Raven was adopted!

My foster puppy Raven was adopted on Saturday. Chip doesn't even seem to realize she's gone. When I foster puppies that young I like to expose them to as many new things as possible. Puppies who meet a lot of different people and a lot of different animals, and experience a lot of different places and things will generally do better in new situations as they get older. There's a trade-off because puppies that young can be at a higher risk of disease since their immune system isn't fully developed, so I can't just take them to the park or the store to meet people. I have one friend, another Heartland volunteer, who has been great about coming over everytime I have puppies to help me socialize them. She came over on Friday so both Raven and Chip got to meet another new person. We also took Remi and Noelle for a walk around the neighborhood. I've been working on teaching Noelle to use a Gentle Leader collar instead of a regular collar, since she pulls so hard on the leash. She's still getting used to it though, and Friday she tried several times to get it off, and in the process she scraped her nose on the concrete. I kept teasing her that she was just trying to be a red-nosed pit bull (some pit bulls have red noses instead of black noses, and some people prefer this for looks). Fortunately her nose is looking much better today! We tried to take Kai on a walk also - she's getting better, and she'll actually walk farther now on a leash than she ever has, but we still could only get her to go about two houses down from mine before she got overwhelmed and stopped walking. Every time she goes a little bit farther though, and its rewarding to watch her improve.

Another volunteer stopped by yesterday to drop off a leash attachment she made for Noelle (hooray - another new person for Chip to meet!). And after that a third Heartland volunteer came over to help me with my kitten fosters. We rearranged the locations of a bunch of them, and she spent hours helping me clean and move everybody. My Sea Litter (Cilla, Capri, Caboose and Chessie) are now staying in the living room, and they're having a blast running around and exploring the new location. Kai and Noelle are really enjoying them too! Chip doesn't seem to mind them either way - he'll play with them but then he gets distracted by a toy or a piece of string or a noise and he forgets all about them. It's not that he's not smart - but he has a shorter attention span than a kitten - and that's saying something! He's the first to stick his nose into every open door or cabinet or drawer and check things out, but he doesn't get himself into too much trouble because by the time I get to him, he's already moved onto something else!