Rescued Dogs' Behavior

Last Tuesday night, one of the dogs pranced by me in the kitchen proudly holding the ski cap I wear to bed. I quickly rescued it, showing no humor at all. The cap was wet and had holes in it so I put it around a light fixture so the light bulb would dry it before I went to bed. Two ski caps have already disappeared this winter so I must hang onto the last one.
Tasha and I took Page, a rescued rat terrier, to a foster family to have a reunion with her daughter, Bitty Bit. When the two dogs saw each other, they literally embraced, standing on their hind legs and embracing each other with their long, thin front legs. We will keep them together until it's time for one to come back to the mother ship for medical monitoring or socialization with other dogs. All these dogs belonged to a pack of about thirty dogs before the neighbors from hell complained about the number of dogs we had. Then we had to find most of them foster homes where we continue to provide the food and medical care with the right to cycle the dogs in and out of the foster homes.
Gloria is one of our foster homes even though she and Tasha are not speaking at this time. I still am. This rift between the two women has happened before. Tasha says that Gloria thinks that just because she takes care of her mother who has a severe case of Alzheimer's, she has done her Christian duty and can say anything she wants to whenever she wants. There is no doubt that Gloria shoots from the hip and is impulsive: one time the three of us were eating dinner at Sonny's in Alachua City
(Florida, and Tasha went to the restroom. Gloria said to me, "Tasha's gone to the bathroom for a couple of minutes, let's go to it right now!" Gloria's mother walks around the house naked, pees on chairs, and defecates on the floor. That's a tough job for Gloria to be monitoring her mother constantly and cleaning behind her, but I'd consider it for five hundred or so a month. After all, that's exactly what I do with the dogs. Gloria's mother would fit in.
Recently, Gloria saw two abandoned pit bulls on the side of the road. She called Tasha immediately to see if Tasha would accept them into her network, meaning that Gloria would take care of them, but Tasha had to provide the food and medical care. Gloria has a small horse ranch and plenty of room for more dogs. Tasha responded that she could not afford to pay for the care of any more dogs. Gloria countered with, "The humane people are going to pick them up, and you know they put pit bulls to sleep!" But Tasha didn't budge. Gloria who has more money coming in than Tasha does relented and picked up the puppies, caring for them herself. They were emaciated and needed worming as well as their starter shots. Gloria did a great job with them. I've seen the puppies, and they are precious. They are red pits with a long strip of white between their eyes, making them look like calves. They wriggle with friendliness, and Gloria has already found homes for them. Good job, Gloria!
I hope the homes are good and beyond that, stable. Because of overspending and obsessions with sex, money, and drugs, stable families are a rarity. Still, it's wonderful that we're still free to make mistakes and haven't traded our freedom into the government for a more equal hell on earth. For this I give thanksgiving.
Last summer, I read a book but was unwilling to discuss it. It seemed unpatriotic, but I decided patriotism to truth superceded patriotism to the party in power in Washington. "Making A Killing" was written by Captain (UK) James Ashcroft, and one claim he makes is that the Iraquis learned to give up their custom of firing rifles to celebrate a wedding because the American soldiers on patrol responded by opening fire on them. It was one reason the locals hated Americans (page 14). He also said that right after the fall of Saddam, American convoys demanded that all vehicles on the roads in front of them make way. If vehicles didn't, they would first get a warning burst of gunfire. If they still didn't pull over, gunfire would disable their vehicle. Ashcroft claimed that the warning bursts were often followed by the disabling bursts so quickly that it was just one long burst. Of course, this was another reason the Iraquis hated us (page 21).
I hope you have enjoyed checking in today and will do it again soon. Peter "Two-Guns" Nickerson at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.