Doggy Dog Week

We have assisted 3 dogs since the last time I wrote about pups. Below is little Piper. She was found by our neighbor's daughter, at W-Mart. She is much smaller than our 1/2 pitty, Mac. She is sort of like a mini-pitt. =-) She is spunky and independent. Eric really likes her. Needless to say, there has been no hurry to find her new family. Taevy has taken Piper on as her own project. She is now Taevy's puppy to train. Once she's trained, we'll see what the final placement will be for Miss Piper. =-)

On Wednesday a very scary looking dogs was staring at my kids from across the street. He looked so mean, and I started ushering the kids inside. Then my neighbor comes out and said he was actually nice. He was, very. Sweet older gentleman of a boxer/mastiff. We put him on Craigslist immediately and within a few hours the person whose dog sired "Tank" had found him and was on their way to pick him up. Love a happy ending!
I don't know if we're getting a reputation or what, but this afternoon ANOTHER dumped dog showed up. [Not too common since we're right here in the middle of town.] We're guessing this guy is probably full blood Great Pyrenees. He is so big, but can't be more than 3-4 months old. He is just a little puppy still, but stands about as tall as a lab! He's super skinny and looks like he's had a rough time of it. "Jerry" (the name Taevy chose for him) will be staying with us at least a few days while we see if anybody reports him lost. If nobody is missing him, we'll likely be finding him a new home fairly quickly. Eric would actually be interested in keeping "Jerry" if we weren't already full, but I don't see Taevy giving up Piper, and 4 dogs....that's probably not in the cards.

If only I lived out in the country--I would have a whole pack of puppies to love!

A happy ending....

Since we "only" have two dogs right now I got permission from Eric to keep my eye out for situations where we might take care of a dog sort-term. Maybe there is an owner in the hospital that needs someone to keep their dog for a month (we've been there, done that). Maybe a dog is found and going to be taken to the pound if nobody takes the dog in 2 days. That sort of thing.

Today we had our first "foster" experience. A dog was found at a church by a teenager. A couple at the church took the dog for a few days, but were going to have to take it to the pound at the end of the day if no owner (or new owner) was found. We said we'd take the dog until we could find a new owner. She would have only had 3 days at the pound.

In comes a dog that looks almost EXACTLY like our Ki-Ki--the dog that we rehomed a few months ago because of dog aggression issues. It was so WEIRD! We called the dog "Dixie." It was a wild afternoon of dog play (after our pups realized it wasn't Ki-Ki and the new dog wasn't going to try to kill them)! In and out they went. Tummy rubs. Loving licks. Getting used to the noise of four kids.

Around 8pm we get a call. Dixie's owner! YEE-HAW!!! [Oh, she's actually "Sunny."] What a wonderful happy evening!!! The owner would have found her at the pound "in time," but would have had to pay $97 to get her out. Just love how God works things out sometimes, even for little furry creatures!

The best thing? Eric's less than enthusiastic permission to do the "foster dog" thing has now changed to a semi-content permission. =-) It was a good first experience for all. Even Eric got a feel good moment out of it! LOL!

Lucy

Don't you just love it when you get a pic that totally captures the moment?! Our little mini dashchund Lucy totally LOVED the snow! It's hilarious to me how this tiny little dog has such a huge couragious personality. She played out there for hours, making tunnels through the snow. She was in Lucy heaven!

Love Bugs

Despite their obvious differences, these two are so totally in love with each other. Bonded.

We really miss our KiKi, but know that she is so much happier now. [We heard from her new owner that she's doing GREAT and soaking up all of the single-dog love she can!] I have to admit, I didn't realize how much stress it was adding to our household to constantly be on watch for one dog to kill the others. It is so much more peaceful now. And our two remaining pooches seem to truly be in a better (psychological) place as well. Still, I miss my Keeks.

Goodbye Keeks. Love you.

I like to "keep it real" on this blog, but it seems like I've had a lot of "keeping it real" posts lately. At what point does it go from "keeping it real" to "This woman has some serious issues!" [Wait, don't answer that.]

I've posted in the last few months about how unhappy our dog Kilo has been. She's become super bored. The backyard is too small. We've upped the walks by triple, and that has helped some with the boredom.

I remember when we brought Kilo home, on a whim. I saw "1/2 Akita 1/2 Husky" and just processed "1/2 Husky." It wasn't until later that night that I researched about Akitas. Very cool dogs. I tried to ignore the part about how lots of Akitas do best as the only dog and love their people but will happily kill other animals. I remember someone writing me telling me to be aware that after the first few years Kilo might snap and turn into a different dog. Here we are, 2.5 years later.

Kilo is a dog that needs to be the only dog in the family. We are a family that wants more than one dog. We've had a revolving door of dogs go in and out of this house this year, mostly because we were trying to find a dog that Kilo could attach to and allow to be here without attacking or killing. With the pup Scarlett, we thought we had finally found Ki-Ki's doggie soul mate. Then Scarlett died.

Kilo has been growling more and more. Vicious growls. But 99% of the time she does nothing except growl. During the other 1% of the time she happily tries to kill our other two dogs. She's also growled at the little kids. Just saying it like it is.

She LOVES us. She loves our family. But she is not happy here. This is not the home where she is the star attraction. This is not the quiet home with lots of land that she would be most happy with. On Monday--after she attacked our pup Mac and left him bleeding profusely--we got real with ourselves. We had to pick Kilo or the other dogs. Simple as that.

Like I said, I am just not someone who wants only one dog. I love ALL of my dogs. I don't want any of them to leave, but someone had to leave.

I put up an ad on Craigslist telling all of the wonderful and not-so-wonderful qualities Kilo had. No way am I taking this dog to any sort of shelter or pound--EVER. No way am I letting her go to just anybody. Days went by and there was not a single response to my ad. I starting wondering if we could work things out with a muzzle, but that just seems cruel to me. Plus, she's still unhappy with the loud house, small yard situation.

A few days ago I got a response from a family. As it turns out, this family looks to be the perfect fit for my gorgeous girl. Single mom with teen-age son and elementary age granddaughter. They have no other animals (just lost their only dog last week) and have an acre of land. Ugh for us. And, good for Kilo.

As I write this her potential new family is coming over to meet her. I feel pretty confident that they will fall in love with her and take her home. I feel pretty confident that Kilo's life is about to get a lot happier. Our lives...we will miss her terribly, but we'll be thankful that she's happy and we won't have to worry about one of our other two dogs being killed during one of her off moments.

My name is Anita. I love my pets dearly, but will not keep them in my home without condition. I know this is the best thing for all of us, but it still sucks. Kilo will be happier. Our home will be safer. Now I just have to hope the little pup doesn't have psychological issues from being attached twice in his first 9 weeks of life.

Anita

P.S. I'm going to turn comments off for this post. I put this up here for me, but don't desire to hear positive or negative feedback right now. I don't deserve anybody's sympathies, and I'm too fragile to hear criticism at this moment.

Thanks for comments re: Lucy

Thanks for all of the comments on Lucy. Wanted to respond to a few things.

I adore daschund puppies. I don't think there is anything cuter than a litter of daschund puppies. They are just so funny in both looks and personality. Our first to dogs when we got married were miniature daschunds--Ripley and Rowdy. I love how they burrow under the covers (or anything else). I love to see their ears flap in the wind. I love their tails wagging a thousand miles an hour when you come home. They are just happy-go-lucky little dogs. [They are also hard to potty train, love to dig, and are quite yappy, but we'll just focus on the other stuff for now.]

Someone responded with concern over Ki-Ki being around the new puppy. I echo your concern and we are being very careful. I truly believe Kilo/Ki-Ki meant no harm to Jake, but I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I have no concerns for the future. Even if only an accident, I don't want another accident. Kilo is responding very differently to Lucy than she did to Jake. I don't think she ever really recognized Jake as a dog. She was completely indifferent to him. With Lucy she does all of the appropriate smelling and such. Still, my plans are that the two won't be left alone in the backyard for many months (thinking six)....not until I'm sure Lucy won't be mistaken for a squirrel or a guinea pig (!) and not until they've had a lot of time to build up a relationship. For now, when we leave Lucy will be crated or she will go with us. I don't ever want to go through another traumatic doggy death. One was enough.

And that, my friends, might be the last doggy post for a while. Sometimes I think this has turned into a dog blog. Sorry about that.

Anita
P.S. Yes, Eric tries to play tough, but he's always ready and willing to hold her when I ask. ;-)