I’ve written at length (numerous times) about the problems of
being one of the fairly small number of folks in Southeastern Georgia willing
to take responsibility for animals no one else wants. My mother and I like dogs
(I have Mochi; she has eight – and you may remember that we picked up six
puppies in December), but we are cat people. Cat rescue is our thing. My mom has roughly 25 cats (all rescues, all spayed/neutered and vaccinated).
Cats and dogs do not always get along. Luckily Mochi is great
with cats (I’m fairly certain he thinks he is
a cat), and mom’s three indoor dogs (two little ones and one pit bull) are also
great with cats. The dogs in mom’s backyard, however, are cat-killers.
Specifically Kali, Viktor, and Nadya. It’s not their fault. They were all full
grown when we found them. Kali and Nadya (found separately) were starving, and
probably hunted whatever they could to survive. Viktor was most likely a
lost/dumped hog-hunting dog, whom we found injured and on the side of the road
in the absolute middle of nowhere. Whatever hunting instincts they had when we
rescued them were already fixed into their brains. Mom has had Kali since 2009
and Viktor since 2012. During that time we have lost several cats to the
backyard dogs. Most of the cats know not to venture near them. I picked up
Nadya last New Year’s eve. We’ve lost two kittens in little more than a year,
once they’ve gotten big enough to venture out the cat window. Kittens who didn’t
know that the backyard dogs were not friendly like the indoor dogs. We lost
little Sunshine today. It was probably Kali that got her (apparently she had a
scratch to the face), although we don’t know for sure.
WOULD ANYONE BE INTERESTED IN ADOPTING A DOG? (Or if you're a dog rescuer with some cats that don't fit in at your place, would you be interested in trading?)
Perhaps this isn’t the best way to introduce the question of
adopting these dogs… But we really need to find homes for them. We’ve wanted to
find homes for them ever since we found them, but they’re not the easiest to
place (especially Kali and Viktor). Viktor and Kali couldn’t go to anyone with cats or
small dogs. Viktor can’t go to anyone with male dogs (he’s viciously aggressive
against male dogs), and Kali has in the past been aggressive towards female
dogs. However, they get along great with each other. I wouldn’t want them to go
to someone with little kids. They’re not aggressive towards humans at all (they’re
quite friendly), but they might view a small child in the same way they view
cats and small dogs and I wouldn’t want to take that chance. What they need is
someone with a fenced in yard, no small children, and no other animals that
might wander into said yard. They are both very sweet and love attention. Kali
is actually passive aggressive; when
you try to put her in her kennel, she will often roll over on her back and
refuse to budge until her belly is rubbed to her satisfaction. Nadya is
incredibly sweet, and could go to anyone with a good fenced in yard and no
cats. (She's great with small dogs.) I’m sure she’d also LOVE to be a house dog.
Viktor
Viktor
Kali
Kali
Nadya
I’ve mentioned before that my mom is 69 years old and lives
alone. She has about 25 cats, in addition to the eight dogs. If I get offered a
job in the US, I will take Viktor and Kali off her hands, but my future is (as I mentioned in my previous post) rather up in the air. I might be living in the
US after I finish my Master’s program, but I just as easily might be living
somewhere like Kyrgyzstan. (This also, of course, depends on me being able to
live somewhere where I could have large dogs. For example, I would not be allowed to have
them in the place that I am currently renting.) Additionally, right now half of my
mom’s cats live out at her land (where there are no dogs). When she moves out
to her land (once the house is finished; probably in June) she will be bringing
the eight dogs out to the land. While she plans to have dog ‘yards’ out there as
she does at her current location, there are about 15 cats out at her land who
have only ever met Brin, the cat-friendly pit bull, and who are used to having
free reign across all her of her land. She is terrified of what might happen to her cats if she brings Viktor, Kali, and Nadya out there, and so am I.
These dogs are cat-killers, through no
fault of their own. We took these dogs in because they were abandoned and mistreated, although since we are cat people, it is proving quite a heartbreaking hardship. If anyone is interested in adopting them (or knows someone
who might be), please leave me a comment and let me know. All three are fixed, have had their shots, and are on heartworm preventative. Please share this post and help me get the word out.
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