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Pollyanna posted:Do they make Softpaws for dogs? More like she needs hard as nails for dogs. Fraction posted:Last week Lola quicked herself on both of her front paws. It would have been impressive if, yanno, she hadn't been bleeding everywhere. PI dogs just need to not have legs at this point.
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Mar 4, 2013 14:36
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 13:26 |
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On the topic of rescue ladies... I have a friend who runs a rescue. She's constantly broke, and spends every last cent she has on her dogs. She probably has 7-10 at the time (the city limit is 3) with 6 being hers, and the others may or may not be just passing through. She's totally overdogged, but is a lovely person. She had a dog returned to her recently after the dog living with its adoptive family for 6 years. The dog is now 12. And it's a Pit Bull. I live in Ontario where we have BSL. The dog has a snowball's chance in hell of being adopted out. Though, an acquaintance (Heather) offered to foster the Pit but my friend apparently never followed up with her about it. Instead of handing off the Pit to Heather for fostering (it would be Heather's first ever dog) my friend suggested Heather get a puppy from the same litter my friend is getting one from (because my friend totally needs another dog). This litter is Staffy/Jack/Miscellaneous sport mix and was bred to have uncomfortable amounts of energy. Heather now has one of these puppies and is vaguely perplexed that her pup is showing reactive/aggressive tendencies at 11 weeks old. Go figure.
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Mar 4, 2013 14:38
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Guys. GUYS. I live this rescue BS. We're the weirdo rescue of the group because we will adopt out to renters, non married couples, yard less wonders, and families that have in-tact dogs so long as they aren't keeping them that way for them to "~experience motherhood~" or whatever (yes we have had people tell us that and we have had to turn them down based on our ethics. poo poo they could have lied to us and we'd have been happy.) All of our dogs go sterilized so... vOv We do a home check to meet their current pets and make sure they aren't hoarding (found one once...) and then 99% of the time we never see or hear from them again, and the ones we do see come to meetups like hikes. You have no idea how many precious angels and rainbow bridges and I adopted your dog today's poems I see on these walls on a daily basis. We also get shamed for not taking in every brown dog with pointy ears for being a ~SHIBA~. Seriously, just take our drat dogs. Rescues make me ashamed to have a rescue.
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Mar 4, 2013 15:10
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:PI dogs just need to not have legs at this point. That's gonna make for a whole new class of bikejoring videos I had not previously considered.
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Mar 4, 2013 15:14
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a life less posted:She had a dog returned to her recently after the dog living with its adoptive family for 6 years. The dog is now 12. And it's a Pit Bull. I live in Ontario where we have BSL. The dog has a snowball's chance in hell of being adopted out. I think this is how many rescuers enter crazy-land in terms of requirements. You adopt out a young, cute, animal and then it comes back when it's old, costs money, and is basically unadoptable because of all the reasons listed above that people think are silly (like their kids have allergies, they're dating someone who's allergic, they graduate college and decide to move, etc). I think the attitude that if they really cared and wanted to help animals they'd just chuck out a cat to anybody that didn't show up in an "I want to kill cats" shirt is very simplistic. When you take back every animal you ever adopt out and you've only got a few foster homes, you do have to focus more time on making sure animals are going somewhere they're likely to stay. And the easiest way to do that is to eliminate categories of people that chronically return animals. Part of the problem is crazy rescuers and part of the problem is crazy people. I had an email today from someone who wanted to adopt an aggressive sugar glider (one that will draw blood through leather gloves) for her 2 year old child. 
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Mar 4, 2013 15:14
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I couldn't imagine fostering, I don't know how people do that. I had to "foster" a friend's hamster and ended up adopting it because I grew so attached, and that was over 2 months. I just can't imagine having an animal for years and not just outright adopting it. That takes a special brand of weirdness, to me.
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Mar 4, 2013 15:22
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Honestly, I go into each foster coming home in the mindset they aren't staying. Also knowing I can't keep them all, because if I kept this one, that's the end of my fostering. We also have a pretty good waiting list for our dogs, so the ones that are with us for a while are either older mixes for a few months or the dog is going through heartworm treatment. Average fostering time is generally about a month in our rescue.
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Mar 4, 2013 15:29
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Pew! Pew! posted:I couldn't imagine fostering, I don't know how people do that. I had to "foster" a friend's hamster and ended up adopting it because I grew so attached, and that was over 2 months. I just can't imagine having an animal for years and not just outright adopting it. That takes a special brand of weirdness, to me. I know what you mean. I had to nix the idea of volunteering at a cat rescue/sanctuary because I just know that it would end in tears multiple times per month as they lost cats to age and disease and generally I would become Lord Protector Of The Furbabbys 
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Mar 4, 2013 15:41
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Pew! Pew! posted:I couldn't imagine fostering, I don't know how people do that. I had to "foster" a friend's hamster and ended up adopting it because I grew so attached, and that was over 2 months. I just can't imagine having an animal for years and not just outright adopting it. That takes a special brand of weirdness, to me. Yeah I don't get how you could have an animal--especially a cat or a dog--in your house for years, knowing no one else wants it, and not just make it official. Like if they've had a cat for eight years and someone wants to adopt it, do they just hand it over with a smile?
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Mar 4, 2013 15:43
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After fostering for a smaller local rescue and the local SPCA. I don't think I am cut out for dealing with the level of crazy that is present in private rescues. The lady I got involved with had all kinds of marital problems and mass emailed all of the fosters and volunteers almost daily about her personal life or how she need more money to pay for her utility bills or rent money, and then when people asked for her to remove them from the list she would reply to all with a message like: " Mr.Smith here wants to be removed from list because he says I am begging for money. But he doesn't have ten foster dogs and he doesn't understand the need in our community. Please don't be like Mr. Smith and give FURBABY rescue some money today!" It was absolutely awful. The SPCA on the other hand was amazing. My parents let me start fostering dogs from there when I was in high school. The very first dog we got walked into the house, jumped onto the couch, peed on it, and then bit my mom when she tried to remove him. We took him back, told them we couldn't handle him, they were completely understanding, and gave us a new awesome dog. Basically, what I have learned from fostering is that the best places to work with are some breed rescue and large shelters like the SPCA.
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Mar 4, 2013 16:04
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I've never had a problem with private rescues/crazy "rescue ladies" pushing animals on me because I just say no until they get the hint and go away. Having an animal-aggressive pet in the house helps a little but even then, offering up what I can (running the dogs, cleaning up poop, sometimes my boyfriend will drive transports) and flatly refusing what I can't has never failed me. You just have to get over the fear of saying "no" to fat suburb-dwelling white ladies. My parents are going to "foster" track greyhounds next year when they're retired. I use sarcasm quotes there because they haven't had an animal in the house for almost five years; any pet that crosses their door won't be leaving again. They watched Lillehammer for a weekend while I moved and were all upset afterward about how the house was "too quiet" and how they missed her so much.
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Mar 4, 2013 17:30
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Today Lola learned that we do not eat rats that are in the yard.        
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Mar 4, 2013 17:47
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I fostered dogs/cats/whatever they happened to have (one time it was a pigeon) for the OAS (Oakland Animal Services)which was basically our animal control program. Technically I worked with Hopalong/Second Chance, which was the rescue organization that pulled animals, but they were entirely made up of people from the OAS, so it was like a second branch of the AC officers. They were awesome; all medical and food bills were paid for by the county, so all I had to do was give the animal a place to stay for a while. We never had any fosters longer than a month, because Hopalong had a good Facebook/news media presence and we always fostered the super adoptable small dogs. Some people gave them poo poo for not pulling more pit bulls and large dogs, but those people didn't realize how many small dogs were actually being euthanized; there wasn't really a problem with large dog adoption rates, which was surprising, but overbreeding of chihuahuas in the area made the kill floor cages always fill up with small chis and mutts. Plus, Second Chance, the other rescue that worked with OAS, was entirely devoted to rescuing pits/pit mixes, so they had it pretty covered. Hopalong was supposed to be for senior/small dogs and cats/kittens. There was a little bit of rescue lady drama when they wanted me to bring a reactive dog in for training and I discovered that their trainer used corrections and was super Cesar Milan, but they ultimately didn't care when I said I would work with him myself. Mickaboo, the parrot rescue, on the other hand.....ohhh man. Parrot rescue, as you can imagine, is filled with middle-aged, overweight, absolutely mind-loving-crazy ladies who are obsessed with parrots and their highly tempermental needs. Parrots, particularly the large ones like macaws, amazons, greys, 'toos, etc, don't do well in about 90% of homes, so the turnover rate was understandably low, but the rescue ladies didn't help. They'd nitpick every loving application because the prevalent mentality was that 'our bird-savvy foster homes are better than any applicant home; they don't understand birds like we do' and it didn't matter that the bird-savvy foster home would like to place a bird in order to have room for another. If you wanted to place a bird really badly you were 'overlooking serious issues', even if that home was super bird knowledgable, because the person wasn't 'birdy enough' because they dared to have other pets/a full-time job. Even if someone took all their (super hard to get to and not all located in the same place) bird behavior classes, they'd often try to foist potential adopters of the large birds off with one of the many cockatiels or conures, which normally would be a good thing if these people had just come in off the street looking for a parrot, but in many cases these people had spent weeks or months attending classes just so they could adopt a large bird. I had a macaw foster as a 19-year old in a rented apartment because the macaw coordinator decided that would be a good idea after seeing me bond with the bird in a few moments while I waited to fill out some paperwork. It was literally 'Oh you work for Basic Bird? Oh Claudia said we can give you a difficult foster, why don't you take Rascal, since she already likes you?'. Then, she pushed me to keep Rascal, which would have crippled me financially and made moving/school/life very difficult, and I was a dumb teenager so I felt guilty and considered it. I loved that bird and I would have kept her in a heartbeat, but I had joined to foster cockatiels and small conures, and the first thing they handed me was a loving macaw. Granted, it was trial by fire and I learned fast, and Rascal was/is the best bird I've ever met, but the 36-year old woman who guilt-tripped me into taking her should have known better. When I eventually found Rascal a home, entirely by myself, the macaw coordinator practically beat me about the head with guilt, saying that Rascal would miss me forever and never adjust to her new home, and the new family would give her up within a few months. Yeah. I still get email updates from her family, six years on, and she's happy and healthy, with an entire room of her own and another macaw that they adopted for her to have a friend. But clearly, she never adjusted to her new life without me, her 'pair bond'.  I fostered for them on and off for a few more years, and they kept expecting me to keep these difficult birds that even the most insane of the rescue ladies wouldn't touch. There was Jade, a Greater Jardine's, who gave me a black eye, and Coco, a grey, who plucked until she discovered fresh foods, and a baby B&G macaw who screamed constantly but loved to watch the Moomins. Then I had Ricardo, a sweet Double-Yellow head amazon, and they decided I was 'good with Amazons' and placed three of them with me. After I placed the last one, a Red-Naped named Joey with my partner's aunt (who was literally the most bird-crazy person I've ever met and devoted her entire life to Joey and Jinja, the birds I placed with her) the amazon coordinator accused me of nepotism for wanting to place a bird with someone I knew, and I dropped out. I told them I could foster small birds only from that point on, but they got so huffy with me for no longer being their 'golden girl' for difficult fosters that they never contacted me again. Bird rescue. You should support it, because buying parrots is hideously wrong, but drat, don't get too involved. Captain Foxy fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Mar 4, 2013 |
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Mar 4, 2013 17:47
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Fraction posted:Yeah I don't get how you could have an animal--especially a cat or a dog--in your house for years, knowing no one else wants it, and not just make it official. Like if they've had a cat for eight years and someone wants to adopt it, do they just hand it over with a smile? I have no idea how people can keep doing it. I watched someone's ferret for six months while she was out of the country, and he was the most frustrating pet I've owned, but giving him back was a terrible wrench. I just handed her the crate, gave the usual pleasantries, and hosed off back into my apartment stone-faced and determined not to cry. To this day, I still get all verklempt thinking about him, and I think the reason I bonded immediately with one if my other ferrets was due to their physical similarities (fat, white, deaf). Some people are good at objectivity and seeing fostering as a temporary step for both them and the animal, but I just can't disconnect.  MY PRECIOUS FURBABBIES
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Mar 4, 2013 18:14
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Fraction posted:Today Lola learned that we do not eat rats that are in the yard. I want to train my dog to do the opposite. He sort of caught a mole last fall, but he like, didn't know how to kill it. He just WANTED IT when he found it. I ended up killing it and giving it back to him and telling him he's a good dog etc, he just kind of nibbled it a little/played with it, and that is it. Beyond that is there any way to enhance a dog's prey drive? I found out my awesomely nice neighbors are having a serious problem with moles in their house. I wish Ned was better at killing them because I'd totally tell them to keep him over there a day or two to help get rid of them. And it would be great since he's not getting enough exercise/play/work right now. But I'm afraid he won't be all that useful.
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Mar 4, 2013 19:34
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If you wanted to do it in a kind of formal way, I'd set up a trap so you have some moles to work with, encourage him/join in with him trying to get them through the bars, and then set them loose. You could use the dead one (if you still have it) as a flirtpole lure if you can deal with that  Fox tail lures & cage o rats is, iirc, how terriermen generally get pups started.
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Mar 4, 2013 19:40
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I went to an Australian Shepherd beach run yesterday, and I took some photos. Here are some photos of Australian Shepherds. And Cohen. Mostly Cohen.      This is Cohen and her nephew. They look uncannily similar from a distance.      BARKBARKBARBARBARBARK
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Mar 4, 2013 19:54
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Every time I see Cohen barking I think "if that dog could type, it would be in capslocks."
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Mar 4, 2013 19:59
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a life less posted:This is Cohen and her nephew. They look uncannily similar from a distance. Heehee, it's like his face markings melted. 
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Mar 4, 2013 20:22
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When we fostered kittens from the rescue I got Decoy from, I was surprised how well it all worked given that the kitten coordinator is basically a hoarder (the kitten rescue is her house) using her hoarding powers for good - all the kittens leave eventually. She supplied all the Royal Canin, and technically all the litter (horrible paper pellets we had to stop using) and told us to put any vet bills on the rescue tab. We kept them for a month, but it was easy to give them back because we'd focused all our efforts on "help them grow and socialise them to give them the best possible chance at being adopted quickly." One was adopted within days, and the other was at the shelter for another 3 weeks before being adopted. We were really happy to hear they both found homes. I toy occasionally with the idea of fostering again, but dunno how my cats would take it given we came home to find Hugo deathstaring at the kitten's door every single day, and when they cried for attention Decoy would turn into a hissy shitbag. Cohen's a really gorgeous pup too, although you probably knew that. Tamarillo fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Mar 4, 2013 |
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Mar 4, 2013 20:52
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I don't have too many issues with fostering attachment. For kittens there's usually one out of each litter I get really attached to, but the kittens go so fast it's easy to be happy that they've found great homes and I can keep fostering. The adults are hard because they've had hard lives and are still so loving. Snowball was my deaf all-white ghostcat who I had to put a deadline on. That was hard, he's still in long-term foster (his third home, and as far as I can tell no attempts made to place him permanently). He's the kind of cat that will never get adopted except by fosters because he's the wrong cat for anyone who wants a cat, you know? Since we just *had* him and already had Sarabi we didn't mind that he hid for six weeks before starting to open up to us. He was a character and he was funny and sometimes he let us pet him. But anyone who goes to a shelter is going to be looking for a cat to, you know, fulfill a cat role. So while snowball would be a great cat for someone he'd sort of have to fall into their lap. Yeah man adult foster blows. Kittens are All Poop All Day but at least they get adopted.
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Mar 4, 2013 21:13
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I've only fostered a couple of cats and a dog. I've adopted too many of my own as well, but the ones that I took in to adopt have all stayed and the ones that I took in as fosters have all gone...until maybe now. I just took in a new foster cat because I felt really bad for her, and am working on some of her issues, but I'm not convinced I'll be able to let her go. She's an 8 year old Abyssinian, and I feel bad that she was basically dropped off by the owner for either, "Euthanasia or re-homing because she was done with her." If something totally perfect comes up, I could probably let her go, but I still don't know.  
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Mar 4, 2013 21:26
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I love fostering, all the fun of ~new animal to learn from and train~ and none of the 10+ years of commitment.  I'm pretty good at the whole not getting attached thing though.
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Mar 4, 2013 21:58
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^^^ I'm pretty much the same way. Though to be fair, I've only ever fostered one dog. And in retrospect if I had fostered her now, I might have had more trouble giving her up, she was a really cool little dog. But ultimately, it's fun for a while, then I'm glad to get a break and go back to my normal routine.
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Mar 4, 2013 22:12
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The one time I fostered a cat (really it was just taking in a stray and keeping him until the no-kill shelter had an opening), it was super easy to give him up because he was a bitey shitbag. I guess I got sort of lucky in that respect, since there was no way I could have kept him even if he'd been wonderful.
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Mar 4, 2013 22:51
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Crossposting from my TFLC log, I got Sarabi high as gently caress on some local catnip and then dressed her up because I need a job really badly, like seriously this is a problem. Anyway, she didn't care at all because she was on cloud nine.  Look at how high this cat is:  
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Mar 4, 2013 23:17
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a life less posted:
I GOT TO PLAY WITH ALL THE AUSSIES MOM YOU GOTTA TRY THIS
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Mar 5, 2013 04:27
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Is the BARKBARKBARKing an Aussie thing? Because holy poo poo Pistol will not shut up whenever he sees A Thing on walks. I'll tell him to stop barking and he starts yodeling, because that's technically not barking, so it's okay!  I've been meaning to record him happily prancing along while softly yodeling to himself while we're out on walks because it's kind of ridiculous.
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Mar 5, 2013 04:58
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oh god guys I can't but I REALLY NEED TO. :C She's in Waynetown IN. AWWDAMN I wish I could.   
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Mar 5, 2013 05:14
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huskyjackal posted:oh god guys On the other hand: That dog is awesome, get that dog.  Aquatic Giraffe posted:Is the BARKBARKBARKing an Aussie thing? Because holy poo poo Pistol will not shut up whenever he sees A Thing on walks. I'll tell him to stop barking and he starts yodeling, because that's technically not barking, so it's okay! Gonna need a video of this immediately.
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Mar 5, 2013 05:31
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Man, the cats here are intense. It's really depressing. Most of them look relatively healthy, but yesterday I saw one with a horribly infected eye and a tom with a ton of fight scars. 
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Mar 5, 2013 05:57
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:PI dogs just need to not have legs at this point. Vecna hurt his leg on his second or third day back in the US. It's nothing serious but the vet said not to let him run around for a week which has been super fun for all of us.
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Mar 5, 2013 06:41
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 I think I killed my dog 
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Mar 5, 2013 12:45
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I love this shot. The look on Cohen's face is hilarious.
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Mar 5, 2013 13:42
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Ginny Field posted:I love this shot. The look on Cohen's face is hilarious. That's not Cohen, it's her nephew. But I agree. And the barking is totally an Aussie thing, but Cohen is much worse than most.
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Mar 5, 2013 14:46
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Cohen is the best. So here's a random question: Can dogs learn stuff from other dogs? Because I just dropped a potato chip and Feldman totally snapped that poo poo up and fled with it. He never did that until my aunts dog kiko moved in with us, who's a terrible people-food hound. Could he have learned to snatch dropped stuff from her? It's bad enough to have her sniffing around when anyone eats something, I don't need two dogs doing it!  edit: The chip must have gotten stuck to his mouth as it got soft, he's lickin' his chops a bunch. Deep Thoreau fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Mar 5, 2013 |
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Mar 5, 2013 22:08
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There is a guy with a rabbit in a (full-sized for a child) stroller on my streetcar. He also appeared to have a binder about the rabbit. This car is way too crowded or I'd ask him about the rabbit. Seems like a cool dude.
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Mar 5, 2013 22:11
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Invalid Octopus posted:There is a guy with a rabbit in a (full-sized for a child) stroller on my streetcar. He also appeared to have a binder about the rabbit. This car is way too crowded or I'd ask him about the rabbit. Seems like a cool dude. There's a guy here with his bunnies in his stroller. He has them to help with his social anxiety and has clicker trained them to give kisses. 
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Mar 5, 2013 22:17
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Bash Ironfist posted:So here's a random question: Can dogs learn stuff from other dogs? Because I just dropped a potato chip and Feldman totally snapped that poo poo up and fled with it. He never did that until my aunts dog kiko moved in with us, who's a terrible people-food hound. Could he have learned to snatch dropped stuff from her? Yep. They definitely learn behaviour from other dogs. They try it. They get reinforced. Voila. New behaviour.
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Mar 5, 2013 22:23
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 13:26 |
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a life less posted:And the barking is totally an Aussie thing, but Cohen is much worse than most. I stand by my opinion that Cohen is part terrier. Invalid Octopus posted:There is a guy with a rabbit in a (full-sized for a child) stroller on my streetcar. He also appeared to have a binder about the rabbit. This car is way too crowded or I'd ask him about the rabbit. Seems like a cool dude. A rabbit in a stroller? And there's no pics of this why?
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Mar 5, 2013 22:33
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