Nizhoni Pet Photography Blog

Beaux is the second of two adorable Yorkies belonging to a good friend of mine.  His brother Leo made an earlier appearance on the blog, and now its Beaux’s turn.   I’ve always considered myself more of a big dog person, but I have to say, all these little guys are starting to win me over.

I will admit, I’ve never been all that in to Pit Bulls.  Not that I had anything against them, just didn’t really see the appeal.  Then we got Penelope.  Note, we do realize that no one but us sees the appeal in Penelope, since she barks maniacally at everyone that comes over.  However, she is incredibly sweet to us, and I began to understand why some people like Pits so much.  And then we met Mama.

This dog loves everyone.  And she is just so happy; all the time.

Don’t get me wrong, she has her serious moments… (like when she thinks she might not get that treat after all)

But they are pretty short lived before smiles return.

Mama and her two puppies were picked up running loose on the street.  She had a chip that was still registered to the local vets office who offered to keep her and the pups while they tried to contact the owner.  Unfortunately the pups had Parvo and only one survived.  He was adopted almost immediately upon his arrival at the adoption facility once he was better.  Mama is still looking for a good home.

As it turns out, for those that may not have figured it out yet, I am a sucker.  Particularly for a hard luck story.  We had no sooner adopted out the two puppies we were fostering, than Gordon showed up.

This sweet fellow managed to survive the winter on his own here in Lubbock.  Another rescue group was aware of his situation and had been feeding him, and when one of our volunteers managed to catch him, we were asked to foster.  He started out terribly shy, but warmed up very quickly and has since made himself right at home sleeping on our bed when we’re not looking and wrestling with the rest of the crew.

His quarantine will be up next weekend and we are hoping we will be able to find him a fantastic forever home where he won’t ever have to worry about surviving the winter alone again.

Ok, seriously.  How can you not love this face??  If you look closely, you may recognize this guy.  He made an appearance on my blog once before.  This time the lighting is softer, and the angles are better but its the same sweet boy.  (Don’t recognize him?  Check here)

He is the most recent dog to be removed from the place on the east side.  His first fosters were calling him Max, but we have SOOOO many Maxes, and it just didn’t seem to suit him.  He has the most intelligent looking facial expressions, and he catches on really quickly so we were trying to go for a “smart” name.    Dante is part German Shepherd, part Heeler.  He’s maybe 2-3 years old, and really not all that big.  But he’s very sweet and very smart.

When I first saw him in the car when the gal dropped him off, he reminded me a LOT of Kodiak.  Kodi does have some shepherd in him, though its not the first breed you think of when you look at him.  But its something about their expressions, and their mannerisms that is strikingly similar.   And the two of them get along really well, which is a relief.

He is crate trained and housebroken (unless its my day off and I sleep until eleven, and then I may wake up to find a puddle near the door) and he LOVES attention.  He is also food motivated, which makes training (and taking pictures) easy peasy.  Really, he is going to be a fantastic dog for the right family, so if you are looking for a dog to adopt in Lubbock, you should check him out!!

Thank you everyone for the kind comments on the canvases.  Grace’s dad picked up the one of her today and I think he was pretty pleased.  On a less happy note, this week Ken and I joined some others from the HSWT at a home on the east side of town to help a woman with over twenty dogs.  This gal actually called us while we were at Petsmart on Saturday requesting help with some puppies.  She said a stray had given birth to a litter a few weeks ago and wasn’t showing interest in feeding them.  One of our volunteers agreed to pick up some puppy food to take to her and to help her see if the puppies were big enough to try eating mush.  When she got out there, she realized that we needed to help this woman with much more than just these puppies.

She lives outside town, relatively close to an area shelter.  When this shelter is full (and even when its not) she says folks just dump their dogs out and leave them to run wild.  This woman lives in a tiny house all by herself, and her only income is a social security check… $66 dollars a month.  And yet here she was, trying her best to keep all these dogs fed.  Surprisingly, most of them (with the exception of the nursing mothers) looked fairly well fed.  Clearly, she was sacrificing her own well being to help dogs that others had abandoned.  In the last week, she has put up several large, makeshift kennels, using tarps and plywood to give the animals shade.  She did this all by herself, with no assistance from anyone.

We took her enough dog food to last her a while and some flea and tick spray for everyone.  We also wormed everyone we could get a hold of, and several of our volunteers headed back last night to take those dogs they could catch to get their rabies shots.  A local groomer/boarder picked up both litters of puppies and took them to their kennels where they agreed to care for them until they are old enough to be adopted out.

Now, meet the dogs…

This is Red, a lab mix and recent mother to nine puppies.  She is very sweet, but incredibly timid. Red was dumped so we don’t know her exact age or story but she looks to be rather young.

This is Blondie, a yellow lab mix and mom to a litter of seven puppies.  Blondie is probably older than Red, but not much.  She too was dumped.

Ladybird is a shorthaired pointer mix.  She is the shyest of them all, and my personal favorite.

Little girl is a lucky girl.  She has a home all lined up and is just waiting for them to come pick her up.

Radar (left) and Pakito (right) are chihuahua mixes of some sort that have also been dumped.  Radar is rather skittish, but Pakito doesn’t mind having his ears scratched a bit.

Throwaway (top) is a 4-5 year old GSD mix who was hit by a car and rescued by this gal.  He is not a fan of vehicles, for obvious reasons, but loves people.    Cotton (bottom) is a beautiful, white GSD.    She was shot in the chest at some point in the past and is a bit touchy about the area where she was hit. She is at around 5 years old and nervous around people, but with some time and a lot of love, she will warm up.

This guy is a handsome pit mix, whose name I forgot to write down.  He can be somewhat aggressive so he will likely stay with his current owner.  But he’s handsome so I wanted to post him anyway

Pigtail is red pitbull with a curly(ish) tail.  He is comical and sweet, and he loves to wrestle with Ladybird.

Cutie Pie is a 3 year old black lab.  She’s a bit overweight, and needs more exercise than she can get in her kennel.  She is incredibly sweet and loves people.

And lastly, just for some happy, cuteness… the little guy on the left is one of Red’s pups and the little guy on the right was just running around.  I never got the story on him, but he’s awfully precious.

Tomorrow morning, I am heading out there to pick up Ladybird, Cutie Pie, Red, and Blondie to take them to our adoption event at Gander Mountain.  We are desperately hoping that we can find them some good homes.  We have Throwaway and Pooh Girl listed with a GSD rescue group in Texas, but their fosters are full and they aren’t able to help us with housing.  Radar, Pakito, and Pigtail will continue to stay on her property until we free up some resources to help them out or until we find some place to put them.  The black pit mix, as well as two other large dogs that are somewhat aggressive are going to stay with the owner.

For those following my dramatic saga as a dog fosterer and humane society volunteer…  I think I may now be serving as the “Interim Dog Coordinator” for the HSWT.  It hasn’t been explicitly stated, but I have been handling a lot of the dog info since the previous dog coordinator left last week.  Perhaps more telling, I have overheard myself being referenced as the dog coordinator twice now.

Either way, I have been helping out quite a bit, and part of what I’ve been doing is finding places for a couple “return” dogs to stay.  Prince Edward was adopted several weeks ago and returned because his owners were having trouble with housebreaking (from information gathered later, I’m not sure Eddie was the problem).  Regardless, finding him foster care has required that he be shuffled around a bit, and this resulted in him being at my house for a few hours on Monday night between picking him up at one home and dropping him off at another.  While normally I would prefer to avoid the shuffling game, in this case I thought it well worth it because I suspect that I may never see Prince Edward again.  The foster home I was taking him to had kept him overnight previously and had quite fallen for him.  I am HOPING that after keeping him for a week, they will decide that he should stay with them forever.  Fingers crossed til Saturday!

He is so sweet, its easy to see how they fell for him.  He’s the most docile little dog, and terribly shy, especially around men.  But we got him out in the yard with the rest of the pack and he lit right up.  And that little pink nose is to die for.  He reminds me a bit of the dog on the RCA commercials.

As for the story of Dash, I was set to give the Akbash rescue the go ahead to begin the search for a forever home when Ken showed some hesitation.  So he is “thinking about it” and, pending his decision, we may be keeping the big white beastie.  The downside to this is that it would put an end to our fostering until we move out into the country and can consider putting in some kennels.  That and there is a gentleman here in town who has expressed some interest in Dash and who has an incredibly special story.  I think Dash could be really good for him, and it would be a good home for Dash, so if Ken does decide against keeping him, hopefully we can get the two of them hooked up.  Stay tuned for further developments…

This is Dash, a male Akbash dog.  Dash was seized from a farm in West Texas where he was kept with six other dogs.  He was malnourished and seriously underweight.  He has been at a shelter in Midland, TX for almost 8 weeks after being seized, but now he is running out of time. Dash was scheduled to be transported to Montana, but his adoption fell through the day before he was set to leave. Please help this beautiful boy find a home somewhere.

He is between 1 to 2 years old and has been neutered and vaccinated since arriving at the Midland animal shelter.  He is currently 80 pounds, but should be closer to 100 to 110 pounds as a healthy weight.  Dash is friendly with people and good around children. The shelter cannot continue to keep him, and if a home cannot be found, he will be euthanized.  The folks at the shelter are doing everything they can to help Dash, but there’s only so much time.  If you can help, please comment and I will put you in contact with the coordinator.

Two, actually. The winners of the Humane Society of West Texas’s drawing for a free photography session from yours truly are (drum roll please)…

Sergio Larez

and

Norman Elstone

Congratulations to our winners! If you happen across this, feel free to send us an email, otherwise we will be contacting the winners on Tuesday. And, of course, thank you to everyone who came out to the concert to help support the Humane Society.

And while I have your attention, here are a few more lovable dogs that are looking for a forever home in the Lubbock area.

name: Bonnie

name: Bo

name: Kendall