R.I.P. Pearl

Hurricane Katrina survivor Pearl - October 7, 2006	Pearl and MaxFund volunteer Jessica - Oct. 27, 2007

The Human Assistant has been working on this post and a poem about Pearl for three days. He's had trouble sitting and thinking about her, and putting words down, instead of just feeling stuff about her.

But he's settling down now. Things are getting back to normal. At least, back to how they were a week ago.

Pearl was the Human Assistant's favorite dog at the MaxFund shelter. She died from torsion Friday at an emergency clinic.

He has loved a bunch of MaxFund dogs. None of them as much as he loves me, of course. Or Gremlin, I suppose. Five of them he liked really a lot. They lived here with us until they found new homes of their own:  Jaeger, Mystique, Poo-Poo, Sally, and (not yet adopted) Shu Shu.

H.A. says he didn't bring them here because he loved them. He loved them because he brought them here and spent time with them.

What a funny idea!  I spent time with them too!  I didn't love them!

Fortunately, there's not enough room to bring all his favorites here. (And even if there was, I wouldn't let him.) So some had to stay at the shelter:  Adam, Bo, Churchill, Kodiak, Solo, Tanuki, Teddy, and Tommy and Helen. I smelled them on his clothes for a few weeks or a few months. But eventually they went to homes of their own. All except for Pearl.

H.A. started spending less time at the shelter because he had dogs here that needed attention. So he didn't make any new favorites. And after a while all his old favorites got adopted. All except for Pearl.

She came to MaxFund from the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina. With bad heartworm and something wrong with at least one of her back legs.

Maybe other stuff too. Pearl was already at MaxFund when the Human Assistant started volunteering there. So he doesn't know all her history.

She was hard for people to deal with. Well of course! She was sick and hurting and had come through a very confusing and hard time and didn't have her family. So Pearl joined a MaxFund program for special sessions with a trainer and volunteers to help her adjust to her new life.

I guess Pearl was still scary to most people. But she was good with a few. For some stupid reason she liked the H.A. He would take her for walks. When she had enough she would head back to the shelter.

I mentioned before that Nikki took new pictures of Pearl. With a real person! To show that Pearl wouldn't completely tear off everybody's head!

So here's one of those. Plus the picture that MaxFund had on their website before. (She isn't there now.)

But really. Doesn't the older photo make Pearl look like a happy-​go-​lucky, carefree kind of doggie? Maybe it was a picture of her inner self that was there but kinda buried under her problems.

Run in painfree peace, Pearl! I didn't know you. But I'm glad there were people who loved you!

-- photos of Pearl by Nicole Howard

Shu Shu is official

The Human Assistant went to the MaxFund shelter Saturday. Ringo was finally adopted.  YAY!!!  So H.A. can't threaten to bring him home anymore.

"old" Ringo	Pearl	Ringo again

Of course Ringo would be over our fence and down the street in a flash if he was left in our yard unsupervised. So it would have taken lots of rearrangement to have him here.

Nikki the photographer was there. They took new pictures of Pearl. A kinder, gentler Pearl with a woman hugging her. They hope this will encourage people to adopt this Katrina victim who's been in a shelter too long!

Even at the shelter people have been afraid of Pearl. She did have behavior issues on top of health problems when she came from New Orleans. But nobody knows how Pearl would do with other dogs. H.A. just happened to have Shu Shu along....

So while one volunteer was holding Pearl's leash, H.A. held Shu Shu so they could sniff noses. H.A. says Pearl was kinda friendly, actually. He's pretty sure she recognized him. Pearl seems to like H.A. ... I'd better not hear any mumbling about bringing her here!

Anyway. He took Shu Shu to MaxFund to see if they would take responsibility for her. There's no room for another dog at the shelter. But he said we would foster her if they'd just take her on.


The H.A. was counting on MaxFund to accept Shu Shu. Fortunately, they did! So she's officially a MaxFund dog now. He filled out MaxFund paperwork, and Nikki took a MaxFund picture, and Shu Shu got a MaxFund tag and shots and next week will get a MaxFund microchip and spaying. (At the MaxFund clinic).

I'll post Pearl's and Shu Shu's new pictures when they're ready. Meanwhile, H.A. spent lots of time trying to make a few more of his own presentable. They aren't very good. But since he put the work into them he insists that they be posted.

They're also all on Shu Shu's dogster page. He's going to try to fix a couple of them so they look better.  ::shrug::  She's just some little flop-ear, for dogness' sake.

So that's all for now.

-- photos of Pearl and Ringo by Nicole Howard

Shelter-dog news

The Human Assistant helped me write this last week. But he didn't have the energy to finish it. Physical or emotional energy, he said. But he had enough to make a joke. Or what he called a joke - he said he was out of inner chi. Awfully lame.

Anyway, he says that two days later, Bo and Harry had applications to be adopted. In fact, Harry's picture isn't on the website anymore. So maybe his application was accepted. But here's what we wrote plus some more to finish it up:

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The Human Assistant went to the MaxFund shelter today [October 10  - mr_ed] to see what's up with the dogs. I could tell because he came back smelling like lots of dogs. And a kitten! (He says he just petted the kitten's head.)

He took a puppy out of its crate and carried him into the lobby. Some visitors wanted to take it for a walk. The pup's name is actually Fez (he's not on the website yet) but they forgot and told him a different name. When he figured out who they wanted he said,

mr_ed:  Ahh, you didn't remember the name, but the Fez was familiar!

(Note to Amber: He didn't really say that. He thought of it just now while he was typing. But he thought you'd like it.)

It was kind of a sad afternoon at the shelter. First of all, H.A. was a little down. When he left the shelter he wanted to bring about half the doggies home so they could comfort each other. (It's a good thing he didn't!)

But also, one of the dogs there had been really sick. She died today. And while he was there, some adopters brought a dog back. Plus, he knew another dog that had been brought back a couple of days ago.

Chloe	Bo	Pearl

Chloe is the dog that came back today.

Bo - people thought he was adopted. We wrote about him before. But stupid H.A. hasn't put tags on the blog so it will take forever to find that. But it seems Bo was just in a foster home.

And he was getting training to be a tracking dog! That would have been so super! But the family's situation changed. And so Bo is back.

We've written about Pearl, too. Another place rescued her after Hurricane Katrina, and then she came to Denver. She was on the TV twice after this year's anniversary! But no worthy adopters came out of it.

BUT !!!  Pearl may be able to go back to her New Orleans family! MaxFund is pretty sure they know who it is! They're checking to see if the family is able to have their big Rottie girl back.

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Does anydoggy know about Belgian Shepherd Dogs? The people who brought Harry to MaxFund said he's a purebred longhaired German Shepherd. This seriously cracked up the Human Assistant. He thinks he knows about German Shepherd Dogs even though he's never had one.

mr_ed:  Yes, there are people who like the look of a long-haired German Shepherd. It's a reminder of the native German herding dogs of more than 100 years ago.

Yes, there are registries that will sign you up and let you say that you have a purebred longhaired German Shepherd. But world standards (like with the AKC) are supposed to follow the home country's standards. Long coats are out. (White coats ... not as completely standard.)

And flop ears? Do any registries allow that? I dunno, but I doubt it. And I was told at MaxFund that Harry's hips are shot, and he's only two years old. Really, it sounds to me like he's a purebred mutt.

But a nice mutt! He didn't bark at me like his MaxFund blurb said he would. He was very accommodating on a walk. It's just the noise and confusion of the shelter that had him nervous and upset.

So here is Nicole Howard's official MaxFund photo of Harry. And one that H.A. took in the MaxFund rehabilitation yard.

And a picture from Wikipedia. The H.A. thinks Harry looks more like a Belgian Tervuren, so here's that:

MaxFund's Harry	Harry in yard	Belgian Tervuren

mr_ed:  Harry tried to be nice and go along with his "German Shepherd" label. He struck this pose on his own. GSD or bad hips? I don't know enough to tell from his walk.

And he says, "See? Black saddle! Just like a GSD!"

But I think a peek at other Tervuren pictures shows something like black saddles there, too. And the black mask just makes me think so strongly of Malinois and Tervuren pictures I've seen.

So there you go. You may have seen this post before it was finished. And then saw that it disappeared. Well, here it is back again, finished and updated a little.

Please let me know if you or your people know lots about German or Belgian Shepherd Dogs. It would be nice to tell the Human Assistant that he's even more full of hot air than usual!

-- photo #1 of Harry and photos of Bo, Chole, and Pearl by Nicole Howard
-- photo of Belgian Tervuren from Wikipedia