Little Zain is having a ton of fun discovering his new donated @sendhamstermail toys each night and I'm having fun watching him play with them!
This little boy is over 1year old now, he is one of the pinky mice sent on the horrible San Diego Humane Society transport to Arizona not to find his forever home as they had broadcasted on the news, but instead he was given to a reptile breeder and was meant to be a meal. It's a miracle he survived that entire situation!
I've gone overboard making sure him and the other transport animals here are happy. It helps a lot that Zain received some awesome items from @tafitpet like the foraging bowl you see in this collage and now he's gotten the send hamster mail gifts. He's quite a lucky little dude! And he deserves it all 💜
To think about what his intended fate was is horrible. Those of us involved deeply have not been able to let it go. I know some will argue that reptiles have to eat too, but not pets. Not innocent animals entrusted over to an animal welfare organization that receives public donations to make sure the animals in their care are given their best lives through adoption. It's deplorable what they did instead.
Visit @justice_for_318 to learn more
Every night when I sneak and put something special in little Fana's cage, she pops out right away to get it! I love that she comes out if I make just a little bit of noise in her cage. She's a big burrower and I need to check on her often because she's developed a tumor on her tummy which is sad because Fana is one of the surviving hamsters from the horrible San Diego Humane Society transport.
For this reason, she gets extra of everything, which is why there are four of these fantastic treats that were donated by @sendhamstermail subscribers
I've had a lot of hamsters in the rescue with tumors, they can live fairly normal lives as long as their tumors do not attach to any major organs and don't grow so big it's difficult for them to move around.
I strive to ensure they have a high quality of life and try to get them to the point where they will pass from old age before their tumor takes them. Fana's tumor is not a fast-growing one, she's not in pain, is still eating and loving exploring, foraging, and running on her wheel. Her quality of life is still high. She hates vet visits like all hamsters do but she recovers quickly from them and I am overall just giving her plenty of treats and love and watching for signs of distress.
This is something all hamster owners and people who rescue hamsters and small animals need to be aware of and prepare for. Tumor removal in such small animals is very rarely successful and often results in an earlier passing so I've come to the conclusion it's better to let them live out their lives with the tumor and just monitor closely. Please note, this conclusion is based on the veterinarian care I personally have access to, which is good but not great. Veterinarians in my area do not have enough surgical clinical experience to remove tumors successfully. There is always going to be the person out there who says their veterinarian performed a miracle and removed a tumor and their hamster went on to live a happy healthy life and that
When it comes to little animals like hamsters and mice, enrichment for them IS crucial!
Akari is one of the 7 mice from the horrid San Diego Humane Society transport and has lived here in my rescue as a sanctuary resident for 13 months now. His age at the time of admittance was unknown, as was his background prior to being placed on that transport. All I really know about him is he's a mellow fellow who has a deformed ear that hasn't affected him. And boy oh boy does he love to Eat! Evidenced by his little bit of weight gain you can see here. Okay maybe we are bordering on a lot of weight gain, but that's okay 😂
I actually love it when mice are a little chubby because most of them come to me malnourished and underweight, and Akari was no exception. He was awfully skinny when I first met him!
Fortunately he has recovered from living at a reptile breeders house for a month, and nearly becoming a meal himself, pretty much from day one of being here and I've made sure that not one day has passed that he hasn't had all of his needs met and lots of treats. Healthy treats of course but he loves anything I give him.
What he is adoring the most these days are the @sendhamstermail donations, I mean truly absolutely having a blast inside of his bin cage, which makes me so grateful to be on the receiving end of these items!
Topped off the hay for all the guinea pigs and an hour later went to do cage checks and didn't see the skunk look alike in any of his hides, but a lot of his hay was spilling out of his litter tray and then had to laugh when I saw where he was and what he was doing 😂
It was too cute to pass up trying to get a little video clip! He's clearly one of those guinea pigs that likes to play with his food as much as he likes eating it. Glad I caught this moment of him, needed the humor today.
Hopefully anyone seeing this smiles too 💜
One year ago today I had a wonderful adopting family lined up to adopt one of the single male piggies from the transport, I thought the skunk look alike known by the San Diego Humane Society as Zabba would be a good fit.
In the video clip you see Dayman first who was thin and had some skin afflictions, then there is Giovanni who was already spoken for, and on the other side of Zabba is Tomagotchi, who was also underweight, and you can see clearly he had some skin wounds that were infected, plus his breathing sounded horrible, but that's all another story.
For a few weeks prior I had been interviewing by phone the family I thought would give Zabba his best chance at a happy life so I opted to bring him into my rescue and rehabilitate him and we planned on an adoption date at the end of 30 days. That adoption ended up not happening. Won't go into details there, but 9 more families applied to adopt him since then and one by one they've either backed out during the adoption process where I verify my high standards are met or they were not approved to adopt.
So he's still here. But...
He's happily living beside some of the other single boys who were already in my rescue when he was admitted, loves his 12.5 Sq Ft cage and his daily veggies, sleeps comfortably out in the open and overall is a pleasure to care for while we wait for his perfect match to appear and adopt him.
This little skunk look alike is just one life's story in a plethora of many, he survived his ordeal but so many did not. The transport was horrifying then. Nothing has changed, it's still horrifying now.
I truly meant to post an update after Rupert's vet visit but here it is already the weekend!
While his body regulates to the anti-seizure medication he's supposed to be less active so he hasn't gotten to play with toys, which is HARD. Ecercise is crucial to a GSP's well being and we really relied on those toys to help drain his energy. Now I am relying on daily training exercises like you see in this video which I captured at 5:30 a.m. this morning.
Despite having Valley Fever and experiencing side effects to the two medications he's on, it hasn't diminished his early rising preference. Since the rest of the world is asleep, I don't want to be hollering "come" from across the yard that early in the morning so I taught him to come when I snap my fingers and to sit and lay down when I point, he's strictly reading my hand motions here and I think he's pretty fantastic for learning them and obeying so quickly!
Dr Merker at Orange Grove Animal Hospital says Rupert can still be adopted out to the right home once his body is stabilized on the medication and his titers show his VF levels going down. His next blood draw will be in November and that will tell us everything we need to know, in the meantime he suggested I get him on a good liver protection supplement, which I have already done. The medication may be preventing seizures and eliminating fungus out of his body, but there's always those concerning side effects too, so it's definitely a balancing act.
Good thing I am well accustomed to balancing everything around here right?
There are some serious German Shorthaired Pointer fanatics in the world and apparently some of them are outraged that I've brought Rupert into my hamster rescue. (as if I chose his breed 🤦♀️). A few of them have graciously reached out to offer support and have been posting him in some GSP Facebook groups in hopes of either getting him adopted or garnering some breed specific advice and support, which is very helpful during this uncertain time of transition while we go from a healthy dog to one who has been diagnosed with Valley Fever after having seizures.
Other people who love this breed are seeing the posts and automatically just assume he's somehow being tortured here or the other animals are at risk. Well, if they would verify facts, I would have set their minds at ease. None of the animals here in my rescue are at risk, and Rupert is being treated well.
Our family has had prey driven breeds during my entire rescue history, those dogs live upstairs where Rupert also now resides. Our personal dogs have been trained to ignore the rescue animals when they come downstairs to go out into the backyard and we have safety gates throughout the house.
Rupert stays leashed inside the house. In this short video clip you see him looking out at our backyard while I'm doing dishes, I keep him attached to the leash and an eye on him closely. This is how I give him the maximum amount of time out of his kennel throughout each day, while still managing to get some chores done.
We have a great routine!
I wish people would quit making assumptions and sending me nasty messages, those aren't helping our situation at all, in fact it's very defeating.
If any of the other dog rescues in Tucson could have helped Rupert, THEY would have when the person reporting him dumped contacted them. But they didn't. And I did. How is that so difficult for the nasty message sending people to get?
To everyone else who has been amazing, thank you so much for your kindness and enc
Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of the Horrid Humane Society Transport. Prior to its occurrence my rescue was quite full and my intake was closed. My workload back then was just as heavy as it is now, my schedule was always completely booked up, just like it is now, which is why I am posting this a day late.
When @weecompanions made me aware of the situation and inquired on the welfare of the animals hoping that the Humane Society here in Tucson had contacted me to take in some of them and I could give them information on the welfare of the rest, I began to try to figure out what had happened. Following that, multiple people started calling, emailing, and messaging me, inquiring on if I knew anything about the animals. Thats when the nightmare literally began.
Both Humane Societies started telling lies. The more they told the easier it was to uncover the facts we wish we didn't know. The discovery that the animals who returned were the survivors and the rest probably became reptile food...
All of it is still so ingrained and fresh in our memories.
The one unanswered question myself and several others have had since the beginning is, how many of the animals actually perished in that refrigerated truck where travel cages were stacked from floor to ceiling for a 7+ hour drive with most of them having very little ventilation and temperatures outside over 100 degrees? They couldn't have all made it from San Diego to Tucson alive.
There's just no way.
Humane Society employees know the truth.
Will we ever find it out?
Sending out a huge thank you to @lindamk08 for reaching out with the offer to make some items for the guinea pigs and hamsters here in my rescue! The pee pads are so nice to have and the little cuddle sacks have been a huge blessing for medicating hamsters!
These are luxury items that I am so grateful for because the guinea pigs in this collage have been here in the rescue for quite some time due to not being adopted!
PS: Thats Skunky, the black and white guinea pig formerly known as Zabba by the San Diego Humane Society and then later named Bakari by me when I honestly thought he would only be in the rescue for a short time before being adopted due to so many people being interested in him. Do you see how he's just chilling out in the open and not hiding? Yeah. He only started doing that once his cage was placed next to the other male guinea pig cages. Before that, he hid a lot while he was in a room alone without friends.
Guinea pigs are social animals and while I have no doubt he would probably get along with a friend in the same cage, I'm not about to adopt him out to be a single Guinea pig which is what the last several applicants have desired and as a result have been denied.
Adopting out these small animals can be complicated and convincing people of what's best for them is quite the chore, people seriously expect me to give in and that's something I won't do, but that's all for another post.
This one is to showcase my appreciation to Linda!
Every morning at about 5:30 a.m. Rupert and I are out in the backyard getting his energy drained before the heat of the day kicks in.
Every evening as the sun sets we are back out there doing the same thing.
And late at night before he has his overnight time confined to his kennel... you guessed it, we are out there again draining his energy.
I am inter-mingling his needs with a whole heap of my rescue and personal household responsibilities like providing the other animals here care and responding to adoption inquiries, then dealing with surrender requests, and there is a lot of daily laundry and housecleaning that needs done... Once in a while I get to eat and sleep too.
So I am just popping on social media today to say, Rupert is still here and still available for adoption but only to an approved candidate, preferably a GSP experienced home.
I know this video makes him look like so much fun. And he can be for the right family, but he's literally got endless energy! I took responsibility for him back in 2023 prior to him being adopted and returned, and I will fulfill my commitment to Rupert just like I would any other animal in my rescue. But I will NOT be allowing him to be adopted by an unsuitable home either. We will hang in here until the perfect match is made!
Rupert's new life in a hamster rescue isn't too bad, I'm working double time to accommodate him properly! While he's kenneled he gets different chew toys, and half his meals are served in a maze bowl, the other half I use for training exercises, or he gets a kong. Also Rupert gets plenty of exercise, both on the leash and off the leash, but I do keep him leashed during the hours the wildlife is out for their safety and his too, since he can easily scale our walls chasing after them.
I am spending several extra hours with him day and night, while still managing to accomplish my regular rescue workload as well, but it's only day 5 and I have slacked off on guinea pig laundry and vacuuming the rescue rooms which currently has hay covering the floors. I'm hoping to catch up on those 2 things today...
We can't live like this long-term, especially me, taking care of all the rescue animals, our 4 family dogs, plus him, and then running an entire household in addition to the rescue and there are adoption interviews and responding to surrender requests, supply orders, health checks, medication administering, updating rescue charts... and so on and so on.
But for now, as I attempt securing the absolutely perfect home for Rupert again, I'll continue giving it my very best.
Big thank you to everyone who has been reaching out, offering encouragement and advice, and sharing Rupert. Your support is very much appreciated!
He's easily distracted, but he's DOING it you guys!!!
Rupert, the GSP whom certain trainers couldn't train! His former family did not believe in using shock or prong collars or any other method to hurt the dog in order to make him behave. He's usually eager to please and they channeled it excellently so he's much more confident now!
IF... someone bonds with him and continues working with him consistently, on a daily basis, almost hourly, he can overcome his distractions. However, please note, the only reason this was successful was because it's early in the morning before the lizards and birds are out.
Buuuuut, he's not a lost cause!
I had zero treats or rewards for him, and he did this over and over early this morning, eagerly seeking out positive reinforcement.
His next adopter needs to be solidly committed to establishing a good bond with him by leading him, firmly, but with love and compassion not withholding necessities to thrive, such as food, and continue teaching him what is acceptable without punishment if he does something wrong.
His former family was this way and he's developed into a great dog!
I've dedicated a page to Rupert on my rescue website linked in profile. As time permits and I am able, I'll add to it, but through this page people can reach out directly to inquire about adopting him or find him on our Adopt-a-pet and Petfinder accounts also linked.
