How did I get into this?

Well, the day started with a horrible, foul smell creeping up the stairs and into my bedroom.   "Oh, no!" I moaned as I crawled out of bed and walked down those teal wooden steps in my old 1860's farm house.  I opened the door where two of my dogs had been sleeping to find a huge pile of diarrhea all over my lovely wood floors and splattered on the pale yellow wall.   Maddie, the Springer Spaniel, darted out of the room and made a bee line for the back door.  Gabe, my big white guy, looked a bit embarrassed and forlorn as he slowly made his way to the door looking rather guilty.   "What did you get in to? " I shrieked,  horrified at the site of such a mess at 6:30 in the morning.  The smell started racing through the house at lightning speed now that I had opened the door.,  I opened the window, in spite of the fact that it was 20 some degrees and snowing;  then and I ran for the room spray.  I grabbed a roll of paper towels and spread newspaper on what ever part of the  floor that wasn't covered with runny poop and began my day.  "Oh, God, how did I get into to this?  How? I ask you! "  The rest of the dogs seemed to be buried under their pillows trying to escape the obnoxious oder..  So welcome to my world!

Later that morning I received a call from a woman that took an adorable puppy to foster a few days ago at our pet adoption.  I had a gut feeling about that arrangement when I let the puppy go to her. When will I learn to listen to that still small voice that many times screams at me, "What the  heck are you thinking?"   Anyway,  she calls me this morning in the middle of a snow storm, and tells me she is on the way to Boone to bring the puppy back.   "The roads are treacherous!" I said, feeling my heart go in to overload already so early in the day.  "Well, I'm on my way to Boone with her.  My son is allergic,"  she said curtly.   I knew that she had other dogs,  so why was her son allergic to this little puppy, but I was not going to argue.  "I will try to get a foster home for the puppy right away.  She is not going back to animal control and sit in a cage alone,"  I said, trying to keep my composure.

 I frantically dialed Lucyna's number. I breathed a sigh of relief when she finally answered.   " I really need your help. I have a puppy coming back, and I have no place for her.  Please tell me you can take her," I pleaded.  

"Well, I'm with some friends, but I will tell them I have to get the puppy," she said a bit reluctantly.  I know that my friends dread to see my number come up on their phones.  They hide from me and purposely lose their phones, or drop them in the toilets.

"Oh, thank you so much! Thank you!  I appreciate you so much,"I said overjoyed.

 Thanks to my psychiatrist friend, Lucyna, the puppy is safe in a warm place tonight.  I hope Lucyna is on stand by because I will need a psychiatrist before long if I keep at this rescue much longer. In fact, there are those who believe that I am long over due!  They are most likely correct.

Next call was from a man on the Tennessee border, not far from my home.

 " I found a Chocolate Lab.  He's a nice little guy, but I can't keep him.  I already have two dogs of my own.  I can't afford to feed another one.  Poor little guy showed up here about a week ago, and I've been keeping him in the barn.  It's so cold, and I just didn't have the heart to let him stay out in the cold.   I put an add in the paper, 'free to a good home,' but no calls. I was hopin' you could help."

   "Well, I'm happy to hear that you haven't had any calls on your add.  Never put a 'free to good home' add in the paper.  There are so many dog fighting rings around here.  They take the dogs and use them for bait dogs.  Also the medical labs take them as well, and that is a horrible fate for any animal," I said.

"I never thought of  the dog fighting rings. I know of cock fighting over here, but I don't know about dog fighting.  I guess I wasn't aware of bait dogs.  This is all news to me.  That's really sad," he said almost apologizing.

 "I'm sure you did what you thought was the best thing to help the dog, but we will help you find this guy a home somehow.  Animal control is full right now, and I have to go out of town next week.  It may be about 10 days or so before I can get him,"  I said holding my breath.

"I can hold on to him for a while.  Like I said, he's a good dog. I didn't want to take him to animal control because I used to work at the landfill there.  We put hundreds of dogs and cats in the landfill that had been put down there.  It was real depressing," he said.

"Well, things are much better there now,"I said.  "We save most of the dogs and a huge number of cats.  We and the Humane Society take the animals out of there every week.  Our euthanasia rate has dropped about 85% for dogs and close to 50% for the cats.  We have the highest adoption rate in the state... probably in the South.  We have good people at our animal control that work hard to save the animals."

I breathed a sigh of relief as I thanked him for holding on to the Lab.  Most people that call me want the dog or cat out of their lives yesterday!  Just throw them away.  Get rid of them like trash.  Where are the hearts in these people?  How can people just dump their animals off and never look back?  It's crazy!  It's a sign of a sick, selfish, me first society.  Ok, I feel better.  I vented...  I got that off my chest.  By the way, anyone looking for a sweet Chocolate Lab?

I received an email today from a girl that wants to adopt Carrie.  Carrie must have been to hell and back in her short life.  She was going to be put down at Catawba County Animal Control.  A sweet officer down there named Jennifer called me an asked me if I could take her and another dog named Cassie.

 "They are on the list to be put down," she said.  

"How long do they have?" I asked.

"Well, we were going to put her and Cassie down tomorrow, or the next day.  They seem like sweet dogs, and I'd love to save them," she said with a bit of a plea in her voice.

"Where the heck am I going to put them?" I was asking myself as she was waiting for my response.
 "Ok, Jennifer, I said, taking a  deep horrifying breath.  " Are you crazy?" I heard that familiar voice that continues to speak in my ear almost every day of my insane life.  "I just lost a dog that we loved after he was treated for heart worm, so you'll need to heart worm check them.  Fynn wound up costing us a couple thousand dollars and a huge hole in my heart.   I can't go through that again."

" I understand," she said.  "I'll do the test, but I'm sure they'll be fine.  They are young dogs."

About an hour later she called back.

"Penny, Carrie is heart worm positive.  I will put her down today. I know that you can't take that on, especially right on the heels of Fynn; but Cassie is fine. "

"I'm sorry, Jennifer.  I can't go through that again.   I'll take Cassie. Get her spayed and ready to go , and we'll pick her up.  I'm sorry about Carrie."

I hung up the phone, and I felt sick over that little dog that I had never met.  She was just one more to die at an animal control.  No one would miss her.  No one would grieve for her except for Jennifer, the animal control officer that did her best to save her."

"I just sealed her fate!" I thought as I shut the vacuum off about an hour later.  "I picked up the phone and dialed as fast as I could.  "Jennifer, tell me you haven't put her down yet, " I said, feeling a panic attack coming on.

"No, I haven't," she said.

"Ok. Ok.  Get her to the vet there, and let's start her treatment. I'll call my friend Anita down there in Hudson and beg her to foster her as she goes through all the treatment.  How much will it cost?  About $700 or so?"  My heart was ponding at what a close call Carrie had again.

" Well, It will be about that I think, but our vets will discount your rescue.  Thank you so much, Penny," she said with a true tone of gratefulness.

 Thanks to my friend Anita, she went through her heart worm treatment and did very well.  That treatment is so harsh, and they can get so sick.  Carried stayed with Anita for a few months, and then she came to me.  She is absolutely terrified of everyone.   She must have been terribly mistreated in her short life..  It took her weeks at our home before she would let my husband, Harry, near her.  It will take her quite some time before we can adopt her out.  I explained that to this girl that emailed me this morning, and I told her to look at all of our dogs.  She asked to be on a waiting list for Carrie.  Well, it's nice to know this sweet girl wants the dog, but everyone who has had her  has brought her back rather quickly.  The dog was hiding and running from them, and she refused to poop while on the leash.  Now that's a real problem!  So Carrie is now with my friend, Pat and her doggie also named Carrie. The dogs love each other, and Pat is giving Carrie the one on one she needs .  Maybe, just maybe, Pat will fall in live with her.

Later this afternoon a young man called me that is fostering a beautiful dog we have named Cooper.

"I feel so bad about Cooper," he said as the conversation began.  "I just don't have the time to train him. I mean I love him, but he chews everything, and my room mate is upset, and I'm at a loss here."

"Do you have a crate?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I can't leave him in the crate for a long time.  He hates it."

"If you have to take him back to animal control I understand," I said. " I'm just worried because they are so full. Maybe you could keep him until Saturday until our next adoption."

"I will do all I can, he said mournfully. "I really love Cooper."

I hung up the phone feeling very sad for the young man and for poor Cooper.  He's just a young dog that needs training.  "Oh Lord, help us get this worked out," I wispered as I headed to feed 21 dogs.

At dinner time my home phone rang. "I'm not answering that," I said to Harry as I took my first bite of our meal.   A few seconds later the rescue phone rang, and seconds later my personal cell phone rang.  "I give up!" I muttered as I checked my missed calls and saw that it was Anita, our animal control chief, and my crazy friend. We both have to be nuts to do what we do; birds of a feather....

"Now what?" I said as she answered her phone.  "We may have  a rescue group up in New York that will take all these puppies.  We have at least 20 we could send.  What do you think?  Should we send them up there if they will take them?'

"Well, Yeah, we need to get them up there if they will take them, but now we need a transport.  I suppose you are thinking that someone could drive my SUV... right.?  You check on the rescue , and I will see who can drive them half way to Virginia."

I hung up and Harry looked at me with that  'now what?' look.  "Too bad I have to leave for Florida Tuesday. We could have made a run to Virginia if they are willing to take the pups."

"Well, hopefully someone will be willing to drive them half way if the group is willing to take them," he said as he shoved a piece of chicken in his mouth.

So we'll see.  Here I sit at 1:22 AM writing to who knows who.  Tomorrow the dogs will start their choir practice at about 6:30 AM, and we start over.  I guess it's time to sign off.  Forgive the typos.  No time to proof read this blog.  Bow wow for now!