Our adventures as a foster dog family
Oh my gosh, small dog puppies are SO much easier than big dog puppies. At least in large quantities.
Clean up takes a fraction of the time and the correlating stink is also much lighter!
Maybe the best part is that I can hold three of four of them on my lap at a time (which still leaves two yelling for my attentions).
And talk about cuteness – why are small things so much cuter than large things?
Continue reading “Small Dog Puppies and Big Dog Puppies”
How about a pupdate?I recently checked in with The Snack Cake puppies who are four months old! I was looking for pictures that the Humane Society could use for their brand new website.
The pups are living happy lives and clearly being loved enormously. Suzie Q goes to work with her mom, who is a vet tech, and is the star of the show at the vet office in Winchester. All the pups weigh around 30 pounds, so they’ve put on twenty pounds in two months! (and they are already bigger than their mother!)
Continue reading “How About a Pupdate?”
On our recent shelter tour, a director asked me, “Who would want to adopt a puppy?” (it was a rhetorical question so it wasn’t necessary, but I said, “Not me!”)
She went on to explain why she hustles puppies out the door to rescues, and only adopts out adult dogs.
Our little foster cottage is mostly quiet these days. That is unless Marley spots a squirrel daring to cross our property. Krimpet went home with an adopter after her spay surgery on Monday.
Continue reading “Why Would You Want a Puppy, When You Could Have This Great Dog?”
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?’”
I’ve come to realize that pictures are more powerful than words. And video is even more powerful than pictures. I can write and write and write about a subject, but seeing it in action always has a bigger impact.
This month marks one year since Mia entered our lives. It astounds me that she is still here. I remember watching her with her puppies and with the people she met and thinking, “It will be so easy to get this dog adopted.”
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”
I’m in a quandary about what to write on this blog.
I could tell you about Otis, also known as Otis-Potis, Otis-the-mostest, and occasionally Otie-oat or Otis-Blotis (as he was called last night after he ate his own and then Fanny’s dinner and waddled about with great joy and an unwieldy pregnant belly).
Otis is proving to be a remarkable puppy, and as his proud mom, I could chatter on for days about his exceptionalism. But that’s not what you’re here for, is it?
Continue reading “Now What? You Tell Me”
We are down to just one foster.
Hard to remember when that was last the case. It leaves me wondering what I will write about on this blog. Although Mia is an incredibly interesting and entertaining dog, maybe it won’t be an issue. Just in case, I’m considering a few other ideas (and welcome yours!).
Continue reading “My Four-legged Silver Lining”
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!”
Smart dogs are just harder to deal with—same goes for smart children. Mia still has no applications, but that’s not her fault. She isn’t a simple dog.
She is clever and energetic and totally in the game. She doesn’t miss a thing—my glance her way while working will bring her to her feet, she’ll nudge my hip as if to ask, “How can I help?”
Continue reading “Of Bite Addendums, Smart Dogs, and Transparency”
Another Good Dog™ 