Second chances and stereotypes

Today's is a hard one to write.  Alex, now called Dozer, had to go back to the shelter.  It is sad to me that the home was not right for him, but it is also respectable to me that his family was able to make the right decision for their household, no matter how hard it was, but also that they did what the shelter asks and brought him back instead of any of the other options.  I am both saddened and pleased, as Dozer gets another chance, with a little more knowledge under the belts of the shelter workers.  Just stinks, and there's no way around that.

I got to hang out with another return on Saturday.  Dudley was only in the shelter briefly, as I recall, but was returned.  As I went to get him out to take him to the Okay Corral, I noticed his surrender reason was "because".  Nice.  And then I realize he's skinnier, and more skittish than when he left.  My heart broke.  But then, I realized that they at least did one thing right in bringing him back.  

Dudley strikes me as pretty forgiving, and thankfully, he was gone by Monday morning.

On to my rant for today...I have had the pleasure of knowing many pit bulls.  I have had the tragedy of having to say goodbye too early to a sweet dog that someone "broke", and no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't "fix".  Samantha will always hold a special place in my heart, and even over a year after we said goodbye, I still struggle with how everything happened.  Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

The other night on TV was a "funny" video of a boy trying to kiss a chihuahua...and the chihuahua was growling and nipped at the boy any time he got close.  Laughs from the boy, laughs from the camera operator, and cue the "Applause" sign and laugh track.

NO.  This is not okay.  This dog, while not carrying the same equipment as a 50 pound pittie, was clearly aggressive towards people.  I thought back to the video of a news reporter getting bit in the face that went viral a few weeks back.  The poor dog did everything in his power to say he was unhappy with what was happening, and there was no laugh track to his discomfort.  While Max is an Argetine Mastiff, and not a pittie, my frustration translates across.  I have seen too many people react with fear, anger, and blatant hostility regarding pitties, and it breaks my heart.  

My dear friend and college roommate came for a visit this weekend and we discussed this.  Her pup, Gigi, is some sort of mix that includes cattle dog and pit, though she sometimes looks like a basenji.

Gigi is very friendly with adults, but timid with children, and my friend has gone to great lengths to be a responsible pet owner regarding this.  Gigi and my dog, Edward, were best of friends for the three years they lived together.  She sometimes chases cats, but even the best dogs struggle with that!  All this aside, I have watched with my friend as someone petting Gigi will inquire about her muttness.  My friend learned that it was easier to not refer to her pit portion, despite the fact that you can see it very clearly in certain of Gigi's expressions.  People who had been snuggling, petting, and pouring their love onto Gigi would back away as if burned.  Folks, this is the same dog you were just slathering with attention.  And yet, countless times, my friend has been lectured about the danger of pit bulls, and told how vicious they are.  To that point, I submit three pictures from this past week, all of pit bulls.

I have written of Zander's love before.  This is a regular occurrence for he and I.  In case you can't tell, he has managed to fall asleep like this in our 20 minutes together.

Pretty Polly has spent many walks like this with me as well.  This was a trick to take, as I had to lean back to get the length of her, but Polly loves to lay along the dip created by my legs when I have them straight in front of me.  As you can see by her expression, her only concern is that I have stopped rubbing her belly to take a picture.

And this is Jersey.  He has not been at the shelter as long as Zander and Polly, but I have gotten to know him pretty quickly.  He's not as big of a cuddler as some of the others, but within a minute or two of me sitting on the ground at his level, he works his way partly into my lap.  He doesn't relax quite to the level that Zander and Polly do, but I do nothing more than sit and pet him.  He chooses to make the contact that he does, and it has very quickly started becoming more and more.  Jersey loves smooshing into my lap when I scratch under his collar.

Clearly a vicious breed, no?  

The point that I would force as far into everyone's brain as I possibly can was made so simply clear to me by a bumper sticker I saw yesterday.

There are no bad dogs, just bad owners.

Pitties have equipment that can harm.  So do a lot of other dogs.  But when they are not tormented into becoming "guard dogs" and fighters, and instead raised in loving homes, they exhibit just as much, if not more, love as any other breed.

Enough soap box.  

If you're in the area, come see them.  And by in the area, I would like to remind you that we drove 90 minutes for the right rescue dog for our family when we picked up Carlie.

Alex-called-Dozer
Zander
Polly
Jersey

Return to routine

I apologize right off the bat for the absence.  We've got a bit of a big deal going on in my life outside volunteering, and it has consumed most of my spare time for the last two weeks.  I have still been walking dogs, just haven't been able to decompress and share.

There have been plenty of furry faces to come and go since my last update, some of whom it was a big deal for.  Pete was a 'blue' that had been at the shelter for some time, and he has gone on to a fur-ever home.  Abby, the beautiful "basengi mix" from a few weeks ago got adopted as well.  A number of pups had quick turnarounds as well, which is always a mixed emotion.  I'm excited that they get to move on so quickly, and I'm a little bummed that the dogs who have been in the shelter for so long are still there.

To save space, and rambling, I'm going to do a quick update on the faces I've gotten to know in the last two weeks.  Some have come and gone, but others are still there.


Duchess got a second glance from everyone...it is very rare for a dog that appears to be purebred anything to be in the shelter, and all the volunteers and staff said the same thing about her: "She'll be gone before the staff's had lunch".

And she was....maybe it has to do with not looking like a "bully breed", maybe it's because Disney re-released "Lady and the Tramp" not too long ago, either way, this little Cocker Spaniel didn't have to wait long.


My theory doesn't hold up with Nina, though, so it must have been her stellar personality.  Nina was only in adoptions for a few days before she found a fur-ever home.  She was very sweet, so I was not surprised by that.

Random interjection to share that Zander is still at the shelter, and they have made him a 'blue'...which no one seems to understand.  I'm still allowed to walk him, even though I'm not technically qualified for blues.  However, Heather, the lead, made me feel pretty good when she said "You two clearly have a relationship, so you're welcome to keep walking him."

While it saddens me that he remains there, it's always a highlight for me to spend some time with him.  It's pretty predictable; potty break, a few half-hearted ball chases, and then straight into my lap for scritches and loves.  Zander is a special boy, and I hope that he will soon find someone to return the affection that he so readily shares.


Jersey has been in adoptions for a couple weeks, and I have had a few opportunities to get to know him.  He is very eager to please, and very eager to play.  One of the games that Jersey likes to play with me is run as fast as you can across Mark's Park, then back, and end by colliding with Janean's legs...I know it probably doesn't sound like that great of a game, but once I figured out that was what he wanted to do (and prepared myself for it) it turned into a great adventure....especially when I started feeling like a matador, jumping out of the way at the last second. With all that energy, it has been great for me to spend time with Jersey, because I find myself running back and forth in Mark's Park with him.  He is so spirited, and I find myself acting like a little child when I play with him, and giggling until I can hardly breath.

Jersey is hard for me to read about other dogs; he is definitely interested in them, but can be talked out of it for a treat.  Certain of the dogs that walk by get his interest with tail wagging, but others just get his interest.  I would be intrigued to see how he would do with some of the more "seasoned" play-date female dogs, such as Estelle or Raeanne.  He surely could use the energy burn!


Pasha has been in the shelter for a few weeks as well.  As horrible as it sounds, it seems like most of us dread getting her out to the Okay Corral.  Let me explain...Pasha is a whiner and crier, and that gets the other dogs worked up.  After walking with her the first time, my perception of that changed a bit.  Pasha does not like to be left behind.  When I walked her, she would go to the very end of the leash, feel the tension, adjust, and stay just slack as far as she could go ahead.  Her nose was almost always to the ground for smells, and she covered easily four times as much ground as I did with her back and forth exploring.  Pasha is also very sweet, and very eager to please.  She is smart, but clumsy.  Case and point...within five minutes of our walk, she knew that if she pulled too far ahead and I stopped, we would resume walking only after she loosened the tension and looked at me.  However, when we went to the picnic tables for some scritches, Pasha was so excited about the under-the-collar work I was doing that she proceeded to slide off the bench unintentionally!  She is very playful, and today I discovered that she has hoarding tendencies...in Mark's Park, every time I threw a toy for her, she would take it to the middle of the park, drop it, and come for another.  By the end of our ten minutes in there, she had piled up six toys!!

Pasha needs out quickly, but to someone that has a puppy friend for her, or is home a lot, as I can only imagine what her separation anxiety would be like out of the shelter.  That being said, a peanut butter-filled Kong sure got her to settle this morning, and helped with the whining for almost 30 minutes!


To dogs that come and go quickly, add Dorothy.  She is a young boxer mix.  The best explanation is that a boxer face was put on a pittie puppy...and needless to say, she didn't stay long.  She is a wiggly, attention loving girl, and I am glad that she found a home quickly, because time without petting was hard for her, as evidenced by my hand pulling her back from my camera because she was trying her darndest to be in my lap...

Enter Brewster.  Brewster is listed as a chow mix, and I have a feeling that he may be in the shelter for some time, as his kennel card indicated that he is a digger, both for the purpose of burying toys, and also for digging at fences.  He is one of the silliest dogs I have seen there, probably second only to Polly.  My hope, though, is that someone will see him, fall in love, and decide that they are willing to give him the attention that he needs to deal with the digging.  He's also about the fluffiest damn dog I've ever seen...

Alright, and to a big announcement...it took about six weeks, but the first real attempt at persuasion has started.  Raeanne is a gorgeous pup that is coming up on a year in the shelter.  That's right, not foster, but the shelter.  She gets along with other dogs, doesn't seem to have much of a prey drive (meaning she should do well enough with learning the rules related to cats) and is fully housebroken.  She's also a young, high-energy girl that will require consistent rules and exercise.  

Because she is a 'blue', I haven't ever walked her on my own.  However, last Saturday, Ty and I did an interaction (just people and her) and that went well, and two days ago, we took Edward and Carlie over for a walk and to see what we could do.  Given that we will be out of town in two weeks, we don't want to commit to anything before that.  However, the first pup interaction didn't go all bad...Edward, being the old grumpus that he is, was annoyed that she wanted to say hi while he was still sniffing and peeing, but Carlie seems to think that this could be fun...We'll be trying again this weekend, and potentially even doing a short-term foster (if I can get that approved).  While I am appreciative that EHS doesn't put down for time and space, it is also a struggle to see a pup who has been there for so long.  I would love to be her new fur-ever home.

More regular updates should be back on the docket now, and again, my apologies for the lapse.

If you're near enough to Escondido, and thinking of a furry friend, I'd encourage you to meet some of these:

Zander
Jersey
Pasha
Brewster
Raeanne