Our adventures as a foster dog family
It’s hard to write about the dogs when I’m not with the dogs, but I’ll try. I’m actually in a California hotel room recovering from my brief brush with Hollywood. If you’d like to read about that adventure, you can find it on my other blog, My Life In Paragraphs.
The drama continues with Oreo. Continue reading “Should He Stay or Should He Go Now?”
Where to begin. My heart is so full and my body is exhausted and my soul is simply worn-through.
And we’re only on day three of this tour.
Can’t promise that this post will make complete sense as I’m writing this from the Comfort Inn in Lumberton, NC in an exhausted state with a thousand images and a million thoughts swirling through my mind.
Here’s the cliff notes of this week in my foster world:
Friday, right after I finished packing the van (a feat that took the entire day), Grits’ family came to meet him. Frankie (and I) will miss him, but he’s headed for a great life with his new family who were thrilled to take him home.
My dear friend, Lisa and I took off on Saturday morning in a cargo van crammed to the ceiling with donations that included over a thousand pounds of dog kibble and over a thousand cans of dog food, plus cat food, cat litter, bleach, sheets, towels, blankets, cleaning supplies, collars, leashes, toys, and treats.
The generosity of my dog-hearted community is overwhelming. I have over a thousand dollars in donations and Amazon cards to buy supplies to send directly to the shelters. Because I’m visiting 8 shelters, in addition to a foster-based rescue OPH partners with, I’m waiting until I’ve seen it all to distribute those donations.
Over the weekend, we attended two book events where we hung out with adoptable dogs and OPH volunteers. On National Dog Day at the Barnes & Noble in Richmond, Homeboy came to sign books with me. It was such a treat to see her and she spent the entire event sleeping at my feet between signings. Her wonderful mama, Jennifer, was so gracious to drive her to Richmond and hang out for two hours while Homeboy (now Nahla) helped me sell books!
I met Scrooge, a very special sweet senior beagle who has been in foster care with OPH since March. He has a sponsor so that his adoption fee is only $50, plus his adopters will get $700 in reimbursement for medical care since he’s an older dog with old dog issues. I loved sharing treats with him and pray that someone special out there decides to take him home and give him the life he deserves.
Billie Jean was adopted on Sunday. Nick had to handle the adoption since I was out of town on this trip. It hurts a bit that I didn’t get to tell her good-bye or meet her new family, but when I think about it in relation to all that I saw today, it seems minor. Still, we were so bonded that I worry that she is sad now and hope her adopters are patient with her as she makes the transition. What a special pup she is – I know someday soon I’ll be hearing about her happy new life.
On Monday the hard part started. We visited Lenoir County SPCA where we met Continue reading “AGD on the Road: Stories, Faces, Heartbreak and Hope”
I am traveling in California this week and the only dogs I’m encountering are the ones I pass on the street who are lucky and loved. When I get back home, we will be in the countdown for the publication of Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this book to hit the shelves – this book is more than just a book to me, it’s a mission. It’s an invitation to the reader to not just be a gawker of our fostering lives, but to join us by opening their own hearts and homes to fostering rescue dogs.
The following post is a review from a writer whose wisdom, compassion, honesty, and sense of humor brighten my days through her near daily posts. I’m honored that she read my book during an especially difficult time in her own life and – true to form – was generous with her time and talent. Enjoy friends! I’ll be back next week with (hopefully) news of three adoptions!
Blessings,
Cara
Honored to get a mention here from a blogger I so very much admire. She is a wise woman once again sharing her wisdom and warmth with the rest of us. There are many times I read Ann’s blog posts and think, “Amen.” So, once again, Amen, Ann.
When Cara Sue Achterberg over at anothergooddog.wordpress.com asked me to review her book Another Good Dog, I was a little hesitant. The book is about how she became a temporary foster for a rescue group that pulls dogs out of overcrowded shelters (usually in the South) and places them in foster homes until they can be adopted. I volunteer at a large, open-admission animal shelter, and I know that sometimes people involved in this sort of rescue have nothing good to say about animal shelters. I didn’t want to write a review for a book that badmouthed the animal shelter workers and volunteers that I have come to respect and admire.
Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Another Good Dog is an interesting and well-written account of the joys and challenges of fostering rescue dogs, and Cara never once trash talked animal shelters or the people…
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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”
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”
Hi blog readers!
I’m traveling in England and Cyprus this week, but I thought I’d share a few of the best moments of the blog this year.
Of course Fruitcake takes the cake (so to speak).
Here’s a post explaining his Swimmer Puppy Syndrome.
And here are a few pictures of Fruitcake (now Brodie) from his adopter, showing a very different dog nearly a year later. Continue reading “Best of the Blog”
What a difference a few days make in the life of a foster dog home. We started this week with two fosters and the certain knowledge that Vera was going home on Friday to her forever family who had come to visit and spent a good hour with her -walking her, playing with her and falling in love. Estelle would leave the next week after her spay surgery with a delightful family who live just over the line from us in Maryland.
Fast forward two days—there is an urgent plea for fosters. Could I take a pregnant dog or a litter of nine puppies who could be flown in (yes, flown in) on Thursday? My puppy room was empty and my two fosters all set. Another litter? A pregnant dog? Either option would be fun and sure, I could use a break from the editing grind to drive to the airport in my favorite state.
I decided to go with door number one because door number two was nine definite poopers and door number one came with the excitement of delivery and the possibility of many fewer puppies. A gamble, I know, but I was taking my chances and going with the devil I didn’t know.
So yesterday, I drove to Warrenton, Virginia to pick up my newest mama dog. She is not a spring chicken and this is not her first rodeo, but gosh, doesn’t she melt the heart?
I had all kinds of silly names picked out (with the help of my family the night before), but upon meeting her silly didn’t seem appropriate. She’d been Darla at the shelter and I took to calling her Darlin’ so that’s her new name—Darlin’. I’m going to give the pups ‘pet names’ like schnookie-puss and sweetems. Anybody got a good one for me?
Darlin’ liked the whelping box and hopped right in upon arrival. She’s been there ever since and her temperature has dropped to 98.9, a sure sign that labor is imminent! I’m spending my day with my laptop on my lap in the puppy room, waiting.
But wait! Isn’t it Friday? Isn’t Vera leaving today? Nope. Sadly, her wonderful adopters had a health emergency. Everyone is going to be fine, but they won’t be adopting a dog at this time. No one in my house was upset at the idea that Vera would have to stick around. That said, four dogs plus who-knows-how-many puppies is pretty much my capacity so please spread the word that I have a 60-pound, cat-chasing lovebug looking for a home!
And if you want to follow the birth, as it happens, be sure to join the Another Good Dog facebook page where I’ll be posting updates and maybe even do a live feed after everyone has arrived.
If you’d like to know more about me and my writing, I’d be thrilled if you checked out my website, CaraWrites.com, where you’ll find links to all my books, my other blog, and far too many pictures of dogs!
I knew Fruitcake was special the moment he was born.
He didn’t look anything like his siblings. He was white with marvelous black patches. My little cow puppy! His eyes were ringed in black like a teenager experimenting with liquid eyeliner. And when I discovered he had six toes on each of his back feet, it seemed to underline his uniqueness.
Even the other puppies thought he was special and he was often employed as pillow or couch.
He grew wide and then wider. Each day it became more evident that he was quite different than his siblings. I thought, “Maybe he had a different dad,” but didn’t really worry until the other puppies began pulling up on all fours and he remained flat like a pancake.
Finally, at just over two weeks it became clear that something was decidedly wrong with my favorite pup. Continue reading “One Super Special Pup”
Sitting with Edith last night while she panted and panted next to me on the Frank bed, I wanted to do more for her. She’s exhausted. Her pups are growing like little monsters, doubling in size and energy. As I ran my hand over her protruding ribs, I glanced at the pups. I want to resent them. But they are cute, and she certainly loves them. Edith is doing as well as can be expected. She’s strong despite her gaunt frame.
As I sat with Edith, though, my mind and heart were on another heartworm positive dog who gave birth five days after Edith did. Hera’s Hope is also being fostered in York County. She gave birth to six gorgeous puppies who are twice the size of my pups, as they are American bulldogs. Hera’s heartworm is advanced. She’s fighting for her life right now, because in addition to being heartworm+, she is suffering from Bordetella—a common cold to many, but life-threatening to a dog with compromised heart and lungs. Her pups are being bottle fed and also have Bordetella so must be treated with antibiotics. It breaks my heart. Again and again and again. I’m grateful that Edith is doing so well, but I look in her sweet, trusting eyes and I worry as I follow Hera’s story. Mostly, I wish there was more I could do to help Hera and Edith.
So I’m writing about her and I’ve started a fundraising campaign to help Edith and Hera and more heartworm+ dogs whose big, beautiful hearts and lungs are infiltrated with these cruel and ugly worms. Worms that are completely preventable.
Heartworm isn’t something I thought a lot about until recently. Maybe I didn’t understand how AWFUL it is or how CRAZY it is that people don’t do more to prevent it. But now I do. I’m learning firsthand how awful it is, but it wasn’t until I joined OPH that I realized how crazy it was that I wasn’t doing much to prevent it in my own dog.
I’m making this confession, knowing full well that judgment may rain down on my ignorant head, but knowing it is worth it if it causes another dog owner to realize that it is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to prevent heartworm in their own pets EVERY MONTH.
I’ve never quizzed my parents in regards to my childhood pets, but once I became an adult and had my own pets I truly did not understand the risks I was taking by not giving heartworm preventatives to my dog. I could argue that my first dog lived with me in a house trailer on $125/week and even getting her to the vet was impossible. I watched for the free rabies clinics, and somehow lucked out in terms of her staying remarkably healthy and living a long healthy life.
By the time my second dog rolled around, I was married with a kid and much better about getting my dog to the vet. I gave the heartworm preventative when I remembered, but honestly, and I’ve racked my memory hard on this one, I don’t remember my vet ever telling me how important, in fact, critical, it was that I give my dog her heartworm meds EVERY month, not just when I remembered.
Again, I was lucky and she stayed healthy. We moved to the Eastern Shore of MD, where it should be noted that there are LOTS and LOTS (and LOTS) of mosquitoes (mosquito bites are how a dog gets heartworms). And once again, the new vet did not lecture or insist or smack me, when I told him that I gave the heartworm preventatives most months.
When we moved to PA and got a new puppy, she was a bit quirky. She wouldn’t take pills of any kind, no matter what they tasted like. When she was little, we could wrestle the heartworm preventative into her, but as she got bigger and snarlier, it got tricky. I tried hiding them in treats, so she refused all treats (still does). I gave them to her in hot dogs and peanut butter, but she quickly caught on and ate around them, spitting them out or hiding them. I was frustrated that we wasted so many pills as they turned to mush or I found them a week later under her dog bed.
I just didn’t get it. I think we in the dog rescue world who are dealing with heartworm and understand its devastation, take for granted that everyone else gets it. We assume all good dog owners give the preventatives because they know their dog’s lives depend on it. But here’s the thing—they don’t know. And it’s not because they don’t think heartworm preventatives are important, it’s because they don’t realize how important. It’s not neglect, it’s ignorance.
We need to keep talking about it and vets need to insist loudly that their clients give their preventatives—explaining the danger and what heartworm will do to a dog. And meanwhile, we need to take care of the animals who suffer because of our ignorance.
I’ve started a fundraiser called, Edith’s Heart. I’ve set a lofty goal of $6500 because that is the approximate conservative rescue cost of treating Edith and 12 more dogs in honor of her puppies. It is only because of generous veterinarians treating our dogs at significantly reduced rates, that $6500 can cover so many dogs.
I hope you’ll consider giving to Edith’s Heart. I plan to send periodic updates to all donors to let them know how Edith’s treatment goes. It won’t be quick or easy. Edith’s Heart fundraiser will run through the end of December because that is the projected time it will take to successfully treat Edith.
We don’t know her outcome, just as right now, we don’t know what will happen with Hera’s Hope. All we can do is tell the story of these dogs and hope it raises awareness about how very important it is that we prevent heartworm before it comes to this.
To donate to Edith’s Heart Click HERE.
Note: Gracie still won’t swallow pills, but I learned that there are other ways to prevent heartworm in your dog. There is a topical treatment, which is what we’ve given Gracie for the past two years. Today she went for her annual checkup and heartworm test. I no longer take her negative test result for granted.
Another Good Dog™ 