Arf?

(May run out of onomotopeias soon--or interest, lol--for my random journal titles.) ...and gosh, has it been going on one month since I last posted already, srsly? Time is flying by. And I'm getting so little done. ;.; Eh. That just seems to be how life goes lately, I guess.

Joshua got adopted, as the previously posted graphics' changing shows...lol. I think that's Allegria in the fireworks photo op there, a tiny, cute, and highly acrobatic Toy Fox Terror terrier who, as far as I can tell, might also have been adopted. I'm not sure, though, because a lot of dogs have gone into foster homes, seems like, and their system isn't always quite totally up to date (possibly because some of the dogs aren't available for ad...never any sign online of the freaked-out Iggies that were there last time I was volunteering, one way or another, who were supposed to go into foster...but again, I'm not sure!).

I haven't been back volunteering much of late, thanks to a whole slew of tests piled atop one another at school, and some serious drama ongoing at home courtesy of my parents. It seems to have settled down for now, but I'm still wary... definitely looking forward to moving out, yeah. Except for leaving my boyfriend behind in the Springs. That'll suck. But I should get better internet up *away* at college, heh, and of course there's he ikkle puppydog I'm still obsessively scheming about getting.

I'm not just looking for a dog for myself now, by the way, as a lady at church asked me to help her find a dog who'll be a good match for her family. More on that later, probably, when I've pried more information out of her; done some preliminary searching but she wasn't 100% clear on what she thinks she and her family will be capable of handling, say, grooming or exercise-wise. I'm leaning toward an Irish Wolfhound or mix thereof, if I can find one that is, eheheh. Myself, though, I'm definitely still ogling the Italian Greyhounds. Leaning away from a mill dog rescue one, though, simply due to the uncertainty of how a dog that traumatized is going to turn out. I'm going to need a dog who'll do well with moving and traveling places with me sooner or later, and depending on the dog that could be really tough on them. (The mill dog rescue is also pretty insistent about a fenced yard, which I may not have if I'm in an apartment, and in general these dogs do better with a solid, already-socialized dog for company, which I also don't think I'll have for a while.) A dog who's going to require a bit less in terms of resocializing and training might prove a better idea while I'm in college anyway.

Fire, btw, turned out to actually be PART SHARK when in the presence of food...lol. She was still very sweet, actually, all waggy and happy . This is most likely one of those mill rescue weirdnesses that pop up, from what I can tell. In any case, as I expected, she's been adopted long before I could have taken her, and so has her brother, so far as I can tell. This guy is new and may be a possibility for the family I'm helping in their search, but by and large I'm looking elsewhere for a dog for the most part, though I still want to do more volunteering with NMDR.

I swung by the humane society after school last Friday and, in addition to a whole lotta Pixar-bird-type finches (who sound EXACTLY like the "For the Birds" characters) there were also several tempting dogs including, surprisingly enough, a "purebred" Miniature Pinscher who, the more I watched and interacted with him, the more I became convinced he was actually part Italian Greyhound. I can't find him on the shelter's site now, so I think he may have been adopted not long after I left; good for him. The dog I was most tempted by, though, was a Jack Russell pup who appeared to be mixed with chihuahua and, again, very likely IG. (I came home and posted on Facebook about how I was seeing IG-mixes EVERYWHERE now...lol.) Very sweet, very cute, and seemingly less of a handful than most puppies, but still in the holding period when I was there and undoubtedly this dog's going to get adopted fast simply due to age. I spent a long time standing outside his cage, though, and he tracked me and held his paw up all Iggy-like and rested his muzzle on the bars and in general made me fall in love like the sucker I am. ; 0-P There was also an even younger white puppy there who I hesitantly thought might be part bull terror terrier--a real gung-ho go-getter and menace to toys and blankets everywhere, adorable but NOT what I (or my cats) are looking for--and a number of bigger dogs I was examining for laid-back kid-friendliness. Then there was this little brat, who LOOKED promising...

...until I actually came into the hall and watched him for half a second and saw him begin his rabid sequence of BARKITY BARKITY BARK, rapid and high-pitched and all wound up as he ran back and forth obsessing in his kennel run. Yeah, kthanx L.B. for reminding me why I'd be worried about getting any Papillion or, more especially, Pomeranian. I do not want to be trying to convince my apartment dog NOT to be trying to break down the walls with canine sonic waves. OTOH, right as I was leaving they put this little gal in the same run as Little Bit...
...And yes, she is a mill dog rescue of some sort. But I stopped and watched and waited for her to bark-- and she never did. Not even with the extreme provocation of her kennelmate running back and forth making a fool of himself. And it didn't seem to be a simple matter of extreme repression because she DID stand up on her hind legs upon seeing me and do this happy "victory pump" of her front legs, like pawing with both of them in unison (the same move J.R. the Bichon Frise pulled after winning Westminster a few years back, if anyone else remembers that), begging me for attention... so apparently she isn't as traumatized as many mill dogs, and tempts me to reconsider how hard a line to take about where and what sort of dog I'll get because, yes, she would have tempted me to adopt her. ...She appears to have been snatched up by someone else meantime (the humane society here has such a high turnover rate, especially for little dogs, that it's very unlikely I'll see one I can adopt until the last moment, so to speak), but there are, unfortunately, a LOT of oversized wooly little Pomeranians out there--they are WAY too popular for their own good--so if I can find a quiet one they're not totally crossed off my list. If I got a non-IG, though, more likely I'd angle for a Papillion, since they seem at least a little quieter on average.


Anyhow, more lately I went to a small, rather chilly agility practice match this weekend with a friend, which was fun nonetheless. Hopefully the next one will be better-heated or in a more insulated building, lol. No iggies, unsurprisingly, but there was at least one full-size greyhound I encountered (who was, shockingly enough, actually colored grey : 0-P Or blue, more technically) along with three Entlebuchers (! I'd never seen even one before), a number of nifty mutts and other nice dogs. I'm hoping the next shows I hit will be bigger and even more varied. I also hit up the big annual show for the region, the Rocky Mountain Cluster, and met the coolest Iggy person who happened to not only a ROFLcopter-wearing geek but also a rescue volunteer; got there too late for the breed judging, though, so I missed most of the dogs (and also couldn't find any podengos, who I was assured would also be there...pah). I've also just joined an IG message board, which hopefully the internet won't be too fitful about letting me onto, and to my surprise a breeder already contacted me about a young male she's looking to place. I was intending to get a rescue, but... I don't know, a well-bred dog would probably be fine too, and might even be better in some ways. I'll do a bit of interrogating before I make up my mind. At least this breeder does a lot of health testing, from the looks of things, which wins her a lot of points in my book.
But I'm still eying Jasper the deaf white IG and Ramone the MinPin-IG from Kansas, both of whom are still available on Petfinder after many months. <.< >.> In mild irony, the breeder's boy is named Kansas. (But in Texas at the moment, though he'll be a lot closer to me this summer.)