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Doggies
So, today I finally managed to speak to someone at the local animal sanctuary and said "Hello, we'd like a pair of dogs." Half an hour later, we were round there waiting for the mad animal lady to finish talking to the mad dog lady and show us what they had.
On their website, they had three pairs of dogs listed:
- a 4 year old Dogue de Bordeaux and a 6 year old Shih Tzu/Patterdale, the former "quite strong on the lead and will guard her home against strangers"
- a Bernese Mountain and a Belgian Shepherd, "both strong and boisterous"
- a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a Malamute/German Shepherd, "only here because their owner is terminally ill"
It was the third of those that I was fancying, as 'strong' and 'boisterous' sounded a bit worrying but "terminally ill owner" sounded much more reassuring.
As it turned out, they brought out an enormous reddish thing that was fugly and on her back legs straining at the lead, along with a small ball of fluff: that would be couple number one. "The others have already gone," they said. "We think she's a little too strong," we replied, as she hauled the volunteer around the yard in an attempt to get at a nearby cat.
"Would you like to see some puppies?" the mad animal lady asked, when we'd heartlessly sent them back to their lonely kennels. "Umm, ok?" we replied, not particularly wanting puppies. "Or do you think you might like a Burmese Mountain Dog? We could find you something to go with her...." "That sounds big," we said, (and, Burma? Do they have dogs there?). "Well, yes."
And we kept going around the corner to see the puppies, and we passed a dog in a pen, and "Gosh, she's beautiful!" we said.
And that was indeed the Bernese Mountain Dog: they'd managed to rehome the other half of the pair, but she was still there. The mad animal lady picked up a lead, and up she started jumping, practically doing back-flips at the idea of getting an extra walk around.
And she really is lovely, and we walked past one of the horses and she didn't blink, and after five minutes of dashing around like a loon she lay down on the floor and said "belly tickle, please, if you're not too busy talking about human things?", so we agreed that the mad animal lady could come and check the house out on Sunday, after she's done a fundraiser at the local open garden while we went away and thought about it.
And we came home and looked at Wikipedia, and we went 'ulp' at the cancer rates, and the prospect of a dog that big with mobility issues, and the relatively-short lifespan, and then we said "Shall we phone them in the morning and tell them we'll take her?"
And I hope that creating a new tag doesn't jinx things.
On their website, they had three pairs of dogs listed:
- a 4 year old Dogue de Bordeaux and a 6 year old Shih Tzu/Patterdale, the former "quite strong on the lead and will guard her home against strangers"
- a Bernese Mountain and a Belgian Shepherd, "both strong and boisterous"
- a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a Malamute/German Shepherd, "only here because their owner is terminally ill"
It was the third of those that I was fancying, as 'strong' and 'boisterous' sounded a bit worrying but "terminally ill owner" sounded much more reassuring.
As it turned out, they brought out an enormous reddish thing that was fugly and on her back legs straining at the lead, along with a small ball of fluff: that would be couple number one. "The others have already gone," they said. "We think she's a little too strong," we replied, as she hauled the volunteer around the yard in an attempt to get at a nearby cat.
"Would you like to see some puppies?" the mad animal lady asked, when we'd heartlessly sent them back to their lonely kennels. "Umm, ok?" we replied, not particularly wanting puppies. "Or do you think you might like a Burmese Mountain Dog? We could find you something to go with her...." "That sounds big," we said, (and, Burma? Do they have dogs there?). "Well, yes."
And we kept going around the corner to see the puppies, and we passed a dog in a pen, and "Gosh, she's beautiful!" we said.
And that was indeed the Bernese Mountain Dog: they'd managed to rehome the other half of the pair, but she was still there. The mad animal lady picked up a lead, and up she started jumping, practically doing back-flips at the idea of getting an extra walk around.
And she really is lovely, and we walked past one of the horses and she didn't blink, and after five minutes of dashing around like a loon she lay down on the floor and said "belly tickle, please, if you're not too busy talking about human things?", so we agreed that the mad animal lady could come and check the house out on Sunday, after she's done a fundraiser at the local open garden while we went away and thought about it.
And we came home and looked at Wikipedia, and we went 'ulp' at the cancer rates, and the prospect of a dog that big with mobility issues, and the relatively-short lifespan, and then we said "Shall we phone them in the morning and tell them we'll take her?"
And I hope that creating a new tag doesn't jinx things.
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(You are, of course, thoroughly welcome: it'd be lovely to actually have a chance to talk to you both, and horse rides can certainly be arranged!)
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FF
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FF
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Good luck. Pictures of BMDs on the internet do indeed look very lovely.
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Also, belated congratulations on the new place! I haven't had much time to be on LJ lately. Sounds amazing!
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We've been umming about which we'd rather use. I don't think we want a crate, because it'll be a pain when we need to actually put something in the boot. Harnesses sound safer (for the dog) in an accident than just putting up a mesh between the boot and the back seats, though, as she wouldn't fly around so much.
Thoughts?
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This is the harness we use - the Bergan - which is the only one tested to human standards for seat belts. It attaches to the child safety seat hook.
http://www.easyanimal.co.uk/bergen-car-dog-harness.html
A number of people supply it, and it is sized by the weight of the dog. It is also very adjustable.
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Edit: also, photos please.
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It says that we're welcome to come along and do so whenever we like, which is odd as we were told yesterday that they'd already gone....
I've been trying to ring them today to say that we'd talked it over and decided that we definitely would take her. I got redirected to the fax machine about three times before getting their answerphone, where I left a very emphatic message.
Given that they're scatty enough not to have connected the email with the person who just visited, and that they're either scatty or devious enough to say that dogs are/aren't available when they aren't/are, I'm slightly concerned that they'll just give her away to someone who wanders in and likes her!
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