Hi Jenny!
Four of the dogs were “mine” and the other four were dumped over the past year. I may have found a home for one, but my idea of what constitutes good dog stewardship is vastly different from my neighbors. I really have to vet the backgrounds because these dogs have been through enough.
I have a huge fenced in back yard and then I let all but one come inside. It is not as bad as it sounds as I live alone and have a larger home. A chow mix I call Carleen is terrified to come inside,(when I was cutting the mats out of her back legs she was trembling so violently, it was terrible) so I bought her an insulated dog house with a heating pad, and then put the dog house in my attached garage. I then put a rotating ceramic heater about 3 feet away from her. This is where she goes when night falls. She is warm as toast on the few nights it was cold, snug as a bug and when I peek at her, she is snoozing soundly. She is cat aggressive, which is unfortunate because she is a love bug and is so obedient. But, until I can find a five star, no child, no cat home, they are better off with me.
But I can’t take on anymore. It is too much. It is a losing battle here. I took one dog to an no kill animal shelter because I was not sure about him with my small dogs and I gave them a $300 donation to insure he was taken care of. The Sampson County animal “shelter” does not even have photos of dogs for adoption on petfinder. It is disgusting. It is something I can’t dwell on because I cannot change these people’s minds about dogs. They throw them a dirty bowl of Old Roy (not Pure Balance!) at the end of their chain and call it day. If you knew how many times I have risked arrest to make sure these dogs on chains have water in the boiling summers. I have cut it close. It is scary but in my DNA…I will never stop.
