Which name do you like best?

See the post below this one to learn about the two new foster dogs I brought home last night. My husband named the shepherd/rottweiler mix Samantha, so that's definite. We're trying to come up with a name for the Pitbull mix now. At the moment I'm calling her Vala, but I think I might change it. Please vote for one or more names listed in the poll at the bottom of the page, for this dog:

Of course, my husband gets final say, but I will try to persuade him of whatever the majority likes. You may ask why he gets final say -- since he doesn't read this blog, I will tell you. :-) He is not crazy about us fostering dogs. And since I work full-time, I depend on him to help me somewhat, by taking the dogs out when he gets home from work, or putting up with them when they have accidents or chew up his shoes or things like that. I think if I let him name the dogs, he becomes more attached to them and therefore likes them better. At least, this is my working theory. ;-) I thought when I got these two dogs that he would like the pit bull puppy - it would remind him of Koda, possibly. So I got the pit bull puppy for him, and the shepherd puppy for me. Samantha reminds me of Ernie, who I recently fostered. However, so far it appears that he will be more attached to Sam, and I'll be more attached to the yet-unnamed dog (because it would be unfair for both of us to be more attached to the same dog)! I've only had them less than 24 hours though, so we'll see what happens. :-)

Ernie found a home!

Ernie was adopted at PetSmart on Saturday. His new family lost their dog to cancer a few months ago, and they fell in love with Ernie when they met him. I made them promise to send me pictures and updates before I let them adopt him, and they graciously agreed. I am sure he will be very happy in his new home. Selena really misses him too - they were great play buddies, and Remi just doesn't have the energy to keep up with her now. I promised her a long walk this evening to make her feel better.

In addition to Ernie, two other dogs were adopted as well! Honey is a adorable puppy who is going to probably be a very large dog someday. She was adopted out to some very nice people. And Eddie, aka Freddie, is a beagle who was adopted very quickly. He was only in foster care for a week before he found his new home.

It is "beagle month" at Heartland. We have several beagles and beagle mixes now that are going to be up for adoption soon. So if you know of anyone who wants their own "Snoopy" (my favorite beagle), let them know we have a beagle waiting for them!

We also have a really cute bassett hound/lab mix, and another puppy, and several other dogs that will be added to our website within the next week - so stay tuned!

Kitten Names, Update on Ernie

I named the kittens last night. My niece Darby came up with the name for the mother cat - her name is Ella. The dark-brown kitten looks a little like a fuzzy bear. I named him Ewok, after the little brown bear-like creatures from Star Wars. The gray kitten doesn't look anything like a donkey, but he is the same color as Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, so he is named Eeyore. And the jet black kitten is named Eclipse. They'll probably not learn these names, and get new names when they get adopted - but I wanted to give them names other than Cat1, Cat2, and Cat3 , which is what my husband was voting for.

I'll get a better family photo later, but here's a picture that at least has all four cats in it. That's Eeyore and Eclipse in the front, with Ella behind them and Ewok way back in the corner. They are sooo soft and fuzzy!

And since this is a DOG foster blog, I have to add something about my dogs. :-) We're hating all this rain, since it turns the yard into a big mud puddle, and the dogs stay cooped up inside most of the time. But Selena and Ernie are both handling it well - patiently waiting for the weather to get better. Selena loves the outdoors, and can happily spend hours outside on her own. Even the rain doesn't bother her much. Ernie doesn't like the rain, and when he gets wet, his hair all gets spiked up - he looks like he has a full body Mohawk. Last night Ernie spent the night sleeping in our bed. Usually he stays in his crate at night because we're still working on housebreaking, but I wanted some company last night, and he is like having a giant teddy bear to sleep with. He curled up next to me to keep me warm, and stayed there all night. He is such a sweet dog - he's definitely a foster dog I selfishly don't want to get adopted.

A trip to the dark side...

Yesterday, one of the Heartland volunteers took me on a tour of many of the area animal shelters. It was very interesting to see the difference between a good shelter and a not-so-good shelter, and the different ways that animal shelters and rescues work. Some of them take great care of their animals, and work hard to get them good homes with adopters or rescues. Others are simply warehouses, holding the animals for the required number of days before they can be euthanized. You may think that “A trip to the dark side” refers to visiting these animal shelters – but it actually refers to the cat and three kittens I brought home with me at the end of the day. I’m a dog foster mom, not a cat foster mom! But who could resist such fluffy cute little kittens?! The animal shelter wanted us to take them – apparently kittens often don’t do as well in a shelter, where they have a greater possibility of getting diseases from other animals. The other volunteer agreed to take them, but wasn’t sure who would be able to foster them. Well, I have an empty room in my house – and the cats are really not much work. So I brought them home with me. They’re living in my daughter’s bedroom now – quarantined from my own cat and the dogs. They’ll stay there for a few weeks until they’re ready to be adopted.

So now I’m the proud foster mom of a beautiful tortoiseshell mama cat and her three kittens. The kittens are all boys, and none of them look like their mom. One is all grey, very fluffy and soft. The second one is a dark brown, almost black color. He’s just as fluffy and soft as his brother, and he loves to play the most. He’ll play with a feather toy, or other toys, and if no toys can be found, he’ll pounce on his mom’s tail! The third one is all black, and not quite as fluffy as the others. He is the least likely to play, and is happy just laying next to his mom and watching his brothers. He is adorable – when he gets scared, he’ll bare his teeth like he’s hissing at me – but he never tried to claw or bite me. And he doesn’t make any sound – just this funny face that is supposed to be mean but looks silly on such a cute little kitten. The mama cat is so sweet – even when she was hiding under the bed and I pulled her out, she growled a little but didn’t scratch me or try to bite me. My cat would’ve been fighting to get away, but she didn’t fight at all. She is very friendly and purrs a lot. Now that she knows me, she’ll come up to me and wrap around my legs to get attention. I need to come up with names for them soon!

As for the dogs, they know there are a few more cats in the house, but they’re blocked by doors and baby gates, so they can’t get close enough to meet each other. The kittens will probably be adopted before they ever meet the dogs, but if the mama cat is not adopted right away, once her kittens are gone and she’s been tested and processed, I may introduce her to my cat and the dogs. In the meantime, the dogs just hear the cats now and then, and watch me disappear into the hallway occasionally. As much as I love playing with the kittens, I don’t want to take time away from the dogs – they need me the most. Selena and Ernie are both doing great. They love to play together, and will do almost anything for a treat-filled Kong toy. They’ve become good friends, and I know they’ll really miss each other when one of them is adopted.

PICTURES OF THE CATS:

The gray kitten...

The dark brown kitten...

The black kitten...

Mamma cat


Play time...

Tulsa, Selena and Ernie!

First, the good news - Tulsa was adopted! She went to a great new home with a family who already has two Australian Cattle Dogs, so they are very familiar with her breed. I am very happy that she found her new home!

I also had my first return on Saturday. Anyone who adopts from Heartland must agree that if they cannot keep their pet, they will return it to us. We definitely want to get the animal back, but at the same time, I've been dreading my first return. In most cases, there are circumstances that we could not have known or prevented - a death in the family, allergies, a pet that couldn't get along with the other pets in the home. But the ones we hate are when we get a call about an animal we adopted out that has obviously been abused or neglected. The animals we save place their lives in our hands - and while we all do our best to make sure that our foster animals are going to good homes, the times when we fail are so difficult. This is why I've been dreading my first return. Ironically, my first return was quite possibly the shortest adoption we've ever had. Selena was adopted on Saturday around 4pm, and returned Saturday evening, just a few hours later! In this case, its more humorous than sad - my first return turned out to be not so bad after all. Selena was adopted by some very nice people who were just overwhelmed by bringing a new dog into the home - especially one as strong as she is. They had trouble walking her - she was apparently too excited to walk politely next to them as she's been learning. And she was also a bit too excited about meeting the cats at the new home, so the cats were scared and the people were worried about the cats. They decided to return Selena and try to find a smaller dog that would fit into their home a bit better. So Selena had a "field trip" and is now back at my house, enjoying the new toy she got out of the deal. ;-)

While I was at PetSmart Saturday for the adoption event, I fell in love with another dog that was there. His name is Ernie, and he is adorable. It was his first Saturday at PetSmart trying to find a family, and I was very surprised that he wasn't adopted. Since I thought Selena had a new home, I couldn't resist bringing Ernie home with me. For me, he is the cutest, softest, most loveable dog I've had since Coal(Murphy). While I love all of my foster dogs, I try not to get too attached since I know they'll be leaving me. Some of them I just can't avoid getting attached - I think its usually the shy and scared ones! So Ernie came home with me, and I've had him less than 48 hours and already I don't want to let him go. He is six-month-old puppy, probably Australian Shepherd/Rottweiler mix, very very soft fur, and so sweet. He is enjoying playing with Selena, and is very well behaved.

Sage couldn't go to PetSmart this week since she had a medical issue. She has a small mass on her jaw that the vet is going to remove later this week. Since she has to go back to the vet, and since my house is getting a bit crowded with the return of Selena, Sage went back to stay at another foster mom's house for now. I hope she'll be fine and back up at PetSmart on Saturday to find her new home.

Here is a picture of Ernie: