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Stray dog. Slight rant.

Weda737

Weda737

100% Soul free.
Not really sure what to feel right now. This just keeps happening. On our walk today with one of my dogs (australian shepherd named Hana) we met up with a neighborhood male dog, nice dog, irresponsible owners. Well, he had a friend with him this time. A skin and bones female, small black and tan australian shepherd looking thing with big milk boobies. She's so young, looks like she just got her adult teeth, still has small and pointy toenails. This must have been her first heat and someone dumped her out after the pups were weaned.
You wouldn't believe it, even with her poofy fur you can see her spine and hips. But when I felt through her fur, ugh her little ribs (and one is broken, oh and about her fur, it's dry and brittle) We had to take her home, we were almost there anyway, she followed us a long way, she really likes my Hana who is at least 3 times her size.
As usual though, money is the problem. I have 6 dogs already, and 8 cats, they all have their own health issues, old age, feline herpes and feline pododermatitis that needs steroid shots every few months. Around here, stray dogs and cats are like an epidemic. It's awful and I do not plan on turning this dog away. She's fitting in so well, she still has manners to learn lol but my dogs seem to act like she's always been part of the family. Anyway, we have a vet trip in a week to get another dog fixed (and tooth extraction) and I'll take her in for an exam and vaccines as well. I'm really not happy about having another dog, but to see her all stretched out on the floor here, sleeping without a care in the world, I have to smile.
 
That's sad. We have a lot of strays here too, but most of them are just escapees from a yard. But the sad thing is most of them are not nice!
Glad you took her in, even though I understand how difficult that is financially. You could always rehab her and then find her a good home after doing a lot of screening.
 
Thought about that too, but you can't even give away pure breeds around here, unless it's a pit bull, every one here is after a pit. I live in an area of backwoods hillbillies, they still think it's okay to let animals just run and do whatever, if it gets hurt, take it out back and shoot it. I actually had a co worker laugh at me the other day because he heard me say I have to take my dog to get a tooth pulled. He told me himself that if something happened they would just shoot the dog, it's how he grew up. I know I can't save the world but I can sure try. Oh, the owner of the male dog she was wandering with is actually a cop, they live right on the road, there was another dog with that male, last time I saw it it was missing a foot. Haven't seen it in a while though...
 
Thank you for saving her.

I'm on a couple pit bull rescue groups on Facebook- it's amazing in such a small community as Gainesville (seems small to me, after Minneapolis/St. Paul) that there is just a NEVER ending stream of beautiful strays. Where do they all come from? Doesn't anyone care???
 
Sounds a lot like how we ended up with our first dog when I was a kid. Me, sister, and brother playing at the park. Up drives a car, stops, opens door, throws dog out, drives off. So we took it home, talked the parents into letting us keep it. Not just hillbilly communities with issues. (I live in KC, while not quite NYC it's still more city than not)

In the current area I'm at, cats are more of a problem than dogs though. Everyone owns dogs around here, but I don't think anyone owns any of the 15 neighborhood cats.
 
I have fostered for a rescue in my area and we have fosttered three puppies so far. We have to wait for six months to foster again as our last foster Larry had parvo. The good thing is we caught it early and he has fully recovered. I do not understand that people care so little for their animals that they will just open the door and let them run. Pets are not disposable, they are a life long responsibility.
 
Oh my gosh that is so sad. I can't believe people still do things like shoot their own dogs :( then again the last few weeks have shown me that a lot of people are not who they seem to be when it comes to animals.. Ugh. Everyone around here wants pit bulls too, that's the only type of dog that any of the local shelters even have. And breed specific rescues don't even let people adopt their dogs half the time.. As for cats, when I found a few skinny ones down at our local park, one of the park rangers came out and asked me why I was dumping them. I told her we just drove up and found them in the parking lot. Then she told me that they had found four kittens strangled to death and hung in the trees that morning. The other three that I had found were probably ones that escaped. All she did was shrug and say "oh well, they're pretty coyote food." That really upset me, so I called the humane society and they told me that they don't respond to calls about cats. WTF are they there for then?! They never really came out to do anything about my old neighbors starving their dogs either. So long story short we caught the three cats and kept two, gave one to the neighbor.
 
The kitty story reminded me of the worst animal neglect/cruelty experience I've seen. Me and the wife found a cardboard box with five young kittens in it, closed up and in the dumpster at a trailer park when we were visiting a friend. Wasn't much we could do at the time as far as taking them in ourselves, but we did snatch them up and rush them off to a shelter.

And now for a more lighthearted story. I was chillin in the car during one of the wifes appointments. Just minding my own business with the window rolled down because it was a hot summer day, rockin out to some music when all of a sudden something came flying through my window and burrowed itself under the gas and brake pedals. Was the cutest little super chihuahua. He had apparently been running around the parking lot all morning, many people tried to catch him and failed (fast little bugger)... then, out of 50 cars give or take, he chose mine to super leap into. We called animal control, and I ended up waiting for 2 hours in that parking lot with him at my feet. Got him some food and water. Animal control guy was amazing! Absolutely nothing like the old comical representation of a dog catcher. He was very patient in getting the dog out comfortably, refusing to use a pole and neck loop unless it was a last resort. Long story short, we eventually got him out and he went to a great place, got checked out, and eventually got adopted. I can't remember the name of the organization, but it's a humane rescue organization, no euthanization, and you can track animals you turned in and keep tabs on them until they are adopted.
 
The person that was my Ella's foster mom just caught a feral chihuahua a couple months ago. She loves him so much she kept him. And she was NEVER a chihuahua person.
 
I know it can be challenging (time and $) to bring in rescues, but I believe they reward you back many times over. If you can restore her to health, then place her in a loving home (maybe yours/maybe not), I'm sure you have saved her life.

I did wildlife rescue for many years, mainly squirrels, but many other animals as well. Then I started with cats. All but one of my (6) cats were ones that needed a second chance. Mostly not homeless, but ones with health issues that couldn't be placed. My family and friends mostly think I'm nuts, but I'm ok with that.

Casey
 
So she spent the night in our room last night, apparently she knows not to potty inside because she woke us up at 6am to go out. I'm still keeping her on a leash, 30 ft training leash, until she comes reliably when called and understands that this is her home now.
Some of my kitties are a little scared of her but they're learning. We also discovered that she seems crate trained. She has to be coaxed in but once she's in it's like she just resigns herself to her fate of being in the box. Very large box for a dog her size but still.
I'm really starting to think she belonged to a child and when she hit her first heat and had puppies, the parents dumped her out. She plays with toys, it is hilarious, she took a rope toy and beat her own brains out with it today just swinging it around and throwing it in the air.
Now for the grody bits, she is loaded with tapeworm. When she woke me up this morning to go out she made a nasty poop, covered in foam. I bet her little guts were empty until we fed her yesterday. A couple poops later and some butt scooting we see a load of tapeworm segments. I treated that today as soon as I saw it. She also had a bath, now she has a cowlick all the way up her back lol It wasn't easy bathing her, her fur is so dry and trying to massage in the shampoo is just unpleasant, her little bones just poking out everywhere. But she clearly felt better afterward, she was covered in dirt and grime. I don't know how common it is for dogs to do this, I've had a few that did, but today she trotted in to the crate and got her large milkbone out, walked outside and buried it. It just made me sad that she did that, I don't know how long it had been since she had a decent meal and instinct tells her to stash her rations. I only hope her pups have a better fate.
 
... Why are my spaces and paragraphs crammed together after I post? I had tab spaces and everything. Oh well.
 
You are being so good to her. She is very lucky to have found you. Please keep us posted on her progress.

Casey
 
Thank you, thanks to all of your for your kind words and support. I need to charge my camera and get some pics of her.
 
Here we go.
sadie002_zps9753eead.jpg
 
Pardon my mess, it gets crowded in my little room here, still not sure when we can move to our place. Anyway, here she is, the kitty is Mouse, she has to have steroid injections for her pododermatitis. She's sleeping on the kennel I keep one of our little dogs in at night (Rose picks fights with the big ones sometimes and don't want to risk it) and the big shiny blob under my fiance's boot is my Aussie, Hana. Sadie had a bath and you can't really tell with her fur all poofy, but this little dog is a skeleton.
sadie003_zpsdf6fdae4.jpg
 
What a lovely photo! I know you said 'pardon the mess' but I'd rather see happy well-loved animals than the cleanest, tidiest room! Kudos for your rescue
 
So it seems that she's in heat. I'm going to have to pull the money out of somewhere to get her fixed as fast as I can, I've already got the appointment for this coming tuesday to do Rosy and have her broken tooth pulled. Considering Sadie was wandering around with a male I'm afraid she may already be pregnant again, even though she's still lactating from a previous litter. I'm going to take her in and have her shots and see if she can handle a spay in her boney condition. I still have to get more insulation and all this mess for my place. Can something go right soon?
 
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