This was my third July 4th with Riley B (my LEAST favorite holiday) The photo below pretty much sums up how he feels about booms, pops and sparkles.
#unhappyhound
Aftermath
Rescue a Coonhound PLEASE
Article written by Editorial Staff -Whole Dog Journal- Published:March 17, 2014Updated:March 21, 2019
https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/blog/Rescue-a-Coonhound-226128-please-20945-1.html
I admit, I’m conflicted.
I think there may be no more commendable work than that performed by rescue groups who pull dogs from shelters where they might be (or are slated to be) killed, foster them, address their medical and behavioral problems, and find them homes.
Then there are other people who pull dogs from shelters and, without meaning to (I hope), plunge those dogs into even worse circumstances. What’s worse than death? In my opinion, living in filthy, overcrowded conditions, without enough to eat, clean water, or medical care of any kind, and without hope of escape — that’s worse than death, in my mind. And all too many so-called rescues, founded with good intentions by people who truly love animals and want to help them, start out as the first type of group, and end up as the second.
One of the ingredients for a “failed” rescue seems to be when just one or two people are behind the rescue effort for too long. Caring for a lot of animals can wear anyone down, and if you try it without sufficient help or ample funds, it can be exhausting and depressing — not to mention, financially challenging.
Also, once shelters or individuals know there is a “no-kill” option in their area, they are often all-too-fast to try to surrender animals to the “rescue” — without doing due diligence, to make sure the organization is healthy and well. It’s easy for a soft-hearted person, trying to do good work, to get buried under an avalanche of animals needing homes, and not enough time to market those animals to potential new owners. A “good” rescue sometimes says no; they don’t take in more animals than they can care for. And in this case, I think they are doing the animals a disservice.
But, as I said, I’m conflicted. I recently pulled a dog out of a shelter, and brought it to a rescue group — one that is doing terrific work. And yet, I felt guilty for bringing one more dog to a group who is already trying to place LOTS of similar dogs.
My local shelter didn’t want to give a particular dog a chance, citing his size, lack of training, and “drive”. He is a Redbone Coonhound, and typical for the breed: tall, strong, and yes, loud. And yet, he wasn’t aggressive, wasn’t a cat killer, wasn’t dying of heartworm or anything else — he was just another big, active, loud, untrained young dog. He was sweet and trainable, but the powers-that-be decided he was not a good adoption candidate. Sometimes that means the animal himself is unsuited for life in any human society, but in this case, it seemed that someone thought it was unlikely that he’d find a suitable home in our community any time soon. I hate that sort of decision — and I understand that it’s why many people hate and speak disparaging of “so-called shelters”.
I couldn’t stand by and watch him get euthanized for no good reason — I also can’t foster a dog of his size and lung capacity without alienating my husband, my own animals, and neighbors. Fortunately, I know this one terrific rescue group, the American Black and Tan Coonhound Rescue (www.coonhoundrescue.com), which was started as a strict Black and Tan rescue, but which also takes in hounds of other breeds. They have an active national network of people working for the hounds: some who provide foster homes, training, and socializing for the dogs; some who provide transportation services, moving dogs to available foster homes, or in the best case scenario, transporting dogs long-distance from foster to permanent adoptive homes; and donors, people who have or have had coonhounds and want to help.
I asked, and got permission to transport this dog to the West Coast coordinator for the group — who is already hosting a dozen or so equally needy hounds! She operates a boarding and daycare facility, so it’s not like her home is buried under hounds, but still — that’s a lot of extra work.
So, I’m going to make a donation to the group, and I’ve offered to help transport dogs when I can. And I’d certainly like to help publicize the group; they do amazing work. Their good-news stories appear daily on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/90624386172/). And I’d also recommend these dogs to anyone looking for their next dog; they may not all be as calm as the famous Maddie the Coonhound (http://maddieonthings.com/) but they are smart, funny dogs who do mellow after those first couple of years.
Excellent artcle – makes some valid points and mentions the awesome American Black and Tan Rescue. There are many more worthy coonhound rescues out there- including Gentle Jake’s Coonhound Rescue based in Ontario, All Hounds On Deck, in Louisiana, Magic’s Mission, in New York, Misfit Hounds, in Tennessee, AMMAR Hounds, in Maryland, Northeast Coonhound Rescue, in Massachusetts, and many more !! Please support these efforts to find worthy homes for some wonderful hounds.
#hounddoghappy
WE ARE BACK!!!
Holidays – Work – Stress – Weather = Blah Blah Blah – Quick post to celebrate being back — AND the adoption of my latest foster with Gentle Jake’s Coonhound rescue! The adorable Hook is going to Ontario — Hook the Canook !!!!! As I have said before — if you are not in a position to adopt – try transport, foster, volunteer at a local shelter or rescue — it does not take much and what you take away is beyond measure. A couple of quick photos of the adorable Hook – and something I saw on facebook this morning that I had to share !
DECOMPRESS FOR SUCCESS!!!!
Shared from Gentle Jake’s Coonhound Rescue- several incidences of returned fosters and adopted hounds recently, once again through no fault of the dog, but the dog is the one that has to be rehomed and disrupted. A very discouraging situation. Please, if you are considering adopting or fostering a shelter or rescue dog, take the time to read this very informative piece.
SHELTERS ARE NOT FUN PLACES
If you have ever walked through the kennels of an animal shelter you surely can attest to the stress of the experience. Perhaps you can remember the first time you entered one. It might have been a memorable experience! They are very very loud. It is non stop barking, howling, whining, and yelping. The sound can be deafening at times and if you are not used to it or it is your first time, it can cause a heavy dose of anxiety to rise in your bones and make you want to turn around and walk out. It’s intense. Now realize that you CAN turn around and walk out. Those dogs can’t. They are there all day, all night, all week, all month. It shouldn’t take too much contemplation to realize this isn’t the ideal setting for any dog. Some dogs can be there for months on end if it is a no-kill shelter.
The longer they are in there the worse the mental trauma can be. While some dogs will completely shut down others seem to amp up, developing numerous anxiety based behaviors that border on neurotic. While the observable behaviors might be different, the source is the same, stress from being in there. Recognizing that this type of experience can have an impact on a dog’s state of mind, it’s baffling how people think that by simply putting a leash on the dog and taking it home means everything is suddenly going to be O.K. As if anything is that simple! So many of these dogs end up back at shelters for a wide variety of reasons, including aggression, because their well intentioned new family did not take the time to research the proper way to bring a dog from this type of environment home. When the dog starts acting in inappropriate ways or even worse, becomes aggressive, everybody is quick to blame the dog’s “troubled past”. It’s not the dog’s past, it is the dog’s present. The first day in a new home is not the day to meet other family members, loud and energetic toddlers, other dogs, the cats, the super nosey neighbor who wants to give your new dog hugs and kisses…. NO……NOT AT ALL……
The name is indicative of what it means in terms of what the dog has been through and what the dog needs. All the stress from the living conditions the dog is coming from needs to be addressed. The dog has been under a lot of stress and pressure. The dog needs to “decompress” and take some time getting back to a balanced state of mind. This will not be achieved with going from one crazy high activity place to another. The dog should not be introduced to the couch for endless hours of belly rubs on day one because you feel bad the dog had a rough past. That makes YOU feel good. This isn’t about you and what you like, this is about what is best for the dog. Remember? For at LEAST 2-3 WEEKS, your new dog’s life should be incredibly simple and boring. Keep the affection to a bare minimum, keep talking and training to non- existent levels. You want as much silence as possible. Have a daily routine or schedule 100% planned out prior to the dog coming home. This should be the dog’s day mapped out. From bathroom breaks, to crate time, to short walks in quiet boring places, the entire day should be on a schedule. Dog’s find exponentially more comfort in routine than they do belly rubs and cuddles. For that reason, keep the affection to a bare minimum. This is not the time to shower the dog with affection as all that will do is reinforce an unbalanced state of mind and confuse the dog as to YOUR role in their lives. The premise behind decompression is allowing the dog to get back to a neutral and relaxed state of mind, opposite of what it just came from. Your dog needs leadership and calm predictability. These two things are crucial to the dog becoming appropriately integrated into the foster home. Allowing the dog time to decompress without having to deal with a whole new set of intense stimuli will set you all up for a successful future.
KD Matthews
#hounddogsuccess
THE OTHER SIDE OF RESCUE !!
Please consider helping hounds by opening your home and heart to a foster, or by joining a transport to help deliver a very deserving dog travel to a safe destination on their way to a new furever home !!!!
From the despair and heartache of losing a hound that I knew so briefly, to the hope that rescue can bring !! Over the past two weeks I transported some very deserving houndies. Rosie, a sweet houndie girl, to the rescue in Ohio County that will be her next stop on the way to a wonderful new family. The process of moving dogs out to open shelter space for other dogs in need is critical in the process of saving dogs. Rosie was a happy girl and a champion traveler. No matter how many times I help with a transport, it never ceases to amaze me how they KNOW!! They KNOW they are safe. They look at someone they have never met before with those trusting eyes and never miss a beat. These hounds will be amazing friends for some very lucky families!
Sweet houndie Hope and handsome treeing walker Grayson were both listed as very urgent code red when Gentle Jake’s Coonhound Rescue pulled them from a shelter in central Ky. Hope is now being fostered in Canada, and Grayson the gorgeous treeing walker is being fostered in Kentucky.
RIP Sweet Kurt
Please help me say goodbye to Kurt. In the space of one week he was pulled from a dog shelter in Kentucky courtesy of Jean Stone’s Gentle Jake’s Coonhound Rescue and taken to a vet. He was so happy and cooperative! He had a dental and all vetting thanks to donors and his local team Kristie Jones and Lisa Sparkman. He seemed strong and healthy. He recovered from surgery and came to me as his foster. He played in the yard with his foster brother Riley, another GJ rescue.
But suddenly it all started downhill. Kurt was showing all the classic signs of pain – panting heavily, throwing up – first food then water, crying, and frantically chewing on anything he could find. My friend Erin helped me get him to Bluegrass Vet in the middle of the night and he got a shot to kill the pain. And an X-ray that showed Cancer everywhere.
After many conversations with his rescue team, and his vet, he was sent to the angels. His pain was too great.
Let Kurt be an example of the old stray coonhound who was loved and cherished and planned for. He had a plan and a future. He had a team of people who adored him and cheered his every step on the rescue path. Who knows who his original family was. They didn’t deserve him. He was a loving and peaceful and happy soul. We all loved Kurt. I am a firm believer in “signs”. And I believe the strongest ones come when you need them the most. On the way home from the vet clinic after saying goodbye to Kurt, I saw a rainbow! It was twilight and I could barely see it, but it was there. I am believing that was Kurt, letting me know he made it across the bridge. Call me crazy but I really do believe that !!! 
Heartfelt thanks to Jean at Gentle Jake’s, Anna Nirva, Lisa Sparkman, Kristie Jones, my friend Erin, and the wonderful vets at Bluegrass vet for caring about sweet Kurt, and showing him love and comfort in his last days and hours.
#hounddogbrokenheart
Hound Wisdom
Attorney George Graham Vest gave the famous “Eulogy for a Dog”, the alleged root of the adage “man’s best friend”. Here’s the speech as it was recorded 20 years after the September 1870 trial:
“Gentlemen of the jury, the best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful.
“Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action.
“The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honour when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.
“The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.
“Gentlemen of the jury, a man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness.
“He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.
“When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.
“If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true, even to death.”
Source: A state archives exhibit at the Missouri Supreme Court. – Sapa-AP
These words are so true – if you have not considered adopting a coonhound, please give yourself a chance to know one = they are amazing, loving, determined, silly, athletic, goofy,noisy, happy, lovebugs- Open your heart to a coonhound – you will NOT be sorry !!! Be looking for updates and posts about hounds that are available for rescue/adoption!
#hounddoghappy
Coonie Comrades/Petunia
When I noticed this coonhound on Instagram, I immediately wanted to find out more. I wanted to hear the story. Her rescuer’s girlfriend shared the details with me, and I thought a story so heartwarming should be shared on the blog.
Sweet Petunia Petunia is a one year old blue tick coonhound, rescued from a kill shelter in South Carolina. Petunia and all of her ten siblings were shot and she was the only survivor. She has scoliosis so it is believed that all of her siblings had some sort of issue as well. The bullet that shot Petunia is still lodged in her spine and doctors felt that surgery could cause further damage. She was rescued by St Hubert’s in New Jersey.
Beautiful girl ! Enter her rescuer, who started randomly looking for a puppy in March of this year, after his sons witnessed their own puppy get run over and killed by a reckless driver. The puppy they lost was similar in looks to Petunia, so he decided it was meant to be. The fact that Petunia came with some “complications” did not deter him, even though he had never dealt with a handicapped pet before, he decided everyone and every dog deserves a chance. Petunia has been living with her family since April of this year with her three human brothers, one dog brother and two cat sisters, plus her awesome Dad and proud Aunt.
Petunia loves to zoom around in her wheelchair and play tug of war with all of her two and four legged family (uhhh minus the cats) She reports that her owner is amazing with her. “He has a gentle but firm way with her. He doesn’t treat her like she “can’t”, reports her proud Aunt. “He wants her to explore and try new things.” She is now able to “stand” on her back legs and walk a few feet. Petunia is showered with love and affection from everyone and loves everyone back in return. The family handles the paralysis together. Petunia has to wear diapers and everyone in the family is now expert at changing them. Petunia is pretty much treated like a normal pup. She has a daily routine, which includes play time, wheel time and rest time.
Petunia is truly a gem. And like most dogs her love knows no bounds and she does not see herself as “handicapped”. This family has embraced her and accepted her with truly inspiring love, kindness and courage. Obviously Petunia has found her perfect family. I am truly honored to share her story !!
#hounddogamazing
Coonie Comrades/Petunia’s Journey
Petunia !!! Love the name and love the hound.
This sweet hound has quite a story, and her owner’s girlfriend has graciously agreed to let me share it with all of you. Petunia as well as her ten siblings was shot. She is the only survivor. From this sad beginning comes a story of hope and love.
Coonie Candids/ Tongue Out Tuesday
Here’s to “Tongue out Tuesday”!!! I was looking back through some of Riley B’s photos and realized I could do a totally terrific tongue out Tuesday!!!!
SOOOOO Houndie fans — Here we go !!!
That was not MY snack ?