Adoption of Melissa & Candy did not work out
Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log
SUNDAY OCTOBER 20 2002
Guy and I are making a home visit with Melissa and Candy first thing this morning. I'll report on the results when we get back.
In the meantime Bill will be processing lots of recent photos (that he hasn't had time to get to) and uploading them onto this website along with preparing the Weekly Sunday Update, which will appear sometime this coming evening.
Randy and the rest of the crew will carry on with the normal routine of daily dog walking, kennel cleaning, feeding and other caregiving.
It's very foggy this morning and about 60 degrees outside.
SUNDAY EVENING UPDATE
The adoption of Melissa and Candy did not work out
The events leading up to this possible adoption began yesterday when a woman came in to Canine Commissary where we were holding our adoption, and she was interested in adopting Melissa. She also wanted another female dog to be Melissa's companion while the woman was at work, and who could be better for her than Melissa's current kennel mate here, little Retriever-mix, Candy. We all had great hopes that everything would be perfect for the two young dogs, and going to a home where they would be together would be ideal for them.
We arrived at 10:30 this morning (after getting just a little bit lost) and the woman greeted us at the door. We took Melissa and Candy outside to the pretty back yard, which had a secure wood fence, and as the dogs sniffed around, the woman asked questions about both dogs. She let us know right away that now that she had seen Candy, she was not interested in adopting her. She didn't like Candy's timid demeanor, and I explained that Candy needs time, perhaps a week, to warm up to people and then Candy becomes very affectionate and lovable. She needs someone to just give her a chance to show them what a sweet, gentle, lovable little dog she really is.
And the woman was also concerned because Candy doesn't have perfect little hips, and because of not being sure what the "mix" part of her breed is also had a lot to do with Candy not passing "the second dog in the family" test.
When we took the dogs inside Melissa made herself right at home, investigating the different rooms, walking across the couch, checking out what was on top of the kitchen counters, and Candy followed Melissa's lead (except Candy did no furniture walking). This was Candy's first time inside a home, and she behaved beautifully. She felt comfortable because her best friend, Melissa, was there to show her around. Candy looked so happy as she trotted behind Melissa from room to room, it really looked as if Candy thought this would be her new forever home (silly thought as it turns out) but this is how she looked. and I felt very sad that the woman didn't want her. Candy would have made a wonderful second-pet, in my opinion, and it's not her fault that she is shy and it's not her fault that her hips are not perfect.
But the woman had made up her mind that it would just be Melissa, unless we had another female dog about the same size as Melissa, who would make a compatible companion for Melissa, but as we talked to the woman, we found out that she is gone from the home 14 hours a day, sometimes longer, and then she mentioned that she was thinking of crating her new pet while she was gone (for 14 hours), and she asked my opinion, and my opinion is that 14 hours is much too long to crate a dog, or a puppy.
The woman was very nice, and her home and fenced yard were very suitable for a house pet, but the fact that she works such long hours away from her home every day made it not a good situation for Melissa, or even Melissa and any other dog who might become her companion, and I think the woman finally realized this too. So Guy and I put the "girls" back in the dog van, and home we came.
A big ruckus erupts with Amber and the new pups
After we arrived home and got Melissa and Candy settled back in their kennel and fed them the meal they'd missed due to being on a home visit, Randy and I were outside talking about the plans for tomorrow's schedule, and we heard a terrible squabble coming from Amber's kennel, which she shares with the new little pups, Joey and Jimmy, and one of the pups was squealing with fright. We hurried to their kennel and saw Amber being aggressively rough with Joey and Jimmy, and when Randy yelled a firm NO! to Amber, the pups managed to get away from Amber's grip, and they ran for cover beneath their shelter.
We take the pups out of Amber's kennel
As those of you know who have been following Amber's story, Amber is known to be aggressive with other female dogs, but she is not aggressive with adult male dogs, and we never thought she would be aggressively rough toward these little male puppies whom she's been mothering and playing with and appeared to love so much these last two days. But this afternoon she was trying to hurt them. We scooped the frightened pups up and took them immediately out of Amber's kennel.
It is clear to us now that Amber can be a companion only to big male dogs such as 80-pound Arthur, whom Amber got along well with before Arthur was adopted two weeks ago yesterday.
Pups check out okay; Randy and crew fix small puppy kennel for them
The pups are okay, the vet said after she examined them thoroughly, and she put some ointment on the small tooth mark on Joey's cheek, and Jimmy's scratched forehead. I paid the emergency week-end after-hours vet bill and brought the little fellows back to our shelter.
The little puppy kennel was all ready for them when we arrived back at Straydog, and tomorrow we will solve this problem. The pups will not be going back with Amber, and she will remain alone for now. It appears Amber can only be with adult male dogs, preferably larger than Amber.
*Pat's Daily Dog Log - LAST WEEK - October 13 - 19, 2002
*Photo Pages - LAST WEEK - October 13 - 19, 2002
*Pat's Daily Dog Log - Previous Weeks
A Note from Pat ...
Please help us spread the word about Straydog, our Happy Home for Strays. This will be of help in raising the much needed funds to keep our shelter going--not growing, just going.
If you would like us to send you a stack of our recent newsletters for you to place at your vet clinic, or your place of business, or for you to hand out to your dog-loving friends, we'd be happy to get them to you right away. (All this printing was donated to Straydog Inc., and we've got a box of extras.) Or you could print (or have printed) a bunch of copies as per Bill's note immediately below:
PDF of our September 2002 Newsletter:
If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you may click on the link immediately below to see the entire newsletter in paginated form with all the photos in color. (If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download the software for free from www.adobe.com.)
We encourage everyone to print out several copies of our newsletter (it looks especially nice printed out on a color printer) and distribute copies to your animal-loving friends and acquaintances. (At least print out a copy for yourself, please.) We began the mailing of the 32-page, black and white, printed booklets (the printing of which the company Bill works for donates to Straydog Inc.) to our totally-free-of-obligation mailing list (which list anyone can get on by just asking us) on Wednesday, September 25, 2002.
Please be aware that PDFs (Portable Data Files) can be gigantic (this PDF of our current newsletter is 3.6 MB), and if you are accessing the Internet via a dial-up modem, it may take 20 - 30 minutes (or longer) to download the newsletter onto your computer. If you have a fast connection (DSL or cable modem), it should take less than a minute to download the PDF file of our newsletter.
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