I had replied to a posting about transporting and overnighting a puppy back on January 14th. The puppy was adopted by a civilian before the rescue could pull him, so the dog got a home and I lost my transport. I have been itching for a overnight for quite some time now. The last time I had an overnight canine guest was back in October.
I told the rescuer, Alexis, to contact me if they ever did find a puppy or need another dog transported or overnighted. Her organization, The Penny Foundation, pulls dogs from LA shelters (or any shelters across the US but mainly LA since she used to live here), and brings them to Vancouver, Canada to find them homes. Many times, they already have a home before they leave the shelter. Alexis acts as a "matchmaker." There are a lot less homeless dogs in Canada, and not quite of the ethnic variety as we have here in the United States. So a person contacts her, asks her for a certain breed, then rather going to a breeder, she searches the US shelters, finds the dog, and coordinates the travel plans and adoption.
Puppies are difficult, and she doesn't do many of those. She'd rather take the ones on death row first, and seldom do puppies get there. The puppy transport fell through, and she was on the hunt for another, but in the meantime, she gave my info to her Los Angeles coordinator, Christy, for future reference.
That future is now, only two weeks later. Christy contacted me about fostering a dog for a couple of days while they found a new foster. I remember seeing his rescue plea on the boards. He was a lab mix from one of the Los Angeles shelters. Alexis had an adopter in Canada who wanted a lab, so she pulled him, but when Christy picked him up at the vet's office after he was neutered, they discovered he had a lot of pit bull mixed in--too much for the adopters. But they weren't going to send him back; they had to make do.
He had been in a foster home for all of two days when the fosters called and said it wasn't working out. They had a black lab mix, and they said Mickey was bullying their dog. It was their first time fostering, and it wasn't going very well. Mickey had been a stray and was not used to indoor house etiquette. He entered the home and started marking everything in sight. They tried to crate him at night, but he whined and cried bloody murder. And above all, he was annoying the resident dog. So, Christy needed to get him out, and rather than send him to boarding while they found a new foster, I said I'd take him in. She was confident she could find a new foster by Saturday, or if not, maybe he could get on a flight to Canada. He was going to be sent with a puppy, but the puppy was sick so they had to wait until she was well enough to travel.
With no other dogs in my place, and my ability to take Mickey out every couple of hours to housetrain him, I agreed to take him Monday night after a job interview and taking my friend to lunch for his birthday. Because I can't leave a dog alone in my apartment, I'm pretty much confined to only a few things I can do when I foster: go to the pet store, a walk around the neighborhood, and the local coffee house. So I completed my human tasks for the moment, and met up with Christy at the foster's house to meet Mickey. Christy had offered to bring him straight to me, but I wanted to see Mickey's current situation and speak with the fosters so I had first-hand knowledge of him.
I didn't witness any bullying while I was there, but Mickey did seem quite happy and full of energy. Their dog was a bit older than Mickey, and I had a feeling the old dog just wasn't in the mood for learning the new trick of hosting a foster for awhile. I could see Mickey really liked the dog, and I do believe dogs teach dogs better than humans teach dogs, and Mickey had a lot to learn. But this just wasn't the right teacher or school for him. He'd have to try to learn from me, and I'd do the best I could.
Christy offered to loan me a crate for Mickey to sleep in but I turned it down. Not only was it the size of half my living room, I didn't think it'd be necessary. He'd have to get used to one for the plane ride, but since that could be weeks away, I just wanted to get him used to home-living first.
It took both of us, but we finally convinced Mickey by gentle force to get him into my truck. I'm sure he was confused on why he was leaving the house. From his point of view he was having the time of his life: hanging out with another dog and his family, claiming all objects as his, and snoozing on the couch. What was the problem?
Once I got Mickey's harness tethered in, I turned on the truck, pulled a u-y in the street, and headed off into my adventure with Mickey.
No comments:
Post a Comment