I feel so dirty

Today I was molested by Dr. Seuss, a beautiful 10 month old brown and white brick shit house disguised as a Hound Pitty mix. 65 pounds of pure muscle with front paws that will latch onto you like vise grips. This sweet sweet boy really does have some training and will sit and even do a down position for treats and loves being petted (a little tooooo much) but he is easily over stimulated and in a shelter environment does not get to release his energies when and how he should. Our little Dr has been on bite quarantine after getting a little overzealous with his asking a staffer not to leave him by grabbing her by the leg with his mouth. He's not vicious, more of a big doofus with to much energy like Lenny Small (from Of Mice and Men) on a ton of sugar and little way to express himself. Dr. Seuss if not constantly being asked to perform a command will be so excited to see you that he can't help but grab you and show you just how happy he is to see you. Now most unruly adolescent dogs can have the crazed jumping or mounting subdued by turning your back on them or holding them at arms length until they settle or by giving them a different outlet like playing with a toy or doing commands they know..well not our Therapist which I have dubbed him aka The-rapist since my violation. He just gets MORE excited if you try and push him off and once he has gotten overly aroused asking for commands is like trying to yell at Helen Keller to shut the door. The more you struggled the tighter he clung to you and dug those nails of his into you. I had heard of this issue but had yet to have him be so unruly with me. Well today was the day. Just as I was putting him in his potty yard for his afternoon break he saw me start to close the gate and grabbed onto my leg like it was a flotation device and he was a drowning sailor. I tried once to push him off but right back onto me he flew digging paws in for a better grip. He was on me and going to town like he was a parolee just out from a 20yr stint in the big house. Next thing I knew I was being peed on...oh wait that's not urine! Ewwwwwwww! Bad dog, bad bad dog! Thankfully I had jeans on and knee high socks underneath that, but walking around like that for the last 2 hours of the day was not a highlight of my day. Later on he was found in the back of the yard smoking a cigarette and asking for me to come take him back to his kennel. I must have that stockholm syndrome because I really do love him and always make sure that he has his kongs to keep him busy and that he has a nice bone to chew...but I refuse to take him out if I have shorts on now..I've learned my lesson. He's a good boy my little therapist but really I advise you don't turn your back on him...I still feel so dirty.

The Revolving Door

Since you had heard last my fav crazed Fox Terrier MAKO was still with us. Apparently he liked it with us so much his behavior improved dramatically. So much that he was now able to go down below to the play ayrds with the rest of the kids without barking his head off the entire time and we could even put a dog NEXT to him with out incident....usually. Our boy had planted himself there so it seems. It had been 7 months so far and not more than 1 or 2 showings with him the entire time. My fears had started to bubble to the front of my psyche that this place would start to get to him and he would go down hill rapidly. So I decided to have the chat with him. The same chat that I had with SHAQ ATTACK. I told him he couldn't stay here, that this wasn't home and that a better place was waiting for him and if he stayed here to long odds were against him and more towards insanity and the green mile. I asked him to call his people to him. I don't know what happened but two days later MAKO had 2 families very interested in him! I didn't get to do either of the showings but since I have spent the most time with him I butted in to make sure they understood that even though he is high energy, prey driven, dog reactive and seemingly aloof he is also a really loving, chill and obedient sweetie. Both families left and one came back with dad to meet. When I returned from my days off I came in to hear MAKO had been adopted and was going home in a day or two. I got to say goodbye YEA! I don't know if he broke the record for being at the shelter the longest but it had to be close. My heart broke a little seeing him leave as I will miss his sweet face and seeing the excitement that arises in him when he sees me enter his kennel but am more happy for him that he will finally be in a home with constant love and attention AND a yard he will be allowed to dig for gophers.

BOON our sweet Pitty has an interesting chapter in his story. BOON came back to us because his owner said he was chewing (uh ya that's what pittys do when they are bored) to much stuff in the home. We don't get a lot of people through our shelter looking for those breeds so there was some worry BOON would be here a long time again. Well fortunately the couple who took care of BOON when mom was away, fell in love with him and actually moved FOR him. They were not in a place they could have a Pit Bull and moved so they could adopt him. They picked him up yesterday and he was only in the shelter a couple weeks. At least these people know what a muzzle puncher he is and are aware of his needs and bad habits and are still willing to take him on. Bless them and sweet BOON.

CLOUDY was still with us last check in and well she is AGAIN. She went home with a lovely woman who had a little Yorkie and a cat at home. CLOUDY was Perfect except that she was a love hog. Love hogs are those who refuse to share their human with anyone else, Well jeez I can't blame her for getting mad her person was "cheating" on her. I guess I could be called a love hog too then, How about you? ;]. The woman's cat is old and sickly and needs her to give it shots etc and CLOUDY refused to let that happen and the woman felt horrible but the cat needed more than CLOUDY would allow and she came back to us. I'm hoping our little blue eyed chihoo will not be with us as long as she was the last time though I do love to seeing how happy she gets when she sees me and decides to claim my lap as her own.

We had a little fund raiser for our girl OONA who is blowing snot rockets all over the place. She needed an expensive test to scope her passageways to see if there are blockages or tumors and whatnot. After all the hubbabaloo they feel it is some kind of allery or reaction-her passageways were clear. Yea she's just a snotty kid! Her adopter decided that no cure for snot rockets was not in her plan and backed out of taking OONA home. Poor OONA is back up for adoption. It's just snot, it washes off and it's not like it's nasty green stuff so hopefully there is someone out there who doesn't mind carrying a hanky around for their snotty loved one.

Another return was our sweet old Jack Lelane named WINNER. He's not feeling like such a winner at the moment I'm sure. The elderly couple that took WINNER called up freaked out because he likes to eat the dead critters on the path when they take him for walks (yep that's the only reason). How about keeping him on leash and not letting him get to them!? or quit taking him to the land fill for his walks. I mean where are you taking the dog that there are all these different dead creatures around!? Are you living near a nuclear waste site or something? If so you have bigger problems than him eating dead skunks with 6 legs. Needless to say he is back with is and if that wasn't bad enough our little man some how contracted ring worm and is now in isolation to keep him from spreading it! My poor sweetie is back there in a smaller kennel with hardly anyone to love on him. I hate it. I sit with him in a surgical gown so I don't get to much hair on me and he is so needy and just keeps jumping on you for more love. JM takes him for walks when we are slow so he's not totally neglected but most others are understandably concerned with getting it or passing the ring worm to their own pets. My poor Monkey, her mama throws caution to the wind and says she'll just have to suck it up and keep trucking if I bring her home some mange or fungus or a cold. :) The others need lovins to much to worry about that stuff. Thanks for being a caregiver after my own heart JM!

Little miss GATOR got herself a home as well with the crocodile hunter, no not really. Just a nice couple who liker her spazzyness and thought she was to cute to care about her gator like behavior. She is a cute little ankle biter.

BUBWA also went home to a couple with 2 Shelties which I am told are similar in behavior to the Pomeranians (go figure). Her other dogs are well behaved and we are told he is doing really well with socialization and them teaching him it's ok to be around people. We even got some pictures of him out at a park with tons of people just chilling on the grass.

They come in, they go out, they come in again, and sometimes again.

Just want to ask for some healing energy for another fav of mine named WASSAIL. She's a scrawny wire haired precious innocent munchkin of a Terrier that has a tiny liver and her blood work is all wacked out. Her adopters backed out after hearing about her issues and they claim with meds she could live a year but there would be extensive tests needing to be done to see if surgery would even be helpful for her so I don't know where that leaves her. I hate the idea of her last days being in a shelter. She is SOOO sweet and precious..I still think so even after she launched herself at JM's big Shepard for just sniffing her to much I guess. Heh heh. GOOD GIRL! DB is big hearted and MAY take little mis WASSAIL home to live out her last days there if the rest of her clan would allow it. I hope so. She is a good girl and deserves some happy comfortable last days. I love her. Thanks tuning in and for your well wishes for all our sweet ones at the shelter.

The Best Part

For me anyway, was manifest in twofold this week in the form of one itty bitty bat eared cream colored fearful ball of white lightning, (and she WILL strike twice) Named GATOR and a little bronzed dread wearing fluff ball of a Pomeranian named BUBWA. GATOR is a little chihuahua that was to mouthy and rough with pretty much all species whether it be cat dog or human though the cats as we understand it didn't seem to mind much (though I do find they are pretty brutal players themselves)so was given up for adoption. GATOR as she has been dubbed was plastered against the back of her kennel the first I saw her. I had been informed that she is to fearful to take out to potty and that for now we are just cleaning around her. Well being the over bearing mother with love and discipline that I am I decided I would slowly go up to her and see if she would take a treat. I got up close and held out a treat but she was as about as interested as a kid is in cooked liver. I let her be since I knew I didn't have the time to sit and get her used to me right now and she was frozen with fear.

Later in the day I decided to spend some time with GATOR. She is living with our angelic wonderful can't believe she is still here CLOUDY. You remember her as the one I helped save and is now an awesome companion. CLOUDY is so tolerant and sweet natured that she is and has been the perfect role model for our nervous nellys. Now CLOUDY loves me about as much as I love her and I don't know if that had something to do with what happend but it surely didn't hurt the situation. I walk towards this scared little sweetie (In Sheep's Clothing) and she starts weasling herself behind the crate against the wall and so I used the door that was stored behind the open crate to scoot her backward so I could push the crate back against the wall so she couldn't get behind it again. Then I sat down opposite GATOR all the while CLOUDY is vying for my attention by jumping on me and nuzzling me like a pig rooting for truffles, panting with excitement. As soon as I sat down GATOR jumped right into my lap. What The? What psychotic break did my little weirdo suddenly trust me and want me..oh and I mean want me. The moment I had to leave to go check on something more pressing I couldn't stand up fast enough for her NOT to jump right back into my lap therefore preventing me from being able to stand up. I had to do it 2 more times. OHHHHHHH that just made my day. She trusts me and feels safe with me! She did have some quivering bouts in my lap for a few minutes at the start but soon settled right down into resting her head on my arm and my torso fully relaxed. That time with this little beast is what makes me come here everyday and almost always happy to wake up and come to work(those other days I'm so tired I just wish I was wealthy and retired :]).

The best part was that when I came back to see her a bit later she was at the front of her kennel jumping on the door tail whipping from side to side faster than a ping pong ball between 2 Chinese. She's cured! Little did I suspect what a little beast she really was. She loves me she does and that love allows one to be comfortable in being themselves..kinda like when I guy or gal starts farting in front of you after you have been dating awhile. Well let me tell you she let it rip. Emerges is this energizer bunny with no off button with flea DNA I'm sure with the way she can jump a thousand times her height, repeatedly. Now eh, all that is really no problem in itself. The problem is that she apparently thinks the only body part she has to do anything with is her mouth. She is a mouthy, hyper mouthy playful mouthy assertive mouthy little GATOR.

Her Gatordom reared it's ugly little head during her medical intake. I was honored when asked to help get her since she loves me and will feel more comfy being in there with someone she feels safe with. As I was holding her to get her ears swabbed
she whipped her head around and we both heard the snap of those jaws slamming together on air rather than flesh. Then I released her after a finger came out of her ear she snapped at it twice just like a hungry GATOR. Thank god Momma Z was quick with the pull back! We couldn't help but laugh, not that it was funny for a dog being aggressive. It was how she looked when she did it and it helps that she is just so little and cute. We knew that since she really hated any kind of restraint and is a squirmy one (and I'm not great at restraining when they REALLY struggle because I feel to bad about holding them so tight to keep them from moving) we would muzzle her and feed her her fav peanut butter while we took blood from her. She was a champ but our little fighter definitely took some swings. No kids in her new home that's for sure.

Not only did I have a little dog whisperer moment with GATOR but also with BUBWA who has taken me into his confidence at about the same time as GATOR. BUBWA is a little more forward than GATOR in that he is staying still and giving you some lip or even coming after you moments after any threat is over. BUBWA as he has been dubbed since his previous owners who named him Barbara must have wanted him to get beat up by the other dogs. A dog can definitely learn a new name even if they have had one for a long time. Just keep using it and they catch on. Now BUBWA has had an unfortunate series of events up until now. Neglected and governed by uneducated people he has some issues to work out.

When I went in with BUBWA I sat close to the door since that is where he likes to be..near an exit. I'm a brave one (some may phrase it as stupid or crazy- puhtaytoe pahtahtoh) so I'm always willing to take that step and see if he'll accept my lovins. He was very nervous and I only did a couple of pets and soon he was scootching over to lay against me. By the end of my time with him he was going belly up for me. I still so slow since I can tell he is still unpredictable and am glad I did especially after seeing how forward he can be.

I didn't get to go spend time with him today since I worked up front. At the end of the day he was being brought up to check things out by our behaviorist. I went to fast leaning down and he must not have had a chance to catch my smell and gave a little lip again. I then let him smell me for a bit and he seemed to recollect who I was and went into his belly up for me. Then he saw our main front desk girl and started barking and LUNGING at her. He was on a high stool and he could barely reach her foot. This is NOT looked highly upon. I took him to me and told him the deal. I was open an honest and told him if you are to keep this nonsense up they will put you down faster than you can shake your tail. I figured I got through to him because he went over and decided to make friends with our girl. He became such good friends that he jumped up into her lap when she was in a lower chair and sat with her.We were all becoming so proud..until it was time for him to go. I could see the nervousness of wondering what he would do if grabbed the "wrong way" or being taken when he wasn't ready. Well all I can say is trust your instincts people. Our behaviorist went to get him off the chair and in a flash she was putting him down and he was jumping back up at her barking and snapping a couple of times. There was never any contact with any encounter with his assertiveness but it makes one concerned that the intention was there but execution was poor. Our hope right now is that his execution in right on the money and he is all talk, but he will be treated as though he talks the talk and walks the walk..but so far he loves me :)

Sickies Scardies and Growlers Oh My

We have this itty bitty cream colored, one eyed, tooth missing, crumb of love of in this Pomeranian & Pappion looking mix who should have a patch for her missing eye named OONA. She is one of my fav's. Yep she's as sick.... as a dog ;) There's this white/clear foamy snot that shoots out her nose and her lungs are all gurgley when she breathes. She is so sweet and can often be found laying on the hard cement rather than her soft bed or thick cushy mat. Maybe because she's hot with fever, or all that hair, but she is so stubborn when it comes to taking her medicine. OONA hates her meds and ain't no dummy when it comes to knowing when it's a treat or it's really medicine and she just ain't havin' it. Even after I've man handled her and stuffed the cream cheese or the ball of wet food or the pill pocket or the chicken (CHICKEN?!! have you ever heard of a dog not wanting to eat her CHICKEN??!!)she would still stay by me and want some lovins. OONA is a total snuggler. We don't know what's happening with her yet and words like leukemia are floating around but I keep hoping for her and do Reiki on her and hope her little lungs will dry up and she will get better. Waiting on test results. She is so sweet picky little eater! I made a pouch out of a blanket to carry her across my torso and she seemed pretty content in there and we hung out like that for lunch but then she started to get too warm and then I put her back in "isolation" :( I feel so sad for her that I took her on a car ride at lunch and of course she blew snot rockets all over my gear shift and seat cover as soon as she got in, bless her dirty snotty soul but I had expected nothing less and just kept trying to wipe her nose with a tissue every time she blew out a big goober. Unfortunately her tongue was much quicker than me and she licked that stuff right back in to her body before I could make it to her nose (I thought eeeeeww that can't be good) It was when I tried to give her a french fry and she wouldn't take it that I knew she was sick. I mean, what kind of dog doesn't want a FRENCH FRY!!?? Good thing is once we find out what's wrong with her, if it's not terminal is that she is already adopted. Send some good energy to our sweet OONA

CREAMER a thumbalina sized Chihuahua the color of his name with big eyes that weep what you would swear was rust was the worst of our scared pack. So much so that we had to corral him into his potty yard instead of trying to grab or leash him as he is usually crammed in the corner at the back of his crate when you walk into his kennel. He will stay arms length or further away at most costs with most people. The goal is to, whenever feasible, always allow the animal to come to you. A scared dog can become more afraid of you when you go towards it, grab it, leash it, or even love on it when it is in a fear state so we avoid causing more stress and anxiety to them whenever possible. Little tinkerbell CREAMER was brought in with his house mates a Boxer and a Min Pin who has been adopted out already so now lives with our precious CLOUDY who if could talk I'm sure would say she's not thrilled about it but will accept it none the less. Little CREAMER has a tendency to pee in his stuff which is probably what CLOUDY dislikes most about him. CREAMER has come a long way and will even allow me to pet him once he has crawled into his bed beside me after a 20 min session of treat bribery(another reason I'm sure CLOUDY dislikes him for) and has even leaned into my hand for more lovins. If he is not in his bed then the closest I get to any kind of love is rubbing his chin with my middle finger while he's chewing a treat out of my thumb and pointer finger and once the treat is gone so is the close proximity. I hope he will do well with the older woman who took him and got defensive when I told her he's a freak. I told her I love him but he will never be a normal, take to your friends house or about town kind of dog. It will be a miracle if he even allows anyone of her friends or family to touch him and I wanted to make sure she understood that. He is not just a "shy dog" he's a freak. a cute sweet freak.

We recently got in this slender sweetie in the form of a Whippet Aussie X named NICOLAI. He's tall and lanky and brown and cream. The first day I met him I talked to him from the front of his kennel on the outside and he came prancing up and as I was petting him through the door he growled at me. I pulled my arm out and decided to give him a second relax. I have never had a problem with him other than that first verbal warning. It was a bit concerning that he would actually come forward and allow me to pet him before he started to growl. Most dogs when they have the option of fight or flight will tend to choose the flight. Only when flight is not an option do they resort to fight and NICOLAI was safe at the back of his kennel since I never opened the door. Now everyone loves NICOLAI. Even our behaviorist who is a tough one when it comes to any "bad" behavior. Our boy has a tendency to be a growler when he is in "his" space and strangers come around. The good thing is we know the pattern, it's definable and so is able to be worked with and or avoided. The bad thing is it does not make him very attractive and people may not want to see him because he is growling (and now barking a lot) when they approach. Once he meets you though he is awesome and sweet and playful and very gentle. My guess is we may need to get him up front more so people can see him in a better light. Hopefully he will not become a long termer.

Out of our last bunch of long termers only one remains. Our boy BLARNEY got adopted by a couple with another dog. Go figure! BLARNEY was not able to get along with any of the dogs we tried him with because he came on like a jerk, barking at them nipping at them and here comes this other male dog his size and this dog even corrected BLARNEY and put him in his place and BLARNEY submitted! Holy crap it was just meant to be. The couple even just brought him back for us to see him and but another bed for him. The two dogs are doing great together. MAKO has gotten better at being around dogs without going completely coo coo or hoarse from barking and hopefully with his improvements will attract his forever home and be the longest long termer no more.

And Then There Were Two

It seems we have been on a roll as far as finally getting some of our long termers out of the shelter. So as you may know, LADY went on foster with a potential owner and in the two weeks she had her, LADY proved herself to be the wonderful companion many of us believed her to be. She hasn't shown the behaviors she had in Bizarro World out there in the real world and has even gone by children (which she used to act like she wanted to maul and rip to shreds) playing without any arousal. The woman even sent us a picture of Lady all curled up with her on the woman's bed. She finalized the adoption. Ding ding ding ding ding we have a winner! FINALLY!

Then this family with a young teen son was looking at my crazed COOPIE. There he was barking like a maniac and reaching his paws through the kennel as though he could grab them and pull them to him. I walked up and showed them how he relaxes and sits for treats and told them he's not always a maniac like this and he is just stressed. away they went and I thought good going COOPIE ya knuckle head ya blew it again. Seems that was not the truth. Mom and son had come a couple more times and looked at COOPIE again and saw how a volunteer was working with him and eventually wanted to meet him. I did the showing and gave them all the info on how much this little nutty needs. Mom is home quite a bit and was willing to work with him as he showed well and did all his good behaviors when asked. They left to think about it and came back to meet him again. Then Dad came and met Him a few days later. It was great that the people weren't jumping right into taking him and liked him enough to visit a few times to see how he was different. After dad met it was a go. COOPIE'S going home!! I shed a happy tear on that one. So far COOPIE has been a good boy in the home and hopefully it will only continue to get better.

Next was our studly seniors WINNER our 12y old Jack Russell and SKIPPER DOODLE. An older couple was looking at a different dog that was quite energetic and very young and their adoption counselor who was doing the showing asked them to maybe give WINNER a visit. They agreed and decided he was the one! WooHoo another one bites the dust! Then BAM!! SKIPPER DOODLE gets a nice middle aged woman and her teen son and they didn't care he was old at all. Bless their big hearts.

The ones we thought would be longest was BOON and PADDY. Well they both got adopted over the weekend. BOON had a woman who had never had a Pitty before come in and think he was handsome. Well how can ya blame her for that, he is a handsome one. Our Adoption Counselor gave her lots of info on how much work BOON was and showed her some more good options if she was not totally set on BOON and also suggested she do a little research on Pitt Bulls before deciding for sure and she left and after a few days came back after reading about them and decided she was ready for this big beefy beautiful beastly loving muzzle puncher. High fives were slapping! Another good home for a special needs animal and long termer.
The most bitter sweet adoption of the week, at least for the staffer who fosters him overnight, is PADDY. Since PADDY had separation anxiety and could jump a 6' fence and WOULD, we figured it would be awhile before the someone who is able to be with him all the time and/or has the ability and desire to work with his anxiety. In came the perfect family. Me and the staffer who fosters PADDY did the showing and they family was wonderful. They had worked with separation anxiety with their last dog and she is a female Shepard. It was a stay at home mom with 10y old twins and dad works from home on their 2 1/2 acre lot. They brought their dog in to meet and after a bit of time they started to play and the people decided he was the one. Our tough guy J had to leave since knowing PADDY was going home he started to get a bit emotional and didn't want witnesses. We definitely do get especially attached to them when they are here for a long time and we miss them when they are gone even though it's a better place to where they have gone...at least it BETTER BE..or I'll be coming to the house and stealing my baby back if they aren't being treated well..better believe that.

Also CAM CAM got adopted and MOONIE got adopted by that woman who lost her other poodle. We only have two long termers left which is MAKO our fanged Fox Terrier and our now shapely Shepard BLARNEY as he has lost some fat and is looking sweet. DUST will be on the long termer list soon if not adopted, same with my WYLERS who was sent to the vet hospital on Sat for not being able to use his back legs I don't know what the diagnosis is yet but will keep you up to date. My poor little man. There's another new batch that came in and will let you know how they are doing soon.
Good Week for the kids!

Lovins Time

Today was a lovins day as I got to sit with several of our dogs. It was fairly slow today as far as showings so I decided to make some rounds. I would have started with my MOONIE and CLOUDY but as I walked by there was one of our fellow staffers sitting with them already. I will admit it did give my heart a little leap seeing them run to the kennel door, wag their tails and watch me every time I passed by. Now I would love to believe that I just have that special connection with the dogs but I think to some of them I'm no more than the nice treat lady since I am one of the few who carries treats on them all day and doles them out for good behavior (yes and for bribery). My sweet girls are doing fabulous and seem to be getting happier as the days go by. There was even a woman who came in who recently lost her poodle and is interested in MOONIE, but she is not available until tomorrow.

I then heard my little MAKO barking himself hoarse again over who knows what and took that as my cue. My little stoic man now gets SO excited to see me now and has even given me a few more kisses when I am gearing him up to go play fetch in one of our long grass runs. MAKO needs to be taken down at a different time because of his reactiveness to the other dogs and since we can often be busy during the day he misses out. I try and make sure I get him down for at least 20 minutes and today was a banner day for my fanged one. Often volunteers will bring down dogs during the day and usually I have to take MAKO back up to his kennel when that happens because he loses control and does nothing but bark at them but today was different. First came CAMCAM who is our stocky sweet(I know I use "sweet" a lot but they are!)quiet wonder what she's thinking black Chow Lab X. MAKO gave her a couple sideways glances and kept playing fetch with me! I was so proud of my boy I showered him with treats. (told you I'm the treat lady)THEN down came our two Golden Retrievers for a showing and I thought oh boy here we go but again I was suprised to see MAKO take a look and then ignore and go back to playing with me. WOOHOO huge day for MAKO and I figure much of it has to do with one of our volunteers who comes in to work with him a few times a week on that very issue. Thanks to A for putting such time effort and knowledge forth for our little man. After a good romp we went back up and our little guy tucked himself into his bed and rolled over on his back for lovins and some rest.

Knowing I am not able to spend lots of time with as many as I would like I do whatever else I can to get them some kind of socialization, so as I walked past our Pitty BOON I thought he looked so sad laying there with his head down on his blankie and figured being at the front desk with our staff for a few hours would do him some good and he was as happy as a clam to be up there. He sits for treats and when he's sitting but really still excited his tail doesn't go side to side but up and down, so cute....ooooooo I just wanna grab that big block head and smother him with kisses but that's for the front desk staff to do for now, I'm off to love on another.

There was my DUST laying so sweetly at the front of his kennel on the thick mat I put down for him and all of a sudden I hear the song that goes no body knooooows the twoubles I've seeeeeen no body knooooows but jesuuuuuus..and took that as a sign and decided he was next. I sat with him for about 30 min and he just kept pawing at me for love well I figure it was for love because he ate the last of the treats I had on me and he was aware of that by sticking his entire shnoz into my pouch to check and then I crawled into his big crate to get a toy and he followed me in there so we just lay together in there for a bit until a volunteer came to take him for a walk. We are still waiting on his results to tell us if he has Lupus.

Knowing how our Jack Lalane of the group WINNER has been crying a lot lately I decided after a couple hours to let BOON go meet a new buddy and let WINNER hang out up front because my heart can't take much more of his crying. Oddly we don't get a lot of crying in the shelter. We get lots of barking and howling but not much wimpering. The wimpering is killer. So my little studly senior got to go up and get some lovins time too.

The rest of the day was chores so that was it for lovins on my end and no big adoptions yet.

Saturday was a Day of the Three P's I Hate

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.