Neo and Noelle

This is my girl Noelle.  She's laying on her favorite spot on top of the hot tub cover.  I have no idea what the piece of lumber next to her is.  It's been there all summer, while my husband has been finishing our basement.  I'm pretty sure its warped beyond use by now, but I keep forgetting to ask him why its still there.  I hope its not there to keep Noelle from jumping on the hot tub cover.  Because its not working. 

Noelle is my difficult dog. I think the term for her is dog-selective. In other words, she doesn't like most dogs on first sight. But over the past year I've been learning how to introduce her to other dogs properly, and at least when it comes to bringing in new fosters, we've done reasonably well together. She's gotten along with every foster dog I've brought in. Until Neo. She does not like Neo. Noelle and Tessa, the other female pit bull in the house, get along great. They run and play together constantly.  But Noelle does not like Neo, and the feeling appears to be mutual. 

Neo doesn't seem to like Tessa either, but he does okay with Remi.  Maybe he has something against pit bulls.  Or girls.  Huh... maybe he just doesn't like dogs who are smaller than him.  Or, maybe he doesn't like light-colored dogs.  It could be so many things.  A dog expert would probably tell me that Neo doesn't like dogs trying to engage him in play, and it has nothing to do with their breed or sex or size or color.  They'd probably tell me that he gets along okay with Remi because Remi leaves him alone, and as a senior dog, Neo really just wants to be left alone.  And sure, they could be right.  But I like to keep an open mind on these things.  It makes life more interesting. 

I read some good tips on introducing dogs to each other here.  This is basically what I've been doing with my new foster dogs anyway, but it had some helpful tips that I will be sure to try out for Noelle and Neo.  It may take awhile, and I can always hope that Neo gets adopted quickly, but in the event that he's with us for awhile I want to integrate him into our home as much as possible. 

New Contest: Reactions

You may have noticed the new buttons at the bottom of each post that say "Reactions" and let you select if you find a post funny, or interesting, or cool.  I like knowing what you think, so I hope you use these buttons often.  But the default categories of "funny", "interesting" and "cool" are not quite right for me.  I don't think they capture the entire range of emotions you may feel while reading one of my posts. Perhaps I should include options like "Sad" or "Too Much Information"?  Since I'm not creative enough to come up with my own reactions and had to use the default ones, I'm counting on you guys to help me out.  And to give you a slight bit of extra motivation, and because I think its fun, I'm turning this into another dogfostermom blog contest. 

To enter, leave a comment on this post with your suggestions for button descriptions.  You can enter just one reaction, such as "Boring", or many reactions, such as "Hilarious, Horrifying, and Heartbreaking".  Enter as many reactions as you want, just be creative.  I will select my favorite five reactions and use those in place of the default "Funny, Interesting and Cool" reactions.  Whomever is the first to post each of the selected reactions will win a $10 donation to the charity of their choice. A total of $50 will be given away, one for each selected reaction.   And if you choose to donate to BAD RAP, your winning entry will be matched as part of my challenge and double the amount will be donated.  I hope you have fun thinking of entries.  If you don't want to bother with setting up an ID to post with, you can post as Anonymous, and then just be sure to include the name of the charity you'd like to donate to if you win.  The contest will end in one week.  Please, help me come up with something more creative than "Funny, Interesting and Cool".   I can't do it without you.

Introducing Neo

Neo is a Neapolitan Mastiff.  We don't see these dogs a lot in rescue - they are relatively rare.  Neo is seven years old, and he weighs about 150 pounds.  Unfortunately for Neo, his family has to move and they are unable to take him.  I think this is why he looks so sad in this picture. 

Neo is a great dog, and although its obvious that he misses his family, he's very sweet and affectionate.  I am enjoying having him here until he is adopted. 

Calvin and Hobbes and Cilla were adopted!

Calvin and Hobbes, the Basset/Lab mix puppies, were adopted yesterday.  Calvin's new name is Dexter, and he went home with a very nice couple and several children who will hopefully be able to keep him busy and give him all the attention he seeks.  Hobbes is now named Red, and he is now being spoiled rotten by his new mom and dad.  I'm very excited for both puppies to have found such great homes.

Also, Cilla, my last kitten from the Sea Litter, was adopted this morning.  Cilla will have a great time with her new mom and dad and kids and a Chocolate Lab to give her a lot of love.  She is also a very lucky kitten.

Yesterday I brought home a very special new foster.  His name is Neo.  Stay tuned and I'll post all about him tomorrow.

Missing Cat

I lost a cat.  Don't worry, she's not in any danger.  She's somewhere in my house.  I just can't find her.  She can't have gone far, and by the time you read this I'm sure she'll have turned up.  But I felt that it was important for those of you who only have dogs to realize how different cats are. I tend to lose cats on a regular basis.  In fact some cat fosters claim that their cats know the days of the week and on weekend mornings when its time to load up in the cat carriers for adoption events, they always know to disappear. 

As a dog lover, I have trouble with the independent attitude of cats.  I am used to never having to look for dogs.  They're almost always sitting at my feet, or in my lap.  I can't even go into the bathroom without them insisting on following me.  If a dog ever wanders away it only takes one word from me, like "Hello?" to send them scrambling to get back to me and see what they're missing.  Dogs are loyal like that.  Cats on the other hand, have selective hearing.  In fact, I often don't see a lot of difference in the cats who can hear and Marco, my previous foster cat who was deaf.  They pretty much all ignore me when I talk to them.  Oh, it doesn't stop me from talking to them.  Or from going from room to room calling their name, and expecting them to come running.  I am a dog person, and this is what I expect.  But time and time again, cats disappoint me.  They're independent, and they prefer to do just about anything rather than come running everytime I call.  Except this guy. 

Artemis doesn't know he's supposed to be standoffish.  He is happy to come running when I call him.  Unless he's sleeping and really really comfortable - but I can't count that against him. I feel like that most mornings when my alarm goes off.  Please don't tell Artemis that he's not acting like a proper cat.  I like him just the way he is. 

Introducing Merlin

While I was at Animal Control picking up a dog, I took a look at the cats and kittens they had there. The director called us because they are overflowing with cats and are having to euthanize them to make room for more. It's an awful situation, but the director at this particular facility does a great job of trying to find adoption homes or rescue groups to save as many animals as possible. I hate going and seeing what animals are out of time, but I love the feeling of rescuing one of them.


I wish I could take more, but right now I only have room for one more kitten. So, I took a look to see who was there, and saw what I immediately thought of as the cutest kitten in the world. He reached his paw through the bars of his cage and started trying to play with me. I couldn't believe he hadn't been adopted - he was adorable. An orange tabby with medium length fur - why was he still there? I looked at his cage card - he'd been at their facility for over a month. A MONTH - and he hadn't been adopted! Wow, was I lucky - I got to rescue the cutest kitten in the world.


Until I got home. And I introduced Tessa and Merlin to my husband. And as I held up Merlin and said "Isn't he adorable?!" he got a funny look on his face, and said "uh no, not really". WHAT?! I couldn't believe it. Then my husband said "He's actually kind of ugly". Oh no. I picked an ugly kitten. No wonder he's been there a month without being adopted.

But then I looked at Merlin's face again. And I knew that my husband and the rest of the people who passed him by at the shelter were crazy. Because this kitten is CUTE.

----

I love to hear your comments. Let me know what you think - is Merlin adorable, or am I crazy? Wait... let me reword that. Is Merlin adorable, or am I wrong? Let's just leave crazy out of this altogether.

Introducing Tessa

This is Tessa. She's another last minute rescue, taken in after being scheduled for euthanization at an area animal control facility. I went to the facility with the intention of taking one of three dogs the facility director had told me about - either a chihuahua, a papillon, or a Great Dane mix. The chihuahua is adorable - a very sweet, very tiny dog who would be difficult to foster in my house because he might get stepped on. The papillon is a papillon. The director said he's very sweet, and I'm sure he is, but the breed is just not my favorite. The Great Dane mix had absolutely no Dane in him whatsover - he is a Shepherd/Lab mix, and he is very large and very sweet. He was my favorite of the three by far, but while I was there another dog caught my eye. Tessa.

The Shepherd/Lab, named Yeager, was very adoptable - a big yellow mutt who was already house-trained and very affectionate, turned in by his owners when they had to move. He'd be an easy one to foster and adopt out. But something about Tessa wouldn't let me walk away from her. She scrunched up against the front of her kennel with pleading eyes, just begging me to pet her. I reached in a hand and scratched behind her ear. Oh the joy and bliss on her face - she was in heaven just from a simple touch. I asked the director about her and found that she was scheduled to be euthanized by the vet in the morning.

She's a pit bull, and their facility is not allowed to adopt out pit bulls. But the director also thought she was very sweet, and was glad to hear that I was interested in saving her. She helped me test both Tessa and Yeager to see how they did with other dogs. Both passed with flying colors. Tessa also passed the rest of her evaluation, so I decided to try her out at my house. Yeager has a good shot at getting adopted before he runs out of time. Tessa appears to be an equally wonderful dog, and she did not have another option. I love to foster dogs that I would pick as my own dog if it were up to me. Out of all the dogs at that shelter, Tessa was the dog I would most want as my own, so I will especially enjoy fostering her. In spite of being a pit bull mix, I think she's very adoptable - she does great with other dogs, and is very submissive to them. I'll get her house-trained if she is not already, and work on some basic training with her, and in the end someone out there will be very lucky to adopt such a sweet girl.

The realities of fostering...

This doesn't happen in all foster homes, but if you foster several pets at once, you may find your life becoming a bit like this:

Baby gates separate various rooms in your house.

Your favorite fleece jacket gets ripped to shreds and is turned into a favorite dog toy.

Your back yard gets a giant bare spot where grass may never grow again.

Your favorite teddy bear is in constant danger of being destuffed. Again.

The expensive dog bed you purchased becomes a favorite cat window.

By the way, the animals pictured in these photos were not responsible for the damage shown here. Except Remi, my Great Dane. He's totally responsible for the destuffing of Teddy.



But here's the other reality of fostering...

Every dog and cat just pictured was an animal that was running out of time at an animal control facility and would likely have been euthanized if I had not fostered it, and had some kind person not adopted the animal. And that makes the messy house and the damaged belongings and the bare spots in the yard all worth it, to have helped save so many lives.

Scribbles

My foster cat Scribbles has been living up at PetSmart recently. She's been a bit crabby up there, so last night I went and got her and took her home. It was quite an adventure getting her into her carrier. But we both survived, and boy was she happy to see her old room again. I went in to visit her and take a few pictures, and she was her usual affectionate self. Well, anyone who has met her at PetSmart has never seen her usual affectionate self. But trust me, she is totally different at home.





I'm going to try to take some video of her to put on the website since she never displays her true loving personality at PetSmart. I am tempted to take some video of her with Noelle too. You have to see her around a dog to truly understand how scary a cat can be. She hisses and spits and makes horrible noises as she tries to attack. But that would be mean, so I won't do that. You'll just have to take my word on it that sometimes an angry cat is much scarier than an angry dog. But as long as Scribbles can find a permanent home without dogs, I know she will be a loving, affectionate companion and can have that happily ever after ending that so many dogs and cats don't get.

BAD RAP

One of my favorite blogs is from BAD RAP (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls), a rescue group located in California who works exclusively with pit bulls. They've been working with federal authorities on the recent fighting dog bust in our area, as has the Humane Society of Missouri, and when it comes to pit bulls, the people at BAD RAP are my heroes. They have done a tremendous job teaching people about the breed. They have repeatedly shown that fighting dogs are just like our dogs at home, except they were born into the hands of abusers.

The dogs in this picture are all dogs rescued from the Michael Vick fighting ring. You can see for yourself that they aren't people aggressive, or even dog aggressive. They're just happy, loving, forgiving dogs. They were the victims of cruelty, but they've been rescued and are living good lives now. The BAD RAP blog shares some great stories about pit bulls, so if the idea of walking up to that couch and sitting down with those dogs scares you, please take some time and read about them.

(Photo credit: Tim Archibald - Photo downloaded from BAD RAP website.)



The 400+ fighting dogs that were rescued recently are going to be released to rescue groups soon. Sadly, there are not enough rescues or adopters to save all of the dogs from this bust that are adoptable. I would love to foster one of these dogs, but right now it doesn't look like that will happen. So I'm doing the best I can for them, by helping the groups who are helping them. I hope you'll join me and send a donation to BAD RAP, who already has taken 10 of these bust dogs and will soon be getting many more. They're building a barn in order to have a space to take in dog fighting bust cases and emergency situations. Just to give you an idea of what the 10 dogs are like that they've received so far, here is an excerpt from their blog....


What are they like? Like the Vick dogs, their personalities are a mixed bag. We have the timid/cowering dog, the pushy/optimistic dog, the easily aroused dog and the low key love bunny. We have every range of dog tolerance level from been-there-done-that dog aggressive to the please-be-my-pal dog social. We have highly adoptable, needs some work, and sadly damaged compassion hold status. As always - individuals, individuals.

These dogs deserve to be part of a family and know love and affection. So I'm issuing a challenge - whatever my readers donate to BAD RAP in the next month, I will personally match, up to $1,000.00. I'm doing this for all of the bust dogs who have endured such cruelty, in honor of my own pit bull Noelle who taught me how wonderful pit bulls can be. If you'd like to donate, visit BAD RAP Barnraising to find out how, and make sure to note that you're a dogfostermom blog reader to make your gift eligible for the matching amount.

Cabbie was adopted; Introducing Princess

I took the weekend off from fostering, and went on a camping trip with some friends. We had a great time, and enjoyed the awesome weather. I came back to find out that my foster kitten Cabbie was adopted this weekend. I'm happy for him to be in a real home now. My other foster cats were staying at PetSmart while I was gone, and my foster puppies Calvin and Hobbes were dog-sat by a Heartland volunteer. We took Remi and Noelle to our favorite dog sitter. I'd like to take Remi and Noelle camping with us, but since we also did a float trip at the same time it wasn't the ideal situation. For one thing, Remi can't fit in a canoe.

My newest foster cat was taken care of by my parents while I was gone, with some help from my niece. She has named the cat Princess. So far Princess is turning out to be a wonderful cat. She's super-affectionate and friendly and did great with my nieces and nephews while I was gone.

Coming soon...

This sweet cat was turned into a vet's office by someone who found her hiding under their truck. She's very sweet, and if we can't find her owner she will become my foster cat very soon. I'm letting my 8-year-old niece name her, to make up for the fact that I said my niece was only seven years old. She turned eight recently, and I will not forget her age again! Until she turns nine... then I make no promises.

The story of the Pesky Fly

I stopped at my local PetSmart store last night to visit my foster cats who are staying up there and hoping to find homes. So of course I had to take some pictures. I'm sorry you're being subjected to so many bad photos, but I can't seem to stop posting, even when the background is terrible and the pictures are blurry. They still tell a story, and here it is.

The Pesky Fly

It all started so innocently. I was just minding my own business, relaxing on the nice cool concrete. I'm the gray and white kitten in the picture to the right. My name is Caboose, but my foster mom insists on calling me Cabbie - she thinks its cute. So there I was, not causing any trouble, when suddenly, I heard a buzzing noise. I looked up, and there was a FLY, harrassing my neighbor cats. Well I wasn't about to let the fly get away with that! So here's what I did.
First, I brought the fly to the attention of my roommate Cinderella. She was shocked and appalled to hear there was a fly tormenting our neighbors, and she immediately sprang into action. I was right behind her, ensuring the fly would NOT escape from the two of us.












Unfortunately, the fly soon landed on my sister Cilla's head, and, well, you can see what happened next. But the fly got away, and Cilla joined in the chase.





Cilla was concerned about our neighbor cats, so we each took a moment to check on them and make sure they were doing okay.






Scribbles said "Excuse me, but what is all this fuss about? You're disturbing my nap!"

Just then, the fly made the mistake of flying too close to Artemis (he prefers to go by Artie), and in one gulp, Artie eliminated the problem for good. Way to go, Artie!

Playtime

I took some more pictures the other night of the dogs playing together. Here's a picture of Noelle and Remi playing with a different sort of Jolly Ball (not the kind that Hobbes got his head stuck in recently). I ordered this toy from PetEdge after someone recommended it to me, and the dogs love it - its Remi and Noelle's favorite toy.




While looking through some pictures of the dogs playing, I realized that the majority of the time, Remi is running away from Noelle. So I thought I should share a picture where Remi finally looks like he is winning. And for those of you who are interested in photography, it turns out that when you use certain settings on a DSLR, you have to remove the lens hood or you get that funny shadow in all of your pictures. Oops.





One last picture - here are Noelle and the puppies playing. I love her one-ear-up, one-ear-down look.

Calvin and Hobbes should be available for adoption in about a week - I am going to miss these cuties. They're so sweet, and hilarious to watch with their short legs and long bodies.

New Camera

I have become more interested in photography recently, and just bought my first digital SLR camera. Basically this is a fancier version of a point-n-shoot camera like the one I used to use, and it will let me use more manual settings to get more interesting photos. Unfortunately until I figure out how to work it, the majority of my pictures are going to turn out blurry. This camera really makes me appreciate the awesome photography of my other blogging friends. I can safely say their awesome pictures are due to the photographer's skill, not the camera. I hope with some practice my picture-taking abilities will get better. And in the meantime, you'll see a lot more pictures on my blog as I practice using the new camera.

Remi, my 3-year-old Great Dane

This is Hobbes, one of my foster puppies. He looks sad to me in this picture. It's those Basset eyes. They just look pathetic. It's hard to foster a puppy with Basset eyes without constantly taking them into your arms and giving them attention.

Yesterday Hobbes finally caught up with his brother Calvin and learned how to go down the stairs! Now they can both run up and down stairs with the big dogs to go outside, and with their little short legs, its pretty funny to watch!

This is my husband Dave with Noelle. She looooooves him so much. And he feels the same about her. They're so much alike. He likes to sleep late, and so does she. He likes to watch movies, and so does she. She can't wait to greet him every time he comes home, and he smiles every time he sees her. When she wakes up and he's not there, she runs from room to room until she finds him. I think she might be his best friend. I'm only a little bit jealous.

Wet Cat Contest - Winners Announced

Wow, you guys made judging easy - with only two entries, I don't even have to wait on my niece to pick the funniest one. They're both hilarious...

from http://www.crazywebsite.com/Website-Clipart-Pictures-Videos/Funny-Pets-Animals

and
from http://washingcats.com/


so I'm declaring both entries the winner! JulieB and T Fortuna+, please post your winning charity in the comments, or e-mail me at dogfostermom@aol.com. A donation will be sent to the charity of your choice - thank you for humoring me and playing along. For those of you who've told me you are not computer literate and couldn't figure out how to play along, I will do my best to come up with a contest that you can participate in next time! After all, my niece was looking forward to playing judge, so I have to give her something to judge with more entries so I can keep being her favorite aunt. At least that's what she tells me... although come to think of it, she only tells me that when her other aunts are not around. Hmmm... do you think a seven-year-old has mastered the art of telling people what they want to hear already? Do you think I'm going to be in trouble with my sister or my mom if they read this and it turns out my niece is really 8 years old? I am awful with remembering ages and birthdays. I'm sorry, niece. All of my memory space in my brain is apparently being used up remembering the lyrics to songs, which is obviously much more important than remembering little things like birthdays and ages.