Spotted blue tongues

There's been a influx of dogs with spotted blue tongues this past week. I always thought that a whole or partial blue tongue meant a dog has some Chow Chow or Sharpei in it but apparently that's not always the case. Some breeds, including Labs, sometimes just show up with spotted blue tongues all on their own. Either that or they've been licking too many blue flavoured slushies (what flavour is that anyway?).

Retriever Danny has got abundant energy and will need lots of exercise as well as some training. He's a pretty attentive dog, though, so the training shouldn't be too difficult.



Hendrix, the Collie mix below, is one of those popular dogs whose photo I take and before it even gets put up on the site, he's already adopted.



Well, Red at least looks kind of like a Chow Chow. Some Chows can be indifferent to strangers but this one is quite friendly though not in any pushy sort of way. He waits politely for you to make the first move before he comes in for more attention.

The eyes have it

When I dropped into Toronto Animal Services yesterday at noon, it was supposed to be just to say hello to Big George to see how he was doing but as I walked by the white board with the list of all the dogs that needed walking, I noticed that only half of them had been attended to.

The staff take out all the dogs in the morning for a quick washroom break but that's not a real walk, not in my book anymore. Five minutes doesn't cut it and the dogs really deserve and need the time they get with the volunteers walking them. Yesterday, though, the volunteer who was supposed to be there hadn't arrived yet.

I'm not at all putting any blame on the volunteer. After all who knows what might have happened. Sickness. Car broken down. Who knows, but regardless, the result was that half the dogs in the shelter had been stuck in their kennels all morning.

So, instead of spending time with George, I started taking out dogs. I do this quite often, fill in when someone's away or there's too many dogs, and it's never a big deal but yesterday, walking by all the dogs in their kennels who hadn't been out yet, I felt kind of depressed by it all. I think it may have been because one of the first dogs I passed was Spencer, a Doberman who reminded me of my own Rocky. Spencer was there by the front of his kennel, not making a peep but looking like he was trying very hard to be noticed with his perfectly well behaved sit. Something about his silence got to me. He was being a very good dog, not barking, not making a fuss, looking me in the eyes, doing all the right things so that I would choose him to take out.

And yet I did not.


And then I passed by Dalton ...


... and Sandy ...


... and Lady ...


... and Paddy ...


... and I get to the end of the kennel and take out two dogs who get along really well with each other to walk them at the same time - more efficient that way. And then I have to walk by all these other dogs again who are now thoroughly disappointed.

The photos I take for the adoption website all show the dogs outside, generally happy and alert and pretty full of life but in reality, they spend almost all their time here in their kennels waiting to be noticed, for that glance from a person, a touch, some attention, a few moments when they can feel wanted, included. Sure, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, them missing out on a walk or missing out on some playtime, but denying them any of these few, small enough pleasures they get during their sometimes long stay at TAS just seems wrong.

It all comes down to this. TAS needs more volunteers. They've got a full schedule of volunteers and there is pretty well a volunteer coming in every open hour of every day but that's in the ideal case with no one being sick or late or whatever. And also, sometimes, there are more dogs than one volunteer can handle in the time they're there. So, I'm trying to talk TAS into doubling up their volunteer numbers or even tripling. This way, if someone can't make it, there'll hopefully still be at least one or two other people showing up.

Also, TAS South is getting more dogs now. The rescue work has really increased and that means more dogs to walk so more volunteers only makes sense. All the dogs need more people time.

So, for your consideration: If you've ever felt like getting hands-on involved and have thought about doing some volunteering, this would be a great time to do it. Come visit TAS South, check the place out, fill out a volunteer application form. They'll explain the volunteering process to you - sometimes they make a big deal of it but it's all pretty informal once you get started. Afterward, it's sometimes a little frustrating waiting for the bureaucracy to get to responding to the volunteer requests but I've been told that someone is going through all the applications right now. And even if you apply and don't make it this time, which would be nonsensical, TAS will have your name on file for the next round.

Hope to see you round there sometime.

Toronto Animal Services South, 7 days/week, 10:30 am - 6:30 pm
140 Princes' Blvd. (Horse Palace, Exhibition Place)

This is the south shelter number: 416 338 6668. If you call this number and get a machine, just hang up and try again later otherwise you might end up waiting on hold for a week or so.

This is the main TAS number if you're interested in one of the other shelters (but I don't know what they're like at all with respect to volunteers): 416 338 7297

Toronto Animal Services Friday Review, May 22

Spencer

Mei Ling is quite small for a Chow Chow and she's also very people friendly and doesn't mind other dogs, which is atypical Chow behaviour. A real sweetheart, she'll find a home in no time.

Mei Ling

Lady and Jeb are both wonderful Labradors and I'd almost guess they were brother and sister but I think Jeb's much older. Another pair of dogs that will be gone as soon as they hit the adoption room.

Lady

Jeb

Jayden

Dalton

Chico's great with people but not so much with other dogs. Luckily, he's just a shrimp so handling and training him won't be such as big a deal.

Chico

Update on Ruffles

From Ruffle's new owners:

Good day: Here are some pics of our boy. We changed his name to "Russel". We love him. He's fitting in really well as you can see. We took him to our vet and she was happy with his disposition but was a little concerned about his thinness. Actually, she said he lacked muscle mass so he needs lot of walks and excercise. That is no problem. He's not the best walker yet but we're working on it. She said his coat was nice and healthty. She wants to see him in 3 weeks. As you can see we had some snow overnight. He was a little nervous about putting his paws into the snow but by the end of this morning he was fine. He was out in our backyard with our 2 girls and a friend for about two hours and all was good. He even met the neighbors dogs. A litle tense at first but worked out okay. He ran up and down the fence playing with them for about 1/2 hour. Just thought i would let you know how things are going. Great so far.

Adoption Update for Smiley, Boomer, Blacky, Olivia and Chub Pug

It's been a busy weekend. These guys are all adopted.

Smiley

Olivia

Boomer

Blacky

Chub Pug, renamed Gigi, is now being fostered in Pugalug Rescue and her adoption info can be found here.

Chub Pug (Gigi)

So that just leaves Irene from last Wednesday's photo shoot. I'm surprised that she isn't gone yet. She's got a real winning personality but I guess that's sometimes hard to see from within a kennel.

Cheese

One of the things I do at Toronto Animal Services is take pictures of the dogs to be used for their adoption profiles on the adoption website. Often there are time restrictions and so I try to limit my time shooting each dog to about 5 minutes. I'm not trying for art but I do try to get something with personality and in focus.

I can never guess how a dog is going to react in front of a camera. Sometimes the most placid dogs go absolutely wild when I stick a camera in front of their noses; sometimes the crazy jumpers settle right down. It's as if they know there's something strange going on and so they must react to it, do something, something different, whatever that might be.

For example, this little nutbar, Olivia, was a terror walking over to the shoot location. I brought her along with poor Irene who was straining at the end of her leash to get as far away as possible from the you-must-play-with-me-now puppy antics of Olivia. Olivia was like the spring you couldn't get back in the watch. She'd jump on Irene; I'd pull her back; she'd jump on Irene; I'd pull her back; she'd jump on Irene. It's a good thing she's only 10 kilograms because after a hundred of those pull backs, it felt like I was playing tug of war with an anvil.

Olivia

But then, as we get to the grassy spot and I pull out the camera, she whines a couple of time and then magically settles down. To look at the picture, you'd think she was contemplating the meaning of her life. Irene looks okay in her photo but I think you can see she's still a little bit frazzled.

Irene

When I take the dogs' pictures, I try to get at least a couple of shots of them looking straight into the camera. The eye contact usually works well with the human viewers although sometimes the square on face shot doesn't do the dog justice. They've often got a lot of character in the profile of their muzzle which gets lost when you see the dog straight on. In Blacky's case, I chose a 3/4 profile shot over the full on shot because in the full shot, her black furry face looks too flat.

Blacky

With Boomer, Blacky's partner on this photo shoot, there was a lot of expression around his eyes so I chose the straight on image in his case.

Boomer

Dominick and Smiley were no problem at all to photograph, except that I was a bit worried about Smiley's limp on the way back. She didn't seem to mind, though, as every so often she'd do a downward dog at Dominick trying to get him to play.

Smiley

Dominick

The last photo of the day was of the nameless pug with the protruding tongue. Chubby guy, very friendly but I had a hard time getting him to sit still. I think the only reason he did finally decide to stop trying to kiss the lens and sit down was because of the heat. I quickly snapped a few shots and got him back inside.

Chub pug

I try to take the photos which hopefully show the dogs in visually appealing poses. Sometimes this doesn't totally jive with their true natures. Like any picture in a family album or on the cover of a glossy magazine, photographs are not meant to duplicate reality. They leave out the life history and future potential. They only show that piece of reality the photographer wants the viewer to see.