Very very well done, Octavian85! But don't stop there. Follow up with the animal control people daily until you get some action. I think a report to his landlord about him keeping a dog might also hurry things along a bit. remember, you care a lot more about this than he does so keep hammering my friend.
LTD

another reply for ya. glad you got a hold of someone and hope she ends up in your care :D. and i know how you feel.

i got a chance to go meet some tigers. me = <3 tigers but im sure that's not hard to tell. it was very outstanding. walking up to the cages and seeing how big they are up pretty much next to them was very intimidating (i went to the zoo not long ago and the tigress came up to the window and a couple back wayyyy back up. laughed to myself this was after my encounters with tigers but back to what i was typing) but we all checked each other out and were very interesting to interact. didn't take me no time flat to test the boundaries and get to the point to where i could reach in and give em ear rubs rear rubs head rubs whatever kinda rubs. well the owner said wow man i see you have common sense and you all trust each other. (i do have some weird connection with felines) so while i was staying there at his place he said i could go down any time by myself and hang out with them and do whatever. and well to be told that after just moments of first interactions with them was like wow i do have a knack for felines lol.


the floor was concrete and didnt know that was bad for them till after a little research. they were declawed luckily not defanged like some people do. and well the cage was long and deep but not long and deep enough. all the stuff regulated by the USDA was in lines and whatnot so shit thats were they lived. that made me sad but i felt what i time i can get to stay there and hang out with them i will do what i can to make them happy and entertain them and all and interact with them closely. now he had nice sized water dishes for them well kegs lol. but they had green stuff growing in the and i could see the misquote larva swimming around in there. so i pulled them out when i cleaned the cages and whatnot and gave them a nice cleaning and filled em all back up with fresh water. sprayed there cages out he did keep there cages clean cause if someone was to stop by and see dropping on the ground and old bones laying around his ass would get fined. well yeah we played around with bowling balls lol yeah they can whip the shit out of one. these guys are strong as fuck. id give em sticks to play with they would just sit there and chew on me and spit out the bark or try to steal it off each other was funny as hell lol. i got to go down to this place twice but sadly learned hes not what he plays out to be. and was a 65 yr old grumpy old man and later i found out his memory wasn't so well.

ok the main point in relations to this. there 3 juvi's 2 females and a male all bros and sisters, and two adults he said were about 8 years old. now with the juvi's one of the female was walking like she was drunk couldn't get in and out of her box to well and it would take her over 12 hours to eat. the others ate in not time what so ever. well the owner talked about how he started to notice this problem and said shes not growing as fast as her brother and sister and i could tell this. she had missing patches of fur and raw marks from going from each section of the cages she would rub against the metal. he said she not acting like a tiger she ends up depressed and sometimes sits by herself because well bro and sister as much stronger and will push her out the way. i did notice this. but i made sure i interacted with them all. and well i noticed a difference in her. she would come up and chuff at me (chuffing is a tigers way of letting someone know they are welcome and they are friendly but remember these are tigers now i wouldn't suggest anything i did at all to just anyone so there's your warning) well she would come up and chuff at me and id give her ear, chin, well rubs where ever and paw shakes and such. id sit there and talk to her let her know hey your still a tiger hey keep your chin up!!! id still interact with em all because i dont wanna cause any jealousy and if a tiger feels like it the dominant one yeah it will tell the other ones to fuck off and get away basicly iv seen it right there in front of me with the older ones lol. but yeah i started noticing a diffrence she still was walking around like she was drunk. i could look in her eyes and tell she had trouble trying to process stuff around her when she would fall her eyes would go spinning just like if you spun around till you got dizzy and fell over. but shes not doing any spinning around. this really concerned me deeply. i didnt know much about them medically and the owner was working with big cats for yearrrrrssss now so i figured he knew wtf he was doing. so i talk a lot on the issue about what hes doing to ensure her health. he said he had a vet buddy that he let get experience with the exotic cats he had. and well im not sure if that was ever true or not. said he was gonna get on the testing and had to call em up to get her seen by the vet. so taking his word i was like oh ok cool awesome. this was at the end of my first visit. the most beautiful moment iv ever had was the morning of the day i had to fly back. i got up nice and early went down to the cage and like i always do i go great the dominate adult female. and then the other adult female. then went over to the juvi's and greeted and all that and i went to the side of the cage and sat up leaning against it to my left. the 3 juvies came over and sat down to lined up and we just sat there and watched all the stuff going on in front of us. i had a few calls and when id get up they would reach there paw through the cage twords me as if to say hey stay and relax with us. it was a pretty awesome feeling to get that kinda connection that fast with them.

well i called em up a bunch just to talk and have em say hit to the tigers for me. and about 3 weeks later he was like ok we got to wait on results on the stool samples. and then i called up again and he said him and his buddy were going to get the blood drawn and turned into the vet. im not sure if this happened. but i guess i said they did get some but not to much they had trouble getting the vein and she put up a big fight cause she didnt want to be stuck with a needle. he said he knew she wasnt as strong as her bro and sis but she still be the hell out of him. said he turned the blood in. so i got him to let me come down again. well by now he had her off in her own little section of the cage by herself. no one to snuggle with as cats do and love to do. she was in a small part of the cage. she couldn't be with her bro and sis anymore because they were getting much bigger then her and she was getting worse. well i spent lots of time with her in her cage keeping her company helping her eat and what not. i found if you put it in her box it was better off. tigers like to take there kill off to a place they can hide it and eat where no one would notice them or the kill. and well it worked she was eating a little faster but still not normal and she was like growllll my good when id pop more in lol. so im glad she at least felt more at home i guess in a way. i still spent time with the others interacting and what not like the last time which was just as fun. well time came to go again said my byes and whatnot. the owner assured me i would be the frist to know what is up with her when he gets all the results in. well a week passes still calling and checking up another week calling and. i waited a little bit longer and called em up and he said they were all doing right said the vet had see her and stuff and knock her out so they could get a better blood sample like a week before i was like okay cool just gotta wait but he didn't tell me the truth. it ended up she had to be put to sleep because of a deformed liver. i had to find this out from someone else. well i did research on em on the net and found out he was really just into it for the money. shoulda figured he had enough shit around in his house. it makes me think maybe she was like this for sometime before i got there and he wasn't doing shit for her. i havnt been back or in contact with him at all. it was pretty expensive flying back and forth and i wasnt made of money so. but yes i understand how you feel and wish i coulda been able to take care of them instead of him. i even offered me coming down and staying and helping all i cared about was food in my belly and bed for my head. the guys age was deffly wearing him down and it was a pain for him to take care of them and he never interacted with them that often. i was to busy getting his drink on with his bottle of vodka. its sad such wonderful creatures have to end up with such bad owners. i had no ability to do anything with that whole thing the law is on his side and his got buddies in high places.


i have included a pic of the 3 juvi's i took. on the left you have Ceaser the male, middle is Cleo (the one with that had the problem you can tell she much smaller) and to the right is Bess the other sister. they were messing with a metal bar they pulled inside. and as you can see Ceaser and Bess are checking it out and Cleo is trying to process what it is with her eyes. im sure she couldn't see correctly at all stuff might have been moving around slighly given the drunk walk she had.

i will add another pic i took in a post after this so you can see Ceaser and Bess much better.

a dream of mine its to raise tigers and rescue other big cat from bad living areas/owners. give em a nice amount of space to live in and take care of em as if family. iv never been so motivated and happy in my life as when i was spending time with them. so anytime anyone has the chance to rescue a animal that is poorly taken care of and abused don't wait DO NOT WAIT do something then before i could be to late.

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Bess is on the left and Ceaser is on the right. there ya go

Attached Image ( Click on thumbnail to view full size image )

Thanks for sharing your story tigerchuff, I wish something could have been done to help Cleo. I second your call for everyone to help any and every animal in need you happen across. 'It's just a dog' or whatever animal it happens to be is not a valid excuse for neglect. Every animal on this earth deserves to be happy, and the moment we decided to domesticate an animal it became our responsibility to ensure that animals happiness.

Update on my story, animal control hasn't been out to my brothers house yet. I called and talked to a lady on the phone and she really helped me understand how terribly antiquate our animal cruelty/neglect laws. I was pretty much told that there are no space requirements for having a dog, if the dog is fed/watered and not abused or deprived of obviously necessary medical care then not much will really be done. So, the best I can hope for is for someone to stop by and make sure Nikki has shelter (technically 10 square feet of covered patio counts as shelter) and she has food/water (even if it's food I provided) and there is no evidence of abuse or neglect. So there is no law that says you have to love your dog, or pay it any attention, or walk it, or buy good dog food, or take it to the vet for routine checkups...All you need is a covered patio, a bucket of water, and a bag of 'Ol Roy' :wacko:

I can still call his landlord...man this situation sucks. :(

hmmm and yah "just a dog" is the wrong thing to say.

well sounds weird with the evidence you have that they didnt do anything. keep on trucking and im sure you will figure something out. where there a will there a way :D

A difficult position to be in Octavian but you did the right thing calling animal control and keep chasing them for an update.

Can't you perhaps talk to your parents about the state of the poor dog and get them to talk to your brother ?

Calling the landlord is an option ....... but then your brother could be tempted to bring her to a pound or something to make sure you never get her just to be spiteful.

I think if it was me and animal control don't do something soon ....... I would just take her and not bring her back. Legally she is his property though and he can call the police and report her stolen. Before you even consider that if there are no other options, make a record of all the dates these things happened, photos, copy of all the bills you've paid for her etc., who you spoke to in animal control and how many times .....

I hope this story comes to a happy ending eventually ........ I feel so sorry for that poor dog and for you trying your best to do something about it :(.

i agree curious1looking.

i thought about saying just take her. but will he call the cops report her stolen and say hey i know who could have stole her and point in Octavian85's direction. but to me he t it seems hes not really that much of a bro if hes gonna act like how he has so far.

iv heard the saying you can pick your friends but you cant pick you family. lol bullshit you so can pick who you conciser family and friend. i feel sometimes family can be a control system. and well i don't like to be controlled to much.

but yeah if it was me and i couldn't find anyway to help id just get the info i have already and see if i can get a media to start a story on it. he wants to play fuck fuck game i can play fuck fuck games right back lol but that's just me lol

hope to hear whats up with all the stuff thats going on here soon man!!

Okay, playing devil's advocate here. What happens if you call the landlord? Two possible scenarios to consider:

1. The landlord is fine with the dog being there, and tells your brother you were the one who told. Suddenly you're no longer allowed to visit - then what happens to the dog?

2. The landlord is not fine with it, demands your brother get rid of it instantly so he surrenders her to the local shelter which happens to have a mandatory spay/neuter policy for all animals it adopts out.

You are giving her more time than anyone else right now, that's what counts to her more than anything. She doesn't care who legally owns her. In her mind she is already yours.

Octavian, I just wanted to say, this situation sucks, and sucks some more. Somehow I am not surprised about most of it, though. My sister always says that, "It's just a dog" line(especially when talking about 'Marley & Me', which she seems to pride herself on never crying over), and it always secretly annoys the hell out of me. Aaaaaannd my brother and his wife are really bad about unnecessary spending, (like that Carl's Jr. receipt). I love my siblings to death, but some things about them annoy me to no end.

About all you can do at this point is hope like hell something gives soon. I do hope something good happens in Nikki's favor(she's really beautiful, BTW). Just live by the following rules: Never back down. Never quit. Never give up. She needs you.

And your point is what exactly? :huh:

:thinking: I am now wondering the same thing. I would understand Octavian not wanting to inadvertently sever ties with his brother, but is Nikki is given up to a shelter, that leaves Octavian the window to adopt her. I don't think spaying will change the way he feels about her. It wouldn't be easy to explain to his brother, though. That would open up another can-o-worms.

His first point is very valid, because if calling his landlord backfires and causes my brother to not allow me to see Nikki again...what would happen to her? Right back to poor food, filthy water, no exercise, not to mention no love or affection. That's the worst possible outcome I think. Of course, this would cause me to simply steal her. She isn't registered or microchiped and I have about 20 people willing help me hide her, dog park people are awesome by the way.

If he surrendered the dog to a shelter rather than hand her over to me, on the other hand, I would pretty much be done with him all together. Because that's just spiteful. Hopefully, I would be able to get her back spayed or not. I don't really care about that, as long as she is happy and healthy and with me.

On a side note, when he got her from the local shelter he payed an extra $100 that would be returned upon proof of spay. He was too lazy to take her to the vet, so she remains unaltered due to his laziness. Finally, his laziness was beneficial. ;)

Ahhhh...point taken. I suck at reading context sometimes.

Hmmmm...makes me wonder if any shelters around here do the same... :thinking:

This post has been edited by jeepdog89 on Oct 18 2009, 03:10 AM

Around her the SPCA requires spay/neuter before adoption, but the smaller local shelter is optional you just sort of pay for the surgery up front, but get the money back if you bring proof of alteration. Call around to a smaller shelter and ask. Or would that attract the wrong kind of attention? :thinking:

That's what I'm afraid of...attracting too much attention, with as little experience as I have owning a dog period. Although I could use lack of knowledge as an excuse...."I was just asking questions, and The Price is Right suddenly came on..."

Anyhow, hope things turn out alright.