I know that. It was just a county dog pound, actually. They don't do any testing. I've been asking around and getting advice. I actually volunteer at our no kill facility and will get advice. Lots of resources available, they just will cost me $$. Her former owner lost her home, had to move in w/ friends who were not allowed to have animals.....hid the dog at a friend's house who put the dog outside. It ran away & was picked up twice. Owner finally just surrendered the dog. Such a sad story and she's 9 so I knew she was going to be put down. She is sweet, and yes, I can get her healthy, and then look for a new home. thanks for all the advice.

Actually I would reprimand her for growling, tell her NO in a firm manner, get an empty can fill it full of dried beans and shake it at her when she is growling if she does not respond to your reprimand. I would desensitze her to men tho, putting her in the back room did nothing to assist her with her fears or whatever is setting her off. When my dog gets growly at tsomething or acts afraid of something I will tell him, he is safe and make my attitude towards the thing he does not like one of fun - in a high pitched voice, I will interact with that thing, nine times out of ten, my dog will pick up on my attitude towards the thing, shake off the growly part and become curious....Good luck.

I will not have to worry about talking to my boyfriend before tomorrow nite so I will keep thinking on it and decide what to do. I am just worried cuz so many people think my dog would not be acting like this unless my bf did some thing to him. My dog is my most responsibility and I take it very serious and want to do the right thing. Deb18 I am glad you did not listen to your dog and fell in love and got married. Munkos I did give my dog less attention for a while but I am back to his routine. We walk 3 times a day and my landlord walks him too. We have a very long walk in the evening and if my boyfriend is here he goes too so it is not like my dog is getting forgotten. I take my dog every place besides work but on Saturday nites I do go off without him but I always have. I take my dog shopping to the park to friends house. I live in a small town and everybody knows my dog and he can go almost every place except for like the doctor office. I am not going to talk to my brother about it cuz if he seems happy I would dump my boyfriend it will hurt me and I might not forgive him just yet. Munkos I did talk to my boyfriend about my dog not liking him and he does not know why and has tried to make friends with him again and I am hoping that he really did not do something to my dog and is not telling me. Yes I am young but not that young. I am 23 but have a developmental disorder and I hate that you can see it in my writing which I do really well at but I know what guys want. And if I am leader of the pack my dog will always be beside me. He is my life but I do have fun having a boyfriend.

It is very common for a new cat in an animal-occupied household to be very defensive-aggressive. This is likely to be even more amplified when the newbie has suffered amputation of his primary defensive weapons, as in Stanley's case. Not only is Stanley fully aware that he has been thrust into unfamiliar animals' territory, which is enough to put most cats on the defensive, but he's also aware of his disability in terms of his own physical defense. He's in a "first-strike" mentality right now, trying to scare off the enemies who he sees as potentially mortal threats. I've been down this road many times with many adult cat integrations into my household, so I will share my two most successful integration strategies with you. First, I set the newbie up in my bedroom/master bath and fill the doorway between the bedroom and livingroom with baby gates from bottom to top (the door could also be temporarily replaced with a sturdy screen door). This allows the newbie to view all of the household goings-on from the safety of his side of the gates, and allows safe interactions between newbie and resident animals without any direct physical contact. This provides the newbie with time to observe interactions between the resident animals, to see that resident dogs don't chase resident cats, and to learn the residents' body language and general demeanor. Depending on the newbie's reactions from his side of the gates, it may take days, weeks, or months before I feel comfortable bringing the newbie out for brief visits into the rest of the house. Regardless of how long I have given the newbie to decompress and acclimate in the bedroom, there is almost always fear aggression as soon as I take the newbie out of the safety of his own room. For this reason, I almost always put a kitty harness (NOT a collar) and light leash on the newbie when first bringing him into the rest of the house. With the leash, I can immediately curb and control any aggressive actions on the part of the newbie so that he won't make immediate enemies of the resident animals. I may hold the newbie on my lap for a couple of minutes while the resident animals go about their usual activities, or I may allow the newbie to explore a bit while I follow passively behind, ready to immediately curb aggressive behavior with the leash. Depending on the stress exhibited by the newbie, these first outings may only last a couple of minutes. I let the newbie set the pace. If he wants to stay out of the bedroom and explore longer, that's fine as long as he doesn't try to go after the other cats. The longer he passively observes the other animals, the more quickly he learns that they pose no significant threat to him, and the sooner he will release his aggression. But again, it's all on his time table. My job is to hold the leash and keep the peace while the newbie is figuring out that he's actually safe in this new environment with these new animals and people. One the newbie has started to relax around the other animals and his aggression has largely diminished (could take hours, days, or weeks), I'll drop the leash and allow him to drag it around behind him while he's out of the bedroom. This gives him greater freedom while still making it easy for me to quickly grab the leash if trouble breaks out. If all goes well and peacefully during the leash-dragging phase, I'll remove the leash but keep the harness on. If all remains peaceful, I'll eventually remove the harness, too. I strongly advise you to get a harness and leash for Stanley right away before there is any more aggressive degradation of his relationship with EJ. Unfortunately, when mutual aggression occurs early in a feline relationship, it sometimes never improves. You need to prevent any further aggression between those two if you hope to restore peace to your household. Using my baby gate and harness/leash strategies, I've had cats who were fully integrated into the household within a few days, and others who took as long as 4 1/2 months. Oh, one important note - never EVER leave a harness and/or leash on a cat unattended. Use them only when you are available to keep a close eye on the cat wearing them. Best of luck with Stanley man. Laurie