Flashback Friday: Bosco



Buddy at my house

Last April we were notified of two adorable white puppies at an area shelter. All Paws Rescue pulled them both, and named them Freckles and Buddy. Freckles was adopted quickly. Buddy had a bit of a harder time. He was adopted, then returned, then adopted, then returned, and then adopted. By the time he was four months old, he'd already lived with four different families (including foster families). By the time he was seven months old, it was six different families. It wasn't that he was incorrigible. Dogs that are incorrigible live with their foster familes for years without being adopted. They never even get to go live at another foster home. Not that I would know anything about dogs like Ziggy that are incorrigible.



Bosco at PetSmart last month

 Oops... I was trying so hard to get through just one blog post without mentioning you-know-who. It just couldn't happen. Anyway, Buddy was bounced around through no fault of his own. In the process he ended up with a new name (Bosco) and eventually a new family. In August he was adopted, and a few weeks ago I ran into Bosco with his family at PetSmart. The dad reports that he is doing great, never has had any house-breaking issues, and is very well behaved. Between the dad and the daughter, it was obvious that he is very well loved. I then tried to talk the dad into a second dog... one that already knows Bosco and loves to wrestle with him... but they didn't fall for it. It was worth a try.






The Best Toy Ever (Guest Post by Buddy the Foster Dog)

Did you know that there are these things called Kongs, that are filled with food and treats?! They are SO YUMMY! And sometimes they even have CHEESE inside. Where have these things been all my life? Speaking of my life - I'm Buddy, and I'm a vagabond. I've lived with four different families so far, and I'm only four months old. The nice lady who I'm living with this week said that I could tell you about me today. But first let me say, that if you haven't seen some of these Kongs, you should ask your people to go get some for you right away. Yummmmmm. Okay, where was I. Right - my life. I started out with my brother Freckles and some other puppies. The people we lived with took the other puppies away, and then when just me and Freckles were left, they took us to a place called a shelter. It was scary there, but we had food and water and a safe place to stay.

Then my second family came and got me and took me to their house. They said I was their foster dog, and that I could live with them until I found a furever family. It was fun there. I got lots of attention from the littlest people. Then one day we went to a big store and I saw Freckles again, and I met some new people - my third family. I thought they might be my furever family when they took me home with them. I lived there for a week but they had a doggie that didn't like me very much. They finally said that I wasn't going to work out since their doggie was so unhappy, so they brought me back to the big store, where the nice lady who was with Freckles at the big store last time met me and took me home. She said my second family can't get me yet, but I get to go back to them on Saturday.

So in the meantime, I'm living with my fourth family, and the nice lady says I'm becoming a world traveler. She said Freckles is already at his furever family and she hopes I will find mine soon. In the meantime, I am having fun playing with the other dogs here. And enjoying the most awesomest toy ever - especially when the nice lady puts cheese in it!

There are a lot of other doggies here. I think the nice lady keeps getting confused because now there are three of us white doggies at once and she said that Ziggy and Noelle and I all look alike and it is hard to tell us apart. Even Noelle was confused when I came here because she seemed to think I was Ziggy at first. But Ziggy is lots bigger than me, and he's much faster at getting his Kong cleaned out. Did I mention that Kongs are the bestest toy invention ever? And now I see the nice lady is getting some more of them filled up with yummy food, so I have to go. Bye bye.

Introducing Chloe The Great....

Disclaimer: Our lawnmower was broken.  With the recent rain we've had, our backyard suddenly turned into a jungle.  Please don't judge me because of the height of the grass in the following pictures.  The day after these pictures were taken, we bought a new lawnmower and the backyard is back to being just a backyard.  You will see this in tomorrow's pictures.  So please, pretend this isn't my backyard - pretend it's a park with a terrible groundskeeping service.  Then we'll both be happy.  Thank you.

Last Saturday there was a Great Dane at one of our adoption events.  Her name is Chloe, and she was very skinny. 

I like Great Danes.  I have to, since I own one.  It's like a rule.  So I inquired about fostering Chloe.  She was staying at an area shelter, but she wasn't eating very well.  So they let me take her home.  And honestly, I immediately thought I made a bad decision.  Because Chloe has some issues. 

In the first 24 hours after I brought her home, Chloe barked for at least 9 of those hours.  She may have barked the entire time I was at work too - I'm not sure.  She also ate an entire bag of potato chips. (Hey, I was doing my part to fatten her up!)  She had multiple bouts of diarrhea. (I'm sure it wasn't the potato chips...right?)  She was scared of the other dogs, and she was scared of being left alone.  She paced constantly and wouldn't eat wet or dry dog food.  She was not having an easy time adjusting to being in a new home. 

Fortunately I have the best husband in the world when it comes to dog-dog introductions.  He helped Chloe and Noelle meet each other and when I got home from work the next day, Chloe was getting along great with all of the dogs (Remi, Noelle, Ziggy and Freckles).  Wow - I was super-impressed.  I was also very relieved because it meant she wouldn't bark all night since she was able to be in the room with us.  So suddenly things were looking up.  

Over the next few days, we worked with Chloe to try to find the magic combination that would cause her to eat.  Some days it was dry food with wet food mixed in.  Other days that didn't work, but plain dry food on the floor without a bowl would work.  Some days she'd eat from my hand and other days she wouldn't. But overall, I felt satisfied that she was getting enough nutrition and would eventually gain weight. 

Soon it was Saturday, and time for another PetSmart adoption event.  I took Chloe and Freckles, and Freckles quickly found his forever home.  A few hours into the adoption event, a couple arrived.  They had been volunteers for a dog transport, to get a dog from its temporary home to a new rescue group or adoptive home several states away.  The couple lived in Kansas City, and they had heard about Chloe from another transport volunteer who is also an All Paws Rescue volunteer.  So they visited with Chloe, and decided to make her a part of their family!  

Wow - both of my foster dogs adopted in the same day.  And both of them I had less than a week!  And both of them went to families that I really liked, and felt like they would be a perfect fit.  It was an amazing day. 

But don't worry - I'm not really back to Ziggy as my only foster dog.  About three hours after I left PetSmart, two new foster dogs showed up at my house.  I'll tell you about them tomorrow. 

Introducing Freckles

I know what you probably think. My last foster dog Casey was adopted over a week ago, and there has been no news of any new foster dogs. You probably think I've been lazy. Maybe you think that Ziggy has driven me to the point where I no longer want to foster. Or even worse, perhaps you think I prefer to foster cats over dogs. I want to assure you that none of that is true. Actually I have been busy with two new foster dogs this week! So busy that I didn't get time to write about them until now. So today, I want to tell you about a new foster dog that I got last week named Freckles.

Freckles is wonderful.  He is everything a puppy should be.  Sweet, cuddly, quiet, obedient, adorable, non-chewy (is that a word?), loves the other dogs.... he's perfect.

And did I mention adorable?  I love the spot over his eye, that makes it look like he has one giant eyebrow.  I like how his ears are dark brown and the rest of him is white with tiny spots.  I love how he is nothing like Ziggy - Freckles is very low maintenance. 

Freckles was turned into a local animal control facility at 8 weeks old along with his brother Buddy.  We found out about them a month later, and wanted to take both of them, but didn't have enough available foster homes, so we just took Buddy and planned to take Freckles once Buddy was adopted.  But three weeks went by, and Buddy still wasn't adopted.  At that point Freckles had been at the shelter for two months waiting to be adopted, with no luck.  He was 16 weeks old, and he'd spent the first eight weeks growing old enough to be away from his mom, and then the next eight weeks in a shelter.  We had to get him out, so one of our volunteers said she would make room for him until the foster family who had Buddy got him adopted and was able to take Freckles.  I had seen Freckles' picture, so I selfishly offered to go get him - and then selfishly offered to keep him for just a few days.  I couldn't commit to him to become my foster, because I already had Ziggy and I only foster one pit bull puppy at a time.  But just keeping him for a few days - well that should be okay.  So last week I brought him home, and immediately fell in love.  Here is Freckles greeting Chloe - another new foster dog I brought home last week (I told you I was busy!).  You can read about her in tomorrow's post. 

Freckles has been a wonderful foster dog, and he actually never made it to his next foster home.  Because yesterday at PetSmart both Freckles and Buddy were adopted to two different families!  It was like a pit bull puppy Jackpot!! 

Of course Ziggy wasn't adopted.  In fact, Ziggy wasn't even there.   I didn't have room to take him since I was taking Freckles and my other new foster dog Chloe and three cats in my very small car.  I knew he didn't have much a chance of being adopted with competition from Buddy and Freckles - both much smaller and easier than Ziggy. So Ziggy stayed home and helped my husband cut the grass.  And then he relaxed in his favorite spot at the top of the stairs.  I think he's beginning to look a little TOO comfortable here.  I really need to find him a home soon!