Old Dogs

Senior Citizen Chihuahua
Originally uploaded by Calsidyrose

I feel the worst for the old dogs who come into the Shelter. The ones like Mrs. Puff, the old Chihuahua surrendered two weeks ago.

No one noted any remarks beyond "owner surrender" on her intake paperwork. She is heartworm negative, so someone was caring for her, at least that much. But not enough to keep her to the end of her days.

She is so self-contained, so fully aware--she watches me and I can hear her thoughts:

You are nice, but...
The couch is comfy, but...
I like your grass, but...
The food is good, but...

Sometimes it is difficult to meet her gaze, which is intensely direct and unflinching. Her ears stand up like bat wings, and she follows my movements with her gaze, clouded though it is due to beginnings of cataracts.

I wonder if her owner thinks about her. I know Mrs. Puff has thought hard about her person. I know the first day I met Mrs. Puff, she was looking for her person. We were at an Off-Site at the local cinema-complex, a place I'm sure Mrs. Puff had never been. But she had a purpose--she was, like the Blues Brothers, on a mission from God.

All day, in spite of the heat, she padded forward, first one direction, then the next, walking as far as the leash would permit, her gaze direct and unflinching, her bat-wing ears perked forward, listening. Her confidence was palpable. Her person would come.

I took her home. I've fed her, gotten her on a potty schedule, fixed a bed by the dresser in my bedroom since she complains if she's crated. I've given her meds for kennel cough, cleaned out her ears, and dosed her with benadryl when her itchies become too bothersome. I've placed an ad extolling her virtues, but no one has responded. I am not her person. I am her foster.

Two days ago, I sensed a shift in Mrs. Puff. A flicker of depression. An awareness that her person is not coming. Now she is focused fully on me, on my daughter, and my son. She wants her bed in a certain spot. She wants help onto the couch. She wants her food. She has surrendered her heart to me. And it makes my heart ache to know this.

Think Before You Get a Dog

You may have seen this video--I found it on Stumpy's blog here.  I plan to forward it to some of my Shelter friends.  While actors are reading the voiceovers, the excuses are the ones I hear every day at the shelter.  Watch it.  Share it.  And thank you, Stumpy!

Drive-By Drop-Offs

Puppy season is in full swing—which means that unplanned, unwanted, and often uncared-for, litters of puppies are being brought to the Shelter.  Puppies arrive in clothes baskets, kennels, and cardboard boxes.  Technically, the person surrendering puppies, even strays, should go inside the shelter and fill out paperwork.  Most of the time, there is a fee for surrendering a litter, along with some paperwork that is meant to deter multiple drop-offs from owners who neglect to spay or neuter their animals.

However, not all surrenders are done the right way.  Puppies are often dropped off at night, left behind the plastic picket fence of the play area where where potential adopters and Shelter dogs get to know each other.  Sometimes they are left in old dog crates or big boxes by the front door.  About a month, a volunteer found two tiny puppies huddled on top of a trash can full of soda cans and fast-food cartons.  Amazingly, the puppies were alive and managed to survive.

Brazen drop-offs occur in the parking lot.  On April 12^th, according to Dr. Patricia Ryan, the MCAS Shelter director, a pick-up truck pulled up and a young man leaped out and tossed a large cardboard box in front of the door, with many little furry heads and ears sticking out of the top, cruelty jolted when it hit the pavement.  The head officer of Animal Control witnessed the event from inside the shelter.  He rushed out the door--but the truck had alreay spun out and was fish-tailing down the driveway at an amazing speed!

The box contained 15 beautiful brown and black pups were in that box, their little faces serious, eyes wide and innocent.  The officer did get the license plate number, so if the culprit gets pulled over for some other violation, maybe we’ll see some justice.  As Dr. Ryan noted, “When this happens, we all look at each other and say, ‘Well...it could have been worse.’  The guy could have dumped them in the water or by the road.”  Dr. Ryan added that on that day more than 30 puppies (including the 15 abandoned pups) plus several litters of kittens arrived at the Shelter.

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Photo found on Flickr; altered in Photoshop

Overheard at the Shelter's Front Desk

An Old Dog Finds a Safe Haven

Snowy, a 10 year old rough-coated Jack Russell Terrier was surrendered by his owners on April 29, 2009. His owners claimed that a few days earlier he had become terrified during a severe thunderstorm and dashed wildly around, knocking a television off its stand. Here in Houston, thunderstorms are a regular occurrence, so those of us at the Shelter wondered why now?

His owners surrendered him with his gear—pillow, toys, food and such. Snowy ended up in the Blue Room with the “Stray Hold” animals wearing a faded red collar with his rabies tag and a metal “Spiderman” tag embossed with his name and the owners’ phone number.

A family dog, Snowy is fully housebroken, knows sit, come, and shake, and carries himself with calm and quiet dignity. His puppy days are long behind him, and while he has the short-legged blocky body of the classic JRT, he has settled into maturity.

He can still chase a cat and fiercely guard his rawhide chew, but he is happiest sprawled quietly on a rug near your feet. His teeth are ground down from years of hard chewing, but otherwise he appears to be in good health. He’s even heartworm negative—a sign that his owners had given him regular preventive tablets.

But the chaos of the Shelter nearly defeated this stalwart little dog’s JRT spirit—he wouldn’t eat, and he moped. At Off-Site events, he seemed resigned to the fact that his family had thrown him away, but the grief of betrayal had robbed the life from his eyes. Older dogs face longer wait times for adoption, and Snowy had lost his spirit, so he was nearly invisible to prospecticve adopters. However, all the volunteers fell for him, and we made sure he went Off-Site, and pampered him with canned food and baths. It looked like Snowy would be in the Shelter a long, long time.

But Snowy’s fortunes shifted on May 16th when he went home with one of our dedicated volunteers, a woman who (like most volunteers at the Shelter is “dog poor”) but who was willing to see if Snowy could fit in with her pack. She took him home, fed him and made him a comfy bed. That evening, we had a severe thunderstorm—the booming thunder-cracks set my dogs to barking. But the volunteer called with interesting news, “Guess what,” she said, “Snowy isn’t afraid of thunderstorms at all.”

Now, almost a week later, Snowy has settled in to his new home. His foster mom reports that the life-gleam is back in his eye and he even chased one of her cats. He’s reliably housebroken and gets on well with her other dogs. He doesn’t like to be crated (what JRT does?) but he’s doing fine in her “dog room.” I’m happy to report that Snowy doesn’t need to leave his new home to go to Off-Sites. In fact, he’ll probably end up a “permanent foster.” Snowy is indeed a fortunate little Jack Russell Terrier.

50 Ways to Get Rid of Your Dog

This is the first in an on-going series of ways to surrender your dog at the Shelter. Following are actual explanations for surrendering a dog that I have witnessed. These situations are presented in no particular order, but I'll add to them 5 items at a time. Names are omitted to protect the ignorant, foolish, unfortunate and desperate.

1. Move out of your house and leave your Jack Russell Terrier in the back yard. Neighbors will care for the dog for three weeks, then bring her to the Shelter.

2. Go to a bar with a cardboard box of three 7-week-old Chihuahua puppies. Someone will bring one of the “free” puppies to the Shelter. She is adorable but has an umbilical hernia and a skin condition. We don’t know what happened to the other two pups.

3. Tie your Golden Retriever mix to the chain link fence at the Shelter sometime during the night. The staff will find the dog in the morning.

4. Bring your elderly Cocker Spaniel inside the Shelter on a busy weekend afternoon. Ask someone to hold the leash while you go get something from your car. Never come back inside the Shelter.

5. Take your 1.5-year-old intact male Weimaraner to the Shelter. Explain that he keeps getting out and you can’t deal with it anymore.

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Dog image scanned from my personal collection of graphics. From a vintage children's reader.