Tall Tails Rescue Blog

RSS
Apr 14
I don’t even know how to begin this post. I guess the only way I can start it is to utter the very words I didn’t think I’d say for a couple of years. We lost Ethyl today…………………..It’s about 4:00 pm and I wander into Dave’s dining room to check some voicemails while I was working on my car. It’s a voicemail from Lea (the new owner of Ethyl). Playing it back, my mouth drops to the floor. Ethyl has possible fluid in her abdomen according to x-rays. Let me back up a bit here. Over the past few days at her new foster home (before we adopted her out) she was having some diarrhea after she had a rawhide bone. She had a case a few months back with some doggy aspirin, so we thought nothing of this. We just left it up to “oh, well she has a sensitive stomach. Some stability and relaxation and she will be back to normal.” There was no cause for panic as she was not lethargic, had a skip in her step and still seemed to have an appetite. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. Also, previous bloodwork a month earlier had shown now abnormalities or anything we should be concerned about. But there it was. Ms. Ethyl had been adopted out on Tuesday to a loving couple who have had experience with senior dogs as they have their own 13 year old lab/chow mix currently. She was having runny diarrhea, but again, there were big changes for her and alot of moving around that day. Well, things had still not cleared up today, so erring on the side of caution, they took her into their vet today. Apparently her abdomen was asymmetrical, which prompted the vet to suggest an x-ray. So now we’re brought up to speed. What could have caused this? Quite possibly a tumor and/or cancer that had not been diagnosed. I sit there listening to this voicemail in shock. I had just been with her 2 days ago and she had the energy of a 2 year old Dane. How could this be? How did I not see the signs? How did we miss this? It turns out, bloodwork wouldn’t indicate if something was wrong with her. There was no way of knowing. This didn’t happen overnight. This was something that had been working over time. And yet, Ethyl had only improved in the last 4 months. There were 2 options for her today. Exploratory surgery or to let her rest in peace before her stomach would rupture causing her immense pain and quite possibly a slow death. When talking to Lea, I already knew the answer before she came to it, I just never thought I’d get a voicemail like this only a day and a half after finally finding her perfect forever home. This was not the way this was supposed to go. Rescues don’t die after they find their perfect homes. Ethyl doesn’t get to survive animal control only to pass away 4 months later. This was supposed to be a week of great news. Forever homes for Harley AND Ethyl. 2 Danes in one week get to find happiness. I sit here writing this and even though I know I shouldn’t, I blame myself. Why didn’t I see this? Was there a way I could have known? We learn lessons from each rescue that passes through here. Things we could do differently to help the next one. To be more thorough and efficient. To save more lives. With Ethyl, we ran blood work on her just to make sure there were no underlying issues. And there were none the we knew of. But do we run X-rays for each senior that comes through our rescue in the future? How, as a rescue, can we afford that? An X-ray can cost as much as an adoption fee. That doesn’t include vaccinations, exams, blood work, etc. I write these thoughts out to give you an idea of the choices and decisions that we make on a daily basis as a rescue. I don’t want Ethyl’s passing to be in vain. I want to look fondly on the 4 months she spent in our rescue. More than anything, I want to thank all of those who helped us with Ethyl. To Andrea who provided a foster home for her for the past week. To Lea and Leslie who wanted to give her the most wonderful forever home and who only got to know her for a day and half, but in that time got to love her with all their hearts. But most of all, to Jen, Marty and Bailey. She spent pretty much all of her time in our rescue with them as her foster parents. She got to live in comfort and peace. With a day before her euthanasia at animal control, they came out of nowhere to provide a loving foster home and us with the opportunity to give her a chance at a wonderful life. And she got it. She was only with us for 4 months, but she will always be with us. Ethyl is a reminder that we don’t have long on this earth. Spend each day with your 4 legged friends and love them as hard as you can. Don’t just talk about how you love animals. Get out there and do something. Volunteer for a rescue, become a foster home, and help us save more lives. Ethyl will always be remembered and she will give the rest of those that we’ve lost a run for their money up there. Ethyl, we love you and miss you. I’ll see you again.

I don’t even know how to begin this post. I guess the only way I can start it is to utter the very words I didn’t think I’d say for a couple of years. We lost Ethyl today…………………..It’s about 4:00 pm and I wander into Dave’s dining room to check some voicemails while I was working on my car. It’s a voicemail from Lea (the new owner of Ethyl). Playing it back, my mouth drops to the floor. Ethyl has possible fluid in her abdomen according to x-rays. Let me back up a bit here. Over the past few days at her new foster home (before we adopted her out) she was having some diarrhea after she had a rawhide bone. She had a case a few months back with some doggy aspirin, so we thought nothing of this. We just left it up to “oh, well she has a sensitive stomach. Some stability and relaxation and she will be back to normal.” There was no cause for panic as she was not lethargic, had a skip in her step and still seemed to have an appetite. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. Also, previous bloodwork a month earlier had shown now abnormalities or anything we should be concerned about.

But there it was. Ms. Ethyl had been adopted out on Tuesday to a loving couple who have had experience with senior dogs as they have their own 13 year old lab/chow mix currently. She was having runny diarrhea, but again, there were big changes for her and alot of moving around that day. Well, things had still not cleared up today, so erring on the side of caution, they took her into their vet today. Apparently her abdomen was asymmetrical, which prompted the vet to suggest an x-ray. So now we’re brought up to speed. What could have caused this? Quite possibly a tumor and/or cancer that had not been diagnosed.

I sit there listening to this voicemail in shock. I had just been with her 2 days ago and she had the energy of a 2 year old Dane. How could this be? How did I not see the signs? How did we miss this? It turns out, bloodwork wouldn’t indicate if something was wrong with her. There was no way of knowing. This didn’t happen overnight. This was something that had been working over time. And yet, Ethyl had only improved in the last 4 months. There were 2 options for her today. Exploratory surgery or to let her rest in peace before her stomach would rupture causing her immense pain and quite possibly a slow death. When talking to Lea, I already knew the answer before she came to it, I just never thought I’d get a voicemail like this only a day and a half after finally finding her perfect forever home.

This was not the way this was supposed to go. Rescues don’t die after they find their perfect homes. Ethyl doesn’t get to survive animal control only to pass away 4 months later. This was supposed to be a week of great news. Forever homes for Harley AND Ethyl. 2 Danes in one week get to find happiness. I sit here writing this and even though I know I shouldn’t, I blame myself. Why didn’t I see this? Was there a way I could have known?

We learn lessons from each rescue that passes through here. Things we could do differently to help the next one. To be more thorough and efficient. To save more lives. With Ethyl, we ran blood work on her just to make sure there were no underlying issues. And there were none the we knew of. But do we run X-rays for each senior that comes through our rescue in the future? How, as a rescue, can we afford that? An X-ray can cost as much as an adoption fee. That doesn’t include vaccinations, exams, blood work, etc. I write these thoughts out to give you an idea of the choices and decisions that we make on a daily basis as a rescue. I don’t want Ethyl’s passing to be in vain. I want to look fondly on the 4 months she spent in our rescue.

More than anything, I want to thank all of those who helped us with Ethyl. To Andrea who provided a foster home for her for the past week. To Lea and Leslie who wanted to give her the most wonderful forever home and who only got to know her for a day and half, but in that time got to love her with all their hearts. But most of all, to Jen, Marty and Bailey. She spent pretty much all of her time in our rescue with them as her foster parents. She got to live in comfort and peace. With a day before her euthanasia at animal control, they came out of nowhere to provide a loving foster home and us with the opportunity to give her a chance at a wonderful life. And she got it. She was only with us for 4 months, but she will always be with us.

Ethyl is a reminder that we don’t have long on this earth. Spend each day with your 4 legged friends and love them as hard as you can. Don’t just talk about how you love animals. Get out there and do something. Volunteer for a rescue, become a foster home, and help us save more lives. Ethyl will always be remembered and she will give the rest of those that we’ve lost a run for their money up there. Ethyl, we love you and miss you. I’ll see you again.

Posted 1 year ago

Comments

Mar 28
Welcome to the NEW Tall Tails Rescue Blog. Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to come up with new ideas of interacting and educating with our rescue. I want this to be a way for people to understand some of the thought process and leg work behind running a rescue while running our personal and professional lives on a daily basis. For those who don’t know, my name is Chris Schober and my wife (Wendi) and I created Tall Tails Rescue a little over a year and a half ago after I lost my full time job. The economy took a downward spiral and we found an overabundance of dogs either being surrendered or (mostly) being turned over to animal control. The dogs that have felt the “short end of the stick” in this situation have been Great Danes and other large breeds. These guys require more food, vet work, and most of all, money, than the average family dog. Being Great Dane owners and lovers, my wife and I stumbled upon a Dane/Hound mix at Warner Robins Animal Control in Warner Robins, GA. At the time, there was a woman in the Dacula area here who wanted to start a Great Dane rescue. We started to work with her to rescue this poor female at the animal control. The total amount of time it took to get her out of animal control and to safety was 9 hours. The amount of time to find out that there was nothing we could do to save her? 5 minutes. The story behind Hope (cliche’d yes, but I really couldn’t think of another name for her) was that when I got to animal control, I found that Hope could barely make it out of her pen. Turned out she had been hit by a car and had spent close to 2 weeks in animal control without any medical attention. When I asked the guard if he had noticed this, his response was “oh, hmmm, guess she got hit.” Seriously? Once I was able to get her out of there, it was roughly 30 minutes after the vet (where the woman with the rescue worked) had closed. This was a chance to focus on getting Hope the proper medical care she had needed. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was to find out. Hope was in the final stages of heartworm and her leg was broken in multiple places. My heart sank into my chest knowing what the outcome would be. There was no way that she would survive major surgery in the condition that she was in. There was no hope for Hope……….. I left Hope in the vet’s care and walked out the door with the horrible smell of defeat. How could this happen? What would her chances have been if we had found her sooner? And even if we did, animal control’s policy is for a 2 week hold before any dog can be rescued. Did it matter? I drove home thinking about the 9 hours I had just spent with Hope. I thought about how I was able to comfort her, to show her that not all people are bad, that there are those of us out there willing to make a difference. In that moment, I realized that this was not defeat. Even though I was unable to save Hope, I knew that the last hours I had spent with her, she finally got to know what love was. In that moment of realization, a rainbow came out from behind the clouds as I sat at the traffic light. In that moment, I knew that Hope had finally found peace. I tell this story because Hope was our inspiration for starting this rescue. She was MY poster child for all the dogs being displaced due to neglect and a downed economy. Running a rescue is not easy. Running a rescue in a broken economy where the number of misplaced dogs is through the roof is even harder. It’s very easy for somebody to give money and turn away, but it’s a whole other ball game to dedicate free time (or lack thereof) to something that you believe in and want to help. I felt that it wasn’t enough to just say that I’d like to have a rescue in the future. This was my opportunity to put up or shut up. And here we are, almost a year and a half later. We’ve saved 30+ dogs and counting. Sure, I’m still juggling not having a full time job (I’m freelance), but I would not change this for the world. There are good days running a rescue and there are bad days. But when you run a rescue, all the bad days and hours, lack of money, frustrations of having to rehabilitate a dog, etc. are all of a sudden very much worth it the day that they are adopted out. When we drive away from a forever home knowing that we have worked hard to keep just one more dog from euthanasia. We do this for Hope.

Welcome to the NEW Tall Tails Rescue Blog. Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to come up with new ideas of interacting and educating with our rescue. I want this to be a way for people to understand some of the thought process and leg work behind running a rescue while running our personal and professional lives on a daily basis.

For those who don’t know, my name is Chris Schober and my wife (Wendi) and I created Tall Tails Rescue a little over a year and a half ago after I lost my full time job. The economy took a downward spiral and we found an overabundance of dogs either being surrendered or (mostly) being turned over to animal control. The dogs that have felt the “short end of the stick” in this situation have been Great Danes and other large breeds. These guys require more food, vet work, and most of all, money, than the average family dog. Being Great Dane owners and lovers, my wife and I stumbled upon a Dane/Hound mix at Warner Robins Animal Control in Warner Robins, GA. At the time, there was a woman in the Dacula area here who wanted to start a Great Dane rescue. We started to work with her to rescue this poor female at the animal control. The total amount of time it took to get her out of animal control and to safety was 9 hours. The amount of time to find out that there was nothing we could do to save her? 5 minutes.

The story behind Hope (cliche’d yes, but I really couldn’t think of another name for her) was that when I got to animal control, I found that Hope could barely make it out of her pen. Turned out she had been hit by a car and had spent close to 2 weeks in animal control without any medical attention. When I asked the guard if he had noticed this, his response was “oh, hmmm, guess she got hit.” Seriously? Once I was able to get her out of there, it was roughly 30 minutes after the vet (where the woman with the rescue worked) had closed. This was a chance to focus on getting Hope the proper medical care she had needed. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was to find out. Hope was in the final stages of heartworm and her leg was broken in multiple places. My heart sank into my chest knowing what the outcome would be. There was no way that she would survive major surgery in the condition that she was in. There was no hope for Hope………..

I left Hope in the vet’s care and walked out the door with the horrible smell of defeat. How could this happen? What would her chances have been if we had found her sooner? And even if we did, animal control’s policy is for a 2 week hold before any dog can be rescued. Did it matter? I drove home thinking about the 9 hours I had just spent with Hope. I thought about how I was able to comfort her, to show her that not all people are bad, that there are those of us out there willing to make a difference. In that moment, I realized that this was not defeat. Even though I was unable to save Hope, I knew that the last hours I had spent with her, she finally got to know what love was. In that moment of realization, a rainbow came out from behind the clouds as I sat at the traffic light. In that moment, I knew that Hope had finally found peace.

I tell this story because Hope was our inspiration for starting this rescue. She was MY poster child for all the dogs being displaced due to neglect and a downed economy. Running a rescue is not easy. Running a rescue in a broken economy where the number of misplaced dogs is through the roof is even harder. It’s very easy for somebody to give money and turn away, but it’s a whole other ball game to dedicate free time (or lack thereof) to something that you believe in and want to help. I felt that it wasn’t enough to just say that I’d like to have a rescue in the future. This was my opportunity to put up or shut up. And here we are, almost a year and a half later. We’ve saved 30+ dogs and counting. Sure, I’m still juggling not having a full time job (I’m freelance), but I would not change this for the world.

There are good days running a rescue and there are bad days. But when you run a rescue, all the bad days and hours, lack of money, frustrations of having to rehabilitate a dog, etc. are all of a sudden very much worth it the day that they are adopted out. When we drive away from a forever home knowing that we have worked hard to keep just one more dog from euthanasia. We do this for Hope.

Posted 1 year ago

Comments