About my family...2 legged and 4 legged.

Let me introduce myself. I'm Beth...yes, just Beth, not Elizabeth or Bethany (though my friends like to call me that and I still answer). I'm a single Mother of a son who I don't think could be more amazing. I like to think I had a lot to do with who he is as a person since his Father (a.k.a. Sperm donor as I call him) has never really had a role in his life. Hasn't even seen him or talked to him in 6 years, which is perfectly fine with me. I think there are a lot of perks of single parenthood...I don't have to argue with anyone about his upbringing, discipline, what activities he's going to be in, who's house he's going to be at for which holiday....you get my point. Yes, I wish I could get financial help but he has what he needs, nothing more, nothing less. My son is caring, helpful, athletic, is well mannered, well behaved and still loves his Momma. I'm not sure what he's going to be when he is an adult...he says an NBA player...but I know it will have something to do with sports. I think he's a little bit obsessed since he started watching ESPN at the age of 3. He memorized the MN Twins players, their numbers and stats at the age of 6 and can give a good argument on different basketball teams and why they are good or not at the age of 8. Every Mother's Day (or around that day) we go to a Twins game as a tradition. I think these are good to have with children since it gives them things to look forward to. We have a very strong bond since it has just been us together his entire life. Also, I believe in tough love and may have been a little harsh on punishment when he was a toddler but it paid off in the end. You will not see my child acting crazy, talking crazy, or doing a fourth of what some of these kids I see doing today. I think I decided not to have any more children when he was about 3 and I realized how lucky I was to have such a good kid. I don't wanna press my luck with another and have the possibility of some wild child that I have to work 3 times as hard to manage.
One more tip, I'm horrible with grammar and punctuation. So for all of you that are anal about this, please don't email or comment with my errors. I know they're there, you get what I'm trying to say so no need to point them out.

I'm also a proud pet lover. Growing up, my Sister and I had birds, chameleons, rats, mice, hamsters, fish, turtles, cats and dogs. We took very good care of our pets and never had to get rid of them because we weren't taking proper care of them. I'm sure my Mom would have preferred a "pet-free" home but she was a trooper letting us bring home our random creatures.

Baby Graydon

When my son was about 5 I decided he was old enough to have a pet in the house, so we adopted a cat. We went to the Humane Society and found a beautiful gray cat named Graydon. Since my son's name is Jayden we decided it was fate that the cat's name rhymed with his so we took him home. Graydon is a pretty cool cat..if I do say so myself. He isn't too needy, he doesn't meow much, if at all and he's pretty mellow. Even my Dad likes him which is unheard of. My Dad usually says, "Sure I like cats, I like them dead." But my Dad is the one who takes care of Graydon when we are out of town, so that says a lot about how he feels for my cat. I never thought of myself as a "cat person", even though we had one or two growing up, but Graydon converted me. Not sure how I feel about all cats, but mine is a keeper. My Sister's cats are okay too I guess...one is too fat to be obnoxious but the other one has some sort of separation anxiety. He meows too much for me and is terrified of everything.

A year later I had an urge to get a dog. I love love love dogs! I really wanted a Rottweiler but I knew my house wasn't big enough for one. Also, I still live with my Mom (it's in the basement and it's like an apartment set up...only have to go upstairs to leave the house) so I had to get her approval. She tried to convince me that I didn't want a dog, that they were expensive and I wasn't home enough to take care of one. Of course, those were just excuses so she didn't have to live with another dog. I had a plan though. I would have Jayden ask her in his sweet little voice that she couldn't resist. Just like I planned, it worked!

That night I was on the computer looking at dogs and trying to decide the breed and temperament to best fit our family. Unfortunately, there were SO many dogs to look at. They were all cute and some had such sad stories that I wanted to save them all! Finally, I came across a dog named, April. Her pictures was stunning. Her eye color matched her fawn colored fur and she had the cutest wrinkle in her forehead when she was cocking her head for the picture. She was a Boxer/Pit Bull mix and was about 1.5 years (good, no puppy stage were they chew and pee on everything). She was good with kids and cats...good cuz I had both, so I needed to find out more.

Maci Moo

Reading her story brought me to the realization that owning a rescue dog is not an easy task. April had a rough life before coming to her foster home here in MN. She lived outside in what they called a "hoarder house" where 80-100 dogs lived under a deck. The rescue in GA thought she was pregnant when they took her in because she her tummy was so extended due to worms. The summary on her gave a warning that she has high anxiety and would need a lot of work and patience to work through it. The story was touching, not as horrible as some of the other dogs that I looked at, but enough to know April did not have any human interaction for the first 1.5 years of her life and needed some love. It was going to take a lot to get her trust and make her feel comfortable in our home. But, was I ready for a dog with "issues"? Yes, I love dogs but I've never had to deal with one that was abused, neglected, hurt, or otherwise. Jayden and I discussed it and we decided she needed us and we needed to help her. Before we even met her we decided she needed a new name. It was like starting a fresh life and a new name was going to help in that process, we would call her Maci.

I did a lot of reading about rescue dogs and her breed. I wanted to make sure that I was the best dog Mommy to her and that she was going to be a good dog for us. I knew at that time that Pit Bulls were looked at as vicious dogs but I had no idea the paranoia that some people had about them. After much reading and research I felt like I knew what I needed in order to be the "pack leader" of my house. All dogs need a pack leader, but the bully breeds really needed a strong leader or they try to fill that role and that's when trouble starts. So not only did I need to work with her anxiety, her lack of human interaction, a new home but also needed to obtain this "pack leader" mentality to make sure she felt secure...was I really ready for ALL of this?

After filling out the paperwork to adopt Maci and having a woman from the rescue come to my house to do a "home visit", to make sure we would be suitable for a dog, we set up a time to meet Maci. Jayden and I met the foster parents at the adoption center for the rescue. We were told not to look directly at her and to let her just come to us. When Maci came in the room it was clear she was very nervous. Her tail was tucked tight up under her belly and she crouched low to the ground. It was hard not to look at her because we had been waiting almost a week to meet her. I kept thinking, "How am I going to bring a dog home that I'm not even suppose to look at?" After about 5 minutes Jayden says, "When can we look at her." I whispered back, "I'm not sure." So we both gazed at her from across the room being careful not to lock eyes with her. Maci finally came up to give us a sniff but was more interested in the room we were in then the people in it. A few minutes later her foster parents came in and said they were really impressed with how Maci was acting with us. Apparently, another family had been interested in her but Maci was terrified of them. So I paid the adoption fee, got her favorite toy and we took her home.

The first 24 hours were interesting to say the least. I must have brought her outside every 25 minutes to use the bathroom but she wouldn't go. She ended up finally peeing in my house which was right around 24 hours from when we first brought her home. Acclimating her to our house and rules was harder than I thought. I was hoping at her age she wouldn't be much of a chewer or continue to pee and poop in the house. I kept telling myself it would get better and she was an outdoor dog for 1.5 years so she needed to get use to being inside. For the first month if I coughed, sneezed or cleared my throat, she would run away from me. She still kept her tail tucked under her belly and paced throughout the house. We took walks twice a day to help get some of her anxious energy out. I think it helped us bond a lot more too.

During the day when I was at work I would crate her. Day 2 of crating I came home to a house that was destroyed! Apparently, these dogs are sneaky! She figured out how to escape her crate, that was held shut by a bungy cord (I know sounds really ghetto but it didn't have a lock, got it off Craigslist), and had a great time chewing everything in reach. Jayden's inhaler was in pieces, a library book was shredded, anything and everything that she could get off the coffee table was destroyed. She was just sitting there looking so guilty yet so cute and I couldn't punish her after the fact (read that in one of the many books about dogs). This happened a couple more times until I got smart. I left her out of her crate, gave her a frozen kong...filled with peanut butter and food of course, picked up anything that she could reach and magically the house was safe from destruction...most days.

One of the first things I knew I had to do was get this dog some training. With all of her "issues" though I knew I couldn't bring her to a training facility. Her anxiety would make it difficult for her to focus and I didn't want to put her in that position so early on. What I found was a trainer that came to my house to work on training. It was the best solution for us. We would train in what was becoming comfortable for Maci and there weren't any distractions. The trainer said that Maci's case of anxiety was pretty severe but she was confident that with a few lessons I could learn how to make her feel safe. By the 3rd lesson, Maci was actually going near the trainer, her tail wasn't totally between her hind legs and she wasn't pacing as much. The trick was to get Maci to feel more confident so she wasn't so anxious. I learned so much from this trainer and still use the advice when telling other people how to help their dogs.

Everyday when I would look at Maci I would think of how lucky we were to have her in our lives and how lucky she was to have us. I kept thinking about all of the other dogs I looked at and wondered what happened to them, or what about the other dogs that haven't had a rescue to help them, or the ones in a kennel that could be put to sleep at any time because they have been their too long. What could I do to help these dogs without becoming a "hoarder house" myself? That's when I decided to get involved with the rescue I adopted Maci from. I helped with some events to raise money for the rescue and coordinated adoption days. I also became a Representative for their Bully Division. I even fostered a few puppies myself. That's an entirely other blog in itself. What I learned from that is, I need to open my own rescue and have my own rules and guidelines. Until then, I will continue to donate money, and participate as I can at other rescues. My ultimate goal is to have my own rescue/sanctuary that dogs and cats can come live out the rest of their lives regardless of medical condition, age, breed, etc.

Since Maci had been with other dogs her whole life I sometimes looked at her and thought she looked so sad and lonely. I wanted another dog to keep her company but I knew I couldn't afford one. Then my Mom came to me one day about this litter of Rat Terrier puppies that her friend's daughter had and needed to get rid of...she was a breeder but wanted to get out of the business. The deal was, I would be the caretaker and my Mom would be the financier. That day, while Jayden was gone, we went to go look at the puppies. Now, when you go to "look" at puppies I don't know how you can leave without taking one home. We were originally going to look at a female named Sky, that was supposedly really friendly and mellow. When we got there, another puppy seemed to be more interested in us instead. His name was Jager...the whole litter was named after alcohol...and he had this little white spot on his black back that made him stand out. Again, how could I not leave with one of these adorable babies? Jager came home with us that day and Jayden was so surprised we had a new puppy!

Meeko and Maci

Maci wasn't as happy as I had hoped. She wasn't too thrilled with this ball of energy that would pounce on her when she tried to sleep or kept stealing her favorite crab toy. In fact, she looked irritated. He was more of a pest than a friend. Thankfully she could hop up on the bed to get away from him but that only lasted a few months. As you can imagine, I didn't want my son yelling "Jager" out the door when calling for the puppy so we named him "Meeko". Meeko would definitely keep things interesting and busy. He barked ALL the time. Maci has only barked a handful of times and they were either when something spooked her or she was irritated with Meeko and would give him one loud bark. So all the barking that Meeko did was probably normal for his breed but not appreciated in the neighborhood. I highly suggest researching that "Free Puppy" breed before bringing them home. As much as we love Little Buddy Meeko, he can be a pain in the butt. I think my Mom really likes having him around because Maci still won't go near her...yes even after 1.5 years...and Meeko will snuggle up right in her lap. Meeko is definitely an attention whore. If anyone gives any attention to one of the other animals, he will come right in the middle of your hand and that animal so that you give him some love instead. He can't stand being ignored or not fussed over. I tell him all the time he's lucky I love him because he makes me crazy!

So that's my story. I have 2 dogs, a cat and a kid. I like it that way. We have a system and a schedule and even if my son doesn't help out with the animals as much as he says he would, I don't mind taking care of them because they are my babies too. I can never imagine life now with animals in it. I think I've finally found my true passion in life...helping animals in need.