Lucy was adopted!

Lucy was adopted yesterday - my kitten-cleaning assistant is gone! She is no longer available to clean up the kittens after they finish eating, so I have to clean them up myself now. I think the kittens miss Lucy almost as much as I do! :-)

Speaking of kittens, the four kittens are doing great - they are so much fun to play with. My husband jokes that they don't say "meow", they say "pheeuw", and it does sound like that! They are so tiny and pathetic and adorable, and they eat a lot, and create huge messes. I'm enjoying them more every day. They are still eating kitten canned food and KMR (kitten milk replacement) and I'm finally getting the hang of how much to feed them each time. They all like to climb on me and cuddle up on my neck and purr, and I give each one a turn carrying it around the house with me while I do other chores.... I hope I'm not making them dizzy.

All my other fosters are doing well too. Marco and Polo, my fluffly white cats, had an adventure in the basement - they explored down there for a few days until I finally found them and took them back upstairs. They had food and a litter box down there, so I guess they were in no hurry to leave, but I didn't like them having so many hiding places where I couldn't find them. They're in my daughter's bedroom now and spend most of the time watching out the window, cuddled up together. Marco has to have a dental and two teeth removed next week, then they'll be ready for adoption.

Shiro and Una are doing great - they've been going to PetSmart and are on the website but so far no one has shown any interest in them. I was hoping they'd start to come out to the rest of the house but they seem to prefer to hang out by themselves in a back bedroom. Shiro always comes to greet me and get petted but he doesn't like to leave his room. Una doesn't seem to care if I'm there or not, as long as I bring canned food now and then.

My other two cat fosters, Scribbles and Whisper, are still living at PetSmart. I heard from one family who is interested in Scribbles so I'm hoping she gets adopted this weekend! No one seems interested in Whisper - she has been waiting such a long time for a home, so I wish someone would want her.

I'm down to just one dog foster right now! Noelle is doing great, and I think she misses Lucy and Boo, but she still has Remi to play with. I am sure she'll have a new foster dog friend soon, but I'm going to wait awhile before bringing another foster dog home. My husband left today for a three week trip for Army, so I need a few days break to get my house cleaned and get caught up on chores, before I'm ready to add another dog to the family.

Artemis was adopted!; Introducing Ariel, Anastasia, Aurora & Aladdin

I didn't post it earlier, but my foster cat Artie was adopted a couple weeks ago. I visited him in his new home a few days ago, and he is doing great! He has a wonderful family, and another cat named Louie to play with. He has been renamed Luckee, and I think it fits him, since he was lucky to find such a great family.

With the help of some other Heartland volunteers, I've named my new kittens after Disney princesses and princes. Here are some pictures of my newest fosters:

Aurora is a tortoiseshell. I joke about how I am not a fan of tortie's, due to some of them being known for a "tortie attitude", but so far I have to admit that Aurora is my favorite of the bunch!

Ariel is a gray tabby with a white face. She is usually the first one to find the food dish. All of the kittens are eating very well now - they are incredibly messy, but oh so cute!

This is Anastasia - she is the only one that dives headfirst into the food dish and lays in it while she eats. Yuck!

The only boy in the group - this is Aladdin. He is the climber of the bunch - he is the first to climb up to the top of the cat playpen, and often the only one to go up there and sleep on the top shelf while his sisters stay safely on the bottom floor.

Once the kittens are done making such a huge mess while they eat, Lucy, one of my foster dogs, is happy to step in and help with the cleanup. She'll lick the kittens faces through the bars, and they'll push their faces against her tongue to make sure they get all clean. Then everyone is happy!

Introducing Marco and Polo, Update on other fosters

Tonight I took in two new cat fosters - Marco and Polo. They are brothers, around 6 years old, and they are the most beautiful cats I've ever fostered. They are also both very friendly. They remind me of a cat that I had growing up, and I'm crazy about them after only having them for a couple of hours! Marco and Polo have been through a lot in their life, but they've always had each other. So I'll be keeping them both until they can find a home together. Sometimes adult cats are hard to place together - especially when one is special needs (Marco is deaf) but in this case I can't imagine that they'll have a hard time finding a home. Not only are they beautiful, but they are easy-going, and get along with other cats, dogs, and kids. The family who rescued Marco and Polo originally was very sad to give them up, but the son was allergic so they had to find another home for the cats. But then a few years later the second family who adopted them decided they could no longer keep them and they turned them in to a shelter. Fortunately the first owner had microchipped the cats, and when the shelter contacted her, she immediately went and rescued them again. Then she asked for our help to find them a good home. When I got them tonight, she told me that Polo was very athletic. He proved this when I put him in the bathroom while getting his room ready for him. I went in to get him and found him on top of the shower doors! He actually seemed quite comfortable up there. This is Marco on the left, and Polo on the right.




As usual, the camera was out so I had to take pictures of the rest of my fosters. Here is a picture of Una, snuggling among some stuffed animals. She is still a bit shy, but she's starting to come greet me occasionally now.

Here is Shiro. He's always ready to greet me and get attention and petting, and of course canned food!

Here is a picture of Lucy with Boo. I always think its a good sign when the dogs don't mind going in a crate even when they don't have to. It means I'm doing a good job of keeping the crate as a good place to be, instead of somewhere they have to stay when I'm not home. Here Lucy went in and settled down for a nap, and I guess Boo thought that she looked so comfortable, that she decided to go join her!

And for anyone who heard rumors that Lucy was adopted - it's not true, unfortunately.

Here's Boo on the left and Noelle on the right. These two aren't related. But I think Boo is starting to look more like Noelle every day. Poor Boo. :-)

I have a temporary, one night house-guest. He doesn't have a name right now, but I'm calling him Romeo because he likes to give kisses. He's on his way from a shelter to the vet, and then he's going to be adopted tomorrow!

And here are a couple pictures from our Trivia Night. A few of the Silent Auction items...

Trivia Night

Joys and Sorrows of Fostering; Photos of Cat Fosters

These are all the good and bad things I've felt about fostering, just in the past 72 hours!

Joys
- Snuggling with my foster puppy Boo, and laughing as she once again climbs under the covers to sleep next to me.
- Laughing as three white dogs come running into the house, all having turned brown from mud!
- Volunteering at a shelter and seeing the gratitude in the dogs' eyes as they each receive pets and affection.
- Watching as my foster cat Shiro starts to trust me and comes to greet me at the door.
- Smiling as Noelle, Remi, Lucy and Boo all try to play tug of war together with a little tiny dog toy.
- Hearing how well Keebler, another of my previous foster dogs, is doing in his new home.
- Watching Lucy playing in the sprinkler and having a blast getting wet.
- Seeing Petey, a beagle and FiFi, a lab mix puppy, finding their new permanent homes during the Adoption Event at PetSmart.

Sorrows

- Cleaning up the mud left all over the house after it rains and four dogs track it in.
- Trying to give Noelle a bath before adoptions on Saturday - the dog doesn't like water!

- Trying to give ear drops to two cats who really don't like having their ears touched.

- Walking away from the dogs at the shelter; leaving them behind because I don't have room for more.
- Leaving PetSmart on Saturday knowing that the many dogs that were there and weren't adopted will have to wait another week to try again for their very own home.

I'm sad that Noelle, Boo or Lucy wasn't adopted this weekend. But it is kind of nice to have another week with these three foster dogs. I'm falling more in love with Boo every day - it's going to be really difficult to give her up. Of course Noelle is going to also break my heart when she's adopted - I'm more attached to her than any other dog I've ever fostered. And Lucy hasn't been around as long as the other two, but she's such a good dog - very obedient, and always happy. I love having the three of them around because they know the house rules, and they know the schedule, and it makes it a lot easier on me that way. Still, I'm sad they weren't adopted because there are so many other dogs who need me, and I can't help them until one of my foster dogs is adopted.

I realized I never posted pictures of my foster cats Una, Shiro and Princess Rana, so here they are. My friend Rhonda took these pictures. I'm pretty sure I've captured all three cats in these four photos - sometimes they are hard to tell apart!

Lucy at the parade

Last Saturday morning I went to the Cottleville run/walk and parade for St. Patrick's Day. It was Lucy's turn to go with me, and she had a great time.

Here we are on the 1-mile walk. My niece Darby helped me walk Lucy.


Waiting for the parade to start!

Lucy was very popular with the kids!

It's been a long day!

Lucy received several beads from the parade participants.

Introducing Lucy; Pictures of other fosters

I haven't posted in awhile because I haven't had much to report! After the puppies were all adopted, I was sort of taking a little break, but break time is over. I went with two friends to a shelter yesterday and we ended up coming home with four dogs! I am only fostering one of them - the other three went to other foster homes. The one I took is a yellow lab mix, and I've named her Lucy. I saw her at the shelter last week and fell in love with her when she kept trying to lick my hand through the bars of her cage. I was out of town this past weekend so I couldn't get her right away, but I thought about her all weekend and was very excited to bring her home last night. I snapped a few quick photos of her this morning... this is Lucy:


She is very sweet, and so happy to be out of the shelter and be able to run and play! She is probably around a year old. It's too early to tell what she'll be like once she settles down, but right now she is just this hyper whirlwind of energy running around the yard. I guess I would be too, if I'd been stuck inside a small steel cage for 3 weeks and hadn't been outside in all that time! Still she is most likely to run in circles - she doesn't seem to want to get too far from me. And everytime I call her, she runs to me and leans against me to get a belly rub. She does fine with other dogs and cats so I am hoping she will be an easy dog to find a home for!

Here are pictures of two of the other dogs we took. Both are cute chihuahuas, under 10 pounds, approx 1 year old, and very sweet. They are not related - they just happened to have two chihuahuas there at the same time!

And I finally got a picture of my black cat Artemis. I call him Artie, and I love him more every day. He is very affectionate, and always eager for me to come home from work! I was worried about how he'd do with the other animals since he's been an "only pet" for his whole life so far, but he has fit in great and is doing really well with Kiwi (my only foster cat at home right now), and he also is starting to get more comfortable around the dogs.