Movin' on up!

When we arrived Friday to the scene, we were warned that there was a dog in the bathroom.  He was locked in there by a friend of the owner because he was supposedly aggressive.  Everyone working on the scene referred to him as "Bathroom Dog".  He was snared by the animal control staff in order to remove him from the bathroom, but it was quickly realized that he was acting out because he was afraid.

He was left at the animal shelter because of his less then happy personality, and I did not see him again until Monday night.  I went out to the shelter to see what dogs were there on Monday, and while I was there one of the shelter employees was taking pictures of the dogs to feature them on the internet.  He was getting his picture taken and looked so pathetic. 

"Bathroom Dog" was still so scared that when you talked to him he would tuck his tail and head, look down and pee everywhere.  It was easy to see that the environment of a kennel was not doing this dog any justice. Concerned he would not come around, I decided to take him home and work with him.  Clearly being stuck in a bathroom for several days with no food or water, having strangers come into your house, never getting any visitors at your house, and being taken to the shelter was too much for this boy.

When I took him home all he did was sleep.  He slept for nearly 2 days!  I am guessing that he was not used to having a comfortable place to sleep and the quietness was probably a refreshing change.  Obviously you can tell that after he rested and relaxed he was a new boy!  Because he was turning into a new boy, I decided he deserved a new name.  Meet Louie the Border Collie!  Get it?!  Loo is the British slang term for toilet, hence he became Louie!  Okay, that might have been funnier in my head....  The best part of the story is that Louie has a new shot at life through a committed rescue, and will find his forever home soon!

                                    

I can't believe it's butter!

For my entire life I have only ever eaten butter.  Real butter.  My mother has never used margarine or artificial butter in anything she has cooked, and my uncle who I spent all of my summers with as a child never used margarine either.  I grew up knowing that margarine was unhealthy for me.  If you want to learn the difference between butter and margarine come over for any holiday, my mother and my uncle will be sure to educate you!  

Since being on my own there has never been any question, in my house we use butter.  The Reluctant Farmer and decided to try to make our own butter last night.  We had heard it was easy to do, and figured if we bought our own cream from a local farmer we could buy locally and live healthier!  

We had very vague directions from a book, and after a failed attempt we finally figured it out.  It tasted great and it was super easy!  

To make butter you need a pint of heavy whipping cream and 1 tsp. of salt.  You put those 2 ingredients into your mixer (with the paddle or whisk attachment attached!) and mix it on high for several minutes until it "breaks".

Adding the ingredients to the mixer.  (Note this attachment is not conducive to butter making!)

The cream thickened but never broke with this attachment.

Slightly frustrated we tossed the original batch of butter and tried again.

This time we put the whisk attachment on and turner the mixer up to high. 

After doing this, the liquid thickened within several minutes, and firmed to the consistency of frosting or whipped cream.  We thought we were doing to wrong, but continued.  Finally, it "broke" and started to separate.  At this point, put a towel OVER your mixer!  (It splashes everywhere!)

When the liquid started to separate, we used a spatula to scrape the side of the bowl and mixed it for a few more seconds and then it completely separated.  You could visibly see the butter and buttermilk separated. 

We poured the buttermilk off and put it into a mason jar for later use.  (You can keep the buttermilk in the refrigerator for 72 hours.)   

I formed the butter into a ball and squeezed the remaining buttermilk out.  (If you don't squeeze the buttermilk out of the butter then it will turn rancid within a few days.)  

In the end the butter looked like this:

If you haven't tried to make butter on your own, give it a try.  It tastes so much better then the butter you buy in the store and it is super easy to make.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask!  Laura Ingalls I will never be, but my mother's daughter and my uncle's niece?!  Making butter just sealed my fate!  

Somewhere out there!

My name is Marty.  You may remember me, I was one of the dogs rescued from the Maplewood puppy mill.  ( http://ontheurbanfarm.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-secret-is-no-more.html ) I am writing you to remind you that I am still looking for a forever home.  Can you help me?!

You see, I have been working real hard on being the best boy I can be.  I have been working on my house training and that is going really well for me.  I do sometimes forget and hike my leg in the house, but my foster mommy says that is not a huge deal because at 4.5 pounds, my tinkle spot is only the size of a quarter!  She has these things called "belly bands" and I wear those in case I forget and hike my leg.  My foster mom says those will go with me to my new home.

I am still shy, but I have been learning how to trust people, and I am getting so brave!  I now LOVE to sit on  my human's lap and watch television.  But, do you know what I love even more then that?!  I LOVE sleeping in my human's bed.  I sleep all night and don't get up until the next morning.  Never fear though, if sleeping with me is not something you are interested in, I am crate trained too.

I am hoping my new family is out there and I pray they have the patience to adopt a little boy like me.  I am not perfect, but you probably aren't either.  Let's be perfect for each other!  I promise I will give you unconditional love and understanding if you do the same for me!

Love, Marty

Blessed by you!

I would personally like to thank (in no particular order...) the following people for all of the help they have given me and the dogs over the last week.  With your help we were able to save a lot of lives!  In the beginning there were 85 dogs.  Of those 85 dogs, 5 had to be euthanized, 3 for medical reasons and 2 for behaviour problems.  Fantastic stuff right there folks!  We were able to facilitate rescue or place into adoptive homes, 78 of the remaining 80 dogs with the last 2 remaining at the Miami County Animal Shelter waiting for adoptive homes.   

THANK YOU!

Miami County Animal Shelter
Ohio SPCA
Tri State Collie Rescue
Tails and Trails Rescue
SICSA
Montgomery County Resource Center
Miami Acres Animal Hospital and staff
Corner Stone Veterinary Clinic and staff
Oakview Veterinary Hospital
Hearts and Hounds Rescue
Heartland Small Animal Rescue
Magnificent Mutts Rescue
Julie Sillman
Donna and Connie the transport queens!
Fur the Love of Dog
Lost and Found K9 Rescue and staff

All of the volunteers that networked, walked, fed, watered, scooped poop, transported, and dealt with my insanely bossy antics all week long!

If I forgot anyone, my sincere apologies!  THANK YOU!

I won't give up.....

"When I look into your eyes,

It's like watching the night sky.

Or a beautiful sunrise.

Well, there's so much they hold.

And just like them old stars,

I see you've come so far.

To be right where you are.

How old is your soul?"

Jason Mraz

Friday night after we unloaded dogs from this situaiton, I was taken with just how many dogs were actually there.  There were varying ages, sizes, and types of dogs.  I looked around and knew from my stand point, finding rescues to take all of these dogs was going to be near impossible.  

Immediately, there were several dogs that caught my eye as dogs that were going to be difficult to place, and several where I felt euthanasia was the most fair option.  I am different then most rescuers in the fact that I am not completely of a "no-kill" mentality and I am a realist.  I never go into a situation and expect that all of the animals are going to make it out.  It is always a hope, but seldom a reality.  In the case of health difficulties, sometimes it is more fair to let an animal go.  I feel it is selfish and for a rescuers own benefit to keep a dog alive that is going to have no quality of life.  I wouldn't want it for me, and I don't want it for my pets.  Also I feel it okay to euthanize for aggression.  There are millions of nice pets sitting at animal shelters all over the country.  Why rescue an aggressive dog when I can rescue a kind dog?   (To date we have euthanized 5 dogs total, 3 of them for health reasons and 2 for aggression.  Pretty amazing statistics on this rescue mission!)  With all of that said, unless there is a problem with aggression or severe health problems, I won't give up on rescuing a dog.  Every life deserves a chance!

There were several senior dogs that came it and they were aged, but still had a will to live.  This collie girl was one of them.  She came in quiet and submissive.  So submissive that when we fed her and her kennel mate, he wouldn't let her eat and she was fine with that.  We decided to separate her from her mate, and when we did I heard a volunteer say, "Why don't they just euthanize her?!"  It immediately made me angry and defensive.  After she was separated from the other dog, she turned into this energetic old girl who loved walking, food, and love.  Why euthanize an otherwise healthy dog?  Her only offense was being elderly and blind in one eye.  I promised this girl, right then and there, that I was going to get her out of this situation and make sure she was safe.  

The goal this week was to get the number of hoarding dogs low enough that we could get them into the shelter and out of the triage barn.  We were getting close yesterday, and when the shelter closed last night we were down to 4 dogs in the barn.  I was not worried about 3 of the dogs because they were young enough and had enough reserves to be fine bedded down in sawdust and straw.  I was worried about my senior collie friend.  It seemed mean to leave the equivalent of my grandmother in a barn on the coldest night of the year.  I knew it was better than the situation they came from, but it still didn't feel good leaving her there.   

I could not give up on finding this girl the perfect home, although I suspected that no one was really going to want to adopt her.  I decided to take her home with me, and do you know what I was reminded?  If you have a little faith, and a lot of determination, God will provide for you.  He will put people in the right place, at the right time, and things will work out exactly how He has it planned.

I took this girl to Christie's house for a bath.  Clearly it was the first bath she had had in many years!  (I have never seen a dog that dirty!)  After bathing her, I started to doubt the fact I saved her.  I wondered if I had done the correct thing by this dog.  While I was scrubbing away years of funk, I silently prayed that God would give me a sign.  As luck would have it, I got my sign!

                                             

I decided to run her over to my veterinarian so she could examine her, and tell me if the dog was suffering or not.  I needed to make sure that this dog was going to have a good quality life.  Dr. Young examined her and said she could find nothing wrong with the dog.  Her heart and lungs sounded good, her blood work looked great, and she could see no reason why euthanizing this dog was a good idea.  

As luck would have it, she could see no reason why she shouldn't adopt her either.  I am blessed to be able to say, little Miss Sunshine got a home where she will be able to live out the rest of her life in comfort caring arms.  Thank God!

How Stella got her groove back....

The first dog I saw when I entered the hoarding house on Friday was a majestic looking collie, quiet as a mouse, you could tell this girl was an old soul.  A dog wise beyond her years.  She was laying in a crate, covered in her own feces and urine, with not even so much as a blanket for her comfort.  The smell in the house was enough to make your eyes water, and the stench of ammonia burned my nose.  I looked in at this girl, she had no food and an inch of dirt/dog fur laying in the bottom of her completely dry water bucket.  She showed no emotion, and made me a little nervous.  I talked to her, and I got nothing.  I asked her if she was okay, and explained that we were there to help her.  I explained that she would be fed and watered soon, and promised her I would find a safe place for her to stay.  There was something about these collies that just touched my core.  So noble, and understanding.  I almost felt as if they were part human.

When we got back to the shelter that night, we divided dogs up.  Aggressive or problem pooches stayed at the shelter, while the rest went to the makeshift kennel.  My collie friend stayed at the shelter because she had gotten into a dog fight.  I knew this girl was stressed.  She had not been fed or watered for several days up to this point, she had to ride in the back of a van with a bunch of other dogs, and she was surrounded by chaos in the kennels that night.  The next morning when collie rescue got there, I told them I would take up to 2 collies home with me to foster.  Sharon decided to give me this girl so we could make sure her temperament was sound and she didn't have any problems.  She didn't.  All of the drama of the situation was just way beneath her.   She deserved to be more than just one dog in a sea of 85.  She knew this about herself.  It was evident in her eyes.

I love feminine names for deserving dogs, and I decided this girl deserved a great name.  She would no longer be known as Dog 62.  While she was in my care I would call her Stella.  A dog as beautiful as her, was way more than a number and deserved a name!  As I came to this realization I looked on the floor in front of Stella's cage I noticed a penny.  It was heads up, and I knew this was a sign.  It was a sign that Stella was going to do amazing things and go amazing places.  Stella, the wise old soul of a collie, was going to get her groove back. 

 This is the beginning of her story and all great stories deserve happy endings.  I for one can't wait to watch Stella's story unfold.  I know that there is some lucky person out there, and unbeknownst to them they are about to be touched by an angel: Stella.  

All I needed....

I have worked my butt off since Friday night when we helped with the hoarding case in Tipp City.  I have hustled to help find rescues for the dogs that were the victims of this situation.  I have combed the internet for rescues, gone through 1400 cell phones minutes in the last 3 days, and have sent more emails in the last 72 hours then I have in my entire life.  Today I had to go back to work, and still all day I texted and returned phones calls and emails to people that were interested in the dogs.  I know this has all been appreciated, and I am saving lives which is really what is important to me.  I have met amazing people, and seen a side of people that I forgot existed.  These 72 hours have been worth everything I have put into them, and I am reminded this every time one more dog is adopted.  Last night a "troll" made some unkind comments about the rescue efforts, and how we weren't doing enough.  Even though I knew the things she said were not true, in my delusional, sleep deprived mind I started to let her comments get to me and it really hurt. 

After I saw this amazing picture and poem that Fur the Love of Dog and Rick Lothes made for me, I am completely and utterly humbled.  Thank you so much for this gift!  It is beautiful and means the world to me.  It is all I needed.....