No Good Deed Goes Unpunished **Open Thread**

Oh my how cute what a wonderful addition to the family !!!

and puppies too…..

I pray all goes well at the delivery..

I apologize I can’t help with dog placement. I would like to take a moment and wonder, if geneticists could create an option that would allow those interested the ability to reduce the number of times they ovulate every year, wouldn’t that take pressure off of everybody?

In the case of animals, what if they could be bred to be in heat once a year or once every two years, etc.?

Reproduction is really a huge responsibility.

How wonderful of you to take her in. I would love to help you out and take a puppy, but I’m in Colorado. Airmail anyone?

No stamps have gone up UPS or Fedex will be cheaper by far….

The state of Georgia is still seeking to execute a man whose guilt is very doubtful:

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=11448

Grrrr….You can’t do this to me. I want a couple of them. I really do. I already have my three elderly monsters, and the last time I tried with another dog it wasn’t the greatest experience because the new baby irritated the hell out of my two old girls. Ughhh…I want another baby and I bet they’re adorable.

I’ve been thinking about getting one! Those velvetty Snoopy-dog ears are quite appealing. Puppy cam??????

Rev Amy, I hope you will be able to find good homes for the puppies, but I can’t offer to take one since we have too many cats and birds. Three years ago in May, my young sister died and it tore me apart. She had been my best friend and confidant almost all my life. In June of that year, we took in two young men, fiends of a family member. That same month a mama cat moved her four kittens under our front porch to live. She was so thin, but still taking care of her babies and with the help of an organization here, we managed to get shots for all and spayed the mama and one female and neutered the three males. A week or so later, our next door neighbor came to the house and asked if we realized there were four skunks living under our garage (we didn’t). We live in the foothills and wildlife occasionally wanders into our yard, usually deer, but sometimes fox. That summer we had an abundance of fox. Every night when the sun went down, we got the binoculars and watched the two adult skunks and two babies crawl out from under the garage and I saw how beautiful they were. We did get used to the odor. In the evening, I sat on the front porch trying to coax four ferel kittens out to make friends with them. My husband would go out the door yelling every time he saw a fox because he was afraid they were after the kittens. Our grocery bill was sky high trying to feed the two young visitors. One night two deer wandered into the back yard and began to eat my favorite flowers and they came back again the following night and continued throughout the summer. It was the most amazing summer of my life and I felt blessed. I don’t know how I could have made it through those months trying to deal with the lose of my sister if all those little strangers hadn’t come into our lives. We kept the mama cat and two kittens to go with the cat we already had and the skunks moved on in the fall and we repaired the garage so they couldn’t move back in the following spring. The two young men moved on and one of them was killed in a car accident the following year. I think you have been blessed also because you have a good heart and you’re willing to take in a critter who might have been destroyed or lived a miserable life without you.

My Obama will bail you out seeing how this happened through no fault of your own.

I don’t think so… Obamas are so indecisive.. Can’t even make up their minds about their family dog… Happened in a long period of time pretty much like how he speaks without his teleprompter or without cues from his handlers…

my = maybe

OF COURSE! You must offer a puppy to the First Daughters! Sure wish we knew who baby daddy is.

Rev Amy … my dearly departed springer spaniel had a huge litter of 13. It is amazing how much the mother just knows. Katie was two weeks early and the whelping box was something she walked around and ignored until the time came. And I mean the EXACT time. Blessings to all of your enlarging crew. I like most of the posters here am far to far away to take one on … Maybe when you whelp them you can add a place to the website for donations? I’d rather donate money to DOGS than to just about any other cause.

This is a very heartwarming story, elise. Thanks for sharing. I’ll try to be happier about the herd of 5 deer that tramp throughmy garden most mornings.

I heartily agree that animals around us deserve respect. My testimonial is with credit due the National Wildlife Federations’s Backyard Wildlife Habitat program who guided me in the (non)landscaping of our 1-acre wooded lot. I was rewarded last June by a rare chance encounter with a nesting box turtle. I was advised to build a predator exclusion cage, I waited the prescribed incubation time, and was truly blessed to eventually find three quarter-sized babies in the nest. It thrills me to know they will live on my property long after I’m gone.

RRRA wrote: “So, I have one question – anyone want a puppy?!?! How about a matched set?”

lol no doubt!

Takes shipping on a whole new meaning, huh?

She is so sweet looking. look at that faaace. I wish I could have one.

Will you share the puppy photos with us. I can’t wait to see what daddy looked like.

>>> Reproduction is really a huge responsibility.

DING DING DING!!! COMMENT OF THE DAY!!!

Lovely photos Amy!
I’m wishing you the best of luck, for you may have difficulty adopting the litter.
I love dogs, but have chosen to be resistant to being tied down again.
You know, we old gals like our new-found independence!

I would say yes to a puppy, except that the economy has gifted me with two, yes two, collies. I already have a hound and a Bichon, both adopted. Someone dumped the two collies, very friendly and gorgeous, without collars on the road where I live. It goes about 2 miles off the main highway and the dogs were left where they wouldn’t run out on the highway right away. Which happens to be right near my gate. I saw them running up and down the road the first night they were left, totally confused and looking for their people. The next day, I heard them barking outside my house, in the driveway. So, I went out and put them in the stable yard, with food and water, and they have been here ever since. They don’t come into the house, yet. But I am sure that when the weather gets hot and muggy, I will be able to get them to come into the cool of the AC.

These are beautiful, friendly and well cared for dogs. One has a shaved area, hair half re-grown, where either an accident or surgery happened and the vet dealt with it. I can only imagine the situation that led the people who owned them to dump them on my road. They got lucky, they found a home with someone who likes dogs and will feed them and keep them as safe as possible. They don’t go through gates like my hound will, so they are basically confined to the stable yard, which is big enough for a couple of horses to turn out in, so is ok for two dogs. It’s about 1/2 acre or more. They “get out” for a walk and romp at feeding time for the horses. They get their dinner while I fix the horses’ dinners and then romp along when I go feed the horses. They are a bit scared of the horses, which is a good thing.

So, due to the economy, I now have two Lassies, or Laddies, or one of each. Haven’t looked yet. They are very friendly, but trying to find the appropriate signs of gender in all that fur involves a bit more intimacy than I am comfortable with at this time in our relationship. So I will wait a bit to check on who is what. My guess is that they come from a foreclosed home and the people had no way to keep them. They are a breed that requires a lot of exercise, and do not do well confined or kept on a leash. Well, now they are country dogs, with plenty of food and fresh air and a soft bed to sleep on in the tack room.

I think they might have come from the next county over, where the shelter is a kill-shelter. I got my hound from there. And I am sure that the people were told that the dogs would probably not be adopted together, and they are a definite pair. So the owners did what they thought was best. And luckily for the dogs, it was for the best. They have a good home now, and are still together. I wish I could get word to the former owners that the dogs are ok. And that I am glad to have them.

Thanks for all the great comments. We’ll be taking copious amounts of pictures in the next few weeks and will post them periodically.

Judy, you’re only one state away, so we’d be happy to provide door-to-door service!

Elise, I am so sorry to hear about your sister. My heart goes out to you and your family.

Thanks for the story and the compliment. I am using a blackberry, so forgive the short respnse!

You’ve got a heart of gold! So happy that the dogs found their way to you. : )

OH, thank you for rescuing those doggies. Wow, how sad. It reminds me of an episode I ( and my siblings I’m sure) will probably never forget. My father didn’t want our cat anymore. We didn’t know what he was doing when he told us all to get in the van and bring our cat. We drove (oh god, my heart is wrenching now)on the highway somewhere far from the house, my father stopped the van and told us to put the cat out. No lie. We all were crying and he yelled at us to put her out. I remember watching her run across the lanes dodging cars ’til I couldn’t watch any longer. That was one of the meanest things he ever did and that includes cheating on my mother, having family meetings if they should stay together, then buying stuff for his new girlfriend and their home, not giving my mother money to buy groceries for their 5 children…and doing personally cruel things to us. That cat moment stands out the worst.

Thank you Judy. There is so much to be offered by opeining up to the beauty around us and the perfect creation of nature. It can bring peace in the midst of turmoil and pain.

Apparently good hearts are plenty here. And it seems everyone, animals and people knew who they could count on when they needed help and you provided that.

I’m sorry for your loss and it seems you helping the critters was able to get your focus elsewhere, keeping your good heart in check

Amy, where are you? I honestly would consider taking one or two of them if I could find a way to get them. My babies are so old that I don’t think it would be a problem anymore as far as the jealousy thing.

I rescued all of mine. Two were in the garbage can at 8 weeks old. I guess what they say about “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is true. I can’t imagine having lived one day of my life without my babies, and I wouldn’t have had them had the creep who owned them not thrown them in a garbage can.

Okay you are in SC…Hmmm…And you can’t have them leave the mommy for about 8 weeks, right? Oh god. If you put pics up here I’m going to die and fly there and take them I know it LOL.

Bless you for taking in those 2 collies. I have owned collies since I was 6 years old (going on 47 now) until 6 years ago when I downsized to shetland sheepdogs (shelties).

I have never seen a standoffish collie except for those who were mistreated. Even the blind collie we adopted 20 years ago after someone left him tied to a fence along a busy highway was immediately friendly and loving. Normal behavior is to roll over for their bellies to be rubbed and jumping up to lick anyone who comes along.

Collies are family dogs who pretty much have to be kicked off the couch and out the door. The idea that your new friends are so skittish that you can’t get “close enough” to determine their sex doesn’t speak well for their previous owners at all.

I wish someone would drop 2 at my door. I miss having a 70 pound dog crawl up in my lap thinking he is about as big as a chihuahua.

I hear the Obamas are looking for a dog.

I would be delighted to share some photos! Y’all will probably be SICK of them by the time I’m done!

Lucy seems to be getting ready – any day now…

Oh, and Sassy, I hear ya – before Lucy came along, we were thinking we would take a little break before getting any more dogs. Best laid plans and all that!

FlDemFem, what an incredible story! And how very, very fortunate for those collies that they ended up on your road. What a good heart you have!

And HORSES, too! Wow! I love horses (I got to go see mine yesterday – he’s a retired hunter/jumper). That is so cool. How many do you have?

I asked this of another FL person I thought might be you, but are you the horse trainer who used to (maybe you still do?) comment over at TalkLeft?

Thank you for the beautiful story – and keep us posted on what you find out when your relationship develops with the collies!

Oh, GREAT! I’ll put you down for TWO! I live in a beautiful part of the world – well worth the visit anyway, but especially if you get two PUPPIES in the mix! Come on down!