Dogs

[missblonde4878]

Okay, so I am an animal person through and through...I treat my animals like they're human. I love them. But do you ever have one of those days where you're just ready to kill them?????

I had four cats (all rescued) and a dog (again rescued)...one of my asshole uncles - and you'll know why I call him that at the end of the story - decided to buy my grandmother - who has macular degeneration (can hardly see) and is 78 years old - a pomeranian puppy named Molly.

She had been saying that she wanted a pet to keep her company because she lives alone, so at the time, I guess he thought it would be a good idea.

Pomeranians are known to be good for the elderly because they are very affectionate and loyal - but my grandmother isn't the normal grandmother. She is not an animal person at all. She's not affectionate, she has low tolerance for anything, and she can't see to properly train the dog or take care of the dog.

He basically dropped the dog off at her house and said enjoy. No food dishes, no leash, no toys, no cage, nothing. The breeders told him that she was already housebroken (this wasn't true). By the end of the first week with Grannie, Molly had gone to the bathroom all over her house and was driving her nuts because she wanted constant attention. So, Grannie asked me if I could take her for awhile to give her a break.

I went to Petco, got her all the necessities..started training her. She's very smart and was housebroken the first day - hasn't gone to the bathroom in my house once. After I told Grannie all of this, she was ready to take her back. So, I took all of the stuff I bought her over to Grannie's, and explained to her how to use the cage - for training purposes ONLY. I educated her and housebreaking her and taking her out every 2-3 hours to get her on a schedule. She seemed fine with it.

A few days later, I find out that Grannie is leaving Molly in her cage for 14-15 hours at a time because she can't see in the morning to take her outside, and didn't want her going in her house. She said that she was only giving her food twice a day to avoid her having to go to the bathroom - and wasn't leaving water out for her so that she wouldn't pee. I became infuriated! Long story short, I ended up taking her back.

While Molly was at my house, she hurt her leg while playing with my dog - Abby. Grannie wanted to have Molly for Christmas day for the family to see. I explained that it wouldn't be a good idea because Molly was hurt, she could injure herself even more, it didn't matter.

So, after battling her, my dad and my uncle, I had to drop Molly off at Grannie's.

Then, last week, Grannie calls and says that she has come to the conclusion that she can't take care of Molly and its not fair to her and wanted to know if I would keep her for good. I said ABSOLUTELY!

Now, my uncle didn't pay anything for her - and has yet to get any of her papers. He is telling my grandmother that Molly has had all of her shots, yet he can't produce a Rabies tag or any of her papers.

Okay - so now that we got all of the background out of the way - we can move on as to why I'm ready to shoot myself today!

Last night, Molly started dragging her butt. She reached down to clean herself and when she looked up at me she had a little white worm stuck to the side of her mouth. So, now, I need to take her to a vet as well as my dog to get them dewormed and buy medication for them. (That would be easy enough - if I had a job!)

Other situation - ever since Molly has moved in with us, Abby is very distracted when I take her outside - not by Molly, but just by anything and everything around her - to the point where she doesn't go to the bathroom.

This morning I took her out for 20 minutes, first thing in the morning, nothing. Just sniffs around. I bring her back in, and 10 minutes later she wants to go out. I take her out, nothing.

Well, thanks for listening to me rant. I love them to death, really do, they just drive me up a freakin wall sometimes!


Here's Abby:

and Molly:

 

[maverick2]

I appreciate how much of a pain in the butt cast-off dogs can be, but seriously, good for you for taking her in. Major kudos.

Last year I worked at a municipal animal shelter and I never got mad at the dogs, even the fighting and feral dogs which have tried to kill me. I always got mad at the OWNERS, who made their dogs vicious or put them out on the street to find their own way where they starve, get attacked by animals and mauled by cars.

Worst of all, though, is the people who brought their animals in because they just didn't want them anymore after years of love and affection, or parents bringing in pets because they were a minor inconvenience those people did not have the foresight to consider before picking up a puppy for their kids.

I'm not nearly as affectionate towards animals as I used to be before working at the shelter, especially animals I don't know personally. It's kind of like a civil rights activist being forced to work as a prison guard for a year with a major city's most dangerous urban youth.

There's nothing like seeing a sweet dog you thought was ready for adoption go for somebody's throat to make you reconsider your feelings towards the animal kingdom. There's also walking around on floors slicked with parvo blood, having to take puppies by the armful to be killed, or crawling over the corpses of frozen dead dogs and cats in a giant freezer. Still, I have massive respect for animals and I LOVE my cats and dog.

It's just that hardly anybody has an idea of how terrible animal shelters are until you've been there.

That's a long way for me to just say: thanks for taking her in. She probably wouldn't have lasted long in your average city shelter.

 

[missblonde4878]

I know what you mean about shelters. I have always thought about volunteering - but I wouldn't be able to take it. As much as I love animals, I wouldn't be able to handle finding out all the stuff that really goes on in shelters. And its people that don't really know how to take care of animals..or for that matter, want to, that are the reason so many animals are homeless.

If I could, I would adopt them all. Over the summer, there was a stray cat that showed up at my door. I fed her for awhile noticing that she was either pregnant or just had babies. And sure enough, I found her 5 kittens under my front porch. So, I took them all in and they lived in my bathroom for about 3 weeks.

When I initially looked into taking them to a shelter, the responses from the shelters weren't what I was expecting to hear - most of them said they would kill them after so many days - and the no kill shelters were booked.

So, I ended up finding a home for each one - even the mother - but it was hard giving them up. People say I'm nuts, but I would do it again any day.

Here's the links for the cats I had found...

 

[maverick2]

Yeah, to be honest, me and the others on the killing crew really didn't like the volunteers.

They used to come in maybe an hour or two a day (some for community service) just to pet and walk the animals. That's nice, you know, but then they used to get down on us for being callous about having to euthanize, or about not getting attached to the animals. I learned fast not to get attached to the animals, because the ones I loved best were usually the first ones picked for death.

And it's a completely arbitrary process, aside from overt aggression (even minor aggression will slip through the cracks) - the kennel director picked the dogs SHE thought were cute, mostly little nervous frou-frou dogs that would snap at you the minute you turned your back. The kind of dogs I loved - the lost hunting hounds, lab mixes, big dogs like danes and pyrenees...they were always the first to go.

She didn't spend all day in and out with the dogs, so she wasn't aware of their true behaviors. And she didn't listen to us minimum wage slaves, either.

In any case, the volunteers didn't have to deal with worms, blood, puke, parvo, dogfights, feral cats, frozen corpses, pitbulls, rabies, needles, hit-by-cars, or chokesticks which were the only things between you and getting your throat torn out. So we tended to ignore them and roll our eyes at their disdain for us, because they didn't know even the tip of the iceberg. Kennel crew were the only kids with the overview.

That being said, I ended up taking in lots of animals while I was there. I probably fostered half a dozen litters of kittens and puppies which ended up being passed off to humane societies, so I feel like I made a difference.

It just got to a point where they became animals. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't treat them like individuals because it just hurt so bad when I had to assist in their deaths.

 

[missblonde4878]

Aww, he is too cute!

 

[maverick2]

Man, I love Akitas.....

 

[Cowgirl]

Sigh.. I hate the thought of animals not given the chance to live the life they should. Thanks for doing your part. An you truly are.