Rescue pets with a past

I LOVE this thread!!!!



Meet Pappy. He was the goodest boy! We adopted him shortly after we moved out to California...the shelter said he was around three I believe.
He was taken in as a stray but I'm pretty sure he was escaping from a bad situation. I think there was some sort of abuse in his past because when we first got him, you couldn't touch his paws, ears, tail or hind quarters at all. He would growl and snap. You also couldn't move your hands fast around him without him cringing and cowering. It broke my heart.
We worked with him patiently and eventually we were to win his trust and he grew into a wonderful, loyal and loving dog. The best dog I've ever owned.
Unfortunately we lost him to cancer a few years ago. He had two surgeries to remove the mast cell tumor but it just kept coming back. He did live two years longer than the vet said he would, eventually passing at age 12. I miss him every day.






Miss Shilo.
The first and only puppy we have ever gotten. She was the product of a dog my friend K was fostering for a friend that was in recovery. The dog ended up having puppies on her watch and when we went over for "Friendsgiving" we were all introduced to the eight week old pups. Everyone pretty much came for Turkey and Stuffing and went home with a puppy.
She is my little angel and I love her very much dispute her true chihuahua tendencies.







Princess Chewbacca Fuzzlebutt (AKA Chewie)
Our latest addition was adopted about a year after Pappy passed. She was the first and only dog we looked at when we went to the SPCA that day because we instantly fell in love with her.
When we filled out her paperwork we found out that she had been adopted out recently and brought back...that broke my heart.
She was so scared that she was going back, she shut down almost completely when we brought her home. She didn't eat for three days and she just laid on the couch staring at us warily with distrust.
I finally convinced her I was a good person with a piece of boiled chicken and she slowly started to come around. It took her about a year to fully come out of her shell and into her own personality. Though she still comes to me seeking comfort if Rob makes too much noise in the kitchen with the pots and pans or if one of us raises our voices, so I suspect some trauma in her past.
The funniest thing of all, was that we had no way of knowing, but she is pretty much a carbon copy (personality wise) of Pappy. From the way she acts, to sharing his obsession with the same squirrel in our back yard, to seeing out his old toys and beds and claiming them as hers. She was definitely meant to be ours.
And how could you not love that partially toothless underbite???? I mean really!

 

The last couple of times I was in vegas I visited their humane society. They are located off Decatur, near Sunset. I can't (officially) have pets in my condo so I like to visit the Humane society to play with the pets. The vegas HS has a number of rooms where you can play with the cats. Dogs are in the back but you can't really touch and play with them.

My sister and her family are always adopting dogs from the HS. They also adopted my mom's Maltese when my mom went to the care home in 2012. The Maltese just passed away earlier this year. Mom picked up the dog in 2001 so the Maltese died at 18 years old. One of my sister's dogs also passed away a few months ago at age 16 so they just picked up another dog (they have another 2 more dogs). About 8 years ago sis picked up a pair of min pins. These dogs were starved, the owner went to jail, the "caretaker" supposedly had family problems and so she didn't feed the dogs, probably for almost a month. The dogs were skin and bones and probably weighed less than 5 lbs when they found them, surprised they were still alive. Unfortunately the judge fell for the girl's sob story so she didn't serve any time but a tv blurb showed that this girl was just negligent and gave the sob story to get away with it.

Our condo can't have pets but recently some residents threatened to take the board to court, saying that service dogs and comfort pets should be allowed. I think the condo probably has about 10 pets now. I thought about getting a comfort pet but would have a problem because I like to travel and go to vegas and I don't have anyone to take care of them while I'm gone. Say, how does everyone handle pets while away? Dog hotel? Luckily many have friends and relatives to take care of the pet but what about you others?

It's funny because I grew up with dogs but lately I've taken a liking to cats. Dogs are more high maintenance, need to exercise them regularly and they can be a problem if you don't train them well (like peeing and taking a dump inside the house anywhere they want). Cats are more independent, just leave out their toys and scratching post, easy to train to use the bathroom in their litter box, etc. While dogs are more friendly to owners I found some cats that are similar. If anything I am inclined to pick up a cat to keep me company.

 

Saw this on my Facebook a while back. This will be me some day

 

Isn't it funny how that works? Our Ralphie has so many of the same characteristics of our Lab, Cinnamon. Cinnamon passed at 14 years old about 3 weeks before Ralphie landed in our home. I often say that Cinnamon guided Ralphie to us because she knew I was going to need help getting over her death. And that her spirit is still in the house telling Ralphie what to do so that we know she's still there.

 

This was our Cinnamon. We had her for 14 years. Our neighbor is a mail carrier. He had an inner city route where he walked house to house. There was a yellow lab that followed him on his route every day. She was pregnant. One day she wasn't there and when he asked he was told she had her puppies. He asked what they were going to do with the puppies and was told "probably throw them int he river". So he grabbed two. We ended up with Cinnamon. She was too young to be away from her mother at the time. We had to bottle feed her and she was my best friend for 14 years. Sure do miss my old girl! Ralphie came to us 3 weeks later as a stray. I know in my heart Cinnamon guided her to us.

 

Here's one of my road kills, Jesse James. Was on my way to Salem on a Sunday morning to catch the casino bus when I glance down at a little body laying in the middle of the road. I hate to look, but I did. Good thing because he tried to lift his head. He was either hit or thrown from a car. No casino for me.



Fast forward ten years...he still kind of looks like road kill.

 

For people who feel they are past their pet owning days...that's understandable. There's so many other ways to help out a rescue organization.

And for dog owners who aren't sure they can do another dog. I get it. You know we never got another dog after Lola and we might never. But, we support dog rescues in her memory.

And yes, cats are easier. You'd be surprised how easy it is to make the switch from dogs to cats. You can make them as dog like as you need. Cats really do get a bad rap. Neither my husband nor myself grew up with cats and we thought we were dog people. One cat changed that for us. You might not be up for another dog but you might be good with a cat (or 2, I think they belong in pairs).

 

True! When Tripod, my old three-legged dog died, I thought I would teach what I thought to be my fat, lazy, and not too bright cat a few dog tricks. In under 30 minutes with the help of cat treats, she would Come, Sit, Beg, and Wave. Well, one of us was dumb.

About 35 years ago I taught a cat to roll over on command. Like me, many cats will do almost anything for treats.

 

Jethro plays fetch like a dog. There's a lady on Instagram that is a speech therapist. She has got her dog pushing buttons to communicate. Looks like the big "that was easy" buttons from the old Staples commercials. Anyhow...her insta feed is crazy. I found one of those buttons on eBay and I'm going to see if I can get one of these guys interested. I also follow cat school on instagram, and I bought the training clicker thingie that holds a treat. Jethro is the most trainable cat I've ever had. I want to see what else he'll do. The other 2 get so jealous they do what Jethro does. Like eff you I can do that too so what? Quit making us look bad Jethro!

 

I saw that. I wonder if the dog first learned that button locations obtained the desired results, then words were added for the adults … or something like that. Okay. It blew me away! I would worry that my dog wouldn't shut up!

My cousin had two cats, both siblings, that were bright, and one was beyond brilliant. That cat could open virtually any cage door. When thirsty, it would turn on the bathroom faucet. When its sibling was thirsty, he would get his brother to turn on faucet for him.

Give Jethro a scratch for me.

 

This is the best I could do since she is sitting on my chest.

I'd lost my old cat to cancer was solo in Vegas, when my wife called and said you have a new stray cat.

Fine with me! Any dog or cat that shows up at my house is welcome

 

Isn't it funny how clever they can be? Our Daisy quickly learned the sound of the cap being popped off of a can of whipped cream. It didn't take her long to realize that we mostly use whipped cream at home when we make piña coladas, so she then started associating the blender with whipped cream.

Now, it's like she can read our minds when we want to make piña coladas. I swear she knows it before we do. She no longer needs to wait until she hears or sees the blender being taken out.

 

Booker your picture and story of Joey touched me. He looks so much like our rescue Kirby a blue heeler mix. He was found in a barn with 3 sisters. They were all adopted but him. We couldn't resist him. He is the friendliest dog I ever had. Never meets a stranger. Person , dog. or cat. We only get rescues and have yet been disappointed.

 

August 16, 1983. I was picking blackberries and heard what I thought might be cats getting ready to fight. The screeching went on and on, so I climbed down the hillside that people had used for a garbage dump to investigate.

Some cretin had tossed a dog food sack filled with newborn puppies over the cliff. The puppies, some with umbilical cords still attached, were screaming. I untangled the first cold puppy I found from the brambles and bundled it next to my stomach for warmth, then scampered up the hill and ran nearly a mile home. We put it on a heating pad then drove to get the others. We found 10 in all scattered throughout the brush. One had died in the fall. We discussed taking them to a vet to be euthanized, but being softhearted (soft-headed?) animal lovers, we tried to save them.

While my wife made a warming box, I drove 25 miles to buy Esbilac (fake dog milk) and tiny “baby” bottles.


After days-on-end of bottle feeding, four hounds survived. We found homes for three and I kept the first one that I found, a black & tan that I named Longshot.


We had smooth collies and exercised them by tossing frisbees, so I decided to teach puppy Longshot to retrieve. We worked up to frisbees from sticks, beer cans, and tennis balls. Around this time I happened upon a dog frisbee competition, I thought, “Could Longshot do that?”

We worked on tricks and routines. She would jump over my leg and back, run/jump and take a frisbee from my teeth, sit-and-beg as I would rapidly flip 5 frisbees end-over-end at close range that she would catch then immediately drop, then run down LONG distance tosses and catch them just before they hit the ground.

We traveled to Ashley Whipped Frisbee Competitions throughout the northwest. I was so proud of my big, baying hound competing against whippets, Australian shepherds, border collies, and retrievers. She wasn’t the fastest and she wasn’t the best, but she did everything and, probably because she was so atypical, she was a crowd favorite.

Damn. I miss that dog.