I’m completely dogless.
Well, that’s not quite true. I have Gracie and Frankie. And they are VERY happy to have me back from vacation.
So happy in fact, that on our first night home, Frankie broke out of his soft-sided crate to crawl in bed with me. So now I’m trying to teach him to sleep in it with no door. Took me fifteen minutes of repeatedly putting him back in it before he finally settled down, but then around 3 in the morning, he still climbed in bed with us.
I’d be more than happy to share our kingsize bed with him, but Nick is staunchly against dogs in the bed. It’s one of the few things he will not cave on, and if you read my upcoming book you’ll see he’s a pretty good bean about most everything. In fact, he’s ridiculously accepting of my dog problem. So, I’m figuring out another solution for Frankie. [Update: Addie sewed a new door on his crate (with Nick’s help)!]
The reason I’m foster dog-less is that (drumroll please….) GOMER GOT ADOPTED!
These lucky, lucky people adopted him while I was on vacation.
It was my first long-distance adoption. I was in California when the adopters (from Virginia) came to our house in Pennsylvania to meet Gomer. Another local OPH foster, Tim, came over to sign the contract and my daughter Addie handled the introduction. (OPH’s motto, “Together We Rescue” could not have been truer!)
It should be noted that when we left for CA, Addie was not a Gomer-fan, but when I called to check in a few days after we left she was singing a different tune. She told me, “He’s much easier to deal with than Frankie.”
Frankie is a bit spoiled and while I take partial responsibility for that, some of it is just him.
For instance, he doesn’t want to do his business in the puppy yard. He’d rather you put him on a leash and walk him down to the front of the property amongst the cherry trees to take care of things. I thought that while we were gone it would be simpler for the ‘kids’ (who are actually adults these days) to put him and Gomer in the puppy yard to potty. Gomer was cool with that, happily bounding out the new doggie door, but Frankie wouldn’t go. Just like with his refusal to run with me, he simply sat down and wouldn’t budge until one of the kids got the leash and took him out the other door down to the cherry trees. I guess the cherry trees have a certain ambiance conducive to pooping.
When Addie complained, I said, “He wants what he wants.”
Anyway, back to Gomer. My sweet little mumkin has two humans all to himself. And while I didn’t get to meet them in person, they seem very smart and dog-wise, plus they’re teachers (my favorite kind of people) so I think he’s in good hands.
I’m hopeful that they’ll bring Gomer out to one of my Virginia book events so that I can say a proper goodbye. It was a little tough and teary not to be here to do it in person. His new family was willing to wait for us to get home, but I felt like Gomer had waited much too long already (five months!) and I didn’t want him to wait a moment longer. He deserved to go home.
As for the 80’s ladies – their foster babysitters have been enjoying them, so much so that they are going to handle their adoptions. Sherry went home with an adorable family (I saw the pictures!) and Brinkley is still waiting for hers and lapping up the attention from being a solo puppy in a kid-filled home.
Again, it’s odd not to get to meet their new families or say a real goodbye, but both those pups are sweethearts who will be great pups for just about any lucky adopter and I trust my larger OPH family to make that happen.
While in CA, I had an opportunity to kayak in the bay and ocean and saw amazing wildlife. I also hiked in the Redwoods, enjoyed family celebrations, and was grateful for the cool temperatures (I missed out on much of what was apparently serious heat here). Nick’s aunt and uncle are preparing for the arrival of a puppy in a few weeks, so it was fun to shop and talk puppy with them! One of our Air BnB’s had a great dog named Clancy who was a serious retriever and we played some endless fetch. The only other dogs I encountered were the many, many dogs belonging to California’s large homeless population (if you’re going to be homeless, I can’t imagine a more hospitable climate). Here’s a picture of a patient pup waiting outside a library for her person.
We spent a half day in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and I was astounded by one of the dog parks we checked out. There must have been 80 dogs loose and probably ten or twelve people. It took me a few minutes to figure out that this is where SF dog walkers take their clients. Here’s a quick video of the (relatively) calm chaos:
Meanwhile, I’m focusing on my own pups and all the preparation that is going into setting up my book launch and book tours. I’ve even got a new website under construction about the book that includes more pictures of the dogs, information on fostering, event calendar, and soon – the happy-ever-after stories (I’m still hoping to collect more of those, so if you haven’t responded to my email request, please do!) I’m adding more material almost daily, but feel free to take a sneak peek of AnotherGoodDog.org. Your ideas/feedback are more than welcome!
When will I get a new foster/s? It looks like they might be arriving this weekend. I can’t tell you much because I don’t want to jinx it, but I will warn you that these cuties might go faster than any pups I’ve had before, so if you aren’t already an approved adopter, odds are you’ll be out of luck (apply today!).
I’m prepping the nursery and explaining to Nick all about puppy protocol as he’ll be doing the pick up since I’ll be at the PA Book Fest which is part of the PA Art Fest in State College (stop and see me if you’re in the area- I’ll be in the Schlow library parking lot under the tent.
I’ll post pictures and news as soon as I have these babes in arms on the Another Good Dog facebook group page. Vacation was exciting, but it’s so good to be home. I missed my pups and my plants.
Thanks for reading!
If you’d like to know more about my blogs and books, visit CaraWrites.com or subscribe to my monthly e-newsletter.
If you’d like to know how you can volunteer, foster, adopt or donate with OPH, click here. And if you’d like more regular updates of foster dogs past and present and extra puppy pictures, be sure to join the Another Good Dog facebook group.
I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to comment here on the blog, email carasueachterberg@gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook, twitter, or Instagram.
Best,
Cara
COMING AUGUST 2018 from Pegasus Books (OMG!!) and available for preorder now:
Another Good Dog™ 