BarredBuff
El Presidente de Pollo
I may have to try that one day..........
Savingdogs-Saving the chickens
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savingdogs
Queen Filksinger
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The Story of Moxie
I have to begin by saying that our family has had a love affair with the name Moxie for a dog. We have had a total of three foster dogs, each white with brindle spots, we called by that name. Moxie was an old-timey soda pop, popular long before my time, but it was spicy or peppery and was supposed to give you true grit or whatever.
We later named a family dog belonging to my daughter who went by the name Moxie (she has a story of her own I'll tell later) but we refer to her as Moxie Chicken. Then later we had a foster puppy, one in a litter of five that we bottle fed. One of them had markings identical to Moxie Chicken and so she became the little "Moxie one" too.
This story is Moxie number one though.
Early in our fostering days, we were with the small animal group and they were doing a lot of shelter pulls from a shelter down in Salem, pretty much unscreened dogs so we never really knew what we were getting. One gal would go down and pull out anything that they paraded by her....the more difficult the better. Instead of picking out nice adoptable dogs, she always chose the hardest luck cases. I was supposed to take one off of her hands.
Well Moxie was called Duchess at the time and she didn't look anything like one so I renamed her to suit her better. She was a border collie/pit bull cross, white with one spot over one eye and VERY cute, but her appeal was more of a scruffy, junk-yard-dog type rather than anything royal. And she had some attitude on her....scrappy little dog who thought a little too well of herself. Well the soft-hearted person who pulled her from the humane society wasn't having any luck getting her to behave, so my husband and I picked her out of the bunch one day when we were trying to lighten her load and take home one of her fosters.
Moxie was terrible! She challenged our dogs, even though all of them at the time were huge dogs, 90-110 pounders, whereas Moxie weighed about 45. Our top dog quickly put her in her place but not without a battle. And Moxie challenged us, too. But we did not let her get away with it, and between our dogs and our training, Moxie straightened up fairly well although we knew she had the potential to be snarly if not in the right hands. So we found an older couple who had owned an akita or some other difficult dog in the past so they sounded like her match.
I was known to be pretty particular about placing anything with a little pit bull in it, and this was the main reason that I chose Moxie from the soft-hearted ladie's house (to make sure she was well placed). It took quite a while to find the right situation. In the meantime, my family fell in love with the scrappy little dog who smartened up. When we finally found the right ones, it was hard to say goodbye.
But she moved to a home where the business was right below the home and they needed a tough looking little watch dog (and she was that). Hubby left town sometimes and wifey needed a little protection and Moxie filled the bill nicely. They were semi retired and lived on a beautiful little lake. On their days off, Moxie went on the boat with them, riding on the front of the boat, with her ears flying back in the wind (they sent me a picture). They sent me several letters thanking me for having faith in their little dog and how much they loved her, how all the neighbors would wave to Moxie when they passed them on the boat, everyone around there knew their dog.
About two years later, the group recieved a note to "whoever fostered Moxie" and I had it saved in my old computer that crashed along with her picture and all the other things I lost. But in essence, this is what the letter said:
Dear wonderful person who saved my mom's dog Moxie:
Just wanted to tell you how thankful we are that you adopted Moxie to my mother. She has been a wonderful pet. This year, mom got breast cancer and had to spend a long time in the hospital and a long time resting at home. While she was gone, Moxie was inconsolable, constantly looking for her and sitting on her chair or her place on the bed. When mom returned, she would not leave her side. Mom got really depressed with the chemotherapy, but Moxie was always there, keeping her company and making her feel better, sitting with her while she prayed. Mom is doing better now and she credits it all to Moxie. You people are really wonderful what you do. Thank you again, Love, the daughter
I wish I had the real thing. But I almost knew it by heart. Recieving it was one of those moments that makes it all worthwhile for me, makes me realize we are doing what God intended us to do when we match up His creatures with these folks who need a little unconditional love in their life. We are taking something that would be thrown away and turning it into someones treasure. Or at least that is the goal.
I always think of that line from Neil Young's Comes a Time:
You and I
We were captured
We took our souls and we flew away
We were right
We were giving
That's how we kept what we gave away
Oh! This old world keeps spinning round
Its a wonder tall trees ain't laying down
There comes a time
I have to begin by saying that our family has had a love affair with the name Moxie for a dog. We have had a total of three foster dogs, each white with brindle spots, we called by that name. Moxie was an old-timey soda pop, popular long before my time, but it was spicy or peppery and was supposed to give you true grit or whatever.
We later named a family dog belonging to my daughter who went by the name Moxie (she has a story of her own I'll tell later) but we refer to her as Moxie Chicken. Then later we had a foster puppy, one in a litter of five that we bottle fed. One of them had markings identical to Moxie Chicken and so she became the little "Moxie one" too.
This story is Moxie number one though.
Early in our fostering days, we were with the small animal group and they were doing a lot of shelter pulls from a shelter down in Salem, pretty much unscreened dogs so we never really knew what we were getting. One gal would go down and pull out anything that they paraded by her....the more difficult the better. Instead of picking out nice adoptable dogs, she always chose the hardest luck cases. I was supposed to take one off of her hands.
Well Moxie was called Duchess at the time and she didn't look anything like one so I renamed her to suit her better. She was a border collie/pit bull cross, white with one spot over one eye and VERY cute, but her appeal was more of a scruffy, junk-yard-dog type rather than anything royal. And she had some attitude on her....scrappy little dog who thought a little too well of herself. Well the soft-hearted person who pulled her from the humane society wasn't having any luck getting her to behave, so my husband and I picked her out of the bunch one day when we were trying to lighten her load and take home one of her fosters.
Moxie was terrible! She challenged our dogs, even though all of them at the time were huge dogs, 90-110 pounders, whereas Moxie weighed about 45. Our top dog quickly put her in her place but not without a battle. And Moxie challenged us, too. But we did not let her get away with it, and between our dogs and our training, Moxie straightened up fairly well although we knew she had the potential to be snarly if not in the right hands. So we found an older couple who had owned an akita or some other difficult dog in the past so they sounded like her match.
I was known to be pretty particular about placing anything with a little pit bull in it, and this was the main reason that I chose Moxie from the soft-hearted ladie's house (to make sure she was well placed). It took quite a while to find the right situation. In the meantime, my family fell in love with the scrappy little dog who smartened up. When we finally found the right ones, it was hard to say goodbye.
But she moved to a home where the business was right below the home and they needed a tough looking little watch dog (and she was that). Hubby left town sometimes and wifey needed a little protection and Moxie filled the bill nicely. They were semi retired and lived on a beautiful little lake. On their days off, Moxie went on the boat with them, riding on the front of the boat, with her ears flying back in the wind (they sent me a picture). They sent me several letters thanking me for having faith in their little dog and how much they loved her, how all the neighbors would wave to Moxie when they passed them on the boat, everyone around there knew their dog.
About two years later, the group recieved a note to "whoever fostered Moxie" and I had it saved in my old computer that crashed along with her picture and all the other things I lost. But in essence, this is what the letter said:
Dear wonderful person who saved my mom's dog Moxie:
Just wanted to tell you how thankful we are that you adopted Moxie to my mother. She has been a wonderful pet. This year, mom got breast cancer and had to spend a long time in the hospital and a long time resting at home. While she was gone, Moxie was inconsolable, constantly looking for her and sitting on her chair or her place on the bed. When mom returned, she would not leave her side. Mom got really depressed with the chemotherapy, but Moxie was always there, keeping her company and making her feel better, sitting with her while she prayed. Mom is doing better now and she credits it all to Moxie. You people are really wonderful what you do. Thank you again, Love, the daughter
I wish I had the real thing. But I almost knew it by heart. Recieving it was one of those moments that makes it all worthwhile for me, makes me realize we are doing what God intended us to do when we match up His creatures with these folks who need a little unconditional love in their life. We are taking something that would be thrown away and turning it into someones treasure. Or at least that is the goal.
I always think of that line from Neil Young's Comes a Time:
You and I
We were captured
We took our souls and we flew away
We were right
We were giving
That's how we kept what we gave away
Oh! This old world keeps spinning round
Its a wonder tall trees ain't laying down
There comes a time
Denim Deb
More Precious than Rubies
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What a wonderful story.
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
awwwwww 
ohiofarmgirl
Sipping Bacon Martinis
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i LOVE this story! i'm sure you've brought so much joy to so many people...and few ever get to thank you.. but wow hearing from the son was just wonderful.
and i love the picture i have of moxie, ears flyin in the breeze in the front of a boat. wheee!
and i love the picture i have of moxie, ears flyin in the breeze in the front of a boat. wheee!
- Thread starter
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savingdogs
Queen Filksinger
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I found a picture, but not that one. I'll try to post it here and also found a few others from these stories....what a relief! I had printed some out!
It will be easy-peasy to find a picture of Moxie Chicken and I have video of Little Moxie One. I'll have to see about posting it. My son made a video about her when she was about five or six weeks old. I'll see if I can post it!
It will be easy-peasy to find a picture of Moxie Chicken and I have video of Little Moxie One. I'll have to see about posting it. My son made a video about her when she was about five or six weeks old. I'll see if I can post it!
framing fowl
On a mission
Awww.... what a blessing for you to have chosen her and been patient enough for the right family to come along. Sounds like she has a great life!
- Thread starter
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savingdogs
Queen Filksinger
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The Story of Moxie Chicken
I haven't talked much about my daughter. I have a lovely girl child. She is 28 now but will always be my baby and the pride and joy of my heart. She is currently the mother of my grandchild and does not live at home, so you all do not hear as much about her because we see them seldom and she is not interested in homesteading.
However, Moxie Chicken was her dog. She has quite the story too. But I have to first tell you about the evil humane society director we once had. He euthanized every dog that had anything remotely, slightly, possibly related to anything that had ever looked twice at a pit bull. Even pit bulls with microchips! We fought this policy tooth and nail and finally, after years of struggle, got them to start evaluating the dogs and at least releasing a few of them to the rescue groups (and later, the public, although that happened years afterward). Now they are evaluated for temperament just like the other dogs, as it should be. I'm a firm believer there are good dogs within that breed group and you can't throw babies out with bathwater. Anyhow, off my soapbox.
The very very first puppy we got them to release to us was Moxie Chicken, at about three months. What a cutie with her short white coat and spot over the eyes! We later learned she was not a pit bull at all, but some sort of boxer cross, maybe boxer/dalmation or boxer/pointer or possibly boxer/pit bull. But when we brought her home as a foster pup, my daughter fell in love. She was at that time with a young man, engaged, and had a little house of their own they were renting, where pit bulls were allowed. Because she was white with brindle spots like the first Moxie, she recieved the name Moxie and adopted by my own daughter.
It later morphed into (as you know dog names can) Moxie-chicken-poxie. Later she was known as simply Chicken.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on whose perspective, my daughter's relationship did not work out. Moxie Chicken first lived with one and then the other, but neither had the right place for a dog like her after the breakup. She came to live with us and stayed here two years. She was the dog of "mine" that was attacked by the neighbor pit bulls (another long story).
After two years here on Dunegan Mountain, we were reunited with an old friend from Hubby's childhood. They were very very close and Facebook helped us find him. We have regained our close friendship quickly and see a lot of this person and his son, who is our son's age. Every time they visited, they kept wishing that Moxie Chicken was up for adoption, instead of the various foster dogs they saw.
Now Moxie Chicken is a NUT. It never occurred to us to look for a home for her because she is such a weirdo and we thought no one else would love her. She has some funny quirks. She is a piggy and no food is safe from her especially cat food and she would climb up high to get it. She has a blanket obscession. No blanket is safe from her either and all of them become disturbed little lumps of cloth from her trying to curl herself inside, sometimes trapping herself so we were constantly guarding anything cloth from her. She liked to take off and find dead things to roll in first though. She once brought a deer leg home and set it like an offering on the bed for me as I was reading a book. She also INSISTS on sleeping with a person, UNDER the blanket (unless you crate her) so we always had her sleep in a crate and she got a lot of baths by grumpy people who washed off the lovely dead deer smell. She is very needy and requests a lot of affection although she is a very good dog, we really did love her sorry little a.....butt.
But they loved her! So after a trial adoption, Moxie Chicken became their dog. We still retain partial ownership of this dog in spirit, but we gave her to someone we consider family so she has not really left us.
WELL, now Moxie Chicken lives the life she always wanted. A family all to herself, they think the blanket fetish is CUTE and they LOVE that she wants to sleep under the covers with the son. There are no forests full of dead deer for her to roll in or bring back legs to at their city house. She has trimmed down with no cat food around to steal as they have no other pet and don't want a cat.
We were so happy to be able to visit with her, but when they come, after a quick hello, Moxie spends the whole time making sure she goes home with them. Sitting on their lap (she isn't that size), waiting in their car, and never, never finds anything dead to roll in.
So now you have heard the story of Moxie Chicken now too. And yes, they kept the name Moxie Chicken and even taught her a bunch of cute dog tricks.
I haven't talked much about my daughter. I have a lovely girl child. She is 28 now but will always be my baby and the pride and joy of my heart. She is currently the mother of my grandchild and does not live at home, so you all do not hear as much about her because we see them seldom and she is not interested in homesteading.
However, Moxie Chicken was her dog. She has quite the story too. But I have to first tell you about the evil humane society director we once had. He euthanized every dog that had anything remotely, slightly, possibly related to anything that had ever looked twice at a pit bull. Even pit bulls with microchips! We fought this policy tooth and nail and finally, after years of struggle, got them to start evaluating the dogs and at least releasing a few of them to the rescue groups (and later, the public, although that happened years afterward). Now they are evaluated for temperament just like the other dogs, as it should be. I'm a firm believer there are good dogs within that breed group and you can't throw babies out with bathwater. Anyhow, off my soapbox.
The very very first puppy we got them to release to us was Moxie Chicken, at about three months. What a cutie with her short white coat and spot over the eyes! We later learned she was not a pit bull at all, but some sort of boxer cross, maybe boxer/dalmation or boxer/pointer or possibly boxer/pit bull. But when we brought her home as a foster pup, my daughter fell in love. She was at that time with a young man, engaged, and had a little house of their own they were renting, where pit bulls were allowed. Because she was white with brindle spots like the first Moxie, she recieved the name Moxie and adopted by my own daughter.
It later morphed into (as you know dog names can) Moxie-chicken-poxie. Later she was known as simply Chicken.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on whose perspective, my daughter's relationship did not work out. Moxie Chicken first lived with one and then the other, but neither had the right place for a dog like her after the breakup. She came to live with us and stayed here two years. She was the dog of "mine" that was attacked by the neighbor pit bulls (another long story).
After two years here on Dunegan Mountain, we were reunited with an old friend from Hubby's childhood. They were very very close and Facebook helped us find him. We have regained our close friendship quickly and see a lot of this person and his son, who is our son's age. Every time they visited, they kept wishing that Moxie Chicken was up for adoption, instead of the various foster dogs they saw.
Now Moxie Chicken is a NUT. It never occurred to us to look for a home for her because she is such a weirdo and we thought no one else would love her. She has some funny quirks. She is a piggy and no food is safe from her especially cat food and she would climb up high to get it. She has a blanket obscession. No blanket is safe from her either and all of them become disturbed little lumps of cloth from her trying to curl herself inside, sometimes trapping herself so we were constantly guarding anything cloth from her. She liked to take off and find dead things to roll in first though. She once brought a deer leg home and set it like an offering on the bed for me as I was reading a book. She also INSISTS on sleeping with a person, UNDER the blanket (unless you crate her) so we always had her sleep in a crate and she got a lot of baths by grumpy people who washed off the lovely dead deer smell. She is very needy and requests a lot of affection although she is a very good dog, we really did love her sorry little a.....butt.
But they loved her! So after a trial adoption, Moxie Chicken became their dog. We still retain partial ownership of this dog in spirit, but we gave her to someone we consider family so she has not really left us.
WELL, now Moxie Chicken lives the life she always wanted. A family all to herself, they think the blanket fetish is CUTE and they LOVE that she wants to sleep under the covers with the son. There are no forests full of dead deer for her to roll in or bring back legs to at their city house. She has trimmed down with no cat food around to steal as they have no other pet and don't want a cat.
We were so happy to be able to visit with her, but when they come, after a quick hello, Moxie spends the whole time making sure she goes home with them. Sitting on their lap (she isn't that size), waiting in their car, and never, never finds anything dead to roll in.
So now you have heard the story of Moxie Chicken now too. And yes, they kept the name Moxie Chicken and even taught her a bunch of cute dog tricks.
Denim Deb
More Precious than Rubies
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Sounds like quite a dog.
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savingdogs
Queen Filksinger
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She is that, DD!
Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone who stayed home is well rested and everyone out drinking last night, may you get over your hangover quickly.
This holiday seems rather pointless to a non-drinking couple (I stopped because of medications but never really drank much except wine). Hubby had alcoholic parents so a holiday dedicated to drinking never had any appeal for him, especially after we could no longer afford fireworks.
I like to watch the end of the Rose parade! Even though I'm from Southern Cal, I don't miss watching the parade live because we never used to go. I hate crowds and such. And after the riots in LA, I get very nervous in large groups of humans clumped together.
I've never done New Years Resolutions but this time my life changed at the end of the year, so I'm doing New Year Planning.
Mostly I'm mapping out my garden and researching all the ways of starting up a garden without using money, and using things I have here like the rabbit poo and seeds from veggies we use. We decided to let the goats clear the area I have in mind first, then put rabbit poo down in mounds. I'd like to make raised beds but don't really have the materials to make them, so I was thinking of making raised mounds. I'm going to wipe out the lawn pretty much except right at the entry. That will put my garden real close to the front door.
I'm kicking myself that I did not work on this earlier and use chicken poo, but I think it is too late for that.
We also have an area where we are going to make a pseudo green house. I'm hoping to extend our season because my last two vegetable gardens here did not grow too well. We had very cold summers for this area however, so I hope we get a little more sun (just not TOO hot for my poor bunnies).
I have plenty of free water and free time, so anything I get without spending money is getting planted, but I'm only going to spend money on things that 1) I grew well before 2) We really truly use and 3) Costs less to grow than to buy.
Last year we grew some lovely potatos from the starts my husband purchased, but the dang starts cost about as much as about five bags of potatos, and I don't think the yield was that much. They were awesome potatos, but we are growing the garden to save money and not to become gourmets.
Sorry, I'm rambling this morning, but anyone who has imput for me on this feel free to jump right in.
Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone who stayed home is well rested and everyone out drinking last night, may you get over your hangover quickly.
This holiday seems rather pointless to a non-drinking couple (I stopped because of medications but never really drank much except wine). Hubby had alcoholic parents so a holiday dedicated to drinking never had any appeal for him, especially after we could no longer afford fireworks.
I like to watch the end of the Rose parade! Even though I'm from Southern Cal, I don't miss watching the parade live because we never used to go. I hate crowds and such. And after the riots in LA, I get very nervous in large groups of humans clumped together.
I've never done New Years Resolutions but this time my life changed at the end of the year, so I'm doing New Year Planning.
Mostly I'm mapping out my garden and researching all the ways of starting up a garden without using money, and using things I have here like the rabbit poo and seeds from veggies we use. We decided to let the goats clear the area I have in mind first, then put rabbit poo down in mounds. I'd like to make raised beds but don't really have the materials to make them, so I was thinking of making raised mounds. I'm going to wipe out the lawn pretty much except right at the entry. That will put my garden real close to the front door.
I'm kicking myself that I did not work on this earlier and use chicken poo, but I think it is too late for that.
We also have an area where we are going to make a pseudo green house. I'm hoping to extend our season because my last two vegetable gardens here did not grow too well. We had very cold summers for this area however, so I hope we get a little more sun (just not TOO hot for my poor bunnies).
I have plenty of free water and free time, so anything I get without spending money is getting planted, but I'm only going to spend money on things that 1) I grew well before 2) We really truly use and 3) Costs less to grow than to buy.
Last year we grew some lovely potatos from the starts my husband purchased, but the dang starts cost about as much as about five bags of potatos, and I don't think the yield was that much. They were awesome potatos, but we are growing the garden to save money and not to become gourmets.
Sorry, I'm rambling this morning, but anyone who has imput for me on this feel free to jump right in.
