[Dailydrool] This and That

[Jane Hay]

Gosh, I'm kind of surprised that WMBR isn't eligible for one of the weekly
prizes since all of us are voting in the Shelter Challenge for them. They
are solidly in first place but we can't get complacent. Please continue to
vote every day. I know that another rescue can get a lot of votes in a very
short time if they partner with another group or two.

I'm very happy to say that our BaRCSE senior, Maggie, has found her forever
home with her foster family. Maggie is half of the bonded senior pair that
BaRCSE took in a couple of years ago. Moe, the other half of the pair, went
to the bridge last year but Maggie is still plugging along. I think Maggie
has known that she was home all along but she finally convinced her family
to make it official. It really is true that there is a home for every hound.

Taking a walk with the Houndettes can be a real adventure. I used to be
able to take all four at the same time. It was pretty chaotic and, to be
very honest, I doubt that I could have held on to them all if the four had
decided to take off all at the same time. I only take one or two at the
most anymore and three of the four are good to walk with. They get excited
when they see other dogs and people but I don't have to worry about them
snapping at anyone or trying to kill another dog. Then there's Ginger. She
is a handful on a good day and VERY strong. Ginger is another one who goes
crazy when she sees another dog. I've tried just stopping and making her
sit. Well, she sat for maybe five seconds and then started screaming at my
neighbors dog so much that it scared my neighbor and she literally ran away
from us! I also don't let the neighborhood kids pet Ginger. She has never
been aggressive with a person but I just don't trust her and I'd rather err
on the side of being too careful than taking a risk. The best thing that
I've come up with is we got some two foot leashes and I basically frog
march her past whomever she's shrieking at. She's fine once we get past the
other dog but I keep a death grip on that leash while we walk by. We tried
retractable leashes years ago and really felt like we were creating
monsters with the hounds on them. They were all over the place and we had
absolutely no control of them. The two foot leashes and the Holt harnesses
have worked pretty well for us.

I have one hound who actually would starve to death if we didn't cater to
her eating psychosis. I am absolutely positive that Shadow was traumatized
over food before she came to us because she has always been scared at
mealtimes. We had to hand feed her when she first came to us and we would
find piles of kibble in the corners of the couch, bathroom and other places
throughout the house where she had stashed it. We did try the whole thing
of putting the food down and then picking it up after a certain amount of
time if she hadn't eaten by then but she was actually losing weight so we
stopped that in a hurry. I think someone with a dog like this walks a fine
line between testing whether the hound is just being finicky, psychotic or
if there is an actual physical problem. We did take her to our vet
initially to make sure there wasn't anything wrong but everything was fine
physically and, given her behavior, we know that there is something in her
past that has stayed with her all these years. We don't have to hand feed
her any longer but we do add things to her kibble to make it so tempting
that she can't resist.* *I would love to know what happened to my sweet
girl to make her so scared.

Get well and heart healing drool is being sent to all in need by the
Houndettes and foster dog Sydney.

Jane & the Houndettes
Jersey, Shadow, Suzy & Ginger
with foster girl Sydney
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