Category Archives: Dogs & Other Animals

The Life and Times of Sassy Pants

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings,

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Last picture with Sassy Pants.

 Sassy went to her forever home this afternoon.  It is always bittersweet when the fosters leave.  They are loved and missed but they move on were they can be the center of attention. Sassy will have an 18 month old sheltie sister at her new home. The family has been eagerly planning for and awaiting this day.

Sassy was glad to see her new family when they arrived. (They had come to visit her once before. ) We talked for a while and when it was time to go they put the leash on her and asked if she wanted to go  bye-bye.  Sassy yipped and went to the door. Made me think “what are we, chopped liver?” Although chopped liver would be good in a dog’s eyes, wouldn’t it? Really I don’t mind that Sassy likes her new family so well. It’s terrible when they look back at you like you’re a traitor who is  sending them away.

Sassy has a great life ahead of her and I’m sure I’ll get reports as to how she is doing. And of course the next foster sheltie is waiting in the wings. He is scheduled to come next Sunday. And so life goes on.

Dogs Just Wanna Have Fun

Dogs & Other Animals, ,

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Dogs just wanna have fun. (Think the Cyndi Lauper tune here.) Not that they are never serious but they know when it is time to work and when it is time to kick back and let loose. You can tell from the expression on Baxter’s face that he is having a great time even if Shelby is the one with the Frisbee at the moment. He’s nice, he shares.

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Here is Princess, one of our foster dogs from a couple of years ago. That girl knew how to have a good time. She would chase the Frisbee with Baxter and Shelby and the three of them got along like they had been together all of their lives. Sometimes I regret letting her get adopted. She was a perfect fit for our pack. But you can’t keep them all. Or so I am told.

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Phoebe, the greyhound, also knows how to play when she can muster up the energy.  Greyhounds are couch potatoes 98% of the time but when they decide that they want to play, look out! Tearing up mouthfuls of grass and flinging them in the air then running at full speed for about 30 seconds is one of her favorite pass times in the summer. Note this lasts 30 seconds. No need to get carried away.

We can learn a few things about how to have a good time from dogs. But at the end of the day, don’t forget to relax. And if you can do it with a friend, even better!

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Rescue Blessings

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings,

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Today  I  had another one of those magical experiences that I am occasionally blessed with while doing rescue work. Our current foster dog, Miss Sassy Pants,  met her future family for the first time. We are keeping Sassy while she undergoes some medical treatment prior to her placement. We anticipate she will be ready to go in about two weeks.

Her new family is so eager and excited about getting her that they wanted to come visit her now. They arrived along with the sheltie they already own. It was amazing. Sassy immediately went up to them and started sniffing. She wanted them to pet her and jumped up on the couch with the lady and gave her kisses. She played and rough housed with the husband. She tried to get their sheltie to play with her. She brought a stuffed toy and squeaked it and dropped it at our feet.  I  have never seen Sassy so much as touch a toy before and rarely does she try to play with our dogs. Sassy is nine years old and was so happy when this family came that she acted like a pup.

This is one of the miracles of rescue work. Sometimes the dogs just recognize their new family. They act as if they have been waiting all their lives for this person/people  to show up. It makes allowing them to move on so much easier for us when we see the dog is happy and ok with it.

Do we miss the foster dogs when they go? Most  certainly, but that is how there’s room for the next one. And there is always a  next one. At last count we have fostered over 40 shelties! It will be a glorious day when there is a shortage of dogs for us to foster. I  think it is possible that day will come.  And I look forward to it. Not to the absence of the foster dogs but to the fact there is none available because every one has a home!!!

Gifts of Life and Death

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings

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Romeo passed on yesterday evening. This makes me very sad. We had been together for 14 years. One of the guys at work found Romeo and his sister China in the back of his truck during the work day. The mother must have been moving them but we don’t know from which of the many stops they appeared. The kittens were about two weeks old and the operator brought them to me at the end of the day when he found them. He said I would probably hurt him if he didn’t.

I bottle fed both kittens and kept them in a cardboard box for easy transport. If I went any where for more than two hours, so did the kittens. The box sat on my bed at night so that I would hear the kittens crying and wake up to fed and potty them. Kittens this small can not potty on their own and need help. The kittens also went to work with me in that box. It sat in the bathroom and I would go take care of them every two hours. It didn’t take them long to start meowing for food when they saw me. Shortly after that, when they saw me, they would launch themselves at me and climb up my pants leg. When I started feeding them they were so small that I used an eye dropper. We progressed on to an animal baby bottle and then I cut the tip off of that so the formula/wet food mixture could get through. As they learned to lap up the mixture from a saucer, things became messier. They liked to stand in the food as they ate. Romeo became my shadow. Wherever I went in the house, there he was. He would sit outside the shower door waiting and calling for me. When I came out, he followed me to the sink and sat on the counter so he could stand up and pat my face with his paw. His name suited him well.

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Sadly, China passed a number of years ago. But Romeo has been with me these many years. I was always his momma in the true sense of the word. We went through moving, family changes, comings and goings of other dogs and cats, and all the changes that life brings. It turned out that Romeo had a fine ear for music. He would come whenever he heard whistling. It had to be a classical tune though. He wouldn’t come to other whistling. He had his standards. He wasn’t always an easy cat. He would follow us around yowling for food that we had, especially tuna. He liked to sit at the sink and demand that we turn on the faucet so that he might have water that was properly aerated to suit his taste. But he was always my Romeo Kitten.

So what is a fitting tribute for my fine Romeo Kitten? I think to mention the fact that he taught me about the gifts of life and death. I received the gift of watching him grow and knowing that I had made a difference by giving him life. I received the gift of having him as a part of my life and having the joy of spending these past 14 years being adored by him. And at the end, I had the gift of being with him for his last time on earth. That was a gift that we shared, it went both ways. It was a gift for him and for me. Romeo gave me the chance to live my favorite saying. “I shall pass this way but once. Therefore, any good that I can do…or any kindness that I can show-let me do it now for I shall not pass this way again.”

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The lessons of Romeo Kitten live on.

 

Preparing Dinner

Dogs & Other Animals

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This is the view I see while preparing dinner. It occasionally changes as to which animals are present but the overall feel is like being swarmed by sharks. If you’ll notice in the doorway  there is a cat and another dog waiting for something to drop. Our dogs love fruits and vegetables. They love it if you toss them a piece of cucumber or bit of apple. They will take just about anything. The cats are slightly pickier. They prefer cheese, meat, or sauce from something that we have cooked. Trying to prepare dinner is rather like an Olympic event or an obstacle course. You must repeatedly navigate around bodies as you go back and forth from refrigerator, to stove, to sink. One of Phoebe the greyhound’s nicknames is Road Block.

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Above are Shelby and Sassy the foster dog in prime begging mode. Shelby takes this begging work seriously as she does everything she attempts. You can tell from the grin on Sassy’s face that they are sometimes successful in their quest for bits of food. While dinner time would be easier without all these shenanigans, it would not be nearly as much fun. Life would get boring and empty for me without these furry assistants that help in my daily life.

Fashion Statements

Dogs & Other Animals

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The barely there look seems to be in fashion around here. Both Romeo Kitten and Miss Sassy Pants the foster sheltie are showing some leg. The shaved leg is to accommodate an IV port in case there is trouble during surgery.  Luckily all went well for both of them.

Romeo came into my life about 14 years ago. He was a kitten that I bottle fed from the estimated age of two weeks. Once he got to be a couple weeks older he would launch himself at me and climb up my pant leg when it was feeding time. As he grew older he followed me around the house meowing when I was out of sight. He would wait for me outside of the shower and then follow me to sit on the bathroom sink and pat my face with his paw. His name fit him well. Romeo’s surgery was a dental and he lost his remaining teeth.  Hopefully this will give him several more years with us.

Sassy’s surgery was a spay to get her prepared for her new home. She did very well. She’s a joy of a little girl and I’m so glad we have the privilege of getting to know her. She is a character though.  She’s a bossy girl too. If we finish dinner without giving her a bite, she barks at us to tell us off. She also doesn’t like forks and barks at those too. After I picked her up at the vet’s today and we pulled into the driveway at home, she barked with happiness that I brought her back home. Sassy has a home waiting for her. We just have to get her past some medical issues and she will be ready to go.  Her new family is eager for her to join them. Sassy will be 10 in April but you’d never know it as spunky as she is.

With luck there won’t be any more surgeries around here for a while.  It’s a little too cold for the bare legged look to become the newest fad.