Little Gifts

The lovely family who picked up my naughty dog were terrified she would get put down if they took her to the pound so they took her 20 mins north to the closest open vet - an emergency vet. I suspect the vet staff scanned her and when it was clear she had microchip info the family were happy to leave her there. The only reason I found her before the vet rang me was I think because they had so many emergencies in and they hadn't had time to retrieve my contact info. I'm also lucky I used my brain - after spending an hour searching locally and chasing up dodgy leads I was then wasting time trying to load lost and found info with the RSPCA and other online sites so decided to ring my local vets. When I realised which ones weren't open at that time of day I thought about the emergency vet further north. An hour of physical searching, half an hour of unsuccessfully trying to list her as missing online and five minutes of phone calls and I had her back. Very, very lucky, but I still would've been at the door step of every pound and shelter within an hour radius of me first thing on the next working day so I could see for myself! Hell I'd even stand there and yell out her name to see if I could hear her crying if I had to! You really have to do the leg work yourself and not rely on the system to reconnect you with your dog. Would you do the same thing if your purse full of money went missing? Of course you wouldn't!

Oh dear! Louis has nasty face down pat!

I so have to try and get one of Tempeh. Even though she is not a wrinkly pei she manages to dewrinkle her entire head when she is upset and she has this ability to move where her ears are on her head. They really are quite mobile little radars! She also a talker. We were at the vet this morning and I got a good talking to about her level of dissatisfaction with my choice of 'outing'.

I was thinking the same. I was beside myself with worry after Stussy was missing for only an hour. I would not be trusting the pound or RSPCA to do the matching up - I would be there myself looking, every single day. And I'm not saying this because I don't think the pound or RSPCA are capable of doing this, I just think it is not their job to ensure you get your dog back - it is yours!

Oh Powerlegs I don't know what to say. I know you will be absolutely heartbroken. Goodbye beautiful boy. XXX

Universe, please let this whole BSL fall apart! Councils have lost 80% of the cases taken to VCAT. I'm sure there have been assessments that weren't appealed that they got wrong too. I bet if you factored that in they be up around a 90% inaccuracy identification rate. That is simply ludicrous and animal abuse at its bureaucratic worst. So if I were those judges and my knowledge was asked for and then discarded, at the expense of innocent dogs, I would be livid! And if I was a family who had lost a loving dog to this ridiculous and clearly flawed legislation I'd be making a compensation claim against the relevant council because intelligence and knowledge may not work but hitting them in the hip pocket will! Let's get rid of this law that is achieving nothing but heartache!

And the buggers can be quick when it comes to getting at their wounds if you take the cone of shame off for them to eat and drink. Tempeh managed to pull two drains out - one on her leg totally and one near her ear only had a bit left still sticking out, despite my vigilance. Stussy was a scratcher. I had to be tough on them both but it was for their own good and they just had to suck it up.

I had trouble finding a harness for Tempeh even though she is not a wrinkly pei. I had to get her fitted too and she now has a couple of Rogz step in harnesses (matching leashes and matching poo bags made by MTD!). I'm a bit late to the thread so was going to suggest Sporn harnesses might be worth a look for Mac as they are very soft and work even when you are a numpty like me and put them on upside down! The other option if you sew is to make your own. I've been collecting ideas and patterns in case Ams ever needs me to come up with a solution for a dog with special needs (ie an odd body shape). I almost had to make a breast plate for a pup with a hernia a couple of months back but that is as close as I've gotten so far! I've also been collecting suitable fabric, like the puppia harness mesh material and I have all the rings and clips as I also make collars and leashes for the fosters. When something is damaged the working hardware just gets reused.

"I'm a comin' Lambsie!"

Keisha in the interim perhaps by some contact as that can be bought from Coles and Kmart and you can stick it on yourself in 5 mins. Dooshing windows is bad doggies!

How is our resident doosher today? It was very funny last night. My sister tried to tell me about Koda and I said "Yes I know. Koda was at the vet with Scout but they are both fine!"

Sorry if someone has already picked up on the bit I've highlighted - I've just discovered this thread and haven't been through the whole 8 pages yet. Federal, state and local govt funds are very seperate pools of money. Pretty much 90% of all application fees or fines simply go back into general coffers at each of these 3 levels. The reason for this is that this money is then invested on the stock market and in other money making efforts to help boost shortfalls. This is why Qld has had to sell off a lot of assets after the GFC and several natural disasters. Govt agencies (or local govt sections) then have to apply for monies to meet certain purposes, fund projects and employ new staff from those who protect these coffers (usually the Treasury depts. at federal and state level). It is rare that the two ever meet, ie that fines or application fees are used directly to fund the same work. Local govt could apply to the state or federal govt to access funds for a specific purpose (like more rangers to police state legislation) but here too, because of funding shortfalls they are likely to only receive base funding and would have to come up with additional monies through their own pockets to cover all salary and operational costs (vehicle for example) needed for a ranger. Base funding means that while a ranger's salary might range from $80,000 to $95,000 they will only get funded $80,000, so as an employee gains more experience or years of service that extra $15,000 has to be found internally. Operational costs are usually an on top percentage figure of base salaries and this percentage does not necessarily reflect actual operational costs either. And I have no idea what a ranger's salary is worth - just plucked those figures out of my head. Ah if only it were all so simple!

What a great achievement for those little legs!

But that's what I'm trying to say T. We have all these rules in place to protect humans from legal liability and out of pocket expenses but it is the dog that still suffers, despite that suffering supposedly being illegal. It's the dog caught between a rock and a hard place, not the owners, pound or vet. I just wish ownership didn't matter when it came to pain. Yes, I'm being a big woosy in la la land (only because I was there not long ago and did not like it one bit!).

We need to find out where she lives and bombard her!

And he has pretty blue boy bandages so clearly he will have a story to tell all the other fur kids down the dog park! A bit OT but we had a dog fight here a while back. I rushed the first dog I got hold of straight to the vet and locked the other in my room. Dropped dog one off and raced the 5 mins back home to get the other one. I didn't realise it at the time but she was far more injured and did have a vein or artery punctured in one leg. It took me hours of scrubbing to clean my entire bedroom from all the bloody sprays and blood pools. It was incredibly traumatic and I sobbed and scrubbed all day waiting for news from the vets. Both dogs had emergency surgery and recovered quickly and we have had no fights since. But I still feel so incredibly lucky that I didn't lose either of my girls because I didn't realise who had the worst injuries due to working on auto pilot.

Sorry Powerlegs, I hope it didn't seem like I was condemning the pound as we only have that one pic and a bit of the story. I understand their limitations given an incoming dog is in a holding pattern until claimed (or not). I was just wondering what other options they might have in a situation like this with bigger organisations that are mandated to prevent cruelty (which to me includes an animal suffering high levels of pain for an extended period of time, regardless of who the permanent or temp owners are). I'm sure pound staff can't be comfortable caring for an untreated or un-medicated animal for two weeks and would be doing all they could to help this boy. But it all boils down to yet another dog suffering because of us humans. I wish/hope there are strategies in place to manage this kind of situation (which can't be isolated) is all. Skin issues are one thing but broken bones freaking hurt.

You put on a brave face all day so I'm so pleased he is coming home tonight!

You poor thing! How terrifying for you! But I did learn the word dooshing! :D Here's for everything going well for Scout and Koda at the vet.

I really hope/pray he was comfortable pain and bedding wise while in the pound and that delaying any surgery has not hurt his prognosis. I appreciate the issues faced by the pound while a dog is waiting to be reclaimed. In situations like this does anyone know whether the pound could legally have this boy moved to the RSPCA and given their mandate would the RSPCA have been obliged to treat him medically straight away? Sadly, I suspect no in both cases. This might sound stupid but when I smashed my wrist last year I was horrified that it was 4 days before I had surgery. I found out later that due to demand even private patients can wait up to 2 weeks for that kind of surgery. I may have been doped up on pain meds while I waited but I couldn't do a damn thing for myself and was so frightened that things would start to heal wrong because that's what I'd always heard with my other broken bones as a child - you leave it too long to reset and plaster and there is no point. Likely to be no longer true with medical advancements.

I know there have been threads on here about people who made their own indoor toilets by buying some bits and pieces from Bunnings. Would that be an option for wet days??? You could store it outside when not needed. Although I guess you wouldn't want the dogs to decide they would only toilet on that rather than go outside even on a fine day! Little tricksters!

Powerlegs are those suburbs very far from where he went missing? Is he trying to find his way home? I hate saying things like this but my gut is not feeling good for this poor boy. Really hope I'm wrong.

And we need to stop believing the shite that they are funded by donations! They apply for and are successful in receiving state govt grant after govt grant! I know this for a fact in QLD and assume the same in other states where govt funding sources are available. And if they were funded on donations then how would they have money for tv ads during prime time? And who pays for the tv show? I wish they'd focus on their core business of protecting and prosecuting and stop all the other stuff they do that can be done by other rescue groups or animal related businesses. I would also like to be clear that I'm sure the staff working with animals on the ground have the animal's best interests at heart and are exposed to some horrific cases but it is the corporate operations, decision making, planning and PR that have lost me. Peiradise still gets pei from them and one of my besties still fosters with them but this is all down to maintaining working relationships and benefitting actual animals in need. That's what there needs to be more of.

I had to share that pantry pic Got to love the way a dog thinks!

What is DDT, Clover? Danita, the designer has advised me that most prices are in USD and postage to Australia is $6USD. Free if you spend over $75. She is also a big supporter of rescue so she has indicated she might donate something to Peiradise that we can raffle. We have three dogs here and I am now very keen to find or create some good face photos so I can get some goodies made, but there are so many different settings and stone and background colours to choose from! How does one pick!