Highlights of the past week...

September 27th - Went to an area shelter to drop off Harry and pick up Molly and two more FIV+ cats.  Harry is a previous foster dog that wasn't doing well here with the other fosters, and since we currently have no other foster homes available to take him, he is temporarily staying at the shelter.  Molly wasn't doing well at the shelter so she became my foster dog.  And since this shelter doesn't adopt out FIV+ cats, I brought home Scotty and Charley until room opens up at another area no-kill shelter that has a free-roaming adoption room for just FIV+ cats.   

Scotty

   

Charley

 They have joined the rest of my foster cats - Kirby, Bandit, Belle, Thomas, and Pogo.  Mercury, Kona and Kimba have all been adopted! 

September 28th - Went back to the shelter and picked up Thumper, a Bearded Collie mix.  She's eight years old and very sweet.  

Thumper

September 29th - Helped set up the All Paws garage sale fundraiser.  Got to do some pre-sale shopping.  Spent  more money than I had planned.  

September 30th - Got up at 4:30 a.m. for the garage sale.  Spent most of the day trying to stay awake. Bought more items and spent even more money.  Realized I ran out of checks and had no cash.  Blamed it on lack of sleep and wrote an IOU.  

October 1st - Went to the Purina Pet Project Event.  Ziggy got to join the Purina Dog Show and pray for all the animals to find homes.  I didn't actually see anyone get adopted at the event, so I'm hoping that's not Ziggy's fault.  We had a great time and I met some wonderful people.

October 2nd - Held a small adoption event at PetSmart.  No one was adopted, and I came home completely exhausted.  Brought home Audrey, a temporary foster dog who is already scheduled to be adopted as soon as she is vetted.  

October 3rd - Got up early and dropped off Audrey and Carlos, another All Paws dog, at the vet.  Went back home and worked for several hours.  Went back to the vet with Elton and Thumper for their exams, and then took all four dogs with me to the shelter to pick up Roo, another foster dog.  Came home and got Roo introduced to everyone else.  Left and took Ziggy to Agility class.  Came home and collapsed.  Got a good night's sleep surrounded by Miley, Molly, Elton, Thumper, Roo, Audrey, Pogo and Charley.  

Re-Introducing Mercury

In May 2009 I took in a litter of 12 week old kittens, and named them after planets.  Mercury is the gray kitten on the right.

He has always been very outgoing and social.  He likes other cats, he likes dogs, and he loves people.  This is Mercury bossing around a foster puppy that I had when he was a kitten.  He was very good at it.

Mercury was adopted out two years ago, but was recently was returned when his mom and dad got divorced.  He's grown up to be a beautiful cat, and should not have too much trouble being adopted even as an adult.

Mercury is currently living at a local PetSmart store while he waits to be adopted.  My previous foster kittens Kona and Kimba were both adopted from the store recently!  I am hoping that Mercury has the same experience and gets a great home quickly, because he is much too outgoing to be happy living in a cage.  The volunteers that take care of the cats at the store will have their hands full because he is extremely affectionate and extremely energetic!

Catching Up; Introducing Ellie and Elton

I have a lot of foster dogs right now.  I'm pretty much at the maximum number of fosters I can adequately care for without losing my mind.  So I was really excited on Saturday when Morgan the Puggle went to a foster-to-adopt home.  I checked in with Morgan's new mom and was so glad to hear that she's doing very well.  We talked a lot about Morgan's separation anxiety before they took her home, but I was still concerned that it would be an issue.  So it was exciting to hear that Morgan is fitting in quite well, and her new mom is willing to be patient with her and help her to adjust.  She said "I like to think of Morgan more as having really attentive bodyguard tendencies than separation anxiety".  I love that.

Teddy the Poodle also went to a foster-to-adopt home.  Usually a dog like Teddy would have just been adopted instead of being fostered first, but in this case the family who wanted him has children with dog allergies, so this is a good way for them to be sure the children are not too allergic to him.  So far everything is going well.

Kona and Kimba the kittens went up to stay at PetSmart in hopes that they will find forever homes.  Kimba had a bad habit of waking me up at 4am each morning by licking my face and purring non-stop.  When I would put the pillow over my face, she's start pulling my hair with her teeth, while still purring.  When I pushed her off the bed 15 times in a row, she just kept coming back.  I am sleeping much better at night now that the kittens are at PetSmart.

Tulsa the deaf Australian Cattle Dog and Roxy the American Pit Bull Terrier both have applications pending on them.  Both dogs are challenging to place into homes because of their breeds, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up that they'll be adopted.  The family who wants Tulsa has another ACD so they're familiar with the breed, but at the initial meeting the two dogs didn't do so well together, so we'll let them meet again this weekend and see how it goes.  Roxy gets along with everyone, but the family who wants her has a dog who is picky about his dog friends, so we'll have to see how they do together first.  So within the next week we should find out if even one of these very-hard-to-place dogs soon has a forever home!

So since many of my fosters have left or are in the process of leaving, you're probably wondering who all these dogs are that are keeping me on the edge of insanity.  Have you met Ziggy?  He alone can keep anyone on the edge...  Oh wait.  I mean, let me introduce you to Ellie and Elton.

Elton

Ellie

Elton and Ellie came from a high-kill shelter in a nearby county.  They are under a year old, and are silly, happy dogs.  They're probably going to be very quick adoptions, because they're both rather small (under 25 pounds) and so incredibly sweet.  We're not sure what breeds they're made up of, but Ellie acts a lot like Tulsa, so I'm betting there is some Australian Cattle Dog in there somewhere.  They do great with the other dogs and the cats here, and are a lot of fun to have around. 

Group Photo

I recently took the opportunity to take a short nap on the couch, and even after I got up, most of the dogs and cats stayed where they were, so I took a group picture.  

Please note that Teddy the poodle's preferred sleeping spot is on top of my pillow, whether I'm using it or not.  Also please note the woebegone look on the face of Roxy and Morgan.  Perhaps this is because they knew that things are changing around here.  Less than a week later, three of the five foster pets in this picture are no longer here, and the last two both have adoption applications pending!  In addition, I have three new foster dogs here, and two new foster cats on the way.  I'll have more details soon, so stay tuned.  

No More Cats

I prefer to foster dogs.  I've been trying for years to give up fostering cats and focus solely on dogs.  I would like to say that I've finally succeeded.  I would like to say that, but it's not true.  Because currently at my house are six foster cats who are pretty sure they own the place.  And although I don't talk about them much, I thought maybe if I wrote about them on my blog, someone out there would want to adopt one of these wonderful, fantastic, absolutely perfect cats.  Really, they are.

I've introduced Belle to you before.  She's a very sweet front declawed cat who does well with other cats and is a great companion.  She would love a quiet home with someone who would give her a lot of attention.   She's very calm and laid-back and loves to sit on laps and purr.

Next is Pogo, a five year old gray tabby cat.  He is very outgoing and loves everyone he meets.  He is great with other cats, and he loves dogs. I introduced him to Roxy, my foster pit bull, and he immediately walked up to her and started rubbing his head against her.  He does this all the time now, and she gives him baths with her tongue.  He would do great in an active, loud, noisy household with a lot going on.

Then there is Junior.  If anyone wants to adopt a cat that sneezes constantly, this is the cat for you.  Junior has some kind of sneezing issue.  He's been through every test known to veterinarians and no one can figure out what is up with him. He had his nose checked to see if something was stuck in it - nope.  He has been allergy tested and tried on different diets and different environmental factors with no luck. He's been on all sorts of medicines with no luck. So he's not really adoptable (unless you want a cat who sneezes a lot!) but he's staying here temporarily until he goes back to his other foster home.  He gets along well with other cats and with the dogs.  He's front declawed.  He's rather independent and doesn't seek out attention.  If you want a cat who you hardly notice except when you hear him sneezing, this is the cat for you.

This is Thomas.  He was at a local shelter and tested positive for FIV, just like Belle, so I brought him home.  He's a very friendly cat.  He's great with the other cats and he is very, very affectionate.  He also has a giant head.  I'm still learning more about how he is with dogs and what kind of home would be best for him, but if you want a rather large cat with a big head and a squeaky voice, he's your guy.

This is Kona. Or Kimba. I can't tell them apart.  I originally had them when they were kittens, and they were adopted out together.  The family who adopted them decided they couldn't keep them, and they gave them away to someone else.  Those people either lost them or gave them away or something, because they were turned in to a shelter today by someone who said they found them.  So now they're safely back home with me, and we'll try to find them better families this time!  Kona and Kimba are very sweet and affectionate.  They're typical kittens (around five months old) and love to play.  If you want to add a cute and loving kitten to your home, Kona or Kimba might be a perfect fit!


So that's it for my foster cats.  Which one would you like?

Introducing Kira, Kona and Kimba

But first, my neighbor would like to have a word:

Moo!

I believe what she's trying to say is "Please, for the love of cows, stop taking my picture!"  I'm sorry, I can't help myself. 

What do you call a grumpy cow? 
Moo-dy. 

Okay, on to the introductions.  First is Kira.   Kira was found as a pregnant stray by a family who couldn't keep her, but they let her stay until she had her two kittens and we could make space for them in a foster home. The kittens are around six weeks old now. 

Kira is a beautiful cat who couldn't decide if she wanted to be a tabby or a tortoiseshell, so she picked both.  Her coloring is called "torbie" - a mix of the tabby pattern and the tortoiseshell markings.  She is small and quite young, although I'll have to wait until she goes to the vet to get a good estimate of her age. 

Kira is very friendly with people, but after one unfortunate encounter where Ziggy decided to break into her room, I quickly learned that Kira does NOT like dogs. 

The kittens are another story.  They aren't really afraid of anything, and see themselves as mighty hunters.  I'm pretty sure they would have gladly taken down Ziggy if Kira had not done such an excellent job of telling Ziggy to get out of their room in no uncertain terms.  Instead they had to settle for taking down my tennis shoes.  And each other.  And the collapsible cat cube.  And anything else they could get their paws on. 

The kittens and Kira are sharing an empty room in my house that I have specifically designated as a "cat room".  Since it'll still be another few weeks before the kittens are old enough to get vetted for adoption, I wanted to give them as much room as possible to run and play.

These kittens were very lucky - they've never known life in a cage.  Even so, I feel sorry for them being relegated to only one room of the house, with very little interaction with me and no interaction with any other pets or people.  It causes me to buy them lots and lots of cat toys to keep them entertained.  And to say, if you haven't considered it, think about fostering!  One momma cat and two kittens isn't very much work, and the entertainment they provide is well worth it!

This is Kona.

 And this is Kimba.

They're both girls, and they'll hopefully be ready for adoption in about three weeks!