Peaceabull

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Two Forward and Three Back

We’ve been pondering what content we should concentrate on regarding our Facebook page.  We’ve been fairly static in our “likes” for quite a while and that is ok, but we notice there are days when we gain a like but may lose two.  We gain one “like” and lose two then gain three and lose another one.

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Here is our philosophy:  Our page is meant to be positive for the most part.  We like to show the boys in their best light, but don’t shy away from revealing flaws.  (“Hey, Mom, we don’t have FLAWS! We give you opportunities to be a better Mom.”)   While we are and always will be advocates for the Pit Bull types, we like to show the boys as “dogs.”  They are individuals and are treated as such. We will share pages and fun things when asked and love to see things our followers share.  Here is a little about what we don’t do, and this is not a judgement of anyone who does it, it just isn’t our” thing.”  We don’t utilize the term “death row dogs.”   We know it refers to the E list, but Death Row is where those convicted of murder sit, we do not like the phrase.  (Not that we like E list or any of the other terms.)  We will occasionally share an “urgent” but we try to research who, what, why first.  We don’t do “woe is me”-we celebrate successes.  Maybe our focus is really just as scattered as this paragraph.

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We share relevant news stories, fun stories and pictures and hope you’ll do the same.  We are, however trying to figure out how to get the best content to you and make our page more fun and interactive.

So, with a very special occasion coming up in the next week, we are going to have a fun little game.

As of today, we have 563 likes and if you help us get to 575 by July 26th, we will choose one random ‘helper’ to win a prize.  How will we know?  Well, this is a Rafflecopter give away that will end at 6:00 pm on Saturday July 26.  So, click, enter and win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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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.

 

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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?!

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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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A Thin Line

My hubby, bless his heart, does something that kind of drives me crazy, but if I’m honest, I’ll admit to doing something similar a time or two.

Recently, the doorbell rang, and typically, the baby began chanting, “Uh oh, uh oh” over and over, Asia hid and Kevin opened the door to find a student selling some cookbook or other.  As Kevin cracked the door, he said “I can’t open the door, I have two pit bulls in here,” and to his ever-loving annoyance, not a dog sound could be heard.  Not a woof, a growl, a grunt, not even the tapping of a nail across the tile floor.  No proof at all of these so-called pit bulls being within.

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Now, while I never refer to them as Pit bulls being behind the door, I usually make it known that I have not answered the door to just anyone for just any reason. I always let a snout or two peep out with me and let people draw their own conclusions. I don’t want people to be afraid of my Pit Bulls, but I do want them to be cognizant of the large dogs within.

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I think it goes along with a conversation Kevin and I had recently where he asked if I thought Ray would defend me if I were threatened. (Notice Julius isn’t even a factor in this type of conversation.) My response: I don’t know, but I wouldn’t recommend testing it.

So, have you ever let your large, friendly dog take on a “persona” in the interest of personal safety?

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Bam Bam

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Early on in our courtship, Kevin used to warn me to not let his dog Bam Bam, near the cats for fear she would kill them. He had no basis for this other than the fact that his dog was a Chow-chow and as everyone knows, they always turn on their owner, so she would probably kill a cat.

In reality, Bam was the gentlest and most docile creature ever born.  I’m pretty sure the thought of even chasing the kitties never crossed her mind.  In fact, I believe very little ever crossed her mind, but she was a good girl.

 

#throwback thursday

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Driving Mr. Deucey (part one)

Over the weekend, the Allen County SPCA and 3 other groups participated in an Adoption Tent Event at PetSmart and though I had signed up to volunteer on Sunday but considering it was my local PetSmart, I stopped by on Saturday to see how things were going. I knew that the shelter was closed and that all of the adoptable dogs were to be out at the event but I was only mildly surprised and quite saddened to see that Deuce was not in attendance.

 

If you’ve been with us either on Facebook or here, you know that Deuce has been in and out and around my world for a while. Actually, he first came to the shelter in February, a sweet little guy who reminded me of both Ray (looks) and Julius (demeanor) he was subsequently adopted. A few short months later, Deuce came back to the shelter. He was extremely submissive upon his return but still just as sweet as can be. He was adopted again and returned in just a few days. The details are fairly murky, but the bottom line is that Deuce was aggressive towards his adopted fur sibling despite the fact that the interaction at the shelter went well. The other dog was older and special needs, so the adopter felt that he wouldn’t be able to work through Deuce’s issues as well.

 

February

February

Deuce is now back at the shelter with a label: Dog Aggressive. I believe a more correct label is Dog Selective since Deuce had a good buddy he played with at the shelter. (Great article from BAD RAP here.) He and Ava had some great play dates together with success, though he doesn’t automatically like every dog. He also is now living in the Director’s office, which is a promotion usually given to a longer resident or an animal who might need some special care. Relieving him of the stress of the kennels has really allowed his sweet and happy personality shine through.

 

April

April

I noticed that during walks around the neighborhood, where there are always dogs along the way who are eager to bark and stake out their territory, Deuce “gets through” the walk. He takes some interest but not too much in the surroundings. He gets through the walk with his ears back and tail tucked then returns to the shelter-his shelter- with a relaxed and happily wagging tail. He is safe and sound yet again.

 

Deuce and Ava

Deuce and Ava

So, Deuce did not go to Pet Expo, which was a good call. He would have been way too overwhelmed with all of the sights and sounds, but since the Tent Event was outdoors with lots of space, I asked if he could come on Sunday if I handled him and took great care to make sure his world stayed safe. Be careful what you ask for. Since this was such a large event, the animals were being transported up in the shelter’s fancy wrapped vans but I ended up making the trip down to collect Deuce separately. Being early, we made a little side stop at the Peaceabull house to collect a few more things and give Deuce a chance to unwind a bit more.

Stop by tomorrow to find out how Deuce fared at the event.