Cat-O-Lympics

In honor of the Winter Olympics, one of my blogger friends is hosting her own Cat-O-Lympics - and even better, she's allowing dogs to compete!  So of course we had to enter a few of the events.  Since some of the pets pictured here have since been adopted, we do not expect these to be official entries, but thought it would be fun to share these pictures anyway. 

For the Bare Paw Fighting event, hosted by Milo and Alfie, we have Sedna attacking Venus:

Sadly, Venus was blinded by the flash of the camera and was unable to retaliate. 

For the Competitive Napping event hosted by Huffle Mawson, we have two entries. 
First is Reese, sleeping on the couch.

She's a most serious competitor, and enjoys sleeping in odd positions just about anywhere.

Second is Bear, the Puppy Bowl star, sleeping with his foot in the water bowl, on the floor of the car.

It's not that he wasn't supposed to be there.  It's just that there was a very comfortable dog bed on the back seat above him, and a human willing to cuddle him in the front passenger seat, and yet he choose to sleep on the floor in the back.  While the car was in motion.  Perhaps my mom's driving scared him. 

Our next event is the Synchronized Snoozing event hosted by The Island Cats. 

Our first entry is submitted by three previous foster cats - I think it was Astro, GiGi and Blaze.  They awoke right before I took this photo - just in time to glare at me for disturbing their rest. 

The second entry is Pepsi and Ginger, two previous foster puppies who often performed synchronized snoozing in various locations around the house.

The following entries would more appropriately belong in an event called Synchronized Sitting.  Since as of now this is not an officially sanctioned event in the Cat-O-Lympics, and I'm too lazy busy to set it up myself, I'll just post these pictures as an idea for future organizers to consider. 

Cute puppies - who can resist?  And who can get them to all look at the camera at the same time... with no assistant... and without breaking their lineup?

I'll give you a clue how I did it...it involved a hot tub and a laundry basket.

Another example of Synchronized Sitting is exhibited by George and Taffy. 

And the final event we'd like to enter is the High Jump Event hosted by Cats in Maryland.  I'm about 5' 6", so I estimate here that Remi jumped to over 6 foot.  Of course, his back feet were only a few inches off the ground - but he did the best he could. 

Elvis and Reese were adopted!

It was a strange weekend, but a very good one! Both Elvis and Reese, my two hardest to place fosters, found homes on Saturday. Elvis went home to a great young couple who decided they were ready for their first pet. He should be perfect for them, since he's already such a well mannered dog. Since he is so timid, it will take him awhile to settle in, but he seemed very comfortable around the couple at PetSmart so I am hoping it will not be a difficult transition for him (or for them!) Reese also found a home, and was chosen by a young girl who saw her and fell in love. It sounds like Reese will be a happy dog in her new home. The family agreed to let me go visit her in a couple weeks just to make sure everything is working out for everyone but I am hoping that everything will work out perfectly.

None of my kittens were adopted, and Lacy was not adopted either. I took Lacy to the Juvenile Diabetes walk in Forest Park on Sunday, and she had a great time. I was afraid I was going to have to carry her on the last part of the 3 mile walk though - she got very tired! She wore her adopt-me vest, and a couple people asked about her, so it was good advertising for Heartland, in addition to being good for Lacy to go out and meet new dogs and new people. She did very well with everyone, and enjoyed the post-walk hot dog that they provided.

I'm also happy to report that Lana, another one of Kiya's puppies, found a home. Her five puppies lived at my house for a few weeks when they were very young, so I am always extra-concerned about them. We're down to just two - Cody and Scout - that still need homes! It was very surprising that Lana was chosen because we also had the nine lab/border collie puppies there, and they are so cute. I thought if anyone was looking for a puppy they'd want one of those, but surprisingly, none of them were adopted. It was kind of sad to load up all 9 puppies again and take them back to their kennel. I hope next week we have better luck getting them homes.

Gidget was adopted!

Gidget, and several other dogs and puppies, were all adopted at PetSmart this weekend. It was a great day for dog and cat adoptions! The best news of all is that two of Kiya's puppies were adopted! I was so worried about them ever finding homes. They're cute, but going to be such large dogs, and many people don't seem to want large dogs. This was their third or fourth trip to PetSmart and no one had ever been interested in them before this week, so getting two of them adopted is wonderful! I'm happy they will have their own families now. Only three of Kiya's puppies are left without homes. The other great news is because of all these adoptions, one of the other foster homes has room for Lacy now! So Lacy the basset hound will be saved!

Jade was adopted!

Great news - Jade has found a home! She was adopted by a very nice family, and they have promised to throw a lot of tennis balls for her to chase. I am so glad she found such a good home. I was worried about her because even though she's friendly and well behaved, she still started out with three strikes against her - she's a large dog (most people want small ones), she's a black dog (always the hardest to adopt out), and she's high energy (too much for many people to keep up with). So when I received an e-mail from someone inquiring about Jade, my first thought was that "they must mean someone else". I found out that they had recently lost a dog that is very similar to Jade (beautiful lab mix named Mickey), and they were ready to add another dog to the family. I'm so glad they picked Jade - she has had a rough first year of her life, and I hope she only has great years ahead of her with her new family.

Jade was adopted on Friday. Saturday I had Elvis, Reese and the three kittens at PetSmart. I was hopeful that one of them would also be adopted, but it was not to be. We had a very slow, hot day on Saturday. We did get Toby adopted - he was a cute little beagle puppy that never even made it onto the website because he was adopted very quickly. Remember me talking about those two adorable beagle pups I wanted to take home and keep? Toby was one of them! The other one made his first trip to PetSmart but is still waiting on his home. Also we had two other dog adoptions during the week. Buster is a cute lab/basset mix who had a great personality, and Kiya is a Pharaoh Hound mix who was the mom to the puppies that I dogsat. Kiya was the escape artist who turned out to be smarter than me - I was never able to keep her in any enclosure - she just wanted to be with people so bad! She was adopted before any of her puppies found homes! Even though Saturday was slow for dogs, today (Sunday) was a little better for me personally. I took all three kittens to PetSmart, and came home with only two! Avalanche was adopted right at the end of the day - he went home to a great family who was looking for a new kitten to spoil. The three kids begged, pleaded, and offered thousands of dollars to their parents, and who could resist that? So Avalanche, my favorite kitten ever, now has his very own family to give him a lot of love and attention.

Update on Max

Just in case you were wondering, no one has called to claim Max yet. I am going to wait through the weekend, and if no one claims him by Monday he's going to get to visit the veterinarian to get checked out. Heartland dogs get wonderful medical care - they are all dewormed, treated for fleas/ticks, tested for heartworms and treated if needed, spayed or neutered, given several vaccinations (rabies, DHLPP, bordetella), and given monthly flea/tick and heartworm preventative. And this all happens before they are made available for adoption! So I want to get Max started by making his first vet visit and getting his first round of vaccinations.

I also couldn't bear to leave him in the basement by himself for any longer, so I let him out of quarantine early. All of my other fosters and my own dog are up-to-date on their vaccinations, and it was a relatively low-risk decision. He gets along great with the other dogs - especially Reese. He and Reese are the same size, and they're both young, which might be why they play together so well. Unfortunately, this also means I once again have three foster dogs who are not yet house-trained. Sigh. In order to successfully housetrain a dog, you have to watch him every second when he's loose in the house - and that's hard enough with one dog - not to mention three at once. Its definitely a challenge! My husband is gone with his Army Reserve unit for a five-day trip to Minnesota, so that will make it harder because he won't be around to help, but I'm hoping it will make it easier to get the house cleaned while he's gone. I'm sure some of you out there can understand that. :-)

I'm looking forward to going to PetSmart tomorrow. Kiya's puppies will be there for their first adoption event, and I think altogether we're going to have 15 - 20 dogs there available for adoption! I would love it if Reese, Jade or Elvis found a home, or even one of my foster kittens. But either way, I just enjoy going up to spend time with all the dogs and cats, and helping them to find new homes of their own.

My puppies grew up!

Remember those cute puppies I dogsat for, for a few weeks? Here is their picture from when I had them, at three weeks old...

They went back to their first foster mom when I went on vacation. They had ringworm which had to be treated, and so they took a little bit longer than most puppies to be ready for adoption. The day is almost here, and the puppies are on the website now to find their own homes. Only they aren't tiny anymore! Check out the puppies now...

They got huge! I still think they're as adorable as ever. I can't wait to see how they turn out once they're all grown up - hopefully their future adoptive families will be back to share pictures and stories then!

Speaking of that, I talked to the new families of both Vala and Samantha this week. Both families say the dogs are doing great. It's always so nice to hear when the dogs have settled in and know that everything is going well - it just makes giving up the dogs I love much easier to know that! Now if I can just find some happy forever families for my puppies and kittens tomorrow! Skittles and Reese and Jade will all be making their first ever appearance at Petsmart tomorrow. Noah is an expert at it now - he's been going for several weeks. So are all seven kittens that I'll be bringing up with me - I'm sad that none of them have found homes yet, even though they've been going up to Petsmart several times, on weekends and during the week. Maybe tomorrow will be their lucky day.

Queeny Park, Update on Fosters

Saturday was the Adopt-A-Stray event at Queeny Park. I believe this is the biggest adoption event that we do every year – more dogs are adopted during this event than at any other time. This was my first time attending, and I was very impressed. The event was well organized, and many more people attended than I expected. We had seven dogs adopted – four puppies, and three older dogs. The puppies were from two different foster homes – Arthur and Justin were cute little guys who were the last of their litter to be adopted. Ebony and Shadow came from another foster home, and while this was my first time meeting them, I enjoyed playing with them until they were both adopted as well! The adult dogs were Checkers, Piper and Harley. Checkers was my favorite – mostly just because I named him! He is a cute little black and white Chihuahua. Piper is an adorable yorkie mix – she was so cuddly and sweet! And Harley is a blue merle Australian Shepherd – very soft, and a great dog. His new owner is hoping to turn him into a Frisbee champion! Overall, it was a great experience, and I wish we could do it every month!

We still have so many dogs that need homes! Of course, I’m always partial to my foster dogs, so here’s a quick update on them. Vala wasn’t feeling well, so she missed the Queeny Park event. She’s doing much better now though, and hopefully will be able to go back to PetSmart next week to try again to find a home. Samantha had fun at Queeny Park and I enjoyed spending much of the time with her. She’ll be staying at the main foster home for now, even though I want to bring her home, because I’m bringing home a different foster. Noah, a Heartland dog who was adopted out last year, is being returned because he keeps running away from his family. He’s going to live with me for awhile and I can see if there’s something we can do to help him want to stay home. Kiya and the puppies are back at their original foster home, and continue to grow. The puppies are getting really big!! Kiya continues to be up to her escape artist tricks. Since I returned the puppies, I decided to catnap three kittens that were at the foster home. I have to admit I missed having kittens around. Besides, Vala loves to chase them, and since they’re used to dogs, they don’t seem to mind. When they get tired they just stop running and she sniffs them and turns away to find another one to chase. It gives them all exercise, and I get some great entertainment at the same time! :-)

Petropolis and Puppy news

We had our adoption event at Petropolis last Saturday. It was a lot of fun, but also disappointing since we didn't have any adoptions, other than two pre-arranged adoptions. There were over 30 other rescue groups there, so there were many more dogs than there were people looking to adopt. We're hoping for better results in two weeks, at the Adopt-A-Stray event at Queeny Park. The two pre-arranged adoptions were for dogs that people saw at PetSmart in the past, but weren't able to take them home that day. One was Joey, a cute black lab who's been sick and is finally well enough to go to his new home. The other was for Herman, a very sweet beagle. Another dog foster mom was at PetSmart with her dogs over the weekend, and she also had two dogs adopted - Cookie and June. And Dixie was adopted during the week - so we have had some progress. We've also had a couple of returns, and a few new abandoned dogs that came in, unfortunately.

I think I posted previously about how Kiya and the puppies are having some problems - the vet thinks it may be ringworm. Which means yesterday I got to shave all five puppies and the mom, and then give them all medicated baths. My husband deserted me in favor of a Corvette car cruise, so I was on my own. It was quite a sight - me, who's never groomed or shaved a dog before, trying to figure out how to work the shaver, and hold the puppy still, and get the hair off without damaging the dog or myself. And then trying to bathe the puppy, and make sure it kept the medicated shampoo on for 10 minutes without licking it off, and then rinse the puppy, and dry the puppy. And since I don't have that much patience, I didn't want to do only one puppy at at a time - so I did them all 5 together! It went something like this...

Put 5 puppies in the bathtub... take out the first one, and shave it in the sink. Hold the puppy's fur down to shave it, realize I'm holding the shaver backwards and try again... realize the shaver is starting to get hot, and since I didn't have any Cool-lube stuff like they use at the groomers, I used some frozen food out of the freezer to cool down the blades. :-) Get the first puppy shaved, in the worst shaving job ever, and back into the tub it goes. Continue with the other four puppies - the last one looked much better than the first one. Now, time for baths... fill up the sink, wash the puppy, lather the medicated shampoo into the puppy, put the first puppy on the floor with some puppy food to distract it, and wash the second puppy. By the time I was done washing and shampooing the second puppy, the first puppy finished the food and wandered away. Get out more puppy food, corral both puppies and show them the food, and grab the third puppy to wash it. After shampooing the third puppy, I was ready to rinse the first puppy - but that wasn't so easy in the sink. So I take the last two puppies out of the bathtub, and rinse the first puppy in the bathtub. Puppies #2 and #3 have since fallen asleep on each other, fully lathered with shampoo, and puppies #4 and #5 are enjoying the remaining puppy food. I dry off puppy #1 and wrap him in a towel on the floor. Time to wash puppies #4 and #5. Puppies #2 and #3 are ready to be rinsed, so into the bathtub they go. Somehow they finally all end up clean, dry, and sleeping in towels on the floor. That took several hours - but I had to get the mom done before I quit for the day. So I attempted to shave Kiya. Believe it or not, she was worse than the puppies. She was scared and kept running away from the shaver. I couldn't hold her and shave her, so it was a challenge, and she probably kept a lot more hair than she should have. But she finally got shaved, shampooed, and dried also. And just think - they only need these medicated shampoos twice this week. Yikes. At least I don't have to shave them again (I hope). It was quite a learning experience! Its amazing that Kiya and these puppies can survive being fostered by me - I think they deserve really really good homes after what they've gone through. Kiya is so desparate for attention - she's a really good dog, and I wish I had more time to spend with her. The puppies also need more time than I give them - but at least they have each other. They come running to see me when I come downstairs, and they like to be held and petted. They are so adorable! I took some more pictures before I shaved them, so I'll try to add those soon.

Kiya and the puppies will be going back to their foster home soon. I'm just the temporary dogsitter, remember? :-). And Vala will also be going there, since I'll be on a vacation with NO dogs. I did find out we're going to be near Best Friends Animal Society, which is the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the country. So I talked my family into making a trip there - they give guided tours of the place - there are over 2,000 animals there! I'm more excited about that than I am about the rest of the trip. :-)

Daisy was adopted! and other news

Daisy has been adopted, after only her second week at PetSmart. I am sad that she left so quickly - she was a great dog. But she went to a family with three boys who are very excited to have a dog to play with, and are willing to work with her to overcome her fears.

Since Daisy left on Monday, and Murphy went back to his home on Monday, the house is much quieter. It has left me with just Remi, Vala, Kiya, Bailey, Whiskey, Brandy, Ginny, Scout, George, and Ella to take care of. Normally that wouldn't be too bad, and I'm anxious to get Samantha back to foster now that I have room again. However, since I'm going on vacation soon, and since the puppies are starting to need more care, I'm going to wait a few more weeks before I get Sam, unless she gets adopted first of course.

Ella was supposed to go up for adoption at PetSmart last week, but they found a mass in her abdomen during surgery and now we're waiting until the end of this week to find out the results of the biopsy and make sure she can be put up for adoption. She's fully recovered from her spay surgery though, and is even getting braver around the dogs now. So this extra time at my house might help her get adopted since she'll have more options if she is a dog-friendly cat.

Kiya and the puppies went to the vet yesterday for a follow-up exam and they think they might have ringworm (mother and puppies). So now the poor dogs have to stay quarantined for even longer, and start on some medication to treat it. The battle to keep Kiya in the exercise-pen with her puppies has been won - by Kiya, that is. After covering the top with chicken wire and spending a lot of time and money trying to keep her from getting out, I've finally admitted defeat. The puppies need to stay in the ex-pen because there are too many things in the basement that could hurt them -but Kiya is now climbing out of the pen whenever she wants. My biggest concern is I've never seen her climb back in, and her puppies are hungry without her there to feed them. They're starting to eat puppy food now, but they're still trying to nurse, so I need to find out if they'll be okay without her now. They're all continuing to grow - the biggest one (Ginny) is 6 pounds now, and the smallest one (Brandy) is 4.25 pounds. They're walking around really well, and playing all the time - they've even started growling and giving these baby puppy barks more often. They love to be held and be allowed to get out and explore their world. It's always fun to let them out and then try to round them all back up again. They're easier to round up than the kittens I fostered were - which is good, because there were only three kittens and there are five puppies!! Either way, puppies and kittens seem to have an instinctive knack for getting into trouble, but they're so cute that they can get away with it!

Pictures!

Here is a picture of my newest foster - Daisy! As a reminder - click on any picture in the blog to see it full-size.

Here is a newer picture of Sam - just 'cause I like her so much. :-)

And finally - what you've been waiting for - pictures of Kiya and her puppies!

Here is Kiya - we think she is an Ibizan Hound mix.

And here are her puppies....we think they are possibly part Akita. They are now 23 days old!

This is Bailey. She looks a whole lot like her brother Whiskey.

This is Whiskey. He's the puppy with the ear infection - poor guy.

This is Ginny. She has a spot of white on the back of her neck, but not across the top of her forehead like Bailey and Whiskey.

This is Brandy. She has the least amount of white on her - just a little bit on her chest.

And this is Scout. He has a ring of white around his neck.

You may have noticed a theme with the names, other than Scout. One volunteer named Scout after her dog, and the rest were named by another volunteer. I tried to figure out a way to make Scout fit the theme, but when I Googled it, I only found a lot of web sites about Boy Scouts and alcohol... a surprising number of them, actually! So much for that idea. :-)

Here is my favorite picture of all the puppies... aren't they adorable?!

Introducing Daisy, and other news

It's been a busy few days! Saturday was a bit slow for dog adoptions, and once again neither Vala or Sam were picked. There was one dog returned due to her owner having medical issues. Daisy is a German Shepherd/Husky mix who was adopted out last December (she was named Elkie then). She's only about 7 months old now, and is a beautiful dog. I haven't had a chance to take her picture yet, so hopefully I'll get that and post it in the next day or two. She was very shy and overwhelmed by the other dogs, so I offered to take her to my house and help her get used to her new surroundings. To keep from having too many fosters, I let Sam go back to the main foster home. It was hard to let her go, but I went and visited on Sunday and saw that she was very happy and settled in immediately. Sam loves to play and isn't shy at all, so she loves having other new dogs to play with now. Daisy has quickly become a model dog - anyone thinking about fostering should sign up for her - she's practically perfect! :-) She likes to play with Vala, although she's still not sure about Remi. She's quiet and obedient and house-trained and affectionate. I am really enjoying having her around.

In other news, its been a long week with Kiya and the puppies. One of the puppies has an ear infection, but other than that they're all doing great. They've started sitting up, and walking around a little bit. They're very wobbly and fall over sometimes, or they'll nudge each other and knock each other over. It's so cute to watch. Kiya has been a bit of a challenge, as she needs to eat a lot to feed her puppies, and therefore needs to be taken outside a lot more often than other dogs. Since this isn't always possible to take her out every few hours, she has become an escape artist at getting out of her kennel to go as far away as possible. I can't blame her, I would want the smell as far from me as possible too! But instead of using the puppy pads that I've strategically placed around the basement in case she does get out, she prefers to find more interesting places to do her business. My husband's working on finishing our basement, so there's a lot of tools and construction items lying around. The tools are a favorite spot of hers. Also in boxes of spooled wire, inside a bookshelf that he built into the wall, and even on top of the extra-large container of Nature's Miracle stain/odor remover that was sitting on the floor (guess she told me!). It's been a losing battle on my part to keep her in her exercise-pen where she's staying with the puppies. First, she squeezed between the door and the side of the kennel. I blocked that off, and she managed to get under the kennel by pushing it into a corner and squeezing underneath. I blocked it in so she couldn't move it around, and she somehow lifted the whole thing straight into the air and got out underneath. I tied it down with bungee cords, and she started climbing over the top. I tried a blanket over the top yesterday, which didn't work, and this morning I tried a fitted sheet which will hold better than the blanket. If that fails, my husband offered to find me a piece of plywood to try next. Hopefully that will work!! It'd be funny if she didn't make such a big mess everytime she got out. :-)

In happier news, Murphy is coming back! Murphy, who used to be called Coal, is my favorite previous foster dog. Every now and then I get to dog-sit for him while his owners are gone, and this weekend is one of those times. I am so glad that his owners kept in touch and let me be his honorary aunt. I generally don't have favorite fosters - or actually, I tend to think of each one as my favorite whenever I'm around them. But Coal somehow snuck in and stole favorite dog forever spot in my heart. So I'm really looking forward to seeing him again.

And finally, there's Ella. She's the mother of the kittens that I fostered, and she's finally almost ready to be put up for adoption. She goes in to the vet tomorrow to get her vaccinations and be spayed, and then on Saturday she'll be moving up to PetSmart to find a home. There are some cats that live at Petsmart 24/7, and volunteers come in during the week to care for them. Ella will become one of those cats, and hopefully someone will see her during the week and fall in love with her and adopt her. She's a great cat, and I hope she finds a home quickly, although I hear it will be challenging during "kitten season".

Puppy Pictures, Petropolis Event

I finally got some pictures of the potatoes - I mean puppies. They don't look so much like potatoes anymore now that their eyes are open and I think their legs have started growing. One of them even gave a real dog "bark" yesterday! They are supposed to be able to start crawling by 21 days old (they're 18 days old today!) In another week or two, they should be moving around quite a bit on their own. Here are some pictures...

In other exciting news, we have signed up to do an adoption event at Petropolis at the end of this month. It sounds like a lot of fun - hope you can come out and join us! Click on the image below to see a larger view of the flyer.

Introducing Kiya and Puppies!

First, to catch up from last week.... Sam and Vala went to PetSmart on Saturday, but neither one found a home. However, two other dogs did get adopted this week. Emmy is a pug that has been in foster care for awhile. My best friend was hoping to adopt her, until she found out she's very allergic to dogs. But she did spend enough time with Emmy that I got to hear about what a sweet wonderful little dog she was. Emmy got a lot of attention at PetSmart, and was adopted right away by a family with two other pugs, so she'll have new friends to play with. Ozzie was the other dog who was adopted, and we're very happy for him. He is a very sweet bassett hound mix, and he went to a home with another bassett hound mix! So both of our adopted dogs this week found homes with families who are already familiar with their breed - always helpful!

Sam and Vala have both been getting away with too much at home lately, and I need to get them back onto a better routine. They were both spayed a week ago and were told to "take it easy" until the stitches were removed, so they haven't been able to spend a lot of time playing or going for long walks or anything. This means I felt sorry for them and let them loose in the house without keeping a close eye on them. This is not good for their housebreaking, or for my shoes that they've chewed on several times. Well, one of them - the other downside is I can't tell who the culprit is, since I haven't caught them in the act! Oh well, they're both too cute to be mad at for long. Sam (the most likely culprit) is always ready to greet me at the door and give me puppy licks to say hello. She's very easygoing, and always ready to play. Vala, on the other hand, has become a bit lazy, and doesn't jump up and down like a bouncy ball anymore. She prefers to be a lap dog, and fortunately she's only 28 pounds, because she won't hesitate to jump onto the bed or couch or wherever a person is to make herself comfortable in their lap.

As if these two foster dogs weren't enough, plus one foster cat, and my own dog and cat, I brought home a mother dog and five puppies last night. This time I asked my husband *first*. Kittens aren't too hard to hide - but six more dogs in the house is another story. ;-) Another foster mom had taken in the pregnant dog (Kiya), and she had her puppies two weeks ago. Since the foster mom had company coming into town and needed to get them out of her house for a couple of weeks, I offered to dog-sit. So she said okay, but we worked out the details through some other volunteers. Imagine her surprise when she got home last night and the dog and puppies were gone! They'd been dognapped by me - and now I may not give them back! :-) The puppies are 17 days old today - they've just started to open their eyes. They can't walk or bark, and they just look like little potatoes. Cute potatoes, but potatoes nonetheless (sorry Gina, but its true). I'll post some pictures soon so you can see for yourself. They are happily ensconced in our basement now, safely away from the rest of the animals in the house. They weigh about 2 pounds and 12 oz. I'll post more about them soon!