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From commentor Wendy, an update on Cheeto in Cleveland:
Tom and I hooked up soon after you posted his story and Cheeto is already part of the family. She really is a wonderful cat, loves people (tolerates dogs) and can’t seem to get enough rubs and petting. It certainly didn’t take her long to decide we were ok and she seems relaxed and is enjoying herself. It’s one of those strange things that although she’s been here for a short time it feels like much longer. She just slide right in with not so much as a hiccup. Thanks for including these types of posts, sometimes it does lead to happy endings!
And a quick note from Irishgrrl in Phoenix:
I just wanted to thank you for helping me find a new home for Dusty. I dropped her off with RomeAgain and ThymeZone this morning and she seemed to adjust well. You helped to save her life and to keep my heart from breaking.
My thanks as well to Wendy and her family, RomeAgain & ThymeZone, and the rest of the pet-friendly BJ commentariat. Nice to post some news that doesn’t make me want to hurl a brick!
Raven
Or just hurl hairballs!
BethanyAnne
Yay! What a cutie {{scritch}} {{scritch}}
PurpleGirl
Nice endings for the two stories. Great work guys.
Dee Loralei
Love happy ever after stories! Thanks.
Svensker
Oh hooray. Those are wonderful stories. Yay!
Just Some Fuckhead
That poor cat in Phoenix is going to be eaten.
gaz
That is pretty kitteh!
If I didn’t live on the west coast, and already have two cats, I’d say sign me up. Unfortunately, I do and do =(
Adorbs.
ETA: Oops, I saw the photo and assumed a placement bleg. Whoops. =)
Glad to see
gogol's wife
Yay! Such sweeties. Good luck, Irishgrrl.
Yutsano
Now we find home for big puppeh. Even though me want sooo bad.
Raven
@Yutsano: So did you have a cervical laminectomy or do you just know about them?
TaMara (BHF)
@Yutsano: That’s so funny, because I was thinking that he wasn’t big enough. ;-)
Biscuits
YAY for Wendy! Congrats to her new parents.
burnspbesq
Good news.
This pretty much says it all.
http://www.cafepress.com/+who_rescued_who_sticker_rectangle,583691990
TaMara (BHF)
Oh, and I forgot to mention that this rescue update made my night. Take that cynical, ugly political season.
PeakVT
Who works the longest hours? Not Cheeto, but maybe her new hoomans?
Yutsano
@Raven: I had a lumbar microdiscectomy. Another commenter here (my name-fu is blanking now) had one though.
@TaMara (BHF): He’s only a puppeh. Did you check those paws? He’s gonna be ‘UGE!
Raven
@Yutsano: Yea but you were giving him or her some feedback so I thought you might know something. Apparently I have congenital spinal stenosis.
WereBear
@Yutsano: Get well, real soon now!
And so happy about the happy endings.
TaMara (BHF)
@Yutsano: I know, but still…
I’m holding out hope that with my job situation changing I can seriously look at adopting a Dane this summer.
How are you feeling? When do you go back to work.
kc
Aww! Nicely done, everyone.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
So SCOTUS has decided that double jeopardy is a liberal plot, too?
And on a technicality, no less.
WaterGirl
Oh my gosh, Cheeto is so adorable!
So great to see this, especially after a hard day.
Did Devon connect with geg6 and John yet about the oh so cute pup from yesterday?
Edit: RomeAgain and ThymeZone, where are the photos? And the story?
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor: And here I had gone all day without exclaiming “what the hell is wrong with these people”.
Raven
@WaterGirl: Hi.
jenn
:: blinks away tears::
Thanks for this! It’s been a crazy week & I needed some happy news.
Kristine
Great kitty news! Hope to hear the same soon for the pupster.
Hope you’re on the mend, @Yutsano.
bystander
Jeeze. Did I ever need this one today! Blessings on all involved, and snuggles and head butts to Cheeto and Dusty. My faith in humanity restored.
RareSanity
In the process of switching over to a “new” computer. As I’m getting my browser extensions and such setup just the way I like them, I got that feeling of pride…the one where I enjoy a site so much that I disable AdBlock for it.
It had been disabled for years on the other computer. But today, I got to do it again…for the first time.
Awesome site guys!
That goes to all of the FPers, and even you chuckleheads in the slums of the comment section…
Raven
@RareSanity: Yo!
‘
Yutsano
@TaMara (BHF): My official return date is June 28th, depending upon how I’m feeling. At least that’s what the leave is covered to. That’s also a Thursday. I do have the option under the FMLA I’ve been granted to take those last two days in June off if I need them. At this point I haven’t made a final decision regarding that. I’ll see how things are by then.
Raven
@Yutsano: Take it slow mon. . .
RareSanity
@Raven:
Raven…how the hell are ya?!
Raven
@RareSanity: Swell! Planning a Maui trip and trying to figure out how to get the fuck out in the ocean for some big game fishing. U?
WaterGirl
@Raven: Yo! I have been reading all the threads late lately. Too much gardening. But that will stop now that it’s getting hot. And the pool opens on saturday!
Raven
@WaterGirl: Which pool, is Crystal Lake ready?
RareSanity
@Raven:
Same shit, different toilet.
Trying to prepare myself for a holiday weekend, where I’m forced to be around people I don’t particularly care for, and act like I do.
Threadkiller
I have to ask if anyone has any experience rescuing pit bulls.
My neighbor has a 10-month-old (?) pit he keeps in a pen in his yard. He beats it, leaves town with the dog in the pen for days at a time, and we think has started to fight-train it.
The SPCA has been called in, but this being Texas, since he has it in an enclosure with access to water, there’s nothing they can do.
Neighbors have started talking about pooling together to buy the dog off this asshole (it’s worked before with an abused puppy he had a year ago).
The problem is, nobody feels confident taking an abused and likely aggressive young male pit bull home with them, or even loading him in the car.
We’re asking around at pit bull rescue centers, but I thought someone here might have some thoughts.
Baud
@Threadkiller: Jesus, you’re appropriately named…How awful!
burnspbesq
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
Unfortunately for this poor guy, I think the Supremes got it right. The entire case was officially a mistrial.
The fairer result would arguably have been to say that Arkansas could retry him on any or all of the lesser offenses, but not on the charge for which the jury had agreed to acquit. But technicalities matter. And we don’t know (can’t know) whether the jury would have been unanimous on the top count if it had known it was going to hang on the lesser included offenses.
He should be able to negotiate a good deal and avoid a retrial. The prosecutors know that their case sucked the first time they tried it, and it hasn’t gotten any better with the passage of time.
TaMara (BHF)
@WaterGirl: Oh, my gosh, geg6 and John might adopt Lil Bear. That would be so awesome!
Raven
@Threadkiller: My thought is that if places for the dogs that Vick had could be found, and there were, that it can be done in this case as well.
Liquid
So what is it with cats?
As a newly-minted 30 (4/27) year old male the ratio of cats vs. dogs in life has been roughly 5 to1.
Now don’t get me wrong: I do not dislike cats, on the contrary, most of the time they’ll wind up jumping on my lap and fall asleep. Like my leg.
There was one incident I’ll never forget. I was about 22 and had accompanied my parents to my Aunt and Uncle’s “compound” in Entiat, WA.
It was a bit of a tense situation as my uncle (Dad’s younger brother) was sabotaging the best thing that ever happened to him. His therapy was to redesign all four acres and make some grand project out of his denial that it was all his fault.
Anyway, there was a neighbor cat, named Morris, that had taken to my Aunt and would spend most of his time on their property.
(Side Note) My Uncle had bought my Aunt a lynx (declawed, poor thing) as some sort of gesture and, well, you know the signs.
Moving on, Morris was terrified of the Lynx and, from the moment I arrived he had taken to me. I was only there for a week to assist my Uncle in moving various heavy objects. At 6’3″ and 240 lb I was well-suited for this task.
But it was those evenings, after the bacco was parked, sitting by the river with a beer in my hand. Morris purring in my lap, enjoying the last few rays of sunlight. My Uncle and I would skirt around the issue of his self-destruction.
It was a perfect moment. The cat in your lap, the muted sound of water moving rocks in the river. The feel of the sun on your face. That dull ache of your muscles after a full day of hard work, fresh air, and sun.
I really felt at peace, if only for an hour. It was one of those brief moments where all is right with the world.
Then Morris got run over by the bacco.
John O
Right on.
satby
@ Threadkiller Well, does the pitty really seem aggressive or just scared of the guy who beats him? We’ve rescued lots of pits up in Chicago, some that were bred for fighters, others that were bait dogs. See if you can get a rescue to work with you on Safer testing the dog, to check if he’s really aggressive (he probably won’t be, just scared and defensive. Which can still be a potential bite situation) Even Michael Vick’s dogs were successfully rehabbed, and like any big dog they need to be supervised but they make great pets for people who use common sense.
Edit to add: the rescues are more likely to help if someone says they’ll foster the poor thing if it can be determined to be non-aggressive. And I wouldn’t recommend a cat owner as a foster.
Threadkiller
@Raven: Awww. Many thanks. I’ll be passing that around.
I’m confident about potential for re-socializing, etc. I’m just wondering if anyone here has particular experience at the triage stage – rescuing without getting bitten, etc. Fortunately everybody is willing to pitch in for heartworm treatment and whatever other medical expenses are likely.
My 65-year-old female hippie neighbor publicly berated the owners from the street yesterday. She’s my new personal hero, although I wish she’d be more careful.
ETA: We’re checking with local rescue centers to test for aggressiveness when we grab him. We’re also locking our front gate, as local dogs have been stolen recently as bait dogs.
Thanks, guys.
Raven
@Threadkiller: Satby seems to be on the case.
satby
@ Raven, Well I can only advise. I have 5 rescue dogs now, one a pit mix, and though they are adorable with other people and puppies, my pit guy is dangerous to cats and he and a old male lab I have are sworn enemies (the lab attacked him first). So I have two different dog zones and a totally separate cat zone set up for the cat rescues too. But the pit have been a very good foster dad dog to rescue puppies.
satby
@Threadkiller:
Yep, that’s what you need to do. And if you find someone or offer to foster him they’ll be relieved and more helpful. Rescues are mostly limited by space for all the rescued animals.
Raven
@satby: Seems like pretty good advice to me. My knuckleheads are very socialized so I’m able to be fairly relaxed. My brother-in-law has a big ass bulldog that doesn’t play well and so he has the zone setup.
Anne Laurie
@Threadkiller: Getting someone with training, and the right equipment, to bring the poor animal in for an evaluation is absolutely the best idea. He’s been traumatized, “trained” to be territorial, and is just entering the Terrible Teenager growth stage (complete with testosterone surge). His every instinct will be to defend (resource guard) whatever little he has — his pen, his food bowl, his physical autonomy. Missteps by a would-be rescuer are only going to be more traumatic for all parties involved. For the dog’s own safety, as well as your own, having a third party fetch the dog from your neighbor and introducing him to his new foster-family on neutral ground will make things easier all around.
Bless you all for being willing to do this, and I’m hoping the dog triumphs over his bad start and we all get another awesome rescue story. But the first step has to be not making things worse by letting your hearts get ahead of your heads!
Threadkiller
@Threadkiller: Aggressiveness: Nobody really knows. The police said he snarled when they approached the pen, but nobody else has.
He’s never even been allowed in the yard. He’s in a 3X6 pen beside the house. Odds are, he’s just terrified and lethargic at this point, so we’re going to get him out. These people are assholes.
The previous occupant of the house had been on parole for sex with a 12-year-old girl. Now I’m thinking we may have downgraded.
satby
And get the dog neutered!!! Reduces aggressiveness and more puppies to rescue later! I know it goes without saying.
Liquid
You know, I keep hearing how “gentle” and “loving” pits are but I don’t believe it.
They may be all of the above to YOU, as their master. When they threaten my grandmother (RIP) who screams for her nephew to “get this dog away from me,” forcing myself and two other cousins to physically drag the dog away, I have my doubts
First time I met Cliff the Pit he stood me up against the wall until my uncle could drag him away.
But it was just an isolated incident.
fleeting expletive
Completely unrelated question here, but Open Thread, so whatever.
I’ll be getting medicare in a few months, and I am shocked at how aggressively the health insurance companies are marketing medigap policies to me. They seem to not be horrendously expensive, about 100 a month; but policy holders, being older will presumably use more medical services than the under 65 population.
Any idea why medigap policies are a good deal for the health insurance companies? BTW, I am ecstatic that I’m going to get medicare, I can finally go to the doctor.
Suffern ACE
Watching the Nat Geographic Geography Bee. The spelling bee champs are B students by comparison.
asiangrrlMN
I love these two happy rescue stories. Thanks, AL, for making me smile.
WereBear
@Liquid: It’s not the breed.
Its the example set by the people (who may be a$$holes) who are the dog’s pack and are all they know.
When I was a teeen in the 1970’s, it was Dobermans who were the “dangerous” breed; and couldn’t be trusted, ETC.
Yes, it is frightening to encounter a dog who is acting out of misunderstood instincts. But it is so so so rarely the dog’s fault; and never the fault of the breed.
Raven
@WereBear: I’m sure that will convince him or her.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: I’m crossing my digits for a third happy ending here too. Want big puppeh rescued NAOW!!
Hi hon. Still on drugs but not hurting as bad as I was this afternoon.
Mnemosyne
@Liquid:
Assuming your uncle was a well-intentioned guy and not abusive (which may be more of an assumption than I should make), it sounds like he got WAY more dog than he could safely handle, which then made the dog dangerous to everyone else around it.
Most “pit bulls” are pretty mixed breed, and if your uncle managed to get himself one with a big dose of Akita or another dominant breed, that’s like having a time bomb on a leash unless you really know what you’re doing.
Anne Laurie
@Threadkiller:
Yeah, that’s “resource guarding”, poor basterd. He’ll be much happier once he’s out (& neutered), but right now he may be like one of those ‘old lag’ human prisoners who feel safer inside their cell than exposed to the unknown terrors of a wider world. Satby is of course correct, the local rescue people will find it easier to be responsive if you can assure them that he’s got a foster home as long as he can be coaxed out & tested!
@Liquid: Pitbulls are like guns, not good housemates for the inexperienced or the lazy. And as with guns, too often the people who most want to own a pitbull are exactly the wrong people to own one!
However, you can’t lock a pitbull in a gun safe, or turn it over to the authorities to be melted down (shudder). I have great respect for the people who have the strength & the training to work with rescue pibbles… and I don’t think it’s a good idea to pretend that every dog is suitable for every situation. Threadkiller and their neighbors are doing dog rescue the right way, asking for the help they need before making a bad situation worse. This is good, and to be encouraged, IMO.
jenn
@WereBear: yeah, I’ve had only one bad pitbull encounter, just a few months ago. I think it’s the only time I’ve ever been truly nervous about a dog. It was obvious that he had just escaped from his backyard – there was a flipping padlock still attached to his collar. Who knows when he had last seen a stranger. He might have been ok, if he hadn’t looked up to see me urging him to get out of the middle of the road, at the same time that he was almost getting hit by a succession of vehicles. His lack of social skills + fear + adrenalin rush + all of this happening just as he looked over at me ==> aggression towards me.
.
My first experience with a pit was a badly abused female who got brought into the vet I used to work at. How she still trusted humans, I don’t know, but she was a sweetheart. With the kind of pain she had to be in … Some people just plain suck. And sadly, pits seem to attract quite of few of those people.
Liquid
I keep forgetting that we really have to flesh out our position and/or anecdotes (no snark intended).
I have a fairly large extended family. My Uncle/Aunt/cousin(s) that I’m referring to all live in WA. Hell, my aunt lives in unincorporated King County and she has Llamas, chickens, and birds.
It’s quite noisy at their family BBQs.
Anyway, the dogs are loved, well fed, and treated as members of the family. I wasn’t surprised when Cliff reacted to me. After all, he had never met me at the point, only three years old or so, if that.
And I know I’m being unfair to most but that incident with Gram really gave me pause. She had been living with them for several years now and all she had done was gesture while speaking.
It sounds ridiculous to admit that the following quote, from a film I enjoy, started to play in my head while Cliff was evaluating my IFF.
“Do keep your hands at your sides. The Japanese find big arm movements threatening.”
Substitute the obvious for ‘ohgodohcrapohshitohno”
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@burnspbesq:
I won’t argue with any of that (that’s why I was snarking about ‘technicalities’).
But the argument has more than a little of the stink of ancient Roman legalism to it. And it’s ironic, coming from Justices who are supposedly all about the “Founder’s Original Intent”.
Just so… predictable.
Mnemosyne
@Liquid:
I’ll probably catch some hell for saying this, but there sometimes are bad dogs (or, at least, dogs that are unable to safely live in human society), but it can happen with any breed. It’s just that, say, an antisocial Pomeranian can’t do much harm to an adult, so unfortunately people underestimate how dangerous they can be to an infant.
Liquid
Well, as that ranger in that Simpsons episode with Stampy the elephant said “some animals are just . . . jerks”
or something to that effect.
ETA: “Huh? Oh, that’s Cynthia’s dog. I think it’s a Pomeranian. I can’t leave him home alone or he eats the furniture. I’m watching him while Cynthia and Marty Ackerman are in Hawaii. “
thalarctos
Yay for happy endings! You guys are awesome.
Jane2
What great happy endings…thanks, Anne L, for all that you do to make this happen.
Hill Dweller
OT: Robert Reich is saying on Twitter that the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare could be released as soon as tomorrow.
burnspbesq
@Hill Dweller:
There were all sorts of rumors floating around this morning that today was going to be the day.
Lyle Denniston, who writes at SCOTUSBlog, is probably the person most wired in. When he says it, I’ll start believing it.
MikeInSewickley
That’s why this is my favorite blog – see cat stories above…
I’m becoming more like George Carlin with each passing day and can only take so much “human” bullshit before I quit caring.
Seeing animals win once in a while makes me realize the world can survive after we’re gone – which may be a good thing as the majority of people lately are just no damn good.
Mnemosyne
@Hill Dweller:
Releasing the decision on the Friday of a holiday weekend seems like it’s expected to be bad news for … somebody.
WaterGirl
@Raven: I am sure you have gone to bed by now. I will answer you tomorrow when I see you on another thread.
Hovercraft Full of Eels
Nice pic of Cheeto. He seems to be settling right in. Hooray for his adopters, and for Dusty’s new humans as well. Always glad to hear a happy-ending pet story…
Lojasmo
@Liquid:
I have a neighbor with two well-trained pits. He walks them in the neighborhood unleashed…something I would never do with my flighty alpha Swiss shep.
Triassic Sands
I’m really happy for you (and her) and more than a little envious. I had two cats in 2003 and a stray showed up and adopted me. Almost nine years later the “newbie” still has to be kept separate from the other two, who never accepted the stranger. (I really tried to get them together.)
Now, I’ve got another cat showing up every night and behaving very strangely. She’s not at all shy, but when she comes near me, she stands up on her hind legs and tries to attack me. She spits and swats at me with her paws (claws extended) and snaps at me with her teeth. However, she doesn’t actually seem to be mean. There is no way I can adopt another cat, but someone should tell her that her dysfunctional behavior is not the way to earn a warm welcome.
I’ve never seen that kind of behavior before. I’ve seen strays who are shy and/or afraid and even though they are desperate, won’t let you touch them or get too near. And I’ve seen the polar opposite, where the stray is very friendly and affectionate. But why this cat comes around every night just to pick a fight with me, I can’t imagine.
TomM
That’s a great picture of Cheeto (she likes to stretch out)! My wife and I are so happy to know that she’s fitting in well. Thanks to Wendy and her family for taking her in and to Ann for posting the pet blegs!
Thymezone
Dusty update: She’s doing fine. Adjusted almost immediately. Is playing a little hard to get with the male cat but they will be fast friends in no time. Dusty spends a good deal of her time either in my lap, or sleeping next to my head when I am sleeping. I am basically a cat whisperer and cats often attach themselves to me. Either that, or I smell like a mackerel. Either way, they hang around me.
Yesterday the two cats spent most of the day just hanging around each other, and I never heard so much as a hiss or growl. So that’s pretty good.
The addition of a third cat, mentioned heretofore, may be iffy at this point. The cat’s plans to move have been suspended for the time being. So for now we are a two cat family.
J R
Size and danger from a dog have little to do with each other.
My Mom got a mini – hotdog, black and tan. It was sweet about 95% of the time, but went for my wife (harmlessly) eating from a coffee table sitting on the floor when M shooed the dog from her plate.
Then it actually went for a toddler cousin, horrifying scary, and went to the vet for euth the next Monday after being in the back bedroom while there were kids around. Cousin not harmed badly, because she was surrounded bu attentive adults.
Mini-dogs are frequently crazy, perhaps because they’re so small and have the instincts of the larger normal-sized breed.
ETA: Way glad Cheeto is rescued, a beautiful cat. We had one similar named Frito many years ago. He could run up the side of our old farmhouse with a good head-start!
We lost two older cats last winter, Rufus, 19 and Harvey 17 y.o. respectively, and yesterday I realized I have lived through 5 generations of happy cats, what a blessing to us they are!
the fugitive uterus
I NOMINATE FOR “BEST POST”
happy happy happy news!