Doobie was adopted!

Great news - my previous foster cat Doobie, who went to another foster home earlier this month, was adopted! His foster family fell in love with him and decided to keep him, so he now has a wonderful new home with them, and will never have to go to another new place again.

Also, Bugsy is now staying up at PetSmart, so people will see him during the week and hopefully he will find a home that way. I miss him, but its kind of nice to have a few days with no cats in the house. I have plans to take two more cats in sometime later this week probably.

And here are some new pictures of my current dogs...

Here is Tulsa using Remi's front legs as a pillow.


Here is Remi drinking out of his water dish, and Duncan drinking out of his water dish underneath.



I show you these pictures, so that when you see the next pictures, you'll believe me when I tell you all the dogs get along great and they were just playing!! :-)

Here is a picture of all the dogs trying to see how long they had to all bark at the same time before I lost my mind. In case you're wondering, it didn't take long!



Here's another picture of the dogs playing. I think Duncan's whole head would fit inside Remi's mouth!


Here are pictures from PetSmart today. This is normally a very slow week for adoptions due to the holidays, and the stormy weather all day didn't help! It was very quiet, and Duncan (on the left) and Noelle (on the right) both had a lot of time to nap.



Tulsa, on the other hand, doesn't do well at Petsmart. She barks loudly at every dog she sees - even her friends that she lives with. She has to stay covered up to keep her from barking non-stop, but as you can imagine, that doesn't get her much attention. There is Tulsa, behind the crate with the striped blanket on it. You can't actually see her in this picture, but she's there.

Not surprisingly, no one even looked at her today. A few people looked at Duncan, but he wasn't adopted. However it was Noelle's special day - she received two applications for adoption! We have to wait and make sure that her new family can have a pit bull mix, since some insurance companies don't allow them, but hopefully she will be getting adopted within the week. Well, I hope so for her sake, but I will really hate to see her go.

Here is a picture of Duncan and Tulsa, sleeping after they got home. Adoption days usually tire them out - even though they're stuck in their crates most of the time we're at PetSmart, they still use a lot of energy checking out all the excitement of new people and new dogs, so Saturday nights they usually sleep well. Here they stretched out for a nap at my feet while I typed on the computer.

About me and my fosters

For anyone new to the blog, here's a quick review:

My name is Laurie, I'm married to Dave, I have a step-daughter named Rachael who lives with her mom in Alabama and visits during holidays and summers, and we have a dog named Remi. Remi is 3 years old, and he's a Harlequin (black and white) Great Dane, 150 lbs, and a big baby. I also have a lot of extended family who get to listen to me talk about my foster animals every time they see me. At least so far they've avoided adopting any of my fosters from me - but someday I'm going to change that!

I foster dogs and cats for Heartland Humane Society in O'Fallon, Missouri. I started fostering a year ago (October 2007) when I decided that Remi needed a friend, and found that it was fun and rewarding to provide a revolving door of various friends for him to play with until they found their own homes.

Here are my current foster dogs:

Noelle - terrier mix (maybe bull terrier or Staffordshire terrier mix), 6 months old, very sweet. Noelle is wonderful - we have seriously considered adopting her ourselves several times, but have decided not to, since it would take up the space of another foster dog, and there are so many dogs who need foster homes to help prepare them for adoption. Noelle is one of the most loving, affectionate dogs I've ever had. She has been going to obedience classes and is learning many different sign language commands, because she is deaf. She is a very laid back, low energy dog, and loves to cuddle.

Duncan - Chocolate Lab mix - 3 months old, very smart. Duncan is a happy energetic puppy. He hasn't grasped the concept of house training or crate training yet, so that's a constant work in progress. He loves to play with Noelle, and he loves to be around people.

Tulsa - Australian Cattle Dog (aka Blue Heeler). Tulsa is 1 year old. She is already house-trained (HUGE bonus for foster parents) and loves to be petted. She is a high energy dog - her breed was originally created to herd cattle, which required a high energy dog that could run for hours. Tulsa loves to run and play, and will nip at the other dogs and play tag with them for as long as they can keep up with her. Tulsa is deaf, and some people think that deaf dogs don't bark, but Tulsa would be happy to prove you wrong. Many times when she plays with the other dogs, she begins to bark, and when I ask her to be quiet, she just looks at me like "why would you ask me that?" As a friend of mine said recently - "She can’t help it mom, she just doesn’t know how loud she really is… :-) "

And my current foster cats:

Doobie - Good news - Doobie has a new foster home! He is such a loving affectionate cat, and he was scared of Tulsa so he spent most of his time lately hiding. Another foster home offered to take him, and since they don't have any scary dogs, he was very happy to go.

Bugsy - I haven't introduced Bugsy yet, because I'm waiting to get a picture. I will tell you more about him in a future post.

It's quite interesting to live in a house with two deaf dogs. I know several people do it, and I didn't really expect it to change anything when Tulsa came to my house, since I was already used to having one deaf dog. So I was surprised to find it did make a small difference to have two deaf dogs. The difference is when two of my dogs are playing, I can usually just say something to the hearing dog and thereby get both of their attention. If Remi and Noelle are playing and they're getting a bit too enthusiastic, I'll just say "Hey, easy" and Remi will stop and look at me, then Noelle will stop and look at me (at which point she sees me looking at her and she usually comes running to me) and then they'll settle down. But if Tulsa and Noelle are playing, there's no way to get their attention short of moving into their line of vision or touching them to get them to notice me. Other than that though, there's not a lot of difference. It's so cool to hold a treat, and give the sign for sit (without saying a word) and watch all four dogs (even Duncan!) sit for a treat. I guess if nothing else, I've taught them to beg rather well. :-)

I'm hoping for a good adoption day at PetSmart this week. Duncan still needs another vaccination, so he won't be able to go, but Noelle and Tulsa will be there. I'll also help bring some dogs from another foster home to PetSmart for the day. Kermit will be there!! Please pray he gets a home for Christmas - he's been waiting such a long time. If you don't know about Kermit, visit Kermit's Page. We'll have several puppies there also, and hopefully many will find homes again this week.

Update on Noelle's Training Session

Noelle had her second training class last night, and she seemed to have taken a step backward since her first class. I think this is due to two things - first, I missed a few days of working on her training while I wasn't feeling well. Second, I took her for a 15 minute walk before her training class. Now, you may wonder why a 15 minute walk would influence how she did during class? Let me give you a few examples of how class went (of course, I was using hand signs whenever I was speaking to Noelle)...

Trainer: Okay, let's see her do a sit-stay.
Me: Noelle, sit.... stay.... no, don't lay down...come on, back up.... stay.... no, sit up.... stay... look, here's this yummy treat right above your nose, just follow it back up to a sit position.... no, don't lay back down!

Trainer: Hmmm...okay, how about a down-stay.
Me: Noelle, down..stay... ... watch me.... no, put your head up so you can see me... watch me... here i am, watch me... look, I have yummy food.. no don't close your eyes... noelle, wake up!

We actually worked on a new command - "leave it" - she saw a treat, saw the trainer put her hand over it... sniffed her hand for a second, then put her head down on top of the trainers hand and fell asleep. It was hilarious! This dog is the laziest dog I have ever met in my entire life - and she's only 6 months old! The trainer asked me to not take her for any more walks immediately preceding her scheduled training session. :-)

In other news, Joy is learning so quickly. She is house-trained now and so well-behaved. She has started sleeping on the bed with Noelle and Remi and and Doobie and me at night, and she is just like Remi - she tries to lay in the middle of the bed and stretch out as much as possible. Fortunately she's quite a bit smaller than Remi so I still have some room left over. Joy's favorite thing to do is to stalk the cats. She'll happily spend an hour or more just sitting and watching the hallway, waiting for a cat to appear so she can sneak up on it. Doobie doesn't mind - he just looks at her and ignores her. Montelle definitely minds, but sometimes I think he's just playing with her too, because he has plenty of opportunity to get away from her and usually just stays out and taunts her.

We're all going to PetSmart again this Saturday, and I hope one of my foster cats gets adopted. Okay, I'd love one of my foster dogs to get adopted too, but right now they're my Christmas dogs (Joy and Noelle, get it?) and it'd be fun to still have them around for Christmas! :-) I'm playing a game where everytime I'm with them and a Christmas song comes on, if I hear their name, they get a treat. Joy really likes the song "Joy to the World" and Noelle's favorite is "The First Noel". Silly I know, but I amuse myself rather easily. :-)

Introducing Joy and Montelle

Yesterday I went to see Sammy, the pit bull puppy at animal control, and found out they had just released him to another rescue group. This was great news, because the family who was interested in him didn't show up, and I know the group he went to will make sure he goes to a good home.
So after I left the shelter, I went up to PetSmart - because it was Saturday and I can't stay away! One of the dog fosters was there with dogs for adoption. She recently took in several puppies to foster, and I know they are a LOT of work. I thought about offering to take in some of those puppies, but I didn't think I could handle that (plus, my husband would kill me). :-) So I offered to take Joy, one of her other foster dogs right now, to hopefully lighten her load a little bit. I fell in love with Joy after visiting her in her foster home several weeks ago. She was this great puppy with a lot of energy who was very shy! She was afraid to come to me and would run and hide behind the bushes. Her foster mom has been working with her a lot, and Joy has improved so much. Now she is not shy at all, and she's been crate-trained, and is a joy to foster. (get it? I amuse myself.) :-) Anyway, here is my newest foster dog Joy:

She's so sweet - I just love her. She is having a great time playing with Noelle. And she does well with Remi too. Here is Joy and Remi, my own dog. Well, that's his head, anyway... he looks kind of silly since you can't really see his body. :-)

Since I had the camera out, I took some more pictures of Noelle too.

And here are all three dogs (Remi, Noelle and Joy) playing together. I like having one black dog, one white dog, and one black and white dog - its very symmetrical. :-)

I know they look like they're trying to kill each other, but really no dogs were harmed in the making of these photographs - they're just playing!

Also, here is a picture of Rudy, my current house-guest. He is just staying for a week while his foster mom is gone. He is doing so well - he likes to sit in my lap and cuddle all the time. I'm sure he'll be glad to get back to his foster home though, because Noelle keeps trying to play with him and he does not appreciate that.

While I was at PetSmart I also asked one of the other cat fosters if I could have another cat to foster. I really like getting cats from someone who already fosters them because that way they have already been to the vet and had everything done for them. They can just come and live at my house until they get adopted, which gives extra space to the original foster home, and also sometimes gives us more information on that foster cat and how they do with dogs, if they didn't have dogs in their original foster home. So anyway, Jeana let me take home one of her fosters, a cat named Montelle. I believe he was part of a litter that was originally named after various talk show hosts. He is a really pretty all black cat, and he is very affectionate. He even gives me hugs! But he's still not too sure about the dogs, so he's spending most of his time in the cat room, complaining (meowing) loudly about having to live in a house with dogs! He's starting to come out occasionally now so hopefully within a few days he will be more comfortable. Here is a picture of Montelle. He had a cold when he was younger, so one of his eyes is a little runny, but it doesn't seem to cause him any problems, and it doesn't require any special care. It might make him harder to adopt out, but then again it might not, since it makes him different, and that can draw in people like me who want to give the special ones good homes. :-)

And finally, here's my last foster - Doobie. He is doing very well - he got used to all the dogs, and sleeps on my pillow every night! He is so funny because he snores, but it sounds more like he's singing, or humming, than snoring. He's a very musical kitty, I guess. He also doesn't meow like most cats - he opens his mouth and you can kind of see him saying "meow" but all that comes out is a very quiet squeak - its very cute.

Update on Noelle and Rudy

Noelle just completed her first obedience class! It was more of an evaluation actually. The trainer, from Positive Paws Pet Training (http://www.positivepawstraining.com/) was very nice and I'm really looking forward to working with her. Next week we start our first official class of the four week program.

It has been really quiet with no other fosters except Noelle and Doobie right now. But not for long - one of my old fosters is coming back to visit for a week! Rudy (previously named Ray - sorry Mom, I know you hate when their names change) is a Pekingese that came from a breeder several months ago. He has some problems with his eyes, and so he has been in foster care ever since we took him in. I had him at my house for a short time, but couldn't devote the time he needed to care for his eyes, so another Heartland volunteer took him home. She has been caring for him and spoiling him rotten. :-) I am going to get to keep him for a week while she is out of town, and I can't wait to see him again!

Also I will be missing the adoption event at PetSmart on Saturday because I'm going to see about another dog who needs help. Sammy is a pit bull puppy at a municipal shelter who is almost out of time. I first saw him at the shelter several weeks ago when I got Noelle. He was such a sweet dog, and he looked at me and did this little happy dance, and I fell in love. I hated to leave him behind, but I had too many other fosters at the time and couldn't take him. Now that some of my fosters have been adopted, I'm hoping to foster Sammy if he still needs it. He had a family interested in him and they are going to visit him Saturday morning, so if that works out he won't need me. But if they don't adopt and he is out of time, I will probably bring him back home with me on Saturday.

Molly, Pepsi & Ginger were adopted!

It was a very good adoption day for me on Saturday - three of my four foster dogs were adopted! Molly went to a family with kids, who decided they were ready for a dog. She seemed very happy with them! Ginger's new family also has two kids, and a mom who had a hard time deciding whether to adopt Ginger or Pepsi. They're both such good puppies, but she finally decided Ginger would be a better fit with her family. That actually worked out well, because shortly after that my cousin came by, and fell in love with Pepsi. So I'm so glad they adopted her - now I'll be able to hear how she's doing in the future! We also had several other foster dogs adopted this weekend - it was a good week for everyone.

That leaves me with just Noelle at home. Oh, and my foster cat Doobie. He decided to hide just before it was time to leave for PetSmart, and even though I searched the house for 20 minutes, and checked all the usual cat hiding spots, I couldn't find him. So he got to skip adoption day this week. After I got home on Saturday night, he was in his usual spot on the bed, pretending like he'd been there all along - so I still don't know what new hiding spot he discovered!

One of the nice things about fostering is that I can take a break in between fostering dogs whenever I want to. So that's what I'm doing now... at least for a few weeks probably. I will still have lots of news to report on other Heartland foster dogs though! And of course I'll keep fostering Noelle, too. I've enrolled her in some private dog training classes, and the trainer is coming out on Thursday night to my home for her first class. If I foster Noelle long enough, I'd like to get her CGC Certification. That is a Canine Good Citizen award - it is given by the AKC for any dog who passes a 10-part test that shows they can perform basic obedience and are well-behaved in various social situations. For more information, go to http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/index.cfm. I plan to learn to train Noelle through these private lessons, and then be able to train other fosters to earn their CGC on my own in the future. I hope it will help some of the hard-to-adopt dogs to be adopted more quickly. Oh, and for those of you who support Heartland, I just want you to know that I'm paying for the classes myself. So if you think its a waste of money to train a foster dog, now you know it's my money and not any that you have donated to Heartland. :-) I have arranged with the trainer to allow me to take these classes, working toward the CGC, with whatever foster dog I have at the time. So while I plan to especially work with the harder to adopt dogs (like Noelle, since she's deaf), I also won't let it interfere with them being adopted if a perfect home comes along - I'll just get another hard-to-adopt dog to train and pick up with the classes where I left off! I'm still going to school for a Dog Training diploma, and a Shelter & Rescue Work diploma, but that will still take me a few years before I'm done, so in the meantime I want to get some extra hands-on help with training. Remember, i've only been a dog owner for a couple of years, and have NEVER taken a dog training class! My own dog Remi came to us already having attended several levels of obedience classes before we adopted him, so there was never really a need. I'm self-taught - having read every book I can get my hands on - and I've developed a lot of confidence in working with several of the dogs I've fostered over the past year. But sometimes it just makes a huge difference to see certain training techniques demonstrated, or to watch how someone solves a particular problem that a dog has. So I'm really looking forward to these classes.

My latest news - yesterday I went with another HHS foster volunteer to pick up some puppies. The owners dogs had two unplanned litters of puppies - 12 of them altogether! So we went and got them and took them back to the foster volunteer's house. On the way home, we saw two dogs running loose on highway 61. They looked like they were going to get hit by a car, so of course we stopped and tried to help. One of the dogs ran back up the embankment, and even though we went after it, we weren't able to find it. We were able to rescue the other dog, and since we knocked on doors of homes in the area but couldn't find her owners, she came home with me last night. This morning I was able to call the vet where her rabies tag was registered, and contact the owner. They came and picked her up, and they were very happy to get her back. Their other dog, the one who ran away from us, also made it back home safely, so it was a happy ending all-around!

Introducing Kermit & Doobie; Nacho was adopted!

Nacho, my little orange guy, was adopted tonight! So all of my orange kittens have now found homes. Also, Linguini, my very affectionate black cat that I borrowed from another foster mom, was adopted yesterday. So it's been a great week for cat adoptions for me - I only have one cat foster left! His name is Doobie, and here is his picture:


I also temporarily brought home another foster dog named Kermit recently. You may have heard me talk about Kermit before - he's become my latest project. :-) Kermit is a great dog who's been waiting a really long time for his own home. He has a neurological disorder which causes him to have poor balance. That, plus the fact that he's a big black dog, means he is often overlooked. He's been at his foster home for a very long time now, so his foster mom asked me if I wanted to see how he'd do in a new environment. I am happy to report he did great. He got along well with the other dogs and cats, and he even learned to handle stairs! He had zero accidents in the house, and was an all-around great foster for me. He only stayed at my house for about a week, since I have several other foster dogs right now. But now we can update his bio online, and hopefully that information will help him to find a new home. Here are a couple of pictures of Kermit from when he was at my house this past week:



While I was downloading pictures, I once again was surprised to find that my husband took a few photos while I wasn't home. It's always interesting to see what he takes pictures of. Here are a couple of his latest pictures...



Aren't they cute? I think this is more proof that he drugs them when I'm not there. :-) That's Ginger at the top, then Pepsi, and Noelle at the bottom. They're sleeping on the mattress that we have in our bedroom to use as Remi's bed. Remi is my Great Dane - he's 150 lbs and even though he usually sleeps in our bed whenever he can get away with it, sometimes my husband makes him go over to his own mattress. :-)

Lot of cat adoptions!

Many of my cat fosters were adopted this week! Blaze and Astro were adopted on Friday night, and Jester and Cheeto were adopted on Saturday. That just leaves me with Nacho (last orange kitten), Linguini (black cat hopefully being adopted by someone tomorrow!) and Doobie - a cat that I haven't even introduced yet. :-) I talked about Doobie before - he was taken by another volunteer when he was out of time at an area shelter, and now that I have room for him, he came to live with me until he can be adopted. I just got him a few days ago so I will get his picture and tell you more about him soon.

All of my foster dogs went to PetSmart on Saturday, but none of them were chosen to be adopted. We did have a couple other very exciting adoptions - Poppy, an older dog, was adopted! It's always good when one of our older dogs finds a home. Also Taz, another long-timer, was adopted. Taz has been waiting for his own home for a very long time - although he was spoiled to death in his foster home while he waited. :-) He had some problems with his ears so it took him a little longer to find a home. So our recent pattern of special needs and harder-to-place pets being adopted continues! I hope this happens for Kermit as well. Kermie, as I call him, is a special needs dog that has been in foster care for a very long time. He has a neurological disorder that makes it hard for him to keep his balance. I took him to my house late last week to see how he'd do in a new environment, with new dogs and cats, and to see if he could handle the stairs in our house. I'm happy to report he is doing wonderful. He gets along great with all the other dogs and cats, and he can even go up and down the stairs without a problem! He's had no accidents in the house at all - have I mentioned how nice it is to bring home a dog that's already house-trained? And he is so happy and friendly and easygoing. He hasn't fallen down and even though he walks a little bit funny, he is basically just a normal dog. So that's very exciting to know how well he can do when going into a new home - even one that has stairs - and I hope that he can find his own forever home soon. I will post a new picture of Kermit soon too.

Introducing Noelle, Pepsi, Ginger and Jester

I only went to the shelter to pick out one... maybe two at the very most. Somehow in the past two days I came home with three new dogs and one cat. The two new puppies are rather time intensive, so I haven't been able to take pictures of anyone yet. I'm hoping this weekend I will have time. I spent last night and this morning getting them bathed, fed and settled in. Well, I didn't bathe the cat - i'm not that crazy. But for those of you who voted to hear more details of fostering, here's how the two days went at my house.

Noelle, my new white pit bull puppy, came home from the shelter on Monday night. I left her in the car while I went inside and let Derby and Lacy out in the backyard. Then I put Remi in the bedroom, and carried Noelle into the house, and straight to the bathtub. I like to give them baths before they touch anything just in case they're carrying any germs or viruses. She got a bath, which she didn't particularly like, and then got to come out and meet my husband. He wasn't happy about me bringing home a deaf dog, but once he met her he fell in love just like I did. She then went down to the basement to hang out with him, while I let the other dogs back in upstairs, and the night proceeded with a pretty normal schedule (feeding, playing, etc). When I went down to check on her later, she was curled up on a blanket, looking very content. The great thing about her being deaf is she is happy to hang out in the basement while my husband is working. He is finishing the basement (putting up walls, building a bar, etc) and it is a noisy place to be, but she didn't mind at all! :-)
Yesterday I left work and went to the shelter where I got Noelle to return a leash I had borrowed. I then saw five cats that were going to be put down this morning. I couldn't leave them there! But I couldn't take them either - my husband really dislikes cats. I also only had one cat playpen where I could quarantine a cat while it was being prepared for adoption. So, I picked out one that I fell in love with the moment I saw him, and took him in spite of what my husband wanted. I then cried over another cat that was so sweet and loving that I couldn't take. He was a long haired white cat, and reminded me a lot of Spock, one of my own cats that died in the past year. Another Heartland volunteer who was at the shelter with me must have felt sorry for him, and for me, and took him home with her. So thanks to her, we were able to save two of those cats that wouldn't be alive right now otherwise. I've named the cat I took home Jester. He is a cinnamon colored cat. He seems very friendly and purrs when I pet him or hold him. That's about all I know about him so far! :-)
Once I left that shelter, I went to the other shelter where I had signed up for two dogs previously. I got them both - one is a female pit bull puppy, dark brindle, with lots of energy - I've named her Pepsi. The other is a female Jack Russell Terrier mix puppy - she is super sweet, kind of shy, and so cute! The shelter had named her Ginger, so I'm keeping that name. She is white with brown patches. So the cat and both dogs came home with me last night. Once again, they waited in the car while I went in and let out the other dogs. Then Jester came in and went into the extra cat playpen. Both puppies got baths, and neither of them appreciated it very much. They are now in separate exercise pens in the basement, during their "quarantine". This is my least favorite part of bringing home new fosters - I just hate quarantining them. But, I don't want the other dogs or cats to get sick either, so I do understand the need for it. Hopefully this week will go by quickly.
Hunter will be here tomorrow night - I can't wait to see him again. I am already counting on him being my footwarmer at night - he always used to sleep at the end of the bed and keep my feet warm for me, so I'm hoping he does that again. :-) And then this weekend is PetSmart, and I'm hoping my orange kittens will be ready to go get adopted. They go to the vet tomorrow, so we'll see!