Dutch Goes Home

Dutch was adopted yesterday. I am thrilled. I am hoping he has a wonderful life with his new friend, the young man who adopted him. I wish I had been there to tell him to take Dutch to obedience classes and work with him and exercise him and keep working on the 'drop' command so he doesn't chew up all his tennis balls. But I wasn't.

So all I can do is pray he knows what he is doing and he and Dutch will make each other happy.

God bless you Dutch sweetie.

Bengals for Adoption

Above is Laila cuddling Lucy. This is a very pretty pair of brown spotted girls I am fostering, sister girls so we insist they are adopted together and kept together. They were turned in to a shelter because the owner could not find them a home. We hope for better luck here at Great Lakes Bengal Rescue.

Lucy is a very outgoing Bengal, she is super affectionate and will meow and curl herself around your legs looking for attention, she loves to be touched.

Laila is very timid. She needs a nice, confident, cat person to bring her out. I would recommend for her sake the new home is quiet, no small children, only older children who know how to handle cats and are very respectful of them. Once Laila will come out of hiding and come to you, you can pick her up and cuddle her. She loves this and will purr and tread her heart out.

Both cats have no litter box issues at all and seem very healthy.

Lucy and Laila will stay fostered by me until their forever home comes along.

What would your Bengal say?

Apollo's favorite perch. Apollo is THE most nosey cat I have ever had. He is so intensely interested in everything in that Bengal way that he is literally in your face, or with his nose in a bag, or climbing in a closet.

This morning I couldn't find Sakura. I hunted for her, called her, nothing! Then something made me look up and there she was on the fridge freezer. So guess where Apollo is now? Not to be outdone. No more a safe haven for light bulbs and other assorted household 'stuff'. The Bengals have a new perch so everything else will have to go they say.

Tonight Apollo was right there in the kitchen while I got out chicken for tomorrow's dinner. If I could read his thoughts and going by his body language it would go something like this.

Ohhh bag! I wonder if it is treats. No, doesn't smell like treats, smells weird. Chicken? What is she cutting the top of the bag like that for? Attempt to stick nose in to bag.. chicken, funny chicken. taking it out one... twooo.. threee... in another bag, why? What you doing? Water, like water, chicken in water? Huh, not getting chicken, will just go back to microwave and complain.

I feel nervous leaving the slow cooker to cook dinner tomorrow, he wouldn't take the lid off it... would he?

The weekend was beautiful here, temps in the 70's, sunshine, unfortunately Waya was lame Saturday morning, would not put any weight on one of his front legs so he had to go to the vet. Vet said he thought pulled a muscle or two and gave him painkillers. He is getting better each day. He has also lost 10lbs which is great! Solid hunk of handsome muscle our Waya.

I went to the shelter, adopted out a little Dacshund to a lovely family, it was easy really. Jordan our other long time resident was adopted... yaaayyy!!!!!!! He came in just after Dutch so it was great to see him get a home. Our Adoption Coordinator is trying to get a little poodle into small animal rescue. Poor little love has allergies and needs special food which makes her harder to place. In the cat room we had two absolutely gorgeous pure bred Himalayans aged 3 and 6, lots of people looked at them but said, high maintenance. Honestly I would rather they do that than adopt them because they are pretty and then neglect them.

The new girls are doing well and they are up on the website for adoption. I will give them a blog of their own tomorrow.

Lucy and Laila

CAGE CRAZY

Usually I like to illustrate my blogs but this one needs to be what it is.. devoid of cheer. I am heart sick tonight. Dutch is still in the shelter tonight, sleeping on a cold concrete floor, thick bars, one meal a day. No sound but other dogs whimpering and barking and moaning or making no sound at all. No hand petting him, no toys.

Few dogs can take this for long. Around the six week mark the clock starts to tick and Dutch has been there since August 21, 2009. It is now November 7, 2009. How many days, weeks, months. How long can he take before Cage Crazy takes over.

Cage Crazy is a condition known only too well to shelter workers. When a dog comes into adoption he is already one of the lucky few in a county shelter. Hurt beyond treatment? Put to death. Possessive over food? Put to death. Possessive over toys? Put to death. Overly aggressive with other dogs? Put to death. Agression against humans? Put to death. Extremely timid and scared? Put to death. I am using these words because they are the stark truth in thousands of our shelters for millions of the dogs in this nation.. hour after hour, day after day, week on week, all year. I want you to see it. I want those who don't know or don't understand to know. I don't feel like pussy footing around with anyone out there. A dog who goes Cage Crazy has survived all that.. but he will not survive this.

But not for Dutch... not yet. But his time might be running out.

I remember them all. Each one of the beautiful dogs we played with and petted and exercised and worked with.. all dead. But most of all I remember Zambrano, who was play bowing, and jumping and running with 4 little kids playing ball, doing everything right, obeying every instruction... less than a week later.. that beautiful boy was dead.

Why?

When a dog has been in a shelter situation for more than 6 weeks the clock starts ticking. At any point from there a dog can begin to lose their minds. You can usually tell when it is happening, their bark will become more shrill, their behaviour will begin to just be... different.. and then one day they will growl at a visitor.. or nip at a member of staff.. or attack another dog. The dog has simply reached the end of it's rope and can take no more, like a deep depression or a person having a break down.. bam.. and instead of trotting happily out of the shelter on a leash with his new family, a corpse goes out the back door and it cracks my heart.. every single one.. leaves a crack in my heart.

So I am just going to ask a few simple things of you.

For gods sake spay and neuter your dogs. No it is not cruel. No your kids do NOT need to see the miracle of birth. No it will not change the dogs personality. Yeah your dog is beautiful and would make great puppies, one or more of which will probably end up dead on a metal table way too young.

Don't go just to look at the dogs or take your kids like it is a petting zoo. All you are doing is adding to the strain on the dogs. If you want to go play with the dogs.. volunteer!

Don't sit there moaning and whining about the 'terrible kill shelters'. Again, go and volunteer. Because when a NO Kill shelter is full.. guess where all the dogs and cats go folks!

Don't be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution. How? Volunteer, donate, take a care package of things to the shelter. But most of all.

Get your next dog from the shelter. You will get a great dog. But before you pick one please, always ask staff or volunteers which dog has been there the longest and look at that dog first. I am not asking you to take a dog just because you feel sorry for it, you should never do that, but DO look at the longest first in case that is your kind of a dog.

Watching a dog going Cage Crazy and feeling so helpless to save it is the worst feeling in the world. Please go and look at Dutch. He is only 1 yr old.. maybe he could be your baby. He likes tennis balls. He will sit for you to throw. He is not too good at bringing them back or letting them go, but he can be trained. He is cute.

There is a Dutch near you. Or you might be near Rockford.. in which case.. go look at Dutch.

And if you don't? I hope this one of my blogs stays in your mind for a long time.

Bengals and other Sunday Stuff

Nice pic of Sakura's love Apollo. It is like having a 2 year old child around. First is his obsession with closets and cupboards. If the door is open he MUST climb inside, if the door is not open he will open the door and climb inside. His favorite is the shelf inside the cereal cupboard for some reason. Then there is the basement. If anyone goes down there Apollo must go too and if Sakura is anywhere in the vicinity so must she. I think she goes because she knows I use treats to get her back upstairs again and she is getting really good at coming to call. Apollo just goes because Apollo is nosey and it doesn't matter where he is in the house, he hears movement on those stairs and he is there. Tonight I came back up to find Waya blocking his way, which was very smart of Waya.

Next Apollo has a 'thing' for the bathtub. We are yet to find out if he would actually like to play in water in the tub. When I can find a plug I will put some balls in there in lukewarm water and see if he goes in to play. If he does we can make that part of his play routine. Going down heating vents will NOT be. Apollo found a weakness in the vent in the kitchen and prised it up, it is missing a screw on one side, I caught him sizing up the hole he had made. I asked hubby to fix it. Next thing we hear a crash and Sakura's stroller has fallen over, Apollo sitting on top of it, my husband says it is like having a toddler in the house. Yet he would not go in it earlier when I took Sakura for a walk. In fact Apollo HATES to be picked up, but it is early days yet, perhaps in time he will tolerate just a bit more if he realises it leads to something nice for him.

I took Kasey our Cocker Spaniel and Sakura out for a walk together. There was no way I could manage the big boys and the stroller AND Kasey, or the big boys and the stroller for that matter. It is really intended for pack walks although now hubby says I had better find a tandem one so Apollo is not left out. Kasey walks beautifully beside the stroller, trotting along very content, I knew she would because she walks perfectly by the side of the kart at Petsmart. Sakura really enjoyed it, the sun was out, it was dry and not horribly cold. If she saw something interesting she would meow, otherwise she simply sat alert looking around and a couple of times she turned and looked up at me and gave a musical meow like.. 'thanks Mom this is FUN'. With Bengals intelligence I just think added stimulation like this has to be good for them.

Then I got some GREAT news. My sister and her husband, Vivien and Chris Dair have made it to number 7 on the Top 40 charts after being nominated last week for their song Angels. It is my sister singing. This is on www.aiiradio.net and I am SO thrilled for them. Also, Chris released his album What Chains? on emusic. They are also on Facebook. Chris is a really talented songwriter and guitarist imho and it is about time his music was more widely known in it's own right.

Then more kind of good news. The kittens are holding on so far. One of the kittens I treated has perked up and the other is keeping food down a bit better. They need another treatment tomorrow and Wendy also mentioned getting them to the vet. Please pray for them, they are tiny little things, eyes still blue and they have Mommy but she has been very sick too. In fact Wendy is splitting the litter to make it easier for the Mom and helping raise them herself. Wendy is awesome with hand rearing and able to give them all the time and attention 24/7 they need so I was really happy to be able to pass on some of my knowledge to her too.

Other than that hubby was working today so we took the dogs to the park late today. They had fun but Presley the black poodle who is only 2 yrs old stole Kasey's tennis ball but he brought it back so I threw it for him again, this time he not only didn't bring it back he destroyed it. His sweet owner is going to leave a new one in the shelter for Kasey tomorrow. Presley was having a fine old time running away from his owner and 2 other adults while he obliterated the tennis ball.

Finally we got home and ate a delicious beef stew I had going in the slow cooker, Sakura likes fall apart tender beef, she will even climb on your plate for it!