much respect for all who take on a rescue dog

On a much happier note here's my other two rescues
I had an Akita x GSD and I wanted a friend for him, I scoured all my local rescues for weeks, I then heard about a smaller one about 20 miles away, I loaded Simba into the car and off we went. I arrived at this rescue and explained that I was looking for something smallish as Simba was quite big but it had to have some balls as Sim played quite rough and was a bit of daft so it would need to be able to deal with him it had to be a bitch too, other than that I had no other needs as such. This lady said 'I've got just the dog for you, she's 3 month old collie cross, she was brought over from Ireland and quite frankly she was 'rock ard' but loveable. Evidently she's been moved about in the kennels as she asserts her authority, she's currently in with as small litter of Rottweilers and she sleeps in the huge bed while they sleep on the floor
I asked to see her so off she went and brought out this:



After I stopped laughing and inspected her, gad a play I thought no way, Simba will probably step on and squash her, the woman laughed and assured me she would be fine so I went and got Sim out of the car, they met with Simba on lead, Poppy (or Lolly as she was known) seemed quite disinterested but them Sim tried to play and they rolled and chased around, Simba then got a bit OTT and Poppy proper told him off, Simba just stood there looking completely dumbfounded but he tried to play again still excited, Poppy was having none of it, this went on until Simba calmed down then Poppy started playing again, eventually they settled and just wandered around Simba wouldn't let Poppy out of his sight, so we decided to take her.
This is what she's grown into




She's not a collie cross, she's too small but she fits the breed specification almost exactly for a Basenji everything but her hair being too long fits, she's grown to all of 14 inches tall and she's definately got terrier in there
Unfortunately There was an accident whilst I was on holiday and we lost Simba about 3 weeks after Poppy came home
After a couple of weeks I decided Poppy needed a pal, she just wasn't happy on her own so the search began again, then I saw this cutey



I shot off to meet her, she'd been dumped outside the rescue with her brother and was only 4 weeks old, she was 6 weeks when I went to see her, the rescue wouldn't let me take her until 8 weeks so I had to wait but went for puppy shnuggle says often as I could, she eventually came home and Poppy and her took to each other instantly





I called her Kiara because a) it means little black one in some language and b) it was Simba's sister in the Lion King so it seemed fitting. She's a GSD x BC

Awww I am loving all of these stories!
The Rottweilers sleeping on the floor made me giggle while looking at the pic of her

Good morning! You've got some veteran 'dog rescuers' posting on here for you. I don't have much to contribute but am enjoying reading the thread and seeing the photos.

I am laughing at your impatience to hear more as you have another 2yrs to wait lol! This could turn into the longest running thread on Dogsey (and I'll still be reading it coz I absolutely LOVE all these stories and looking at these lucky dogs whose lives were changed by these wonderful people).

By the time you are 'ready' you should have at least some idea of what sort of dog would fit in with your resident JRT!

I can't find any photos on my photobucket, it's made me realise how many years it's been since I said goodbye to the pocket rocket.
Polly was "my" first dog, I think i was about 9 or 10, maybe 11 actually I really don't remember it seems so long ago, my parents had a rather messy divorce at the time. We'd always had....a lot of dogs, mum rescued her ex guard dog dobes that came with their problems and dad had his staffords which he lightly showed, occasionally bred and usually over indulged. By this point the dobes had all gone to the dog kennel in the sky, and those of the staffords that remained went with my dad-they were his dogs after all, barring one who remained but (as i discovered some years later), pined for my father so much that he took him in the end too.
A trip to the rescue centre to solve two problems, 1)being dogless-alien concept in my family and 2) to give me something to, at the time, keep my mind off what was going on resulted in a rather strange looking creature being selected.
She was a jack russell, but tiny-a real pocket rocket, with huge batty ears (I always wondered if there was some Pap there), who had been rescued with quite a few others from a filthy run down farm where they'd been kept in small rabbit hutch looking kennels. She'd had no socialisation, nor training and really...looking back, was a horrible creature BUT it was love at first sight and from the moment we met that was it. Inseperable.
She was from a working background too, apparently-although I don't believe anything the RSPCA say (you'll read why later) and an understanding of this was key. Even better i had a lot of family with working terriers, so it wasn't alien territory of what to expect.
We had a fiercely tight bond and she would of entirely laid down her life for me at any given point, wherever i was she was too-always two steps behind. Nobody could come too close without getting a raised lip as she was fiercely protective, really as I said-looking back all these years later i realise what a nightmare she must of been for everyone around me, but to me she was perfect.
She had many problems though-fear biting of anyone who came too close to me
-separation anxiety
-didn't like people in dark blue clothing
-couldn't be touched if in her bed
-hated small children
-hated german shepherds
-hated blonde women (a VERY difficult issue!)
-hated getting into the car but then once was in would guard it as if it was some for of precious gold.
-generally saw anyone who wasn't me as fair game!
And she HATED being alone though, and in those days as soon as I was off to school it would be her one dog mission to escape. No bigger than a cat she somehow could scale seven foot fences, or (unsurpisingly) dig under ridiculously quick and off she would go to the back of our cul-de-sac, slip through the little five bar fence and out into the woods that bordered it for hours of debauchery and bloodlust to usually be waiting on the doorstep, filthy and covered in rabbits blood at around 3 oclock. Again, looking back-it's not something I would ever allow now but at the time it was fairly routine! Terrible isn't it!
She was as sharp as a tack and the most loyal dog I have ever encountered, she is sited by all of my family and friends as the same too as I have never known such a bond between man and dog. My grandfather always used to say that she and I just knew that at the time we first met we both needed saving, and that neither one forgot.
When we adopted her from the local RSPCA we were told she was no older than 2 and a half, probably younger. You can imagine seven and a half years later our surprise when she started having small scale strokes, problems with incontinance, and a series of heart problems that would leave her incredibly weak and tired. Our vet had never really looked much into her age as just accepted she was a rescue of undetermined origins, but when these health scares began he revealed that the dog we thought to be around eight and a half/nine was probably more like approaching fifteen. Her teeth and other things signified she was a real old girl, and thinking back she went quite grey not long after having her. The vet, and we, assume the RSPCA estimated she was still so young and "growing" as they had told us due to how tiny she was-but that was just her, a real pocket rocket.
When her time came however we were all a tad selfish, she'd been back and forth to the vets for about eight months and everytime the problems seem to multiply, but nobody wanted to accept the warning signs. For days before she was PTS I knew it was way overdue, she never stirred from these horribly deep sleep with her head continuously pressed right against me. It accumulated with a rather large stroke/seizure of which I could tell it had knocked her for six when she came round. She wouldn't have lasted, we called the vet who came to do a home visit-he confirmed that it was most definitely time and without any intervention she'd get another day or so at most. Her heart was failing, finally edged on by this seizure/stroke episode, she was ready.
He hadn't expected it was quite this bad and, foolishly as he admitted, hadn't come prepared. She was....as I said, incredibly sharp and good with her teeth and we all knew she wouldn't go quietly so he adminstered a sedative at home and when she was ready we took her on to the vets. It was probably the best way, she was calm and quite content just asleep on my lap.
I still remember it all so clearly, 27th of July 2006-about two oclock, it was a thursday and it was incredibly sunny outside. She went very very peacefully and left such a big hole. So much so that no dog has ever come close to her place in my heart, never will. I still have some of her ashes, i scattered some, in an antique little urn on the sill in my bedroom.
She is the only pet, living or dead, that has the honour of having a rather nice black and white photo in a rather expensive frame that was bought for the photo by a good friend of mine some years ago amongst all the family photos on the sideboard in the living room. And I think she was one of the few dogs in this world that all those years ago when I wrote it on a certain social networking sight got something in the region of 150 people commenting their condolences to what, for such a considerably tiny dog, a huge character had gone.
She was a dog in a million.
I've gone to rescue centres numerous times since, and always been refused on the basis of either hours dog would be alone (despite having other content pets) or having a male unneutered.
I probably will never end up with another rescue.
I probably would never have another russell, her boots are too big to fill-and when given a jack pup by a farrier friend of mine she was nothing like the old girl (i had to return her at about a year old due to terrible in house bitch fighting.)
There are dogs in this world that we are truly lucky to have, Polly was one of them.

Oh well I've got tears in my eyes after reading that Luke.

But was laughing at her list of 'hates' lol! (Disliked blondes? Hardly what you'd call a 'babe magnet' for you then?)

I know what you mean about 'boots too big to fill' and it's why I will never have another CKCS after my Charlie Girl died 5yrs ago.

She died when I was still in my mid teens, and at that point in life my grandparents cited her as "the most effective form of teenage birth control that could ever have been imagined"
And if she had been a human with a headstone, I feel that there could not of been a more suitable epitah! I still think to this day I haven't forgave her for ruining a few encounters of the naive and hot blooded teenage kind!

I found one-this is the now infamous photo which sits in its fancy frame upon the sideboard at home in the midst of all the family photos.
Taken the day before she was pts, she was just very worn out in the end. She stayed there sunbathing all afternoon, climbed up next to me on the sofa about half five and didn't move till the next day when she had the final stroke/seizure episode. I even slept downstairs with her that night as for the first time in those years when I moved to go to bed, she didn't follow to take her usual position next to me. She was a lovely old bird.

Just dashing out the door so will read all the other replies when I get back in, just wanted to reply to this one quick

HAha, 2 years may be a long time away, but I am the MASTER at pre-planning, organising, and getting everything set up and ready! I have been wanting another dog for quite a while now though to be honest, it's only recently it looks like it should definitely be happening within my planned timescale!

Plus I'm always so busy I never know where the time goes! Think about Christmas last year, it feels like it was only a couple of months ago and yet it's only 8 weeks away! 2 years will fly by!

I totally love reading all the stories too, and seeing what amazing dogs they are!

My resident dog.... well he won't care what kind of dog it is, as long as it's big and bouncy

His best friend for the longest time was a Hungarian Vizsla

He loves dogs that play rough with him, he doesn't bother with the little gentler ones! So don't have much worry with him there

I found my first rescue living on a derelict farm miles up a farm track. She had been caught by one of the farmworkers, as his boss had threatened to shoot her if she was there at the week-end. They though she was a GSD puppy(hence contacting my Dad, who they knew had GSDs & was involved with rescue)

She wasn't a GSD puppy, she was quite a mature bitch & had been on the run for around 3/4 months, I had been trying to trace her after sighting reports from several different farmers & country people.

I took her to the vet to have a once over & to take her to our rescue kennels, as none of the local all breed rescues were interested(including the RSPCA, Dog's Trust + other smaller rescues).

I had her blood taken for titre testing & was then going to take her to the kennels to be kept in isolation until the results were known. However whilst I was waiting at the vets I simply fell in love with her, so she returned home to stay for the next 11 1/2 years. When I had her spayed, my vet thought she was around 8/9 & had had several litters before I got her.

She was a bit bigger that a Cardigan Corgi, with huge ears & a slightly long coat, after she was spayed she developed huge rear feathering as so many bitches do. I called her Sam-Me. She was a very loving girl, who blossomed from a timid frightened of her own shadow to a confint outgoing girl, who was a regular member of our dog display team handled by my Dad

I miss her to this day despite her are having been gone for over 10 years