by Wyldmoonwoman » June 13th, 2008, 1:26 pm
This is my story...
I had fostered two dogs for SPBR, Dolly the amazing sweet butt wiggler, and Envy, a 7-8 month old pup.
I had contacted the rescue in early/mid? 2006 after a dog in need (cocoa I think) was crossposted because I had room to foster. I had never worked with this rescue nor was I aware of any issues with the rescue. I spoke with Nicole and ended up with Dolly. Dolly was delivered to me from a shelter in NJ, she was never seen by anyone in the rescue nor evaluated by anyone in the rescue. I requested a foster agreement up front and never received one before she came to my home. I had a few issues with Dolly while she was with us, she had diarrhea constantly, I brought her to my vet, fecals were negative, they put her on metronidazole, she had sarcoptic mange, I had to have her and my resident dog treated as a preventative. I contacted Eric Grey and he would not help out with the vet bills because I violated the terms of the foster agreement, helloooo I had asked repeatedly for one and did not receive one. This was not a huge big deal to me at the time, but I had just replaced my septic tank so I pitched a fit...he asked Lori Rowans from the shelter to send him the money for the vet care and I was one of the lucky ones and got reimbursed. Dolly was adopted to a very nice family in CT, but she was sick, she still had tummy issues at the time of adoption after being with me for months, I kept telling Eric about the diarrhea and I got no help...unless she was taking the prescription dog food she had the hershey squirts, still no big deal, I didn't see any red flags. I made sure the adoptors were aware of the problems at the time of adoption. I kept in contact with them, and Dolly got sicker and sicker, she was admitted with very low platelet counts and low red blood cells...turns out she has an autoimmune disease...I am not sure that if having her properly evaluated at my vet would have made a difference.
I ignored the red flags with Dolly, the lack of a foster agreement, the refusal of the rescue to allow vet care for the diarrhea, and the rescue not wanting to reimburse for vet care.
I had placed a dog on my own between Dolly and Envy.
I am not quite sure exactly where Envy came from, she was an owner surrender, a forum member picked her up in Dec of 2006, had her spayed and vaccinated, temp fostered then another member, Jaime, took the dog. She had quite a few dogs, and since Envy was a younger pup, I agreed to take her. She arrived at my home in Feb 2007 very underweight, and her spay sutures from 5 weeks before were still in. Eric gave me instruction on how to remove sutures with a manicure scissor and tweezers and commented on her being "scary thin". She was a complete sweetheart, but very snarky, this was not a big deal for us either because younger dogs are always testing. Things went bad very quickly in March of 2007. I had company over, and their daughter was there, Envy had been tested with people and children and was doing great. My friend's daughter sat at the kitchen table and I gave her some cookies, there were four adults in the kitchen with her. Envy was circling the table, which is not allowed, so I put her behind the gate, and the gate was nothing new. In a split second Envy hopped the gate and grabbed the cookie from Caterina, biting her in the process, breaking skin, and scratching her abdomen. I notified the rescue immediately, asked about training ideas, and I asked if the rescue carries liability insurance. Apparently I asked the wrong question by mentioning liability insurance because Eric immediately denied that she was a SPBR dog and then said he had no foster agreement on file. Jaime was kind enough to step to my defence and remind Eric that I did in fact have a foster agreement on file and that she was a SPBR dog. I was going to have her evaluated by Catherine Crawmer, I was even willing to pay for it, but my husband, the voice of reason, said that we were not going to pay for an eval on a dog that is not ours. Things went bad quickly and I was no longer going to take responsibility for a dog that might not be mine. I had a few choice words with representatives of the rescue and returned the dog. I had to wait two weeks for the dog to be removed from my home. Throughout the entire mess, Eric Grey and members of the rescue not once asked how the child was. There were allegations that I fabricated the bite, I forwarded the childs contact information to Eric because the last thing on my mind was to stop and take a picture of a kid crying and bleeding. Her parents took her to the doctor and took pictures. Eric never contacted them for the pictures or copies of the doctor visit. I take full responsibility for any role that I played in the bite incident, mainly relying on the gate, but the dog never showed any desire to challenge the gate prior to this, I also was not so sure that this dog was a "man biter" I really think it was part of her little juvenile delinquent phase.
The red flag here were that as soon as I had a behavior problem with a dog, the rescue refused to work with me, I was "silenced" after I commented about the rescue practice with a dog who has bitten after someone made a comment about hoping that this dog finds a home quickly.
"If I were not a man, I would like to be a bird. As I am a man, I do the next best thing, and ride a bicycle." -- Rev. Maltie, a cyclist in the late 1800s