Eeyore Has Returned

A few months ago I fostered a deaf white pit bull named Eeyore.  Eeyore always looks a bit gloomy and depressed, which is why I named him after one of my favorite Winnie the Pooh characters. 

Eeyore was quickly adopted, but was just recently returned due to being too overwhelming with the small children in the home.  At only ten months old, Eeyore is still a puppy and doesn't quite know how big or how strong he really is.  He doesn't seem happy to be back, and I can't really blame him. 



"Thanks for noticin' me."

These pictures are from the first time Eeyore was at my house.  He gets along well with the other dogs for the most part, but I think he'll be happier in a home with fewer dogs.  Maybe.


"One can't complain. I have my friends. Someone spoke to me only yesterday."

 He also isn't used to being crated, and is used to sleeping in bed with his people, and having someone home with him 24 hours a day.  So he's having a hard time adjusting to life in a foster home, where he doesn't get the attention he's used to and he is crated for long periods.  It's a better situation than a shelter, but it's not a real home.  I hope he finds his forever home soon!

More Returns!

One of the challenges of rescue is taking back previously adopted dogs when their owners can no longer care for them.  Since I volunteer with an all-foster home group, we have no shelter building to house the dogs.  If a dog is going to be returned, we hope that the person who originally fostered the dog will take him or her back.  But if that isn't possible, then everyone in the group works together to find a place for the dog to go.  I am fortunate enough to work with a wonderful group of volunteers, and someone is always stepping up to help whenever is needed.

Returns don't happen very often, but sometimes it seems as if when one happens, it is immediately followed by many more!  In the past two weeks, we've received several returned dogs, and it seems that most of them have been mine!  The good news is that Nosey, the blind Beagle puppy who was going to be returned, ended up going to a family member of the adopter and is no longer being returned.  Also one of our new foster volunteers stepped up to help out by fostering Bogey when he was returned.  He's doing wonderful in his new foster home!  It also helped that Allie and Natasha's adoptions are both working out, and in addition Trooper the Black Lab and Libby the deaf Jack Russell Terrier were also adopted!

Jax is one of the returns that I took in last week.  He is a great little guy - only 8 months old - and already I'm forcing him to earn his keep by collecting donations at adoption events.  So far he's earned around $40 over the past two adoption events - not bad for a dog!

Jax

The other returns that ended up coming back to my house are Louie the Black Lab mix and Gemma the deaf pit bull mix. Both were returned because their owners could no longer afford to care for them.

Louie is a year and a half old, and was part of the "Donald Duck" litter.  

Louie!

He is now all grown up.  He's very nervous around new people at first, but he's quickly learned to trust me and has become my constant companion, even sleeping on my bed at night.  

Louie looking nervous during an adoption event.

Gemma is the other recent return.  She originally came from a shelter in Kansas City, where she was going to be put down without ever being made available for adoption due to being deaf and heartworm positive and having some health issues.  Fortunately the shelter has a great rescue coordinator who shared her and when I saw her on Facebook I immediately said I'd take her.  She had been hit by a car prior to being taken to the shelter and has some nerve damage in her front leg which causes her to limp.  However she completed her heartworm treatment and is in good health other than the continuing issues with her leg.  Gemma is a very sweet dog - she is affectionate and loves everyone she meets.  The other family who fostered her previously wants to take her back as soon as their current foster dog is adopted, but in the meantime she is staying here with me.  I am enjoying having her back!

Gemma

The other exciting thing that happened this week was Zara, Ziggy's littermate who was adopted out three years ago, was lost and came back for a few days until we could locate her owner.  She is now safely back home!

Zara

For those of you wondering, Ziggy and Zara used to love to play together.  I wanted to give them a chance to play together again while Zara was back, but it turns out that they're much more mature now, and Ziggy was too busy worrying about if Zara would steal his stuff to actually want to play.  So Zara played with all the other fosters for a few days and seemed to have a great time visiting everyone except Ziggy!

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. 

No More Cats

I prefer to foster dogs.  I've been trying for years to give up fostering cats and focus solely on dogs.  I would like to say that I've finally succeeded.  I would like to say that, but it's not true.  Because currently at my house are six foster cats who are pretty sure they own the place.  And although I don't talk about them much, I thought maybe if I wrote about them on my blog, someone out there would want to adopt one of these wonderful, fantastic, absolutely perfect cats.  Really, they are.

I've introduced Belle to you before.  She's a very sweet front declawed cat who does well with other cats and is a great companion.  She would love a quiet home with someone who would give her a lot of attention.   She's very calm and laid-back and loves to sit on laps and purr.

Next is Pogo, a five year old gray tabby cat.  He is very outgoing and loves everyone he meets.  He is great with other cats, and he loves dogs. I introduced him to Roxy, my foster pit bull, and he immediately walked up to her and started rubbing his head against her.  He does this all the time now, and she gives him baths with her tongue.  He would do great in an active, loud, noisy household with a lot going on.

Then there is Junior.  If anyone wants to adopt a cat that sneezes constantly, this is the cat for you.  Junior has some kind of sneezing issue.  He's been through every test known to veterinarians and no one can figure out what is up with him. He had his nose checked to see if something was stuck in it - nope.  He has been allergy tested and tried on different diets and different environmental factors with no luck. He's been on all sorts of medicines with no luck. So he's not really adoptable (unless you want a cat who sneezes a lot!) but he's staying here temporarily until he goes back to his other foster home.  He gets along well with other cats and with the dogs.  He's front declawed.  He's rather independent and doesn't seek out attention.  If you want a cat who you hardly notice except when you hear him sneezing, this is the cat for you.

This is Thomas.  He was at a local shelter and tested positive for FIV, just like Belle, so I brought him home.  He's a very friendly cat.  He's great with the other cats and he is very, very affectionate.  He also has a giant head.  I'm still learning more about how he is with dogs and what kind of home would be best for him, but if you want a rather large cat with a big head and a squeaky voice, he's your guy.

This is Kona. Or Kimba. I can't tell them apart.  I originally had them when they were kittens, and they were adopted out together.  The family who adopted them decided they couldn't keep them, and they gave them away to someone else.  Those people either lost them or gave them away or something, because they were turned in to a shelter today by someone who said they found them.  So now they're safely back home with me, and we'll try to find them better families this time!  Kona and Kimba are very sweet and affectionate.  They're typical kittens (around five months old) and love to play.  If you want to add a cute and loving kitten to your home, Kona or Kimba might be a perfect fit!


So that's it for my foster cats.  Which one would you like?

Update on my life

There have been a lot of changes since I returned from vacation two days ago. Tulsa, Ziggy and Bunny are back home with me. Toby did not come back home. He was staying at a foster home where he got to sleep on the bed and be totally spoiled. He was very happy there and his new foster mom said he could stay, so I reluctantly agreed. Actually I thanked her profusely and was very relieved. That's because this is National Return Month. It happens every year around this time. Adoptions slow down and we get call after call from adopters needing to return their pets. I don't know why the returns don't happen when adoptions are high - it would be so much easier. Instead all of our foster homes are full with fosters that aren't being adopted, and then the returns start coming in. So far this month I've had three calls about returns. First was Target, who was adopted out and then came back while I was on vacation. He's back home with me again and doing great (if you don't count the flip-flops he ate and the accident he had on my bed...sigh). Next is Stormy, a kitten adopted about a month ago who stopped using the litterbox. She will be going to the vet to get checked for a medical condition and then may or may not be returned. And last is Pepsi, a pit bull that I fostered about three years ago. Her family has to give her up and I'll be getting her back in another couple of weeks. Several other foster homes have also been getting returns this past week, so we're all hoping for a good weekend of adoptions. We're going to hold an extra adoption event on Sunday to try to get our foster pets seen by as many people as possible. I'll also be getting my cat Merlin back this weekend, as well as my foster cat Belle and a new foster cat named Lovey. I was supposed to be taking in three kittens as well, but fortunately their temporary foster mom fell in love with them while I was on vacation and is going to keep fostering them. I am not sure where they would go!


As soon as I get my act together, I'll have more pictures and stories for the blog. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these final vacation photos from Waterton Lakes, Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Tetons National Park.

Wrestling Match: Bosco vs. Ziggy

Remember Buddy? He was the puppy that kept getting bounced around to different foster and adoptive homes. And now he's back with me - family number four out of five so far. He's seven months old, and his last family had changed his name to Bosco, so since he now answers to that I've decided not to change it. Bosco came back because his family was having trouble getting him housetrained (to make a long story short). It's more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it. So he'll be closely supervised while I see if I can figure out what the problem is, and in the meantime, he's having a blast playing with Ziggy. He gets along great with all the dogs, but he and Ziggy are so much alike in size and play style, that they spend hours doing this:

6:32pm - Bosco initiates the play wrestling match, and Ziggy quickly accepts.

6:33pm - Ziggy bites Bosco's leg, while Bosco goes for Ziggy's neck

6:38pm - Ziggy bites Bosco's neck, while Bosco aims for Ziggy's ear

6:44pm - Ziggy calls for a time out.

6:44pm - Bosco declines the time out.

6:45pm - Ziggy takes down Bosco, then takes a time out anyway.

 6:46pm - "Time In!"

6:49pm - Ziggy goes for the neck, and finds Bosco's ticklish spot.

7:04pm - The wrestling match has moved from the concrete to the overgrown grass.

7:16pm - Ziggy holds down Bosco... "1....2....3..."

7:16pm - But Bosco breaks out of the hold while Ziggy pauses to chew on a tail.

7:34pm - Nothing outlasts the Energizer Bosco and Ziggy

7:51pm - Brief 30 second rest...

7:51pm - And they're back at it.

7:59pm - No official winner is declared, but the match is postponed in favor of a very late dinner.

Here's a short video I took of the wrestling match, just before they slammed into me and knocked me over - for the 8th time that night. Then I gave up and went and hid inside the rest of the night.

Welcome Back, Bosco!  We missed you! 

Disappointment

Disappointment is a constant part of rescue. I hear it in the voice of people when I talk to someone who wants to turn in an animal and I tell them I don't have room. I see it in the eyes of the shelter dogs when I walk by their kennels without time to stop and visit with them. But more than any other time, I feel it when one of my foster pets is returned. It feels like I failed. And I know that returns are a part of rescue. We can't see into the future and know what is going to happen. We just have to do our best to place our fosters into homes with responsible people who are a good match for that foster pet. Unfortunately sometimes even when we do everything right, the home is still all wrong.


Six weeks ago I adopted out Casey Jones to a family who seemed perfect. They had another pet and were responsible pet owners. I did the vet check and the home visit and could not find any reason at all to think it wouldn't be a perfect fit. And for six weeks everything was fine. Then I got a voice mail message that Casey had attacked the other dog in the home, and he "had to go". I contacted them and said while I would of course take him back, I was willing to go to their house and evaluate the situation to try to determine what happened and if anything could be done to prevent it from happening again. They didn't give me details, but I don't understand how Casey could have lived with this other dog for six weeks without a problem and then just attacked him without provocation. Dogs have a reason for their actions, even if we don't know what it is, and I wanted to help them figure it out. I was very nice in my message, and was feeling bad for them that this had happened. Until I found out that instead of replying to my message they took Casey to the nearest animal control facility and left him there. And I am furious with them for claiming to love Casey and then doing that to him. Because if they had just called me and said "no, he has to go immediately", I would have left work and driven over to pick him up right then. Instead I got a call from the shelter just before the shelter closed, so Casey had to stay there overnight. It would have been so easy for these people to do the responsible thing and hold onto this dog they claimed to love for 24 hours while we communicated and worked out a plan to return him. The shelter told me the husband wanted to just open the door and let the dog run loose to get rid of him but the wife insisted on taking him to the shelter, so I guess I should be grateful for that much.
The good news in all of this is that Casey is now back with me, where he is truly loved, and he'll have another chance for a much better home. Hey Frankie Flirter Furter (sorry, Puddles is a bad influence) - today is the 14th and I now have 14 dogs and cats at my house. But I think we're going to try to reverse the numbers now, because otherwise I will soon be homeless with thirteen dogs and cats (my husband will keep Noelle and send the rest out the door with me)! And then we'll come knocking on your door - all fourteen of us - and your mom and dad might not appreciate that.