So I kind of feel like I was manipulated into taking on another dog. Don't get me wrong, I pretty much love all dogs...if you have a dog I love it even if I have never met it and I always want to see pictures. But I digress. Anyway, this amazing fluff was adorable and everyone said he was amazing. His write up said that he was very unpuppylike, smart, good with dogs and ignores cats. This was his write up:
“This is the dog who was found at the Feeding the Pets of Tulsa’s Homeless Pets Thursday events. He is 8 months old, 42lbs and as calm and happy and easy going as they come. Unphased by being in the shelter. Quick learner easy to correct and listens and learns. Loves other dogs and had his face in the 120lb pits face at the even and wanting to play. LOVES children. Ignores cats. He almost has the BC personality but without the hyper energy. If you any anyone this pup is wonderful! Susan had him leashed sitting with her just so he wouldn’t wander. He laid there with her for over an hour, calm and happy just to be with her. The most unpuppy. He loves to play with toys but doesn’t fetch. Would be a good companion dog to a dog or a human. Very nice boy.”
He instantly caught my attention. He was adopted so we were all happy to see him go to a home. That was on a Friday and he was returned to the shelter on Saturday. All shelters are different and this one doesn't give a lot of chances to dogs that are returned. I told my friend that works with TAW that I would go get him Tuesday when I got off work if he was still there. So Tuesday about 10 I start getting messages from some of the volunteers that pull for other groups (not my friend that I have worked with for Cookie and Marty, she just lost a dog and is taking a step back ) that he was not going to be put up for adoption and the shelter was going to put him on the next available transport no matter where it was going - keep in mind we are having historical flood events and tornadoes. They ask if they could get him to me if I would be able to pick him up any earlier. Well, I was teleworking that day and had just left my house, with Bailey, to get something to eat a little before 11. They told me to come get him right then, even though the shelter isn't open until noon if I could and they would get him to me because he was critical. Looking back the whole thing is just fishy and I should have stuck to my guns about waiting. My thought process was that I would give someone with less going on their life a chance to adopt him before I took him in and this just blew that idea out of the water. Anyway, I get him and they literally have me drive to the back get Bailey out of the car and let them kind of meet, put him in the backseat and with his shot records and wish us the best of luck. I was instantly in love with those green eyes but the whole thing felt odd and I didn't have a chance to process any of it.
So I get them home. Bailey is ok with him but Truman is pissed(not unusual). Marcy was just completely aggravated that we had the nerve to upset her little universe yet again. Then he saw the cats. I can assure you he does not ignore cats. We have one bedroom blocked off so the cats have a safe space to get away from Bailey. That really isn't an issue anymore but I think it makes them feel safe since they were feral. So Zorro (we decided to name him Zorro btw) saw the cats and chased them into that room, cleared the barricade and jumped up on the dresser to try and get to the kittens. They were terrified and Zorro was not giving up easy. I know you have to give it some time but I totally wasn't expecting this since they said he was good with cats. The cats hid all night and Zorro would have bouts of extreme curiosity and go off in search of them. Bailey was jealous but ok.
Zorro isn't allowed at Bailey's daycare because they require a two week isolation after they are adopted from the shelter. We did crate him for a short time but I am not about to lock him up for over 8 hours when we don't know what his history is with crating. We we were also not about to leave him in the house. So Dennis took Bailey to his daycare and I took Zorro to the vet/daycare where he can be put in isolation with some outside time (we figure he has kennel cough). I get to work and I start to almost have a panic attack because I finally have a few minutes to think about what all has happened. I sent the lady that pulled Z a text and told her that he most definitely does not ignore cats, to which I was told to just give it time. I also start to have extreme mom guilt about having to divide my attention away from Bailey. I pretty much have to fight off tears and I seriously start to regret taking him home. Of course I won't take him back to the kill shelter, but I decided this has to be a foster situation. I contact the lady again and she tries to guilt me into changing my mind. She told me that if I just keep him they will write it off and there is no adoption fees, they will just call him mine (I'm beginning to think she low key stole him). She contacted the president of the border collie rescue and they tell me that if they list him and I change my mind and decide to keep him it will cost me $300 and they will have to go through the process of approving me as a foster (the dog has been in my house for 24 hours at this point) or I can just keep him. I tell her I can live with that, list him and if I can't find him the perfect home than I know he is meant to be mine. She isn't happy about it and repeatedly tell me that I really need to give him more time to acclimate to the cats, in the meantime he is trying to jump up on the kitchen table and cabinets to get to Ninja and Casper has all but disappeared outside. Bailey is showing a little food aggression (I can work with that) and my guild and anxiety level is through the roof.
About lunchtime my boss comes to me and asks if I want to work in the emergency ops center. I tell him absolutely. I will be working 7:00pm - 7:30am until the water starts to go down in the levees and we feel we can comfortably stop the sand bag operation and pull the pumps... could be a few days, could be 2 weeks. I think this will work out great because Dennis can be home with them at night and I can be there during the day and we can try and make the transition. I had some equipment I had to be fitted for and they sent me to have that done and told me to just go home and try to get ready to start working the opposite schedule of what I am used to. I get that done, go get the boys and go home. Ninja is teasing Z but Casper had completely disappeared at this point. I sent the lady another text and told her that I did, in fact, want to list Zorro as a foster and would be more than willing to do whatever it takes but that I was going to have very limited time to get them what they needed. She tried to guilt me into keeping him again and I told her that I had filled out the paperwork and was sending it to them that day.
So I took a nap when I got home and stayed up all that night and had to leash Zorro to keep him from chasing Ninja. After several hours of that and a few more tears of stress and frustration I just put Ninja outside. No sight of Casper.
When I got home on Saturday morning there was Casper laying out on my deck!!! I sneak out there and talk to her. She isn't about to come in the house and she won't stick around if she thinks Zorro is going to be outside, but she talked to me and let me scratch her. She is back to not letting me pick her up but I am fine with that for now.
So it is almost a week later and Zorro still tries to climb up on the cabinets after Ninja and jumps the gate to the spare bedroom. When I let him outside he runs to where he knows the cats run off to and tries to find them.
We are not the right fit for this dog. I am about to cry just saying that. I love him he is a cuddle bunny and he loves and trusts me completely. I have overwhelming guilt about this, about taking time from Bailey and about making my cats feel uncomfortable. No matter what I do I'm the asshole.
The lady that I have been working with send me a text asking me questions about why Marcy's vaccinations are late (we had to send all the vet information stuff in when we signed for the foster program). I told her that Marcy is terminal and that was the vets decision, I wasn't sure why they wouldn't explain that to her. She said "well they were very busy" She then asked me to set up a time to factime her and show me the areas that Zorro hangs out. I pretty much lost it at this point. I told her that with my work schedule I have about 8 hours to shower, sleep, do laundry, and play with the dogs. Zorro had been in my house and safe for a few days and I didn't have time to deal with that. I had sent her several pictures as well as the pictures on facebook and if that wasn't sufficient then they should probably just pull him from my house and find a better foster home for him. She ended up agreeing with me and telling me he is fine where he is, duh. I mean she didn't ask for an ID when I picked him up just went off the fact that I am friends with some pretty serious rescue people on FB.
Yesterday as I'm getting home from work and taking my ambien to get to sleep the EOC calls and tells me that they are pulling all the pumps and that I am no longer needed to work overnights TYJ but could continue to work days if I just wanted to. I told them that we have two people out of the office this week and I will be fine going back to my normal life of short 8 hour work days. Dennis had to drive me to the office to turn in some of the stuff because I had taken my meds and flood watch was officially over. We stopped for lunch on our way back to the house and HMF sends me a text telling me that there were 3 people from dog school who wanted to adopt Zorro and had inquired before they contacted me and they told them he was not available. So I fell very manipulated and I am very upset for the poor dog who will be uprooted from a human he loves and trusts. Keeping him really isn't an option because even though I am not a cat person, I refuse to put them in harms way. Do I think he will hurt them? not intentionally but I can't take that chance and I don't have the patience or knowledge to train him to accept cats nor do I know how to train a semi feral cat to stop running and he may stop chasing you.
The whole thing is pretty upsetting. I feel like a horrible person on so many different levels. I love this dog but I hate the position they put us in. This could have all been avoided and he could have gone to some experienced dog handlers.
In other news, my parents house sustain minor damage from the tornado before memorial day. I will post about that later I am emotionally drained from this post.
Here are a few more pictures.
“This is the dog who was found at the Feeding the Pets of Tulsa’s Homeless Pets Thursday events. He is 8 months old, 42lbs and as calm and happy and easy going as they come. Unphased by being in the shelter. Quick learner easy to correct and listens and learns. Loves other dogs and had his face in the 120lb pits face at the even and wanting to play. LOVES children. Ignores cats. He almost has the BC personality but without the hyper energy. If you any anyone this pup is wonderful! Susan had him leashed sitting with her just so he wouldn’t wander. He laid there with her for over an hour, calm and happy just to be with her. The most unpuppy. He loves to play with toys but doesn’t fetch. Would be a good companion dog to a dog or a human. Very nice boy.”
He instantly caught my attention. He was adopted so we were all happy to see him go to a home. That was on a Friday and he was returned to the shelter on Saturday. All shelters are different and this one doesn't give a lot of chances to dogs that are returned. I told my friend that works with TAW that I would go get him Tuesday when I got off work if he was still there. So Tuesday about 10 I start getting messages from some of the volunteers that pull for other groups (not my friend that I have worked with for Cookie and Marty, she just lost a dog and is taking a step back ) that he was not going to be put up for adoption and the shelter was going to put him on the next available transport no matter where it was going - keep in mind we are having historical flood events and tornadoes. They ask if they could get him to me if I would be able to pick him up any earlier. Well, I was teleworking that day and had just left my house, with Bailey, to get something to eat a little before 11. They told me to come get him right then, even though the shelter isn't open until noon if I could and they would get him to me because he was critical. Looking back the whole thing is just fishy and I should have stuck to my guns about waiting. My thought process was that I would give someone with less going on their life a chance to adopt him before I took him in and this just blew that idea out of the water. Anyway, I get him and they literally have me drive to the back get Bailey out of the car and let them kind of meet, put him in the backseat and with his shot records and wish us the best of luck. I was instantly in love with those green eyes but the whole thing felt odd and I didn't have a chance to process any of it.
So I get them home. Bailey is ok with him but Truman is pissed(not unusual). Marcy was just completely aggravated that we had the nerve to upset her little universe yet again. Then he saw the cats. I can assure you he does not ignore cats. We have one bedroom blocked off so the cats have a safe space to get away from Bailey. That really isn't an issue anymore but I think it makes them feel safe since they were feral. So Zorro (we decided to name him Zorro btw) saw the cats and chased them into that room, cleared the barricade and jumped up on the dresser to try and get to the kittens. They were terrified and Zorro was not giving up easy. I know you have to give it some time but I totally wasn't expecting this since they said he was good with cats. The cats hid all night and Zorro would have bouts of extreme curiosity and go off in search of them. Bailey was jealous but ok.
Zorro isn't allowed at Bailey's daycare because they require a two week isolation after they are adopted from the shelter. We did crate him for a short time but I am not about to lock him up for over 8 hours when we don't know what his history is with crating. We we were also not about to leave him in the house. So Dennis took Bailey to his daycare and I took Zorro to the vet/daycare where he can be put in isolation with some outside time (we figure he has kennel cough). I get to work and I start to almost have a panic attack because I finally have a few minutes to think about what all has happened. I sent the lady that pulled Z a text and told her that he most definitely does not ignore cats, to which I was told to just give it time. I also start to have extreme mom guilt about having to divide my attention away from Bailey. I pretty much have to fight off tears and I seriously start to regret taking him home. Of course I won't take him back to the kill shelter, but I decided this has to be a foster situation. I contact the lady again and she tries to guilt me into changing my mind. She told me that if I just keep him they will write it off and there is no adoption fees, they will just call him mine (I'm beginning to think she low key stole him). She contacted the president of the border collie rescue and they tell me that if they list him and I change my mind and decide to keep him it will cost me $300 and they will have to go through the process of approving me as a foster (the dog has been in my house for 24 hours at this point) or I can just keep him. I tell her I can live with that, list him and if I can't find him the perfect home than I know he is meant to be mine. She isn't happy about it and repeatedly tell me that I really need to give him more time to acclimate to the cats, in the meantime he is trying to jump up on the kitchen table and cabinets to get to Ninja and Casper has all but disappeared outside. Bailey is showing a little food aggression (I can work with that) and my guild and anxiety level is through the roof.
About lunchtime my boss comes to me and asks if I want to work in the emergency ops center. I tell him absolutely. I will be working 7:00pm - 7:30am until the water starts to go down in the levees and we feel we can comfortably stop the sand bag operation and pull the pumps... could be a few days, could be 2 weeks. I think this will work out great because Dennis can be home with them at night and I can be there during the day and we can try and make the transition. I had some equipment I had to be fitted for and they sent me to have that done and told me to just go home and try to get ready to start working the opposite schedule of what I am used to. I get that done, go get the boys and go home. Ninja is teasing Z but Casper had completely disappeared at this point. I sent the lady another text and told her that I did, in fact, want to list Zorro as a foster and would be more than willing to do whatever it takes but that I was going to have very limited time to get them what they needed. She tried to guilt me into keeping him again and I told her that I had filled out the paperwork and was sending it to them that day.
So I took a nap when I got home and stayed up all that night and had to leash Zorro to keep him from chasing Ninja. After several hours of that and a few more tears of stress and frustration I just put Ninja outside. No sight of Casper.
When I got home on Saturday morning there was Casper laying out on my deck!!! I sneak out there and talk to her. She isn't about to come in the house and she won't stick around if she thinks Zorro is going to be outside, but she talked to me and let me scratch her. She is back to not letting me pick her up but I am fine with that for now.
So it is almost a week later and Zorro still tries to climb up on the cabinets after Ninja and jumps the gate to the spare bedroom. When I let him outside he runs to where he knows the cats run off to and tries to find them.
We are not the right fit for this dog. I am about to cry just saying that. I love him he is a cuddle bunny and he loves and trusts me completely. I have overwhelming guilt about this, about taking time from Bailey and about making my cats feel uncomfortable. No matter what I do I'm the asshole.
The lady that I have been working with send me a text asking me questions about why Marcy's vaccinations are late (we had to send all the vet information stuff in when we signed for the foster program). I told her that Marcy is terminal and that was the vets decision, I wasn't sure why they wouldn't explain that to her. She said "well they were very busy" She then asked me to set up a time to factime her and show me the areas that Zorro hangs out. I pretty much lost it at this point. I told her that with my work schedule I have about 8 hours to shower, sleep, do laundry, and play with the dogs. Zorro had been in my house and safe for a few days and I didn't have time to deal with that. I had sent her several pictures as well as the pictures on facebook and if that wasn't sufficient then they should probably just pull him from my house and find a better foster home for him. She ended up agreeing with me and telling me he is fine where he is, duh. I mean she didn't ask for an ID when I picked him up just went off the fact that I am friends with some pretty serious rescue people on FB.
Yesterday as I'm getting home from work and taking my ambien to get to sleep the EOC calls and tells me that they are pulling all the pumps and that I am no longer needed to work overnights TYJ but could continue to work days if I just wanted to. I told them that we have two people out of the office this week and I will be fine going back to my normal life of short 8 hour work days. Dennis had to drive me to the office to turn in some of the stuff because I had taken my meds and flood watch was officially over. We stopped for lunch on our way back to the house and HMF sends me a text telling me that there were 3 people from dog school who wanted to adopt Zorro and had inquired before they contacted me and they told them he was not available. So I fell very manipulated and I am very upset for the poor dog who will be uprooted from a human he loves and trusts. Keeping him really isn't an option because even though I am not a cat person, I refuse to put them in harms way. Do I think he will hurt them? not intentionally but I can't take that chance and I don't have the patience or knowledge to train him to accept cats nor do I know how to train a semi feral cat to stop running and he may stop chasing you.
The whole thing is pretty upsetting. I feel like a horrible person on so many different levels. I love this dog but I hate the position they put us in. This could have all been avoided and he could have gone to some experienced dog handlers.
In other news, my parents house sustain minor damage from the tornado before memorial day. I will post about that later I am emotionally drained from this post.
Here are a few more pictures.
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| My first official sandbag. |
Oh, honey, don't feel guilty! I know this is easier said than done; I had the same experience fostering a dog a few months ago and deciding she wasn't a good fit. However, this dog is clearly young and adaptable, and he will probably do fine in a new home. When I got my first dog, Bess, and I still had two cats, it took months to train her not to chase them. I had to really work on it, holding her and making her sit and using treats for positive reinforcement, and the cats gradually adjusted to her after she quit running after them, though they never warmed up much. I can see that you don't have the time or emotional energy to invest in this project right now. Just keep telling yourself there is a perfect fit out there for him somewhere. Because it's true!
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