Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[savingdogs]

When I was a teen, you couldn't stop me from learning to drive..... This one (18-year-old) sits in front of his computer and communicates and works online, he doesn't have the same driving need to be mobile. A cell phone, computer and internet connection is more important to him. It is a different world. I'm referring to Computer Geek, not Trouble. Trouble, the 14-year-old wants to drive YESTERDAY. I've found raising each of my children to be a totally unique experience.

I drove past the very interesting site yesterday on my way home from work of deer mating..........do I sound totally like a newbie from the city? My car startled them. Looked like a young buck.
I thought it was really cool and I don't mean it in a perverted way, just that I got to witness something like that. I have to admit I was thinking it was goats mating at first because it looked so similar. I felt like Jean Auel's Ayla, watching. Anyone else into that series? The newest book is coming out in March.

We have decided to switch to fostering just one breed for a different group, Rhodesian Ridgeback rescue, where we will have just them, and not as many. They inspired us to rescue dogs, one was the best dog we ever owned, and we would add some experience to this new group, whereas our old one has plenty of experience without us. An old friend, who I mentored when she began in rescue, is now heading that group and it just feels right. She and I teamed up before and were really successful when she found a homeless man with a bag of eight starved pit bull puppies, four weeks old, and was giving them away on a corner, telling people to "make em mean!". She took the whole bag and we became friends. No one made them mean, trust me.

At that time, we had The Evil One in charge of our humane society, who directed them to euthanize any wide-faced dog just in case it had a chance of being part pit bull. Mastiffs, boxers, and even labs sometimes have wide heads so they were not even correctly identifying the breeds. My friends puppies were obviously red-nose pits mixed with some sort of airedale type terrier, so she knew she could not take them there. They were beyond cute, stocky bearded full faced little gold dogs.

He also made them euthanize any livestock animal of any type and cats were given almost no space at all, and were being euthanized at the rate of 60 per day under his stewardship. If not for The Evil One, I would never have started doing rescue, but I digress....that place is knocked down and we now have a beautiful new shelter in our county.

In any event, when The Evil One was in charge I specialized in the most needy, which started out as black labs, later was border collies and we finished with pit bulls. Since I had the legal limit of adult dogs, I thumbed my nose at the city by fostering multitudes of puppies, literally over 200 in about five years. .
So many of them ended up being pit mixes, mastiffs, staffies, or anything wide-faced, labs, boxer, any bully breed mixes. Most common mix was pit/lab, I love that mix, and one was the Best Dog I Ever Gave Away. I won't tell that one because she was just the best puppy ever, never needed training or did anything bad and I still wonder what was I thinking the day I gave her away? I guess I accidentely just told the story of Julie.

But it was two years before my friend and I were done with all eight of the airedale/rednose dogs and we became friends. I'm a firm believer pit bulls are not for everyone and I'm really really picky who adopts them. We had a real shy one in that litter named Tiger Lily that was two years in foster care before we found her home, although I only had her to age six months. Finally a correct family was found for her. I guess this was also The Story of Tiger Lily. How did I tell two pit bull stories when I was trying to tell you all about ridgebacks?

My friend felt more inspired to rescue ridgebacks after that, and lately we have decided teaming up again and joing her in a more win-able fight is a good choice for us. You can never save all breeds from being euthanized but if we specialize we can help them save all RR dogs.

 

[AL]

My cousin has always had and still has RRs. They love those dogs! But they are literally across the country from you .... in D. C. lol

 

[savingdogs]

Well besides being the most beautiful dogs on earth, the ridge is really cool! Everyone asks about it and it scares ignorant people who think your dogs hair is "up". lol They were originally bred to hunt lions as well as protect the hearth and family, in Africa. They were descended from a feral breed crossed with greyhounds, mastiffs and such by a Dutchman. He noticed the ones with ridges had the best characteristic. We agree! They smell like sandalwood and don't get fleas.

They are fiercely loyal dogs, great protectors, tend to have big personalities although are generally aloof with strangers. They can be manipulative and overbearing so are not for the faint of heart or those challenged by teacup poodles. This is why some end up in rescue, just "too much dog". They are also fairly large and you'd be surprised how often people give dogs away because they grew "too big" and forgot to train along the way. But we found them to be the most intelligent dogs we have known, we had one that opened locked doors with her teeth, knew which day of the week it was based on my husbands clothing and watched television, preferring dog shows on Animal Planet and stood at attention when ridgebacks were on the dog show (I have a picture on my crashed computer of this). For self-sufficient types, just the fact that they are resistant to fleas makes them a good choice. And while they have a high prey drive, they are very trainable, both our ridgeback and our ridgeback mix are excellent with the poultry and goats, as well as cats. They are known to survive without food and water longer than other dogs too, although mine have never tested that theory out!
My RR group is a part of a national group, I'm sure there is a division near everyone in the US.
I'd never recommend a karelian bear dog like we have to anyone, but ridgebacks are another matter.

 

[ksalvagno]

Hard to stay away from fostering, eh?

My sister had adopted a heinz 57 mutt from the local shelter. She is small dog and will never be more than 30-35 lbs. Last Christmas, we were all together and someone asked her husband what type of dog they had. Without hesitation he said, "she's a Rhodesian Ridgeback." DH and I immediately burst out laughing. She isn't even close. But BIL said, "well, her fur was up one day." We just burst out laughing again. Then later BIL said that he was tired of saying she was a heinz 57 dog and wanted to make her sound more exciting.

Good luck with fostering the RR. They are beautiful dogs.

 

[savingdogs]

Yes, that is a very common thing that happens, people think their mutt is a ridgeback because it is brown and it gets its hackles up. It is nice you "get" the joke, a lot of people would just say, "Oh!"

I let my 105 pound purebred out front to go potty the other day, not knowing a UPS delivery person was walking up my walk. He scared the dog and she barked a huge Wooo wooo wooo and the UPS guy about had a heart attack! I shouted "she is friendly!" to try to set him at ease and he shouts back "no she is not!"

I had a hard time not laughing until he left.

We will be on foster hiatus until January.

Hubby reconstructed the duck area today, now we have duck taj mahal........

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

so pix of the duck taj mahal?

i love that you did this:

I shouted "she is friendly!" to try to set him at ease and he shouts back "no she is not!"

i got the same thing but i think i said "hey buddy run and dont ever come in the fence again!" or something. just kidding. but really they just throw the packages over the fence now.
;-)

they dont get fleas!?!? really!?!?

 

[savingdogs]

No fleas!

 

[savingdogs]

Off work today, thank goodness. It is supposed to be sunny, too!

Fall is coming to a close here. Trees are clinging to their last leaves, except our pines. Alder and big leaf maple leaves litter the ground. My goats really like these and cleared an area for me, eating them as they came down. Too bad they can't roam all five acres!

They smell so NICE with Sebastian the buck gone!
I love my goaties. They are my favorite of the barnyard animals. I think it is because they give so much love back. My ducks and chickens just want me to feed them, but the goats seem to really love all of us. I hope the kids have the same personality.

We've had the woodstove going the last 24 hours and the house is nice and warm.

The duck Taj Mahal is working too well, one duck is broody. We thought she was hurt. Okay, we are newbies. I figured out what is wrong with her but haven't been able to convince my family that is what is wrong. They still think she is hurt.
THEY don't have the benefit of my wonderful forums.

Have a great sunshiny day everyone!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I felt like Jean Auel's Ayla, watching. Anyone else into that series? The newest book is coming out in March.

Ooooh, I like that series. I just re-read Shelters of Stone a few weeks ago.

I love watching the goats lick up the leaves one at a time. Lick crunch crunch crunch lick crunch crunch crunch lick hehehe

 

[freemotion]

My sister had adopted a heinz 57 mutt from the local shelter. She is small dog and will never be more than 30-35 lbs. Last Christmas, we were all together and someone asked her husband what type of dog they had. Without hesitation he said, "she's a Rhodesian Ridgeback." DH and I immediately burst out laughing. She isn't even close. But BIL said, "well, her fur was up one day." We just burst out laughing again. Then later BIL said that he was tired of saying she was a heinz 57 dog and wanted to make her sound more exciting.

Does that mean my goats are Rhodesian Ridgebacks??? Do I need to put up a sign that says, "Warning: Guard Goats!"