Ringo & Sequoia, pt. II

Okay, so I said that Sequoia had an exciting day last Friday. Also that Ringo's dad was interested in her.



The first exciting thing was that one of the MaxFund volunteers combed Sequoia out. And she needed it! Not just because she was still blowing some coat on her haunches.

The rest of her coat was full of dead hair, too. Even though you couldn't really see it. Now she probably needs a Siberian Husky annual bath. But not at the shelter. They don't do 'em in the winter because they don't have dryers there.

The next exciting thing was that Ringo came by and the Human Assistant got a few pictures. They look pretty boring. Except that one of the sheets in Ringo's file says that he hates dogs, hates cats, and hates kids.

If he hated dogs, I would have known it! He and I spent some time in this same yard before he was adopted. (The red and white in these pictures is Ringo, not me.)



There's another picture back in the Part I of this story.

Then not-so-good thing #1 happened. Some MaxFund people came wandering by. They stopped to watch. Did they say, "Oh ... My ... Dog!  ​Ringo is getting along with Sequoia!"

No. They said, "Oh ... My ... Dog!  ​That man is starving Ringo!"

Not literally, out loud. They did take H.A. aside and ask whether the guy would feed Ringo more. And they brought out crummy shelter food for him to take home. It was embarrassing for the ol' H.A. He wants MaxFund to think Rick is good for Ringo.

Ringo is kinda small anyway. And he was probably getting enough food for a couch potato. The thing is, his dad is a long-distance runner. Ringo gets in 2 or 3 hours (not miles, hours) of running at a time.

Maybe not every day, I don't know. But Rick runs ultramarathons and trains hard! Which is why he wanted a Siberian in the first place. What other breed has the stamina?

Anyway. A couple of times on-leash Ringo and Sequoia acted like they might want to fight. But that got broken up fast. The second time was when everydoggy was leaving the exercise yard. It happened behind the H.A., so he didn't exactly see it.

Then not-so-good thing #2 happened. But you have to keep it a secret! Nobody at MaxFund must know!

The H.A. was holding Sequoia's leash down low to keep her close. He accidentally unclipped it. She was off like a flash! It was Friday evening rush hour and getting dark. Busy streets were only two blocks south and two blocks west. Not fast, but busy.

H.A. and Rick traded leashes. H.A. held onto Ringo while Rick went after Sequoia.

Name:	Sequoia	Rick
Breed:	Siberian Husky	Ultrarunner
Physical Advantage:	Speed	Endurance
Mental Edge:	This is fun!	Rush-​hour traffic!
WINNER:		✔

So. All's swell that ends swell, right? Not so fast! There's still not-so-good thing #3.

When H.A. walked Sequoia into the shelter, there were a couple of spots of blood near her right eye. A vet tech cleaned them off with an alcohol wipe and said it was probably okay. A small poke or tear under the eye.

The next day there was drainage from her eye. She probably got bopped by either a paw or a jaw in their end-​of-​visit scuffle. There was much less drainage the day after that. I guess H.A. will want to go check on her again.

But wait! There are still not-so-good things #s 4 and 5!

H.A. put Sequoia back in her kennel. Then he had a disagreement with one of the MaxFund people who do adoptions.

No, the shelter would not adopt another animal into Ringo's home. He has a history of aggression. Like it says right here in his file, "hates dogs, hates cats, hates kids."

No, it doesn't matter that he gets along with dogs in the yard. It's in his home where he's aggressive.

H.A. didn't agree. For one thing, Ringo was surely calmer with all that exercise. But he didn't want to argue too much.

Sequoia had an injury. And she was a puppy. Ringo didn't seem to want to play with her. Maybe he'd be like me and get really annoyed with her.

So that was #4. And #5 was, MaxFund didn't really like Rick as an adopter. The only reason he got an animal at all was that they wanted Ringo out of the shelter. Ringo was a hard-​to-​adopt dog. (The aggression in the file plus an orthopedic problem plus being probably 6 years old.)

This really hit the H.A. He was plugging for Rick. They'd had a couple of long talks and had emailed a few times. What was the problem? The MaxFund person wouldn't tell him.

This was not a good evening.

Sequoia was injured, probably while H.A. was holding her. He let her loose. In the shelter's view he was probably wrong to let Ringo meet other dogs. His judgment of Ringo may be off.

His judgment of Rick apparently was off. Compared to MaxFund's, anyway. Rick confirmed this by not feeding Ringo enough.

H.A. had misled Rick into thinking he could adopt another dog. It looked like he'd tried to go around MaxFund's decisions. And Ringo wouldn't have a buddy while Rick was away during the day. Not from MaxFund, anyway.

Oh, by the way. Rick had been out of town recently. For four days Ringo stayed with friends who have a Jack Russell Terrier. They said there had been no problems. (But Ringo wasn't on his home turf....)

The Human Assistant was pretty darned depressed over the weekend. It's a good thing he remembered to feed us! Of course, I reminded him. But sometimes he says he can't tell what I want.

"Want to go out?" No, feed me!

Anyway. Like I said before, Ringo is a happy, happy boy. He obviously loves his new home and his new dad. And he was happy to see H.A. again, too.

Which is fine by me. As long as H.A. doesn't bring another dog home! Or stay out past my suppertime.

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