We had our adoption event at Petropolis last Saturday. It was a lot of fun, but also disappointing since we didn't have any adoptions, other than two pre-arranged adoptions. There were over 30 other rescue groups there, so there were many more dogs than there were people looking to adopt. We're hoping for better results in two weeks, at the Adopt-A-Stray event at Queeny Park. The two pre-arranged adoptions were for dogs that people saw at PetSmart in the past, but weren't able to take them home that day. One was Joey, a cute black lab who's been sick and is finally well enough to go to his new home. The other was for Herman, a very sweet beagle. Another dog foster mom was at PetSmart with her dogs over the weekend, and she also had two dogs adopted - Cookie and June. And Dixie was adopted during the week - so we have had some progress. We've also had a couple of returns, and a few new abandoned dogs that came in, unfortunately.
I think I posted previously about how Kiya and the puppies are having some problems - the vet thinks it may be ringworm. Which means yesterday I got to shave all five puppies and the mom, and then give them all medicated baths. My husband deserted me in favor of a Corvette car cruise, so I was on my own. It was quite a sight - me, who's never groomed or shaved a dog before, trying to figure out how to work the shaver, and hold the puppy still, and get the hair off without damaging the dog or myself. And then trying to bathe the puppy, and make sure it kept the medicated shampoo on for 10 minutes without licking it off, and then rinse the puppy, and dry the puppy. And since I don't have that much patience, I didn't want to do only one puppy at at a time - so I did them all 5 together! It went something like this...
Put 5 puppies in the bathtub... take out the first one, and shave it in the sink. Hold the puppy's fur down to shave it, realize I'm holding the shaver backwards and try again... realize the shaver is starting to get hot, and since I didn't have any Cool-lube stuff like they use at the groomers, I used some frozen food out of the freezer to cool down the blades. :-) Get the first puppy shaved, in the worst shaving job ever, and back into the tub it goes. Continue with the other four puppies - the last one looked much better than the first one. Now, time for baths... fill up the sink, wash the puppy, lather the medicated shampoo into the puppy, put the first puppy on the floor with some puppy food to distract it, and wash the second puppy. By the time I was done washing and shampooing the second puppy, the first puppy finished the food and wandered away. Get out more puppy food, corral both puppies and show them the food, and grab the third puppy to wash it. After shampooing the third puppy, I was ready to rinse the first puppy - but that wasn't so easy in the sink. So I take the last two puppies out of the bathtub, and rinse the first puppy in the bathtub. Puppies #2 and #3 have since fallen asleep on each other, fully lathered with shampoo, and puppies #4 and #5 are enjoying the remaining puppy food. I dry off puppy #1 and wrap him in a towel on the floor. Time to wash puppies #4 and #5. Puppies #2 and #3 are ready to be rinsed, so into the bathtub they go. Somehow they finally all end up clean, dry, and sleeping in towels on the floor. That took several hours - but I had to get the mom done before I quit for the day. So I attempted to shave Kiya. Believe it or not, she was worse than the puppies. She was scared and kept running away from the shaver. I couldn't hold her and shave her, so it was a challenge, and she probably kept a lot more hair than she should have. But she finally got shaved, shampooed, and dried also. And just think - they only need these medicated shampoos twice this week. Yikes. At least I don't have to shave them again (I hope). It was quite a learning experience! Its amazing that Kiya and these puppies can survive being fostered by me - I think they deserve really really good homes after what they've gone through. Kiya is so desparate for attention - she's a really good dog, and I wish I had more time to spend with her. The puppies also need more time than I give them - but at least they have each other. They come running to see me when I come downstairs, and they like to be held and petted. They are so adorable! I took some more pictures before I shaved them, so I'll try to add those soon.
Kiya and the puppies will be going back to their foster home soon. I'm just the temporary dogsitter, remember? :-). And Vala will also be going there, since I'll be on a vacation with NO dogs. I did find out we're going to be near Best Friends Animal Society, which is the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the country. So I talked my family into making a trip there - they give guided tours of the place - there are over 2,000 animals there! I'm more excited about that than I am about the rest of the trip. :-)
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