No not pee, poop and puke as I could only be so lucky but more like people,puppies, and put downs.
No no I love people but sadly it's when they are stubborn and selfish I lose my patience and compassion, and not really the puppies themselves so much as what they bring..ie stupid selfish people eww I mean stubborn. Freudian slip ;} and well yes I do hate Putting down dogs.
We have these 5 buddha bellied teacup Bernese Mountain Dogs. Uh I mean these tri-colored Border Collie Beagle X's that were barely off mama's teat before they came to us. They are only 7 weeks old and we have had them for 2 weeks now. Some people love puppy breath but I find it only preferable a rotting carcass in the mid day sun. These Puppies however are fairly smart about pooping on the pads and not stepping all through it. Oh ya that's cuz they haven't GOTTEN to that stage yet..and they will. They are still in their sleep most of the day play for 10 minutes go back to nappy phase. Over the last few days they have started to discover the joy of chewing on shoes and their laces and your jeans and purses and your hands well let's just stop there.
So a family came into to see one of the puppies. They had Bell a very beautiful nervous Chow Shepard X who is sweet and subdued but clearly not wanting to be there as some dogs can get nervous being in the shelter even if only for a visit especially a dog who came from a shelter. A colleague had done the dog to dog intro and then came to get me because the puppy would charge towards Bell and kept biting at her and harassing her. Many dogs know how and will correct a puppy when it is being inappropriate but poor Bell just kept turning her head and trying to walk away which clearly showed she is not the type of dog to correct another. I explained that since the puppy was supposed to be for Bell that they should pick one that she liked or was at least not Mike Tyson incarnate. There was another puppy who clearly wanted to play with Bell but was respectful of Bell wanting nothing to do with her and would back off. I informed them that the one puppy will need a strong dog to show it the way and correct it to learn proper doggy behavior and if not then the puppy will most likely turn into a little terror and since the other puppy was respectful it would be a much better match. I had left the showing back in the hands of a colleague and went off to do another showing. Well gee let's guess who they adopted, yep Mike Tyson won again! The family felt it was ok for the puppy to be a shit because "that's just how Bell always is" submissive and shy. I see so lets bring home the school bully who picks on your kid and because your kid is just shy/scared/timid/neurotic and won't tell the bully no, it's ok. WHAT!? I am very sad for their dog Bell and hope she will find ways to escape the little demoness.
After that disappointing information I walk into the kitchen to see 2 little scaredy pies MOONIE & CLOUDY pictured above. We set up appointments when people need to give up their dogs and our behaviorist assesses them to see if they are adoptable and if so we take them. Well we already have one little bug eyed round domed little white and cream Chihuahua X named CREAM that is still to scared to let us touch him so we just let him free and he follows his bro and sis into a break yard since he's to nervous to be far from them. That way we don't need to freak him out more by cornering him and grabbing him to take him out. Brother is a Boxer and sis is a Min Pin but more on them later. Since we already have that neurotic bundle of shaky lovins, I couldn't believe that she would consider another serious tail tucker at this time. I had some how convinced myself that if we didn't take in any of the dogs that came to us they would just find another place to take them but I was assured that is not usually the case and that often they just get put down. WHAT? Burst my bubble why don't you. The behaviorist came to me a little bit later with tears in her eyes asking me if I would be willing to euthanize possibly 3 of the 4 dogs this fella brought in since he had tried all the other shelters (even the county) and was denied. I was shocked when I heard that bubble pop and said of course but since I had seen CLOUDY I insisted that we give her a chance to see if she could come around and she agreed as she was also going to give MOONIE a chance since she was not as freaked and shut down as CLOUDY. I ended up putting down 2 other Chihuahuas that the behaviorist told me were much worse and she even had the owner muzzle one of them just in case. I'm very saddened because I would always want to give a scared one a chance. I feel I have a connection with the really scared ones since I know what it's like to live in fear. I don't mean afraid of the dark or spiders or of being mugged in a bad neighborhood. I mean can't live a normal life because fear is the ruler. I empathize with these dogs and I also know the other side of that fear..the survival of it. What saddens me more is that my sweet girls CLOUDY & MOONIE are doing really well in just a few short days. It saddens me because I imagine that the other two who didn't make it may have come around too but I try not to let my mind go there to often. MOONIE & CLOUDY are walking on leash down to the yards with staff and CLOUDY who seemed the worst of the two seems happy and wagging her tail. They sit near me and on me and love getting petted and are often at the front of their kennel awaiting some passerby lovins. A huge difference from what they looked like the first day they came in. It was a bittersweet day that's for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment