He s a really pretty Catahoula, too pretty to just ignore. We did have a bit of an issue today. He went after our kitty and meant harm !! We jumped in and stopped him though. Scared the bejeebers out of us both. (Me and Tate) I guess Tate will be strictly an indoor kitty except when Jeremiah is tied up. Tate travels in the RV well, so he goes with us.

Tobey is going to see about fixing a cable run for him so he won't be wandering the neighborhood getting into trouble . We won't keep him on it all the time, but without it, it would be difficult to prevent him from going back to his old home, which is just mile away, maybe less. We are going to fix him a place under a lean to shed where he will have a nice dog house all his own for shelter, and in winter, hay bales all around and a plastic flap door will keep him cozy. The neighbor said she will happily come and feed and love on him when we are "on the road".

Now let's hope we can get him to the vet and heartworm checked, and if that goes well, we will have his nubbins taken off and he'll get Trifexis and all his doggie shots. We are keeping our fingers crossed. I just spent a couple of days getting my colon rechecked and then an Endoscopy for a constricted esophagus. Tobey is awaiting his appointment to have a melanoma removed.

We are so blessed to have amazing neighbors and church family to help when needed, that's for sure.

Give him time....I bet he turns out to be the best dog you ever had!

"....and meant harm!!" Ok. I laughed at that, it was funny. I hope kitty is ok.

But that face, that face is perfect for loving. Oh I hope he adopts you.

I'll bet after he's been with you a few months, he'll turn out to be a goofy ol' teddy bear. What a sweet face.

So lucky to have you!

He is just so handsome. I hope that he gives Tate a wide berth going forward.

He's a beautiful and lucky boy!

I am so glad. I have not been able to read the original thread for fear of finding out that he would be "left" on his own. No animal deserves that, and you have answered my prayers that he would find a good home. Thank you. I have thought of him so often.................tears.

I'm taking lots of photos to show his weight gain. He is starting to fill out a bit just in the past week or so the neighbor has been feeding him. He's going to get wheat germ oil in his food so he should shine some after a time as well. Tobey got a 57 lb. bag of dog food today so he's set for a little while. I want to work with him to teach him some basic obedience commands. Come, stay, sit. lie down, guard, heel, and to stay between me and any adversary. I did this with my youngest female, and NOBODY gets near me without my ok, And she know the attack word cue as well. I have a friend that teaches police dogs, and he helped me with her training, And to call her back, I have a command for her there as well. I love working with and teaching my dogs good behavior, and how to be ladies, but with sharp teeth, LOL. My youngest girl is smallish by comparison to Jeremiah, so I will definitely need professional help with his training. He will probably fill out to about 100 lbs. He will be a great hiking dog maybe.

Wow, what a good looking dog! Thank you for sharing your story. And best wishes for things to proceed well for Jeremiah and you all, his new family :-)

He's going to be trained as an attack dog? (I'm sure that I'm misinterpreting that.) What is a 'cable run'?

Look at those trusting eyes and beautiful face. How could anyone leave him behind?

That face! I would be done like a dinner LOL. Glad you are giving it a try.

Dances.

rhizo, I may be speaking out of turn here but I believe the OP lives in the country so would like to restrain the dog from running. A cable run is a cable stretched between 2 hard objects, such as trees or building, etc. You put a shorter chain or cable running to the dog and he can have a lot of space to run on either side of the cable. Problem with trees or posts is they can get tangled up going around them.

Also, nothing wrong with having a dog around who is protective. Especially out in the country where the sheriff is miles away when you need him. I lived in the country for more than 3/4 of my life and had GSD's, rotts and dobes in all that time.

Edited to add, they never had to attack anyone; just their appearance is intimidating enough.

I love his sweet face. I hope you enjoy long years with him!

rhizo, No, not an attack dog, An obedient dog. Only to attack on cue, and then only go for the arm or genitalia. But I also want him to learn to keep himself between any adversary and me. My female rides with me, so it's good for when I am out and about. Using a cable run works well to keep them from roaming and getting into trouble. I've been told Catahoulas can be mischievous. When I got Tobey home from the hospital today, guess who greeted us? Yep, Jeremiah Jones. It just amazes me to see how he is starting to look forward to us coming home and so soon. We once saw that a chain link fence won't work for him, at least not yet. He was in it for less than 5 minutes, when he bit a hole in the links and escaped his prison. Wow ! That's going to be quite a challenge.

Roseberry, I am so pleased he has adapted so well to you in such a short amount of time. I think he was starved for attention his entire life and he is there to stay. Have you attempted to get a collar and leash on him yet? I have trained a lot of dogs in my life so if you need any advice you are welcome to ask if your other trainer friend is not available. Best wishes to you with your new bud. You will have great success with him, I think.

Can you get the vet to come out to your house? It may be less trauma for JJ...

He has a collar already, but we will probably get him a better one. I am going to wait on the leash. He is so not wanting to be restrained, as he doesn't really trust us enough. We need to earn his trust and then take one step at a time. I'll start with a lead, and just let him drag it around a bit to get used to it, then go to phase two by holding it while assuring him it's ok. It's going to be a difficult task, but if he checks out at the vet, he'll be worth it we think..

nycefarm, we would have to get someone other than our regular vet, but there is one possibility here that does mostly farm calls. We can stop by and talk with him.

I love a happy ending!

Here he is chowing down. He's filled out a lot in the last couple of weeks with the neighbor feeding him. Isn't he pretty ?

Gorgeous! That might be my next breed. Hard to find up here. Being a larger dog watch his feeding, you don't want him to get a torsion; smaller meals more often rather than a huge feeding and no vigorous activities after feeding.

Garden..is a torsion the same as the bloat?

Yep, the stomach gets full and then for various reasons twists and unless surgery happens they do not survive it. I have never had it happen and have never seen it in a smaller dog so not sure if they would get it. The reason I said that is he looks like his gut is full there in that last pic and he is still chowing down.

Quite a few high class show dogs have died from it. Don't see the reasoning of a many thousand $ dog not being supervised but what do I know? :-)

He didn't eat all of it, and I wondered why. I gave him about the same amount I give my girls, and they are 50 lbs. Then I figured it out. He got the cat food from the table in the garage !! I keep an automatic feeder for Tate out there. I am glad it was only about 1/3 full, and he scattered some of it all over. Looks like lots of adjustments will have to be made. Beginning tomorrow, we will be feeding him 1/2 rations twice per day. That and a milk bone for dessert when he obeys a command.

heck, he has probably been dining on all kinds of road kill and has a cast iron stomach! You never know. If my dogs would get ahold of a chicken bone or pork chop or steak bone; they would immediately need surgery but Joe Blow's dog down the road has been happily chowing down on them for years!

Have fun with him; he already looks like a great dog.

Well. we have already run into a problem. We got call from a neighbor down the road early this morning. Apparently Jeremiah's former owner gave the dog to them. Sad thing there is that they do not take care of, feed or vet their dogs. They just let the dogs run loose all over. They have a wolfhound like dog, a pit, a pit beagle mix, a black lab and possibly Jeremiah, non of whom have been vetted. He TOLD us not to feed Jeremiah any more. So, we will go over to the next county and ask the former owner if he did give him to those neighbors. Those neighbors already have had several dogs shot by a farmer down the road because the dogs were running his livestock, and killing his chickens and ducks. I really don't want to spend a boatload of money, only to get into an altercation with a neighbor and end up losing Jeremiah anyway. So far we all have gotten along well in spite of the dog issues from that one.

Our oldest dog, Belle peed in several places in the garage last night. It looked like she was "marking" more than just peeing. So, today we clean up the garage floor and scrub it down with Lysol.

This is so darned hard and heartbreaking. Every one of those dogs deserve better, but they run together in a small pack, and that can become dangerous. .

I hope your neighbor will realize that you will give Jeremiah a far better home and life.

Let us know what his previous owner says, please. Hopefully, he'll have some sense of decency and humanity and sign him over to you!

Roseberry

Check into your local animal control laws, often you can call the animal control officer or the DA's office and get a sympathetic soul. Here, there is a (rebuttable) presumption of ownership if one registers a dog or cat, and there are specifications for the length of time after which a 'stray' dog becomes abandoned and thus adoptable.

If there are leash laws, a sympathetic animal control can work with you by picking up the animal, and in many jurisdictions getting it back becomes progressively more expensive, one it is not picked up by the deadline, the animal control people can call you to come adopt.

It is worth a few calls.

When we lived in the county outside of city limits, animal control wouldn't come out at all.

That does put a kink in the process. JJ will suffer for it.

I don't know how animal control works in your area. Taking JJ in because he is on your property may get him away from his current neglectful situation. Then you run the risk of him being put down. You won't be able to adopt him and bring him back to your place. Your best bet may be to find an animal rescue.

I'm wondering how Jeremiah would get put down if she takes him in.

Animal Control will attempt to get in contact with the owner. If he surrenders the dog, he can be adopted. If he's essentially an orphan, he can be adopted.

Unless owners can demand that a perfectly healthy and non-violent dog be put down out of spite?

Sadly, in many areas, animal control are nothing more than dog catchers who house dogs for minimal periods before they put them down if they are not claimed or rescued.

Our yellow lab mix came from S.C. where she had 5 days to live because she was captured without a collar or any ID whatsoever. Fortunately, she was culled out by a rescue and sent our way to be fostered.

So sad.

I'm so sorry to read this latest turn of events. I hate that he "belongs" to someone with a lot of bad dogs because if he runs with them, he will pick up their bad behaviors. That is the worst thing about living in the country....people won't control their dogs. (Or kids sometimes.)

I'm wondering how Jeremiah would get put down if she takes him in.

Oops! Sorry. I didn't finish my thought. I meant taking him in to the animal shelter and not her house.

We have no animal control whatsoever here. If too many complaints come into the sheriffs office, usually they send out an officer who then just shoots the offending animal.

The neighbor that called, is home by herself with 2 little toddlers, while her husband and father in law are 4 lane truckers and gone all week, home most weekends. We decided to wait until her husband and FIL get home this weekend and go talk to them. They have a chain link dog pen, but they dig out all the time and run the roads. I think the wolfhound just had pups too. And so the cycle will continue with them.

We had their first little dogs move on over to our place when they first moved in. Two chiweenies, one of which got caught by a coyote. The other little sweetie just huddled under our deck all the time. Poor thing was skin and bones when we found her huddled there, so we did feed her. I offered them $100 for her, but they just got angry and to us to stop stealing their dogs. A coyote ended up getting her too. Our middle dog Scooter, belonged to her husband before they married, and she too came here after they doused her with diesel & saying she had mange, She never had mange, she has allergies, and I was able to talk him into letting me have her as he was never home. I took her immediately to the vet, where they diagnosed her with allergies to grain, and got her cleaned up. had to put some salve on her back where they had burned her skin with the oil. It's an unholy mess.

I am so afraid that if we can't keep Jeremiah as ours, and then the neighbor raises heck, there will end up being a feud, and the loser will be Jeremiah. The farmer down the road has already told them to keep the dogs a home or he will shoot them if they bother his livestock. He has already shot and killed two that we know of. With the dogs running a pack, it won't be anytime before he kills all of them.

This just does bode well, but miracles still happen. We aren't giving up just yet.

feud

It is pretty inexpensive to roll out and attach chicken wire to prevent digging. You could offer your help. I can see how the mom might be stressed alone with two toddlers for 5 days at a time. Approached the right way, she might learn from you and be happy to have a good neighbor.

If Jeremiah has to stay over there, some effort on your part might mean a better life for him, and would be a selfless act of kindness.

Isn't there some kind of limit to the # of dogs they are allowed, even in the country? I, too, would find a rescue and the dog would just "disappear". Once my neighbors had a wonderful young cat that wouldn't stay home because they had aggressive dogs (I had to put up a field fence around some of my property to give my own cats a safe haven). I didn't want another cat, so theirs disappeared to a no kill shelter 3 counties away. I knew she would get a great forever home and always felt it was an act of compassion.

Back when they had the chiweenies, we offered to build a nice pen for them, complete with Tobey using his backhoe to bring the fence below the ground. They were very emphatic that they did not want nor need our help, and for us to just mind our own business. Some folks just are not willing to accept help. As it were I had to ask about adopting scooter several times before I could take her to be vetted and spayed. now he is married now, and she is really not friendly. We have brought over gifts for the babies when they were born, and she barely said thank you.

We haven't seen jeremiah at all today. =0(

Things aren't looking good, Roseberrry.

Hope that they improve, and you can keep JJ.

Even if the former owner says it's O.K. for you to have him, if they're as possessive as they've been before, sounds like not a good scenario, unless the former owner tells them he just ain't theirs.

I wonder how, with their record, if he knew of it and had any regard for the dog, he might have chosen to have given him to them.

Good luck to you ... and especially to JJ.

ole joyful

Roseberry, did they take him from you? I think you could prove you and the other person have been caring for him. And that those other people let their dogs run and form packs to harass livestock, etc. Strange that they even care if they don't take care of their own animals but that is the way some people are, I guess. I certainly hope it works out for you and JJ. He looks so happy in the pics you have taken.

He's gorgeous! I luv him already! Good for you Roseberry!

Jeremiah came by for a visit, along with all the other dogs except the wolfhound. The old owner is old, pretty feeble and blind. I guess when the guy asked him about taking Jeremiah, he just said ok, and didn't think about how they treat their "pets". I called a friend of mine, who is also a lawyer and judge, and she know the former owner as well as those that "own" him now and advised us to just let it go, If we have him vetted and he doesn't belong to us, then we could be in for trouble Aaaand, not only that, but if we end up with ownership, and he gets out with the pack and does harm to anyone's livestock, we could be held liable. We can't take him in the RV and would have to depend on the neighbor lady feed him, and still we could be held liable for any damages done.

So, we have decided to not have him vetted, but will provide him food and water and leave his blankets in the lean to. Tobey and I both just hate this turn of events.

So sad to hear this. He would have had a great life with you but with food and shelter out for him maybe his needs will be taken care of. I do worry about him learning to run in the pack and going after livestock. Odds are he will not survive that. And I hate saying that. Bad deal.

When the neighbor comes home, hopefully tomorrow evening, I am, going to go pay him a visit, and see if he will relinquish Jeremiah, and if he does, I'll contact a Catahoula rescue, and see what they can do to help. He is too darned good a dog to just be a pack dog.

Take a $20 and a twelve pack of beer. He might just go for that! Really weird that they suddenly have such an attachment for a dog they probably don't and never have fed! Good luck.

Add a plate of brownies to the mix, can't hurt! Good luck!

Even better. That wife probably doesn't have time to do that! Yes, good luck!!!