Great Day!

Hershe was adopted!!!

I'm so happy for her. It's surprising to everyone that she found a home, because she's been in foster care for so long, but the right people just happened to come along today. They have very well behaved children, and no other pets, and were looking for a lab that wouldn't jump up or be hyper, so it sounds like a good situation for her. I've just been smiling non-stop since they adopted her early this afternoon. :-) It's so rewarding to see a dog that had a hard time finding a home be adopted. Now if we can just get Kermit a home.... he and Hershe were best friends, and he has been depressed and not eating much since she came to my house last week. I thought he'd be better soon since she'd be going back to live with him, but now that she has her own forever home, he's going to keep being sad. I hope he feels better and finds his own home soon. I've been posting more flyers, and asking others to post them places as well, so maybe the right person is out there for him and will see one of those flyers soon. If you go to the O'Fallon Petsmart, you can help by stopping by the Love-A-Pet-Center and picking up a few flyers to hang up at work, church, school, the library, etc - any public bulletin board you see. The flyers are in a green folder in the red cart outside the LAPC. Take as many as you can hang up - I will print more if we run out. ;-)

In other great news, two other dogs were adopted today as well. Chester, a beagle mix, found a home. I always thought he was funny looking and smiled everytime I looked at him - to me his head just looked wrong on his body. But he is a wonderful dog, and the family who adopted him thinks he is perfect. He's a very sweet dog and I'm so happy he found a home. And the other dog that was adopted is Derby! He has been waiting so long for a home - not as long as Hershe, but still a long time. We could never figure out why no one adopted him - he is friendly, gets along well with everyone, and is an all-around great dog. I was actually going to foster him next, and even took him home for a weekend not long ago. He had a short "vacation" at my house. :-) Here is a picture from when he was here last.

Don't you love his big ears? He actually is here at my house again tonight, I'm just too lazy to go find the camera. I'm taking him back to PetSmart either tomorrow or Monday for his new family to get him. In the meantime, Lacy and Derby are having a blast playing together.

Speaking of Lacy, once again she wasn't adopted. And neither were any of the adorable lab/border collie puppies! I'm very glad the hard-to-adopt ones are being picked, but its always surprising that the "easy" ones get passed over. Here are some pictures of me and Lacy from the Prairie Day event we went to a few weeks ago, and then from the Diabetes Walk we went on last Sunday.

Prairie Days - Lacy howling ;-)

Me and Lacy at Prairie Days.

Me and Lacy at the JDRF walk

This is toward the beginning of the 3 mile walk - Lacy was pulling me. Toward the end of the walk, I was pulling her!

Here we are after the walk ended. That's my grandma with me - she's awesome. I'm not just saying that because she reads my blog either. Hi Grandma! ;-)

Thanks to Angie for the Prairie Day pictures and my mom for the JDRF pictures!

I'm going to try to get back up to PetSmart tomorrow afternoon and see if I can get a kitten adopted! My orange kittens won't be ready for another week, but I still have Blaze, Astro and Buttercup to get adopted. Buttercup actually stayed up at PetSmart today, in one of the permanent cat cages that are there. Hopefully someone will see her and want to adopt her soon.

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!