clear saucer, to drinking from a larger water bowl (but only when outside). Helping a dog to overcome their fears can sometimes be a long, drawn-out process, but it's so worth it in the end to see them gain freedom as they overcome their fear. Bobby Hill is now ready for adoption, and as you can see from these pictures taken just a few short weeks after the ones above, he's already gained weight and looks much better. Thanks to his foster parents Kenny and Holly who continue to work with him and help him overcome his fear of those scary things we like to call bowls.

Update on my fosters - Part 1

Yep, it's time for another Foster Pet update, where I get to list all of the foster pets at my house, and you get to think I'm crazy. But it also gives those of you who want to know about a specific pet a chance to find out how they're doing, so I hope you like these updates from time to time. If nothing else, you can read this post and then feel sorry for my husband. Just remember, HE's the one who made me get a dog three years ago. Up until then, I didn't want a dog, and had been avoiding it as long as possible. So if he hadn't insisted on getting a dog, which led me to discover how many homeless dogs and cats are killed every day, which led me to want to help them, this never would have happened.

Also, as a special bonus, I'm going to include updates on my own pets. Aren't you excited?

Remi - My Great Dane, and one of the largest dogs in the city... well, maybe in our subdivision anyway. He is getting old for a Dane - he turns four this month! He plays less and sleeps more, and he backs down from little poodle/daschund mixes when they bark at him. But my wimpy 160 pound dog is still tough enough to bark at every person and bicycle and truck that goes by our fence - as long as they are on the OTHER side of the fence.

Noelle - My deaf pit bull mix is spending a lot of time lately with my husband Dave as he works on our basement. Even though I am the one who feeds her, pets her, plays with her, and takes care of her every need, she is so his dog. Okay fine, he feeds her and pets her and plays with her also. But that's only because she follows him around everywhere. Maybe she's trying to make up for the fact that she ate his cowboy boots one day last week when he wasn't home.

Lizzy - I call her my child-eating border collie. I'm sure THAT will help her get adopted. She's settled into our house great - which is good, because I have a feeling we will have her for awhile. She loves to play with Noelle, and she listens very well and always just wants attention. It's only when strangers come in the house, or when she sees children that she goes nuts. Minor issue, right?

Skye, Sonic and Snoopy - My foster puppies went to the vet this week and got spayed/neutered. They can't get adopted yet though - even though I had already dewormed them once (remember this?), when they checked at the vet they found the puppies still have hookworms, whipworms, roundworms and coccidia. Somehow I wasn't surprised. So they're stuck with me for another week at least.

Bear - As I mentioned yesterday, Bear is going to be traveling to Maryland with me in a couple of weeks to take part in Puppy Bowl VI. Anyone interested in going with me? We'll only be driving 28 hours in three days with a small puppy in the car. It should be fun!

Chenille - It turns out my sweet, loving deaf Pomeranian is about 12 years old! The shelter originally said she was six years, and I thought she was a little older than that, but not twice that age. I guess it will hurt her chances of finding a home, but senior dogs find homes all the time so hopefully she'll still be adopted. She's so sweet - she's happy just to sit on my lap and be petted.

Dodger - This funny looking guy (sorry, but he is) is starting to settle in to the new routine. Both him and Chenille get canned food instead of dry food and all the other dogs get jealous! He has a very loud bark for such a little dog, and he's not afraid to use it. But he's also playful and friendly, and he does well with the other pets. Even Noelle is getting used to having him around. He's another dog that likes to sit on my lap while I type on the computer. Unfortunately my lap already has a waiting list with the cats and Chenille, so he has to take turns which he doesn't really like. Hopefully he can soon find another home where he will get all the attention he desires.

That's it for the dogs at my house. I'll post an update on the cats tomorrow, so maybe it won't look like I have quite so many. It's worth a try.

She smiles...

No matter what happens, Keisha always looks happy. 

Even if Trey is about to flatten her...

yet again...  she looks happy. 

Even when surrounded by dogs who outweight her by 155 pounds, she is happy.

This is one happy dog.

And here's another happy dog.

Introducing Lizzy

I have had a lot of easy, or at least quick, adoptions lately.  I decided it was time for a difficult foster dog.  Well not really - it just happened that way.  I saw this dog at an adoption event on Saturday, and asked about her.  It turned out she was adopted out as a puppy and returned recently, and since no one had room for her at the time, she's been staying at a shelter for the past month. I thought she was beautiful and since all of my foster dogs except Delta are adopted now, I offered to take her. They said yes! so I brought her home on Saturday afternoon.

You may wonder why a dog as beautiful as Lizzy would be a difficult dog to adopt out.  She's a Border Collie mix, and I love how the tip of her tail is white while the rest of her is mostly black.  She loves other dogs (even gets along with Noelle!), does fine with cats (fortunately for my cat Merlin), and is very intelligent and well-mannered.  She's 11 months old, already house-trained and knows basic obedience commands.  She also gets a lot of attention from people at adoption events.  The reason she hasn't found a home yet is probably because of how she was raised.

Lizzy was adopted out as a puppy to a family who didn't socialize her much.  She was never around children or other adults.  She didn't learn as a puppy that people aren't scary, and that when children run to pet her, they don't want to hurt her.  So now all people are scary to her.  Especially children.  And unfortunately almost everyone out there wants a dog that will be good with children.  Even if they don't have small children of their own, they may have neighbors or grandchildren or nieces and nephews who visit often, so they want a dog who is good with kids.  So I am afraid that Lizzy may take awhile to find someone who doesn't have young children at home, and will be patient with her and help her to learn that not all people want to hurt her. 

I can relate to Lizzy - as someone said to me at PetSmart today - I trust dogs more than people too!  And I know that as quickly as she learned to trust me, she can learn to trust other people as well.  So I'll try to work with her and help her to learn to be braver, and hopefully someday she will find her very own home.