Dog Stuff

Thanks to my dad, I have always been an animal lover.  Bringing home strays was almost like a hobby to my dad…one that drove my mother insane – haha.
I think the dog that I can think of the furthest back was Holly.  She was a husky/GSD mix.  She was smaller, probably 35-40 lbs.  She was so sweet.  In true husky fashion, she loved running.  I think I was maybe 10 when she had taken off – not that this was a new thing on her behalf – but unfortunately, she was hit by a car and died.

About that same age, I talked my parents into letting me get my own cat.  Oh sure, we had dozens of cats in and out of the house, but I was allowed to name and keep my very own.  I named her Precious.  The only way I was allowed to keep her was if I got her fixed.  So I saved my babysitting money (yep, I was babysitting at 10 yrs old!) and took her to the vet and got her fixed.
She was the most awesome cat. Ever.  As I said, we had a lot of pets during my childhood, but she was special b/c she was MINE.  She died when she was 8, which is far too young for a cat.  She inhaled a cleaner and it burned her lungs.  The emergency vet had told me she had a 50/50 chance of survival when I dropped her off at 4 in the morning.  They called me about 15 mins after I walked back in my house at 5:30, to tell me she didn’t make it.  I picked up her body a few hours later and buried her near my house.  It was a terrible few weeks…that cat had gotten me through rough stuff during my hs years.  I expected her to be around a lot longer.
Besides Holly & Precious, we had Buzzy, Snoopy, Puppy (I think after a while, you run out of names b/c you have so many – haha), Josephine, Yarborough (my dad was a big racing fan), GiGi, Cherokee, Ms. Kitty, Cutie, Shotgun…huh…I’m starting to blank out on names…I can picture them…but their names escape me.
I carried my love of animals into adulthood and had no problem finding strays to bring home.  The first, Bubby, was a terri-poo that I saved when I was 19.  When Dennis & I moved in together, he came with me.  No doubt my mom was thankful for that.  We saved a dog named Sammy, who was supposed to be for our elderly neighbor, but ended up being too strong for her and so he stayed with us. Finishing off the original Fabulous Four, were our cats, Doobie & Toni. 
Life was good…then our neighbor passed away and we had to move b/c her family was selling the duplex. 

We moved in w/some friends of ours, where pets were not allowed.  The Fabulous Four went w/my parents.  Bubby & Sammy got out of the yard and even though I had signs up, ads run, and pounds called, we never found them.  I can only hope a family found them and fell in love.
After about 6 wks, we moved in w/my mom & dad.  My great-grandfather had just passed away and his house was empty.  We decided to move to FL, to his house, where we would be a mile away from my grandma.  She hated cats.  So we couldn’t take Doobie and Toni with us.  We found them great homes, they went to friends of my sister.

We had gotten a puppy, Sandie Paws, and thankfully, she was allowed to come with us.  She was our baby!
Upon moving back to OH, we rescued Scooby…a few months later we saved Quinn & Bella, two strays from the same litter, that our shitty neighbors had dumped.  My sister found a cat wandering a bad neighborhood and brought her to us…Sativa.  So now we had the Fantastic Five. 

Getting 3 dogs fixed at once was an expensive bill that I knew would really hurt us.  We had just moved back from Fl months before and I wasn’t working yet.  We were trying to figure out how to pay for this when someone told me Planned Pethood might be able to help us. 

I contacted them, explaining how we came about 3 dogs in such a short amount of time and could they help.
They did – all 3 dogs fixed for free!  We started volunteering.  First by walking dogs that were kenneled, waiting for a foster home to open up.  Then by fostering.  That was pure insanity.  The most dogs we ever had at once was 12.  our 4, 5 pups and 3 foster dogs.  The puppies were temporary, only for the weekend, but whoa – it was stressful.  However, we didn’t have kids and we weren’t getting pregnant and I needed to focus on something so I would quit being heartbroken by negative pregnancy tests.
Foster, after foster were brought home and adopted out.  It was a nice feeling to know that we were helping these stray dogs, found on the streets or in the pounds, from being put to sleep and find forever homes.
During all these fosters coming and going, we adopted one, Gizzie, making our bunch the Super Six.
Because my pregnancy was high-risk and I was doing shots all over my stomach, we quit fostering for awhile.  We did a few dogs after Cadence was a couple years old, stopped again until just recently.
Dog rescue is a passion to me.  I think about it all the time, wishing I could do more.  Recently, one of the people that I have met long ago, suggested that a group of rescue people start our own dog rescue.  How exciting is that??!!!
Excitingly, we have started working on getting Black Swamp Pound Dogs up and running!
Check out our facebook page – like it, share it and keep checking back for updates. 
Black Swamp Pound Dogs Facebook Page

Most important, Thank you Dad for giving me the heart for this!