HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

(At Left: Murphy is a handsome Cattle Dog Mix who is up to date on his shots. He came from a home somewhere and is a well mannered, HOUSEBROKEN  and very lovable boy and appears to be in excellent health.  UPDATE: A rescue is stepping up for him, but he needs a home to bunk down in for two weeks in order to meet his ride and make his jailbreak possible. Please contact the volunteers below to help. Adopters also welcome if you would like to give him a permanent home.)

The dogs and cats…especially the dogs…at Clayton County Animal Control in Jonesboro, Georgia, need your help. Many pets at many pets need your help. Euthanasia happens at least twice a week, but this past week, a third day was added. 54 dogs were on the list. An offsite vet comes to euthanize and if they are there and an owner turn in dog comes in, that dog doesn’t get any time. There is no “three day hold” for them when the shelter is filled to the brim. Dogs just keep coming in.

However, the bright light is that the volunteers that help this shelter are extremely organized and have a system. If you are a member of a rescue and make intake decisions and can take even just one beautiful dog, please contact jm doro (at) earthlink.net.  They have a Facebook page called Partners with Clayton County Animal Control. There is a folder called ANIMALS IN NEED OF RESCUE/ADOPTION that the volunteers do their best to keep up to date. This week, there was a Great Pyrenese, many purebred Chihuahuas as well as beautiful “Pure Bred Georgia Brown Dogs.” So, please visit the shelter if you are local to adopt or if you are a decision maker at a breed or all-breed rescue, the volunteers are there to help you help them. They are standing by now and waiting for your offer of fostering a dog for a few days or weeks, accepting a dog into your rescue or if you see a dog and know that they are “the one.”

Delgado is a young mixed breed dog (some sort of shepherd crossed with a bully breed) who has found himself at a county pound through no fault of his own. Raised and owned by an elderly couple, his youthful exuberance was too much for them to handle. Rather than hiring a dog walker or neighborhood teen to play with him on occasion, or rather than fostering them themselves for a rescue until a suitable family was found, they took him to the pound.

County facilities with limited spaced do not hold owner turn ins. Stays have a three to five day hold, depending on the county, to give their owners a chance to come look for them. No one is looking for the dog they surrendered themselves.

Delgado is already neutered and up to date with his vetting. As a bonus, he likes kids. If you are looking for a walking partner for yourself, or are looking for the right dog to run around with kids all day. Delgado is your guy.

His Time Is Up! Please act quickly!

Serious inquiries (you must be allowed to have a dog where you live and ready for the commitment of a pet) contact:

Heard County Animal Control
(706) 675-3570
11810 Hwy 100 N.
Franklin, GA

hcanimalcontrol @ heardcountyga. c om

Rescues welcome!
***In some cases transport is available. Please comment below ***

UPDATE!!  Delgado has been rescued.

His driver and the rescue say that he is “the sweetest.”

Everyone is in love with this overlooked dog.

More and more rescue groups are setting up adoption days at public places, like at a local pet shop or bank, but sometimes the perfect dog just somehow “finds” you a different way.

Are you looking for a kid-friendly dog? Do you already have a dog and would love to open your home to another but don’t know if the dog will tolerate a young puppy? Meet Brutis.

Brutis is an even-tempered, kid tolerating somewhat coonhound-y older distinguished gentleman who is going to find himself without a home and needs a new family to love him. His current family is in a bind. They are having to move in to care for two elderly relatives in their upper 80s and unfortunately, Brutis is not allowed there. I normally have no sympathy for people who say they “can’t find an apartment that takes their dog” because they usually have not tried hard enough, but in this circumstance, there is a family emergency. Also, the family has started looking for a home quite some time ago to insure a good match.

The family needs to find a good home for Brutis by October 1st, or at least have a solid arrangement. Right now, Brutis is in Athens, Georgia. Contact Sandi at sandidoliver @att.net if you can provide him with an awesome home where he can live out the rest of his days and be a part of the family.

Are the kids clamoring for an unusual pet? Do they want to adopt a Wookiee or an Owl? Instead of creating an environment that is ripe for trouble, adopt  moshi monsters moshlings. They are played with and cared for online in a child-friendly interactive community where rudeness is not allowed and fair play is encouraged. Wookiees may be mechanically handy, but they make a disaster of your fridge.

This medium-haired beautiful cat is in need of immediate rescue and medical attention. She has a sweet personality, despite her pain. She has a broken back leg. It is unclear what exactly happened to her, but she was picked up by animal control and has not been claimed. If you are a decision maker at a cat or multi-species rescue or have been looking to adopt a friendly cat, she is located at Heard County Animal Control in Franklin, Georgia. Slightly out of the area adopters are welcome.

When you call the shelter, refer to pet number 33210. This is NOT a no kill shelter and pets have a limited amount of time to find a home.  This is a very small county pound with no on-site medical facility or staff veterinarian. Therefore, to receive comprehensive medical attention, she needs to be removed from the shelter by a rescuer or adopter.  Time is ticking. Please express your interest or assistance with this sweet feline.

Heard County Animal Control Center
11818 Ga Hwy 100
Franklin, GA 30217
Phone: 706-675-3570

I am always excited to find other sites that promote how important it is to adopt a pet, rather than purchase one. A friend of mine said that “as long as someone loves them” it doesn’t matter if a pet was purchased or adopted. That may be true, but only to a certain extent. When a breeder has a litter available, there may be four to eight dogs in shelters who don’t have a chance for a family because someone bought a puppy instead.

Petango is a brand new site where you can search for dogs and cats that are at shelters right now. Some of them are shelters where dogs and cats only get a few days before being euthanized, and some are rescue groups that rescue and rehabilitate dogs and cats from shelters. I don’t see many of the shelters that I regularly post for or volunteer for, but it just means that they have to sign up. The interface is a bit more friendly to those who are used to using Facebook and Twitter.

While I tend to look at dogs first, as I am owned by two myself, I have to emphasize that when you go to Petango.com – Adopt a cat!. While there may be some areas that have a larger population of homeless dogs than others, and some have widespread spay programs, the story for cats is the same everywhere.  At left is Buddy. He is part of a 3 year old brother/sister pair at the Windsor-Essex Humane Society in Ontario. Their owner could not care for them anymore. If you are in Ontario and are looking for a pair of cats who get along famously, you won’t only be changing the world for these two cats, but you will save two lives as a bonus. There will be two other lucky cats who will be able to have more time at the shelter to find a home.

The site is funded by PetHealth, the providers of 24PetWatch, so there are enough financial resources to keep the site operational. There have been so many sites that have only lasted a short time due to funding, so it is a good sign that it will be around if it catches on.  I only have a few criticisms, which hopefully are constructive.  Firstly, I would like to see more information on each pet.  This is not the site’s fault.   It really helps an potential adopter, especially if they have not considered a shelter dog before, to have a little more information than gender and breed.  There is a memo area that no one seems to fill out.  Even the slightest bit of information will help someone connect with a pet and want to save them, or give them clues about suitability for their family so that a permanent match is made.  Of course, if a pet is at a county pound not much can be known, but there must be something.

Secondly, there is no FAQ section to tell us how they screen participating rescues and shelters. Do they just include groups that have emailed them about being on the site, or are they using a feed from another adoption site?  I am just curious to know.

I am going to encourage some of my favorite rescue groups and shelters to contact Petango.com, so that their homeless pets may have one more potential place to attract their new family.

(Pluto is a lab mix. He is neutered and up to date on shots. He is approximately two years old).

There was a hoarder in Franklin, County, Georgia. Actually, not WAS, there IS. The story goes like this. She thought she was helping dogs by keeping every one that wandered on to her property that didn’t seem to find a home. Then, she never spayed and neutered so they all had puppies, and this went on for several generations. Yes, in some counties the better thing to do when you find a dog is to ask around and try to find the owners before taking a dog or cat to the pound. Often, the pet didn’t wander far and the family can be found in minutes, hours, or within a day or two. However, one keeps every animal that they come in contact with, it can be a sickness for both the person and the pets.

This individual was court ordered to surrender a few at a time. You might remember Frannie and Blossom, the senior chow mixes, and littermates Butch, Punk, Bubbelah, and CoCo.  Of course there was Luther, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Unfortunately, this meant that the dogs and cats were owner turn ins and at the top of the euthanization list. Luckily, I was able to find a rescue for a couple of these guys and so were other volunteers. When there are a huge number surrendered at a time, there are some that aren’t as lucky. Why does this keep happening? There have been judges that forced them to give up dogs and cats, but never barred them from owning more, so there were more to replace them. Finally, it seems there is a judge in the county that just may prevent them from being to own any more pets.

This time, the shelter has posted listings for the dogs and cats before they enter the shelter just in hopes that they can find rescues and homes before entering the shelter.  They will inevitably come in, and that will be fatal to both them and the existing dogs there.  Can we pull together and find places, even if one at a time, before they enter the shelter?

The law IS dealing with this individual, so let’s focus on helping the dogs and cats before they are “owner turn ins,” which will be a detriment to them and to the dogs and cats already at the tiny shelter.

If you are interested in adopting or rescuing Pluto, please call Lisa at 706-675-6201.  Please be courteous.   To see the other dogs and cats, please visit this list.  The pets without an intake number, and with a name instead are whom we are trying to prevent from coming into the shelter.  Many of the dogs are up to date on shots.  The dogs that are listed as shepherd/boxer are related to Butch, Punk, and the others.

There are some things that just make me angry, like this sweet Beagle Bassett at a Georgia shelter.   She is being labelled a Bassett mix, but I really think she is a Beagle/Bassett combo or is Beagle and Corgi.  Either way, she is as cute as a button.  Her family decided that they didn’t want her any more because she had a couple accident.  She just started urinating a lot, so off to the pound she went.  The staff informs people that if a dog is not adopted, they will be euthanized, but apparently that doesn’t matter to them.

A dog that suddenly starts going to the bathroom in the house usually is a sign that there is a problem, and it usually is very fixable.  It is possible that she has a urinary tract infection.  If so, a visit to the vet and some inexpensive medication would do the trick.  Some suggest that keeping a diet low in alkaline (a diet that is higher in protein versus higher in cereals and vegetables).  Of course, there is also the possibility that they had stopped letting her out or there was a major and stressful change at the house and she was reacting to it.

I try not to get too emotional or upset over things, and react by trying to network to find a dog a home instead, but when someone dumps a dog for something that is very easily treatable, it just irks me.  I can’t help but think that the owner just didn’t want to look like a “bad guy” for getting rid of a perfectly nice dog.   Either way, let’s try to help this sweet girl.  She is already spayed, so that rules out that contributor to infection, and also cuts down on the investment a new owner needs to make in initial care.

She is located at Heard County Animal Control in Franklin, Georgia.  THIS IS NOT A NOKILL SHELTER. HER TIME IS UP FRIDAY, October 2nd. When a dog’s time is up, they are euthanized for lack of space.  She needs an adopter or a rescue to step up for her.  Her id number is 70809. Their number is 706-675-3570.  Tell them you read about her on HoundsGood.com

This sweet girl would make the perfect family pet. Hounds are loyal, are typically good with kids, and aim to please. She is 45-50 lbs and 2-3 yrs old. Her id number is 56909. Her sweet face is etched in the mind of several volunteers, and they don’t seem to be able to make any headway as far as generating any interest in her. She is a very nice girl who is somehow being overlooked.

Sometimes, when a dog is shown lying on the floor, they are thought to be “scared” and people pass them up on Petfinder. Well, sometimes the dog is merely just lying down. Other times, they snap a mug shot as soon as the dog enters the door. Sometimes they were on a pole, sometimes they were trapped in a safe trap. You can imagine they wouldn’t be at their best during that trauma.

Here are some additional photos:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=ybw4dii.8aiwtv02&x=0&h=1&y=-em61nz&localeid=en_US

Please contact the shelter RIGHT NOW and save a life!!! This posting is a last ditch, grasping at straws effort for her to be seen.

Heard County Animal Control Center
11818 Ga Hwy 100
Franklin, GA 30217
Phone: 706-675-3570

I’ve been really frustrated with Petfinder lately. There is a shelter that I know euthanized quite a few dogs and cats, yet they are still on Petfinder. The shelter swears up and down that they updated the site over the weekend, but it still is not updating. Maybe its still in the cache. I have cleared my cookies and opened other browsers and the story is the same. It would be great if they were still there, but I have a feeling people will concentrate on dogs that are no longer there, and in the meantime, new dogs will be euthanized for lack of interest.

I don’t know where volunteers were this week at all.  I received a lot of inquiries after the fact asking, “Oh, did this one make it?”  I feel like saying, “where were you a couple hours ago.”

Dogs that are suspected to have Doberman in them, at left, and the sweetie that I saw in videos on Doug Kaplan’s blog tend to fall through the cracks the most. If they are purebred, like the latter, they may have a chance with a breed rescue. If not, there are so many of them it is hard to find a place. Dobermans are the type of dogs that can be as sweet as pie, but have a bad reputation because they are big and black, and have been used in countless films as attack dogs.  I also don’t understand, that being said, why shelters are quick to label any black and tan dog a Doberman.

Some of these questions are all rhetorical.  I know the answers to many of them, but that doesn’t mean I can’t vent.  I know that the story remains the same, but I wish a few more people would make a decision on the side of responsibility.