Project dogs updates - Jezabel, Poker, Mushu & Feather

Jezabel

I am very happy to announce Jezabel is in a foster home. Not only do foster homes do a world of good for dogs but Jezabel needed a foster home more then we knew. We found out mid last week that Jezabel was pregnant. At 5pm on the 20th Jezabel 10 beautiful pups by c-section. So far Jezabel is proving to be a great mother and I will post photos and updates of both her and the pups when I get them.

Poker

Poker now walks very nicely on a leash, all this took was patience on my part. He finally learned that pulling means I don't move. On Friday I got Poker a kennel buddy, and he loves not being alone in his kennel anymore. It was cold and snowy today so we were not able to work on using the stairs since they are outside. Today (29th) he finally started eating treats but is not yet motivated enough for them to be used to help train him.

Goals
- Get a new, better photo
- Learn how to use the stairs (about 50% there already)
- Take and eat treats
- Basic obedience once he's eating treats
- Get a home

I wish I had a newer photo of Mushu. I ran into his foster turned adopter on Friday and she gave me a great update.  All of the puffiness you see in his face is swelling due to allergies. Since he has been home with her the swelling has gone away. She cooks for her dogs and is able to eliminate anything they may be allergic to. He still has trouble with the groomer, and I've offered to come over sometime to help out with that. I couldn't have asked for better news.

 Meet Feather, an 8 month old female Rat Terrier. I met Feather while trying to find a new kennel mate for another dog. Feather is a very sweet and playful girl with a big personality. Unfortunately her young age has not spared her from hash hands. While in her kennel where she feels most secure, Feather will come up to me and even jump up and allow some petting on her chest. Outside of her kennel she is very fearful of hands or of people who are standing up. With her age, breed, personality and love for hot dogs; I think she'll come around and be a pretty normal dog.

Goals
- Learn that people are ok
- Lots of desensitizing to hands and to being touched
-  Work on walking on a leash
- Get a home

Standard ending notes:
- I am not a professional dog trainer, though I one day hope to be. I am in an apprenticeship program for dog training and will not take on a dog that is more then I can safely handle. Please do not ask me to help you with your dog, I am not qualified to answer.
- All photos belong to the wonderful volunteers who took and uploaded them in the hopes of helping these dog's find their homes.
- If you are interested in adopting one of my project dogs or any puppy mill survivor check out National Mill Dog Rescue's website: https://milldogrescue.org/

New project dogs, Jezabel & Poker

 Jezabel

Meet Jezabel, we don't really know what breeds she is but she is a very sweet dog. She is at National Mill Dog Rescue and they say she is a year old. Over the last couple of days I have been working with and assessing Jezabel and she is simply a wonderful dog, would be great in nearly any home and is suitable for beginner dog owners. Jezabel did not come from a mill, she was surrendered by a back yard breeder. I have tested her with a number of other dogs and a kid and she did wonderfully. Right now she knows sit, how to walk nicely on a leash and the cue "left side" which is like a sloppy heel which she does on and off leash. She also knows how to use stairs and is housebroken.

Goals
- Teach her other basic commands like down and stand
- Teach her more advanced commands like leave it
- Continue to work on her left side
- Get her a home

Poker

Poker is a five year old Jack Russle Terrier, but by looking at him you would never know it. He looks like a JRT and Corgi cross and has the energy of a puppy. He is also at National Mill Dog Rescue. Poker was shy at first but warmed up quickly. When he found out what a lap was he refused to leave. He is very energetic and happy and would do best in a family who could give him lots of exercise. He gets along great with other dogs, but needs a friend with a similar amount of energy. He has no idea what treats are so right now that is one of the big things we are working on. He will take the treat, then spit it out. He walks on a leash, but has the tendency to pull.

Goals
- Walk nicely on a leash
- Learn how to use the stairs (about 50% there already)
- Take and eat treats
- Basic obedience once he's eating treats
- Get a home

Standard ending notes:
- I am not a professional dog trainer, though I one day hope to be. I am in an apprenticeship program for dog training and will not take on a dog that is more then I can safely handle. Please do not ask me to help you with your dog, I am not qualified to answer.
- All photos belong to the wonderful volunteers who took and uploaded them in the hopes of helping these dog's find their homes.
- If you are interested in adopting one of my project dogs or any puppy mill survivor check out National Mill Dog Rescue's website: https://milldogrescue.org/

Double Merle Transport Pup

As promised, here is the information on double merles and photos of a cute puppy.

Firstly what is double merle? Lets start with the basics. Some breeds of dogs, like the Australian Shepherd, can have pattern called merle. The merle pattern can be on any color and produces a pretty spotted/patch pattern. (Again, this is a very basic explanation.) When two merle patterned dogs are bred together there is a 25% chance of getting a double merle pup, that is a puppy who is homozygous for the merle pattern gene. Visually this produces a dog that is mostly or completely white and (most likely) has blue eyes.

Happy to be out for a potty break.

You may be wondering what is so wrong with white puppies. It is not the appearance that is the trouble. Double merle dogs more often then not, have problems that are directly linked to being homozygous for the merle gene. The most common problem is deafness, while not all are deaf or totally deaf the majority of double merles will be deaf. The other big issue linked to double merle has to deal with the dog's eyes. A double merle's eye(s) can be too small "micro eye," born without eye(s) and misshapen pupil(s) all of which either caused impaired vision or blindness.

Finally sleeping.

All of that could be avoided with responsible breeding practices. The puppy I picked up for transport today is a double merle and is completely deaf, his vision is functional but has not been fully tested.

For most of the trip he cried, howled, yapped and barked. Imagine being in his position, eight weeks old and taken away from all you know, unable to find mom or siblings. All the sights and smells are new.

He was scared, confused and I could not do much to help put him at ease. When he finally did relax (about an hour in, 30 mins from our destination) I gave a big sigh of relief. The hand off to his foster family was seamless, I could tell they were already in love. It it wonderful that people like that make a place in this world for puppies deemed "damaged goods" by some. All I can do is my little part to help puppies like the one from earlier today get to the people who love them and try to educate others.

Updates, new rescues and a lack of sleep

Updates

• Mushu and Pumpkin have both officially been adopted!

• I am going out to NMDR more and will have new "official" project dogs soon.

• The fish mentioned in my previous post have found a new home, with someone who has a very large tank and actually has a clue as to what they are doing with big fish

Zella

• In my "Rescued Ratties" post I hadn't yet named my (then) newest rat, her name is now Zella.

• You may have noticed that I wrote "my (then) newest rat" that is because I now have a new, newest rat. She was rescued today, more information later in this post.

 

New Rescues

As oh so many of these stories start...This morning I was browsing Craigslist and I saw an ad for someone giving away a rat and a mouse, both free, both pregnant, available as feeders. I immediately texted the number and expressed interest. The gal who responded said they were promised to someone else...but I could have the rat since the other person had not yet confirmed a time.

I showed up and it was, unfortunately, a pretty typical situation. In her own words, quoted from the craigslist ad, "The mouse is a feeder mouse, however, my snake refused to eat her, so now, she is just taking up space." The rat was apparently bought by the boyfriend as a pet and the gal was not allowing it to stay. The rat was in a very small critter keeper on pine and the mouse was nowhere in sight.

I mentioned taking the mouse too and was told "You won't want it, it's in rough shape from the store." Anyone who knows me, knows that secured the mouses fate in coming home with me. As it turns out she was keeping the mouse in a paper bag in the closet so she wouldn't have to look at it. She also admitted to trying to kill the mouse by putting it in with the rat, but the rat only groomed it.

 As soon as I had the bag in my hand, I worked my way towards the exit. A few blocks away I pulled over and moved the rat to a carrier I had brought and the mouse into the critter keeper. It was then I noticed that the mouse had wounds on it's tail that went down to the bone.

I got home as fast as I could and got them into their new homes.

 The rat, Bell, will stay with me until I am certain that she is not pregnant, I am hoping she is not pregnant. Pregnancy is hard on any animal, epically one that is a baby. I suspect that she is only about three months old judging by her weight. (100 grams, for reference my small adult females weigh 300 grams and my  big adult males weigh close to a pound.)

The mouse, Hank, will stay until his tail heals and as he lacks the necessary parts I am certain he is not pregnant as the surrendering owner led me to believe. Hank is being treated with antibiotics and with something for the pain I am sure he is in.

A Lack of Sleep

Why a lack of sleep? I can't sleep, I don't know why but instead of sleeping I am up at 2am writing this blog. Normally this wouldn't matter, except that I have to be up in 4 hours. In 4 hours I will be driving north for about an hour to pick up a double merle australian shepherd puppy, if you don't know what that means stay tuned and I'll explain tomorrow. I will be transporting this pup to it's foster/potential forever home in the city where I live. Full story, with cute fluffy puppy photos, tomorrow.

It's been awhile, what has RA been up to?

Where have I been; what's been going on; why no posts?

Firstly all of my project dogs, the ones on here and others have all been adopted. After the holidays I plan to have a new project dog, with the other rescue. Remember Sable? I've posted about her before. I intend to start taking her on "day trips," hikes mostly. At the moment it is far too cold and I am far to busy to commit to her the time she needs. After the holidays I will have more time and will be posting updates on her.

Busy? Yes, busy. I am trying to organize a transport across the US for a number of rats. They are currently in Indiana and have homes lined up from there to Oregon, California and places in between. There is also a second run from Indiana to Ohio, much shorter but still being organized.

I am still apprenticing to be a dog trainer.

I am working on writing a paper/article about corn in our pets (dog/cat) food.

On top of that I will be helping transport a soldier's dog home. The dog in question is a Boxer named Rowdy and will be leaving Colorado on Friday for his home in Georgia. More on that to come after Friday.

But wait, there's more. I was on "the forbidden website" (aka Craigslist) and saw a fish tank I was very interested in having. The photo showed a dirty 20gallon tall aquarium housing four Jewel Cichlids. The ad was for everything; fish, tank, food, heater, filter and lid/light.

Knowing very little about Cichlids I decided to research them more. I came to find out that Jewel Cichlids really need at minimum 40 gallons. It was at that point I need they had to come here. I can't say no to an animal living in dirty, cramped conditions if I can afford to take it in.

So now I have five new fish. As it turns out there is also a Plecostomus, which needs at minimum a 75 gallon tank. Those fish are cramped in the tiny 20 gallon tank but for now it's what they have. I am looking to rehome them, I have no want for a tank big enough to cater to those fish. However until they get a new home with an appropriately sized tank they will at least now be taken care of properly in every other aspect.

The first matter of business was to clean the aquarium, which was much dirtier then shown in the photo. That is how the water looked if it was undisturbed. If a fish took off too quickly all the poo and uneaten food from the bottom would be kicked up, and there was a lot of it. I scrubbed down the full aquarium and thoroughly washed the rocks. The rocks were hiding a nasty build up of  black sludge.

After cleaning the rocks and glass I refilled the tank with new (treated) water and some of the old water they had been living in. I was afraid to clean it any further for fear of killing the fish. The old water was needed for the beneficial bacteria it holds and to help not shock their system. When fish go from something so filthy to perfectly clean the shock can kill them, especially after living in it for two years.

So for now they are living in a much cleaner environment. I have two filters running and plan on vacuuming the pebbles (with a siphon) in about three days to help remove more of the muck. The flake food they were sent with has been thrown out and they will be fed a healthy diet from now on. I've already had three people email me about these fish, but they won't go to just anyone. I have to make sure they won't  go back to what they were just saved from.

Rescued Ratties

The vast majority of animals in my home are rats. I have twelve at the moment, yes you read that correctly. 

On the way back from the No More Homeless Pets Conference I attended in Las Vegas, NV I made a detour and adopted a rat in AZ. My experience in adopting her has inspired another post, but that will come later. For now I just want to share the photos and stories of my rats.

I'll start with my newest addition, a female in need of a name.

Not my photo.

This girl was bred for back to back pregnancies, meaning when she weaned one litter she gave birth to the next. Which as you can imagine was very hard on her body. So hard in fact that it caused her lower back pain and to lash out at her adoptive family and their rats. She was returned to the rescue. The rescue spayed her and removed a small mammary tumor and sent her into a foster home to recover. She has not had buddies since she lashed out at her former cage mates, and I hope to move her in with my big group.

But what got me started in rats? The two boys in the photo below.

Photo from original owner.

Their owner had adopted a female from Craigslist only to find out the rat was pregnant. When the litter came two of the boys were "boring" compared to their beautifully marked and (some) hairless siblings. They were overlooked. 

Photo from original owner.

You can see in the photo of their litter mates that they didn't stand out. The owner was worried about what would become of them. She could not keep them herself as she had only females and did not want to neuter them. At the same time, no one was stepping forward to bring them into their home. 

As is turns out their owner is someone I knew (friend of a friend) and I was suckered into saying I'd take them. I had about a week and a half until they were ready to come home and I had to scramble to learn all I could about basic care and set up for them. While reading up I learned rats really need to have other rat buddies. I also learned about other rat colors and soon began to want to have a trio. Just one more, either a hairless or a blue.

Cav, Xin, Cham and Shen.

As fate would have it a breeder going out of business had both, a pair of brothers. He needed homes for them before he moved because he was not taking any rats with and was giving them to anyone who wanted them, snake owners included.*

 Just like that, two became four. For awhile it was "just four." I had named the nearly identical beige rats Champagne and Caviar or Cham and Cav for short. (A perfect example of why you shouldn't name pets while tired.) The other brothers were going to be named Shenanigans and Mischief or Shen and Chief for short. However my boyfriend was not a fan of the name Chief so he became Xin instead.

Ray and Shark, photo from humane society.

And for a couple of months it stayed that way. That was until someone else I know let me know about two boys that had recently come in to our local Humane Society. This was a bad time for rats there, there had recently been a ton of rats dumped and the shelter was overwhelmed. Most of them were young, so these older boys didn't stand as much of a chance.

I made the decision to go and see them, you know, just to see. When I held them it was clear something was wrong. Their fur was puffed up, noses red and they were both sneezing and wheezing. It was clear something was wrong, despite being declared "perfectly healthy" by the shelter's vet.

I adopted them and got them to my vet as soon as I could, it turns out they both had pneumonia, which left untreated can be fatal. They were put on antibiotics and eventually got better. Once they were feeling better they were introduced to my other four, and soon enough all six were happily living together.

It became clear to me that I needed to upgrade my cage to one that could properly accommodate six rapidly growing boys. Being an animal lover I couldn't just get them the bare minimum. The cage I bought ended up leaving me room to easily accommodate two more with a bit of room to spare. I hadn't planned on getting more boys, but more boys is exactly what I wound up bringing home.

A member on a rat forum that I am part of, often takes in rescues of her own. She works at a pet store and someone had dropped of 20+ rats, all somehow related. Their story was that they didn't know they had a male and female...and several litters later wanted to get rid of all the males. I offered to take in two of them and to my surprise she agreed. She wanted to find homes for them, and manged to find homes for most of them all over the country with members on the rat forum.

Photo by rescuer.

 I thought they were all cute and couldn't choose. So I let my boyfriend pick one and my nephew pick the other. Boyfriend picked out the black one on the far right with the thin white blaze (Tosca) and my nephew picked the black one on the far left (Tava).

There was just one snag, their rescuer lived on the edge of Kansas, the edge furthest from me in Colorado. We decided to meet about 1/2 way in Kansas and after a 13(ish) hour drive they were home with me.

At that point I thought, ok enough is enough. I want them to have all the space they need and I need to be able to afford them all. But as you may have noticed things here don't go according to plan. I took in a boy from Craigslist in desperate need of a home. He was listed as a 2.5yr old male, in other words a senior who likely didn't have much longer. (Rats usually only live until 2.5 or 3.) His family was moving and need him gone, now. I offered to take him in, figuring I'd give him a quiet retirement, vet care, love and a quiet passing in a few months.

The owners dropped him off in a tiny cage that he could barley turn around in and it was spotless. The bedding was all white as snow, they had clearly scrubbed it clean before dropping him off. They didn't bother to clean up the rat though. He was filthy, had skin troubles and was very obese. They had fed him junk food and table scraps. Once he was acclimated to his new home and new big cage I attempted to introduce him to my group of males. Unfortunately after a lifetime of being alone he was aggressive to my boys and he was simply far to overweight to neuter. 

It was then that I decided to adopt girls and spay them in the hopes he could have friends. After one adoption fell through I turned to another rat forum, and found someone who lived only an hour away who had several accident litters. The babies would be ready to go home shortly and I had a vet comfortable with spaying them young. It seemed perfect, unfortunately my rescued boy passed away before I brought them home. I wanted to make good on my word that I would bring them home. What I hadn't planned on was bringing home a third female on the same day. I was already planning on picking up the babies when I heard from a friend about a recently abandoned girl. She was dumped at a pet store, alone. My friend was worried she may end up as snake food* or alone for the rest of her life. I decided since bringing her home would technically keep my numbers the same that I could take her. I had also been working a new job which was providing great pay, so I had no worries about the financial aspect of it

. 

Then came  my next dilemma, here I have eight intact males and three intact females. I certainly wasn't going to leave both groups intact, because even with the most careful and experienced owners, accidents happen. After calling around town and even out of town I finally found a vet that was both experienced and wouldn't charge me an arm and a leg. The only snag was that she wouldn't spay the females, only neuter the males. So I could either pay $200+ per spay in town or $60 per neuter outside of town. I opted to have my boys all neutered since it was cheaper, I trust that vet more and some boys were having hormone related aggression.

Which brings us to the present. Those three girls now live with my neutered males in their big cage and the newest girl will hopefully move in with them once she's had time to acclimate and complete the intro process. (For those who know your cages I have a "quad" or a Double Critter Nation hooked up with a Double Ferret Nation. 

TL:DR - I am a crazy rat lady, who didn't want any rats and who now has 12. The above photos were taken when I got them, the photos below are from the last month. 

* About snake food: I know snakes have to eat, I have owned and fed snakes, I have no problem with that. I have a problem with people feeding live prey to snakes, and most of the rats (and mice) that come off of Craigslist or out of a pet store for food, are fed live.

Cav, Cham and Tosca.

Xin

Shen

Shark, named for his need to put everything in his mouth at least once.

Ray

Tava

Tosca

Zipper & Jetty

Bria

 I don't have new photos of my nameless girl, I don't want to bother her right away.

Project dogs update

There is a feeling that everyone who works with rescue animals knows. A feeling that people who don't work with rescue animals may not understand. It's that bittersweet feeling of an animal you care about very deeply, leaving you for their new home. It's sad knowing you'll likely never see them again, if you're lucky you might maybe get an update or two. But it's so wonderful knowing your hard work has payed off and the animal you helped will now have a loving home.

That is a feeling I got a lot of on Monday.

It all started like every other Monday there. I walked into Lily's Haven, grabbed my name tag, signed in and went to talk to the groomers. The lady I have been working with to help Mushu, C, let me know that he was pretty filthy. I went and grabbed a towel, slip lead and of course, Mushu. As I was carrying him back towards the grooming area everything went from normal to one of those rare perfect situations.

A lady, B, was sitting at the front desk adopting one of her long time fosters. She looked up and immediately asked "Boy or girl?" I responded, "boy." Her next question was even more excited "Is that a Pekinese?" Seeing the look on her face I answered yes, and plopped him down, filth, towel and all, into her lap. That was the end of that. Of course she had more questions like "How old is he?" and "Does he know how to use stairs?" and "When can I take him home?"

As it turns out, B can only have male dogs since her only female is female aggressive. She really only likes older dogs which, at the age of seven years old, Mushu is. B owned Pekinese dogs before and had always wanted to have another in her life and wasn't afraid of Mushu's special needs. I can only imagine her day, thinking she's just going to adopt a long-time foster, when someone literally "drops" the dog of her dreams into her lap.

Mushu with his new mom.

While she filled out the paperwork I took Mushu back to be groomed. C and I were both pleasantly surprised with how much progress he had made. He tolerated bathing without incident. He was still sensitive about his back end, but no longer so reactive. He even let C clean his ears a bit, so long as I kept the supply of hotdog coming. He tolerated the blow dryer very well, and even let C brush out some of his matts. But that's when his doggy brain got fried and he let us know he had, had enough, thank you very much.

When we walked back out B informed us that she was going to foster Mushu, but knew she was going to fall for him and keep him. She was able to take him home right away because she was willing to drive him to his vet appointment on Wednesday.

Here's the best part though, she gave me her number and said I could call anytime and come see Mushu. I'll be giving her a call later this week to see how everything is going and to hear what the vet had to say. I plan to continue working on him with his grooming troubles in his home.

The good news doesn't stop with Mushu. Pupkin has a wonderful foster home. I can not tell you how happy I am that she is out of there, she was more then ready. Her foster also took another one of NMDR's dogs, a Sheltie with a bad case of heartworms. Pumpkin will stay with them until she finds her forever home, and the Sheltie will stay until she is both healthy and finds her forever home. I am keeping my fingers crossed for updates.

This all means that I'm going to take on new project dogs.I have already picked one, a dog who has been with us since April of this year.

We have a new load of dogs coming in today and I'll be helping with intake tomorrow and will likely pick a new project or two from them as well. Stay tuned.

Standard ending notes:
- I am not a professional dog trainer, though I one day hope to be. I am in an apprenticeship program for dog training and will not take on a dog that is more then I can safely handle. Please do not ask me to help you with your dog, I am not qualified to answer.
- All photos belong to the wonderful volunteers who took and uploaded them in the hopes of helping these dog's find their homes.
- If you are interested in adopting one of my project dogs or any puppy mill survivor check out National Mill Dog Rescue's website: https://milldogrescue.org/