Show me your rescued and/or pampered pets!

[ZennaBug]

I have 2 babies right now.  Only one was a rescue, but they are both spoiled.    *pic spam ahead, I adore my dogs*  Panda can attest to their spoiledness, she's met them!  I still think that Ava would love to play with Frankie, maybe next time I'm up north they can meet at the dog park.

I'll start with my doxie, Milo (click his name and it will take you to his gigantic facebook album).  I never liked dachshunds.  The only ones I had ever known were mean and scary.  My husband made friends with someone from his work and they ended up being best friends.  The guy had a female dachshund who my hubby really liked and he decided to breed her (his mom is a breeder and she provided the stud).  Josh announced that he wanted one of the puppies.  I said "no way, dachshunds are mean!" but he talked me into it and I agreed.

I was still finishing school when the puppies were finally born, but my husband used to go over every day after work to let the momma dog out and check on the food and water and say hi to the puppies.  The little black and tan started recognizing his voice and smell and would be the only puppy to wag his tail and come over to say hi, even before his eyes opened.  Of course, my husband fell head over heels with the little sausage.  I originally wanted one of the dapples, but as soon as I met Milo, I knew he was definitely the right puppy.  He's 2 years old now and is a spoiled little prince!  He sleeps in bed, snuggled up in between mommy and daddy.  After spending most of my life thinking that dachshunds were mean and weird-looking, I now can't imagine my life without one!  He is just such a sweetheart!

Two hours old, with his sister and brothers
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8 weeks old, his first night in his forever home.
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Pooped out after a long walk (a whole quarter mile! lol), 10 weeks old.
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Sleeping in bed!
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One year old.
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Milo and his daddy (he is a total daddy's boy)
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Santa Paws
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My handsome little buddy
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He is the lickiest dog I know, nobody is safe from that tongue!
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Good looks AND a sense of humor!
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And then there's my wonderful Ava, who also has a massive facebook album (click her name to see all the pics).  When we went on our honeymoon last June, Milo stayed with Josh's parents and their two old rescue poodle mixes.  He had so much fun playing with them, even getting the poor old girls to run around like they used to before their joints started going bad.  When he came home, he was so pouty.  He has so much energy and it just didn't seem like he was getting enough play time, no matter what we did.  So we decided to start looking for a puppy.

I started my search on Petfinder.com and was having awful luck.  My husband insisted that we needed a puppy rather than an older dog and it had to be hypoallergenic for his allergies, which he can manage with Milo, but more than one shedding dog would be trouble.  I wanted a small dog, preferably a fluffy one.  Basically, we were trying to find the most in-demand puppy a shelter could have.  One night, I did my last search before bed and accidentally set my radius to 500 miles instead of 100.  And I saw this picture:

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She had been listed only 10 minutes earlier and for once, I thought I might have a chance.  But she was located in Utah, which is a 9-hour drive.  I shot the shelter an email anyway, because something about that photo just made my heart melt.  I got a response back the next day.  I wasn't the first to ask about her, but I was the only one who gave a detailed description of our home life, including a description and pictures of Milo.  They liked how much information we included and sent me an application.  Within 24 hours of seeing her photo, I was accepted to be her mommy, talked my husband into the drive, and paid her adoption fee on PayPal.  In that amount of time, over 30 people had applied to adopt her.    We asked them to hold her until the weekend, when we would be able to make the drive.  We left home at 4am on a Friday morning and made it to Orem by noon.  Her foster family was late to drop her off because she had developed diarrhea that morning and was diagnoses with coccidia by the vet.  We finally got her and she wasn't even 3 pounds, only 10 weeks old.  She made the ENTIRE 8-hour drive home without a single accident.  8 hours in a car is tough for any puppy, especially a small-breed who has intestinal parasites.  She took to a leash within a day of being home and slept in bed from night one.  I've never seen a puppy accept life with such ease as little Ava.  She is literally a perfect dog (or at least I think so).

I know that Ava is supposed to be a rescue, but I think I needed her at least as much as she needed me.  She follows me everywhere!.  She sits on the couch with (or on) me while I read or browse the Arena.  She walks with me.  She hangs out in the kitchen while I cook.  She somehow manages to always get through the bathroom door before I close it and stands guard while I use the restroom, shower, or take a bath.  She sleeps on my pillow (which is down and in a silk pillowcase) at night, snuggled up with my head.  When I was struggling with depression earlier this year, her constant companionship helped me pull through.  She even got to visit me in the hospital for my hip surgery a month ago.  We are going to start our therapy dog training soon, something I've wanted to do with her since she was a puppy.  The trip to the hospital solidified it for me, she would be a perfect candidate.  And even though we expected her to be about 15 pounds (she was supposed to be a bichon mix), she maxed out at a tiny 5.5!  I think she might be a shih tzu/pomeranian mix.

Unfortunately, her life has not been as easy as we would like.  Ava has has more health problems than any dog I've ever known.  I am so thankful that we have her, because a lot of people would have given up on her or just not known hot to handle her special needs.  She has cost me close to $4,000 in vet bills and I have actually had people suggest that I put her to sleep as a puppy because she was so expensive.  *shudder*  I can't even imagine!  If you're interested in her health saga, I put it in spoiler tags because it's so long.

Spoiler

Even though the coccidia cleared up quickly, she had an incident with the computer chair while I was out of the house and ended up with a badly broken leg (my husband didn't know she was sleeping under him and he accidentally rolled over her leg).  We had only had the poor thing for a couple of weeks, my husband was heartbroken and rushed her to the vet.  She barely even whimpered when the vet examined her, only an x-ray showed that she had broken 4 bones in her little foot.  Her bones were too small to pin, so she just got a cast.  It's still a little crooked and to this day, she is afraid of my husband (which breaks my heart).  A few weeks later, I left for Michigan to help my sister move in to her dorm room.  The morning of move-in, I got a panicked call from my husband.  Ava had started making choking/barfing noises in bed at 2am and when he flipped on the lights, she was totally limp, not breathing, eyes rolled back, tongue out, and no noticeable pulse.  Not knowing what else to do, my husband remembered watching a dog get CPR while I was watching Animal Planet.  He gave her CPR until she took one deep breath and then opened her eyes.  If he hadn't been there or if we didn't allow dogs on the bed, she would have died.  The vet later told us that it was probably a seizure.  The cause was never determined, though we had extensive bloodwork done.  Later, she had an eye ulcer that appeared out of nowhere.  Then she hid behind the dryer while it was running (I was out of the house and she was exploring) and burned her head really badly.  I came home and gently cleaned it (she is such a good dog that she just sat there and let me do what I needed to), trimmed her hair to keep the wound area clear, and put on a little antibiotic/burn cream.  I kept a close eye on her and the next day, I came home from work to find her lethargic and burning hot.  I took her to the emergency vet and she was treated for an infection.  Then her fur started falling out because she was allergic to the antibiotics the vet gave her (turns out that we are both allergic to penicillin).  Later, she started developing scabs all over her body and lost patches of fur.  We went to the vet, she had no parasites.  We were referred to a dermatologist, who couldn't find anything.  We switched her to an incredibly limited ingredient food, and the scabs cleared up.  Most of the fur grew back.  She had an incident in the tub in March when my husband was washing her and managed to inhale a bunch of water.  She had water coming out her nose and I could feel the bubbles in her lungs.  Another trip to the emergency vet and this time I had to leave her overnight so they could pump her lungs, keep her on oxygen, and do chest x-rays.  She ended up with awful ulcers again and a huge patch of skin scabbed up and her fur fell off.  I had to keep her in little infant outfits for almost a month to keep her from chewing the scabs!  She was getting eye drops 4 times a day and had to be monitored, so I actually had to bring her to work for a couple of weeks.  My bosses were totally awesome about it (it helps that my dad is one of the bosses and that everyone at my work loves dogs) and she spent her days in my dad's office, sleeping in her crate with a humidifier set up to ease her breathing.  When her eyes didn't heal properly, I had to rush to an ophthalmologist because my vet thought she was going to lose her sight, if not her eyeballs!  She was diagnoses with KCS - an incurable, but treatable, chronic dry eye condition.  It's the reason she was getting such awful ulcers.  She gets three different eye drops every day:  One of them twice a day, a steroid once a day, and a gel 4x/day.  She is also incredibly near-sighted, which would explain why she's so bad at fetch and why she doesn't like me to go more than a few feet from her.  This was all before her first birthday.

Ava has been healthy since this spring, which is a new record for her.  As soon as I have the money, I desperately want to get a tattoo (my first) of her paw with some forget-me-nots to celebrate her even surviving to be a year old and so I can always have her with me.

10 weeks old
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Already a mommy's girl 
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The cast 
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She was a unicorn for Halloween!
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The shadow shows how big she THINKS she is!
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Look at that face!  *melts*
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This is how I sleep every night.  My hubby snuck this picture while I was still sleeping, but he woke her up.  It was right after her awful trip to the emergency room, which is why she's wearing the onesie and why her eyes look weird.  They hadn't healed yet.
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"Helping" me unpack this spring.
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My velcro puppy.
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Sillies!
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Exploring
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Nommy stick.
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She's just so pretty!
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Keeping me company in the hospital, thanks to the awesome nurses who looked the other way when my sister snuck her in to see me. 
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Napping on the couch. 
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Too cool for obedience school. 
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And for giggles, a few videos.  Not sure if they’ll work, since they’re linked to my FB, but worth a shot.

Milo sitting up on his butt.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100108164783893&set=vb.19227588&type=2

Ava’s first day home, already getting along with Milo (she had an awful haircut, which I fixed later that day.  I have done all her grooming since we brought her home)!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100118078531663&set=vb.19227588&type=2

Our easter egg hunt!  I filled eggs with treats and hit them around the house for the dogs to sniff out.  Milo was great at it, but Ava was mostly confused.  Her poor eyesight made it really hard for her to see the eggs, even if she could smell them!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100446544014203&set=vb.19227588&type=2

Every time we go for a walk, we stop at the small park near our condo so the dogs can run and play fetch. Milo has invented his own version that involves Josh doing the actual fetching. He hasn't quite figured out the "bring the ball back" concept. Ava just likes to run and chase Milo, her mouth isn't big enough to pick up a tennis ball and she always runs right back to me afterwards. But she is hilarious when she runs, those long legs make her really clumsy. Keep an eye on her about 55 seconds in. She makes us laugh so hard (not sure why the volume didn't record on my phone, but we were cracking up)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100549579774713&set=vb.19227588&type=2

Tough Ava, protecting me from the spooky monster (aka my husband, who was making faces at us)!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100572468111303&set=vb.19227588&type=2

And Milo, who apparently can climb trees when he has his sights on a squirrel.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100577810056003&set=vb.19227588&type=2

*edit for spelling*

[Corona]

We have one rescued dog, Llama.
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Llama was dropped off at a cocker spaniel rescue (she's a chihuahua/terrier/something or other mix.) The rescue people looked at the dog and knew if it went to the local kill shelter she would be a goner since nobody would want some ugly hairy oversized chihuahua. They arranged to have one of their rescue fosters take her. We found her on Petfinder and knew we needed that dog because it was so ugly.

She gets along great with our now elderly miniature dachshund. Though she hates my dad with every fiber of her little being.

Our other rescue I only have one picture of.
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That tortoise, Diamond AKA Di, is one of two of her species we own (The other is named Chuck and we also have a leopard tortoise named Wills.) She used to belong to a photographer who kept exotics as "props" of sorts if you wanted a unique Christmas card. The photographer went out of business and needed to rehome their exotics since they couldn't afford them anymore. Since we've had experience with reptiles, we took the two tortoises. They're about 20 years old or so and will live to be maybe 100-120 years old.

Di was very cooperative in this cosplay shoot I did. After all she has plenty of modeling experience.

I don't have pictures, but when I was about 8 we adopted a Savannah Monitor from the humane society and named her Bernice. The local paper ran a press release from the humane society as an ad to adopt this lizard; apparently someone found her in their backyard! We took her home on our first visit to see her. I loved that monitor. She was pretty chubby and did absolutely nothing.

[hyenacub]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW puppies!!  That furball is cute too, love the colors!  Handsome dogs!

Aww!  She's so ugly she's cute.    That tortoise is wicked!!!!

[HavACrumpet452]

Here's pictures

Autumn is not a rescue but she is spoiled

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Naylee was abused

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Now she is party dog

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Hlao is spoiled rotten

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[hyenacub]

Ferrets sleep hard...they look dead! lol  I love ferrets

[HavACrumpet452]

They do, but he wasn't sleeping in that pic, he was basking in a box filled with his toys

[hyenacub]

LOL Even better.

[hathorcat]

This is my bubba....Harry He is my precious and adored-ness

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[fingerpaints]

It is so awesome seeing so many loved, rescued and spoilt pets and a fox! That is amazing <3 I have always had more "normal" pets, but love seeing more odd pets.

When I was a teenager we took on a long billed corella that had been mistreated, then got out of his cage & was bailled up and tormented by dogs. I love dogs and understand it's their natural instinct to kill (same with cats) but this poor guy was terrified. One of my mum's friends took him home, and gave us a call to ask if we could take him on, because she already had a galah and couldn't have another, and really she didn't have the time to give this guy.

So Al came home with us. It would take us 10 minutes of very slow movements and calm, quiet reassuring voices just to change his food & water otherwise he would just flip out, and we didn't want the poor guy to hurt himself or be terrified of humans. I think it took us around 3 months or so to have him settle down. My mum always said "wouldn't it be awesome if he talked". Well, he started talking, but it was not the pleasantries she expected! lol - the stuff that came out of his beek would make anyone blush, and we are not exactly prim & proper

Anyhow, we no longer swore around him at all and he started to drop all the swear words & pick up others. Dad decided that he would try to give him a pat one day, and Al wasn't going to have a bar of that, so he latched on to his thumb and would not let go. He didn't like men, but my dad is generally good with any animal so it was a bit of a surprise to us. Al wound up taking to me really well, I was his only "handler", he would let me do literally anything with him, I could even grab his little tongue without getting bitten or scratched lol.

He was a cheeky little bugger though, when visitors would come in we would warn them not to put their fingers in his cage, but he would get up in the corner & expose his neck for a scratch, so most people would go "aww look he wants a pat" stick their finger in & give him a pat, he would watch them out of the corner of his eye & all of a sudden turn around & try to grab them, they would pull back quickly & he would crack up, like a real gut laugh as if to say "you idiot".

He had he best vocabulary I have ever heard for any bird, and everything was so clear & unmistakable. He would even call out our names & we would think it was a family member calling out to us.

I had to rehome him later on as he was too loud and upsetting the neighbours, we lived in a town house. I had a friend that had an aivery with other cocky's so they happily took him on, and he did go to an excellent home, and had some of his own kind around which he loved. I felt gutted having to give him away, but was glad he was happy, and because I was his "mate" as such, I didn't go visit him because I really didn't want to upset him. I would love to take him back on, but know he is happier around his own kind than just people.

I don't have any photos of him because I lost them all in a flood, and he was with us before digital cameras and the such (that is showing my age lol).

[mlp4me]

I love Harry... Cuddle, cuddle...

[hathorcat]

I love Harry... Cuddle, cuddle...

Awww thanks sweetie! He would happily cuddle back - he loves to smile for the camera!

[Izrabeth]

My daughter Bryn, yes she is my daughter! She is a rescued 
We where looking for a rescued puppy on local shelters, while I was up to take all the dogs I saw there, before taking a final hard decision I saw a picture on a website of adoptions pet listings and I saw her  1 second: she IS mine!
She was listed in Milan while I live near Venice so a bit far but I called them anyway! In the end she wasn't in Milan but at L'Aquila far southern Italy LOL they were bringing her with her 2 sisters in Milan. Actually it was the National league for the defense of dogs section of L'Aquila that found her abandoned in the fields, 2 months old, was born about in january, think to the cold, that city is one of the most cold of Italy in winter!!!! And I had to convince them to get her as they wanted to go for an adoption in Milan so the volounteers could check the dog often. I sweared to the Lady I was talking with that I would have call them, sent them pics, videos etc etc regularly and told her that I previously owned dogs, cats and other pets.
Wow, it has been like to adopt an human baby! In the end I went to Milan all excited...God when I saw her I was like about to cry for her cuteness! And so many Squeeeeeeeeeees LOL
I had to read and sign several papers but my baby came home with me, was fun as she didn't want to initially, she was scared and was always go hide behind the volounteer that was taking care of her
She made me crazy for the first 2 months as during night she always cried like a newborn every 30 minutes 
Also at the age of 6 months I risked to loose her  she jumped like a Kangaroo outside the gate of the garden and in that moment a car was coming and fully got her  The Vet told us to give her the last goodbye as her lungs were full of blood and she was dying....a miracle happened, still our Vet is astonished after about 5 years as she completely recovered Spent 4 days after the accident at home of the Vet and than at home with us, we used to stay up at turn all nights as we had to check for no suffocation. After 3 weeks she was back to full health: Terminator dog! 

some pics of Bryn!
just at home for the first time
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a bit older
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LOL silly
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Anubis
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Obi Wan Kenobi
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And now 5 years old:
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Before you ask, nope her tail is not cut  She's born like that, our Vet checked and confirmed that that small tail is actually her tail LOL

[Like A Tea Spoon]

I have another case coming home! One of my rescued dog's puppies is returning to me the first week in Sept.

The young owner lost her job and is moving back to California to live with family. She isn't taking the puppy she adopted from me almost 8 months ago. Dirty Girl, now dubbed Lotus, is UTD on everything except a spay. We have her scheduled for a spay and just waiting for confirmation on the appointment.

It's going to be crazy here... with my two dogs, this third foster pup coming and a litter of 5 week old kittens and their stray mom. I have been trying to find a non-kill shelter to take in the kittens and find a place to spay mom cat when she's weaned her babies completely.

Mama's definitely a house cat, she has perfect manners indoors and cries to go outside to potty. Not sure if we will adopt her as strictly a house cat after her spay but at least she won't be burdened with having litter after litter of kittens.

The puppy, Lotus, is getting fixed before we try and find her a new home. I can't say I won't get attached and not want to keep her. I've known her since before she was even born and raised her until she and her other littermates found homes at 71/2-8 weeks old.

I am knee high deep with animals needing homes!  Hopefully, I can find a rescue to take in the kittens. Get mama cat spayed and find a home for Lotus ( if she doesn't end up staying with me...  )

Dirty Girl aka Lotus 7 week old puppy pictures!

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2167ecd_27 by PassionatePoppy, on Flickr

[ZennaBug]

@CupeCakeWishes, have you tried listing the animals you're trying to re-home on Petfinder.com?  That's how I found my little Ava, it's a great search tool and a lot of people I know have used it to find their critters.

[Rhini]

Zenna your babies are soooo cute!  I can't see the videos, but if you set set the privacy to "public" we should be able to