dogs will be dogs....if we let them.

when i was driving over to chilliwack this morning..i got kind of teary....probably peri-menopausal PMS'ing or something.

but i had in my head this image that i had just left behind me at saints.....a bunch of doorknob dogs all running around and chasing each other and having a whole lot of fun.

the dog run today

kia was down there...right in the middle of the whole chasing and barking thing. jelly bean was enjoying herself too but she did stick pretty close to me....(she is by nature a velcro dog.) bibi was running after our new volunteer linda's dog, malley and having a blast. he fell down several times and needed help to get back up...(one time right in the thick mud)...and bibi did not give a crap cuz chasing malley over the field, up and down the hill, all around the pond and back and thru the swamp was just too much fun.

Kia and Jelly Bean

(muddy) Bibi and Linda's Dog

this is the very best part of saints...when dogs can just be dogs. we have learned over the years to mind our own business and let them mind theirs..we only interfer if someone gets too riled up..like jesse... and starts snapping at the others running near. but mostly we never have problems, even when we have new dogs here...it is just a giant dog party...running around, rolling (and snacking) on horse poop...chasing a stick or a ball, someone almost always dives into the pond for a short swim and someone almost always has to run full speed thru the muddy swamp...but mostly just barking their fool heads off and chasing each other around.

dog walk today around the pond and lower field

even maude gets totally into it...at 18 yrs old now...she runs around the fields and thinks she is young. 19 yr old molly comes out on somedays and toddles around with us too...there are crippled chow crosses, pitbull crosses, lab, shepherd. rotti and retriever crosses, and always a few kinds of chihauhua, yorki and poodle things too. big dogs, little dogs, crippled dogs, herding dogs, yappy dogs, dogs with no teeth, totally deaf or halfway to blind and red whirling wonders...there are brand new dogs, long term dogs and dogs who don't even live here..like levi, roxy, gwen, malley and flynn..... but all of them having a good time just being dogs each weekend.

i tell you...it just fills you up so full that it makes all of our eyes leak sometimes...old homeless, wrecked dogs that no one wants, beloved volunteer dogs here while their person works for the day....it looks and feels like a happy doggy playschool...not like a homeless shelter at all!

and it has NOTHING to do with the humans here...we just get the heck out of their way and let them be dogs the way that they want to be every saints weekend day.

the new guys are here...i stopped at the vets and already had the pre-surgical blood work for the 2 new cats drawn. peter is a lovely and skinny bicolor white and black with a very strong and narrow face...he is going to be losing most of his rotten teeth. i have put him in a holding cage until his FIV/FeLV testing comes back. he seems like a really nice cat and he really likes temptation treats.

Peter

blackie... who i have re-named black bart...cuz blackie is a homeless shelter cat's name...he is just lovely...not neutered yet but lots of head butts and he likes fancy feast. he is loose in the aviary holding pen until his testing comes back too.

Black Bart

bambi is a fat little mushroom dog...she has been shaved bare naked right down to the skin. the staff showed me the pictures of how matted she was when she came in. it was totally gross...she looked like one giant matted hair ball...you couldn't even see her little face and she looked about three times bigger than she really is. her tongue hangs down to her knees and she is pretty darn homely if you ask me...but she too is absolutely lovely...and she really likes the canned food around here. i have put her up in the laundry area for now cuz i don't want phoebe the hag bugging her...she is just too passively sweet.

Bambi

so all is well at saints this afternoon, the new guys are comfortably settling in...the other saints are all napping from their strenuous play today and i think i might join them for an hour or so until it is time for barn bedtime.

i hope everyone who came to saints today had as good of a time as did our animals...maybe you too are all napping and recovering from your saints work day as well.

i don't know what you can say about here except this is a very special place...it is special because we have such great human caregivers...but it is even more special because we have such great animal saints and that's why my eyes sometimes leak, too filled up with some of the good things that i am lucky enough to see.