Rescue Journal

2 more dogs at saints

Carol · Jan. 26, 2010

these are not our dogs, these are a couple of strays that maggie, laura and i set up for the night. nice dogs..one is shy and sketchy..she was harder to get on a leash. anyway..here is the thing..i already like these dogs..i already know they are highly bonded and rely deeply on each other. their nails are worn down to nothing, they are too thin and wolfed down 2 large bowls of food each so i also know they have been lost for quite awhile...just 2 really good friends trucking around the countryside together without a clue as to where they actually live.

we set them up in the pen outside of the aviaries..it is cramped but they don't care cuz they are laying with their heads on each other, safe at last with with their best forever friend.

and now i am already worrying....what if they came from a crappy home and they get re-claimed? what if they came from a good home who quit looking for them a long time ago? what if they don't get re-claimed and they go up for adoption and then are adopted into different homes? what if once lost, then found, they then lose each other? that is just too terrible to be.

this is why i hate picking up stray dogs...i like them immediately, i worry about them and can't really do anything for them except take them to animal control and hope they find their long lost home and that it is a fairly decent one at least.

sigh..i wonder if the staff will mind if i ask if they can come back to me if they can't find a good home together?
pain in the ass (and head and heart) stray dogs....they drive me crazy with worry.

Comments

Carol

lol sheila...passionate honesty is never disrespectful.
and i will fully admit to 2 things...one..only a life long sanctuary has the real option of not breaking STRONGLY bonded animals (i want to talk about the STRONGLY part in another post cuz i think this whole topic is fascinating) and 2 (because we are a sanctuary)....my goal with the animals that come to saints is not to help them fit into the human world but to create a world that molds and bends to suit them and where we become the beloved/much fun servant/playmate guests.

marg

Have read your "dialogues"...and am wondering if there's some way to trace back to "lost dog" ads that were posted a while back...in maybe a 25 mile radius..?? Do either of them have a tatoo? Guess I'm being hopeful that they actually did come from a good home & something went very wrong (maybe a move ?)...My thoughts are that it would be too sad to separate these two "brothers"...the love they share is a "big deal" to them. Good luck. Marg

Sheila

Well - I do think we did teach Boomer real trust or he wouldn't have gone to his home and adjusted so easy in the home (we won't talk about his walks).

Let me explain a different way - Leila and I are twins that were extremely bonded (we obviously still are) as children that came from a very volatile home and thus were extremely shy (plus coming from a culture that was at times had different rules for females didn't always help during our teen years). We were seperated in grade one because we were so dependent. At times were together grades 4 and 5 - but mostly seperated which looking back was better for us. Then we went into high school and did all of our classes together
- it was a real good excuse not to socialize, not to make seperate friends not to do a lot of things. Which looking back I realize was very much a mistake.

We didn't get smart until we hit college chose different majors and started understand life was just a little bit happier (some of that might have been that we were becoming adults) But growing up we were so codependent that it wasn't healthy.

I will respectfully will agree to disagree with you - which you are kind of used to and I am sure you are now saying but a lot of times you aren't respectful

Maggie

Thanks Carol I couldn't agree more. I think what we are about is respecting the deep bond which is very obvious with this pair and not making it convenient for the human element.

Carol

i totally agree with the public vs private shelter adoptibilty difference..but i totally disagree with breaking up STRONGly bonded pairs. i say use that bonded trust to help the shy-er, less social dog to grow confidence..it might be more work for us..or maybe in the longer run it is actually easier and more far reaching.
how can you teach real trust when we humans take away from them the one they love and need most just because we get the results WE want sooner?
i think it is disrepectful to the animal-animal bond...that can be stretched to be an animal-animal-human bond...it does not have to be one or the other.

Sheila

Sorry for all the grammatical errors (putting an "a" where it shouldn't be and leaving out a "to" etc) but I don't know how to get back in and edit.

Sheila

Leila and I fostered one dog out of a bonded pair from the shelter. They were similar enough to be brothers from the same litter. We took the dog that was really "shy". It took us FOREVER to seperate them in the kennel because Boomer kept following his brother - whose name escapes me. Although he was shy of people and okay dogs I never felt that he was pining for his brother. And his brother did fine being left in the shelter. And what is really stinky of me is if we had been fostering Boomer (and Herbie - remebered his name)
I wouldn't have been keen to adopt them out together because my responsibility as my foster dog is to make his life in the "human" world as successful as possible and that means Boomer (and Herbie) needed to be bonded to their people first over each other. Why does the dog need to be bonded to human first - because that is his safety line. I wouldn't want Boomer to be looking to his bro has his safety line which is what he was doing in the shelter. Boomer is a very happy doggie in his new home and Herbie (who through his new parents connected with his brother almost a year later) his also a happy healthy dog.

If you keep those young well tempered dogs at SAINTS they won't get the exposure that a public shelter will give them and may deprive them of a good home. As foster person for public shelters - I don't just take a dog from the shelter I really have to believe it will help them because I know as soon as s/he comes into my home a I have know prolonged the time it will take him or her to find a home.

Sheila

Poor guys, I hope they can stay together... thinking of bonded dogs... how is sissy doing ?

Maggie

Me too! I can't handle the thought of them losing each other.

Colleen

I hope they never leave. They are sweet ( and very tired, but relaxed ) dogs and I cannot get them out of my head. I can't stand the thought of them in concrete cells. If they can hang out at Saints till/if the owners show up I'll take responsibility for their walks etc.