[pyrnet] The Spokane dog and rescue

["Linda Weisser" <lmweisser@home.com>]

From: <merrirfave@icehouse.net>
To: <pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org>;

and Linda I wished if you knew about the dog you would have gotten to him
sooner... than NOT! Are you really a rescue?>>

To begin with I will say that this is a reasonably (no, actually
unbelievably) insulting thing to say to someone who has fostered many, many
Pyrs over many, many years on a regular basis (some of them for over 6
months or more) and who has spent hours of personal time, energy and money
in the pursuit of this goal.  And how many have you fostered?  And how much
energy have you expended for that endless flow of Pyrs that don't get high
profile face time on the internet?

<<There are a lot of families in this area "I am sure" that could foster a
dog, if they were made aware of things. Once your heart is held by a Pyr,
and you Owen one...there is a compassion for all of them. This is a
Christian conservative town...go look in the churches for fosters.>>

Oh sure.  We take completely unknown dogs out of shelters and we place them
with nice and well meaning church families who have kids but have never
owned a Pyr and who have no idea of what they are dealing with.  Besides the
potential risk to the people have you ever heard the words "law suit"?

<<Linda... the information we got from the staff counter was: this dog was
believed to have been roaming for over a week, it had no previous owner
record, and the police brought him in.>>

Well, then you got totally different information than the shelter gave
Kelly.  it would be nice if they could get their stories coordinated
wouldn't it?  Or are you implying here that Kelly was lying?

<<So...It looks like you have your work cut out for you Linda...finding
foster homes for all of these Pyrs...there must be thousands by the sound of
it. I am sure you can do it! Send out community awareness...especially to
the churches. Youth groups might help.>>

So, where have you been?  You know how to contact Kelly.  She told me that
you had before at some point.  Did you make it very clear to her that you
are willing to help with rescue.  That you would check out dogs at shelters,
spend money to bail the dog, take the dog yourself to foster, make endless
phone calls or emails to people who might be interested in the dog?  Have
you done this Merri and have you continued to stay in touch and make your
presence known?  If not, then kindly don't give me or Kelly or anyone here
who actually *does* rescue, lectures about what we should do!!  And as I
said above, placing these dogs in nice church homes is simply not a
reasonable option.

Merri perhaps if you had done rescue for years, or even ever, and if you had
had long and constant contact with the individuals and organizations that do
rescue you would understand a bit more than you do now.  For one thing you
would understand one basic thing that we all know and must always be
remember.  Every one of us has had that oh so nice dog come into rescue
(nearly always a young male) who after weeks of being a real sweetheart,
turns on someone in the family.  With luck it is not a child. Believe me,
this has happened to all of us, which is why, in organized rescue all males
are fostered and usually separated from potentially risky situations.   You
would also have heard of the myriad of young males in shelters with serious
aggression problems.  You have very little contact with the great mainstream
of people who labor ceaselessly for this breed for years and decades.  The
stories of failure are legion.  Be careful who you criticize and for what.

<<Pyrangel was the only one that offered to reimburse the effort.
You infuriate me...and that takes a lot.>>

You did not contact the club about this.  We were actually discussing
springing the dog to a boarding kennel to give him the time for the woman
who was interested in him but couldn't get to Spokane til the weekend.
Money is never a problem for our club.  I'm sorry that I infuriate you but
enough years of this and you get used to infuriating people.  Truth is often
infuriating.  As is, for some reason, years of steady attention to this kind
of stuff.

All that being said, I wish you good fortune with Gil.  If loving a dog is
enough, he will flourish and do well.  Can you clarify for me where it goes
from here?  Are you his foster home?  If so, what are you "expected:" to do
with or for him and for how long?  Does he have a forever home waiting for
him?

Linda