Status Updates and Puppy Pictures

Most of my foster dogs with issues have now been adopted!  Gucci, Jet, Blondie and Annie Beagle all found wonderful homes!  Also Leroy was adopted, and Lulu and Gus are both in foster-to-adopt homes.  I also took in these temporary foster dogs:

Josie, Ginger and Sarge came into rescue along with two other dogs from a hoarder/collector situation.  They are friendly and sweet, and within a week they went out to other foster homes.

Josie has a habit of squeaking instead of barking.  She is a very small dog and very sweet and loving.  She might not be the smartest in the bunch, but she is one of the happiest.

Josie

Ginger is only eight months old which might explain why she has so much energy.  She is a very athletic dog and will often climb on your back, your shoulders, or the top of your head.  For the few days she was here I was teaching her to jump into my arms on command, because it was preferable to having her jump on me when I wasn't ready.   Even with all her energy she is very sweet and likes to cuddle and lick your face and your ears, and she is very determined to do so even if you sit curled up in a ball with your hands over your face.  

Ginger

 Sarge is a Beagle/Jack Russell Terrier mix.  He was good with most of the other dogs but thought that he was in charge and tried to scare away all new dogs that came in, so he went to a foster home where there aren't so many new dogs all the time.

Charlie Mac was only here for two days, and that was just long enough to realize that he was a goofy boy that likes everyone and has no concept of personal space.  Since I already have one of those (named Eeyore), Charlie Mac quickly went to another foster home where he was a perfect fit.

 I also took in eight puppies that had nowhere to go.  They are some sort of Hound mix, and they're around ten weeks old now.  They will be moving on to other foster homes as space becomes available, and should be available for adoption within a week or two.

Puppy with Josie

Two more puppies

Happy puppy!

Another happy puppy!  Or maybe the same one!

New Dogs

I had some medical things going on so didn't keep up with the blog for awhile, but I am back now, hopefully.  To catch everything up, I'll just say that everyone I have ever introduced on this blog is either adopted or in another foster home now, except of course Ziggy. 

www.adoptziggy.com

I now have a whole new crew of fosters, some of whom have been and gone already, here's a brief introduction. 

Annie B. is a Beagle mix who was pulled from Animal Control by a new volunteer.  She didn't work out at her house, so she ended up at my house, where hard-to-adopt animals come to stay.  Annie B. is extremely sweet and well behaved, but she is scared of strangers, and she deals with that fear by snapping at people.  This does not make her easy to adopt out.  We're working on getting her used to strangers and in the meantime, she's doing well with all the other dogs and loves to sleep under the covers any chance she gets.

As if one Annie in the house wasn't enough, another dog came into All Paws and also needed out of the foster home that took her in, so she also ended up with me for awhile.  Since she also already knew the name Annie, instead of changing it I just refer to her as Annie C. (because she is a Coonhound mix).  Fortunately I am not the only volunteer in the rescue group who takes in the dogs no one else has room for, and Annie C. is now at another volunteer's house while she waits to be adopted.  This not only makes it less confusing when I call "Annie" but it means she gets to be in a home where she gets more attention and has a dog door to go in and out whenever she wants (which is often!)

Then there's Loco, a Boston Terrier mix who was named Loco at the shelter.  I should've thought about that a bit more before I pulled him.  But he was going to be euthanized (he bit the plastic hand that tried to steal his noms) so one look at his picture and I said "I'll take him!"  Sadly, the little guy truly is loco.  He has boundless energy and almost no manners whatsoever.  Fortunately another volunteer actually wanted an energetic small dog to foster, and before she knew it, she was regretting that decision because I gave her Loco to foster.  I still expect he'll come back to me someday, but for now I am enjoying the time without a loco Loco, and his current foster mom is enjoying the newly discovered toys that actually let you turn the squeaker off when it is about to drive you loco.  Loco is a big fan of squeaky toys and tennis balls. 

I currently am fostering three-year-old Rugby, a deaf Australian Shepherd.  He was turned in by his owners to an animal control facility in central Illinois, and I jumped at the chance to foster a deaf dog who wasn't part pit bull.  It's been a nice change.  Rugby is very smart and very energetic.  He loves tennis balls and playing fetch almost as much as Loco.  He is friendly to everyone he meets and has learned how to act loving and adorable to potential adopters at adoption events, so I am thinking it won't be long at all before he finds a forever home. 

Takara is another dog I pulled from Animal Control who turned out to be a bit more challenging than I expected.  It turns out that Takara doesn't like other dogs very much. Especially rowdy dogs that get too close to her.  Other than that, she is just about perfect.  Fortunately another volunteer with our rescue group has no other pets and was able to take Takara in as a foster dog.  She's doing very well there and is happily waiting for her forever home to come along. 

It's not the best picture of him, but this is Tater Tot, an eighteen month old Cocker Spaniel.  He's at my house right now and he's an extremely sweet guy.  He loves to play with other dogs and has a great temperament.  Tater Tot was turned in by his owner who could no longer care for him.  He will probably be adopted by the end of this week. 

Then there's Eeyore, a deaf eight-month-old pit bull who has never lived in a home before and has absolutely no manners.  I thought I might have another long-term foster on my hands, because even though Eeyore is incredibly sweet, he is not yet house-trained and he sometimes didn't like to share with other dogs, and he has many bad manners.  But in spite of all of that, someone came along and fell in love with him and adopted him! 

Stanley is another dog I expected to have for quite awhile, and was pleasantly surprised to be wrong!  Stanley is a great dog - very friendly and happy - but he has a ton of energy.  He also can jump fences, and he loves to counter-surf.  But the perfect couple came along and saw what a happy loving dog he is and decided to adopt him! 

Joey is a five-year-old Chihuahua that I pulled from a local shelter.  Although I don't usually foster small dogs, Joey was one of those perfect little dogs that I could've totally kept forever.  So of course he was quickly adopted! 

 Maggie Moo is a twelve year old mixed breed dog that was pulled from a local shelter.  She was one of those dogs I wanted to carry around and never put down, and she never seemed to mind.  She is definitely a lap dog.  And she's great with other dogs and very sweet - it was no surprise that she was adopted rather quickly!

Sparky is a two-year-old Yorkie mix that wasn't doing well in a local shelter.  I pulled him and had him for less than 24 hours before he went to another foster home and then was quickly adopted.  I'm not even sure it's fair to call him my foster dog.  But I did pull him from the shelter and he did spend the night at my house and slept in my bed, so I am going to say that qualifies. 

Last but not least is this momma dog and her nine puppies that were born in a shelter a week ago.  A shelter is not a good place for newborn puppies - there is a higher stress level and a higher risk of infection to the pups.  A neonate rescue group is going to take the mom and pups in another week or so, when they have an opening, but until then I took them home so they would have a quiet place to stay.  Please don't judge me for the fact that they have no bedding - I keep putting it in and the momma dog keeps taking it back out! 

Who Doesn't Love Fluffy White Puppies?

Today I brought home these two puppies:

They were part of an "oops" litter turned into rescue.  They are purebred Great Pyrenees, and at twelve weeks old, they already weigh over 30 pounds each.  That means they're likely to be well over 100 pounds when they are full grown.

Fluffy white puppies are fun.  I'm having a hard time putting them down.  They're sweet and cuddly and I love them.

The boy, who I've been calling Iggy, is the more outgoing of the two.  He's going to another foster home tomorrow morning.

The girl, who I named Izzy, is a bit more shy.  She will be staying with me until she gets adopted.  I'm pretty sure that'll be no more than one week, because so far we've received about 500 adoption applications for her.  Okay, maybe not quite that many.  But I know we have at least two that are pre-approved and it's just a matter of me finding time to meet with the potential adopters.

Given how adorable she is, I'm thinking whomever meets her is going to be adopting her immediately.  But the hardest part of fostering fluffy white puppies is that everyone wants to adopt them because they are adorable.  They don't think about how much 100+ pound dogs cost (some vetting is more expensive as is heartworm preventative and so on due to their weight).  Or how much they eat.  Or how much they shed.  And because these dogs were bred to guard livestock, they can be vocal.  And protective.  They need to be socialized well, and they need an owner that will keep them no matter what.  And sadly most of the applications we get are from people who don't think about those things, but just see the fluffy white puppy and think "I want that!".  So the hardest part is going through all 500 applications and doing our best to decide which homes will really be wonderful, forever homes for these guys.  And then telling the other 498 people that they weren't picked.  I'm thinking of taking some of the extra fluff on these guys and attaching it to Ziggy, to see if I can convince anyone to adopt him instead.  Think it will work?

Catching Up

Between the holidays and recovering from a cold, I have fallen way behind. So here's a quick update on everyone, and going forward I will do my best to keep up with new pictures and stories!

When I last posted, I had ten dogs at my house. As of right now, I still have ten, but not the same ten! I still have Lacey and her five puppies, now named Nike (chocolate female), Puma (smallest black female), Buster Brown (black male), Teva (yellow female), and Avia (largest black female). The puppies continue to be brilliant and extremely advanced for their age of less than five weeks old! They already have distinct personalities. Nike is the most vocal and demanding - she's like the big sister to the rest. Puma is the quiet one, content to sit back and watch what is going on. Buster Brown is the sweet one who is the most affectionate of the bunch. Teva is the adorable one who likes to be in the middle of whatever is going on, and Avia is the hungry one who is always first to the food bowl! The pups are growing quickly and new pictures will be coming soon.

Ziggy is still at my house. He's almost completely destroyed his bachelor pad, including destuffing the dog bed, finding and eating several dewormer pills (20 times the dose he should have had - of course it had no effect on him), and managing to burn out every lightbulb except one. I'm not sure how he pulled that last one off, but I'm sure it was something he did. He received a wonderful Christmas gift from Blueberry's human, and I'll tell you all about it as soon as I download the pictures off of my camera.

Lucky the deaf dog is also still at my house. He actually went out on a trial adoption. It lasted a week, which is seven days longer than I expected. He was returned for wanting to eat the bird, among other things. Poor Lucky isn't having the best luck. Fortunately the bird was uninjured.

Allie the extremely energetic Akita mix was also adopted. She's currently on day 5 of the trial period. This is 5 days longer than I expected! If there is any dog out there that needs a home (besides Ziggy), Allie is the one. So I am praying that this trial adoption works out... and I'm considering changing my phone number just to be sure. Just kidding.

Natasha the extremely-obsessed-with-me Poodle mix also is out on a trial adoption. She has a lot better chance of success, but being that she's in a home where I don't live, there's no guarantee. This is the dog that has gone to two different homes for at least three weeks each, then come back to me and never even looked back at her previous caretaker. And yet if I take two steps away from her at an adoption event, she goes nuts. It's kind of scary.

On the other hand, Libby the deaf JRT sees me at an adoption event and looks right through me.  She's still at another foster home, where her foster mom reports she gets the same treatment.  This does not make it easy for Libby to get adopted since she ignores anyone and everyone equally, but at least it makes me feel better that it isn't just me that she treats this way.  And it sort of balances out Natasha's behavior. 

Trooper the Black Lab I found on the side of the road is back at my house now too.  He's recovered from his broken spine due to being hit by a car, and he is now available for adoption.  Trooper is a good dog and gets along with everyone except Lucky, so currently I have to keep Ziggy, Lucky, and Trooper apart from each other at all times. 

The only other dog that Trooper didn't get along with was another deaf white dog named Ozzie.  I temporarily fostered him for a few days, and Trooper and Ozzie became mortal enemies during this time.  Ozzie is a Westie mix we think, and he's the cutest little dog who is a typical terrier and willing to take on dogs three times his size.  He is now back in his original foster home and I have to admit I miss the little guy!  He is available for adoption and hopefully will find a forever home soon! 

I also have another male foster dog named Jax.  Jax was adopted out as a puppy and recently returned because he didn't do well with children.  Since Ozzie also didn't like Jax, Jax came to my house instead of going back to his original foster home.  I really like Jax - he's friendly and well-behaved and happy and easygoing and smart.  He gets along with all the other dogs too.  I'm going to take his picture one of these days and get him up on the website so he can get adopted.  Sometime soon. 

As if these five adults and five puppies weren't enough, I recently received some sad news that two of my previous foster dogs are being returned.  The first is Nosey, the blind Beagle puppy I fostered in October.  The family who adopted him have to move out of state into an apartment that doesn't allow dogs, so Nosey, now named Radar, will be coming back to me sometime soon.  The other return is Bogey, the very shy dog.  He has been in a foster-to-adopt situation for two months but the foster family finally decided that another dog would be a better fit for their home. So Bogey returns on Saturday.  In an ironic twist, I just realized that the same blog post where I introduced Bogey last February, I also announced Allie's original adoption.  Now I'm announcing Bogey's return and Allie's second potential adoption almost one year after that original post. 

If you've managed to read this far, thanks for hanging in there, and I promise to provide shorter posts in the future, along with more pictures.  You're welcome. 

Double the Fosters...Double the Fun?

12/4/12
On Thursday night I had five foster dogs at my house (Ziggy, Allie, Lucky, Natasha and Lacey).  On Friday night I had ten foster dogs at my house.  Turns out when the vet said that Lacey's pups were due in 20 days, she was off by 18 days.  I came home Friday night and found Lacey on my bed, surrounded by her new babies.  Yep, she had her puppies on my bed.  This was one of those things no one warned me about when I signed up to foster. 

Fortunately there were no complications, and Lacey took care of everything perfectly.  All five puppies are healthy and doing well.  In spite of being a very young first-time mom, Lacey knew exactly what to do, and is handling the whole thing much more calmly than I am.  Originally Lacey was supposed to go to a special neonate foster home to have her puppies, and they'd all stay there together for four-to-six weeks before coming back to my house.  However, since she already had the puppies and everything went so smoothly, I decided it wasn't worth it to put her through the stress of moving to a new place.  So now I get to watch the puppies grow up every day.  And this is only day four, but I'm pretty sure they've noticeably gotten bigger already.  Here is a picture of the pups on the day they were born. 

There are three all-black pups (one boy and two girls), one chocolate pup (girl), and one yellow pup (girl).  Now I need some help coming up with names!  I like the idea of the shoe theme (to go with Lacey the mom).  Any suggestions?

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Update 12/10
I wrote the above post over a week ago, but have been so busy I guess I never published it!  The pups are all doing well, and are getting bigger every day.  They still don't have names yet.

They have been moved to another room and are hanging out in a kiddie swimming pool so they can't crawl too far away and get lost! 

This is what they do... all day:

I think they look kind of like baby manatees.  Mixed with Shar Pei.    

 Yep, I'm sure that's what they are - Shar Pei/Manatee mixes. 

For those of you who forgot, here's what the mom looks like:

Lacey

She is a wonderful mother, and has created five wonderful pups.  I believe that these are the best puppies in the whole wide world.  They are definitely the best behaved dogs at my house.  Maybe the best behaved dogs in the entire state! That might change once they're able to start walking, but for now, they're just perfect!

Introducing Jill, Iris and Ivy

Two months ago I received a message about a guy who raised hunting Beagles.  He was wanting to give up some of his dogs due to a change in life circumstances, and was looking for a home for a momma Beagle with two babies.  They were living outside and the smaller of the two pups was not doing well.  All Paws agreed to take the three dogs, and they went to a local rescue specalizing in neonates until the pups were four weeks old.  Then a month ago they came to my house.  And over the past four weeks, I've learned a few new things about hunting Beagles. 

1.  Hunting Beagles are loud.  Loud, Loud, LOUD.  And they love to run.  And chase.  And run.  Watching the joy they find in running, and chasing, and hunting, is wonderful.  Listening to them bark when they aren't allowed to run and chase and hunt - not so wonderful. 

Jill

 2.  We were told the Beagles were "pocket Beagles".  I don't know if that's an official term, but all three are rather small for a Beagle.  Ivy is the smallest and she can easily fit in my pocket!  In fact, I am tempted to carry her around in my pocket all the time.  But once I was cleaning her kennel and accidentally dropped her into her water bowl.  It was only a few inches so a short drop, but she was soaked.  Now I no longer carry her in my pocket.    

Ivy


3.  Iris is the other baby Beagle, and she once again proves the theory that the cuter they are, the more trouble they will be.  Iris is demanding, like her mom, and will let you know if she isn't happy.  Ivy on the other hand will hardly ever cry - even if she's dropped into a water bowl.  Both babies are sweet and love to give puppy kisses and be held and cuddled. 

Iris

Introducing Ashlyn

Amber the Pointer mix was adopted last weekend!  I also managed to find the cutest puppy in the world (yes, really!) and I stole her from another foster home.  It's true - I used my amazing powers of persuasion to convince another foster home that this puppy should come live with me for awhile.  It was selfish, but I couldn't resist this face!

Ashyln is a nine week old pit bull puppy.  She's extremely cute and so small.  I haven't been able to stop carrying her around since I brought her home.  In fact, when I volunteered at a garage sale fundraiser this weekend, I carried her around in a sling most of the time:

She seemed to love it. She enjoyed all of the attention as well!

In addition to looking adorable, Ashlyn is a true entertainer.  If you're having a bad day, just watch this video of Ashlyn at the garage sale playing with a toy bigger than she is!

Puppies!

I recently was a temporary foster home for five puppies - Magic, Macy, Madeline, Micah and Maya.  Magic and Maya have been adopted, and the other three are in another foster home now.  It was fun having them here for the week!

Macy

Magic

Micah

Madeline

Maya

Sometimes even though there were only five of them, it seemed more like fifteen!

The Puppies Have Names

There were some great submissions for names!  I had a hard time choosing, but because I have the maturity level of a five-year-old, I had to pick the Donald Duck theme.  Congratulations on selecting the winning names, Harper!  I'm a huge Donald Duck fan.  I even have a poster of him on my wall.  Okay, I don't really have a poster of Donald Duck.  But I am a huge fan, and I might just have to hang up a picture of this Donald:

Donald

 

Daisy

Huey, Dewey and Louie

And just because he's so cute, here's one more picture of Donald:

Naming Help Needed!

All Paws Rescue was recently asked to help with some puppies.  The request came much too late, because six of the eleven puppies had already died due to the heat and other factors.  But we gladly took in the remaining five puppies and made arrangements to have the momma dog spayed.  The puppies are now happily residing in an ex-pen in my basement where it is nice and cool.  There are four boys and one girl, and they need names!  I like to keep their names all part of a theme, to make it easier to remember them - especially if one gets returned several years down the road.  So I'm looking for suggestions - please leave your ideas for names in the comments.  The reader who picks out the names I like most will win.... are you ready?....it's a great prize.... here it is... the names they pick out will be used to name the five puppies!  And as if that's not enough of a prize, there's MORE!  That's right, the winner will also receive the opportunity to be the first to adopt one of these wonderful puppies.*  Can you believe it?  Act now, because this offer won't last long!

Puppy details:

2 male fawn with black mask

2 male black

1 female black

*Winner must complete adoption application, pass background check and adoption interview, and live within 25 miles of Dog Foster Mom.  Winner is responsible for all taxes, adoption fees, and transportation costs.  Not valid outside of the U.S.  

Beagle-mix Puppies

These two puppies spent the weekend at my house since their foster mom had company over for Easter.  I learned a lot about these two pups in the short time I had them.  This picture pretty much sums up their personalities.  The one on the right is sweet and a little bit shy, and always does whatever is asked of her. The one on the left is a different story.  It's not that she doesn't want to do what is asked of her... but there's usually something more exciting going on.  

 This puppy will gladly sit and pose for the camera.

But this one - well, she was much too busy pruning the rose bush to stop for a picture.

I returned both pups to their foster mom today.  She mentioned she needed to have some yard work done, and I knew just the right puppy to handle the job!