Travel theme: animal companions…Janie

Alisa’s travel theme this week is animal companions.  You know I love horses from my gravatar photo.  However, some years ago, we fostered several rescue pit bulls, a wonderful experience.  Janie, our first dog, had been rescued from being chained outside a crack house in downtown Cleveland.  Despite her experiences, she was a dog filled with love and fun, capable of amazing feats of athleticism and of creating games.  She also loved her Kong filled with peanut butter bread, chewing on a mini tire, or this “bone.”  Her favorite thing was sitting on your lap.  🙂

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge…pets with toys

This week Cee’s challenge is to show kids or pets with toys.  As many of you know, we fostered several rescue pit bulls.  Janie, our first dog, loved to play.  She made up games and was so athletic that jumping was part of many of them.

One of the things she loved best was her Kong.  A Kong is a hard rubber toy that looks a bit like a three-tiered, pyramid-shaped Michelin man.  There’s a hole in the middle that’s there to be stuffed with goodies.  I spread peanut butter on a slice of bread, then stuffed it inside the Kong.  I put the Kong in a ziploc bag and stored it in the freezer.  The minute the freezer door opened, there was Janie, at full attention, ready to do whatever was asked of her.

However, if Janie couldn’t get a Kong, she loved to chew on whatever was available, in this case, a bone.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Victory…the victory of love

This week, Krista is challenging us to show a photo that depicts “Victory.”   A few years ago, we fostered several pit bulls from a wonderful rescue, For the Love of Pits.  Our younger daughter was interested, but my husband was very uncertain about doing this, so the first victory was just convincing him let us give it a try.  Once that hurdle had been cleared, we were on our way to a most rewarding adventure, one partly of learning that many things people think they know about these animals are myth.

Our second victory was taking on, at different times, two lovely and loving dogs who now have forever homes. These two photos are of our second foster dog, Annabelle.  Rescued from a dog fighting ring and sporting plenty of scars, she went from a hungry-for-love, yet hesitant about what to expect from life and people dog, to one of the sweetest dogs you’ll ever meet.  The first photo is from right after we got here, the second after life had been more kind to her.

They might win any photo contests, but then love is hard to measure and quantify.  Because I think I’m confusing people, these two shots are both of Annabelle: the first right after we got her (you can see her scars), the second after she’d had time to settle in and relax with us.  Here are some photos of our first dog, Janie, if you’re interested.

Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge: Day 2…Girls just want to have fun!

Welcome to Day 2 of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge. Emilio Pasquale at “Photos by Emilio” invited me to take part. The challenge is  to “post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge”.

Today, my nominee is Sandra Crook at https://castelsarrasin.wordpress.com/. Sandra, I know you’re cruising the waterways of France, with iffy internet connections at best, and busy besides, and of course, you have no obligation to participate.  But Sandra’s a wonderful writer and I want to introduce those of you who don’t know her to her work.

Janie, our first rescue dog

Friday Fictioneers…Rescue

Friday Fictioneers: One photo. One hundred words. One story. Any one author.

copyright Dawn Landau

Rescue

Shiiit, I don wanna go to no juvie, so I figure this volunteer thing be what I have to do. Dog rescue be good. Maybe I find me one a them Rottie dawgs or them pit bulls. Then nobody be messin’ wit me!

Trouble is, dat dawg I find be hurtin’ from bein’ made ta fight. She all skinny and stuff and lick ma face ‘n all. All she be wantin’ is some luv. Shiiit! Make me wanna cry ‘n I cain’t be doin’ that! They help me keep her. Now she follow me everywhere. I guess we a lot alike.

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This story is dedicated to Janie and Annabelle, the two rescue pit bulls we fostered and would have adopted had we been able to do so at the time.  You can find more posts and photos of them by clicking on “Animals” in the Categories part of my blog.  And a big shoutout to For the Love of Pits, the amazing organization near Cleveland, Ohio that does such stellar work!  They and their dogs are changing the hearts and minds of people and dogs every day!   You guys rock!!

Want to read more stories? Click below.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected

This week’s challenge, “Unexpected”, could be interpreted in a variety of ways.  I chose the unexpected love between a rescue pit bull and a young woman.

The dog days of Christmas

Our first Christmas season with a dog, we were just starting to foster Janie.  One of the first days she was at our house, while trying to get to the window to bark at a dog outside, she vaulted up onto a sideboard filled with Christmas decorations while only our older daughter was at home.  It’s a good thing I wasn’t home or there wouldn’t have been enough Christmas love to overcome that!  🙂  She had personality and energy plus, was incredibly athletic,  and we loved her dearly.   She’s in a forever home now with her very own family.

Oogy…the dog only a family could love

I’ve become addicted to books on CD while traveling between Cleveland and Naperville (or any other long trip.)  There’s nothing better than a good book to make the time fly and since I can’t safely read while driving, audio will have to do.  On the latest occasion, I picked up Oogy, the dog only a family could love, by Larry Levin.  It’s the story about a dog that was rescued after being used when a puppy as a bait dog  and, rather than killed by either the dog being trained to fight or the owner of the dog as usually happens, was tossed in a cage and left, barely alive.  A bait dog is exactly what it sounds like–a dog that is put as bait with a dog being trained to fight and the fighting dog is then encouraged/made to kill the bait dog.  When police raided the house some days later, Oogy, although horrifically injured, was somehow still clinging to life.

Janie was a player; the second part

Yes, Janie liked to play.  But more than that, she invented her own game, involving the two of us!

Janie was a player; the first part

Janie was, as a gambler in Vegas, always a player.  But in her case, there were no losers, only winners…and a great deal of  laughter.  Oh, yes…and Janie was a dog.