HOW TO START A HOSPICE FOR DOGS IN YOUR HOME

How to Start a Hospice for Dogs in Your Home: (Dog Hospice)

If this is of interest to you, will you please leave a comment that says simply, "Yes" so I can find out if search engines brought you here, and if this is a topic in which you and others would be interested.

Early in 2017, I got the idea that since I had only two small dogs, both seniors (ages 10 and 11--one a Boston Terrier and one a miniature poodle), and because I had a huge fenced yard and a small picket fenced yard out front, and extra time (early retirement), I could take in some elderly dogs and give them love and a sense of family and a feeling of worth, in the latter days of their lives.

I wanted dogs that were within a year of dying, but were happy and spirited enough that it wasn't time to put them down. I wanted the dogs that no one else would ever want. Everyone wants puppies.

So I read a lot about people that took in elderly, unwanted dogs to give them a happy ending to their sad lives. I studied how they did it, why they did it, was it affordable, are they glad they did it, and so on.

After all my study, it seemed that I was quite able to bring in two elderly unwanted dogs to begin and to see if I liked this work.

So I registered with several online shelters, as well as Petfinder and one other group which sends you emails when a pet meeting your specifications has turned up at a shelter near you.

Then I realized that I had to be checked out before I could adopt. I also found out that if you wait until you find the exact dog you want, and THEN start filling out the adoption papers, someone else may get your dog first, because being cleared for adoption takes time.

So  I chose my 5 most-desired sources of adoptable elderly pets, and I filled out all the adoption questionnaires. They all require your vet's phone number and they all really did call my vet and ask if I was a responsible dog owner. Luckily, my vet must have responded enthusiastically, as I passed all 5 applications. But in reality, I'm not that good about getting to the vet regularly. I'm always late with my annual checkup. But thank goodness, the vet spoke highly of me!

Now I got to choose two dogs!

I wasn't sure whether to follow my heart or my head. You start with just a picture of the dog. Then there is a good description of the dog's plusses and minuses. Then you can email someone (you never know if you're emailing the shelter or the foster mom who has the dog in her house).

The first dog was to be a German Shepherd. I knew that I wanted that breed. I'd never had one before--well, a white one, but white ones aren't considered REAL German Shepherd Dogs (the word "Dogs" is supposed to be included. Not German Shepherd. But German Shepherd Dog is the real breed name. But I'll just say GS to save time.)

I wanted a GS partly to help me feel secure in my house, due to location and living situation. I also admire highly intelligent breeds, and most of all, I wanted a dog that would be clingy and very attached to me. I'd never had a child like that, or a partner like that, or a friend like that. And I, myself, am clingy and get very attached and don't ever want to be separated from those I love.

So it's been a lifelong search and hope to find an intelligent creature who would adore me, cling to me, attach to me, and care about my welfare.

WOW! DID I EVER PICK THE RIGHT BREED FOR THAT!

I've had SO many breeds in my life. (I'll list them, though you will probably be bored by it: Mini-schnauzer, cocker spaniel, Weimaraner, Yorkshire terrier, Newfoundland, wire hair terrier, two Labs who mated and had 12 puppies in my house, border collie, Italian greyhound, Yorkie-poo, Boston terrier, miniature poodle, white Alsatian Shepherd, and now German Shepherd Dog and a Brittany, and I probably forgot some! ) And not ONE of them, before these two rescues, was ever clingy, attached, single-mindedly devoted, protective. NOT ONE SINGLE DOG EVER!

But they all stayed with me till death. I never relinquished any dog. 

I've loved dogs since I was 5. Now I love them because, after decades of life, I've learned that there is no person, no matter how close to you, family or friend, that you can be sure will never turn on you and someday hate you without your ever knowing why. And when I love, I love without limits, maybe too much. I love like a perpetual waterfall. And the only beings I've ever found who will accept that much love and will NEVER turn on you and stop loving you and kick you out of their lives--is dogs. 

And speaking of devotion from dogs: Oh, what a waste of dog-owning life I lived by not knowing about German Shepherd Dogs.

And I picked her completely intuitively. Well, that is, she had to be within the lines of what I wanted: Senior, homeless, considered not likely to ever be wanted due to age and conditions (arthritis, cancer, missing legs, eyes, ears -- anything that would turn most adopters away).

Any dog I got had to be within reasonable driving distance of about 2 hours at the most.

The dog HAD TO BE HOUSEBROKEN.

Heartworm negative.  Thoroughly checked by vets (shelter dogs are usually the only dogs that can afford this kind of thorough checking, with MRI and CT scans, surgery, spaying, removal of tumors and those wildly expensive dentals to fix their rotten teeth. Things like that. The reason shelter dogs can afford all of this is that most shelters are connected to a national group which pays for all of that medical work! This is why the price you pay for an adopted shelter dog is the bargain of the century. The shelters lose thousands of dollars on each dog because donors keep national and local shelters funded, for things like that.)

HOW DEEP AND WIDE ARE THE HEARTS OF DONORS WHO GIVE MONEY TO HELP HELPLESS ANIMALS! BLESS ALL OF YOU!

So I only considered dogs within my parameters.

Well, the first SECOND that I saw Edwina's photo (that's the name they gave her in California. They've called her Dweenie. I don't like the name, but can't think of a new one), I felt like I had seen her before. But I hadn't. I sort of jumped. I felt her already in my heart, and as if she was the greatest most beautiful deserving girl in the whole wide world.

That's what I mean by choosing "intuitively." I felt all that the second I saw her picture, even though I had looked at dozens of pictures for months!

I quickly made contacts to get her, and though others had looked at her, she didn't like the people! The foster mom said, "German Shepherds pick YOU. You don't pick them. So come by and see if she picks you." Several people had been turned away by Edwina. She growled at them or wouldn't come near them or ran and hid. But when I walked in, she ran up to me and gave me kisses!!!! Without even knowing me!!! I was there for 2 hours (I'd brought her some gifts--dog toys--and she loved them.) and she kissed me frequently and when I told her, "Sit!" she immediately sat. And when I looked into her eyes, I felt the WHATEVER.

So I won Edwina!

The second dog I found by accident. I saw a photo of a breed I wasn't interested in and knew nothing about: A Brittany. Formally called Brittany Spaniel. I was just roaming through photos and saw one that made my heart jump. She looked so beautiful, sad, and sweet. And she was DEAF. To me, a huge plus. No one wanted her. Deaf and old. But when I read about her personality, and how she fit perfectly in my parameters, I contacted the foster mom and we hit it off to such a degree that when the mom came to do the required home visit, she brought the Brittany! I had already passed the test!

(As I'm typing this, Edwina is cuddling up with me and throwing her head backward onto my shoulder, kissing me, and put her GIGANTIC paw on the keyboard, making all kind of bad things happen to this post, things I must fix. She is such a lover!)

The Brittany came with the name of Annie Banannie. Oh, I didn't like that name at ALL. And what did it matter what her name was if she was deaf? But even though I had created a list of almost a thousand great dog names, while hunting for my two dogs, I just left her as "Annie." Sometimes Louisi-annie.

Annie is so sweet and humble that she almost doesn't exist. She is a gorgeous pedigree, had been used for a lot of breeding, has bad cataracts, so can't see or hear very well, but what a gorgeous dog! Very cheerful, but shy and quiet. Loves to get on my bed for cuddles, but if the other dogs get rambunctious, she goes into her "bedroom" at the back of my closet where she situated herself on her first day here. It's a great spot.

Sadly, Annie also came with 5 broken ribs and a huge lump on her head. The vet said she had definitely been beaten up and kicked by a human, that this was not a car accident. Hurting Annie would be like hurting a newborn bunny. Too horrible to imagine!

So she was wheezing a lot when she got here, but now she almost never wheezes. I'm  trying to figure that out. Maybe she is just getting better.''

HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I CAN SAY TO YOU IF YOU LIKE THE WAY THIS SOUNDS AND WANT A HOSPICE DOG OF YOUR OWN, OR MAYBE 14 LIKE A MAN IN A YOUTUBE VIDEO I WILL LINK HERE.

The first week is maximum stress for all of you. And yet that week gives you ZERO information about how things will really be later. I was so stressed that I got shingles! I was so stressed I cried! Edwina got bloody diarrhea her second day here, and yes, all over the house. I was cleaning it up and crying. I had to go through convolutions to figure out how to fix her and to drive a long way to get the food she had been used to at her prior home which was really a kennel with 20 German Shepherds, so the precious woman who took all those dogs in hardly had time to spend individually with each dog every day. But I had to call her so many times for help, and she had to call her vet, and we finally got the diarrhea fixed, but I thought, "WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!!" I tried to return her, but luckily the foster mom told me to hold on just a little longer. Thank God she did and that I listened. It's  a 100% different world, once that first awful week of shock and change goes by.

Same with Annie. She didn't get diarrhea, but she hid all day and wouldn't eat, and my Boston kept growling and jumping at her, and I freaked out and tried to return her, but luckily, there was a wait before I could meet the foster mom to return her, and during that wait, everything changed 180 degrees. It all suddenly fell into place.

So if you adopt a rescue dog, just KNOW that no matter what kind of personality that dog has, you will live through one week of hell. You just will. It is SO TRAUMATIC for you and for the new dog and for your previous dogs. You have no routines, no knowledge of the dog, its habits. It. Will. Be. Hell.

But I lived through it alone, so if I can do it, you sure can, as most of you probably have a partner to help.

Well, that's how it is to start up a dog Hospice. I learned a lot. Like NEVER SUDDENLY CHANGE THEIR FOOD. And HANG ON FOR THE WEEK FROM HELL BECAUSE IT WILL GO AWAY.

Please leave a comment, as I'm just starting this blog and I need to decide what single topic this blog will be about. Blogs nowadays have to be about one thing only.

Love to you! Please comment about what you'd like this blog to be about. I have more ideas. I'll post them in the next few days. Bye for now!