Ralph - German Shepherd/Husky

Ralph is a happy-go-lucky dog and he's very smart. He knows his basic commands, especially when you've got a treat in hand, and he's attentive to his person. There's something quite human-like in his expressions, like maybe he's trying to communicate something and I'm just too thick to pick it up.


For adoption information on Ralph and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Lobo - Husky

Don't you just love a Husky smile?

Lobo

For adoption information on Lobo and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Friday review, Feb. 5

Toronto Animal Services South seems to have be getting in dog breeds in waves these last few weeks. Recently, it's been Huskies and I've already gotten some of their names mixed up. This one below is Kibosh (I mistakenly called another Husky Kibosh a couple of weeks ago) and he's a bright, young fellow perfect for bike joring or just lounging around.

Kibosh

Benny's an affectionate little Beagle but he can be a bit of a howler when there are other dogs around and he's wanting their attention.

Benny

For adoption information on these and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Friday review, Jan. 29

Hook is called Hook because his front right paw is kinda screwed up. I'm not sure if it's got all its toes and some of the ones that are there point upwards - hence the hook. That leg is also shorter than the other ones so it's hard for him to walk very fast.

That's okay. He just wants to be a lap dog anyway. Walking's overrated, especially yesterday. Winter wind nearly blew my face off.


The cold was just this Husky's kind of weather. I took him out and we did some laps of the big parking lot on the CNE grounds and I think I may have even tired him out just a teeny bit. Of course, he may have been just humouring me.


Update on Hook here.

For adoption information on these and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Friday review, Jan. 22

Lots of new dogs this week.

Sheba

Ramone is a super nice black Labrador Retriever who seems to have been abused in the past. He's extremely sensitive to hands being raised and immediately backs away and cowers and then looks for reassurance. I hear, though, that he's going to end up in a fantastic new home so I hope whatever bad memories still haunt him will soon fade away.

Ramone

These next three Labs are happy dogs without a care and the two black ones especially are really robust and beautiful examples of the breed.

Dickie

Buddy

Boone

Bobby

Ida is a serene and elegant Husky. She's got a sense of royalty about her. I love her white mask.

Ida

Sam

Update on Bobby here.

Update on Dickie here.

For adoption information on these and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Update on Sable

Sable was a big hit at the last Petsmart Adopt-a-thon in September and I didn't get a chance to take her photo before she was adopted out but here's her update nonetheless:


I'm writing to update you on Sable, who we now call Mabel. We adopted her from the PetSmart Adoptathon in September. Several weeks before we had inquired about her when she was with Georgina Animal Control, but by the time we wrote them she had been adopted. Then we went to the adoptathon, met this beautiful and sweet dog and suddenly realized she was the same dog! Needless to say we think she was fated to be ours!


She's settling in beautifully and our Vet suspects that she's actually a Husky/Norwegian Elkhound cross and not Shepherd. Apparently her curled tail is making them lean in that direction. She's great with our kids and any other kids that come through our house (which happens often!). Our other dog Molly is playing the role of Mentor to Mabel and everything is running smoothly. She's going to grow into an amazing dog and we are thrilled to have her as part of our family.

100 Huskies in Quebec rescued from neglect

Thirsty, hungry, sick at the end of a chain for who knows how many weeks or months at a time. The victims of some uncaring fuck of a sled dog tour operator.




Most are now rescued but a few were not rescued soon enough.


All photos above are from Rue Frontenac, "Sauvetage d'une centaine de chiens de traîneau dans les Laurentides" (Rescuing 100 sled dogs in the Laurentians).

CTV has got some news videos here.

It doesn't look like large scale dog abuse is going away anytime soon in la belle province.

Missed these two yesterday

There were a whole lot of kids from vet camp visiting Toronto Animal Services South on Friday. First of all, what's with vet camp? How come I didn't have vet camp when I was a kid. All I had was go out into the woods and get bit by mosquitoes camp. Later I had sneak out with the "councilors" and drink and barf camp but never do I remember having vet camp.

Anyway, the kids spent a lot of their time hanging out with Joy, a young German Shepherd/Husky mix, who really was a good sport to be entertaining those couple of dozen really enthusiastic youngsters. I think they all wanted to save the world, or at least the animal world. Good for them. We need more people like that.



It was a very hot day for Squirt, a Shih Tzu, even with his matted locks all shaved off. I don't think he spent as much time with the kids given their many hands and his smaller stature. This guy would be happy with just one welcoming lap and some AC:



For adoption information on these and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Back, finally

It must have been a bittersweet return to work for Toronto Animal Services staff. It probably felt good to be earning a pay cheque again but, on the other hand, it seemed as soon as the doors opened, people were lining up to leave behind animals.

The first dog that was brought in was for an owner requested euthanasia. The JRT was old and had been seizuring all night. It was time to say goodbye. Glad I wasn't there for that.

Shortly after that, Bach was brought back from his stay up at TAS north (more on him tomorrow).

The rest of the animals were dumped by their owners. Nine cats and three dogs today, I think, was the count. Some of the dumpers were crying. Why? Were they really expecting sympathy for tossing their pet so they could go move into a new condo?

Oh what a hard decision. Oh boo hoo. A new trendy downtown condo or kick out my dog? Oh boo hoo. It's just that the condo's got rules against dogs and it's such a beautiful condo. Overpriced just right and really trendy - not that I'm a follower of trends, but you know how it is. My friends will just gush when I invite them over for cocktails. I know. It's too bad, you don't fit the new condo weight requirements. I'm sure you would've had a great life there too. No hard feelings, right? It's hard on me, also, you know. Boo hoo hoo. I hope you don't get euthanized. Sniff, sniff. Oh look. Time to go. Gotta pick out some new curtains. I want sheer, really sheer. So sexy that way.

Phury, too big for the new condo:


Smokey, too expensive:


Smokey's a beautiful dog with a rich black coat. We're guessing he's a Doberman/Great Dane mix. He's come in with such a bad ear infection that his right ear is completely swollen shut internally.



You can see how scared he was in the video at having been abandoned. He was owner searching the whole time I had him out, peering at everyone in the far distance to see if his owner had come back for him and looking away disappointed and anxious every time. Yep, it was heartbreaking but hopefully he'll come around in a few days.

As for the dogs at Hamilton/Burlingon SPCA and other private fosters, they will be be brought back to TAS South over the next few days. There really wasn't much anyone could do today in that regard because city council didn't ratify the workers' contract until late in the day. It would have really sucked to have brought all the animals back in only to have to ship them out again if council hadn't approved the contract.

... and Hamilton/Burlington SPCA

Continued from here.

I like the ride over to Hamilton on my motorcycle. Going over the QEW Burlington Skyway is always exhilerating and especially so on a blue sky day. The cartoon perfect white clouds hanging over the lake are somewhat mesmerizing and I have to force myself to keep my eyes on the road.

I'm in a pretty good mood by the time I get to the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA. It's location certainly doesn't disappoint. It sits off a country road on a well manicured plot of land. There are open areas and tree shaded areas. There are gardens and rock benches and even a pet memorial site built on a patch of grass surrounded by a ring of shrubs for privacy.


There's also a decent sized dog park on one side of the lot, complete with agility course and at first, not knowing any better, I actually think the two dozen or so dogs in the park are shelter dogs until I realize they are pets out with their owners.

Inside the shelter, it's bustling. It's been a long time since I've been inside a real shelter and I've forgotten just how noisy and crowded they can be. Toronto Animal Services South is technically not a shelter, of course, and so to compare isn't exactly fair but if I were a dog awaiting adoption, I'd have to say I'd rather be waiting around at TAS South. I know the mandate at HBSPCA is to save as many lives as possible and the way to do that efficiently is to pack in many animals so as to be able to show them to the public and move them through. Still, I'm not used to the constant waves of barking and the cages of dogs lining the hallways and all the dogs in display windows which reminds me of a pet store.

The energy in the place feels good, though. It's sad to see so many dogs caged up but they're on display for a good reason and there are many potential adopters walking around checking them out. One young guy is very impressed by a Rottie that was just brought in. He's going to adopt her but has to wait until Tuesday after she's gotten all her shots and paperwork done. Another older couple, who arrived on a Harley, spend a good part of the afternoon with a little Schnauzer/Terrier type dog. I wonder if they're going to somehow take the dog home on the bike with them but at the end of the day they leave the guy behind. I'm hoping they'll return for him later with their car.


The staff at HBSPCA are typically young. They look a bit harried but they are helpful and friendly and very keen about the animals. No one looks like they are just doing time. As I'm standing there, absorbing and adjusting to the environment, someone approaches me and asks if he can help me with something. I explain that I'm looking for three dogs: Olga, Dakota and Keenan. He takes me to see Olga and Dakota right off and then after a bit of searching, finds Keenan as well. Dakota and Olga are in glass display cases and Keenan is in a cage.


Keenan at 0:20. Olga at 0:45 and 2:10. Dakota at 1:51

I immediately feel bad for them. I know they have a much better chance of being adopted here than they would at TAS North with that facility's limited hours due to the strike but still, seeing them here in their cramped quarters surrounded by a constant cacophony is sad. TAS South was like the Four Seasons comparatively.

I take Keenan out first. The environment is too stress inducing and he's completely forgotten how to sit in his crate while the door is being opened. On the way out, he's beserkers as we walk through the crowded main entrance way, pulling towards other dogs, cats, people. And his hackles are up so I have to be careful not to let him get too close to other excited dogs.


Once outside, it takes him a few minutes to calm down and then he's back to his old self again, alternating between sniffing around and returning for attention. We walk the perimeter of the grounds, going around to the other side of the property where Hamilton Animal Control is located but I see no activity from that part of the building. I find a shady spot and sit with Keenan just to let him decompress for a bit in the outdoor calm. I spend half an hour with him and then bring him back in.

I take Dakota out next.


Dakota's a bit more relaxed and we end up in an area where there's a volunteer standing around with a raggedly terrier/poodle looking dog. She seems like a suburban grandmother so I'm a little surprised when she tells me that her favorite dogs are Pit Bulls. Her last had just died a while ago at 15 and she hasn't found a replacement yet so she's getting her dog fix volunteering at the HBSPCA. I ask her how many dogs they have in there and she says she doesn't know but there are a lot. They've got a large capacity for dogs. She tells me that they sometimes get shipments of up to a hundred Louisianna dogs, the continuing fallout from the dogs abandoned during Katrina. And now I understand why the crowded, cage lined hallways. Better that than death by gas chamber in some high kill pound in the south.

On the way out with Olga, she's hackling the whole time and as we pass by a woman with her Boxer, she snaps at him and he at her but leashes keep them back from one another. It takes Olga a few minutes to destress outside and then she's doing her favourite thing rolling in the grass. I take her around the property and then find a shady spot in the trees. By the time I get her back inside, it's past five and the shelter is closing.




I give Olga to one of the staff to put back in her display case and then go visit Keenan one last time in his cage. He wags his tail when he sees me, happy and expectant, but I say goodbye to him, pat him through the cage and then leave.

It's for the best and the people there will look out for them but still, I'll be checking their adoption site daily and I'll be a lot happier once Keenan, Olga and Dakota are homed.

Daytrip to Toronto Animal Services North ...

From here.

I have to admit, it felt a bit strange going up to Toronto Animal Services North. First of all, it's at Sheppard and Keele and for someone who rarely goes north of Bloor, that's way way up there for me. When I finally find the place and walk through the main entrance, I get that feeling I used to get whenever I started at a new school or a new job: a touch of nerves, a touch of excitement. Weird.

I'm up in Downsview to see Bach. The plan is to check out his new digs at TAS North and then swing way over to Hamilton to visit the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA and see how they're treating our dogs from TAS South, Keenan, Olga and Dakota. I mean, they're not our dogs. They're no one's dogs - and that's the problem - but still, there's a sense of, I guess, responsibility, although it's not even that. It's more that they were in our care, under our roof, and like with guests, friends, whatever you want to call them, it's only right to see them off, to make sure they are safe, delivered into good hands.

I'm pleasantly surprised by TAS North. They've got it good up there. Built in the well-moneyed Mel Lastman years of North York, they sit on a nice chunk of land. The outdoor dog runs are more like grassy fields. Well, actually, they're not like grassy fields. They are grassy fields. I wish we had the land at TAS South for something that splendid. Then it wouldn't be so much like a shelter as it would be like going to a dog park.

The only thing strange about all that space, though, is that there are no dogs out there running around in those nice fields. That may have something to do with TAS North being short staffed because of the city strike so I'll have to go up there again when things are back to normal and see how well used they are. I'm told there aren't any volunteers up at the north shelter so the fenced in fields are used all time by the staff to let the dogs run around leash free.

The indoor facilities are pretty nice too. Well, the dog kennels and cat cages are nothing to brag about - but then when are they ever - but much of the space is natural sunlight bright and open. And the cat room is the best cat room I've ever seen.


It's like it was once a multi-stepped auditorium refurbished into a cat lounge with loads of cat beds and scratching posts and toys and, of course, several friendly cats.


The busy staff are pretty accomodating as well. Since the regular staff are on strike, everyone working there is probably a manager of some sort doing someone else's job but they seemed to be pulling it off well enough. Granted, some of them are working twelve hour days, six days a week, so it can't be easy. They are probably hoping for this strike to be over more than anyone else.

The most important thing, though, is that it looked like Bach is doing well. He's been started on his heartworm meds so his time in the shelter isn't being wasted. People are looking out for him up there and that's good to hear.


They bring him to meet me in an internal courtyard, open to the blue sky above. We're surrounded on two sides by the cat lounge and the cats seem to be as curious about Bach as he is about them. Between belly scratches, Bach gets up and watches the cats who are pawing at the glass wall separating them.


Yeah, he seems okay there. I'm sure he spends most of his days in his kennel and that can't be pleasant but on the heartworm meds, he can't be allowed to physically exert himself anyway. While it may not be the best situation for him to be in, it may be the safest.

Just before I go, I ask about the lack of dogs up for adoption on the TAS site and I'm told that last week around thirty dogs were transferred to Hamilton/Burlington SPCA and thirty dogs, in all likelihood, cleaned out all the TAS adoption dogs. Doing the adoptions on top of everything else must have been too much for the skeleton crews to handle.

I give Bach one last ear scratch and then it's time to head to Hamilton.

Daytrip stuff continued here.

More on Bach here.

Update 2 on Travis

I'm really happy for this guy. Travis had been at Toronto Animal Services for weeks and was beginning to develop signs of cage distress/aggression. No one was interested in adopting him and hope was running out.

So, he was transferred to a rescue, Nickquenum Dog Adoptions, and almost immediately his luck changed.

From Travis' owner:


Travis has gained weight - tipping the scales at a little over 24 kilos 10 days ago. This translates to an increase of about 3 kilos since he was adopted. The other dog is Gunther, a rescue from Kentucky. He is about 3 years old. He has a bit of a limp which, when I had his left foreleg x-rayed, turns out to be metal fragments - so the vet thinks that he had been shot sometime in the past.

These two dogs along with Ethan (the Newfoundland X) go with me to Clairville about 5 to 6 times per week where they go off leash and run to their hearts content. All return when called, although sometimes it takes two or three times being called before they come back. They are often out of sight.

Five times a week some friends take them out for an hour on-leash walk in the evening.

Mad dog

The first time I meet Keenan, he is at the front of his kennel barking furiously, snarling, kangaroo hopping. I don't remember the last time I saw a dog act like this. Dogs have hard stared me through their kennel doors, they've low growled and bared their teeth. Some have moved forward and barked and snapped when I got too close but this one, it looks like it wants to break down the door with its ferocity. The hand written comment on the door says, "Barks a lot" to which I want to add, "and acts like he wants to kill you a lot".

I wish I had taken a video of all his carrying on because it's hard to fathom what happens next.

I stand there for a second, debating whether or not to pass on this guy. I've got no problem with passing on a dog for a walk. I don't do it very often, probably only 2 or 3 times that I can remember, but if a dog acts like it's going to try taking a bite out of me for whatever reason, I'll walk on. But, with Keenan, there had been no warnings from the staff. There had been no additional notes on the dogs-to-walk list other than "Keenan is a bit hyper."

As I stand there, something about Keenan changes, some little thing. He's still barking, still kangaroo hopping but now maybe the snarling has subsided. It's like his attitude has changed. I get a different feeling off him, not that I'd stick my fingers in his mouth exactly, but now it seems he's just wanting to get out, not so much wanting to get me.

So, I open the kennel door and let him out.

He runs right by me, to the room door, which is closed. He runs back to me. I put the leash on him, take him out and this is him 5 minutes later:


After his walk, I pass by one of the staffers and she asks me how it went. I tell her about what happened and she says that when he first came in, because of his apparently aggressive behaviour, they were treating him like a dangerous dog, moving him around with the catch pole, keeping him at a distance. But, she said, she saw something in him that made her think he wasn't so bad so she kind of did what I did and just took him out for a walk with a regular leash and it was fine. He was totally fine.

I bring Keenan back to his kennel and put him inside and shut the door. I stand there waiting for his cage aggression to reappear but it doesn't. He just sits there, waiting for me.

Two days later, when I go back to Toronto Animal Services, I have my camera ready. I walk into the room where his kennel is located and walk up to his door. This is what happens:


So much better. I'm amazed he has the discipline to sit for me even in his excitement. Not many of the dogs who have passed through TAS have been trained this well. I'm hoping that by the time Keenan makes it into adoption, his unruly kennel behaviour will be totally gone. He's a good dog and it would be a shame if he doesn't get adopted just because his bark is so much worse than his bite.



Continued here.

Sunday morning smiles

Way to start the day off right.

Yogi

Dakota

Someone's going to get really lucky waking up everyday to these happy faces.

For adoption information on these and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Toronto Animal Services Friday Review, May 29 - a few more

Just got these three guys done this afternoon. The day had started out cloudy and kind of chilly and suddenly the sun came out and the dogs were panting away. Sometimes I can't figure out how they get all that tongue back inside their mouths.

Mickey

Sophie (Sally's sister)

Yogi

These two furry guys came in earlier in the week, both bigger boys with great personalities.

Clancy's a friendly, eager fellow and he's sure to make lots of friends when people walk over to check out his brilliant brindled coat.

Clancy

For a husky, Olga has got excellent leash manners. Very polite and definitely a softie.

Olga

For adoption information on these and other dogs (and cats and other animals) at Toronto Animal Services, please go here.

Update on Travis

Sometimes a dog just can't seem to get adopted from Toronto Animal Services and ends up malingering in its kennel for several weeks. Travis was such a dog.

At first, there was another male dog in the adoption room whom Travis didn't like at all and so his bad behaviour whenever he was walked by or near this other dog probably turned some potential adopters away. Later, after the other dog was adopted, Travis, being a high energy dog, just wasn't settling well in his kennel.

Staff put him in one of the larger play rooms with big windows to the main upstairs lobby and Travis did much better there but still no one wanted him.

I liked the guy and couldn't understand why no one had chosen him yet. He was clean, healthy, handsome, affectionate and while not the best on leash, certainly wasn't the worst. And yes, he had some issues sometimes with other male dogs but, again, nothing impossible to handle.

After another couple of weeks of no one showing any interest in Travis, it was decided that his chances might be better elsewhere so he was placed with Nickquenum Dog Adoptions, a great dog rescue based out of Guelph.

Rescues generally (though not always) operate by fostering out dogs to volunteers' homes where a dog gets to live in and experience a stable home environment. That's of course ideal for most dogs but especially for higher energy dogs like Travis.

I didn't hear anything about Travis for a while and then just a few days ago, Toronto Animal Services got this e-mail:

Travis got a great home with someone whose dogs are his kids. Travis showed no dog aggression and in fact he shares his new home with another big male dog. When the 2 dogs first met the other dog kept mounting Travis but Travis just ignored him and then they just hit it off. Thanks for saving him he is a really nice dog.

News like that always makes my day.

Thanks Nickquenum!

Continued http://onebarkatatime.blogspot.com/2009/06/husky-toronto-animal-services-update-2.htmlhere.

Balance

I’ve already spent the morning basking in the digital glow of hi-rez pixels, eating handfuls of chips, drinking yesterday’s cola and squinting at lines of computer code, trying to decipher the purpose of a certain program’s existence - which is still easier by far than reaching for the purpose of mine - and not trying to but succeeding at a gradual ruin of my eyes in conjunction with what you could call a petrifaction of human social interaction skills meaning that after many hours of communing with my hipper-than-all-other neon colored, iridescent, supersonic, multiphonic, ultra ultra-modern, terabyte monster of a 100 pound computer, I looked into the eyes of everyone around me and my skewed vision could only see, could only comprehend matched pairs of little non-flat screen monitors staring back at me, and my voice, my input device to them, was as steady and monotonous as my typing on the ergonomically angled keyboard of my ultra, ultra sleek machine.

So to counter the erosion of all connections with the living, at noon, I go visit the dogs where they give me such smiles that even my mumbling, fumbling language with them is of no concern and I can laugh at all their secret jokes.

Copain

And when I say the dogs save me, I mean they save me from the inertia of butt planted in seat for 9 hours straight and they save me from eating a saturated fat saturated meal at the nearest fry pit. When I say they save me I mean they reanimate my pixel infused brain, they pump life through my digitized heart and they re-inflate my micro-chipped soul.

Travis

The dogs dissolve away all my plastic pretense and wreck all this sleek, clean metal concrete glass architecture overhead and around at what? a quarter million for 600 square feet?, and replace it simply with fur and drool and dirt. They replace it with bright eyes, excited ears and paws that pad through snow and puddles and mud and onward, always onward. They are a force field against the artifice of my bipolar commodity/consumer world, a world that suggests to me daily I would be happier indeed if I were an automaton permanently wired and 100% exposed to the marketing for the next future-is-now, must-have electronic device.

But these dogs don't care. These uncivilized, unwanted, uneducated dogs don't understand and don't even try. They just laugh at all this and re-infect me with life.

Maggie

Update on Maggie here.

Update on Travis here.