Monday, April 7, 2014

Thunder is Home & Safe!



Just a quick bit of backstory here:  2 weeks ago (I think the same day they took my Owner’s comatose grandmother off life support – or close to it), our big wolfy-looking dog Thunder jumped his fence.  We have a neighbor who is “terrified of” Thunder (the words of the police) based on only his appearance.  (I mean, she claims he’s growled and snarled at her; I don’t believe it; I think she’s imagining things.)  She called animal control.  The dog catcher got Thunder back in his pen but Thunder nipped him on the rear inner-thigh area (going for his nuts?).  Thunder is eight years old, and not only has never deliberately bit anyone before (we’ve all got scratches and bruises from playing w/ him – he’s a big dog) but he’s never even shown any signs of aggression towards a human.  He’s very beta and has always been people friendly…

There’s a lot more backstory in here involving dog catchers w/ PTSD triggers, me almost getting arrested for calmly asking questions, what was quite possibly an illegal home entry by police, legal grey areas, and mysterious requests for dubious DNA testing…  Seriously, this has been a strange, strange ride.

What it boiled down to was that we had 10 days to build a bigger, better fence in order to get Thunder returned to us.  (Okay, a little more backstory:  Thunder was mistreated his first 2 years and had such severe muscle damage that when he was rescued he couldn’t even run – literally.  He was on anti-inflammatories for a whole year.  When he came to live w/ us, it was always assumed that despite being so tall he would never have the muscle strength to jump even our 4’ fence.  Well… he’s made a full recovery, and he’s now pretty damn strong.)

So, we put-out a call for help w/ Operation Save Thunder, and the response was amazing!  We had a lot of wonderful people show-up Saturday and help us construct the fortification that Bishop named for us: “Thunderdome, two dogs go in, no dogs come out!”

I really want to name-check everybody here, and hope I don’t forget anyone – if I do, I’m so sorry, I still love you.

  • Deforix, thank you for designing, planning, organizing, digging 26 post-holes by yourself, and for not falling off the backside of the hot tub while drunk.
  • Thank you, Allycat_2U, for lending us tools.
  • Herguymikey, thank you for being an awesome, super-efficient concrete mixer.
  • Thank you, Pajama_Dan for being such a handy youngling and lugging a lot of heavy shit up and down a very steep hill over and over again.
  • Untamedfury, thank you ladies for pulling down old fencing and pulling out vines – such a time saver for us!
  • Thank you, Poet_Gareth for working a mean saw and giving us wood.
  • Morgan, thank you for being the hardest working old fart I know.
  • Brieana, you are our hero!  Thank you for doing the hostess thing so very well and for water-proofing your hands.
  • Stickschell, thank you, too, for being part of our invaluable support staff, standby medic, keeping us fed, hydrated, and running out for smokes.
  • Thank you, A_Failing_Recovery, for being strong, tall, and young.  Looking forward to that Chattanooga trip!
  • Thank you, _musey_, for being our lovely photo documentarian, and thank you to your strong, silent man for being there to do any and every job we threw at him.
  • Lilithnoir, thank you for being so good at nailing things – not just puppies
  • Thank you, Noir, for ordering your concubine to nail things (especially puppies)
  • And thank you to my Sir, Loki, although he couldn’t join us, for always picking up the phone and lending invaluable moral support.  I think you helped more than you realized.
 It's hard to express how emotionally difficult this experience was for us.  Shdwkitten kept saying, "If anybody says, 'It's just a dog,' I'll fucking punch them."  There is simply no way this could have happened w/o the love, support, and sweat of so many wonderful friends and family.  Our baby is home safe now b/c of all of you.  You guys rock!!!!!

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