Thanks everyone, I think we all knew her days were numbered. On a lighter note, not that I had enough sleep Friday night, and not that I wanted to, but I HAD to....I heard from another rescue about a newly adopted dog that never made it officially home, cuz she jumped out a moving car window before she got home and has been on the lam since 6/3 IN Milwaukee, on the Milwaukee River! So I offered to go meet the adopter there and get the lay of the land, take a crate, a bowl, some wet food, and Jim to scout the area out Sat AM. I really did not want to be there, I wanted to be left alone to mourn for Maggie, but I did go. Ok, lemmie tell you about the area. If you head downtown Milwaukee, and slightly towards the east side along the Milwaukee River, there is residential area, condos, old abandon factories, etc... Where this husky/shepard female has been sighted is in a fenced area that contains two abandon factory buildings, abutting the river. There is a walk way across in that area, so I stood on that bridge with my binoculars, scanning the area, no sightings. Where the adopter got inside the fence the other day was re-secured, so that was off limits... But we crawled under the foot bridge, and there was much evidence of homeless folks that go there, broken liquor bottles, a fire pit, etc...the dog was sighted under there! No one was there, when we walked under it, I tried to keep Jim outta the broken glass...and we found a big hole in the fencing, and I shagged Jim in there, then got on my knees and crawled thru it. Was thick vegitation, grapevines tripping us, and when I saw more broken liquor bottles, that was it, we crawled back out. Never even made it as far as a clearing! So my judgement on finding that dog is to get a live trap in there! The adopter did not want anything to do with that, and had her own stories about protocol on a live trap. Dah, I was not born yesterday, after working with Josh at Countryside for Everett, I know protocol from animal control standpoint. So I drove the area, stopped to once again, get out my binoc's and there were many ways into the factories, but the adopter told me the building is flooded, I DON'T REALLY CARE I told her, a dog DOESN'T REALLY CARE! If she has to, she will use it as shelter, and I'm sure homeless folks have been too, wet or not. I could not get in the fence there, so didn't get any closer, however, I did see a for lease sign on the building, and wrote the number down, cuz you need property owner permission to put a live trap on that property. I drove some more of the neighborhood, stopping to talk to folks, hand out fliers, didn't see the dog at all, but plenty of places she could hold fort! I called the adopting rescue after I got back and told them you gotta get a live trap there, and what animal control rules about that here are. Gave them the number on the building and they are on it. I did hear from adopter today, she did get more calls, false sightings, and one GOOD one, of the dog crossing the river on a cement ledge! EEEKS, she falls, the current in that very high water river will kill her. This is yet another dog very afraid of people, but will approach a dog...just not people.  So someone has to get a live trap in there and good bait asap or the more time that passes, well you know...the further away the dog will go, or something. It's not a good place to be lost, yet again, it IS a great place to live off the land with food/water/shelter aplenty. So we'll see how this one plays out. It gave me something meaningful to do the day after I sent Maggie on her way. To help someone else's dog!

So quiet at home. There is a dog in my neighborhood recently, whose bark sounds just like Maggie's, very weriod.  I ordered her rock today, not like I could afford more, but Kate has one, Tracker has one, Maggie has to have one too.  I work till noon today, then gotta stop home, take care of Jim and Miracle, then head to our Precision Metalforming Annual golf outing and work that till it's over tonight.  We have over 100 golfers, tons of prizes, and donations to our food pantries and hunger task force.  I always get to meet some wonderful folks I generally only talk to on the phone there.  The weather is perfect, not to hot!  Will be a very long day for Jim and Miracle.  Thurs I have to pick up Michigan Chip and get him to the vet and back.  Friday or early Sat AM is set up for our 3rd Annual WGSPR rummage sale, wanna get the Rally to Rescue canopy up, and Trooper will be coming Sat around 2PM for overnight.  I can't wait to have time to really clean my house, cuz Maggie was peeing in it alot towards the end. Stinks like dog pee in there.  Anyone need Proin 25's?  I have three bottles left over from Maggie.  Let me know.  Hopefully I won't have a dog needing bladder control pills for a while...   

Thanks everyone, I always second guess myself, even now...  but I was so tired, Maggie was so tired, I hated watching her struggle, and Friday was my clue...  I just keep putting one foot in front of the other.  Life feels like it stops, but it doesn't...  I worked the golf outing yesterday, was great weather, a long day!  And dang dogs!  Jim rolled in dog poop this AM, then hopped in my bed!  I thought it was dirt, till I got a wash rag to wash him off quick before work, but there were solid hunks on him!  Dang dog!  I cleaned him up pretty good with what time I had, and will have to scub him down tonight.  DANG DOG!  We are getting a young male from Rock Co Humane this weekend if we can figure transport out around where they have the express way closed due to floods, AND there is a 4 yr old in Osseo Vet clinic I promised to help.  Plus that lemon/white female...so all foster homes will be full, including me here very soon.  Adopters have dropped off some already.  So we'll have to kick up some showings to do, for exposure.  Well, I'm off to work...  

Lisa, let me add how sorry I am to hear about Maggie too.  You don't really need us to tell you that  the dogs depend on us to make the decisions for them when the time comes.   But second-guessing?  Ten years after I had Peppy put to sleep after she coughed up some blood (the vets were sure it was metastasized cancer), I STILL find myself thinking "Maybe it was just an abscess. . .maybe more chemo. . ."   But that's the problem with us--we think too much.  The dogs just think "Oh at last I'm comfortable. . ."

You got that right, thinking too much....I do way too much of that. I still second guess my decision with Tracker.  But you can't take it back, when it's over.  I am waiting for the call to go get Maggie's ashes. I want to bring her home again.  I got her rock all finalized this week.  Well, today I was up extra early to stop before work and grab Michigan Chip.  He is at the vet today being neutered, and heartworm tested.  They turned Michigan Logan away Tues, cuz he was still kennel coughing...and they told me this AM he tested pos for hook worms, so gotta pick up dewormer to take care of that when I grab Chip after work.  Finally found my ride for Appleton lemon/white female next weekend, just waiting to hear from shelter.  I hooked Janesville boy's driver up with foster home, so he will move into rescue Sat AM while I'm setting up for our rummage sale.  I gotta call from Osseo vet clinic contact last night and she may have a home for the GSP up there!  YEAH.  She will confirm tonight.  One less to worry about.  Gotta call from a city worker in a small town yesterday, they found some GSP puppies with full tails dumped in their county.  Found all but one a home, so he told me where we can view the dog behind the Town Hall, to ID him as purebred GSP, however, he mentioned the pup walks funny, indicating to me we need to look at his back end, make sure he did not sustain injury by a car or something first.  We cannot afford a puppy with a broken pelvis right now.  I'm waiting for my closest volunteer to that place to respond.  Jim and Miracle are not eating their supper thus far this week, they WILL eat treats, so I dunno if they are knowing Maggie is not there, or just don't feel like eating. Miracle is all broken out in hives.  I was testing a new bag of dog food some mfg wants us to rep.  And that is the only thing I can think of why she's broken out.  She is super itchy, and benedryl is not helping alot.  I Gold Bond powder her down AM and PM, she LOVES that.  And she's on fish oil and vit E, and her allergy food again...so I gotta give it a week or two see if that works.  She's acting ok otherwise.  I think it will help them to have the lemonhead there to fill the void for a while.  But personally, I'm liking only having two dogs, who do not require special care.  Got my hardwood floors cleaned last night, starting to smell clean in there again!  Gotta get...           

I just called and Maggie's ashes are back.  Sarah has been ordering up her cherry box and the name plate, like Trackers.... That is exactly how I feel, coming home and not helping Maggie to the door and back up the steps, and washing her pee stains down, etc...  the other two did not want to eat last week, other then treats...of course.  But I had MISTER there Sat PM and Sunday and they decided food was good again with him around!  I gotta tell you, he looks FANTASTIC!  I put pix of him on Miracle's Corner this week, check him out!  My Mister!  I will always love that boy...the meds they have him on do help quite a bit, but he's still fearful of new people, and only spins then. He is afraid of shadows, ceiling fans, espec with lights on (the shadows ya know...), and in general does not like to go outside in daylight still.  But he is an easy keep, you don't even know he's there, until you remember that dog has been holding it 24 hours, he's gotta go sometime!  tehe...I had to usher him to the door and he spun slowly back to his usual private corner behind the A/C unit.  He still loves treats, and remembered to stop in the kitchen on his way in from potty for one!  He pretty much stayed curled up in Miracle's little kitty bed, but he did venture to the water bowl and to swipe a stuffed toy or two. I bought him a new hedge hog to take home.  He lost one tooth in the bottom front already and there is a top one or two, that are black, so they will probably be next.  I trimmed his nails while I had him.  Our 3rd annual rummage was Sat, GREAT weather, not so much great sales, but we made a couple hundred to buy Frontline.  Now to get rid of the stuff that did not sell.  Michigan Remy arrived on the ferry Sat, and his foster dad is already thinking of keeping him!  We also got Janesville Buddy in (the Burke name did not cut it) who is a bit spooky but coming out of it with his foster brother's help.  This weekend is Osseo Hunter and Appleton Blondie.  I also see there is a female puppy at Countryside, but I have not approached them yet, I'm sure she will find home from there...  all my fosters are sorta on the full side now, till this adopter slump passes.  I had time to sweep my floors and do laundry this weekend and that's about all.  Time flies so fast.    

I was sharing Mister pix with president of IL Bird Dog Rescue, and she commented that some of his sibblings from Ashley are a bit on the weriod side too, which proves the theory that Fear is not only a learned behavior but can also be genetic...since the pups were conceived in the Arkansas shelter system after confiscation. So those pups never knew a day of fear in their lives.  Maggie's ashes are much less then Trackers, very weriod.  Then again, he weighed about 70 lbs, she went out at 58 lbs.  I had to sit and cry for a while with her ashes last night, then I put them back in the tin, till my cherry box comes and the ex's urn I ordered comes.  Then I can divey her out.  Tonight, Marianna and newly adopted Chip are coming to sign adoption papers.  Another GREAT save!  

Maggie's ashes are back and inturned in the cherry box Sarah got us. Her rock arrived yesterday.  

Am I wrong or am I right?  When it comes to saving dogs, I'm right; most times....  but when evaluating potential adopters, I take it VERY personal to make sure I'm placing these dogs in the right hands, at all costs.  Now I'm no PETA person, these are dogs afterall; but they are important to us and their future lies in our hands.  So I got the greatest application lately, I arranged to take Blondie do his home visit and meet.  Then I started my checks, vet reference sucked, dogs had not been vaccinated since 2005.  OK, I figured I can discuss this with the guy when I meet him and go from there...  Then, I decided outta a whim to do a WI Court Record Check on him.  And my gosh....two DUI's one with bodily injury caused, did jail time, is still supposed to be in jail, unless he got out for good behavior?  He does not have a valid driver's lisc.  How is he gonna get my dog to the vet?  What if he gets it a 3rd time and really does jail time? What happens to my dog?  My board of directors advised extreme caution.  So after him and hawing over it all afternoon yesterday, I cancelled, explaining to the guy the board will not approve him to adopt one of our dogs at this time.  He hung up on me.  My guts tell me I made the right decision, and I certainly did not mean to cause the guy more hurt, but this IS afterall MY rescue and MY decision, and OUR dogs.  

Blondie finally gave me the goods (pee and poo) sample, so I had to zip them out to the vet for testing this AM before work, hung the bag on his door, cuz no one was around.  AND to crank up my stress level, I and others, have been working on bringing down a so called santuary that is nasty as they get.  And that is looming in very near future.  But mums the word on all for now, till arrest warrants have been served.  This is a dangerous situation.  That's all I can say about that.

For the fourth weekend, I have house projects to do, gave all WGSPR vols the weekend off, no incoming, no transports, no home visits (well, I have one adoption to finalize Sat), so everyone rest up!  

Have a good one folks!

Yes, you did the right thing for Blondie and making the right match is what matters in rescue. 

Deb O

Thanks Deb.  Fully expected to hear further from this guy, but never did, lucky me!  Anyhoo, the flood gates are back open, GSPs EVERYWHERE needing rescue, from a guy's family, the guy died, his 18 mo old male with AKC papers living unattended in the guys house, until they figure out what to do with him!  I suggested contact breeder first.  Asked for pix, which I still do not have yet.  Buddy tested NEG for HW and Lymes, whoohoo!  Now just gotta get Rubin chipped and we are good to go.  I've been buried deep in the sanctuary situation that needs immediate addressing...not having good luck thus far, no big surprise, been at this for over 4 yrs anyhow...while those animal suffer at the hands of their keeper.  Sorry, can't give further info at this time, MUM is still the word.  This weekend, I hoped to have quiet time, but now I'm doggie sitting Michigan Chip Sat PM till Sun AM. He's a good kid, no problems, so shouldn't be a problem.  Blondie is coming around nicely.  If she can't get to the doggie door, she will still pee in my house, but if she can let herself out, she does.  She peed in her crate twice this week.  She is totally a treat and toy collector, not agressive with any of it, but if she approaches Miracle harboring something, Miracle will let her have it.  Blondie is learning quick when to stay away from Miss Naud.  I'm so tired, I seriously need a break.  Stress....  taking a vacation day Monday, to hopefully get my rescue room in basement in order, bought a nice shelving unit to sort, fold and line up merchandise for sale, so I'm more organized.  Have files that need to go in the cabinet too.  Never ends...