An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O! - Page 31

LadyShea · #**751** 03-20-2012, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demimonde

Oh and I want to crowd source you guys for a second.

Fluffy boy is a beautiful dog, but I do not recognize him as a particular breed. So in all my messages out there I am trying to tag as many breeds that I can possibly consider him to be, or that his owners might consider him to be. The attached pic doesn't do him justice, he is BIG, about sixty lbs, with big feet and really thick luscious fur. He also has a long bushy saber tail.

This is close to my heart because that is a major fear I have if we were ever to lose Sylvie. Searches can only go so far for a "white dog." So if you guys can think of any breeds this guy reminds you of, holler and I will add it to the this.

So far I am tagging as: Aussie Australian shepherd collie husky malamute chow mix black tan tri fluffy.

LOL, I love how other people think 60lbs is BIG

Anyway, I am calling Chow, mostly on accounta the feet and legs, and something about the face, and possibly along with lisapea Sennenhund (various black and tan mountain dogs. I has one)

lisarea · #**752** 03-20-2012, 07:04 PM

I know, right? Sixty pounds is big? You would be TERRIFIED if you ever saw me!

I think of 60 pounds as normal to dainty. That's about what ZZ is, and she's considerably smaller than my two previous dogs. But her coat is size XXL, so I guess she is considered large. Don't say that TO her, though, because I don't like people size-shaming my dog.

OK, so I have a dognedote for youse guys.

A few months back, my sister and her family adopted a "Redbone Coonhound." Do you want to see my sister's "Redbone Coonhound"? I am even more terrible with the cameraphone than I am with a regular camera, so the picture is p terrible. Don't tell me about it, because I already know.

OK. Here goes. Get ready to look at my sister's new "Redbone Coonhound."

LadyShea · #**753** 03-20-2012, 07:13 PM

Do they actually go around calling that Pibble a Coonhound to other people's faces? She looks like Lana

BrotherMan · #**754** 03-20-2012, 07:20 PM

Yes, this is Bort.

:ohgod:

A talky Redbone Pibblehound! :wriggle:

Matlock is more enticing than snausages! :lol:

LadyShea · #**755** 03-20-2012, 07:22 PM

Lana talks, but only when she wants to come inside from outside. No other time ever. I couldn't figure out what the hell was making those noises the first time I heard it.

livius drusus · #**756** 03-20-2012, 07:25 PM

Aww, look at that adorable doggeh climbing all over Anderson Cooper. :squee:

Demimonde · #**757** 03-20-2012, 07:30 PM

Love Rosie!

Thanks for all the breed recommendations, I am adding them all to the tags, :thankee:

Oh and all you hooting haters, the sixty pounds isn't the big part. Fluffy boy is big by volume. He only weighs sixty, but because of all that fur he is like double the size he is supposed to be. You have to go through four inches of fluff just to find him. Even his forehead has like an inch of the stuff. It makes his head enormous, like a lion or something. He has largish ears actually, it is just that the fluff from his face has eaten them so you can't see them. I actually checked for a collar when I took him in, and loved and petted on him all afternoon, but couldn't find one in the crazy mane around his neck. Contra comes home with his giant mandango hands, plunges into the fluff and is all "Here's one!" I was flabbergasted. But seriously, I would have had to go wrist deep into that fluff to find it.

Fluffy Boy weathered the storm just fine. He didn't seem storm phobic specifically, (unlike my boy), the lightning and thunder didn't make him start. And whoo boy did we have both. He just seemed anxious from missing his house, his people, and his routine. Loosing all three of those is like doggie hell. While he had been skittish of C, because he is a big guy, one of the times C went to go check on him FB just buried his head in his chest and gave him the hug sigh. Poor baby.

We have ponds of water in the back yard and I hope he doesn't get himself too muddy. I. Do. Not. Want to wash that dog. Still no sign of the owners, but I know they are looking for him. Fluffy is so well mannered, so well socialized, and today I have been working with him on a lead and with treats to hopefully get him more willing to get into the car to check for microchip this evening. He totally has leash manners and is well aware of treats and how to work for him.

So fingers crossed I hear from them soon.

LadyShea · #**758** 03-20-2012, 07:38 PM

liv may have hit something with the Keeshond then. We fostered a Keeshond when his person died (found him a super new Mama too), anyway, I swear the actual dog part was the size of a large rodent, 3/4 of his apparent size was hair.

lisarea · #**759** 03-20-2012, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Do they actually go around calling that Pibble a Coonhound to other people's faces? She looks like Lana

That's what they told them at the shelter!

My sister is was not a dog person,* so I'm thinking maybe she believed it originally or something, and she'd told me she was a redbone coonhound; so I was picturing her as one and when this squat muscular little dog with pricked up ears ran in all crazylike, I lolled my face almost all the way off.

I taught my sister the trick where Zsa Zsa is usually a pibble except when she's being bad, and then she's a pointer; so I'm thinking Rosie will keep being a "Redbone Coonhound" when she's naughty.

* They take her to classes and this special puppy daycare so she can socialize and then they go home to watch her playing on the webcam, and they've done all this research on foods and my sister sews her toys and all this stuff, so she seems to be turning into a crazy dog lady now.

LadyShea · #**760** 03-20-2012, 07:53 PM

The shelter said Duck was a German Shepherd, they don't know nothin' lol

And yay on the new crazy dog lady!! Welcome to the fold, sis. One of us!

BrotherMan · #**761** 03-20-2012, 07:57 PM

curses · #**762** 03-22-2012, 04:09 AM

We need to balance this out with some kittehs. Here's Crumpet, his eyes have been open for about 3 days now.

livius drusus · #**763** 03-22-2012, 05:05 AM

I can't even stand that stripey tail. I just can't stand it. :headasplode:

Doctor X · #**764** 03-22-2012, 05:35 AM

What was that sound . . . was it a "squee?" I made?

No . . . must have been the wind . . . er . . . let me rephrase that.

--J.D.

Vivisectus · #**765** 03-22-2012, 03:49 PM

He looks like a fluffy baby possum! cuuute!

Ensign Steve · #**766** 03-25-2012, 08:04 PM

Ripley is great for pest-control, because she destroys all the bugs and spideys that come in the house. She toys with them and keeps them alive for as long as she can (which is actually an impressive amount of time -- she has skills), and once they're dead, she leaves them alone. She doesn't even eat them. It's hilarious, because she's super codependent and I have totally projected all kinds of feminine emotions and neuroses onto her behavior, so she likes to remind me that she's still a fucking animal by going full sociopath on these lesser beings.

... except skeeter-eaters! WTF?! They're all over the house and she wants nothing to do with them. She's choosy about which bugs she'll torture? I do not get her.

Vivisectus · #**767** 03-26-2012, 12:28 PM

One of the things Molly never learned was proper leash manners. No amount of leash training would make her stop pulling, and it was seriously ruining the fun we get out of walking her. She is a big mastiff with a powerful neck - leashes just don't really bother her.

So I tried the lead system that runs ropes under her armpits for a while, to see if that would curb her pulling. It didn't do anything - she happily ignored it for the chance to pull some more.

So this weekend I bought myself one of these:

And I am blown away by how well it works. Day one, first time out, Molly stopped pulling and started walking next to me. She does not like it much so far, but since I have simply doubled the amount of walks I am sure she will start to associate it with walkies soon enough.

If anyone has a dog that has bad leash manners, I would thoroughly recommend spending the 20 bucks or so - it is completely effective, does not hurt your dog, and turned a stubborn dog with embarrassingly poor leash behaviour into at model leash-walking canine in under 20 minutes. I should have done this ages ago.

SharonDee · #**768** 03-26-2012, 01:07 PM

I can't remember if I mentioned it in this thread but Tibey is also a stubborn walker. The collar made no impression on him but a harness his trainer recommended did the trick for a while. We also tried the device you got on him but he hated it so much that we decided not to use it since the harness was working.

The harness doesn't work anymore so, on training graduation night no less, I'm going to look into that device again. Sorry, guy, but I can't have you trying to break away to chase fireworks again. (And why was that guy shooting off fireworks in the middle of March, anyway?!)

Demimonde · #**769** 03-26-2012, 05:20 PM

Halters are absolutely amazing. They really really work wonders.

So update on Fluffy Guy. Yes, he is still with us. We took him to the vet but no microchip. I have plastered signs all over the place, called everywhere, have done all the social media tricks and have nothing. I have never had such a hard case as this.

I did have a lead on Friday. A lady called off one of our coffee shop signs to say that she had seen a few dogs running loose near her physical therapist's office. We are right near the hospital district so I thought she might be onto something. Went down there and showed the picture and had some people say no, some say yes, and others slam the door in my face. I was feeling pretty dejected by that point. If he was running loose for a while that would put chances of reunion very low. Dogs can travel ten miles a day.

Saturday we took him over to that area and asked again. People were much nicer with him as a mess of love in front of them. Several folks told us that while those loose dogs look similar, it was not our guy. That perked me up. We asked an old man in a scooter next and he said FG was "His Buddy" and pointed to an old apartment house and said he lived there with his "family." We knocked on some doors and I swear the entire complex came out to look. Apparently that is where the three loose dogs lived most of the time, and while FG looked a lot like "Blackie" the big fluffy one, it wasn't him. I was partly relieved actually, because I would not have felt right about leaving him there if that was how he was being treated.

So we had run out of options. This guy is super sweet, but I have a million things I want to get done this spring and he has taken over my workshop. It just isn't sustainable. We decided to take him to our humane society to see what they had to offer. We have brought a dog there before and his owner found him the next day. If the owners aren't findable I thought they might have more time and resources to find him a good home.

So depressing. Sweet dogs being surrendered, tiny puppies even. I had never gone on a Saturday and it was Bedlam. The van pulled up with a load of dogs from a neglect case that just about broke my heart. Also stupid, stupid, ignorant people that made me want to cry. There were a couple of self professed "animal lovers" with a starved puppy who came in, chickened out, abandoned the puppy in the parking lot so he was running in traffic, had second thoughts, and came back to claim the puppy after it had been processed as a stray. They just lied and lied and lied some more too. I wanted to crack their heads together.

I was totally impressed with FG because surrounded by other dogs, even other unaltered males, he was sweet and calm and easy. Cats seemed fine by him as well. Even with the scary smells and sounds and vibes of the place, he was pretty darn calm for a dog as young as he is.

When our number was called I spoke with the young woman behind the counter and she was very helpful and took all our information. She was really glad we had found the owners of the Aussie girl and told me I was doing everything right in terms of finding FG's owners. She also gave the line of "A sweet guy like him should definitely be approved for adoption." But there was a quality to the delivery that I recognized. Not fake or insincere, just rote. Like when I worked in food service and I would deliver the whole "How are you today?" line. It is just what you say, the words don't really mean what you are saying.

She stepped away for a moment as I was filling out the surrender form. It pulls no punches about the fact that they euthanize for space. They also have a box for "Are we your last recourse?" I couldn't tick that box. Not until I asked what their space was like. The lady who had brought in the seized dogs was behind the counter working on paperwork. I asked her what the space situation was like. She said it wasn't her area and that she really didn't know. But they were in the process of seizing 85 pitbulls from a cruelty case. When that happens they must keep the dogs for ten days on site as evidence, longer if the defendant appeals. So while FG is awesome, after three days without owners if there wasn't room he would be destroyed just because of bad fucking timing.

When the original intake person came back she confirmed it. With the seized dogs they would be at max capacity. I asked her if holding on to FG for a few days or a week would make a difference and she said it definitely would. I could tell she was really glad about it, I imagine there are things you want to say but really can't say with her job, and that is most likely one of them. If people were told that, a good number would dump or abandon them to have an even crueler fate. God that would be hard work.

She even went so far as to vaccinate FG and get him a rabies tag, "To make it easier on his immune system if or when he comes back." She also slipped me a post it with her personal cell phone and wrote that if I ever needed help with found or rescued dogs, to call her. Seriously awesome lady, and she handled all of this with supreme grace and kindness while simultaneously dealing with the hysterical puppy abandoner who was cussing her out and threatening to call the police on them for "stealing" the dog they had just dumped.

So I left them a donation and Fluffy Guy came home with us. (Though Contra is lobbying to call him "Muppet Man." I have to agree. He is a very manly Muppet. :giggle:

) I am still working on finding his original owners but I am also going to look for a new home as well.

I also went and got new tags for our kids. They are micro-chipped, but tags are the easiest and fastest way to find us. Contra noticed that Sylvie's was so scratched that it read S&%^$IE. And the dark finish on D's had rubbed off so much that it was hard to read. Just in case.

S.Vashti · #**770** 03-26-2012, 05:31 PM

I put the animal's name and my phone number on the back of the rabies tag, then clear coat it.

Demimonde · #**771** 03-26-2012, 05:50 PM

Just be sure to monitor it. Those aluminum tags can get scratched up really fast even with a clear coat.

Their new tags are pretty cool. They have a frame around the aluminum plate so that their other licenses and tags won't be able to bump against it. I had a little bell on Sylvie's collar that was largely responsible for the serious scratching on hers which I have taken off.

livius drusus · #**772** 03-26-2012, 05:53 PM

My cat refuses to wear a collar. She also has three microchips in her, two from her previous exciting adventures. Moral of the story: never, ever let the cat get out.

You're awesome, Demi. :bow:

Sock Puppet · #**773** 03-26-2012, 07:34 PM

I really need to come up with a socialization plan for VC. She loves any and all people, and has never so much as growled at a human being in the entire 15 months we've had her. But other dogs? Not so much. Big dogs, fugeddaboudit. She seems to think she can beat up the behemoth across the street, and can't wait to get her chance.

Smaller dogs have a chance (her foster mom had two other pugs that she did fine with, and she was okay with a couple of the mellower smallish dogs in the neighborhood), but the most recent dog she didn't immediately go ballistic toward came up to her and suddenly lunged. Luckily one of the kids of the owners grabbed him in time, but damn that was frustrating. I wanted that dog to understand English so I could sit his butt down and give him a good talking to. With VC, it's either hate at first sight, or the other dog gets one chance to be civil and it's permanent hate if they blow it.

She seems to get along with cats better than dogs. The more aloof ones get her curious and sniffing after them, although one overly friendly one actually made her nervous. He'd come up to her, and she'd eye him warily and make some tentative sniffs, then jump away when he tried to do the brush-against thing. That's right, she thinks she can beat up a 120-pound monster of a dog, but a friendly cat frightens her.

We have a doggie day camp thing that my wife got at an auction, but I haven't researched it yet and don't want to take their word for it whether they can provide a safe environment. It's not a big problem for a puggie who only encounters the odd dog on walks, but still, I would love for her to be able to make friends.

BrotherMan · #**774** 03-26-2012, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demimonde

So I left them a donation and Fluffy Guy came home with us. (Though Contra is lobbying to call him "Muppet Man." I have to agree. He is a very manly Muppet. :giggle:

) I am still working on finding his original owners but I am also going to look for a new home as well.

I know you're distracted and stuff and I can forgive you for the oversight in this case. But really. SWEETUMS!

lisarea · #**775** 03-26-2012, 08:40 PM

OK. So I have some general reviews and observations. I am not entirely comfortable making them recommendations, for reasons that will soon be apparent.

In recent months or so, we have been making some changes to our daily routines, mostly to accommodate Buddy and Battlecat, our geriatrics.

In Battlecat's case, we have started supplementing her good kitty food with meat, mostly because she is an old lady and she likes it. So periodically, I'll cook up some chicken or turkey (dark meat), or some kind of fish, and add that in with her normal, hoity toity grain free cat foods.

And we've been giving Battlecat and Buddy arthritis medicine with myristoleate in it, upgrading from our previous glucosamine and chondroitin that Buddy was already on.

The results are as follows: Both of these animals are extremely limber and energetic, also very loud and demanding. Buddy just recently took up barking while he's playing and is far more energetic about jumping on us, bullying us, and demanding whatever he wants. Battlecat, whom I'd almost forgotten was half Siamese, is now yowling constantly and very loudly, and is also being much more hardcore in her bullying of both us humans and poor sweet Zsa Zsa. We have always had to feed Buddy in a separate room when the dogs ate, so he wouldn't steal ZZ's food. Now we have to separate both dogs, because Battlecat has started bullying Zsa Zsa as well, causing ZZ to adopt a prison style food protection stance and wolf her food before some meanie comes around trying to get it.

So the report is: Hey, if you would like your elderly pets to become even more loud, demanding, and obnoxious, you might be interested in arthritis supplements containing myristoleate and maybe incorporating some whole foods into their diets.

IF.