Crazy Dog Lady’s House

I’m earning that crazy-dog lady label this week. The house is full to bursting – four dogs and three puppies, but remarkably, it’s a quiet crew. No serious barkers (God’s cutting me a break here).

On Friday night, we picked up three darling pups who are one half of the “Breakfast Pups”. Adding to the carb theme (the other pups are Waffles and Pancake), we have Biscuit, Muffin, and Grits. These pups are chocolate colored houndish lab-looking dogs (basically dogs with long tails and long ears and plenty of happy energy who have seriously powerful noses).

Their super short, sleek coats glisten. They arrived pretty smelly, so before we’d even been properly introduced they landed in the mudroom sink. Thankfully, they like water and didn’t mind the baths at all. This was especially good as I was bathing them at 11:30 at night (two and a half hours past my bedtime).

They are joyful, sweet pups who love toys and romp, wrestle, and sometimes argue, but snuggle together in a little spoon line when they sleep.

 

My favorite feature of this litter (a sharp contrast to my last few litters) is that they are not ‘mouthy’ – they don’t confuse my hands or arms or feet with toys and bite them. They are gangly with big feet and weigh nearly 14 pounds. If they truly are only 7 weeks, then these will be some seriously big dogs.

Nancy spent the evening with them on Sunday helping with a super-exciting development in my book’s journey (can’t show and tell on that until next week!). She got some great pictures of the pups and they enjoyed hanging out with her. Here’s the two of us, post-secret event enjoying a beer with the puppies (or trying to)-

Just in case you don’t know who’s who-

Biscuit

Muffin (notice the heart marking on her chest!)

Grits

This time of year, shelters are full to bursting and having to make some hard decisions, so we picked up an extra dog to add to our pack. Billie Jean is such easy company and she’s melded right into our home, so one more dog is very doable.

It’s particularly doable because the dog we got is so nice. Like, seriously nice. Like, click over to the website right now and apply for this boy. Oh, wait! He’s already got an approved adopter. Well, apply anyway as the backup. You don’t want to miss a chance to adopt this pup.

He is a dream – gorgeous, sweet, mostly housebroken, crate trained, not a barker, loves people, loves other dogs, and (so far) is only mildly interested in the cat.

His name is Barkalona, but since that is a mouthful and I can’t seem to remember it or even say it correctly (I have the same problem with anemone), we’ve been trying out other names. We tried Baloney and Barko, and Ian calls him Long Nose because of his rather elongated pointy nose,  but when Nancy was here she said he seemed like Snoopy and that really fit. So Snoopy it is!

He is listed as a border collie, but I’m pretty doubtful about that heritage. He’s got hound ears and a hound’s sniffing habits and he swaggers with loose hips on long, long legs. When he runs he prances a bit, as if he knows he’s gorgeous. But that face!

I love his gorgeous face. As previously mentioned he has a pretty long snout, so I’d guess there’s some kind of pointer in there. Really, though, it doesn’t matter – he’s is one fabulous dog. Seriously, you should have already applied to adopt him. Why are you still here reading?

And what do Billie Jean, Frankie, and Gracie think of the invasion?

Frankie is thrilled. He loves a good dog party. He hasn’t had the opportunity to play with the breakfast carb crew, but he will soon enough. For now, he stands outside their doorway with his tail going a mile a minute in a play invite stance. He bonded instantly with Snoopy like long lost brothers.

Billie Jean was a little hesitant at first, but now she and Snoopy share the Frank bed happily.

She hasn’t seen the puppies but doesn’t seem concerned. Billie Jean is a people-dog. As long as she can be near her people, she doesn’t really mind any of the other dogs.

Ian is in love with Billie Jean and giving her lots of extra attention, he even lets her hang out in his room. I can’t remember the last foster dog that got invited into that space.

And Gracie? She’s finally accepted Billie Jean into the pack. But she’s giving her usual new foster welcome – snarling at Snoopy when he bounces by and avoiding the puppy room. When she is forced to walk by the puppy room, she literally averts her eyes and darts past as if she can’t bear to acknowledge them.

As I head into the launch week for Another Good Dog, my house is full of dogs. And this is good. Dogs calm me and make me happy and with the hype level starting to crank on this book, spending all my free moments walking dogs or playing with puppies or doing all the tasks necessary to help these precious souls find their families is just what I need. It’s a daily reminder of why I wrote the book—to help another good dog find its home.

[NOTE: I am collecting food and supplies (dog/puppy food, cat/kitten food, cat litter, collars/harnesses/leashes, and cleaning supplies to take to shelters along my book tour route) and also collecting donations (Amazon or Chewy cards are great) to purchase some of the bigger ticket items that the shelters desperately need (raised aluminum beds to keep the dogs off the concrete, wormers). If you’d like to help, connect with me. We need everything by August 23. We pack the van on the 24^th and head south on the 25^th. Feel free to bring donations to any of my signing events.]

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 (which comes out in two days!).

If you’d like to know more about the book, Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs, check out my new website, AnotherGoodDog.org, where you can find more pictures of the dogs from the book (and some of their happily-ever-after stories), information on fostering, event schedule, and more!

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 ONE WEEK FROM TODAY from Pegasus Books and available for preorder now: