Yes Donna, I get it. I also have no kids. I am devorced and I have 5 of my
own dogs,and 2 foster dogs,and 3 Bearded Dragon Lizards. ! of my own dogs
is a semi retired guide,and another is my current guide and and the last is
my guide in training. The other 2 are pets. I love them all. fortunatly I
own my house and land. I have a very large yard, so the dogs can run and
play in. I have had foster dogs I have given up to adoption and have
missed them so I know hoiw you feel. Last year I lost my Wanagi to a tumor
on her spleen. I still miss her terribly. With out my other animals, I
would be lost. It is hard work taking care of them but it is also what
keeps me going at age 70. I have something to live for. Mardi and
Shaman,semi-retired and Neechee, GD and Sedona, GDIT ant Tunan,pet and
Tokala, pet. and Tatsu,Ryuu, and Smaug, my Bearded Dragons and Myah and
Tess, my foster dogs.
On Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 10:14 AM, Caitlyn Furness <caitlyn.furness@xxxxxxxxx
wrote:
wow, what a story!!
I totally get it about being happy! and about not having kids-we’ve got
fur kids! :)
Cait and the menagerie
On Jan 18, 2017, at 10:32 AM, Donna Waring <donna@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Expanding on this a bit further, the prob with multiple dogs is the cost
of getting them boarded if you have to go away somewhere. Then deciding
which dog to take with you, which needs the experience more etc. Alice and
Hope as you know are very close in age, and I trained two thinking I would
have a 2 in one chance of at least one of the dogs working out. I decided
to keep Alice as the slightly better one and rehome Hope. But that didn’t
work out either, partly because of my bad temper, and partly because of the
incompetence of the organisation she went to.
Medical Detection Dogs got me to sign a document saying they were taking
care of hope for a month while they assessed her, and at the end of the
month I’d get a phone call from a whtheld number which would be from her
boarder family. When I got home and saw the emailed copy of what I had
signed (they refused to read it to me saying they were busy so just gave a
summary), I found that I had actually legally signed her over to them for
good. I would never have done this until I knew she was happy there.
Then I never got the phone call or heard from them again and they wouldn’t
answer the phone, so after 8 weeks of hearing nothing I said that if they
didn’t call me I would come down to Milton Keynes and withdraw her from the
programme. Which I duly did.
They tried to argue with me but I told them they had committed legal
misrepresentation over the paper work they had me sign, so they handed Hope
over. Though it’s made life harder for me, I’m so glad they did. When
Hope came back she was 6 kg overweight, and the happy go lucky confident
little dog I had left there was following me round like a shadow and even
refusing to eat unless I stayed in the room with her.
So I built her confidence up and got her going again, and then gave her to
Support Dogs who are an assistance dog charity with a really good
reputation.
They loved Hope, and I was very honest with them and told them what
happened with Medical Detection Dogs. They were very honest and
forthcoming with me too and told me when I’d hear of Hope’s progress and
everything. It was all written down in a lovely word document and stuff,
all very clear. So I was much happier.
They did say to me that they might use Hope for a diabetic woman who was
also in a Wheelchair and that she might have to go to Medical Detection
Dogs for part of her training. They asked did I mind. I said no, but
reminded them of what had happened there and said I would prefer it if
Support Dogs did as much of her training as possible.
Anyway she’d only been there a day when I got a surprise phone call from
them saying Hope was limping. When I brought her home it was clear to me
that she was sound. I later found out of course that Medical Detection
Dogs had put Support Dogs off taking Hope, and after that, I didn’t have
the heart to send her anywhere else, so carried on with her guide training
and kept her alongside Alice.
Kizzy was an emotional buy rather than me physically needing another dog.
I got her really to help me get over the mental pressure of losing Aidie
who was my fun dog that I intended to do Flyball and Tracking and things
with. Aidie was 17 months old and looking really promising when the people
who ran my apartment block changed, and this woman came round and said all
my dogs would have to go. I appealed to keep Hope and Alice of course, but
though they eventually agreed to this, they said Aidie was a pet and
therefore could not be kept. I hadn’t previously known we couldn’t keep
pets as it wasn’t in my tenancy agreement and no one had told me that the
rules had changed. Anyway I found a nice competition home for Aidie to go
to in Morpeth in the north east of England, and after he’d been there 19
days I by chance met the senior manager above the one I’d been dealing with
that run my apartment. He was really nice and promised to see what he
could do about Aidie, particularly when I said he had been doing his kennel
club qualifications etc. Anyway a few days letter he wrote me saying Aidie
could stay, but the new owner didn’t want to part with him.
From then even though I had Alice and Hope I started finding life really
difficult. I don’t know if it’s a woman thing, or because I don’t have
kids, or because I’m soft or what. But I just missed Aidie so much and
kept thinking I could hear him around my flat and things. I’m a good
strong character normally and not prone to breakdowns or anything like that.
But after two years of waking up every single day feeling rubbish, I
eventually went and got his half sister. And though life’s become harder
in terms of my dog situation, I’ve actually become a much happier person
and am more back now like I used to be. So in that sense it has helped.
So there’s my dog history in a rather large nut shell apart from the
previous official dogs I’ve had of course, who were Abel and Olive, who
both worked for 8 years each, and Jack who I sent back to Guide Dogs after
4 years.
Best
Donna
