Dog Hunt

It's getting better but every now and again the loss of my Cheyenne still hits me hard and I look around through my tears and there's no dog waiting for me. Not at home, in the car, for a walk, or snoring alongside when I wake up in the afternoon. I don't like it.

After my last dog died, months of cancer ended with a needle, I took three long years to get over the trauma. Cheyenne died peacefully of her own will last Friday, in my arms, no vet and no decision on my part and that ease gave me hope that I can handle another dog much more easily and quickly. 24 hours after she died I found myself ready to get another dog. My wife felt the same way after a couple of nights home absolutely alone while I was at work. Then I got this message:

I don't buy dogs because I think there are too many dogs in the world as it is. So I turned to the SPCA website. My ideal dog is a Labrador and I like them because they are my personification of a true companion animal. I don't like controlling my dog, I like to share the road ahead with them and in that respect Cheyenne was ideal. She was stubborn but she was smart and we developed a trust that allowed me to live with her in a form of partnership. I know the next dog won't be the same but I know the next dog has to share that attitude.

There is a black Lab at the Key West SPCA called Kona and I got a chance to see him Monday night thanks to a friend of a friend because the pound was closed on the holiday. They are only open weekdays and Saturday so my wife who works in Marathon has no hope of being able to meet a dog here but once a week so she relied on me to get the first impression through their rather nice beahviorist Cathy a true animal lover. Kona was barking wildly at the cat pen and the unseen cats inside. Loud barking, unrestrained and full throated was followed by digging like a four legged back hoe.

I just don't see this as a partnership in the gentle middle aged style that I like. My modest plastic temporary gate to keep a new arrival contained on our deck would be no match for this eight year old bundle of energy:

So I went to the Marathon pound yesterday, a building behind the airport staffed by dog-friendly youngsters with sunny dispositions unlike the Key West dour city staff who prefer to treat their dogs as errant parking problems than sentient beings. Marathon is open weekends and my wife works ten minutes away so her lunch break was enough to convince her Murdock might be just the job. I showed up later and we went for a walk.

He's younger, around five but he is obedient though curious, he looked around and sniffed everything but didn't react to a fenced dog barking at him as we passed ( just like Cheyenne!) and he ignored a bird taking flight in front of him. He responded to my commands didn't tug and was ready to keep on going in the 81 degree heat. I was impressed.

He started out with this irritating habit of a cocking a leg but by the end of the hour he wasn't even fooling himself that he had any scent left to leave behind. It's one reason I prefer females.

 He looks to be the ideal candidate for us and we for him. Great. He is listed as ready for adoption but not so fast!

It seems he is in suspension until Thursday as  another family has "put dibs" on him. How one does that I don't know. It's not that complicated. You fill out the form, call ahead to your landlord to warn him a call will be coming (Mike is fine with us having dogs) pay the fee and take the dog home. Not here. Had I known I should put dibs on a likely candidate I should have been down last week when Cheyenne was on her death bed "reserving" her likely replacements. Grotesque thought. Simply showing up ready willing and able to adopt isn't good enough.

I walked in to adopt Cheyenne that December day in 2009 and we walked out together by lunch time (my wife worked five minutes up the road from the Key West SPCA in those days and came by to say she agreed and that took two minutes). Now it seems nothing can be that simple and I am filling out forms to become a candidate for Labrador Rescue adoption in Florida. I'm also thinking about going to the pound in Ft Myers and seeing what they have. I'm really not sure how ready the Monroe County SPCA is to actually give up their charges. Maybe they need to hang on to them for reasons I can't grasp. Too bad for me and the dogs.

SHARK

One of the big noises earlier in the year concerned the animal rescue operations of the Middle Keys. Stand Up For Animals went by the awkward acronym of SUFA and took care of the Monroe County needs around Marathon and Big Pine. Splendid stuff. However things went a tad bit wrong when SUFA asked for a raise in the fee they were paid by the county. The county did an audit and came back with a bunch of accusations against SUFA. The thing was tried in the public arena and the accusations flew back and forth and the County was looking for missing cash and SUFA argued the money from donations and the money from the County all went to animal welfare one way and another. It seemed to me the worst that could be said of SUFA was bad book keeping, not bad animal husbandry which is what matters.


It was a sad thing to watch not least because the reason for the sudden witch hunt wasn't at all clear. SUFA shut down and the county had no plans for what exactly to do having vanquished their latest nemesis. Finally a new contract was issued and now we have SHARK, Safe Harbor Animal Rescue of the Keys by way of a much more amusing acronym and in any event they seem to be doing okay. The SUFA fiasco appears to have come to an ignominious halt with the release by a judge of the SUFA funds frozen by the county and now returned to the not for profit which is operating a shelter Up North I believe.

The Florida Keys do that sometimes. Things are just trundling along and then for some reason thing get turned upside down and everything is suddenly completely unpredictable. I just wish more people would pick rescue dogs instead of buying puppies. While we are on the subject of hopeless wishes I wish people wouldn't throw their dogs away. But but there we are and we should be grateful someone is available to pick up the pieces. I'm sure glad I got Cheyenne from the Stock Island SPCA.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Pound Dog

This is an essay loaded with gratuitous dog pictures. In December Cheyenne and I will have been together for two years but it feels like we have known each other forever.


Everybody has the best dog, but I am convinced that getting a dog from the pound is the only way to go. I am amazed when I hear people say they 'need' a particular breed because every kind of breed gets rescued and you don't need to buy them. Or they want a puppy or that pound dogs have diseases and bad habits.


Why the family that had her for eight years abandoned Cheyenne is a mystery to me. She is the perfect companion, obedient, quiet and easy going. She has a surprising sense of humor and as far as I can tell no bad habits. She doesn't steal food, bark without cause, whine when I leave her or chew up the house.


This weekend the SPCA on Stock Island is holding a fund raiser, Sunday noon to 4pm, and I kind of promised my wife that Cheyenne and I would go, though I hate seeing abandoned dogs that I can't take home. Cheyenne and I have enough fun on our walks for several dogs but there are always more dogs than owners in the world in which we live. Breeding dogs that have no home seems a peculiarly pointless occupation to me.


I have found that meeting dogs at the pound is a strangely decisive encounter. Most of the dogs will reject you, despite your best intentions, but the dog that is meant for you will make itself known. There was no doubt Cheyenne was for me, and she was ready to leave when I went to pick her up.


Cheyenne got a whiff of the cold air coming out of Margaritaville and was ready to go in and check out the closed bar but we had places to go and people to see. August is air conditioned month for dogs and the SPCA is trying to raise money for a new and weatherproof pound on Stock Island.


I spend a lot of time staring at the furry top of my dog's head as we walk and I never tire of the view. She is a one person dog and wants no part of sharing her home with any other dogs, she made that plain when I tried to get her friendly with a long time resident at the SPCA on College Road. There are a couple of dogs the that I like the look of (fkspca.org) but with Cheyenne and my wife opposed I hope someone else will step to take them home.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad