Three New Dogs!

I know what you're thinking.  After yesterday's post, you're thinking that I don't NEED any more dogs, and if I really brought in three more, I'm probably going to need professional help.  And if that's what you're thinking, you're absolutely right.  But wait until you meet them, and then you'll understand.  Plus, one of them wasn't my fault.  And in fact that one has already moved on to another foster home.  So I'm not as crazy as it seems. Really.

Let's start with the one who has been and gone.  Now that I live in a rural area with no animal control, a few of my neighbors are starting to learn that I do dog rescue.  A few months ago one of them brought me a blind Boston Terrier, and fortunately we located his owners after just a few days.  Then last week the owners of the Boston Terrier called me and told me a stray dog had shown up at their house and she was very skinny - could I help?  I went to their house and found an emaciated Blue Tick Coonhound wearing a faded hunting collar and no tags.  So in spite of the eight foster dogs waiting at home, I put her in the car and brought her back home too.

I named her Shiloh.  The veterinarian checked her out, and she weighs 36 pounds when she should weigh 55-60 pounds.  She's about a year old, extremely friendly, and with the loudest baying bark I have ever heard.  It's quite impressive (although I'm not sure everyone agrees).  She doesn't have a microchip and the Lost Dog signs put up by the people who found her have produced no owners, so Shiloh has become an All Paws Rescue dog.  After she was here for a few days, another foster home had an opening and was able to take her, so now Shiloh is at her new foster home where she'll be able to enjoy the good life while she gains some much-needed weight before she can be spayed and listed for adoption.  I'd like to thank Casey Jones' mom for helping with Shiloh's vet bills, and Bev for giving Shiloh a great place to recuperate.  Thanks!

And then there's this girl - her name is Skittles.

Skittles is a three year old Papillon who weighs all of twelve pounds.  But don't let her fool you - she can hold her own with Jefferson and the other big dogs!  She is very playful and affectionate.  Skittles was at another rescue for over a year, and spent six months of that year with a trainer to help her overcome her fear of strangers.  She originally came from a hoarding situation where she didn't get much attention or socialization, so she had a lot to overcome.  But she's come a long way in the past year and when another rescue lost one of their main foster homes, I was happy to help by taking this very sweet dog.  She will be holding out for an active home with no kids so that she can have the perfect situation for her, but I'm pretty sure it won't take her long to find it!  In the meantime she doesn't leave my side - she sleeps on my pillow and scares the bigger dogs off the couch so she can sit next to me when I'm on the computer.  She's always happy, and I love having her here.

And then there's one more dog.  She's another one I was not expecting to keep for long.  But the reason I still have her is totally my fault.

This is Shelby.  She is a deaf pit bull with one blue eye and one brown eye.  I took her with the plan to evaluate her and then send her to a new foster home.  But something unexpected happened.  I fell in love.  I know, I fall in love with all of them.  But she's extra special, and I can't bear to let her go just yet.  She reminds me so much of my dog Noelle, who I really miss (she's still living with my husband at our old house).  Shelby is the most laid back, lazy dog I've had since Noelle.  She is easy-going and gets along with everyone.  She has perfect manners, except in the car when she likes to bark at the other cars going by.  She sleeps a lot!  Since the first hour I brought her home, I've been thinking about what it would be like if I could keep her.  But I can't adopt her until I find a job, and at this point she hasn't even been here long enough for me to be sure that she would be happy here.  So for now I'm just enjoying having her around, and trying not to fall any more in love than I already am.

She always has this serious and slightly concerned look on her face!

So those are my new dogs - there are eight here right now, but fortunately they all get along except of course Ziggy, so that makes it much easier.  I'm pretty sure that I'll have to cut back on fostering quite a bit once I find a job, but for now, I love having them all here.  Most of them, anyway.  If you'd like to foster or adopt any of these wonderful dogs (except Shelby!), please visit www.allpawsrescue.info.

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!

Ziggy Gets Tagged

Every dog we take in receives a metal identification tag with their All Paws number and phone number, along with a microchip tag.  I like to keep these on the dogs just in case one of them gets lost.  However Ziggy managed to chew up his tags long ago, and has had to settle for an extra "foster dog" tag that is scratched up and almost unreadable.  So when I saw the pet trick contest on the Fetching Tags Facebook page, I immediately entered Ziggy.  He had to perform a pet trick that the very talented Fetching Tags dogs were unable to duplicate.  So he showed off his praying trick, and won a gift certificate!  The wonderful owner at Fetching Tags then gave Ziggy a discounted price so his gift certificate covered the cost of this tag. It's extremely durable so he should never need another tag again.  Fetching Tags has many different tag lines, but I thought the one that fit Ziggy the best - the only thing he thinks about - was this one: 

The other side has his name and the All Paws phone number.   

I love his new tag and I am relieved to know that if he ever does get lost, whomever finds him will not only know who to contact, but also what to do while they wait (feed him of course!)  

Fetching Tags has a wide variety of tag lines, symbols, and tag styles, so if you're looking for a stylish and durable tag for your dog, please check them out!  

Happy Girl

I have noticed that of all the dogs, most of them spend the majority of time with four feet on the ground.  There's one exception - Chloe - and none of the other dogs can seem to figure out what's wrong with her.  Take a look...

Jefferson checks on Chloe.

Oreo tries to figure out what she's doing.

Oreo and Sarge discuss her strange behavior.

None of it bothers Chloe - she just continues to enjoy rolling in the grass!  She's a happy girl.

I'm also a happy girl because Sarge went to a foster-to-adopt home on Saturday!  

And Then There Were Ten

Ten Adult Dogs.  All living here.  With me.  In this house.  At the same time.  Along with six cats.  Yesterday there were only six dogs here, and life was easy.  Now there are ten, and life is a little bit crazy right now.  Happy, fulfilling, even fun.  But also crazy.

It helps that several of the dogs and cats are short-term fosters.  Three of the cats are going back to their regular foster home by the end of the weekend.  And one of the dogs is pending adoption and should be gone in another week.  Another of the dogs is only staying through this weekend - I hope.  But in the meantime, my life involves a lot of rotating dogs in and out, and even rotating cats.  Here's what happened:

I was down to only six dogs, and all six were doing well.  I received the many e-mails that I always receive, with pictures and bios of dogs that are scheduled to be euthanized.  So I picked out one dog and offered to save her.  Then, I received a good application on Lindsay.  I figured she'd be adopted, and I could save another one, so I offered to take two of the eleven dogs on the e-mail.  I couldn't save them all, but I could save two.  This is how I ended up with Amber and Sox.

This is Amber.  She is a one year old Pointer mix.  She is house-trained and good with everyone.

And this is Sox.  She is also a year old, a Border Collie mix, and the happiest, most playful dog!

 



After agreeing to take these two, a friend told me about a Boxer mix at the local shelter.  He had been there for several months and since he wasn't yet adopted, he was scheduled to be euthanized.  My friend was upset because she really liked this dog.  I wanted so much to help her, but I was up to seven fosters (eight until Lindsay went to her new home).  I couldn't take another one - especially another large male dog who didn't have very good manners with other dogs.  So I talked to the shelter and offered to take the dog for just a few days to do a home evaluation.  This would give me a good idea of what he was like in a home, and help to network him to find a rescue or a foster home for him.  They were happy with this idea and this is why after picking up Amber and Sox from the volunteer who transported them from their animal control facility, I went to the shelter and picked up Sarge.

Sarge is a very large Boxer mix, who was turned in by his original owners because he was too big.  He's very sweet and lovable, and he's already house-trained.  He's okay with other dogs, but he does have some poor manners with them and tends to annoy them because he doesn't know how to interact properly.  He also seems to want to eat the cats.  I think with some training, and a home with no cats, he'll be a great dog. I'm hoping we can find someone willing to foster him or a rescue to take him so he doesn't have to go back to the shelter in a few days and then be euthanized.  If you're interested in helping, please spread the word - interested rescues or foster homes (foster homes must be local but rescues can be anywhere) can contact me at dogfostermom@aol..com for more information.

So at this point I've picked up three new dogs and I take Lindsay to her home visit with her potential adopters.  They want to adopt her, but need to wait another week before taking her.  So she comes back home with me and the three new dogs.  Back to the five other dogs waiting at home for me.  And then as I pull into the driveway and start unloading the car, this uninvited visitor showed up.

"I didn't know I needed an invitation!"

I've seen this dog hanging around for a couple of weeks, but he would never come to me before.  He waited until I filled up my house with new fosters and then decided it would be an excellent time to let me catch him.  So as I'm taking Lindsay out of the car and into the house, he walks right up to me and lets me pet him.  He was getting pretty skinny at this point and I didn't want to just turn him away, so he came in too.  I talked to the neighbors and they thought he'd been abandoned, and since he had no tags or microchip, that seems quite likely.  I live in an area with no animal control, so there was nowhere to take the dog even if I wanted to.  Dogs like him are often just left to starve or be killed by a car or a predator or sometimes they are shot by farmers and ranchers.  I am still looking for his owners, but chances are that this uninvited guest is staying for awhile.

"Can I live with you?"

Fortunately he's a sweet dog and gets along well with everyone.  I named him Oreo, and I've kind of already fallen in love with him.

Still, that puts me up to ten dogs, and lately I feel more like I'm living in a kennel than a home.  Some of the dogs can't be around each other so I have to do a lot of rotating outside for playtime and in their crates for meal-time/'sleeping.  Here's the list of "rules":

Chloe the pit bull can be out with anyone but must be supervised to make sure she keeps calm since she's undergoing heartworm treatment.
Jefferson the Shepherd mix can be out with anyone - he is very playful and gets along well with everyone
Lindsay the Aussie mix can be out with anyone except Ziggy and Sarge
Charlie the Terrier mix can be out with any girls or with Bogey or Jefferson.  He tries to push other dogs around so have to watch him around certain dogs.
Bogey the Shar-Pei mix can be out with anyone.
Ziggy the pit bull can be out with Jefferson, Bogey, or Chloe
Sox the Border Collie mix can be out with anyone except Ziggy - she's very playful and gets along well with everyone
Amber the Pointer mix can be out with anyone except Sarge, Oreo and Ziggy, but she's kind of shy so need to make sure she doesn't get overwhelmed by the other dogs.
Sarge the Boxer mix can be out with anyone except Ziggy and Charlie, but must be closely supervised to make sure he acts appropriately
Oreo the American Bulldog can be out with anyone except Amber because she's not spayed yet and he's not neutered yet.  Haven't tried him with Charlie or Ziggy because of potential conflict.


So as you can imagine, it's a bit of a challenge to keep everyone happy, and give them all the attention and play time that they want.  If the dog challenge isn't enough, I also have to rotate Murphy the cat out with Midnight and Merlin.  Murphy is being mean to the other cats, and I'm thinking he might need to be an only cat.  So in the meantime he has to stay in a separate room, or I have to make sure if he's out he can't get to Midnight or Merlin to attack them.  Hopefully he will find a permanent home soon, or even another foster home that has no other cats, and he'll get all the people attention that he wants.

At times like this, when I have so many fosters, I feel more like a "halfway house" than a foster home.  With the exception of Lindsay and Chloe who are never crated, the rest of the dogs are living a life where they get more attention and training and playtime than at a shelter, but less than they would in a regular foster home with just one or two fosters.  When I choose to save more, it comes at a price for the dogs I already have, and that is the tough choice.  If I didn't have these dogs though, they would be in a shelter or be euthanized, so I tell myself that they are all better off here even if I can't give them all the freedom they desire.  Still I want so much for them to go to an adoptive home or even a foster home where they can be totally spoiled.  Tomorrow is Adoption Day, so hopefully at least one of my fosters will find their forever home!

New Fosters!

But first, the remaining updates on current fosters that you've already met:

Charlie the Hairless Dog has been treated for demodex mange and is doing great.  He has two more weeks of medicine and then another recheck at the vet, and then he's hoping that he'll be done with the bad-tasting medicine and even worse medicated baths.  He is getting much braver, although he's still scared of men, but he now approaches strange women and children without much hesitation.  He still barks at the television if it's too loud, but he's getting much better with that as well.  He's been going to adoption events each weekend to work on meeting strangers, and he's hoping he'll soon meet that stranger that wants to adopt him.

Bogey the Other Hairless Dog is making progress as well, but much more slowly.  He had some skin biopsies done which found that the missing hair is due to scarring, most likely from mange as a puppy, and will not grow back.  So he is permanently hairless, but he doesn't seem to mind.  He is still very, very shy, and will not come near me or even look at me if I'm looking at him.  I would like to find a foster home for him with someone who could really work with him and help him to overcome his shyness.  If you're interested, let me know!


After Fanny was adopted, I had no one to take to the beginning agility class.  Charlie and Bogey were too shy, Ziggy had already passed the beginner class, and Chloe was still undergoing heartworm treatment.  So that left me with two options - take Jefferson, or get a new foster dog.  I considered Jefferson - after all, he's very energetic, but he's also got the memory of a goldfish and the coordination of a giraffe on roller skates.  So new foster dog it was!

I brought home Lindsay, a sweet four year old dog who had been waiting at the shelter for a long time.  She is another one of those rare brilliant, perfect dogs.  Already house-trained, good with other dogs, cats, and kids, and extremely affectionate.  She caught up with the rest of the dogs in the agility class very quickly, and she's been wonderful at home.  Since our trainer's name is Lynsey, I have nicknamed Lindsay "Zee" to make things less confusing.  Zee has been here a couple of weeks now, and she's done really well at adoption events and at obedience classes.  She's learned to sit, lie down, come when called, and we're now working on staying in place.  Zee is a wonderful dog and whomever adopts her will be very lucky to have her.

"Zee"

In addition to Zee, I also brought home another FIV+ cat.  This one looks nothing like Merlin either, but at least this time I was able to recognize that right away.

Midnight

Midnight was picked up by animal control and once he tested positive for FIV he was turned over to the vet to be euthanized.  The vet realized that Midnight was a great cat - very friendly and sweet - and instead asked for help saving him.  Since I already had one FIV+ cat, I figured one more would be no problem, so I took him home.  And yes, I'm the one who named him Midnight.  I know it's an odd choice for a black cat, but I like to be original.

Midnight is a great cat.  He has very thick plush fur, and he loves to be petted.  He gets along great with the other cats, although he's not such a big fan of dogs.  He's actually much cuter than his picture looks, but I'm not so good at photographing black cats.  Especially when they want nothing more than to rub against the camera and won't stay in place for a picture.  Cats are much harder to teach to "stay" than dogs.

So that's it for the new fosters, at least for now.  For latest news and previews of soon-to-be foster pets, visit me on Facebook.

They Look Nothing Alike

When I was first contacted about taking in another FIV+ cat, I hesitated.  I'd been planning to take a break from fostering cats for awhile, but it was a good friend who asked, and then she sent me a picture of the cat.  I knew he'd be euthanized if I didn't take him.  And he looked just like my cat Merlin.  So of course I said yes.

I brought him home and named him Murphy, because Merlin's nickname is Murray, and since they looked almost exactly alike, I thought their names should be similar as well.

Murphy

Murphy immediately settled in, and tried to be just like Merlin.  He followed Merlin around, and slept in all Merlin's favorite places, and tried to convince me that he was really Merlin.  He even fooled me a couple of times when I walked into the room and mistook Murphy for Merlin at first glance.  I laughed and told everyone how he was just like Merlin.  Well, almost.  Except Murphy's tail is fluffier, and his eyes are teal instead of gold.  And Murphy is slightly bigger than Merlin.  And as I started listing all the differences between them, I soon realized that they really look nothing alike.

Once I took pictures of Murphy I realized it was true -

Murphy

Merlin

they look nothing alike.