Administrative Stuff

First, I've changed the location of my blog to http://www.dogfostermom.com/.  This doesn't really matter to you, since you can keep going to the original location and it will redirect you automatically to the new location.  But it matters to me, because during the transition it somehow removed all of your opinion button results.  I love reading what you think of each post, whether in the comments or in the opinion buttons.  So I'm sad that the opinion buttons have all been reset to zero.  Would you mind going back through my blog and filling in the opinion buttons for my old posts?  There are only 340 posts - is that too much to ask?

Okay, fine.  I can live without validation.  Probably.  Let's move on. 

The second order of business is Mango Minster 2010.  I've made many new friends through Mango's dog show, and many more thanks to Amy and the House of Cats.  Most of these friends are cats and dogs with their very own blogs.  My dogs Remi and Noelle have to share this blog with all their foster siblings, and my cat Merlin never gets to post.  But Remi and Noelle did get to enter Mango Minster 2010, and in the next couple of days the voting will be conducted in each of their categories.  Remi is entered in the Hard Workers category (here's why), and Noelle is entered in the Bad Sports category (for these reasons).  Stop by Mango Minster and check out the show! 

Mango Minster has various officially sanctioned events, and Remi also entered Tucker's SitStay Competition.  Tucker is a Harlequin Great Dane just like Remi - that's Tucker in the picture, not Remi!  Tucker has to put up with cats at his house just like Remi.  He's also petitioning his parents to get him a pibble like Noelle (well maybe not JUST like Noelle).  I wonder if Remi is Tucker's role model?!  There are a lot of great entries in Tucker's competition, so make sure to visit when you have a few minutes!

And finally, the biggest news of all.  Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VI is only a few days away, and my previous foster puppy Bear is the star player!  Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration.  But he is in the starting lineup!   You can read how Bear ended up in the Puppy Bowl here.  The Puppy Bowl VI will air this Sunday, Feb 7th, at 3pm e/p on Animal Planet.  Next week I'll finally be able to share with you the pictures I took during filming - if I can find them!

Mango Minster

Remi and Noelle have told me that I’ve been writing about my foster animals too much – especially cats. Noelle said that cats are only good for chasing, and Remi said that he is much more handsome than any scrawny little cat. I explained to them that since Remi only sleeps on the couch, and Noelle only causes trouble, I couldn’t write about them all the time. And then I received the worst news I’ve heard all week.

I have just been informed that Noelle is working on her own blog post. She found this dog show called Mango Minster that she is very excited to enter. I thought this was a good idea at first. After all, since Noelle is deaf, she would never be allowed to compete in the Westminster dog show. Well, that plus the fact that she has no papers to prove she’s a purebred… and for that matter she probably isn’t even a purebred at all. Plus if she ever got to go to a real dog show, she would immediately be thrown out for bad behavior. But then I found out more about the Mango Minster show. They have a category called Bad Sports. So of course that is Noelle's category. And as part of the competition, she wants to write about all of her bad behavior!

I told her I couldn’t allow this. I’m supposed to be knowledgeable about dogs. I’m supposed to have well trained dogs that always behave. If she wrote about all of her bad behavior, no one would ever take me seriously again. But she insisted. And Noelle can be very, umm, demanding at times. She says that is more proof that she is perfect for the Bad Sport category. So I relented and said she could write a blog post. But I wouldn’t like it. I know it will take her a few days to write down all of her bad behavior, so maybe by then I can distract her with something else… like a cat to chase. It’s worth a try.

Remi is also thinking about entering the Mango Minster show. He thinks if there were a Tallest Dog category, he could win. But since there isn’t, he is probably going to enter the Hard Working Dogs category. I tried to convince him that sleeping on the couch was not hard work, but he claims that putting up with all the foster animals I bring home is the hardest work there is. And I just can’t argue with that.


Merlin wanted to enter the Cat-Dog competition, but Remi threatened to sit on him and Noelle threatened to eat him (Bad Dog!) so he withdrew his entry. If you have your own pets who would like to participate, check out the Mango Minster show, and tell Mango that Noelle and Remi said hi!