Archive for the ‘Chester Hampton: Adopted!’ Category

Chester Hampton

July 1, 2011

Pulled: Sunday, June 26 2011 from Sandy Crest Kennels/Middle Mutts

Adoption commitment: Tuesday June 21, 2011

Scott had to pull Chester Hampton. He had just gotten back from Salkehatchie. I had just gotten back from vacation with my parents and the kids. We were both exhausted, but I had made a commitment to pick him up on the way home.

Hampton thrashed; he screamed (literally); and he bit aggressively (the bite and shake, rather than Cooper’s nips). He was still afraid of us, even after the car ride, even after he was put in a fenced in area. We worried about how we were going to transport him from my parents’ house to ours in Columbia. He had bitten Scott 10+ times already, breaking the skin, and had destroyed a pair of Dad’s welding gloves. And it was Dad who saved the day in the end. He literally lassoed Hampton with a drop cord and got him, somehow, into a pet carrier.

I knew I was making progress with Hampton when, as we neared the end of the drive to Columbia, he didn’t growl at me when I turned around to talk to him. And he finally approached me and let me pet him at the end of the day. By the second, he was transformed. He was jumping into my lap, giving me kisses, following me around everywhere.

He was so friendly and loving with me that I thought I could take him to get him groomed. I carried him in, and he was fine. — until I put him on the metal table. Then, it’s like he was gone. — scared out of his mind. He would have bitten me if I had tried to touch him at that point. Instead, I said, “Okay. Let’s go.” He jumped off the table, followed me to the door, and very gratefully allowed me to pick him up and take him to the car. (Sorry about the drama, Sarah and Susie.)

The same thing happened at the vet. I took him in, he was sitting on my lap, and then I took him back and put him on the metal table. He went into his dark place. He jumped off, hid, snarled and snapped at everyone. I jingled my keys, said “Okay. Let’s go.” Same thing. He followed me to the door, whined for me to pick him up and carry him out. I carried him out to the car, slipped on a muzzle, and took him back in. The ultimate betrayal. /heartbreaking

The vet sedated him so that I could take him to the groomer’s and said that he’d be asleep within 10-15 minutes. I’ve never seen anything like this, but Hampton FOUGHT the sedation. He never went to sleep, even though the drug made him too weak to move. He’d try to lift his head, to look at me, to move closer to me from the passenger side seat. /heartbreaking again

If I didn’t know better, I’d think that Hampton thought he was being put down and was determined *NOT* to die. I was told that both boys had been pulled from the euthanasia room. Maybe that explains Hampton’s fear of metal tables.

I had literally spent half a day cutting out all of the matted hair I could before taking him to the groomer. He was so patient and didn’t even nip me, even when I accidentally nipped him with the scissors. But I needed help. There were still matts, and I knew that he’d have to be shorn completely. Although I miss his long beautiful curls, I’m glad he’s cut short in a way, because the grooming is so traumatic for him. He does look a bit like a drowned rat to me. But, his adoptive mother, Peggy, wrote me to tell me that he’s beautiful. /love

Chesters Gilbert and Hampton were difficult at first, but I’ve never had such devoted and spirited (as in an admirable will to LIVE) little fosters. I adore them.

They remind me of some lines in an article I read, Christie Keith’s “There’s Something About Shelter Dogs.” Keith writes,

“Don’t get me wrong; I’ve loved all my dogs, the ones I brought into this world with my own hands, the ones I plucked out of a wriggling pile at a good breeder, the little one I found running in the road. But there’s something about going to hell and back with a dog that is unlike anything else. You don’t go through that with a dog and not love her.”

Her. Or him. Or them.

Adopted by: Peggy Sudol

Renamed: Romeo, his Middle Mutts name

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Chester Gilbert and Hampton

July 1, 2011

Pulled: Monday June 20, 2011 (Gilbert) and Sunday June 26, 2011 (Hampton) from Sandy Crest Kennels/Middle Mutts

Adoption commitment: Tuesday June 21, 2011

Meet Cooper and Romeo, my Chesters Gilbert and Hampton. I had run into some problems with fostering: (1) I had not yet found a home for Chester Edisto, and Scott’s rule is one foster at a time; and (2) My whirlwind fostering was starting to be a painful financial commitment.

When I started this, I had hoped to be able to pay the adoption fee ($73 at City of Columbia Animal Shelter, and $150 at the local rescue organizations) and to then give the animal, free of charge, to the adoptive parent. Whitney cautioned me against this, saying that owners become more invested in their animals if they have to pay for them. Still, I knew that all the adoptive parents were spending money on their new fur babies; they were getting them established at vets, they were buying toys and beds and treats and food.

Whitney was absolutely right, though, when she pointed out that if she did the same thing, she would not be able to save nearly the number of animals that she does. She just wouldn’t have the resources to do so.

Still, Scott and I try to give 10% of our income to various charities; Heifer International, Help Us Adopt, Somaly Mam, Akshaya USA, and the Animal Welfare Institute are a few of our recent favorites. I’ll count this as a donation, a more active form of donating to the Animal Welfare Institute, I reasoned. (And, besides, I had gotten a few donations that I had put toward adopting the next dog.)

But Scott was worried. Since I wasn’t paid for the first part of the summer, though I still used daycare occasionally for Jack, Scott said that our finances had entered “DEFCON 1,” whatever that means. I assume that it’s bad.

Then Scott went away for the week, to participate in a Salkehatchie service project. As Jenny Rhoad said, he should have known better than to leave me unsupervised. I heeded his warning about finances, though, and looked to rescue from a place that offered financial assistance, or wouldn’t charge a pull fee. Because we still have Edisto, I was also on the lookout for a dog I knew I could place, preferably BEFORE Scott got home.

Enter Cooper and Romeo, two poodle mixes. Since I had received the most interest in Clover, my other poodle mix foster, I thought that I’d be able to find homes for Cooper and Romeo in no time. They were listed as Poodle/Havanese mixes, although some other people I’ve talked to have identified them as Poodle/Schnauzer mixes. And, of course, there could be all three in there.

They had both been pulled from a High Kill Shelter. I had assumed they had been pulled from Chesterfield, since they were at a temporary holding kennel in Chesterfield, but they were pulled from Marion County.

Whitney contacted me about them. She pulled them, and she said that she had difficulty finding a rescue for them, because they *seemed* to be vicious little dogs. Both she and I knew, though, that they were terrified out of their minds. They were rescue dogs in the truest sense of the word, having been pulled from the euthanasia room. Whitney told me that she would not charge me for the expense to pull them, if I would only come get them and find them good homes. “Done,” I said.

I knew I would have to get them vetted, but this time, I would save the receipts and ask the adoptive parents to reimburse me as they could.

More specifics about Gilbert and Hampton, the most challenging and rewarding little fosters to date, in upcoming posts.

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