Author: Debra

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Fostering Good Will

Some people have a special calling and if the stars align, they are able to pursue that path. I am not one of those people in the strictest sense. I have a good job, enjoy a steady work schedule and work for a company that encourages community involvement. Though I never expected to be in this industry, I’m fortunate to be in this situation. It allows me to pursue my animal care/advocacy avocation to a degree that makes me happy. It also allows for another in my home to fulfill his special calling from time to time.

 

When Julius came into my life, I’m convinced that he ran up to the right person but also convinced that it was because this person was walking a dog. Julius loves dogs. He loves going to day care, he loves people, life, children who are respectful, some treats, bully sticks, and all dogs. He is the dog who helped Ray deal with his reactivity and he is the dog who helps me welcome our temporary fosters. Juli’s calling is to be an ambassador of good will for all dogs.

 

Tora the A-Dora-Bull

Tora the A-Dora-Bull

When we brought in our beloved Tora, she was really able to shed some of her Mama persona and become a romping, happy young gal again with Julius. And if you are friends with me, or follow the boys on Facebook, you will have seen that we had anther visitor over the weekend.

 

Little Krispie captured my heart the moment I saw him. This sweet little puppy was sitting on his Kuranda bed, obviously overwhelmed and wondering where he was and why he was there. (Actually I think he was born in the shelter-the one we pulled him from-, adopted and returned with his collar imbedded in his neck-a lot in his few four months of life.) After visiting him a second time, he came carefully wiggling up to the door, so Asia and I entered his kennel and gave him some love and learned that he stunk. To high heaven.

Babies

We decided to bring him home for the evening for a bath and some puppy-lovin’ time but it almost didn’t happen. When I came to collect him he was afraid to leave his kennel and once out, afraid to walk past the other dogs to the extent that he pancaked. I made a calculated decision and picked him up and carried him to the pittie van where he settled happily into the cushions on the floor. We made a stop at greenDogGoods where he was gifted with some (much needed) shampoo and he helped me pick out a large rawhide for Ray, who he wouldn’t be meeting.

Water Break

When we got home, Asia put the Peaceabull boys in the house and we let Krispie get acquainted with the yard and when he looked pretty comfortable, we releashed him and brought Julius out on leash. We did a few intros and after just a few short minutes we could tell by their body language that they were going to be great friends. While I knew Julius would be fine, I wondered about Krispie who seemed so tentative at first, but he quickly became Julius’s little shadow. They played and romped both that evening and the next morning before Krispie was returned for what was to be his last day without a forever home and there was even a moment when Julius had to “correct” Krispie which went well.

 

All in all, I’m just bursting with pride over how much Julius embraces this role and how easy he makes it for other’s to have a bit of a break from the kennels and enjoy the comforts of a home.  Would Krispie been adopted so quickly otherwise?  I have no doubt that he would have.  Someone that stinking cute (well, less stinking after his visit) wasn’t going to stay homeless for long, but it was great to be able to give him some healthy interactions with Julius and with the baby.

 

Our calling.  When I brought Ray home, I had visions of being a great team of Ambassadors for his breed.  Now, I have two.  Ray does really well in public in general.  He has good leash skills, is quite calm and ignores most dogs but we keep him out of foster situations and extended one on ones.   He is my shopping and event ambassador.  Julius is my one on one dog ambassador and all around good party host who does well with most situations.  I feel like I hit the jackpot.

What is your dog’s “appetite” for entertaining guests?

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Vocabulary

I thought I had read somewhere that dogs have a vocabulary of around 100 words, but a quick google-check found a bit of a range all the way up to the record holder, a border collie with over a thousand words in her vocabulary.

 

 gents

Of my boys, Ray is definitely the brainiac of the bunch while Julius is the one with the great personality. Of course, Julius does know basic words; he just doesn’t have the same level of comprehension that we see in Ray. They both know the basics as well as “breakfast,” “dinner,” “bone,” “bye-bye,” and “antler,” so we try to be pretty specific when speaking to them. (That doesn’t mean we don’t occasionally engage in a conversation that is guaranteed to elicit the ever adorable head tilt.)

 

So, what to do about these walks that Ray and I have been taking? Naturally it’s one of the highlights of his day, but we strive to keep them low key and not elicit too much excitement. Why, just the mere sight of a collar or leash sends both boys into states of ecstasy so we have adopted a new phrase around the house that the boys have yet to add to their comprehension vocabulary and make us all feel oh-so-smart to boot.

 

A Nod to Throwback Thursday

A Nod to Throwback Thursday

We now “perambulate about the neighborhood.”

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Leapin’ Liebster!

Despite my apparent summer slack, I actually had several posts swirling around in my head that were looking promising in that they just might make it to the keyboard in a timely manner however your regularly scheduled unscheduled post has been interrupted by a special event; we’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award by our new friends at The Rusty Dog Blog.  Thank you!  (Head on over there, we’ll wait.) I have to admit, that not only am I kind of a home-body in real life, but I’m not all out-reachy in the blogosphere either. I don’t often go wandering around for blogs to read unless I see a picture or name in someone else’s comments that looks promising. Even then, I hate to fall behind in reading and commenting so I try to keep my list fairly manageable but reading through the list of The Rusty Dog’s nominees has inspired me to add to my reading list many more inspirational bloggers. Now I’ll have to go read through their nominees and find even more. Will the (wonderful) madness never end?!

 liebsteraward

Ok, so here are the rules:

Nominee posts an image of the award on their blog.

– Nominee links back to the nominator’s blog and of course thanks them.

– Nominee answers 11 questions nominator ask of them.

– Nominee then nominates 11 new bloggers they deem worthy with less than 300 followers & make sure to tell them.

– Nominee poses 11 questions for their nominees to answer.

 

And here are the questions:

Here is what I want to ask my nominees please put how long you have been blogging at the top of your answers!

I have actually been blogging for nearly 13 years, but only “dog blogging” since January of 2012 when I brought Ray home. I’ll gear my answers toward this blog.

1. What inspired you to start a blog?

My biggest inspiration was actually Love and a Six Foot Leash. I wanted to start fostering and documenting that process. Life actually threw me a curve ball in the form of Ray, so the blog became about the trials and tribulations of raising a puppy and of Pit Bull ownership.

2. What inspires you to continue writing? My dogs inspire me, my volunteer work inspires me and other bloggers I read inspire me. I love being connected with so many like-minded wonderful people with whom I can share in our triumphs and our tribulations.

3. Are you volunteering anywhere? Why or Why not? I volunteer for the Allen County SPCA, as well as sit on their board. They are an organization I believe in and I support their mission of finding homes for as many animals as we can.

4. How often do you read through your own blog? (Come on…We all do it!) I actually rarely do it, unless I’m looking for an archived post to reference.

5. What does your life consist of besides blogging? Volunteering, networking, work, family, nesting in our newish home.

6. Would you call yourself an expert? Of what? I consider myself a Jill of many trades and a master of none.

7. Three silliest questions/remarks people make about your dog: A) Will he bite me? Will he eat my dog? B) It’s all in how their raised. C) He’s too big to sit in your lap.

8. What’s the roughest rescue-dog experience you’ve had? Would you change it? I actually have a rough one that will probably nag at me for the rest of my life, but I don’t want to give too many details other than to say I helped facilitate an adoption that did not end up well. Knowing what I know now, yes, I would change it.

9. What do you feed your dogs? They are currently eating Dr. Gary’s Best Breed, Grain Free Chicken. It is rated four stars by Dog Food Adviser but I spent some time with their rep who really answered a lot of my questions and fears about not feeding a five star food. Julius’s day-play also stocks it. Previously, they were eating Wellness Core Grain Free Original quite successfully, then suddenly seemed to have no interest in it.

10. What’s the most hilarious rescue-dog experience you’ve had? About 20 years ago or so, I had a rescue dog, Daisy. She was a medium sized terrier type. We also had in our neighborhood a raccoon who liked to forage in our trash cans. One night I heard the raccoon in our very small front yard and I wanted to try to chase it away but do so without harming anyone. My bright idea was to stand on the porch, holding Daisy, waiving her in the air in the direction of the raccoon, and saying “shoo, shoo!” Yeah. It didn’t work.

11. Three most important things for people to know about rescue dogs: They are individuals, all with different personalities and their own story. We don’t always know their back story and they are not “broken.”

 

Ok, that took a bit of brain power and now I need to come up with a list of my own. Well, like I said don’t have a super extensive reading list, and being a bit of a rule-bender, some of my nominees will have way more than 300 followers, but hey, you’ll love them.

The Questions:

  1. Does your pet have a “go-to” trick?
  2. If you could change one unchangeable thing about your pet, what would it be and why?
  3. If you could change one unchangeable thing about yourself, what would it be and why?
  4. Cake or pie?
  5. If you could pick a super power-you can read your pets’ mind, your pet can read your mind, or you can leap tall buildings in a single bound-which would it be?
  6. If you could meet one animal celebrity, who would it be and why?
  7. What one human celebrity would you like to meet and why?
  8. How did you decide upon the name of your blog?
  9. What is your proudest pet ownership moment?
  10. What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?
  11. What movie have you seen so many times that you basically have it memorized?

My Nominees:

My Mini Pet Pig –I know, right!!!

Dogbird Daily lots of great info and they also write at Team Unruly as does A Collection of Madcap Escapades whose dogs are very similar to ours in ironic ways.

Beagle Bratz who are great friends to so many.

Keeping up with Moby who we cheered for for so long at Woof.

Tails of a Foster Mom because who doesn’t love an everyday hero?

25 Castles on 25 Clouds -that’s some emotion for you.

My Two Pitties-positive dog and cat ownership at it’s finest.  I just love them.

Oh Melvin-my blogging  life and list wouldn’t be complete without them.

I’m ending with 10 because any others I would add have just been nominated by my nominator.

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Not for Sale or Stud

For the Fourth of July holiday we decided that since we still own the house with the pool, we should make use of it by having a party. Loose plans were made, text invitations were sent and while trying to get a party planned for a remote location, Kevin and I came to a severe disagreement on the dogs to which I will fully acknowledge right now, his way made the most sense.

 

Not a Party Animal

Not a Party Animal

I fully intended to bring both Ray and Julius to the house for the pool party since chances were great that we’d be gone 8-9 hours that day and since Kevin and I were driving down separately with our vehicles loaded, I was determined to have my way while going through the motions of having acquiesced. I took Ray for a special trip to Pet Smart for a few last –minute needs and then he and I took a nice walk around the neighborhood so he could check his pee-mail and leave his own messages.

At the very last minute, I realized the decision to leave Ray at home would be best. He would still have full run of the house, have a bowl full of food (that I knew he wouldn’t touch) just in case, a full bowl of water and a nice long bully stick. The other house has a lot of lava rock in the landscaping that always cut at Ray’s feet and with the two boys there romping about; Ray would surely reinjure his leg, so home he stayed.

Heading to the party!

Heading to the party!

Julius, on the other hand, would have had to be crated and is much more easy-going, so he got to attend the cook out with us and I must say he was a HUGE HIT. Ray can be pretty clingy with me whereas Julius is so social that he likes to interact with everyone, but also spent a lot of time gnawing on the frozen marrow bone I packed for him as well as just sprinting up and down the fence line whenever the neighbor’s dog decided to flex a bit of her bark muscle. (That in it’s self would not have been good for Ray’s ACL.)

Party Animal

Party Animal

Of course, my little Juli Bean was so charming that nearly everyone wanted to take him home; one person offered me $200 and his dog in trade and someone else wanted him to stud so she could have one of his puppies. That was a nice opportunity to wax poetic about the value of neutering (“Why? Both of them are boys, so why bother?) and speak to the fact that I actually had Julius neutered before we had even decided that he was staying with us forever as opposed to being a foster.
Naturally, there were also many conversations about Pit Bull type dogs, which brings me to pose a question to the Blogosphere before I address some of the conversations: what type/breed of dog do you have and is he/she protective of your home?

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Feeling Snark-tastic

My bad: I didn’t proofread and lost a whole paragraph.
If you’ve been around here for a minute, you’ll know that volunteering is big with me and that I love handling dogs at Outreach events in the community. The part that I don’t always love are some of the comments I hear (repeatedly). Below is a compilation of some of the doozies.

For Love of a Dog

For Love of a Dog

1. “I couldn’t volunteer; I’d want to take them all home.” Guess what? You don’t need to justify to me why you aren’t volunteering, but I can guarantee that if you give it a try, you won’t even want to take half of them home. Or are you telling me you can’t visit the home of a friend because you are a chronic pet klepto and you find yourself wanting to take their pets home too?
2. “Is that a Pit?” For whatever reason, that drives me bonkers. Well, that is a dog that you are petting, not some hole in the ground that someone dug. It IS a Pit Bull mix, type, etc.
3. “Is it a Full Pit?” See above on digging a hole.
4. “What is it mixed with?” Except for the rare occasion that we know we have a full blooded so and so up for adoption, we label the dogs as mixes and without DNA testing, your guess is as good as ours. If pressed for an answer, I’ll tell you “sugar and spice.”
5. “What’s his or her story?” He or she needs a loving home.
6. “Will it bite me?” Probably not unless you bite it first.
7. “They get such a Bad Rap.” I know this is meant to be supportive and I truly appreciate your empathy, but sometimes continuing to point out the problem continues to keep the problem out there.
8. “Oh, it’s so sweet! Why is it at the shelter?” Very similar to “what’s the story,” but this time you’re just surprised that the shelter isn’t full of broken, misbehaving, unmanageable animals. True, everybody has a story and a lot of them are sad, but these are just dogs who need homes and with the help of the great staff, will find great homes.
9. And my favorite: you’re on the ground petting a dog, cooing over how awesome it is and ask what breed it is. You recoil upon hearing it is a Pit Bull mix.

Many of these comments are things I hear when I’m out and about with Ray or Julius, but fortunately not as much as many other Pit Bull owners have reported.

The bottom line, though, is I do love the support the community shows in coming to our events and supporting our cause. Just know that if you ask me any of the above questions, I will do my best to answer politely (usually) but now you know what I am really thinking.

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Superstition Is The Way

There is a superstition at the Shelter that if you suddenly think about or talk about a dog that has been adopted for quite a while, you’ll soon hear something adverse about that dog or it will suddenly come back.  Although I don’t work there, there have been times when I’ve gone through my camera roll and deleted pictures of adopted dogs only to find them back in the kennels within a week or so, or worse.  Not included in this (for me) are the dogs who have been adopted by people who are friends or have become friends like Glamour (now Kya), Pop Tart (now Kahlissi) and Nina.

Glamour/Kya

Glamour/Kya

Leesi

Leesi

Nina

Nina

They are all in great homes and I get to hear about them and on occasion, Julius gets to play with the Nina-bean.

While I do think about many others occasionally and there are some pictures that I can no longer associate with a name, there is one who remains in my heart and is never far from my thoughts.

Big Mama Tora

Big Mama Tora

I constantly hope she is doing well while secretly hoping she’ll wander back into my life. Is that as bad as I feel it is?

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Feline Friday

A tower of kitties

A tower of kitties

For as long as I’ve lived with cats I’ve wanted to get them a kitty tower but for one reason or another (cost of even a small one, ripping out carpet and having a handy-ish husband to make one) I’ve never provide this magical monstrosity. Until recently.

On a recent trip to that wonderland of shopping that is Costco, I saw several people carting out kitty towers and upon seeing the price decided my kitties no longer needed to suffer without a tower of their own. As I carted this one out (thank you to the gentleman who upon seeing me struggle to get this nearly six foot tower into my cart, helped me) several people told me how much my cats would love their new toy as long as they are still young enough to climb it.

Therein lies the obstacle. Jae is pretty spry, but nearly 13 years old and Miko is still under 10 years but well over that in pounds. I’ve seen them both in the lower branches, and have been luring them with treats, but so far, they still like the large box that I set next to the tower as a stepping stool.

Go figure.

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Yay for Ray

I almost want to say that I’ve never enjoyed a walk with Ray more than the one we had last night, but in reality, most of our walks lately have been surprisingly enjoyable and gratifying.

ray

We started off the day with a visit to PetSmart for no other reason than go give Ray an outing and a chance to work on his social skills. Since Julius has Day-Play, he doesn’t often get to go “shopping” like Ray unless we stop quickly on the way home. This visit to PetSmart was relaxed, Ray got to sniff around the parking lot for a bit before we walked inside. He ignored the beautiful peach colored Standard Poodle who was checking out with his/her people and we ambled around the store for a bit. One of the store employees was working with a lady and her Keeshond and I heard someone gasp at how handsome Ray was as he walked by. We encountered the lady and the Keeshond several times. They would stop at the end of an aisle we were in, she would ask her dog to sit several times and then finally walk away. At one point they seemed to loiter at the end of the aisle making me unsure as to whether we were supposed to discontinue looking at the merchandise and move away or if they were gauging something. Ray continued to ignore them. I finally caught a glimpse of them darting into an aisle as we approached (I often do this myself) as I heard her say to her dog, “I don’t trust you to not react.”
We ended up purchasing a few sale stuffies headed for certain destruction and returned home to share the bounty with Julius.

Later in the evening, I felt like taking a walk and Kevin suggested I take Ray. I actually was intending a longer, faster walk but knew that Ray would enjoy himself and since I had a new doggie water bottle I wanted to try, we headed out. Upon leaving the yard, the first thing I spotted was a couple walking their Shepherd-type dog on the other side of the street. I turned towards them so that we would pass on opposite sides and she immediately asked to meet Ray. Only she asked from across the street and waited for the answer!  (WOOT!) I said Ray was a little dog selective, but that he would love to meet her and she left her pretty blonde dog with the hubby and came over to meet Ray. We chatted a few minutes and she asked if he was a full “American Pit Bull Terrier” and I gave her Ray’s breed blends while she loved on Ray then we all continued on our paths.

Towards the end of our walk as we tend to wind down, we encountered some neighbors who I chatted with a bit and Ray took this opportunity to lie down in the grass and relax. We then headed back home where Ray gloated to Juli as only a big brother can about his adventures about the neighborhood.