Monday, March 13, 2017

rescuing more dogs


Well, it's happened again. Unowned dumped dogs showed up in the yard. This time it was a brindle with some bulldog or pit bull in her with two puppies in my garage at my back door trying to get in with Minnie going nuts. They fled before her ferociousness but not far. My new neighbors on the other side of Allen, who owns the 1/2 acre between us and our new neighbors who bought Frank of the Bountiful Garden's house, do not care for the dog situation out here. They are newly transplanted from the city. I don't know if that's what accounts for some of their weirdness or not since I was once, not that long ago, newly transplanted from the city but I don't think I am fundamentally different than I was but that's beside the point. What was the point? Oh, right, weirdness and neighbors. The last time a couple of weeks ago two dogs were out running around and got into their garage, both of them were threatening to shoot them (they make no bones about being gun owners) if they came in their garage again. What the fuck is the matter with people who think killing something that annoyed you is the right and first response. My response was there are alternatives like contacting the rescue group that is very good about picking up and placing these poor animals, resources permitting. Turns out, those two dogs were the loved pets of a couple that went out of town and the dogs got out while they were gone.

So then after I closed the door to the garage and waited 10 minutes or so I crept out the back door and around to peer into the garage to see if they were still there and I saw one of my new neighbors on his back patio who yelled something at me which I didn't catch (the dogs were not in my garage) and the mother dog was running for the street and I looked around to see his counterpart holding a pipe or something with some kind of wire wrapped around it with two puppies at her feet in Allen's yard. She disentangled herself and the puppies stayed there at the back of Allen's property by his skiff on a trailer.


I contacted the the dog rescue group for the county, SPOT, and while I was corresponding with them I saw that Robert, new neighbor, had driven his truck into Allen's yard and was standing next to his truck, puppies deeper amongst the storage buildings at the back of the property. I don't know what he was doing, perhaps taking pictures because the SPOT lady told me a neighbor had also sent pictures of the puppies in. When I was ready to close up last night both puppies were in the garage sitting at the door to the house. I made Marc go run them off. The black puppy fled, the tan one did not and hunkered down over by a cabinet. Short of picking it up and removing it, it would not be dislodged.

I hate this! It pisses me off that people won't be responsible for the animals they acquire. If you can't keep them for whatever reason, man or woman up and do the right thing. Surrender them to a shelter. Dumping them 'in the country' is not a solution! It is cruel and resigns them to a life of hardship, hunger, injury, disease, parasites, and uncontrolled breeding creating feral dog packs that are dangerous if they aren't caught and placed or killed.


Last night both puppies sheltered in the garage which I left open in case mom came back looking for them but there they were this morning. I gave them some water and food and cleaned up the messes they left. One male, one female, still fairly clean and soft but bloated stomachs so wormy, friendly, desperate for human attention. One welcoming word and they were wriggling all over my feet and jumping on me.

Christine, from SPOT, finally got permission to come pick them up which she did. They will get shipped up to Washington state where there is a shortage of puppies due to their strict laws about breeding and selling. SPOT has sent hundreds of puppies to them to get adopted out and it helps with the older dogs that get turned in because they also get seen when they have puppies. Often the puppies already have homes waiting for them when they get there.

So, another happy ending for the puppies at least. Not so much for me. My cat Emma has gone missing. Haven't seen her since Saturday early afternoon before the dogs showed up. 




15 comments:

  1. You are a good soul, Ellen!
    As to your cat- have you checked all closed bedrooms?
    My littlest hen, Violet, is still around and shows up to eat and drink and nap every few days. She sure acts like she's setting on chicks but I have seen no sign of any of those. Animals. They can be so mysterious. And yes, people who dump puppies and dogs (and cats!) in the country deserve to be dumped somewhere themselves.

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    1. the house isn't that big and we would hear her but yeah, over and over. she's been gone almost 48 hours. it's not unusual for her not to come in some nights but she is always by the back door in the morning. she's gone missing a couple of times but never for this long I don't think. I fear the worst.

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  2. Abandoned animals make me sick to my stomach--at the owners. I hope Emma just ran like the wind and now is searching her way back.

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  3. Heartbreaking in so many ways. Hoping Emma shows up and soon.

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  4. It's beyond me how anyone could dump pets without any concern over what might befall them. Pets give us so much and ask for so little.

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  5. I almost did not want to read on because I feared for the worse. It was good to read that you rescued the pups and they will go to forever homes soon. I hope Emma finds her way home and the momma comes back to your house to find her babes,

    Your neighbors are despicable and so are the people who dump their animals. I deal with that where I am and have been taking care of four feral cats for a few years now. A new one appeared today with something wrong with its back leg. I tried to get it but it ran away hobbling away on three legs. With the nor-Easter coming tonight, I doubt it will survive. That makes me so sad.

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  6. Dear Ellen. You make my world a better place. Somebody with a heart! Thank you. For doing your best, and for telling about it.

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  7. We once had a dog that was too rough for my young son and was too energetic to train. When I tried to call the shelter they lectured me on the fact that my dog would go on a kill list probably as they had too many dogs! If I kept the dog my son would go on the hospital list. I finally got a builder we knew who lived in the country to take the dog. But shelter's are not always so caring wher I live.

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    1. I completely understand, it's a hard thing to do and finding a new home is the best solution. but dumping them in the country leads to the same end only with more suffering beforehand if someone doesn't rescue the animal. Houston, the big city near me has a no-kill shelter.

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  8. So sad - makes me want to take them all in, but I'm not really a dog person so that probably wouldn't end well...

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  9. I wonder if Emma has returned??

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    1. she did but not before we were convinced she had met a bad end.

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  10. Oh, God. Those poor puppies and that poor mama dog. Thank goodness the puppies, at least, have a (hopefully) happy ending. I wish mama had come back for them so she could be cared for too and they could all be kept together. Are the puppies weaned, do you think? I couldn't agree more about careless people who dump dogs.

    I bet Emma will come back. She's probably spooked by the presence of the dogs.

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    1. yes, the puppies were weaned and practically inhaled the food I gave them.

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  11. People like to dump dogs here, too. I suppose my reputation as a crazy dog lover does not help. I take them to the no-kill shelter. I can only take care of the ones I already have. I am lucky that we have a dog park I can put them in until we relocate them and I don't mind feeding them. It is the vet bills I can't handle! At least cats can hunt for their own food, dogs are dependent.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.