Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Lab Adoption Event

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Today I was so very privileged to assist at a Labs 4 Rescue Adoption event, held at our very own training center, The Mellow Mutt.

Labs 4 Rescue and The Mellow Mutt did an incredible job of advertising the event and we had a HUGE turnout.

Sara had set up some of the agility equipment just in case anyone wanted to work with a dog.  I found that most of the foster parents really hung onto their dogs though. 🙂  I mentioned to Ann after that I would have liked to see the dogs off leash running around and checking people out.  The room is a great size for it and with the gates and fencing I think we could keep the dogs safe.

Having never participated in an adoption event before I guess I really didn’t give much thought to how it would work.

A couple of people looking for companions for their dogs actually brought their own dogs.  This is not usually advised, but we figured out a way to work with it.   The Mellow Mutt has two rooms, so we were able to keep the potential adoptees in one room, and used the other room to introduce a couple of dogs.

It didn’t dawn on me that people wouldn’t actually be able to take dogs home with them today.  I completely forgot about the application process and the required home visit.

We had one lady that tried really hard to take a dog home today.  She ended up turning a lot of people off with her pushiness.  So much so that I volunteered to do her home visit. 🙂 I’ll just let you guess how that one would turn out.

Since I’m not officially with the rescue, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do, but I did chat up people and try to encourage them towards certain dogs.

I was really worried about one little labbie in particular, she was a little chocolate girl named Hazel.

Hazel, photo courtesy of Petfinder.com

They say Hazel is four, but she already has some white around her chin.  She gets along with some dogs, but not all.  She does not like cats and they do not recommend she go to a home with small children. Hazel was in a house with small children that were not taught the proper way to behave with a dog.

One of the Labs 4 Rescue volunteers had Hazel in the front room away from the other dogs.   She is such a beautiful girl and so wonderfully sweet, but I could see the worry in her eyes.  My heart was heavy because I thought, “They’re never going to be able to place a reactive dog.”  I spent time with Hazel and could tell what a sweetheart she was and towards the end of the event, a family came in looking for a dog.  As they exited the large room I asked the teenage daughter which dogs she was interested in, she mentioned two and one of them was Hazel.  I got super excited and the Labs 4 Rescue volunteer asked if they wanted to take her for a walk and they did!  I have such hope in my heart that Hazel has found her forever home.

Hubby and I had discussed the event before hand and we were both on the same page about me bringing another dog into the pack.  We agreed it is not the right time for us, but if could have, Hazel would have been the one. 🙂

I did take some pictures but there were so many dogs I can’t remember all their names, so I’ll just put up the ones I do remember!

Sara really fell in love with Cozie.

Cozie is a yellow lab about 5 years old.  Ann said she is having a hard time finding a home for Cozie.  About a half hour before the event ended a couple of kids in their late teens or early twenties came in.  Cozie was the first one they saw and Cozie fell hard for the girl.  As they were leaving the girl said just last night her mom had mentioned they needed a dog and they just happened to be driving by and saw the sign.  They thought Cozie would be perfect.  I told them to go home and fill out the paperwork. 😉

I don’t think there was a dog there today that someone didn’t express an interest in, even the black ones. 🙂  I’ve asked Ann to let me know how many applications they received for the dogs that were at the adoption event today and I will let you know.

This is Maurice, he was one of the dogs the pushy lady was interested in. He is about 2 years old and an awesome dog.

 

Trina, the only puppy there. I’m not sure how old she is. The pushy lady was interested in Trina too.

 

Missy, about 6 years old. Her foster mom says she’s awesome and easy-going.

 

Mea, what a sweet girl. I think she was between two and three years old. She is being fostered with a snarky GSD and she is holding her own.

Can you imagine if all the dogs at the event found their forever homes today?

Follow-Up Friday

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For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby! :-)

To Boldly Go Where No Dog Has Gone Before – Update

Apparently M & M always leave their garage door open….when I took the dogs up on Monday evening for their walk, the garage door was open again.

Of course without Delilah being in the garage, I had the chance to whip out my camera and take a picture.

Really ladies, you live in an area where coyotes and fishers live, maybe you want to keep your garage door shut?  It will definitely help keep predators out…..

And wandering chocolate labs.

Which Would Scare You? – Author’s Note

Many of you said the geeky guy would scare you.  Yes, you should be wary of all strangers, although with two dogs I think I’m decently safe, but stranger things have happened.

As Kari from Hound Girl stated, “LOL the nerdy creepy guys are the quiet ones that take people and cut them up and put them in the freezer hahah.”

Yup, you got that right.

It’s Not All About Delilah – Author’s Note

We have a lot of lovely hiking trails in my area.  Sadly we don’t frequent them as much since Delilah joined our pack.  I am going to start nagging gently suggesting to Hubby that we try at least once every couple of weeks to experience some of the other trails.

Sampson really did love them and I don’t think it’s fair that he can’t enjoy the things he loves because a certain someone can’t behave.  I will be content to walk our trails with Delilah on leash.

Or course, this will be after we get our investment house ready for tenants.

W.T.F. Wednesday – Author’s Note

I got the idea for WTF Wednesday from Kari at Hound Girl.  I saw her make a WTF Wednesday post and didn’t realize it was an ongoing feature already being done by Mango and Dexter.

Of course I need to give props where props are due, so Mango and Dexter, hats off to you!  If you are not the originators of WTF Wednesday somebody please let me know just who the f*ck is.

I have no updates on any of the stories highlighted in WTF Wednesday but I did forget another story.

This W.T.F. was from fellow blogger.

Sherri at Woman’s Best Friend posted that she and her GS (Samson) were entering their apartment building as a woman with her children were exiting the elevator.

As they approached each other the older child pointed at Samson and said, “Nasty. Nasty Dog” and the mom just smiled.

W.T.F. lady, I really don’t feel like being the one to educate your stupid ass, but let me remind you that some people PREFER their dogs over people and yes, believe it or not some people actually think….children are nasty.

You should take the opportunity to educate your child the proper way to approach and respect, yes, yes I said RESPECT dogs.

How would you feel if someone pointed at your child and said, “Nasty child?”

Don’t. Try. Me.

This is not part of Follow-up Friday but I wanted to share.

Tomorrow I will be participating in a Labs 4 Rescue Adoption event at the Mellow Mutt.  If you (or someone you know) are looking for a forever friend, there will be 15 labs up for adoption tomorrow.

I have a personal goal to place 15 labs.  Naturally there will be pictures. 🙂

Catch you later!

Along Came Sampson

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A couple of you asked about the children’s book I wrote, the title is “Along Came Sampson.”

It is a basic children’s book, narrated by Sampson with actual pictures of him taken throughout the first year of his life.

Sampson…….not even a week old.

I came up with the idea when I was asked to bring a book to a baby shower and the book I had in mind was no longer in print.  I was between jobs and thought, what the heck, I’ll write my own.

I’ve had two different reviews made on the book, with the last one basically re-writing the entire book for me.  Once she was done hacking it I felt like it wasn’t mine any more.  Still I tried to find a literary agent to represent me and schlep my work off to publishing companies, but I was turned down by three different ones.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not really good with being rejected and so I kind of stopped trying.  The whole intent of this blog was to promote my Along Came Sampson website and get people interested in Sampson and hearing more stories about him and Delilah.

The other thing you should know about me is technology does not come easy.  While I had someone help me design the website I’m not that great at updating and changing things so I basically pay for a website I neither update or promote.  Every month or so I go in and clean all the spam from the blog but that’s about it.

If you’d like to read the book it is up on the Along Came Sampson website under the tab “Sampson Says.”

After the second review I made her revisions and in order to make the book a little more appealing to an agent, I made it into a scrapbook.

The original book was targeted more for children and helping them learn the proper way to raise, train and treat a dog.

I was told, “There’s already training books out there, what makes yours so special?”

Sampson makes it special!

He is a beautiful dog, with a beautiful soul.

Who knows, maybe someday I’ll have the money to self-publish my book, or I’ll be such a famous blogger that I could write anything and people will buy it. 🙂

 

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