30 July 2008

A roomful of puppies


"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." Bernard Williams

I can't sleep at night when there's baby puppies at the pound. It's not the worst place on earth for puppies to be but the thought of them sleeping on cold stainless steel or concrete floors in kennel runs, divided up from each other, just makes me sad.

This week someone dropped off six 5 week old Weimaraner mix puppies (and now for the first time in my life, I can actually spell "Weimaraner.") I saw them there yesterday and went back and got them today. They'll just have to stay here for a week or so until we can make room for them somewhere else. How hard can it be? Well, here's how you take care of a roomful of puppies.

Get a bucket, a mop, a stack of newspapers, garbage bags and a gallon of bleach. Then an hour later, get more newspapers, more bleach, and most likely a new mop soon too. Puppies are messy!! Still they seem to get the hang of using the area with the newspapers before too long. And they're puppies! They bite on your ankles with their little sharp teeth and make little grunting puppy noises when you pick them up. They run and wrestle each other, then suddenly collapse for a nap right where they're standing. And don't forget puppy breath and little puppy kisses! There's not much that competes with the fun of playing with a litter of puppies!

My kids love having them here too. I let them choose their names. We have Ruthie,Photobucket
Rigby, Photobucket
Rover, Photobucket
Rufus, Photobucket
Rusty Photobucket
and Rocket. Photobucket
Did you see, Rocket has a white star on his chest!


They'll be available for adoption in about 3 weeks.

25 July 2008

Christian the Lion

I don't spend much time on youtube and I spend even less time reading all the heart-warming stories that make their way through email. With this one though, I sent it to everyone I know. Of course they'd all seen it days ago and never sent it to me so thanks a lot! I'm posting it here on the off chance I'm not the only person who hadn't seen it already, and also because I think it's so awesome I want it on my blog. I swear I cry every time I see it.



According to snopes this story is from 1969. The older man in the background near the end is George Adamson of Born Free fame.

I've got a whole bunch more to say about animals and emotions but that's going to have to wait for another day. What I will say now is I see this same sort of thing happen all the time with the dogs. There's way more going on with these animals than just obeying a "sit!" command because you happen to have a treat. And we miss out when we attempt to reduce them to nothing more than that.

One day's haul: more dogs



Yesterday I was set to pick up 3 dogs from "my" pound. The night before, I got an email from the dog warden, said he had 2 golden mix puppies and another terrier. So I contacted the intake coordinator for the rescue I work with the most, she worked a few more miracles and we found space for those too.

So my 9 year old and I head off to the pound in my pitiful dog-mangled Saturn wagon. In the far back goes the big female yellow lab who has been there close to 2 weeks already. We thought she had been claimed, someone called and was looking for a female yellow lab, lost around the same time and in the same general area but it wasn't their dog. With her I put the new little male terrier. Mixing up dogs who don't know each other isn't something I do if I can avoid it. So far, knock on wood, I have yet to have to deal with a dog fight at 60 MPH on a country road, but in this case they both seemed pretty friendly and it was a chance I had to take.
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Then I bring out the puppies, and drop those in my daughter's lap. Everyone in this family lives and breathes dogs (and dog fur) but she is my most loyal helper. For all the dogs and puppies she meets, she falls in love with every one of them. Next comes the little Jack Russell terrier who is sweet as can be, so she gets tossed in the backseat too. And we're off!

cocker spaniel mix puppy

Jack Russell Terrrier

As if the car loading isn't enough, I have to bring them here first for a few hours. That means unloading all 5 dogs and stashing them in various crates outside in the shade (adult dogs) or inside my house (puppies.) I live in a rural area but I do have neighbors, who I'm sure wonder sometimes why I have crates of dogs sitting outside but so far anyhow, I've managed to get them back in the car before the dog warden's ever showed up.

This is a busier week than most but all of these are super nice dogs who will be adopted in no time. All someone else's rubbish. I'm about as unlikely a hero as anyone can be but these dogs really have no one else, and to them I'm a lifeline. When you wonder why I do what I do, it's for each and every one of these wonderful dogs, to give them another chance.

22 July 2008

2 stray cats and a stray bunny

For a couple of weeks, we had a little light yellow kitten hanging around. First, he would sneak out of the woods, and run back when we'd see him. We started leaving food out and he gradually worked his way to our shed, then to hiding underneath the cars. Some mornings he'd be outside when we walked out the front door, and he would tear alongside the house when he saw us, hiding behind the hostas. From there, we'd lose him, and eventually figured out he was pushing his way into the crawl space via one of the vents in the side of the house. From there, he was following the pipes back and forth so we couldn't catch him.

(The cat rescue people are always on the look-out for good homes for "barn cats," cats that have been fixed and given shots, but are too feral to be pets. Who knew I could offer up my own house for "crawl space cats.")

The way my house is set-up, at the far end we have a room that is used as an office, and it's the (dog free) room where most of my own cats hang out. One night, my daughter said she thought she saw a cat run down into the heat duct. I checked and all our cats were accounted for. The lightweight plastic vent cover was shoved aside a bit but that didn't seem like anything too concerning. I did have the passing thought that I hoped there wasn't a mouse coming into my house, scurrying by my fat cats to eat out of their food bowls, a la Garfield.

A few days later we picked up a live trap, in the hopes of catching the kitten to get him fixed and see if he could be tame enough to be adopted out. That very same evening, after the trap was set up with food, my daughter came running up to me and said the KITTEN was coming into the office via the heat vent! I snuck in very quietly and sure enough, there he was, crouched behind a desk near the vent. As soon as he saw me he took off again. I got a can of food and hid while he poked his head up and then back down, hungry enough to want the food but not quite willing to take the risk. Finally, he couldn't resist the smell of the food, and when he ran into the room, I slammed the cover back on the vent and we had him. Come on, now I have strays coming into my house?! Where will it end??

(I can't wait to go under the house with a flashlight to find the gap in the ductwork he used as his entryway.)


As it turns out, he's a very nice kitten. He was apparently raised around people before he found himself alone and hungry in our woods. He's been fixed and vetted and I'm sure will be adopted soon. We named him Sherwood: from the bright forest.
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A day later, I get a call from my 20 year old. She starts off explaining it's my fault she "turned out like this," which is somewhat concerning because it could mean anything. She finally gets around to telling me what she needs. Someone came to the door at her dad's with a tiny kitten he'd found in the road by their house. She told him it wasn't theirs but she could find someone to take it. Since the dogs at her dad's, and her dad himself, are anti-cat, that someone was me. She said she named it Stella, which became Emory when we realized Stella is most likely a boy. He is a wild boy and just beautiful. The flash washed out some of his color in this picture. In person he is so dark brown he is nearly black. He's too tiny still to be vetted so for now he's hanging out here until he grows a bit.
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As sad and somewhat insane as I become at times, trying to make a small difference in the lives of abandoned dogs, I would completely lose my mind if I were to try to tackle the problem of unwanted cats. There are tens of thousands of stray cats in this county alone, and we have a really amazing spay and neuter network. For every five litters of kittens that are saved, ten more "free kitten" signs pop up, and those kittens are handed out like kewpie dolls, too often then abandoned too, having more litters no one wants. During the worst of the kitten season, kittens are euthanized almost every day at the area's "open door" shelter. I cannot imagine anything worse than coming to work to kill kittens. I have nothing but respect for the people who care enough to keep battling the problem, one tiny kitten at a time. PLEASE spay or neuter every cat you have, or come across, or know about. It's the only solution.

Another day or so after Emory came here to live, I walked across the road at work, and there between 2 pastures was a bunny! My next thought after "Aww, look! A bunny!" was "Wait, wild bunnies aren't black with floppy ears!" "Come here, little bunny!" And the bunny came hop hop hopping over to me and let me pick him up. Alrighty! Now I have a bunny, too?! My boss had no idea where it came from and she had the same "what am I going to do with a bunny?!" reaction I was having, when she decided to check with the neighbors on the off chance it was theirs. As it turned out, it was. He had escaped from his pen a few days before. Even though we both had qualms about returning such a small defenseless animal to people who were so haphazard with his care, he went back home again. While I was holding him, I couldn't help but think I do have a rabbit cage here, and I did clean the basement not too long ago and so, how bad could it be?

If you're ever considering getting a bunny as a pet, or a rat, or a bird, or a gerbil, or a snake, or a horse, or just about anything else you can come up with, odds are good you can find whatever you might want in rescue. If people can own it, people will get tired of it and decide it's someone else's problem.

And another thing, if you think getting decent pictures of dogs and puppies can be challenging, just try getting pictures of cats! I had 40 that were a black blur before I got one where you could even see Emory at all!

13 July 2008

Ultimate Air Dogs

We had a 2 day rescue adoption event this weekend, to coincide with the Purina Ultimate Air Dogs show. It's a "dock jumping" exhibition and competition, and it's a lot of fun! You can try your own dogs out at it too, for a donation. Some of the entry fees were donated to Planned Pethood and they also asked for extra donations from the spectators today, which were generously matched by Andersons General Store where the 2 day event was held. The weather was a bit hot yesterday but perfect today. Lots of great dogs were out and about, and the rescue dogs got a lot of interest as well.

Most of the "rookies" weren't too happy to leap off the "dock" like that. There's a lot of stopping dead in their tracks going on, like this chocolate lab, who tried to lean over as far as he could, and when that didn't work, said "Hey we can just hang out here, ok, Dad?"
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I loved this husky. It took her forever to jump in and then when she did, she swam to the wrong side of the tank. Her owner pointing which way to go didn't help any. "Come on! Just get me out of here!"
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Today I took my aussie, Winter. I figured she had better than average odds of pulling it off. She loves water and is obsessed with tennis balls. She jumped in twice the first round but stopped at the edge and refused to budge the second time, even though she really really wanted that tennis ball! In fact as soon as I gave up, she ran back down the platform and back up the "exit" ramp to go after it that way. Not nearly as funny as the dog who jumped from the platform over to the ramp and went down it to the water, smart dog!

Here's how it's supposed to be done!
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08 July 2008

Noah


First I thought I would be picking up an Australian Shepherd, the dog warden said "seemed a little quiet." A few days later they decided he was "most likely" deaf. Deaf is challenging but not insurmountable. When I finally made it over there and walked back to his kennel, he was sprawled out with his back to the walkway. He didn't notice me walking up, so I shook the door, which got his attention. As soon as he sat up and turned around, it was clear he's old. When I checked his teeth, I could maybe say 8 but my more accurate guess is around 10. Old is even more challenging than deaf much less old and deaf but there is no way I can leave this dog in the pound to die.

I wish I could convince everyone to take a chance on an old rescue dog. He is so gentle and sweet-natured. He just wants to be by my side whenever possible, and is happy to have a bed to sleep on. His hearing loss doesn't seem to effect him all that much. He does respond to hand clapping so we do OK with eye contact, hand clapping and me leading him to where he needs to go. I'm not sure yet where he will go. We will work that out soon. In the meantime we're the lucky ones to have him sharing our life for however long he is here.

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02 July 2008

Some dogs

Since this is a blog about dogs, how about if I post some! Here's a random selection of some of the (cutest) dogs I've picked up in the last couple of months. It's funny, more than once before I started going out there, I'd heard this pound gets nothing but "labs and hounds," so it wasn't worth bothering with....

All I knew was I was getting a westie mix puppy, so since I didn't know if it would be male or female, I named it Stevie. You have to figure if we're getting a young puppy from one of the breeders out there, there's something wrong with it, or they'd just sell it. Stevie came in loaded with worms and fleas and was in such bad shape he had to go immediately to the vet. He never even made the website from there but was adopted by someone in the vet's office. Second photo was sent in by his new owner, enjoying the good life! Tell the truth, you said AWWWWW!!
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I LOVE this puppy! Every time I would see him at an event I would rush over, grab him up, and say "oh! I love this puppy!" He was on the website for one of the pounds here for 2 weeks! It was a lousy picture but still! A little white puppy? I thought for sure he was adoped, but nope. Nikki named him Popcorn.
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There are always too many beagles at the pounds, and a whole lot of them don't get another chance. They're probably the most over-represented "Top 10" breed left in kill pounds. My guess is it's partly because they wander off so easily and then aren't claimed, and partly because they appeal to people initially as small cute dogs but they aren't automatically a good choice for all families. This little gal is Vera.
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Dayzee (so she came with that name, don't blame me!) was an owner sign-off, sounded like some guy got a dog for his kids but since they're only there for an occasional weekend and he works a lot, she was just left in a crate most of the time. You can imagine how much interest she got!
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Trix is another breeder reject. We knew when we got her she had a small hernia that would need to be repaired when she was spayed. As it turned out, she apparently also had an infection and will need to spend some extra time getting healthy before she can be adopted. She's another one who hasn't even made it to the website and is already spoken for!

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I've grown to love pugs! No offense to other breeds but pugs and boxers have the most personality, I swear! Maybe it's all the snorting and grunting sounds they make because they all seem to actually talk to you. This little guy went to pug rescue. I deal with a lot of breed rescues. Some are great, others I will never call again. Pug rescue said yes and had arrangements made almost as fast as I sent the first email. They lucked out too. He's a great dog!
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You'd think after all this time and as many dogs as I've seen, I'd learn, but I really thought someone would claim this one. A purebred 5 month old sheltie puppy?! But nope. This is Rookie.

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More to come.