Colby (the dog and the Starving Armenian)- a story from my book

(A little background, in case you don't read my other blogs which can be found by clicking on-view my complete profile. I'm the granddaughter of an Armenian immigrant who fled the genocide in Turkey in 1915. During this time the term- Starving Armenian- was used a lot as the people who were not killed fled, often with no food and nothing but the clothes on their backs. Don't ask me what cosmic joke saw fit to allow me, the granddaughter of an Armenian genocide survivor, to end up with anorexia as a way to handle the distressing situations of my life, but so be it.The anorexia was in the past, I'm quite healthy and have been for a long time, it's just part of the overall story)

Colby

Colby and I had some karmic business to attend to, not that I always go in for this sort of stuff but often times life stares you in the face and offers you a chance to find resolution. Colby came into the shelter as a stray, and immediately became so disheartened that he stopped eating. As a former anorexic myself, how could I not be moved by such a dog. He spent his days curled up into a tiny ball with his hipbones sticking out, right up next to the gate in an outdoor group kennel. He wanted to make sure that if the door were opened he'd be the first one out. It was as if by lying in that spot he was willfully projecting himself out of there. His other dog mates would romp around with each other or lay up under the leanto, but not Colby. He was finally moved to his own private pen that had an individual doghouse in it, that we had put a blanket in. He'd crawl into the doghouse and sleep there most of the day. The staff was so worried that he'd starve to death on their watch, that they put him on anti-anxiety medication. I started walking him in the hopes that the special attention and exercise might help him to work up an appetite. If ever a dog could convey the persona of a disaffected jazz musician, he was it. He was a real cool cat of a dog. He stood fairly tall for a dog 70lbs. at normal weight, and was just so naturally low key. He'd walk alongside Blue( my dog) and I in a very well mannered disaffected way. He enjoyed being petted and receiving attention and had a lovelorn "I can't imagine why you'd want to bother expending energy on me" sort of look in his eye. We'd walk downtown at a leisurely pace. At times I'd stop to grab a coffee or snack, and tie the dogs up to a post for a few minutes. They would just sit politely waiting for me. Colby had the saddest eyes with the most pained look in them. It was a combination of pain and distance, with a touch of daring to yearn to come back from whatever faraway place he'd escape to. It was as if he wasn't sure whether or not to continue living, and whether engaging again with people, was really worth the trouble. He decided that his living situation at the shelter was intolerable and since he couldn’t escape he stopped eating. I had been in this situation myself years ago and was struck that this animal came to the same conclusion to handle its suffering as I had, but then his circumstances started to change a little with my consistent walks and attention. Perhaps this was truly full circle for me. I could intervene in his life and make a difference, even though in my own life my suffering went unnoticed. He wasn't needy, just dejected. His sadness just made you love him even more. I took to putting him in my car with Blue while I drove around town doing errands, just so he would be less lonely. He didn't always smell so terrific and he was too skinny for me to wash him and let him sit outside in the cold until he dried off, so I just damp towel washed him and put him in my car on a giant horse blanket. Such are the sacrifices one makes for troubled animals with broken hearts. Besides, the car had 100,000. miles on it anyway. I’d take him for long walks of at least an hour or so. He grew fond of us and started to finally regain some of the weight he'd lost and his hipbones became less pronounced. He would visually key in on my car as it pulled into the parking lot and also as it pulled away .He would sing in a low, muted, grumbly, "wu wu wu” at times when he saw me approaching, which was the height of enthusiasm for him. One day, I had him in the front passenger seat of my car while we were traveling to a small artsy town 15 miles away. He was curled up with his head facing me and resting on my emergency brake. He looked up at me with such profound love and tenderness that tears came to my eyes. I would have adopted him then and there but my husband wasn’t as smitten with him as I was. The shelter staff felt sorry for him too, and one of the gals was aching to foster him if he wasn’t adopted soon. We had our yearly benefit luncheon for the shelter at our local community center so I took Colby and my dog Blue over there with me in the car. I had had them in the car previously, but only unattended for twenty minutes at a time, before I returned to check on them. I got carried away at the benefit and found myself talking to a couple of the board members discussing the lengths we go to for our pets. I playfully found myself chiming in with ”yeah I know what you mean, I’ve got this dog who’s on anti-anxiety medication with me in my car” Then I realized they had been in the car for over two hours instead of the usual twenty minutes we were all accustomed to. All of a sudden, I was the one experiencing anxiety. I jokingly quipped “my husbands been wanting a new car anyway, maybe this will be the deciding factor” and I excused myself and went to check on them. I didn’t know what to expect; seat cushions torn up? Stuffing everywhere? When I finally reached the car, Colby was sprawled out on the back seat yawning and stretching, and Blue was in the far back. Not one sign of damage anywhere. Phew! A couple of weeks later Colby was adopted. I ran into the women who had adopted him while they were walking together downtown. She seemed so sweet, kind and gentle: a female complement to his sensitive nature. He came right up to me and I patted him on the head. I was so happy for them both. My little Colby cheese dog, my nickname for him, finally back to health.

what my book "Tails from the Shelter" is about

I walked both these dogs today, along with Mongo and Lenny. The brown dog is Sophia a new Chesapeake Bay retriever, her sister who is a tad darker is also available for adoption. The black dog is Chewy, he is the one who likes to stand on top of his modernist dog house, he's in the post on the modernist doghouses.

http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2010/04/modernist-dog-house.html

This is basically the query I sent to a publisher. I'm open to any feed back on my query anyone would like to offer. I also sent a sample chapter.This particular publisher didn't pan out. I'm wondering whether I should self publish or continue looking for another publisher.

I started volunteering at our local no kill animal shelter 10 years ago after losing my beloved Labrador retriever. The book I wrote is the book I was looking to read and could not find, when I first started volunteering. I was unable to find information explaining how to work with frightened and disheartened dogs that had been abandoned and traumatized, except for some general information and one particular chapter in the wonderful book, “Beyond Obedience” by April Frost . http://www.aprilfrost.org/book.html This is an authentic telling of the stories of my working with the frightened, abused, neglected and harder to place dogs. The cute, adorable, young and purebred, the small to medium sized, spectacular and unique looking dogs get adopted relatively quickly, the larger, older, impaired, neurotic, average looking and black dogs take longer. My book is the true life story, with some altered identities, of the behind the scenes goings on of my local no kill animal shelter which is located in a small college town surrounded by a rural farming community in North Idaho. The story is also somewhat of a memoir that parallels my story of overcoming eating disorders as it relates to and overlaps with my being drawn to work with abused and neglected dogs. It is a story of triumph, of overcoming through giving, of reaching out to the dogs and helping them through. I have included a variety of stories differing in tone that give a representation of the humor, sadness, success, and both positive and negative outcomes of the dogs and people in my community. Although they are primarily stories of the dogs, they also relate the nature of the human beings that the animals come in contact with so they tell of the positive and negative intersection of animal /human ties. I have also included a lot of observations and training tips for both working with this special subset of dogs and for volunteering at animal shelters in general, as well as a spiritual approach to basic obedience training. I cover the stories of the different dogs I worked with including everything from; frightened, abused, neurotic, handicapped, dogs that were returned multiple times, a dog with anorexia, and heroic dogs that helped the people around them. I spent from 5 to 15 hours a week, volunteering to walk and train and spend time with the dogs. They are the stories of dogs and people on the edge, some turn around, some do not. My book also sheds light on the hard work performed by the dedicated staff and volunteers of our Humane Society, and the difficulties they encounter working in a no kill shelter as well. Inspired by the books of the late Caroline Knapp, particularly, the book, Appetites. I pick up where she left off, delving a little deeper into multi generational family dynamics, healing the self through helping abandoned dogs, performing a community service and helping to reconnect people and dogs while tying together stories over a ten year period in a small semi-rural college town community . The book was written in the spirit of The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle www.eckharttolle.com/home/ , living in the moment making observations finding out what the individual dogs needed in a Zen Buddhist spirit of witnessing. I feel that the book has broad appeal on two fronts; 1) telling the stories and giving insight into the dogs adopted from the no kill shelter, many have adopted from shelters. This gives them an idea of what some of the dogs have gone through prior to being adopted. 2) It is my story of finding a positive way of overcoming a dysfunctional family and overcoming eating disorders in a way that helped both me, and the neglected dogs. I see this as a philosophy of efficiency, meeting the many needs, of all involved at once, on both a physical and psychological level. So although the book runs the gamut of emotions all in all it is a positive real life story of overcoming on many levels, by reaching out to help others in a spirit of community service. Raw, deep, humorous, profound, both heartwarming and heart wrenching, this book has it all. Thank you for giving it a chance

I am a dog person- poem by me

I am a Dog Person

muddy paw prints on my back
my shoes are always scuffed
pooper scoopers in one pocket
treats in the other
the dog park is my favorite place to socialize
it's become the new bar
leashes, toys and dog hair in my car
nose prints on my window

Modernist dog house

This is our wonderful no-kill animal shelter humansocietyofpalouse.org.























The generous and talented members of the College of Engineering and Architecture at Washington State University,( which is 8 miles away across the state line) designed and built these modernist dog houses for our shelter. I just think they're great, and the dogs love them too. Can you believe it,modernist architecture where the form actually follows the function? Check out the one black dog who is standing on top of his lookout tower and loving it. We have some very satisfied customers here! Thanks W.S.U. College of Engineering and Architecture for a great job and service to the animals. www.cea.wsu.edu

Special thanks to www.buffalogirlsdesign.com for the tech support.

Lilly the Japanese Chin

As of this post Lilly is still available for adoption. Anyone interested in her can contact
www.humanesocietyofthepalouse.org/ I would adopt her myself but I live out in the country where there are birds of prey and other wild critters and I would have to escort her outside all the time so I'm thinking it would be best for her to be a town dog.

Capoeira with dogs

I walked Mongo and Pascual(my dog) together today. It was very windy and often times animals can get all worked up when it's windy or stormy. For some reason the animals that tend to be a handful to begin with are the ones even more affected by the wind. I took Mongo out and then brought him over to my car in order to get Pascual out. I kept him on a rather short leash so he would not jump up on my car and scratch it( I learned this from experience) as Pascual jumped out of the car Mongo got excited and lunged ahead to greet and sniff him, throwing me off balance to the extent of practically sitting on Mongo before I regained my footing, as I almost toppled over his back. That was incident number one in which I had a close call. This event alerted me to "the jogo perigoso" or dangerous game a reference to a Capoeira, Brazilian martial arts term, that was in store. I've had enough experience to know that windy, stormy days and one close call in terms of loosing my footing is a warning sign/ wake up call to cut things short and minimize risk. I kept thinking I'd take Mongo out for a longer walk along the lines of an hour but when we got to the fairgrounds and started running around in the big field, me encouraging Mongo to run in circles with and around me to expell energy, until he did some kind of lurching far ahead of me movement and I had to spin around in yet another Capoeira styled move so as I could side flip and land on two feet, with one more gancho(hook kick) to free my leg from the leash, at this point, I decided to cut it short to a twenty minute walk. Working with shelter dogs, one quickly learns that it is best not to tempt fate. I enclosed a youtube video of the Capoeira Mestre Bira Almeida a.k.a. Mestre Acordeon( he is playing the musical instrument the berimbau, while supervising the students). He has a more spiritual and creative/artistic approach/philosophy of Capoeira which has rekindled my interest, practice, and study of Capoeira after many years away( from the martial art form and Brazilian dance). I have also learned that this training helps in all walks or dog walks of life, it is a state of mind. Mestra Accordeon has a wonderful book explaining his view of Capoeira http://www.amazon.com/Capoeira-Brazilian-History-Philosophy-Practice/dp/0938190296#reader_0938190296

some new dogs

The big brown chocolate lab/Chesapeake Bay mix is Wimbleton- he loves his tennis balls. He's a nice big cuddly bear type of fella who loves people and walks fairly well on the leash, which could turn into walking beautifully on the leash with a little training. He was tied up between two trees in the back of a yard for a lot of his life and is fairly well adjusted, considering this history. The little adorable one is Lilly, a Japanese Chin, who spent quite a bit of time curled up in my arms.She's cute as can be, 6 years old, loves men and women, gets along with dogs and cats if they are nice. It was very hard not to adopt her myself but I am only half of the household decision making process. She only arrived yesterday and I'm guessing will be adopted soon, as she is small, cute, with no major issues and 100% adorable.