One Out, One In

Current Foster Roll: 7 kittens, 5 puppies, 3 dogs

Yesterday morning, I met the 6am vet transport and delivered my seven kittens to be spayed/neutered at Anicira in Harrisonburg. I waited all day to find out if Addie and I were correct in our designation of who is a boy and who is a girl. I know it should be obvious, but I’m here to tell you, when you’re looking at a tiny, fuzzy, squirming kitten, it isn’t so clear. Thankfully, we were correct!

(Finally, I got something right with these kittens! I’ve managed to screw up the deworming schedule, the vaccine schedule, and the dosage for meds to treat their Upper Respiratory Infection. No real harm was done, except to my belief that I know what I’m doing. The HSSC may never ask me to foster kittens again. Nick doesn’t think that’s a bad thing.)

The puppies all have approved adopters who are scheduled to pick them up on Sunday. Paws crossed this actually happens. There have been a handful of times when an adopter had a change of heart. Most memorable is the embarrassing story of the puppy whose gender I got wrong. That memory followed me around the day of the kittens’ surgeries.

The more careful followers of my Facebook group will ask at this point—three dogs? Where did the other dog come from? If you follow Another Good Dog on Facebook, you know that Marley hit the jackpot and was adopted last Friday into the family she’s always deserved!

The morning after Marley left, I met Darla, a purebred Catahoula puppy who was being surrendered to the Humane Society of Shenandoah County. Darla is eight months old and had been purchased at a puppy store (yes, these still exist in Virginia) by an elderly couple. Anyone who knows anything about the breed, knows where this story is going.

As Darla grew, her strength and energy became too much and she pulled one of her owners over, breaking a hip.

Catahoulas have abounding energy, smarts, and determination. Darla is clearly exhibiting all of those qualities here. They need an experienced handler, clear boundaries, plenty of energy and enrichment. Without them they can become what another foster told me she calls ‘devil dogs.’

Darla arrived having just been spayed, dosed with trazadone, and terrified. So much of her world changed in 24 hours. So, for now, she is going through a ‘shut-down’. This means we are keeping her world very small and manageable. She is spending a lot of time in her crate. When she’s not in her crate, she is on the end of my leash or outside in our small foster playyard with just me.

Shut downs give a dog time to find its footing again. It’s kind of like a hard reboot on your computer. Darla is responding beautifully to the shut down. Relaxing, bonding with me, happy to go in her crate because she knows nothing will be demanded of her there. She can catch her breath now.

She watches Stela and Argus who are crated in the same space (my office) and copies them. She didn’t want to eat at first, her nerves had the best of her. But after watching Stela and especially, Argus, get excited when I brought in breakfast or dinner, she got up and wagged her tail at the sight of me too, and dug right in. They nap, she naps.

Once her spay incision is healed, she’ll be able to go outside with them in the play yard. Darla hasn’t been socialized with other dogs, but Stela and Argus are both very dog friendly, so they will be excellent teachers.

Leash walking is our other challenge. Darla darts and pulls and doesn’t respect the end of the leash. This is partly from not having much leash-training and partly from being walked on a retractable leash.

And can I say here how much I hate those things? Retractable leashes are dangerous to other dogs, people, and the dog being walked on one. I know of several stories of dogs breaking those leashes in a panic, wrapping those skinny lines around the neck of another dog, not to mention the times the leash has been pulled out of a human hand and then snaps after the dog sending it into a panic and chasing after it.

A dog on a retractable leash is not under your control. Understand that. If something happens, you cannot get a hand on your dog quickly and if you grab that silly thin line, you’ll burn your hands. You may think it gives your dog more freedom and saves you steps, but it puts them at risk, you at risk, and all the other people and animals around you at risk.

If you use one regularly, please (please!) throw it away. Don’t give it to someone else. I’ve tossed dozens of them. The only time I can see using one is if your dog weighs five pounds and you walk it in your fenced back yard all by itself.

Rant (mostly) over.

Anyway, Darla’s understanding of being on a leash involved sprinting forward, zooming around in a panic, and trying to run circles around me. After two days of being restricted to walking beside me, she is already calmer. She knows I’ve got her. It’s safe to sniff and walk confidently because she is not loose, I am always there, right beside her. Yes, she pulls sometimes, but every time we go out, she’s better. She’s a smart dog, she’ll get this fast.

In the interest of keeping this short, I’ll just say that Stela and Argus are both doing great and have become fast friends. More about them next week – promise!

Until Each One Has a Home,

Cara

For information on me, my writing, and books, visit CaraWrites.com.

If you’d like regular updates of all our foster dogs past and present, plus occasional dog care/training tips, and occasional foster cat updates (!) be sure to join the Facebook group, Another Good Dog.

And if you’d like to know where all these dogs come from and how you can help solve the crisis of too many unwanted dogs in our shelters, visit WhoWillLetTheDogsOut.org and subscribe to our blog where we share stories of our travels to shelters, rescues, and dog pounds.

If you can’t get enough foster dog stories, check out my book: Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs . Or its follow up that takes you to the shelters in the south One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues.

I love to hear from readers and dog-hearted people! Email me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com.

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