Journal

The cane corso puppy was gone (I didn't ask) so we took this pathetic lab/shep/chow mix that was tied to a shed. They said she had to be carried into the shelter -- not cos she was sick or hurt, but because she was so depressed that she wouldn't even walk. She's been here about 24 hrs and she's already a different dog. She had to learn to go up and down stairs. At first I had to sort of drag her around, but now she follows me and the pack. Echo is fascinated with her. She keeps trying to get Honey to play. She always did like the big dogs better. Honey doesn't play yet, but she's sweet and not aggressive. She just kind of looks at Echo like, what's she doing? Poor Candy wants to play with Echo so bad, but Echo's not interested in her.

Honey is not housetrained at all (no big surprise, since we don't even know for sure if she was ever in a house). Otherwise she's pretty good -- although that might change as she starts to feel a little more comfortable. Mostly she just sits in a corner, or lies under the computer desk.

Tomorrow we have to go to the shelter to get antibiotics that they forgot to give us last night. We're going to time our trip to be there when Dex's mom goes to take care of the adoption paperwork that somehow never got filled out correctly. She was worried that they were gonna try to take Dex back. So I told her we'd go and just kinda supervise and make sure nothing went wrong. I feel bad for T and C cos they are good, responsible dog owners and they don't deserve to be made to feel like they did something wrong. Someone gave them the dog without making them do all the paperwork -- how is that their fault? And of course they paid in cash and the money mysteriously disappeared.

I haven't written about the new dog because I always feel like I write about dogs too much and people get bored. She's really good. She's huge. She might be the biggest dog we've had. Well, I guess King (German shepherd) was about the same size. She's housetrained already (well, not 100% but at least as good as Echo) and she's gentle and quiet. She's afraid of Keek. She's really good with other dogs. We took her to the park for the first time yesterday and everyone thought she was really nice. We are calling her a lab/chow mix. She looks like a yellow lab, but bigger, with a broad face and soft hair. She's afraid of new people but she's not aggressive at all. A lot of times I find her sleeping in her crate with the door open. I think she feels safe in there.

And of course Candy is still here. I just put her up on the web so hopefully she'll find a home soon. She's so good. She just wants a place to curl up and nap.

Honey is doing great! She's so loveable! Housetraining is coming along well. She loves her crate. She gets along great with the other dogs and is a little freaked out by the cat. She's still a little spooked by new people but warms up pretty quickly. No aggression whatsoever. She went to the dog park for the first time yesterday and everyone remarked on how pretty she is and how well she was handling all the excitement.

Candy is doing great too. She needs a final tech check and then she'll be ready to go. She's a great dog -- totally housetrained and no major behavior problems. She might not want to live with another girl dog, though. She and Echo have had a few disagreements, and I don't think it was entirely Echo's fault (for once!).

I can drop Honey off tomorrow evening for surgery on Thursday. An ad for Candy would be great if someone at the shelter could screen calls and forward the good ones to me. I think Honey would benefit from some more socialization before placement, so I'd like to hold off for a bit with her. Honey is going through food like a small pony so I really appreciated the big bag of science diet.

We dropped Honey off to be spayed. We'll pick her up tomorrow evening. We took Candy along to see if we could get a vet to approve her as officially adoptable. We didn't have an appt. but actually everything went much more smoothly and quickly than it usually does. The vet was nice. Believe it or not this was the first time we met her. Candy passed her exam. I have her up on the web now. G offered to place an ad for her in the paper cos she already has another dog she wants me to take. We're gonna keep Honey for a while longer because she could use some more socialization. She was scared to go back to the shelter but she was a lot better than when we first got her. I always feel so bad cos dogs don't understand. I told her we'd be back tomorrow but I don't think she believed me.

Oh so here's an Echo update. She's been kinda bad lately, messing up with her housetraining, getting into stuff, and just being really grumpy and snarling at me when I try to move her out of the way in bed. I know it's at least partly related to having all these foster dogs come and go. She argues with Candy a lot, and she actually peed on the bed the night we brought Honey home. I guess I'll have to quit fostering for a while and focus more on her.

It's weird because I don't think I'd have these problems with her if she were a foster. There are lots of weird relationship dynamics between people and dogs, did you ever notice? She gets away with stuff that I wouldn't tolerate in a foster. And she also gets less attention when I have fosters. So I decided I need to focus more on her and become her leader. Since Saturday she has lost her bed privileges completely, and she is crated when I'm not home. And I'm trying to give her special attention, extra walks, etc., and making her work for a living (she has to sit before she gets petted or gets to go outside, etc.). Sometimes I tie her to me in the house so she has to pay attention to me and go wherever I go. And you know, I think it's working. She needed someone to be in charge and tell her what to do. And I think having less freedom makes her feel less stressed. Her housetraining has been perfect since Saturday, and she actually potties on cue now. She is really happy to see me when I get home, does what I say, and rarely grumbles at me (and it really doesn't even come up much now that she's not allowed on the bed). I felt so guilty at first, but it really seems to be helping, and she seems less stressed. She was actually more stressed the first day or two because she didn't understand what was going on, but now she's doing better. Right now she's curled up like a little fetus on the futon.

Candy's ad: Spaniel/chow mix female, 5 yrs, 35 lbs, black. Loves cats and other dogs. Housetrained, quiet, gentle. Cuddly teddy bear. Needs fenced yard.

Honey's surgery went fine. We picked her up last night, and it was a big ordeal because we didn't realize that the parkway was closed because of flooding. You remember the Point, where the rivers come together? Well, that whole park was/is totally underwater. It normally takes us about 20 minutes to get to the shelter. Last night it took about an hour and 20 minutes. It got to be almost seven, which is when they close, so I called and asked if someone could let us in if we got there late. Luckily I actually got a hold of a human instead of the machine, and she said she'd let us in if we could get there by 7:30. Warren barely broke any laws trying to get there in time. It was actually past 7:30 but there were still about four people there closing up. They had to reboot the computer so they could sign Honey out correctly. I felt bad keeping them late. They told us to go ahead even though they still had to stay and do the computer work. The one girl was saying she just wanted to get home in time for Survivor. They said some people's houses were flooded.

Honey is glad to be "home" but she's really not feeling well. She couldn't even keep water down this morning. Tonight I gave her some rice and chicken baby food. She ate that pretty good. She looks so emaciated. I thought I had gotten her fattened up pretty well before the surgery, but now she looks emaciated. I think they took out too many parts. :) She looks hollow.

We have to replace most of the mini-blinds because Candy messed them up trying to look out. Well, Candy finished what Keek and Rufus started.

It was pretty nice out yesterday so I figured I should fix the fence. The one section of wire along the bad neighbor's house was totally detached from the boards. I wasn't too worried about it because the dogs are so used to it being there that they never challenged it. But I figured I better fix it. I had to cut down a bunch of branches because I couldn't even get to the fence. That's how it got knocked off apparently -- the trees grew into it and moved it. So I had to cut the branches off, and then I had trouble getting the fence back up because it seemed like it didn't fit right, but I finally got it stapled up. Staple guns are fun. Then I had to cut up all the branches and bag them. And I cleaned up poop. And we took 3 dogs to the park. Honey had to stay home to recuperate from her surgery. So I got to take advantage of the nice weather yesterday. It's nice and sunny again today too.

Honey is doing better. I was worried about her cos she's been really lethargic since we picked her up after she was spayed. I had to put a leash on her to pull her out of the crate and make her go outside. And she was sooo skinny. She's doing better now. She finally pooped today too so that was a big victory. She kept trying to go the last couple days, but I guess it hurt her, so she would just stop trying. I thought that couldn't be good, so I was relieved when she finally went today. She's doing a lot better now... wagging her tail and chewing a bone.

Poor Candy I think has allergies or something. She scratches constantly. I wonder if I should give her another bath with tea tree oil shampoo, or if it will just make it worse. Her skin is really flaky too.

The dogs seem happy to be back. They are all napping. Honey hasn't been spooky at all, except when I swept. She took a big nap in her crate. Now she's on the futon. Brin got into the trash and then tried to hide under the table and pretend he didn't do anything. He's such a brat. I knew he was getting into something. I was upstairs and heard him in the kitchen, and I said, "Brindle, get out of the trash!" By the time I got downstairs, there was some garbage on the floor but no dog. He was standing very still under the table, leaning up against the dog food bin, trying to be invisible. What a brat!

The dogs had fun in the snow this morning. A lot of it melted already. We got some video of them playing. I tried to take some pictures too but they didn't come out very well. Honey LOVES the snow. She's just an overgrown puppy.

This is a shameless plug for my foster girl, Honey. She is such an awesome dog that I don't really want to part with her, but this is not the right time for us to add another permanent dog.

Her stats:
3 yrs old, about 65-70 lbs, looks like a heavily built yellow lab. Healthy, active, *wonderful* with other animals (dogs and cats) and very affectionate. Crate trained (loves her crate) and pretty well housetrained. She had a rough start in life. She was tied up outside and ignored, and then ended up at a shelter, so she is very wary of strangers and takes a long time to warm up to new people. Not a hint of aggression, and she is very friendly and devoted to people she trusts.

Honey was extremely depressed at the shelter. It took her several weeks to really come out of her shell with me, but now she acts like a big goofy puppy. I can't stress enough how good she is with other dogs. I would love to find her a home with a patient owner and another dog to help her feel comfortable.

It looks like Honey found a home. They are in their 60s and retired. Their daughter lives there too. They have a 5 yr old GSD mix that they got from the HS as a pup. They also have 3 cats. They almost got another dog from the HS but it didn't like cats. Then they saw Honey's ad and thought she sounded perfect. She didn't seem turned off by her size or by her shyness. They have a fenced yard and 3 acres. So it sounds really good. It sounds like she spoils her animals. Two other people were interested in Honey but didn't leave contact info.

I told D we'd take Honey to their place tomorrow evening. She sounds very interested and it sounds like a perfect match, so I think they'll most likely adopt her. Depending on what time we meet them tomorrow, we might be able to go back past the HS and finalize the adoption right away. I'm kinda sad but, as usual, kinda relieved.