I haven't posted anything in a few days because I've been spending every waking hour driving or walking dogs, and Internet access has been spotty. I'm in Kanab, Utah today, getting ready to visit Best Friends, who referred all but one of the dogs I'm picking up on this trip. For those that don't know, Best Friends is the organization that operates Dog Town, which has its own TV show on the National Geographic Channel. I originally became involved with them and with United Animal Nations after the Gabbs, Nevada hoarding case where a woman died, leaving behind a ranch with 144 dogs, of which I took the five most 'socially challenged'.
I'm not going to upload any pictures today - I'll do that when I get to California. Today is all text. I haven't posted since Vermont, so I'll start there; I woke up and left Vermont. Next: New Hampshire. New Hampshire's slogan is "Live Free or Die", and they don't require people over 18 to wear seat belts, thus, in New Hampshire, you can live free and die if you feel like it. Now that's freedom. I didn't get to spend a lot of time in Maine, but the part of it I saw looked a lot like Vermont and New Hampshire. While in Maine, I got a call from Best Friends about a Golden Retriever in Warwick, NY, who had watched her drug addict owner overdose and die, then sat on the body for eight hours, guarding it, only to spend the next few weeks being ritually abused by the dead man's alcoholic widow - same old story. I spoke with the Warwick shelter and initially told them that I couldn't take the dog, at least not right away, but they offered to take two adoptable dogs in exchange, and I had two dogs I was going to be picking up that I thought might work for them, so we tentatively planned to trade at least one of them after I picked them up and had some time to evaluate them.
I went to the Boston area to pick up Malaki, a dog who had bitten his dog walker's face badly enough to remove the tip of her nose and require 28 stitches; this was a tough one because Malaki's caregiver really loved him and was having a hard time letting him go. I even tried to talk her into keeping him and setting up some safety protocols for him, because he's actually a pretty easygoing dog, but has an issue with biting the moment he wakes up (which he just did as I was writing this). Unfortunately, the biting turned out to only be part of the issue; there is anxiety that leads to destructive behaviors, and it turns out there are some issues with other dogs. I was uneasy about taking Malaki before, because I felt like I was taking a happy dog from a good home, but I'm feeling a little better about it now, and he's doing well.
I need to get going; more later.
