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Articles by DougB

Great Leaping LunaFish!

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The Dogtor is in

When I clean Luna’s kennel I put her on a 20 foot steel cable tether to keep her from going over a fence while I’m busy cleaning and not able to watch her closely.Today there was something up in the woods above our house that had all the dogs revved up.  Especially Luna.  She was leaping like a hooked game fish.  The picture angle makes it look like she’s standing on the timbers, but she’s not.  I marked her starting position for this standing leap.

When I was done cleaning kennels things had calmed down so I took Luna out for her potty run.  She won’t “go” in the play yard, she has to be in the trees.  This seems to be something drilled into her by her former family, “Do not defile the children’s play yard.”

We encountered what it was that had them excited: a grey and white, stump-tailed cat with a permanent “so what are you going to do about it” expression on his face (he or she is one of a burgeoning number of feral cats in our area) was crouching in the leaves not 8 feet from where we were walking.  Had it not moved, I think Luna would have missed it entirely, but it spooked when I looked at it and it went a ways up a tree then leapt off deeper into the woods, Luna took off after it and took my arm with her.

I got her back to her kennel using just the one remaining arm and am now in the process of gluing the missing arm back on.  Man that hurts.

Notation for her resume: NOT cat friendly.  I don’t now that she would have hurt it, but she definitely chases cats.

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Validation of Why We Do Canine Foster Care

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Doug
The dogtor is in

As of January 2017 we have fostered 38 dogs in 4½ years. That’s not an astounding number: I know many people who foster several times our annual average. Sometimes they have 6 or 8 dogs at a time, we generally have two or three (plus our two). But we take in the hard cases. We get the heartworm positive dogs that need to be nursed through a long treatment and recovery period. We take in those with “behavioral issues” and turn unmanageable hooligans into adoptable companions. It is trying work. Not all have been major challenges (most are simply large dogs who were never trained to behave) but there have been a few.

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Flip, Flop, Flip

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You may have noticed that you have received several notices that the Luna page has been published.  That is not wonky software this time, it’s me trying to make things better.  Let me explain.

When we first started posting information about the foster dogs, it was to Facebook.  I started with one FB page for Cochise, and he posted updates on all the foster dogs.  But that quickly became unworkable as people tried to filter through the posts looking for info on ONE dog.  FB filters stuff and does not show everyone all that is available.  Then I built each dog an FB page of their own so people who were interested in that dog could go find photos and short stories.  That worked okay.  But it was a lot of work, and each time we started a new dog it took a lot of time to make people aware that this dog/page was available and build traffic to it.  And … there ARE actually a few people out there who do not do Facebook!

So I started a blog as a section under my DougBittinger.com web site.  Again I posted one page per dog and added stuff to it as things developed.  That actually worked better than Facebook.  The only down side was that I could only publish a dog page once, so only one notice could go out to subscribers — I could not notify subscribers of updates.

So I started adding separate posts with updates and Doggy Tales, which notify readers when published.  Each of these linked back to the dog’s main page, so interested parties could go check out the dogs details.  The problem came when someone wanted full details on a dog, but did not want to sift through a dozen articles on a tag list to get them.  They preferred the “everything on one page” format.  (sigh)

Also, having the foster care blog as a section of my personal/professional blog made it difficult to send people direct links to specific pages and posts.  That involves DNS addressing issues, and I won’t go into that.  But a stand-alone blog for Piney Mountain Foster would solve that problem.  So I built one, and am now in the process of moving all content over to the new home and (this is the time consuming part) checking and fixing links and photos that still want to point back at the old location and will disappear when I delete those old locations.  I do not want half the site going blank all of a sudden!

The new installation of my e-mail subscriber notice sending utility DOES have the ability to let me re-publish things, so a notice is sent when I UPDATE a page – if I want it to.

Given that ability, I am going back to keeping almost all of the content on each dog in one place.  Yes, the page gets long on some dogs because they’ve been here a long time or because a lot has happened, but it is easy to find by rescues who are considering accepting one of our dogs.  Long doggy tales are spun off to a separate post, but I include a summary blurb on the main page with a link to the full Doggy Tale.

Therefore, if you see an e-mail notice that the same page has been published a couple of times this week, it’s not a melt-down but something new I’m trying.  If that proves too annoying to you: my subscribers, please do not unsubscribe, but let me know.  I’ll add updates to pages as they happen but only send out notices once a week.  Just let me know your preference.  Thanks!

Doug

Luna and Housing Trials

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Luna has been something of an enigma since her arrival.  On the one hand, she has been single-minded in her attempts to escape.  She came here because NAC had no place they could humanely confine her.  Once she got here she set about dismantling her kennel.  I finally had to armor plate the inside of her “room” to prevent her getting purchase on the  safety mesh or chain-link with her claws and shredding the former and distorting the latter.  Before I got that done, she actually bent the panel clamps and pulled the door panel into her kennel!

Safety mesh on lower half prevents “chewing” chain link.

Mesh shredded, she yanked a panel loose!

Her neighbors, Da Boyz, are SHOCKED by the carnage!

I armor plated the inside to prevent further destruction.

While all this was going on, i was taking her out for leash walks four times a day.  The other dogs are released to run and play in our fenced yard, but Luna’s determination to escape causes me to worry that she will just go over a wall as soon as I’m not watching.  A theory that was verified the first time I put her on a tether so I could clean her kennel.  She wriggled out of her harness and I caught her trying to hop over the wall by our back porch.  Luna is a big girl and Animal Control learned that she could climb out of their 6′ high kennels.  I have a steel net over the top of mine to discourage that.

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Lemaster Steele

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This precious boy has obviously been someones treasured companion. He shows no aggression, is well behaved, knows some commands, and is housebroken. All he needs is a family to love him again.

Last updated: July 4, 2019

Base Info:

  • Arrival date: June 15, 2019
  • Breed: Boston Terr/AmBull mix
  • Sex: Male
  • Age: Young Adult, Mature, Senior
  • Weight: 31 Pounds
  • Spay/Neutered: Yes
  • General Health: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor
  • Temperament: Affectionate, well behaved, gentle
  • Gets Along with Dogs: Yes (cats too)
  • Gets Along with People: Yes (even toddlers)
  • Housebroken/Crate Trained: Yes
  • Departure date: July 4, 2019

History

Picked up as a stray by The City of Newport Animal Control and not claimed, but this good boy has obviously been someone’s house dog.

Progress Notes:

Detailed update notes on our foster dogs are posted regularly. For a listing of updates that include Lemaster [click here]. A summation is included below.

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Foster Dog Updates for July 5th, 2019

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The noise comes from gun powder. We could do without the gun powder and just enjoy the pretty colors.

Well, we survived the Apocalypse of July.  Buddy spent the evening in his hunker bunker, Josephine managed to squeeze under our bed (amazing!) then poked her nose out and said, “Come on in, Blondie Bear, it’s better under here.”  Blondie (4 times Josie’s size) just looked at her with exasperation and poked my elbow with her nose.  Her signal that she desperately needs scritchies.  Callie Roo curled up in a ball on a snuggle bed and trembled.

I don’t know if rain intervened or if the revelers ran out of combustibles, but, mercifully, the noise fest did not drag on into the night.  Once all the noise subsided, the entire group of us heaved a collective sigh of relief and drifted off to sleep.

Lemaster

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Luna NAC: Notes on a foster dog

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This is a foster dog diary post about Luna. New information will be added to the end of this post so all info on this dog (well, most of it) is kept in one place and in chronological order. If you subscribe for updates, a short note will be sent when updates are posted. If you don’t subscribe, check back periodically to see what’s been added.

Last Updated: Aug 8, 2019

Luna was a stray picked up by Newport Animal Control and taken to their facility. She is a Great Dane / Black Lab mix. Not terribly large as, Danes go, but larger than the average dog and quite strong despite being scrawny from hunger.  Luna could easily climb out of the regular kennels at N.A.C.  The only kennel they have that could contain her is their “vicious dog cell” and that is in a part of the building that is not air conditioned. In the late-June mid-day heat, it becomes far too hot for anything to stay in there long. They needed another solution. So the manager, Lisa, reached out to me: would I foster her for them? We found a way to make that happen and I picked her up this morning.

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Lunarrival

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Luna arrived today. Luna is a special case: a stray picked up by Newport Animal Control and taken to their facility.  She is a Black Lab / Great Dane mix.  Small, as Great Danes go, but larger than the average dog and quite strong despite being scrawny from hunger.

Newport Animal Control is working out of a make-shift facility in an unused building downtown.  Their kennels are lightweight, free-standing affairs.  Not sturdy enough to hold Luna, who proved able to climb over the walls and/or pull the door until the latch bends and it opens.  The only kennel they had that could contain her was their “vicious dog cell” and that is in a part of the building that is not air conditioned.  In the late-June mid-day heat, it becomes far too hot for anything to stay in there long.  They needed another solution.  So the manager, Lisa, reached out to me: would I foster her for them?  We found a way to make that happen and I picked her up this morning.

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Sable2 Steele: Notes On A Foster Dog

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Sable was a wild child: she’d had NO training but does get along with other dogs and likes people. In fact she craves attention from people. She just didn’t know how to relate to us properly. That’s why she’s here.

Last updated: Sept 12, 2019

Base Info:

  • Arrival date: April 29, 2019
  • Breed: Feist-hound mix
  • Sex: Female
  • Age: Puppy, Young Adult, Mature, Senior
  • Weight: @ 35 Pounds
  • Spayed: Yes
  • General Health: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor
  • Temperament: Affectionate, playful, and feisty
  • Gets Along with Dogs: Yes
  • Gets Along with People: Yes
  • Housebroken/Crate Trained: No
  • Departure date: Sept. 12th –> S.A.V.E.

History

Sable came here from another foster situation where she was sharing a kennel with at least two other dogs. They were well cared for, but needed training. Before that, it is my understanding, that she was abandoned with her siblings as puppies.

Progress Notes:

Detailed update notes on our foster dogs are posted regularly. For a listing of updates that include Sable [click here]. A summation of her progress is included below.

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Rocky Steele: Notes on a foster dog

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Rocky was the alpha (dominant) in a bonded pair of brothers. He spent nearly all of his life in a shelter and was skittish around people. He needed socialization, and release from his roll as his brother’s keeper. This has been achieved.

Last updated: July 12. 2019

Base Info:

  • Arrival date: April 17, 2019
  • Breed: Hound mix
  • Sex: Male
  • Age: Young, Adult, Mature, Senior
  • Weight: @ 40 Pounds
  • Spay/Neutered: Yes
  • General Health: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor
  • Temperament: Good: has become affectionate.
  • Gets Along with Dogs: Yes
  • Gets Along with People: Yes is a little skittish around new people.
  • Housebroken/Crate Trained: Working on it
  • Departure date: July 12, 2019 headed for SAVE

History

Rocky was one of 6 puppies and their mother who were owner surrendered to Newport Animal Control because the original owner went to jail, the owner’s father didn’t want the dogs and his mother could do nothing with them because the mother dog became aggressive after she gave birth. All of the dogs were adopted out, Blaze and Rocky together, but were returned because they were kept outside and they barked, causing neighbors to complain. Rocky and his brother had become bonded, with Rocky as the dominant. Rocky tended to bully his larger brother, eating his food, taking his treats, but also played the role of protector and alpha.

Progress Notes:

Detailed update notes on our foster dogs are posted regularly. For a listing of updates and Doggie Tales that include Rocky [click here]. A summation of his progress is included below.

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