Well, here's little Chuckles -- a baby sorts, stuck in a really hard spot in Ohio.

His rescuer writes --

"9-22-06

"Ironically, we noticed him while on a trip to the shelter to pick up two other dogs that were facing euthanasia. When we got to the pound, a rescue group had stepped in and adopted the two dogs we were going to pick up. We saw that they had just brought this little guy in and had mistakenly classified him as a lab. We knew that once the warden came in on Monday and saw him, he would realize the mistake. They have a severe no-adoption policy for anything resembling a pit. Having owned pits ourselves for the past 12 years and having a soft spot for them, we decided to go ahead and bring him home. 

As I mentioned in the ad, we have had him vet-checked and he is scheduled to be neutered in two weeks. He has developed a case of kennel cough, for which I picked up antibiotics today. We have no problem fostering him in the meantime, but may definitely need some help in getting him into a forever home with a new family. We would keep him ourselves, but our older pit is extremely dog aggressive and doesn't like him very well. Currently, we are "musical chairing" the dogs to ensure that each has plenty of time for exercise, cuddling, etc. but this obviously isn't an ideal long term solution. I will definitely keep in touch with you over the next two weeks with our progress in our search for his owners. 

I would be hesitant to do anything with him should they not step forward to claim him until we have had his follow-up appointment at the vet to make sure the kennel cough has subsided, had his booster shot administered, and the surgery performed. We want to make sure wherever he goes, he'll be all set, healthy, and altered. Thanks so much again! We had spoke last week about the puppy that we rescued from a kill shelter here in town. We have had no luck in finding his owner and I would like to see if you could offer help in rehoming him. I am so disappointed that we have to do this. I even spent last weekend in the neighborhood where he was taken from going door to door trying to find his owner, to no avail. If you could offer any help or suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!"

"9-28-06

I have taken a couple of pictures of him that we used for the flyers. I will attach those here.As for the puppy himself, he is an amazing dog, really. He is awesome with children (I have a 4 year old and 11 year old). 

He thinks that he was intended to be a lap dog, as he loves to be by us constantly. Unless sleeping, he is usually in whatever room we are in. He is housebroken and knows basic commands."

"We are currently working with him on stay (we have no fence) and shake, lay down, etc, but he knows sit very well. He is very gentle in that when giving him treats, he will sit first and wait to be fed. We can put a treat on his nose and he won't take it until we tell him it's okay. He does not pull on the leash (unless there are leaves blowing which he wants to catch!) and will walk side-by-side rather than running ahead. Even though he is a puppy, we have had no problems with him chewing anything -- other than toys that we have provided him. The first few days he was terrible at begging at the table, but now will go in the other room while we eat dinner -- he just wants a treat afterwards :) He does seem to have an aversion to his crate, though. The vet said this is typical of dogs from shelters, but we're not sure. He will go in there willingly and not whine if we are leaving, but does not like to be crated at night or while we are at home. We have been working with him to increase the amount of time he spends in the crate over the last week, and just yesterday were able to get him in there for a nap of about an hour without any issues. Of course, we are doing positive reinforcement with him as far as the crate is concerned, so hopefully he will continue to get better at this.

Our family is absolutely smitten with this little guy, but with the other pit being so aggressive, we just cannot keep him forever. As I said in the prior email, we have had his shots and had him completely checked out by the vet. We have an appointment to have him neutered as well, and will go ahead as planned with that surgery to ensure that whoever is able to help rehome him will not have to absorb the costs of the surgery.

Please let me know if you need any other information on him, or know of any other resources we can try. We have been keeping the dogs separated and our resident pit is getting extremely angry about being relinquished to the garage when it's not her turn to be in the home, to the point where she is attempting to chew through the door to the house. Thank you so much for any help or direction you can provide."

"9-29-06

Thank you so much for your help and for sending out the emails. Hopefully, there will be a great home just waiting for him. As for keeping him, we are torn on how to handle this. We can safely say it will be at least another two weeks because I don't want him to go anywhere before his neutering appointment, which I believe is the 13th. He has another appointment next week, as well, for a recheck on the kennel cough and vaccine booster. We certainly don't want to push him out the door immediately after the surgery, either, preferring to give him some time to recuperate."

"So maybe three weeks minimum is a good guess, but it could very well be longer. As much as the situation as turned out to be a bit more complicated given the other dog's intense hatred for him, we still do not want to get rid of him until we know he is going to a good home. Like, we will not post a "free to good home" ad and give him to the first person that gets in touch. I realize that's kind of an ambiguous answer, but it's so hard to put a time line on it. 

I could say we could do two more weeks and have him end up in a subpar home, or say four weeks and he's got a great one. We took the responsibility of getting him out of the pound with good intentions, and although those have failed I don't want him to be the one to suffer...even if it means our dog has to accommodate him for a little while longer."

Well, Chuckles certainly has garnered plenty of praising word from his rescuer -- that's for sure -- !!

He looks to me to be a pit-boxer mix -- and most importantly, he has been TESTED with people, young and old alike, and ADORED -- !!

If you know you can give this boy a wonderful forever, and that you can look at him and say, "till death, do us part", fill out an adoption application above!