"You're Kidding Me, Right?"
Raleigh, NC - May 2003 (Click to embiggen)
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Showing posts with label animal rescue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal rescue. Show all posts
Monday, January 18, 2010
Friday, January 01, 2010
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thematic Photographic 62: "Abandoned" v.6.0 - "Someone Will Come"
Gandhi once said you can tell a lot about a civilization by the way it treats animals. I hope that's not entirely accurate. These puppies were found abandoned and taken to the SPCA of Wake County. It's a story repeated with mind-numbing frequency every day across the US and the world. These guys were lucky. They were found by someone who cared enough to save them, and most or all of them found homes at this Adopt-A-Thon. And that made them part of a very small, very fortunate minority.Maybe I'm just not smart enough, because this is high on the long list of things I'll never understand.
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Saturday, February 28, 2009
Photo Hunt #16: "Thankful"
"Kayla: Happy to Have a New Forever Home"
Raleigh, NC - April 2003 (Click to embiggen)
Next Week's Challenge: "Space"
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Thanks To All, From Tonka
Hi there! I've hijacked my dad's blog for a moment.
(Shh. Don't tell him I know how to do that or he'll put me to work editing his posts! I digress.)I apologize for being so delinquent in sending out my heartfelt thanks to all of you who stopped by to wish me a happy birthday last week. But in my defense, it can be pretty hard to keep this guy you call "Mojo" in line. I love him dearly, but keeping up with him can wear a feller out!
But anyway, thanks to all of you. It was a really nice surprise when Dad passed all the birthday wishes on.
But the fun wasn't over yet! Yesterday a box came in the mail and I heard Dad say "I didn't order anything... and how come this is addressed to you? (And then he checked to make sure I hadn't nicked his credit card. I tell you, make one little mistake and... anyway.)
Well while he was changing his clothes, he said "Aahhhh... I bet I know where that came from!" and he opened up the box and pulled out this bag. I couldn't read it from where I was, but I could smell it, and man did it ever smell good! So next thing you know he's tapping on the computer writing to somebody. He says to me, "I know that smells good fella, but I'm not giving you any until I'm sure where they came from. You don't take cookies from strangers, right? Well this is the same thing."
I know he's looking out for me when he does that stuff, but really!... this was killin' me!
So anyway, long story short, a while later he gets an answer and it turns out that he was right and the cookies came from my pal Daryl who takes all these cool photos of dogs in her town. Well as soon as he knew that for sure he opened up that heavenly scented bag and handed me the best doggone cookie I ever had! Yup. My pal Daryl rocks! (I'm not exactly sure what that means, but Dad says it all the time and it sounds like it must be a good thing.)
So I had to send a special thank you out for that. And if you're looking for something for the dog (or dog lover) on your gift list, you cold do a lot worse than these. Check 'em out at http://www.bubbarosebiscuitco.com/.
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Happy Birthday to The Tonka Unit!
Yeah, I know, I'm one of those goofy dog people. At least I'm not excessive about it. I don't make him eat wear the hat. And really, he's pretty cool with whatever celebration (or lack of it) there is. He's pretty low-maintenance that way.
Doesn't seem like six years since he barreled into the world with all four paws going 7500 rpm. He was the second of his litter born, and I'm pretty sure he was a little bitter about being beaten to the world... especially by a girl! He was also one of the smaller pups of the litter -- only two of his sisters were smaller as puppies. He's still not a huge dog, tipping the scales at 82 pounds but what he lacks in size, he more than makes up for in heart.
If you've ever whelped a litter of puppies, you'll know what I mean when I say you can almost literally watch them grow. At birth, Tonka was about the size of a hamster -- and not an especially large hamster at that. By the time he was 2 days old, he was approaching the size of a small guinea pig. You can't really tell it from the photos because there's nothing in the second one to use for scale, but in the first photo of the whole litter, he's the little one out there by himself on the left. By the age of 2 days, they couldn't lay side by side like that in a single row.
When the pups were one day shy of a month old, there was a nasty ice storm that brought down limbs and even entire trees. And when trees start falling, power starts going out. Lucky for us we had a wood burning fireplace, a gas water heater, a Coleman stove and lots of D-cell batteries. We closed off the den as much as possible and stayed huddled together for much of the next two days until the power was restored. I was beginning to get a little anxious, but everybody seemed to be warm enough. Anyway, I used the opportunity to take new "portraits" of everyone posing cutely in the woodbox.
By the time they hit 12 weeks, the personalities of all the puppies had surfaced and it was clear that Tonka was the Rotten Little Kid of the bunch. He took a special delight in terrorizing his bigger brother Louie, and ran the rest of the litter ragged. But when he wasn't 11/10 wide open, boy did he sleep well!
By the age of 6 months, he was the last of the litter I had left. The rest had been sent to adoptive or foster homes, but nobody wanted to take the Rotten Little Kid. Which suited him fine because he'd already decided he wasn't going anywhere. I had him evaluated by the US Customs Service for training as a detection dog thinking that would be the perfect job for a dog with his temperament. I would've been right too. Of the five dogs the Customs Officer tested, Tonka was the only one who showed the right stuff for the work. The only problem was he was too young for the school. Too young?? They wouldn't take him until he was at least a year old. I guess because they can't send them into the field until they're at least that age maybe. Or maybe they feel that a younger dog lacks the focus for the training or the work. Whatever the reason, I should have seen the writing on the wall then. Because after raising him from birth to one year, there's no way I could give him up.
I made a show of trying to place him through the rescue, but any time I took him to an adoption event if I tried to hand him off to another handler even for a few minutes he would flip.out. And I don't mean flip out as in whine and bark and piddle on the floor. I mean flip.out. as in yank people off their feet and turn over tables. Yeah. Everybody wanted to adopt my guy. Right.
But now that he's older and settled down, I'm glad nobody else wanted him. I can't say it was easy getting through the first 18 months of his life, but at the end of the day he's the best friend I have in this world.
He's stubborn, sometimes rowdy, always protective. And he doesn't turn over tables any more, but he has been known to occasionally spy a rabbit and forget himself. For the most part though, he seldom strays far from my side, inside or out, on leash or off, earning him the title "VD" (Velcro Dog). And I know no matter what, I'm gonna have at least one friend in my corner with no questions asked.
So what's goofy about celebrating the birthday of a friend that good? I mean really. And if it is goofy? So what. I've never had a friend on two legs this close or this loyal, and I don't imagine I ever will. Because as somebody once put it, "The average dog is a better person than the average person."
So Happy Birthday Knucklehead. And I hope we have many many more together.Stumble This!
Doesn't seem like six years since he barreled into the world with all four paws going 7500 rpm. He was the second of his litter born, and I'm pretty sure he was a little bitter about being beaten to the world... especially by a girl! He was also one of the smaller pups of the litter -- only two of his sisters were smaller as puppies. He's still not a huge dog, tipping the scales at 82 pounds but what he lacks in size, he more than makes up for in heart.If you've ever whelped a litter of puppies, you'll know what I mean when I say you can almost literally watch them grow. At birth, Tonka was about the size of a hamster -- and not an especially large hamster at that. By the time he was 2 days old, he was approaching the size of a small guinea pig. You can't really tell it from the photos because there's nothing in the second one to use for scale, but in the first photo of the whole litter, he's the little one out there by himself on the left. By the age of 2 days, they couldn't lay side by side like that in a single row.When the pups were one day shy of a month old, there was a nasty ice storm that brought down limbs and even entire trees. And when trees start falling, power starts going out. Lucky for us we had a wood burning fireplace, a gas water heater, a Coleman stove and lots of D-cell batteries. We closed off the den as much as possible and stayed huddled together for much of the next two days until the power was restored. I was beginning to get a little anxious, but everybody seemed to be warm enough. Anyway, I used the opportunity to take new "portraits" of everyone posing cutely in the woodbox.
By the time they hit 12 weeks, the personalities of all the puppies had surfaced and it was clear that Tonka was the Rotten Little Kid of the bunch. He took a special delight in terrorizing his bigger brother Louie, and ran the rest of the litter ragged. But when he wasn't 11/10 wide open, boy did he sleep well!
By the age of 6 months, he was the last of the litter I had left. The rest had been sent to adoptive or foster homes, but nobody wanted to take the Rotten Little Kid. Which suited him fine because he'd already decided he wasn't going anywhere. I had him evaluated by the US Customs Service for training as a detection dog thinking that would be the perfect job for a dog with his temperament. I would've been right too. Of the five dogs the Customs Officer tested, Tonka was the only one who showed the right stuff for the work. The only problem was he was too young for the school. Too young?? They wouldn't take him until he was at least a year old. I guess because they can't send them into the field until they're at least that age maybe. Or maybe they feel that a younger dog lacks the focus for the training or the work. Whatever the reason, I should have seen the writing on the wall then. Because after raising him from birth to one year, there's no way I could give him up.I made a show of trying to place him through the rescue, but any time I took him to an adoption event if I tried to hand him off to another handler even for a few minutes he would flip.out. And I don't mean flip out as in whine and bark and piddle on the floor. I mean flip.out. as in yank people off their feet and turn over tables. Yeah. Everybody wanted to adopt my guy. Right.
But now that he's older and settled down, I'm glad nobody else wanted him. I can't say it was easy getting through the first 18 months of his life, but at the end of the day he's the best friend I have in this world.
He's stubborn, sometimes rowdy, always protective. And he doesn't turn over tables any more, but he has been known to occasionally spy a rabbit and forget himself. For the most part though, he seldom strays far from my side, inside or out, on leash or off, earning him the title "VD" (Velcro Dog). And I know no matter what, I'm gonna have at least one friend in my corner with no questions asked.So what's goofy about celebrating the birthday of a friend that good? I mean really. And if it is goofy? So what. I've never had a friend on two legs this close or this loyal, and I don't imagine I ever will. Because as somebody once put it, "The average dog is a better person than the average person."
So Happy Birthday Knucklehead. And I hope we have many many more together.Stumble This!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Thematic Photographic 11: Poignant v.3.0
"Please take me home. I'll be good, I promise!"
Raleigh, NC - May 2003 (Click to embiggen)
Hosted by Written Inc.Today I'll explore a different kind of poignant. The image before you isn't so sad, but the story that created it certainly is.The shot was taken at a "Super Adopt-A-Thon" in May of 2003. Several shelters and rescues got together on a gray, wet, and surprisingly chilly May morning to find likely homes for the animals in their care. This little guy was there courtesy of the Wake County SPCA. He and his littermates had been found in a cardboard box, abandoned. His story ended happily as I recall, but the story ends badly for the vast majority of puppies and kittens in his situation.If you're looking for a companion, please consider adopting from a shelter or rescue. You'll never find a better friend. And regardless of where your pets come from, be responsible enough to have them spayed or neutered so that this story doesn't have to be repeated.edible latex panties girls rubber leather licking slick wet lesbian asian amateur milf horny housewives mother theresa
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