Easy way to make yourself insane...as experienced by Sageofages

sageofages · #1 12-06-2007, 02:55 PM

It is official. Mr. Sageofages and I are about to be declared and verified crazy.

Why?, you might ask. Well, let me illuminate....

I am privately freaking out here...it is good and bad...after my last
two weeks, I thought I could use some down time....LOL...fate thought
otherwise.

About 3 years ago (at the start of the Iraq *incursion, conflict, war, whateveryouwanttocallit), I registered with netpets.org, a foster pet program
for military service members. Essentially volunteers foster service
members pets while they are deployed in Iraq. Three years...nothing.

So what happens about two days before I leave for my Thanksgiving holiday. The organization notifies us that we have been tapped to foster the pets for a Iowa Guard member who has been activated. The service member has to set up an allotment for food and vet care, the dogs are microchipped and we get copies of her orders.

She brought her babies over two days ago. TWO large black labs. We will
be fostering them for about 15 months. I have TWO large dogs now...FOUR large dogs (>75 lbs each) is freaking me out. We have a good sized fenced yard. Poor woman, she cried when she left. The dogs are 9 years old and she has had them since they were 5 weeks old. Both are neutered, which is good because my golden retriever is not.

The dogs are IDENTICAL..except one has spots on his tongue and other does not. So I bought them two different color collars so I don't have to say "ok pant so I can see who you are".

Imagine the food we are going to go through for the next year. We go
through about 20 pounds of dry dog food a week now! So one 44 pound of dog food a week...(and what goes in, comes out eventuallly!!!!!)

SO FAR...everyone is doing well. There was some pack posturing by my golden with the lab that is the more dominant brother. The less dominant male and my spayed female german shepard were acting like "wow...new friends!".

I hope everyone settles into a routine so there isn't constant barking...today is much quieter than yesterday was.

This could be an adventure. Mr Sageofages is so patient ow...

I am
so grateful it didn't put him over the edge

SWTXBelle · #2 12-06-2007, 02:59 PM

Well God bless you - you are doing a truly selfless thing! It's one thing to say you are supporting our troops - quite another to do it so literally. Hats off to you.

Fawn Liebowitz · #3 12-06-2007, 03:23 PM

I agree with everything SWTXBelle said - I admire you for doing this!

33girl · #4 12-06-2007, 03:46 PM

OMG, Pam - I want to come to your house!! I love big dogs and FOUR is my idea of heaven!! I'm sure the "kids" will all get along fine after they calm down.

DaemonSeid · #5 12-06-2007, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

OMG, Pam - I want to come to your house!! I love big dogs and FOUR is my idea of heaven!! I'm sure the "kids" will all get along fine after they calm down.

PICTURES!!!!!!!

Benzgirl · #6 12-06-2007, 07:06 PM

My friend was in a similar situations 3 years ago. She had 3 very large mixed labs then took in a boarder who brought 2 lab mixes. On occasion, she dog sits for friends. One time I stopped over, I could hear 32 legs galloping toward the door.

They all bark, but they are sweethearts. And so is their Alpha mom.

BTW...want pictures too

UGAalum94 · #7 12-06-2007, 07:53 PM

What a great organization to set that up! How cool SageofAges is for participating!

I honestly had never even considered that issue before, and as a pet owner, I would be heartbroken to have to permanently give up my dogs.

I think I'm at the legal limit for the number of pets I can have in my town, but if ever I'm not, I might sign up.

Drolefille · #8 12-06-2007, 09:08 PM

I'm seriously going to have to consider signing up once I get my apartment in some sort of reasonable order. I probably couldn't take a large dog, unless s/he was older even though they're my favorite, but that's such an awesome program!

AOIIalum · #9 12-06-2007, 09:13 PM

I think what you and your husband are doing for these dogs is simply wonderful, Pam. Then again, I'm a sucker for big dogs too as we have a 70 lb. golden and a 82 lb. golden mix! Enjoy the insanity and hopefully they all settle in quickly.

aephi alum · #10 12-06-2007, 10:04 PM

That is such a sweet thing you're doing. Give them a scratch behind the ears from me.

DolphinChicaDDD · #11 12-06-2007, 10:26 PM

It is amazing you are willing to open your home to help foster a serviceman/woman's pet!! I totally want to sign up...once we get the house!

honeychile · #12 12-06-2007, 10:50 PM

So.... If I should send Large Dog food coupons to "The Crazy SagesofAges" in Iowa, you'd probably get them?

Seriously, that's a wonderful service you're doing. I'm on a small dog list for fostering. Our dog may have something to say about it, though.

sageofages · #13 12-06-2007, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeychile

So.... If I should send Large Dog food coupons to "The Crazy SagesofAges" in Iowa, you'd probably get them?

Seriously, that's a wonderful service you're doing. I'm on a small dog list for fostering. Our dog may have something to say about it, though.

Any donations of Pedigree Adult - Small Crunchy bites (we will go through a 44 pound bag a week at this rate), milk bone dog biscuits, or tons of rawhide chew toys will undoubtedly be greeted with wagging tails.

Our local walmart has already noticed

. When I went there to get two bags of food (88 lbs) and bought two new colored collars (so I can tell the boys apart!) and two new choke leads to be able to walk them without having my arm yanked out of socket, our "regular" cashier said "what did you do? get new dogs?"

Sister Havana · #14 12-07-2007, 01:22 AM

Pam, that is awesome. What a mitzvah you are doing!

and I'm with DaemonSeid - I wanna see pictures too!

aggieAXO · #15 12-07-2007, 01:22 AM

How nice of you and your husband to do this. I didn't even know a program like this existed.