What a day

I left work about 11:45am yesterday and headed from Cleveland to Mansfield Ohio. It was a straight shot right down RT 71 so it really wasn't a bad drive. I got to Mansfield around 1pm. I get out of the car and there is a women standing there with a beautiful Aussie. I asked her if it was her dog. She said No, I work here and this was an owner surrender. He is 5 years old, neutered, housebroken, good with kids but the owner run a day care and he would bark whenever the parents came to pick up the kids. So, they turned him into the pound.

I called Denise who runs Ohio Aussie Rescue as fast as I could. After speaking with her, we tested him with other dogs and he did fine. Of course I loaded him into the car.

Now here is the funny part. The dog we tested him with was Scooby this JRT I was going there to get. I was standing in the main entrance area were it is fairly quiet, can't really hear the dogs barking with the Aussie. They bring Scooby up and set him on the ground. He acted like he was going to eat the Aussie, he was a total idiot. I couldn't even get his attention when I told him NO and snapped his leash. He didn't care he wanted to eat the Aussie. The Aussie just looked at me like "HELP" Needless to say I didn't take Scooby. I can't have that at my house...

Then the staff works showed me this Chi mix. She barely weighed 5 pounds and she was fat! Her owner brought her in to be gassed because she has a heart murmur and didn't want to deal with it any more. Seriously this had to be the cutes dog I have ever seen. Kathy with Paws & Prayers said she had a foster home so I loaded that dog in my car too.

THEN another Judy who is an animal control office near Cleveland said she would save two terrier type dogs. So, I loaded up this puppy Fox / Rat Terrier and a 3 - 5 year old larger Terrier Mix. OMG SO CUTE!! And what a nice dog!

And since Scooby turned out to be a little crazy I pulled a wire hair tri colored JRT that was in the cage below him. He was scared out of his mind!

All that craziness took me until nearly 2:30pm.

Then I was down the road to Bucyrus Ohio to Crawfard county pound. It wasn't very far at all and seriously just down the highway.

There I took a 5 year old male, not neutered (of course) JRT whose owner left him in the drop box outside the pound one night. Yes, a BOX! Like a big toy box where people can put a dog in if they are too chicken or cheap or lazy to take the dog to the shelter during hours it is open and pay the surrender fee. YES A BOX!

Anyways, I guess the owner called the next day to make sure the pound got the dog. The owner said that he just didn't want to care for the dog any longer. He told them the dog is housebroken and he doesn't have an front teeth because he kicked the dog in the face and knocked out his teeth as a method to teach it not to bark. WHAT!!! Yes, that is right the owner kicked the dogs teeth out. UGH!

I am taking him to the vet today because seriously the inside of his mouth just looks horrible and his bottom tooth is broke in 1/2 with the nerve showing. SO GROSS!!

I left Crawford County pound around 3:10pm and headed down one of the two lane curvy, hilly state routes to Norwalk Ohio where Huron County Pound is located.

Huron County Pound closes at 4:30 and I barely got there before 4pm.

The dog wardens were really nice there but what a depressing pound. It is literally the bottom floor of an old barn. And it is really small.

Anyways, from there I picked up Dotty a female JRT who is pregnant. She is about 3 years old and scared but wants to trust so bad. I am taking her to the vet today as well because they think she was breed with a large dog. She has been at the pound since the October 14th, just picked up as a stray.

From Norwalk I drove to Strongsville to drop off the Chi Mix I got for Kathy. I arrived in Strongsville about 5pm. Kathy got there about 5:15ish I gave her the dog and I was off to North Olmsted where I dropped off the Aussie at Denise's vet.

From there I got a phone call that Levi's mom was at my house and there to return him. I had a vet appointment at 6:20 but I canceled it. I just didn't have the energy to go.

I got home about 6:05pm. I spoke with Levi's mom who said he was horribly aggressive with other dogs and just didn't know what to do.

I took him into the house where he was greeted by the barking of Hobbes my JRT, my other JRT Chaz, my 80 pound black lab Disco, my 50 pound mutt Petey and my inside the house foster dog Boots a Rat Terrier mix about 16 pounds. Levi had NO reaction.

Needless to say I am so confused. This lady had me convinced I needed to put him down, even offered to pay the euthinization bill. I told her I wanted to evaluate him for a week before I made that decision. Hard to evaluate a dog that doesn't do anything wrong around me. I am going to try to figure out what to do about that...

Once I realized Levi was fine, I went upstairs to change out of my work clothes and into my barn clothes. Went outside and had to settle the 5 dogs (I had my 3 JRT's and two for Judy), clean crates, take care of Muppet the puppy who I have in a large crate... the big dogs just make him play too much and I don't want him to get sick. I had to clean the cages Theo and Spencer were in over night... they were outside in a kennel for the day since it was 70 degrees out. I had to clean two kennels, two dog stalls, feed Malcolm his medicine food, give Theo and Spencer their medicine, worm the 3 new JRT's, give Dotty Medicine b/c I think she has a UTI, I had to feed horses, put Levi away, get food for the dogs in the kennels... it only got down to the 40's last night and is 70's again today so the dogs can enjoy the outside while they have a chance.

And then I got something to eat. that was about 7:30pm. I ate did organized all the pull paper work from my adventure, checked email (personal and work) and watched 1 1/2 hour TV show and passed out around 9:30ish. LOL!

What a day!

I can say this, it wasn't a bad day. The drive was nice and the dogs were good. But it was a sad day. Seeing all those dogs, knowing that more then 1/2 weren't ever going to get out of there. Hearing the sad stories, see the jerks come in with a dog and some stupid excuse.

1 guy came in with a puppy saying it tested positive for parvo and he was bringing it back. He adopted it from the pound. Another guy came in with a beautiful black lab, very young lab. He didn't want the stupid dog anymore he said. The shelter explained they were full and would have to put it down if he left it there. They gave me a list of rescues to contact and ideas on how to find it a home. The guy left and came back 1/2 hour later saying he didn't care, put it down the dog has to go TODAY!

Just breaks your heart, story after story... people suck!