WOW TOO MANY DOGS

HAPPY LEAP DAY!

OMG what a crazy week. I had appointments scheduled for 7 dogs at the clinic. When I have appointments schedule I 100% can't cancel them... It takes forever to get new appointments. Well anyways, I had to drive to Toledo on Monday to pick up dogs that my rescue partner Gloria had for surgery (getting spayed / neutered) and she also pulled a very cute Aussie mix from a pound for me that was going to be EU'd (killed). I already had a few dogs at my house so when I got home and got everyone settled it I had 12 foster dogs living in my horse barn. UGH! That is a lot of dogs. Granted I was only going to have them for one night b/c 7 were going to the clinic for surgery and 2 were going to get there shots (the pounds sometimes spay and neuter) but still that is a lot of personalities to make sure get a long. Once I got them all settled and took care of everything else I have to take care of I didn't get to bed till midnight.

So, Tuesday Valerie one of my volunteers was supposed to go to my house after work pick up the 9 dogs and take them to the clinic. But the weather was not helping things. It was a snowy mess and her car couldn't handle the snow. So, I left work early went home (1/2 hour drive), loaded up all the dogs (1/2 hour) and drove to the clinic (1/2 hour drive), got to the clinic and checked everyone in (1/2 hour) and then drove home (45 minute drive...the roads were bad). Then I went home to take care of my remaining 2 foster dogs, my cats, horses, goats and don't forget the 5 I have living in my house (my 3, my boyfriends dog and a dog I am baby sitting). Tuesday was another LONG night.

Wednesday was pretty low key. Thank goodness.

Thursday was back to craziness. I had to meet someone at the clinic to foster to adopt Dillon, then had to run to Pet Smart for someone to adopt Daisy AND I was meeting Valerie so she could take dogs back to Gloria in Toledo because I don't have enough room for everyone. Then when I got to the clinic one of the dogs that was going back to Gloria decided to eat paper so she didn't get spayed and wasn't going to be ready to go home until Friday.. AAAAHHHH I had transport all worked out but this totally messed up everything. Luckily, Valerie is able to transport to Toledo tonight so it ended up working out but HOLY COW, I was so stressed out for a minute there.

Oh and I didn't mention that I received 4 dogs from a hoarder on Monday night that were supposed to be Pug/Terrier mixes. So, I thought OK Jack Russell size... OMG! Not. They are about 20 - 25# My friend Teresa was going to take all 4 until she saw how big they were. She only had room for the 3 young ones and now I have the mom. Which again turned out to be ok b/c she is a really nice dog but UGH! This is rescue for you... nothing ever goes as planned and it is always a HURRY THINK ON YOUR FEET decision... I hate that!

Well so today is Friday and should be a calm day... I hope!

On a brighter note 2 dogs got forever homes and I have a lot of application lately from some real good people. The dogs I have at my house right now are Ricky, Frankie, Fred, Skipper, Checkers and Coco. And then of course I have a ton in foster homes.

I am having an adoption event on March 8th at Pet Smart so hopefully some will get a home on that day too. Fingers crossed no more crazy adventures for this week... well what is left of it.

Poor Ethel :-(

Well poor Ethel. I took her to the vet on Friday. At least someone finally did something out of love for her. Fred is totally ok with her gone. He is very very shy however and whenever I reach for him he hits the ground like I am going to hit him. Poor thing.

Bonnie was adopted by a great family on Saturday and I have someone interested in Daisy, Dillon and Maxie. Hopefully when they meet everything goes well. All three of the families who are interested in them seem really great.... well one of the families already has one of my dogs so I know they are great ;-)

Today is going to be crazy. I have to leave work and rush home to get my parents and go to the lawyer... working on their will. Not fun. Then I am rushing home and loading the car full of crates. I have to drive to Sandusky to meet Gloria to pick up 6 dogs, then make sure I am home so that this guy can drop off 4 more dogs to me. Then Teresa is coming over and picking up 5 of the dogs from me to take into her rescue. I then have to take care of the dogs I already have at home and get the new ones settled in for the night. And not to mention I need to run to my boyfriends house to get his mail, do some laundry and take care of the rest of my animals at home. UGH! It is going to be a long afternoon / night.

Update on Ethel - 02/22/2008 :-(

Ethel is the little senior female JRT. Well her blood work was fine as far as her liver, heart, white and red blood cell count... BUT she is heart worm positive. I am not sure what I am going to do. She is in pretty bad shape. It was $15 to pull her from the shelter, $100 to get the blood work done, it will be $60 for shots, $100 for spay, $200 for teeth cleaning and now $200 for heartworm treatment. You can't do anything she needs until the heartworm treatment is complete and that takes 2 or 3 months and then you have to wait 3 months to make sure the heart worm is gone to spay her or clean her teeth. There is a huge risk she will not make it through the heart worm treatment. HW treatment is very very very painful and very very hard on a dogs heart..... ugh! If she does make it through the HW treatment there is no telling if she will making it through the spay surgery and teeth cleaning surgery b/c the HW treatment will make her heart weak.

I know what I should do but it is just a crappy call. $700 into a 10 year old dog that I will have in rescue for at least 6 months... will anyone even adopt her? She will probably have no teeth by the time I wait 6 months to get them cleaned... it won't be a cleaning it will be a total removal of the 5 teeth she has left.

Her adoption fee will be $200 so that is $500 I will have to eat. How many dogs can be saved with $500? I already had to turn down a dog that is probably dead b/c I got Fred and Ethel in and they were such a mess I wasn't sure what medical treatment they were going to need.... I am not sure the dog was killed but I am too chicken to check the website.

This my friends is why rescue is difficult. You have to logically think out what is best for everyone... the dog, you, other dogs in need, possible homes, your other foster dogs, your own dogs....

I hate days like this.

Got in some new JRT's

Well the last few days have been crazy. Good news is one of my JRT's got adopted on Wednesday night but then I got 3 more in. Dillon a cutie who is about 1.5 years old and 2 of the saddest looking JRT's I have ever seen.

At first I thought that maybe someone beat them but after my vet visit last night it is more likely they were attacked by bigger dogs. The females face is all messed up with scars and scratches and the male has two teeth marks on his chest. Neither of them have much left in the way of teeth. The little boy, Fred doesn't have any teeth on this right side :-( It is horrible. When I got them in on Wed. night I just sat in the barn for about 1/2 hour and held them.

Believe it or not I took them to the vet last night and had blood work done on them just to make sure everything was ok and it is. they are actually healthy dogs. They look horrible but they are healthy. They are both really happy dogs too. The little girl, Ethel, likes to play with tennis balls.

I know I am going to have them for a long time. Who is going to want 2 senior JRT's that look like they have been through hell and back? Oh, well. I will search till I can find a home for them that will give them the life they deserve... a life with love and not abuse or neglect.

I just don't understand how people can do what they do to animals.

Wed and yesterday were just totally crazy days b/c of all the dogs. I didn't even eat on Wed. I just got too busy. Yesterday I did manage to eat lunch and grab something to eat for dinner at like 9.

Today should be a little better but tomorrow morning with be hectic. I have an adoption (fingers crossed) at 10:30am and then I am moving another sick dog, Daisy out of isolation and putting her in the barn with everyone else and moving the two senior dogs to isolation. I am just worried they are going to be too cold in my barn. I mean my barn is warm but they are so fragile right now.

Well I guess next week will tell all when they have to have surgery. It is always more difficult for a senior dog to be put under for surgery.

Well wish me luck this weekend. I really hope Bonnie gets this home they seem like such nice people and their application was great and Bonnie is so darn cute!

Things are slow with adoptions

So, my day today was pretty low key. Not too many emails from people asking me to take their dogs. I usually get at least 1 - 6 a day. Today, nothing. I didn't get any applications on the 14 dogs I currently have in rescue :-( Things have been slow on the adoption front which is hard b/c with the number of foreclosure there are a lot more dogs in need.

I am currently at work...shhhh don't tell. No, just kidding it is the end of the day and I got all my work done so I am good. I have been here since 8:30am and it is 5pm now so really I am getting out early. I have been putting in some pretty long days. uhg!

I will be driving the 1/2 hour commute home and then taking care of my 6 foster dogs. Way less dogs then last week... I did have 11 foster dogs. Thank goodness for volunteers who help me by fostering one or two at a time. I also have my 3 dogs... 3 year old male JRT, 5 year old female JRT and a 3 year old female mutt. I also have my boyfriend's 11 year old 70# black lab for the next 2 weeks while he is out of town for work and I am babysitting one of my old foster dogs for 2 months while his owner is in Japan. Not to mention I have 9 horses, 2 goats and 5 cats :-) Granted I have barn help with the horses and none of the horse belong to me (People pay me to keep there horse at my house). I do have a few people who aren't able to come out to see their horses very often so I do make sure the horses get out and attention.

Anyways, today should be an easy night. I do have one foster home coming to get cute little Zack one of my current foster dogs. So that is pretty exciting. My current foster dogs don't live in my house... OMG could you imagine that many dogs living in my house? Yikes! So, my foster dogs live in the extra horse stall. I feel bad that they are in there but they have food, water, toys, blankets, pillows and each other... it is way better then being dead. Plus every morning and every evening I play with them for an hour or more.

So, needless to say when I can send one to a foster home where they get to live in a house and be a member of a family it makes me feel so much better. Granted they get plenty of attention from me, I would just rather they sleep on a couch then a pillow with a blanket in my barn.

Tomorrow should be a little more crazy. I am supposed to be getting 2 ten year old JRT's... one male, one female left outside the pound in a box a few nights ago. The pound wants to kill them b/c they are old and said if I don't take them they will gas them.... I am also getting another little male JRT who is at pound that is full of dogs and just needs the space. So, again his options are me or dead.

Hopefully, I won't be getting any more in... the winter is so hard b/c of the weather. I run out of places to put them pretty quickly.

Well I am off to start my commute. HopefullyI will find time to write tomorrow and let you know how the new dogs are....

Introduction

Well let me give you some back history. In 2003, 1 year after I graduate from college I made a HUGE mistake. I moved to NJ from Ohio... don't ask why. Needless to say I am back in Ohio. Well I grew up on a farm and was now living in an 800 square foot condo with NO animals. I hated NJ and missed home terribly. So, one day I was at the mall with my boyfriend (now ex-boyfriend) and his mom. We walked out of Sears and there it was A PUPPY STORY!!! YAY!!!! I love puppies, oh how I love puppies. Oh and look a Jack Russell Terrier sound a sleep in her food bowl butt in the air so all you see is her little tail... OMG I want to hold her. That was it $800 charge on my credit card that already had too much on it as it was... remember I just graduate from college I didn't have any money. No, questions asked by the clerks... Do you understand about JRT's? Their energy level? Do you have other pets? (side note, Female JRT's don't get along well with other females. Oh and JRT's are known cat killers). Off I went with a female Jack Russell Terrier.

Granted I am an animal person so it wasn't hard to handle a JRT but my poor boyfriend wanted to pull his hair out. JRT"s are difficult dogs and he had never owned a dog before. Could you imagine if I hadn't?

Well after a few months of having her I researched her "breeding" to my dismay I soon discovered she was a product of a puppy mill. http://stoppuppymills.org/

What have I done? OMG! I supported this? Where are her parents now? Dead? Alive? Suffering? Who knows and honestly who cared? ME! I did! I can't believe I put money in the hands of those people!

That was it, I had to help stop puppy mills, stop the abuse, educate people.

Here I am 5 years later almost to the day... My JRT was born on Feb 15, 2003 and I got her in May 2003 at 12 weeks old. 

I am writing this blog so that people can understand exactly what it is like to be in dog rescue. It isn't easy and most of time it isn't fun. The suffering, the stupid people, the abused dogs... most days you want to go home and cry. Why when you are doing such a good thing? #1 watching puppies / dog die in your arms from neglect or abuse #2 knowing that so many people don't care or appreciate what you are doing.