Odds and Sods

Things have been going smoothly over this way. We've added Gypsy (a co-worker's foster dog) to our ranks for the week while her foster-mum is on vacation, and as of Monday we've added 2 new foster dogs from California. (More on them in the next few days).

The extremely nutshell version of them is: I was a goober and posted a 'this dog would never be put down where I live' type reply on a picture of a dog from a high-kill shelter in CA. In a bizarre, wonderful, and somewhat oddball series of events, the dog I posted that comment too ended up here, along with two other dogs from the same pound. (MEMO: do not post on high-kill pictures!)

A third dog hitched a ride last minute all travel expenses paid. So, despite the fact that I'm not quite sure what I've gotten myself into yet, I somehow managed to save 3 little souls from a long walk. Thus I welcome Chula, Amelia, and Antoinette to Canada.

Antoinette: the picture I posted on! She was pulled only hours before she would have been euthanized.

Chula's Intake Picture. Alanna, the awesome rescuer that helped me bring them up said "Well, two of them could ride together, do you want to save another." I was done for right then -especially with this picture, and the fact she had not even two weeks to live.

Amelia. #3 that hitched a ride last minute. As cute as she is, there are HUNDREDS just like her in the shelters in CA, so her chances of making it out were super slim. As far as I know she didn't even have a decent intake photo. She is now being fostered by my co-worker and good friend Allie.

I promise I will write another post describing the complex series of events, but for now, I am a partial angel (at least to these three), and 3/4 of a fool.

That said, I already have some interest in Chula/Antoinette, so we'll see where that leads. Hopefully I'm just a quick bridge between two amazing Chi mixes, and a great new Canadian home.

And now some non-Chi based tidbits.

1. With so many little dogs around Trunk has decided she's going to be one too. Which worked fine until she decided she both wanted to snuggle right on my chest, and got the hang of 'jumping up'. When a 5 pound dog doesn't even hit your knees jumping up, this isn't a problem, but when the jumping place for paws to land for a 40 pound love bug is your bladder, its not so much fun anymore. I guess that means I get to train some jumping out of her. Whoop.

2. Ren, Trunk and Gypsy now get the priviledge of coming back to bed with me after the morning pee. (6:00am is much to early for me these days! I'm getting lazy! Or maybe I'm just staying up later.)

Either way Ren has decided she VERY much likes my bed, so much so that sometimes during the day I see her prance back and forth by the closed bedroom door and try to peer under the door. Of course, with carpet, and with loads of clean (and probably some dirty) underwear, no dog is allowed unsupervised in the room. With crate-training and proper supervision, everyone is housetrained, and I want to keep it that way. So what happens when I get dressed. Ren decides she'd rather stay in bed.

Fine. Let her stay in bed. I saw her pee and poo not two hours ago, and she hasn't eaten yet. Close the door to the bedroom. Of course, 5 minutes later she decides to start whining like a moron. In a break of her protest, I throw the door open and offer her to come back out with the rest of the gang. No-no, she throws herself back in bed. Fine. Close the door. The whining commences again. Fool me once, shame on me, twice, you're a goner.

So, I throw the door open again, grab Ren firmly by the collar and escort her, with no graceful intentions and plop her on her sorry butt outside in the yard. No voice, no 'come on', no time to start an argument. There is no common ground here. It's my way. And to be fair, I don't have a lot of rules to begin with.

House Rules

a) Absolutely no nuissance barking, non-sense barking, demand-barking, or barking-to-hear-your-own-voice barking. Barking is reserved for the once or twice alert bark, the middle-of-play bark, the happy to see you bark. IE: the bark that conveys something besdies annoyance.

and b) there is no demanding of anything in this house. Everything is mine -I've paid for it. You're sharing it with me, and I'm glad to share it with you, but you're little 'entitlement' issues are not going to work here!

(In Ren's case, seperation anxiety symptoms when I'm right in the house are basically just demanding gestures. I know because she's a) fine being crated while I'm in the room, and b) fine being crated when I go to work. She might whine for a minute or so, but she quits when she figures no one is around to listen to her throw a fit. IE: she demanded I both be with her and on the bed. NOPE!

c) everyone is to get along with each other. You share the water bowl, the couch, the toys, the people. If you're the smallest, you better not have attitude cause I'm not going to help you out of a jam you got yourself into. (Unless of course it begins to go too far).
d) You come inside in a timely manner when I ask

e) You are polite to the landlords and their dogs. As much as everything that is in this place is mine, that is there's and you have absolutely no claim on it.

That's not to say I'm a complete meannie. After a lesson or two they get I mean business. I guess Ren just plum forgot, or she didn't realize my business also extended to my bedroom. For example, at this point (except for the new trouble spot of jumping up) I just have to give Trunk 'the look' or move towards her with the right intention, and she backs off, which means I really have to do absolutely nothing in the end.

There's a chance or two to take the appropriate action, and as long as dogs are well-behaved, they have the choice of where they hang out, whether they want to be outside or not (lately I've been leaving to door open and most of them come and go as they please with me checking up every few minutes), and who they want to play with. Kind of like school -sometimes the principal needs to get involved, but a lot of the time the 'threat' of the principal is enough to smarten kids up.

---For now Ren still feels like she deserves both my bed, and me whenever she wants it. I have a homecheck for her tonight, where if all goes smoothly she'll get to be a pampered only pooch, who will be able to lay in a big cushy bed all she darn well pleases. Until then, she'll have to play by my rules. (Which I don't find all that unfair.)

Gypsy too had a few rules to learn. She's used to owning the yard I guess, cause when Claire came out she had a right little barking fit. I picked her up, and gave her to Claire to hold.

AHHHHH, She's touching me!!!!!!

After that, miss barky-princess was no more. At this point I think she's forgiven me, but now when Andy or Claire come in the yard and she opens her mouth to start her stupid 'ITS MY YARD!' battle cry, she looks to make sure I'm no where in sight first, and spotting me closes that mouth and looks down right upset. I'll take a barking-victory over her not having a bruised ego :P

I find it kind of ironic that picking her up -something that usually gives a dog more power- turns Gypsy into a small dog. I guess she's smart and realizes that a person probably could bite her head off. She is definitely a fairly smart dog all things considered :)

And some pictures from the last few days:

Gypsy and her BIG BROWN eyes

 Trunk's head -not to be confused with Beckett's head.

Antoinette -about as big as Jerrad's shoe.

 Chula -mid-scratch

Kisses for Jerrad

Spooning

Beckett (L) and Trunk (R) Not a whole lot of different from behind!

Gypsy Sun-Tanning

Five Foxy Female Foster Friends (Try Saying that 5 times fast!)

 Antoinette: "Beckett's the biggest, he'll protect me :) "

We're not "Imports" We're Ghosts!

And, to most things 'import' related, I see both sides. But having these girls on my lap currently, and knowing that their other option was being tossed lifeless into a barrel, I'll say "Shove it". If a home will adopt my girls instead of going to a breeder for Chi or designer Chi mixes, I'll count myself a small victory -and two lives-. At the same time, I don't plan to make a habit out of it.

Graelee's Week of Adventure -and Correction- at Victoria Foster Home Boot-Camp

Well, when I got the call today that Brian and Dave were going to pick up Graelee today instead of tomorrow as we orginally planned, all I can say is WHOOOOOOPPPPPEEEEEEE!
Now don't get me wrong. Graelee is more than welcome here. She's got dog-skills up her butt, is very good with all two and four-legged, and is that ridiculous kind of cute that makes your usual big-dog lover want to hurl. How can anyone possibly stand something THAT cute!

Proof:

I'd take her back as a paid customer no problem :P But this ridiculously cute PomX got under my skin. She's a total cling-on, doesn't get that there's any sort of personal bubble around anybody. Doesn't get -even after multiple corrections- that she's not allowed to do certain things: like jump on the coffee table, or that she's not allowed in the kitchen, or that she isn't to be an idiot and try to climb up my leg if I'm not giving her any attention. Of course she'd smarten up for about 2-5 seconds until I let my guard down and then she'd be right back in there doing whatever I told her not to do 5 seconds previously!

Which is also annoying, because she's a smart cookie as far as things go. She learns quick, she comes when called (especially when if she doesn't I just shut her outside for a few minutes on her own), and when you're actually working on something, she's right there trying her best to learn.

But for whatever reason, she INSISTED to do everything her way, and she landed herself in a lot of time-outs, and once or twice she got the dreaded 'scruff' (which ironically was probably the least effective of anything as she just looked quite pleased with herself that she got to be escorted to time-out instead of having to go there herself.) The biggest time, she was barking her head off on the other side of the yard.

Me (from the opposite side of the yard): Graelee, quit it!
Graelee: BARK, BARK BARKBARKBARKBARKBARK
ME: GRAELEE!
Graelee: --as if the volume had been turned up on her bark to tune me out. BARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARK!!!!
ME -moving over to the other side of the yard with that "I'm going to kill you look" (That usually shuts them right up cause 'the look' is business.)
Graelee: (throws her head back) and BARK!!!BARK!!!BARK!!!!BARK!!!BARK!!!

Complete eye contact and complete disrespect!

And by this time I'm pretty much seeing stars. Cause she's acknowledging me completely. She knows I'm yelling at her, she knows I mean business and she couldn't give one shit that the shit was going to hit the fan soon.

And mid-bark, I grab her by that big-arse scruff she has and yank her so high in the air I we were face to face.  She shut up real good, but that smug little face (a face I wanted to crack up at, and that probably prevented me from shaking the living beegeegers out of her) just said `Fine, I didn`t want to walk back to the other side of the yard anyway`.

Jerrad nearly peed himself when she saw me carrying her by the scruff into the house.

Luckily, I think I won that battle in the end, as she never again barked past the `I`m going to kill you` look. The only battle I seemed to have won in the not quite week she was with me was the war on barking. She's a pom, barking is in that breed through and through. Bark and anything, everything, and nothing. Luckily, with enough stubbornness on my part, and Graelee's dislike of being unable to play, she figured that out pretty fast. You play quiet, you keep playing. You start barking -more than just your once in a couple minutes bark- and you're going down.

Plus, whenever she was bugging me too much, I stuck her in a crate with Trunk. Cause Trunk would shut her up fast! My good little helper dog :)

Put both of them away when I go to work. I leave the house and here the beginnings of Graelee`s 10-minute fit (I timed it to make sure it was less than 15 so she wouldn`t annoy the landlords), and I hear `BARKBARKBARK--YIPPPPP!!!!!`And then silence. Another victory for Trunk :)

That said I'm glad to say I spent almost all of Saturday bark-free. Thank god, cause if there's one thing that drives me up the wall its barking for no reason -second only to barking for no reason after I`ve told you repeatedly to stop barking for no reason.

Graelee really is the kind of dog a lot of people will fall in love with. She`s cuddly, personable, doesn`t take much to heart, likes to learn, and gets away with so much because she`s tiny, a pretty, and fun to watch. Maybe its just my usual frustration with little dogs getting away with things because their little, but for whatever reason I both loved, and loved to hate that little blue merle speedy gonzales.

---But on her end, I think she had an absolute blast. (especially since she got to be so darn annoying along so annoyingly cute).

Some pictures that acknowlege I a) didn`t kill her and b) that she did in fact have a good time.

Make them DO something!

Hanging with the Current Crew

Getting Ren to Play. ---I think Ren will miss her a bit. Graelee grew on her.

Wrestling with Trunk

Chew Stick

Nylabone Heaven

Why does she always give me the eyes that I should do something about sleepy play partners

I`ll give Graelee credit for helping Ren discover play the TG way.

Hopefully all her vetting goes well, as despite a love-hate relationship with her, she`s so happy-go-lucky, so good-natured, and so very POM! Just as I`m a sled-dog lover, any pom enthusiast is getting exactly what they`ve asked for, and a little bit of Aussie thrown in somewhere along the line :P Whoever eventually adopts her into their circle will be a lucky family indeed.

P.S. Yvette -no barkies, okay!

All the best Graelee!
Your short-term foster mum.

Sunshine After the Self-Induced Thunderstorm

Today I understand why a lot of foster mums don't want to handle anything on the paperwork side. I even get why they don't want to meet the people who are going to adopt. Rescue is easier without faces. And tongues, and feelings, and all the complication that comes with being humans. And the more humans you add to the equation, the more work is spread out, but the more emotional baggage comes into the frey.

As the title of this blog suggests, I am not an overly great communicator. I sometimes assume things -and when I do, it seems that I not only make an ass out of myself, but since it deals with dogs, it has the power to make people very emotional -for good reason. Sometimes I am too gung-ho, or too tunnel-visioned, and sometimes I jump unknowingly into the deep end without a life-jacket -of which I'm very happy most of the time another rescue person will jump in afterwards and save me.

P.S. Thank you Lisa for saving my sanity last night. (Although I must note, she did try to psych me out! What are friends for but to kick you when you're down, and then pull you back up again :) )

So, I think I endured my first tried+true chaos of the rescue world. There's always glitches though! But we've all endured.

Which means -I'm proud to say Jerrad's little buddy Dayo is officially adopted! (Well, we meet to sign the papers on Friday evening, but its pretty much a done deal.)

He'll get to come for the occasional visit, and we'll get to see him grow-up into a most likely handsome young man! Many thanks to Peter + Cheryl, his adoptive family for sticking through my blunders. Many thanks also goes to Lisa for keeping me sane, and even more thanks to Yvette for dealing with everybody, everything, and to the best of her abilities, making sure EVERY match is the right one.

In other news, Trunk and Martha both have quite a lot of applications. I find once dogs come into foster care where their new possible families can meet them before committing, they get a lot more interest. And its understandable -especially when you're getting a second, or third dog. Its so hard to know the group dynamics until they're right in front of your face.

That said, TG adoptions have worked out for years without a meeting before adoption. But it is nice to have multiple applications to choose between.

So I'm kind of juggling things with Trunk now. She has great applications, no question, but I don't know yet what kind of home she would be best in. Cats? Kids? Other dog? Only dog? Yard?

I know she's great with pretty much everybody and everything, but I have to sit back and ask what will make her happiest.

And it doesn't help that she's so awesome to have around, that her and Beckett are good friends, that she has dog-skills out the ying-yang to help other dogs that come through here. That she's a mama-style dog who is the biggest helper I've had come through here. Granted, she does take some work as well, but she makes up for it in the amount of work she takes away from me too.

Trunk even has Ren as her fan-girl now. Every morning I let everybody out and Ren follows Trunk everywhere -if she isn't cuddling with me. She takes all of her cues from Trunk, and at daycare, Ren will sometimes be stupid enough to try to guard Trunk -which Trunk responds promptly by moving away and not letting Ren come back until she's going to be civilized.

How do I not want to have this dog around permenately? She makes things easy, and as much as Beckett is an awesome influence, he's an ignorer. He doesn't really shape behaviours, he more allows new dogs to become comfortable in their own skin. If Trunk stayed, I'd be adding not only to our family, but to the well-being of whatever other foster dogs come our way.

So, although I know its probably not the right time to get a full-time second dog, its hard not to think about that option too. But would Trunk be happiest being basically a therapy dog for other dogs? That's what this place is, its a lot of comings and goings, and not having your people to yourself. Its a lot of change, a lot of personalities, and sometimes a lot of broken spirits that need some mending.

She's awesome at what she does, but is that what would make her happiest? It takes a different kind of soul to enjoy what happens here. Dogs with Beckett's 'I don't really care about my people' attitude aren't all that common. And even if it was what would make her happiest, it comes with the downside of not being able to help more.

The long and short of it is with so many applications, I'm sure I'll find the best home for her. That said, Trunk is going NOWHERE that isn't 110% committed to this girl. She's special to me (they all are), but Trunk has come the closest to being a permenant member. And if for whatever reason all of the applications fall short somewhere along the line, she might end up just staying.

---Maybe its hard of me to judge Trunk's applications next to my own, but that's how strongly I feel about her. My home isn't perfect, not even close, and that's why I know there's a family out there that's her PERFECT MATCH. That said, I'm pretty good competition :P.

So yep, kind of torn, but in the long run I know almost every dog would rather their 'own' family, so I have my fingers crossed that Trunk finds a place all of her own.

For now, I'll Enjoy Her

Roll with the Punches

The more you do with rescue, the more you realize it is impossible to make everyone happy. Shit happens -shit ALWAYS happens. And its all the more shitty because you're dealing with a life. A life everyone has the best intentions for. And you fall in love with lives -with that face, those eyes, that soul. And the right path to take is never clear. Rescue lives in a mudhole, barely keeping afloat, and not able to see what's on the horizon. Still, we don't give up, regardless how thick that mudhole is sometimes.

And of course there are degrees of shittiness in rescue too.

Whether it be the smaller unfortunate happenstance of having several great applications for a single dog -what I'm currently looking at for Martha, Meshum's TG foster- and having to reject awesome homes in favour of the most awesome home, or the harder option of realizing a dog is defective after they have found what was supposed to be their forever home. Its hard, it isn't fair, and its emotional -as it should be. You can't ask people not to be mad/upset/confused about a family member. And at the same time, even if you ask them to be understanding, there is no way they can understand all that goes on in rescue. Its impossible to be understanding for something you can't grasp. Months in, and I'm barely scratching the surface on what TG has done for YEARS.

What seems to be even more impossible than not having shit happen is rescue, is being able to tell people 'the truth', because its changing every gosh darn minute -such as the puppies, the bus returning to TG, the inconclusive results of a lot of things. Its true, a lot of things can be handled better, much better sometimes, but we just gotta roll with the punches and keep moving forward. Its very unfortunate that we can't see the right path until we take the wrong fork in the road sometimes, but that's also a reality of rescue. And thank goodness TG has been doing it so long, there are less outings on roads less travelled.

But anyway, that's enough of my little rant -now onto the dogs :)

We're a full house this week as Dayo and Graelee joined the pack on Saturday. Dayo cause he isn't sick whatsoever! And Graelee cause I figured it would help Dave and Brian out.

Miss Graelee -Yvette's Favourite Little Spoiled Brat :P

Graelee had a one-week foster to adopt home on the island, but unfortunately she'd need a horrendously expensive and time-consuming surgery (over four months of recovery). Although her awesome family was going to chip-in lots, we really need the TG vets to look at her and figure out the best options. It might be its been a genetic problem for a very long time, and that regardless what procedure happens to the bum leg, it will never be a good leg for her. Its too expensive and life-altering to figure out away from home base -as much as the family is most likely the best to ever come around for her.

That said, Graelee, despite being a stupidly cute pom who looks like she should be a lap-dog, is a running force (even with a bum leg). She's not a frou-frou dog at all. She's easy to have around and will play with anybody. Her only annoying attribute, being a pom mix, is that she gets kind of barky (especially when Beckett won't play with her!). So, the spoiled little princess has been getting a fair bit of correction. She's learning :P She gets it when I give her 'the look', or when the dogs are ripping outside and I'm inside watching them (I flipped the set-up around so that I could watch them from the sofa if I wanted to), and I get up and go to the door. That shuts her up pretty fast now :P

Trunk is still coming along well too. Its been over a week since she's come into foster, and you wouldn't recognize this dog anymore. From the shut down mostly feral ball of stress I picked up out of the van, to the loyal follow-me-everywhere, playful dog she is now. Plus, she's a smart cookie! She knows how to open the sliding glass door to come inside! So I haven't bothered shutting it for the last few days. All the dogs are good and stick close, so they come and go at will with me checking up on them every 10 minutes or so to make sure Trunk hasn't found something stupid to start chewing on. Dayo likes to be wherever Jerrad is -which is usually inside-, so I never have to worry about the little bugger getting in trouble outside :P

A Small List of Trunk's week 1 accomplishments
1) Will walk nearly flawlessly on a leash.
2) Will walk nearly flawlessly on a leash, even on a busy highway type road.
3) Is fine meeting dogs and people on the trails, providing they have good energy. She doesn't like anyone right in her face.
4) Is okay going for a walk all by herself, with no Beckett to follow around! ---This is the most impressive feat for me, since not even Honey could do this by week 2!
5) Has decided she's again housebroken
6) Is crate trained at night and can be left for 2-3 hours crated at home while we're out (she gets car sick, or else she'd probably come with us more often)
7) Doesn't mind new people in the yard/house, and doesn't really hide anymore. She still keeps her distance, but she acknowledges new people and makes some eye contact here and there.

Trunk is also 'the bitch' of the household. She's a good bitch too. Everybody gets that they do what Trunk tells them, and she never has to do anything except be consistent. She makes sure the puppy is on good behaviour -if he starts demand barking for a toy she waps him across the side with her paw, grabs the toy, and takes it out of his reach until he's nice about it again-. Then she gives him back his toy. She also likes to be in charge of the food dishes. She eats, and when she's done, she supervises the rest of the crew (except Ren, who I feed in her crate). She stops Dayo from eating too fast, makes sure Graelee continues to know who is in charge, and generally leaves Beckett to his own food -although if he isn't fast enough she'll finish it off for him!

Trunk's an awesome, true 'dominant' style dog. A MAMA! Funny, cause most people wouldn't consider her dominant at all. She shows no force, she doesn't get in any squabbles, and nearly all of her body language is subtle to the human eye. It just goes to show that true dominance (like being a good mother) is not really thought about. True dominant dogs aren't aggressive. They're like Trunk. They communicate clearly and effectively, and they stop bad behaviours in their tracks. Who could ask for a better babysitter!

Happy



On the move.

Ren's doing awesome as well. She was a little put out that we added another dog to the pack -Dayo she didn't care about-, but after a day they've sorted it out. Graelee is pretty darn subsmissive as far as things go, Ren would just rather not share her newly acquired paradise! There's not much to say about Ren that hasn't been blogged about already. She's easy-going, low-medium energy, and is just enjoying comfy Canadian lifestyle of couches, cuddles and consistent high-grade meals.

Some Ren Shots:

Anti-Social Moment

Discovering Nylabones

Contemplating the Long Jump

In other news, as quickly as Dayo came, he's off to a trial! I met up with Cheryl and Peter yesterday, who were to adopt Graelee. I brought them Ren to see if she'd be a good match -they are an AWESOME home, and as such, I want to showcase my babies to them :P. Although they quite liked Ren, we brought Dayo too and Cheryl fell in puppy-love. So, since they've been approved by TG, I said 'well, you can take him on a trial if you want'. And so, off Dayo went. We'll know in a day or two whether he's a match. It'll either be they NEVER want to part with him again, or he'll be too much 'puppy'.

Dayo shots:

Reuinted

One Happy Puppy

Eating the Dandelions

The Ant Wrangler

And for fun, some Graelee shots:

Frou-Frou Exterior, All-Play Interior

And, of course, the group shots:

Cling-On Crew

 #1 and #2

 Graelee in her usual state of mass-amounts of FUN

Mini TG Reunion?

Fan Club.

Cuddle Club

So yep, the usual revolving door around here, but everyone is content, fairly easy-going, and making things easy on this foster mum. I still have to console Foster-Dad that if Dayo is a match for his trialling family, we'll get to see him grow up :) Either way, we'll be seeing Dayo again -so no tears this time :)

Emily Out