What a crazy six days……ugh….why do I do this? This is pretty much how it looked:
Thursday - Take Emily my 130 lb Rottweiler foster dog to the Vet at 7:00 am for 2nd heartworm treatment. I only weigh about 115 lb and all she wants to do is sit on my lap as I've driving. She howls to get to me and breaks through the crate and somehow lands on my lap. Coffee spills all over my fresh khaki pants and I have to drive all the way back home to change since of course, I'm on my way to work. I work in Human Resources at a large company.
At 4:00 pm, in the midst of a meeting at work, I get call that Emily must go immediately to OSU due to a reaction to the immiticide, which put her in anaphylactic shock. She is stabilized and ok but most go to OSU. I cannot find anyone to get her (we all work to support this habit called rescue!) plus she is too big to fit in anyone's vehicle. I leave work at 4:15 pm and pick her up and then make several phone calls to change Cage's home visit. I can't change it so I coach the foster mom around what to do. I get home at 8:45 pm from the hospital. My husband is pissed off and I'm exhausted. My husband lectures me on my craziness with dogs, my lack of time at home with him and my own dogs and why I won't sit down and eat dinner.
Friday - a vacation day from my full-time job.....I go to do Cage's follow up home visit and give him vaccines and de-wormer and frontline. I arrange for Lauren to take 3 dogs from Boarding to a clinic for rabies, fecal, h/w test because it is cheaper there. (I arrange to pay Lauren to do this because I have so much to do on my day off that 2 hours for dogs to the vet, I just don't have time for.) These are 3 new dogs to the program in Boarding no less. Hobbs and Cal are from Licking and Jax from Perry. Cal is kind of coughing. Hobbs and Jax need to be seen for the routine stuff. At the same time, I meet Lauren there and drop off vaccines and de-wormer. I then take Colby from Boarding to Shelley's to do the cat test for him to be able to stay there, and thank the good lord, he passes and I then leave him there. I needed to get a dog out because we have so many there and felt Colby would be fine at Shelley's. Shelley just loved him and says he is great and will fit in there. I then walk Colby and 911 (that was his number at the Licking Shelter and no one has figured out what to call him…..)
Talk to Dr. T the vet where Lauren took the dogs...and Kal is really bad with kennel cough and she agrees to keep him there. Jax and Hobbs are fine and Lauren brings them back. I have to find a place for Kal by Monday and I call Deborah and ask her if she can think of anyone. She says Mulligan had kennel cough so she has it there and she will take him and will pick him up on Monday......
Dr. T calls again and says Cody is h/w positive. I have no idea who Cody is and then learn that one of the other Crazy Rescue girls drove to Athens, Ohio to rescue him and wanted to keep it secret from me. They understand my fear over yet another dog, more expenses, more work for me, inevitably and debt incurred because none of us can say no.
Chow rescue emails me with an urgent note about a chow up in Canton that needs to get out of Stark County. Mind you, this is 3.5 hours away. A beautiful black male – my favorite type of chow. I arrange for an evaluation of the Chow because he is seemingly aggressive but someone thinks he is in pain and that is why. I make numerous phone calls and try to find $$ to get him to vet and held pending transport to a rescue in Pennsylvania that another Crazy Rescue girl found and who agreed to take him. I am able to get another Crazy (Chow) Rescue girl to drive an hour to evaluate him since only chow people can evaluate chows. I get evaluation arranged and freak out about how I"ll pay since he must go to boarding at a vet since because the rescue in Pennsylvania cannot take him for a few weeks nor will it be easy to arrange transport from Canton, Ohio to eastern Pennsylvania....
I talk to Deborah about Madigan who is now being aggressive and to be returned from adoptive owner. I call Boarding to arrange space and call the Veterinary Behavioralist to talk about Madigan. Deborah calls and sets up appointment for the Behavioralist evaluation.
I then talk to Shelley about a dog at Licking who she agrees to take home to assess. His name is Goldberg, a fairly common Jewish name. I am Jewish and for some reason I just cannot see a little white dog having the name of Goldberg. I tell her he is NOT Jewish and I ask that his name be changed. Shelley says he knows his name, it is Goldberg and it can't be changed. I arrange for his "bris" and start thinking about later costs for his Bar Mitzvah. I then start fantasizing about changing the names of all the dogs in our rescue to Shapiro, Greenberg, Schwartz or any other seemingly Jewish name and then having fund-raiser for the dogs at my temple and calling it a "Bark Mitzvah". I wonder whether that would be offensive and whether the rabbi would go for it?
I talk to Shelley about the 2 dogs she took to Vet for shots and she says they are nice and why don't we take them into the program since she can keep them there. One is Goldberg and the other is 911 and we still have not found a proper name for either of them.
I talk to Anita about a dog in Boarding that she brought back from a rescue who said he was un-adoptable. I wasn't supposed to know nor was Shelley because Anita knew we'd be ballistic but Boarding kennel owner called me and asked what to do since he has been there "awhile". Awhile has been four weeks. The Boarding Kennel owner thought I knew......Anita didn't want him euthanized...said he is "sweet". I call the rescue and we find that he is small dog and food aggressive, jumps fences and needs to be an only dog. I make a mental note to get him to a Behavioralist thinking this is all crap and that this young lab could not be this bad. And then of course I forget about it. I am 55, menopausal, overwhelmed and have no short term memory.
This is still Friday. This was to be my day off from work. I also make a mental note, but remember this one, to get my hands on some anti-biotics even if it means calling doctors I know and lying about skin conditions and various ailments of the area "south of the border" in order to get anti-biotics in order to treat all the dogs for Kennel Cough and diarrhea. Most Crazy Rescue girls always have a stash of Keflex, Doxicycline and Flagyl for the dogs in rescue. I call Nancy and she has a good stash from some sick dogs that she had cared for recently. I tell her to hold on to it because since Cal has kennel cough, everyone else will as well. I really wouldn't lie to doctors about this but it was something that crossed my mind in my desperation to get my hands on some medications.
I call Boarding and tell her that I'll find someplace for the black lab. She asks me about Maya who is there. Here is the story of Maya…..
…..At Mingle with the Mutts the previous Sunday before Labor day, the foster mom brings Maya, who she pulled from the county shelter.. She needs to find another place for her. "She is too much for me", she says "but I'll try her a day or two more…" She also needed some money from me to pay for her pull fee and then she bought food, a leash and collar (which we, of course, have free of cost from our many donors). I wrote her a check and then told her to call me the next day if she couldn't handle her but ask her to try because the next day was Labor Day. Of course she tried her best with Maya but ended up calling me again saying "I just can't do it….too many dogs here….". Boarding was closed on Labor day but I called the proprietor of this Boarding place and she told me she would do this for me and let Maya come over.
Of course, I forgot about Maya until the boarding proprietor asks me about her and I tell her "I forgot". She tells me I do too much and of course I forgot and it's ok and Maya is a nice girl who just digs too much and is lonely. Of course my heart breaks....It is still friday....
I get an email from one of my Yahoo dog groups about a dog in Tennessee who needs a rescue and a girl in Columbus wants to rescue him. They ask me to check her out because it's the dog's only chance. I call the girl, named Alyssa, who seems really nice and just needs help with basic shots, rabies and h/w check and needs $60.00 for gas. I tell her I'll help her and she looks at the website and says she would like to get through rescuing this dog and would love to foster Jake. I remember about Shasta possibly going to Tennessee and she is willing to drive Shasta there if I pay for gas, etc.
One of the other Crazy Rescue Girls in our group calls me and reminds me that the people in Tennesse who applied for Shasta need a call from me. I think about the fact that I am the ONLY person in the group that knows how to have a conversation with potential adopters and it makes me really sad and frustrated. I wish I had never gotten my Master's in Social Work (MSW). I call the people and begin the long process of phone tag.
Saturday rolls around and I go to Boarding to walk dogs and find that Preston is kind of clearing his throat and that Hobbs is showing some pre-kennel cough signs too. The owner of this place tells me his son is looking for a lab and hands me the phone. I talk to his son who is as loquacious as the owner and then arrange for him and the kids to meet me at Shelley's to see 911 who still doesn't have a name.....We walk the dogs there and schmooze a little and then I call Deborah and make arrangements for the kennel owner's son to go there as well to see Liza.
Then I get to pick up Emily at OSU vet hospital. It takes some time because this is post OSU (the Ohio State University Buckeyes – we live in Columbus, OH) game and each Saturday during football season is like a fricking national holiday in our city. I get home and Bill (my husband) is all pissed off. I have to go to a couple pharmacies to fill prescriptions. Bear is itching like crazy and Bill accuses me of being a bad mother since Bear is so uncomfortable. He doesn't hear that I have tried every medication possible......
Michelle, a foster mom calls me and says that Nico is great but still coughing like crazy. I take over more anti-biotics and bring over his pills for coccsydia.
Sunday comes around and I'm so so glad that I might have some time to myself. I get a call from Christiane, another foster mom, reminding me that she is leaving for France on 9/11/07 and that she will be taking Maggie to the Vet for 6 weeks at $10.00 per day. Maggie has severe separation anxiety and is dog aggressive. No amount of medication, behavioral therapy, consultation or anything else seems to work. She reminds me that she has made a zillion OSU scarves and needs to get them to me and wants me to sell them to pay for Maggie's boarding.
I drive across the city to Christiane's and pick up the scarves and she talks to me about how cute Maggie is and wonderful and that she loves her but that she will be travelling a lot this year and what will we be able to do? I have no clue. Maggie, a dog-aggressive chow/sharpei mix pup who has severe separation anxiety loves Christiane and if Christiane were not taking care of her, I don't know what I'd do. Christiane loves her to death but is a retiree and travels all the time. She takes Maggie to the Vet when she is gone over 4 hours because this is all Maggie can handle being alone. A volunteer who was with us last year and whose husband purported to be the Columbus, Ohio version of Cesar Millan, pulled Maggie as a foster and then decided they wanted nothing to do with her and wouldn't work with her. I have been dealing with this since February and will continue dealing with this the rest of my life I believe since Maggie is only a year old. I call Deborah and tell her about Christiane leaving on 9/11/07 and then Deborah says "911? Let's call 911 "Rudy". It was a strange way to get a name for 911 at Shelley's, but at least he finally had one.
I then am reminded again that the people in Tennessee need me to call them and I do. An hour later I am still wondering why they want a dog from Ohio ("we love Shasta's looks") and think about a placement 9 hours away and how unrealistic it is. I talk to them about Teddy who is the only dog besides Hanson who gets along with Shasta.....I tell them I'll try to get a local home visit and a ride part way if this really works.
Someone else writes me about Teddy Bear. I write back and then they call me. They lost their chow recently and want one just like him. They talk my ear off and don't want Teddy but want an ear to articulate their grief and it is mine. I am so totally depressed and wish again I had taken a different path after college and chosen Podiatry or something else besides getting my MSW. But I get through with talking with them and politely suggest that they consult Petfinder......
Boarding calls me and says that Baby, Hobbs and Preston are all sniffling and could start hacking. She says I need to get them out of there due to infection risk…...I arrange to get them out……..and worry all night about where they will go.
The trainer at the Boarding place then asks me about Benson. I then remember about Benson being so out of control and needing some help and the Trainer felt she could work with him. I call the foster mom of Benson and she will bring Benson to work and hopes that someone can take Benson to across the city to Boarding and then bring another dog back to her. It is too far for her to drive. Columbus is a big city. She agrees that Benson needs leash work. I call around to see if someone can drive…..
Monday - I write to Nancy Z. and tell her my hunch was right and that the anti-biotics and instructions need to get to Boarding for Hobbs and Preston before they start hacking or getting sick. She is ok with doing this. I ask her if there is anyway she could switch Benson and Trooper and she says she will do this on Monday afternoon since she will be taking her dog to Boarding for training. I call Cathy the foster mom and tell her all about Trooper. I call Boarding and tell the somewhat elderly proprietor all about Benson and his very special training needs including submissive urination. He seems to understand.
I call a Trainer at Boarding and she says she will take Baby home with because she is so at risk for getting sick since she just finished heartworm treatment. She talks to me at length about three of the dogs in our program who are purebred pits or mixes. I am terribly worried about them. One of our members "pulled" them under duress and one is a Katrina survivor. They are such a misunderstood breed. I love them but we cannot adopt them here, or just about anywhere for that matter. I am left with sadness, despair and even a feeling of impotence because I don't know what to do with them. They, of course, are also in Boarding. The Trainer will take Baby to the Vet for assessment in case she needs to stay there in isolation. She will do this on Tuesday.
I take my dog to my Vet and he needs allergy pills, anti-biotics and his skin is a mess. I feel terrible. The rescue dogs at Boarding need heartworm pills and front line so I also buy this and charge it knowing that my husband will question me about why I bought enough to last my own dogs for 7 years.
I return a call to another Crazy Rescue girl in our group, and she tells me about Gizmo who has separation anxiety and could I call the person who has him and talk to her? I still wonder why no one else in my group can talk to people besides me. I get off the phone and get a call from the adopter who has Cage and he has destroyed her house and crate because of separation anxiety. She wants to know what to do but is going to work and will call me Tuesday.
I get a call from Alyssa about the Kentucky dog because I agreed to "pull" the dog through us and oversee Alyssa since she is from Columbus. And then from Stark County about the chow at Stark. Both need a detailed account about STS and the services we offer and a copy of our 501 c 3. Stark County needs money right away which our wonderful treasurer paypals to them.
I go over the bill at Boarding and freak out and I call one of our foster moms and ask her if she could take Cal and Hobbs in her outdoor run so we can save money. She says that is fine and I tell her I'll pay her since she is now living on retirement income. The Crazy Rescue girl who has Cal had not wanted to keep Cal because of his "hiking" and "marking" but now likes him because he is so sweet so I start thinking about another who can go to this foster mom.
Tuesday......I call the elderly proprietor at Boarding about Benson. We had talked at length only a a day or so ago and I thought he remembered, but he now has no idea what I'm talking about so I have to go into detail both with the two assistant trainers. I am stressing and feel really pressed for time. The new foster mom for Trooper calls me several times to tell me how great Trooper is. then two workers at the Vet call and talk to me about some pit bulls they rescued and ask if I could take them. I tell them "no" and feel horrible but agree to put them on our website.
One of the Crazy Rescue girls writes me about a problem with 2 dogs pulled from a southern Ohio county and a related angry call she got about 2 dogs in boarding that were supposed to be picked up by one or two other Crazy Rescue girls in our group and weren't. The call came at Midnight and she had to actually drive to some ungodly place in the middle of nowhere, and pick them up and bring them home. She had just taken a sedative for insomnia and actually drove to BF, Ohio under the influence of some kind of Barbituate.
She is understandably perturbed and she is such a dedicated person, great worker and wonderful woman and I feel so bad for her. I tell her to write to the girls who supposedly were responsible and tell them about it and get the facts just to make sure we got correct information and to copy me and Shelley about it. The one girl writes back and says she quits. Not in those terms but "I won't be doing anything more for STS" and she is really classy about it and is classy in general. I am upset that she is leaving and that the original Crazy Rescue girl is upset and got pulled into something she had nothing to do with in the first place…..but don't have time to be upset.
We have Mingle with the Mutts on Sunday and no one has the time to arrange it this week or pick up dogs that need picked up and I realize I need to do the arranging, pick up, etc., but I also committed to the poker tournament that two other girls in the group are doing to raise money and wonder what the hell I'm going to do. I have a major hot flash and feel horrible.
I do the "switch" at Boarding with my dogs. Here is the story with this: I have four (4) dogs and 2 of them don't get along with 1 of them and I need to rotate them through Boarding all the time. I have made commitments to all my dogs since they are all Rescue dogs. I love them to pieces and the disagreement between the 3 that I rotate, happened long after I adopted all of them. After thousands of dollars on vet bills due to fights, and trainers, behavioralists, crates, new walls in the house, new additions to the house, etc. etc. etc., I decided on the Boarding approach. I am committed and my husband tells me that I (and all the other Crazy Rescue girls) should BE committed. He lectures me again about our home being a zoo and that no one spends this kind of money with this situation and that no one has a house that looks or smells this bad. He gives me yet another deadline to do something about "this situation".
The Boarding Kennel trainer says she kept Baby at her house and took her to the vet. I give her money. I provide all the heartworm preventive and frontline for the Boarding dogs. I go back and give them all their heartguard plus and put frontline on them and then I document it all on a spreadsheet I keep in the van.
I call Cage's adopter and talk to her for over an hour about Cage. She wants to find a way to work with him and his separation anxiety and I am over-joyed about her commitment to him. She is a young single mom and just a super person in general and loves this dog. I call his previous foster to see if she can keep Cage until Friday and until Adopter is off work to work with Cage. I call Dr. F. to set up an appointment for Cage and then arrange for the Foster's daughter to meet Adopter of Cage there on Friday with Cage. We talk about all different alternatives for working with Cage including one of our foster's babysitting him in her home while Adopter is at work.
I get home and fight with my husband. I realize we haven't really hugged each other or spent good quality time with each other for what seems like months. I have several calls about people finding dogs or wanting to give up dogs. They are on my cell phone and home phone. Then a Foster of Nico calls that Nico is still coughing and she can't wait until Thursday for the vet. Then an Adopter leaves a message that Sheeba, the senior chow she adopted awhile ago, who had some diarrhea problems last month now is passing large pieces of spaghetti. I explain these are round worms and since she walks her in a public park several times a day that she needs to de-worm her. My husband is pissed that I have been on the phone and computer all night and he has to leave for a flight at 5:00 the next morning. Two of my dogs have bad gas from being at Boarding and switching food and Shemp farts while lying on the sofa close to Bill's face. Curly then comes in from outside carrying a dead bird in her mouth. Bill is ready to go to a hotel and tells me how difficult it is to live in a pig-sty but that he loves me and that this is so hard. I start to feel sad and guilty and I feel the heat of a hot flash yet again.
Wednesday......Deborah calls me again about Madigan and I realize I forgot to follow up with the Behavioral Vet. She also tells me she has a home visit on Thursday night near Polaris, near me for Mischa because of some problems. It is mid rush hour and I tell her of course "I'll do it." Then she tells me about the woman who has Gizmo and can I call her because Gizmo has separation anxiety. I write her and call her and talk to her for an hour on Weds. She is crying on the phone and I give her many alternatives. In the meantime between my real job, which I left home for at 6:00 am Wednesday morning, and the dog stuff, I realize I have lost a gas card and a cell phone.
I get another call from Foster mom reminding me about Nico's kennel cough and stop at her house on the way home from Springfield, Ohio where I worked that day. I had called my vet and had gotten some Clavamox for Nico. As I pull up, her neighbor, who has some unspecified type of mental and physical health issue, starts banging on my van door and it was unexpected and I didn't see her and I am so scared, I wet my pants. I had to pee badly anyway and thought I'd wait until I got home. I run up to the mailbox and leave the medication with the neighbor following me and talking loudly at me. She told me that the landlord said Foster couldn't foster anymore. In the meantime I had been talking to Bonnie because I needed her home address to send supplies from Pet Supply and this all happened with the strange woman banging on my car door.
I left and stopped at the liquor store. It was only 6:00 pm and damn....I needed a stiff drink. But my pants are wet and I cannot even go in and buy a bottle of wine. I called Foster mom who lived next to the woman who banged on my car door, and she told me this neighbor is "different" and she shared my angst but has lived with this for 2 and a half years. I tell her the medication is in the mailbox. She tells me the neighbor actually works for the Landlord and that she may not be able to keep Nico because the neighbor doesn't want her to foster anymore. "Shit".. I say to myself.
The Boarding Trainer calls me and says that Madigan seems like a really sweet but scared and growly youngster. Says it will be hard to assess without seeing her in her own environment.
9:00 pm I talk to Ann, Foster Mom and she doesn't want to necessarily take a coughing dog so she will consider Madigan.
I call Shelley because I had promised to order supplies but forgot about it.......she gives me her list and I then order supplies like vaccines, de-wormer and cat vaccines. It is over $300 and I know I can't hide this from Bill. I also have just charged $775 at OSU and $250 at the Vet for Emily's heartworm treatment. I panic over Bill's reaction to this, to the loss of my cell phone, gas card and a recent parking ticket. Then I realize that I wrote a check to the woman who had Maya when I did not have enough money in my checking account. My house is a mess and I have a presentation for my real job for the next day and still have several hours of work to do to prepare for it.
This is my life, the life of only one Crazy Rescue girl......just a glimpse.