The owners of 15mo. old Hildy have been seeking a one year foster home while the family goes to live in Norway. They do not want her to have to cope with the 6mo. quarantine, especially since she was hit by a car, shattering her pelvis in February. They are now looking at a possible 4-H project. Time is shortening--they leave in July.
2 year old Buster is now placed happily with Rowlands. His original owners both worked full time; he spent his time outside. They were moving to a new house and felt he would be better off somewhere else. Our hip & elbow evaluations turned up good hips, bad elbows. His castration has been done. (bgp note 11/01: he died of cancer 8 years later and contributed his tissues to the UCD studies which are archived at GDC.)
Not long after we took 6 yr. old Caesar to the Rongeys for foster homing, we received the message to stop looking, he has a permanent home! They were on a puppy waiting list, but decided this was the 'ideal Berner' (with their 3 cats and a parrot). The original owner, expecting a third child, found that he was 'too much' to be in the house (where he wants to be!). He was imported from Switzerland and has normal hips & elbows; had mild entropian eyelid, (corrected by the ophthalmologist with an office procedure). He is one of the rare dogs that needs to GAIN weight! He was neutered earlier in life. (bgp note11/01: he also died of cancer.)
6 yr old neutered Konig was removed from the shelter in response to their purebreed rescue call that said a Berner had been surrendered because he bit, did we want him? We did! and were able to contact the original owner. He was fostered for 3 months, being placed with Gilchrists, his most recent sitters who love and understand him (They had recently moved from a home where they were surrogate parents of the landlords' Berner). Evaluations turned up good hips & very bad elbows; a predictable set of defensive patterns which started when his mistress decided to make an outdoor dog of him; he was put on a crash diet; has moderate psychomotor seizures (imaginary fly-snapping syndrome); has severe Spring skin allergies; had a 2 in. mass which appeared as he lost weight (a benign lipoma). After $900 in vet. charges, he is now asymptomatic on a phenobarbitol and antihistamine protocol.
2 more shelter calls came; we went through the anguish of deciding they were not purebred Berners.
Now there are two more neutered males, 4 1/2 and 5 yrs. old,
with deadlines, to be placed. Barnaby went to the neice of his
original owner when she left for the Peace Corps a year ago. Now
the neice is going overseas and the aunt anticipates an 'inappropriate
apartment' instead of a house when she returns.
Barney was taken from an Oregon shelter at 7 mo., surrendered
by a family with children but without identification. His mistress
has now left her parents' house and knows he should not wait alone
for her in the new apartment. She has started him on our crash
diet. Coincidentally, both of these dogs are being fostered for
a max of 3 weeks by the parents of the young women; both have
had recent surgeries done for ear flap hematoma; both currently
threaten their owners when they don't want to do some thing, such
as have ears or eyes treated or a bone taken.
They are both good dogs and we are now going through the rigors
of screening responses to our ad, which are few.
The 2 U.S.A. breeders are sympathetic, but the practicalities
are that one doesn't like to ship these dogs across the country
to be re-homed (a word I see used frequently, now!)
(from BG Packard)