Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I have been busy with non-fostering related Christmas activities, so I do not have a lot to share. Some happy news though - all of the Australian Shepherd puppies have now been adopted! Also, one of my favorite Heartland dogs was adopted on Christmas Eve. George, an Aussie/Shepherd mix, has been in foster care for awhile. He was very shy around new people, so even though he was very cute and a great dog, he took a little longer than most to find a home. I was very happy he found a home with a great family who had adopted from Heartland before.

I have very little to report on my current fosters. Duncan, my chocolate lab puppy, didn't go to PetSmart last weekend because we had received an application from someone who had to work last Saturday and wasn't able to meet him until Sunday. I took him over to their house on Sunday night, and Duncan did great with their dog. However we talked again about the time commitment of house-training, and the couple, both of whom work long hours, wisely opted to wait and look for an older dog. So Duncan will be making his PetSmart debut tomorrow! Noelle and Tulsa will be there too. Tulsa is doing so well at my house - she was a bit of a challenge the first time I fostered her, but her last family did a great job with her and now that she's over a year old (instead of a six-month-old puppy), she is almost perfect! We don't have to crate her anymore, so she has the run of the house with Remi, and she never has accidents or destroys anything while we're not home. It is nice to be able to leave her out and not have to worry about her while we're gone.

It was a nice Christmas present to hear from a couple of past adopters. First, the couple who adopted Coal (now named Murphy) sent me some pictures of him and their other dog Lexi. I love seeing how well they're doing. Coal was scared of everything when he came into foster care. He wouldn't go outside - he wouldn't even get off the spot on the couch where he curled up when I first brought him home. Every noise and motion scared him, and he spent most of his time in a quivering ball, looking just like a lump of coal. I worked with him a bit, and then his new adoptive family worked with him a lot more, and today he is such a happy, wonderful dog. That's Coal on the right and Lexi on the left.


I also received a nice letter from the couple who adopted Elvis, one of my previous foster dogs. Elvis was a bit like George - very shy around new people, especially men. It also took him awhile to find a home, but I'm glad to report that the perfect people came along and he is doing wonderfully with them. Here is Elvis, waiting patiently for Santa. I hope he had some extra-yummy dog treats in his stocking!