Our adventures as a foster dog family
It seems these foster puppies are not going anywhere, anytime soon. Only one has an approved adopter and is scheduled to leave this afternoon.
Now the challenge for me is to keep these little darlings engaged and happy and, hopefully, learning a few things beyond how to drag their sibling around by the collar or scale the puppy pen fence.
Continue reading “When Foster Puppies Don’t Leave”
It’s been a week with these little mice puppies, and while they have gotten bigger, they’re still tiny.
At seven weeks, the smallest (Chrystanthemum) is 2 pounds, four ounces and the largest (Gus Gus and Norman) are 3 pounds, 13 ounces. Which, if you trust a puppy growth calculator means they will grow to be 16 pounds and 27 pounds.
So, they’ll be small dogs when they grow up, which is why I’m kind of surprised, and not, that they don’t have adopters yet. This is typically a slow time of year for adoptions. But because these puppies will grow to be small dogs, I did think they’d have a better chance than most of finding a family quickly.
Continue reading “A Puppy Just for You”
I hadn’t planned on taking any puppies this summer. I wanted to be able to do some camping, kayaking, traveling…but then the heat/drought arrived and my youngest got a promotion that has him moving back to the east coast in August (2.5 hours from us).
I don’t think the temperatures will come down anytime soon if the Weather Channel is to be trusted, and Ian will need us (or at least our truck) for his big move. The water levels are so low that kayaking is out of the question, and frankly, I couldn’t justify staying on the sidelines while shelters are completely overwhelmed and the ‘euthanasia’ numbers continue to climb.
Continue reading “Summer Puppies: The Literary Mice”
I don’t usually know where my foster dogs come from. Well, that’s not exactly right, I know it’s a shelter or maybe another foster home, but not much about their story.
I don’t know their parents or their previous owners.
When I foster puppies (and dogs), everyone wants to know what breed they are. But that’s another detail I don’t know and can only guess.
Not so, with the dogs and puppies I have fostered so far this year. All of them have come from local hoarding/eviction situations.
Continue reading “Knowing Where They Come From”
It’s a regular puppy-palooza at this foster cottage. I was home from the latest shelter tour only a few hours when the deluge began.
Nancy and I picked up Sampson from the house of a new HSSC foster where he’d been with his mom for the last ten days. Tina told us that he’s a doll but he was driving her older dog a little nuts. She would continue to foster Sampson’s mama (Beatrix’s sister!) because she’s so easy and good, but would be grateful if I could take the youngster off her hands.
Continue reading “Puppy-palooza!”
I was really counting on that adoption magic to prevail this week, but I’m an overly optimistic person.
I was able to see four of my puppies into the arms of their new families.
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”
From Marley’s point of view, people just don’t understand. What she’d like is a person (preferably a man) to be devoted to her in the same way that she is devoted to him. She’d like someone she could stick close to when he’s home and a safe, comfy crate to hang out in when he’s gone. Maybe a few long walks to sniff stuff, a few treats after she sits when asked, and a couch to snuggle on during movie marathons.
She’s a pretty simple girl.
Continue reading “Looking for that Adoption Magic”
I’m currently working in the house of bark.
It’s rarely like this, but for the next nine hours, until our temporary foster takes off for his new life, there doesn’t seem to be a way around it. I’m trying to breathe calmly and exude still energy, but nothing really helps with this particular combination of dog.
I’m fairly sure he’s a Husky mix because of his need to ‘talk’ all the time, his crazy smarts, and his style of play (chasing anything and everything but not bringing it back). At nine months, Steele is a bundle of energy and curiosity.
Continue reading “The House of Bark”
We are getting down to the wire with these puppies, matching them with adopters, microchipping (tomorrow!), and I just slogged through the multi-day Safeguard deworming protocol (none of us enjoyed it). They’ll get their second set of vaccines and be ready to go home as early as December 30th.
Every day I grow more convinced that they are hound dogs. As a foster, I try very hard to dodge fostering hound dog puppies. Not because they aren’t cute, oh my gosh, they are. And not because they aren’t fun or sweet or snuggly – they’ve got that in spades. But because they are messy.
Continue reading “Down to the Wire with These Puppies”
Another Good Dog™ 