HMBMDC Rescue Report ~ Spring 2007

This started of slow again. In the last report I mentioned Jacob, Jacob is a 4 year old male. His old home had no time for him anymore and left him outside chained to the house. During storms he would become so scared he would claw at the house and even break his chain to escape the fenced area and hide in a neighbor's garage for protection. We have witnessed 1 storm with him and as long as he had someone to be near, he was fine. He was intact, and we had him neutered in November. He gets along with other dogs and likes to chase the cats. He was from a family with small children, and seems to like a lot. But Jacob has shown a side of stubbornness sometimes. When this shows up, he will growl and seems upset and might act out. We just tell him to knock it off and go outside, and he complies and is fine afterward. But because of this we will not place him with children under 12. Linda refers to him as "Mr. Crabby Pants". He is very loving and looks much better than when he came here. His coat has turned from a dull gray to a nice black like it's supposed to be. He likes to cuddle on the couch, and is happy lying on the tile. He really is attached to me, he pouts when I am gone at work and mopes around. The attachment is mutual

Jacob
Jacob was denied a real family life and is now eating up being a member of our pack. He is learning to play with other dogs and has started playing with toys. He is a larger Berner about 27 inches tall. He was 98 pounds when he came here and was very thin. He is now near 104 and looks great!!
He will make a wonderful companion for a family. Jacob will need a real fenced yard because of his past of roaming for females and hiding from storms. Since he's been here he has never even looked at the fence to try to get out.

As of today, 2/24, he will be going to his new home with rescue Berner buddies, Lily and Maxx, with his new parents, Lisa and Karl Erikson. Karl came over to drop off the past issues of the newsletter so we could hand them out at the DKC show. He and Soren met Jacob and something must have clicked. They were considering a play buddy for Maxx since Lily does not play much and Maxx wants to have a good time. So after telling Lisa about him I got an e-mail asking more about him. Jacob sold himself to Karl. (That's 3 adopted dogs for 1 family!!! Our heroes!) Apparently coming to our house has danger written all over it. You may leave with more than you came with!

Like I said, it started slow than all hell broke loose!

Niki
It started with us being contacted by 2 breeders that were looking for homes for dogs that didn't pass the high standards that we are all looking for, two of the dogs from orthopedics, one for temperament, and one because of a gay tail. 2 were in Michigan and 2 were out of state. The latter, I sent a few names of potential homes that were more regional. The 2 local dogs were easy to place. Everyone wants a dog that is well behaved, and beautiful. The breeder was just looking for a wonderful home with lots of attention for these dogs, destined for greater things, but did not pan out. Since we have a list of homes, of people looking for such a dog, we were allowed to place them through rescue, so the rescue could receive the adoption fees without any investment! We had made pre-arrangements to have them spayed, at the expense of the adopters.

Now Niki lives up in Perrinton, MI, with George & Diane Demenov.   Madison will live in Ferndale, with Darin and Amy Francis. As for Monique and the 10 month old, I have not heard back.

Those were the easy ones. First we have made a commitment to baby-sit for one of our favorite placements, Ernie to come and spend the week or so. Then we got contacted about Bob, Lacy and Shiloh.

Bob
Bob is a 3.5 year old that has low thyroid and bad skin issues. He was given up because of those the owner claimed. The owner also was starting a new relationship and was going to be traveling. Bob is a big, sweet, heavy boned boy that is full of love that snores like crazy. He has the greatest expressions and I'm sure will be a blast to play with when he gets his thyroid levels straightened out. His owner tried every thing from over the counter that there was, but he also seemed to self diagnose Bob's problems, and not follow the vets recommendations.   So we took him to the vet to have him looked at. We were going to do another blood test, but he said it looked like bad thyroid skin and to give the proper dose time to do its work. We will be giving him a special bath to remove the old, dead, flakey skin that then another to remove the old yeast. His ears are bad too, and we are working on making them better. We are going to be in trouble with this boy. If he progresses like we hope he will, who knows, he may be home!

Lacy
Lacy was the female that was rescued from Silver's, and that was the woman that notified us about him selling off all his Berners. This allowed us to rescue Sammy and Oliver. Lacy was in as bad a shape a Sammy at only 36 pounds. They took her immediately to the vet that did not think she would survive the night. Well she did, and did very well. So much so, she is now overweight somewhat. I can understand why. We made the same commitment to Sammy, that he would never go hungry again. Lacy is sort of shy, timid around men and was the woman's dog. However, she does seem to like me, so I think the men thing is just more of a trust issue for than fear. She is small in stature; I would guess about 22 inches and 85-90 pounds. Very pretty with a badly need bath and brushing to her coat. We think she is in the 4 to 6 year old range. She is still intact which really bothered me after all she had been through. She just finished her heat cycle before coming here 2 days ago. It looks like she has had some litters, but of course Silvers denied that she had.

Lacy will need the whole gambit of shots and tests, along with being spayed. We just hope she is not pregnant. She was given up because she nipped their 4 year old son when he fell on her when she was sleeping. I don't hold that one against her completely. It may have been an instant reaction to the scare, but she did get his face with several minor cuts. They did not want to take the chance on it happening again. We don't know how old she is. We think 4-6 years old, maybe older. She got spayed today and had a bunch of cysts on he ovaries and showed signs of several litters. her old owners seemed to love her but according to vet records, they never even got her any vaccines.

Shiloh, is a 2.5 year old female that we also got contacted this week. She is also intact. She has been troublesome to her owners because she has mastered the art of escape form her pen/kennel and gets into the chickens, and has even killed a young goat. She is reportedly great with kids, but unknown about other dogs. She has not been socialized much and had limited interactions.

As you can tell since all the above dogs came within about a week's time frame we did not have the room to take her in too. Especially with not knowing how she interacted with other dogs. If it was warm we could keep her in the pole barn with the fenced area to run and play, but it is just too cold outside. So I posted to the HMBMDC E-list for help. To our rescue came Annette Wibert, and her friend, Laurie Griffith. They arranged to get her, foster her and start the evaluation process. We had to act fast because the owner was at her last straw and if she killed another chicken she was going to put her to sleep. So time was at an essence.

It was arranged to get her by her Daughter-in-law that works at kennel/groomer. They report that she is a very smart sweet dog, with a few house breaking issues.

I got a call today that she has sold herself to her foster family, a danger of fostering, you fall in love. It looks as if Shiloh will remain with Christie & Nate Omo in Eaton Rapids. Since they did the rescuing and all the work, we will just call her a re-homing without the involvement of our rescue program. Since we didn't have to foster her, there will be no adoption fee.

Thanks Annette for jumping in and helping. Mark Maliarik also offered to foster her in a pinch.

So our 2 weeks went like this: we had Jacob, in came Ernie, in came Niki, out went Niki, in came Bob, in came Lacy, in came Madison, out went Jacob, and out went Madison.....whew!!!!!

Bob's owner made a $200 donation for his care, and the 3 adoptions for Jacob, Madison and Niki will help add to the rescue fund. Which is good, since we will need to restock our rescue supplies for collars, leashes, bowls, toys....... ect.

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