Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Introducing Daisy, and other news

It's been a busy few days! Saturday was a bit slow for dog adoptions, and once again neither Vala or Sam were picked. There was one dog returned due to her owner having medical issues. Daisy is a German Shepherd/Husky mix who was adopted out last December (she was named Elkie then). She's only about 7 months old now, and is a beautiful dog. I haven't had a chance to take her picture yet, so hopefully I'll get that and post it in the next day or two. She was very shy and overwhelmed by the other dogs, so I offered to take her to my house and help her get used to her new surroundings. To keep from having too many fosters, I let Sam go back to the main foster home. It was hard to let her go, but I went and visited on Sunday and saw that she was very happy and settled in immediately. Sam loves to play and isn't shy at all, so she loves having other new dogs to play with now. Daisy has quickly become a model dog - anyone thinking about fostering should sign up for her - she's practically perfect! :-) She likes to play with Vala, although she's still not sure about Remi. She's quiet and obedient and house-trained and affectionate. I am really enjoying having her around.

In other news, its been a long week with Kiya and the puppies. One of the puppies has an ear infection, but other than that they're all doing great. They've started sitting up, and walking around a little bit. They're very wobbly and fall over sometimes, or they'll nudge each other and knock each other over. It's so cute to watch. Kiya has been a bit of a challenge, as she needs to eat a lot to feed her puppies, and therefore needs to be taken outside a lot more often than other dogs. Since this isn't always possible to take her out every few hours, she has become an escape artist at getting out of her kennel to go as far away as possible. I can't blame her, I would want the smell as far from me as possible too! But instead of using the puppy pads that I've strategically placed around the basement in case she does get out, she prefers to find more interesting places to do her business. My husband's working on finishing our basement, so there's a lot of tools and construction items lying around. The tools are a favorite spot of hers. Also in boxes of spooled wire, inside a bookshelf that he built into the wall, and even on top of the extra-large container of Nature's Miracle stain/odor remover that was sitting on the floor (guess she told me!). It's been a losing battle on my part to keep her in her exercise-pen where she's staying with the puppies. First, she squeezed between the door and the side of the kennel. I blocked that off, and she managed to get under the kennel by pushing it into a corner and squeezing underneath. I blocked it in so she couldn't move it around, and she somehow lifted the whole thing straight into the air and got out underneath. I tied it down with bungee cords, and she started climbing over the top. I tried a blanket over the top yesterday, which didn't work, and this morning I tried a fitted sheet which will hold better than the blanket. If that fails, my husband offered to find me a piece of plywood to try next. Hopefully that will work!! It'd be funny if she didn't make such a big mess everytime she got out. :-)

In happier news, Murphy is coming back! Murphy, who used to be called Coal, is my favorite previous foster dog. Every now and then I get to dog-sit for him while his owners are gone, and this weekend is one of those times. I am so glad that his owners kept in touch and let me be his honorary aunt. I generally don't have favorite fosters - or actually, I tend to think of each one as my favorite whenever I'm around them. But Coal somehow snuck in and stole favorite dog forever spot in my heart. So I'm really looking forward to seeing him again.

And finally, there's Ella. She's the mother of the kittens that I fostered, and she's finally almost ready to be put up for adoption. She goes in to the vet tomorrow to get her vaccinations and be spayed, and then on Saturday she'll be moving up to PetSmart to find a home. There are some cats that live at Petsmart 24/7, and volunteers come in during the week to care for them. Ella will become one of those cats, and hopefully someone will see her during the week and fall in love with her and adopt her. She's a great cat, and I hope she finds a home quickly, although I hear it will be challenging during "kitten season".

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