Update on previous fosters Lacy and Selena

I heard from the lady who adopted Lacy tonight. Lacy is a basset hound/beagle mix who I fostered in September/October. She is doing wonderful in her new home!! Also Selena, one of my early fosters who I had for quite awhile, came to PetSmart a week ago for dog training classes and stopped by to visit me. Selena's picture is at the top right of the page, from last winter. She is also doing well - still a lot of energy, but she is very much loved by her new owner and I know the feeling is mutual. It's so nice to hear success stories like these.

I wasn't able to be at adoptions this past weekend, but I heard that we had three dogs go home! Kodiak is a beautiful all-white Siberian Husky who went to a home with some other huskies (and people, of course). Chili is a very sweet chocolate lab puppy - she was my favorite of the litter of 5 that we have, and as expected, the chocolate lab was adopted prior to her four black lab siblings. And the third dog, Miya, was a cocker spaniel/long-hair chihuahua mix, and the cutest dog ever (except for maybe Dash - a dog belonging to one of the cat fosters). I like to think of Miya a little bit as mine, because I picked her out at a high kill shelter and that's how she became a Heartland dog. I had too many fosters at the time so another volunteer took her to foster. She got a ton of applications when she was put on the website, and she went to a great home. So it's great news that three more dogs were saved this weekend.

I'll be bringing home Duncan, my new chocolate lab puppy, tomorrow to start fostering him. I can't wait to see him again - I will take pictures of him soon!

Pictures of Jake, Noelle and Remi

I wanted to take some Christmas pictures of my fosters for the website. So I tried to take a few today, and they did not turn out at all, but I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my failed pictures!

First, here is a picture of Jake, the lab/border collie puppy who is staying with me for a couple of days. He's about five months old now, and he's so big! They're expecting these puppies to be between 50 and 70 pounds when they're done growing - I think Jake will probably be closer to the 70 pound mark.


Here is a picture of Jake with a Christmas tree on his head. Poor dog looks miserable! I gave up on getting his Christmas picture pretty quick, because I felt sorry for him. :-)

Next, I tried to recruit my husband to help take a picture of Remi, the newest reindeer! You can see Remi saying "When will this be over?" and Noelle, down at the bottom of the photo, saying "What's she doing to you?!"

Next is Noelle, also trying on the Christmas Tree hat. She was more interested in eating it than wearing it, so that didn't work out.

And finally, here's a picture of how most of my morning went. I was working from home, and even though I put the dogs through a lot trying to get cute photos, they love me anyway. So much that it makes getting much work done very difficult! I spent most of the morning trying to type around Jake's head, and keep Doobie from blocking my vision of the keyboard. It was challenging, but I enjoyed every minute of it!

I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving!

New Puppies

I brought home a puppy yesterday. You may have heard me talk about the cute lab/border collie puppies that we have available for adoption. We (Heartland Humane Society) started with 9 puppies, and we still have 7 of them waiting to find homes. Their mom was a yellow lab and the dad was a border collie. The puppy I brought home is from this litter. His name is Jake, and he is the best cuddler ever (except for maybe Noelle). He just likes to curl up next to me on the couch and lay there for hours. I'm only keeping him for a few days, and then he's going on to another foster home, but I'm really enjoying having him here while I can. You too, can have your own puppy, to adopt or just to foster! Apply online at http://www.hhsrescue.org/, or e-mail me for more information.

I am going to be bringing home a different puppy next week. Duncan (I'm naming him after my niece and nephew) is a little chocolate lab puppy. He was picked up as a stray and no one came for him. Another volunteer told me about him, and we went to see him together. He's at a rural animal control - in an outdoor pen that is falling apart. He had no food or water, no toys, no other animals or people for company. He has been all alone there in the cold for a week now. I feel so awful for him. The volunteer I went with is going to pick him up today and get him dewormed and vaccinated. He'll finally have some human attention, and medical care, and somewhere warm to sleep tonight!

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. :-)

Rough weekend

I had a pretty bad cold all weekend, and didn't do much besides sleep and watch TV. I only wish I had been well enough to actually enjoy that! I did make it to PetSmart on Saturday, and fortunately we had two newer dog volunteers - Rhonda and Nancy, who were there to help out. I wasn't much help since I felt like I could barely stand up! They were a big help to our regular volunteers and we had four dogs that were adopted. Several small dogs - two puggles and a Westie mix - were adopted, which wasn't very surprising. Also, one of our longer-term fosters was adopted! Shirley, a cute medium sized mix dog, had been in foster care since she was a very young puppy. She finally found her very own home, and we were all excited about that!

None of my own fosters found homes - Joy spent most of the time barking at other dogs, and Noelle spent most of the time sleeping, so neither of them have mastered the adorable, pleading, "please adopt me" look that is so helpful for finding their own home. :-)

I am sad that I missed going to the Painted Pot on Sunday - I hope a lot of you made it out to support Heartland and had a good time in the process.

Oh, on Friday I went and had my friend Angie (HHS President and writer of the cat blog!) take pictures of some of my fosters. Many of our pets are adopted after they are seen on web sites like adoptapet.com or petfinder.com. The photos and bios are what often draws people in to meet these animals, so I jumped at the chance to have Angie take pictures of my fosters. She's a great photographer, and has her own website, so check it out at http://www.kitcatphotos.com/. She got some great pictures of Noelle, Joy and Doobie for me. Hopefully that will help them get adopted a bit quicker.

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.

Update on Noelle and Rudy

Noelle just completed her first obedience class! It was more of an evaluation actually. The trainer, from Positive Paws Pet Training (http://www.positivepawstraining.com/) was very nice and I'm really looking forward to working with her. Next week we start our first official class of the four week program.

It has been really quiet with no other fosters except Noelle and Doobie right now. But not for long - one of my old fosters is coming back to visit for a week! Rudy (previously named Ray - sorry Mom, I know you hate when their names change) is a Pekingese that came from a breeder several months ago. He has some problems with his eyes, and so he has been in foster care ever since we took him in. I had him at my house for a short time, but couldn't devote the time he needed to care for his eyes, so another Heartland volunteer took him home. She has been caring for him and spoiling him rotten. :-) I am going to get to keep him for a week while she is out of town, and I can't wait to see him again!

Also I will be missing the adoption event at PetSmart on Saturday because I'm going to see about another dog who needs help. Sammy is a pit bull puppy at a municipal shelter who is almost out of time. I first saw him at the shelter several weeks ago when I got Noelle. He was such a sweet dog, and he looked at me and did this little happy dance, and I fell in love. I hated to leave him behind, but I had too many other fosters at the time and couldn't take him. Now that some of my fosters have been adopted, I'm hoping to foster Sammy if he still needs it. He had a family interested in him and they are going to visit him Saturday morning, so if that works out he won't need me. But if they don't adopt and he is out of time, I will probably bring him back home with me on Saturday.

Molly, Pepsi & Ginger were adopted!

It was a very good adoption day for me on Saturday - three of my four foster dogs were adopted! Molly went to a family with kids, who decided they were ready for a dog. She seemed very happy with them! Ginger's new family also has two kids, and a mom who had a hard time deciding whether to adopt Ginger or Pepsi. They're both such good puppies, but she finally decided Ginger would be a better fit with her family. That actually worked out well, because shortly after that my cousin came by, and fell in love with Pepsi. So I'm so glad they adopted her - now I'll be able to hear how she's doing in the future! We also had several other foster dogs adopted this weekend - it was a good week for everyone.

That leaves me with just Noelle at home. Oh, and my foster cat Doobie. He decided to hide just before it was time to leave for PetSmart, and even though I searched the house for 20 minutes, and checked all the usual cat hiding spots, I couldn't find him. So he got to skip adoption day this week. After I got home on Saturday night, he was in his usual spot on the bed, pretending like he'd been there all along - so I still don't know what new hiding spot he discovered!

One of the nice things about fostering is that I can take a break in between fostering dogs whenever I want to. So that's what I'm doing now... at least for a few weeks probably. I will still have lots of news to report on other Heartland foster dogs though! And of course I'll keep fostering Noelle, too. I've enrolled her in some private dog training classes, and the trainer is coming out on Thursday night to my home for her first class. If I foster Noelle long enough, I'd like to get her CGC Certification. That is a Canine Good Citizen award - it is given by the AKC for any dog who passes a 10-part test that shows they can perform basic obedience and are well-behaved in various social situations. For more information, go to http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/index.cfm. I plan to learn to train Noelle through these private lessons, and then be able to train other fosters to earn their CGC on my own in the future. I hope it will help some of the hard-to-adopt dogs to be adopted more quickly. Oh, and for those of you who support Heartland, I just want you to know that I'm paying for the classes myself. So if you think its a waste of money to train a foster dog, now you know it's my money and not any that you have donated to Heartland. :-) I have arranged with the trainer to allow me to take these classes, working toward the CGC, with whatever foster dog I have at the time. So while I plan to especially work with the harder to adopt dogs (like Noelle, since she's deaf), I also won't let it interfere with them being adopted if a perfect home comes along - I'll just get another hard-to-adopt dog to train and pick up with the classes where I left off! I'm still going to school for a Dog Training diploma, and a Shelter & Rescue Work diploma, but that will still take me a few years before I'm done, so in the meantime I want to get some extra hands-on help with training. Remember, i've only been a dog owner for a couple of years, and have NEVER taken a dog training class! My own dog Remi came to us already having attended several levels of obedience classes before we adopted him, so there was never really a need. I'm self-taught - having read every book I can get my hands on - and I've developed a lot of confidence in working with several of the dogs I've fostered over the past year. But sometimes it just makes a huge difference to see certain training techniques demonstrated, or to watch how someone solves a particular problem that a dog has. So I'm really looking forward to these classes.

My latest news - yesterday I went with another HHS foster volunteer to pick up some puppies. The owners dogs had two unplanned litters of puppies - 12 of them altogether! So we went and got them and took them back to the foster volunteer's house. On the way home, we saw two dogs running loose on highway 61. They looked like they were going to get hit by a car, so of course we stopped and tried to help. One of the dogs ran back up the embankment, and even though we went after it, we weren't able to find it. We were able to rescue the other dog, and since we knocked on doors of homes in the area but couldn't find her owners, she came home with me last night. This morning I was able to call the vet where her rabies tag was registered, and contact the owner. They came and picked her up, and they were very happy to get her back. Their other dog, the one who ran away from us, also made it back home safely, so it was a happy ending all-around!