Dream a Little Dream for Them

Here we are in the final week of the I <3 Dogs Blog Tour. The theme this time: If I had a dream ... What would you do for rescue dogs if you could?

Don't forget to visit Tour Host Small Town Rescue for links to other blogs participating this week and to see how you can win prizes!

I'm also sponsoring a challenge there: I'll price-match small donations to Pawsibilities Are Endless, so you can double even as little as a dollar to help rehabilitate and rehome the dogs these generous-hearted volunteers work tirelessly to support.

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The easy answer to what I would do for rescue dogs is, of course, to take in as many as possible to foster. With that, though, comes the responsibility.

I bought my little farm, Rainbow's End, with the express purpose of fostering -- or of becoming a perennial foster flunkie for  -- neglected and abused critters, be they any species. I expected to take on only a handful in the beginning since I had a full-time-plus job, then ease my way more fully into it after I retired. It started out promising enough: 2 dogs, 2 goats, 5 cats and a couple of chickens came wandering in and stayed. I strung a bit of new fence, added a couple of barns and brought in some little horses.

Then I retired earlier than planned. And jumped into a second, part-time-ish business I also hadn't planned for. Many of the practicalities of adding kennels and a common play area for dogs and additional pastures for equines and llamas and whatever other large animals might come are still needing answers, such as what to do with all the waste? With our high water table, can I put in a septic system capable of handling more than a dozen dogs? (My breeder friend thought she'd found a way to deal with the problem by letting her dogs use my front pasture. Um, no.) And how many grazing animals can 27 acres really support?

Right now I don't have enough permanent dog-containing fencing to be able to keep a dog separated from the rest of the critters while it adjusts. While I keep my smaller animals, including the goats, penned in at night as a first defense against coyotes, they also free-range during the day and intermingle with one another. One doggy door in the house leads to a backyard that's home to 5 ducks and a rooster. That means accepting only animals who can get along with others. And while I did rehabilitate one dog that thought the chickens were here as part of the daily buffet, I don't want to lose any more friends to any more misunderstandings.

I also would love to take in a wild burro or mustang; however, the fencing I have (T-posts and a mix of 4-foot-high wire strand and no-climb horse fences) won't pass the minimum standards for the Bureau of Land Management to consider me as an adopter.

I've budgeted well enough to take in several more critters and be able to keep them in food and medical care. But the money needed to build the accommodations I dream about just isn't there. Writer though I am, and dealer in dreams in that regard, I'm a pragmatist in most other matters. The hordes of animals (though never hoarding!) I envisioned caring for simply will not be -- yet. But I can still make a difference one life at a time, taking in a critter here and there and ensuring they understand the rule of tolerance we have in place.

In fact, I'm thinking it's time to expand our family once I get back from the book convention I'm at this week.   I'll be on the lookout for a shelter dog come May. I also have a neighbor who has two goats that belong to a daughter who'll be off to college in the fall. They'll likely come my way in a month or so. And if we fall into another drought this summer, I have a couple of horse rescues I'm ready to contact in August.

Of course, I'm open to a change in circumstance. One day, I may still have the kennel of homeless dogs and barn full of horses and other larger critters that once I dared to dream about. For now, we'll take it one wiggly butt at a time.

When Breeds Collide

This is the Animal Junkie's second post for Week 5 of the I <3 Dogs Tour. This week's theme: The gorgeous, the active, and the unique. Tell us your favorite dog breed. 

Visit Tour Host Small Town Rescue for links to other blogs participating this week and to see how you can win prizes! And remember, if you'd like a copy of Vet Tech Tales: Vol 1, just let me know in the comments or by email. I'll be happy to send you a FREE e-copy in the format of your choice.

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Way back in my early 20s I was involved with dog shows. My best friend and fellow vet tech at the time was big into shelties. (Why is it I seem to collect sheltie people?). For a while I volunteered at the local breed shows and spent weekends watching shelties parade around an arena or compete in obedience trials.

Princess

Wonderful as they are, I never fell heart over heels for shelties.

I thought chows could be “my breed.” I certainly liked them and I hit several breed shows to be around them. I realized soon enough, though, that a high-maintenance dog such as a chow, or even a sheltie, wasn’t for me. My lifestyle demanded tough, solid, short-haired and medical-problem-free dogs.

Chow

I chose the Doberman. My first pup was a red: Lady Robin Hood. Light on her feet and graceful, she reminded me of a deer. She wasn’t a conformation dog, though. By the time I settled on “my breed,” I had decided breeding to a standard was a ritual I didn't want to participate in. It wasn't so much the ones that made it to the arena that bothered me as what happened to the many, many throw-aways that weren’t born the breed ideal.

 And while I’ve done my share of tail docking and ear cropping – oh yes, I’ve wielded the scissors myself and kept dozens of puppies in ear forms and bandages to produce those never naturally pointed and erect ears – my dogs would never go through that. Since “natural” was an unfavorable look, even had my deer-like Robin met the standards otherwise, my droop-eared pup would never have been invited into the conformation ring.

Not My Dobie Pup

We went the obedience route instead. At breed shows it was evident who, people-wise, were there for the conformation side. First Robin, then my second Doberman girl – the black-and-tan Morgan le Fey – was snubbed by the “true” Doberman lovers. How dare I bring an uncropped dog to a breed show! When one woman in particular patted my hand and said in the most condescending voice possible, “It’s OK, I know not everyone can afford to have their dog’s ears properly done,” I realized I actually enjoyed having my dogs there even more. We were making a statement in an in-your-face-passive-aggressive way. Kind of my trademark.

It was with great delight that I raised my voice to be sure she – and maybe a few others – heard as I explained that, being a vet tech, I not only could do the cropping myself but could point to a handful of dogs there whose ears I’d cut and sewn and for whom I’d hand-rolled the forms then stuffed into the pups’ ears for weeks to train them to stand. “Why,” I finished, “would I ever choose to put my own lovely dogs through all that pain and discomfort?”

Breeders, breed shows and I parted ways soon enough. Later I acquired, by choice again, two more dobies – littermates – when I moved out by myself to a rough, rural area. Dobies attracted me with their tough, lean looks; their reputations, which make most people automatically leery of them; and their fierce, fierce loyalty.

Phoenix (the original) and Lance

 Sadly, it’s the very act of dog breeding that leads in part to millions of dogs being killed yearly. We have dozens of puppy mills in our area churning out purebreds by the thousands. Even “responsible breeders” produce more puppies than is sustainable in our world.

Which is all a very round-about way of saying that my thinking has changed about dog breeds over the years from being a supporter of maintaining the breeds we have today and developing new ones for tomorrow to being anti-breeding programs. I’m no means a vigilante. My days of activism are behind me. The most anti-establishment I get these days is refusing to help my neighbor – who breeds Golden Retrievers and, in some ways, treats her dogs better than I treat mine – to artificially inseminate her bitches when they either won’t, or can’t, breed naturally.    

My vote, then, for favorite dog type, not breed, goes to any dog that’s been spayed or neutered. Until our animal populations are under control and every homeless dog is homed, we have a responsibility to the species above any individual breeds. Breed-specific rescue groups are, of course, an excellent way to celebrate breeds while staying true to the good of the species.

One of my current favorite types - my boy, Loki

Revving Back Up!

Poor neglected blog! But that's all about to change. The Confessions of an Animal Junkie blog is participating in a 2-month blog tour celebrating rescues, rescue groups and friends of rescues -- and it starts this week!

We'll have a guest post tomorrow from a long-time friend/first-time guest poster; a second blog-tour-related post on Thursday from me; and yes, finally, the Vet Tech Tales Friday feature starts back up this Friday, with a few additional catch-up Tales that will be posted over the next few weeks on Wednesdays as well.

I <3 Dogs Blog Tour is hosted by the small but dedicated Pawsibilities Are Endless rescue organization. You've read a number of guest posts here by one of their principals, Landra Graf. There will be prizes and challenges and lots of awareness-building over the coming weeks. In fact, Animal Junkie is sponsoring a donation match where you can turn even a $1 donation for some very deserving dogs into $2.

And for anyone who would like a free copy of Vet Tech Tales: Volume 1 - The Early Years, just leave a comment on any post between now and the end of the blog tour, specify whether you'd like a Kindle-compatible copy or a PDF, leave your email addy (use a format like "yourname at ISP dot com" to keep the spambots at bay!) or email me at phoenixsullivan at yahoo dot com if you'd rather not publicize your email at all, and I'll send you a copy asap.

If you don't have a blog but you'd like to tell others about a favorite rescue org or discuss any of the other tour themes, I'll be happy to post your contribution right here! All I need is the text in either an email or a Word doc (I have Word 2010 for the PC). We love pictures, too -- just attach those separately. If you send them as jpgs or pngs, I can do all the resizing and compression needed, so no worries there.

Here are the weekly themes:

• Week 1 (2/20-2/26) - Favorite animal organization/rescue
• Week 2 (2/27-3/4) - Favorite pet story (Tell us about your favorite pet! Doesn’t have to be a dog)
• Week 3 (3/5-3/11) - Favorite animal-related book, movie, song, etc.
• Week 4 (3/12-3/18) - What you know about dog rescues/organizations
• Week 5 (3/19-3/25) - The gorgeous, the active, and the unique. Tell us your favorite dog breed.
• Week 6 (3/26-4/1) - Favorite Dog/Pet Stores in your area.
• Week 7 (4/2-4/8) - Favorite dog parks and dog-friendly attractions in your area.
• Week 8 (4/9-4/15) - If I had a dream… What would you do for rescue dogs if you could?