Firstly, I apologize in advance to Susan and Eric if this sort of post is verboten. We own two dogs, a male border collie mix who is quite possibly the sweetest, love-obsessed dog in the world, and a female silly clown blue healer mix (or perhaps that should be they own us). We adopted the blue healer last spring from a house across the street from my work when they asked me if I wanted another dog, because they "didn't want theirs anymore". They had been given the dog from their neighbor next door.

She was about 6 or 8 months old, and she'd spent at least 2/3rds of her life up until that point tied to her doghouse with a 3' leash (I measured when I brought her home.) She was a mangy, scrawny little dog, her head too big for her body and eyes set too far apart. I honestly thought she was kind of ugly - a "sweet spirit" if you will.

Well, a year later, she has blossomed into an unbelievably adorable, silly clown who is definitely the alpha dog. My wife and I have been so lucky to find two dogs that get along - our last attempt at adding a second dog ended up with entire pieces of furniture destroyed and bloody dog fights.

A few months ago by chance, I found out that the brother to our blue healer mix, what breeds I have no idea - looks sort of like a small german shepherd in his face but with a similar build to his sister - was about to be taken to the pound because he was unlicensed, had escaped from a horrendously unsecured yard multiple times, etc. I asked the owner if I could try to find a home for him, then begged and pleaded with my mom to try taking him in.

Unfortunately, he is very energetic and for whatever reason would throw tantrums when my parents put him in his kennel/crate. He would flail all over like he'd gone mad. (He did this a little at first at our house, but settled fairly quickly.) He started becoming a little destructive outside. He was, and still is, even more skittish than his sister was. I suspect that while he wasn't tied to a pitifully short leash like she was, he's suffered some trauma. He never really warmed up to my parents, my father especially - the problem being exacerbated by my dad being away from home 5-6 days a week for work. All of this combined with their age and health, and their not having quite the same view on animals as DW and I, they finally called a few weeks back and asked if we wanted to take him back or if they should bring him to the shelter because they couldn't handle him.

The strange thing is it's almost like he has split personalities - when he's by himself, he's shy, demure, jumpy and withdrawn, tail straight down or tucked under his hindend, lifting his tail to horizontal on rare occasions. When he has other dogs around, he lights up, happy and playful with his tail wagging up in the air. He and his sister have literally spent hours wrestling, mock fighting, running around and the like. Unfortunately he's started getting mildly aggressive with our male border collie, who thank Raptor Jesus is a pacifist and just hunches down hoping he'll just be left alone. This aggression probably wouldn't phase most dogs, but my collie is so sensitive he starts shaking when he feels threatened like that.

It was our intention when we took him back to foster him until we could find another home for him. But I've had little time to get in contact with rescue groups and haven't heard a response yet from any of them. I don't want him to go to the pound because there's no way to know if he'll make it to adoption, and in my eyes it's just one less cage free for some other dog that needs a chance. We're spending almost $200/month on credit for pet food now with him in addition to our 7 other animals, and we can't do that forever.

So, the point of this long essay is that I'm hoping someone here on RfM is interested in a brown mutt with some mild behavioral problems. I fully believe he has the potential to become like his sister, but unfortunately with the added time it'll probably take longer for that to happen. As I mentioned before, he's gotten snippy with our male dog so it wouldn't be a good idea to put him with another aggressive dog for fear of it ending up like our previous two-dog experience.

He's fixed now with all current shots (other than rabies needs a booster a little later I think), and can come with a crate/kennel, and about 30lbs of dog food. He currently understands the commands sit, shake and come (although the latter is when he feels like it). He gets along with our cats for the most part but doesn't seem to grasp the concept that they don't want to play in quite the same fashion that he does. Our cats can always be counted on to remind him, however.

He has bolted a few times, so be sure to have him on a leash when he's outside until you can trust him better. (His sister did the same thing for several months but is now about 90% trustworthy to stay put.) He also digs a bit in the backyard. He's not housetrained in the traditional sense because we have a dog door with a fenced-in yard, but I've taken him to work with me to keep him out of mischief inside the house and he's done quite well.

I'd be willing to drive up to 300 miles in any direction from Weber County Utah to bring him to you, although if you could meet halfway that would be great. He also seems to get carsick - although since I read online that opening the windows can help, it hasn't happened. But that is something to keep in mind.

I want him to go to a home where he'll be treated as part of the family, not part of the decor. I'd like to think that my fellow RfM members might have a higher likelihood of being kind to animals. I would love to keep him, but we're already far overbooked, and I know we can't give him the attention and training he really deserves. He is a sweet dog and needs an owner with a big heart.

If anyone here is interested, or knows of anyone who might take him in, please send an email. My email addy is listed on my profile page here, but in case you can't get to it, the email is my handle with "exmo" prefixed, at gmail (some other bastard already registered "apatheist") I can send you pictures. Thanks for reading.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2012 01:21AM by apatheist.

I loved reading about your dogs. I wish there was some way I could help. Unfortunately, my inn is full. And my husband would probably murder me if I brought home another dog. Plus I'm pretty far from Utah.

I know you don't want to hear a bunch of excuses. I just wanted you to know I wish you luck finding a home for the dog. I'm a fellow animal lover and I'm glad you're trying to do the right thing by him.

And I know very well what you mean about murderous spouses when one brings yet another animal home. ;-) I appreciate the encouragement though.

bona dea: That's definitely a good idea. I hadn't even thought of that, despite knowing it's down there. Duh.. but still, I'd like to avoid that if I can just because I think there's a lot of hoops to jump through to get them in, (which is understandable given their prominence) but I'll will keep that in mind.

If you don't get any offers, you might call Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab.

I believe Best Friends only takes animals from other rescues or shelters, not individuals. Perhaps you can talk to your local shelter about acting as an intermediary to rehome the dog to Best Friends.

I wish you luck. You're doing a good thing for the dog. We are the happy parents of some formerly homeless critters- 3 dogs, 4 cats & 5 turtles. Thank God their former owners took them to a shelter instead of just dumping them.

Not true - They will take them from individuals. May I suggest that you post an ad on KSL.com?

Bigred, from the Best Friends website - http://www.bestfriends.org/aboutus/admissionspolicy.cfm


Q: I need to find a new home for my pets. Will Best Friends take them?

A: We don't, as a rule, accept pets from the general public. Instead, we work with you to find a solution in your own home or through your local community. Best Friends can then focus on creating new model programs that can help shelters and their local communities all across the nation.

Almost always, for homeless pets in need, the best chance for a good home can be found right within their own community. So although we probably can't take your animals here at the sanctuary, Best Friends works in other ways to help people like you find good homes for pets on a local level.

It was great to hear how much you love your dogs!

Can I add my testimony about rescuing dogs?

I have one that I got from a rescue group. She is a 13 lbs mini schnauzer. She had been at the rescue for over a month and was not thriving. She was only 12 lbs had thinning hair and was horribly shy. I fell in love immediately. The lady who runs the rescue tried to talk me out of taking her. I had one dog from that rescue already so she knew I was capable but she thought the dog might be a lot of work. The dog did require some work and she is still a little....quirky. She has obviously been abused. She has been hit and kicked and starved because she tries to horde food.

Here's the testimony part. She remembers her former owners, knows how good she has it now, and rewards me 100 fold for rescuing her! She is not very smart, but the sweetest most affectionate dog I've seen.

If you are able to help the OP out you will be rewarded with a loyal friend that will never judge you and always be happy to see you.

Ok. That's it.

My paws are full and I couldn't afford it, but if I were closer to you, I'd take him anyway. Sorry I can't help. :<(

Put him up on Petfinder!

while not abused directly...was totally neglected...i wish i could help but alas i am in Miami...i would LOVE a dog that could play with my nonrescued dog as my rescue dog has hip displaysia...I am glad you are such an animal lover as i know you will fo right by the little guy!! good luck!

please go to www.petfinder.com look under shelters and rescues, put in your zip code it will come up with all shelters and rescues in your area, a good way to start to re home your dog.

Shelters are run by the city/county and are often high kill, meaning if out of space animal will be put to sleep. Rescues on the other hand are no kill and do not pts for space, but do pts for medical needs that cannot be met.

Good luck, please listen to this clearly, as an animal rescue NEVER NEVER NEVER give your animal away "free to a good home" unless you know the home personally and know its a quality home for your pet.

Free to good home animals, often end up as bait fighting dogs, in labs, in medical research, tied on chains in some ones back yard. Disposed of when ever the first proble arrises or they get bored and the newest wears off. Or just as breeding dogs for profit.

Your pet deserves the best home you can possibly find. If I lived closer to you I would be more than happy to assist you, but I'm in Texas. So this is the best I can do for you.

Good luck.

I appreciate the advice. Petfinder has a lot of good info, there's a couple of groups in the SLC area I'm going to try and get in contact with in the next couple of weeks.

My main reason for posting about it here on RfM was in the hopes that someone whose writing I'd become familiar with might respond. While obviously this doesn't substitute for an in-home inspection, I'd probably feel much safer giving him away to someone like Raptor Jesus or SLCabbie than some random stranger who'd never posted before. While RJ could in fact secretly be an axe-murderer in real life, the wholly ghost prompts me to believe from his myriad posts that he would probably take the time to feed and pet his dog prior to leaving on said violent, bloody axe-mission, for example. SLCabbie might be slightly more dangerous because he might forget to feed the dog prior to racing down to Utah county to pretend to be a rather rotund pontificating fool then dash back to SLC to shuttle folks out to SLC airport for 12 hours.

I appreciate the reminder, however. It is far too easy to start trusting someone online when you really don't know who they are. One advantage we have in this situation is our little pup that we're trying to re-home is neutered, so he probably wouldn't make a very good breeding dog. ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2012 07:22PM by apatheist.