Category: dog books

adopters, Destruction, dog books, fostering, litters, mama dogs, puppies

Adoption Swaparoo

Cara Achterberg

It really came down to the wire on this one. Rainer’s adopter had vanished and adoption day was imminent. Would I be left with one puppy after everyone else went home?

I warned the family that we would all be taking turns carrying Ranier everywhere with us in the puppy sling, and mentally prepared myself for the crying.

Meanwhile, adoption coordinator extraordinaire, Chelsea, got to work hustling and shaking down all the potential adoption applications to see if there was someone out there who deserved this darling pup.

Continue reading “Adoption Swaparoo” →
adopters, documentary, dog books, dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, owner responsibility

A Dog Worth Saving

Cara Achterberg

I’ve been sitting on some great news — and dying to tell you but practicing patience.

I’ve held off because you know me and jinxes, and if ever a dog was jinxed it was Mia. A series of bad luck and bad management had created a perfect storm that led to her being with us for over a year as our foster dog.

When dogs linger with us, I always tell myself to trust in the ‘adoption magic.’ The right family and the right home will appear at the right time. I’ve seen it happen countless times now. Certainly a dog as special and loving and fun and smart as Mia was stalled at our house because the family that was just as special and loving and fun and smart just wasn’t ready yet.

Continue reading “A Dog Worth Saving” →
cats, dog books, dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, hard to adopt, no-kill, shelters, writing

Dog Parties and Talking Rescue

Cara Achterberg

We had a dog party this weekend.

We often have multiple dogs – but that usually includes a litter of puppies which inflates our numbers. This time, it was all adult dogs, and quite a few personalities.

We had our neighbor’s dog Juno, who is one of Fanny’s best friends.

Continue reading “Dog Parties and Talking Rescue” →
dog books, dog rescue, Estelle, Flannery Oconnor, foster dogs, fostering, Fruitcake, Gala, Giving Tuesday Pups, Highway Puppies, Hops, Hula Hoop, Miss Fanny Wiggles, Nelson, Oberyn, Oreo, Pepper Puppers, writing

My Hope and My Thanks

Cara Achterberg

Today is the RELEASE DAY for 100 Dogs & Counting.

With all the hoopla and hope, I almost didn’t post to this blog. Continue reading “My Hope and My Thanks” →

adopters, dog books, dog rescue, foster dogs, foster fail, fostering, oph, shelters, transport

We CAN Rescue These Dogs

Cara Achterberg

Our foster world is pretty quiet these days. And that’s a good thing.

100 dogs coverI’m busy getting ready for the release of my new book, 100 Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelter and Rescue. It’s a strange time for all of us, dogs included.

OPH has been saving dogs in record numbers with Continue reading “We CAN Rescue These Dogs” →

booktour, dog books, dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, poop, puppies, writing

A Day in the Life of a Puppy Foster

Cara Achterberg

I’ve mentioned before that puppies are a lot of work. So I thought I’d give you a peek into a typical day of caring for ten large puppies.

5:15-5:45am

Someone, somewhere in the house flushes a toilet and the puppies wake up. The pipes run through the wall in the puppy room which is our converted mudroom. It is somewhat miraculous that they don’t seem to waken if the flush happens earlier than five. Puppies commence yipping for breakfast, pooping, fighting, and zooming through poop while yipping for breakfast and fighting.

5:45am

Nick gets up and has breakfast, completely ignoring the puppies, and more amazingly, the smell of the puppies.

6am

I accept the fact that the puppies are not going back to sleep and Continue reading “A Day in the Life of a Puppy Foster” →

Breeds, dog books, dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, Pit bull, training

Member of the Pack

Cara Achterberg

Normally when I bring home a new foster dog there is an extended shut-down period – a time when the new foster is kept away from the other dogs, spends a lot of time in her crate, is kept on a leash all the time even when out of the crate (and confined to the kitchen). This generally lasts one to two weeks.

We started down that path with Fanny Wiggles, but Continue reading “Member of the Pack” →

dog books, dog rescue, foster dogs, fosterdogs, fostering, Oreo, Rescue Road Trip, Updates, writing

Our Special Visitor

Cara Achterberg

We have a very special guest with us this week. (As if four dogs wasn’t enough!)

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Oreo and I go way back to the day I met him in a shelter in North Carolina, where he’d been living on and off for over a year. He’d been adopted out twice, but neither adopter chose to neuter him or bring him inside, so he ran off (as unneutered male dogs are want to do) and Animal Control returned him to the shelter each time.

There was something special about Oreo—the way he looked at us, the way he leaned into his kennel fence desperate for your touch, and how he’d hold your hand through the fence.

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It was a long and winding road from that day Continue reading “Our Special Visitor” →

dog books, Flannery Oconnor, foster dogs, foster fail, fosterdogs, fostering, hard to adopt, Long Term Dog, returned dogs

Flannery, Flannery, Flannery—what will we do with Flannery?

Cara Achterberg

It would be very easy to keep Flannery. I’d love to foster fail and make her a permanent part of our pack.

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Undoubtably, she fits in here just fine. Continue reading “Flannery, Flannery, Flannery—what will we do with Flannery?” →

book tour, dog books, emergency transport, euthanasia, foster dogs, fostering, shelters

Finally– a Rescue!

Cara Achterberg

After a fun night and day in Nashville with my hubby in which we discovered my book at Parnassus Books (Ann Patchett’s bookstore!), visited a few honky tonks, got some much needed rest, and I bought new cowboy boots (!), we headed to Scott County, VA to visit the shelter that inspired my book.

Back in summer 2016, I was about forty foster dogs in to my rescue adventures when I attended a training seminar with OPH. We heard about how the rescue came to be, how many dogs we had collectively rescued to date (6000, I think it was), and then we heard from some special guests. Rachel and Ashley had come all the way from Scott County, Virginia. Ashley was a volunteer and foster mom and Rachel was a volunteer, foster mom, and rescue coordinator for the Scott County Humane Society.

As I’ve learned, at many rural shelters the intake is handled by animal control and the ‘shelter’, but the actual saving of dogs is done by volunteers, many times a Humane Society organization. If not for these amazing people, the dogs would just be held until their owners came and found them, or they were euthanized. Sadly, there are still rural shelters where there are no volunteer organizations like the Humane Society.

Rachel and Ashley had come to OPH’s meeting so they could tell us about the impact OPH had on Scott County. OPH began pulling dogs from Scott County in mid-2015. At that time Scott’s kill rate was well over 60%. Now, a year later their rate was just 3% thanks in large part to OPH. They just wanted all of us to know we were making a difference. It was the moment when I realized that fostering dogs was critical not only for the dog in my home, but for the people who worked in the shelters.

I was excited to go to Scott County because this time instead of just delivering donations and touring the kennels, we were going to get to spring six dogs! The van was almost empty and Nick and I Continue reading “Finally– a Rescue!” →