dogs

well fred, its my turn to rant.
si for those not familiar with my dogs, i have two. one is a mix lab/rott (looks like a large black lab but we know its mum was a pedigree rott.) he is a marvelous dog, well trained, obedient, gentle. so much so i sometimes feel guilty about owning him as he would have made someone an excellent guide dog. and i love him to bits.
the other one is a 'foundling'. hubby walked past this skeleton, seething with maggots, ticks, fleas. just patchy skin and bone and open sores. as he passed it he said out loud (he thought it was dead) ahh, poor puppy. the skeleton has then wagged its tail. he has brought it home expecting me to work some sort of miracle. i didn't, but God did and so we now have two dogs. shadow is NOT well trained or obedient, but is sweet, affectionate, and funny and i love him to bits.
we have recently moved to an area where there are a lot of loose dogs roaming, and the friendly ones come to say hello to our two. recently a small puppy has joined the mix and constantly wriggles under our gate to play with boizy and shadow. i don't feed these dogs, just pet them and shoo them back out. hubby has made the mistake of picking the puppy up, only to discover to his horror that it is literally COVERED in ticks. we ignored this a couple of days, had a great deal of discussion about what to do, and today just couldn't stand it any longer. so we have just spent the last two hours bathing it and painstakingly picking off ticks. it probably has worms too. now we don't know what to do. we cant turn it loose. we are not sure it even has a home, but if it has its not a good one. we cant keep it. plan 'A' is to keep it for a week, until its clean, de-wormed, and recovered a bit - and then hand it over to the humane society. sometimes i just hate people.

 

That is horrible. I love dogs. Too bad plan B is not to keep it for yourself, but I understand. Heck ya' got 2 of them! I think plan A is the best thing.

Meet the real Fred_G...

Fred_G is a mutt I got from some friends almost 13 years ago. He can be crazy as hell, but so can I, so we get along pretty well.

E

 

plan 'A' is the same plan we had for shadow!! (except in shadows case it was 'we will keep him for a month' coz he was just so poorly). the humane society is overloaded, understaffed and underfunded here, so unless a dog is healthy they will just 'put it out of its misery'. here is a pic of our two. i will post one of the puppy when hubby returns home (with my camera!!)

 

Down here we have groups that take in dogs and cats, give them shots, desex them and then advertise them in local papers (purchase covers cost of shots and spaying) which works successfully. These groups often assisted by volunteers. My friends and I have picked our companions (animals that is) from such groups.

Another alternative, what about advertising with a photo in your local paper?

By the way, love your dogs! Talk about smiles all 'round...just gorgeous.

 

I have 4 wonderful furry, four legged kids at home myself and wish I could take more (but can't in a 2 bedroom apt, even though it is Huge, 4 is our limit). I find that a lot of the dogs I see in my neighborhood (read ghetto) are kept as either weapons or status symbols. As such they are not treated properly and are more a danger than anything else.

If anyone watched The Dog Whisper on Natl Geographic Channel, that is how I am with my dogs and any animal in general, I grew up on a farm and always knew that to get along with and animal, you have to understand that they are an animal first and foremost, and respect that, then there can be that wonderful bond. unfortunately, too many people don't understand that and this ios where the problems come from.

Sorry about the rant, this is just one of those issues I feel very strongly about.


~C

PS: was looking for some pics to post, but they are at home.... will try to post from home in the AM

 

A lot of people support and reflect your views. Thankfully now there are laws (in most places) that protect these wonderful companions and penalise these two-legged sub-humans who still just don't get it. Unfortunately, penalties aren't severe enough to make a difference...yet!

 

people here can be odd. large dogs are used for hunting boar, and are not well cared for. the Filipinos used to breed bred black dogs for food. (racial prejudiced on dogs ? apparently 'black dog tastes better!!) small breeds are 'pets' and are usually babied dreadfully. i am one of very few people on the island with large house dogs. my Hawaiian friends say i have 'ruined them' as they obviously couldn't hunt now, even if i wanted them to. neither are they 'warning' dogs. (they don't call them 'guard dogs' here. NO dog is trained to be aggressive with people. so dogs kept in the yard are just to bark when people are about). i try not to judge, but runts are left to starve, injuries are home treated if at all, male dogs are caged or chained until needed for the hunt, female dogs are left to wonder the streets at will, with obvious consequences. hubby thinks that this one is probably the runt of the litter which has been left to make its own way. strangely enough there are no feral dogs here. lots of feral cats though. not everything is paradisaical in paradise.

 

so here's a pic of the new 'baby' with my brother. what i thought was a 10-12 week old lab mix with big feet is not. he had so many ticks between his toes that his feet were permanently splayed out. now he is free of them, he actually has very small feet, and we think that he is a chewawa (sp??) mix and possibly about 1yr -18mths. there isnt a lot of difference between 10wks and 18mths...its just one long puppyhood really, so without knowing what sort of dog it is, its difficult to tell. he doesnt have the sharp puppy teeth, but i dont know how old they have to be to lose them, or if it varies from breed to breed. eventually we will have to take it to a vet to check out. we have called him 'lil boo'. my bruv is talking about keeping him. ahh bless. much aloha

 

HEre's mine.... All but the golden, our newest addition, have to find my card reader so I can upload the pix.


~C

 

Is there a no kill shelter in your area...sometimes you can get a warm soul to help you out if you explain that you already have 2 dogs. I took in a declawed cat that was crying outside (really beat up), my cat did not go for a "friend" in fact even with the new comer locked up in another room she still pissed on my foot in the kitchen while I was waiting for coffee to be ready the next morn. (gotta love her sense of humor)

But I found a no kill shelter (on internet) that would take her after about 3 wks of searching. I put an ad in the paper and signs around, nobody claimed her. Needless to say my kitty did not warm up to having a friend around. 3 wks of making my life living hell!

All my pets have been someones discard, sad to say but people really need to take responsibility for their choices and realize a pet is a commitment and not a toy to be discarded.

You have a good soul Laurie, wishing you luck.

Cat

 

Sad state of affairs when people don't take rearing of animals seriously, or intentionally misuse them. Unfortunately, also very common, and is also prevalent in this country.

I ended up with by best feline friend by sort of coincidence, too. She was part of a litter from an owner of several cats which were allowed to breed hap-hazzardly. Took one of the litter for a friend of mine's son. Turned out he just wasn't committed to looking after the cat, so I ended up with her. I'm not complaining, as she's good company and tends to get rather spoilt. She's all colours, but mainly black, tortoise shell kinda pattern.

Laurie, I think you are doing everything that can be done, but like you said, sooner or later, it will be decision time. unless, of course, you get lucky and someone decides to take the puppy on, Good luck with that.

 

They kill everything where I'm at. Heard the numbers were 300 a day. This is a God forsaken place. Poor animals, bless you laurieB and your hubby for not just passing up the pup. It had to be on it's last leg. So good to hear it will have a home.

 

And you're in the Dog Whisperer's home state...... *sigh* THat is one of the reasons my other half doesn't do any work for the local SPCA, instead, we travel to the next county over to do volunteer grooming because their's is a no-kill shelter.

As promised (found the card reader) here's my golden, our newest addition...

~C