I'm really depressed from this weekend...and I feel like comfort eating, so instead I'll post a really long-ass post in the rants and raves section and sip on my Protein shake.

In the middle of last week a chocolate lab came running up to me and my family as we were walking our dogs around the neighborhood. Very shabby, very skinny, no tags, and not fixed. But, very sweet natured - so I was silently hoping he'd follow us home. He followed us a little ways, then got preoccupied and left us.

Then, Friday night the same dog ran out in front of my car. I was able to stop, and barely missed running him over.

I got out, put a leash on him (yes, I'm the freaky dog lady that keeps an extra leash in my car for moments just like this). As I was walking to my car, a lady pulls up in her car and says to me, "that's my dog."

I was angry at the condition of the dog and asked where his tags were, and when the last time she fed it was. She said it fell off, and she had just fed him this morning. Right.

So, I said I was going to take him to the vet to get him checked out. She said okay, as long as she didn't have to pay the bill. I agreed to pay for him to get checked out. We exchanged numbers.

I'll cut a lot out here: The dog was severly malnourished and had heartworms, worms..no ID, not fixed...BAD SHAPE.

The lady's son called me while I was still at the vet and cussed me out for taking him...the vet said that as far as she was concerned it was a stray since they couldn't prove it was theirs. (This was a mistake, according to the police later, but I think she knew I would pay for the heartworm treatment and the dog would be better off with me. She went against what she was supposed to do to protect the dog.)

Soo...the police were called that night by them, and by me...the police got the report from the vet and allowed me to keep the dog. I agreed to meet the people at the vet the next morning, and leave it up to her where the dog goes. (By the time all this unfolded the vet had gone and was closed.)

All the while, the "owners" keep changing. First it was the lady, then the lady's younger son, then his brother, then the father. Good grief! Everyone I talked to in the family said it was their dog until I mentioned heartworms - an $800 treatment, then it was, "It's not my dog. I'm not paying that." ARRRGGGHHHH

So, the brother's show up at my house with other stray dogs and keep dumping them off on Friday night, calling me the crazy dog lady. A term I've come to embrace.

Saturday morning I have the "pleasure" of meeting the dad - the real owner? who knows. The officer that was called to the scene was a jerk. He showed up, not knowing what was going on and started threatening me with being arrested, and called me a racist. (I'm not sure where that came from, though he swears someone in my family said the word "Mexican".) I pointed to my daughter who is bi-racial and said, "Hello! We're not racist people." (And - point aside: You say Mexican to me, and I think food. I don't think Mexican is a racial slur, is it???)

Anyway...they get the dog back and a bunch of tickets for animal cruelty and a report to the SPCA for the chocolate lab, and the pitt bull puppy they were carrying that wasn't registered or tagged...or treated for heartworms...or fixed.

Anyway...I'm just sad over this dog. He was 4 years old, should have been 100 pounds, and was about 70. His bones were sticking out, but he was still sooo sweet.

I don't know how quickly the SPCA works, but these people were just jerks. I'm worried the dog will die before they can get him. I'm also worried that the dog won't be there when the SPCA gets there, and they won't get his treatment in time. According to the vet the heartworm was advanced. The dad kept saying to me he'd let me take the dog to breed with mine - he was convinced that me taking him was about me trying to breed my dogs. He didn't get it that my dogs are fixed!

At one point he was standing near me, yelling at me about what a mistake I made and I yelled back, "I saved your dogs life!" He just scoffed and said, "He's fine!"

That kind of ignorance just kills me! I don't get it.

This has all been condensed...it was really hours long, more cussing and threatening....more stress. And, lies-lies-lies from them. They said I didn't have the mother's permission, but then how did they get my number? They said the dog was there that morning, but I know he's been loose for several days. They said, they said. One brother said, "I was over in Iraq for a year, killing people. I'm not afraid of you."

What?? What is that? I told him to go f%$k himself. Was telling me he killed people supposed to make me scared? I hate that crap. Kill me, then, if that's your intent. DO SOMETHING or SHUT UP. They also told me the mother was passive and would have been okay with me taking the dog. :blushing: Ha....they're used to passive women...funny. I'm not passive and WILL NOT be intimidated by bullies.

Okay, thanks for letting me vent! I've been sad thinking the dog isn't getting cared for, and like I said - I've wanted to EAT my way out of the funk, but can't - won't do that.

The world needs more people like you. I really hope they take better care of the poor dog. Hopefully the SPCA will be prompt in their investigation. Would it help if you called them?

I don't know...I'm tempted to, but I'm scared to.

The week before last there was a pitt bull in my yard, she would squat to pee, but blood would come out. She had been pregnant, or was pregnant still - but severly hurt. I took her there and they put her down. I called later and they said that they put all pitt bulls down no matter what. They also said if the animal was too sick they put it down.

So, I'm scared to find out that they put him down. At 4, with advanced heartworm disease, they may not bother.

Although, I will probably find out if they got him or not. I'm in the report and was told by the police that I'd be contacted to give a statement. So, I think I need to let it go. I'm not good at that, though, and biting my nails! I want to drive down to their side of the street and see if the dog is out running around, and I keep looking for him in the neighborhood. But, I know I need to stay away, for legal reasons. I'm worried if I call the SPCA, they'll get annoyed, or get the impression I'm being pushy. And I don't want any of those types of human feelings to get in the way of caring for the dog. (See!? I am the crazy dog lady!)

:blushing:

I can tell you this, we would love to have you in Min Pin Rescue! We end up not being able to rescue dogs because we don't have enough Foster Homes. You would be PERFECT! Rescuing is the toughest job I have ever done - other than Fostering. :-)

MinPinRescue

I hope you know that you may have given that dog the only chance at a vet and heartworm treatment he has ever had.

I thought about fostering (both kids and dogs) but after talking to my family, they have said no. If I were a single gal, though, my house would be full. I keep asking for a bird and both daughter and fiance have said: NO. He has 2 cats, I have 2 dogs...it's already kind of crazy.

I think if I take in the occassional stray, get it checked out and try to find it a good home, I'll be happy with that service.

It's when the strays have owners that are jerks is when I get in trouble.

I think I would wait until at least Thursday, but maybe a week has gone by to call. I think after that it's fine to call to see how he's doing. They should be happy that people like you care enough to do what you did.

Good for you Glou....I'm a crazy dog lady too and I hope I would've done the same thing. Nothing makes me more furious than animal cruelity.

I don't have a solution to your heart-breaking situation, but I just wanted to tell you how wonderful I think you are to get involved. Those of us in animal rescue (my particular "vice" is German Shepherds and I have at least 3 at my house at any given time) are very aware of the sacrifice it takes to get involved and to stand up against the a**holes who neglect or abuse poor helpless animals. Thank you for what you did and for caring so much! You may have made a huge difference in this dog's life, either by scaring his owners into better care or by at least getting the dog's situation into the police records for review. Hang in there and keep your eyes open and maybe your chance will come again to get this dog into a better situation. And thank you for being willing to do the tough work against the jerks in this world!

Today as I drove home, there was a van in front of me, poking along, we were in a semi-residential area, but a well travelled one, with a 25 mph speed limit---and we were doing 5-10 mph. Traffic lined up forever. Then I see why----there is a little white dog, looked like a mop that needed cleaning...trotting right up the middle of the lane big as you please. The only reason I finally saw it, was this little boy peddling like mad on his bike, and finally the dog saw the boy and they run off together! Hope he keeps better track of the dog....but had to kind of laugh, at first I was irritated about why we were going so "dog"-gone slow....then I saw who was REALLY in charge and it was not the van!!!!

Good for you taking time to care for all the unloved ones that come your way!!!

Kat

i have no doubt in my mind how frustrated you feel right about now!

I'm a vet nurse. It's astounding the amount of people you have come in because "there dog is sick, but it only just got sick today", when you know to damn well that this dog couldnt have just gotten sick in the last 24 hours, its severly malnourished and not cared for in the slightest. You always know for a fact that the next question out of their mouth is going to be "And how much is this going to cost me?", closly followed by "Im on consession/health care card/ seniors card, whats my discount?" Never is it, "and will i get a discount?" they just assume that they get one for whatever reason!

Then, once they come out of consult, you hand over the bill and one of two things happen!

Situation one: (yelling!) You told me that the consult was only going to be $40!, so why is this bill for $100!! Its at this point i pray ide had a voice recorder, so that i could go back and show these people that we never say it is going to cost $40, we say $40 for the consult plus whatever treatment is required, but as usual, these people only hear what they want to hear! They moan and groan about not feeding themselves this week, and then you end up feeling like the bad guy when you take the money from them!

Situation two: Again, you give them the bill...but they just flatout refuse to pay it! "Oh! i dont have that sort of money...im not a doctor you know!!" Luckily at this point, we have a credit system where we get many details from them along with two refrences. But, not to my suprise at all, this form is yet another inconvienience to them. "I'll be back tomorrow,"..."I dont understand why you need all this information!"..."You have no right to ask for this information!" We are doing a favour by them and yet they are still complaining! We generally ask for a half payment, but again that never happens.

Don't get me wrong, the majority of our clients are lovely people that would do absolulty anything for their pets, but after reading the original post, its just got me so worked up! Some people just dont deserve pets, they forget...pets are not a right, there a privledge!!

Another dog lover here.

When I was younger, I took a abused dog from a neighbors back yard in the middle of the night and took it to my girlfriends house that live out in the country. The neighbor didn't even relize that the dog was gone for about two or three days. Before I did this, I had called our humane society about this dog and was told that there was nothing that they could do because the dog had food, water and shelter. This dog was on a chain 24/7 in the back yard. Even in the winter. His “shelter”, which was falling apart with nails sticking out of it, was sitting in full sun all summer and the door was too large so in the winter it was never warm. The owners never took it for a walk, never came out to play with it, nothing. The only interaction that dog had with his “owners” was when someone went out to feed or water him and he would start barking and they would yell “Shut the hell up!!” Anytime I went into my backyard, he would get so excited. But he was chained too far away for me to reach over the fence to pet him. So, under the cover of darkness (it was also on a night that I knew they wouldn’t be home) I stole their dog and I have never regretted it.

I just got my baby (10 year old schnauzer) back Friday from being at the vet for over a week. Last Wednesday he was at the park with my dd and fell off the park bench and dislocated his hip. The week before, he had surgery for a growth on his ear and a tooth abscess. When we got him (from a no kill animal shelter) we knew that we are going to be responsible for his food and shelter, but also any medical problems and we planned for that. Granted, this was a bit much for one month, but there is no way I would ever think of griping about the bill. Riley isn’t my pet, he’s my buddy and part of our family. I would be lost without him and want him around as long as possible.

I love it! :wub: A fellow dognapper!

I called the vet's office a few days ago to get the scoop. They are bringing the dog back in for heartworm treatment, and have scheduled the vaccinations.

I am happy that he's getting treatment, but still steamed that it took them getting citations in order for them to do that.

In the Banders Pet thread I gave a brief back story on my dog and oldest cat. I love my animals; I would do anything for them. I love them just like I love my kids.

First Jakes story, from what we have been able to figure out he was severely abused as a puppy in two possible scenarios. The first one, we think someone just beat the tar out of him, splintered his hind leg and left him for dead. Part of his ear was missing and his ribs were cracked and broken. Someone found him and brought him to the humane society, they treated him with such indifference it broke my heart. They didn’t even try to get him treatment, or even clean him up.

When I found him he was laying in his own feces and urine in the back of this abysmally small cage. Now Jake is a Black Lab mix, so his fur is black, but it was crawling!!!!! He was so infested with fleas you got the impression his fur was crawling all over him!!! He was totally petrified of men, yet they had a guy show us him and this man was just mean about it!! He grabbed Jake whimpering and crying and pulled him forward so we could see him. I wanted to cry for this little guy!! My hubby and I then and there decided we were going to take this dog and do all we could for him.

This is where it takes a weird twist!! They didn’t want us to adopt him!! They kept trying to get us to go look at the “healthy” dogs cause “that one isn’t worth the time”. Someone actually said that to me!!! I wanted to cry they didn’t think he was worth adopting out! They wanted to just put him down and pretend he didn’t exist!! Needless to say almost 6 years later he is a hale and hearty 3 legged goof ball. He eventually got over his fear of men, and he is totally my husband’s dog. Well except for the fact he listens to me better then the hubby ROFL.

Chaos, well, he is a trip and a half. We rescued him also, but not from the shelter but from a family that didn’t give the fella the love and care he needed. See, when we got him they had ignored him so much he was partially feral. He was let inside for food and that was really it. He was so scared of people that when we got him home he hid for about a month under our bed. Finally he got to know us and loved us so he came out all the time and wanted attention (doesn’t like being held all that much but he is getting there) but when people came over he ran and hid for hours. We have been working with this guy for so long now that he loves company. He will at first dash to the room (old habits I think) but he will come out and investigate the new people. Now I am not begrudging the people that had him, I disagree with how the treated him, and they did love him in there own way, but he didn’t get the care he needed. He needed to be socialized and kept inside. They did neither, so my anti social half feral bangle/tabby cat is now a house cat that just loves his humans, and his brother Jake and sister Moe (our baby kitty that adopted me).

(sorry this is so long, but my furry "kids" are just as important as my boys. don't get me started on those two knuckle heads .. it will be even longer ROFL)

That brought tears to my eyes!

I have 2 dogs...Sallie is a yellow lab. I got her from a "friend of a friend of a friend" kind of thing. I never met the original owners, but something must have happened to her. She's scared of new people, too. If my friends come over, she'll run into the room. She's not mean, just scared and will shy away, or hide behind me. She's come to the point now, 2 years later where she'll come to investigate and even cuddle up to the regulars. :wub: She's also deathly afraid of tile - and of course the whole house is tile! So, I have little throw rugs every where and she'll hunch down, and you can see her gatherign the courage to run across the tile.

The other is a white boxer, named Ginger, and she has a scar running around her neck. She had a collar on, and the owners never removed it as she got older. She ended up in the SPCA, where she was adopted out to another woman. I got her from that person because the husband didn't want her. She was on her way to return Ginger to the SPCA, but the rep was late and she was just going to leave her tied up outside PetsMart. I said, I'll take her!

So, those are my two "babies".

Oh my gosh, these stories are heartbreaking but also inspiring---thank you all for caring so much! My rescued "babies" have had some tragic lives, also. One of our current rescues ( a Shepherd mix) was found running through the streets of South Central Los Angeles with her toes cut off of one foot...terrified. The local shelter took her in and threw her in a cage with other big dogs and she got beaten up. They never treated her stump which she kept folded up under her belly. On the day she was to be put down, someone called the Shepherd Rescue and they took her, but no one would adopt an essentially 3-legged dog. So, we stepped in and took her as a companion for one of our other rescues who was dealing with some physical issues. And now she is the queen of the house! We work with her and now she uses her stump about half the time. And she is the happiest and funniest little girl! Her recovery has been amazing and our home would be emply without her.

The most incredible thing about dogs is their ability to love in spite of their treatment, don't you think? Our little girl is the sweetest and friendliest thing. Her only fear is big men in jackets....she is terrified whens she sees one. I wonder who the jerk in the jacket was who tortured her so badly? I know it is evil of me, but I sometimes wish that we could inflict the same treatment on these people as they inflicted on these helpless creatures. I would love to cut the toes off this guy.... :crying:

L8BloomR - it wouldn't be the toes I would cut off. Does the term 'bobbit-ing' resonate??

I too have sheltered many cats and dogs...each one someone else's castoff. My last dog was a black lab - absolutely terrified of hands...anyone's hands. It took me several months before he would trust me enough to let me pet him. He never got over his fear of men and would vigorously defend the house with much throwing himself at windows, and ferrocious barking if a man appeared. (Love life took a bit of a downturn at that time:lol:).

Then there was the dog given to me to 'train' -the adult owner had given the dog to his son (age 5) and the boy hadn't trained him yet. That dog (by this time age 1 year) had never seen a leash, a collar, any toys, and was allowed to run free in the community. Isn't it strange that the dog didn't have any manners?!?!? That dog did not go back to that home - after lots of training with the dog, the family decided that a puppy was cute but a dog was work! The son wanted a mountain bike instead, and the parent didn't want to assume any responsibility.

And those are only 2 of the many dogs I have had the privilege of owning.

And the cats I have rescued...from starvation, from life outside (in 30 below temps), from caged existences....I never cease to be appalled/amazed by the depravity of the human animal. Cats with diseases, cats mistreated, cats with internal injuries....alll of them somebody's responsibility at one time.

Animal rescue was one of the most difficult sickening volunteer positions I have ever done, and after over 20 years of it, I can't do it anymore. I have my 3 cats (all rescues), and once these join the rest of the cats and dogs of my past in their naturally achieved final reward), then no more pets for me.

But if ever I win gajillions of dollars, my money is going to free spaying and neutering...