The Peril of Animal Rescue Volunteer Work

[pansmom]

So I've been volunteering at the pound for about a month now, and I love love love this job, interacting with the dogs, walking them, petting them, teaching them basic obedience when there's time, taking pictures... I really feel like I'm making a difference and saving animals, so it's incredibly rewarding. And I'm incorporating service-learning components into three of my composition courses this semester with two local animal rescue nonprofits, too, so I'm very excited about that as well! But I'm even more excited about this beautiful girl, of whom I took about twenty photographs to choose from to post to petfinder today, the best of which I immediately sent to my husband, who immediately called me back and left a voice message....

 

We tried to drive there after work so he could meet her, but it was raining and we kept hitting red lights. When we got there the shelter was closed.

 

She is the sweetest, most polite dog. Very sensitive, somewhat shy, but so mild-mannered. Not a chaser. Wasn't interested in bubbles, or cars. Just wanted to sit at my feet and follow me around. Didn't pull on the leash. When I tried to walk her with another volunteer, I tried to get her to walk with us but she seemed a bit nervous. She kept sitting, refusing to come out with us - I think she was scared. She really had to be coaxed out and she wouldn't go very far. But later I passed her kennel several times and her tail started thumping. So I took her out again by myself, and with encouragement, she blossomed, her ears went up, she smiled happily, laughing. Every time I told her she was a good girl, her coat seemed to get fuller, her ears went higher. She was found in a field north of here in a slightly more rural part of the parish. She sat for me. She shook my hand. She gingerly, but eagerly!, took treats. I don't think she had eaten in a while before she got to the shelter. She is so thin. I took those pictures on the profile, two with the other woman who was volunteering, and one later when I took her out for a walk again by myself. The one where she's looking up at the camera, ears up, mouth open, that was when she was alone with me.

 

I have emailed my boss at the shelter (the volunteer coordinator). We are looking into both adopting and fostering. My husband says we can do either; I want to make sure we do what's best for her...

 

(Edited slightly after posting. Apparently when I get gushy I can't form coherent paragraphs... )

[MicheleS.]

Awwww! Sorry I'm going with my emotions here. The pic of Sophia smiling at you says a whole bunch. Cute dog, cute picture

Thanks for doing what you do. You are making a difference.

 

Michele &

Hughie &

Gypsy &

Chase

[Sue R]

I hope things work out very, very well for Sophie and for you and your husband.

[PSmitty]

Oh, lordy. What's that word from the other thread? Oh, right. Enabler. That's me. I'll try to be sensible, but sometimes things are just meant to be. She is gorgeous and sounds like she needs a friend and a safe place to land. Just sayin'.

 

How about fostering her, and then there's no commitment? You can take it slow, and see how it feels?

 

Did I mention she's beautiful?

[lrayburn]

She's gorgeous! Some perils are worth risking

[ThunderHill]

Oh, she is lovely! I'm not sure why they would call her a mix except to err on the side of caution, she looks all Border Collie to me. But of course the internet is no perfect mirror for gazing in. Already spayed, perfect size (big enough to be accepted as a "real dog" by even the undogly; small enough to be conveniently portable), grown up enough for her personality to be settled... And a name of great good omen. Any idea how she is with cats?

 

I hope you can at least foster her for a while, and see how she fits into your life. (Lives.)

 

Sending you all many, many good vibes, and looking forward to updates!

 

Liz S in PA

 

And also sending you congratulations on the satisfaction of your shelter work. So glad that's working out for you in general. Pan is indeed leaving a rich legacy.

[juliepoudrier]

She's beautiful. I don't see any harm in fostering her first and then later failing fostering 101 if you decide it's meant to be. Good on you for trying to make a difference for all sorts of dogs. It's the best legacy Pan could have left other dogs in this world.

 

J.

[Ms.DaisyDuke]

She is very pretty. Hmmm. I think we're all being enablers! Oh well. Maybe you should foster her, just to make sure...

[KrisK]

Nope, she definitely can't go to your house.....because she really should come NORTH to Canada She's lovely and I hope she fits into your life Thank you for making a difference to a world of dogs who need some TLC.

[poligar]

ooohhhhh!! every time I see these posts I wish I could afford a bigger house and an easier job so I could devote to adopt dogs. You are so lucky to have these shelters that seem to work quite well. I know it's not enough, but just look down: here we don't have such facilities and our streets are quite crowded with lots of strays. I'd really love to open a shelter and give a little help to all the animals who aren't as lucky as my Francisca.

I hope Sophia finds a lovely home (either yours or other), because I cannot find any reasonalbe explanation to abandon such a cutie.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I love the nosie picture. You are one sunk puppy! Hope it works out no matter what the future holds.

[Sue R]

Good on you for trying to make a difference for all sorts of dogs. It's the best legacy Pan could have left other dogs in this world.

 

J.

My thought precisely, but I couldn't figure out how to say it right.

[MaryP]

She is very pretty. I'm sure she will really blossom once you get her out of the shelter environment. Good luck and good on you for you volunteer work at the shelter.

[pansmom]

It's the best legacy Pan could have left other dogs in this world.

 

Oh, thanks for saying so, that really means a lot. That's the way I try to think about it.

[pansmom]

She's gorgeous! Some perils are worth risking

 

I KNOW! Let me go back and face the peril! (Sorry, couldn't resist... I was thinking of Monty Python the whole time I wrote the title for this thread...)

 

Yeah, I don't think she's a mix. She looks and acts like a fullbred border collie to me. I think they put "mix" just so people don't rush in and ask for papers.

 

Well, my boss wrote me back and apparently she thinks we should just adopt her; apparently if you express your "love" for a specific animal they're not too keen on you "fostering" them.

 

I've been thinking about it though and I think there are two main issues... One, we don't know how she is with cats (though I'd bet at first at least she would be very cautious and polite based on the way I've seen her act with other small dogs, cars, and bubbles - her prey drive seems very low, and she trusts people more than other animals, they have her with the small dogs because of this (although she's big enough to be in the big girl kennels). But she seems to have no context for indoor life, she's afraid of hard floors (seriously I had to treat her and encourage her big time to get her into the hall the first time I tried to take her out, and she was much happier walking on the field than the sidewalk, she seems to be sensitive to walking textures) - so I think she would be cautious in our home, and she seems generally a follower, not a leader, I think I could show her how to behave, and my cats are very dog savvy at this point anyway. But another thing is we don't know if she has heartworms, and chances are she does... But I can't help thinking I can get together the money for heartworm treatment if it's necessary, and she took so quickly to tricks and training when I was working with her by myself. I'm thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to teach her to respect the cats if I had to after what I had to go through with Pan...

 

I haven't written my boss back yet... Not sure how to explain why I'd foster... In her email she said "we don't do foster to adopt..." Never heard of that but I think I know what she means... (The phrase reminds me of the phrase rent to own!!! Sheesh...)

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

Why not offer to pay for her Heart worm testing and ask if you can take her a few days on trial based on the reasons you have mentioned like general fears of things like hard wood floors and lack of house training. See if she will crate and get along with your dogs and cats. Possibly you could do it over the shelters closed days.

 

It could be she's worried the dog will miss an adopter while your are undecided. Which I totally understand.

[Blackdawgs]

She sounds very much like my Border Collie, who I adopted from the county animal shelter. I had been volunteering at the shelter and received a phone call when she arrived, so I snatched her before she even hit the adoptables area. She was also housed with another dog at the shelter.

 

About 3 days after coming home, she developed the shelter plague and I spent several hundred dollars on multiple vet visits, chest xrays, antibiotics, etc, but at least the distemper test was free. Once the green snot dissipated (it wasn't distemper) and I was able to take her out in public, I discovered that she was very dog reactive, so I spent I don't even know how much on the board certified veterinary behaviorist and the private training lessons, not to mention the hours and hours of time and tears. In the end, I got a lovely dog, who will always be on "Vitamin P" as my vet calls it. She is considerbly improved, but will always have to be managed, and is just too worried about other dogs and environmental stuff to compete in agility, which was my plan for her (but she is a good herding dog and now I get to learn a new dog sport)

 

So, the moral of my story is that dogs can change alot once they leave the shelter environment and one shouldn't adopt a shelter dog unless one is prepered (financially and otherwise) to deal with any and all problems that occur including dislike of cats. I wouldn't be so sure that a dog could be trained to tolerate house cats--and in the end the animals may just have to be seperated.

 

People, who do rescue, talk about the "honeymoon" period--which is the time that rescue dogs are on their very best behavior while they are feeling things out in their new home. These dogs are very traumatized and their behavior will be suppressed for many weeks.

 

I tell people, who have special needs or concerns that they are much better off adopting a dog that has been in foster care for awhile-- living in a house with other animals and people, is the best indicator on how the dog will turn out. What would you do if this dog turned out not to like kids?

[ejano]

We brought our Miss Ladybug home in just the same way four years ago. She'd been sent to the local animal shelter right before Christmas because she'd snapped at a toddler that was pulling her hair. She was underweight (from not eating, and. we discovered, tapeworms!) and scared out of her mind. Each cage has a little kennel and my husband actually crawled in there and pulled her out in order for us to meet her. We spent about fifteen minutes with her and knew we couldn't leave her there. We brought her home the day after Christmas and after she calmed down and discovered that we knew how to play "squeakers" and were willing to throw a ball, she became the best, most wonderful, well mannered dog we've ever owned. Previous posts are correct, it does take a few weeks to reveal the dog's true personality, but we weren't disappointed and there were no unusual expenses beyond the tapeworm medicine. She'd only been in the shelter a few days and had come from a home where she was well cared for and obviously very well trained but apparently didn't like little kids, not unusual for a Border Collie. She's shy of strange women and I wouldn't let her around a toddler, but otherwise she's been more than satisfactory. We love her so much.

 

If she likes you, and you like her, go for it. Some things are just meant to be.

 

 

Liz

[pansmom]

I tell people, who have special needs or concerns that they are much better off adopting a dog that has been in foster care for awhile-- living in a house with other animals and people, is the best indicator on how the dog will turn out. What would you do if this dog turned out not to like kids?

 

Yeah, I've thought of that too. Although she's small and polite enough that we could just use baby gates (like you're supposed to anyway with young kids) until she got used to them. And I'm good at working with dogs and cats at this point so I'm really not worried about that. There are ways to separate them anyway if absolutely necessary.

 

So the volunteer coordinator, at the end of her last email, had asked me, "It sounds like you just want to adopt her, right?"

 

And I finally wrote back, "Well, emotionally, I would love to adopt her! But I also know that border collies can be sort of special needs, especially super-sensitive ones like she seems to be. (I see several neuroses in her already - the vet warned me she was shy and didn't like the floor when we first took her out, and I had to desensitize her to the texture beneath her feet with treats to get her to come outside with me - probably she's never been an indoor dog - she was found in a field.) On the bright side, she seems to love me (after I took her out, she thumped her tail every time I passed, and the way she looked at me was so sweet, not at all fearful). And she doesn't seem to have any aggression with her fear - which is great - it means probably all she needs is encouragement and gentle praise to boost her self-confidence. It may be that we can get her out of the shelter and she'll blossom, easily taking to life with us (that seems most likely). But there is another possibility - that she will become, after getting out of the shelter and accustomed to our home, a reactive dog who can't live with cats or hates kids. In fact that possibility is the biggest reason why I'm interested in getting her out of the shelter myself - because she is super sensitive and I wouldn't want her to end up in the wrong hands - so that's why I'm thinking it might be better for us to foster her, work with her, take her to the vet, get her a workup, checked for heartworms, start her on treatment if necessary. And while we are fostering her, I could get to know her and watch her to see if she could be happy as an indoor/outdoor family pet. I don't mind doing behavior modification and desensitization. I don't mind lots of training. In fact I love that. But if it didn't work, I could just keep her as long as was necessary to find her the kind of home that would make her happiest. Does that make sense?"

 

She wrote back, "LACC does not have a foster program. The only foster situation is to find a rescue who wants to take that dog into their program for adoption, then the foster would be fostering for that rescue, not for LACC. Again, there is no foster-to-adopt program. We have hopes for better things in the future, but right now, the only 2 ways an animal can leave the shelter is to be adopted or to go to a rescue. When you bring a new animal into your home and family, there is always a period of adjustment, with all new adoptions. There is no guarantee, with any new pet, that it will all go smoothly. I will tell you that the vast majority of animals do fine in their new homes. Give it some more thought. Maybe have your hubby go to the shelter and meet her and see what he thinks. Both of you go hang out with her, spend time with her, and take your time deciding."

 

I thanked her for her advice and told her DH and I would go see her together on Monday. I haven't decided what to do yet. I'm not sure what local rescues would think of this proposition, considering what they may not know about behavior or BCs. My heart says just adopt the girl! And DH says we can (speaking of enablers, he is offering to pay for it, has already set money aside for it and the vet visit). And rationally I do think she'd be better with us than someone who was going to ignore her sensitivity or use flooding, for example, instead of desens (which would be like, oh, 95% of the populace down here, at least). And she responded really quickly to the desens and praise I did Friday, overcoming two apparent phobias in five minutes each. I guess the only thing to do is, as the volunteer coordinator says, go and see her with DH on Monday.

[mbc1963]

Reading your post, I feel like if anyone has enough experience to help this girl work through her issues - whatever they may be - it's you. Maybe that's Pan's legacy.

 

For what it's worth, my dog had a lot of similar behaviors in the shelter - I had to go into his little kennel, he crawled under my legs, he was terrified. If you looked at him now, you'd think he was "normal" unless I set him up to be scared. His behaviors never turned into aggression towards humans, and he actually kind of likes cats, and respects the heck out of them. The longer I've had him, the more relaxed and low-key he's gotten in strange situations.

 

You've got the tools.

 

Mary

[Maralynn]

Are there any kids you know that you could take along to the shelter with you to see how she responds? Can you take her for a drive and walk her around a park nearby to see how she reacts? I'd try to just spend several hours with her if possible and trust your instincts after that. Obviously if she remember you very favorably when you go back on monday it is a very good sign!

 

ETA - From the sounds of it, that dog is very much like my Missy when I got her. She was timid and unsure of the world, but she bonded to me very quickly and we worked throught the rest of her issues slowly but surely - it has been an extremely rewarding process.

[pansmom]

Are there any kids you know that you could take along to the shelter with you to see how she responds? Can you take her for a drive and walk her around a park nearby to see how she reacts? I'd try to just spend several hours with her if possible and trust your instincts after that.

 

Oh my gosh, that's a great idea, and yes there are! I will ask the volunteer coordinator about that right now...

[ErinKate]

I miss a lot on here and didn't realize your diff. decision with Pan. My heart goes out to you, I know how hard you worked. That being said, you deserve the joys and rewards of a more loving dog. I think that dog needs you as much as you need her. And like was said, if anyone can deal with quirks, I put my money on you. I know a lot of you don't believe in CM's methods, but for what it is worth, get her home, bond bond bond. Don't pity her, don't fear her. Live in the day.

 

I wish you all the best. Go with your gut! And we want to see her welcome home pictures!

[ThunderHill]

I would definitely take DH for a meeting, no matter what.

 

Does the shelter have any way of testing for cat issues? (Some do, some don't.) Cat issues can generally be resolved, if they do exist.

 

Being worried about polished floors is actually pretty common among dogs who have always lived outdoors, or possibly outdoors with limited experience of wall-to-wall. Stairs can be another source of confusion. The greyhound rescues have many stories to tell about kennel-raised dogs learning to cope with the Great Indoors. The good news is, they generally get over being worried about slick floors quite fast. Just be matter-of-fact and let them figure it out on their own as much as possible. (In the shelter situation you may have to push a little, because you have to get from point A to point B; but just don't make a big deal of it.)

 

Didn't we recently have a thread on the boards about current trends in heartworm treatment? Perhaps someone with better Board skills than me will post a link. I think I'm remembering that for at least a relatively mild case, these days HW can be treated by just putting the dog on the usual monthly preventative so no new infections occur, letting the existing parasites die on their own. The dog pretty much carries on as usual, maybe a little extra monitoring after each regular monthly dose. (Hopefully this little girl doesn't have a bad infestation, if she has HW at all.)

 

Everyone is of course totally right about the post-adoption "honeymoon" period, but after Pan, I think you're probably pretty well equipped to deal. Ditto post-shelter kennel cough and other annoying but survivable upsets. (At least you don't have a bunch of other dogs at your house already to share.) Frankly, it sounds like the main thing you'll need to avoid (if this happens) is too much coddling. :-) (Lucky dog!) Don't let that "shy streak" start running the show.

 

I guess all this amounts to yet another set of fingers crossed that Sophia will work out for you... I'd apologize but I'm too much of an optimist.

 

Sending you all good thoughts and prayers for a happy outcome,

 

Liz S in PA

[2 Devils]

It sounds like you would be able to help this girl have a real life. Yes she could have some issues after the honeymoon period is over but no matter what dog you get whether from rescue or as a puppy they may have issues. You have the skills and the want to make a great home for a dog.

 

I say if your husband meets her and likes her that you adopt her. If months down the road you can't handle whatever she throws at you, maybe you can look into finding a bc rescue at that point that can help place her in an appropriate home. If that ends up happening you could keep her with you until a new home is found.

 

If you don't decide to adopt the girl I am sure everyone will understand. You are a little gun shy and you have reason.

 

I think you need to contact a bc rescue and see if you would qualify to foster dogs in the future.

 

GOOD LUCK!!!