Foster Journal
September 2000 Part 1: Hyper Herky
September 1, 2000
This is Herky. They were going to put him down cos he had a runny
nose, so, well, now he's here.
... Anyhow, we're going to Misty
Pines Dog Park tomorrow. J from the Humane Society is going
to be there doing some humane society thing. She said we could
bring Herk and show him off and maybe somebody will adopt him.
They say he's part Great Dane. He's only 6 months old.
September 2, 2000
Karen wrote, "you get the prettiest dogs!!!!!!! :) he's going
on my desktop."
He's gonna be a heck of a dog someday! I wonder how big he'll get.
Right now he's a clueless adolescent. He barked bloody murder last
night in the crate. Eventually i gave up and chained him to the dog
bed. He was quiet all night. He has absolutely no leash manners.
But he appears to be housetrained and so far has only chewed on bones.
He can sit and shake. So he's not completely unruly, just mostly.
=) He seems healthy and fit, and he likes people, so somebody was
taking good care of him. I wonder if he was set loose on purpose
cos he got too wild, or if somebody is looking for him somewhere.
September 4, 2000
Sorry, i just haven't had much to write about! And i've been kinda
busy with the puppy. He's a good boy but he wants to play with Echo
and Brin, and they aren't too pleased about that. Right now they're
all sleeping. I gave them bones to chew and i guess that wore them
all out. Poor Keek is feeling neglected again so i have to go visit
him every once in a while.
Did i ever tell you about Misty
Pines? It was neat. They have a brand new training building
with mirrors on the walls, and agility equipment, and little hooks
in the wall to hook your dog to. They do boarding there also, and
you can watch the boarding dogs playing outside through this big
window they call "Dog TV." They have a big fenced in
area with agility equipment but i think you have to pay to use
it. And they have a little pond that Brindle got to play in. (Echo
stayed home.)
They put Herky in with the boarding dogs and lots of people were
watching him through the window. One of the people that works there
(V) was just sure she was gonna adopt him. She has a dane already
(i'm not convinced Herky's really part dane, but whatever...) and
they played together and she really wanted him. She said her husband
was "on his way" so we waited around so he could meet the
pup. We got there at about 9:30 and we were really wanting to leave
at noon, and we found out the guy wasn't coming until 1:30. I wanted
to leave Herky there so they could take him back to the shelter to
be neutered (to save us a trip) but J only had space for two dogs.
So we offered to take Faith (cute little white dog from an abuse
case), since they already asked us to foster her if Herky was adopted.
But they wanted to keep her there to show her off a little. So we
took Herky and left. I wouldn't have minded staying longer, but it
was so very hot, and Brin was getting bitten by fleas, and there
really was nothing to do, and i felt like people were looking at
us funny cos we were using the wrong kind of collar. (The guy that
owns Misty Pines invented some special
kind of collar and EVERYONE there was using them. We were using
a prong collar cos
Herky is huge and has apparently never been on a leash before, and
i didn't have time to get him used to a Gentle Leader.)
Anyway, V was supposed to call this weekend to come and let her
husband meet Herky (cos she can talk him into anything) and of course
i haven't heard from her. So, looks like i'll be stuck with the little
dude for a while. And i would prefer to take Faith. She's cute. And
smaller. We made tentative plans with J (from the HS) for her to
pick up Herk and give us Faith tomorrow when she is going to Monroeville
for something. But that was when we were pretty sure V was adopting
him. So now i don't know what we're gonna do.
It was kinda cool hanging out at Misty Pines cos we got to talk
with J and G a little. J said she's having the time of her life working
at the shelter and helping to place dogs. G, on the other hand, seems
more cynical, but not in a bad way. She didn't seem to think V was
really going to adopt Herk.
Did i mention we have fleas? Not a lot. I noticed Brin was biting
himself when we were at Misty Pines. He had his belly all bloody
and i saw two fleas crawling. When we got home, i gave all three
dogs a flea bath, but apparently it didn't work. Brin is still scratching
and biting, and now Herk is too. Echo is immune to fleas. I have
bites on my legs. I don't know if the fleas got in our house from
King (although we had Shiloh since then, and i didn't notice her
or anybody else scratching) or if Brin and Herky just got them from
the park. I'm mad. We've never had fleas before.
I'm gonna have to talk to J about Herk. I don't know how long i'm
willing to keep him. He's really not a bad pup, but he's too much
for Echo. Brin doesn't like him either, but poor Echo is his usual
target. He's being a typical puppy, but he's too big! He wants to
play and he keeps biting Echo on the neck and chasing her around.
He stops when i yell at him, but then he just goes right back and
does it again. I've been keeping them separated some of the time
to give Echo a breather. She is acting nervous all the time and i
don't think it's fair to make her put up with him. She has enough
emotional problems already! Originally we were gonna switch dogs
tomorrow, but since those people apparently don't want to adopt Dorky
(i can never remember his name), i don't know what we should do.
Herky snores with his eyes open. It's kinda disturbing. I heard
him snoring and looked around to watch him sleeping, and he's just
back there staring at me. He's a good boy.
Excuse me while i scratch my flea bites. =)
Mom wrote, "see, amy, i like you. but i really do not like
the idea of getting infested with fleas. i know how hard they are
to get rid of. i've done that. and i didn't like it. "
I took Herk outside about
a hundred times today. I'm beginning to wonder if he has a UTI or
something. Drink and pee, drink and pee.
September 5, 2000
Mom wrote, "so, will you be fostering any emus?"
I sure hope not.
Well, Herky's gone. What a disaster. V never contacted me about
him. J from the humane society was supposed to pick Herk up today
to take him back to be neutered, but she never called, so i guess
she figured there was no reason to take him back until somebody was
ready to adopt him.
But i got a call at work from some woman who saw Herk at the shelter
last week before we picked him up. She went back to the shelter today
because apparently somebody had told her he would be back today to
be neutered. (Nobody told me!) I really don't understand what happened
with this entire situation. If these people wanted him last week,
then why did they want me to foster him? All they would have had
to do was wait until his 48 hrs were up (cos he was a stray), neuter
him and send him home. I guess part of it was that they knew they
were busy and wouldn't be able to neuter him until this week.
Anyway, the people came and brought their two daughters, about 4
and 6. The kids were terrified of the dog. They were both crying
within minutes cos he jumped on them, scratched them, and mouthed
them. The mom and dad kept saying how great the dog was and that
he was just a puppy and puppies do that. I was not happy with the
situation and i told them so. I said something like, "Obviously
it's your decision, but i'm not happy with the way he is jumping
on the kids and chasing them and mouthing them. He's a puppy and
he's big and wild, and he's going to get bigger, and the kids are
going to run and scream like kids do, and he might play too rough." The
dad basically said, "Yeah," and
continued playing with the dog and telling the kids that he would
grow out
of it. At one point i had to drag the dog off the kid cos she fell
and the dog got on top of her and started mouthing her head, and
the parents laughed. The mom had to hold the younger girl the entire
time, and the older girl was saying things like, "I don't like
this dog, i don't want a dog, i don't like dogs," and hiding
behind her mom. The kids were obviously scared of the dog and the
parents didn't care. I wasn't concerned that Herky was going to be
aggressive with them -- that's just not his personality. But I thought
he would be too big and rowdy for little kids.
Warren and i figured
if they were determined to adopt the dog, we'd at least
try
to give
them
a fighting chance. Warren told them about Bitter Apple and they
sprayed some on the kid's hand, and the dog finally stopped mouthing
her.
I showed them a Gentle Leader and
told them they need to take the dog to obedience class. Warren
told the kids what to do if the dog gets too wound up. At the
end,
Herk was getting REALLY bratty. He needed a nap. The kid actually
said, "He needs a crib," and i wanted to tell them yes,
he needs a crate. But they don't believe in crates. Hmm. Or prong
collars (they wouldn't want to hurt him). They totally ignored
my Gentle Leader suggestion. The guy said his doberman pulled on
the
leash, so his solution was not to use a leash.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with these people. They
were nice, and they obviously liked the dog. But i am worried about
the dog-kid interactions. The kids are small, and they run around
and squeal. Herky's a big adolescent with basically no training.
He's active and he plays roughly. He jumps up and he mouths people.
If he gets too wound up, jumps up and scratches or nips a kid, and
ends up back at the shelter, he'll have a history of "biting" and
won't
be
adoptable.
But
maybe
i'm just being pessimistic.
I figured we did the best we could, short of saying, "Do NOT
adopt this dog." And the people still wanted him. And, well,
i wanted the dog to go away regardless. He was harassing Echo too
much. So i called the shelter and asked if we could bring him in
tonight
even
though we couldn't get there until after they closed. They said okay.
So we took him back. He'll be neutered tomorrow and if they decide
to adopt him they can pick him up tomorrow afternoon. I guess i'll
have
to
talk to
the
shelter
people tomorrow but i really don't want to. I'm so disturbed. I don't
understand why we were fostering him. He wasn't sick. He's totally
adoptable, he just needs a lot of training. If these people wanted
him last week, why didn't someone tell me? And why did i have him
in the first place?
September 6, 2000
Mom wrote, " that was way too confusing about the dog. i kinda
lost track again."
Yeah, i know. Me too. I talked to G and J today and they were both
really cool. G told me i can do whatever i want in terms of deciding
who gets to adopt my fosters. She appreciated my telling her that
i thought this might not be a good placement, and she told J to call
them and talk to them. I feel bad cos i sort of told them they could
adopt him. Who knows, maybe they decided they didn't want him anyway.
J,
of course, asked me if i wanted him back after he was neutered.
I said no, cos he was abusing my Echo dog. I told her maybe next
week we could take Faith or somebody else. So i got us back down
to the normal number of animals for visiting this weekend. And
we just went to the vet and got some Advantage and
treated everybody, even Keek, so we should be totally flea free
this weekend. I know you're happy to hear that!
September 7, 2000
At least i managed to unload that puppy before coming back to visit!
Mom and Dad are pretty tolerant but i think that would have put
them over the edge. And hopefully we'll be free flea by then. (Wow,
i
meant to type "flea free." It's as hard to type as it
is to say!) I made the mistake of telling Mom that we had fleas
(thanks
to King, i guess) and i got the impression that she would rather
not have the itchy mutts in her house. So we got Advantage yesterday
(freakin' expensive, $12 per animal) and i sure hope it works.
The first thing Keek did was try to lick it off, so i had to keep
watching
him to make sure he didn't die. He's fine.
September 13, 2000
Nothing's going on here. I found out that the people with the two
little kids did adopt Herky, even though they tried to discourage
them, and so far it's working out fine. I told her i couldn't take
the next foster she wanted to give me -- a dalmatian/akita mix that
is nice, but big and unruly. No thanks, i said.
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