OMG...what have I done??!!

[KarenSoCal]

A close friend of mine, and member of my church, has had something horrible happen to her. 3 weeks ago she thought she had a stone bruise on her foot, but it became swollen and hot. So she called an ambulance and was admitted to a local hospital with a seriously infected foot. The short version of this story is that 2 days after admission she became septic, was transferred to ICU, was put into a medically induced coma, and 3 days later had her leg amputated mid-thigh to save her life. Until 2 days ago she was kept in the coma, but is now slowly waking, totally unaware of her new reality. She is 59 years old.

She has many pets, and her family is about 2-3 hours away, so 4 of us from church have been caring for her animals, along with her ex husband who stays here Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon, then goes home for 3 days. The family has decided that something must be done with the pets, since we don't know when, if ever, my friend will be able to return. She has a very long road ahead of her, starting with getting well, then a prosthetic and all that entails. She could be gone a year easily.

So a couple of us have agreed to foster/adopt a pet or 2, with the understanding that if she wants them back, she gets them. My friend Lynn has a load of guppies and 3 (now 4--she bought a mate for a single male) zebra finches.

Last Monday I took in her bare--eyed cockatoo, Bird. Bird is fun since he talks a bit, almost continually yells "hey" when I'm not in the same room as him, and greets my pets when they walk into his sight with "Hi there...how are you?" His cage is as big as my bathroom! Adorable...yet eager to bite me at the slightest opportunity. 🕊️





What I haven't told you is that the pets include 7 dogs--3 bull mastiffs, 1 neapolitan mastiff, 2 great danes (1 is very old), and a 6 month old puppy that's half mastiff, half dane. 2 church members have been going to the house 3 times/day to let them out of their kennels, 2 at a time, to potty and be fed. It's quite a production to watch as the dogs thunder through the house to go to their outside enclosures. The situation is not sustainable; the dogs are in kennels 23 of 24 hours every day, and they are starting to fight each other from built up energy and frustration.

A home has been found for 3 of them. The puppy went yesterday to live with a family that has children. They all fell in love with him right away. This weekend a female mastiff is going with a woman who has 8 acres for her to roam along with her new resident siblings. And a female great dane about 3 years old is..........

IN MY HOUSE!!! 😂





This is Ditsy, now renamed Petra. She is sweet, laid back, and already bonded to me. She's so happy to be outside where she can run! I just brought her home yesterday and she is fitting into my household smoothly. We had a meet & greet on Saturday with my dogs at a neutral location...it couldn't have gone any better. The usual sniffing, then just checking out where we were. We initially had some difficulty getting her in to the car, but she jumped right in for the return trip home. She got right into my car yesterday with no problem. She voluntarily goes into her crate for naps, and didn't wake me with her howling until 7:30 this morning. Not being house trained, I let her outside, she peed, and came back in to her crate to sleep again. She acts like she is starving and seems exhausted. An endearing action she does is to come out of her crate and come to me, and lays that big head on my arm while she stands really close up against my body. She seems to need that reassurance that I haven't gone some where, and that this wonderful change has actually happened!

So now my pet count is 3 dogs, 2 cats, a cockatoo, a blue tongue skink, and a Burmese Star tortoise.

The gates are closed...NO MORE!!

None of these dogs are neutered or spayed! They were acquired for breeding. Though I seriously disagree with "backyard breeding", my friend has no obligations to change things to the way I want them. I love her as my friend even though I disagree with this aspect of her life. If she ever decides she wants Ditsy/Petra back, she will get a spayed dog who will live a healthier, risk reduced life because of it. Her surgery will be done ASAP as there is a remote possibility that she is newly pregnant. At the same time, I will also have the stomach surgery done that prevents bloat, which is very common, and frequently fatal, in this breed.

 

[SinLA]

Good for you on every count here. Birds are often kept almost as poorly as reptiles, you're a good person for doing this... I do hope they all end up getting fixed.

 

[Ink]

You are a very kind person. Best of luck with all of them. Prayers for your friend.

 

[jeff kushner]

I feel bad for your friend, to go through the sheer implications of what has happened to her.....horrible things sometimes happen to good people. It's the glitch in the matrix of life in my mind. Best of luck to her, she needs it.

Good luck to you to K.....that Dane would more than fill my plate! LOL


I had to read this thread.....
My fav expression to ask someone when I really want to get their attention is to ask them loudly; "OMG, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE"

 

[Yvonne G]

Your poor friend! To have your leg amputated when all you thought was something minor! I can't imagine what she's going through. But she's so lucky to have friends and acquaintances that are willing to step up and help.

 

[SuzanneZ]

A close friend of mine, and member of my church, has had something horrible happen to her. 3 weeks ago she thought she had a stone bruise on her foot, but it became swollen and hot. So she called an ambulance and was admitted to a local hospital with a seriously infected foot. The short version of this story is that 2 days after admission she became septic, was transferred to ICU, was put into a medically induced coma, and 3 days later had her leg amputated mid-thigh to save her life. Until 2 days ago she was kept in the coma, but is now slowly waking, totally unaware of her new reality. She is 59 years old.

She has many pets, and her family is about 2-3 hours away, so 4 of us from church have been caring for her animals, along with her ex husband who stays here Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon, then goes home for 3 days. The family has decided that something must be done with the pets, since we don't know when, if ever, my friend will be able to return. She has a very long road ahead of her, starting with getting well, then a prosthetic and all that entails. She could be gone a year easily.

So a couple of us have agreed to foster/adopt a pet or 2, with the understanding that if she wants them back, she gets them. My friend Lynn has a load of guppies and 3 (now 4--she bought a mate for a single male) zebra finches.

Last Monday I took in her bare--eyed cockatoo, Bird. Bird is fun since he talks a bit, almost continually yells "hey" when I'm not in the same room as him, and greets my pets when they walk into his sight with "Hi there...how are you?" His cage is as big as my bathroom! Adorable...yet eager to bite me at the slightest opportunity. 🕊️

View attachment 362671

View attachment 362677

What I haven't told you is that the pets include 7 dogs--3 bull mastiffs, 1 neapolitan mastiff, 2 great danes (1 is very old), and a 6 month old puppy that's half mastiff, half dane. 2 church members have been going to the house 3 times/day to let them out of their kennels, 2 at a time, to potty and be fed. It's quite a production to watch as the dogs thunder through the house to go to their outside enclosures. The situation is not sustainable; the dogs are in kennels 23 of 24 hours every day, and they are starting to fight each other from built up energy and frustration.

A home has been found for 3 of them. The puppy went yesterday to live with a family that has children. They all fell in love with him right away. This weekend a female mastiff is going with a woman who has 8 acres for her to roam along with her new resident siblings. And a female great dane about 3 years old is..........

IN MY HOUSE!!! 😂


View attachment 362676
View attachment 362675

This is Ditsy, now renamed Petra. She is sweet, laid back, and already bonded to me. She's so happy to be outside where she can run! I just brought her home yesterday and she is fitting into my household smoothly. We had a meet & greet on Saturday with my dogs at a neutral location...it couldn't have gone any better. The usual sniffing, then just checking out where we were. We initially had some difficulty getting her in to the car, but she jumped right in for the return trip home. She got right into my car yesterday with no problem. She voluntarily goes into her crate for naps, and didn't wake me with her howling until 7:30 this morning. Not being house trained, I let her outside, she peed, and came back in to her crate to sleep again. She acts like she is starving and seems exhausted. An endearing action she does is to come out of her crate and come to me, and lays that big head on my arm while she stands really close up against my body. She seems to need that reassurance that I haven't gone some where, and that this wonderful change has actually happened!

So now my pet count is 3 dogs, 2 cats, a cockatoo, a blue tongue skink, and a Burmese Star tortoise.

The gates are closed...NO MORE!!

None of these dogs are neutered or spayed! They were acquired for breeding. Though I seriously disagree with "backyard breeding", my friend has no obligations to change things to the way I want them. I love her as my friend even though I disagree with this aspect of her life. If she ever decides she wants Ditsy/Petra back, she will get a spayed dog who will live a healthier, risk reduced life because of it. Her surgery will be done ASAP as there is a remote possibility that she is newly pregnant. At the same time, I will also have the stomach surgery done that prevents bloat, which is very common, and frequently fatal, in this breed.

So wonderful of you and her church members to do this. I imagine most of us with many animals wonder what would happen to them if that kind of catastrophe happened to us. A female friend had a heart attack years ago and while she was in the hospital her grown children "got rid of" all her dogs and chickens. Sold the chickens, told her (later) a humane society took the dogs. When I learned of it weeks later, all I could do was call every animal shelter around. Of course none of them had heard of her dogs.

I'm glad y'all are the good guys.

 

[Yvonne G]

This thread reminds me of what happened to Cowboy Ken after he had his terrible car crash. If I'm remembering correctly it was his ex wife who disposed of all his tortoises. Don't remember if she sold them or gave them away, but when he got out of the hospital all the tortoises were gone!

This should serve as a reminder to each of us to have plans in place for our animals

 

[SinLA]

This thread reminds me of what happened to Cowboy Ken after he had his terrible car crash. If I'm remembering correctly it was his ex wife who disposed of all his tortoises. Don't remember if she sold them or gave them away, but when he got out of the hospital all the tortoises were gone!

This should serve as a reminder to each of us to have plans in place for our animals

Yes! Though it more comes into place if someone honors their wishes. Sounds like in these stories family members directly went against what the owner wanted.

 

[Jacqui]

So you took in a dog possibly "temporarily" and already changed it's name and are going to spay her dog? She gave permission correct?

 

[KarenSoCal]

This thread reminds me of what happened to Cowboy Ken after he had his terrible car crash. If I'm remembering correctly it was his ex wife who disposed of all his tortoises. Don't remember if she sold them or gave them away, but when he got out of the hospital all the tortoises were gone!

This should serve as a reminder to each of us to have plans in place for our animals

Yes, I remember hearing about that from Ken at a later time. The hurt was still there, understandably.

 

[KarenSoCal]

Yes! Though it more comes into place if someone honors their wishes. Sounds like in these stories family members directly went against what the owner wanted.

Just so there's no misunderstanding here...this is not really the case with my friend. She had no wishes re' such a situation because she never knew what happened. Just today her daughter told her about her leg and the dogs. It will take a while for all of it to sink in...she'll probably have to be told again.

 

[SinLA]

Just so there's no misunderstanding here...this is not really the case with my friend. She had no wishes re' such a situation because she never knew what happened. Just today her daughter told her about her leg and the dogs. It will take a while for all of it to sink in...she'll probably have to be told again.

I was referring to the other two examples given - not your case.

 

[KarenSoCal]

So you took in a dog possibly "temporarily" and already changed it's name and are going to spay her dog? She gave permission correct?

We/the family have no choice to do this rehoming. The 2 men who are going 3 times a day cannot keep up such a regimen for possibly months or even years. The dogs' living situation is untenable and must be changed before there is more bloodshed from fighting.

Many, many shelters and rescues have been called, and NONE OF THEM are accepting dogs. It's even been in the news about all the shelters are overflowing. One rescue, when told about the old dane flat out said she'd be put down in a day or 2. When told none of the dogs are neutered, she lectured the daughter about breeding and said all of them would be put down because the shelters are not going to "waste resources" neutering "older" dogs.

So homes must be found for them. I am the only one that has agreed to the possibility of having to give Petra back, but I was told by the family to do "whatever it takes" to make the adoption happen. There is a chance that she could be pregnant by her kennel mate, a bull mastiff. The last thing any of us need is a litter of puppies that need homes. Petra is a sweet dog, but is not house trained, possibly has never lived in a house before, and has no manners or basic training. If it happens, my friend will get her dog back in much better shape for an above-knee amputee to be able to care for.

I thought about the exact issues that you have brought up before I said I would take the dog. The decisions were easy, considering the awful alternative if no home was found.

Believe me...none of these heart-wrenching decisions have been taken lightly...indeed, many tears have been shed by us when contemplating this situation while my friend was hanging on to her life by a thread.

The phrase "we did the best we could" is often overused by those who are looking for an excuse for their actions. This entire circumstance has been a tragic, heartbreaking time for all of us, but rest assured "we are still doing the best we possibly can". 😢 🦜🐈🦮🦮🦮🦮🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐠🐟🐠🐟 (The lives depending on our decisions)

 

[KarenSoCal]

I was referring to the other two examples given - not your case.

I thought that--just clearing up any possibles.

 

[TammyJ]

Good for you doing this! Especially love the Dane. Beautiful. Hope all goes well.

 

[Cathie G]

I think she's so blessed to have friends like you and the others trying to help her and her animals. It will help her to know that as she's recovering and rehabilitating. I'm sure. Maybe it'll make her happy later to still be able to see them happy and well cared for. 🙏🤗To all of you involved in this crisis.😘

 

[Jacqui]

We/the family have no choice to do this rehoming. The 2 men who are going 3 times a day cannot keep up such a regimen for possibly months or even years. The dogs' living situation is untenable and must be changed before there is more bloodshed from fighting.

Many, many shelters and rescues have been called, and NONE OF THEM are accepting dogs. It's even been in the news about all the shelters are overflowing. One rescue, when told about the old dane flat out said she'd be put down in a day or 2. When told none of the dogs are neutered, she lectured the daughter about breeding and said all of them would be put down because the shelters are not going to "waste resources" neutering "older" dogs.

So homes must be found for them. I am the only one that has agreed to the possibility of having to give Petra back, but I was told by the family to do "whatever it takes" to make the adoption happen. There is a chance that she could be pregnant by her kennel mate, a bull mastiff. The last thing any of us need is a litter of puppies that need homes. Petra is a sweet dog, but is not house trained, possibly has never lived in a house before, and has no manners or basic training. If it happens, my friend will get her dog back in much better shape for an above-knee amputee to be able to care for.

I thought about the exact issues that you have brought up before I said I would take the dog. The decisions were easy, considering the awful alternative if no home was found.

Believe me...none of these heart-wrenching decisions have been taken lightly...indeed, many tears have been shed by us when contemplating this situation while my friend was hanging on to her life by a thread.

The phrase "we did the best we could" is often overused by those who are looking for an excuse for their actions. This entire circumstance has been a tragic, heartbreaking time for all of us, but rest assured "we are still doing the best we possibly can". 😢 🦜🐈🦮🦮🦮🦮🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐠🐟🐠🐟 (The lives depending on our decisions)

I am well aware of the dog shelter problem. But why change her name?? I just have some problems with your boundaries, just glad you are not my "friend". Enough said.

 

[Jacqui]

Yes, I remember hearing about that from Ken at a later time. The hurt was still there, understandably.

Yes, he was devastated and understandably so.

 

[KarenSoCal]

I am well aware of the dog shelter problem. But why change her name?? I just have some problems with your boundaries, just glad you are not my "friend". Enough said.

"Ditsy" is a derogatory term for women, and I refuse to use it. The puppy's name was "Looney". I would also have changed that.

The other 5...Raven, Brutus, Og, Tiger, and Princess are perfectly acceptable.

Hmmm...I suspect you already know about derogatory terms for women, and have them ready for quick use. I'm glad I'm not your friend too, however I don't think that would ever happen in the first place. Enough said.

 

[ryan57]

You are a very kind person. Best of luck with all of them. Prayers for your friend.

Likewise. That's how life happens. A quick reminder to all to close every day as if it were your last because you don't know what will happen tomorrow. Finish projects right the first time because you may not have time to get back to it... mainly a self reminder.