Go Team!

When I pause to think of what I am most thankful for in my rescue work, there is so much that comes to mind, but first and foremost is New Rattitude's NW team of volunteers that I am so blessed to work with.  In this group of people there are acquaintances, great friends, and even some people who probably aren't really fond of each other, and yet everyone is willing to give what they can of themselves because their focus is the dogs.

One of my rescue jobs is "state coordinator".  I share the job with my close friend (thank goodness!), and my side of the job focuses on choosing which dogs to rescue, which of our 10 foster homes the dogs will best fit in, and getting them transported to the foster homes.  It takes a lot of juggling to make sure new rescue dogs are arriving right when current fosters are going to forever homes. Or if they get here a few days early they have a place to stay for a few days.

The goal is to have as little time as possible between when an adopted dog goes home and the next rescue moves into their spot because the more efficiently we can work, the more dogs we'll be able to save over the year. Like any good team, there's a "play board" to keep track of what's going on and who's going where and when they are going and how they are headed there.  It's ridiculously full of symbols, and color coding and a variety of sections to track current foster dogs, applications, transports, dogs still in the shelter but being tracked...

The NW Team "Play Board"

And sadly, it has to pass as art in my dining room since I like to work where I can keep an eye on the dogs which means my office is a storage room for dog blankets and equipment and my dining room is an office. Yes, we pretty much live and breathe dogs here.

Rescue Central: the dining room "office"

At times the NW team gets so busy that even with my compulsive organizing I can't keep up with everything and I drop the ball. Or sometimes the unexpected emergency crops up.  Whatever the case I know there are always volunteers available who have my back.

 There is so much dedication here to save these dogs - every one willing to pitch in and give a little extra when it is needed - driving long distances to get a home visit done so a dog can get home, temping a dog who needs out of the shelter ASAP when they are already living in a house overloaded with terriers, transporting a dog over the mountains in winter when no one really wants to be driving up there unless it's for a ski vacation... The list goes on and on.

So a big thank you to my NW NR peeps who continue to make working in rescue enjoyable and fun. While it isn't always a smooth ride, we get the job done and then some.

Langley starts twisting...

Recently Langley had a visit from Behavioral Veterinarian, Dr. Louisa Beal.  I learned a lot and we are putting some of the things she taught us into play and seeing some results already. One of those results is he is now sleeping through the night. (Bless you, Dr. Beal.)

Langley, working the Twister puzzle on the easy setting

One of the things we talked about was brain exercise vs. body exercise.  While exercising a dog's body is important, it is only one part of keeping a highly intelligent, high energy dog busy. Dog's like Langley also need a brain work out. Helping them work out their brain can be nearly as energy draining as a brisk walk.

Playing with the Magic Mushroom, a food dispensing toy

While we have a ton of food dispensing toys like the Kong Wobbler, Petsafe Mushroom, Starmark Pickle Pocket, Buster Cube, etc.  I've never really used the true puzzles with my dogs. My dog Frodo tends to attempt the quickest possible way to the food which often involves chewing into it or breaking it apart to get inside.  I mean why take the time to do a puzzle to open something up when you can just smash it open?

Dr. Beal thought I should try some out with Langley so the other day I purchased the Nina Ottosson puzzle "The Twister".  It was rated "hard" however, there were ways to start out at an easier level and then slowly up the difficulty so I felt like it might last a little longer.

Because all the food dispensing toys he's played with before work by getting thrown around the room, this was Langley's initial instinct of how to get the food out (which probably would have worked) so I had to hold the puzzle down.  But he quickly figured out that the food was behind the sliders and he went to work getting those pieces moving.

Because he is just learning the puzzle, to start with I removed all the little bone pegs that lock the sliders in place. That would just be too tough and frustrating with him first starting out.

He did great and LOVES the puzzle.  In fact he loves it so much that we have to put it away when he isn't watching or he'll obsess about figuring out how to get the closet open so he can get the puzzle out again.

This is going to be a fun game that we can play together and because I'm such a dog nerd, I find it fascinating to see how he problem solves and am excited to see how he does when we start adding the pegs. 

 

Well, adding all but one peg. Langley would like to provide this public service photo to show that puzzle toys are something you work on together with your dog. Dogs shouldn't be left unattended while playing with a puzzle, both for the puzzle's safety as well as their own.

The Sights and Smells of Soggy

The third week of November is statistically the wettest week in Western Washington and it looks like 2012 is going to follow the pattern. When we woke up yesterday morning it was pouring and had been for quite awhile it seemed. The dogs were not happy about  soggy potty breaks and for the last trip outside before I left for work there was a total boycott by the four-footed ones so back they went into their crates.  It was a nasty day full of rain, wind, power outages, and damp, cold temperatures. However, the rain slowed down a few times to a light drizzle.

Neah out in the yard and enjoying the new sights, textures, and smells of a gray, rainy day

After work and during such a break, I took a chance to get out and let Neah run around a bit. While she isn't fond of full on rain, she was fine with the drizzle and quite fascinated with all the new smells that the rain brings out.

Checking out the Juniper shrub

 

Sniffing to see if there is anything interesting in the lithodora

Helping cut back the perennials

 

There was a lot of snuffling around and a few surprising wrestling matches with shrubs.

She was pretty sure there was something hiding in the Japanese Sedge

 

And then she had an all out wrestling match with a Western Sword Fern

 

Then it started to rain a bit harder.  And more importantly, she saw something...


All alert and checking out what she sees moving in the window

 

What could it be?  Or who?

 

Down in the salal patch for a better view (and to get out of the rain under the Douglas Fir trees)

 

It was poor, lonely Langley. He was ready for his buddy to be back inside.

So it was back inside for the day's 38th round of bitey-face wrestling on the couch.

Life is good.

The 1000th great story

Each dog that New Rattitude saves has a story, but since many of these dogs are strays or from big shelters, we'll never know their past. We try to guess, but who knows if we are correct. Some of the New Rattitude foster dogs' back stories are incredibly dramatic and heartbreaking - dogs purposely burned, left to die on the side of the road after being hit by a car, starving to death... It goes on and on and on and sometimes it just feels soul killing to live in a world where these things happen.

I want to put a suggestion out there, though. Let's not define these dogs by their past or the terrifying things they might have gone through.  Let's not get so sucked up in the drama and the heartbreak that we forget that they now have a chance at a bright, happy future.  See the dog: the ability to survive the worst that humankind can dish out and still greet a person with pure joy and happiness. I mean, can you really, truly wrap your mind around how incredible that is?! That they have the resiliency to move past fear and still find joy in each moment? That they can look past our weaknesses and just embrace the moment and the happiness that can be found there in the sharing of time and space with another living being? If we slow down and step out of that circle where we are the center of our little universes, we could learn so much from them.

As a New Rattitude foster parent I get the opportunity to take part in changing a dog's story;  Redrafting a life from one of neglect to a new happy tale of being a loved and cherished family member. And I'm very proud that last week New Rattitude hit the milestone of its 1000th creation of a happy story since the group was formed in the summer of 2008.  The amount of time and energy and love that New Rattitude's volunteers give to these little dogs is really an amazingly wonderful thing.

Salish's "New Dog" packet: Foster parents receive a packet for each new foster dog. It includes, a microchip, dewormer, a martingale collar, and a NR ID tag with the dog's identifying number.

Recently my current foster girl Neah received an adoption application that looks like a really great fit for her.  And like I often do, I took that chance that it would work out and okayed my friend Lynn to pull a big beautiful Rat Terrier from a shelter to be my next foster dog. This dog probably didn't have a chance of making it out without rescue, not because there's anything wrong with her, but just because there are more dogs in that shelter than can ever find a home.  I named her Salish, after a pretty body of water in NW WA/SW British Columbia: the Salish Sea. It's named for the Coastal Salish Peoples,  several Native American Tribal groups in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest.


Salish Sea, photo by Jim Teblun

And just like that, Lynn and I started to change this Rat Terrier's journey.  I logged her into our group's "ratabase" and unbeknownst to me at the time, she became New Rattitude's 1000th story.


She's not much different than a lot of the 1000 dogs that New Rattitude has rescued: a stray who ended up in a shelter with many more dogs than homes that would take them.  Nothing was wrong with her. She just had the bad luck to turn up as part of a sad statistic. I won't get to meet her for another couple of weeks until Neah heads home. In the meantime Salish is hanging with Lynn's crew.  She's a 24 pound large standard or "giant" rat terrier with a pretty tuxedo coat and heart shaped markings on her face, just a baby really at about 10 months old. She's built like a tank and loaded with muscle. An amazingly exquisite gal, in my opinion. She's also proven to be easy going and good with other dogs big and small.

Sweet Salish. Stay tuned for more posts about Salish coming to you here in December

Why did Salish's story get to be turned into one with a happy ending? Well, because Neah's future people chose to adopt rather than buy and in doing that they created the space for another dog to be saved. And Samish's new family did the same for Neah. Each family who adopts has saved two lives: the one they adopt, and the one that gets to move into that open foster spot they created by adopting a rescue.

So spread the word. Adopt a dog. Talk about your rescued dog and the many more who are out there waiting to be saved. Better yet, join me and start on the life changing journey of taking thrown away dogs and giving them a chance to find their happy ending.  Who knows? You may end up being a part of New Rattitude's 2000th great story.

Chew, chew, chew

Some folks think that when you say a dog is a "chewer" that it's a bad thing.  Not at all. It just all depends what they're chewing on, I suppose.  I personally think that if a dog chewed up your shoe or your tennis racket or a tube of lip gloss that you should be shouting "BAD HUMAN" because hey, if you have a dog you need to learn to pick up after yourself.

That's not to say that you have to clear your house of anything that isn't nailed down. But make sure you give your dog something tastier and more interesting to chew on than your shoe. I mean is that really that tough?  Not to negate the troubles of those of you with compulsive chewers or dogs with destructive chewing due to high anxiety.  But when I hear customers complain about a dog destroying things, 9 times out of 10 it's because they've got a young, teething dog or a dog in a temporary stressful situation and they haven't provided them with something appropriate to chew.  So many times I want to say "you idiot! Why would you think your 9 month old puppy would just know that the expensive leather boots you left lying in the entryway are any different than the cow ear you gave her yesterday.  Both are pretty beefy delicious."  But I don't - the customer is always right and all that crap.

Hiding out behind the coffee table with her antler stash

Okay, done with the lecture and back to a cute young dog who likes to chew.  I'd first like to praise Neah for being very appropriate with her chewing and thank her for only carrying around the goose down slipper that I stupidly forgot next to the sliding glass door when taking Langley out for a potty break and not chewing it open.

Enjoying the prize antler while trying to make sure Langley doesn't steal it

Neah LOVES anything that was specifically designed to chew on.  She doesn't even really chew on Langley's stuffed animals, rubber squeakie balls, or even some of Frodo's tough tug and fetch type toys.  But that girl loves antlers, bones, and Nylabones.  She'll drag one somewhere that she's least likely to be spotted by Langley, chew on it for a few minutes and then go root through the toy basket to pick out another to add to her pile.  When she was temping at a foster home in California, I hear that she would wander the fenced 5 acres and find every bone or stick that other dogs had left behind and then lay down on her pile of loot for a good chew.

Testing out the chewiness of a JW Holey Roller ball

Is she so perfect that she would never chew on anything inappropriate? No way.  She's a real live 10-12 month old dog and chewing is what they do.  But given the choice of a chair leg or an antler, she'll pick the antler everytime if you make sure she knows where to find it. She's no different than the majority of young dogs - if you set them up to succeed, how can they help but do anything else?

Getting to "adoptable"

Sigh.  Double sigh.  That's always what happens when I even think of getting Langley listed on adoption Websites as up for adoption.  It's not because I can't let go of him - lord knows I'm ready for him to find a home of his own. It's just I feel a lot of pressure (self-induced) to make sure that he ends up in a home that can not just handle his issues, but can continue to build on the immense progress he's made over the last several months and really dedicate themselves to learning how to adjust their lives a bit to living with Langley. 

Anyone who's followed Langley's story knows that there're a lot of things about Langley that could be considered negative.  And when I try to list the pros in my head, they are so tough to find words to adequately describe. He's gorgeous and athletic, and incredibly intelligent, and he's.... um...."loveable"? It makes me tear up because what makes Langley so wonderful and incredible and truly worth saving, can't really be put into words. A person needs to spend about 30 minutes with him (there needs to be enough time for his initial excitement to die down) and then they will see and feel what is truly amazing about this dog and he will have wormed his way into their heart. 

So while he's a 10-15 year project and you would need to put away all your breakable, valuable things and invest in a Spotbot carpet cleaner, take it from someone who has lived with him: he is truly amazing and a journey with Langley is one worth taking.

The Trials and Tribulations of a Dog Named Frodo

Frodo is a curmudgeon.  Not because he's 7 years old - that's really not that old for a Rat Terrier - but because he was born a curmudgeon. He's a glass-half-full kind of guy and it can be tough for such a pessimist to spend his life with a lot of untrained dogs, most larger than he is, tearing around with "his" loot.

He's been dealing with it for 5 years now and if he could talk, he'd tell you of the years of unfairness that he's endured and how he never gets the good treats and toys because the fosters always get them....  But he can't talk so too bad, so sad, Frodo.  I know that seems heartless but in spite of the high volume of moaning (read high pitched yapping) that comes out of his mouth, this dog has got it pretty dang good. There are more toys in his toy box right now than some human kids see in their entire childhood and even with my employee discount at work his food and supplements probably cost more than what I spend on myself for groceries.

He's the dog of my heart in spite of his pissiness, or maybe because of it, and the fact remains that a whole lot of dogs are alive today because he wrapped me around his finger. I fell in love with the breed so much that I wanted to help save them by fostering. 

He'd probably tell you different, but I'm pretty sure he would be lost without having the fosters around to bitch at. Lord knows he'd have a lot fewer goodies to steal out of their crates. 

Read through the following scenario, one that happens repeatedly in our house to get an idea of the trials and tribulations of this dog named Frodo:



Oh so quietly lying on the couch with food toys, stolen from Neah's crate, Frodo attempts to inconspicuously finish removing the buffalo pate from inside that Neah became distracted from and left unattended.

 

With a look of concern, Frodo has spied a dangerous tornado approaching

 

A black spotted 37 pound tornado of dog meat

 

And it just keeps getting worse. Now the tornado has reached the couch and come dangerously close to the prized (stolen) stuffed Tizzi toy.

 

Time to show them who's the boss.

Phew! This time the blurry storm that is Neah and Langley has passed and left his loot untouched, but you never know what will happen next time it circles back in his direction.