From commentor Jude B:
Meet Mac. He is a now four year old black Lab. He is our scared-y dog. He is frightened by noises, both either loud or just unexpected like a dropped paper bag. He is also frightened by new things: a new pillow on the bed, a new desk in the front room. Overhead fans and lights frighten him also. He is a rescue dog from the shelter one county over. I met him out-of-doors at the shelter where he is the closest to calm, as long as the number of new people is far exceeded by his own people and there
are no loud or unexpected noises. I could see that the car ride home from the shelter bothered him tremendously but was still taken aback by how very afraid he was of most of life. When he joined our family a year ago, he was very, very frightened by all of these things and would not drink from anything but an outdoor water puddle or stream for three weeks and would not eat any food for two days. With love, patience, encouragement and generic Prozac, he has come a long way. He even let me bathe him indoors two weeks ago. He lives to play fetch. He has bed and sofa privileges and has learned from me that the only reasonable response to a nighttime thunder storms is to burrow under the blankets and cuddle.
__
The little cocker is Bella, also a rescue dog. She spent six years as a mom-dog in a puppy mill, popping out litter after litter, never getting much chance at a life like she has now. She loves to hunt and explore on our new small farm in her huge fenced backyard. When she is on the trail of something, nothing, not even meal time, will get her to come inside. She is also an escape artist of unparalelled accomplishment. She escaped from our new backyard when we moved to the farm six times in the first three weeks, one time returning after a dip in the sewage lagoon and once after rolling in the neighbor’s horse pasture. After each escape, my husband would walk the fence to find the latest escape hole and then he would patch it closed. Once the fence had been rendered impenetrable, she discovered the area under the back porch, tore the lattice work from the crawl space and got stuck under the porch, not being able to find the way back out. My husband had to cut an eight by eleven inch square in the porch floor in order to free her. She got four baths in five days, two of them in under twelve hours, because of repeat trips to the under porch area. The baths were the result of my husband muttering something about “rat feces” after her first trip under the porch. You can’t hear that phrase without plopping the dog into the shower and cleaning her. And, we thought that after each time, we had patched up the latest place she had clawed a way in. It was not until my husband bought thick plywood, cut it to size and nailed it all around the bottom of the porch that her under porch trips stopped. She also has bed and comfy chair privileges. When we come home she greets my husband but she will not leave the front door until I come in. It’s me she wants to welcome home and I love having her greet me.
Jewish Steel
@Anne Laurie:
I say, ‘Yes, I’m sure that’s right’ to your observation about “Decision Points” from, uh, a few threads back. Just spotted that.
And no, I am not tearing up at the description of the very frightened dog. I just have something in both my eyes…
Blackfrancis
What ever happened to that Kain fellow? Did I miss something, or is he gone? Not trying to stir the pot, just wondering.
stuckinred
Sweet pups! Our cocker Lil Bit may have had the same situation as Bella. She was dumped in a box in the middle of the night at our vet and she exhibits many of the same behaviors as Bella.
MikeJ
@Blackfrancis: After he declared himself ombudsman everybody here laughed at him. Even his defenders. Even the liberal JCole made jokes about it.
E.D. wasn’t the type to respond to the unwashed masses before that. After, he declared that if nobody wanted him he’d take his ball and go home. He seems to have left in a huff. Or a minute and a huff.
I never read any official GBCW, but I tended to skip over his blatherings.
2liberal AKA steelers r bradys bitches
I have stopped following politics as much as I can. I used to have dozens of sites bookmarked. It was just too discouraging to think of two years of tea party insanity so I resolved to deal with it by ignoring it.
I keep this site as one of my bookmarks for the football, for the banter between the prolific posters here, and for the cat and dog pictures.
jeffreyw
Dang, saw the “Mac and Bella” title before the pics loaded and was all agog that you were posting a new recipe for a side dish. Before I could even begin to wonder what a bella might be and why it pairs so nicely with macaroni the pups popped up. Yay for Mac ‘n Bella. They are also a nice treat.
MikeJ
@jeffreyw: I was afraid they had introduced a new undead named Mac in Twilight.
stuckinred
@MikeJ:
Why don’t you go home to your wife?
I’ll tell you what. . .
JPL
Cole complained because Lily rolled in something while on a hike. I hope that he reads about Bella’s escapades.
@Blackfrancis: I don’t know and I don’t miss him. He lives in a world of magical thinking.
Dog is My Co-Pilot
Very sweet dogs. And both very deserving of a home where they can be safe. Thank you for rescuing them. We have three rescues, and nothing is more gratifying than giving these dogs loving homes.
The Grand Panjandrum
WARNING: Cole Bait: The continuing saga of butt-hurt from those poor rich folks. Only this time it’s from Wall Street bankers.
Someone better warn the Jane Hamshers of the Left away from this piece or they may have a stroke if they read some of the words coming out of the mouths of these guys:
It’s hard out here …
Cat Lady
Sweet doggies. I read all the rescue stories here about what these poor creatures have had to endure before they find homes and all I can think of is that man, people just really suck. Then it occurs to me that they’re probably Republicans too, which just really explains everything.
WereBear
Such sweet doggies! So glad they have made so much progress.
I feel Bella wanted to play out all of her “escape fantasies.”
Our kitten, Olwyn, was a rescue who almost died from failure to thrive. She was still a bit shaky when we got her.
She used to patrol the house with this sense of satisfaction on her face; yes, she seemed to be saying, this is what I was promised by the angels.
Faith
awwww! Great doggies! All of my dogs have been rescues. We lost three beloved babies in 2 1/2 years due to illness and old age. It was a brutal five years of constant nursing of sick and elderly dogs, but worth every single, beloved minute.
We now have Nickelby, a 5 year old cairn/silky terrier mix who had heartworm when we adopted him (a screw-up at the shelter that we caught, thank God). He has a fear of the sound of the oven door. We’re going to work to get him through that. We adopted him when my last dog, Pilgrim, had only 6 months left but he seemed so lonely after the loss of the other two in a year and half. Nickelby walked into the house and Pilgrim relaxed — the most amazing thing I had ever seen. We didn’t know it then, but Pilgrim had insulinoma which is a cancer of the pancreas. He started to have seizures and Nickelby became his protector from the first seizure he had: watching him, coming to get me, sleeping by him. Phenomenal love and devotion.
We adopted Kasper, a 10-month old maltese/bichon mix last January. We so needed youth and vigor in our lives. Well, we got everything we said we wanted, and then some! Still naughty, curious, into everything and stubborn about housebreaking. The little brother to Nickelby — they are a riot together.
My message would be to rescue an animal — there is no greater joy that you will give or receive from a pet that you save.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Another dog on generic Prozac!
You are really saints for taking in these particular dogs.
gene108
@The Grand Panjandrum: That’s a pretty good summary of what people I know on Wall Street or generally in banking / finance in NYC are saying about Obama and his economic team.
They also want to kick Barney Frank in the nuts, because of Barney Frank’s anti-Wall Street actions and rhetoric.
There’s an interesting disconnect between the Wall Street investing / Banking/ finance industry perception of how things work or ought to work versus every one else.
gene108
I have a question about America, why is it hard to find a good buttermilk biscuit north of Richmond, Virginia?
I ordered something at a restaurant in NYC once, with a side that included a “buttermilk biscuit”, but it was basically a scone.
Is it something to do with the weather, the humidity of the North versus the South or some other hard to fathom reason I cannot grasp.
I live in New Jersey and I’m having a craving of running out and getting a buttermilk biscuit for breakfast, but I’ll be damned if there’s any place around here that sells it or if they did that’d make it the way it’s supposed to taste.
debit
@jeffreyw: Mac and Portobella? That actually sounds like it would be rather good.
@ Jude B: What lovely dogs. I have a special fondness for black Cocker Spaniels; your Bella is truly a beauty.
Kristine
@Jude B: thanks for the morning story, and for rescuing Mac and Bella.
Mac reminds me of my late Mickey in appearance. He came to me with a few issues. Frex, for the first year or so, he was very quiet, a Stepford dog. You didn’t know he was in the house until you saw him standing at the back door waiting to be let out. Months passed before he so much as barked.
I will never forget the day I brought him home from the shelter. It was late January, during a snowstorm–he had been in the shelter since the previous June, and his buddy with whom he’d grown up had been adopted soon after arrival, so his underpinnings had all been cut out from under. I had put him in the front seat of the car, but he jumped into the back seat and spent the drive looking out the window, panting, restless. Then we started driving through neighborhoods, and something came over him. It was as if he realized he was going to a house. He started wagging his tail and became oh so bouncy. He wanted to get out of the car and explore his new digs, and we weren’t even there yet. I don’t think I will ever forget that moment.
I lucked out with Gaby. No signs of mistreatment, no fear. If she were any bouncier, I’d have to tie weights to her feet. Typical terrier.
General Stuck
Mac and Bella are dolls, Charlie say Hi Mac and Bella!
asiangrrlMN
Aw, Mac and Bella are just lovely. Their stories made me tear up. Human suck. Animals rule.
BrYan
Holy shit,
I just learned this guy
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ajtata/2009/12/03/review-going-rogue-reveals-palins-ready-to-lead/
was just hired as superintendent of schools for my county. It looks like they buried it in the Christmas news cycle.
Just like George W. Bush taught me the dangers of a too powerful executive, I have a feeling this guy is going to teach me the value of school vouchers.
Grover Gardner
Your description of Mac fits our Ruby (recently featured here) to a “t”. Very fearful. She still spends most of her time in the bedroom, like a ghost, but has started to come out for gatherings in the living room and will sit under my legs if I’m reading or having a glass of wine. Afraid to eat and drink–check. Never thought of a sedative, maybe we’ll visit the vet if she doesn’t relax more. She has improved a lot, though. I’ve thought of getting her one of these soft carriers or a little den for the bedroom, it might make her feel safer and help keep the bed a little cleaner.
The good news is she romps with our Maggie in the yard and is a real funster at the dog park, so she is definitely coming around and having some good times.
Blackfrancis
@MikeJ: That’s what I knew, I didn’t know if he just faded away or if there was a GBCW post that I missed. Hectic holidays and all.
CatHairEverywhere
Great story! I love hearing about animals getting a second chance at a wonderful life.