Shiro and Una were adopted!!

I'm excited to report that two of my foster cats were adopted. Shiro and Una are brother and sister - Pixie Bob/Desert Lynx mix. They went home last night with a great new family - a mom and two children who are so excited to have two new family members.

I'm also cautiously hopeful that Whisper will be going home tomorrow. I am planning to meet her new mom at PetSmart to do the adoption tomorrow afternoon, and I hate to announce it before it actually happens, but I've talked with her new mom several times and she is very excited to come get her and take her home. Whisper has been waiting such a long time in foster care (well over a year) and I really hope this works out for her!

Updates on my other fosters:
Scribbles is my tortie cat who has an attitude and doesn't like other cats, or dogs, or being at PetSmart, which is where she is currently living. If anyone knows of a single adult who has no other pets, Scribbles will be a wonderful pet - she is loving and affectionate and a purring lap kitty who is very sweet when she's not unhappy. The problem is she doesn't show well at PetSmart because she is unhappy, and yet she is also very unhappy living in foster care with other dogs and cats. I try not to take in animals who are going to be unhappy in foster care, but the person who gave me Scribbles said she was good with other cats and okay with dogs. Oh well - at least she has somewhere safe to live until the right home comes along. And if anyone who doesn't have dogs is interested in fostering Scribbles, please let me know. You get a free cat with free food and medical care - not a bad deal. ;-)

Marco and Polo are my two long-haired all white beautiful cats. They shed EVERYWHERE but they're so friendly and affectionate that its a small price to pay for their company. Marco has been getting Clavamox (an antibiotic) since he had a dental and he's finally done with that - good thing since he hated it! At least he's deaf so he couldn't hear me coming with the medicine. ;-)

My four Disney kittens are almost ready for adoption. They were supposed to be ready last Saturday but had coccidia, so they're getting daily medication for that. Hopefully they'll be ready in another week. I want them to have a chance to get adopted while they're so small - but I have to admit, I love having them around. They are so cute! And everytime I go anywhere near them, they immediately start purring.

Noelle is doing good - with her typical happy-go-lucky attitude. She gets into everything, and nothing ever bothers her. If I take away the sock she's chewing on, she just walks over and gets a book to chew. I take that away, and she walks over to find a pillow to chew on. Each time I give her a dog toy to chew on instead, but she just looks at me like "why would I want that?" and finds something else that's forbidden to chew on. She's impossible, and yet so funny that you can't help but laugh at her. Her funniest thing, which I keep meaning to videotape, is when I put down a bowl of food, she'll run from the food dish back to me, wagging her tail and licking me, then turn and run back to the food, take a few bites, then back to me. I've never had another dog do that, and I can't figure out why she does it. She does it with Dave too whenever he feeds her. Maybe she just wants us to know how grateful she is for the food!

Emma is improving every day. She's doing very well with housetraining. I am always leery of saying any dog is house-trained, at least until they've gone a couple of months without an accident, but so far she hasn't had any accidents in the past couple weeks, so she seems to be getting the idea. She's also stopped jumping up on me as much, although I think Noelle taught her how to put her paws up on countertops and find good things that way, so we still have some work to do. She's going to PetSmart this weekend and several people are supposed to come meet her so I am hopeful that she'll be adopted soon!

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.

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!

Introducing Shiro, Una, Princess Rana and Zeke

Please don't tell my husband, but I brought home three more fosters last night, and am getting one more tonight! I'm thinking I can go awhile without him noticing the three new cats. The little hound-dog puppy might be a bit harder to hide though.

Shiro, Una and Princess Rana came from a lady who rescued their pregnant mom from a backyard breeder in Arkansas two years ago. The kittens were born in her care, and they are now a little over two years old. She's not able to keep them anymore so I offered to take them and find good homes for them. The cats are 1/2 Desert Lynx and 1/2 Pixie Bob. For those of you who aren't familiar with cat breeds, they basically just look like large gray tabby cats, and are supposed to act more like dogs than cats. Right now they are all three hiding in the spare bedroom, and they are much better at hiding than most cats I bring home. The room is not that big, and while there is a lot of stuff in there, it's not easy to find a good hiding place, so most cats end up just hiding under the futon. These cats are more inventive though. Two of them have hollowed out little cubbies behind the books on the bookshelf and it took me a very long time to locate them. The third one is even better at hiding - I have no idea where she's at! I am trying to entice them out with some canned food but so far they've only come out when no one is around to use the litter box and go right back to their hiding places. I am hoping they start to feel safer soon and come out to see me!

In addition to the three cats, I am bringing home a little hound-mix puppy tonight. I saw him when I was there last week, and he wasn't ready to go yet when I got Lucy, but today is his final day and the shelter called to see if I could come get him tonight, so I'm heading there right after work. I think I'm going to name him Zeke, and I will post pictures of him soon!