sometimes true about critters because they are so forgiving, very loving, very trusting and always 'there' for us. they are family.
the neighbors that run the ferals/barn cats over or shoot them aren't the old farmers, it's those who are a little younger than they are.
here is the last dog we took in.....someone dumped him off in the valley on the weekend (always on the weekends). one early saturday morning i saw this dog wandering a distance down the road. about 15 or 20 minutes later, was sitting on the porch having a cup of coffee and he came up to me like i was his best friend. nudging me, happy to see someone, tail wagging like crazy, and was hungry and thirsty. i knew someone had dumped him off. someone had kept relatively good care of this dog, probably a family dog. there were collar marks around his neck; so someone had removed the collar. he was very clean, his paws were clean, someone had taken care of him, and he was extremely friendly and social, and later figured out he was house trained. i fed him cat food, it's all we had! and he slurped water to no end!
the township does have an 'animal control' person.....if you can call it that. to save the township any money, his way of dealing with stray animals is to take them for a walk in the woods and shoot them. we don't use the township animal control.
anyway, as always we took the dog in, got him to our city vet and had him checked over. we put ads in the local papers, and several with a picture, called the local pounds and vets, no one claimed him, and i knew no one would. i set out right away to find him a home. he was a good dog. most of the drop offs we get have been abused or neglected and fearful. this guy was pretty good. i had to borrow a larger kennel than we had. at the time we were remodeling the city res, ripping out the carpet and renewing the hardwood floors underneath the carpet, and we had 2 cats that had to get acquainted with another stray dog in the house, so we kenneled him initially. after that, no problem. we had him almost 2 months before we found a wonderful family to take him in. a young couple with 2 small children. they came to the house, and immediately the dog ran to the father first, licked him him up one side and down the other and the two young children.
funny thing, we spent about a week or a week and a half trying to figure out this dog's name. knew he had a name so we went through every name we could think of to figure out the name he had been given. the dog would come to me when he heard my voice and by a whistle. one day, the dog was running free in the woods and doing what dogs do, don't know where he was. we were working out back of the house. mister and i were having a conversation, and he asked me what was so and so's last name is........i hollered back '
SHELBY'. not sure where that dog was, but he came out of nowhere to me immediately and i didn't have to whistle anymore...........
shelby:
shelby and river getting acquainted......
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