Archive for the ‘dog adoption’ Category
Update on Willow
Here is a note from Lisa on Willow (below) and my response (above)…
**************************
Lisa, this is wonderful news. I know that the readers will like to know about her life. Thank you for keeping up with her and hanging in there. Rescuing isn’t easy – in fact the kind of rescuing you did with Willow is the hardest – you got her in the throws of such huge transitions – just into rescue, having pups, loosing her pups to their new families, and all those accompanying hormones! And then she had those persistent illnesses, and needed to be spayed. Really, you took on a lot. It has been really helpful to hear of your struggles during this time – I have learned a lot that I will be able to use with the next mama that needs a home. I’m still learning and I am sorry I wasn’t able to foresee all that you were taking on. Again, thank you so much for hanging in there with her. I am so pleased she is loved, cared for and may be an international dog some day!! Wow.
Keep me posted and photos would be great.
-Kristin
Hi Kristin. I love the web site. We loved seeing all of Willow’s puppies. They are absolutely adorable. Willow is doing great. She just got spayed finally a few weeks ago. Between the infections and then her going into heat, we couldn’t get her spayed until now. She has really come a long way since we got her. She has calmed down a lot and she is very loving toward me and the kids. She finally let my husband pet her in January before he left for Germany. He is coming home for a visit next week so we will see how she does with him after him being gone for so long. We are still undecided about whether we will take her with us. They really love dogs in Germany and Switzerland and they go everywhere including restaurants and stores. She is definitely not trained for that! But we will see as the day draws nearer. We will not leave until July, so we have some time. We have to figure out where we will be living and if it is suitable. Also we will have to find someone to take care of her when we come home for vacations. That may be a challenge. If we can work out the details, we will take her with us. We love her so much in spite of all her anxiety issues. It sounds from the descriptions on the web site that her puppies have all turned out well. I think the one person was right about their being bloodhound in their lineage. I have always thought that about Willow with her somewhat droopy eyes and her insistence on smelling everything persistently for long periods of time ! Thanks for checking on her. I’ll try to find some pictures to send on to you, but rest easy and know she is being very well cared for and has evolved into her role as queen of the house!
Iams promotion placed over 1 million pets
For the past ten years, the Iams Home 4 The Holidays campaign has run an annual promotion to place adoptable pets with new families. We recevied word today that they have surpassed the one million adoption mark for this season! The graphic below illustrates an updated count of adoptions via IH4TH. Their goal is to place 1.5 million pets in homes this season so they still need help. If you cannot adopt, you can support through volunteering or donating – info found at the Iams Home 4 The Holidays website.
ADOPTION FACTS
- As many as 8 million animals are homeless in the U.S.
- Nearly 4 million orphaned dogs and cats will be euthanized this year due to shelter over-crowding and lack of awareness about the importance of pet adoption.
- More than 25 percent of all dogs in shelters are purebreds.
- IH4TH helped 1,202,751 pets find homes last year alone.
- In Oct. 2008 Hilary Swank adopted Rumi through IH4TH at a Los Angeles shelter.
Over the past decade more than 3 million pets –1,638,515 dogs, 1,505,690 cats and 134,062 “other” animals – have been adopted through IH4TH.
Just One Dog
I got this from Michelle, our dog coordinator at H.E.L.P. It brought tears to my eyes. Yes, the music helps but the sentiment is right on. We only have to do one small thing. Just one and so much can be done. Thanks to everyone who has and will do their part.
This wonderful video was posted by CampCocker.com, a rescue group in Los Angeles. See this video at blip.tv
900 Greyhounds need homes
Dairyland Greyhound Racetrack in Kenosha, Wisconsin will be closing on December 31, 2009.
Dairyland Greyhound Racetrack in Kenosha, Wisconsin will be closing on December 31, 2009.
900 Greyhounds will need to be adopted otherwise they will be euthanized, now is a great time to consider adopting a Greyhound. They are very loving and laid back. They don’t need the space people think they need. They are great for an active family because they have been crated almost all their lives and they sleep about 18 out of the 24 hours a day. They are just looking for someone to love them and supply them with a warm bed!!!!They test the dogs to see if they are cat friendly and or small dog friendly. They also know if a dog should be a single dog or if they would be great in a 2, 3, or 4 dog house!!!
Please help me get the word out; we only have 6 weeks to get this task done!!
Margie Polk,
Production Coordinator
Medline Industries, Inc.
(847)775-6057
(847)775-6061 fax
Chloe is thriving with her new family
Chloe at her Family Reunion 11/09
Second chances
I am happy that there are times in this life for a second chance. I have felt so worried about Chloe after the terrible mistake I made giving her to her first adoptive family. I felt so responsible for not following my gut, for not following H.E.L.P. procedure and interviewing absolutely everyone in the family, and for failing her in general. But seeing her at the first ever Chloe Family Reunion was like getting a pardon from the Universe.
Chloe looked fabulous. On the outside she was the happy, confident dog I remembered. Her coat looked good, better even than when she was with me. Her eyes shone. She held her ears and tail with interest and calmness. But the thing that mattered the most to me was what I saw in her in relation to her new family. She was clearly bonded to them.
But let me start at the beginning.
I saw her at first and nearly cried. She came out of the car so differently than she did the night she was returned to me. She was interested and approached me cautiously but directly. She sniffed, stepped back and then sniffed again. I believe she remembered me. When she got outside with her pups it was clear that she remembered my yard. She ran like she used to, circling the yard over and over again – tail high, tongue hanging out. She was completely happy though, not a frantic running, just a run for the pure joy of it. Then she greeted her pups, sniffing each on the nose. There was much wagging and nuzzling all around. Everyone commented on how they were certain the group remembered one another. At one point I even saw Chloe lie down on her back as her pups gathered round! Just like she used to when she was still nursing them! But that didn’t last long and she was up again racing around the yard, her pups in pursuit.
After a number of games of chase, numerous wrestling matches (everyone having fun, no aggression whatsoever!) and a few tug of war games, everyone dispersed to explore on their own. Chloe found a mud puddle and promptly lay down in it. Something she used to do while living with me. As the afternoon wore on each of the dogs’ energy was drained, and I noticed them going to their people and resting. Chloe did that too - joined her family, laying at her new mama’s feet and snoozed.
Dog Summit – Chloe’s Family Reunion
Chloe & pups, May 2009
On Sunday, Nov. 8 we have a first for CanineFostering planned: A family reunion of all of Chloe’s puppies with Chloe in attendance as well. We are all so excited! It is amazing that this group has come together and stayed in contact. It makes so much sense though – new familes of puppies need support and benefit from a place to exchange training ideas. All it took was one of the group to extend the offer of setting up an email list and everyone jumped on board. Now we’ll be able to see how much everyone has grown and see if Chloe even remembers any of them! I am so happy to be anticipating this. Pictures and movies will follow.
Understanding a Foster Dog’s Past
Doing rescue work with abandoned dogs is difficult, but those of you who adopt these dogs are the real heroes. It is a long and painful process, acclimating and rehabilitating a dog that has been abandoned, mistreated, or just ignored most of their early life. I have often recieved concerned emails from the families who open their homes to the mama dogs we foster. Their concerns are about the dogs’ strange, unpredictable and odd elimination “rituals.” Other concerns involve the dogs’ fearfulness around children, men, new situations or being left alone. Many rescue dogs take a long time to “warm up” to certain members of their families. Other concerns involve the dog’s distructive behaviors – chewing up wood trim, carpets, chair and table legs, digging holes in drywall. And still other concerns involve aggression toward other dogs or new people.
Willow
All these “problem behaviors” are normal dog problems but in a rescue dog they will be weirder. This is difficult to explain, but the behaviors also include hints to what the dogs’ life must have been like prior to being rescued. Take elimination issues for example. In a normal dog, they will poop in the house most of the time near the door …showing they get that they aren’t supposed to potty in the house, but haven’t quite figured out the whole solution. A dog with a “history” will hide their poop in the house, or poop in your bed or pee in their bed, or act really weird about pooping on a leash. One of my recent fosters, Willow, had and still has a strange way of acting on leash as she is about to poop. She circles like crazy, nearly running back and forth and looks practically frantic as she is obviously trying to find a place to poop. She would nearly pull my arm out lunging about. My first impression of her was that she seemed very underinformed (a nice way of saying stupid) about the ways of the world – she didn’t even know how to walk down stairs or how to walk on tile floors! I figured that she must have been tied up on a short leash all her life. Given that, pooping was probably really stressful for her. She likely spent a long time trying to find a place to poop where she wouldn’t be stepping on it and of course probably failed as she was tied up on a short lead. I suspect that this may be the case because when she wasn’t on a leash she pooped more easily and with less running around. But who knows, really? Only she does. But think about it… what if she was tied up on a short leash ALL HER LIFE. What would that do to a dog? I try to imagine what that sort of deprivation, containment, and isolation might do to a dog as I try to help their new families address their behaviors.
sweet Bella
It is of course the same with all the problem behaviors that rescued dogs come with. Their problems “hint” at their history. Our rescue, Bella, came to us when she was about 2 and very pregnant. My story about her past was that she was driven off her property by being shot at and before that she was often teased by groups of kids who were around 10 years old. When she came to us she was scared of kids that age and would growl and snap at any kid that came up to her. She was deathly afraid of loud noises, especially gun shots (she would literally flatten herself out on the floor and run for it whenever she heard one). And we discovered a sad piece of her history one night when Mike came home from work. She had always loved Mike, right from the start. Every night he would greet her with his arms outstretched over his head, holding his lunch box and his gym bag and say in a loud voice, “Belly!” and she would squirm with delight and lay on her back at his feet begging for a tummy rub. We don’t usually get a newspaper but one day there was a free copy on the driveway so Mike picked it up on his way in. He entered the house and Bella came running to greet him. He spread his arms wide and said “Belly!” and she took one look at the newspaper in his hand and ran down stairs and hid under the couch. So, add being hit by a newspaper to our story of her history. This happened months after she had come to live with us.
For every dog there is a perfect home
Remember Chloe? She had quite a time this summer. I am happy to report that she seems to be doing really well in her new home. It just shows you that for every dog there is the perfect home. I hope that we’ll have a chance to see her soon when we have our reunion for her pups…sometime in November. Here’s the update:
Things are going very well with Chloe. My Mom and I are taking her to school at PetSmart on Saturdays for an 8 week beginner class. She has adjusted quit well and is learning quickly. She seems happy and full of energy at home, but is still a little shy around other people. She is making progress though! We continue to walk her for 30 to 45 minutes each day or Mom plays ball with her in the basement. She loves that! We continue to work on the separation and leaving her for short periods of time. When both of my parents leave, Chloe still barks, howls, but for shorter periods of time now than when they first began leaving her for the practice sessions. She does settle down after a while and goes to the window to watch for them. She doesn’t destroy anything, or try to get out. I think she is just calling for “her pack”! They are up to leaving for 30 minutes. They do that once a day now. She is really excited when they come back. We would love to come to the family reunion. I would love to see her puppies. Let us know the time and
place and thanks for the invitation!R-
