Lacy and Frito were adopted!

Lacy was adopted at PetSmart today! She went to a home with a very nice couple who decided they were ready for a dog. They were "cat people" before this, so hopefully Lacy will do well with their cats, and maybe she can even convert them to becoming dog people. Hey, it happened to me once I got my first dog! :-)

Frito, one of my orange kittens was also adopted. I actually visited him in his new home this evening, and he has settled in already. He was sitting with his new family watching football - apparently he's a football fan and I never knew it - but he did fall asleep on the husband's lap while watching the game. He looked so happy in his new home with people to give him lots and lots of love.

Pepsi and Ginger made their first trip up to PetSmart this week, and they did very well. Well, Sue and Lori, two of the volunteers, may not agree - they had to clean up a few messes from the puppies! Both puppies are very young and not crate trained yet, so they haven't learned to hold it while they're in crates yet. But other than that, they did very well with all the noise and new people. Pepsi found a new best friend in Donna, another one of our dog volunteers. Ginger was a little more shy with meeting people, but she did very well overall. Jester, my newest cat, also made his first appearance at PetSmart. There was an empty cage there because Buttercup, a kitten I had at my house for awhile, was adopted today! So I left Jester there so hopefully someone will see him tomorrow or sometime soon and want to adopt him.

Last night was our Trivia Night fundraiser, and it was a lot of fun. I was happy to see a few people I knew - the people who adopted Elvis were there, and Diana - the lady who rescued Lacy, and Joanne - one of my co-workers, and several others as well. Thanks to all of you who made it out to support Heartland! And a very special thank you to Angie, the Heartland President, who puts so much effort into the event every year, and does a fabulous job. It seemed like everyone had fun, and we raised a lot of money to help us keep up with our vet bills!

Today was a crazy day for me. I should have known it was going to be a rough day when I woke up at 5:00am due to my husband's alarm clock going off. He's out of town for Army this weekend, and apparently forgot to shut off the alarm before he left. Okay, no big deal, I just hit the Off button and tried to go back to sleep. But 5 minutes later, it went off again. Hmm... apparently I hit the Snooze button, not the Off button. I can't figure out where the off button is in the dark, and if I get out of bed, the dogs will get up thinking its time to go out, and I'll have a hard time going back to sleep. Okay, I can solve this - I unplug the clock. Five minutes later, guess what - yep, the alarm goes off AGAIN. Apparently the thing has a battery backup. By this time I was NOT happy. I had to get up, turn on the light, and figure out how to end the annoying beeping sound. Remi, Lacy, Linguini and Murphy are all looking around trying to figure out what I'm doing - and of course Noelle is deaf so she slept through the whole thing! But then the dogs all get up, which wakes her up, and I end up having to go outside with them all, since Murphy doesn't like to go outside by himself, and Remi barks if left outside alone. Fifteen minutes later I go back to bed - again have to fight Remi for the covers, wait for the rest of the dogs and cat to settle in around me, and finally fall back asleep. Seems like only minutes later instead of a couple hours that my alarm goes off. So the day begins. It was then a rush to get everything done as usual - get the dogs outside, inside, fed, and outside again, then back in and crated. Quick trip to the vet to drop off stool samples and make sure the orange kittens can go to adoptions. Rush back home and pack up the crates and ex-pens, and get the dogs not going to PetSmart situated with bones or toys to keep them entertained while I'm gone. Track down the cats and pack them up. Load the cats, dogs, crates and supplies into the van, and head to PetSmart. Get there, and rush the cats inside since someone was waiting to meet my orange kittens. Set up crates, unload kittens, talk to a potential adopter, rush back to the car to unload and set up more crates outside, unload dogs, unload supplies, rush back inside to do adoption for Frito (hooray!), back outside to talk to someone about Lacy, back inside to drop off paperwork, back outside to talk to some other potential adopters, and so it goes. It finally slowed down after a bit, and by the time the day ended at 4pm, it was very quiet. We loaded back up the dogs into the cars, tore down all the crates, and headed home. Fortunately I live close - some people have to drive all the way out to Troy to take home their fosters - that makes for a very long day! After I got home and once again got the car unloaded and the dogs situated (outside, then inside, fed, then back out, then inside) I headed over to Frito's new home to drop off some medicine he needs to finish that I forgot to take to PetSmart with me. Then back home, to again let the dogs out, return some phone calls from people asking about my fosters, and then finally I could rest! Don't get me wrong, I love doing this, but days like today where I had a pet adopted (two actually!) make it so much better. Its the days that I do all this and don't get anyone adopted that are hard. I'm pretty lucky that I can foster so many animals, so I have more luck getting adoptions. Some of our foster volunteers have fewer fosters, so they might do this week after week, for cats or dogs, and not have an adoption in several months. :-( I know that has to be so disappointing. Sometimes people say "thanks for caring for these animals" or something along those lines, and it really feels good to have people recognize that. I don't know if other volunteers feel the same way, but for me if I don't have adoptions in awhile, its just nice to hear that my efforts to help these animals are appreciated. So next time you see a Heartland volunteer, please make sure to thank them for the work they put into saving animals. None of us get paid anything, and we all put in our own time, money and effort just to help animals get good homes, sometimes while listening to people complain or just exhibit a total lack of compassion for animals. So knowing there are people out there who actually appreciate what we do week after week really helps. And for those of you who haven't had an adoption in months, you know your fosters are lucky to have you, and the right home will come along! :-)

Introducing Hershe, and more kittens!

First, I'd like to introduce you to my newest foster dog. Her name is Hershe, and she's a beautiful chocolate labrador retriever. She has been in foster care for a long time, and hasn't had very many people interested in her. She reminds me of Elvis because she's a bit timid in new situations. I am "borrowing" her from her previous foster home, so we can see how she would react to a new home, and if she has any problems that we need to work on. So far, she is doing great. She will take some time to settle in, so it'll be interesting to see what she's like in another week or so, but right now she seems very happy. She is the most camera shy dog I've ever met, so getting a good picture of her will be tricky, but here is the best I could do on short notice for you to see her. I might have to get out the telescopic lens for the camera so I can get her picture when she's not aware of it. Otherwise, well, I've taken many many pictures of the side of her head, or the top of her head (when she ducks down) since she runs as soon as she sees me holding the camera. :-)


And now, to introduce my new kittens - Frito, Cheeto and Nacho. We got a call from someone who's cat had kittens again (the third litter she's had) and wasn't able to give them all away through ads in the paper or at the flea market, so she wanted to know if we could take the last three kittens she had left. They're 8 weeks old, and all adorable male orange tabbies. I talked to the person who called, and was glad to hear she was getting her cat spayed after this! All our other foster homes are full, so I'm taking them. I'm going to put them on the foster website, so if you know of anyone who might be interested in fostering kittens, please direct them to http://www.hhsrescue.com/. These little guys are so cute - I forgot how completely insane kittens can be. They chase each other and are constantly moving - it's very hard to get pictures of them all together. It's also hard to tell them apart, but here's one way. Nacho, the kitten in front in the first picture below, is what is called a classic tabby. He has a kind of bulls eye swirl on his side. Frito, the kitten in the middle, is a mackeral tabby - he has the more common vertical stripes. He could maybe be called a spotted tabby since the stripes are broken up. And then Cheeto has some tabby stripes on his front legs, but no obvious tabby pattern on his body - at least not that I can tell. SO, that's how I tell them apart! Here are some pictures of them...

I'm also excited to report that Hunter, Murphy and Lexi are coming to visit! Hunter is one of my previous foster dogs, a Great Dane/Pointer/Lab mix, or something like that. :-) He's a great dog and I'm getting the chance to dogsit for his family while they're gone - I can't wait to see him again. He is a friendly easy-going dog and I have missed him! Also, later this month I get to see another one of my old fosters. Murphy, who used to be named Coal, was one of my first foster dogs that I fell in love with - he was shy and afraid of almost everything. These days he is a much more confident happy dog, and I am lucky to get to see him at PetSmart sometimes. His family knows how much I still miss him and everytime I run into them at PetSmart I beg to dogsit him again, so I was happy to find out they were going on a trip and letting Murphy stay with me. Murphy also has a new puppy sister named Lexi - she's adorable, and I can't wait to play with her! So I am really looking forward to having two of my old fosters back for a visit later this month, and a new puppy in addition!

Don't forget Trivia Night is coming up quickly - October 17th! This is Heartland's biggest fundraiser, and we could really use your support. You can click here: http://heartlandhumanemo.homestead.com/TriviaNight.html to find out all the details. If you can't attend, there are other ways you can help - click the link above for details. You don't have to be good at trivia - its just a fun way to spend the evening with friends, helping out the animals. And the silent auction and raffles are also a lot of fun! I hope to see you there!