The Lady... Tiffany

How do you catch a stray dog?
Some simply call it to them.
Some use a trap.
Some offer food.

When my brother & his co-workers at an auto repair shop saw Tiffany, they offered her food. Hamburgers, I think. She refused, as her trust in humans was non-existent. She would only run and grab the food when they were not nearby. She then ate it under nearby cedar trees.

Finally, after weeks of trying, on January 26, 2002, she cautiously approached and ate the food they offered while they were there leading to their catching her.

When she was brought to the vet, she tested positive for heartworm.
She was immediately put on a heartworm treatment program to kill the heartworm.
The heartworm treatment takes some time and offers no promises.
Tiffany was lucky. She survived her heartworm ordeal.

The vet guessed her to be about 2 years old and obviously a mother, at least once.

Her breed was a whole other story.
People have speculated about what she is from the first time anyone laid eyes on her.
The obvious, a Finnish Spitz, probably means she doesn't have an ounce of it in her, as I later found out with another new addition, a kitten now named Bonnie. You'll just have to come back to read about her and why I now know... just because a critter looks like a specific breed doesn't mean it is!

Some believe, because she has one small black spot on her tongue and her red color can only mean she has Chow Chow in her.

Her foxy appearance also leads one to make the assumption she is a coy-dog, coyote dog mix. I am not so sure about this, as I have heard you can not have a coyote or a coy-dog with cats. Coyotes & cats are supposedly mortal enemies because you cannot stop a coyote from thinking of a cat as prey. Well, Tiffany absolutely loves cats. So much so, she thinks she can mother the kittens and play with all of them. Her favorites are Punkin, Dusty (not yet bio-ed here) and the newest addition, Bonnie (also not yet bio-ed here).

Another guess is possibly something along the lines of a Sheltie.

After knowing the parents of Bonnie and seeing what pure breed she appears to be, I would be curious to know the parentage of each of the critters, as I have often wondered "what's in them"!
To know just what I am speaking of, you will just have to keep checking back for when I get little Bonnie listed. I can say this, she is the newest member of The Critter Gang and there are 5 critters in front of her waiting for their bio's.

As for Tiffany, she has made some social improvements, but I don't get to give her a lot of one on one with so many critters. She does walk a little on a leash, but she still panics near parked cars causing her to try to scoot under them to hide. She is still very skittish with noises and unexplained things. She has improved on her human contact though. A huge improvement, as she will actually come out to visit with people who come over. She still has a hard time on linoleum floors. She has learned how to take a treat (human food) from a fork.