They Look Nothing Alike

When I was first contacted about taking in another FIV+ cat, I hesitated.  I'd been planning to take a break from fostering cats for awhile, but it was a good friend who asked, and then she sent me a picture of the cat.  I knew he'd be euthanized if I didn't take him.  And he looked just like my cat Merlin.  So of course I said yes.

I brought him home and named him Murphy, because Merlin's nickname is Murray, and since they looked almost exactly alike, I thought their names should be similar as well.

Murphy

Murphy immediately settled in, and tried to be just like Merlin.  He followed Merlin around, and slept in all Merlin's favorite places, and tried to convince me that he was really Merlin.  He even fooled me a couple of times when I walked into the room and mistook Murphy for Merlin at first glance.  I laughed and told everyone how he was just like Merlin.  Well, almost.  Except Murphy's tail is fluffier, and his eyes are teal instead of gold.  And Murphy is slightly bigger than Merlin.  And as I started listing all the differences between them, I soon realized that they really look nothing alike.

Once I took pictures of Murphy I realized it was true -

Murphy

Merlin

they look nothing alike.

Kermit

Sometimes in rescue, a special dog or cat comes along that captures your heart more than any other. In my case, in the past two years I've been rescuing, there have been three dogs that I have fallen desperately in love with.

The first one is Murphy, a shy, scared black fuzzy dog that was terrified of everything. I brought him home as a foster dog and started working with him to help him become braver.  He got over some of his fears, and quickly found a wonderful home with a family that continued to help him become a normal, happy dog. I am very fortunate that the family who adopted him has stayed in touch and his new mom has become a friend of mine.  They still allow me to visit with Murphy at times and I love seeing how happy he is now in his new home. 

The second dog is Noelle, an outgoing, fearless white deaf dog that was not afraid of anything. She scared away all potential adopters while stealing my heart, and nine months after I brought her home to foster, we ended up adopting her ourselves. She's still not an easy dog, but I love her more than ever. 

And the third dog is Kermit, a three year old Black Lab/Akita mix. Just like Murphy and Noelle, Kermit comes with issues. He has a neurological disorder that causes him to have poor balance. It means he has trouble going up and down staircases, and he occasionally falls down when walking or running. Because of his issues, and the fact that he is a very large black dog (which are always harder to adopt out), Kermit has been living at a shelter for almost three years now - pretty much his entire life!  He was found as an eight week old puppy, wandering down a country highway.  If you ever wonder how come so many puppies end up found in the country on a desolate highway, read this.  Kermit was taken in by a rescue group and volunteers worked hard to help him.  But because of his physical limitations, he was overlooked for adoption week after week.

I met Kermit two years ago when I started volunteering at the rescue shelter where he lived.  I fell in love with him right away.  I tried everything to help him get adopted - we made adoption posters and volunteers put them up all over the area.  I helped transport him to adoption events on weekends to be seen by the public.  One time I took him home for a week to see how he did in a house, and it made me fall even more in love with him. But we have stairs in our house, and you have to go down the staircase to get to the fenced in yard, so it wasn't a good long-term situation for him. So I took him back to the shelter and kept hoping for him to find his permanent home. That was over a year ago, and Kermit is still waiting.

Although I don't volunteer with Kermit's rescue group anymore, they graciously agreed to let me foster Kermit again.  The stairs at my house are still an issue, but I have a temporary solution for that.  By taking him home as a foster dog, I will be able take him to adoption events every weekend, and hopefully someone will see him there and want to adopt him soon.  I just want him to have his own home with his own family, and live happily ever after.  Because after waiting so long, Kermit really deserves that. 

Scaredy-dogs and brave kittens

Recently I had the chance to dog-sit Murphy, my favorite dog in the world.  Please don't tell my dogs - Remi and Noelle don't know they aren't my favorites. Although they might have figured it out after Murphy got here and I proceeded to ignore them in favor of Murphy for most of the weekend. I know, I'm a bad dog owner - but it's Murphy!  Did I mention he's my favorite dog in the world? His family is kind enough to keep me updated on him and let him stay with me occasionally when they go out of town (and they keep paying me, even though I would pay THEM for the privilege of watching Murphy!).

Murphy is kind of camera shy, so when I got out my camera to take a picture of him laying on the couch with Remi, he got up and ran to his crate where he feels safe.  There's just no privacy in my house though - Merlin and the kittens thought that would be an excellent time to get a drink of water from Murphy's water bowl. 

Murphy is VERY camera shy.  He normally enjoys a fun game of chase-the-cat, but in this case, there's no way he was going to come out of his crate with the camera pointed in his direction.  In fact, Penguin the kitten felt so safe there that he decided to settle down and take a nap.

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.