Joy and Montelle were adopted!

I am happy to report that two of my foster animals were adopted this weekend. Well technically they were other people's foster animals, I was just "sub-fostering" them. Which means I got to have them live at my house for awhile, but I wasn't their actual foster parent who rescued them and did all the work getting them ready for adoption, not to mention fostering them for several months before I got them. Which really means that there are several of us who are very happy this weekend that Joy and Montelle found homes. :-) Joy, the Doberman Pinscher mix, was adopted to a family tonight. They met her at PetSmart yesterday, but their dog wasn't too sure about being at PetSmart so we couldn't tell for sure how her and Joy would do together. So I took Joy to their house tonight to see how they did, and the dogs did great together. They immediately started running around and playing, having a great time. Also, Montelle was adopted at PetSmart yesterday. I didn't get to talk to his new family very much since we were short on dog volunteers and it was pretty busy. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to come help out with dogs on Saturdays, we could use you!

I'm going to have to miss PetSmart next weekend due to family plans, so Noelle and Doobie, my two remaining fosters, will get an extra week before they get to go back to another adoption event. My husband is very happy about that - he is crazy about Noelle and doesn't want anyone to adopt her. :-)

Update on Noelle's Training Session

Noelle had her second training class last night, and she seemed to have taken a step backward since her first class. I think this is due to two things - first, I missed a few days of working on her training while I wasn't feeling well. Second, I took her for a 15 minute walk before her training class. Now, you may wonder why a 15 minute walk would influence how she did during class? Let me give you a few examples of how class went (of course, I was using hand signs whenever I was speaking to Noelle)...

Trainer: Okay, let's see her do a sit-stay.
Me: Noelle, sit.... stay.... no, don't lay down...come on, back up.... stay.... no, sit up.... stay... look, here's this yummy treat right above your nose, just follow it back up to a sit position.... no, don't lay back down!

Trainer: Hmmm...okay, how about a down-stay.
Me: Noelle, down..stay... ... watch me.... no, put your head up so you can see me... watch me... here i am, watch me... look, I have yummy food.. no don't close your eyes... noelle, wake up!

We actually worked on a new command - "leave it" - she saw a treat, saw the trainer put her hand over it... sniffed her hand for a second, then put her head down on top of the trainers hand and fell asleep. It was hilarious! This dog is the laziest dog I have ever met in my entire life - and she's only 6 months old! The trainer asked me to not take her for any more walks immediately preceding her scheduled training session. :-)

In other news, Joy is learning so quickly. She is house-trained now and so well-behaved. She has started sleeping on the bed with Noelle and Remi and and Doobie and me at night, and she is just like Remi - she tries to lay in the middle of the bed and stretch out as much as possible. Fortunately she's quite a bit smaller than Remi so I still have some room left over. Joy's favorite thing to do is to stalk the cats. She'll happily spend an hour or more just sitting and watching the hallway, waiting for a cat to appear so she can sneak up on it. Doobie doesn't mind - he just looks at her and ignores her. Montelle definitely minds, but sometimes I think he's just playing with her too, because he has plenty of opportunity to get away from her and usually just stays out and taunts her.

We're all going to PetSmart again this Saturday, and I hope one of my foster cats gets adopted. Okay, I'd love one of my foster dogs to get adopted too, but right now they're my Christmas dogs (Joy and Noelle, get it?) and it'd be fun to still have them around for Christmas! :-) I'm playing a game where everytime I'm with them and a Christmas song comes on, if I hear their name, they get a treat. Joy really likes the song "Joy to the World" and Noelle's favorite is "The First Noel". Silly I know, but I amuse myself rather easily. :-)

A cat named "meow"

My 6-year-old niece came over to vist the other night. She fell in love with Rudy when I first got him several months ago, and so when I found out I was going to be dog-sitting, I knew she would want to visit him. And once again I received the request "Pleease keep him until I turn 16?!", because her mom and dad have told her she can get a dog when she turns 16. Although I hate to ever tell her no, in this case I had to tell her that Rudy would be better off in a home with someone who didn't work full-time. It was great to have her visit, and she also suggested while she was there that we rename one of my foster cats. Montelle, my newest foster cat, is very vocal - he spends a lot of time saying "meow" as loud as possible, to request that I come pay attention to him. He'd be happy to come find me for attention if there weren't so many dogs around! But anyway he was being his usual vocal self while my niece was there, and she suggested we should name him "Meow", because then "He can say his own name!". So now Montelle's new nickname is Meow.

Meow also has a new amazing trick - he can act like a hat! He does this by getting a running start while I'm sitting at the kitchen table, and jumping directly from the floor to my shoulders, and on top of my head. He then just hangs out there, until I pull him down. The first time he did this, I was very confused - how'd I get a cat that came out of nowhere on the top of my head?! Now I'm getting used to it, and between him and Doobie, it's very difficult to get any work done on my home computer. But I really don't mind - its nice to see him start to come out of the cat room to visit more often.

Tonight is Noelle's next training session - I am anxious to begin! She has been very popular recently - we've received several inquiries and applications on her. Unfortunately none of them have a fenced yard, and its too dangerous to ever let her off-leash without a fence. Just imagine taking any puppy outside.... they like to chase things! Most of them, including Noelle, will chase a rabbit, or a squirrel, or a blowing leaf. And since you can't clap your hands or call her name and have her stop and turn around, she would end up following something right into a street. And since she can't hear a car coming, she would be in very great danger. So, I've had to turn down some really good applicants, which I hate to do. But I know eventually someone will come along who wants to adopt her and has a fenced yard.

I'm looking forward to going to the Pawsitively Purrfect Painting Party at the Painted Pot on Sunday. I have never been - and my family can attest that I am pretty awful at art. But I still think it'll be a lot of fun - especially if they let me bring in Remi! They say you can bring a pet, but since Remi is more often compared to a pony than a dog, he may be too big. :-) It sounds like a lot of fun though, and a great way to raise money for Heartland. Here are the details of the fundraiser:

Pawsitively Purrfect Painting Party
Sunday November 16th 12PM-4PM
The Painted Pot
Get a jump on making a personalized holiday gift or decoration and let your pets help! Come in and your pet's painted paw can decorate an ornament, picture frame or personalized pet bowls! If you don't want to bring your pet, you're still welcome and Heartland will get your studio fees as a donation! So bring a friend and enjoy the afternoon!

Hope to see you there!

Introducing Joy and Montelle

Yesterday I went to see Sammy, the pit bull puppy at animal control, and found out they had just released him to another rescue group. This was great news, because the family who was interested in him didn't show up, and I know the group he went to will make sure he goes to a good home.
So after I left the shelter, I went up to PetSmart - because it was Saturday and I can't stay away! One of the dog fosters was there with dogs for adoption. She recently took in several puppies to foster, and I know they are a LOT of work. I thought about offering to take in some of those puppies, but I didn't think I could handle that (plus, my husband would kill me). :-) So I offered to take Joy, one of her other foster dogs right now, to hopefully lighten her load a little bit. I fell in love with Joy after visiting her in her foster home several weeks ago. She was this great puppy with a lot of energy who was very shy! She was afraid to come to me and would run and hide behind the bushes. Her foster mom has been working with her a lot, and Joy has improved so much. Now she is not shy at all, and she's been crate-trained, and is a joy to foster. (get it? I amuse myself.) :-) Anyway, here is my newest foster dog Joy:

She's so sweet - I just love her. She is having a great time playing with Noelle. And she does well with Remi too. Here is Joy and Remi, my own dog. Well, that's his head, anyway... he looks kind of silly since you can't really see his body. :-)

Since I had the camera out, I took some more pictures of Noelle too.

And here are all three dogs (Remi, Noelle and Joy) playing together. I like having one black dog, one white dog, and one black and white dog - its very symmetrical. :-)

I know they look like they're trying to kill each other, but really no dogs were harmed in the making of these photographs - they're just playing!

Also, here is a picture of Rudy, my current house-guest. He is just staying for a week while his foster mom is gone. He is doing so well - he likes to sit in my lap and cuddle all the time. I'm sure he'll be glad to get back to his foster home though, because Noelle keeps trying to play with him and he does not appreciate that.

While I was at PetSmart I also asked one of the other cat fosters if I could have another cat to foster. I really like getting cats from someone who already fosters them because that way they have already been to the vet and had everything done for them. They can just come and live at my house until they get adopted, which gives extra space to the original foster home, and also sometimes gives us more information on that foster cat and how they do with dogs, if they didn't have dogs in their original foster home. So anyway, Jeana let me take home one of her fosters, a cat named Montelle. I believe he was part of a litter that was originally named after various talk show hosts. He is a really pretty all black cat, and he is very affectionate. He even gives me hugs! But he's still not too sure about the dogs, so he's spending most of his time in the cat room, complaining (meowing) loudly about having to live in a house with dogs! He's starting to come out occasionally now so hopefully within a few days he will be more comfortable. Here is a picture of Montelle. He had a cold when he was younger, so one of his eyes is a little runny, but it doesn't seem to cause him any problems, and it doesn't require any special care. It might make him harder to adopt out, but then again it might not, since it makes him different, and that can draw in people like me who want to give the special ones good homes. :-)

And finally, here's my last foster - Doobie. He is doing very well - he got used to all the dogs, and sleeps on my pillow every night! He is so funny because he snores, but it sounds more like he's singing, or humming, than snoring. He's a very musical kitty, I guess. He also doesn't meow like most cats - he opens his mouth and you can kind of see him saying "meow" but all that comes out is a very quiet squeak - its very cute.