Your Rescued Weim Story.

amazonstarlight · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:37 pm Post subject: Your Rescued Weim Story.

So, I have probably posted too much about Scooter and his new life with me. I was just wondering about your rescued/adopted weim's story. I know there are several weimies that have been saved from a previous scenario, so please tell. How were they to begin with (attitude, condition, etc.) and how are they now. Do tell...

weimamama · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:41 pm Post subject:

will post the story of Blue and then june tomorrow.

aly · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:59 am Post subject:

Ok, I'll go first then with Bo's story.

We got Bo a few months ago when she was 6 months old, she was actually advertised by her original breeder as needing a new forever home. The breeder had sold Bo as a pup to a family who unfortunately had lied to her about their housing status. Anyway, to cut a long story short these people left their rented accomodation in the middle of the night leaving Bo behind in the yard. Two days later the landlord went round to try to collect his money (again) and found her. After speaking to the neighbours it transpired that they left her shut out in the yard the whole time they had her, she had no socialising, was painfully thin, no training etc. The landlord went into the house to call the RSPCA but just before he did he saw the breeders brochure and Bo's kc papers on the side and he phoned her instead. (lucky for us!)

less than a week later Bo was with us and she's never looked back. Luckily she is a pretty confident girl so she wasn't nervy or flighty after her ordeal but boy has she taken some work. Housetraining was ok, she had a couple of piddles on the floor but she followed Bailey's lead and soon clicked on. She scavs for food (prob because she was so malnourished for so long) but we just ignore her and she doesn't get to share with us. The leash was a challenge, she'd never ever been on one and freaked the first couple of times, she also hates to be left outside alone even with the door open, she actually panics if she turns round and we have gone inside...silly girl. She also tries to eat absolutely everything in the yard...plants, rocks, mud, trees, huge slabs of concrete that she digs up, terracotta plantpots, clothes of the washing line....the list is endless, we watch her like a hawk!

All in all she has done fantastically well since we had her, she is my girl and I love her so much, she is the most loving dog I ever met and I can't imagine life without her now...(even though I need to redecorate the kitchen as she learnt to wall paper strip the first month here!)

weimdawgs · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:43 am Post subject:

Great thread. It's 4:45; I just popped in to check on Zane while the kids are out and having some breakfast ..... Silkie and Jake are my rescue babies.....I will post about them tonight.

weimdawgs · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:16 pm Post subject:

Silkie was my first rescue baby. Scout was about 6 months old when John and I decided to get married. He was just coming out of the HOD. We decided we would get a female weim to keep him company while we worked once we got back from our honeymoon. Shortly before the wedding I put an e-mail into then Delaware Valley Weim Rescue (now Tri State). That was my first contact with Julie. I had explained to her in the email that I was looking for a very young female as Scout was about 1 year old by then. I told her that I was turning to rescue because of my experience with Scout; that the breeders offered to take him back (yeah right) and I would never have given him back, but I was certain that if I had, they would have put my baby down.

So, I was hoping Julie would have a little girl for us maybe in a month or so.....My cell phone rings one evening while we were on our honeymoon and it was Julie. She had a 5 month old female named Gabby in foster and wanted to know if we were interested and how soon could we pick her up....well we were in Key West and weren't going to be home for another 10 days. We came home on a Friday night, I called the foster home on Saturday and we made arrangement to get her on Sunday. morning. They were only about 45 minutes from us.

John was hesitant, he always is. He wanted to wait another week before we picked her up Shocked

I said, no, we are picking her up on Sunday. Sunday morning we put Scoutie in the car and off we went.

When we arrived, three weims greeted us..one was the cutest, skinniest little girl we had ever seen. Poor baby was actually 7 months old and only weighed 40 lbs. She was 37 lbs when she got to the foster home.

We made the transfer, renamed her Silkie, put her in the car..it was love at first sight for her and Scout.

They played and played and played that Sunday. Every second that week that they were not in the crates was spent chasing and rolling around. John had to carry Scout upstairs after the first whole weekend they were together. He was exhausted.

My girl's story broke our hearts when we heard it. Silkie was a puppy "farm" dog...on Christmas Eve, her previous owner was shopping for a puppy for Christmas for his family. Silkie was on sale for $300 as she was 5 months old...the guy bought her and a carin terrier. They had a male weim at home already.

Anyway, his wife didn't want another weim so they gave "Gabby" to their next door neighbor who's daughter and grandson lived with them. Well it was the daughter that was home during the day and she didn't want anything to do with Gabby. Refused to walk her, wouldn't feed her. The boy who's father purchased her used to go get her to take her for a walk because he felt sorry for her....yet the original owner's did nothing. They watched her deteriorate for two months. Finally, one day the guy saw the daughter and asked about Gabby. The woman's response was "oh, she's going to the pound tomorrow".
Shocked

He asked her to wait and he contacted Delaware Valley Weim Rescue. The rest is history. Silkie was so thin, that my daughter cried her eyes out the first time she saw her.

That was a very long time ago....my beautiful girl is a happy, healthy almost 80 lbs now.

kamfam · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:47 pm Post subject:

I know she's livin large now, but it's so hard not to feel sorry for her!

Lynn, that is a fantastic story. Thanks for sharing it!

Pink whoohoo

weimdawgs · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject:

Then there is Jake...

Jake was one of my first intakes. I was contacted about a nine year old male. The family recently had a baby and didn't trust him around the baby. Jake and his partner, a GSP were kept outside in a pen during the day and Jake was crated most of the time in the house because of the baby. And they were outside in all weather....it was February and we were in the midst of a very cold snap. GSP Rescue had taken the other boy and I couldn't stand the thought of this this poor old dog being kept outside. I think Jake's owners cared for him, but he was not a family member like our dogs are to us.

I asked John if we could foster him. The day his family dropped him off was terrible for him. They stayed all of about 10 minutes, handed me his blanket, a pillow, his leash and a small bag of Pedigree dog food.

Oh, there was one funny thing..they brought him in a mini cooper...did I mention Jake is huge. 'When I was waiting for them, they drove past the house the first time..I swear it looked like Jake was driving.

He was the biggest weim I had ever seen. His family was very intimidated by him...that was most of the problem.

When they left it was the saddest thing I had ever seen in my life. This poor boy went from door to door to window looking for his family. I stood here and cried. It is still very hard to think about as I sit here with my old man on the couch next to me.

The first night was very hard on him. He was afraid. He laid on the couch in front of the fire place all night but never slept. I stayed out here with him. He hacked all night...he hacks when he is stressed.

The next morning, I was in the bedroom talking to John and Jake wandered in. John called him up on the bed and Jake got comfortable...I left and shut the door hoping he would get some sleep with John..

And he did...he had a good sleep then started his first full day with us. It was quite an adjustment, having a fourth dog in the house. We had a few scuffles. Silkie let Jake know real fast who the alpha dog was. Te first week, John and I took a day off to take Jake to get a tooth fixed and get his teeth cleaned and a vet check. That day we spent with him we fell in love with him. He took to laying on the couch with his head in John's lap in the evening. I knew I couldn't give him up. Besides, he had some dominance issues and I was afraid of what would happen in another home. Him and John had a few arguments..Jake had nipped John a couple of times.

We had several conversations about finding a home where he would fit in....and we decided he fit in with us the best. John said we could keep him...yeahhhhh!

I absolutely love this old dog....it took easily a year for the three youngsters to accept Jake as part of their pack family. I think when he had the torsion surgery, that was a turning point. Silkie seemed to have a different attitude toward him after that. She was kinder and more patient. These dogs are so smart.

We were Jake's third and last home. We have more than made up for the stress of that first day. He sleeps with me every night and gets hugged and loved all the time. He never spent another day in the cold of winter or the heat of summer. We never crated Jake. First we gave him a nice dog bed in the dog room; now he has a futon that doubles as the guest bed for my kids.

He is very happy with us and he shows me every single day...

amazonstarlight · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:06 pm Post subject:

Aly, that is a wonderful story. Bo is so lucky to have you to love her. It's amazing that people will just leave an animal like that. My guess is fate was on her side and led her straight to you! Thanks for sharing.

Lynn, both of those stories pulled my heart. Poor Silkie, I don't understand why someone wouldn't feed a dog, never have understood that. I think that her years with you definitely out weigh the few months in that hellhole. And as for Jake, well, he's just blessed. I think even though his first few nights were rough he knows this is his forever home, and his forever love!

Keep the great stories coming guys!

poisonivvy · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:15 pm Post subject:

Let me start off with saying that my family is a Weim-crazy family. I've had a Weim all my life growing up, my grandma has 4, my aunt has 3, and my other aunt has 1! Grey is our family color!

Once I got out of school and we bought our house, I started asking my SO about having a dog. Being out of school, knowing I wanted a weim with a new house and backyard, but being a little bit financially poor, I decided that I'd foster....then think about adopting (big mistake!).

I got a call from MileHi Rescue asking if I could foster a boy Weim. I said I didn't have any others, so she asked if I'd take Elsa instead. Elsa came to us from a small shelter in Kansas. She'd been running as a stray on a rural highway. A family picked her up and took her to the shelter. She wouldn't eat, play or do anything in the shelter. So the shelter called MHWR, and they picked her up.

Elsa had a foster home...but she ate the family's pet bird! (She loves birdies). So she came to my house. The first day I came home from work and she was there, all timid and shy, I knew it was love. Foster flunky mistake #1...don't fall in love the very second you see them. She had been spayed already, but still only waited 40 pounds or so. Her fur was matted and brown colored.

Here's Elsa Then:

Here's Elsa hunting a fly a few months later (I don't have any others that show her weight gain and muscle mass as well):

I love my baby girl. She's the pickiest eater I've ever had, and a ball of spunk sometimes, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

LunaBrown · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:22 pm Post subject:

These stories... how can I be misty and smiling at the same time?!

Each and every one of you is SO special and wonderful.... THANK YOU!! Soppy / in love

poisonivvy · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:24 pm Post subject:

And then there's my Ben-Ben.

Gulp, so I made foster flunky mistake #1, fell in love with Elsa. Well, Elsa's play buddy, Segen(my mum's dog), died suddenly at a year old from Lepto. She didn't have any other Weim friends or real friends to boogie with her age.

So I talked my SO into 'maybe' getting another one, so they could 'play' together in November, six months after adopting Elsa. I'd never had more than one dog in a home, so it was going to be a bit of an experience. I saw Ben's advertisement on the MHWR website. It said he was a little bit more mellow, a real gentleman, around 6 years old, and he had some manners and skills!

Work sent me to Houston right after MHWR picked him up at the shelter. He had to stay in boarding for a week, then I came to meet him. His story was so sad to me....

He was picked up the first time (yup, multiple times, here we go) as a stray and sent to Denver Dumb Friends League. A family adopted him and kept him a year. Then they were moving, and returned him back to the shelter. Off to the shelter for the second time. Another family came and adopted him, and returned him after a year. The 'reason' was they were having a baby. The real reason I suspect was because they weren't exercising him, and he was going stir crazy being kept in the garage the whole day. He also 'ate drywall' and 'nipped' at other dogs. So he was at the shelter the third time, and the DDFL asked MHWR to pick him up as a special case.

The first time he came prancing to me with the pink dopey ears at the park, I fell in love. I was a foster flunky the second time! He came home with me the first day I met him. Yes, he does nip sometimes---that's only after being provoked and never been socialized. I've never seen him eat drywall or go mad-crazy (he gets lots of love and exercise).

So now at around 7-8, he's living his golden retirement doggy years in a place that loves him more than he knows!

Here's the first day we picked Ben-Ben up:

Him now:

And both of them sunning themselves a few weeks ago(such a hard life now!):

amazonstarlight · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:25 pm Post subject:

Poisonivy, Elsa is just beautiful! She looks so great now. You did a wonderful thing by being a "foster flunky". Laughing

(That made me laugh)

And mistake #2 is just as handsome. Ben is so lucky to have found you. It amazes me how some of these dogs go through several homes.

weimdawgs · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:55 pm Post subject:

These stories are heartbreaking...but all with happy endings.

It just amazes me how so many wonderful dogs have such a trying time before finding the love the so deserve.

Bo is gorgeous, so is Elsa and Ben-Ben is a very handsome man.

Of course, we all LOVE Scooter-Booter!!!

amazonstarlight · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:25 pm Post subject:

poisonivvy · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:29 pm Post subject: