They Come And They Go

Except for Ziggy of course.  He came and refuses to leave, no matter what I do.  But the others come in and sometimes leave sooner than I expect.  I thought Oreo the American Bulldog would be a tough one to place due to his breed and the fact that he wasn't house-trained.  But as soon as I put him on the Internet, applications started coming in.  He received three applications in one week, and last week he went on a trial adoption with his new family.  I also thought that Amber the Pointer mix would be adopted before Sox the Border Collie/Basset mix.  I was wrong again - Sox was adopted to a wonderful family last week.  Amber is still waiting, although she does have an interested family who may adopt her soon!  Lindsay the Aussie mix has also been adopted and is doing great in her new home.  This just leaves me with Chloe the often-upside-down pit bull, Bogey the feral and semi-hairless Shar Pei mix, Charlie the shy dog, Jefferson the obnoxious Shepherd mix, Amber the hopefully-soon-to-be-adopted Pointer mix, and of course Ziggy the Adoptable Dog.

Chloe will be receiving her final heartworm treatment tomorrow, and then will need four more weeks of rest and relaxation before being allowed to resume attending adoption events and running marathons.  Okay maybe not the marathons.  But she will be allowed to go to adoption events in four weeks.

Bogey is still afraid of me.  He loves to play with the other dogs, and he loves to play with toys, and he loves to collect things.  He'll go around the house and pick up any dog toys or blankets or anything else he can and hoard them in his crate.  He will not willingly come anywhere near me, and will move away if he notices that I'm looking at him.  I tell myself that he's making progress, but I'm really not so sure.

Charlie the unknown mix dog (breed guesses, anyone?) has completed his treatment for demodex manage and was given a clean bill of health at the vet.  He is doing great here, but when we go out he is still afraid of strangers - mostly males.  He loves hot dogs so we're starting "hot dog therapy" where strangers toss him small pieces of hot dog so he learns that when a man approaches him, good things are going to happen!

Jefferson is being his usual happy and obnoxious self.  He's now decided that cats are Public Enemy #1, and he feels obligated to bark non-stop whenever he sees one.  If possible, he will also chase and possibly chew on the cat.  I say possibly, because so far I've kept him from actually obtaining a cat - but in a house with five cats, he gets plenty of opportunity to observe and bark at them!

Amber is such a good girl.  She does really well with all the other dogs, and she loves to play.  She and Jefferson are a really good match - they are roughly the same size and have the same amount of energy, so they wear each other out quite well.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with Jefferson once Amber is adopted!

Ziggy is in BIG TROUBLE!  We had an incident where he decided to run across the room and down the hall in order to attack my cat Merlin, because he thought Merlin was going to go into his room.  Merlin ended up with a dislocated jaw, and Ziggy ended up with one more strike against him, since now he can no longer go to a home with cats.  In the past two years he's never attacked a cat, and typically ignores them altogether, so now that he's decided that cats are a threat who must be attacked to keep them from eating his food, it makes him even harder to adopt (and much harder to live with).  He already spends too many hours in a crate because he can't be out with other dogs - now I'll also have to rotate and make sure when he's out there are no cats around either.  Did I mention he's in Big Trouble?

Ziggy did not want me to tell you about this Most Dreadful Incident because he was embarrassed that he panicked and thought Merlin was there to steal all his stuff.  He did not mean to hurt Merlin and claims is very sorry for his bad behavior.  I have not completely forgiven him yet, since Merlin is still in pain and has to stay in a crate for two weeks while he recovers.  Merlin should make a full recovery though and my guess is that he will never, ever, go down that hallway to Ziggy's room again.  As for Ziggy, plans are in the works to build him his own room in the walk-out basement and fence in an area on the side of the house with a dog door in the basement door so he can have much more freedom and the other dogs and cats will not be forced to "time-share" the house and backyard. At this point, it's still just a dream, but several wonderful people have volunteered their time and expertise to make it happen, so hopefully it will one day be a reality!

Also, for any of you familiar with the All Paws dogs, you may remember that I occasionally fostered Toby, the Shepherd/Pointer/Hound mix.  He has been in foster care for a Very Long Time, and has caused more than his share of destruction and trouble.  He has a lot in common with Jefferson, as they both have goofy and obnoxious attributes.  But it finally happened - a lady who loves big, goofy dogs saw Toby on the Internet and ended up adopting him.  She says he is doing really well and she's very happy with him.  So sometimes there are Happy Endings even for the very special fosters like Toby!

My Day: Guest Post by Jefferson

Hi everyone, I'm Jefferson, but everyone calls me Jeffy.  My foster mom is the lady who usually writes this blog.  She said I could tell you about my day!  Today is Saturday which means it is an Adoption Day!  Every Saturday we all get loaded up in the car and we go to PetSmart where people come to admire us.  I was so excited to go to PetSmart today, because it's the best place in the whole entire world!  In fact, I got so excited that I wagged my tail really hard and it started bleeding.  My foster mom took me over to the vet and they fixed me right up, but my foster mom told them I had better wear a lampshade on my head or else I'd take off the bandage they put on.  So now I get to wear a lampshade all week!  This is me in my stylish lampshade.

Me looking Most Handsome.

There were about 287 dogs at the adoption event today!  I'm not very good at counting, but I'm sure there were at least that many.  Only two of them found homes, but that's still better than zero (hey, maybe I am not so bad at this math thing!)  My foster mom wanted to take home this dog:

Greta

but decided that she'd have too many dogs if she did that.  Apparently Greta is very affectionate and deserves to be in a home instead of a shelter, where she is living now.  Greta didn't get adopted so hopefully she gets adopted soon before foster mom goes and gets her and brings her back here in spite of the 43 other dogs here.  Oh, wait - foster mom said that there are less than ten dogs here.  I guess I need more math practice after all.

I got to meet a dog named Breeze today!  She was at the adoption event waiting to be admired by people.  My foster brother Bogey is her real brother, which is probably why they look so much alike.  Breeze has a lot more hair than Bogey though.  And she smells better.  I'm just sayin'.

Breeze

I also saw my pal Toby again.  Toby has been in foster care almost as long as Ziggy (like, forever!).  He is real good at getting attention from people by doing crazy stunts like trying to chew his way out of his crate.  He is my role model!

My role model.

My foster mom says I should try to get attention by being cute, like this puppy:

Macy

The puppy slept like this for hours!  I told my foster mom that first of all, since the puppy didn't get adopted, this tactic was obviously no better than Toby's brilliant method of getting attention.  And second of all, how could I possibly sleep for one second while at the most exciting place in the world??  My foster mom just isn't too smart sometimes.

Thanks for listening about my day, and I hope you had a GREAT day too!

Toby and the Water Bowl

I sent Toby back to his original foster home on Saturday.  That's because I have well water here, and I became concerned that if he stayed much longer, the well would dry up.  Really, it's true.  Toby has issues with water.  He has a lot of energy, and he seems to fuel all that energy by drinking a lot of water.  In fact, he drinks so much water that he starts out drinking while standing up....

And after twenty or thirty minutes*, his legs get so tired that he has to lay down while continuing to refuel.

In fact, he continues drinking even while he's in the process of lying down.  

He's not very neat about drinking either.  He sticks his entire nose in the bowl and tends to drip water all over the place.  I tried to point out the mess he was making...

But he tried to claim that the bowl had a hole in it.  And when I tried to tell him that he was drinking up all the water in the well, he just laughed at me.  Like he knew more than me about how wells work.  So that did it - I sent him back to his foster mom.

Where he's now happily running up her water bill!


*Twenty or thirty minutes might be a slight exaggeration. 

Dog Update

Gizmo

Gizmo has been adopted!  He is now living with a family with six kids, another dog and a cat!  I can only imagine the mischief he will be able to get into with that crew.  It's a wonderful family and I think he'll be very happy.

Huey

Huey was also adopted!  He was the only puppy to get adopted this past weekend, but hopefully the others will have better luck this coming weekend.  Donald, Daisy, Dewey and Louie are starting to grow a lot, and starting to develop their own personalities now.  Donald and Dewey are the two cuddle-bugs.  They just want belly rubs and attention.  Daisy and Louie are too busy running around and playing tug to stop for cuddles.  They're into everything!

Bunny

Bunny is still doing about the same.  She continues to enjoy the outdoors, and continues to take treats from me, but still doesn't like to be petted.

Tulsa

When I first fostered Tulsa as a puppy several years ago, my husband really didn't care for her.  So I am really enjoying the fact that she's improved so much that he actually asked to foster her!  Since he's still living at our old house with our dogs Remi and Noelle, I didn't expect him to ever want to foster another dog.  But several times while he was here at the cabin he commented on how much Tulsa has improved, and eventually said he'd like to take her to his house to foster!  So last week Tulsa moved back to our old house, where she's doing great with Remi and Noelle.  We're still trying to find her a permanent adoptive home, and I'll still be taking her to adoption events, but in the meantime it's nice to know she's somewhere that she is doing so well.

Ziggy

And then there's Ziggy.  I'm very happy that he's back, but he told me today that he's ready to go back and live with his second mom again.  He's talking about the trainer who has been fostering him and working with him for several weeks.  She's awesome, but I told Ziggy that she might not want him to come back again.  He said that was ridiculous.  So we'll see.  We've been trying to learn how to do agility weave poles, and I may have been pushing him too hard, because he says that she's more fun than I am. So now I'm determined to change that, and we'll be going for another river walk soon - one of Ziggy's favorite things!

Roxy

Roxy is still continuing with her Canine Good Citizen classes.  She's learned to lie down on command and is doing very well with her stay command.  Around here she's doing much better too - she doesn't follow me everywhere, and will lay down across the room instead of having to be touching me constantly.  She's such a great dog, and I really enjoy fostering her.

Toby

You may have noticed that there have been several dogs leaving here recently (Phil, Gizmo, Tulsa, etc) and not so many dogs coming in.  There's a deaf dog in Memphis that I'm hoping to foster soon, so I want to leave some room for him.  And since Roxy had no one to play with, I also brought home Toby for a short visit.  I fostered Toby a few months ago, and then he moved to another foster home for awhile.  He'll be going back to that foster home again soon, but for now he's taking a short vacation with me.  He's a great dog, but he has so much energy that it's difficult to get him to ever calm down.  This is probably the main reason he hasn't been adopted yet.  He goes to adoption events every week, and hopefully his turn will come soon!

Toby Plays Soccer

Toby loves soccer. Recently he called all the dogs together for a game of soccer in the back yard. I got to be the referee. My first act as referee, before the game even started, was to eject Ziggy for bad behavior. He hadn't done anything wrong yet, but I knew it was just a matter of time, so he was forced to leave the playing field before someone got hurt. Then, I blew my imaginary whistle and tossed the soccer ball into the middle of the field.

 This is how soccer games start, right? I'm not really a soccer fan, so I sort of made up rules as we went along. None of the players seemed to mind.


Jumping right into action, Target gets the ball first, while Toby circles around to steal it, and Tulsa gives him "the look".

 
Tulsa's stare-down wins her the ball and she sniffs it to make sure it isn't trying to get away. 

In an action packed moment, Toby steals the ball from Tulsa and takes off towards the goal.



Toby is cheered on by his rhinocerous, donated by his sponsor, who also donated the soccer ball and many other toys!



 Toby doesn't get far before being tackled. I blow my imaginary whistle, which all the dogs ignore, and play continues as before.


Target has taken a breather on the sidelines (i.e. the back deck) and Toby chases him down to force ask him to rejoin the game.


Mission accomplished, Toby and Target return to the field.



The game continues for awhile, until finally the other dogs get tired of playing and leave Toby alone, wondering where everyone went. 

Undeterred, Toby continues to play soccer alone.  This is one soccer-loving dog!

Wordless Wednesday

No time for words today - I have to get the grass cut before the dogs are completely hidden.

Attachment Disorder



Please come back!

Many times when someone takes a foster dog to adoptions, the dog shows an obvious attachment to the foster parent.  They may happily greet all people, but let the foster parent walk away, and the foster pet is immediately looking for "mom" or "dad".  

I forgot how strong this attachment can be since I only fostered Ziggy and young puppies for so long.  Young puppies don't know enough to develop strong attachments to anyone, and Ziggy... well, I'm not sure what his excuse is, but he never missed me either.  So it's been awhile since I had a foster dog who could make me feel guilty just for walking away from them. 

But all of my recent foster dogs have quickly reminded me what it's like.  Everytime I turn around, one of them is looking at me, and if I look back at them for more than a split second, their tail starts wagging and they start getting sooo excited.  The following pictures were taken a few weeks ago, before Abby was adopted. 

Target gets distracted, but now Abby is watching!

 Then one of the volunteers is able to distract Abby. 

But there's still Toby, who refuses to look away!

Hey Foster Mom, this lady's trying to pull me away, but I'm not leaving!

Until the treats suddenly appear.

Oh, you have food - okay lady, I'm all yours!

It's such a good feeling to know that they love me almost as much as they love milk bones.

Four Kittens and a Dog; Update on my fosters

Five of my foster pets were adopted this weekend!  Thunder and Stormy, two kittens from the Tornado litter, were adopted together.  And then Lightning and Raine, the other two kittens from the same litter, were also adopted together!  We always like to adopt out young kittens in pairs if possible, because it gives them a friend to play with in their new home.  So I was really excited to have all four of them go home in pairs.

In addition to the four kittens being adopted, Forrester was also adopted!

It was a great weekend, as several other puppies and dogs were also adopted.  It also gives me a much needed break, since for awhile there I had five foster dogs and eight foster cats.  Four foster dogs and four foster cats is a much easier number.  Here's a quick summary of my remaining fosters, in order of arrival:

Ziggy - Deaf pit bull, he got to stay home on Saturday because there wasn't enough room in the car for everyone to go.  I'm planning to alternate him and Tulsa at adoption events because both of them can be challenging to handle at PetSmart with all the strange dogs and people.

Kira, Kimba and Kona - All three cats are finally ready for adoption.  Kimba and Kona, the two kittens, went to adoptions today, and I don't think they'll take long to be adopted.  Kira, the momma cat, is still recovering from being spayed so she will not be ready for adoption events until next weekend.

Belle - Belle, the FIV positive calico cat, has settled in to life in my bedroom, and she enjoys spending her days looking out the window, and her nights cuddled up with me.  I had planned to take her to the adoption event today but somehow I forgot about her she managed to stay behind.  Adoption events aren't her favorite thing, but they're her best bet for finding a permanent home, so I'll try to take her next weekend.

Target - White and brown mixed breed dog - Target is doing great - he's learned to walk well on a leash, is crate trained and is doing very well with house-training.  He is very popular at adoption events, and I expect that he will soon be finding a home of his own.

Toby - Another white and brown mixed breed dog! - Toby is also doing great, and had a lot of fun at today's adoption event.  He got some great new toys from the lady who was responsible for getting him into foster care, and he loved the new toys and all of the attention from the volunteers and customers at PetSmart.

Tulsa - Deaf Blue Heeler, went to her first All Paws adoption event and did much better than expected.  She met and greeted several dogs without issue, and although she barked at dogs while in her crate, she was very good about not getting too excited when being held on leash.

Abby was Adopted! Introducing Toby

Abby received an application for adoption last week, and went to her new home on Saturday!  She's now living with a very nice couple who has a lot of dog experience.  She has a fenced in yard and I think she'll be very happy in her new home, in spite of the fact that she has to share her new home with cats!

On Saturday I met Toby, who came to adoptions from an area shelter.  He had been there awhile and was getting a bit difficult to handle since he'd been living in a kennel for so long.  He also wasn't getting much attention from potential adopters at the shelter, so another volunteer agreed to take him as a foster dog.  But since Abby was adopted, and the volunteer who planned to take Toby didn't have any other high energy dogs, I offered to take him so he would have Target and Forrester to play with at my house.  He's fit right in, and is doing great so far.

Toby is about ten months old, and he is a very high energy, playful dog!  He doesn't have many manners yet, but we're starting to work on that.  He loves other dogs and so far he just seems afraid of Merlin, my cat.  He shouldn't be too hard to adopt out, especially once he learns some manners, since he seems to love everything and everyone.