Little Gifts

my unpaid and semi abused carer has decided to just go and take a nap right when i decided to get out of bed and want something to eat. can you believe that? i just had to microwave my own chicken pie! and me with only one good hand! and i've come up with a cunning plan to at least get my xmas decorations into the house. then my sister can hardly say no to putting them up as per my strict instructions with me sitting there all sad faced and lifeless can she? ......insert evil patient laugh...... i swear it does all actually hurt and i sleep half the day away and i do have to be very careful coz it was serious, etc but have taken this on board as an experience to learn from rather than something to mope about. it is just a short period of my life derailed right now if i do everything i need to do to recover fully and mental strength is a big part of recovery. i actually think about all those poor rescue dogs who get injured and have no pain relief or specialist to set their bones right and no-one to hold them and tell them it will be ok or to feed them when they can't feed themselves. i have nothing to complain about when i think of them. mind you, i wouldn't mind having a proper shower! i feel like sir bob geldof and i have a lot in common at present!

having a very sleepy day today and haven't even topped up the drugs since last night! thank goody for air cond and three doggy pillows! oh and my amazing little sister! had the best zombie dream before too - real movie epic type of one. removable brace lets you shower and do physio so its a good thing. should also let me drive earlier. :D

sunnybank donatella! it's all over bar some pain and physio. seems i now have osteoparosis from my vitamin d deficiency which is why it shattered so badly. nothing chocolate wont fix!

au contraire labradork - this isn't my story but i was there when the incident was discovered - very recently used tampon sucked to within an inch of its life by an old and unembarassed sbt. owner of said tampon, which was previously in bathroom bin, remains totally mortified by this incident. we can only assume sbt had been exposed to too many vampire movies as a pup.....

my sister has been taking unattractive photos of me for her own amusement so there will be new cast pics too and hopefully my eyes wont be rolling into the back of my head in them! this time tomorrow i will be awaiting some viking action and permanent relief! and harley we are aiming for elevation as much as possible. i have pillows all over my bed!

currently moments of excitement include staying awake for more than half an hour and finding positions to hold my arm in that keep the pain levels down. this cast weighs a tonne. oh and it is my left arm and i'm a rightie but i didn't realise how useful 2 hands and arms were for bathing, drying, dressing, etc. i've been taking that second limb for granted! 34 more mins till next painkiller due......and counting!

aw shucks, i have a thread! i knew i'd broken my wrist as soon as i fell but didn't know i'd shattered it so badly. likely due to my vitamin d deficiency. they couldn't find any veins to beta block and put my hand back in place so they had to sedate me and even though they'd only given me a fifth of the sedative i stopped breathing and it took 10 mins to bring me back to the land of the properly living. no bright white light but lime green and black squares and i had no idea whether i was a human being or a wall or what. very wierd experience. so i've got a sore nose from trying to be unsuccessfully tubed, a badly bitten lip from unsuccessfully being intubated, a sore neck from being held in place to do these things and a sore chest where they kept running their knuckles over it to get a response from me. i came too sobbing like the world's biggest baby with my sister trying to settle me. all over missing one bloody stair and a wrist! had the ct scan this arvo and can't do anything with that arm or hand so my poor sister, i feel like sheldon off big bang - dannie! dannie! dannie! still off with the fairies on painkillers but not as much as yesterday. the ones i'm on give me little itches everywhere. surgery with a very tasty viking looking man this wed arvo to plate all the loose bits which i can actually feel moving underneath this cast. hopefuuly a couple of days on discomfort and i can become independant again. going for a lime green cast and geting the dogs to add some paw prints! and finally some food this arvo - no food since sat night. i did get tea and a banana before i left the hospital but the smorgasbord of drugs in me rejected that on the front lawn. oh the dizzy last night. so advice for all of you - even if you don't want to wake unwanted guests do turn the lights on to avoid this scenario. unwanted guests will just have to suck it up!

Labradork I was using a sporn on a very underweight and very wrinkly shar pei foster dog and I would never have done anything to cause that poor boy more suffering. I thought it looked very comfortable and now I know it is actually a functioning harness for some dogs like yours too. I always prefer a harness on my dogs and foster dogs because I feel it enables *ME* to have more control. I've seen too many dogs pull their heads out of a collar. And most of the foster dogs I get aren't leash trained so I find them much more responsive to leash training wearing a harness. These different styles of equipment would not exist if they weren't meeting dog owners needs. Trust that you know what's working best for your dog.

That is great to know Labradork as I only ever thought of them from a comfort perspective and not a control aspect! I suppose they wouldn't be great sellers if they were just for comfort!

A very wrinkly foster pei that came to stay with us for a bit came with a sporn halter and that is the first time I've ever seen them. Mind you I kept putting it on wrong but the dog never ran off! I'm not sure I'd use them with a high energy dog (I prefer Puppia styles if possible) but what a great idea for dogs that need comfort under the armpit area and are happy to just plod along beside you on their walk! And I just noticed they are now selling at my local City Farmers.

I was thinking after DD's thread about dogs who have to come to the toilet with us about the strange post human shower habits my heart dog and now my foster dog have. I go in for my shower and they wait outside the door. If I'm home alone with the door open they are sitting on the bath mat shaking any stray water off their heads and faces. So then we go to the bedroom and while I dry my upper body they each take a lower leg and lick it dry. After they have completed that important task they go and lie on my clothes, usually getting tangled in a bra or pair of undies. I have a large couch at the end of my bed so even if I am only going to put on jeans I wore yesterday they seem to now which clothes to lie on. How? And whilst the foster girl does like to run off with random items of clothing she never ever does it with things I am planning to wear. Again, how does she know what item from the clean washing pile on the chair I might have decided to wear? If I'm getting very dressed up then I usually sit on the bed with a mirror and my make up bag and they help me forage through my selections, watching me intently while I'm putting it all on. They never nick or try and eat anything even though they would eat a lipstick or a lip gloss, hair tie or comb/brush if they found it lying around anywhere else in the house. Same with shoes. Lastly after I moisturise my hands they like to give them a bit of taste lick and then we're done. I think the part of our routine that always makes me laugh the most is the lower leg licking. It's like they think it is their job and wait patiently until I am standing in the correct position for the licking to commence. And they never go higher than the knee and never go onto my feet. Anyone else's dog have wierd habits like this???

They are all so gorgeous! And all their aunties (and Uncle!) are probably busting to show them the big wide world!

deleted because it was OT to OP issues.

This is my tired little Foster Elf Dimples.

This is terribly sad and I actually feel guilty for not devoting more of my fundraising to Pacers now. I got caught up in supporting the needs of the rescue I began fostering for. There is just always so much need. Julie this was an amazing service that has changed the futures of many people and their animals. I'm sure there is sadness but I also hope there is pride in the work you and others, including volunteers, donators and frequent fundraisers, have achieved. I wish you all well in the future too - please know that your efforts were appreciated.

That's a guinea pig! You trickster!

I never used to wonder about foster or foster failures backgrounds but have always had this thing where I try and tally up how many 'homes'(inc temp care, pounds and shelters) a dog has already endured since it's birth and the number is always astounding. Dogs are so resilient but even they must have a limit? What we do end up finding out about rescues is often so very sad and sometimes unnessecary. My current foster was given up with 2 other pups and supposedly her very elderly mum. But she got her adult teeth a couple of months before the other 2 pups so obviously she wasn't from that litter or mother. Why do those who surrender have to lie about this stuff and make it harder for the dogs? A previous adult foster was surrendered by an owner who had clearly adored him but found themselves in difficult circumstances. That boy looked like he'd lost his spirit and will to live when he lost his person. He was malnourished (not original owner's fault) and I really thought he wasn't going to make it. Based on his behaviours I don't think he had ever had much contact with other dogs, never had much access to grass and had never played with toys - I think he was just all about his person and being with them. So not only did he get to experience, and in some cases enjoy, new things but he chose a family with children as his new forever home and has blossomed. He holds a special place in my heart still, but equally as precious to me is the memory of my heart girl teaching this foster boy how to play tug and trash a stuffed toy. That naughty girl of mine is one in a million! She was also a failed foster and I know she was flown to Brisbane from Mackay as the people who bred her couldn't get rid of her up there. She doesn't like crates at all and I think she may have been very stressed during confinement and flight as all her whiskers were broken off and her snout was scabby when I got her. Now almost 5 years later they still haven't grown back properly. She was such a naughty dog for the first three years that the friend who introduced us still apologises for doing so but I adore my chunky monkey and the life she brings to this house!

My foster girl always has to poke her head in just in case any empty loo rolls are available to chew on. She isn't interested in assisting me in any other way thank goodness This is TMI but the other night I was half lying and half sitting on the lounge and she was lying with her head near my bum. I did one of those little popping farts (no smell I promise!) and she just lifted her head and looked at me like "You dirty minger!"

My girl's all time favourite thing is a tad embarrassing. She ADORES having her inner thighs rubbed. She has been know to fling herself against visitors on the lounge (even ones she doesn't know) displaying all her worldly girly goods, looking at them lovingly hoping for a scratch in her favourite spot. If you can imagine a pied SBT in the same position as that last pic in Wobbly's avatar above then that is pretty much what she offers up but normally it will be across a strangers lap or propped up against their chest. And of course she wriggles and ungently guides your hands with her front paws so contact with her girly bits whilst trying to scratch her favourite spot is on the cards. Ewwww. I wish she preferred swimming or playing with balls!

I personally could not look at adopting a dog from a shelter whose values and methods of operation I didn't support. I would not be entering their premises or their websites so would be unlikely to see the animals and fall in love with one because I agree, it is not the dogs fault who it ends up being rescued by. Given a lot of dogs are advertised on Pet Rescue these days I would be looking at dogs only attached to specific rescue groups that I was comfortable with rather than doing general dog searches. My reason for this is linked to my view that if we continue to support what we don't like then it will never change or go away. If people stopped buying cute puppies at exorbitant prices from pet shop windows then pet shops would cease stocking them and puppy farmers would reduce their breeding rates if they had less outlets to sell through. If a dodgy shelter had a poor turnover of dogs then they could take less new dogs on and at some point might have to look at why they weren't being utilised by the public and address the criticisms raised with them or cease to operate.

I just don't understand the purpose of stealing a puppy like this and not caring for it. Do these tools think puppies look after themselves? And surely the signs of her deteriorating health were noticeable and they could've dumped her at a pound or taken her to a vet and said they found her or done something, anything other than just continuing to neglect her? I don't understand human beings and how they can let innocent creatures suffer to the point of permanent disability or death. Dogs have emotions. They cry in pain. They look to people with pleading eyes when they are in need. No creature deserves a short and horrible life like this. I don't know how her family can endure the pain of knowing what their beautiful girl experienced. I know some would not agree that punishments for animal abusers should be tougher but if a person can do this to an animal (a baby one at that) they can do it to a human. Unnessecary cruelty is simply that and it shouldn't matter what species the victim was. We can't condone people like this walking around in our society.

It's like she's saying "Look! I cleaned up for you a bit!" She looks very proud of her handiwork!

My old sbt Ricky (RIP 2011) was nearly all black brindle in her youth but by the time she left this world, just shy of 17 that white hair was everywhere! Even her girly bits! And skin tags were everywhere! Plus lumps and bumps replaced her once taut frame. I love watching them age. I just found this old photo! I think it would've been winter 2010, about a year before we lost her because she left us just before winter 2011. She wore baby socks because she dragged her feet causing the back toes to bleed, so this was our attempt to address that. She was actually quite happy and lively to the end but was a tough dog and hated having her pic taken when she was in a coat, let alone socks! She'd go outside in winter with a coat on and be embarrassed in case a neighbour saw her, but she needed it to keep her warm. The house is still full of great memories of our old girl!

I had the opposite problem at training with my heart girl. She simply would not settle (think ear piercing barks) until she had 'met' all the other dogs in the room with her. I understood that two dogs (sisters) were there because they had some DA issues and that another swf hated having dogs in her face but after several weeks of the barking and her not paying attention and distracting everyone else one of the DA dogs got loose, ran over to her, said hello and the trainers realised that the best thing for all of us was to let mine say hello to the other two so we could just all get on with it. I was terribly embarrassed but she and the DA dogs got on very well from then on so it was also quite beneficial for them. I just had to keep apologising to the lady who owned the swf who remained unimpressed that each week my dog had to come and say hello to all her new friends before we could all get down to business. I think my dog is just nosy like her mum! :D

The funny one we get when my sister and I walk a husky/shep cross, sbt and a pei is "could you not decide on a breed?" I must admit though that I am a fan of bright, colourful matching leashes and collars even on my fosters and even with harnesses, because I've always felt those big studded collars on sbt's make them look scarier than they might be. I have been known to struggle to leave the house when I can't find the right lead for the collar the dog is sporting even though I am aware the dogs don't give a toss!