Is it just me?

Everyone seems to think my blog is all about THEM.  Hello?  This is MY blog, aka, MY diary, MY life.  If you think it's all about YOU, it's not really....it's about the things that happen in my life with rescue dogs.  Get over yourself that I'd have time to dwell on drama you maybe, unwittingly created within me?  I am ever so grateful to have wonderful friends I've met over dogs...local, in person friends, and long distance, on-the-internet dog lovers alike.  I love them all.  But more and more lately, I am seeing their "true colors".  And I'd wondering if it's just me?

I see people getting puppies from breeders, one in particular who tried her hand at rescue, but that didn't last long...and I never found out the real reason why, but I can see (for crying out loud!) that breeding puppies is apparently more important to the world then saving ones dumped in shelters.

I see people seeming to think that by getting a puppy it will be easier on the present dog.  Now I'm stewing.  This breeder has them hood-winked into feeling honored to get one of their breeding?  Honored?  They seem to feel they have really thought this all over, and that it was a huge decision, or maybe not so much....does it really matter?

I know the game.  I know the sales act.  Heck, you might say I do it all the time for rescue dogs.  I want to ask you seriously...what is wrong with a second hand dog? It too came from a breeder in the beginning, and probably a proper breeder at that.  But just because it found itself on some rough luck, all the sudden that dog is considered JUNK?

Where is that breeder now?  Excuses, excuses....they won't take their dog back.  Oh, they might say they do, they might have you sign some fancy contract, but whose monitoring that?  Who cares?

I think about all my friends who support rescue, yet they turn around and buy from a breeder.  What is wrong with all that is they don't have a clue that what they are really doing is cabashing rescue and promoting breeders.  It's pretty simple.  They say well, "my dog wouldn't accept a rescue".  HELLO?  Whose in charge here, the dogs or the people? 

I just can't take it anymore, but if I say anything I will be banned, blocked, loose friends, fans and people who truely pretend to care about rescue.  But really? They don't.  All they care about is the same damn thing everyone else does; they want the PERFECT DOG.  And they think, only THE perfect dog comes from a breeder, as a puppy? 

All of them came from breeders in the beginning, some are destroyed inbetween (BY PEOPLE), and it's people like this who give them a name.  'JUNK' may as well be a rescue dog's name...because that's what it feels like to me, thrown away like garbage for whatever stupid reason, and I bust my ass to save dogs...and wonder why do I bother?  This all just adds to my depression.  Pile it on...

I wish I could save them all.  If I could, I'd save the entire world...but with breeders still out there, I'm so screwed.  And with people out there willing to shell out money for a puppy, I wonder...  "Is it just me?" 

The ones who rescue us...

After Tracker died, my soul left with him.  Sure I saved more dogs, sure I lived to take care of the ones I still had in my home, but my soul left with Tracker that night.  I became hard.  I didn't exactly know it at the time, or did I?  Earlier that day after I spent time with him at the emergency room, I met my friend for lunch, because it was her birthday, and I promised. I didn't want to be there with her, listening to her non-caring soul bitch at me for all the money I spent to keep Tracker alive thus far...and how he is "only" a dog, blah, blah, blah....  but in REALITY...she was right...if what the radiologist said was true, and he did have cancer, I would never have put him thru chemo.  Not if you saw what I saw on that Xray machine of his lungs.  I had to toss myself up to the Lord and said "so be it".  Take the one thing I loved most in my life.  Take him now.  Don't make him suffer.  And I let him go.  And I let myself go along with him.  I wanted to curl up in a ball and die to be with him again.  That is just plain pathetic...he was a dog.  Nope...he was "the one".  Or so I thought?  That was January 2007. 



Jim

 And life just sort of droaned on.  Then that fall, we grabbed a female and a male from northern WI shelters, and both landed at my house for some reason, when I gotta look at that male, I said to myself  "Oh no.... Tracker".  It was like from some where over "the rainbow" came this big galoof, who reminded me instantly of Tracker!  Oh God.... ok, get it outta your mind sister... so he went to another foster home, and I kept the female, who turned out to be the most obnoxious whiner there ever was...and this lemonhead pointer turned out to be a runner, who landed in jail less then 24-hrs later, costing us bail money.  Well, that was it...I switched foster dogs and took "the runner".  Me and Mr. Ecollar had a little training session with this one.  We hunt tested him, pass. Got vet work done, pass... potty trained... pass, found him a home, all good, all according to schedule.  And the entire time he was gone, in my head played "the Jimmy Back" song...ya know, "I want my Jimmy back...".  And when the guy returned him on about the 10th day, it so happened to be three days before what would have been Tracker's birthday, and I said this is a damn omen....I got my Jimmy back!  And he stayed.  He rescued me as it turns out.

He sleeps in bed with me, he guards me, he guards his house, he tolerates rescue dogs coming in and out, he loves "the girls", in general Jim is a big love boy.  If I'm in the shower, he waits on the other side of the door for me.  He watches where I go, what I do, where I am.  He is a little submissive and shy, but if someone were trying to attack me, I think he'd go for it.  This dog has WAY more personality then Tracker ever did.  This boy saved my soul.  And it happened so slowly, I never really realized, all the sudden I was not crying myself to sleep anymore for Tracker.  I just threw an arm over Jim and drift off to sleep, listening to the sound of HIS breathing.  (Trust me, sometimes I do feel like a traitor to Tracker.)  Whoever threw James away, probably never loved him like I do.  I always have this thought, that some day, some where, some way, some one will come up to me "hey!  I had a dog like that once".  I will have to punch them in the nose, no questions asked.  Their loss, MY gain, and truely, 'the gift' is all mine.  This dog, like so many before, and maybe others after, saved me.  Jim wears Tracker's tag that says "I rescued a human".



Jim, my guardian



 Indeed he has...

Once again, like a broken record...."the RESPONSIBLE"...

To Owners Of Dogs

On Facebook by GSP National: Missy Neal on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 5:09pm

Before you surrender your ailing elder dog to the shelter for the reason that you can't bear to euthanize the dog yourself, please think about this. That dog has stood by you for all of its life - 12 years? 14 years? 17 years? That dog has loved you unconditionally, put up with your kids and grandkids pulling his ears and taking his toys, perhaps hunted for you, sat shotgun in your truck while you ran errands, laid on the couch with you when you were down with the flu. Sure, he may be a counter surfer, gets in the trash, chases the cat, barks his head off at neighbors walking by. But by the end of a dog's life, the good things always, always far outweigh the bad things.

What has this dog done to deserve the cold hard cement floor of a shelter as his last home? As his owner and partner of over a decade, don't you think you owe him the dignity of dying in your own home, or if at a vet at least dying in your arms? Perhaps you can't bear the thought of putting him down, can't watch. Instead of dumping him at the shelter, take him to your vet who has also undoubtedly loved this dog as you have for over a decade. You take him to his friend, the vet, and you wait in the lobby until it is "done" and then take that poor tired body home to bury in your yard.

Think about what you're going to tell your kids, what example you're setting for them. For your kids or your grandkids. Are you teaching them that their pets are expendable, and when they're old and weak it's better to just "disappear" them to a shelter than to stick by them until their end?

Do not take comfort in the fact that Rescue will come along and save your dog. We take as many as we can with the understanding that these senior dogs will probably die in foster care because their owners were too selfish (or chicken) to deal with the sad, unpleasant reality of the end of their beloved dog's life. We can not and DO NOT SAVE THEM ALL. Those that we can take, we do. But many, many dogs perish in shelters because they have been surrendered by their owner, they are old and sick and no one wants to adopt a dog that is old and sick. No one is going to stand by that dog like you would and should stand by him, as the owner who has loved him for more than a decade.

For the last few weeks we have been working to get Ellie, a 14 year old GSP, into foster care. Ellie was pulled from a shelter in Spokane by a Mastiff rescue volunteer. This volunteer was trying to get her stable enough to transport to foster care with a GSP Rescue group. Ellie passed all blood work - no heartworm, no parasites, no organ failure - she had an upper respiratory infection. They put her on tramadol for osteoarthritis. She had a benign tumor in her ear and needed dental work. Personality - terrific. She was housebroken, sweet, a "leaner", loved people, got along with other dogs, ignored cats.

By the volunteer's description, Ellie was an elderly, tired, and very weak dog.

However, the conclusion from the vet was deliberate starvation. This was middle of February. For 2 weeks Ellie was fed "anything she wants - hand fed human food and mega-calorie prescription diet. She can only eat a couple of spoonfuls at a time - is being fed every 3 hours."

On Monday we learned that Ellie would never make it to foster care in GSP Rescue. Here is the note we got from the wonderful Mastiff Rescue volunteer who had been caring for Ellie:

"Thanks for all of your support and assistance.  I regret to inform you that "Ellie" was euthanized today due to a blood clot and congestive heart failure.  We determine through an ultrasound that she was terminal and her failure to thrive was probably linked to her heart.  Her heart was pumping about 25% of capacity.  I feel right about the decision - Ellie was in a warm loving environment for her last two weeks, had the best of medical care and if she would have survived and thrived would have moved on to a group that would have loved her as we did." 

I have attached a photo of Ellie to this note. This should NOT be why we do Rescue, folks. Dogs should die in the arms of their family who has loved them for all of their lives. You owe it to that dog. Sending him or her to certain death at a shelter is not an honorable action, and you should not have a clear conscience should you choose that course of action.

Please, before you consider just looking the other way and dumping your loyal companion of many years at a shelter, think on these things.

Ellie the day she was pulled from the shelter. Less than 40 lbs.

Ellie, weak but grateful

See?  It's not only ME.  (Hugs Missy)  Can you understand why we can never stop being "the responsible"?  Someone has to do it...it's part of the passion, or should we say COMpassion thing...that ends up killing our souls, making us hate people, with each one like Ellie we handle.  Welcome to our world... 

What's it all about?



Tracker, 8.4.01

 Sometimes I have this dream... and in it, no matter where I'm at (but it's usually some big, flowing house, with many rooms, many doors, junk laying all over like hoarders), he is always just "this far" away from me.  Why does it feel like I'm constantly tracking down TRACKER?  What's it all about?

I only got to hold this dog for a short time.  I was so disappointed and utterly shattered when I had to decide his fate that cold January day.  It was too soon, it wasn't his time, not in the "natural" sense.  I will always question my decision.  But it is, what it is...  Bottom line is I would not have wanted him to suffer.  (I think he had cancer)

Tracker's story is on my other website,  http://www.gsplady.com/rescuedogstories.htm, I can't bear to read it or repeat it yet.  Heck, I'm just beginning to be able to say his name out loud without bursting into tears!


Tracker at work with me.


Ya know even before he died, I had a dream...I chased and hunted him down (he was with Miracle in that one), she came running back to me, he didn't. Was it an omen?  Why am I always chasing this dog down on foot in my dreams?   He is always just "this far" away (like the sand bar photo above). I can just about get to him, but then again, I can't reach him.  What's it all about?

Today it makes me cry.  I am sad without him, and yet, I can barely remember the smell of him, the sound of his breathing that used to put me to sleep at night.  I miss him so bad, it still tears my guts right out, after all these years.  What is wrong with me?  He was just a dog.  I know in reality there are many, MANY more... and perhaps Tracker sent Jim my way to ease the pain....which it did. But no two dogs are the same.  They each have character and personality.  It's why we either bond with them or we don't.  Tracker was a gentle soul.  We chose each other.  I'm grateful I got to hold him and know him for the short time I did.  And if I always have to track him down, well, then I guess I will, because that is one dog I will be looking for on the "other side".   Perhaps I'll never know what the dreams are really all about...  but when I DO find him, there will be no separating us again.

How To Exercise Your GSP.....I'm so jealous...

James Dean could use ALOT of this....

Who keeps count?

I do.  With only so many places to stash dogs, and THIS many dogs needing us....someone better keep count....keep track...make sure we have enough money, enough supplies, enough food, treats, crates, etc...  I do.  I keep track of the dogs, I keep track of my part time job, I keep track of my house, my own dogs, myself, and sometimes I seriously wonder whose keeping track of me?


Dotty

 So, this fella called me about his female, Dotty.  Seems she is one of those females with attitude...she is a trained hunter, however can't be trusted with the kids anymore and is not welcome back home.  So he sent her back to her breeder for more training (boarding), and she kicked one of his dogs ass, and now the breeder wants her out asap.  So here we are.  He doesn't trust her, the breeder doesn't trust her, yet I should drop everything to save his dog?  uhhhuh?  I dunno Dotty girl....






Lazlo

 Then there is the very handsome Lazo's story... 
I am the owner of a 2 year old GSP, Lazlo. We are seeking your help to surrender him. We have had Lazlo for 7 months since adopting him from a Wisconsin Rescue (which is no longer in business). He is healthy, has all shots, and is neutered. He is great with our family, gets along well with our other dog (which we had prior). Problem is we just don't enough time and space that he needs to run and play. We are not hunters. Also we are going to be moving out of state. We go to dog parks as much as possible. Sometimes he'll bark at other dogs or play rough, though not aggressive in a hurtful way. He'll bark at strangers coming over to the house, can be a little intimidating (big puppy). When he gets excited he likes to grab his blanket or a shoe (soft mouth), not a big deal. He's trainable- knows "wait", "sit", "stay" for example. He is pretty good on a leash. Not trained to hunt. Overall, Lazlo will be a good dog for the right family, especially for someone that has more experience and accommodations for the breed.   




10-11 yr old Max

Can you hear me going blah, blah, blah?  Until now.... meet 10-11 yr old Max...and get out the kleenex for this story:  

Hello - Firstly, thank you for the work that you do and your love for these dogs.  I love Yankee Candles and would be willing to buy some from you.  But the real reason I am writing to you is about my Pointer, Max.  I love my Max.  He is such a sweet old dog.  I adopted Max from our local Humane Society about 5 1/2 years ago.  He was a stray and they guestimated him to be about 5 or 6 years old at the time.  Now, my husband and I are separating and I can't take Max to the apartment where I will be living.  My husband won't keep him or care for him, so I need to find him another home.  Max is a neutered male, front dewclaws removed and tail docked before I adopted him.  He is micro-chipped to me, has had annual vet visits and is current on all his shots.  I can tell he was trained to hunt because he points at rabbits when we are out walking.  He is good with children - my daughter was 3 when Max came to live with us.  He gets along well with other dogs and is very friendly.  He needs other dogs to play with and to get out and run.  He doesn't get along with cats. 

Who dumps an old dog?  Looking at Max's face, pondering his fate, brings me to tears.  Do you have any idea of how hard it will be for Max to acclimate to a new life?  But DAMN IT, I'm sure gonna try to help him.  



Little Missy in IA



Shall we continue?  Young,  female, found as stray in Iowa, is crate trained, good with other dogs, good with cats and good with kids, but she does jump up when excited so she would need a bit of training in that area especially if she is going to be around young children.  Now the lady who found her says if she can keep her she will, and she wonders if she might be preggers?  OMG?  I will do anything to get her outta Iowa... hopefully she is not having puppies. 

All in all, this would make 10 dogs we have helped thus far in 2011...but whose keeping track?

Like a broken record...

What don't folks understand about NO?

Today's email:
I have attached photos of Ivy. As you can see, she is 100% pure GSP.  Unlike many of your dogs listed on your website, this GSP is full blood and purebred. Most of the dogs you have posted are obviously not. If you're a real GSP rescue, I question why you'd post photos of mutts.

As I stated in my earlier email, I am giving my situation until mid-March to be corrected with Ivy. I also have a 10 year old lab I rescued that has major storm phobia issues, so I cannot afford to have 2 problem dogs.

I am extremely confident that if Ivy had a home with a family and kids, she could break her cycle stemming from extreme separation anxiety from me. She is so bonded to me that I question whether I can obtain the desired behavior result. But if she was in a family environment, she may do much better. 

Ben
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HOW DARE HE?  "Unlike many of your dogs listed on your website...If you're a real GSP rescue, I question why you'd post photos of mutts"
Now why on earth would he try to get my attention by throwing this is my face?  I tell you why, because he wants my FULL attention, he wants control of the situation, and he wants me to drop everything to save his ass!  Pardon me while I go BLOW!  Like a broken record, I say, my first priority are to purebred GSPs in Wisconsin's kill shelters...his problem is not my problem.  Like a broken record, I read and re-read his email, the dog has seperation issues, potties behind his back, he thinks she would be better living in an outdoor kennel?  And in the next breath " if Ivy had a home with a family and kids"....but who the hell contacts me for an old, broken dog?  Not very many.  Guys that want hunters, as he brags she is, don't want an older dog, they want a puppy, or young dog.  I refuse to allow an outdoor kennel life for any dog...so best I can do is "put it out there" and see if anyone bites.  But it's stuff like this, that makes me just want to scream!  And it's very rarely the dogs fault.  Ashame....simply ashame.