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bryndelSo I've been delaying updating my journal here until I got around to volunteering at the mill dog rescue again. ...Unfortunately, that took...way the heck too long, between car hijinks and school and job-I-got-then-lost and all. Buuuutttt yeah...I've missed it. A lot. Volunteering was supposed to be part of the way I'd get my "dog fix" and I need it baaaaad. : 0-P I'm scheming about getting a dog after I get out of my parents' house some months from now but meantime I'm drooling incoherently over any and all canines I see photos/videos/etc. of, and yeah. I was thinking maybe I'd get another cat instead but, much as I love my kitties, it just ain't quite the same, and now that it's going on a year since I lost my old dog I really, reallyreallyreally want another one. But can't do that, quite yet. So instead I'll just inflict doggy stories and pics on you, my readers (all...none of you. X 0-D ) And maybe hit up a dog show this weekend. At least this should keep me from brooding over my internet which is being unreliable again...ugh. As if my home life wasn't difficult enough already thanks to my parents, who still like to grouse and threaten in the hopes it will magically make me back into a model child. I need a doggie pick-me-up. ;.;
So finally, now that I'm semi-unemployed (still getting quite a few petsitting jobs, mind you, which is surprising but gratifying...no *regular* paid work anymore however) I got my tail back over to the rescue. Most of the old puppers I remember are gone except for this guy, who apparently turned pink (from allergies) and went off to a foster home.
He was sweet and adorable, if limp-coated and shy. I liked him, but he could barely bring himself to approach the mesh with me on the outside of the cage back then. It sounds like he's doing much better now, which is GOOD... he should make a very sweet if possibly slightly shy pet for someone. He was also much less inclined to bite than his fellow American Eskimos, whom I harassed with some desensitization training...silly Peskies. They're quick learners, though!
One other "keeper" from the many months ago I volunteered last isn't on the website. That, I think, is because she's not adoptable. Poor girl. One problem with no-kill rescues is that animals can languish in tiny cages for years, even, with no end in sight, and it's really no kind of life for a dog to be living forever. This one's a little chocolate dog with big ears, and even though she's an independent-minded biter who doesn't much like people in general I like her anyway. I got worried when I didn't see her in "her" cage but it looks like they simply moved her further down the row...yay. I worry about the kind of quality of life she's living, but mind you, she seems MUCH happier than I recall her being from before--more settled in and less willing to eat fingers, lol. I'll keep an eye on her, and continue the treat-tossing I once did, maybe even be able to interact with her a little more and brighten what must be desperately boring days for the cute little twerp. She's come through a lot; apparently she was a dog whose old owner let run wild, ended up breaking her leg and laying it open to the bone or something, and her crappy old owner wouldn't even take her to the vet and tried instead to tie her leg up with purple string, wtf. You can't even tell now, though; the rescue get her some proper medical care and it's all healed up perfectly. She was lucky! Not like the little dogs there with broken or missing jaws, for example... : 0-(
I think Paco and a few other chis and such may be oldtimers.
This rescue seems to acquire some of the sweeter chihuahuas in the world, oddly enough. Paco is one of them. Actually, they get so many chis through I tend to lose track of them... I do remember Jackson, though. For obvious reasons.
And he's actually very nice as well. I was there the day they did his surgery.
I didn't see him when I went there, but apparently Jack the elderly chi is still there also, which unhappily doesn't surprise me overmuch, and even more unhappily his fellow elderly kennelmate has died. : 0-C Poor guy, all alone and unloved; he's somewhat withdrawn, if I recall, but I think I'll be making a special point of picking him out for attention next visit. I always hate seeing elderly dogs wasting away in kennels.
Pretty much everyone else is new at the kennel. They just got a huge shipment of 160-some dogs last weekend, apparently, so that's a LOT of new dogs. Being a big dog person, the only two bigguns I know of are of course two of the ones I gravitate toward... I won't be able to adopt either a Bernese Mountain Dog or a Boxer, but both are high on my list of favorite breeds and the boxer, especially, is very sweet. But elderly, poor guy, which will make it harder for him to get adopted... he's got something other than boxer in him, I'm pretty sure. But he's such a love. I wish I could steal him-- and the Berner too, for that matter, although THAT guy has some surgery he needed to go through and an ugly open wound upon his front leg. That should be done by the time I go back, probably tomorrow, and I'll check on how he's doing then.
Mostly though, it's lots and lots of little guys. Most of whom don't have *too* much trouble buttering me up and winning me over, lol. I looked up a bunch of them to keep an eye out for before I went over there. This was one of the guys I especially liked the looks of:
But the definite favorite from yesterday was this guy's sister, Fire. She was SO CUTE, and smart enough to figure out that if she stood up against the wire mesh she could get belly scratches... I was very hesitant to look at Min Pins and their ilk as a possible future dog, given their usual spitfire personalities, but these guys are laid-back...or repressed...enough that I'm entertaining the idea now, lol; mixes, anyway, NOT purebreds unless they are very unminpin-like indeed. 
I am seriously tempted to adopt this pair, actually, especially after I came home and looked at brother Magic's open profile again. I think they'd adjust well and be lots of fun. But it seems likely that they'll be adopted before I'm ready; I'm supposed to be doing general research, not picking out individuals just yet.
That doesn't stop me from lusting, however. : 0-P Ramone, here, is one I'd been eyeballing several times... especially since his Petfinder profile keeps popping up when I do random hmm-let's-see-what-dogs-are-out-there searches.
I love his coloring but more importantly he seems likely to have a nice balance of--and is young enough to be molded somewhat, I'd guess, without being the itty bitty puppy that would be so highly consuming of time and energy and incapable of proper behavior and housebreaking for months, lol. (I like puppies, but they ARE obnoxious little toothy babies...)
But the new Petfinder pupper who really made me squeal with wanting this search-around was actually this boy:
This is Jasper. Italian greyhounds are right at the top of my potentially-adoptable-breeds list, AND I'm looking for a male, AND he's already crate-rained which is nice and decently well-socialized AND it may actually be good that he's oversized given that IGs apparently have this distressing tendency to snap their fragile legbones, at least as daredevil adolescents. (I need to research this more before I get one, actually. : 0-/ Apparently they also have really crappy teeth.) And he's deaf.
Yes, I'd really like to have a deaf dog to play around with training someday. Yes, I'm weird. ...The fact that I'm [likely] looking for an Iggy and find a deaf one is actually pretty darn tempting. We'll see, though.
I went to the mill dog rescue intending to take a good close look at their IGs as well, but they're all total wusses still and wouldn't even stay in their crate inside when I paused outside their cage. 'Cause, y'know, ZOMG SCARYNEW PEOPLE--THEY MIGHT EAT US. These guys would definitely need a lot of socialization and rehab work...which will be okay with me, I think, as long as they get along all right with other animals from the start and are in some way motivatable and eventually able to be brought back around to something resembling a normal, happy, at-least-somewhat-social pet. As soon as I wandered off again all the Iggies piled back on top of one another in their crate bed, which was cute and a good sign that they're at least tolerant of other critters--one reason I'm really leaning toward this breed rather than, say, a terrier of some sort (who could work but I'm worried about how well cats would mix with most of 'em...and, though I'm not in any way expecting or counting on it, it would be nice to have a dog I could socialize to my rats at least a little). Right now there's not much difference between them personality-wise that I can make out, though one grey-and-white was a tiny bit more hesitant to flee. The stand-out gee-I-wish-I-could-adopt dogs this visit were not the IGs, however.
This little Papillion was the one I liked the looks of best--in fact, the moment I spotted his picture I went "GASP--
I just find him so handsome--and something in the quality of his comparatively-confident stance... in person, of course, he's much more timid, as I expected, but nonetheless it seems to me that it must speak well that he photographs pretty well. Papillions have always been a favorite little dog of mine (one little breed among few, unlike big dogs who I almost universally adore to pieces seems like...lol) and they have quite a number of them at the mill dog rescue right now. Temptation, temptation... personality-wise it actually seemed like some of the others might be a slightly better bet. They're probably about the limit of hair I'd prefer to handle, as well... I like the idea of a poodle or mix but until I get out of school I think I'll stick with some slightly less taxing grooming, lol. I'd probably be okay with a less-demanding terrier-type coat but the most ideal would be something that . (Shedding and some regular brushing are fine--just no demands for daily bichon or afghan-type grooming kplzthx.)
To my surprise I saw when I got back that the dog of the week had been changed to "my" papillion. Nice.
There were a number of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels at the rescue, too... but I'm very, very hesitant to adopt a horrid-quality puppy mill dog CKCS, I'll admit, because even the better-bred ones have way too rampant of genetic health problems for my taste... I'd really rather avoid that for right now, at least until I'm into vet school proper and can maybe get a discount on care. Ugh. : 0-/ I do like them, but the quality of dog I can afford atm inclines me to rule them out. Alaskan Klee Kai, given my love for all things sled dog, are appealing but from what I can tell they're way too expensive for my tastes--far above and beyond what an ordinary quality purebred pet normally costs. And there aren't any of them in rescue, given their rarity. And given the predatory proclivities of Siberians I'm not sure they'd actually be the best idea anyway, though I suspect at their size and toned-down-ness they could probably be persuaded to coexist with cats.
I love Portuguese Podengos, but mainly the bigger ones, and they and Basenjis both are probably too primitive to be ideal with other pets if not raised with them. Oddly enough, Brussels Griffons are in my sights as a possible ...there seem to be more mixes of them about than I'd've expected, and they're spunky but not as horribly terrier-like as I would have expected; generally better with other animals, for one. They're also one of the brachycephalic breeds I mind less for some reason, so long as it seems like the dog can breathe okay--by and large, though, it seems like reasonable-coated, long-snouted, quiet, less demandingly aggressive little dogs are too thin on the ground! I don't mind the more fiery terrier tempers but my cats probably will. Beagles and bassets came fairly well-recommended by some of my breed books but honestly, I'm not a hound dog person--and (though I like the singing theatrics of sled dogs, and maybe basenjis, lol) I don't want the baying and noise. I like the idea of corgis or, better yet, a Swedish vallhund, but (depending on what I see around apartment-wise I guess) I was really thinking probably something smaller, not just short-legged. And corgis tend to be barky spitfires in any case. One of the most lovable adoptable little dogs I saw when I was at the rescue last year was a sweet basset or corgi mix who basically looked like a short-legged Golden Retriever--if I can find another nice mix like that, I may very well let go of the IG notion in favor of a shortlegged muttface, hehe.
More dog ranting to come, undoubtedly. : 0-P I'll squee more after some more volunteering and show time--it's been waaaaayyy too long since I hit up a dog show.
...Wait! No. One more. X 0-D
This is sweet Shiloh, whose beagley ears make him look younger than he apparently actually is, in person.
He's still a wussypants scaredyface, but less so than a lot of his neighbors in the kennel and he seems likely to come around pretty well, perhaps soon. And, especially if he really is a good part beagle, lol, possibly even better with some bribery. 3; 0-) Must test.
So finally, now that I'm semi-unemployed (still getting quite a few petsitting jobs, mind you, which is surprising but gratifying...no *regular* paid work anymore however) I got my tail back over to the rescue. Most of the old puppers I remember are gone except for this guy, who apparently turned pink (from allergies) and went off to a foster home.
He was sweet and adorable, if limp-coated and shy. I liked him, but he could barely bring himself to approach the mesh with me on the outside of the cage back then. It sounds like he's doing much better now, which is GOOD... he should make a very sweet if possibly slightly shy pet for someone. He was also much less inclined to bite than his fellow American Eskimos, whom I harassed with some desensitization training...silly Peskies. They're quick learners, though!One other "keeper" from the many months ago I volunteered last isn't on the website. That, I think, is because she's not adoptable. Poor girl. One problem with no-kill rescues is that animals can languish in tiny cages for years, even, with no end in sight, and it's really no kind of life for a dog to be living forever. This one's a little chocolate dog with big ears, and even though she's an independent-minded biter who doesn't much like people in general I like her anyway. I got worried when I didn't see her in "her" cage but it looks like they simply moved her further down the row...yay. I worry about the kind of quality of life she's living, but mind you, she seems MUCH happier than I recall her being from before--more settled in and less willing to eat fingers, lol. I'll keep an eye on her, and continue the treat-tossing I once did, maybe even be able to interact with her a little more and brighten what must be desperately boring days for the cute little twerp. She's come through a lot; apparently she was a dog whose old owner let run wild, ended up breaking her leg and laying it open to the bone or something, and her crappy old owner wouldn't even take her to the vet and tried instead to tie her leg up with purple string, wtf. You can't even tell now, though; the rescue get her some proper medical care and it's all healed up perfectly. She was lucky! Not like the little dogs there with broken or missing jaws, for example... : 0-(
I think Paco and a few other chis and such may be oldtimers.
This rescue seems to acquire some of the sweeter chihuahuas in the world, oddly enough. Paco is one of them. Actually, they get so many chis through I tend to lose track of them... I do remember Jackson, though. For obvious reasons. And he's actually very nice as well. I was there the day they did his surgery.I didn't see him when I went there, but apparently Jack the elderly chi is still there also, which unhappily doesn't surprise me overmuch, and even more unhappily his fellow elderly kennelmate has died. : 0-C Poor guy, all alone and unloved; he's somewhat withdrawn, if I recall, but I think I'll be making a special point of picking him out for attention next visit. I always hate seeing elderly dogs wasting away in kennels.
Pretty much everyone else is new at the kennel. They just got a huge shipment of 160-some dogs last weekend, apparently, so that's a LOT of new dogs. Being a big dog person, the only two bigguns I know of are of course two of the ones I gravitate toward... I won't be able to adopt either a Bernese Mountain Dog or a Boxer, but both are high on my list of favorite breeds and the boxer, especially, is very sweet. But elderly, poor guy, which will make it harder for him to get adopted... he's got something other than boxer in him, I'm pretty sure. But he's such a love. I wish I could steal him-- and the Berner too, for that matter, although THAT guy has some surgery he needed to go through and an ugly open wound upon his front leg. That should be done by the time I go back, probably tomorrow, and I'll check on how he's doing then.
Mostly though, it's lots and lots of little guys. Most of whom don't have *too* much trouble buttering me up and winning me over, lol. I looked up a bunch of them to keep an eye out for before I went over there. This was one of the guys I especially liked the looks of:
But the definite favorite from yesterday was this guy's sister, Fire. She was SO CUTE, and smart enough to figure out that if she stood up against the wire mesh she could get belly scratches... I was very hesitant to look at Min Pins and their ilk as a possible future dog, given their usual spitfire personalities, but these guys are laid-back...or repressed...enough that I'm entertaining the idea now, lol; mixes, anyway, NOT purebreds unless they are very unminpin-like indeed. I am seriously tempted to adopt this pair, actually, especially after I came home and looked at brother Magic's open profile again. I think they'd adjust well and be lots of fun. But it seems likely that they'll be adopted before I'm ready; I'm supposed to be doing general research, not picking out individuals just yet.That doesn't stop me from lusting, however. : 0-P Ramone, here, is one I'd been eyeballing several times... especially since his Petfinder profile keeps popping up when I do random hmm-let's-see-what-dogs-are-out-there searches.
I love his coloring but more importantly he seems likely to have a nice balance of--and is young enough to be molded somewhat, I'd guess, without being the itty bitty puppy that would be so highly consuming of time and energy and incapable of proper behavior and housebreaking for months, lol. (I like puppies, but they ARE obnoxious little toothy babies...)But the new Petfinder pupper who really made me squeal with wanting this search-around was actually this boy:
This is Jasper. Italian greyhounds are right at the top of my potentially-adoptable-breeds list, AND I'm looking for a male, AND he's already crate-rained which is nice and decently well-socialized AND it may actually be good that he's oversized given that IGs apparently have this distressing tendency to snap their fragile legbones, at least as daredevil adolescents. (I need to research this more before I get one, actually. : 0-/ Apparently they also have really crappy teeth.) And he's deaf.Yes, I'd really like to have a deaf dog to play around with training someday. Yes, I'm weird. ...The fact that I'm [likely] looking for an Iggy and find a deaf one is actually pretty darn tempting. We'll see, though.
I went to the mill dog rescue intending to take a good close look at their IGs as well, but they're all total wusses still and wouldn't even stay in their crate inside when I paused outside their cage. 'Cause, y'know, ZOMG SCARYNEW PEOPLE--THEY MIGHT EAT US. These guys would definitely need a lot of socialization and rehab work...which will be okay with me, I think, as long as they get along all right with other animals from the start and are in some way motivatable and eventually able to be brought back around to something resembling a normal, happy, at-least-somewhat-social pet. As soon as I wandered off again all the Iggies piled back on top of one another in their crate bed, which was cute and a good sign that they're at least tolerant of other critters--one reason I'm really leaning toward this breed rather than, say, a terrier of some sort (who could work but I'm worried about how well cats would mix with most of 'em...and, though I'm not in any way expecting or counting on it, it would be nice to have a dog I could socialize to my rats at least a little). Right now there's not much difference between them personality-wise that I can make out, though one grey-and-white was a tiny bit more hesitant to flee. The stand-out gee-I-wish-I-could-adopt dogs this visit were not the IGs, however.
This little Papillion was the one I liked the looks of best--in fact, the moment I spotted his picture I went "GASP--
I just find him so handsome--and something in the quality of his comparatively-confident stance... in person, of course, he's much more timid, as I expected, but nonetheless it seems to me that it must speak well that he photographs pretty well. Papillions have always been a favorite little dog of mine (one little breed among few, unlike big dogs who I almost universally adore to pieces seems like...lol) and they have quite a number of them at the mill dog rescue right now. Temptation, temptation... personality-wise it actually seemed like some of the others might be a slightly better bet. They're probably about the limit of hair I'd prefer to handle, as well... I like the idea of a poodle or mix but until I get out of school I think I'll stick with some slightly less taxing grooming, lol. I'd probably be okay with a less-demanding terrier-type coat but the most ideal would be something that . (Shedding and some regular brushing are fine--just no demands for daily bichon or afghan-type grooming kplzthx.)To my surprise I saw when I got back that the dog of the week had been changed to "my" papillion. Nice.
There were a number of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels at the rescue, too... but I'm very, very hesitant to adopt a horrid-quality puppy mill dog CKCS, I'll admit, because even the better-bred ones have way too rampant of genetic health problems for my taste... I'd really rather avoid that for right now, at least until I'm into vet school proper and can maybe get a discount on care. Ugh. : 0-/ I do like them, but the quality of dog I can afford atm inclines me to rule them out. Alaskan Klee Kai, given my love for all things sled dog, are appealing but from what I can tell they're way too expensive for my tastes--far above and beyond what an ordinary quality purebred pet normally costs. And there aren't any of them in rescue, given their rarity. And given the predatory proclivities of Siberians I'm not sure they'd actually be the best idea anyway, though I suspect at their size and toned-down-ness they could probably be persuaded to coexist with cats.
I love Portuguese Podengos, but mainly the bigger ones, and they and Basenjis both are probably too primitive to be ideal with other pets if not raised with them. Oddly enough, Brussels Griffons are in my sights as a possible ...there seem to be more mixes of them about than I'd've expected, and they're spunky but not as horribly terrier-like as I would have expected; generally better with other animals, for one. They're also one of the brachycephalic breeds I mind less for some reason, so long as it seems like the dog can breathe okay--by and large, though, it seems like reasonable-coated, long-snouted, quiet, less demandingly aggressive little dogs are too thin on the ground! I don't mind the more fiery terrier tempers but my cats probably will. Beagles and bassets came fairly well-recommended by some of my breed books but honestly, I'm not a hound dog person--and (though I like the singing theatrics of sled dogs, and maybe basenjis, lol) I don't want the baying and noise. I like the idea of corgis or, better yet, a Swedish vallhund, but (depending on what I see around apartment-wise I guess) I was really thinking probably something smaller, not just short-legged. And corgis tend to be barky spitfires in any case. One of the most lovable adoptable little dogs I saw when I was at the rescue last year was a sweet basset or corgi mix who basically looked like a short-legged Golden Retriever--if I can find another nice mix like that, I may very well let go of the IG notion in favor of a shortlegged muttface, hehe.
More dog ranting to come, undoubtedly. : 0-P I'll squee more after some more volunteering and show time--it's been waaaaayyy too long since I hit up a dog show.
...Wait! No. One more. X 0-D
This is sweet Shiloh, whose beagley ears make him look younger than he apparently actually is, in person.
He's still a wussypants scaredyface, but less so than a lot of his neighbors in the kennel and he seems likely to come around pretty well, perhaps soon. And, especially if he really is a good part beagle, lol, possibly even better with some bribery. 3; 0-) Must test.