My Week

It has been a crazy week, and I haven’t had time to take any pictures or write any blog posts. Here’s what I’ve been doing instead:


Adoptions
On Saturday, I started out with eight foster dogs. By the end of the day, I was down to four foster dogs. Hope the Black Lab mix puppy was adopted. Also Dolly the deaf Shih Tzu mix puppy was adopted. Connor the Chiweenie went to his new foster home. And best of all, Thor the German Shepherd Dog went to his foster-to-adopt home. He has the best new family. They rescue and foster senior German Shepherds, and are planning to adopt Thor once he is done with his surgery!

New Fosters
Twinkie and Trixie were two of the dogs were rescued from the hoarding situation. They’ve been at another foster home until last weekend. That’s when Trixie went into heat. Since we’re not able to get the dogs spayed or neutered until the court case is resolved, we had to get Trixie away from the other male dogs that were also rescued from the property. That meant that she had to come to my house. And since we didn’t want her to be alone, I took Twinkie too.  

Trixie



Twinkie

 Coordinating Transports
I generally rescue dogs from my immediate area, but since I really enjoy working with deaf dogs, I will sometimes take in dogs from out of the area. Right now there is a deaf six-month-old Chihuahua/Dachshund mix named Axle in Ohio that needs help, and a deaf pit bull mix named Revelie in Kansas City that needs help. I’ve been trying to coordinate getting Axle here, which has been a huge headache. However another rescue group – WonderWeims Rescue – is going to be driving to Ohio to pick up another dog next weekend and they’ve very kindly offered to bring back Axle for me too. So hopefully that will all work out and Axle will arrive safely next weekend. Revelie is scheduled to arrive tomorrow sometime, although exact details are still pending.

Writing a Guest Post
I am a big fan of the Deaf Dogs Rock website, and was recently asked to write a guest post about fostering for them. I wrote this post. I left out the warnings about how foster pets may decide to eat the house. I didn’t think that would help convince anyone to foster.

Hopefully the upcoming week will be a bit calmer and I will have a chance to take pictures and tell you all about the new fosters.  As always, thanks for reading!

Thor

You may have heard this story already, but please bear with me as I have more to share.  Several months ago I received a phone call from a neighbor – he had found a stray dog and wanted me to scan it for a chip.  We were both surprised to find the dog did have a microchip.  The dog’s name is Thor, and through his microchip we were able to find that he was nine years old, and his owner had recently passed away.  We learned through family members that Thor had been very much loved, and had been well cared for.  He had problems with ear infections his entire life, and had already undergone double-ear surgery to try to correct the problem.  That surgery, known as a bi-lateral ear resection, did not resolve the problem.  The family asked us to find Thor a new home, so Thor became an All Paws Rescue dog, and he came to my house as a foster.  Since then, Thor has received several different ear treatments including being sedated and having his ears packed with a high-powered anti-bacterial drug – twice.  When even this did not help, and the ear cytology still showed bacteria in the ears, the vet recommended a procedure known as a Tecabo – a Total Ear Canal Ablation and Bulla Osteotomy.  This surgery has to be done by a specialist, and it is very expensive and can result in a significant loss of hearing.  I immediately wondered - is it worth it for a nine-year-old dog to put him through this painful surgery?  And where would All Paws get the money? 

So I spoke with another vet and asked her opinion.  She knows the issues that rescues face with trying to pay for medical care and the challenges of adopting out a senior dog.  I was hoping she’d say that we could just put him on some sort of pain medication instead of doing the surgery.  I know he’s in pain from the way he shakes his head and rubs his ears, and I don’t want him to continue to be in pain, but I was really hoping for another option.  Unfortunately, the vet told me that this surgery was really his only option if we didn’t want to euthanize him.  So although I was sorry to hear there was no easy fix, it made the decision easy.  Even though Thor is a senior dog, he’s still an active, loving dog who has a lot of life left to live.  We had to do the surgery.  So now it’s just a matter of raising the funds.  The neighbor who found Thor is going to help by placing some donation boxes in the community, and I’ve created some on-line fundraising tools to help raise the money.  I may attempt to organize some other event such as a bake sale (don’t worry, I will NOT be the one baking!) or something similar to raise funds.  I may also give in and put some ads on this blog (in a very unobtrusive way hopefully!) in an effort to raise money for Thor’s surgery.  It won’t help much, but every dollar counts!  So if anyone has any interest in helping to raise funds for Thor’s surgery, please let me know.   You can help by sharing this link  on your Facebook page or blog, or by putting a donation jar at a local business, or by helping me organize a larger fundraising event.  Hopefully soon Thor will be ready for surgery and be pain free!

Foster Dog Update

I never say it enough, but thank you all for the comments and just for reading.  I appreciate it!

Last week Thor the German Shepherd was returned, Chief the Beagle was adopted, Mayzie the energetic pit bull went to another foster home, and Vinny the Italian Greyhound came to stay with me. So I still have eight foster dogs, but fortunately they all get along well, even though they range from only 12 pounds to 100 pounds! Here is one interesting fact about each of my current fosters that you may not already know:



Thor

This 100 pound German Shepherd used to be owned by a priest. This may explain why he is the best behaved of all the dogs. 

Charlie

Charlie does not like fireworks while he is inside the house. He barked at them constantly. Then we finally had to go outside for a final potty break before bedtime, and suddenly he just ignored the fireworks. So the sound of fireworks inside = danger, but the sound of fireworks outside = safe.

Bogey

Bogey is a hoarder dog. No, he didn’t come from a hoarder – he actually is the hoarder. He goes around and collects toys and blankets and anything else he can find and hides them in his crate.

Ziggy

Ziggy has been extremely well behaved (for him) lately. And he’s stopped chewing on everything – even on his chew bones! I think something must be wrong with him. He still loves to eat his kibble though.



Jupiter

Jupie has had to undergo a bunch of extra tests because he is anemic and may even have a weird doggie disease known as babesia. Test results are pending.  Bonus fact - he likes to sit in laps. 



Aridan

This eleven year old German Shepherd has won several Schutzhund awards, and even competed in the 2009 GSDCA-WDA Schutzhund National Championship and World Qualifier. I feel very safe with her around.

Fawn

Fawn's birthday is today – she is four years old.


Vinny

This Italian Greyhound thinks he is invisible as long as no one looks at him. He’ll approach strangers from behind and sniff them, then dart away. He’s stealthy.



Jasper

Tonight I’m bringing home Jasper. He’s staying for a week while his foster mom goes out of town. I don’t know any interesting facts about Jasper yet. 

Updates and Adoptions

I’m sorry that I’ve been too busy to update my blog lately! Somehow I’ve ended up with eight foster dogs and a constantly changing number of kittens and cats, which keeps me too busy to write posts or take pictures. So today I’m going to play “catch up” and give you the condensed status of my foster pets:

Scamp the Fox Terrier mix, Socks the cat, and Thor the giant German Shepherd Dog have all been adopted. I still have Charlie the unknown mixed breed who is frightened of new people and barks at them non-stop. I also still have Bogey the Mostly Hairless dog who is frightened of all people, including me. Not surprisingly, I still have Ziggy the deaf and difficult pit bull mix, although he is currently on a two week vacation at a friend’s house, where he gets to be an only dog and go for walks in the park and have a real life. I also have Aridan the German Shepherd Dog who I am dog-sitting for a friend. She used to be a well-trained dog. Now she ignores me constantly, counter surfs, jumps over baby gates to eat the cat food, and chews up metal cans full of spray cheese. Don’t tell her human mom, but I think I ruined her dog. In addition to all of these dogs, I still have Chief, the Beagle. He’s my only “highly adoptable” dog. He’s also my favorite of all my fosters, and the easiest dog I have, so I’m sure he’ll be adopted soon.

Minnie - aka "Bitey Girl"

I took in a few new dogs. It turns out they all have issues. One dog – an eight month old Chihuahua/Doxie mix - was given to me by my neighbors when a family member went to jail and the dog was left without a home. Her issue is called fear aggression. I am calling her Bitey Girl. She’s going to a new foster home tomorrow with someone who actually likes working with little aggressive dogs. I’m very grateful.



Another dog is an Italian Greyhound that was a breeder release. I named her Fawn, and she is terrified of me (it seems to be a theme with my foster dogs lately) and won’t let me touch her. She is only going to stay with me until another foster home can be found. Charlie and Bogey are enough shy dogs for me.

Fawn the Italian Greyhound

A third dog I took in is a brindle pit bull named Mayzie. Her issue is the opposite of fear. She is a typical joyful, excited, highly energetic pit bull. She really doesn’t have any issues except that she is a hard-to-adopt breed.



Mayzie the brindle pittie

And the last dog that I unexpectedly took in is Jupiter. He’s a pit bull mix, and he was given to me by a friend of my neighbors, because the original owner was planning to shoot him and the guy didn’t want to see that happen. He couldn’t keep him but didn’t want him to be shot, so he ended up in my driveway. And now he’s living in my house. And he is capturing my heart. I can write a whole post about Jupiter, if I ever find the time. He has several issues, including being heartworm positive, and having an extremely high prey drive, but I love him anyway.

Jupiter - a dog with issues

As for the cat fosters, I still have Midnight and Murphy, the two FIV+ cats. I had nine kittens and their mom, who have all moved to a shelter for adoption, but then three of them came back because they weren’t big enough to be spayed yet. I also ended up with five more kittens who will be going to the shelter in another week or two. I have sworn to never ever take in any more kittens – at least for the next month.


So that’s my story – I don’t usually do this, but today I’m begging for foster homes to help out with some of these animals. Like most rescue animals, these foster pets do not come already trained. Most of them aren’t house-trained. Most of them will climb on your furniture and try to steal food from your countertops. As foster parents, our job is to work with these animals and make them more adoptable. We work on house-training, and we work on behavior issues like counter surfing. We also work on self-control, for the highly excitable dogs, and on overcoming their fear, for the shy dogs. We truly make a difference in these dogs’ lives, because we aren’t just “warehousing” them until someone comes along and adopts them and fixes their issues themselves, we’re actually working to make them more adoptable with each interaction. Foster homes that have only one foster pet are ideal, since they have more interaction with each foster pet. Right now I have too many foster pets that need some extra help to overcome issues, and they each need someone to step forward and say “I am willing to help.” I’m not the only one with too many foster pets. Rescue groups and shelters around the country are overflowing with homeless animals. They all need help. I can honestly say that fostering is the most rewarding thing that I’ve ever done in my life. I hope that you find that is true for you too.  To find out more about fostering, please contact me. 

Thor the Dock-Diving Burglar

One month ago, I wrote about Thor and how he broke into my house by pushing his way through a perfectly good window screen. I thought about putting bars over all my windows to keep burglars like Thor out, but I did not take such drastic action. And now I regret it.

Thor

My house is built on a hill, and when Thor came in the house via the back window, he was level with the back yard. The windows in the front of the house are at least six or eight feet above the front yard, so there was no need to worry about burglars like Thor -- or so I thought. But when I left Thor and the other dogs in the house and went onto the front porch to change a light bulb, all of a sudden I heard a loud CRASH and then a louder rustling noise. I looked over, and there was Thor. This time, instead of breaking INTO the house, he broke OUT of the house, and ruined yet another window screen in the process. Fortunately he fell into a large evergreen bush and was not injured. In fact, he looked quite proud of himself as he walked up to me. I wonder if he thinks I’m playing hide-and-go-seek with him!

So I’ve learned two things from this. First, I believe Thor would make an excellent Dock Diving champion in the Heavyweight division. And second, I really need to stop leaving windows open when Thor is around.

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!