My brother has been fighting with my mom a bit about the whole ordeal with what's going on with the dogs. He was her favorite for most of our childhood- maybe still now I'm not totally sure- so I'm hoping she'll cave and let us take them home and drop some of her demands. IE: an electric dog door, new carpet, veterinary care money, and dogsitting money.
They are beautiful dogs and I truly hope you do not have to rehome them. Personally I think the demands that you listed are a little crazy, with the exception of money for vet care. Perhaps you and your mother could come to some sort of compromise. Like, instead of an electric dog door and new carpet (wth is that about?) you could simply crate train your dogs. I know a lot of people don't agree with crate training, but my opinion is that every dog should be crate trained because you never know when there will be an emergency situation where your dogs will have to be contained. Obviously, such a situation would be stressful for the dog. If they are crate trained, then the crate is their safe place and instead of increasing their stress level, the crate will greatly reduce it. As for money for vet care, if you have income and not a lot of bad credit, perhaps you could apply for CareCredit. It's a credit card that's limited to medical, dental or veterinary usage. It's not real hard to get. When I got mine I was only working part-time and my credit was a few points below average. I wish you and your beautiful doggies the very best.
I know right? Like, my dogs.. everything they bring to my life is good and they are always there. They love unconditionally and forgive so easily. They are so resilient and ... I dunno, I tell ya tho, I worked in rescue for a long time and I have met dogs who have every reason in the world to be distrustful and hate humans, but most of them don't. It might take them a while to build trust, but once you prove yourself to them, you have a true friend for life. Dogs seem to be driven by this pure desire to love and be loved. They never give up on that.
Yeah, the fluffy dog in the picture is really skittish around new people. I think most of that comes from his personality, some dogs are braver than others, all that. But he spent the first bit of his life without a home or any real safety and that may play a role. I think it's amazing that dogs can go from high alert to completely relaxed with just a little scratch behind the ear and a little snack.
And dogs are healing. Like I said, I worked in rescue and I became friends with many people who adopted from the shelter where I worked. A lot of them have told me that they came to rescue a dog and actually wound up being rescued by said dog..lol. Somehow dogs fill a void you may have never even known you had. Bless little fluffies heart. I hope he is able to remain with you, his friend, someone who knows the sweet little soul he is and loves him.
