Fingers crossed...

I haven't posted on Wilbur for a while, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he has found his forever home with a wonderful, wonderful couple in the Minneapolis area. They recently lost their beloved Pointer at nearly twelve years of age, and I hope Wilbur can bring Pointer love and joy back in to their lives. For those who have followed his blog, updates will be forthcoming...

Good Wil Hunting

The birds were out, the birds were out...

Birdy Boy

I wish I had taken a camera on my walk with Wilbur and Radar to get the paper early this morning. The gray, foggy morning brought many birds out along our rural, tree-lined lane, and the boys were pointing in high style. Wilbur was gorgeous in his stretched points; as horse people, we compare Radar to a Quarter Horse - stocky, square, and steady. Wilbur is more of a Saddlebred - stretched in his points, elegant, and big-strided.

I loved watching these boys in their element.

Willll-burrrr

This is the essence of Wil - goofy and happy but sweet and relaxed. These pictures were taken less than two minutes apart; he then curled up next to his Lab counterpart (because she's a chocolate!), Greta.

Wilbur on the Small Screen

Play Time

Geeze...

You don't have to tell me how pathetic this is. I already know. But when you have a Pointer named Wilbur that loves chairs and warm laps, a Lab that's definitely a momma's boy, and one piece of furniture (excepting the dog beds) in the entire basement upon which the dogs are allowed, this is the outcome. This chair is to the dogs - in real estate terms - what a Victorian in San Francisco would be to us. And if it takes sharing it with a roommate, so be it.

But could you say no to any of these faces?

They're not hyper!

The first question out of many of our friends' and family members' mouths when we tell them about fostering the three birddogs is, "Aren't they hyper?" Our answer is universally, "No."

Our answer was reaffirmed last night as we watched the three Pointers sleep while our Labs and Coonhounds played, roughhoused, barked, and generally created a melee. Wilbur slept on the recliner with Ben while Penny and Radar slept on doggy beds despite the ruckus being created around them. The Pointers are much like greyhounds in that they really just want a soft place to sleep in the house, and if that place is your lap, all the better, as they like to be close to you.

The secret to the Pointers is a good daily run or piece of exercise, even if it's just running and playing in the backyard with their owners or other dogs. It seems as though the Pointers have a reserve of energy that, once burned off - and it doesn't take a great deal, just a good run in the yard or some exercise with their owners - leaves them wanting little more than to sleep and relax in the house. The Labs, however, seem to have a higher sustained level of energy. While they don't really stretch their legs outside in the same way as the Pointers, they're more "on the go" more of the time.

We're finding the Pointers to offer the best of all worlds. They inspire us to get out and exercise ourselves - whether it's a good, long walk, a jog through our fields and woods, or running and playing in the backyard with the other dogs while we work in the yard with them - and then allow us to come inside and relax while they sleep. Our vet was right - if you're looking for trainable, bright, affectionate, sweet-tempered dog who will jog by your side and then sleep on your lap, it's hard to beat a Pointer.

Sleepy Time

A Weekend Out

Wilbur and Radar spent the weekend on the go. On Saturday, we took both to a field trial in central Illinois - not to hunt, just to watch - and were able to put both boys on some birds in holding pens just to see what they would do. Both demonstrated very nice form, and it was enlightening for us to see the two boys we've known only as house pets "do their thing." It was a beautiful thing to watch, but it was also amazing to watch them turn it on and then turn it off and hop in our laps when invited. They traveled well and were very good boys.

While Radar and Wilbur were country boys yesterday, we asked them to be suburb boys today and took them to the Renick Riverfront Park on the Missouri River in Washington, Missouri, near our home. Renick is one of our favorite places but is also a great test for dogs. From the parking lot to the paved riverfront walkway, the boys were exposed to everything under the sun - trains, cars, boats, children, bikes, rollerblades, strollers, and other dogs ranging from little Yorkies to a giant Airedale. We couldn't have been more pleased with the boys; they took everything in stride, lapped up attention from children, and were extremely well-behaved. They're even starting to walk fairly well on the leash, although Wilbur likes to pull a bit. With patience and consistency, though, he's getting the hang of things. He's so remarkably sweet; when we stopped for any length of time, he pressed up against my leg, as if he wants to feel his person next to him to be reminded they're there.

After our jaunt, we stopped for lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and ordered some ground beef for the boys. They loved their snack but seemed disappointed we didn't bring a couple of margaritas back to the truck for them. They were both so good - good traveling in their crates, good with strangers, and good with all the new sites and sounds.

It was interesting how many people were drawn to the boys during our jaunt today wanting to know what breed they are, from where they came, and what kind of personalities they have. As Lab owners, we're used to being out with the "everyman" breed - one people know already, so the attention the Pointers elicited was something new for us.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with our vet the other day about Pointers and the more popular sporting breeds. A Pointer enthusiast and owner, our vet said when clients and friends ask what kind of family dog they should get, he almost always recommends Pointers for active families with fenced yards ahead of the more popular Labs, Golden Retrievers, and Weimaraners. He went on to explain that Pointers have been carefully bred for centuries to be bird dogs par excellence, and throughout those generations, the dogs with temperament or health issues were culled out and not allowed to breed. While the methods used in that practice could be very cruel, they did have the result in the Pointer lines of producing nearly uniformly healthy, intelligent, capable dogs with excellent temperaments, high degrees of trainability, and a willingness to work for their owners. The relative rarity of Pointers has kept that purity of breeding intact, whereas the more popular breeds have been diluted with the result of more dogs in those breeds falling short of the breed standard and more health and temperament issues. It was an interesting and compelling thesis.

Reflecting on Mysteries

(This post is replicated in the blogs for each of our fosters – our “Hopkinsville Three” – and can be found on Penny’s blog at www.ibrpenelope.blogspot.com and Radar’s blog at www.ibrradar.blogspot.com as well)

A homeless dog rescued from a shelter often has secrets in its past, and as we begin to develop an understanding of these dogs as their adoptive or foster families, we feel a reflexive need to create a history for the dog based on the little clues we’ve been given. Sometimes the histories are accurate; unfortunately, I think they’re often kinder than the realities these dogs faced before coming into our home.

We know a little of the history of some of the dogs we’ve adopted; Sam, the loyal and loving yellow Lab, was taken to a high-kill shelter as a stray with heartworms, torn and bloody feet, and lacerations from barbed wire. When his “owners” came to pick him up and learned the shelter was requiring them to pay for his heartworm treatment and neuter, they turned on their heels and left Sam behind. Our Bluetick Coonhound, Lila, was similarly taken as a stray to a shelter, and her owner, once he learned she had been spayed while at the shelter, determined she was no longer of any use to him and only wanted his expensive tracking collar back but not Lila. Our simultaneously dignified and goofy elderly Black and Tan Coonhoud, Stella, was owned by a man notorious for hanging his dogs from trees by their collars and beating them for not hunting well. Her damaged trachea and worn front teeth attest to a terrible early life. But each proves to us every day the unmatched qualities of the love an abused or neglected dog has for those who saved it.

The three young Pointers we’ve been fostering for the last week came with their own clues, and I can’t help but imagine what their lives were like before they turned up in a rural animal shelter in January with seemingly bleak prospects for the future.

Wilbur, the adorable and sweet liver and white boy, has birdshot in the very inside bottom of one of his ears. Ironically, giving him the attention he loves most – an ear rub – revealed the healed-over birdshot. Found just after the first of the year – and just after the end of hunting season in an unlikely coincidence – on a farm playing with the farm’s dogs, sweet Wilbur likely didn’t meet his owner’s standards as a hunting dog and was thrown away. At only about a year old, Wilbur may have been given one chance – one season – to prove himself in the field. Had he been as successful as his owner hoped, his owner would have likely come for him. Once Wilbur enters your heart, it’s easy to imagine how confused the affectionate Wilbur must have been when he realized his owner wasn’t coming for him and that he was on his own.

Handsome and stocky Radar, the epitome of the classic-style Pointer, was taken to the shelter as a stray and with a fairly fresh bullet wound in his side. The deep-chested, athletic Radar appears on the outside to be a tough cookie, but within a minute or two of meeting him, it becomes apparent how deeply affectionate, sensitive, and kind he is. I can only imagine Radar, like Wilbur, fell short of someone’s expectations in the hunting field and was taken out to be dumped. When loyal and loving Radar refused to leave his owner deep in the woods or a field somewhere, his owner may have shot him to either kill him or make him run away. Though the wound is healed and new hair covers the wound, a faint scar remains as a reminder of Radar’s near-tragedy.

And then there’s Penelope, the sensitive, sweet, shy girl who may have been too timid to make it as a gundog. Her brief shelter notes indicate she was found – cold, starving, and scared - in a ditch along a busy highway with facial and dental injuries. Was she hit by a car? Was she thrown out of one by her owner? Though her physical injuries are healed, her diminishing but lingering timidity indicates someone injured her far more deeply.

Within the past month or two, these three dogs were abandoned, either shot or hit by or thrown out of a car, living as strays in the middle of winter, and taken to a loud, crowded animal shelter where an average of ten dogs are euthanized every day. In the last week, they were picked up by a stranger, driven nearly three hundred miles, vetted (and neutered in the case of the boys) and asked to live in a house for the first time in their lives – and with six large resident dogs.

And yet, barely more than a week after they arrived at our house, Wilbur, Radar, and Penny have made great strides in their adaptation to becoming beloved house pets. They go to the door when they need to go potty, they are learning how to walk on a leash, they are adapting to regimens, and they have almost figured out the rules of the house.

But more remarkably, they have proven themselves to be beacons of love and forgiveness. After everything they’ve been through in their short lives, they are still unfailingly affectionate, loving, responsive, sensitive, eager to please, and kind. These three young Pointers have proven themselves capable of greater levels of humanity and forgiveness than much of humanity itself.

One mystery remains for Wilbur, Radar, and Penny – who will complete their histories by giving them their forever homes, and who will be fortunate enough to know the love of a dog that has known the worst in people and will be thankful every day for the best in us? Will it be you?

Isn't he liver-ly?

Come on, Dad...rub my ears...please?

Welcome to Wilbur's World

Well, is it Wilbur's world, and are we just living in it?

Found skinny and cold in early January on a farm in rural Kentucky playing with the farm's dogs, Wilbur was taken to an already-overcrowded county animal shelter. Knowing his hold time had long elapsed, and drawn in by the gentleness of his eyes and the sweetness of his face in the Petfinder photographs, we decided on the spot to volunteer to become an Illinois Birddog Rescue foster home to Wilbur and Radar, another beautiful Pointer at the same shelter.

The gentleness and sweetness we saw in the photographs are accurate descriptions of kind Wilbur. He traveled the nearly 300 miles to our home very well and immediately made friends with our herd of Labradors and coonhounds. Wilbur loves nothing more than to stand or sit beside us and have his head and back rubbed, and for a boy who's only a couple of days inside the house - or any house - he's mellow and relaxed. He does, however, like to play with the other dogs for a few minutes first!

However, as a former hunter, Wilbur needs to learn all the ropes of being a beloved inside companion, including house training and obedience training. He's making strides in learning to walk on a leash, and counters and ledges aren't quite as inviting as they were the first day. And he's spending his time outside of his crate in the house on the leash so we may keep an eye on him. But he didn't chew up the corner of the rug in the photo...that was a teething gift from our Lab Abby when she was a puppy.

Today is a big day for both Wilbur and Radar...it's "Big Snip" day at the vet. I'm anxious to pick them up after work to take them home to rest...