Bleach - it's not just for laundry.

I sent in a photo to Pitter Patter and they posted it on their website yesterday with a hilarious caption:

It's 4 a.m…. do you know where your pets are?

I thought Casey was ready to stay loose in the house by himself. Unsupervised. All night. Sure, it’s only been five days since he came here. But for those five days he has been given incrementally more freedom each day and he hasn’t had any problems. So last night I left his crate door open when I went to bed. And then I was woken up at 4 a.m. by a lick to the face, and when I opened my eyes, I saw him looking something like this.

I was worried at first, but I quickly figured out he was just waking me up because he wanted to go outside.  Nothing was destroyed, and he didn't do anything wrong.  Whew.  However, the events that transpired after I let him outside at 4 a.m. have made me regret not crating him last night.

I let Casey outside, so Noelle and Remi also wanted outside. Then in my sleep-deprived state, while I was trying to get Remi to go outside without my foster cat Rudy getting out, Merlin came out of nowhere (it’s his best trick) and darted out the door. So there I was, standing in the doorway, with three dogs and a cat in the backyard. I tried to decide if I would be able to run out and grab Merlin without anyone seeing me. After all, it was 4 a.m. But there was a full moon, and it was very bright. And Merlin was about 10 feet off of the patio, right in the middle of a big mud puddle. So since I wasn’t really wearing enough clothing, not to mention any shoes, I elected to go back in and find some sweatpants and shoes, hoping all the while that Merlin remained in the middle of the mud puddle until I returned. Of course he didn’t. When I got back, Merlin was long gone, and Remi and Casey were barking at something on the other side of the fence (possibly the rogue Merlin). I got the three dogs back inside and went out looking for Merlin – no luck. So by this time Ziggy has woken up and also wants to go out. I figure maybe he’ll help me find Merlin, so I take him out too. Instead, after taking care of doggie business, he proceeds to “help” by continually jumping up and trying to get me to play bitey face. By this time I was very ready to “bitey-face” him! But I restrained myself, and put him back inside to continue the search for the missing cat.

We never let our cats or foster cats outside. It’s just too dangerous. In addition to the obvious risks like traffic, there are predators like coyotes, foxes and birds of prey, risks of poisoning by pesticides, and risks from dogs or feral cats. The average life span for indoor cats is 15 to 18 years, compared to only 3 years for free-roaming cats. So as much as Merlin loves to be outside, I just don’t like to take the risk. That is why I was walking around my backyard at 4 a.m., whispering “Merrrlinnnnn” and feeling rather foolish. And by the way, even with moonlight that makes the whole landscape bright, it’s still too dark to avoid stepping in any dog piles. So my whispering actually went something more like “Merrrlinnn….. where are you?.... ewww, what’s that smell?....oh no…. darnit!”. If Merlin was still within hearing by that time, he probably figured he’d be safer not answering me! Eventually I called off the search and decided to wait for daylight. But even once daylight came and I resumed my search, there was no sign of Merlin. So I went inside and fed the dogs.

Noelle is a food guarder. She doesn’t guard it from people, but she does like to make sure no other dogs or cats get too close to her food bowl. So after I fed her, I was standing in the kitchen and I saw Noelle go running across the room, barking at the front door, then running back to her food bowl to eat. That was her typical guarding behavior, but there were no dogs or cats by the front door. My hopes rose and I ran to the front door and looked out the window, and there he was. Merlin. Just sitting there patiently waiting for me to open the door. So I did, and he came in.  He didn’t apologize; didn’t say thank you; just pretended that running away from home and then showing up at the front door the next morning was an everyday occurrence for him. Cats these days.  They just have no idea what they put their parents through. 

Introducing Casey

A few days ago I brought home another foster dog. Like so many others, he has a sad story. Casey was hit by a car, and both of his front legs were crushed. He was taken to the vet and they put two 3-inch steel plates in his legs. They also found he had heartworms and a tick-born disease. So they treated him for that as well as his injuries from the car accident. His foster mom took great care of him and got him ready for adoption, and now he's ready for a permanent home. So since his foster mom can't get him to adoptions each week, I am taking him to my house until he is adopted. He is such a sweet dog, and so easy-going, that I hope it won't take long to get him a perfect home.

This is Casey at an adoption event recently. He was so happy and loved to greet everyone. You may remember he recently had his picture on here in the popular one-ear pose. He's always going along with the crowd! But that makes it easy for him to fit in at my house. He is doing great with Remi and Noelle and Ziggy, and just follows them around for the most part. Well, it might be that he's following me, not them - its hard to tell since they all follow me. Constantly. Maybe I should stop walking around with food all the time.

Casey has healed completely, and has no long-term ill effects from the car accident or the heartworms. My neice came over and we took all four dogs for a long walk last night, and Casey had more energy than the other three! He is probably around 5 or 6 years old, which will make it a little harder for him to find a home, but he also is past that whole puppy chewing stage, and is already housetrained, so that will help. And in the meantime, it's kind of nice to have a foster dog that is already so well trained and doesn't require constant supervision!

Sunday Scoop

As usual this week, I've received several requests for help from people wanting to turn in their pets. And as usual, I feel awful as I tell each person that I can't help. I understand what they're feeling. They have a wonderful pet - one that anyone will be lucky to have - and they want to do the right thing and give it to a no-kill shelter since they can't keep the pet any longer. And instead they hear that the no-kill shelters are full. All of them. They may be given a list of 20 or 30 shelters or rescue groups in the area, and every single one turns them away. Sometimes the people who turn them away are rude. More often, they don't receive any response to their phone messages or e-mails. And when they do receive a response, it's only to be told "sorry, try someone else". It's got to be hard. I understand their frustration. They just have no idea how many pets are out there needing help. And how many requests we receive, just like theirs, day after day. Their pet that they love and think anyone would be lucky to have? We already have two more just like them, waiting for a home. Cats especially are difficult. First, most people want to adopt kittens, not adult cats. Once they are over 6 months, they're pretty much out of luck in hopes of a quick adoption. Second, pick any cat color and any cat personality, and I can come up with several cats that will be a perfect fit. Right now there are 1,551 cats available for adoption within 100 miles of me. So I can understand why Scribbles is having a hard time being chosen for adoption. And why I have six adult cats at my house that are waiting for homes. And why I don't expect to have room for any more anytime soon. But turning people away is hard. Especially when they're just trying to do the right thing. Please, spay and neuter your pets. And when you're ready for another one, choose to adopt from your local shelter or rescue group.

Want to find out how many cats are waiting for a home in your area? Go to the Petfinder website, and on the left side of the screen, put in the Animal type as "cat" and the location as your zip code. Then just hit Search. Right next to the arrow to go to the next page, it will tell you the total number of matching pets it found. If you check this out, please let me know in comments how many cats in your area are waiting for homes. I'm thinking of moving to somewhere that Scribbles will have less competition.

Tags and Awards

I used to have approximately four readers of my blog.  They were faithful readers.  They came back week after week to read all about each foster pet I brought home.  They were with me during Noelle's puppy days, when Noelle was lazy instead of naughty.  They were even with me when I first started fostering cats.  They faithfully read my posts for the first two years of blogging, and that kept me going, and kept me writing this blog. 

Then a few months ago, another pet blogger discovered this blog.  And suddenly I was meeting people all over the world, instead of just the few people I knew in this small corner of the Internet.  And for the first time I discovered other blogs, and these fun blog games and awards.  So today I'm going to share some recent awards and tags that I've received from some new blogging friends.


I received the Sunshine Award from One Pibble's Wish.  The Sunshine Award is given to a blogger who brings a little sunshine into someone's life. Thank you Pibble!  Here are the rules for this award:
- Post the award within my post.
- Send the award to 12 bloggers who add a little sunshine to my life.
- Post links to the 12 blogs I've sent the award to.
- Leave a comment on their blog telling them they've gotten the award.
- Put these instructions in my post so they'll know what to do!

I've seen this award on several other blogs, so I'm just going to post twelve bloggers who add sunshine to my life, even if they've already received it.  I hope you'll stop by and visit their blogs if you need a little bit of sunshine in your life.

• Mayzie's Dog Blog
• House of Cats
• Pitter Patter
• Frankly Speaking
• Two Pitties in the City
• Tucker
• Brutus the Frenchie 
• Daily Dose of Jack
• Dog Eared
• kissa-bull
• Stella, Gunther & Betty
• Mango's Great Adventures

I also received the Happy 101 Sweet Friends award, which comes with the following rules:

- Copy the image and paste it to my blog

- List 10 things that make me happy, and do one of them today.

Noelle asked if she could list the 10 things that made her happy, so I said she could.  So here are Noelle's answers:

1. When mom or dad come home from work and greet me.
2. When we go for a walk somewhere with lots of interesting smells.
3. When Bernice or Angie C. come over and visit me.
4. When Remi or a foster dog plays bitey-face or tug-of-war with me.
5. Sleeping on my dad's lap while he plays his X-Box.
6. Sleeping on my mom's lap while she plays Farmville does important work on her computer.
7. Getting treats just for doing things like sitting or lying down.  It's so easy!
8. Chasing cats.
9. Chewing up frisbees. 
10. Showing my mom and dad how much I love them.

And finally, we've been tagged by the House of Cats and Mayzie's Dog Blog for the photo tag game.  Here are the rules: Go to your first photo folder, find the 10th picture, post that photo and explain the story behind it. Then, tag five blogs to do the same.

So since the House of Cats tagged me, I went to my cat pictures folder and found the tenth picture, which is from May 2009:

This is Anastasia, a previous foster kitten.  I was trying to take her picture for the website, but she was not happy about it.  I did not use this picture on her web page, because she looks a bit scary.  But I liked the picture enough to keep it on my computer.  Fortunately no one ever saw this picture, and Anastasia was successfully adopted. 

And since Mayzie the dog tagged me too, I went to my dog pictures folder and found this one from May 2008:

It is one of my previous foster dogs, named Vala.  She was the most energetic, happy dog I have ever fostered, and she just loved people.  I wanted a picture of her with her ears up, like she normally looked.  But when I had my husband hold her so I could get her picture (otherwise she'd go running and jump up on me), she would put her ears back.  So Dave decided to be helpful and hold her ears up for her.  Poor dog.  My fosters have to put up with a lot from us sometimes.

Thanks Amy and Mayzie for the fun game!  I decided to tag five other foster blogs, in case they want to play too.  Of course they may be too busy chasing after playing with their foster pets to participate.

krazycatlady's blog
Freckles' Foster Friends
One girl, too many animals...
buggaboone
kind hearts

Thank you to my four faithful readers (Hi Grandma!) who have put up with me for so long, and thank you to all my newer readers and new blogging friends for making me feel so welcome in your community. 

Ziggy and the E-Collar

So Ziggy has been instructed by the vet that he has to wear an e-collar for a week or two. He has an infected nipple...yuck, right? And he keeps licking it so the vet gave him an e-collar along with some antibiotics. And now he looks like this:

And he walks like this:

I apologize for the blurry quality of the video. I'm posting it more for the sound than the picture. If you listen closely, you'll hear a "click-click-click-click" in the background. That's actually Ziggy hitting his e-collar with his front legs every time he takes a step.

I have to admit I almost feel sorry for him. He has enough trouble navigating without adding an e-collar challenge. Now he runs into everything - usually full speed - and bounces off. He hasn't figured out why he can't fit through doorways like he used to, or why his head suddenly feels three times wider than it used to. He doesn't let that bother him though - he's still the same silly dog.

I could take his e-collar off when I'm there. In fact, I do take it off for him to eat or drink - he'd never be able to figure that out! But the rest of the time I'm with him, even though I could take it off him, I usually don't. Because I've discovered a wonderful thing about the e-collar. It's also a no-bite collar.

You see, Ziggy originally came into rescue with some major issues. In fact, for a few weeks after he first came to my house, I was afraid he wasn't going to be adoptable. Fortunately he got over most of his issues, and now he only has one issue left. He likes to chew on people. Its a constant battle to teach him NOT to chew on people. And although he is showing some improvement, it's been a very slow learning process for him. He just enjoys it so much.  Look at that big smile on his face, as he's about to go in for the kill...

He would've added yet another bruise on my leg if not for the wonderful e-collar.  This is the best invention ever!!

So for the next week or two, I am alternating between feeling sorry for him and laughing at him.  And more than anything, I'm enjoying the break from constantly trying to teach a deaf dog that people do not play bitey-face like dogs do!  I wonder if anyone would want to adopt Ziggy if I told them that he had to wear an e-collar permanently.  I'll have to think more about that.

The one-ear pose...it's the latest trend. (Wordless Wednesday)

Pug/Poodle Puppies

These guys came into rescue several weeks ago.  We all thought they'd be adopted quickly.  They are puppies.  They are adorable.  They are poodle mixes, so less shedding.  And they are puppies (I know I already said that - but it counts double - puppies always get adopted!)  So here it is three weeks later, and two of the three puppies still haven't been adopted. 

The black one is named Rocky.  He even tried dressing up for the adoption event with a cute little tie.  But still no one adopted him! 

I have no idea why no one has scooped these guys up yet.  But they aren't worried about it.  They just go to adoption events each week and relax and have a good time. 

Hmmm... maybe Rocky is a little TOO relaxed.

Riley was adopted!

Riley, the sweet Jack Russel Terrorist Terrier mix, was adopted on Saturday!  She was adopted by the co-worker of another All Paws Rescue volunteer.  Riley now has her very own 12 year old boy, and a new brother dog named Skittles to play with.  Also one of my cat fosters was adopted on Saturday, so it was a good week for me.  I'm taking a break from bringing home another dog to foster - at least for a few days. 

Here are a few of the dogs that were at our adoption event at PetCo on Saturday...

This is Rebel, chillin' out with his foster dad Brian. 

This is Pegg... she is the sweetest little Basset Hound mix.  She was turned in with a broken leg that had to be amputated, but she gets along really well on just three legs. 

And then of course there was Ziggy.  This is what Ziggy looks like with his ears inside out.  I'm sure you've been wondering.  Now you know.

NKC Contest

Recently Noelle won a scavenger hunt at the Naughty Kitty Club.  Noelle is of course not a kitty.  She is their first Honorary Dog Member - something that she is very proud of.  She's always going around to the foster cats in the house and reminding them how SHE got adopted, and how SHE is even in a club for kitties, and how they don't even have a home of their own, much less a club membership.  But then they remind her how every Saturday they get to go to the magical land of PetSmart, full of toys and treats and wonderful adventures, and she has to stay home.  And then they remind her how her own mom won't even let her post on her blog, and when they get their own homes they will get their own blogs where they will get to type their blog posts every single day.  It gets quite tiring, listening to them argue back and forth some days.

Barney is the founder of the Naughty Kitty Club, and he and Virgil and Kirzon and Lola and their mom Amy from the House of Cats all sent Noelle a prize for winning the scavenger hunt.  Noelle has a habit of licking things, so of course she licked the box before opening it. 

Tastes like cardboard.

Ooooh, lots of things to lick in here! 

In addition to an awesome custom made Naughty Kitty Club coffee mug, which I kept for myself since I helped Noelle in her scavenger hunt and therefore felt entitled to it, there were many other fun things in the box - even some for the foster kitties! 

Okay mom, you can have the mug...but the rest is mine!

In spite of Noelle's desire to keep everything for herself, she did let the other dogs check out her prize. 

You can look, Riley - but no sniffing!

There were some very fancy dog treats, and I gave each dog a treat.  They were initially a bit suspicious since these were treats sent by cats.  As you can tell in my house, the cats and dogs are not the best of friends, so a little bit of caution before eating a gift from a cat is probably a good thing. 

Are you SURE these are safe to eat??

Smells good to me....

Yummm... s-p-r-i-n-k-l-e-s!!  My favorite!

The treats were quickly gobbled up, and soon there were only crumbs left. 

I'll just finish up these few crumbs here. 

Ziggy wanted to know how he could get his own gift. 

Hey Mom, can I be part of this Naughty Kitty Club too?!

I told him he had to find someone willing to adopt him first and then he could join. He suggested that I ship him off to Malaysia where his biggest admirer lives, but I told him the airfare would be too expensive. 

While Noelle settled down to play with one of her new toys, I took the kitty treats and toys to the cats. 

First I'll carefully lick every inch of this fleece ball...

More on that later.  Here is Rudy enjoying one of the new toys.

Try to take it away, and you will die!!!!

Simon found the cat toy at the bottom of the mug.

Is that a toy I feel in there? I can't see a thing! 

And Sampson decided to see if he could actually fit in the mug. 

Almost...there...

Now, if anyone has any suggestions on how to remove a coffee mug from a cat's head, they would be greatly appreciated. 

Random Thoughts and Photos

I went through my photos from the past month and found some I just had to share with you.

Powers of Levitation: Iz haz it

Noelle appears to be levitating. And Remi has a big mouth.

Meditation: Iz can do it

Duke, the wall-eating dog, does actually get tired occasionally. I didn't think it was possible.

Puppy Love

When Ziggy is sleeping, he's cute.  I love his pink paws.  I love how for the first 15 minutes after he wakes up, the only thing he wants is to cuddle.  After that, watch out - but oh, those first 15 minutes are precious.

Remi: Surveyor of All He Can See

Because anything he can see automatically becomes part of his domain.  That's just the way it is. 

What's For Dinner?

Parents, don't let your doggies grow up to eat frisbees. 

Otherwise they'll vomit all over your bedspread two hours later.

Thank you.  I hope these random photos and thoughts have been informative and helpful to you. 

Foster Cats Plus One

Dogs make sense to me.  Cats, not so much.  But I like cats anyway, and I somehow always seem to have two or three foster cats.  Or four...five...  Okay fine, right now I have seven foster cats.  But in my defense, I only have one cat of my own.  The rest I am doing my best to get rid of.  I mean, to adopt out.  Into loving, permanent homes of course.  But in the meantime, they're living in my house, and they seem to have plotted together to take over.  They now outnumber the dogs and humans combined, and they're taking advantage of it.  One will jump into the pantry while I'm pulling another one out.  Or one will sneak into the closet while another one is distracting me elsewhere.  Two of them pretend to fight so I walk away from my dinner and a third one steals food from my plate.  One of them terrorizes a dog (guess which cat?) while another one drinks the milk in my glass.  They are seriously plotting against me, I know it.  But I love them anyway. 

Simon pretended to be blind so I would feel sorry for him and take him and his seeing eye cat brother Sampson home.  The longer he's at my house, the more I realize that he can see just fine.  He runs all over the house, chasing the other cats around furniture and over couches - even when the furniture was recently moved!  He doesn't even bother pretending to be blind anymore.  . 

This guy is my own cat Merlin.  He's the worst of the group.  He pretends to be all sweet and affectionate, and sleeps on my pillow next to me every night, to lull me into complacency.  But he is the worst food thief I've ever met.  Even when I'm sitting there eating, he will try to steal the food right from my plate.  Not only does he blatantly take things that he knows he is not allowed, but then he acts all nonchalant about it - at least dogs will look guilty when they steal food they know they shouldn't have.  Not Merlin.

This is one of my newest foster cats.  Her name is Victoria, and she's the only good cat in the group.  But even she has her own way of tormenting me.  She is a little bit feral (wild) and doesn't quite trust people yet.  So most of the time she just keeps her distance from me.  We're working on this, and I've gotten to where I can take her picture without her hiding under furniture (see below).  But she manages to find the best hiding places in the house when it comes time to go to the vet.  I haven't been able to find her hiding places yet, but she's made me spend hours looking for her - truly a great way to drive me crazy. 

This is Victoria and Sampson, the seeing eye cat.  I tried to use Sampson as a detective to help me find Victoria's hiding spot.  I figured since he's a well-trained, official seeing eye cat (not really), he should have skills in tracking and search and rescue as well.  But no luck - he refused to locate his friend.  The dogs were no help either, but that didn't surprise me.  You just can't count on animals to help you out when it comes to vet visits. 

Wordless Wednesday

Scenes from Saturday's Adoption Event. 

Beckett

Drako

Ziggy

Benson

Smiley

O'Henry