Monkee was adopted!

Monkee found a home while I was gone on vacation. I'm so happy for her! I heard she went to live with a family that has a dog and a 1-year-old cat, so she should have plenty of playmates there. Now I'm down to three kittens left to find homes. I still have Elvis, Jade and Reese (the dogs) to find homes for as well. Someone is interested in Jade, and someone else is interested in Reese, so maybe one of those homes will work out - we'll see. They were all very happy to see me when I got home from Florida last night. I think that they missed me! Hopefully one of them will find a home at PetSmart on Saturday.

I've been interested in dog training since I first got Remi almost two years ago. I became more interested as I began fostering dogs and found out how much fun it is to teach them, and how much nicer it is to have well behaved dogs! :-) I've finally decided to do more than read every dog training book I can find, and have applied to the Companion Animal Sciences Institute. I had planned to enter the program to earn a diploma in dog training, but they also have a diploma in Shelter and Rescue Work, and that sounds really interesting as well. I'm going to maybe try to earn both. Between working full time and taking care of my fosters, I don't have a lot of time left - but, this sounds like a great way to spend my free time. My husband has almost given up on me ever cooking for him again anyway. :-) It's a distance education program, so I could work through the classes at my own pace, especially on my lunch hour. I pretty much earned my entire MBA by doing schoolwork on my lunch hour, so it won't be anything new. I'm really excited about the idea!

New Pictures

I took a few pictures at PetSmart last Sunday and thought I'd share them here....

This is Elvis - usually Sundays are just for cat adoptions, but he came up to be our "donation dog" since none of the cats can wear the donation vest. :-) I'm reading a very interesting book that talks about how to recognize your dog's emotions. It is called "For the Love of a Dog" by Patricia McConnell. It's amazing how much more I can understand about Elvis just from reading this book. For example, one of the signs of anxiety in dogs is if they keep their mouth closed and do "tongue licks" a lot. Elvis does this all the time - and now that I realize it, I have noticed he mostly does it when something is changing in his environment (my husband comes home from work, for example). I'm anxious to learn to "read" him better in order to help him be happier. I know some things to do for dogs who are anxious, but it doesn't do me any good if I don't know at the time that they ARE anxious! So this book is awesome. I'm definitely not a natural at reading body language and will need to work at it, and I'm glad to have a book to help me!

Here's a picture of Monkee. She is staying up at PetSmart while I'm on vacation, and I hope she finds a home while I'm gone. I'm wondering if she's going to turn out like Spock, my old cat. Spock would let my neice, or anyone else, pick him up and carry him around upside down or however they wanted, and he'd purr the entire time. Monkee has been picked up in an "uncomfortable way" by children a few times at PetSmart, and she just purrs and seems to enjoy it just like Spock!

This is Blaze - he used to be such a tiny kitten! Now he's getting to be bigger than my own cat George (and he looks a lot like him too). I keep saying one of these days I'm going to accidentally take George to PetSmart for adoption instead of Blaze. Blaze is awesome - he's stopped climbing up on people like they are trees, and is usually happy to just lay around now. Maybe he's starting to outgrow his kitten playful period? He has the most personality of all my cats - he just is this giant laid-back kitten, and nothing phases him. He doesn't seem to mind dogs, other cats, vaccum cleaners, or anything! He purrs whenever I pick him up and pet him, and likes to be held and cuddled for awhile, but then is happy just sitting back and watching the rest of the action. And not from the sidelines either - he'll lay down right in the middle of the living room floor and watch the action go on all around him! He's great. :-)

This is Tommy, another foster cat (not mine) waiting to be adopted. He's very soft and such a pretty cat. I like orange cats a lot - maybe because they remind me of Garfield (my favorite cartoon cat of all time). :-) If I ever foster an orange cat I'm going to have to name him Garfield. Hmmm... next time I foster a yellow (?!) dog I will have to name it Odie! :-)

And that's it for now! I leave tonight for the sunny shores of Florida, and maybe by the time I get back, one of my fosters will have a new home! I told them all good-bye before I left just in case.

Kitten Adoptions

Three of my kittens have found new homes! Ace, Apollo and Taffy were all adopted on Saturday. I now just have two left from each litter. Blaze and Monkee are the slightly older kittens, and then Astro and Avalanche are the two remaining flood kittens. I'm hoping to teach Monkee and Astro to be more friendly this week, and to teach Blaze to be less friendly. Avalanche is already perfect. Monkee and Astro just aren't that interested in cuddling, so I'm trying to teach them how nice it is to be held and petted. Blaze just needs to be taught that people are not supposed to be climbed like trees - he digs his claws in and climbs from the floor to the top of my head, and then digs his claws into my head. He does this to everyone he meets unfortunately. I know a little bit about dog training and dog behavior, but nothing about cats, so it is time for me to consult one of the cat foster moms and learn some new things!

None of the dogs were adopted this week, but they did do very well at Petsmart. It's always hard to guess how a dog will do if they've never been there. Some of them are quiet and shy, some are friendly and outgoing, and some of them are loud and upset. I was afraid that Jade would be one of the loud and upset dogs - barking at every person and every dog that walked by. But she actually did very well - she turned out to be one of the friendly, outgoing dogs! We put a donation vest on her to try to get some donations, and she happily greeted all the people and dogs, and had no problems. I was very relieved about that. The puppies of course also did great, and enjoyed playing with another puppy that was there to be adopted (Yosemite Sam, the last of Molly's puppies still waiting to be adopted). We didn't get any new puppies adopted this week though - the only dog adoptions were pre-arranged ones. Now I'm hoping that someone sees one of my puppies on the website this week and decides to adopt them, so they don't have to wait until next weekend to get another chance at a new home.

Kitten Pictures

I took more pictures of all my kittens to get them added to the website, so I'll share them here also. Here are my cat-napped kittens...

This is Monkee - she has such a cute little face, and her fur is soooo soft!

This is Taffy - she's my favorite - she always wants to jump up on my shoulders, and just stays there while I walk around the house doing chores.


This is Blaze. He's the only boy of this litter, and he is very friendly. I found him yesterday walking on Remi's back. Remi is my 150 lb Great Dane. Remi just looked at him like "Huh?! What's going on?!".


This is Ella - she's the mom of the first three kittens I fostered a couple months ago. She is still up at Petsmart and hasn't been adopted yet. :-(


Here is a picture of Ace - he's one of my flood kittens. He loves to play with feather toys, and will growl and play tug with it!


This is Apollo. He came back from the vet with this cute little bandana, and I can't bear to take it off of him! It has little mice and cheese on it.


This is Astro - he is my attack kitten. He loves to sneak up on and attack a small stuffed dog in the kitten's playroom. (Yes, my kittens have their own playroom -- they're a little bit spoiled.)

This is Avalanche. He's the tough guy kitten - he growls at the other kittens if they try to eat while he's eating canned food. Its a good thing he's so cute - its very hard to take him seriously with his little kitten growl!




Okay, back to dog news. We went to the Rascal's baseball game last night - it was one of their "Take your Dog to the Ballpark" nights. It was a lot of fun. My husband went with me, and we took Samantha and Vala. Then he decided to go back home and bring Remi up also. All the dogs had fun. Noah wanted to go, but we thought he might change his mind once he got there. He doesn't like all the people and noise, so he stayed home and watched over the kittens while we were gone. Vala and Sam got lots of attention. We had set up a table on the concourse, where we were able to talk to many people about Heartland, and met several people who had adopted their pets from Heartland in the past! Samantha collected donations in her "Donation Dog Vest" and we made around $40 in donations. All the dogs did great at meeting the people and even the other dogs. The only difficult part was that Samantha doesn't like the mascots. She would go crazy every time one came by -- and they have several mascots at that ballpark! But in spite of that, it was overall a very nice night. Their next game where you can bring your dog to the ballpark will be on Sunday, July 13th.

Introducing Noah, and new kittens

Here is a picture of Noah, the foster dog I brought home two nights ago.

He's such a sweet dog - he gets this really happy grin on his face sometimes that I just love to see. Last night I took him and Vala up to a "Party in the Park" event at Civic Park in O'Fallon. Noah wore an "Adopt Me" vest, and both dogs seemed to enjoy the park and meeting many new people. Noah is still very shy at times, especially with men. He loves to be outside, and I have to use really good dog treats to get him to come inside! He plays really well with Vala and Remi both. Last night they all three slept on the bed with me, along with my cat George. It was a little bit crowded, but I didn't mind. It's nice to foster such sweet loving dogs who are already house-trained! :-)

Here are some more pictures of Vala. She's such a loving dog - she has so much enthusiasm and just wants to be next to me all the time.

Next is one of my favorite pictures - my husband was trying to help me get a good picture of Vala, but she kept running up to me, so I asked him to hold her still. That worked, except she kept her ears back and I wanted her to put them up for the picture. So my husband tried to help me out by holding her ears up in the air. I almost couldn't stop laughing long enough to snap a picture. Vala puts up with so much from us sometimes! :-)

And finally, here are some pictures of my newest foster kittens, and my own cat George. First is Monkee, a female kitten with very unique markings.

Next is Blaze - a male kitten who looks like a smaller version of my own cat George.

And last is my cat George on the chair, and my last foster kitten Taffy (female) under the chair. Taffy looks a lot like her brother Blaze, but she has peach markings on the tips of her ears, her legs and the tip of her tail.