This weekend was the first time I’ve been back to the rescue shelter in about three weeks. I’ve missed it and I was so happy to be back!

I took the girls with me for the first time yesterday and they were awestruck. Amber loves the catteries and Amie is smitten with a dog named Garibaldi.

My heart has been stolen by a 7 month old male Rottie pup named Jupiter. He’s already 90 lbs and stands about as tall as Chuck. He is such an awesome dog, I hope he finds a family soon. Every time the girls and I walked past his run (we did walk him for a long time earlier in the day) he gave us the “Chuck” look, which is the combination head tilt, forehead wrinkle, soulful eye stare that makes my heart melt.

If I didn’t have Chuck that dog would be in my house right now. He is the spitting image of Chuck right down to the personality. Lucky for Chuck, but unlucky for Jupiter, I wouldn’t trade Chuck for anything in the world.

We walked lots of dogs in the last two days. We walked the length of the shelter driveway, which is 1/4 mile each way, and we walked the trails multiple times. Those are each at least 1/2 mile long, depending on which way you go. My legs are starting to feel sore and I can tell that my shoulders and arms are going to be stiff tomorrow. Most of the dogs don’t have any leash manners and of course I walk all the ones who weigh at or more than 100 lbs. By the time 3:30 rolled around today I was glad to sit with Amber in the cat house while she played with the kitties.

It’s only 8:30 and I’m exhausted. I could go to sleep right now and not wake up until tomorrow morning. Unfortunately I have to work tomorrow. It could be worse, though. I could be unemployed so for now I’ll count my blessings and not complain.

I hope you all had a great holiday season and have a happy new year!

I’m really digging the rescue I’m working with. This week I’ve been on the phone, emailing, and meeting up with rescue folks who all have nice things to say about my enthusiasm.

This past week I’ve been gathering information to put on a new Pit Bull page that will be linked to the rescue’s main page. Right now it’s on a blogspot platform. One of the girls I worked with last weekend does web design and she and I plan to sit down some time after the holidays to come up with something catchy. Until then I’ve been working on some content. It’s mostly links with a couple of “articles” right now but it will eventually morph into something that I hope will be huge.

Here. Take a look and tell me what you think.

What’s a Pibble?

I’m so excited! I resubscribed to a Pit Bull mailing list and I found a new rescue to volunteer with! It’s all breed but they have a “sub group” that does Pit Bulls exclusively. I have to go through an orientation but I’ve already been asked if I’d be willing to sit down and help them devise a plan to educate, “market”, and follow up on Pit Bull adoptions. I really think I can make a difference there.

I can’t wait! I’ve missed rescue and this group will give me a chance to jump in with both feet and be as involved as I want to be without having to “penetrate” the core group of volunteers.

Squee!

So. The girls decided they wanted some pet rats. Their hamsters died a couple of months ago and I like rats so I said “OK!”.

We went rat shopping. Rats are hard to come by when you’re actually looking for them. And, of course, we bought pet store rats, which is dumb because they aren’t socialized or nip trained.

This is Chocolate Chip. C.C. for short. She came from Petco. She was skittish at first but she’s calmed down a lot. She likes climb into jacket pockets and she just spent about an hour riding around in the hood of my sweatshirt. Which she peed in. Gross. She belongs to Amber.

This is Mousse. She bites, which is why she’s in the cage instead of in Amie’s hand. We’ve tried working with her but she just isn’t into us. At. All. I’ve got little rat sized punctures on my fingers from trying to pet her. Luckily the bites don’t hurt but they sure do bleed! She belongs to Amie.

These are the NINE babies that Mousse was knocked up with when we bought her. Which is probably why she bites. She’s a protective little snot. You should see what we go through to capture her in that little plastic cage so we can clean the big cage and handle the babies. Seven of them look like the mama. There’s also one solid white one and one that’s tan and white. I’m keeping the tan and white one. I’ve already named it Chai. (Yes, after my Starbuck’s drink. Shut up.) I can’t tell the sexes on all of them yet but I know we’ve got at least three boys.

I have no idea which one this is. I’m not sure if you can see or not…but their eyes aren’t even open yet. They just got their fur…they’re about two weeks old. Their eyes should be open within the next few days.

When they’re five weeks old we’ll be separating the boys from the girls and putting them up for adoption, in same sex pairs, on Craigslist. The girls would like to keep them all. I told them they’re nuts. We’re keeping the one I like and adopting out the rest. The girls are naming them all after some type of chocolate. Except for Chai, which they’re both giving me a hard time about.

So, how do I make sure that none of them are destined to become snake food? I haven’t decided yet. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was feeding rats to a snake. I felt bad about it but that’s what I signed up for when I bought the snake. The snake stayed at Pete’s house when we moved. I have no idea if it’s even still alive. Amie wants to draft a contract, conduct an interview, and do a home check. This child has spent WAY too much time in the world of rescue. I told her we are not going through all of that. I’ll figure out some way to make sure they go to homes as pets.

So, anyone want to adopt a pair of ratties?

you support puppy mills. This is not news. But rarely do you get to SEE what it is you’re supporting.

I’m not going to show you footage of an acutal puppy mill. I’m going to show you footage of an auction where “castoff” stock is sold. Some are breeders that are no longer useful. Some are puppies born with defects.

When you see the cute puppies at the pet stores…remember where they came from. Don’t buy. Adopt instead. I can guarantee that a high percentage of the dogs you see in shelters and rescues were once cute puppies in a pet store.

Finally!  The media has reported a POSITIVE story about a PIT BULL!!!  This dog is most definately the poster dog for what most pit bulls really are. 

www.wfsb.com/video/14502759/index.html?taf=hart

This’ll be short today, I’m just posting some pictures of a couple of the dogs I handled.

Me with Fred outside.

Me hugging Fred.