Dog Lovers

[SouthCarolinaViking]

Okay, been a while. I’ll try to not make this too long. (I
failed)


Damn. I spent HOURS getting this together and it tells me that it is too long to post. I'll post what I can and finish it later.


Right now, we have these two.




The blond one is Betty. She is transporting to Vermont today
(Friday). We’ve had her for about 6 months. We have no idea what she’s been
through. She still is uncomfortable around me. We think that a male must have
abused her. She took to my wife and will snuggle with her, but if I approach
her she’ll walk away. We’ve taken her out in public and while on a leash, she’ll
let people pet her but she really only trusts my wife.






We think they’ve found the perfect home for her in Quebec.
Single lady who wants a quiet, well behaved dog. My wife has talked to her and
Betty seems to be a perfect fit. That lady is really excited to meet her
tomorrow. I think it’s going to work out.




Now, for Sammy (the black one). He came from a real shitty environment.
There were three dogs caged at some house. All three were aggressive. It’s like
they never were around humans. All three were taken to a shelter. They wouldn’t
let any humans come near them. The first one to let anyone come close was
Sassy. We think Sassy and Sammy are siblings.
Here's Sassy.






Sassy let a worker there give her treats and eventually let
him pet her. So, we took her in and she did great. She’s in Pennsylvania now,
doing great. They had to put one of the dogs down. She was way too aggressive.
We hated that but you can’t win them all.


They had Sammy scheduled to be put down but my wife talked
them into letting us give him a chance. We brought him home in a portable
crate. When we transferred him to a regular crate, he tried to attack us. We
kept him in the crate all night.


The next day, he was slowly coming around. All of our dogs
(including Betty) had already sniffed him through the crate so they weren’t
that interested anymore. Around mid-morning my wife (I went into work for a few
hours that day) opened up his crate and just left it opened. After a while he
ventured out and started exploring. He ended up letting my wife pet him.


My wife called me with the news. She said he was real sweet,
with these funky front paws. They’re huge and they point out to the side. His
elbows stick out too. He’s fucking adorable. I came home and he wasn’t too sure
what to make of me but we bonded pretty quick. By that night he was sleeping in
the bed with all of us and fit right in. We think this has got to be the first
real home that he has had.






He was scheduled to transport to Penn. about 3 weeks ago. I
said my goodbyes and went to work. My wife dropped him off at the vet where the
transports happen and went to work. They called her and said that no one could
get near him and could she come back and help load him into the van. I told her
just to take him back home but she said that he should go. He went straight to
my wife when she got there but wanted nothing to do with the van. My wife
called me and said he’s back home and we’ll deal with it later. I get home
later and he is happy as a clam. Whole body wriggling and tail thumping.


We’ve been taking him out to try to get him accustomed to
strangers. Here he is at a local dog-friendly brewery sipping a cold one.


I think we’re going to have to keep him. He loves our place
so much that it’s heartbreaking to think of him going somewhere where he’s
scared. My wife says to be patient, we’ll work with him and be able to transport
him whenever he’s ready. I’m not so sure. I’m like we’ve got four, what
difference does five make. We’ll see.
The first real test will be this weekend. We’re leaving for
Edisto Island this Sunday for a week (we’re stopping at a bar in Charleston at
noon to watch the Vikings/Ravens…..can’t miss that). No dogs allowed at our
condo. We have a girl that stays at our house with our dogs whenever we go out
of town. We don’t want to burden her with Sammy, so our local rescue woman is
going to pick him up Saturday and have him stay with her for the week. We’ll see
how that goes. I still think we’ll end up keeping the little fucker.

[Guest]

I'll finish later. It wouldn't let me post it all.

[Guest]

While we had both Sammy and Betty, we were told about this
angel. Shay. Here’s a before and after.






We got notified that she was going to be put down that day.
We already had two fosters but we couldn’t let that happen so we took her in.
She was so scared when my wife brought her home. We have a ritual that we go
through when we bring a new foster home. My wife will pull into the garage, all
of our dogs are going nuts inside the house waiting on her and I’ll shut the
back door and go around and get the dog and put her in the crate on our back
patio. Then we’ll let everybody out and they can sniff through the crate until
everybody’s comfortable, then we’ll let the new foster out.


Well this girl was so scared. She had her tail completely
tucked under to her belly and she was slobbering all over. Just scared to
death. It took a while but she finally laid down and seemed to calm down. We
finally let her out and everything went well. It took about a week but she
really settled in and became one of the guys. She is super sweet and she fattened
up nicely. It was hard to see her go but she’s doing great up in Vermont. We
keep in touch with her family. We pretty much keep in touch with most of our
prior fosters. That makes it easier to say goodbye when we know where they’re
going.
My wife posts on Facebook about these dogs. One day she got a  message from a lady who works for the county. She was out in a field surveying and they came across Shay. She was starving and scared but she took a treat. They called animal control and they came and got her. The lady said she has been so worried about what would happen to her. She said that she couldn't get the image of her sad little eyes out of her head. Then she saw where we had her as a foster and she had to reach out to us to let us know that she was the person who found her. It made my wife cry.

[Guest]

I'll add more later.

[Guest]

Here's Fred. His ears seemed like they weighed 5 pounds each. We loved him.

[Guest]

Here's Dino before




and after

[Guest]

I gotta go so Ill leave ya'll with a few more. SKOL!

[Guest]

love these dogs.  I have two—both look like they are assembled from spare parts.  They are adorable.  Mrs. Zimmerman is the Grand Dame and Moose is the idiot instigator of all harebrained ideas. Moose sleeps with us while Mrs. Z. guards the door.

[Guest]

Love em all...Thank you for saving the angels  B)

[Guest]

Thank you for sharing. I absolutely love these. I hate that there are such rotten people out there that are cruel to animals. But I really enjoy reading your stories of the ones that overcome such suffering. You and your wife are good people doing good work.