I sort of have a new dog (lots of pics)

[furever_pit]

What a great looking dog.

If you think he is underweight you would probably think my guys are emaciated. I think his weight is perfect. He is still carrying a lot of muscle mass throughout his body and has a nice taper in the rear

Ditto...he looks great to me! (and imho, looks like someone cares for him. It's one of my biggest fears, that someone would find one of my dogs if they were lost and assume that they're mistreated because of the fact that they're skinny and fit)

He's very handsome! What a sweetie!

I have never thought about it that way but I keep my boys real lean too. Scary.

[TheRedQueen]

Someone in my neighborhood once found a JRT roaming down the street, he was in great shape (lean and muscled) and dirty (brown smears of mud/dirt all over his WHITE coat). They decided that he was mistreated because he was skinny and dirty. They were NOT going to call around to find his owners, because of these two things. I was amazed...I finally convinced them that 1. the dog was in great shape, not malnourished and 2. that many dogs can get pretty dirty, pretty quickly...especially a mostly white terrrier!

They found the owner a few hours later...the dog lived two streets over, and had been missing for the morning.

That made me realize how some folks react to skinny dogs.

[Marinepits]

My neighbours are always telling me that my dogs (especially Shorty and Tucker) are WAY too thin. They bring me dog cookies and treats all the time.

[DropkickPA]

Listen up people, I have posted signs, posted ads online and in the local paper, walked this dog around the neighborhood, spoken with neighbors, notified the local shelters giving a full description and my contact info and find location, etc. I am making a good faith effort to find his owners. I am putting money I really don't have into not only finding his owners who i have a rarther low opinion of, but also into his medical care.

I am a licensed vet tech and I worked in my local city shelter which has a HUGE pit bull population at all times. I am VERY familiar with what a healthy active dog looks like and what a skinny dog looks like. This dog was NOT comparable to your dogs in form, physique, and health. All of his vertebrae are visible and palpable, his hipbones are prominent and easily palpable, his stool for the first 2 days (what tiny little amount of it there was) was mostly dirt and gravel. He was VERY anemic and still is a little bit though he is improving. I am following his health VERY closely. I'm lucky in that I can do this stuff at work every day and he's good natured enough to let me get small blood samples every morning to bring in and check.

I didn't detail his entire health picture because I didn't think I had to. I was simply passing along that I was "fostering" a dog and trying to find him a good home. But it seems like you all feel I'm somehow stealing someone's dog here when I am really and truly trying to do the right thing by him. Maybe I'll turn him in to the shelter that's so overcrowded right now that they had to open a satellite facility in their boarding kennel to accomodate all the animals they're getting hit with. They shouldn't have a problem finding a home for a dog aggressive pit bull, right?

[maberi]

I think you misinterpretted people's comments in this thread.

As far as I can tell no one was questioning whether or not you were making enough effort to find this boy's owners (if he had any that cared for him or not).

The proper weight and form on a dog is somewhat subjective as most people tend to have varying views on the matter (take a look at some of the dogs in the conformation ring). Based on the photos you posted he looks to be of a healthy weight, but again this is subjective and maybe the photos are misleading. Because someone disagreed with you on the weight of a dog does not mean anyone is questioning your motives or your education.

I commend you on taking this boy in and helping him. Unfortunately there aren't enough people in this world that care to help out when they are put into a situation where they can make a difference.

Listen up people, I have posted signs, posted ads online and in the local paper, walked this dog around the neighborhood, spoken with neighbors, notified the local shelters giving a full description and my contact info and find location, etc. I am making a good faith effort to find his owners. I am putting money I really don't have into not only finding his owners who i have a rarther low opinion of, but also into his medical care.

I am a licensed vet tech and I worked in my local city shelter which has a HUGE pit bull population at all times. I am VERY familiar with what a healthy active dog looks like and what a skinny dog looks like. This dog was NOT comparable to your dogs in form, physique, and health. All of his vertebrae are visible and palpable, his hipbones are prominent and easily palpable, his stool for the first 2 days (what tiny little amount of it there was) was mostly dirt and gravel. He was VERY anemic and still is a little bit though he is improving. I am following his health VERY closely. I'm lucky in that I can do this stuff at work every day and he's good natured enough to let me get small blood samples every morning to bring in and check.

I didn't detail his entire health picture because I didn't think I had to. I was simply passing along that I was "fostering" a dog and trying to find him a good home. But it seems like you all feel I'm somehow stealing someone's dog here when I am really and truly trying to do the right thing by him. Maybe I'll turn him in to the shelter that's so overcrowded right now that they had to open a satellite facility in their boarding kennel to accomodate all the animals they're getting hit with. They shouldn't have a problem finding a home for a dog aggressive pit bull, right?

[call2arms]

Maybe people just didn't get just ow skinny he was - usually the hip bones are covered with thick muscle in a healthy dog - and that just didn't show in the picture. I didn't think you were trying to keep him without finding his owner, and I think perhaps the conversation merged into "people think fit dogs are too skinny" as a general subject, not so on your doggy find.

[TheRedQueen]

I didn't think you were trying to keep him without finding his owner, and I think perhaps the conversation merged into "people think fit dogs are too skinny" as a general subject, not so on your doggy find.

Just like other topics, this one went in a different direction... I wasn't personally attacking you, and I'm sorry you felt that way. I was just talking in general...sheesh.

[mnp13]

Listen up people, I have posted signs, posted ads online and in the local paper, walked this dog around the neighborhood, spoken with neighbors, notified the local shelters giving a full description and my contact info and find location, etc. I am making a good faith effort to find his owners. I am putting money I really don't have into not only finding his owners who i have a rarther low opinion of, but also into his medical care.

AHHH!!!

no no no no no!

I was NOT doubting that you were being responsible and diligent about looking for his owners or taking proper care of him!!!! I was ONLY commenting that from the pictures that you posted he didn't look as if he was underweight. That was all. I don't think ANYONE was doing that!!!

There are a number of us who keep our dogs very lean who have had people comment that we "starve" our dogs, or that our dogs are malnourished or other comments. When I had Riggs at his prime pulling weight - muscles and veins bulging out all over the place - I had someone ask me if he was one of my rescue abuse cases. We all have the same worry - that if our dogs were ever to get out, that someone would assume that they were abused and would not try to find us. I don't think any of us were thinking that you were doing that, we were just sharing fears that we have. Sort of like the "I hate people" posts that members put up, obviously, members here don't hate people here, just people who aren't here. See what I mean?

[furever_pit]

I wasn't trying to accuse you of not trying to find this dog's owners either. I think it is great that you have taken him in and that you are so dedicated to getting his medical care and to looking for his owners. He's lucky that he found y'all.

[Marinepits]

Er, yup. What Matt, Isa, Erin, Michelle, and Dylan's Mom just said.

[Kerstieazy]

he looks so much like my Mac when I got him. it breaks my heart. D:

[Malli]

Er, yup. What Matt, Isa, Erin, Michelle, and Dylan's Mom just said.

What Jen said.

[DropkickPA]

AH, okay Sorry I overreacted, I have a hard time following when a thread diverges sometimes.

I do have good news, though! Buddy found a home! A good friend, who I hadn't even considered, has taken him! Dave and his wife lost their dog Max a few months ago to age and were heart broken about it. They'd said they might get another dog in a year but were not going to be ready before then. My SIL, who met Buddy, was telling them about him when they were down her house visiting and she brought them over yesterday afternoon. They were over for 3 hours and I swear, he did not leave their sides for a second the whole time. They are awesome people and great dog parents, live on a bunch of property in the woods, I couldn't think of a better place for Buddy if I tried, and they honestly just never crossed my mind They live about 2 hours away so, with some tears from Dropkid, a good riddance from Agatha, Buddy went to his new house.

Craziness.

[lellis34]

AH, okay Sorry I overreacted, I have a hard time following when a thread diverges sometimes.

I do have good news, though! Buddy found a home! A good friend, who I hadn't even considered, has taken him! Dave and his wife lost their dog Max a few months ago to age and were heart broken about it. They'd said they might get another dog in a year but were not going to be ready before then. My SIL, who met Buddy, was telling them about him when they were down her house visiting and she brought them over yesterday afternoon. They were over for 3 hours and I swear, he did not leave their sides for a second the whole time. They are awesome people and great dog parents, live on a bunch of property in the woods, I couldn't think of a better place for Buddy if I tried, and they honestly just never crossed my mind They live about 2 hours away so, with some tears from Dropkid, a good riddance from Agatha, Buddy went to his new house.

Craziness.

How great for Buddy - and for your friends. I think we all know that sometimes the best dog for us comes at the most inopportune time. Congratulations Buddy.

[TheRedQueen]

AH, okay Sorry I overreacted, I have a hard time following when a thread diverges sometimes.

I do have good news, though! Buddy found a home! A good friend, who I hadn't even considered, has taken him! Dave and his wife lost their dog Max a few months ago to age and were heart broken about it. They'd said they might get another dog in a year but were not going to be ready before then. My SIL, who met Buddy, was telling them about him when they were down her house visiting and she brought them over yesterday afternoon. They were over for 3 hours and I swear, he did not leave their sides for a second the whole time. They are awesome people and great dog parents, live on a bunch of property in the woods, I couldn't think of a better place for Buddy if I tried, and they honestly just never crossed my mind They live about 2 hours away so, with some tears from Dropkid, a good riddance from Agatha, Buddy went to his new house.

Craziness.

So I take it you didn't locate his owners?

[maberi]

Glad to hear the little guy found a home!

[Malli]

sounds good for Buddy!

[DropkickPA]

So I take it you didn't locate his owners?

I've heard not a peep. I called the shelters I gave descriptions to yesterday afternoon to see if they'd gotten any calls and they'd had no calls about any dogs even remotely matching his description, no one responded to any of the signs I posted, none of the notices I posted either online or in the paper, nothing. I got one reply from craiglist that was simply "I'm glad somebody is helping out a pit bull, they get such a bad rap in the news". I had him for 7 days, longer than a shelter hold around here is, so I don't feel too badly about it.

I think Dave and Liz are perfect for Buddy, it's nuts how I was really racking my brain for who I knew would be a good match for him and just never thought of them. My SIL really came through for all involved.

[Marinepits]

That's awesome! Congrats to both you and Buddy!

[CinderDee]

Great news! Yay Buddy!