The one-ear pose...it's the latest trend. (Wordless Wednesday)

Adoptions!

It has been a good weekend for adoptions. 

My orange cat Gandalf who has been living up at PetSmart found a home last week.  This also means Babette, the Persian cat who always glares at me, got to go stay at PetSmart so she can hopefully get more attention and find a permanent home soon!

Michaelangelo and DaVinci, two brothers who have been waiting for a home for awhile, were adopted together!  If two big black cats can find a home together, it gives me hope that someday Simon and Sampson, my two foster cats who need to stay together, will also find a home!

Four other cats were also adopted this week - Gidget, Sweetie, Toby and Cody! 

And most surprising of all is that Emma, my Labrador Failure Extraordinare, was also adopted!  She's on a two week trial adoption to see how she gets along with her new sibling cat, so I'm cautiously hopeful it will work out for her. 

Ziggy, on the other hand, was not adopted.  He had two different families come to see him, but he was not on his best behavior.  I am afraid Noelle got to him without me realizing it.  Not only was he extremely mouthy and difficult on Saturday, but he was extremely cuddly and sweet with me all day on Sunday.  That's exactly what Noelle used to do to make me fall in love with her and adopt her.  But this time I'm wise to their tricks - I'm not falling for it.  So Ziggy goes back to an adoption event next Saturday to try again!

Bath Time

Emma came to me in rather a smelly state.  She had lived her life mostly outdoors, and it showed...errr, smelled.  Bad.  So I decided a bath was in order.  No problem, right?  Labs like water.  This should be easy. 

My first clue came when I gave each of the other dogs a rawhide to munch on while I was busy with Emma, and lured Emma to the bathroom with her rawhide.  As soon as we started to enter the bathroom, she dropped the rawhide and tried to run away.  At this point there was no water present, no towels, nothing to indicate a bath was coming.  But the sight of the empty bathtub was enough to make her give up her treat and send her running for cover. 

No big deal, I thought.  I have given baths to at least 20 or 30 dogs, and 10 cats, most of whom did not wish to be bathed. I can handle an unhappy dog in the bathtub. So I went and got Emma, and picked her up and placed her in the bathtub.  Fortunately the tub is enclosed by sliding shower doors so she could not jump out. 

We started off easy.  She huddled at one end of the tub, and I turned on the water at the other end.  I got her a little bit wet, and the mud just ran off of her.  Then she figured out how to use her nose to open the sliding door and jumped out of the tub.  And shook herself - and muddy water - all over the bathroom. 

"Okay, I can handle this", I thought.  I put her back in the tub and tried again.  This time I got her covered with shampoo before she got out.  At this point she was a bit panicked.  She ran all over the bathroom trying to find a place to escape from the evil bathtub.  But I couldn't let her go with shampoo all over her - and unfortunately it was too cold out to just rinse her off with the hose outside.  So I got some beef treats, and we spent some time just hanging out in the bathroom while she calmed down.  She started coming to the tub and even would put her feet over the edge to get a treat from me.  But she wouldn't get back in.  It was getting late and I didn't think she'd make any more progress right then, so I decided to call in reinforcements.  Fortunately my husband Dave was home and he came in and helped me get Emma back in the tub.  Then he held the doors closed while I rinsed the shampoo off of her as best I could.  At that point I wasn't worried about her getting clean - I just wanted to get enough shampoo off that she could get out of there.  So a few minutes later we let her out of the bathtub, and she again did her freaked out running around and trying to escape.  She even jumped up into the bathroom sink at one point.  The dog is seriously scared of baths. 

So now I have a slightly cleaner dog that is a failure as a lab.  She won't fetch, and she doesn't like water.   Hopefully someone out there will want a slightly smelly Labrador Failure. 

Introducing Emma

I brought this new foster dog home with me on Saturday.  She was adopted out as a puppy but her owners were unable to keep her so they brought her back to us.  She is under two years old, so she still acts like a puppy sometimes.  She pretty much has two speeds.  On or Off.

The only way to get her to stop running is to start petting her.  Then she immediately rolls onto her back and becomes practically comatose. 

I think I like this dog. 

Emma was adopted!

Emma was adopted on Saturday! I miss her already. Noelle misses her too - she lost her favorite playmate.

It's been a rough week. There are a lot of illnesses going around, and sick animals are stressful not just because they take longer to care for and need more medicine and vet care, but also because we worry about them so much! My kitten Mercury from the Solar kittens has been sick, and I'm not sure what's wrong with him, so he goes to the vet later this week. Also the Disney kittens still have coccidia, and Marco may have an infection and also has to go back to the vet to get checked out.

And now, a joke that my niece told me last night (slightly modified to fit the situation...)

Imagine that you're caring for several sick animals. You don't get any sleep because you're constantly feeding, cleaning up after, mopping, cleaning litter boxes, medicating and caring for these pets. You can't take it anymore, so what do you do?






Stop imagining. :-D

Pictures of fosters

Finally took some quick photos of my fosters. Here are the four Disney kittens. Aurora, the tortoiseshell, is the biggest cuddler of the group. Ariel, the gray tabby with a white face, is the most outgoing, and possibly the fastest of the group. Anastasia is the loudest. She always cries out like she's being killed when I pick her up. But she's really very sweet most of the time - she cuddles up with me for naps. Aladdin, the only boy, is the best climber of the bunch - he can climb up on anything. This morning one of the kittens (I forget which one) climbed onto Emma's face. Fortunately she didn't mind... but that might be where the cut under her eye came from (and here I've been blaming Noelle or Remi).

Here are some new pictures of Emma. She's been shaved so she looks kind of silly, but her hair is starting to grow out, so she doesn't look as silly as she did at first. Or maybe I'm just getting used to the way she looks.

Here are Emma and Noelle playing. They love to wrestle and chase each other. In the second picture, Noelle is rolling over after Emma knocked her down and ran away. They really love each other. :-)

I met some semi-feral kittens last night. They're the opposite of my kittens, who've been bottle fed and are used to humans. These guys were not happy about being touched, and even though they weigh less than a pound, they were still scary! It makes me appreciate my super-affectionate kittens even more. It also makes me appreciate those cat foster homes who take on scary semi-feral kittens and turn them into loving affectionate kittens. Give me a fear-aggressive dog over a feral cat any day! You may laugh at the thought of being scared of a 1-pound kitten, but they can be pretty ferocious! Here's an example from Anastasia, who doesn't like being photographed...

Shiro and Una were adopted!!

I'm excited to report that two of my foster cats were adopted. Shiro and Una are brother and sister - Pixie Bob/Desert Lynx mix. They went home last night with a great new family - a mom and two children who are so excited to have two new family members.

I'm also cautiously hopeful that Whisper will be going home tomorrow. I am planning to meet her new mom at PetSmart to do the adoption tomorrow afternoon, and I hate to announce it before it actually happens, but I've talked with her new mom several times and she is very excited to come get her and take her home. Whisper has been waiting such a long time in foster care (well over a year) and I really hope this works out for her!

Updates on my other fosters:
Scribbles is my tortie cat who has an attitude and doesn't like other cats, or dogs, or being at PetSmart, which is where she is currently living. If anyone knows of a single adult who has no other pets, Scribbles will be a wonderful pet - she is loving and affectionate and a purring lap kitty who is very sweet when she's not unhappy. The problem is she doesn't show well at PetSmart because she is unhappy, and yet she is also very unhappy living in foster care with other dogs and cats. I try not to take in animals who are going to be unhappy in foster care, but the person who gave me Scribbles said she was good with other cats and okay with dogs. Oh well - at least she has somewhere safe to live until the right home comes along. And if anyone who doesn't have dogs is interested in fostering Scribbles, please let me know. You get a free cat with free food and medical care - not a bad deal. ;-)

Marco and Polo are my two long-haired all white beautiful cats. They shed EVERYWHERE but they're so friendly and affectionate that its a small price to pay for their company. Marco has been getting Clavamox (an antibiotic) since he had a dental and he's finally done with that - good thing since he hated it! At least he's deaf so he couldn't hear me coming with the medicine. ;-)

My four Disney kittens are almost ready for adoption. They were supposed to be ready last Saturday but had coccidia, so they're getting daily medication for that. Hopefully they'll be ready in another week. I want them to have a chance to get adopted while they're so small - but I have to admit, I love having them around. They are so cute! And everytime I go anywhere near them, they immediately start purring.

Noelle is doing good - with her typical happy-go-lucky attitude. She gets into everything, and nothing ever bothers her. If I take away the sock she's chewing on, she just walks over and gets a book to chew. I take that away, and she walks over to find a pillow to chew on. Each time I give her a dog toy to chew on instead, but she just looks at me like "why would I want that?" and finds something else that's forbidden to chew on. She's impossible, and yet so funny that you can't help but laugh at her. Her funniest thing, which I keep meaning to videotape, is when I put down a bowl of food, she'll run from the food dish back to me, wagging her tail and licking me, then turn and run back to the food, take a few bites, then back to me. I've never had another dog do that, and I can't figure out why she does it. She does it with Dave too whenever he feeds her. Maybe she just wants us to know how grateful she is for the food!

Emma is improving every day. She's doing very well with housetraining. I am always leery of saying any dog is house-trained, at least until they've gone a couple of months without an accident, but so far she hasn't had any accidents in the past couple weeks, so she seems to be getting the idea. She's also stopped jumping up on me as much, although I think Noelle taught her how to put her paws up on countertops and find good things that way, so we still have some work to do. She's going to PetSmart this weekend and several people are supposed to come meet her so I am hopeful that she'll be adopted soon!

New videos and pictures

Dash with his bone..


My smiley girl, Noelle

I got her when she was four months old. She's almost a year old now!!

Happy girl

BIG Smile!!

I mentioned before that Emma and Noelle like to tag team Dash when they're playing... here's what I mean:

Dash is back

This is Dash. He was adopted out on Sunday, but the family called and had to return him. They found out that a couple members of the family were very allergic to Dash, and although they tried special shampoos and baths, they were unable to keep him. They were so sad to let him go, and we were so sad that he came back. They said he was a perfect dog while they had him. I love Dash and felt sorry for him that his new home didn't work out. He went from being a homeless dog to having a wonderful home for just a few short days, and I didn't want him to go back to being homeless, so I took him home with me! Makes perfect sense, don't you think? I hope my husband agrees when he gets home. So far Dash is perfectly well behaved, and gets along great with all my other fosters. He is very playful and energetic, and he is having fun (and helping to wear out) Noelle and Emma. Remi is too lazy to run with him for more than a few minutes, but Noelle and Emma tag team him and keep him pretty busy.

In other news, the people who were going to meet Rocky decided to delay getting another dog right now, so I ended up taking him back to another volunteer. Hopefully he will be adopted soon - he's another really good pet - already house-trained and good with other dogs and so friendly.

This weekend is Petsmart's Spring Adopt-a-thon. They're offering incentives like free food and cat litter for pet adoptions, so if you've been thinking about adopting, now is a great time to do it! I'll be up at PetSmart in O'Fallon with Julie (another volunteer) for a few hours on Friday night to try to get a dog or cat adopted, and then back on Saturday with Noelle, Dash, Emma, Marco and Polo to try to get some of them adopted as well! I really, really hope I get someone adopted this weekend!

Lots of dog adoptions; Introducing Emma

It was a very busy week with dog adoptions. One of our foster homes has been taking in a LOT of puppies lately, and we're all happy that they're slowly but surely finding homes each week. Kaluah and CJ both were adopted Saturday. Also, one of our adult dogs from the shelter was adopted. Bear is a gorgeous fluffy dog who now has a home with a very nice couple and their other gorgeous fluffy dog that I met on Saturday.

Earlier in the week we had three more dog adoptions. Bella, a favorite of many of the volunteers, found a home. She's a beagle/spaniel mix that was turned in by her owners when they had a baby and didn't have time for her. She's now being spoiled in her new home with lots of love and attention. And Cappy, an older Australian Shepherd mix, also was adopted. He's been fostered by our newest dog foster volunteer, and now he has a new home as well. Also Josie, a sweet bichon friese, was adopted early last week. In addition to all of those dogs, on Sunday we adopted three more! Two of them were dogs I talked about last week. Dash, the Australian Cattle Dog, and Wiggles the beagle both were adopted, as was Heidi, a sweet black lab who was also at the shelter. Wiggles came from another foster home and since his new mom wasn't quite ready to take him home yet, he's staying at my house for a couple of days.

Also at my house is another dog from our shelter named Emma. She is a Newfoundland, and she used to be absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately when we got her from a city pound, she was so matted and dirty that the only way to clean her up was to shave her. So now she's just silly looking (and she's very embarrassed about it too!). But I'm sure she feels much better now that she's clean. She's doing great with Remi and Noelle, and I'm hoping she'll be adopted rather quickly, and that whomever wants her can see past her funny appearance and imagine how she'll look once her hair grows back. :-) Here are some pictures of Emma at the shelter before she was shaved. I'll post her "after" pictures later.