The story is long and sordid, but suffice to say that Jada is back and needs a new foster. She was returned by her recent adopters, but not because of anything she did. There was an unexpected illness in their family. We have Jada in a temporary foster home, but they don’t have a yard and Jada needs a lot of exercise. She is great with other dogs, but she is only 1.5 years old and she is a Lab/Boxer mix so she has LOTS of energy. Jada does best with structure and either running, or spending a lot of time in daycare or at a dog park. She can be crated, but not for the usual ten hour work day because her busy brain can’t take that long period of time.

Help!

Just got off the phone with Dr. Skinner, who had called to go over the results found in Elijah Blu’s spinal fluid. Unfortunately, instead, he got the not-so-easy job of telling me the lab had lost Elijah Blu’s spinal fluid sample. NO!!! That poor little guy has to go back in for a second spinal tap. I asked if he could wait a week or so, just to recover from the last time he went under anesthetic, so he is scheduled for a week from this Monday. It will be two days to get the lab work back (and it better be hand delivered this time!), and we’ll finally have an idea what we’re dealing with. Oy.

So last night I let the dogs out for a last pee around 10pm. I was looking forward to going to bed early because I hadn’t been getting much sleep with the two puppies. The dogs were outside for less than ten minutes.

I opened the door and everyone came in as expected, except for little Zamora, a cute little fluffy black and tan mixed small dog. I wasn’t too alarmed initially because sometimes Zamora likes to hang back and trail in last, after she’s had a few more romps around the yard.

After a few minutes, I opened the door and called for her, but she was nowhere in sight. I grabbed my flashlight and went out in the yard and started poking around. This wouldn’t be too big of deal, except that my yard is .5 acre with lots of trees and shrubs, and it was pitch black and really cold!!

I called my friend Diane while I walked around seaching the yard with my flashlight and told her I was worried that Zamora hadn’t come in with the other dogs because she almost never wants to be away from Maybelle. I stood still and listened to see if she was moving around, but heard nothing.

After more than half an hour of poking around my yard with the flashlight and two other dogs, I started walking the fence line. I couldn’t believe there was any area she could get through!

I eventually wound up behind my shed and realized there was a small gap along the bottom of the chain link where the earth had eroded away and at least my boot could fit through. But could Zamora fit through?

By now I was convinced she was not anywhere in the yard, so she had to have somehow gotten out. PANIC! It was nearly an hour since I had let the dogs back in and realized she had disappeared. This is a little black dog missing in the pitch black and cold, late on a Saturday night!

I quickly jumped in the car and drove to the neighborhood behind mine so I could see if maybe she was stuck in the yard of the house behind mine. I realized as soon as I got there that they have a huge gap at the bottom of their gate, and she could have easily gotten through there and kept going…it was now 11:30pm. No!!

I drove around and around the neighborhood looking for her until just before midnight, and all the while my friend Diane had stayed on the phone with me.

Diane finally convinced me to go home and try to get some sleep so I could get up early and start searching again. I felt sick with worry, but agreed I couldn’t do anything more in the dark.

I went ahead and called the sheriffs department and reported Zamora as a lost dog just in case they got a call from someone about a found dog (they have access to the kennels at the county shelter for after hours stray dog drop-offs).

I clung to the hope that I would come home and somehow find her in the yard waiting for me, but unfortunately, she was still nowhere in sight. It was a very surreal experience. You can’t believe they could really be gone so you keep checking, but they definitely aren’t there and your heart sinks every time. Still, I went to bed and kept the light on the porch on just in case she somehow made her way back.

I finally slept for about three hours, then got up at 5am so I could make flyers. I went through my backyard in the dark again, then made a LOST DOG flyer with a picture of Zamora, and drove around in the dark hanging them on posts and at every place where you can enter or exit the neighborhoods.

My hope was that as soon as people were up and leaving home, they’d see my flyer and hopefully have seen Zamora, too. I hung flyers in my neighborhood, too, just in case she’d figured out how to get back into my yard from someone’s backyard in the other neighborhood.

By a little after 7am, at sun-up I was done. I took one more slow drive around the two neighborhoods and then went home to wait and see if someone would call.

At 7:40am I got home, and on auto-pilot I walked back to check my yard one more time. I opened the door, and what do you think? There was Zamora walking toward me with a sheepish “Am I in trouble?” look. I looked back at her in disbelief. Seriously?! Were you hiding in the yard the entire night, or did you get out and come back?

It was freaking 34 degrees outside and she’d been gone nearly ten hours! I reminded myself that I had told myself during the numerous loops I’d made around the neighborhood looking for her, that as frustrated as I was, if I found her alive I would be so grateful that I wouldn’t be mad at her.

I scooped her up and she gave me a few chilly licks. Poor little girl was cold! Brrrrrr. I have NO idea what in the hell was going through her little head when she pulled that prank, but she definitely lost her off-leash-in-the-yard rights, at least at night. I also pulled a railroad tie and three cinder blocks over and blocked the weak area at the bottom of my fence. I definitely rained on her parade!

Sigh…I got back in the car and drove around pulling down all of my flyers and walked around in a bit of a coma today, but I guess all’s well that ends well…little angel.

Wanna come up with a name for our little broken Min Pin? We’re entertaining any suggestions! He’s approximately 12 weeks old, super energetic, and cute, cute, cute! Yes, he’s a bit needy and somewhat obsessive about where you are at every minute of every day (and don’t try sneaking off while he’s dozed off for just a second, cuz he ain’t buyin’ it), but he makes up for his neurosis with super endearing, affectionate qualities.

Click here to see Min Pin’s youTube video

So again, both the radius and ulna are broken in one front leg. Judging by the location and the way they are broken, our guess is that someone stepped on him, which isn’t really hard to imagine since he is so needy that he runs directly under your feet while you are walking (thus causing me to quickly re-train myself to shuffle my feet around the house). Whomever stepped on him probably did the math and figured the vet bill would be much more than the cost of a new puppy, so off to the shelter he went (rotten SOB’s!) Poor little guy! He remains a trooper and has an incredible agility considering the weight of his casted front limb, which is half again the size of his entire body! He hops around on all three, and happily makes friends with all of the dogs (and cats) who come around to visit.

Again, name ideas anyone?

To-date, we’re still waiting to hear back from Dr Skinner, the veterinary neurologist, with the results from EB’s spinal fluid. The myelogram showed him that whatever is going on with Elijah Blu is not a surgical issue, meaning he does not have a compressed or ruptured disc injury. What he does have going on is still unclear. The spinal fluid will show them whether there is some kind of inflammatory process going on, which is likely, since the best he has ever acted or responded was to a corticosteroid called Dexamethasone which acts to reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, it is not something they can safely prescribe long term for Elijah Blu.

In the meantime, here is a pic of Elijah Blu following his recent hair cut. He’s still cute as a button!

I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to catch up on what’s going on. Things got a bit crazy following the story in the Oregonian. Sadly, despite the fact that it was clearly stated that we only take county shelter dogs, we got a lot of calls and emails from people wanting to give up their pets. Susan actually took a call from someone who wanted us to re-home their ten year old Yellow Lab because “We have kids now and she chews up their toys and we have to keep her in the laundry room, and we’re just tired of her.” They also said they had already “Gotten rid of” their other dog.

Sigh…even after twenty-some years dealing with the rescue world, it continues to floor me how many people somehow end up with pets they can’t figure out how to commit to for the 12-18 yrs of their lives. Seriously, I shudder to imagine what this world would be like if it weren’t considered immoral to give away ones children if they are causing a cramp in your lifestyle. With regard to the people who give away their pets, I really wish they just wouldn’t bother getting one to begin with. It would save us a lot of trouble, and the pets a lot of fear and readjustment, and that’s assuming they are lucky enough to find a new home.

I actually intended to update everyone on the kitties we had adopted out ten years ago and recently learned that they were going to be euthanized because they weren’t getting along well and some of them were not using the litter box consistenly. This past Thursday was the scheduled D-Day (including a short reprieve we had been granted), and we learned on Wednesday that the woman had found someone to adopt two of the cats and convinced the husband to try it with just the other two. Fingers crossed! One of our long time volunteer fosters had also piped up and said she might be able to take a couple of the cats, but the former option is much more practical. Interestingly enough, when we explained that there was no magic island we could just take the cats to, they figured out a solution.

Here are some pics of me with the two puppies. The little six week old “Mini-Aussie/Queensland Terrier mix” has since gone to a new foster home, and I’m taking care of the little broken Min Pin puppy. As you can see, they’re helping me do email…okay, not really helping, per se. One-handed typing takes much, much longer to do.

The little bugger likes pants…and shoe laces!

Yes, tomorrow OCU at Indigo Ranch will be featured on the front page of the Oregonian’s Living Section! Hopefully lots of people who don’t otherwise have much reason to venture out of the Portland metro area, will learn about our ranch and hit the highway so they can check it out!. I was up today with Trish so she could take some new pics for the website while the salmon are running. It’s amazing! It happens every October for about a week, and luckily, they’re spawning right now! We climbed down the bank of the Nehalem behind our barn and stood about five feet away from the salmon while they pushed and flopped trying to make their way up stream. There were five of them in one spot today and Trish got some great pics and video that she’ll post later tonight. Awesome!

Click here to watch salmon running youTube video.
Click here to view photos of salmon & Indigo Ranch (same as slideshow below)

Meantime, I picked up the little broken 12 week old Min Pin from the shelter today. Turns out it wasn’t both legs that were broken, it was both bones in his left leg. So his radius and ulna are both broken. The x-ray photo shows the damage. Ouch! If you know much about the energy level of this breed, or for that matter, any 12 week old puppy, you know how hard it is for this little guy to have a broken leg! He’s so adorable and does his very best to hop along and has already figured out how to use only his rear legs and jump up on my sofa the minute I sit down (cringe). I’m trying to keep him from jumping at all, but it’s not as easy as it might seem. He shrieks bloody murder in his crate, but won’t stop bouncing around until he’s in my lap. Super cute! Poor little trooper. Once he’s in my lap, he seems perfectly content to watch the other little six week old puppy, who has just discovered toys, and will pick one up and shake it to death! Ohhh, be still my heart, these two are soooooo adorable. BTW, the little min pin is laying in my lap with his splinted leg resting on my keyboard. Lots of fun typing while trying not to disturb him.

We were given a reprieve on the euthanasia date of the cats we adopted out ten years ago as kittens. D-Day is now Thursday. Not that it matters, since it’s not like people are banging down the door to help three ten year old cats. We’re going to consider ourselves lucky if we’re even able to divide them up into three homes, and to-date we still need three homes (hint, hint). I know we’ve been down this path before with our volunteer Sandi’s senior cats after she passed away unexpectedly, but we have to try again. If anyone thinks they can open up a space in their heart and their life to take a cat, these cats are all three described as VERY sweet…

And not to forget the dogs who aren’t adorable little puppies but still desperately need our help, we’re trying to find a foster home for a sweet Rotti mix female that one of our volunteers rescued as a stray. Raven, as Kim named her, isn’t in super shape. This poor girl is a perfect example of a dog who has been ignored or discarded in a yard. She has some skin issues and is very thin. Still, she has a nice temperament, and virtually no hope of finding a home at the shelter. Her skin problem is an easy one to correct, it’s just going to take giving her a change to a quality diet. Raven has tiny little ears so she may be part Shar Pei, it’s hard to tell at this point. She isn’t as big as a Rottweiler, but has the coloring and sweet, soulful eyes.

We’re still collecting donated items for our “tag sale” and this weekend we got a taste of what kind of stuff we’re going to have at the sale. Holy smokes! It’s amazing what you all donated to us. Thank you so much! I can’t wait for the sale. It’s going to be very exciting!

Today was our outreach day at Petsmart in Beaverton on Walker Rd and Cedar Hills Blvd. We’ve done it every other Saturday for the past ten years.  There are busy days and there are slow days. Today was a sunny, beautiful day so we sat outside for most of the day. The dogs had fun and got lots of fresh air and exercise. The bad news is that it was verrrryyy slow today. I imagine every one was taking advantage of the last great weather, and I can’t blame them. Kenai, the Dancing Malamute had the most interest and three people came in to see her. She’s so beautiful, but has a bit of a neurological issue that causes her head to tilt a little. She’s also got the typical Malamute head strong behaviors, but for the right family, it’s worth a little stubborn tendency for how sweet she and affectionate she is, and those amazing rhythmic dance moves…. ;o ) I’m trying to get a video for your viewing pleasure before she goes to her new home. It really is amazing and unique! So, we discouraged the people who liked her for her look, and we are taking an application from someone who has experience with stubborn breed dogs (they had a Chow mix before).

No other dogs got applications. Can you believe it?! We had 18 adorable dogs there….oh well, there’s always another adoption day. Crap! We need more foster space so we can take some of the other dogs we know need foster homes!

Tomorrow I’m going to tell you about my little Pit bull foster, Tawnee, and her sister, and the typical crappy life they lived before coming to us…

Kenai

Pixie relaxing at the adoption event

My first day of blogging in order to share what life is like in an animal rescue went something like this:

The shelter contacted me about finding a foster home for a cute little two year old Lhasa mix female who failed the standardized temperament test because she showed some food aggression. They also said that otherwise, she’s a really nice dog.  Sadly, the shelter doesn’t have the time  or space to wait and see if her food aggression might be related to how long the dog was on her own (and how hungry she might be), or whether the dog is so terrified in the shelter environment that she is acting differently than she would in an otherwise quiet home. luckily, most times we find the dogs are very different outside of the shelter.  Finding new foster homes is always a challenge, and our current fosters are all full, so you know the drill, call me if you might be interested in fostering this little girl for us. Be prepared for the fact that we will need to match the foster dog to the foster family just like we would with a potential adopter.

I was also contacted by a breed rescue organization who isn’t able to take in a dog who was adopted out to a family by another rescue, but the dog was in such poor health when the family adopted it, that they don’t want to send him back to that original rescue. The family wants to re-home the dog because it’s a JRT mix, and doesn’t do well with their young children…go figure.  JRT’s are pretty high up on the national bite statistics list (umm, try number four). This doesn’t mean they can’t be great dogs in the right home, but it isn’t rocket science to figure out that a home with small children isn’t a good idea for a breed that bounces off the walls with so much hyper energy it nearly buzzes. No, scratch that, it’s freaking ridiculous! Personally, I blame the rescue organization who adopted out the dog to this family in the first place, rather than the family, who didn’t know better and should have been guided by an organization who wanted the family and the dog to be successful, not just to adopt out a dog!

Ordinarily we save our precious foster space so we can take dogs who are failing or in need of medical care from the county shelters. We  don’t take any owner relinquished dogs because we are trying to help people figure out how to overcome hurdles and keep their commitments to their pets, rather than giving them up during any inconvenience or life change. But, my heart feels badly for this situation, which should never have happened in the first place. Should we have to be responsible for another rescue making a poor decision? Not really, but it isn’t the first time we’ve been put in this situation, so here we go again. Looking for a foster for a JRT mix. Sigh…

There was also an email from someone who adopted a sweet young female Pit bull from a shelter in NY. The dog tested “no concerns”, but they live on a farm and the dog has killed a chicken and apparently went after a pigmy goat. She’s great with the family and their other dog, but once again…hello, what do you know? A dog with a high prey drive was adopted to a home in the country and is going after small farm animals? Hmmm.

So that about wraps up my bitchfest for today. Oh, and that was from just a few of the emails I received. I also got one about a missing 12 year old cat, etc. Hopefully it isn’t too depressing for you, but if it was, ha! Welcome to my world. Honestly, some days can be pretty entertaining, and luckily, we do get some phenomenal happy endings. I promise I’ll share all of those, too.

So that we can end on a good note, we’ve helped turned lemons into lemonade. Back in May, one of our volunteers alerted me to a “rescue” group called Tiny Paws Puppy Rescue, who was advertising their rescued puppies on Craigslist. Our volunteer had exchanged with them and asked if the puppies were spayed or neutered before they “adopted” them out for $350-$400. They got kinda defensive and started making claims that involved the county shelter, so our volunteer forwarded the exchange to me to see if what they were telling her was true. I was positive the claims were untrue, so I forwarded the exchange to the county so they would be aware of this group out there talking smack about them. A couple of weeks later, the same Tiny Paws Puppy Rescue contacted me looking for a new vet for their organization. Turns out the vet they were using at the time didn’t appreciate what was happening with their pups and dumped them.

Meanwhile, Debbie Wood and a lot of other people at the county, along with KATU reporter Dan Tilkin, were doing a lot of reseach about TPPR. Turns out, not only were they not a rescue, or a registered non-profit, but they were using references from veterinarians who don’t exist, and selling puppies without vaccines (who later came down with parvo). They estimated from the number of adoptions the group had posted on their website since May, 2010, that these people sold $70k of puppies (189). They claimed on their (now defunct) site that most of the puppies were from raids in various counties, but it was confirmed that none of the puppies came from any of those counties. Holy puppy crap!! They were probably getting free or inexpensive puppies posted on Craigslist, then selling them without spay/neuter or vaccines under the facade of being a rescue.  F*%^#r’s!  Rotten, greedy, and exploitive! Their existence made other rescues who are working so hard to have an impact, look badly.

The good news is that thanks to a handful of perservering people, Tiny Paws Puppy Rescue no longer exists. Our hope is that they won’t move somewhere else and start their whole money making scheme again. You can view the KATU story here:

http://www.katu.com/news/local/104136279.html?tab=video

On October 1st Indigo Rescue will finally launch our blog…actually, the blog will chronicle my daily life running a grass roots animal rescue. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live that life,

Me, Tres and Prada

a life that involves seven days a week and as many as 20 hours per day, this will be your chance to get an insiders perspective. Hold on to your hats, ‘cuz I can assure you, there are times that it will be a wild (and uncensored) ride!