Pitty Pups

When I got back from the Thanksgiving trip, I brought home a litter of pit mix pups from the Charlottesville SPCA. They came in there a couple weeks ago and tested positive for ringworm. They've already had three treatments, however, and look better than any ringworm pups I've had.

They are as cute as only puppies can be, playful, or course, and fun to have around. And best of all, they can go back to the SPCA when they are well so I don't have to find homes for them.

They are eating, pooping, playing machines. They swarm all over me when I go out there and love to be picked up and cuddled. I had gathered up dog toys from all the other kennels and washed them and put them away since none of the adults really use them (except for Teddy, who likes to carry around a small rubber tire). The toy box came out again and it's fun to toss a new one in there when I go out. Of course, an empty plastic water bottle is still the best toy around--easy to pick up and it makes a fun sound when they crush it with sharp puppy teeth.

Having puppies in the winter time is a bit of a challenge. Before I took them out of the crates in the car, I cleaned up the puppy kennel, put a new canopy over it, strung up new lights inside, and filled it will a fresh bale of straw. The igloo doghouse points into an A-frame structure, and the whole "house" is covered with a big heavy moving blanket to keep out wind. It's not ideal, but they are cozy in there, and it does foster togetherness.

More short timers

There are some dogs that I can take one look at and tell that they won't be around long. I'm not prescient, it's just that big and beautiful is always popular, in dogs as well as people. Hannibal and Nemo were two such dogs, and Brutus was another.

Nemo had numerous inquiries and adoption offers. Many of them were suitable, one of them was best for this dog. He went to his new home as soon as we got home from Thanksgiving and retrieved all the dogs from the boarding kennels.

Nemo, now Huck, went to a home with a three-legged Golden Retriever who laid down the ground rules and also taught him the household routine. He apparently doesn't like the crate, but he's done well in the house, which is amazing given the fact that he had never been inside. His eating habits have also become a bit more civilized now that he knows that meals come regularly in his new home.

Hannibal is still with me, but he has chosen his new home and will be moving just before Christmas when his new dad will be off work for a good long week to help him settle in.

Hannibal's new home is actually an old home, a prior adopter who came back to me for another dog when he had room for one more. Hannibal and Hannah and I drove to visit the home on a cold and rainy/snowy day last weekend. Hannah wasn't too interested, but Hannibal was and he hit it off with Ricco, the other dog in the home.

Here's a pic of Ricco before he was adopted just about a year ago. Ricco had, and still has, a condition known as Pannus. It's a chronic eye problem but it's manageable if one is willing to do daily eye drops. Ricco's dad took him on without hesitation and has the condition stabilized, and even improved from where it was at the time of adoption. I held off a couple of people who were interested in Hannibal until we had a chance to get Ricco and Hannibal together. Anyone who will take on a dog with a problem like Ricco's moves to the top of my list when they come back and want another. It is also the most dog-friendly home I've ever seen. Only the TV and the motorcycle are off limits to the dogs.

It was great to see Ricco again too. Apparently he generally isn't too warm and fuzzy with strangers, but he greeted me like a long lost friend. I never mind when a former foster doesn't seem to know me or care much about me. It just means that they've moved on and are happy in their new home. That's a good thing and it doesn't hurt my feelings. But when I am greeted enthusiastically by a former foster, I indulge myself with the anthropomorphic belief that they remember me, understand what I did for them, and want to say thank you for their wonderful new home. Who knows, maybe they really do.

I got a similar greeting just yesterday when I dropped off a rabies tag that should have gone with Brutus when he was adopted. Brutus greets everyone that way, however, so I can't fool myself about that one. Brutus never made it onto the web and these are the only pics I have, taken the first day he arrived at my house. He's not nearly as serious as he looks here. He has a great new home--no kids, cats, or other dogs to complicate matters and both of his people work from home. It doesn't get any better than that for a dog, and they are good people too, which matters in my book, especially when choosing among multiple adopters who all want the same dog.

Catching up. again

Yesterday at an adoption event I was chatting with a friend who reads my blog. She said that she had read the entire blog from the beginning, and she even knew the date of my last posting. It amazes me a bit that anyone who has read the blog from the beginning is still speaking to me, because I manage to offend most everyone sooner or later. It also scares me a bit, because anyone who reads this ends up knowing all there is to know about me. I should probably self-edit a bit more, but then it wouldn't really be a blog. In any event, she was still reading so I guess I should keep writing. The latest period of down time was due in part to a camera problem, but that is resolved, so I don't really have an excuse. The explaination, rather than excuse, is that writing, like exercise, requires self-discipline, and that's never been my strong suit.

The pics above and to the right are of Samson the Wonder Dog. His mom sends me updates and pics quite often and this is one of him helping prepare Thanksgiving dinner. His mom is going to be having a baby of her own in addition to Samson and she says: "I know he will be an amazing big big big brother. He has already sensed my pregnancy and has become stuck to me like glue in addition to protecting the house at all times."

Sometimes a baby entering the picture worries me, but not in this case. I think that Samson will see how important the baby is to his mom and it will be important to him too. And this expectant mother is very devoted to her dog and I know she will make it work out.

Unchained dogs

Life at the end of a chain isn't much of a life. It amazes me that anyone would think that this is an appropriate way to keep a dog. If a dog is going to be outside and doesn't have the space, temperament, and training necessary to be living at large, the dog needs a fence. Some people who resort to chains are too cheap to put up a fence, some are just too lazy. All are too ignorant to realize that dogs are social animals who want and need to be with their people.

Hannibal and Nemo were living such a "life" in rural Virginia. Lucky for them, a former adopter saw them and contacted the owner to see if he would be interested in giving up the dogs, since he obviously wasn't doing anything with them. The man was a breeder, of course, but fortunately he is planning to move soon and he was interested in giving up the dogs, for a price.

Mr. Good-hearted Former Adopter paid the man's price and then turned the dogs over to me. I went with him to meet and pick up the dogs last weekend. Hannibal was living on a chain with only the top half of an igloo doghouse for shelter. Actually he was living in a 10' diameter circle of mud defined by the length of the chain attached to a center post. His water bucket was knocked over and he was drinking from a puddle of standing water left by some recent rain. He is underweight and he has an obvious wound on his neck from the collar and chain, but still, he is a remarkably good natured dog.

His brother, Nemo, (the slightly larger and darker of the two) had been living on a chain tied to the front porch of the single-wide trailer. Nemo had recently broken his chain or collar, so he was actually living in a decent-sized pen at a friend's home down the road. In the adjacent pen was a male and female that he guy is taking with him to the Carolina cesspool where he will be moving to continue his breeding. So this rescue didn't break the cycle of ignorance and misery, but it did save these two individual dogs. That is really all we can do most of the time.

The former owner isn't particularly evil, but he is just plain stupid. Every time he opened his mouth to talk about dogs he confirmed that fact. I can't call him white trash because he is black, so I'm at a loss for an appropriate epithet.

Hannibal and Nemo both got to see a vet for the first time in their lives on Tuesday. They had hookworms and whipworms, but thankfully no heartworms. They also got vaccinated and neutered. They have had the chance to enjoy life a little this week.

Roxie's boys

Roxie is a female rottie who came from another rescue group over in Bath County. They had her kennelled for a year or more while getting her treated for heartworms and still couldn't find her a home. I had taken a shepherd from them and learned about Roxie. I promised to take her but put it off for several weeks. She came here in mid-October when my rescue work had come to a halt with the new job. I really didn't know what to do with her, but she fit in well with my two male rottie mixes, Sparky and Brady.

Most of rescue work is pure luck and Roxie is a lucky girl. A fellow shepherd rescuer referred a rottie owner to me. She was looking for a new girl as a companion for her boy, having lost a female rottie a while back. She and her husband came out last weekend and hit it off with Roxy. Roxy is a sweet girl and really wanted to be a housedog, and she will be. She gets along well with other dogs so I didn't suspect there would be any problem with the male rottie. I haven't heard from them since they went home, but I'm not concerned.

The adopters are experienced rottweiler owners and they understood what they could and couldn't do and what they would need to work on --(Roxy can be a little mouthy when she gets excited, never a good trait in a rottweiler). Everything about them was exactly what I look for in an adopter and especially in a rottweiler adopter. Their dogs are central to their lives and they were not expecting a dog to be perfect from the start. I wish I could clone them.

Jesus is watching

This my favorite religious story and it's about as religious as I get. It was among the 400+ emails I'm wading through after burying my head in the sand the last couple of weeks.

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said, 'Jesus knows you're here.'

He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. When he heard nothing more, after a bit, he shook his head and continued. Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard: 'Jesus is watching you.'

Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. 'Did you say that?' he hissed at the parrot. 'Yep', the parrot confessed, then squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you that he is watching you.'

The burglar relaxed. 'Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?' 'Moses,' replied the bird. 'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?'

'The kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.'

Catching up

The good news is that I am employed again full time. (Much rejoicing.) I'm back with LexisNexis full time at least through the end of the year, but am on a project where there is much work to be done, so hopefully it will continue. I'm an hourly employee, however, so I still have no health insurance. Consequently, the fucking republicans who are opposing health insurance reform with a public option have, in my opinion, earned a whole new hot and low spot in hell. This is especially true because they have no plan of their own and are simply opposing anything and everything that Obama does. They have no hesitation about spending billions and billions of dollars to kill people around the world, but they hate the idea of taking care of our own people at home. They make dog shit look and smell good.

But I digress. Emmylou (above and left) has been lame for several weeks but she is slowly regaining strength and usage of her rear left leg. She now goes out for long hunts through the tall grass in the pasture, but at least she isn't jumping the fence. I've been carrying her upstairs 2 or 3 times a day for the past several weeks, but the last few days she has been strong enough to do the steps herself for one of those trips.

I don't think I've had an adoption since Lyon, but there has been some in and out movement with the fosters. The big, ugly, smell guy, Max, went to another foster home for about a week. Here is Max and the household shepherd doing the classic dog introduction. They got along fine, it was the other foster dog in the home that objected to Max. I picked up Max yesterday and drove him to another foster home and I think he will be fine there. His hair is growing back but he's still scratching quite a bit.

Beautiful Brody, now called Brody the Butthead, went to a potential adopter last week for a few days. It's a former adopter, which I like, and a place in the country with a huge fenced yard. The other dog is one of my former fosters, a female named Starr. I thought that the male/female combo might work since he had lived with Birdie here, but Starr is a very alpha female and she had no use for Brody's alpha male act. I'm not really sure who started the trouble, but after the third fight it seemed clear that it wasn't going to work. I changed his write up to specify "no kids, no cats, no dogs, fenced yard required."

There have been a couple of new arrivals. The rottie in the crate is a girl named Roxy. She came from another rescue group over in Bath County. They've had her boarded for a year, and treated her for heartworms. She seems like a nice girl, and she is getting along with the other dogs. The other new guy is Copper. He's a mixed bully breed, maybe part boxer, part AmStaf, it's hard to say. Very sweet boy. Teddy and Birdie just love him, the best thing to come along since Brady as far as they are concerned.

Our cat, Eleanor, still has a broken leg. It's healing, but slowly. She also has a bladder infection. Lovely.

Today was another adoption event in Gainesville. I took Brody the Butthead but he mostly stayed in the van. Everyone was impressed at Rocky's improvement. His face is finally healed up. We took some new pictures today and I need to do a new write up for him on the website. It's time he found a home with someone who wants a deaf dog.

Hannah went along and was good, but she clearly wasn't thrilled about it all. She had heartworm treatment last Monday and Tuesday, but she's doing very well so far. She is not crazy about being confined to the crate instead of running in the pasture with the boys, however. Mostly today was about moving Boo (left) to a new foster home. He will get more attention and will be living indoors, so it will improve his adoption prospects.

I think that's about it for now. I'm loving the cooler weather and want to get back to the hiking trails again soon. I don't think Emmylou is up for it yet because she will overdo it in an effort to keep up with Molly. I may start out with the Butthead and a few of the other fosters.