Blue Eyed Blog
Posts tagged dogs
Puppy Mill Dogs
Aug 2nd
I am sickened by this. It was in my email this morning.
We have five Beardies that will be ready to be adopted next week. They were rescued form a Missouri puppy mill when the owner lost his USDA license and had to surrender his dogs. Five of which were Beardies.
Currently they are at a vet in Kansas being taken care of with all the help they need to enter the real world and go to a ‘forever’ home.
All five of the Beardies, 1 male and 4 females, were under weight, filthy, covered with fleas and ticks and hungry. The male is nine years old and three girls are 20 months and one girl is five years old. All of them were initially afraid of grass when rescued. They all are now walking on lead. The little girls figured the lead out on the way into the vets. Typical Beardie girls, ornery and full of themselves
The 20-month-old little girls are black and white. They weighed in at about 25 lbs. They are alert and curious of their surroundings and I think they will adapt to a loving caring home with few problems. I don’t think they’ve been bred.
The five-year-old girl was about 32 lbs. She was advertised as a fawn but she might be a faded brown. She was a little shyer than the young ones but I think she will be a good prospect for a loving caring home too. If I were a betting man (and I am) I’d say she is the dam of the three little ones and the male is the sire.
The nine-year-old boy is a little tougher. He has the ‘puppy-mill’ stare and ‘goes away’ with any pressure. He is non-aggressive and very sweet. He gives kisses if you don’t ‘eye-ball’ him. He will need a special home. He’s has lived his life in a cage for nine years and deserves all the love he can absorb the next few years. He weighed 40 lbs when we got him and because of his life he had little muscle tone or coordination. He probably got to run for the first time in his life last week.
We have two or three prospects for the girls already. Nothing is final yet. Joyce and I will go in a few days and get pictures and evaluate them. We’ll know a lot more about them later and be ready to start getting them to their forever homes.
Any one that is interested or if you have a prospective new home for these Beardie treasures please get in touch. That also goes if you have any questions.
You see, I have a rescue Beardie. She came from a puppy mill. In Missouri. She had never walked on grass when we got her. She was terrified of everything. She had that ‘puppy-mill stare.’ After 7 years with her, she is … still terrified of the world. But she is a sweet, loving, affectionate girl who at least will live out the remainder of her life with love and affection and care and compassion.
I would love to take one or all of these dogs in and give them a forever home where they could be safe and loved and cared for. I can’t. But what I can do is to say to all of you: If you are getting a dog, and it is not a rescue, know where it comes from. Go meet the breeder. Get to KNOW them. The sire and dam. Don’t meet someone in a parking lot. Don’t answer an ad on Craigslist. Don’t answer an ad in a newspaper. Do not ever buy a dog from a pet store!!
If you’re not going to rescue an animal from a shelter or a rescue organization, then be absolutely certain that you are buying a dog from a reputable breeder. Go to dog shows and meet the breeds. Meet the people showing their dogs. Ask them lots and lots of questions. Ask them about breeders. Make sure that your breeder is doing the right things. And if you have any questions or uneasy feelings, walk away. Hard to do when those sweet puppy eyes are staring at you, and that puppy breath! But puppy mills and disreputable breeders are everywhere, and what they do to good dogs in their pursuit of the almighty dollar is disgusting. If you could meet my Lilly you’d see what they did to her. And you would be outraged too.
If you are interested in adopting one of these dogs, please contact me and I can put you in contact with the Bearded Collie Club of America’s National Rescue Coordinator who will take your application and put you under consideration for one of these dogs.
Martha Martha Martha!
Jul 18th
I am currently fostering Martha (“Martha Martha Martha!!“) who was brought to me from a shelter in WV yesterday. She’s all brown with just the barest white tips on her feet, but she seems to be full beardie in every other department. She is a complete love and a sweetheart. She was badly matted and so is now shaved down. She has bright, inquisitive eyes and a ready wag of the tail.
So far she gets along great with Murray Dog and Lilly (though they are a little unhappy about the arrival of ANOTHER foster dog). She has been overly interested in the cats, though the largest, Pickles, taught her a few valuable lessons early on about the sharp pointy bits that cats posses. I think ultimately she will be fine with them but she’s being watched closely.
She loves being petted, gives kisses and nose-bumps, but has some mild separation anxiety right now — who could blame the poor girl! I think once she simmers down from all the trauma of shelter/transport she should be an absolute winner! She is older, at 8 years, but there are still a lot of good years left in her for the right person.
She has also been fabulous with The Tot (4+ years old) showing nothing but affection and tolerance without even the barest hint of aggression or even annoyance. It would seem she may have been owned by a man previously as she warms up to men quite readily but appears to be a bit standoffish with women at first. Unless they happen to be eating a meatball.
So who wants to adopt Martha? She’s going to make someone very happy and fill their lives and their home with love and kisses and barks of joy. Hit the email-me button up there is you’re interested. And if you’re not in the North Carolina area, that’s ok too. We can spin up our special Underground Railroad and get her transported where she needs to go, or you could just buy her a plane ticket and meet her plane! That’s what happened to my last foster-dog who now has a forever home in Sausalito, CA!
I’ll have more pictures soon, I promise.
Update: I have more pictures of Martha. We took these on the back porch this evening. See what a bright girl she is?
But this is my favorite series. She just wanted to give the Tot a kiss, and the Tot was playing hard to get!
And don’t worry, the Tot was not scared at all, and Martha was ever so gentle in just giving her a little nose-to-nose kiss. It was very sweet!
I think when her coat grows back out she’s going to be simply gorgeous! 
Ya Gotta Love Em
Jul 16th
You just have to love Bearded Collies. Got this series of pictures in email this morning:
They are so helpful! Well, in general. Mine are useless for pretty much anything but holding the floor down, but they have huge hearts and big brains and are funny as a rubber crutch.
A Loving Companion for You
May 30th
This arrived in my mail from a fellow dog-rescuer. Gigi should be sainted, quite frankly. Anyway, if you’re in the LA area and are looking for a companion, or know someone who is, please contact Gigi. Or contact me and I will put you in contact with her.
Dear Friends,
Some people attract fame, others fortune. I, on the other hand, attract dogs. All the time.
Since we last spoke I have rescued another eight dogs, including Casper – who a week after finding him dodging traffic in Van Nuys, lost one eye to Glaucoma and this weekend sadly, lost the other so I now have a blind dog living in Puppyville.
But the dogs I am writing to you about today are two happy and healthy little boys who I also found running in the streets of Van Nuys three weeks ago. Sadly, I have been unable to find their owners.
Most likely they forged their friendship on the street but they are truly inseparable and for that reason I want to place them together. They are young — about 2 or 3 at the oldest – but I think they would make great companion dogs for a senior.
I’m attaching a flyer that you can easily copy and paste with all the important information. (I’ve also inserted it in this email, if easier)
Won’t you please help me by sending it out to your mailing lists or posting on your Facebook page? I hope to have them neutered this week and would love to start finding their forever homes. They truly are sweet loving dogs!
As always, thank you for your help!
Gigi
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My Invention, Realized
Mar 27th
I have crazy ideas. Really. I know, that shocks you all deeply, but I really do. Some of them are actually good ideas. Like this one.
I had this idea a few years ago. I hate having to constantly pick up the dog’s water bowl, clean it out, refill it, and put it back. I inevitably spill it on myself, or all over the floor. Plus my dogs are messy, and clumsy, and seem to kick the water bowl over more often than not — well, until we got a Buddy Bowl for the RV years ago. They can turn that sucker upside down and play floor-hockey with it and it won’t spill a drop but it’s a pain to keep clean and a pain to refill. But I digress, again.
My idea was to take a simple vessel sink and mount it on the floor. That’s right, a sink on the floor. Emptying the ‘bowl’ is as easy as opening the drain. A handy faucet nearby means it’s simple to re-fill and clean. And did I mention it’s mounted to the floor? Try kicking that over, Murray Dog!
We’ve had the sink for 2+ years, but we were sort of waiting for me to get around to doing the slate in the laundry room before mounting the sink. Well, I got sick of waiting, so this weekend I realized my dream, and I now have a sink on the floor in my laundry room as a dog water bowl. Fully plumbed in to the system. (Yes, I do plumbing. No, I won’t come do it at your house.)
I realize that you’re looking at that picture and thinking “Dork! You forgot the faucet!” But there’s some trick photography going on. Those white legs there aren’t actually mine. They are the Utility Sink, and I replaced the fugly faucet on that with a nice pull-out model (I actually have no idea where it came from. It was in the box with the sink in the garage but no one remembers buying it, acquiring it, or anything about it. Apparently there is a faucet fairy.). So I pull that out, it reaches all the way down to the bowl, and I can clean it out and refill it.
I think it’s ingenious. It’s sitting on a piece of the slate which will, hopefully soon, be laid in the room. To further motivate me to actually lay the damned slate — I’ve already laid almost 1,000 square feet of the stuff, and it is no easy task, trust me — I also went ahead and painted the adjoining mud room a festive green!
And you can see why I want to replace that floor. Hideous vinyl flooring. Who ever thought that was a good idea?
So far neither of the dogs has actually used the new water bowl. But ot be fair, with me in there banging around, and then painting, they were making themselves rather scarce.
Dear Dogs & Cats
Feb 25th
Cleaning out my inbox and found this. Thought I’d pass it along, again.
Dear Dogs and Cats,
When I say to move, it means go someplace else, not switch positions with each other so there are still two of you in the way.
The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn’t help, because I fall faster than you can run.
When I am in the bathroom, the door is closed for a reason. There is no other exit. Be patient, I’ll come out the same way I went in.
I cannot buy anything bigger than a king size bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue to sleep on the couch to ensure your
comfort. Look at videos of dogs and cats sleeping, they can actually curl up in a ball. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space used – is nothing but sarcasm.
My compact discs are not miniature Frisbees.
The proper order is: kiss me, then go smell the other dogs’ butt. I cannot stress this enough. It would be such a simple change for you.
To pacify you I have posted the following message on our front door…
Rules for Non-Pet Owners Who Visit and Like to Complain About Our Pets:
- They live here. You don’t.
- If you don’t want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.
- I like my pet a lot better than I like most people.
- To you, it’s an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn’t speak clearly.
- Dogs and cats are better than kids. They eat less, don’t ask for money all the time, are easier to train, usually come when called, never drive your car, don’t hang out with drug-using friends, don’t smoke or drink, don’t worry about buying the latest fashions, don’t wear your clothes, don’t need a gazillion dollars for college, and if they get pregnant, you can sell the results.
White Non-Sporting Men in Rumpled Suits
Feb 21st
Especially if you’re a dog person, or have ever been to a dog show …
eBay, STOP Puppymills!
Feb 17th
This issue is very near and dear to my heart. As I’ve said, I work in dog rescue as much as time allows. The things I’ve seen … And one of those things I see every single day. That’s my little rescue, Lilly. She was rescued from a puppy mill in the capital of puppy-mills, Missouri.
She was 4 1/2 years old, and had already had 4 litters. As best we could tell, she had never been socialized with either people or other dogs. It was pretty clear that she had never walked on actual grass. She was probably kept in a cage — a small cage — her entire life.
She was afraid of everything. Her own shadow. It was heartbreaking.
6 years later, and she is mostly ok. She’ll never be normal. But 6 years of nothing but love and kindness and never a harsh word and she will come out and ask to be petted sometimes. Sometimes. It took her years to want to be loved.
So yeah, I think puppy mills are evil. If you’re not getting your dog from a shelter, or a rescue organization, then you should be getting it from a reputable breeder that you have thoroughly checked out, that has references that you have checked, and that has investigated you as thoroughly as you have investigated them. Never buy a dog from a newspaper advertisement, or a Craigslist ad, or a sign on the side of the road, and especially from a pet store!!! Almost without exception, every one of those dogs will have come from the inhumane conditions of a puppy mill.
Dogs are not impulse purchases. They should be researched. Thought about. Considered carefully.
So please sign the petition. Make eBay stop selling dogs. You don’t auction off a life. Any life.
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Foster Home Needed
Feb 15th
UPDATE: Received via email today:
As of today (and lots of emails flying here and there) the dogs will be picked up tomorrow (Friday) by John in the Ozarks who fostered a BONE dog a few months ago. John will drive the dogs to Pat, who will then drive them to Mary in IL. It will be a very long drive for all and we greatly appreciate John’s assistance and Mary’s agreement to foster, even though she is full up. BONE needs to do everything possible to find homes for Ben and Jerry so that Mary is not overburdoned with bouncing dogs. I have sent out emails to applicants in surrounding areas in hopes of finding a forever home. Several applicants have responded positively, but we need to evaluate the dogs more before making any committments.
Everyone keep those positive thoughts going tomorrow.
So if anyone along the way is interested, or can help with transport, please contact me asap! These boys need a forever home!
I work in dog rescue (in my infinite spare time). I’ve fostered several dogs through the B.O.N.E. rescue group with which I work. (‘Lucky‘ was my favorite, but I’m still in contact with ‘Coffee‘ and she is a sweetie!) We just finished getting a pregnant bitch out of a high-kill shelter a few hours from me last week, and this comes up:
Hi, thank you for the information. Here is the information we have on these two. They will chase cats as mentioned in the write up below.
We have a very kind hearted, gentle couple of good ol’ local folks who have fell on hard times. They lost their jobs and their place and are currently living in a compromised structure with no running water or electricity. They are living on crumbs and struggling through a horrible cold winter. What makes our hearts warm is that through all this dispair and tragedy, these folks have kept their TEN dogs FAT! The fact that so many of these kids were altered young speaks well of these folks as well. They now dont know how much longer they can stay in the shack and cannot roam the streets or sleep in search of shelter with ten dogs. Its with the deepest of sadness they have asked for assistance with these dogs. The volunteer working with the family is our only contact point as they are deep in the Ozark Forest off the beaten path. These are cold hungry people with fat happy dogs……….we just cannot deny this situation and want to help the dogs so these kind folks can find their way back to the land of the living in this bitter oppressed terrible area where unemployment and homelessness are at an all time high. We have taken out what fencing material and dog houses we could scrape up to keep them as comfortable as possible, mostly old woven wire but its something! Our volunteer is also working on better pics, its a very emotional and stressy situation but we are doing our very, very best for these dogs.
These two boys are brothers, about two years old, neutered and very bouncy! They will need to learn some basics when they get where they need to be! Ben has a lighter face, otherwise they are very much alike. These guys will chase cats.
Since we have not worked with your organization before would you mind sharing some about your rescue? Your adoption policies, euthanization policies, vet name and number? No offense is meant by the questions at all, just had a couple of bad experiences awhile back when working with someone for the first time. So that is why we ask questions up front, not to judge other rescues at all but just so that we can make informed decisions.
Thank you again, look forward to hearing back from you.
So here are the only pictures we have of these two. If you are interested, please please contact me!
