Adoption Stories - me and my kitty!

Sydpie’s story:

My birth-mom was found walking along Route 495 in Boston, abandoned, pregnant with me and my siblings. The kind people at Northeast Rottweiler Rescue took her in and cared for her while she finished her pregnancy and gave birth to our litter.

All of us, my birth-Mom and my siblings, were listed on the Northeast Rottweiler Rescue (NERR) website (http://www.rottrescue.org) for adoption. I think there were five of us. I know that one of my sisters was named Daisy and there were LOTS of boy puppies. Mom thought that Daisy was the cutest name in the world and wanted to meet Daisy and me and our other siblings.

My future forever-Mom called NERR and they said that she could have any adult dog, but not a puppy. They told her that everyone wants a Rottweiler puppy and that the adults are just so difficult to help find a forever home. Mom understood, and cried. You see, mom had just barely lost her Rottweiler love, Molly, to cancer. She had tried everything to help Molly, even refinanced her car to pay for treatments but the very best animal hospital in New England, Tufts, couldn’t save her. God wanted Molly in heaven, and that’s all there was to it.

Mom had raised Molly from a puppy and her heart needed a new Rottie baby to raise. She was sad and inconsolable. Mom & Dad were just dating back then but he saw how much she was hurting. He wrote a letter to NERR telling him what a good mom she would be to a Rottie puppy. They replied with a note saying “it’s nice that you want to get your girlfriend a puppy” and declined the request. When mom heard about the letter exchange, she decided to call NERR again. This time, they agreed to have someone come to her house and see if she was suitable. Mom was SO excited. NERR is very thorough and does a very good job of making sure that dogs will be safe and happy in their new homes.

When the NERR woman came to the house, she saw the dog bed with Molly inscribed on it, the Molly bath towel, the Alexandra Day Puppy Book full of Molly’s things, and lastly, a little wooden box. The box was waiting for mom to find HER forever home so Molly would always be with her. The NERR lady cried and cried and hugged mom and said “you can have ANY puppy you want”. So, Mom and Dad hopped in the car and drove 3 hours to view the puppies at their foster family.

Mom met Daisy and they smooched. The family told her that Daisy had a home already and her family was picking her up on the weekend. Then mom saw ME!!!! *pitter patter pitter patter* It was LOVE!!! I was wobbly and sweet and smelled like stale milk. She was so nervous to pet me because she was already in love with me. From that first second her heart belonged to me and mine to her. She scooped me up and we went home that very night!

The next year, mom was doing a “Walk for Animals” with the local shelter and the NERR people were there. They recognized mom and me right away. They called us over and asked if she would get a sibling for me and added that it could even be a puppy. Mom said that I’m an only dog but that she and my dad (they were married now and we all lived in our forever home together) were going to get a kitten for me! But that’s Cheddums’ adoption story. He should tell that story himself.

And now.....
My kitty, Cheddums’, story:

I’ve lived with at least three families. The first family that I remember brought me to the vet with a broken leg. Well, actually, my leg was broken in four places!!! They told the vet that I fell off of the piano. The vet confiscated me, fixed my leg, and tried to find a new home for me. My second family kept me for only a month. The man returned me to the vet’s office and said that I wasn’t friendly and hid all the time. He added “we haven’t seen him since we got him home”. Now, I became the vet’s office kitty because they thought that I wasn’t adoptable.

One day, a very giggly woman came in with a HUGE Rottweiler puppy. The Rottweiler was super giggly too and the two of them just carried on in the vet’s waiting room until it was their turn to talk to the receptionist. The Rottie was being boarded for the weekend. The woman saw a sign that there was a kitty looking for a home and asked to meet me. I was hiding up on top of the cabinets in a storage room but she poked her head in and said “hello” to me for a couple of minutes. Soon, the woman left and I got to hang out with the Rottie all weekend. There isn’t much activity at night so we got to know one another a bit over the next two days and nights. I learned that the Rottie was VERY playful and was terribly lonesome during the daytime so she had asked her parents for a fur-friend.

One day, the giggly woman came back in and she was SUPER happy! I was scooped into a box and handed to her, along with her Rottie. We all went back to my new forever home and I hid under the sofa for the entire first day. I learned that the Rottie was named Sydney, and the two humans were Mom and Dad. But I needed a name. I had a name, Augy, but Mom felt that I needed a new start with a new name that didn’t remind me of bad times.

So, she sat on the floor by the sofa and sang every name she could think of. She sang dog names, cat names, names of islands, names of people, names of places she wanted to visit and places she had visited before. She was just about out of ideas, when she just started throwing out sing-songy names and I liked Cheddums. I meowed and moved toward her a little. She tried some more names but I responded every time she sang Cheddums. She poked her head under the sofa and said “So, that’s your name, is it?” and I let her pet me. So, that’s how I got my forever home and my name. I picked them both!

Kolo_Martin asked me some questions.....

My friend Kolo_Martin asked me some questions on his blog. Here is his blog: http://kolosworld.blogspot.com/2010/06/marleyterrier-asked-me-some-questions.html

So, I will do my very best to answer Kolo's questions now.....


1. If you could visit any country in the world where would it be?
Any country? Wow! The world is such a big place and I've seen so many lovely photos and videos from my twitter friends. It would be hard to pick just one place. I would want to visit my friends in UK, Canada, Netherlands, Ireland, and everywhere else too! *thinks about this* If I could just visit one country, I guess it would have to be more of my own country. I live in USA but have only seen one very small corner of it. There are lots of anipals here in the US that I could visit and also get to ride there in the car! That would be the BEST! RIDE??!! CAR??!!


2. What thing really makes you smile?
I have a BIG rottie grin and I wake up in a good mood every morning. I sit quietly, well "sorta quietly" and wait for mom and dad to show signs that they are awake. Then, I grab a toy and shove, shove, shove it in mom's face to make sure she wakes up in a good mood too! I have a duck that quacks a lot of times each time I nomm it. That's one of my favorite toys to help my family wake up. I smile a LOT and bounce around the bedroom while my duck quacks.


3. If you were Prime Minister for one day what law would you introduce?
I would make it legal for well behaved doggies to go to the BEACH all summer, not just in the winter!!!!!!


4. When you are not on Twitter what is your favourite game to play?
I love to help with yard work. If there is a stray tree limb in the forest, I grab it and drag it back to the yard and run around with it. I know humans really want that tree limb so I tease them and run by with it over and over and over until someone takes it and throws it. Then, I go get it and start all over again.


5. What do you do to make your human or anipals happy?
I'm just me. Big, furry, infinitely smooochy!!!!!!


Now I have to think of five pals to pass this on to and ask them 5 questions. How about:

@kyba
@trailerparkdogs
@brutusthedane
@schnille
@jazzydacat

And you 5 questions are:
1) What is your absolute favorite nomm?
2) What is your secret talent?
3) Have you ever had a spa treatment and what did you think of it?
4) What are your favorite smells?
5) Are delivery people friends or foe? UPS, Mail, FedEx, etc.....

Bonus question:
Is lettuce food? Please explain your answer.

Pretty Scarf from PawPawty!!!

I brought my kitty Cheddums to the Pawpawty and he won this PRETTY scarf from @Smokey8 and @Pasikas! @Pasikas painted this pretty silk scarf just for us. She asked Cheddums what colors he wanted and he requested the colors of the sea (where the fish live). I think this scarf looks just like the sea and we appreciate all the hard work @Pasikas put into painting it just for us!

It was so very nice of @Smokey8 to donate this lovely scarf as a Pawpawty prize. He is a very beautiful kitty and looks so much like Cheddums that they could be litter mates!

Thank you @Smokey8 and @Pasikas for the lovely gift! Cheddums & I gave it to mom for Mother's Day and she was SO suprised!!!

Smooooooooch!!!!

My Ears Itch!!!! = Food Allergies??

My ears itched ALL THE TIME! UGH! I would lay next to the bed and scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, whine!!, scratch, scratch, scratch all night long. Dad would clean my ears with solution & q-tips (q-tips are nommy, by the way) and mom would spray anti-itch stuff in my ears.

After several vet appointments, timed right when I was itchiest, and monitoring ALL my snacks, the vet suggested that I might be allergic to beef. It turns that that many dogs are allergic to beef and their parents just don't know it.

Here is an article that talks a little about beef allergies in dogs: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2082&aid=143

Beef allergies are often misdiagnosed as mange or ticks or just itchy skin. Some of the symptoms might include itchy ears, hot ears, pink ears, red eyes, lots of drooling for no reason, itchy feet, etc. My ears were itchy, red, and HOT to the touch after I had a beef bone.

So, no more beef cookies, rawhide chews, mom's shoes (well, those were ALWAYS forbidden), beef bones, steak bones, beef juice, pieces of steak, etc. This was really a difficult change for me because I LOVE the flavor of beef but now I know I don't get any. Instead, I get some green beans or chicken or carrots or something else fun to snack on.

My ears don't keep everyone up all night anymore and we're all very happy that it was such a simple remedy.

Lovely Book from a Lovely Friend

Lady Bonessa lives in beautiful Ireland. Her dad is a photographer and has made several books from his photos. Lady Bonessa sweetly shared this book Wicklow with me and my family.

Here is my kitty checking out the book:

Wicklow is full of lovely landscapes and scenes and fun animals. Here I am studying the horse:

Lady Bonessa's dad has published two books about Co Wicklow and Connemara and is just finishing up one on West Cork. He is a very talented photographer. I'm so happy that she shared this wonderful book with me and my family!

I've Been Evicted By Facebook

Poo on Facebook!

When the Facebook team finds anipals on their site, they delete our accounts. I emailed FB (disabled@facebook.com) to ask what happened:

"Hi, My account was disabled. I don’t know why. I don’t do anything improper on FB. Please tell me how to get my account fixed. Thank you, Sydney"

No one has bothered to reply to me.

It seems that FB is very inconsistent with their treatment of accounts and their enforcement of rules. There are MANY businesses with profiles, yet, some business profiles get disabled because FB has a rule against Business Profiles. There are MANY children and animals on FB, yet some children and animals get disabled because FB has a rule that participants must be of a certain age.

I totally agree with protecting children. But the businesses and animals that are arbitrarily deleted while others are ignored seems very unfair.

Rules are rules. If you're going to choose to enforce them, do it. If you're going to ignore some profiles and delete others, that isn't fair at all.

Evidently, this is the rule they are using to disable my account - because I'm a dog (or because they think that a human is impersonating an entity):
Facebook does not allow users to register with fake names, to impersonate any person or entity, or to falsely state or otherwise misrepresent themselves or their affiliations. http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=45

In my defense, I gave my real name, declared myself as a rottweiler, and posted a real pic of me. I do not see in the rules that the user must be a human.

This guy lost his FB account too: I like what he had to say so I'm sharing a link to his blog about it here.

My good friend Mr Breeze lost his FB account too. You can read his blog here.

I won PRIZES!!!

OMD!!! I won prizes from @boriskitty and @dogtoyscom!!!! They're wonderful.




*rummages in box*
There's a BOX OF PEANUT BUTTER AND BERRY COOKIES!!! nomnomnom!!
Oooh, a Wee Doggies Drying Towel - PINK!
A super neat Three In One Grooming Glove - PINK!
A Wee Doggies Wash Mitt - PINK!
A Mud Magnet Paw Cleaner - PINK! (I'm guessing that will be kept by the back door on a little hook)
Thank you so much Boris Kitty and www.dogtoys.com!!!! I love my prizes!
SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOCH!!!!

Dangers of Home Repair - Stairs!!

- Here is a picture of me supervising the stair project.

Ok, I don't want my friends to start thinking I'm a klutz or uncoordinated, or worse, but I have to share another story about household dangers to pets.

One day, a bunch of noisy houseguests arrived. They stayed all day but they left at night. They showed up again the next day too. I didn't know why they were here but they sure made a mess of the house. I was quite nervious that mom would blame the mess on me but she seemed to be totally ok with it.

When I went up the stairs Monday afternoon, the carpet was gone. When I tried to come down the stairs, I didn't realize the carpet had been important to me and to my ability to have good traction on the stairs. I took one step, slipped on the exposed wooden stair, and fell all the way down. Ouch!

Mom called the vet who gave me doggy meds for pain and swelling (NEVER EVER people meds, only doggy meds). Now I am very careful of the stairs until the workman finish them.

I learned two things. 1) when the stair runner was removed, the stairs become smaller, with less place to put my paw. 2) Shiny wood stairs are VERY slippery.

So, if your house is getting worked on, stay off the stairs. It's a long way to the bottom!!

Just Say NO! To Sugar Free Candy

Last week, I had a big ordeal. Since this is important news for anipals and the people that love them, I thought it was worth telling the story here on my bloggy.

I haven't had a meatball in TWO weeks and I'm surrounded by carrots. This can mean only one thing.....mom is on a diet! grrrrrr. Every year, when the big green tree in the living room goes away, so do the meatballs, and out come the carrots. Well, a doggy can only take so much carrots. We need CHOICES! And a choice I was given.

Mom went out for a few hours in the morning but forgot to put away her sugar free candies. She left a bag of her favorites, Nips Sugar Free Caramels, unwatched on the table. When she got home, the bag was empty and wrapper shrapnel covered the floor. Mom has had doggies her whole life but had never run across a doggie eating sugar free candy before so she didn't know whether or not it was a big deal. One time I ate Dad's entire Christmas stocking and the vet said not to worry since I'm such a big doggie (over 105 lbs). So Mom figured 1/2 a bag of sugar free candy wouldn't be a big deal either. Wow! Was she ever wrong about that!

The vet FREAKED OUT. He said that she had to get the candy out of me immediately. There wasn't even time for her to drive me to the vet since it's 40 minutes away. The sugar free candy had to come out NOW. The ingredients in sugar free candy are FATAL TO DOGS!!! The vet had Mom give me hydrogen peroxide, a few tablespoons at a time until I threw up. Well, I am a big doggie like I said and I wasn't very interested in drinking hydrogen peroxide. Luckily Mom has been down the hydrogen peroxide route with other doggies before (one swallowed batteries, a ball, dryer sheets, brillo pads, you name it....sometimes she thinks that rotties are puppy-goats or land-sharks).

Mom grabbed a turkey baster out of the kitchen drawer and filled it with hydrogen peroxide and squeezed the hydrogen peroxide down my throat. NOT FUN for either of us. She had it in her hair, her eyes, her nose, her mouth (haha) and all over her clothes. She repeated this process through almost half a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. My tummy puffed up like a balloon! Finally, I wandered off and taaa daaa! There was candy in the snow! Wow! How did that get there? Mom took my by the collar and brought me back inside. When I went outside later, she had taken the candy away.

Apparently, I hadn't bothered to unwrap most of the candies so very little of them had actually started to disolve in my tummy. That was very fortunate! Mom read online later that just TWO STICKS OF SUGAR FREE GUM CAN KILL A 40 POUND DOG!!!!!

Please keep your sugar free candy far, far, far away from your furry friends. To us, it smells yummy, like all the other foods you eat. But this stuff is poison to doggies, not food at all!!!

Who are these friendly facebook people & their pets?

Efurry once in a while I pop over to Facebook to see what's going on over there. It's sort of like stopping by a pawty for a few minutes to see who showed up.

Well, I found lots of friend invitations from fun looking humans and anipals. The problem is, I don't always recognize these potential new friends.

You see, if we're friends on Twitter but your mom, dad, typist, staff, or human types for you, I probably don't know their name! Or if you read my tweets but we don't talk much or ever, then I might not recognize you right away. Or if you have a different name, picture, etc, that is confusing too.

I try to be a friendly rottweiler and I like to make new friends. I ALWAYS try to be nice to my friends and I never ever want to hurt anybody's feelings.

So, please do this for me.....if we're friends on twitter and you (or your human) wants to connect on Facebook, please send a DM to me on twitter so I know it's YOU! Then, when I find your friend request, I'll pounce on it happily like a leftover cheeseburger!

Thanks!!! SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCH!!!!

Luv,
Syd

Well Hello There!

Hi!
Welcome to my very first blog.
Why am I blogging? Dunno.....I'm an obedient rottweiler and some folks asked me to create a blog. Mom throws a ball and says, "go get it", I go get it. She opens the door and says "go potty", I go potty. Somebody said, "make a blog", so here it is.
I suppose the other reason is that I'm super friendly and if I can spend more time visiting, sniffing wheel wells, discussing squirrels and car rides, eating cookies and otherwise socializing, that's a pretty good reason too. So, I'm not promising much. But, here's my blog. Thanks for stopping by!
Smoooooch!!!!
wagwagwagwagwag