Chix-a-Lot Friday: What I think of the Dude

January 13, 2012 By in Chick, Snickerdoodle 61 Comments

Last Friday I confessed to you that I like dudes, remember? Well this Friday I have the following to tell you: My new foster brother is called The Dude. And I like him.

Here’s how it went down.

On the first morning, we started off like this:

And then that afternoon, we were like this:

And then I blinked and it was morning again and I woke up like this:

Now. A less gentle-dog-ly fellow might be peeved to wake up to a noseful of his brand new foster brother’s feet, but not I. Because first, as I mentioned last week, I promised my mama that I would love my new brother. And second, I secretly love the smell of dog feets (my mom loves it too so I guess it runs in the family).

Here’s the thing about the Dude. He and I are really, really good-looking together. He doesn’t have the beautiful brindle furs that I have, but otherwise, we go together so nicely. I am white with browns; he is brown with whites. Observe:

He is my perfect accessory, right? And really, there’s more to it than just how much he adores me the colors of his furs. He’s a pretty cool Dude. For one, he is majorly into snuggling, as am I. For two, he doesn’t try to play with me, which I appreciate (being the distinguished older gentleman that I am). And for three, well — I hate to reveal myself to be a big softie, but — I know he’s had a hard life and like mama says, he just needs a soft spot to land for a while. I don’t really remember what that’s like, but mama says I was in his shoes about 8 years ago (which is so silly because I don’t ever wear shoes). It only took me a day to give the Dude my full stamp of approval (the fastest of any of our fosters yet), and last night I told him a Very Sweet Thing. I said: Little Dude, I’ll be your soft spot to land on for as long as you need.

The brink

January 12, 2012 By in Snickerdoodle 31 Comments

What kills me the most is how close he came to the end. When Snickerdoodle’s sweet little face showed up in our rescue’s email inbox — one of many faces each day — he was already on the euthanasia list for that day. We can’t take them all, and the Dude’s saving grace was that he looks almost identical to one of the rescue’s all-time favorite spokesdogs. On an emotional impulse, we claimed him with just a couple of hours to spare on his precious, fragile life.

The Arlington, Texas shelter — where Snickerdoodle came from — is one of many shelters around the country whose volunteers and staff are doing what they can with what they have, but are confronted every day with the reality that it’s not enough. Our Doodlebug was on the lucky side of the brink.

In the grand scheme, he is quite lucky: even though he’s underweight, has heartworm, a few bad teeth, and some severe anxiety issues we wrote about yesterday, the world is growing bigger for Doodlebug every day. Two days ago he learned to ride in the car. Yesterday he got to meet and make friends with a four-month-old lab puppy. Today we’re starting work on impulse control.

And tomorrow? Maybe he’ll learn to bake a pizza. Or play the banjo. Or scuba dive. Once you’re pulled back from the brink, the world is full of possibilities.

It’s not all fluffy beds and happy tails

January 11, 2012 By in Snickerdoodle 61 Comments

It turns out Snickerdoodle has trouble being alone.

The first night in our home, he cleverly broke his way out of his wire dog crate. When we entered his room to  greet him in the morning, the crate was totally intact and standing in the center of the room — about six feet away from the corner where we had left it and him. And the Dude was peacefully sleeping on the sofa, not a furrowed brow on him. He yawned,  stretched, crossing his paws across each other, and looked at us with those big amber eyes as though to say “Good morning, friends!”

We secured his crate with zip ties to prevent further escapes, but the poor little guy couldn’t resist the urge to continue his Houdini ways, through various creative means.  In two more days our crate waved its white flag and surrendered. Seeing how much stress and anxiety confinement was causing him, we thought we’d try leaving him uncrated in a room. After all, he had slept the whole rest of the first night on the sofa without so much as ruffling a feather in the sofa pillows.

Score.

For several days, Dude slept happily on our bed while we came and went, never causing more damage than an innocent little puddle of drool from his happy, heavy slumber.

And then just as we were feeling quite confident in his easygoing nature, he reminded us why we don’t give foster dogs too much freedom too quickly. Foster mom left for the gym one evening, and foster dad came home an hour and a half later to a wide-eyed Dude sitting on the bed with a mound of sawdust on the pillows and a shredded wood headboard.

Oops.

Such are the trials of dog fostering, we told ourselves. We’re amazed that we’ve churned through eight foster dogs with no damage of any kind. It just figures that the first sign of destruction would come from one of our most gentle, docile, sweet fosters of all. Right now we’re feeling luckier than ever that he and the Chick get along so well — a dog with serious separation anxiety would be much harder to work with if he and our own picky, grumpy Chick had to be separated at all times.

A more food-motivated dog might be entertained by a challenging puzzle that keeps him busy long enough to forget about the trauma of being left behind — but not our Doodlebug. Snickerdoodle barely eats, and although he is getting better, he is not nearly interested enough in snacks to be distracted from our goings and comings.

We’re off to the pharmacy to pick up some anxiety meds, and will be trying a slow introduction to a different crate. It could be a long journey ahead for Snickerdoodle, but we’re up to the challenge — we love the little dude, and we’ll work with him for as long as it takes.

The way to our hearts

January 10, 2012 By in Snickerdoodle 296 Comments

It’s funny, how some of them find the way to your heart as though they were hitching a ride on cupid’s arrow.

Don’t get us wrong. We have loved every one of our foster dogs to little bits and pieces. With some of them, the bond we’ve formed feels almost as strong as the one we share with our own Sir Chick. But with Snickerdoodle? We fell hard and fast. Within 24 hours, I was saying to foster dad “we’re going to keep him.” Within 48, I was brainstorming how we could possibly squeeze three dogs into our tiny house — two of our own plus a foster.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve threatened to keep at least four our fosters so far, and gone on to bravely find them a perfect home of their own. Saying goodbye has been bittersweet with most of them, and I’ve cried after sending off at least half of them. But we’ve done what’s best for them and sent them on their way. I’m putting my money on the same thing happening with Snickerdoodle.

We’re already mourning the day in the future when we’ll have to say goodbye, but in the meantime, we’re walking on clouds and loving every minute.

 

Sweet as a cinnamon-sugar cookie: meet Snickerdoodle!

January 9, 2012 By in Snickerdoodle, Uncategorized 32 Comments

There were a few short moments after Dora the Explorer was adopted and went home that we felt that the house was a little too quiet and a little too roomy with just us and our Chick. Luckily we didn’t have much time to ponder this, because after Dora trotted off to her new happy life, we had a cup of coffee and ate a piece of toast, and this little dude trotted in to our happy life.

Meet Snickerdoodle!

Before coming into our home, Snickerdoodle was living at the new Austin Animal Center (AAC), where he had come in as a stray*. Animal control officers identified a likely owner, but when alerted, the person said he was not interested in picking our little dude up. And judging from his skin-and-bones appearance, he had been out on his own for a while.

He passed his evaluation with flying colors, but still — an adult pit bull type dog’s fate is never certain at a municipal shelter, even one that has achieved “no kill” status. Lucky for him and lucky for us, Love-A-Bull recognized this guy’s golden spirit and snatched him up.

Snickerdoodle came home straight from his neuter surgery at the vet’s office. The first day in our home, he seemed nervous and anxious. He paced, whimpered, and whined. He wouldn’t eat or drink, and wasn’t interested in toys, treats, or cuddles. But after a peaceful night’s sleep, the little dude had a change of heart, and started to open up. Over the weekend he started to share his true personality with us: his penchant for eating soggy kibble, rolling around on his back in the grass, loving his foster brother Chick with a passion, and sleeping with all four paws in the air.

We didn’t think it was possible to fall in love in just three quick days, but gosh– I guess we were wrong!

 

*1/9 CORRECTION: Snickerdoodle was living at Arlington Animal Services near Dallas, and was scheduled for euthanasia the day that Love-A-Bull pulled him into rescue. Apologies for the mistake!

Chix-a-Lot Friday: I like dudes!

January 6, 2012 By in Chick, Snickerdoodle 32 Comments

Now that I’ve shipped off foster sister Dora the Explorer to her new home, can I get something off my chest that I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time?

I. Like. Dudes. Girls are ok, but I just really, really prefer boy dogs.  You still love me, right?

All of my best friends are boys. Remember how famously I got along with my first boy foster dog, Gonzo Bunny-Ears? Yeah, it’s no coincidence that he was a dude.

And yet, mama keeps bringing home foster sisters for me. What’s the deal with that? I ALWAYS whine and complain, and mama says that rescue groups think it’s a good “rule of thumb” to place opposite gender dogs together for the best chances of success. But that’s dumb. I don’t even have any thumbs, so why would I care about a rule of thumbs? And she’s always talking about how “every dog is an individual,” so why doesn’t that apply to these kinds of preferences? If a Chick likes dudes better, let him foster dudes, I say!

So I begged and pleaded and begged and pleaded, and finally mama relented. She said that if I promised to be totally tender-sweet and love him like a true brother or best friend, she would bring me home a dude instead of a girl. And I promised. And I delivered.

Meet the new dude on Monday!

A hero in Log Cabin

January 5, 2012 By in Uncategorized 50 Comments

Just before New Years Eve, I took a little drive for Love-A-Bull . . . to Log Cabin, Texas. The object of my road trip? This guy – Macky Mack.

Two days prior, a kind dog-lover had posted the Examiner article to Love-A-Bull’s facebook page, and once we saw it, there was an instantaneous explosion of emails among us: “Can we take this dog?” “We have to take this dog.” “We’re taking this dog.” “I already emailed and called Chief Nutt.” And in a blink, I boldly raised my hand to volunteer for the transport, and was on my way.

Arriving at the police station in town, I noted that “Log Cabin” is not just a name – the picturesque sprinkling of tiny buildings that house all city functions are all actual log cabins. I called Chief Nutt, and he said he’d meet me in a jiffy. “I really appreciate y’all,” he had told me in an email the day before.

Chief Nutt first met Macky while writing a citation for his caretaker for an expired rabies vaccine and no required dog license. Macky was a chained dog, living his life in a barren dirt circle with a 10 foot diameter. Over the following months, the Chief returned a few times to visit Macky. Once to issue another citation for licensing, another time to demand a shelter be constructed for the dog – in the dead of winter.

A lifelong dog lover with a pack of dogs of his own plus an occasional foster, Chief Nutt had never been fond of pit bull type dogs. But when he got the call from Macky’s neighbor saying that the dog had grown thinner and weaker over the past few weeks, he hopped in his truck and headed right over. After a brief negotiation with the caretaker, Chief Nutt learned that she had stopped feeding him because her son – Macky’s owner – had stopped sending money for kibble. Chief Nutt swiftly charged her with animal cruelty and convinced her to surrender Macky.

Ordinarily, there is a three-day “stray hold” period at the police station’s holding facility, after which the dogs are taken to the county humane society and put up for adoption. But the three days came and went, and two weeks later, Chief Nutt was still hanging on to Macky. As the days rolled on, he grew more and more fond of Macky. “He’s just a big pussycat,” he told me. The Chief didn’t want to surrender him for fear that he would be euthanized. So Macky Mack stayed, and Chief Nutt wondered what would happen next.

While a widely-read Examiner article inspired more than 3,000 phone calls to the humane society pleading for help for Macky, no donations came in for his care and no rescue stepped up to take him. About a week later, we got the facebook post.

When I arrived in Log Cabin on December 30th, Macky was prancing around in the large play yard, soaking up the sunshine and letting out an occasional confident, celebratory woof. By this time it was not only Chief Nutt who was infatuated with him, but of several other city employees who were not accustomed to falling for stray dogs. There’s just something about Macky Mack.

He was a little shy at first, doing a few fly-bys before finally plopping his butt down and requesting a good scratch behind the ears. He daintily took treats from my hands and leapt and bounded around after a kong that I produced from my bag of tricks. Under Chief Nutt’s care, Macky had become a happy dog.

As we talked, Chief Nutt fondly scratched Macky Mack’s ears and boasted about how far he had come in just a few weeks. How much stronger and more confident he seemed, and how much weight he had gained. He brought out Macky’s girlfriend – a sweet little blue-and-white pit bull type girl with enormous floppy ears — to show me how gentle and dog-social he is. Watching the two of them run around together and hearing her own sad story (she was picked up as a stray on Christmas Eve, bleeding, reportedly having been shot), I knew that I was heading back to Austin not with one new Love-A-Bull, but with two. Oops!

When I asked, the Chief admitted that Macky was the first pit bull type dog he had ever really liked, but quickly followed that thanks to Macky, he was sure there would be others. Macky had started to change his mind.

What I love perhaps the most about dog rescue is how frequently you see this type of snowball effect in action. One person’s tenacity and hope against the odds –in this case Chief Nutt’s – can be enough to save a life. When the Chief decided to let Macky into his heart and give him a few more days, he changed the course of Macky’s life forever. From now on, Macky will be swaddled in love. It never would have been possible without Macky’s hero, Chief Nutt.

Before we took off, I passed along a few little gifts to Chief Nutt from Love-A-Bull – a thank you card with Chick’s photo on it, a beautiful pit bull calendar, and a t-shirt to remember us by. We exchanged hugs and promises to keep in touch, and the Chief joked that if we didn’t get out of there soon, he was going to cry.

Macky got a good pep talk before we loaded up in the car for the long ride back to Austin. I respectfully walked away to let them have their privacy, but I think I heard the word “proud” in there somewhere.

Macky snoozed peacefully on the three-hour drive to his new home –a long-time Love-A-Bull foster who could take both dogs– in Austin. Upon arrival, he was crowned with a new name for his new start: Nutty Brown — a tribute to his personal hero, Chief Wayne Nutt.

Dora the Explorer – ADOPTED!

January 4, 2012 By in Dora the Explorer 52 Comments

We are delighted to announce that our first Texas foster dog, Dora the Explorer, has been adopted! We are overwhelmed with excitement, joy, longing, and pride. But surprise? Hardly.

Didn’t we all expect Dora to go out in high Dora fashion, nose turned proudly to the wind, doing her sassy little tap dance across somebody’s heart, knocking us all down with her big personality and cutes? It’s only fitting that she would be Love-A-Bull‘s first adoption of the year. After all — does a gal like Dora ever share the spotlight or take second place? No way!

 

Dora’s new life could hardly be more perfect for her. Her mama is a longtime pit bull lover who has been missing having a dog in the house since she moved to Texas, leaving behind in North Carolina a long-distance boyfriend and three pit bull type dogs she lived with and dearly loved. Dora will be her one and only love. Because her new mama is an empty nester with two grown children, Dora will be pampered just like she deserves — sleeping on the bed, going on long trail walks, and basking in the sunshine in her big, new, fenced-in yard.

We always like to ask our dogs for their forever-family wish list. Some of the dogs have very long and specific wish lists, like Gonzo Bunny-Ears, who insisted that his new family have a jumbo-sized sister dog for him and be willing to keep his silly name, and Little Zee, who wanted a family with no other pets and a willingness to help her up and down stairs and on and off furniture because of her disability.

When we asked Dora for her adopter wish list, we learned that had just a couple of items:

  • Dote on me!
  • Make me the center of your world!
  • Tell me I’m pretty every day!
  • Let me sleep on the bed with you!
  • Make me the girly-girl I am destined to be!

Her new mama Mary is more than happy to fulfill all of these requests and more. She’s even ordering her a special pink crate to match her raspberry pink hoodie and jacket. And to a gal like Dora, nothing says “true love” like a pink dog crate.

We’re going to miss Dora’s sweet little personality around our house, but we’re proud to know she’s off on her grand forever-adventure. Bon voyage, sweet girl!

New year? Newly cleaned furs.

January 3, 2012 By in Dora the Explorer 22 Comments

You could say it’s a New Year’s tradition at our house, but this would be the first year we’ve adapted it. Still, we like it. Nice clean dogs for a nice clean new year.

 

Dora disagrees. She thinks that dirty, stinky doggies are much more appropriate for a new year. If you don’t bring last year’s treasures with you when you’re turning over a new leaf, how can you be sure you’ll know who you are?

And so went the bathtub tango. Us offering peanut butter, treats, praise, songs, and petting. Dora turning her upturned nose and her underbitten face away, as though to say “Thank you, but I reject your pathetic advances.” Once in the tub, she refused to even stand with all four paws on the tub floor, as though she was preserving her dignity through just her pristinely dry front-left paw.

"I'll be damned if I put this last dry paw down, lady."

 

After some additional coaxing (I think fosterdad offered her a $100 bill and a sip of his Lagunitas IPA), she succumbed to the new bath tradition and bore it like the good girl that she is, even the much-dreaded face-washing.

nice and clean and ready to scram . . .

I'm a good girl . . . but which way's the door?

I'm going for it . . .

Is there a fire escape, maybe?

 

After we wrapped our Dora-bull in a nice thick orange towel, we all enjoyed a good romp on the bed and the world was whole again.

 

But welcoming 2012 with nice, clean, vanilla-scented furs wasn’t the only reason that Dora needed a bath . . . stay tuned tomorrow to find out her other motive!

Resolutions

January 2, 2012 By in on fostering 31 Comments

Who’s thinking about fostering their first dog this year? In January of 2010, we were. It was a year if big hopes and big dreams for us. Buy our first house. Start a new job. Foster our first dog.

And we did it. And we loved it. And we grew addicted. We’ve done it time and time again.

So why not give it a try? There are rescues and shelters out there with needs to suit almost everybody’s lifestyle. Even if you can only commit to a few days, or a certain size, temperament, color, breed, energy level, and astrological sign, there’s a dog (or a cat!) out there whose life you can save by opening your home and your heart for a short while. Who knows? Loving lonely, homeless animals while they search for their forever might be the most satisfying thing you’ve ever done.

Here are the faces we’ve been honored to love this year. What will your first face look like?