Emergency Appeal For Help (Please Reblog): Foster an Old English Sheepdog For Several Months · 9:12pm May 2nd, 2020
Dear friends, look at this cute pupper:
Isn't she adorable? This is Marceline.
Marcie is an Old English Sheepdog puppy.
What a fucking dog, amirite?
Awwww, baby Marcie! Okay, last picture for now, I promise.
I'll probably post a longer blog about this at some point, but to make a long shitty story short, I once had a friend named CrispySparrow. I say once, because after living with them and their two roommates for a month, they kicked me out, blocked me on Facebook, and wrote a three page diatribe about what a shitty person I am. Which sucks, but if that was all that had happened, I wouldn't be writing this blog post. Unfortunately, that ended up being the start of the shittyness, not the end of it.
This is my friend Claire. And Marcie, but you've already met her. Claire is a fellow Brony, who met CrispySparrow at BABSCon several years ago. Claire and my other friend Chris were Crispy's housemates. The key word here is were. Because starting around the time I left in very early January, Crispy, to be very blunt, went completely crazy and turned into a colossal flaming asshole. I don't want to write a short book right now, so here are the highlights: narcissistic fleas, cocaine benders, spiraling mental health, delusions, incoherence, screaming, hexes and curses, threats of violence, trashed rooms, mild animal abuse, alcoholism, living room sex, passive-aggressiveness, erratic behavior, pathological lying, stealing, a plethora of enablers, lots of broken plates and furniture, false restraining orders, unscrupulous lawyers, a crappy judge, and now, homeless Chris and Claire.
And, relevant to this blog, Marcie.
I'm Marcie's uncle. Claire has always wanted a sheepdog and I found Marcie for sale on Craigslist when she was just nine-weeks-old. Here's the first time they met: 
It was love at first sight.
While the worst of this has all been going down, I've taken care of Marcie for two-weeks at my mom's house. Which I would love to keep doing, but my mom's small Malti-poo Hope does NOT like not being top dog. Or Marcie in general. Marcie just wants to play, and Hope does not.
We live in SoCal. Chris and Claire have various friends they can stay with on the East Coast for a while while they figure out their next steps in life. That's not the problem. The problem is Marcie.
Me, a problem?
Well, no, Marcie herself is amazing. Her two goals in life seem to be playing with friends and loving on friends, and ever single creature she meets is her friend. Basically Pinkie Pie in dog form. She's literally the sweetest, happiest, most loving dog I've ever met. While yes, she can be a lot, because she's big and energetic and a seven-month-old puppy, Marcie is not the problem. The problem is that very few places are dog-friendly.
Imagine not wanting this lovebug!
Chris and Claire are very temporarily staying with my mom and I, but that is a very temporary arrangement. For various reasons, they need to leave in the next few days. And Claire needs to find someone who can foster Marcie for several months. Or she'll have to sell her. It's not my place to elaborate, but Claire's been through an incredible lot already. Having to sell her would break Claire's heart. And mine too, since I'd never get another hug or doggie-kiss from this cutie: 
It would be an all-around shitfest. No one wants that.
Which is where you come in.
Dear reader, I've been a part of this writing community for over six years. We all came here for the ponies, but we've all stayed here for the friends. There are many amazing things about this fandom, but if there's one part that always astounds me, it's the generosity of Bronies. We've raised millions. We've stopped evictions. We've saved lives. And so, with faith in the power of friendship, I again come to you asking for help, but this time not for me. Today, I ask you for help on behalf of my friends.
As I said, Claire is looking for someone who can look after Marcie for two to five months while she collects the shattered pieces of her life (thanks a lot, Crispy.) And while Claire may be a fellow disciple of friendship, she has a hard time making friends. I don't though. In fact, let me share a quick epiphany.
Last year my unofficial motto was "friendship is magic, and networking is applied friendship". More than even making new friends, I really enjoy connecting my friends with each other. I love creating new friendships. And I love helping people. And I realized yesterday that if my cutie mark was not a french horn (for music is undoubtedly my other passion), it would be a networking cutie mark. That is why I'm writing this. Because I want to help my friends.
So then, time for the title-drop: Would you like to foster an Old English Sheepdog for several months?
Marcie is seven-months-old and up to date on all her shots with no health issues. She is hypoallergenic. She is active and playful during the day and sleeps well at night (with you in your bed, if you let her). She is potty/house trained, and other than the first day she arrived when she was stressed and disoriented, she has not peed or pooped in my mom's house once. She lets you know when she needs to use the restroom and goes on the grass. She loves to play with toys by herself or with you, and is great at fetch and tug of war. She is sometimes high energy and other times content to just lie next to you (She's been napping next to me while I write this.). She loves getting pets and giving love licks and soft non-painful playful love bites. She weighs around 35 pounds but that doesn't stop her from being a lap dog. She almost never barks unless she needs to go potty or misses you, and she has a bark collar. She does get some separate anxiety if you have to leave and likes pulling toy-like-objects off of the edges of tables and counters, but otherwise is extremely well behaved for a puppy. She enjoys going on walks and meeting other people and dogs. She is not currently spayed or microchipped but Claire can do that if needed. Claire would also pay for all supplies and any damage she happened to cause. And location is not an issue if you live in the continental US since Chris and Claire are driving from SoCal to the East Coast to stay with friends anyway. All in all, Marcie is an amazing dog and an amazing friend and I hope she can be your amazing temporary pet as well.
So, if taking care of this bundle of joy sounds like something you could do for a bit, please let me know and I'll put you in contact with Claire. And networking is exponential, so please share this with anyone else you think might be interested. Sometimes friendships go bad, and I'm sad that Crispy has gone down the path they have. but because of them I met Chris, Claire, Marcie, and Amber, another amazing friend. And just as friendship has brightened my life in that way, I hope it can now help Marcie and Claire. Because I truly believe friendship is magic. So today I ask you, friend: can you help? Not me, these two:
Thank you.
Has your friend considered contacting east coast shelters on where she is moving and explaining the situation about a temporary foster? There is already a pretty build up system of fosters on the East Coast because all the shelters that move animals around from other places, so contacting various organizations and explaining the situation about a temporary foster but return to owner might be helpful.
I can't (I'm on the wrong coast), but I'm putting out feelers for ya. 'Tis a cute sheepdog
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If that’s the only major hurdle you would have, it probably wouldn’t be an issue. From this blog:
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Thanks, I’ll suggest that to her.
I wish. But sadly I don't own the place I live at, and I can't have a dog here.
I'm not a dog person, and even if my housemates were okay with this, I doubt either Marcie or I would be particularly pleased with the arrangement. I can make a post passing on the word, though!
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In my case, it isn't the only major hurdle (I have 2 other dogs already and had to take another job to make ends meet while all this Coronavirus stuff is going on, so I'm out of the house more often than not). But that does give me some more options to hit people up.
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Also this might be more of a bit of a stretch, but if your friend needs the "seed" money to afford an apartment with a dog she might want to consider starting a Gofundme and contacting the guy who runs Rate my dog twitter, he regularly features dogs with medical needs.
While posting about this as much as possible is good, I’d advise also looking at any online resources that are available. Some information that I’d also recommend providing is off-site contact info and any other relevant tidbits. For example, does she only eat a specific kind of food? Is there any one vet that she has to contact? Stuff like that.
Getting animals to adjust also takes a while, especially when they are older. My two cats are mature adults (8+) and recently had to cope with a new kitten being introduced that was bigger than them. The initial introduction was so bad the first week that I had to spend about a week and a half getting them to be okay on the same floor during my spring break. It still took weeks afterwards for them to warm up to one another.