Just more of the same

It happened again. Facebook swallowed me once more... sucked me back in with it's ease of posting. It's quick gratification of response from all those friends who are there just waiting to read something witty or heartbreaking. Mostly FB has become a portal for all that is drama. Lets face it... we're a world obsessed with someone else's idea of reality. Often I think I need a new hobby and then I take a look at all the little faces around me. Almost removed from an existence outside of doggie and home duties, I have finally learned to relax and enjoy it. Aura's pups went to adoption. Ten were adopted right away. Two went into foster care and I lost track, but I think there's one left. Mason went to Minnesota with the Mormons and is being trained as a therapy dog who will work with autistic children. So all in all we were lucky with that bunch of little black lab like puppies. Lets just hope their new families don't suffer some sort of brain hemorrhage and give them up after a year. I resigned the rescue. Mostly because it's so far for me to drive to adoption events. I gave them one hell of a year and a half though. Lost count of how many doggies and each time I go through the doggie foster book, I get a different number. It's somewhere near a hundred though. I decided yet again, to take a break. We'd started exterior restoration of our home and now that the weather was warming up, I'd be too busy for new fosters. Yeah right.... LOL!! Then along came Attie This little princess is 8 months old, an Italian Greyhound Mix and was dropped at the shelter when her owner passed away. She was one of several dogs the old woman owned. She would have been perfect if she could have just peed outside.... ONCE. We still had her when this next beast showed up. Meet Dozer, the 3 month old 33lb Pitbull. An absolutely total bullhead. The most determination I've ever seen in a dog. I've seen this kind of orneriness in pigs and even cattle, but never done so well by a dog. Despite his ability to do what he wanted whenever he wanted... he was the biggest lug of all. He liked nothing more than flopping down next to you or even better ON you. Big wet puppy kisses and licks. What a super guy. To top it off, he got adopted by a super family!! Have a great life Big Man!! Then, two days later came Dottie. Dottie is a Chihuahua/JRT mix. She had just weaned her pups and was promptly dumped at the shelter. Since she was also one of the dogs owned by the old dead woman, the shelter thought it might be good for her to stay with Attie. Both Attie and Dottie were terribly unsocialized. Apparently the old dead woman never left her house, until that last trip out, so her dogs not only weren't vaccinated or spayed, but they didn't know what other humans were, or what linoleum was or that it was ok to walk on and pee in the grass. They were however serious cuddlers and they weren't aggressive at all. Unfortunate as it sounds, their names were also, At and Spot. Spot most likely because of the spot on her head and At, well I had a friend explain that to me. A "retired" friend. We imagine that the old dead woman didn't really name the dog At, but in her possibly senile state would yell out... "Where my dog At?" Thus making her possibly not so educated family think that was actually the dogs name. I renamed them Attie and Dottie. Poor little girls they were. Attie came around fast.... her personality bloomed more each day. Little Dottie not so fast. She was also in mourning from being taken from her pups. I returned them however to the shelter (Jefferson county NO Kill) because their foster program lacks something..... It's called coordination. I don't want to sound mean, because the staff at the shelter do a service for the cats and dogs there that most would not even consider, BUT...... Lets just say it's an absolute miracle they can help as many as they do. At the shelter, Attie and Dottie will at least be seen and can be adopted. Here at my house, they'll only continue to pee on the carpet and chase the cats, because Nobody who goes to the shelter to adopt will EVER hear about dogs in foster care, because the staff do not know how to use a computer or what the shelter website even is. Good luck little ladies.... at least you're safe. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure I'm finished with the Animal Welfare Society of Jefferson County. They've got a bunch of control freaks on the board and they can't all get along. I don't need that kind of drama..... at all. So I said.... this must be a sign. I should take a break. Give the whole fostering thing a break for awhile..... and the email came. One of my shelter pulls from almost 9 months ago was being returned. Did I want him back? Of course I did. I need nothing more than a 3 yr old Jack Russell in my home. My cats weren't chased nearly enough by the last two. The usual chaos the spun in our home had settled and I jumped at an opportunity to stir it up again. So, on my way down to my Moms, the day before my birthday, I drove through Fredricksburg VA and picked up JJ. This sweet little fella was being accused of nipping no less than five people in his home. He's not aggressive. The Alpha dog that was living there when JJ arrived 9 months ago had passed away. Then the family got a new puppy. JJ was fearful for the first time. Not only was his protector gone, but now he had to provide protection for a puppy and the "Alpha" human kept yelling at him every time he tried. She also yelled at him ever time he would eat the puppys food. She would also yell at him every time he would run outside the gate and run and run and run and run. See, the puppy was the new cute doggie. and the "Alpha" human, well she stopped taking JJ for walks and as we all know, Jack Russells need exercise..... hourly!! With all this pent up energy and fearful that he may not be able to protect his new little sister, JJ misinterpreted his job as k9 pack alpha and nipped a few visitors to the home. This of course was unacceptable according to the "Alpha" human and she would lock him in the pantry. I'll take this time point out that there's a fine line between "Alpha" and "Bitch". That line is called Respect. Either you do or you don't. JJ is here now and he chases cats. He's afraid of his water bowl and if he gets out of the gate... he's gone. He runs and runs and runs and runs and well you get the picture. I've gotten him an intake at a really great no kill shelter. Hopefully they can find him the perfect family and a Real Alpha. Through all of this, we've been working on the house... sanding, scraping, caulking, painting. We contracted the front of the house and most of the wood replacement around the house. The front porch is like a dream now. We absolutely love it. I can't wait for it all to be done, so we can just relax and enjoy it. The roofers come on Monday and the gutters will be the week after that. Hopefully I'll have my part finished around the same time. I hear ladders being banged around outside. I guess the painters are here. Time to fry some bacon... Redneck painters LOVE bacon sandwiches. :-) Gotta keep the boys happy!!!