SandyinAnaheim
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2014
- Messages
- 1,117
This past Thursday I was notified by a neighbor that they had succeeded in trapping a small homeless dog in their yard that they had been trying to catch for 6 weeks. It had been living and hiding in his neighborhood for that long or more, but just couldn't be caught. Animal Control had come out MANY times to try and get it, but because they live near the hills, there's plenty of space for the dog to disappear and make itself uncatchable in the brush. My neighbor said he couldn't approach the dog in his yard, it was very skittish and untrusting. He didn't know if it was male or female, its age or condition, but knew it couldn't just live back there indefinitely in its condition. So he called me to help him.
I contacted the rescue I used to work with when I first started my business, and they said they would assume responsibility for it and adopt it out when the time came. I went there Thursday evening after work in an effort to catch it so it could be groomed and assessed. We tried to lure it with food, which he said worked, but it did not. I was able to get a lead around its neck and we got it into a crate!!! I put it in my van and brought it home. I really didn't want to start grooming a matted dog at 7pm, but I couldn't bring it into my house in its condition as I was CERTAIN it was loaded with fleas and I can't risk contaminating my two little angels like that.
I gave it chicken and it came out of its crate a little bit and ate it all up, looking for more. I was able to get it out of its crate and on to the table with more chicken. As I started to touch it and talk to it calmingly, it seemed to relax a little bit. After 15 minutes of making friends, I moved to pick it up to put it in the tub and it attacked me. It all happened very fast and as I think back on it, I can't find what I did wrong or to scare it. The only thing that happened at the same time was that a huge fireworks explosion went off at that exact same time and put it into a frenzy. I live in a neighborhood where people have been setting off illegal fireworks that sound like mortars and rattle our windows EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. The dog mangled my hands with about 20 punctures.
I still had to get the job done.....so I put a cone on it and got it into the tub and bathed it, shaved it, bathed it again and groomed it, without further incident. I can't imagine how terrified it must have been to go from being a street dog, trapped in a yard with a stranger, trapped in a crate and transported by another stranger, to being trapped in a van with explosions going off outside.....
She is a little girl, about 10-12 months old.... VERY skittish and fearful of everything, trying to get away from everyone and not wanting to be touched whatsoever. But she let me groom her and I know she felt so much better because mats HURT. I brought her in the house and fed her again in her crate. She passed out after that.
After the grooming, I left her with a 6ft lead around her neck so I didn't have to come too close to her in order to get her out of the crate. The next morning, I brought her out and walked her, gave her breakfast and put her back in the crate. My two little ones were very curious about her and per usual, were running around being their silly selves, playing with toys and playing guard dog. I don't think she's ever seen dogs interacting with humans like this before and was very observant of the activity. The rescue had me take her to the vet to check for a chip and a check up, and to check out an anomaly I found to her left eye. The rescue named her Molly. She didn't have a chip so they gave her one, and my guess on her age was accurate. She has a relatively clean bill of health and got meds to help her transition to a real diet without stomach upset. Her left eye is smaller than her right, but not due to injury or infection, it's just a birth defect.
In ONE DAY Molly went from a terrified attacking girl, to a wagging clingy girl who wanted nothing more than to bury herself in and on me. She is completely not aggressive, and follows me around the house wherever I go....tapping my leg with her nose for attention. The change is nothing short of remarkable. I have fostered before, but never with such a semi-feral young dog, so I am completely shocked at the transformation. Fostering and socialization with other dogs is SO much more powerful than I ever thought. It's happened so well and so fast that the rescue wants me to keep working with her for another few days. She's practically housebroken in two days because she sees what the other pups are doing and copies them.
This has been a WONDERFUL and painful experience thus far and I'm so glad I was not scared away by her fear. She just needed a little time to decompress and adjust to life as part of a family and home. She's going to make someone a very loyal and loving little lapdog. I know I've neglected following up on some of my other sensitive posts over the weekend, and this is the reason why. I typically don't share this kind of stuff on here, but this event was just so unusual and dramatic, that I thought some of you might be interested in knowing about what could happen in rescue, and the transformative power of fostering.
I contacted the rescue I used to work with when I first started my business, and they said they would assume responsibility for it and adopt it out when the time came. I went there Thursday evening after work in an effort to catch it so it could be groomed and assessed. We tried to lure it with food, which he said worked, but it did not. I was able to get a lead around its neck and we got it into a crate!!! I put it in my van and brought it home. I really didn't want to start grooming a matted dog at 7pm, but I couldn't bring it into my house in its condition as I was CERTAIN it was loaded with fleas and I can't risk contaminating my two little angels like that.
I gave it chicken and it came out of its crate a little bit and ate it all up, looking for more. I was able to get it out of its crate and on to the table with more chicken. As I started to touch it and talk to it calmingly, it seemed to relax a little bit. After 15 minutes of making friends, I moved to pick it up to put it in the tub and it attacked me. It all happened very fast and as I think back on it, I can't find what I did wrong or to scare it. The only thing that happened at the same time was that a huge fireworks explosion went off at that exact same time and put it into a frenzy. I live in a neighborhood where people have been setting off illegal fireworks that sound like mortars and rattle our windows EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. The dog mangled my hands with about 20 punctures.
I still had to get the job done.....so I put a cone on it and got it into the tub and bathed it, shaved it, bathed it again and groomed it, without further incident. I can't imagine how terrified it must have been to go from being a street dog, trapped in a yard with a stranger, trapped in a crate and transported by another stranger, to being trapped in a van with explosions going off outside.....
She is a little girl, about 10-12 months old.... VERY skittish and fearful of everything, trying to get away from everyone and not wanting to be touched whatsoever. But she let me groom her and I know she felt so much better because mats HURT. I brought her in the house and fed her again in her crate. She passed out after that.
After the grooming, I left her with a 6ft lead around her neck so I didn't have to come too close to her in order to get her out of the crate. The next morning, I brought her out and walked her, gave her breakfast and put her back in the crate. My two little ones were very curious about her and per usual, were running around being their silly selves, playing with toys and playing guard dog. I don't think she's ever seen dogs interacting with humans like this before and was very observant of the activity. The rescue had me take her to the vet to check for a chip and a check up, and to check out an anomaly I found to her left eye. The rescue named her Molly. She didn't have a chip so they gave her one, and my guess on her age was accurate. She has a relatively clean bill of health and got meds to help her transition to a real diet without stomach upset. Her left eye is smaller than her right, but not due to injury or infection, it's just a birth defect.
In ONE DAY Molly went from a terrified attacking girl, to a wagging clingy girl who wanted nothing more than to bury herself in and on me. She is completely not aggressive, and follows me around the house wherever I go....tapping my leg with her nose for attention. The change is nothing short of remarkable. I have fostered before, but never with such a semi-feral young dog, so I am completely shocked at the transformation. Fostering and socialization with other dogs is SO much more powerful than I ever thought. It's happened so well and so fast that the rescue wants me to keep working with her for another few days. She's practically housebroken in two days because she sees what the other pups are doing and copies them.
This has been a WONDERFUL and painful experience thus far and I'm so glad I was not scared away by her fear. She just needed a little time to decompress and adjust to life as part of a family and home. She's going to make someone a very loyal and loving little lapdog. I know I've neglected following up on some of my other sensitive posts over the weekend, and this is the reason why. I typically don't share this kind of stuff on here, but this event was just so unusual and dramatic, that I thought some of you might be interested in knowing about what could happen in rescue, and the transformative power of fostering.
What a story!
And those before and after photos... WHAT a transformation. And what a mess she made of your hand getting there 
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