What is his rescue story? :o

It's a long one, I'll have to type it up when I have time. We're abotu to head out to Kings Island for a couple hours (amusement park). ;)

This is my dog, Madison:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ne87/maddy.jpg
She barks a lot. Really a lot. :o
We got an angry note this morning from another tenant saying we're going to be evicted if she doesn't shut up. I seriously don't know what to do!

Aww! :D I love rescue stories. Maybe next time. ^^ Have fun at Kings Island.
I wish I could do to an amusement park but it's a bit late for me to head out now lol (it's 7:50pm here).

Well the other tenant can't evict you so you have that going for you?

There is training that can be done to try and work on the barking, absolute last resort is vocal cord surgery. A co-worker had that done with a dog they had once because the other option was putting her down :-/

My husband threatens to do that to our dogs. I've always wanted to try the electronic devices they advertise in the Sky Mall magazine that sends a noise to the dog when it barks that makes it stop. Apparently it hurts their ears and will stop if they stop barking and start again if they bark. They learn to avoid the sound by not barking.

My new favorite thread!

I'll post some pics and a couples stories of my kittehs later.

This thread needz moar kittehs.

Well I think I've posted Lucky's rescue story before, but I'll post it again.

Lucky is an American Eskimo. They look like cute little fluff balls when they're puppies (and when they're adults, too), like this:
http://myweb.cableone.net/lenise/Ktblsit.jpg
(Photo not mine)

The problem with Eskies is that they take a lot of care to keep their fur looking nice and fluffy. They're a lot of work.

Lucky was bought by a family with a couple of kids. Unfortunately, the family wasn't too great, especially the dad of the family. He beat him, left him in his kennel for days (forcing him to lay in his own urine), and eventually took him out to the woods and dropped him off, leaving him to either die or be a stray. Unfortunately (or fortunately, either way you look at it), Lucky found his way home. The guy was so pissed he took Lucky to the vet's office and demanded that he be put down.

When the vet asked why since Lucky was so young, and the vet hadn't recommended euthanasia, he said it was because Lucky was a pain and that he couldn't control his bladder. The vet said then that if the guy went home and got Lucky's paperwork, he would take him off the guy's hands.

So that's what happened. Live-in's parents happened to go to the same vet with their other Eskie, so the vet called and asked if they wanted him. After cleaning him up (Lucky has horrible back hips because of the beatings, and a skin condition on his belly that causes him to get a rash and lose all the fur on his belly), they took him home.

Lucky likes women and kids (which is weird because Eskies don't generally do well with kids) but is very wary of adult males. It took 4-5 months for Lucky to be OK with live-in's dad, and he still doesn't really like him or stick to him like he does to me or live-in. He does not like my father. He's really close with live-in because they got him when live-in was about 15, so - still kindof a kid.

Lucky is 15 - he was 4 or 5 when they took him in. He's pretty spoiled now - even though he tries to bite my hand off when I'm giving him cheese.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-a...53047_2401.jpg

My doggy, Shiloh. He'll be 13 this year, and people are SHOCKED when I tell them that because he doesn't look or act it. Don't be fooled by that innocent look of his, however; he rules the house and knows it. :)

Unfortunately, my stupid apartment complex doesn't allow dogs, so he resides with my parents.

Meet Buster the Beagle. We think he's a beagle mix, but aren't sure with what, because we adopted him from the animal shelter.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7220109_n.jpg

He has terrible skin allergies, and last fall, he developed a tumor on his back left foot. We had it removed, but the surgery wasn't successful because his foot never healed after the surgery. After more exams and xrays, we were told that there was cancer in his leg. The good news was that it had not yet spread to the bone, but the vet recommended amputating the leg to remove it from his body and to prevent it from spreading.

So we did.

Here's the pic from the day of his surgery (back in February):
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs231...._3619710_n.jpg

He must have really been in alot of pain before because after the surgery, he got much more active and playful. He's a royal pain in the ass, and I love him to death. When we move into a house, we're planning on getting another beagle or a basset hound.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...br1965/sam.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...Picture002.jpg

Samantha has a rescue story as well. She is an Alaskan Malamute. When she was 5 months old, her original owner gave her up to a shelter. He thought she had bad hips because she walked kind of sideways. An Alaskan Malamute rescue group got her from the shelter before she was euthanized. When they took her to the vet, they discovered that her hips were fine but she had juvenile cataracts and was completely blind in one eye. She walked sideways because she couldn't see out of one side.

The Alaskan Malamute Assistance League (AMAL) paid for her to have cataract surgery in both eyes. We adopted her when she was 18 months old, one month post surgery. We were warned that she may go through a puppy phase because she had been mostly blind all of her life. She was 92 pounds. A 92 pound puppy is a disaster. She was so destructive! I had to crate her while I was at work but she kept finding ways to escape from the crate. First she unlatched it. Then she got the top off. I kept finding new ways to secure it. Eventually, she busted the welding. She did not want to be in a crate. I had been driving 2 hours to a doggy opthamologist for her follow up appointments every month and everything was looking great until the appointment after she busted the welding on the crate. That time, they found one retina was completely detached and the other was partially detached. Therefore, she only sees some sharp contrast and movement out of one eye. We can't move the furniture and if the kids leave a TV tray out, she'll walk right into it. She's afraid to run now because the last time she was running, she ran right into a tree.

Because she's been blind for all but about 5 months of her life, she's very dependent and submissive, which is really atypical for a Mal. She's really sweet and cuddly :)

You can tell in the picture that her right eye (when facing her) is worse than her left. It's chronically inflamed now despite daily ointment and aspirin. She has developed glaucoma in that eye now too. She just turned 10 and is getting pretty arthritic in the hips, slowing her down even more. I'm hoping she holds out for another couple years.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...onlake/011.jpg
Benz and Apollo playing in the leaves last fall. Benz is jumping.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...e/carly088.jpg
Benz last summer with his hot weather hair cut. (he gets shaved in the summer)

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture072.jpg
"Bad dog!!!! Off the couch!!!!'

Ok, so here's Benzi's long story (Benzi is my term of endearment for him).

Before having kids, our dog (black lab named Sadie) was our baby. One night, a buddy of my husbands asked him if he would come over to his farm and help him move some machinary around. So I tagged along because the guy had horses, and I hadn't had a horse fix in a while. So I was grooming a horse, and my hub and the friend were doing their thing. Well, they came into the barn and the friend, John, said. "I need to run down to the end of the lane (like a 1/2 mile long) because someone just pulled in, and stopped for a few minutes, then backed out and left." So he drove his gator to the end of the lane, and came back and said "there is a wolf tied up under one of my trees. I think I'm going to have to shoot it!" Naturally, I pitched a fit, and walked down to the end of the lane. Wolf my ass. Tied by a skinny chain to the base of a pine tree was a cowering, very scared, big black dog. I talked to him for a few minutes, slowly got close. He was very fearful. I untied the chain, and as soon as I did, his personality changed. He started wagging his tail, walking around, sniffing... normal dog stuff. So I walked him back up to the barn where I could see him in the light.

We came inside and John said "I know that dog!" John used to have a boarder at the barn, and he had seen this dog with her once. Her chased the horses though, so John told her not to bring him back. She had removed her horse from his barn the month before this though, and he hadn't seen nor heard from her since. So, he called her to find out what was going on. Apparently, this lady was labled an irresponsible pet owner in our county. At one point, she had pitbulls, and they killed a neighbors small dog. The pits were destroyed, and the cops/court told her she could no longer have large breed dogs (she had an old blind schnauzer in the house they allowed her to keep.) Well apparently, she got ahold of this beautiful black german shepherd, and eventually, her neighbors found out and called the authorities. They were on their way to her house to arrest her and take the dog to be destroyed. She couldn't let that happen, so she took the black GS to John's farm. She asked John to keep him for "just a few days, until the heat dies down." She claimed that she would come out and give him food and water. John said, "And what if he gets off the chain? What if it rains? If he chases my horses, I'm going to shoot him."

So at this point, I gave my husband that LOOK, and I said "I'm keeping this dog." John told the lady on the phone "I have friends here now, and they're taking the dog. Don't ever come back here, and don't try to find the dog." I was happy as a clam. I took him to the car, and walked him around some so he would go potty before getting in the car. Damn dog hiked his leg and peed right on my boot. He's been mine ever since.

Keeping him wasn't our first intention though. I tried to find GSD rescues, and no one could take him, no one had room. I was afraid he and Sadie wouldn't get along, but they did. So he became ours, and we named him Benz (Sadie's real name was Mercedes. My husband is a car guy). He needed very little training. He was well behaved from the start. He's been a protector more times than I can count. He is a true working dog in that he does not play with my kids. He's playful with me and with other dogs sometimes, but when the kids are around, he's strictly business and he just stands guard and observes. He's very intimidating in person, because of his size and color, people think he's a wolf. He's the dog who comes out front with me when I have Craigslist people come to our house. Our vet, who was a GSD breeder in his younger days, says it looks like he's purebred, and told us to breed him before we got him neutered. His good disposition, good conformation (good hips), and unusual color would create some great puppies. We've even had people stop at our house and ask if we would breed him to their GSD bitch, but when we said he doesnt have papers, they would change their mind. Had to get him fixed eventually due to the increased risk of prostate cancer. He also had heartworm when we first adopted him, so we had to deal with that whole treatment process as well.

That's his story. :) Apollo has kind of a cute story too, but it's really just crazy.

People often think Samantha is a wolf too :)