Post Punk Kitchen Forum

So I was about to get ready to leave to go to Asheville for the day to get tasty vegan food and dessert. Mostly just dessert, though. We let our girls out (our yard is fenced) and heard crazy dog barking from behind our house, which is unusual. The husband went out to investigate and found two really cute dogs who are incredibly friendly but have no collars or anything else to identify they have a family. I say friendly but the mom was attacking our neighbor every time he turned on his lawn mower. Anyway, my husband put them on leashes and walked them around the neighborhood that backs up to ours upon figuring out that's the direction from which they came. No one had ever seen them. Our neighbors called animal control, which is not our first choice, but would give them a holding place to not get hit by cars (or people) but they won't do anything at all. The Humane Society doesn't take strays, and we have no ASPCA or anything comparable.

While we were waiting to hear from the animal shelter/animal control, we wound up putting them in our backyard for safe holding. And animal control literally told us just to let them go and call back Monday if they were still around. Now I'm totally conflicted. We've just spent about $300+ at the vet for yearly check-ups and a ripped dew claw. And we still have a visit for our cat next week and a sedation/cleaning/extraction for our other dog's teeth. In other words, we cannot afford two stray dogs right now. I was really hoping since they're so sweet we would find their home, but now it's looking doubtful. Both are very skinny and when we fed them it was obvious they hadn't eaten in days. The mom has several ticks on her and in her ears, so they've obviously been out for a while. BUT their claws are really trimmed up nicely, so it couldn't have been that long.

I have no idea what to do. No one has reported any missing dogs in the area, and judging from the direction they came (toward a major highway), combined with the lack of ID it's highly likely someone set them out...Anyway, I'm not complaining about not going out, because I wouldn't enjoy myself worrying about these dogs. I just wish I knew what to do.

I don't have a solution and I agree it sounds like someone dumped them. Poor babies! My heart really goes out to them. Thank goodness they didn't get hit by a car or anything. Why do these things always happen on weekends when vet places and such are closed? It sounds like your yard is a safe space for them, at least short term? Maybe you can stick it out through the weekend and on Monday call around to your vet and some others. 1) they might recognize the dogs 2) maybe someone in their office would be willing to take them or have a solution of what to do? Sorry that's all I can think of.

I'm imagining us in that situation. It's not the same thing I know but several years ago we had 5 cats. 2 had just been neutered, another had recent surgeries for bad teeth, an ear polyp, and was on lifelong meds for an autoimmune disorder and FIV. One weekend running a quick errand, we found a kitten on the side of a 3-way intersection w/ 8 lanes of traffic. I called all over, vets, shelters, acquaintances.... Once place said if I brought her in and they tested her and found out she was sick they'd put her down no matter what we wanted. Found another shelter that said they could check her out for us and we could decide what to do. She was flea/mite infested, dehydrated, starving and we'd find out later she had a broken pelvis and impacted colon. She almost died twice over the ensuing weeks, required surgery, and quarantine. My husband and I took turns sleeping w/ her in the bathroom over 30 days when she had to be quarantined. Long... story... short (too late)...she'll turn 9 in July and at the moment is soaking up the sun by the window.

Try to keep the faith. Imo, this will either work itself out over the weekend or it was meant to be.

I realize I am no help at all. I don't have a practical bone in my body and if it wasn't for my husband's common sense, we'd have over 100 dogs/cats.

Good luck!

Here they are in all their cuteness. Also discovered, they don't understand how to drink water from a bowl. They look kind of big but really they're under knee height.

TOO cute!!!! The brown one looks like it has some pit bull in it (kind of looks like it in those gorgeous brown eyes). Not to discourage you even more, but that's going to make it even harder to find someone to take them. I have a soft spot for all dogs but especially pits because of how they are unfairly maligned. When I volunteered at the shelter some of the sweetest dogs I knew were pit bulls.

So sad they don't know how to drink out of a bowl :-( These dogs must be loving all the affection they are getting.

Oh dear, they ARE cute! The universe may have just sent you a mother's day present, maybe as a foster mom for these babies. I hope you can find an organization or someone to take them in!

You are a really good person and a very good doggie mommy!

I wish you tons of good luck and I hope things work out for you and the pups. I can't believe animal control would tell you to just leave them out there - even if you don't care about dogs, its still a risk for people.

OMG they're soo cute! Little mini-labs! You live in Oregon right? I forget. Anyhow, it's so weird that animal control said that. They're supposed to, you know, control animals. I had to call animal control once and they came right away and took the dog, and even called me the next day to tell me his owner picked him up! So it's weird to me they'd tell you to let them roam! Anyhow, maybe not as good as Portland animal control. (or wait, do you live in Portland? Ah my memory is terrible).

I assumed that Asheville was NC.... I am bad at US geography, though, so....

I am also awful at geography (but all geography), but you are correct, that is NC.

We *could* have gotten animal control to take them by saying they were aggressive, but we all know how that ends. Otherwise, they don't care until Monday. We're going to keep checking to see if anyone has claimed them, though I really think that is doubtful right now. Also, I had forgotten that a friend's friend runs a small rescue on her own, so hopefully we can work something out there. There are just a few strikes against that-one she is going out of town for a week, and two, wherever she takes the dogs any sort of aggression is a no-go and the male did growl over food...but I don't know if that was just extreme hunger. He also really gets angry at Leia (cat) when he sees her through the window.

They really do look like mini-labs. One of our dogs is very chocolate lab-like and he looks like a shrunk down, huge head version of her.

Nah I didn't see that she was from asheville. I thought from a previous thread she was from Oregon.

Nope. I'm not even from Asheville, I live about an hour away from there in North Carolina (halfway between Asheville and Hickory, if you know NC). I WANT to be from Portland one day, but that's as close as I come to Oregon. I can't keep up where everyone is from, either. I thought NC showed up under my name but apparently it does not, let me see if I can fix that. I'm just not lovin' my state this week, between Amendment 1 and the lack of dog support/love, I'm pretty down on this place. I just discovered my county doesn't even have a damn leash law!

On the plus side, I think I may have found a foster family for the sweeties. My friend's parents used to foster from time to time and said they may take them until they find a forever home. They have a divided fenced yard, so that would be great for a slow introduction with their dog. I won't know more until Wednesday, but we'll go from there. They are just way too sweet to turn over to animal control. I have to admit, I've pretty much fallen in love but I know that we just aren't the best thing for them right now, but I'm determined to find a happy ending for them. I'm still calling around to see if anyone has reported them missing, but so far, nothing.