I don’t want to stand in your way, so let me get right to it—puppies!
This little bunch of puppies is beyond cute. Maybe it’s because it’s been a year since I had pups this young, but somehow Continue reading “Inside the Chocolate Factory”
Category: foster dogs
Believing in Meant to Be
I don’t know where to begin.
Truly.
I guess I’ll start with the biggest news – Continue reading “Believing in Meant to Be”
Fosterless
This is the longest we’ve gone without a foster dog since we started fostering with OPH just over three years ago.
It’s weird.
It’s made me aware of two things – 1) I spend a lot of time fostering and 2) I don’t like being without a foster dog.
I’m amazed at how much time this has freed up. I’ve had time to work with Frankie (and even a little with Gracie) on his homework for doggie school two or three times a day. We also take a two-mile walk each morning and sometimes again in the afternoon. I’ve stayed on track with my latest manuscript and even had time to cook dinner nearly every night. I even had lunch with a friend and on one balmy day recently, I took my convertible out for a drive with no destination in mind.
Of course, just because I don’t have a foster dog in residence, doesn’t mean Continue reading “Fosterless”
A New Normal in this Foster Home
Our house is very quiet sans Gala.
Not that she was necessarily a noisy dog. Without her, though, the energy level has dropped.
Or maybe it’s the unrelenting gray, rainy weather.
Or maybe it’s because Frankie is out of sorts ever since his neuter and dew claw removal on Tuesday.
Or maybe it’s just me, missing Gala.
There is no need to Continue reading “A New Normal in this Foster Home”
When Your Best Isn’t Enough
It is possibly Gala’s last week with us.
I say possibly, because we’ve been here before. Time and again, we’ve had a plan for Gala and it has not come to fruition. My family only rolls their eyes at me when I tell them Gala is leaving on [insert fairy-tale date].
This time she is set to move Continue reading “When Your Best Isn’t Enough”
National Television Debut!
Okay, I’ve been sitting on this news for months! Literally! But now I just have to tell you. Frankie (and Buford – remember him?) are going to be on national television THIS SUNDAY as part of the pre-game show for the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet!
It’s been a dream of mine that one of my puppies be chosen to be in the Puppy Bowl and while Frankie isn’t in the Puppy Bowl, he’s part of the pregame show. There are a bunch of other OPH puppies in the actual bowl, including Cotton who is in the starting line up. Timing and schedules prevented Frankie from making the actual game, but a few weeks after the game was taped (don’t tell – pretend you think it’s live!), Animal Planet needed a few more puppies to liven up the pregame show. Frankie, Buford, and three other OPH puppies spent a day at the studios.
Other than the insane challenging traffic, the three times Frankie barfed in the car, and the fact that there are no convenient places to stop and pee when you take the back way to the DC area to avoid the challenging traffic, it was a fun day.
The puppies were treated like celebrities and there was even an Animal Humane Certified Animal Safety Representative to monitor everything and be sure the pups were treated humanely. We lounged around in a sunny space equipped with puppy pens, puppy pads, water, treats, and toys for the puppies, and plenty of snacks and drinks for their human handlers. A steady stream of beautiful-young-people-who-work-in-television stopped by to cuddle them and take selfies while they waited for their cue to join the actors on set. Continue reading “National Television Debut!”
Look For the Good
I’m a person who likes a plan. I’m not naturally inclined to waste time or wander. (Obviously, the dogs have much to teach me.)
With Gala, alas, I have no plan. The simple plan was always that we would foster her and she would get adopted. That plan, to date, is not panning out.
I’ve spent more hours running Gala’s situation through my head and heart than any dog to date. But then again Gala’s been with us much longer than any other dog. 10 months.
And Gala, like any other dog, is an individual—made up of good and bad, like all of us.
Even Frankie, who Nick and Ian are both convinced has me wrapped around his little dew claw, has a few faults. He tends to eat first, evaluate later, which I’m convinced will lead us on numerous runs to the Doggie ER in the years ahead. And occasionally, but not often, he does not come immediately when called, but he’s still a puppy, so this is only a temporary fault. (The boys also say I make excuses for Frankie.)
Most of us fixate on faults instead of redeeming features. I don’t know how to reorient myself, much less the world, to see the good before the bad. After all, the bad is what makes headlines and click-bait; it makes plots more riveting and characters more interesting. Perhaps, life wouldn’t be half as interesting if Continue reading “Look For the Good”
Unsung Rescue Heroes & A New Training Tool
I’d never want to be an adoption coordinator. Seems like an exhausting, frustrating, thankless job.
As the foster mom, I get all the glory for taking care of the puppy or dog in question. But the adoption coordinator is the one who has screened the applications, asked the hard questions, gone over the extensive adoption contract (for the bazillionth time), and made the final decision. Not having firsthand experience, I could be wrong, but it seems like ACs put in hours of effort for each adoption, and for a litter that is tenfold.
Puppy adopters are like new parents – they have lots of questions, good ones, silly one, odd ones, but lots. I get a few of those, but the AC for my litter gets most of them. Adopting a puppy is a big deal, as it should be, and puppy adopters can sometimes get cold feet and back out last minute, change their minds about what kind of puppy they want or get impatient with the lengthy adoption process and the hold time. Some adopters have lots of lines in the water (they’ve applied for several puppies at several different rescues or shelters). All of this means that the ACs are juggling many, many people and puppies at once and the winds change on whims.
As I said, I wouldn’t want their job, but I am VERY grateful that there are these odd people who enjoy being ACs and do a tireless job for OPH.
This litter had more than its share of switcheroos and moving targets. Deb had her hands full. Last fall when I had Edith Wharton and her darling dozen, I actually had to have two ACs because the job was so enormous. I’ve worked with probably a dozen different ACs with OPH and every time, I’m amazed at the work they do. So, I just wanted to mention them in a post—ACs, along with reference checkers, are the unsung heroes of every adoption.
[If you’re one of those people who read my posts and think—“I wish I could foster, but it would be too hard, messy, heartbreaking, etc.,” but you’d really like to help, consider being a reference checker or even an adoption coordinator for OPH. You do all the work from your home with your computer and your phone. If you’d like more information, click here.]
Okay, enough of my shameless volunteer recruitment. What happened this week in this foster house? Continue reading “Unsung Rescue Heroes & A New Training Tool”
My Dog Year
I’m a big fan of new year resolutions and reflections. In these long, dark, cold days I do a lot of pondering and journaling and assessing and dreaming.
When it comes to my dog world, 2017 was not an easy one. It began with the miracle and magic of Fruitcake.
Helping that pup to walk was an amazing experience, and it prepared me for the bigger task of saving Darlin’s babies. The heartbreak of that experience was only softened by the community that emerged around us, giving their time and efforts to help those pups survive and then thrive. It was a hard, rich, exhausting time. Every time I hear from Darlin’s or her three surviving pup’s adopters, it never fails to bring tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat.
Gala came to us not long after that and she has colored our lives ever since.
My heart ping-pongs back and forth in regards to Gala. She is not easy, but she is so amazing. Her devotion knows no bounds, but it can be all-consuming. I love that dog, but she cannot be my dog. I had a conversation this week with a trainer who offered Continue reading “My Dog Year”
Holiday Happiness: Foster Pup Version
When my children were young, Christmas was such a huge deal. Not that it isn’t a huge deal, still. It’s just a different kind of huge deal. Christmas is no longer baking cookies or endless shopping or matching jammies or teacher’s gifts or Christmas concerts.
And truth be told I only miss a few things on that list. Now, Christmas is more about all of us being in the same house at the same time paying attention to each other in the form of eating meals, playing games, sharing music, teasing, and giving, yes, still quite a few presents (but none that came from a maddening trip to Toys R Us).
We didn’t decorate the tree until Dec 23, even though the tree had been in the house for over a week. On Saturday morning, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer for decorating-the-tree to fit into everyone’s schedule. Frankie and I began decorating without them. His job was to reinforce the “Frankie zone” so I didn’t hang ornaments where he (or a loose puppy) could reach them. We’d been at it for about five minutes, when my oldest son, Brady walked throught the room on his way out and asked, “Are you decorating the tree?” Continue reading “Holiday Happiness: Foster Pup Version”
Another Good Dog™ 