Dixie and Olive's boarding for December

... to all those who contributed to the December goal, and to those who passed it around to friends and family. I can breath easier as the girls have a place to be this month! Your generous help is greatly appreciated.

On that note, this is where they are boarded:

I volunteer at a local animal shelter, walking dogs (mostly pits) on weekends. We are a low-visibility, low-kill shelter, with zero pedestrian traffic and we have had some dogs for a long time. Like many shelters across the country, with the bad economy we have taken in more dogs this year than ever before. With a finite number of cages and/or pens available, this means more dogs than ever have been euthanized.

In an effort to stretch and do more to alleviate the overcrowding issue, I pulled one dog named Olive in July, because I had heard she was "on the list." She was a well liked dog but slightly hard to adopt out because she is protective of those she knows and doesn't always show well (hard to show her to a perfect stranger when she is busy protecting the volunteer from that stranger!). Plus, she is other-dog aggressive. She was never a fighting dog or anything like that, but at shelters, the animals that last do so by being in "survival mode," and Olive learned that to ward off other dogs (in her mind), she had to be the one to growl and lunge first.

Olive was, luckily, adopted after only a month in boarding. A nice couple took her in and made a valiant effort at keeping her. For the first time in five years, Olive had a home. She walked two miles a dy in the park, and slept on a bed. Trouble was, she was somewhat institutionalized by that point, and we learned that she really needed more time than they had to make the adjustment. They were a young couple, with lots of visiting, single friends, and we learned that Olive really needs to be in a quieter home, at least until she is settled and feels secure.

While Olive was still with her adoptive family, I pulled another dog, trying to free up a spot at the shelter. This time I took Dixie, who was thought to be a really easy adoption. Dixie likes other dogs, but no cats, and is really sort of cow-like. She's easy going, no fuss-no muss, and I figured it wouldn't be so hard. I checked with the Olive people first, who at that point were committed to keeping Olive. So I pulled Dixie out, and don't you know, a week later, the Olive people wanted to return her. I had told them over and over that if anything happened and they could not keep her, to let me have her back, which they did, thankfully.

I am glad she is back in my hands, at a very good boarding facility, with a top notch staff. However, I never planned on having two dogs in boarding for almost four months. The cost is $12 a day for each dog. That's $24 a day in total, or $360 a month for each dog, or $720 a month in total! A lot. Plus, I vetted Olive out of my own pocket ($857: a spay, dental, ear hematoma drained and treated, complete blood work, and heartworm test and meds). Dixie was, fortunately, recently vetted with funds from the other volunteers at our shelter, from money they raised through a weekly flea market.

Many people have helped with boarding costs over the months and I am grateful. I have put much money in myself. Until these two girls get adopted, I am asking for help with boarding costs. You can give directly to the boarding facility and for that info, you can contact me at aconner68@peoplepc.com, or you can give to this chip in.

I expect Olive to be a harder "sell" and she will take time to find the appropriate home. Dixie is really just a matter of finding an empty dog-loving home, and while there have been some leads, thus far they have not worked out.

Many thanks for your help! Sorry for the long winded story, but since people have seen me plug for these dogs before, I wanted to give a full background on them.

If you would like to see pictures of either dog, please visit my blog, Shelter Tails at http://shelter-tails.blogspot.com/ where I post regular updates. Chip in doesn't allow me to post pictures here.

Sincerely,

Dixie's and Olive's Advocate

aconner68@peoplepc.com