Made me cry.... for good reasons

About a month ago I was asked by a pound to take a 9 year old, very overweight female JRT whose owners turned her into the pound. The dog warden wanted to put her to sleep because she was old and overweight. The volunteers at the pound just couldn't see this happen. She was soo sweet!! I didn't have room to take her and the volunteers said they would hang onto her until I made some room.

I finally got her two weeks ago. I knew she was over weight but OMG! She was huge! I was already going to the vet that day so I took her with me to weigh her and see what I could do to get her to loose some weight. My vet put her up on the scale... 31 pounds!! WHAT? She is a small JRT, she should be MAX 14 pounds. Poor dog. Then I asked "is she spayed?" I held her up and he said "Oh Amy! She is FULL of cancer, it is every were." You have got to be kidding me... The last dog I had with cancer, Sally, lived for nearly 4 months until the cancer took her away. My poor little Sally... she was the sweetest dog. I cry just thinking about her being gone.

Anyways, I asked what do I do? what can I do? Well obviously she wasn't spayed, hence the cancer. I could spay her and it would slow down the cancer and could extend her life or not. The surgery to get rid of the cancer would be VERY expensive and may or may not work and she may or may not live through it. Great these are awesome options... I can't put this dog to sleep there is NO WAY! That isn't fair, it isn't her fault that her family SUCKS! Oh and the other crappy part is that if I would have to get x-rays done on her to see how far the cancer actually spread b/c it is in her lungs you might as well kiss her good bye.. so how great is that, what a great freaking day :-(

Well so I called in a favors. I took her on Monday to a Vet Tech College for X-rays because they need to practice taking x-rays and well it is free for me. So, good news the cancer is not in her lungs YAY!!!!!

I still have to get her spayed and then who wants a 9 year old JRT with cancer? She may live 1 more year or 10 more years no one knows. Well one of the Vet Tech students fell in love with her and said she would give her a home. She couldn't stand for anything to happen to this sweet little girl. Ok, so YAY!!! Someone to take her, problem solved. I get her spayed and this awesome person is going to let her live out her life. Too bad I don't have money for the surgery to remove the cancer. It is only breast cancer and assuming it didn't spread it could be removed but she might not make it through the surgery and if she does she might not make it through recovery because of infection and such. But hey I do what I can with the money I can.

Friday I was getting her spayed. The vet that was going to spay her is actually a family friend. She is about 7 years older then me and my parents are friends with her parents so she has basically known my my entire life. She too fell in love with Katie. She said "Amy you want to try to get the cancer out?" "What are you crazy?" I said. She said we could open her up and if it has spread we will basically just remove her entire middle section where the cancer is (in her breasts).

Well she may not live through the surgery and if she does live through the night and if she does live through the 5 week recovery. We are going to literally have to cut her open from front legs to back legs and take out the entire middle of her. But hey let's try to save her... risky but really her chances without us doing are also slim. So, we tried.

3 hours of surgery. I helped with 2 hours of it. She did great lived through the surgery. It was scary surgery and that poor little girl is going to need some serious drugs for the next week or so. So, we gave her some good drugs and sent her home with the vet tech student who is going to keep her.

I am excited to report SHE IS DOING WONDERFUL!!! She is even JUMPING up and down off the couch. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT???

I talked to her new mom last night and wanted to cry with joy. She is doing so well and we did it, we saved her, she still has 4 more weeks of healing and there still is a risk but we are through the scariest week....

YAY!! For Katie! here is another little dog dumped like trash because her a-hole family didn't spay her so she got cancer and then didn't want to save her life. here is Katie a dog the warden wanted to put to sleep because she was old fat. here is Katie, spayed, cancer gone and in a loving family.

Honestly last week I wanted to quit.... Katie reminds me why I don't!

Hoping for the best...

Well I am hoping this weekend will turn out to be a good weekend for adopting dogs. I am going to do an adoption event on Sunday. Fingers crossed that some of them get adopted.... I just can't believe I have so many dogs and no one looking. I just found out today about 3 more JRT's that will die if I can't get them out... I just don't have the room. UGH!

I am not feeling as down as I was the other day thanks to my foster homes but now I have a few dogs with kennel cough and I am watching the other closely. Little Katie that I got from the pound last week has cancer really badly but I am hoping to at least get her fixed up enough to slow it down so she can live the rest of her life happy and truly loved. I am guessing the cancer is why the owner turned her in... ugh! JERKS! I hope when they get sick their family just walks away from them.... karma baby!!

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you to my foster homes for how wonderful you all are. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

This fostering stuff is such a pain in the butt I totally know it is, it is totally thankless, totally time consuming, I understand. But without you how many dogs would die? For the first time in the 5 years of volunteering in dog rescue and the past 2 years of running both my own rescue and Ohio Russell Rescue I have to say I AM FULL! It is so depressing. However, I know that because of all of YOU my foster homes that if I need to squeeze one if I probably could.

If I could pay you for all your hard work I would... if I could take you out for a nice dinner to say THANK YOU I would, I really would.

The best I can offer to you is pick up your foster dog, look him / her in the eyes and say "I promise you will be safe and loved from now on." Their eyes will say back to you "Thank you for my life!"

Why????

So, I had the adoption event in the Dayton area today. All I can say is ugh! Not one of the 9 dogs I took got adopted and I came home with 3 more senior JRT's.

Let me tell you the story about these 3. Someone left 4 JRT's cramped in a cage outside of the pound one night. The warden comes the next day to find them. They are 4 older dogs left with no names, no information, nothing! The male was adopted and the 3 older females I picked up today. They appear to be spayed.. I will take them to the vet this week to find out for sure. The look to be 5 Dorothy, 7 - Blanche and 5 - Rose. Seriously who would have dogs for that long and then just leave them never knowing their outcome?

This is why I am asking WHY? How can someone have a dog for years and one day just decided they don't want it any more. I stare into the faces of the dogs I save from the pounds, they are so sad, confused, scared, lonely.... How can you one day just look at your dog that you have cared for, taken for car rides, in some cases (especially lately) have had them spayed / neutered and teeth cleaned (that isn't cheap) and just say to them "You want to go BYE BYE?" Have them willing go into the car with you, excited they get to go for a ride!! You take them to the pound where you are pretty much handing them a death sentence and just walk away while they cry and bark for you because a strange man is holding the end of their leash that you have held for so many years? The man then walks them into a cold, dark, probably wet and smelly area with many other dogs barking and just drops them into a kennel with no bed, no toys, NOTHING but the cold wet dark floor to lay on. Just hours ago they were eating out of their cute little bowl with paw prints on it, sleeping nicely on the couch or their dog bed and maybe even got a good belly scratch.

How many dogs does this happen to but instead of me or another rescue person coming and saving them they are walked to the back room of the pound??

I just don't understand how anyone can do this to a family member, a living breathing creature. I only hope that someone will treat them with the love and respect they have shown their dog when they get old or when they don't welcome them into their new home or the million of other stupid excuses people make to justify being nothing but total assholes. Sorry but their is no better word to describe them then assholes.

UGH! What a week...

Well last Wed some crappy things happened at work. That really sucks because I LOVE my job, my company, my boss and well that bubble burst a little bit. So, that started a long line of crappy things....

Thursday I was supposed to get 2 JRT's off transport. When I meet the transport 1 of my JRT's was on it and the other dog was not my JRT and I am not even sure what it was.. LOL! After a TON of drama and trying to figure out what to do another rescue stepped up and helped me! Thank goodness.

Friday... I don't think anything bad happened Friday.. LOL!! I did get another JRT off transport from Richland County Pound named JJ... I will talk more about him in a minute.

Saturday I had to get up at the crack of dawn and help my dad at the market with his flowers.. ugh! I was there till about noon, went to the dog pound, pulled 2 dogs. One for another rescue but I am holding the dog until all the vet care is done.. ugh! Then I had to rush home shower and change to go to Lizzy's baby shower (I HATE SHOWERS). There was some confusion surrounding the street that the hall was on so that was a mess. I then left the baby shower to rush home b/c I had a few adoptions and then I had to take care of the animals and help my dad unload from the market.

Sunday was a calmer day BUT it rained and I had to pick up 6 dogs from Gloria... 2 got adopted yesterday, 1 was going to the clinic and 1 was coming to me for evaluation. So, when I went to bed on Sunday night I had 5 dogs in each one of my kennel runs. UGH! that is 15 foster dogs, 1 in the barn and 1 in the house.

Then comes Monday (yesterday). UGH! I found out around 10am that Tom from the dog pound passed away, 4 of my JRT's go out of their pen, killed a chicken, one of them bit my dad so badly that it took forever for him to stop bleeding and then ran off. My dad called me at work not making an sense so I rushed home from work and fixed him up and found the dogs.

The one dog bit Kirsten when she was loading it into the car.... this is the same on that tried to eat my dad. So, I put him to sleep. Then the dog JJ that I got on Friday I had a vet appointment for him to see if something was wrong with his teeth b/c I couldn't get near his face.

Well at the vet office he showed his true colors and was trying to eat EVERYONE. So, I had to put him to sleep. By the time I left the vet office I was crying so hard I had to sit in my car and chill so that I could drive.

The only good thing is 2 got adopted.

Today Tuesday is better. No drama. I did get to drop off 5 dogs to the clinic so I don't get them back till Friday... small vacation for me!!!

Oh Thursday I am getting two more dogs... JRT's. And Saturday I have an adoption event in Dayton. Let's hope it is worth the gas money!

Another pick me up story for the day...

So, a few weeks ago there was this boxer mix at a pound in southern Ohio. The dog came in with another dog. The other dog was adopted / rescue pretty fast but the boxer never had anyone interested in him.. not a rescue not a regular person nothing! After being at the pound for 2 months the dog warden just had to put him down. no one wanted this dog. A wonderful volunteer at the pound put out one file plea for the dog...

I don't normally rescue boxers but there was just something about him. I felt so bad that someone took his friend and not him, not fair! "Ok, Tammi (the volunteer) you made me feel guilty I will take him" I emailed to her. In the back of my mind I thought "what am I doing?"

Well Thursday transport comes and I get the boxer. He seemed like a nice dog a little confused but a nice dog. I got him home and got him settled in and started working with him until Tuesday when I took him to the clinic to get neutered and shots. I got him back on Friday and worked with him for another week. I worked him to sit and walk nice on a leash. It was pretty easy as I think he already knew most of it, he just sat at a pound for so long he sort of forgot.

Well after having him about 2 or 3 weeks this great family came and took him home! He has been in his home since Friday 05/02/2008. They sent me an update today and this is what is said

"He is doing great, still doesn't eat that much but just nerves i guess, ever since he got here and has a house to be in now he never wants to go outside. He goes out to do his business and that is it. I think maybe he thinks we will leave him out there or something. He is attached to my hip anytime i get up walk around he is my shadow we just love him, thanks Lisa"

And attached to the email was this

Why rescue is worth it

Last year a little 6 month old JRT came into our rescue. The pound said he was a stray and no one claimed him.. story for most dogs. He was so cute and so sweet but had been at the pound for 2 weeks and well he had to go. So, Gloria picked him up from the pound and brought him to my house. Oh did I love this little dog. He was so good and just had the best personality ever.

I took him into work for a photo shoot for a Christmas card that did make it to the stores Christmas 2007. The card was so cute!

He was adopted about week after his photo shoot by a nice family in Columbus area. They already had a dog from our rescue that their daughter showed in 4H. Apparently she does very well. The mom wanted to get involved in agility too so they were look for a new family member and agility dog. Beanie fit the bill.

Well after having him close to a year now and teaching him all the agility stuff he had a competition and WON 2 blue ribbons. YAY!!!!

This is why rescue is all worth it... this dog went from unwanted to close to death to rescued to in the best home he could have ever asked for!!!!

Adoption event yesterday.

So, I took Friday off of work. I spent from 9am - 11pm getting ready. I had so many dogs that I was taking I had to load 2 cars. I was exhausted. Could you imagine if I didn't take the day off work on Friday.. OMG!

So I got up around 7am. Not too bad took care of what I need to and thank goodness Kirsten came over and helped. I was able to get to the adoption event by 9:30 / 9:45ish. The event went from 11am - 4pm.

We got everything set up in the store because it was raining ALL DAY. We were supposed to be outside but the rain forced inside. Oh and guess what is a nice sunny day today... ugh! LOL!!

I had 5 adoptions... well sort of. Zack, Squirt, Louie and Elvis the puppy got adopted. Skipper sort of did. What a mess. I don't know what I am going to do. These people came for her and hung out with her for about an hour. She was wonderful. They took her outside and tried to put her in their car. She was having NO PART OF IT. I thought they had left but really they were in the parking lot trying to get Skipper in the car and then to calm down. Yea well that didn't happen. The wife came in and got me because Skipper was being so bad. The minute she heard my voice she was totally normal again. She was NOT leaving me she had made up her mind that she was not going with these people. UGH!

So, Skipper is back at my house and I have NO IDEA what I am going to do. LOL!! She just walked into the room as I was typing the last sentence. She laid down right next to me like she doesn't have a care in the world. What a weirdo...

Oh Red got adopted on Friday and so did 2 of the puppies and then Pepper got adopted today. YAY!!! 8 dogs in one weekend. Not bad :-) Should have been 9...SKIPPER!!!!

Well I have Jodi who is getting spayed this week and hopefully to her forever home on Saturday and Kyle and Ralph who I just got on Thursday. I am going to take them in this week to get neutered too. Then I have Sammie, Mack, Maggie, Chuck, Lester and Dexter and 2 puppies at my house. So, that is only 12 foster dogs and 4 of my own.. LOL!! That actually isn't bad.

God only knows what I am going to get on transport this Thursday though. I think there are a few JRT's coming my way. Well fingers crossed that I get a few more adoptions next weekend... I doubt though it is Mother's day weekend.

Well off to go spend some quality time with Tyler :-)