Basset Hounds!

I have never fostered a basset hound, but I want to one day! They sound like great dogs - according to dogbreedinfo.com, basset hounds are sweet, gentle, devoted, peaceful and naturally well-behaved - that's my kind of dog! :-) We have Leonard, a great basset hound currently available for adoption. The website says he's adopted at the moment, but he's actually still available, so if you know of someone looking for a great basset hound to adopt, please let them know. Here is Leonard:

And here is his information:

Leonard, male, Basset Hound, tri-color with ticking, Date of Birth: 7/30/06, weight: 42 lbs.
Calling all Basset lovers . . . here is Leonard! If you have never had a Basset Hound, be sure to research the breed. He is such an affectionate, sweet, all-American Basset Hound, but make sure the Basset bark is one you can love (also the sloppy kisses, and dripping water from the water bowl). Leonard was lingering in a rural dog pound. Leonard loves other dogs (big and little, old and young), cats of all sizes and shapes, and people. Leonard would be happiest in a home with a fenced yard and another canine companion (dog- friendly, canine companion, of any size or age) for company. Leonard adores children of any age, in addition to adults. Leonard is house trained. He would do best in a home that does not require crating (he's awfully long and seems to hate the closeness of a crate). Potential adopters should be aware that he does like resting on a couch and/or dog bed (depending on the comfort-factor of either!) Leonard's adoption fee is $200. Tag #5714KD

In addition to Leonard, we got a call from a lady who needs to find a home for another basset hound named Lacy. This dog was left behind when some people moved out of state, and has nowhere to go. I want to take her, but with 5 dogs right now I just can't. All of our other dog foster homes are full also. If I get some of my current fosters adopted, and Lacy hasn't yet been taken to a shelter and euthanized, I'll go get her. If you know of someone who'd be interested in fostering Lacy, or one of my current foster dogs, to give us room to take her, please let me know. Here is a picture of Lacy:


And here is her information:

Lacy is approximately 1.5 years old, has been vaccinated, weighs about 40-45 pounds. She is super sweet and just wants to be loved. She loves children and other dogs. She is not 100% housebroken, so she would need a little work there. She is pretty good most of the time but does have a few accidents. She came from a home where people didn't pay attention to her and she is the sweetest sweetest dog! If you'd be interested in fostering Lacy for Heartland Humane Society until she can be placed for adoption, please visit http://www.hhsrescue.com/ and fill out a foster home application.

Introducing Gidget and Bailey

Gidget has been a Heartland dog for awhile now - she came in from a breeder who had to give up some of their dogs, and she's now ready for adoption. It's a long story why I have her, but the short version is that she's adorable and ultra-loving and being at my house is good for her to practice living in a sort-of normal home. She can work on her house-training some more and I can hopefully help to identify what she needs in a home to make sure she finds a perfect home for her. Here are pictures of Gidget:








I don't imagine that I will have her for long - she'll probably be adopted by this weekend! But I am definitely enjoying whatever little time I have with her. She follows me everywhere, and wants to be held all the time. She smiles at me whenever she sees me too!





The other dog I brought home last night is the puppy I talked about before. The people who have been keeping her called her Angel, but since I already fostered an Angel this year, I am calling her Bailey instead. She'll most likely be renamed again by her new owners, but for now I'll teach her to answer to Bailey. She is a very smart little puppy - and as I said before, soooo cute!!



The people who had been keeping her were so sad to give her up - they are even thinking about moving to another place so they can keep her. I promised them she'd go to a great home though if they can't keep her. She's already settled in very quickly, and slept in our bed with us and Reese last night. She looks a bit like Reese - sort of a mini-Reese. I thought about calling her Reese's Pieces. ;-) They are having a great time playing together!




And finally, I couldn't take pictures of all my foster dogs this morning and not include Elvis!

Fundraiser at Applebee's, New puppy!

Don't forget, this Wednesday (August 27th) is our Applebee's fundraiser. Just print out this flyer: http://heartlandhumanemo.homestead.com/DiningToDonate.html and enjoy a meal at Applebee's anytime between 5pm and 9pm. Give the flyer to your server, and 15% of the bill will be donated to Heartland. It's a great way to donate just by enjoying a family dinner at a restaurant!

Also, one more piece of news I can't wait to share.... I am going to be fostering a new puppy! A very nice lady found a puppy stuck in a fence near her home, and so she rescued it and took it to the vet. I talked to her while I was at PetSmart yesterday and she said her landlord wouldn't allow them to keep the dog, so of course I volunteered to take it. If you meet this puppy, you'll understand why. For me it was love at first sight. I will post pictures and more details of the new puppy soon.

Jade was adopted!

Great news - Jade has found a home! She was adopted by a very nice family, and they have promised to throw a lot of tennis balls for her to chase. I am so glad she found such a good home. I was worried about her because even though she's friendly and well behaved, she still started out with three strikes against her - she's a large dog (most people want small ones), she's a black dog (always the hardest to adopt out), and she's high energy (too much for many people to keep up with). So when I received an e-mail from someone inquiring about Jade, my first thought was that "they must mean someone else". I found out that they had recently lost a dog that is very similar to Jade (beautiful lab mix named Mickey), and they were ready to add another dog to the family. I'm so glad they picked Jade - she has had a rough first year of her life, and I hope she only has great years ahead of her with her new family.

Jade was adopted on Friday. Saturday I had Elvis, Reese and the three kittens at PetSmart. I was hopeful that one of them would also be adopted, but it was not to be. We had a very slow, hot day on Saturday. We did get Toby adopted - he was a cute little beagle puppy that never even made it onto the website because he was adopted very quickly. Remember me talking about those two adorable beagle pups I wanted to take home and keep? Toby was one of them! The other one made his first trip to PetSmart but is still waiting on his home. Also we had two other dog adoptions during the week. Buster is a cute lab/basset mix who had a great personality, and Kiya is a Pharaoh Hound mix who was the mom to the puppies that I dogsat. Kiya was the escape artist who turned out to be smarter than me - I was never able to keep her in any enclosure - she just wanted to be with people so bad! She was adopted before any of her puppies found homes! Even though Saturday was slow for dogs, today (Sunday) was a little better for me personally. I took all three kittens to PetSmart, and came home with only two! Avalanche was adopted right at the end of the day - he went home to a great family who was looking for a new kitten to spoil. The three kids begged, pleaded, and offered thousands of dollars to their parents, and who could resist that? So Avalanche, my favorite kitten ever, now has his very own family to give him a lot of love and attention.

Monkee was adopted!

Monkee found a home while I was gone on vacation. I'm so happy for her! I heard she went to live with a family that has a dog and a 1-year-old cat, so she should have plenty of playmates there. Now I'm down to three kittens left to find homes. I still have Elvis, Jade and Reese (the dogs) to find homes for as well. Someone is interested in Jade, and someone else is interested in Reese, so maybe one of those homes will work out - we'll see. They were all very happy to see me when I got home from Florida last night. I think that they missed me! Hopefully one of them will find a home at PetSmart on Saturday.

I've been interested in dog training since I first got Remi almost two years ago. I became more interested as I began fostering dogs and found out how much fun it is to teach them, and how much nicer it is to have well behaved dogs! :-) I've finally decided to do more than read every dog training book I can find, and have applied to the Companion Animal Sciences Institute. I had planned to enter the program to earn a diploma in dog training, but they also have a diploma in Shelter and Rescue Work, and that sounds really interesting as well. I'm going to maybe try to earn both. Between working full time and taking care of my fosters, I don't have a lot of time left - but, this sounds like a great way to spend my free time. My husband has almost given up on me ever cooking for him again anyway. :-) It's a distance education program, so I could work through the classes at my own pace, especially on my lunch hour. I pretty much earned my entire MBA by doing schoolwork on my lunch hour, so it won't be anything new. I'm really excited about the idea!

New Pictures

I took a few pictures at PetSmart last Sunday and thought I'd share them here....

This is Elvis - usually Sundays are just for cat adoptions, but he came up to be our "donation dog" since none of the cats can wear the donation vest. :-) I'm reading a very interesting book that talks about how to recognize your dog's emotions. It is called "For the Love of a Dog" by Patricia McConnell. It's amazing how much more I can understand about Elvis just from reading this book. For example, one of the signs of anxiety in dogs is if they keep their mouth closed and do "tongue licks" a lot. Elvis does this all the time - and now that I realize it, I have noticed he mostly does it when something is changing in his environment (my husband comes home from work, for example). I'm anxious to learn to "read" him better in order to help him be happier. I know some things to do for dogs who are anxious, but it doesn't do me any good if I don't know at the time that they ARE anxious! So this book is awesome. I'm definitely not a natural at reading body language and will need to work at it, and I'm glad to have a book to help me!

Here's a picture of Monkee. She is staying up at PetSmart while I'm on vacation, and I hope she finds a home while I'm gone. I'm wondering if she's going to turn out like Spock, my old cat. Spock would let my neice, or anyone else, pick him up and carry him around upside down or however they wanted, and he'd purr the entire time. Monkee has been picked up in an "uncomfortable way" by children a few times at PetSmart, and she just purrs and seems to enjoy it just like Spock!

This is Blaze - he used to be such a tiny kitten! Now he's getting to be bigger than my own cat George (and he looks a lot like him too). I keep saying one of these days I'm going to accidentally take George to PetSmart for adoption instead of Blaze. Blaze is awesome - he's stopped climbing up on people like they are trees, and is usually happy to just lay around now. Maybe he's starting to outgrow his kitten playful period? He has the most personality of all my cats - he just is this giant laid-back kitten, and nothing phases him. He doesn't seem to mind dogs, other cats, vaccum cleaners, or anything! He purrs whenever I pick him up and pet him, and likes to be held and cuddled for awhile, but then is happy just sitting back and watching the rest of the action. And not from the sidelines either - he'll lay down right in the middle of the living room floor and watch the action go on all around him! He's great. :-)

This is Tommy, another foster cat (not mine) waiting to be adopted. He's very soft and such a pretty cat. I like orange cats a lot - maybe because they remind me of Garfield (my favorite cartoon cat of all time). :-) If I ever foster an orange cat I'm going to have to name him Garfield. Hmmm... next time I foster a yellow (?!) dog I will have to name it Odie! :-)

And that's it for now! I leave tonight for the sunny shores of Florida, and maybe by the time I get back, one of my fosters will have a new home! I told them all good-bye before I left just in case.

Someone finally claimed Max

Turns out that Max's name is actually "Blue", and his owners finally called and said they saw the signs and they want their dog back. I am so sad for him. They didn't say why they didn't bother calling before now (the signs were removed two days ago). Even after I talked to them earlier this evening, they wanted to wait until tomorrow night to come get him - obviously they aren't dying to have him back. They live on the street where the signs were posted, and where he was found, so its not like he wandered far from home and they were looking in the wrong place. I don't want to give him back. I almost never cry when my fosters get adopted because I know they're going to a good family and I'm happy for them - but I've been crying half the day because Max is leaving and I don't think he's going somewhere that he'll be happy or well cared for. I know there are so many dogs out there that have much worse owners than Blue does, but those dogs haven't been living at my house for the past 7 days, sharing my life, sleeping on my bed, and entertaining me with their antics. I think I shouldn't have invested so much in him - I shouldn't have taught him his new name or taught him to sit or spent hours playing with him and walking him and giving him treats - after all, he was never my dog. Next time someone finds a stray I should just send them to animal control and not have to worry about getting attached. But the last seven days for Blue have hopefully been very happy ones, and they wouldn't have been in a shelter. So its the least I could do for such a great dog - I just wish his future was more hopeful. I'm off to let him sleep on my bed one last night, and his owners will be here to get him in the morning.

Nothing much to share...

I'm going out of town soon, so I went up to PetSmart on Saturday and Sunday, hoping some of my fosters would find homes before I left. However, none of my dogs or cats were adopted, so I was sad about that. I guess they're stuck with me for at least a couple more weeks until they get back to PetSmart to try again! I was also sad that none of Kiya's puppies were adopted. They didn't get put up for adoption as soon as most puppies because they had to be treated for ringworm, so now they're older and bigger and I am sad that they are missing so many puppy moments without their own families. Everyone wants young puppies (don't they realize they grow up?) or little purebred dogs. Most of our dog adoptions this weekend were for purebreds -- two Pomeranians, a basset hound, and a Shih Tzu. I'm happy for those dogs that they found homes - I just feel bad for the big mixed-breed dogs. Derby, Lilly, and Jade were all at PetSmart this week (check out http://heartlandhumanemo.homestead.com/adoptions2.html if you don't know who I'm talking about) and no one even considered them for adoption. They are all three very good dogs with no issues, but they got passed over for cute little purebred dogs who are much more likely to have issues due to their history! Sorry, I'm being negative and I usually try not to be. I just feel so sorry for the dogs and cats that are so good but through no fault of their own they still don't have their own families.

I took Max to the vet this morning - turns out he has hookworms and whipworms - poor guy. His previous owners apparently didn't care much about him. The person who found him put up several "Found Dog" signs in the area - we sent his picture and a "Found Dog" flyer to the area animal shelters - I've checked all the classifieds in St. Charles, St. Louis and Lincoln County, along with websites like Craigslist and Lost/Found dog websites. If these people had been trying to find their dog, they would have - but I'm glad they didn't! Now he'll get the veterinary care that he needs, and he'll get adopted and live in a much better home. In the meantime, he's doing great at my house. He's a little cuddlebug - he likes to sleep right next to me. He sits in my lap whenever we are in the car. In fact, on the way to the vet this morning, even though my car was actually clean for once, instead of sitting in the empty back seat or the empty passenger seat, both Max and Reese sat on my lap for the entire 20 minute drive to the vet. Silly dogs! Fortunately they both sit relatively still, so it doesn't make driving difficult. Now if I could just teach Reese to stop barking at every motorcycle that goes by, I'd be set.

I'm off to Florida for 5 days - no kids, no cats, no dogs, and no husband! My aunt and uncle invited my parents and me and my sisters down, and even though our spouses were also invited, my sister and I decided that *someone* had to stay home and take care of the kids/pets. So my husband will be home to care for the dogs while I'm gone. He's afraid of kittens though (at least that's what I keep saying - he just says he doesn't like them) so the kittens are going on their own vacation to another foster mom's house. I'm really going to miss my dogs and kittens while I'm gone (and maybe even my husband), but I'm looking forward to the break.

Update on Max

Just in case you were wondering, no one has called to claim Max yet. I am going to wait through the weekend, and if no one claims him by Monday he's going to get to visit the veterinarian to get checked out. Heartland dogs get wonderful medical care - they are all dewormed, treated for fleas/ticks, tested for heartworms and treated if needed, spayed or neutered, given several vaccinations (rabies, DHLPP, bordetella), and given monthly flea/tick and heartworm preventative. And this all happens before they are made available for adoption! So I want to get Max started by making his first vet visit and getting his first round of vaccinations.

I also couldn't bear to leave him in the basement by himself for any longer, so I let him out of quarantine early. All of my other fosters and my own dog are up-to-date on their vaccinations, and it was a relatively low-risk decision. He gets along great with the other dogs - especially Reese. He and Reese are the same size, and they're both young, which might be why they play together so well. Unfortunately, this also means I once again have three foster dogs who are not yet house-trained. Sigh. In order to successfully housetrain a dog, you have to watch him every second when he's loose in the house - and that's hard enough with one dog - not to mention three at once. Its definitely a challenge! My husband is gone with his Army Reserve unit for a five-day trip to Minnesota, so that will make it harder because he won't be around to help, but I'm hoping it will make it easier to get the house cleaned while he's gone. I'm sure some of you out there can understand that. :-)

I'm looking forward to going to PetSmart tomorrow. Kiya's puppies will be there for their first adoption event, and I think altogether we're going to have 15 - 20 dogs there available for adoption! I would love it if Reese, Jade or Elvis found a home, or even one of my foster kittens. But either way, I just enjoy going up to spend time with all the dogs and cats, and helping them to find new homes of their own.

Found a Dog!

One of my neighbors found a dog running loose. She had heard from another neighbor (who adopted Samantha from us) that I volunteer for a dog rescue, so she brought him to me. Here are some pictures of him.





He reminds me of Buster - another Heartland dog who is available for adoption. In fact, I keep calling him Buster by mistake. I temporarily named him Max, and hopefully we can find his owners soon. Well - honestly I almost hope we DON'T find them! My neighbor found him dragging a long metal chain behind him. She walked him around the area for over an hour and no one ever came looking for him. He is such a sweet dog, and I hate that someone had him tied up outside on a chain, in the heat, and never looked for him. He had a tick in his ear (yuck!) and didn't have tags or a microchip. So I am not sure if he was well taken care of in his home. But the neighbor who found him is going to post some signs, and I've contacted some shelters in case someone does come looking for him. In the meantime, he's hanging out in my basement. He is still a puppy - very playful and very sweet. Hopefully if no one claims him, I will be able to keep him and make him a Heartland dog and find him a good home. In the meantime, he has to stay quarantined from my dogs, so he's kind of lonely all by himself in the basement. He's been very well behaved though, and just seems happy to be inside in the air conditioning.

Ella was adopted; Noah is renamed; Training begins; Supply Drives

Ella, the first cat I ever fostered, has finally found a home! I guess as foster cats go, it really hasn't been that long, but as a relatively new person to the rescue world, four months seemed like a very long time for such a wonderful animal to be without a home. Especially since she's spent the last two months of her life in a little cage at Petsmart. I hated leaving her there all the time, but it was the best way for her to meet the most potential adopters, and she was much better off there than at my house since she wasn't crazy about all the noise and excitement and other animals. She had a lot of people, volunteers and employees alike, stop by and visit her every day, and she was well cared for. Her time there finally paid off, as she went to a wonderful new home yesterday! I am so happy for her!

I hate to do it, because my mom will get mad at me, but I'm doing it anyway. I'm changing Noah's name. My mom hates it when my foster animals names change, because she gets confused enough with all the different animals going into and out of my life - changing the names of the animals is even more confusing, she says. And generally, if we know what name the pet already had, we never change it. But Noah is a special case. Noah, my shepherd/hound foster dog, is very skittish and shy. If anyone in the house raises a voice, whether its directed at him or not, he cringes and runs away to hide. The problem is that in order to get the attention of Remi or Jade, a loud voice is usually required. One day something made me realize that I spent a lot of time saying "Remi, NO!" or "Jade, NO!", and each time, NOah acted like I was yelling at him. I thought, NO! does sound similar to NOah!, and could make it very confusing for him. I could have started saying "Remi, QUIT" or Jade, QUIT", but NO is a common English word, so I thought it'd be easier for him to just change his name. So now Noah is Elvis! It started out as a nickname, but now I'm so used to calling him that, that I keep confusing the names when I talk to people. He might take awhile to get adopted because he is so skittish and shy, so until we find the right home for him, I might as well at least change his name in my blog to match his name in real life. He answers to Elvis all the time now - and I think he's doing much better at accepting the loud voices and noises around him in the house. Although, if anyone has a nice quiet house and wants to foster one of the best dogs in the world, let me know and we'll talk. :-)

All the dogs have started obedience training, courtesy of my amateur attempts at training. We have nightly "classes", and each dog is working on a different skill. Granted, it'd be easier to teach them all the same thing at the same time - but not as interesting! Elvis is working on "sit" - he has finally figured it out, so we're in the "practicing stage". Reese can sit and is working on "down" - she almost has it figured out. And Jade can sit and is working on "stay" - this is really hard for her because she has never had to learn self-control before. But she desparately needs to be taught this because she has so much energy and enthusiasm and hasn't learned many manners yet. All in all, I'm very proud of my dogs and the progress they've made. I hope with additional training this will help them to find good homes, since all three of my fosters are likely going to be harder to place than cute puppies or small dogs. Reese is still a puppy, but she is, and looks like, a pit bull, so that scares some people away. Elvis can climb fences and is very skittish, so that limits the homes that will be right for him. And Jade is a wonderful dog, but she's big, black, and high energy, so that automatically is three strikes against her in most people's eyes. The more they can learn over time, the easier it will be to find them homes, so I will hopefully be able to keep up their new training schedule and they will learn a lot!

The girl scouts have been holding supply drives for the past couple Saturday's at PetSmart, and we have received several donations from people. Someone donated a big package of liver treats that the dogs LOVE - they work great for training - so if you made a donation of supplies - THANK YOU! You are helping to care for the dogs and cats that don't have homes, and you're also helping to prepare them to find new homes! If you are interested in sponoring a supply drive at your school or workplace, please contact me for more information at dogfostermom@aol.com. Our group is 100% volunteer run, and all of the foster homes provide their own supplies, crates, dog/cat beds, cat litter, etc - this quickly adds up and we can always use help. Our biggest needs are cat litter, canned (wet) cat and dog food, cat climbing trees/scratching posts (okay, this is my biggest need - not sure about others) ;-), and of course we can always use cat/dog treats, collars, leashes, toys, dog bones, paper towels, bleach, old blankets, cat/dog beds, and anything else that cats or dogs use! We are in a program where we are provided dry cat and dog food, so that's about the only thing we can't use - everything else would greatly help our foster homes care for their foster dogs and cats. If you have any items to donate, you don't need to wait for a supply drive - just drop them off with Heartland Humane Society volunteers at Petsmart on Highway K on any Saturday between 11am and 4pm, or contact me and we'll make other arrangements. Thanks!

Skittles was adopted!

Yesterday was a great day for dog adoptions. We had several puppies and small pure-bred dogs available at PetSmart, and most of them found homes. Even a couple of our older puppies and dogs, Logan and Sage, were adopted. Skittles went home with a great family and will have an Irish Setter to play with as she grows up. Reese, Noah and Jade are still waiting for their homes. None of the cats found homes yesterday, so I hope they have some better luck today.

Time for Ice Cream!

Tomorrow (Friday, August 1st), please join us at Maggie Moo's on Highway K in O'Fallon for an ice cream fundraiser. Make sure to print this flyer, so 20% of the proceeds will benefit Heartland Humane Society. You can bring in the flyer anytime during the day to benefit Heartland, and if you visit from 6:00-9:00 p.m., you can be served by one of the "celebrity scoopers" a.k.a. Heartland volunteers. While you're there, make sure to also pick up a voucher for Dream Cakes or Cupcakes - the voucher will be good for up to one year from the date of purchase, and 20% of the proceeds also benefit Heartland. Come join us for some ice cream and fun! I'll be one of the "celebrity scoopers" and you can make fun of me since I'll have no idea what I'm doing! :-)

Kitten Adoptions

Three of my kittens have found new homes! Ace, Apollo and Taffy were all adopted on Saturday. I now just have two left from each litter. Blaze and Monkee are the slightly older kittens, and then Astro and Avalanche are the two remaining flood kittens. I'm hoping to teach Monkee and Astro to be more friendly this week, and to teach Blaze to be less friendly. Avalanche is already perfect. Monkee and Astro just aren't that interested in cuddling, so I'm trying to teach them how nice it is to be held and petted. Blaze just needs to be taught that people are not supposed to be climbed like trees - he digs his claws in and climbs from the floor to the top of my head, and then digs his claws into my head. He does this to everyone he meets unfortunately. I know a little bit about dog training and dog behavior, but nothing about cats, so it is time for me to consult one of the cat foster moms and learn some new things!

None of the dogs were adopted this week, but they did do very well at Petsmart. It's always hard to guess how a dog will do if they've never been there. Some of them are quiet and shy, some are friendly and outgoing, and some of them are loud and upset. I was afraid that Jade would be one of the loud and upset dogs - barking at every person and every dog that walked by. But she actually did very well - she turned out to be one of the friendly, outgoing dogs! We put a donation vest on her to try to get some donations, and she happily greeted all the people and dogs, and had no problems. I was very relieved about that. The puppies of course also did great, and enjoyed playing with another puppy that was there to be adopted (Yosemite Sam, the last of Molly's puppies still waiting to be adopted). We didn't get any new puppies adopted this week though - the only dog adoptions were pre-arranged ones. Now I'm hoping that someone sees one of my puppies on the website this week and decides to adopt them, so they don't have to wait until next weekend to get another chance at a new home.

My puppies grew up!

Remember those cute puppies I dogsat for, for a few weeks? Here is their picture from when I had them, at three weeks old...

They went back to their first foster mom when I went on vacation. They had ringworm which had to be treated, and so they took a little bit longer than most puppies to be ready for adoption. The day is almost here, and the puppies are on the website now to find their own homes. Only they aren't tiny anymore! Check out the puppies now...

They got huge! I still think they're as adorable as ever. I can't wait to see how they turn out once they're all grown up - hopefully their future adoptive families will be back to share pictures and stories then!

Speaking of that, I talked to the new families of both Vala and Samantha this week. Both families say the dogs are doing great. It's always so nice to hear when the dogs have settled in and know that everything is going well - it just makes giving up the dogs I love much easier to know that! Now if I can just find some happy forever families for my puppies and kittens tomorrow! Skittles and Reese and Jade will all be making their first ever appearance at Petsmart tomorrow. Noah is an expert at it now - he's been going for several weeks. So are all seven kittens that I'll be bringing up with me - I'm sad that none of them have found homes yet, even though they've been going up to Petsmart several times, on weekends and during the week. Maybe tomorrow will be their lucky day.

Pictures of Jade, Skittles & Reese

I helped my sister move to her new house yesterday so I didn't get to take any of my fosters to Petsmart this week. I heard they did very well with adoptions - at least the dogs, not sure about cats. They had several puppies that were adopted, as well as some of the adults. My fosters should all be ready to be adopted next Saturday, so hopefully we'll have another good week then. I took some pictures so I could get them on the website, and decided to share a few of them here.

Here is Noah and Samantha (taken before she was adopted) in the back yard.

Here is Jade, my newest foster. She is doing very well with the other dogs!

Here is Skittles, taking it easy on the couch.

Reese playing with her favorite squeaky toy.

Skittles and Reese - best friends! My husband wants them to be adopted together, but I said I'd just be glad for either of them to find a home. :-)

Reese is another lap dog, just like Vala was. She prefers to sit on people's laps whenever possible. Or in this case, she's using Remi as her cushion. :-)

I love Skittle's ears in this picture - so cute!

Here is an action shot of Jade, playing with one of the toys made and donated by the Girl Scouts - the dogs love them!!

Rachael (Dave's daughter) is home visiting for the summer, and lucky for me, she likes animals! She's been a huge help with all 13 cats and dogs! :-) Noah sleeps with her every night, and I think she is his favorite person in the world now. He will miss her when she goes back home to Alabama in a few weeks.

Sam was adopted!

Samantha was adopted on Saturday, to a family who lives on my street! We didn't realize it beforehand, but once they filled out the application I saw that we were actually neighbors. Hopefully this means I'll get to see Samantha out in the neighborhood once in awhile.

Since Sam is gone, the house is much quieter. Just kidding - its as crazy as ever. I really miss her, but the new puppies are keeping me so busy that I haven't had much time to be sad that she is gone. Just to make sure I stay busy, I'm bringing home another dog tonight. Jade is a dog that was picked up as a stray at the North County shelter. I saw her there a couple of months ago, and wanted to take her but didn't have room. Another Heartland foster mom volunteered to take her for me, and has been keeping her at her house for the past month getting her ready for adoption. She's now been vaccinated and spayed and is all ready to be adopted - she's even on the website already. I named her Jade, because one of our previous adopters kindly donated some old leashes and bandanas and collars, and one of the bandanas was monogrammed with the name Jade. So I told them we could still use it, and would just name one of our fosters Jade! So she doesn't have green eyes, but I checked and the gemstone jade actually does come in the color black, so its all okay. :-) I just have to remember to put the bandana on her at adoption events now!

Anyway, I'm going out to the other foster mom's house tonight and I plan to bring Jade home, so she has more room for some new dogs that she recently took in (she has the cutest baby beagles I've ever seen - I just want to take them home and KEEP them!) . Jade has been a little bit nervous around other dogs at her house, even though she did fine at the shelter with other dogs before we got her. I hope that she'll be okay at my house with Remi and Noah, but if she's not, it may be a very short visit and then back to her current home. Maybe I'll get the beagles instead. (just kidding, Gina... unless you like the idea.) :-) My favorite thing about Jade is that one of her ears is always straight up, and the other one is always flopped over at the very tip. It's so cute. I hope to get some better pictures of her while she's at my house - the one on the website is one I took but I don't like it very much. I'll try to get some more pictures of Reese and Skittles while I'm at it. They're done with their quarantine now, and they're both doing great. They LOVE to play together, and they are just so cute when they hop around attacking each other with puppy sneak attacks.

Introducing Skittles and Reese

This is Skittles! She is a typical puppy - just wants to play, get attention, eat, and then play some more! She has very soft fur, and is so fun to hold and cuddle.




This is Reese. She is very quiet - I've only heard her bark once. She is small - maybe around the size of a Jack Russell Terrorist, but of course she's much quieter than a JRT. :-) I'll have more information on both of these girls and how old they are when I get back from the vet today!

These puppies both came from the North County animal shelter. The shelter had over 150 animals there on Tuesday, and most of them were going to be euthanized the next morning. Most of these pets came to the shelter as strays, and the owners don't want to pay (cost of vaccinations and spay/neuter) to get the animals out, so they just get another one from a backyard breeder. The animals pay the price with their lives.

I can't save all of them, but we saved two of them. I grew up in North County, so I feel especially concerned about the animals at this shelter. Once they're picked up by animal control, they are given 6 days to be claimed. If they are not claimed during this time, and no one has shown any interest in adopting them, they are euthanized immediately. Look at Reese and Skittles - could you leave them there to be killed once you saw them? I hate that I also had to leave Oreo and Salt & Pepper and Simon and Pepsi behind. They were other ones at the shelter that I really wanted to take - they were just as cute, or even cuter than Skittles and Reese, but I couldn't save them.
A couple people have said that four foster dogs is too many. That might just be because my family is worried about me going nuts from all the dogs. :-) In my opinion, however many animals you have, if you can take good care of them, that is the important thing. And Skittles and Reese are getting very good care at my house, just like all my other foster animals. Our fosters have great medical care thanks to Heartland, they have lots of play time with each other, lots of outdoor time (dogs only of course), and lots of one-on-one time with me or my husband. Right now both puppies are quarantined to make sure they are not sick - many animals coming from the shelter have been exposed to viruses that may not show symptoms for several days. So they each have their own bedroom, and they have to stay by themselves until their quarantine time is up. Then they'll be able to join the rest of the household, and sleep in our room (in a crate until they're housetrained), and play with the other dogs. So I don't think I have too many animals - I love them, and love fostering! I admit it has become a second job - I get up an hour earlier in order to get them all fed and outside and back in before I go to work, and then I spend most of my evening with them, either feeding or playing with or cleaning up after them. I don't watch TV much anymore, or play computer games, but I enjoy being with the animals so much more. If I had less fosters, I'd have more time for "entertainment" but it would be much less entertaining than watching my puppies or kittens. :-) And one of the awesome things about fostering is that I can always take in less when I need a break! I just wish we had more foster homes and adopters - there are so many more cute puppies and kittens, and dogs and cats, at North County and other shelters that are being euthanized every day just because there aren't enough animal lovers out there that are willing (or know how) to foster. If its something you'd be interested in, check out http://www.hhsrescue.com/ for more information. You can even foster Skittles or Reese once their quarantine time is up, and I'll go get another one. ;-)

For those of you who have adopted a dog or cat from Heartland or another shelter/rescue group - thank you for being part of the solution! It does no good to foster these animals if they can't find good homes to adopt them, so without you, these animals wouldn't have a chance! And if your adopted dog or cat needs a playmate, consider adopting or fostering another one. ;-)

Dog and Cat Pictures

The kittens have taken over the house, and the dogs are not sure what to make of it. Here are some pictures of the fun they've been having! As always, you can click on any of the pictures to see them larger size.

This is Ace attacking Remi (Ace won, of course).



Here, the kittens have taken over Samantha's dog food dish, and refuse to share with her.


George, the adult cat on the left, is thinking "where are all these kittens coming from?!"


Samantha and Apollo vye for dominance of the coffee table (as expected, Apollo wins).


Avalanche, surveying his domain!

Vala and Selena were adopted!

This was a good weekend for me at Petsmart. Vala was adopted on Saturday, to a nice family with two young boys. I had a really hard time watching her go - they picked her up on Saturday evening from my house, and Vala happily jumped in the car, but when they got ready to drive away, she just kept looking out the window at me like "aren't you coming with me?". I still have this picture in my head of the car driving away with her looking back at me as long as she can. I know she'll settle in and be fine, but I hate that I can't explain to her somehow what is happening. Whenever I bring home a new dog, I give them a brief explanation on why they're there, and how its just temporary and they will find their forever home soon. Unfortunately most of them don't seem to understand, and Vala especially seemed to think we were her permanent family. I really really hope this works out, because I can't stand for her to keep leaving and coming back - its so confusing for her. She was adopted out once but returned the next day because the person's dog didn't get along with her. And then we went on vacation and she was sent to another foster home while we were gone. So she's been moved around a lot lately, and I really want this to be her forever home.

Selena was also adopted, and went to her new home yesterday. She took a very long time to get adopted at first, and when I found out she was being returned, I expected to have a hard time finding her a new home again. But she came back on Saturday, and was adopted again on Sunday! She is a great dog - no major issues at all, just very high energy. The lady who adopted her has another dog for Selena to play with, and has some experience with dog training, so I hope that it will work out for her.

I am back to only two foster dogs now - Noah and Samantha. Samantha is doing great - she's ALMOST house-trained, and she is just the sweetest dog. She follows me around and just wants to lay at my feet all the time. Now that her best friend playmate is gone (Vala), she's kind of lonely. Remi and Noah are both older and don't like to play as much. Samantha is only 7 months old. I know a lot of people only have one dog, but if its a young dog, I don't know how they do it. It is so much easier when they have another dog to play with!

I am hoping to work with Noah more now that it is a little less hectic at home. He doesn't know any obedience commands - no one has ever even taught him to "sit" - or if they have, he's forgotten it! Shy dogs can do really well with obedience training, because it increases their confidence. Think about it this way - if you learn a new skill (say, you learn to speak French) then all of a sudden you feel more confident when you go to France. Sure, you don't catch every word - but if you can at least understand the basics of what people are saying, you are going to be a little less timid. Noah is doing well at my house, but he doesn't seem to be showing a lot of progress. I'm hoping that some basic obedience training will help him develop more confidence.

None of the kittens have been adopted yet. I am trying to talk my husband into letting me adopt Avalanche as a birthday present. He's the sweetest kitten - he just wants to be held and petted all the time. I don't expect to talk my husband into it, but I'm going to keep trying. :-)