Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[savingdogs]

Hubby says we should be Dizzy Dog Ranch. Then Freemotion could still be Dizzy Dog Farms if she wanted. I think we are stretching it to call ourselves a farm, but ranch makes you think of horses and cows and pastures. But he went for my Dizzy Dog idea so I should go for his ranch idea, I think.

 

[savingdogs]

The Story of Sheena

It is time for me to tell the tale of our most awesome dog, our most special and beloved dog of all time. She has been gone for three years but I still tear up just thinking about her.

She was really my husband's dog. He always really wanted to get a rhodesian ridgeback when we "got a big enough place" so when we bought our first house, we looked into buying a puppy. They were super expensive, so we thought we would look for one in the humane society, but we found, instead, a different dog which we adopted and loved dearly, but not any ridgebacks. So hubby decided to get a playmate for our humane society lab/chessie, Steiny.

That is how we got introduced to rescue. We adopted from Rhodesian ridgeback rescue several times now, but the second one was Sheena. She started as a "foster."
We were looking to adopt a ridgeback and my husband took one look at her and I knew she was never leaving our house, and she never did. She came from a family where she was "too much dog" for an older single lady. She had been a bit spoiled. It did take a few obedience classes, but Sheena trained up very nicely.

But she was a special dog. She understood sentences, language, like no dog I've seen. She watched television, and prefered to watch dog shows. I have a photo of her (luckily one of the few I had saved when I lost all my pictures) watching ridgebacks on TV in a dog show. She was more human than other dogs I've known. I know that is weird, but she tried to talk even, and we swear she tried to say "I love you." And she most definetly said "Want out". She could open doors, even locked ones. She was the ultimate watchdog and protector and would have LOVED to live here, where we moved after she died. She was the queen and ruler of the other dogs and felt she was superior to all of them, and she was! She was extremely and 100 percent devoted to my husband, so much that her passing was probably the most crushing loss of his entire life, even more than the death any person ever, despite being a dog.

She had actually had several health problems, including needing expensive surgery to fix her legs and then later arthritis, and finally cancer. We called her our million dollar dog. We actually refinanced our other house so we could save this dog. Unfortunately she only lived to be eight, so we had her six and a half years. While there are other things I spent money on during those years that I now think was wasteful, saving the dog was still the right thing to do and I would do it again now if I could. We would have done anything to have bought more time with that "rescued" dog.

We still have her ashes in our bedroom, her picture on our wall and her face forever adorns my husbands laptop. While we have two other ridgebacks, when we talk about loving that breed, we are really talking about loving Sheena.
But really, ridgebacks can be just the most awesome breed.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Dizzy Dogs Ranch sounds like a fun place for them.

 

[Denim Deb]

I understand that kind of love for a dog. I still miss my black cocker, Ebony. We've had several other dogs since I lost her over 20 years ago, but none have come close to her.

 

[ksalvagno]

Sounds like Sheena was a very special dog indeed. We have spent money on our animals too. For some, you just have to go the distance. You end up spending your money one way or another, may as well be something that gives you daily pleasure.

 

[savingdogs]

I'll have to post her picture when I get onto my husband's computer. When I lost all my pictures, the only ones we had left were certain ones of Sheena we had on a different computer, including the best picture I have ever taken, which happens to be of her. I'll have to post it. But she had a larger than life personality for us and represents to us that when we reached out to help others (fostering), we recieved the greatest gift.

I later had my other purebred ridgeback, D D, fall into my lap for free as a rescue and luckily she has been pretty healthy and been a great dog as well. Just doesn't hold a candle in our hearts compared to Sheena, isn't the dog she was although I love D immensely. To us, dogs are profoundly individual even in the same breed or litter. People always try to lump all poodles together or all golden retrievers or especially dogs from bully breeds into little compartments (kinda like we do people). We have found each and every dog we have had live here was fully and completely unique. While my husband and I recognize traits and tendencies, we never stop being surprised by their behaviors, especially how they behave differently with different handlers. We especially see dogs that will behave for us but when they go to their new home, they feel a power void and become little demons who do things they would never have tried here. I have learned not to say things like, "He would never......fill in the blank." With someone else, he might be a totally different dog. I tell people instead that the dogs are who they make them.
But it does make a difference what you start with.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

yep

Ti and Lucky are extremely different even tho they are from the same litter. they even look different - total opposites in body type and everything.

and we laughed our butts off when the family that had Lucky told us he couldnt be house broken. he peed on the floor once. and i think i told you after i trained him for a YEAR the family wanted him back. um. no.

and its a good thing too. Kai LOVES him.. its hilarious to see them all mushing thru the snow together.

we are seeing Kai's stubbornness start to come out. the other day she wouldnt come to my hubby so he marched over and scooped her up. what she doenst know is that even when she gets full grown he'll still be able to do that
;-)

the other dogs are teaching her she isnt the boss - and we make extra effort to show her she is under our authority.. but i think she knows that already. she knows "no" and you can see her struggle with her puppy self control. she is going to be GREAT.

yay dogs!

 

[savingdogs]

OFG, you would be amazed what people have told us about dogs who turned out to be totally different for us.

There is the factor that cannot be denied....your other dogs train a new dog. If there is no resident dog, it takes more doing. But dogs learn a lot from each other, they really do. Ti sounds like the one you want the pup to emulate, but they pick out their own dog friends. Ti sounds like a really good dog. Sometimes it helps to get a dog when they are younger if you are trying to train them to do special things because no one has ruined things for you in some way. We find that ridgebacks are a hard dog to recycle because they are very sensitive but also strong willed. But that is kind of why we would like to work with them now, because we can and other people might find it hard.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hee hee i love that you said "recycle"!

and yep, having to 'rework' Lucky has been extremely frustrating.. but he turned out to be pretty good.

my dream is to have Kai turn out like Ti... together we'd be a force to be reckoned with for sure. she's pretty fearless so i think she'll be more like him and she seems like she wants to please.

and the best thing is that Ti is starting to really "work" with her - he's playing with her more and she seems to be gravitating toward him..its hilarious to watch her pull on his tail.

she's also starting to "work" - the last couple days she's been "helping" herd the little geese over to the yard. she's learning to stay behind and walk slowly. and maybe she just scared them... but last nite she got all the ducks in! we can see her trying to figure out why sometimes its ok to "chase" the ducks and clucks and sometimes why you cant. she watches the big dogs herd them and the wheels are just turning in her little puppy head.

and she's getting HUGE. we are totally smitten

 

[lorihadams]

What if you used a cartoon-y version of Sheena's pic as your logo???