Frankie is a very even tempered fellow who reminded me of another dog I'd photographed so I spent two hours rummaging through old posts and files and came up with similar dogs but not the same dog. I'm wondering if this is a symptom of early onset senility. One day I will no longer be able to distinguish between one dog or another and all dogs will be one dog and each dog will be all dogs.

The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

Kila bounces like no one's business.

The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

Brunswick is a fun luvin', classic Lab who just needs someone to teach him that not every stranger likes to be licked on the face at first meeting. Yes, some people are weird like that.

The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

(Reprinted from Toronto Animal Services website here.)

On June 27 of this year, Toronto Animal Services received a phone call about a stray dog. The dog, a young un-spayed female, was picked up and brought into the Toronto Animal Services east region shelter where staff named her Twiggy. She was a medium to large dog in height, but at only 19 pounds, she was one of the thinnest dogs the staff had ever seen. She was very sick, pale and depressed, but her appetite seemed normal.

Despite care during her first few days at the shelter, Twiggy's condition worsened. Test results were inconclusive. She was hospitalized on July 4, at Rouge Valley Animal Hospital where she was diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (an inability to properly digest food due to lack of digestive enzymes made by the pancreas). On July 5, she was transferred to Toronto Veterinary Emergency Hospital and Referral Clinic for treatment and further diagnostics.

With treatment, Twiggy slowly got better. Two weeks after starting treatment, she had gained more than 2 pounds, and was becoming more active. She was discharged from the hospital and placed in a foster home through Toronto Animal Services to continue her treatment.

It soon became apparent that Twiggy wasn't walking normally. This had not been noticed earlier because Twiggy had been so lethargic. She didn't appear to be in any pain and other than her walking, her health was improving. Twiggy soon weighed almost 28 pounds – gaining almost 50% of her body weight.

With the added weight, however, it was obvious the issues with her leg needed to be addressed. Twiggy received more tests and an orthopaedic examination. Her veterinarian found that the ligament over her knee was ruptured and her hip joint was dislocated. Twiggy was going to need surgery, but since she wasn't in pain, she would have to get healthier before the procedure could be done.

Finally, on September 19, Twiggy had surgery. She spent her recovery with her volunteer foster parent and has blossomed into a normal, healthy, wonderful companion.


Twiggy's treatment and surgery was made possible by donations made to Toronto Animal Services and the generosity of her volunteer foster parent. Without these two crucial elements, Twiggy would almost certainly have died.

Currently Twiggy is living with her foster family, and is seeking a permanent home.

Toronto Animal Services believes that residents of Toronto can help animals right here in Toronto. There are many ways that can be done. Two of those ways are to become a donor or a volunteer foster.

The volunteer foster program provides temporary homes to shelter animals requiring extra care and growth outside of the shelter to prepare them for adoption. Foster parents provide a temporary loving and caring environment for the animal to thrive.

Donations support programs such as spay/neuter, extended veterinary care, shelter enhancements or pet adoptions that can all make the difference between life and death for a shelter animal.

Consider becoming a foster parent, making a donation or adopting a pet today.

For information on volunteer fostering, call Toronto Animal Services at 416-338-7297.

UPDATE: Twiggy has been adopted by her foster parents.

Not sure how a female dog got the name Nixon but whatever. Far from having any of the historical Nixon's questionable personality traits, this Nixon is a shy sweetheart who will give you kisses galore when she warms up to your presence.

The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

Is there such a thing as a miniature Sheltie? Because if there is, that's what Foxy is. She's a mini. She just had her teeth done and is now ready for someone to take her home and spoil her rotten because she's had a tough life so far, being used as a breeder and then neglected.

Now I know some people are already thinking, Well, I've been told that dogs live in the moment and don't care about the past so one should never feel sorry for them and spoil them otherwise they might turn into home wrecking brats and ruin one's life.

Well, screw that. You've got permission to spoil this one. She's such a tender little thing that I suspect the maximum damage she'd ever incur is maybe some stray puffs of fur on the furniture or some wet paw prints on the floor.

Take her home, buy that tough as old leather roast on sale at Price Choppers and celebrate.



The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

Sometimes with the bigger, stronger dogs, I take a moment longer to evaluate their personalities before opening the kennel door to take them out. I have no such need for concern with Madison. She is the most timid Boxer I've met at Toronto Animal Services South - not timid in a snappy-snarly-if-you-get-too-close sort of way but in a please-be-nice-to-me sort of way.

Madison is the type of dog who plays against type and just makes you want to take her home and wrap her in a fuzzy blanket.

She loves other dogs so it would ideal if she could go home to a family which already has a dog, especially a more confident around people dog who can show her that humans can be pretty good friends too.

The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

Now when I meet a dog whom I know is going to be euthanized, I no longer get upset about it or at least I've learned to turn down the volume on that upset so I can carry on with my day, do my laundry, vacuum the floor.

I may spend some time with the dog but usually only in its kennel because often it's in no condition to be taken outside. It's usually a dog which even under more ideal circumstances would be forcing its owners to consider end of life options.

The more appreciative the dog is with my company, the harder it is, of course, so I have to turn down the emotional volume even further. And when the dog leans into me or licks my hand or tries to play, I am already as cold and soulless as a polished black granite block. Everything, the dark, the light, bounce off me. Nothing pierces the surface. Nothing enters. Nothing is allowed out.

I hold this old Jack Russell on my lap. All his teeth are rotten and I try not to breathe in his foul breath when he looks up at me with his foggy eyes. He is incontinent, maybe something wrong with his kidneys; his hips are ruined; he knuckles over and he teeters and falls when he walks; his vision is going, of course; he has a severe heart murmur; later, I am told, he is infested with fleas. But this dog, like every old dog I've ever met, cares not about his ailments, pushes them all aside and spends his time enjoying the company of a human. He does not realize or perhaps doesn't care that I've turned myself into a distant, impenetrable thing.

He nudges my hand with his muzzle. I give him the touch of my hands. I hold him, I scratch his ears, rub his chest, pat his back, hold him. Hold him some more. I give him my hands. I cannot give him anything else.

I don't think about his confusion, his loneliness, his abandonment. I don't think about how he must feel forsaken - but I know of course he feels forsaken. His owner was his god and his god has forsaken him. I don't think about the coward who threw this dog away, this coward who couldn't carry this dog to his final moments of life, or maybe the person was too lazy or too stupid or too selfish. I don't think about those things until later. Later I think maybe this person was just an asshole.

How many billions of us humans are here weighing this planet down, complaining daily about the mundane, always wanting more even though we've already taken over this whole goddam world. Everything is ours already and we bitch and moan and kill for more and then we don't even want it, get tired of it and throw it away. And yet, here is this pathetic, sick, abandoned and about to be euthanized animal who has nothing in the world, who is about to lose his last small foothold in this world, and right now, at this moment, it is everything I am not. It is happy. It is hopeful.

Rest in peace.

How to wreck a puppy:

1. Take the pup home when it's a young cute thing thus depriving better people from adopting him and then return him to the shelter months later when he's lost his puppy cuteness and looks like an adult dog.

2. Do not spend enough time exercising or socializing the pup so the dog still behaves like an under-socialized, excitable pup but now in an adult body.

3. Use dominance/punishment based training methods thus making the dog hand shy because he equates hands near his face with punishment.

Jamie was adopted out when he was four months old, still a cute, wriggly thing. Now he's been returned three months later.

When he first sees me enter the room, he's unsure. I look at him and instead of a wagging tail or excited barks, he lies down and avoids eye contact. I open the kennel door, beckon him but he just looks away. When I move my hand to attach the leash to his collar, he stiffens. I see his eye blink and his upper lip move just slightly and I'm not sure if it's the beginning of a wince or a snarl. I back off.

The owners said he used to take the kids' toys and when they tried to discipline him, he'd show his teeth.

In his recent behaviour assessment at the shelter, he showed no signs of resource guarding so that begs the question: What "discipline" was practiced to make this dog bare his teeth?

The silver lining is that Jamie was returned before any further damage was done. He's still young, certainly young enough that his rough puppy manners can be corrected and his lack of confidence and anxieties can be alleviated.

I loop him with the end of the leash to keep my hands away from his face. When he realizes the leash is on and we're going for a walk and I'm not there to punish him, his manner immediately changes. Now he's pawing and playing. Now he's a pup again.


The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

This is Simone on her bed when I leave her in the morning for work:

This is Simone on her bed when I come home:

She started bringing the sock over to her bed a few weeks ago. She doesn't chew it. She just keeps it near.

It breaks my heart a little every time I see that.