This video of my new coworker Brandy was taken yesterday in my lanai, where I sometimes work. It was about 48 hours since we retrieved Brandy from the shelter and one day after she was supposed to be euthanized for a mild bite after she was tortured. I am so grateful for the donations to HSNB that are still coming in! These donations mean so much to us who have been volunteering there for years and who want to see our little no-kill shelter continue to save as many cat and dog lives as possible. People in Vallejo have been doing that through HSNB for four decades. This year is our 40th anniversary! I confess that’s when I graduated from high school in the East Bay. Gulp. We are working to align our budget for the next forty years. If you’re interested in our big gala with live music, please visit our website and save the date for our gala on October 10.

Last night Brandy seemed bewildered that I invited her to sleep on the bed with us. This poor girl probably thinks she doesn’t deserve such “luxury.” Everything she does, like a normal dog, is a thrill for me to witness, knowing the unspeakable things she went through and how close to death she was because of what I think amounts to a misunderstanding during the chaos of the Independence Day holiday.

I feel compelled to keep sharing the updates so that people see her progress. By the way, right after this video was shot, she let me get those last damned burrs out of her muzzle, so they are now gone for good! Next step is convincing her that a bath would be soothing! I’ll leave that to Shea who does most of the dog baths, which we try to do BEFORE grooming when possible.

While she still has her grumpy moments and things can become overwhelming for her, there are many flashes of the inner dog that just wants to be loved with Brandy. After 24 hours, she’s come a lot further than we anticipated, especially given how angry she was at us for even attempting to get to know her in her kennel at the Martinez CCAS shelter yesterday. I have zero regrets about sticking my nose into this and getting this little girl out. I wish we could save them all.

I normally concentrate on the dogs in my immediate region when it comes to who I will foster. Still, the story of this little senior dog that resembles a dog I lost in the fire really tugged at me. She was being tortured by some immature teens in Concord who were kicking her, made her bleed (I’m told) and who were trying to stick firecrackers up her butt on July 4 or 5. It was a story I could not ignore when I heard she was on the euthasia list for a NON-skin breaking bite after that whole ordeal and running into the street to get away from the torture. I saw that she would ONLY be released to another rescue or shelter, so I pulled my card as president of the Board of Humane Society of the North Bay and got her out of the Martinez CCAS shelter one day before she would have been euthanized. The outpouring of graciousness from people in that area who were trying to rescue her is very nice to see. I’ve asked people who want to donate on her behalf (she was previously known as Edna Bode or Mode, but I have renamed her Brandy) to give to our struggling shelter at HSNB, and I will foster her myself. I groomed her very carefully with Shea’s help. I still have a few burrs left to pull out, but she somehow let me groom her on the first day, even though she was understandably agitated when we first met her. I had the muzzle on for a second, but she was so tired that she basically fell into my arms and let me cuddle her by the time the grooming was done. I was exhausted myself. She’s already sort of a completely different dog, as you will see in pictures and videos. She is now an HSNB dog.

The first pictures and postings I saw of Brandy (formerly Edna Bode or Mode):

Picking her up from the shelter in Martinez.

Brandy’s first video at my house after she arrived from the Martinez shelter, still full of hundreds of burrs and not knowing when we’d be able to clean her up. She was excellent in the car, but confused and probably very suspicious. I left the leash on just in case I needed to guide her around, but she immediately got along with the other dogs. A few of them, like Ella, wanted to confront her, but she did not react AT ALL. I’m glad this video captures the countless burrs visible even on her tail and all of the staining and matts in that area. It was nerve-wracking, but little by little I was able to clean that all up.

Later in the day, we got to see a whole different side of Brandy. I find that with new dogs with recent trauma like she had, sitting down at their level helps to be less intimidating, taking off hats or glasses, and letting them come to me. I try to speak calmly around her and let her know she’s a good dog because hopefully somewhere in her long life she was treated with some love and kindness.

Progress after some home grooming:

Some of the postings about her:

Here are pictures of my third blind foster dog this year (not to mention my permanent blind dog Bonnie). This one is Melody.

While we’re still looking at Humane Society of the North Bay for someone else to take the Frenchie/bully mix Marley, who is blind, I did take in this senior who is blind herself, who I’ve named Melody because she has a sweet little howl she lets out once in a while. Marley is currently in a large kennel at the shelter, so she has more room than when she was with the Smalls, but if someone doesn’t take her, I am a little worried about her odds at the Fairfield shelter. She’s young but doesn’t have that much experience being a real dog. I’m glad we were able to afford her a couple of days of that at least.

As always, I hope that more and more fosters come out of the woodwork, which would really help our shelter to reset and thrive while we go through some adjustments to the remodel of part of our campus that is financed through a grant from a few years ago, which funds we cannot use for our operating expenses. In the meantime, I think a lot of you know I try to take in as many special needs fosters as I can, given the pack’s comfort level and the hours in the day that we can put toward rehabilitating these dogs. This new foster is Melody. I believe she has some vision, and she certainly must have had some in her life. She is very easy-going and low maintenance, but I worry about her climbing up on things that she sometimes needs help getting down from. Case in point, the end of this video. I appeased her after I stopped filming by letting her onto this little ottoman, but I put her down soon thereafter out of fear that she’d fall. She’s housetrained and eats well. Melody will hopefully be a great candidate for Muttville.

Today was bittersweet because we adopted out our foster (for almost four months), Jacques. He was injured when we got him from a dew claw injury, but he has been a joy. The family that adopted him had a dog named BONNIE who died a few months ago and looked just like Jacques. That’s very cool since my dog Bonnie is adopted from HSNB, of course. Only a few weeks after we got him, he moved to this house with us, so things were already in upheaval. He immediately bonded with Shea, which was sweet and timely since we had just adopted out (big) Perry, who Shea was also close with. Young, healthy dogs like these are much easier to say goodbye to, so we can make room for a special-needs dog. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t pull at our heartstrings, and it doesn’t mean we don’t love them. We just can’t have a large number of dogs and still be available for fostering dogs in crisis.