"Before" vs. "After"

So many times Heartland is asked to take in dogs or cats who have been mistreated or neglected. Lately we've had several of these cases - dogs with mange, dogs with hair so matted they can't walk, dogs with missing teeth and overgrown nails that curl under their feet. I admire the volunteers that take on these tough cases and work with these dogs to give them the care they need - multiple baths, shaving, veterinary care and a safe place to recover. We have a few of these dogs in foster care right now, and I'd like to tell you a bit more about them.

First is Kevin, a Maltese. He doesn't look the way a Maltese should look. He has suffered years of neglect, but finally he's somewhere safe where he will be looked after. He will have perhaps his first bath, a good shave down, teeth taken out that hurt him, neutering, vaccinations, good food and a soft bed, friends, and anything else to make him feel better and regain his health. One day, Kevin will have a real home with loving people. Thank you Karen for making that possible!


Two other dogs we have in foster care are Patch and Rags. You may have read about Patch on another foster blog. We took in Patch from a busy Animal Control facility. He had a very bad case of mange, which causes itching and hair loss. He was miserable until a Heartland volunteer took him in, got him to the vet and got medication for him, and is now treating him. About a week after we got Patch, another dog came into the same city Animal Control where we got Patch. He looked just like him, even down to the missing hair on his head. We knew right away they must be related. Due to the missing hair and wrinkles on their foreheads, I call them Klingon puppies (I'm a Star Trek fan). Patch's foster mom named the second puppy Rags, because he's such a ragamuffin. Rags was also held at Animal Control and was scheduled to be put down. During this time the mange continued to get worse, and at this point is much worse than Patch. When I pet Rags, handfuls of hair come out, and in many spots he's missing hair altogether. The top of his head is bleeding in several places from where he's scratched it so much, and he just looks miserable. In spite of that, he wags his tail when he sees me, and licks my hand when I pet him. We struggled to determine if we could help. Our foster homes are all full, treating him would be expensive, and he would be a longer-term foster due to the medical care he would require. But he is Patch's brother - a sweet adorable 8 week old puppy who has no one else. He can grow up to be a wonderful, healthy, happy dog if we can just give him some help. So we came up with a plan. I took Rags home to my house temporarily to get him through the quarantine period, and then he'll go to the same foster home with his brother Patch. Since they came into Animal Control at different times, we can't put them together until they both finish being quarantined to make sure they don't get sick. So for now, Patch is hiding in my house (don't tell my neighbors) in a quarantine area and his "real" foster mom comes over to visit and take him to vet appointments and such. We'll put out a public plea on our website for donations to help with the cost of their treatment. Right now I'm giving Rags some really expensive medicine for mange, as well as medicine for the secondary skin infections he has, and anti-itch medicine. He also has to get medicated baths two to three times a week. He got his first bath this morning and didn't enjoy it. I am an expert now though since I had to treat Noelle for the same thing a few months ago. She had a very minor case of mange in comparison. Patch is going through the same treatments at his foster home. Rags is so sweet - he wags his tail so hard every time he sees me, and he's kind of shy but with a little encouragement he comes running to me and loves to be held. I can't wait to see the reunion when we put Patch and Rags together again. Here is a "before" picture of Patch. I'll add another "before" picture of Rags soon.


If you'd like to help by making a donation to help cover the cost of medical treatment for Kevin or for Patch and Rags, please click on the Paypal Donate button at the bottom of our website, or you can mail donations to Heartland Humane Society of Missouri, PO Box 113, O'Fallon MO 63366.

Emma was adopted!

Emma was adopted on Saturday! I miss her already. Noelle misses her too - she lost her favorite playmate.

It's been a rough week. There are a lot of illnesses going around, and sick animals are stressful not just because they take longer to care for and need more medicine and vet care, but also because we worry about them so much! My kitten Mercury from the Solar kittens has been sick, and I'm not sure what's wrong with him, so he goes to the vet later this week. Also the Disney kittens still have coccidia, and Marco may have an infection and also has to go back to the vet to get checked out.

And now, a joke that my niece told me last night (slightly modified to fit the situation...)

Imagine that you're caring for several sick animals. You don't get any sleep because you're constantly feeding, cleaning up after, mopping, cleaning litter boxes, medicating and caring for these pets. You can't take it anymore, so what do you do?






Stop imagining. :-D

Introducing Mercury, Venus and Sedna

These are my new Solar System kittens. We received a call from someone who's cat had kittens and they didn't want them, and so since my current kittens are almost ready for adoption, I agreed to take them. They're around 12 weeks old, just slightly older than my Disney kittens, but twice as big! The Disney kittens don't even weigh two pounds yet, and these Solar kitties weigh over four pounds. I've named them after planets that share the same coloring as them. Mercury is the gray male kitten. Venus is the buff colored female kitten. And Sedna is the tortoiseshell female kitten. So in case you didn't know, Mercury the planet is gray, and Venus the planet is tan colored, and Sedna the dwarf planet is sort of reddish-brown. Too bad I don't have a kitten that fits the description of Neptune - now that would be a funny looking cat!

Whisper was adopted!

And so far, she's doing okay! I was worried when I went to meet her new mom to adopt her, and she hid under her cage and refused to come out (Whisper, not the nice lady adopting her). So I was happy when she was nice enough to call me on the phone (the adopter, not Whisper) and let me know that Whisper is already getting settled into her new home.

We got another call over the weekend from someone wanting us to take kittens. So within the next few days, I may be introducing my newest kitten fosters. They're actually older than the Disney kittens, and I haven't seen them yet but I've never seen a kitten who isn't adorable so I'm not too worried. :-) There are three of them. Oh, and now that kitten season has begun (the time of year when we start getting a LOT of requests for help with kittens) we are once again looking for kitten or cat foster homes. And of course we always need dog or puppy foster homes! So if you're interested in being a foster home for a puppy or some kittens (or adult dogs or cats!) please click here to find out more information.

Pictures of fosters

Finally took some quick photos of my fosters. Here are the four Disney kittens. Aurora, the tortoiseshell, is the biggest cuddler of the group. Ariel, the gray tabby with a white face, is the most outgoing, and possibly the fastest of the group. Anastasia is the loudest. She always cries out like she's being killed when I pick her up. But she's really very sweet most of the time - she cuddles up with me for naps. Aladdin, the only boy, is the best climber of the bunch - he can climb up on anything. This morning one of the kittens (I forget which one) climbed onto Emma's face. Fortunately she didn't mind... but that might be where the cut under her eye came from (and here I've been blaming Noelle or Remi).

Here are some new pictures of Emma. She's been shaved so she looks kind of silly, but her hair is starting to grow out, so she doesn't look as silly as she did at first. Or maybe I'm just getting used to the way she looks.

Here are Emma and Noelle playing. They love to wrestle and chase each other. In the second picture, Noelle is rolling over after Emma knocked her down and ran away. They really love each other. :-)

I met some semi-feral kittens last night. They're the opposite of my kittens, who've been bottle fed and are used to humans. These guys were not happy about being touched, and even though they weigh less than a pound, they were still scary! It makes me appreciate my super-affectionate kittens even more. It also makes me appreciate those cat foster homes who take on scary semi-feral kittens and turn them into loving affectionate kittens. Give me a fear-aggressive dog over a feral cat any day! You may laugh at the thought of being scared of a 1-pound kitten, but they can be pretty ferocious! Here's an example from Anastasia, who doesn't like being photographed...

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!

Good News, Bad News

First the good news - it was a very good week for dog adoptions. Angie already posted the results, but I thought I'd share some more info on the dogs since for once I know all of them!

Bojangles is a cute little Shih tzu that we got from a puppy mill after they were done breeding him. He is like a little stuffed animal - every time I've seen him, he just kind of sits there and looks adorable. I am glad he has a new family that can continue to teach him how to be a normal dog.

JoJo is a lab mix puppy that went home during the week. She'll eventually be a big black dog so she's lucky to get adopted out now as a cute little puppy!

Quincy is a beagle who went home with a family member of one of our volunteers. This means we'll get to continue to hear updates on him in the future! He has a new beagle playmate and I've seen pictures - he's already being spoiled by his new mom and dad.

Casey is a cocker spaniel who is always so happy and outgoing. He had surgery to repair an eye problem, and in spite of the surgery and the pain he must have been in, he's always been friendly and eager to play.

Humphrey is a puppy who came in as a stray with his brother Bogart. We were hoping they'd both be adopted, because they're getting really big and this was a great week for them at PetSmart since they didn't have any younger puppies to compete with. Bogart is still waiting, but we're very happy that Humphrey has his own new home now.

Liam is a friendly, young dog who loves to play. He went home with a young couple who already had another dog, so Liam will have another dog and his own people to play with.

Renny is a Great Pyr/Golden mix - a huge, friendly dog with a giant head. :-) He went home with a family who has adopted from Heartland before.

Paco is an older Greyhound/Collie mix adopted earlier in the week. His foster mom reports that he is doing great in his new home so far!

As for my fosters, the kittens have coccidia so they couldn't go to PetSmart, and Emma has giardia, so she couldn't go either. I also have to have Noelle tested for giardia before she can go, so none of my fosters made it to PetSmart this week.
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The bad news is personal, but since it has to do with fostering, I'm sharing it here. I have a next door neighbor who does not like dogs, and she is enforcing the subdivision rule of only two dogs per household, which means I can only keep one foster dog at a time (in addition to Remi, my own dog). I can't imagine not being able to save more dogs who need me. How many dogs will die that I could have otherwise saved? I had to take Dash back to our shelter, and may have to take back Emma soon as well. Noelle has been with us for seven months, and she would do the worst in a shelter situation, so she'll be our second dog until she gets adopted. This situation has me so depressed. My husband refuses to move, and I have exhausted all other options to have more than two dogs. I am trying to make the best of it, but fostering dogs is what I love. It's one thing to say no to a dog who needs me when I don't have the room or the time or the ability to give them the care and attention they need. But when I do have room and time, and the only thing I want is to save them, how am I going to be able to say no? It's killing me.... and it's killing them. I think most of you read Angie's blog, where she posted this link, but if you don't - read this: http://www.rabbit.org/adoption/saying-goodbye.html. I don't want to mourn them, I want to save them!!

Another week gone by...

It was a very good weekend - a great weekend actually. There ended up being over 20 dog adoptions total! You can read the specifics on Angie's blog. Most of the dog adoptions were puppies. None of my fosters, and only one of the dogs from the shelter (Rocky!), went home. Emma did have several people looking at her, and Noelle had a few looking at her also, but no applications on either. Maybe next week!

If anyone saw my blog last night, you'll notice I edited this post. I thought better of it after some sleep. ;-)

At the end of this month, May 30th, we'll be attending the Petropolis Pet Carnival and Pet Adoption Event. It should be a lot of fun - bring your dog and come on out! It's free and open to the public. This year, they're attempting to break the Guinness World Book of Records entry for number of dogs married at one time. The current record is 178 canine couples. Petropolis is hoping for at least 200 couples! If your dog hasn't yet met the love of his (or her) life, don't worry. They're having a Speed Dating area, so your dog will also be able to meet his or her match and participate in the event. Hopefully one or more of our rescue dogs will meet his or her match and get adopted and get to go home with their new doggie spouse after the event!

New videos and pictures

Dash with his bone..


My smiley girl, Noelle

I got her when she was four months old. She's almost a year old now!!

Happy girl

BIG Smile!!

I mentioned before that Emma and Noelle like to tag team Dash when they're playing... here's what I mean: