The revolving door

I have started doing intake work for VGSR for dogs from most of the state except northern Virginia and Tidewater areas. My house has been a revolving door since it started. A week ago today I drove down to Natural Bridge to bring back the little girl shepherd I just called JaneDoe.

JaneDoe is now being called Anastasia; she was spayed on Monday and is doing well (shown here coming out of her crate, still a little groggy, the day of her surgery). She will be going to a VGSR foster home in Maryland on Saturday. Until then, she's learning to deal with being crated and is doing pretty well with it after one day of whining about it. She needs it after her surgery anyway and being around the house dogs helps her social skills as well.

On Monday, Nina arrived from Bath County, Virginia, courtesy of another rescue group. She's a beauty, and she's a goat killer. People are not too smart. They left Nina outdoors when they were gone with a goat that was tied up. Apparently they had lived together for a while, along with other farm animals, but the owners returned home one day to find a dead goat and German Shepherd Dog who was extremely proud of herself for providing dinner.

She obviously needs to go to a goat-free home in the city or suburbs. A third rescue group in also involved because they were planning to take her in but didn't have a foster home available. They do have an interested adopter, however, so I'm still waiting to see if she will be making the trasport trip with me on Saturday to another foster home.

Also on Monday the two male hound puppies went back to the SPCA. The were to have neuter surgery that day and then go up for adoption. They've grown back their hair and are as cute as they will ever be, so it is time for them to find homes. The two males were the noisiest of the pups, so things were already much quieter around here Monday evening.

The only people happier about this than me are Clay, and probably our neighbors. I've sworn the no-more-hounds pledge.

On Tuesday, the two female hounds and Pi went back to the SPCA. The two girls were to be spayed that day and they are all staying there now for adoption. I do miss Pi, sort of, but he was picking up on the hound pups' vocalization habits. After taking three pups back to the SPCA in the morning, I drove over to Richmond in the afternoon to pick up Max.

Max is a long haired German Shepherd and I'm not entirely clear why he was given up. He's very well cared for and very well behaved. He had been the husband's dog originally, but ended up with the wife and child after their divorce. Ex-wife and child are allergic. I suspect there is more to the story, but he's a great dog, so who cares? I just hope I don't get one of those "you've got my dog and I want him back" calls from the ex-husband when he finds out.

He as been fine here in the kennels, but still has a confused look on his face. He will be making the trip on Saturday to his new VGSR foster home, also in Maryland.

The last one in this week will also be the first one out. Lexi was a VGSR dog when she was a pup and has been returned by her owner who had fallen on some very hard times recently. We all say that we'd never give up our dogs, but there are situations where people really don't have any choice and giving up the dog is truely the best thing for the dog. It sounds like this was one of those situations, so I'm glad that the person did the right thing for the dog.

Lexi is going to be fostered by an excellent VGSR foster home over in the valley and will be picked up later this afternoon by her new foster mom. She's a little shell shocked, but will be ok.

I have a few more incoming dogs in the works, but they will have to wait until the first week of September when I'm back from Kansas. I think I'll end up with Nina as a foster, but that's fine.