New Fosters

The Saturday before last was an amazing day.  The rescue group I volunteer with had eleven dogs adopted!  And even more importantly, we had two brand new foster volunteers join the group.  This means we'll be able to save more dogs! 

When we get new foster homes, we try to give them a dog that is already in one of our foster homes and ready for adoption.  This is because when we get in new dogs, we don't always know much about them.  Some of them will be heartworm positive or have other health issues that will require long-term care.  Others have issues like ear mites and worms that can be contagious to other pets so they have to be quarantined.  Plus the dogs may have behavior issues that will need to be worked with, and often new volunteers don't want to take in a dog that they quickly learn is pushy with other dogs, or doesn't like kids, or screams when unhappy.  Since we want to keep our new volunteers, we prefer to give them dogs that have already been evaluated and fully vetted and that we know will be a good fit for their home.  That way they have a good experience and keep coming back!   

Since I somehow always seem to have plenty of foster dogs around, I often end up moving one of my foster dogs to new foster homes.  Or in the case of the past few weeks, I moved three of my dogs to new foster homes!  Both Bogey the shy dog (now called Brody) and Lucky the deaf dog went to a volunteer who is new to fostering but absolutely wonderful with training and socializing dogs.  I've shared a few of their pictures on my Facebook page and they are both doing great!  Also Louie my shy but perfect foster dog went to another foster home where he is being spoiled rotten. 

There's one other thing you should know about new foster homes.  They have uncanny luck in getting their fosters adopted.  Even dogs that have been around for several months suddenly become adopted once going to a new foster home.  It is wonderful!  In this case, both Lucky and Louie have been adopted in the past week!  This means I was able to send out two more foster dogs to those foster homes!  I've also taken in several new dogs, and one new cat, so here's a quick update.

Hoppy is a three-legged cat who was turned into a shelter when his family said they no longer had time for him.  He is very sweet and loving, and he was adopted three weeks after I brought him home!

Josie is a female English Foxhound or Treeing Walker Coonhound mix (your choice).  She was left behind in the parking lot of a vet's office.  One of the vet techs rescued her and she went to another relatively new foster home.  She had a bit too much energy for them, and since they had no other pets for her to play with, we moved her to my house so she could have some other dogs to keep her busy.  My back yard is basically like a dog park with new dogs being introduced often, so she always has someone new to play with.  Right now she loves running and playing with Jax and Lacey.   

 
Since Josie's foster family was willing to take another dog, they took home Gemma the deaf pit bull mix.  And since Moose the Great Dane and all five of Lacey's puppies were adopted, that gave me room to take in a few new dogs.  So stay tuned for more new fosters, coming soon!

More Returns!

One of the challenges of rescue is taking back previously adopted dogs when their owners can no longer care for them.  Since I volunteer with an all-foster home group, we have no shelter building to house the dogs.  If a dog is going to be returned, we hope that the person who originally fostered the dog will take him or her back.  But if that isn't possible, then everyone in the group works together to find a place for the dog to go.  I am fortunate enough to work with a wonderful group of volunteers, and someone is always stepping up to help whenever is needed.

Returns don't happen very often, but sometimes it seems as if when one happens, it is immediately followed by many more!  In the past two weeks, we've received several returned dogs, and it seems that most of them have been mine!  The good news is that Nosey, the blind Beagle puppy who was going to be returned, ended up going to a family member of the adopter and is no longer being returned.  Also one of our new foster volunteers stepped up to help out by fostering Bogey when he was returned.  He's doing wonderful in his new foster home!  It also helped that Allie and Natasha's adoptions are both working out, and in addition Trooper the Black Lab and Libby the deaf Jack Russell Terrier were also adopted!

Jax is one of the returns that I took in last week.  He is a great little guy - only 8 months old - and already I'm forcing him to earn his keep by collecting donations at adoption events.  So far he's earned around $40 over the past two adoption events - not bad for a dog!

Jax

The other returns that ended up coming back to my house are Louie the Black Lab mix and Gemma the deaf pit bull mix. Both were returned because their owners could no longer afford to care for them.

Louie is a year and a half old, and was part of the "Donald Duck" litter.  

Louie!

He is now all grown up.  He's very nervous around new people at first, but he's quickly learned to trust me and has become my constant companion, even sleeping on my bed at night.  

Louie looking nervous during an adoption event.

Gemma is the other recent return.  She originally came from a shelter in Kansas City, where she was going to be put down without ever being made available for adoption due to being deaf and heartworm positive and having some health issues.  Fortunately the shelter has a great rescue coordinator who shared her and when I saw her on Facebook I immediately said I'd take her.  She had been hit by a car prior to being taken to the shelter and has some nerve damage in her front leg which causes her to limp.  However she completed her heartworm treatment and is in good health other than the continuing issues with her leg.  Gemma is a very sweet dog - she is affectionate and loves everyone she meets.  The other family who fostered her previously wants to take her back as soon as their current foster dog is adopted, but in the meantime she is staying here with me.  I am enjoying having her back!

Gemma

The other exciting thing that happened this week was Zara, Ziggy's littermate who was adopted out three years ago, was lost and came back for a few days until we could locate her owner.  She is now safely back home!

Zara

For those of you wondering, Ziggy and Zara used to love to play together.  I wanted to give them a chance to play together again while Zara was back, but it turns out that they're much more mature now, and Ziggy was too busy worrying about if Zara would steal his stuff to actually want to play.  So Zara played with all the other fosters for a few days and seemed to have a great time visiting everyone except Ziggy!

One left

It was a good week for puppy adoptions.  First Huey was adopted, then Donald, then Louie, then Dewey.  So now Daisy is sitting here with me all alone.  She doesn't seem to mind that her siblings are all gone.  This could be because now she gets all the attention.  She's cuddled up with me and Roxy on the couch right now.  She doesn't have to share her puppy food with her brothers.  She gets to go outside with the big dogs now, and we'll start working on house training.  But with as cute as she is, I am pretty sure she'll be adopted before long too!

Dog Update

Gizmo

Gizmo has been adopted!  He is now living with a family with six kids, another dog and a cat!  I can only imagine the mischief he will be able to get into with that crew.  It's a wonderful family and I think he'll be very happy.

Huey

Huey was also adopted!  He was the only puppy to get adopted this past weekend, but hopefully the others will have better luck this coming weekend.  Donald, Daisy, Dewey and Louie are starting to grow a lot, and starting to develop their own personalities now.  Donald and Dewey are the two cuddle-bugs.  They just want belly rubs and attention.  Daisy and Louie are too busy running around and playing tug to stop for cuddles.  They're into everything!

Bunny

Bunny is still doing about the same.  She continues to enjoy the outdoors, and continues to take treats from me, but still doesn't like to be petted.

Tulsa

When I first fostered Tulsa as a puppy several years ago, my husband really didn't care for her.  So I am really enjoying the fact that she's improved so much that he actually asked to foster her!  Since he's still living at our old house with our dogs Remi and Noelle, I didn't expect him to ever want to foster another dog.  But several times while he was here at the cabin he commented on how much Tulsa has improved, and eventually said he'd like to take her to his house to foster!  So last week Tulsa moved back to our old house, where she's doing great with Remi and Noelle.  We're still trying to find her a permanent adoptive home, and I'll still be taking her to adoption events, but in the meantime it's nice to know she's somewhere that she is doing so well.

Ziggy

And then there's Ziggy.  I'm very happy that he's back, but he told me today that he's ready to go back and live with his second mom again.  He's talking about the trainer who has been fostering him and working with him for several weeks.  She's awesome, but I told Ziggy that she might not want him to come back again.  He said that was ridiculous.  So we'll see.  We've been trying to learn how to do agility weave poles, and I may have been pushing him too hard, because he says that she's more fun than I am. So now I'm determined to change that, and we'll be going for another river walk soon - one of Ziggy's favorite things!

Roxy

Roxy is still continuing with her Canine Good Citizen classes.  She's learned to lie down on command and is doing very well with her stay command.  Around here she's doing much better too - she doesn't follow me everywhere, and will lay down across the room instead of having to be touching me constantly.  She's such a great dog, and I really enjoy fostering her.

Toby

You may have noticed that there have been several dogs leaving here recently (Phil, Gizmo, Tulsa, etc) and not so many dogs coming in.  There's a deaf dog in Memphis that I'm hoping to foster soon, so I want to leave some room for him.  And since Roxy had no one to play with, I also brought home Toby for a short visit.  I fostered Toby a few months ago, and then he moved to another foster home for awhile.  He'll be going back to that foster home again soon, but for now he's taking a short vacation with me.  He's a great dog, but he has so much energy that it's difficult to get him to ever calm down.  This is probably the main reason he hasn't been adopted yet.  He goes to adoption events every week, and hopefully his turn will come soon!

The Puppies Have Names

There were some great submissions for names!  I had a hard time choosing, but because I have the maturity level of a five-year-old, I had to pick the Donald Duck theme.  Congratulations on selecting the winning names, Harper!  I'm a huge Donald Duck fan.  I even have a poster of him on my wall.  Okay, I don't really have a poster of Donald Duck.  But I am a huge fan, and I might just have to hang up a picture of this Donald:

Donald

 

Daisy

Huey, Dewey and Louie

And just because he's so cute, here's one more picture of Donald: