Raven was adopted!

My foster puppy Raven was adopted on Saturday. Chip doesn't even seem to realize she's gone. When I foster puppies that young I like to expose them to as many new things as possible. Puppies who meet a lot of different people and a lot of different animals, and experience a lot of different places and things will generally do better in new situations as they get older. There's a trade-off because puppies that young can be at a higher risk of disease since their immune system isn't fully developed, so I can't just take them to the park or the store to meet people. I have one friend, another Heartland volunteer, who has been great about coming over everytime I have puppies to help me socialize them. She came over on Friday so both Raven and Chip got to meet another new person. We also took Remi and Noelle for a walk around the neighborhood. I've been working on teaching Noelle to use a Gentle Leader collar instead of a regular collar, since she pulls so hard on the leash. She's still getting used to it though, and Friday she tried several times to get it off, and in the process she scraped her nose on the concrete. I kept teasing her that she was just trying to be a red-nosed pit bull (some pit bulls have red noses instead of black noses, and some people prefer this for looks). Fortunately her nose is looking much better today! We tried to take Kai on a walk also - she's getting better, and she'll actually walk farther now on a leash than she ever has, but we still could only get her to go about two houses down from mine before she got overwhelmed and stopped walking. Every time she goes a little bit farther though, and its rewarding to watch her improve.

Another volunteer stopped by yesterday to drop off a leash attachment she made for Noelle (hooray - another new person for Chip to meet!). And after that a third Heartland volunteer came over to help me with my kitten fosters. We rearranged the locations of a bunch of them, and she spent hours helping me clean and move everybody. My Sea Litter (Cilla, Capri, Caboose and Chessie) are now staying in the living room, and they're having a blast running around and exploring the new location. Kai and Noelle are really enjoying them too! Chip doesn't seem to mind them either way - he'll play with them but then he gets distracted by a toy or a piece of string or a noise and he forgets all about them. It's not that he's not smart - but he has a shorter attention span than a kitten - and that's saying something! He's the first to stick his nose into every open door or cabinet or drawer and check things out, but he doesn't get himself into too much trouble because by the time I get to him, he's already moved onto something else!

Introducing Chip

This is my newest foster puppy - Chip. He's a Beagle/Brittany Spaniel mix, and he's only about 8 weeks old. He weighs 7 pounds, and he's only half the size of my foster puppy Raven. They've become best friends though. They share everything - food, toys, a dog bed. They love to wrestle and play together. Raven will probably be ready for adoption this weekend, so then Chip is going to miss her! He likes to play with Kai too though. Kai is so good with puppies - she lets them hang on her and pull her ears and bite her tail, and she never gets upset with them.

I've gotten spoiled with having Raven around. She's the easiest puppy I've ever fostered. She always uses puppy pads when I'm at work and can't let her outside, so I never had to bother with newspaper or cleaning up any big messes. She is very neat and never messed up her kennel or tore up anything when left alone - this is very atypical for puppies! Of course now that Chip is here, he's happily tearing up newspaper and puppy pads and making a huge mess of their exercise pen. So I have to get used to typical puppies all over again! Maybe Raven will teach him some good habits before she's adopted. :-)

New Pictures of Mercury, Raven and Rowdy

Here are some new pictures of my fosters. Also I added some pictures to the last post for Rowdy and Raven - I still need to get a picture of Solara!

Here is Rowdy being rowdy. :-)

Noelle comes along and decides to take away his toy... (see, she DOES like other dogs - especially when they have fun toys!)

Here is the newest contestant for the Cutest Puppy Ever contest.

This is Raven saying "grrrr". Actually I've never heard her growl, even when playing. She does make the cutest little puppy grunts though when I pick her up.

Here are Mercury and Raven playing together:

Mercury chills out....

Mercury gets ready to pounce onto an unsuspecting Raven below...

The toy is bigger than she is, but that doesn't slow her down!

Gator was adopted; Introducing Rowdy, Solara, and Raven

Somehow announcing the adoption of one and introducing three new ones doesn't seem quite right - the numbers don't quite add up. And since I can't find the cord for my camera, I can't post pictures yet, but I thought I'd better introduce some of my new fosters even without pictures before they are adopted! (Update on 7/2/09: found the camera cord, and added pictures below!)
Gator, my shepherd mix puppy, was adopted this past Saturday. He had moved to another foster home since I took in Raven, another puppy, and I was out of room and time to care for another puppy. One of our new volunteers offered to take Gator so we could save Raven, so he went to her house temporarily before being adopted this weekend.

Rowdy is a six-month old Boggle, aka Boglen Terrier. That's a mix of a Boston Terrier and a Beagle. He's about 10 months old and weighs 20 pounds. He is very sweet - he's learned that if he jumps on my lap I will pet him, so now I randomly find this little dog in my lap while I'm sitting at my computer. He loves to play with tennis balls, and gets along great with the other dogs. He hates going in his crate, but once he's there, he is very quiet. He is doing very well with house-training and will hopefully be ready for adoption by early next week.

Solara is the mother of Venus, Mercury and Sedna. Originally the family who called us to turn them in said they were keeping the mother, but they recently called and asked us to take her also. So since she was my kitten's mother, I couldn't say no. She is a beautiful cat - a dilute calico. She's a mixture of white, the same gray color as Mercury and the same buff color as Venus. Right now she's staying in a cat playpen in the same room as Mercury and Venus. At first they spent all their time hissing at each other, but now they're starting to adjust. I'm hoping to be able to let her have free run of the room with Mercury and Venus soon.

Raven is the puppy who was turned into one of our Heartland volunteers recently. She's a mixture of Labrador Retriever/Shepherd/Golden Retriever. I expect her to enjoy retrieving a ball once she's a little bigger. :-) She's only about 9 weeks old, and all black and very soft and so sweet. She follows me around and makes cute little puppy noises.

Aurora, my little tortoiseshell kitten from the Disney litter, is back and available for adoption. When she was adopted she came down with a cold, so we kept her and treated her, and then the adopter decided now wasn't the right time to bring her home after all. So she's back up at PetSmart living with her sister Anastasia and two other kittens from a different litter.