Chicken Soup for the Rescued Bichon Lover's Soul

[SuperMax (Susan)]

Chicken Soup for the
  Rescued Bichon Lover's Soul 

With the growing  number of  Rescued & Fostered Bichons we have on Bichon.ca now....

  I thought it would be nice  to have ONE place for people to go... to share  their Rescue Stories so that we can all get a little Chicken Soup  for our Bichon Lovin' Souls once in awhile. 

Whether you are  or a seasoned Bichon.ca Member  , even if you've already told your story - and don't mind sharing it again  ..... we'd    to hear YOUR   story in this thread! 

So come on    share your heartwarming , tearjerking   , and/or laugh provoking rescue/fostering stories with us!

Everybody needs a little "Chicken Soup"  once in awhile!

[/size]

[Terri]

Oh this is gonna be good. Thanks Susan!
I'm going to go grab my kleenex while everyone get's their stories posted! [/size]

[patricia]

Such a wonderful idea Susan! 
 It's always so  nice to read about a doggie rescue of any kind, but to have our very own heartwarming stories of Bichons here, finding their 'forever homes' within our community... is certainly to be honoured by each individual and special, story! 
A special 'Yey'  to all our Bichon rescuers!!!!

[Terri]

Well....I know we have a bunch of rescuers here.   
I'm looking forward to your stories...patiently....
Everyone must be gone for the long weekend,  Lucky Ducks!
I'll just keep checking. [/size] 

[EDDEL]

Susan , what a fastastic idea, and what a fabulous thread this is gonna be! (I just know it! )

I've read Boogie's and Bonnie's stories..... but I sure wouldn't mind reading it again!

I wanna applaud our big-hearted bichon.ca rescuers, for saving less-fortunate Bichons, giving them a 2nd chance, surrounding them with


                                                                      

[Karen xo]

Susan , what a fastastic idea, and what a fabulous thread this is gonna be! (I just know it! )

you thought of this Susan   Im gonna enjoy reading them   & then after the story seeing the before & after picture would be lovely too 

I just wan wanna applaud our big-hearted bichon.ca rescuers, for saving less-fortunate Bichons, giving them a 2nd chance, surrounding them with

Couldnt have said it better myself Del

Took me a long time to figure out what that hand was doing 

[Luana]

This is a great idea    and since both Scruffy and Charlie were rescues, I will be back with my stories later, when I have a little more time. 

I'm baaaaaaaaaack   


Scruffy adopted us, rather than the other way around. 

I came home from work one night, on a cold snowy night in January of 1994 and found him on our wood pile on the back porch.  He was so cute, but shy, filthy dirty, hair hanging in his eyes, skinny to the point that his bones were very prominent.    I went in the house and mentioned him to my hubby and he said he had been there most of the day, that he had tossed him a cookie which he ate right up.  I said "Let's try to coax him into the house where it is warm and call to see if anyone has reported him missing".  He wouldn't come in at first, but my sweet talking and a piece of chicken in my hand was more than he could resist.      He would come to me but not my husband as he seemed very afraid of him. 

We called the police but there were no small white dogs reported missing. They said they would call the dog officer and have him pick him up.  The dog office called and asked about him and wondered if we would keep him for the night (he realy didn't want to come out in the storm). But we didn't want to do that as we had nothing for a dog.  I had never had one and never really wanted one.  Cliff went out in the storm and bought a can of dog food.  Scruffy took to that quite well.  It was a couple hours before the dog officer showed up.  He had  seen Scruffy earlier and tried to catch him but he was too quick.  Scruffy was very restless, but did come and get in my lap a few times.  Yes, you guessed it, melted my heart.  When the dog officer got to our house, he looked at Scruffy and said he wasn't sure he would let the owner have him back as it was obvious that he hadn't been well cared for.  I asked what the process would be if we decided we wanted to adopt him.  He said that we might want to think that over carefully as he might be a stray because he is a problem dog.  He would take him to the local kennel and if no one claimed him, he would go to the Humane society and would probably be adopted pretty quickly as small dogs usually are. 

A couple days later, we went to Walmart to browse and as I was going by the pet section, "something" drew me in and I was looking at dog "stuff".  As I came out of that area I saw Cliff and told him what I was doing.  He just grinned.  I told him he hadn't convinced me that he wouldn't want to adopt Scruffy.  He said that he didn't want to deal with the vet bills and I told him I would take care of the vet bills if he would give him a bath.  HE SAID OK!! 

I called the dog officer the next day to tell him but we had to wait until the week was over before we could go get him.  We did, paid the kennel bill and he was OURS!!  And what a joy he was, aiming to please with everything he did. We named him Scruffy because of the way he looked when he came to us.  When we took him to the vet we found out that he was a bichon (I had never heard of one at that point so had to do some research) and that he was under a year old and 11 pounds. When he was full grown, he was about 20 lbs.   Not that he was perfect from the beginning but with a little help, and lots of TLC, he learned quickly.  Even though he wouldn't even go to Cliff at first, Cliff became his best buddy.    We had him for 11 wonderful years.


I'll be back with Charlie's story later.

[Luana]

Come on rescuers, where are you??     I don't want to be the only one here.    Let's here your  stories!

[RenoirAndWrigleysMommy]

Well, I guess I'll take my turn..although I feel as though you all lived Wrigley's story with me.

As most of you know, I've been feeling the "baby blues"  for awhile. Then again, if I'd had MY way, we would have walked away with two when we got Renoir.  Ever since Renoir was about three/four months old, I'd been hinting to Lance that he needed a playmate, a buddy,  a friend.  Since Lance is the one home full time, it was important for him to be 'ready' for another dog.

At first, I figured we would just fine a reputable breeder, and buy another puppy. When I first brought up the subject to Lance, he just said no. However, he did say that WHEN (I was grateful for the when as opposed to the if) he wasn't sure if he wanted another bichon. That just broke my heart,  :' (but I figured we'd see.  After meeting Gracie, the westie at the beach, Lance said he might want a westie, so I started researching westies. During this whole process, my partner in crime (aka Principessa AnnaMaria) also helped out. I even told Lance we could get a maltese like he wanted originally.

Throughout all of this, I would get soooooo jealous when some of our members got their second dogs. I kind of 'rubbed it in' to Lance showing him pictures of Cassie and Callie and Lady and Sassy. I even teased him and told him that Miss Sassy Pants was named after me!!

During this whole 'process', bichon.ca gained a wonderful member, Janine and her awesome Boogie.  Hearing the story of Boogaloo Jackson Funk, really brought rescue to my attention. I'd brought up rescue to Lance several times, often times spending literally hours looking at bichon rescue sites.  When Lance would bring up another breed, I would search the internet for rescue organizations for that breed.  Lance's heart would break  when he would read some of the stories I would show him about dogs up for adoption through rescue.   At first he said he absolutely did not want to go through rescue because he didn't think he could handle some of the issues that the dogs would have, and he didn't want to adopt a dog and then have to surrender them because we couldn't handle their issues.  I pointed out to him that at least we would be AWARE of their issues if we went through a reputable rescue organization, and that they probably wouldn't ALLOW us to adopt a dog if we weren't 100% sure we could deal with whatever issues they may have.

Off and on through out the months, I would go back and look at the dogs available through rescue. At least once a week Lance and I would have a discussion about getting another dog.  I finally got a "Soon" as opposed to a "not right now".

When summer hit, AnnaMaria and I went into high gear, having in depth discussions about getting a new dog. Lance said, maybe after Renny's birthday. (whoo hooo!! ) Then in late July I had a family come into the resturaunt where I work. They were looking at a dog catalog, and I asked them what kind of dog they had.  They told me they were getting ready to adopt a bichon through Delaware Valley Bichon Rescue. Which is one of the organizations I had been looking at for quite some time. When I came home from work that night, I was telling Lance about the family, sooo excited. I told him that when he was ready for another dog, that I REALLY REALLY wanted to consider rescue as opposed to a breeder.  Lance just gave me a look as though I gained a second head  and said that OF COURSE  we would be going through rescue.

August 10th arrived.  AnnaMaria came over to celebrate Renoir's first birthday.    During dinner, while the three humans were enjoying crab legs and Renny was gobbling up his steak I was telling AnnaMaria about the family I met at work. She wanted to see if there was still a picture of the dog on the rescue site. I pulled it up and we were looking at that dog, and decided to look at the other available dogs. Wrigley wasn't listed yet, but there was another dog, Vito listed. Vito had lived with another bichon buddy, but they were willing to adopt them seperatley.  Lance took a look, Vito was the right age, and seemed to be a good match. We wanted a dog close to Renoir's age, and of similar size, temperment, etc. Vito seemed to fit all that. Lance said, "Hey, let's fill out the application."  I didn't even ASK at that point.

We filled out the application with Vito in mind. (I DID try to talk Lance into take Vito's brother as well, the thought of seperating them broke my heart, but he said three would be too much, and he was worried about Renoir being left out if two already bonded bichons joined the family) After being approved, the director of DVBR said that she had found a family willing to take both dogs, and if they could keep him together, they wanted to that, but that ANOTHER dog that seemed to fit our criteria had JUST come into rescue and might we be interested in Wrigley?  We read up about Wrigley, and decided that he would probably get along with Renny just fine.

On August 23rd Wrigley came HOME!!!  He has been such a PERFECT match for our family. He does have some issues, but they really haven't been issues at all.  He can't be crated  because he spent so much of his time crated in his previous life, but that's just fine by us.  I just can't imagine life without him already.  He and Renoir get along SOOOO well. Their personalities are alike in some ways and different in some ways. He is  just so perfect for our family.  What I think is so awesome is his relationship with.....you think I'm gonna say AnnaMaria dontcha?  But no, Alisha!!!  They have just bonded so quickly!!!  She wanted to a photo shoot this weekend, but unfortunatley we didn't get around to it,  but there will be pictures with Wrigley and HIS favortie kid shortly.

AND, Lance who was so worried about rescuing, has decided that he wants to foster!!!

[EDDEL]

Scruffy adopted us, rather than the other way around.  ........

How wonderful to hear your story again Luana ...... this time in greater detail!
Warms my heart to read about how he 'brought' you & Cliff to the world of dogs, and Bichons in particular

For those who did not 'meet' Scruffy , click here where Luana first introduced him (& Charlie) to us!

....although I feel as though you all lived Wrigley's story with me......

How true!!    .... though it sure was nice reading about it again Susan!

To old & new members alike , you may wish to re-live Wrigley's first day home .... click here.



I'm looking forward to reading more happy endings!!

[SuperMax (Susan)]

Yeah!    I knew there would be some great rescue stories coming along  .... I was starting to get  worried! 

Luana and Susan... your stories were such a pleasure to read!    Just warms my heart thinking of the new life you guys have given to a fluff in need!

I love how Scruffy found YOU, Luana ... and that you saw his beautiful soul through the skinny, scruffy guy hiding on your woodpile!

And I love how Susan was inspired to rescue   through the experience of Janine & Boogie .... and how you and Luana were willing to take on any additional medical or behavioural issues that these little guys might have!  

Thank you so much  for taking the time to share your inspiring stories!

[BenjisMommy]

Luana your story about Scruffy was sooo sweet......... How wonderful of you to take in a stray...... I bet Scruffy changed ur life just as much as u changed his 

and Susan... Wrigley is one lucky guy to come into such a great family...and I bet you feel just as lucky to have him  I cannot believe that Lance wasnts to foster... GOOD FOR HIM!!! But I have a feeling he would have a hard time letting go of the babies 

Thank U both of you for sharing your great stories 

[Luana]

What a great story Susan!     Thank you all for the kudos

Now for Charlie's story.    We had lost Scruffy to Cushings Disease on April 15, 2005 at the age of 12.     It was a horrible experience I wouldn't wish on anyone.    We were both devastated as he was such a great baby and we had expected to have him for several more years.

One Sunday morning (July 4th weekend of 2005) my girlfriend called and asked if I would stop by her house on my way home from my Mom's as she had something to show me.    I said OK.  I did stop by.    She said she had to call a friend and that we had to go for a walk.  By this time I was wondering what she had up her sleeve.    She called, we went for a walk up the road, came around the bend and what do I see but a lady walking a bichon mix.  He was so adorable but didn't pay any attention to me.     Then she explained that this woman rescued dogs, usually Great Pyranese (sp?) but would occasionally take in small house dogs and this one was up for adoption and his name was Yoda.  We took the dog to my friends house to get to know him better, and once a had a treat in my hand we became best buddies.  We were told that he was given up by a couple getting a divorce and neither could keep him.  I later found out that he had been to several different homes, and a rescue center.

When I went home, I told Cliff about him.  He was hesitant at first but my persistance paid off and we adopted him that weekend.    Neither of us liked the name Yoda and he didn't answer to it, so we named him Charlie and he got used to that very quickly.   

He had health issues (very dirty ears, stained mouth and paws and itched a lot).     Our first vet diagnosed him with yeast and treated it with several different things for 3 months to no avail,    so we changed vets and found it was bacteria caused by allergies.  It didn't take long to get that under control, have him tested for allergies and changed his food.  Within a month he was fine.   

I took him to beginning obedience and had to do some alpha training (he had bitten both of us rather badly)    but he has been a good dog since then and has become quite the cuddler.  He still has some things I'm not sure we can break him of.  He is viscious to anyone approaching the car, and he hates bicycles and other wheeled objects (rollerbladers, skateboarders) going by.  There is no way we could let him off leash outside.  

I can't believe how much he has changed for the better in the year we have had him.     We have fallen head over heels for him and him for us.  Just finding out last week that he is 9 years old instead of 4 shocked both of us.    But it does somewhat explain why he seems to be so "set" in his ways and why it has taken a little longer for him to improve his attitude.   

[EDDEL]

This chicken soup is soul-satisfying!!

Luana for sharing Charlie's story!
I enoyed reading all over again how he came to 'own' you & Cliff!

[BenjisMommy]

Thank you Luana for sharing Charlie's story... It is amazing how much he has changed... good for you for not giving up