Happily Ever Afters

Sometimes we all need to hear about the Happily Ever Afters.  When things are tough, it always helps to remember why we work so hard to save homeless animals.  The reward of seeing them with their new family, or in their new home, makes the work and the heartache of rescue worth it.  

This is Amber the Pointer mix with her girls.  She's a happy dog, and her family says everyone who meets her just loves her.  

And this is Scout (now named Henry) the Beagle/Shih Tzu/Brussels mix with one of his girls.  He's a very snuggly 43 pounds!

And then there's Casey.  He is loving his life with his best friend Noel the cat.  Casey started out being rescued after being hit by a car and having both of his front legs crushed.  He had steel plates put in his legs, and had a long recovery.  He also had to recover from a tick-borne disease and heartworms.  It was expensive to save him, and a lot of work to nurse him back to health (thanks Leslie!), but he's so happy in his new life and it makes all of the work worth it.

These stories give me hope.  And right now, I need hope.  I have to believe that Shelby will pull through and get her own Happily Ever After too.  Last week Shelby tested positive for heartworms, so she'll need several months of heartworm treatment before she'll be ready for adoption.  That made me sad for her, because heartworm treatment is painful for dogs.  But then to make matters much worse, she started having seizures on Wednesday.  I knew she had a history of seizures before she was turned into a shelter, but she had not had any problems until Wednesday.  I woke up when she had a seizure while lying next to me, and immediately called the vet.  Shelby then went outside and crawled under the deck.  I couldn't get to her so left her there until it was time for her vet appointment.  I still couldn't get to her and she just stood there looking confused but wouldn't come to me so I finally had to break out the wood lattice under the deck to get to her.  We went to the vet and they started her on seizure medicine.  Then a few hours later she had another seizure.  And after the vet closed, she had three more seizures, each one worse than the last.  She had convulsions, emptied her bladder and bowels, did paddling of her limbs, and ended up stumbling around in circles, running into things and doing "head pressing" where she would press her head against a wall for long periods of time.  At midnight we went to the emergency clinic where they gave her more drugs.  She stayed there and I went home alone.  She had more seizures at the emergency clinic, and between seizures is still not herself.  She's temporarily blind and still confused and hurting.  We aren't sure if the seizures are caused by a brain tumor or something else, but at this point we just have to wait and see.  She may come out of it with no ill effects, or she may end up with permanent brain damage, or she may not make it.  I'm worried about my girl.  I so much want her to have her Happily Ever After.  

Introducing Ashlyn

Amber the Pointer mix was adopted last weekend!  I also managed to find the cutest puppy in the world (yes, really!) and I stole her from another foster home.  It's true - I used my amazing powers of persuasion to convince another foster home that this puppy should come live with me for awhile.  It was selfish, but I couldn't resist this face!

Ashyln is a nine week old pit bull puppy.  She's extremely cute and so small.  I haven't been able to stop carrying her around since I brought her home.  In fact, when I volunteered at a garage sale fundraiser this weekend, I carried her around in a sling most of the time:

She seemed to love it. She enjoyed all of the attention as well!

In addition to looking adorable, Ashlyn is a true entertainer.  If you're having a bad day, just watch this video of Ashlyn at the garage sale playing with a toy bigger than she is!

They Come And They Go

Except for Ziggy of course.  He came and refuses to leave, no matter what I do.  But the others come in and sometimes leave sooner than I expect.  I thought Oreo the American Bulldog would be a tough one to place due to his breed and the fact that he wasn't house-trained.  But as soon as I put him on the Internet, applications started coming in.  He received three applications in one week, and last week he went on a trial adoption with his new family.  I also thought that Amber the Pointer mix would be adopted before Sox the Border Collie/Basset mix.  I was wrong again - Sox was adopted to a wonderful family last week.  Amber is still waiting, although she does have an interested family who may adopt her soon!  Lindsay the Aussie mix has also been adopted and is doing great in her new home.  This just leaves me with Chloe the often-upside-down pit bull, Bogey the feral and semi-hairless Shar Pei mix, Charlie the shy dog, Jefferson the obnoxious Shepherd mix, Amber the hopefully-soon-to-be-adopted Pointer mix, and of course Ziggy the Adoptable Dog.

Chloe will be receiving her final heartworm treatment tomorrow, and then will need four more weeks of rest and relaxation before being allowed to resume attending adoption events and running marathons.  Okay maybe not the marathons.  But she will be allowed to go to adoption events in four weeks.

Bogey is still afraid of me.  He loves to play with the other dogs, and he loves to play with toys, and he loves to collect things.  He'll go around the house and pick up any dog toys or blankets or anything else he can and hoard them in his crate.  He will not willingly come anywhere near me, and will move away if he notices that I'm looking at him.  I tell myself that he's making progress, but I'm really not so sure.

Charlie the unknown mix dog (breed guesses, anyone?) has completed his treatment for demodex manage and was given a clean bill of health at the vet.  He is doing great here, but when we go out he is still afraid of strangers - mostly males.  He loves hot dogs so we're starting "hot dog therapy" where strangers toss him small pieces of hot dog so he learns that when a man approaches him, good things are going to happen!

Jefferson is being his usual happy and obnoxious self.  He's now decided that cats are Public Enemy #1, and he feels obligated to bark non-stop whenever he sees one.  If possible, he will also chase and possibly chew on the cat.  I say possibly, because so far I've kept him from actually obtaining a cat - but in a house with five cats, he gets plenty of opportunity to observe and bark at them!

Amber is such a good girl.  She does really well with all the other dogs, and she loves to play.  She and Jefferson are a really good match - they are roughly the same size and have the same amount of energy, so they wear each other out quite well.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with Jefferson once Amber is adopted!

Ziggy is in BIG TROUBLE!  We had an incident where he decided to run across the room and down the hall in order to attack my cat Merlin, because he thought Merlin was going to go into his room.  Merlin ended up with a dislocated jaw, and Ziggy ended up with one more strike against him, since now he can no longer go to a home with cats.  In the past two years he's never attacked a cat, and typically ignores them altogether, so now that he's decided that cats are a threat who must be attacked to keep them from eating his food, it makes him even harder to adopt (and much harder to live with).  He already spends too many hours in a crate because he can't be out with other dogs - now I'll also have to rotate and make sure when he's out there are no cats around either.  Did I mention he's in Big Trouble?

Ziggy did not want me to tell you about this Most Dreadful Incident because he was embarrassed that he panicked and thought Merlin was there to steal all his stuff.  He did not mean to hurt Merlin and claims is very sorry for his bad behavior.  I have not completely forgiven him yet, since Merlin is still in pain and has to stay in a crate for two weeks while he recovers.  Merlin should make a full recovery though and my guess is that he will never, ever, go down that hallway to Ziggy's room again.  As for Ziggy, plans are in the works to build him his own room in the walk-out basement and fence in an area on the side of the house with a dog door in the basement door so he can have much more freedom and the other dogs and cats will not be forced to "time-share" the house and backyard. At this point, it's still just a dream, but several wonderful people have volunteered their time and expertise to make it happen, so hopefully it will one day be a reality!

Also, for any of you familiar with the All Paws dogs, you may remember that I occasionally fostered Toby, the Shepherd/Pointer/Hound mix.  He has been in foster care for a Very Long Time, and has caused more than his share of destruction and trouble.  He has a lot in common with Jefferson, as they both have goofy and obnoxious attributes.  But it finally happened - a lady who loves big, goofy dogs saw Toby on the Internet and ended up adopting him.  She says he is doing really well and she's very happy with him.  So sometimes there are Happy Endings even for the very special fosters like Toby!

And Then There Were Ten

Ten Adult Dogs.  All living here.  With me.  In this house.  At the same time.  Along with six cats.  Yesterday there were only six dogs here, and life was easy.  Now there are ten, and life is a little bit crazy right now.  Happy, fulfilling, even fun.  But also crazy.

It helps that several of the dogs and cats are short-term fosters.  Three of the cats are going back to their regular foster home by the end of the weekend.  And one of the dogs is pending adoption and should be gone in another week.  Another of the dogs is only staying through this weekend - I hope.  But in the meantime, my life involves a lot of rotating dogs in and out, and even rotating cats.  Here's what happened:

I was down to only six dogs, and all six were doing well.  I received the many e-mails that I always receive, with pictures and bios of dogs that are scheduled to be euthanized.  So I picked out one dog and offered to save her.  Then, I received a good application on Lindsay.  I figured she'd be adopted, and I could save another one, so I offered to take two of the eleven dogs on the e-mail.  I couldn't save them all, but I could save two.  This is how I ended up with Amber and Sox.

This is Amber.  She is a one year old Pointer mix.  She is house-trained and good with everyone.

And this is Sox.  She is also a year old, a Border Collie mix, and the happiest, most playful dog!

 



After agreeing to take these two, a friend told me about a Boxer mix at the local shelter.  He had been there for several months and since he wasn't yet adopted, he was scheduled to be euthanized.  My friend was upset because she really liked this dog.  I wanted so much to help her, but I was up to seven fosters (eight until Lindsay went to her new home).  I couldn't take another one - especially another large male dog who didn't have very good manners with other dogs.  So I talked to the shelter and offered to take the dog for just a few days to do a home evaluation.  This would give me a good idea of what he was like in a home, and help to network him to find a rescue or a foster home for him.  They were happy with this idea and this is why after picking up Amber and Sox from the volunteer who transported them from their animal control facility, I went to the shelter and picked up Sarge.

Sarge is a very large Boxer mix, who was turned in by his original owners because he was too big.  He's very sweet and lovable, and he's already house-trained.  He's okay with other dogs, but he does have some poor manners with them and tends to annoy them because he doesn't know how to interact properly.  He also seems to want to eat the cats.  I think with some training, and a home with no cats, he'll be a great dog. I'm hoping we can find someone willing to foster him or a rescue to take him so he doesn't have to go back to the shelter in a few days and then be euthanized.  If you're interested in helping, please spread the word - interested rescues or foster homes (foster homes must be local but rescues can be anywhere) can contact me at dogfostermom@aol..com for more information.

So at this point I've picked up three new dogs and I take Lindsay to her home visit with her potential adopters.  They want to adopt her, but need to wait another week before taking her.  So she comes back home with me and the three new dogs.  Back to the five other dogs waiting at home for me.  And then as I pull into the driveway and start unloading the car, this uninvited visitor showed up.

"I didn't know I needed an invitation!"

I've seen this dog hanging around for a couple of weeks, but he would never come to me before.  He waited until I filled up my house with new fosters and then decided it would be an excellent time to let me catch him.  So as I'm taking Lindsay out of the car and into the house, he walks right up to me and lets me pet him.  He was getting pretty skinny at this point and I didn't want to just turn him away, so he came in too.  I talked to the neighbors and they thought he'd been abandoned, and since he had no tags or microchip, that seems quite likely.  I live in an area with no animal control, so there was nowhere to take the dog even if I wanted to.  Dogs like him are often just left to starve or be killed by a car or a predator or sometimes they are shot by farmers and ranchers.  I am still looking for his owners, but chances are that this uninvited guest is staying for awhile.

"Can I live with you?"

Fortunately he's a sweet dog and gets along well with everyone.  I named him Oreo, and I've kind of already fallen in love with him.

Still, that puts me up to ten dogs, and lately I feel more like I'm living in a kennel than a home.  Some of the dogs can't be around each other so I have to do a lot of rotating outside for playtime and in their crates for meal-time/'sleeping.  Here's the list of "rules":

Chloe the pit bull can be out with anyone but must be supervised to make sure she keeps calm since she's undergoing heartworm treatment.
Jefferson the Shepherd mix can be out with anyone - he is very playful and gets along well with everyone
Lindsay the Aussie mix can be out with anyone except Ziggy and Sarge
Charlie the Terrier mix can be out with any girls or with Bogey or Jefferson.  He tries to push other dogs around so have to watch him around certain dogs.
Bogey the Shar-Pei mix can be out with anyone.
Ziggy the pit bull can be out with Jefferson, Bogey, or Chloe
Sox the Border Collie mix can be out with anyone except Ziggy - she's very playful and gets along well with everyone
Amber the Pointer mix can be out with anyone except Sarge, Oreo and Ziggy, but she's kind of shy so need to make sure she doesn't get overwhelmed by the other dogs.
Sarge the Boxer mix can be out with anyone except Ziggy and Charlie, but must be closely supervised to make sure he acts appropriately
Oreo the American Bulldog can be out with anyone except Amber because she's not spayed yet and he's not neutered yet.  Haven't tried him with Charlie or Ziggy because of potential conflict.


So as you can imagine, it's a bit of a challenge to keep everyone happy, and give them all the attention and play time that they want.  If the dog challenge isn't enough, I also have to rotate Murphy the cat out with Midnight and Merlin.  Murphy is being mean to the other cats, and I'm thinking he might need to be an only cat.  So in the meantime he has to stay in a separate room, or I have to make sure if he's out he can't get to Midnight or Merlin to attack them.  Hopefully he will find a permanent home soon, or even another foster home that has no other cats, and he'll get all the people attention that he wants.

At times like this, when I have so many fosters, I feel more like a "halfway house" than a foster home.  With the exception of Lindsay and Chloe who are never crated, the rest of the dogs are living a life where they get more attention and training and playtime than at a shelter, but less than they would in a regular foster home with just one or two fosters.  When I choose to save more, it comes at a price for the dogs I already have, and that is the tough choice.  If I didn't have these dogs though, they would be in a shelter or be euthanized, so I tell myself that they are all better off here even if I can't give them all the freedom they desire.  Still I want so much for them to go to an adoptive home or even a foster home where they can be totally spoiled.  Tomorrow is Adoption Day, so hopefully at least one of my fosters will find their forever home!