Pulled: Friday October 21, 2011 from Richmond County Animal Shelter
Adoption commitment for Willie: Thursday October 27, 2011 by Trina Shealy
Adoption commitment for BordeauX: Saturday October 22, 2011 by Lisa Bailey
Meet Chesters W and X, squared.
Chester Williston, or Willie, is a 6-8 week old Dachshund mix:
Chester BordeauX, or Daphne, is the last pup from the Chorkie litter, also 6-8 weeks.
Yes. Daphne is the tiniest 6-8 week old puppy I’ve ever seen. And, yes, she does appear to be winking. We kept her shelter name, Daphne, to honor one of the vet techs, who is particularly fond of this sweet pup. Thank you for taking such good care of her, Ashley!
So, to recap: Scott has asked that I limit the Fisk fosters to three at a time. And, since he let me get a puppy mobile, I am really trying to stick to that limit. I had one foster when I left for Richmond County (Salley), which meant I could get two fosters for myself and two for Trina.
(Trina had been fostering Duncan and Fairfax for me and is having empty nest syndrome. And can I take a moment to say that she is the foster of my dreams? I show up with Duncan and Fairfax, and she has a clothes-basket full of supplies for me: food, treats, toys, and even puppy poop bags. I love you, Trina!)
The plan: Chance and Willie for Trina; Daphne and Timmy for me.
But then I saw Morven; and a Weimaraner with a broken front leg that was flapping about uselessly, like Isla’s; and a quarantined litter of seven puppies suffering from mange. “I’ll give you these seven if you’ll take them. No fee,” Allison said, “I don’t want to see them put down.”
I looked at Casey in desperation. “We should take the misfits,” I told him.
“And leave the others?” Allison asked. “They all need out.”
“Maybe we can take them all,” I said.
But, then, Casey explained and Allison agreed that it wouldn’t be wise to take the seven puppies with mange along with the healthy ones we had already committed to take. And this is why Scott insists that I take Casey with me wherever I go.
The compromise: We promised Allison to try to raise money, so that she can afford to vet the pups with mange. Then, I had to choose between the Isla-like Weimaraner and Morven. Easy. Morven was scared, the Weimaraner wasn’t. — though I still want to go back for her. Get a glimpse of how beautiful she is, below:
I thought, “I’ll only have one foster more than Scott’s limit. He has to give me an ‘A’ for effort.”
But, we had another problem. Because Morven wasn’t being very friendly (and by “not very” I mean “not at all”), we were nervous about crating him with the four puppies. Allison offered to send us with a crate, but we hated to take from her supply, since we’re sure she uses everything! Casey and I were standing there, wondering what to do, when we saw the following puppy tote bags for sale:
Only $30 for the one on the left, and $10 for the one on the right. Casey and I would have two pups each. “Sold!” we said.
Here’s Casey, with his bag of pups:
And here I am, with mine:
Neither Casey nor I will win any awards for our photography, clearly. Casey is squinting, because I told him to pose with the sun in his eyes. And there is a tiny bit of Jack in the photo he took of me. I like it, though, because you can see by the huge grin on Jack’s face that he’s a fan of puppy tote bags.
Before we left the shelter, Allison was glowing over the fact that we pulled all the Chorkies, an entire litter, even though it was a small one. “See!” she said, holding up a folder’s worth of paperwork. “Beautiful!”
Then, at that moment, a woman walked in with a cardboard box of three puppies to surrender. “I can’t have any more pups,” she said! “This is my dog’s third litter!”
I think we all heaved a collective sigh.
“Can you give a donation?” one of the shelter workers said. “We’re packed, and vetting is expensive.”
“I only have $2.00,” the woman said.
“Will you get your dog spayed?” she asked. “If not, you’ll be right back here.”
The woman said that she would if she could, but that she’s poor.
“It’s only $37,” Allison said, “if you can provide proof of need.”
The woman was able to prove it; she had food stamps with her. She wrote down all the info she needed, but she said that she’d have to wait to see how far she could stretch her next check.
Casey and I looked at each other. 3 pups out, 3 pups in. That quickly. Allison was back at zero on the puppies.
She looked so dejected that I passed her my credit card and turned to the woman. “Bring your dog in next week,” I said. “I’ll pay for it. If you don’t come next week, though, the $37 will go to the shelter as a donation. Make sure you come!”
The woman hugged both of us, me and Casey. Like Casey said when we were leaving, “she wants to care for her dog.” But, with the economy like it is, that’s difficult for a lot of people.
So, thank you, Ashley Smith, for your recent $25 donation to Fisk Fosters. And congratulations! You helped spay a dog!
What did Mom say about the bundle of sleeping pups?
And Scott?
Neither said much, after Casey pointed out that we went for four healthy pups, and I wanted the dog that growled at everyone; the dog with a broken leg; and the seven puppies with fleas and worms and mange. — that I very nearly came back with a lot more.
And that’s why I like to take Casey with me wherever I go.
Plus, Scott’s not going to say much when there’s a dachshund involved:
Sure, he talks a good game, but he was diapering Quinby by the end of her stay with us. And I got a thank you note for a $25 donation (which I didn’t send), from Pets with Disabilities.
http://www.petswithdisabilities.org/adopt.html
“What’s this?” I asked him. He shrugged. “Well, they do good work,” he muttered.
Sucker.
Let me know if you’d be interested in adopting Willie, who is the odd man out in a litter of Chorkies. — but an awfully cute odd man out.
Fostering Chester 