My Four-legged Family Members

My Four-legged Family Members
After reading a wonderful blog about ranch life and pets by another "Lynn" from Texas, I thought I might immortalize my "babies". I have seven dogs who are my family. All have been rescued years ago from possible or certain death between the years of 1998 and 2001, and so all are getting up in years. The earliest of the members is Cujo.






He was found trotting down the middle of a paved country road at 5:30 AM in the winter months of 1998.
He was a fluffly little puppy ball of fur with only a flea collar on and in the middle of nowhere. He was a few months old and as cute as can be. We turned around, took him back to the house, fed him, then had to quickly leave again for work. We had a hard time keeping him the first day since we lived in a single wide trailer in the country and had several other dogs that were indoor pets and we both worked. We couldn't leave him alone that first day inside with all the other dogs. When we got back home we prayed he would still be there, but we didn't see him anywhere around. We quickly did a neighborhood search and found him not far away. We had some time then to make better provisions for him and to begin to house train him. Many months later, he managed to get out of a large outdoor enclosure we had set up for all the dogs prior to a trip we had to make the following Sept. Within hours of our departure, Cujo had escaped and was shot by a neighbor. Our pet sitter found him under our new double wide alert but limping and didn't know what was wrong with him. She thought he had been hit by a car, but upon taking him to our vet, an ex-ray showed a bullet had entered the front of his chest and shattered his left shoulder bone. He ended up with a steel rod in his leg and shoulder and the removal of a .25 caliber bullet which I still have to this day. Now he is about 12 years old, has a wicked limp, arthritis in his back end, yet is still a sweet, happy, good-natured boy who loves to eat. The only time he barks is when he demands to be fed or to go out.

The summer of 1998, on the same country road we had found Cujo, we were coming home from some shopping one afternoon. I was driving and my husband began yelling, "Stop! Stop!" He had just seen two little dogs sitting in a ditch alongside the road. Enter two more dogs into our home: Joline, a black and white beagle mix, and Taco Bell, a tan Jack Russell mix. Of course we checked all around to see if they lived in the area, but we already had a good idea they did not. Taco (the tan one) had a gash around three-quarters of her nect like she had been hanged by a wire. We figured out later that perhaps she had gotten hung-up on something while climbing out of an enclosure. She was extremely intelligent and could figure out how to escape from just about any fenced in area by climbing over. Joline was, we discovered, in heat. Although we quickly took her to be spayed, she and Taco and Cujo had an entire day's romp right after we found them. We thought they were all lost, but by late afternoon they were spotted in the pasture behind our house and were retrieved. Joline, I found out when she was spayed two weeks later, had been about two weeks pregnant. It was a shame to find out, but wouldn't they have been some odd looking puppies. Joline the beagle mix and Cujo the chow mix.





Joline, Stubby, and Taco Belle
Then came Amanda: Now how cute was she! A full-blooded liver and white beagle came trotting down the hillside at the back of our house on Dec. 9, 1999. My husband saw her from the family room and she was at least an acre away. He called to me and then went outside to approach her. She was sooooo preggy that she looked like a watermelon with four stubs sticking out. As he approached her, she immediately flopped on her back with her legs in the air. We brought her inside, fed her and made her a little place in the laundry room away from the other dogs. Then we set out to find out where she came from. The farm house she came down from was our first stop and we found out she had been in the area for three days raiding garbage cans. We finally found out where she had lived which was about a mile away, but could never find anyone home. Then their neighbor told us the dog was always loose and was constatly pregnant. We took her to our vet since we had never had a dog give birth on us and she looked like she was going to pop. He told us she was anemic from hookworms and might not have enough strength to deliver all the pups if any gave her a problem. We decided she should not have to continue to live the life she had led with people who refused to take care of her, so we helped her deliver 9 puppies, had her spayed asap, and ended up tube feeding the pups because she was so anemic. We lost two of the pups, found good homes for 5 and kept two. The two pups we kept lived happily until a few years ago. One began having seizures which ended up killing him and the other died last spring from lymphamatic cancer. But sweet Amanda is still with me. She has been a handfull at times just because she is an inside dog who happens to be a scent hound. Her most notorious escapade was tearing several large holes in my walls to de-mouse the house one winter. You know I have to love her because she's still alive. She's the most lovable animal ever; very mouthy in a typical beagle way with that ear-piercing baying howl when she's excited, and still flops on her back whenever you talk nice to her. She's a love and a comic and so very gentle:




Amanda and Joline relaxing on the couch.

Next came Stubby: I was doing volunteer work at our local shelter one Sunday in the spring of 2001, attempting to get a very shy german shepherd puppy in my truck for a transport to foster care. I was almost ready to leave when I heard the most awful screaming from within the shelter building. I yelled out to two other volunteers who were cleaning and feeding the animals and ran to the area of the commotion. There I saw a horrible sight! A black pitbull dog had the tail of another dog from the next cage in his mouth and was trying to bite it off! The other dog was shrieking and screaming and I was banging on the fencing of the cage yelling at the pitbull to let go, stop! Within a very short time, the other dog broke loose, minus any meat on the end of its tail. We quickly got it out to render some first aid. The dog was only about 4 mos. old and was in shock. The end of the tail was nothing but clean vertabrae bone about 3 inches long and there was very little blood. It was put in a safe place and the decision would be made in the morning whether to take it to the vet or put it down, since it had been picked up as a stray the night before. After taking the other puppy to its foster home several hours away, I called my friend who was the adoption coordinator of the shelter to ask if I could take the injured dog home for the night and bring it back in the morning. She was soooo scared and timid, but she stole our hearts. Her tail had to have two surgeries since gangerene set in after the first one. This is how she got her name, "Stubby". She is what I believe to be a Grey Hound mix and is the funniest character I have ever had the pleasure of owning. She growls and carries on when she wants to play, when she wants anything, when she meets people for the first time, and when she is watching and running (inside the yard) after cars on the dirt road next to it. People are very afraid of her when they first meet her (I would be, too), but she is really just afraid of them and actually wants to get to know them. Even after she gets to know and love them, she will run up to them barking and growling as she squats down and leans against their legs. I just have to laugh at her. She is a nut. She wants all the attention and doesn't want the other dogs to get petted. She'll growl and let her hair stand up on her back to scare them away, but they ignore her. Our chihuahua mix just chases her when she gets too pushy. Once people get to know Stubby, they actually like her best of all.






Top: She sleeps with her paws over her head. Bottom: With my neighbor, Lee, who was very afraid of her for many months. Now he makes trips over just to love on her.

The last two: Chi-Chi and Ruffles; These two were from the same home near where I lived and were rescued a month apart. Chi-chi first, whom I rescued off the street and had her fixed before I found her owner. He then told me to keep her because he and his girlfriend had "9 more just like her and we can't afford to give you any money. I'm glad you're giving her a good home." Ruffles was found a mile away in the middle of a rain storm running up and down the road, obviously lost, running after every vehicle that went by. A whole family was just relaxing on their porch watching her antics and doing nothing. I was again on my way to work wearing a white uniform. I stopped and called over to them, asking if they knew who she belonged to, and the answer was no. So, into my truck she went and I turned around to take her home and to change my clothes. It was very obvious from the start that she and Chi-Chi were related and knew each other. Except for the length of hair, they were identical, and they greeted each other wildly, playing and greeting each other like long lost family (which they were). The people who originally owned these dogs had abandoned her and their trailer was empty. How can people do these things? Anyway, it was their loss and my gain because they are two of the greatest little dogs you can imagine. Very sweet and loveable






Chi-chi and Ruffles



That's all for now. I hope you'll share your pets and their pictures with me. They all have their own stories and personalities

(I have copeied this from my blog which has pictures of all my dogs. You may view them at www.asthelogrolls.blogspot.com if you are interested.)