Dog Say the Darnedest Things

Lady cat-watching

NOTE: Lady, our sixth and longest in-residence foster, left Texas en route to New York yesterday. She challenged us, brought us to question our methods and in so doing worked her way deeper into our hearts than any other foster to date. She is greatly missed.

Ever wonder what your fosters say about you behind your back? Oh trust me, they do talk amongst themselves when we aren't around.

Lady, our most recent foster, was in her final stage of crate training. For those few readers unfamiliar with the sport, Crate Training is convincing your dog partner that being caged is a good thing! Some dogs, like Lady, take more convincing than others.

We were leaving Lady caged for longer periods of time and at different times during daylight hours. To be fair, we confine Beano to his crate as well, sort of a remedial refresher course for him, too.

Lady being a “talker” ~ she has a wide range of vocalizations which she’s not shy about using. we know she and Beano must be swapping tales of woe betwixt their respective cells….

Lady: WELLOFALLTHENERVE!! CANYOUBELIEVETHEYJUSTWALKEDOUT!!

Beano: Put a sock in it, sister, no one’s around to hear your “Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me” routine.

Lady: HOW Could THEY??

Beano: Easy, kid, they don’t LIKE you that much.

Lady: Oh, Really!

Beano: Trust me, they’re counting the days until YOU, dear sister, are out of here!

Lady: Aw, come on. You’re just trying to frighten me because YOU’RE Jealous!

Beano: Fine. [BIG YAWNING SOUND] Don’t listen to me. No hair off my tail, honey.

Let’s see….Opal, as I recall, was the first. I kinda liked her a little bit. How long did she stay? Two weeks?  

YOU're still here?

Lady: What are you going on about???

Beano: Oh, nothing. I was just thinking back to the beginning of this Open-Your-Home-To-All-Comers catcrap “they” call FOSTERING.

Beano:  You know they're never coming back, don't you?

Lady:  WHAT? You're kidding, right?

Beano:  Oh, heck no! They do this to me ALL the time!

Lady:  What are we going to do? I have no food ... no toys! Arrrrgggh!

Beano:  Oh? No toys or food? My, oh my. They left plenty for me.  I even have your squirrel!

Lady:  I'm NEVER speaking to them again! NEVER. EVER. AGAIN!

Beano: Geez, I've never known them to let one of us STARVE to death…

Lady: What do you mean, starve!!

Beano: Leaving you locked up with no food and all. Dog, they must really be down on you!

Lady: They saved me from starving once! They will save me again!!

Beano: [SOUND OF CRUNCHING] Didn’t leave you so much as a pig stick, huh. Guess they’re having a tough time finding some place to dump you.

Lady: That’s it! I’m NOT listening to YOU anymore!! OHMYDOGWHEREARETHEY!!!

[SOUND OF KEYS AND DOOR OPENING]

Lady:  YOU'RE HOME YOU'RE HOME YOU'RE HOME!! LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT!! Oh, I love you so much! I knew you'd be back!

Beano: YOU'RE HOME YOU'RE HOME YOU'RE HOME!! LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT!! Oh, I love you so much! I knew you'd be back!

Lady & Beano February 18, 2014

The Lady & The Scamp

With some five days remaining until Lady, our big red foster, boards an eastbound transport to New York, our resident bad boy Beano is finding out that girls don't carry cooties!

"Take a picture; it'll last longer!!"

And Lady, for her part, has learned a thing or two since landing in our laps with five puppies a month ago. Mainly, I think, she has learned that...

YES! There IS life after childbirth!!

Cats are NOWHERE near as much fun as they look like they SHOULD be! Once you get to know them, in fact, they're down right boring.

ALERT when they wave a pig stick under your nose and start cooing that ridiculous language of theirs: YOU ARE BOUND FOR THE BOX!!

Annie:  Kidding aside, Lady has become such a big part of our lives. She had such a rocky beginning with us - emaciated and still dealing with her five puppies - she has grown into such a wonderful addition. 

She is so intelligent and lively. When she wants attention she will sit beside you and slowly start her high pitched yip. If you continue to ignore her, the yips become longer, like a song, and the nudging begins.

Nap buddy

Although she is crated at night, she loves to snuggle ... and let me tell you, it's like cuddling with a pony! She likes lap sitting, or resting her head on some part of you and there is no getting up to move without effort, unless she decides she wants to shift position too!

I don't want to think about her leaving. It brings such a lump. I will worry about her from the moment she steps onto that transport until we hear she has found her forever home with some lucky New York family. I want the best for Lady, because she SO deserves it!

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CREDITS:

Still Photographer ~ Annie Miller

                         follow Annie Miller on FACEBOOK

Proofreader        ~ AnniePie Miller

Co-Writer          ~ Ann E. Miller

Co-Writer          ~ J.W. Miller

Videographer       ~ JimTXMiller

Off-Camera

  Commentator      ~ Allen Dean Porter

Sunday Snow With Lady

Writing with Lady is like having a 55-pound tumor on my right hip.

Lady looking for a home.

A female American "brown dog" and recovering first-time mom, Lady insists on sharing my ottoman seat at our south-facing window where we pass a quiet Sunday morning, watching snow softly blanket our drought brown front yard.

Lady is our first emergency rescue, a response to a post on Facebook. She and her five puppies had been found in a house several days after her human partner had died. I can imagine her instincts alerting her when her human died. Something was not right. Something possibly threatening. No doubt she remained fearful, particularly for her pups, when she heard strangers entering the home. She silently kept her brood close to her and, as a result, mom and pups were left behind, undiscovered.

Days passed without food or water for her. She continued to allow her babies to suckle, her body converting everything it could to milk, until she had nothing left to give. When she was found, her pups were fat and frisky. She, however, had wasted to a proverbial bag of bones.

A neighbor removed the dogs' from the home. She had dogs of her own, and six more mouths to feed was more than she could manage. The plea for help went out on Facebook, a FB friend put us in telephone contact with the rescuer, and we picked up Lady and her puppies the following morning.

Other caring folks stepped up as well. We brought the dogs home on a Sunday morning, and a volunteer with Texas Pit Crew (TPC) showed up that afternoon with a huge bag of puppy chow and a basket full of chew toys and treats. Before leaving, the volunteer had picked out the two pups she wanted to foster.

So it went. All the pups received a thorough check up and shots by Tuesday, again thanks to TPC. By the

following day all five pups had been placed with TPC fosters.

Meanwhile, mom was making a quick rebound on a steady, ample diet of puppy chow and no puppies nagging for a teat. She, too, had a visit with a vet for a complete series of shots, heartworm testing and prevention. The Lady even had her nails done.

But when it came to fosters for an adult dog, TPC was tapped out. Like virtually everywhere in this country, there simply are not enough fosters to meet the needs of all rescue dogs. Lady, it seems, is destined to remain with us until she can be placed in a permanent home.

That presents some sizable challenges in a house already possessed of a strongly temperamental, highly territorial boglen terrier and four cats!

But as of this writing, it's a snowy Sunday morning. The Lady and I are at our south windows, watching the large flakes drift down and spotting squirrels as they dart from tree to tree. It's all good.

 Fancy Update...

Fancy, our fifth foster, left us last Monday and arrived safely at Helping Hounds Dog Rescue in New York Friday evening. We expect to hear of her adoption into a permanent home any day now.

Polar Vortex Fails To Freeze Out Foster Rescues

Fenway (left) in his new New York home.

Fenway finds his home

Three times, now, since joining the Road to Forever we have sent dogs north with Dog Runner transport, and on each trip David and Elaine--the people who are Dog Runner--have faced bone-chilling cold, icy roads and near white-out conditions. All three trips were completed safely and on schedule.

If David and Elaine seem exceptional, they would be the first to counter that they are typical of the scores of folks--from Wichita Falls, TX, to Flower Mound, TX, to DeWitt , NY and points in between--who give their time and funding for their local shelter, Love on Wheels and the Road to Forever.

And why do we do it? Check out Fenway, the black-and-white border collie above. That's the face of a rescue dog who has found a secure, loving permanent home. What other motivation could anyone possible need?

Helping Hounds featured in national magazine

Regular readers here know that our Texas rescue dogs are transported to Helping Hounds Dog Rescue in DeWitt where eager families typically wait out of doors in frigid, icy weather conditions to greet each Dog Runner arrival. Helping Hounds and the Love on Wheels partnership with the Humane Society of Flower Mound are the focus of a featured article to be published in the March issue of Animal Sheltering Magazine. However, you can get a sneak peak at the excellent, informative piece here!

Scrappy foster #4 set for departure next week!

Opie ready for his shot at a home down the Road.

The little guy at right is Opie, a something under one year old cairn terrier mix and 20 pounds of chewing, licking, jumping, cat chasing energy who can steal a heart in a New York minute.

Annie:  That's the truth! I know I say this about every foster, but it's true. These dogs are so ready to give and get love - their aim is to please, and Opie is no different! He's a tiny package of affection and will make someone a wonderful forever dog!

While the next scheduled transport to Helping Hounds isn't until the end of the month, Opie needed a foster home NOW to boost his physical health and emotional well being. So we agreed to take him. 

Since bringing him home, an unscheduled transport through Texas Pit Crew became available, and Opie will have been in foster care the required two weeks to qualify. Pending a successful health certification Thursday, Opie will be on his way to a permanent home Monday, Jan. 13.

Mrs. Miller, bless her heart, falls in love with every dog we bring home for fostering, and little Opie certainly is no exception. Program rules, of course, stipulate that fosters may not adopt their charges, but Opie has had Mrs. Miller plotting abduction and relocation to a secluded, remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest!

Annie:  Piffle ... well, maybe ...

Bye, Bye 13; Hello, Double Seven!

“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.” ~ Mark Twain

Opal Hound, our first foster,
now happily adopted in New York

Could it be that AnniePie, Beano and I are only two months into fostering rescue dogs for transport down the Road to Forever? I'd hardly believe it after three dogs, but the record of blog posts since we first brought Opal home tells the story in no uncertain terms.

One fact that is not at all hard to believe; fostering is the best thing we did in all of 2013. We've been "empty nesters" scarcely more than 24 hours now--Fenway, an adolescent male border collie and our third foster, boarded the Dog Runner yesterday afternoon--and we're feeling the "hole" left in our household. Even after vacuuming the bedroom carpet to get out maybe 85% of the dark black hair Fen left behind!

Annie: With the leaving of each dog, I have experienced different emotions. I have fallen in love with each one and letting them go has been so difficult, but each parting has been such a contrast. 

We will be taking a bit of break. The next transport from Wichita Falls is not scheduled until Jan 30. We will be using the off time to get the house back into shape and to select the right dog for us and for Beano.

Charlie Beagle, our 2nd, also happily adopted.

As we've mentioned before in these posts, Beano, our 4-year-old male beagle/Boston terrier mix, has some rather strong possessiveness issues around food, treats and toys. Being an "only" dog since birth (until two months ago), he also has a strong sense of ranking as top dog around our house.

Opal, an American coon hound, challenged him only slightly in that Opal was totally laid back and willing to let Beano have his way. Oh, they had a brush up over food that raised our concern somewhat, but they resolved their differences on their own the next day.

Often all Beano needs is time to sulk and pout in his crate. Of course, we never "send" him there when squabbles erupt; he takes to his den on his own.

Annie: Opal was such a dear, sweet girl. Several days before she boarded the transport, I began missing her. I cried and cried when we brought her to the Walmart parking lot to say goodbye. I knew she would get an excellent home in New York. I  just didn't want her to go. Fortunately, Opal got her forever home almost right away.

Charlie Beagle, our 2nd foster, was a good fit. Charlie not only had an easy going manner, like Opal, he also was nearer Beano's size. These guys actually enjoyed one another's companionship.

Annie: Charlie is also a big love, but we had issues about occupied space. Charlie loved taking over my warm spot on the bed  - and he was darn near impossible for me to move. Stubborn and oh, so sweet. He has perfected the 'sad-eye' look and I am a total pushover. With Charlie, I was worried about how long it would be before he got adopted. I wanted him to get a forever home as quickly as possible. I was thrilled to pieces when we got a photo of Charlie and his new parents!

Fenway, now in transit to Helping Hounds.

Then came Fenway, a nine-months-old male border collie, who needs nothing quite so much as he needs a full time job! That goes with his breed.

There was not a thing wrong with Fenway that a 5-acre pasture would not have cured. True to his breed, Fen was 40 pounds of perpetual motion confined by a hard spell of winter weather inside a house much too small for his near boundless energy.

Fenway was a challenge for us all and a particular challenge for Beano who, on the whole, spent much more time in his crate than he did when we had Opal and Charlie. Fen's constant activity wore on Beano. Rarely in the last few days of Fenway's stay was Beano willing to play.

Annie: Fenway is a big, goofy, lovable kid. He always has a smile on his face and I believe, his only aim in life is to please. We had him the longest - almost the entire month of December. I can't think of him without tearing up ... I love this dog. Jim had to work the afternoon the transport was leaving, so one of the other foster parents picked Fen up from our house. I had been crying on and off since the previous evening, so it was probably for the best I wasn't going to actually see him loaded up and taking off. Fenway needs lots of room and would love some cooperative animals to herd (our cats just weren't up for it!). Until we get news of Fenway, I'll be worrying like a mom who has sent her first born off to college. 

As much as we loved Fenway and his exuberant personality, it became clear that dogs much larger than Beano are not a good mix.

Each dog that comes through our home teaches us a little bit more. While it may feel to us like we've been fostering forever, we are still very much newbies with much more to learn.

Here's looking forward to a great 2014 and many more super dogs helped along the Road to Forever!

Dogs Don't Do Christmas

Dogs don't do Christmas, you see,
All dogs know is "NOW!"
Dogs couldn't care less about a Christmas tree, 'cause
It's just one more place he's not allowed to pee.
And chocolate and nuts and Aunt Jude's fruitcake
Just poison his system, for goodness sake!

Dogs don't do Christmas, you know,
It's just not in their cards.
Warm beds and good kibble are all dogs' want.
Oh yeah, and a good romp across the yard.
And some kind hand to scratch that spot
Where a dog's tail starts and his reach stops!

Dogs don't do Christmas, y'all;
Special days are not their thing.
Our customs just confirm to dogs
What foolishness humans bring.
For dogs, love is eternal. What more is there to say?
Love your dog. That's all he asks. And it will be Christmas every day!

Third Foster a Charming Handful

He's 42 pounds of unbridled, uncollared, seemingly limitless energy, and he wants nothing more than to share all that hyper-kinetic activity with anyone and everyone who comes within sight. Other dogs, cats, people, mourning doves. Doesn't matter. This nine-month-old border collie has room in his heart and games for all!   

Fenway enjoys a moment in the sun.

We can't help but speculate that this combination of size and energy led to Fenway's being abandoned. 

I want to stress we only can speculate Fenway was abandoned. No one actually witnessed this beautiful dog being dumped. Yet Fenway's profile fits with why some four million dogs are abandoned in the U.S. each year. He is a royal handful with an appetite!

Fenway's known story only goes back a few months when he was picked up and held by animal control. After no one came to claim him, Fen was tagged for shelter placement by the Humane Society of Wichita County. As weeks passed with no one showing interest in adopting, Fen was selected for transport to Helping Hounds Dog Rescue in New York.

Within days of his scheduled departure date, Fenway came down with an upper respiratory infection. He had to be bumped from the Road to Forever.

Meds cleared his infection, and before he could be rescheduled for New York, Fen was adopted! Within two weeks, however, he was returned to the shelter as "not a good fit" with the adopting family.

Always alert for the next game!

Fenway certainly is true to breed:

The Border Collie is very intelligent and aware of its surroundings... able to be trained to a high degree. This is one of the hardest working dogs thriving on praise.... The Border Collie is highly energetic with great stamina. Provided they get sufficient activity to keep them occupied and ample exercise.... This breed can be sensitive and should be very well socialized as a puppy to prevent shyness.... These dogs are too intelligent to lie around the house all day with nothing to do. [dogbreedinfo.com]

In other words, all Fenway needs is his own flock of sheep and a five-acre patch!