Category: hard to adopt

Amstaff, dog rescue, foster dogs, hard to adopt, Long Term Dog, Pit bull, shelters

What ‘Shelter Shortages?’

Cara Sue Achterberg

Melissa Chan wrote in an article for Time magazine last week, “a surge in pandemic pet adoptions offers opportunities for criminals to seize on nationwide demand and shelter shortages…”

People are so desperate for French bulldogs, one small private investigator in Nebraska who specializes in missing pets says calls have increased 60-70% in the past 18 months, averaging 3-5 requests a week.

Reading the article, I could only shake my head. It seemed to me Chan was writing about another world altogether. It wasn’t the news that so many pets are being stolen—that is individually tragic—but it was how she so breezily tossed off the phrase, shelter shortages, as if it were fact.

Continue reading “What ‘Shelter Shortages?’” →
adopters, dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, hard to adopt, Long Term Dog, returned dogs, training

When a Bite Was Just a Bite

Cara Sue Achterberg

Someone told me I jinxed Mia by writing about her last week in such a celebratory way.

Sad to say, she is back and not because I jinxed her but because she was set up to fail. I’ve agonized over how to explain what happened. I don’t want to throw Mia, the adopter, or the rescue under the bus, but I’d say that we all deserve to be runover on this one.

Continue reading “When a Bite Was Just a Bite” →
adopters, foster dogs, fostering, hard to adopt, training

The Best Trainer for Your Dog

Cara Sue Achterberg

It finally happened.

Mama Mia left for her forever home after 11 months in foster care. I still find it so hard to believe it took so long to get this amazing dog adopted.

Her adopter is a determined and patient woman, who was certain all along that Mia was her girl. It took three meet and greets, this last one happening with the help of trainer, Geraldine Peace, who you’ll recall was such a huge help with Billie Jean.

Every time I spend time with Geraldine I learn more about managing and training dogs. She was able to do in minutes what I was not able to do through two other meet and greets—introduce Mia safely to her new 9-pound senior fur-sister. At each of my attempts, Mia was just too over-the-top excited and could not settle enough that I felt safe introducing them. I never, for a moment worried that Mia would hurt the little dog. What I worried about was her unintentionally hurting her because of the size difference.

Continue reading “The Best Trainer for Your Dog” →
foster dogs, foster fail, fostering, hard to adopt, kittens, parvo, puppies

A New Year of Fostering

Cara Sue Achterberg

What will fostering look like for us in 2021?

I honestly don’t know. Maybe one thing 2020 has taught me is that I can’t assume anything about the coming year.

I have many hopes for my ‘dog life’:

Continue reading “A New Year of Fostering” →
cats, dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, hard to adopt, kittens, training

Seeing Them To Safety

Cara Sue Achterberg

What’s a girl to do when her puppy room is empty, the same foster dog has been here for months, her foster cats finally left (after more than a year with us!) and she’s itching to save animals?

Why take in a few foster kittens, of course!

Fostering kittens is a new venture. I know nothing about kittens this tiny. Lucky for me OPH has supplied me with everything I need, and their rescuer gave me lots of excellent advice. Ian is doing the bulk of the work—putting drops in their eyes, giving them their daily meds, feeding them, hanging out with them.

Continue reading “Seeing Them To Safety” →
dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, hard to adopt, litters, Long Term Dog, puppies, shelters, transport

Coming Soon to a Foster Home Near You: Puppies!

Cara Sue Achterberg

I’m pretty sure Mia will be here indefinitely.

It may take some time for her people to find her. She’s incredibly special and so her people are likely special too. She’s ceaseless entertainment for Fanny (and for us), so we don’t mind waiting.

Continue reading “Coming Soon to a Foster Home Near You: Puppies!” →
cats, dog books, dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, hard to adopt, no-kill, shelters, writing

Dog Parties and Talking Rescue

Cara Sue 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 rescue, Dogs with Issues, Flannery Oconnor, former foster dogs, foster dogs, fostering, Gala, hard to adopt, Long Term Dog

Sometimes it Don’t Come Easy…

Cara Sue Achterberg

Sometimes rescue is hard. Sometimes it doesn’t come easy.

As I put the final touches on my next book, due to the publisher December 1 (and if all goes well, released July 2020), I’ve spent a lot of time remembering one particular dog who changed my life. Gala was with us for over eleven months, but truly she has never left my heart.

Gala-7
photo by Nancy Slattery

The new book, One Hundred Dogs and Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues (and yes, that is a mouthful and no, it wasn’t up to me), begins with Gala. Up until Gala, fostering had been mostly fun, occasionally stressful, but ultimately a win-win for all parties involved.

Gala challenged me, not just in terms of exposing how much I don’t know about dogs, but emotionally as I wrestled Continue reading “Sometimes it Don’t Come Easy…” →

dog rescue, Dogs with Issues, Flannery Oconnor, fosterdogs, fostering, hard to adopt, Long Term Dog, oph, returned dogs, training

A Designer Dog Looking for his Designer Family

Cara Sue Achterberg

There was a time when we had two, even three new fosters each month, but for the last few years, it’s been one long-term foster after another (Gala, Flannery, Daisy…) and a few puppy litters. This weekend we had planned to welcome a much anticipated foster dog from Alabama – Houdini, whom I met while visiting Walker County Animal Shelter where OPH partners with RUFF to support the shelter and rescue dogs.

That reunion has been postponed because transport for Houdini and the other RUFF dogs fell through at the last moment. Hopefully, he will catch his freedom ride at the end of this month and we’ll welcome him then.

Meanwhile, Fanny was in need of a playmate as Flannery and Gracie easily tire of her endless puppy-like energy, so I Continue reading “A Designer Dog Looking for his Designer Family” →

dog rescue, Dogs with Issues, former foster dogs, foster dogs, fostering, hard to adopt, puppies

Here in This Kettle with the Other Frogs

Cara Sue Achterberg

My world revolves around dogs.

They eat up every extra minute in my day. I probably knew that, but it was painfully obvious last Thursday. It was just me and Gracie. The house was so very quiet and weirdly still. I had time on my hands. I even cooked a real dinner.

How is that possible you ask? Continue reading “Here in This Kettle with the Other Frogs” →