Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Caption This #236

Looking forward to your captions in the comments.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Mums

Benny & Henry posing by the mums. Perhaps this is their belated Mother's day gift for me?

I always thought mums were fall flowers, but we planted these a few years ago and they bloom every spring and fall. I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to flowers so it was a pleasant surprise for me.

Friday, May 18, 2012

My Two Weeks with Monroe -  Part V

Once Monroe had a collar and leash on her instinct to run away as well as her fear of people seemed to disappear. One of the hardest things for us to do was to give her to Aunite M (our dog sitter). We knew Monroe would thrive with Auntie M, but we are easily attached. It felt like Monroe was our dog and that we were giving her up. But, we knew that Auntie M's was the best place for Monroe to stay short term and that she needed to find a forever home with younger dogs with which she could romp with for hours.

When Monroe arrived at Auntie M's house the first thing M did was give her a bath. She was soaped up three times and the dirt simply poured off of her (she went from being a dirty blonde to a true blonde). Once she was cleaned up, M & her team got to work on removing ticks from Monroe's skin. I already knew she had a lot of ticks. I felt them around her ears from the few moments I got to pet her while she was in the backyard. In total, they removed over 40 ticks from her!

While Monroe made friends with Auntie M's dogs (8 of them! yikes! luckily she is super dog-friendly), her first night was still a little rough. She was anxious being in her new environment. As each day progressed, though, Monroe got more and more comfortable with her new surroundings and early the following week she went to the vet to get checked out. The vet determined that she is likely under 2 years old, was not spayed nor was she microchipped. One of our biggest worries was the possibility of heart worms. So, bloodwork was scheduled for the day of Monroe's spay (which was a mere 5 days after we got her into our back yard). Her spay went great and we are thrilled to announce that she is heart worm negative. The rest of her blood work also looks great. She is a completely healthy young pup!

Currently, she is staying with Auntie M and receiving the royal treatment, learning how to be spoiled rotten. They are working on getting Monroe completely house broken. Monroe is also suffering from some separation anxiety issues and they are working on that with her, as well. As Auntie M and company worked on Monroe's potty & social behaviors, it was discovered that she fetches, plays very well with the other pups and manages quite well napping on the sofa. All the things a happy and well balanced pooch should do. She is a great dog!

We are so very thankful that Auntie M was able to continue the rescue efforts by welcoming Monroe with open arms into her home and offering Monroe all the love, care and attention she needs during her re-adjustment into domesticated diva-ism. Monroe has really settled into a routine (it is reported that she has even claimed a spot on Auntie M's bed throughout the night). Auntie M and her squad will be sure she is completely ready for a forever home before finding the perfect match for Monroe. Once that special spot is found, Monroe will be re-homed for hopefully the very last time and as you all are hoping, we all here are most certainly as well looking to see that this is truly a happily ever after fairy tale ending. We will be sure to keep you posted with the latest news & information on Roe's saga.

Thank you OBP readers for your support and positive feedback in the story about Monroe. In 'real time' this story took place from April 24th-May 4th. However, there was no way that I could keep you abreast of the situation at it rolled out during the actual time as all of my time was truly dedicated to securing Monroe and getting her into a rescue program. Plus, you all know me pretty well and I would likely not have shared the story at all had it not have had a happy ending. And while we are at a mid-way point of the actual story, it is at happy enough point of the story that I feel it is safe enough to share.

A few FAQ's:

Q:    What breed is Monroe?

A:    While we are not exactly sure, Schipperke/Corgi mix has been a strong suggestion (and blog commenter Linda suggested a Blue Heeler---which is probably thrown in there, too)

Q:    How big is Monroe?

A:    Monroe stands just a few inches taller than Henry and weighs about the same (in the high 20 pound range; you never ask a lady her weight, right?)

Q:    Where do you think she came from? What is her back story?

A:    Since she had not ID tag, was not spayed and had no microchip there was no real way for us to find out exactly what happened. However, animal control had indicated that recently there were several homes in a neighbohood near ours where homes went into foreclosure where their humans left the dogs behind in the houses (alone to fend for themselves) or released their pets into the streets (also alone to fend for themselves). We drove the neighborhood and went on Craig's list. No signs/posters or other indications that anyone was looking for her. So, we really cannot say what Monroe's home life was before we spotted her on April 24th.

Q:    Are we keeping Monroe?

A:    No. While I would love to adopt this sweet girl there are a lot of reasons why I don't think we are a good fit for Monroe. Monroe is very dog friendly and loves to play with other dogs. The pugs are good company, but are well past their days of non stop playing. They pugs played with Monroe pretty hard the night we got her in the yard and were super stiff the next day. Monroe is just too much of a pup for them. Also, I worry about Monroe living so close to the woods where she once lived her on her own. I feel like if she ever got loose she would run off to her old stomping grounds.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

My Two Weeks with Monroe - Part IV

After a long night filled with dread, regret and worry, I got ready for work the next day with a feeling of hopelessness hanging over me. What do we do now?

I opened the garage door and started to walk to my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. It was a harness-less Monroe standing in the middle of my driveway watching the garage door open.

I couldn't believe my eyes! She came back!

Monroe's expression seemed to say, "Sorry I freaked yesterday."

I quickly came in the house, got a nice big breakfast ready for her and put it in her normal spot in the driveway. She ran over and gobbled it up. Granted, she kept a bit more distance from me now, but at least she was back. I would work on rebuilding her trust.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long with Monroe because I had to go to work. I told her that I would be home the same time as usual and I drove off. She stayed in my driveway after I left. I felt horrible leaving her there, but the sense of relief that I had that she was willing to give me a second change was exhilarating. But, how on earth were we going to capture her now without her harness?

That evening we devised a new plan. We decided that we were going to lure her into our backyard. In the confines of our backyard, we would have a bit of an advantage because she would only be able to run so far. She wouldn't be able to disappear into woods.

While we had a solid plan, we agreed we would not rush things this time. We would do things at Monroe's pace.

So for the next few nights, we laid a line of food bowls leading from our driveway to our backyard. The bowls closer to the backyard had the best food in them. Each night, Monroe made her way to our yard, clearing out the food bowls and gaining more and more confidence in her new surroundings. Eventually, we put a bowl in the yard. It took her a while, but she finally went in and ate from that bowl.

The pugs and Monroe had their evening play time as well and we made sure that we ended each night by walking the pugs into the backyard. Monroe always followed, but she never came far enough in the yard. After about three nights of this routine we were started to make progress. The food was helpful, but the pugs were even more helpful. Monroe was super dog friendly and seemed to be becoming one of the pug gang. It also didn't hurt that I believe she is some sort of herding dog because she liked to keep the pugs in a group. She would never let one of them stray away from the group. This was extremely helpful because Monroe seemed to like corralling them into the backyard.

Finally last friday, after eating in our backyard and playing with the pugs in our driveway Monroe herded the pugs into the backyard. I positioned myself by the gate and she walked into the yard after the pugs furthered than she ever had. I closed the gate. Monroe spun around to see what the noise was. I was expecting her to freak once she realized the gate was closed. She didn't. She went around smelling the yard. The pugs were pooped and not really interested in playing so she just hung out with them. She was relatively calm. I immediately called our dog sitter and let her know that we had Monroe in the yard. She was on her way and would help us get a leash on Monroe and would take her to her house that night.

After about a half hour of letting Monroe get used to the yard, we began our attempt to leash her up. We walked her into a corner in the yard and she just laid down. She submitted. We slipped the collar over her head. For the first time in two weeks we got to pet the dog that had consumed every moment we weren't at work. She wasn't afraid anymore.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

My Two Weeks with Monroe - Part III

After a week of hanging around our neighborhood, Monroe had been noticed by a lot of people and the calls at Animal Control for her were really starting to pile up. Grammy called me one day at work to let me know that Animal Control was there and was trying to capture Monroe. While I was nervous for Monroe, I thought Animal Control capturing her wouldn't be such a bad thing. We could just get her from Animal Control and get her into the rescue group.

As soon as I got off the phone with Grammy, I called Animal Control. There was no answer at first, so I left a message. They eventually got back to me and I explained the situation. They seemed happy that we were trying to get her into rescue, but that's where their cooperation seemed to end. If they caught her, they weren't really willing to turn her over to the rescue. Sure, there were 500 hoops that we could jump through to get her, but it just seemed like there were too many points of failure in their red tape laden system.

I kept in close contact with Animal Control and I even called a few people at the local human society, where Monroe would end up if she was captured by Animal Control, but I wasn't comfortable that Monroe wouldn't somehow slip through the cracks.

So, I decided that we needed to get Monroe before Animal Control got her.

Luckily, me neighbors were onboard and they would keep me posted on Monroe sightings and give me insights into what Monroe was doing during the day. They were also keeping a close eye on Animal Control. That way, if Monroe did get picked up by Animal Control we would be able to be ready to spring her from the pound and get her into rescue.

While, I felt like Animal Control was a good plan B, I really wanted to get Monroe in a way that would not be traumatizing to her. After all, we had built a lot of trust with her. I felt like our plan was working. I just need time and now I felt Animal Control breathing down my neck.

With a new sense of urgency, we tried a different approach to our feeding routine that night. We got out rotisserie chicken and sat in our driveway. We tossed pieces of chicken to Monroe and led her close and closer to us. Eventually, we had her eating out of our hands! We also managed to attract a neighborhood cat that wanted in on chicken.

Monroe ate out of our hands time and time again, and one time I reached out and grabbed her pink harness.

I had a good grip on her. She freaked, flipped and was out of her harness in the blink of an eye. She raced off into the woods and I was left standing in my driveway with her harness in my hand and chicken laying at my feet and my heart in my throat.

I was devastated! With Animal Control looming, I rushed things and blew all the trust I had with Monroe. Not to mention the fact that I stripped her of her harness, her only possession. Now, people would just think of her as a stray. They wouldn't see that at one point she was someone's pet. That someone cared enough to put that harness on her.

I totally and completely blew it. In my defeat, I believed there was no way Monroe would ever come near us again.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

My Two Weeks with Monroe - Part II

After we started feeding Monroe, she became a regular nightly visitor. Since she was very nervous around people and our goal was to gain her trust through food. At first, we put the food bowl at the end of our driveway and walked back to the house. Once we got to the house, Monroe would army crawl to the bowl and gobble down the food. If there was any noise she would retreat across the street. Eventually, she would come back to the bowl and eat more.

We repeated this routine each night for a week. Each day her trust of us grew and she got more and more confident going to the food bowl. We were eventually able to put the food down, take two big steps away from the bowl and sit down with her while she ate. The trust building process was definitely slow, but it was clearly working.

Our main goal in feeding Monroe was to gain trust so that we could get her off the streets and in to rescue. Our fantastic pug sitter volunteers for a local rescue group and we had already made arrangements for them to take Monroe as soon as we were able get her. It felt good that Monroe had a bright future, we just needed to put the time in to get her to trust us. The slow process almost killed me because each day we didn't get her was another night she was spending on the streets and another day she was wandering around doing who knows what until we got home from work.

In addition to feeding her, we also just hung out with her in the evenings. We would bring the pugs out and they would play. Monroe would race around the yard and the pugs would follow suit and we would do our best to keep the pugs' leashes untangled. After the pugs tired out, which was way sooner than Monroe, we would do little things around the yard. We laid some mulch, fixed a sprinkler head, watered plants. We did anything we could that was outside so that Monroe could get used to being around us.

We did everything except try to capture her. Straight attempts to capture her were always futile. We saw neighbors run after her and try to lasso her and none of it worked. Monroe was fast and way too smart to fall for any of that.

Our approach was to have her feel like she belonged and have her come to us. While our method was slow going it seemed to be working. Monroe lounged in our driveway while we tinkered in the yard. She followed us to the mailbox when we got the mail. She kept a watchful eye on us at all times, but she was so much more relaxed around us than she was before.

Our plan seemed to be working.

Monday, May 14, 2012

My Two Weeks with Monroe - Part I

This is a super long story so I have broken it up into multiple parts.

The night we got back from Miami with the pugs, we spotted a dog in our neighborhood that we had never seen before. The pugs were out for their final potty of the night. It was dark and they were very tired from their big adventure to Miami. Heck, I was tired from our big adventure to Miami and the long drive home.

While we were out, I spotted a pair of glowing eyes spying on us from across the street. I could make out that it was a dog, but I wasn't sure whose dog it was. Not knowing anything about the dog, I hurried the pugs into the house.

After we got the pugs into the house safe and sound, we went out to check on the dog. While we were gone the stray dog walked out of the shadows and was now standing in the middle of the street. She was all white, had a pink harness on and had pointy ears.

I called to her and she turned her head a bit. I asked her what she was doing out so late and where did she live. More head turning. I took a few steps towards her and she bolted across the street and into the woods faster than I have ever seen any dog run before.

Wow! We headed back inside, got ready for bed and I fell asleep with this mysterious white dog on my mind.

The next evening, while out with the pugs, we spotted the stray dog again. This time it was a little lighter outside and I could get a better look at her. I could tell that she was super skinny. She had definitely not been eating regularly.

Before, I could make it back into the house with the pugs and get the white dog some food, a car came down the street. My heart leapt to my throat, but just like the night before the dog raced backed into the woods.

After we got back to the house, we decided we needed to give this mystery dog a name (we name everything). After some debate, and after having just watched the movie My Week with Marilyn we decided on Monroe. She was a blonde dog that had clearly been used and abused up to this point in her life.

The pugs also had an upcoming visit with the vet. I made a note to talk to the vet about Monroe and find out if it was safe to have the pugs around her. After all, the only time Monroe seemed to come near us was when the pugs were with us.

After my visit at the vet, I felt comfortable having the pugs around Monroe. My vet's biggest warning was to keep the pugs away from Monroe's stool. Since it was safe to have Monroe around the pugs, I made a stop at the store and picked up some dog food. We made the decision that we were going to start feeding this skinny dog.