fosterdogs, fostering, Updates

Almost Ready to Go

Life in this foster house is getting quieter and quieter.

Two weeks ago, a mink got into our chicken house and killed all our chickens. It took a while for us to figure out what could possibly have gotten into the secured coop, but the only possible hole was so small it could have only been a mink. Plus, Mink kill for sport, which is evidently what was happening as all the chickens were dead and none were eaten (much).

We’ve kept chickens for fourteen years and this was the first time we’ve lost chickens in this manner. I’ve run foxes out of the chicken yard (in broad daylight), possums have dragged out pullets who roosted too close to the sides of our chicken tractor, and hawks stole our young birds regularly until we strung wires back and forth across the top of the yard like twinkle lights (with CDs and pie plates dangling from it – very red neck chic). It’s always been an ongoing battle to keep them safe, but for the last few years we’ve been able to do that.

It makes me sad, but in a weird way it’s a relief too. One less thing to deal with in our upcoming move, though I’m sure we could have found homes for our ten aging hens.

Continue reading “Almost Ready to Go”
dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, litters, oph, parvo, parvovirus, puppies, Updates

Movie Mutts and Parvo Puppies

This weekend we bleached the puppy fences, the crate, and the baby gate that we used with our ‘parvo pups’ last fall one last time and finally stowed them in the attic of the garage. They’d been wiped down with bleach last fall and then left stacked in the corner of our stone porch all winter. Even though they’d been bleached once, I was still wary of them. So afraid that in a crevice or a hinge, parvo virus still lingered.

Continue reading “Movie Mutts and Parvo Puppies”
Diary, dog rescue, former foster dogs, fosterdogs, fostering, litters, oph, puppies, rescue flight, Updates

Combatting Quarantine Stress with Foster Dogs

I’ve realized that there is a correlation between how many dogs are in our house and the amount of stress in my life.

I’m pretty sure the stress brings the dogs, not the other way around. I tend to pile on the animals when I’m feeling stressed or uncertain. Their needs, their affection, the immediacy of their presence is calming for me.

Yes, the world feels upside down right now, but Continue reading “Combatting Quarantine Stress with Foster Dogs”

Diary, dog rescue, foster dogs, fosterdogs, fostering, hard to adopt, Long Term Dog, oph, Updates

Diary of a Rescue: Month Six

This is a long-overdue post to catch you up on Daisy’s Diary of a Rescue.

Truly, I did not imagine I would still be writing this Diary almost six months later. But maybe that’s the piece of rescue that is hardest – they are all good dogs, but some require a little more of us than others.

Sometimes you rescue a dog from a shelter, imagining it’s shiny new future now that it is ‘out’, but Continue reading “Diary of a Rescue: Month Six”

dog books, dog rescue, foster dogs, fosterdogs, fostering, Oreo, Rescue Road Trip, Updates, writing

Our Special Visitor

We have a very special guest with us this week. (As if four dogs wasn’t enough!)

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Oreo and I go way back to the day I met him in a shelter in North Carolina, where he’d been living on and off for over a year. He’d been adopted out twice, but neither adopter chose to neuter him or bring him inside, so he ran off (as unneutered male dogs are want to do) and Animal Control returned him to the shelter each time.

There was something special about Oreo—the way he looked at us, the way he leaned into his kennel fence desperate for your touch, and how he’d hold your hand through the fence.

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It was a long and winding road from that day Continue reading “Our Special Visitor”

dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, Schuyler puppies, Updates

A Week in the Life of this Foster Mom

One week later and Bugs is a part of the family.

Ian calls him Continue reading “A Week in the Life of this Foster Mom”

dog rescue, foster cats, foster dogs, fostering, Frankie, Gala, hard to adopt, Oreo, returned dogs, Updates

The Tears Are More Than Worth It

Without Oreo the house feels empty.

In fact, after he left on Saturday with his new family, Frankie spent the rest of the morning looking for his pal. He ran up and down the stairs and wanted to go out in the playyard to look and then back in the house to make the rounds again. It was a good thing we had Sip for a Cause on our calendar that night to distract all of us.

Some dogs are just special. Not that I haven’t loved every dog I’ve fostered, but some of them burrow a little deeper into your heart.

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I saw something on Facebook about the pain you endure as a foster mom yesterday. It said – Continue reading “The Tears Are More Than Worth It”

dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, Hops, puppies, Updates, Zander/Cedar

The Difference Ten Pounds (and Two Months) Make

Frankie has another new puppy – only this puppy is ten pounds bigger and at least ten times more trouble than little Zander.

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Hops is a gangly, sweet, goofy boy who somehow already seems bigger than when he got here on Saturday. He’s forty pounds, but his feet are so big he looks like he’s wearing galoshes, so I’d say that even though he’s six months old, he’s far from finished growing.

He routinely runs into things and can’t get his long legs out of his own way. He’s labeled a lab mix, but looks like he was put together with spare parts from a handful of breeds possibly including shepherd.

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He’s in that awkward adolescence phase, tripping over himself, with a loose discombobulated swagger that makes me smile and think of teenagers trying (and failing) to look cool.

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Nothing on the counters is safe. Yesterday he polished off the cream cheese, sampled the newspaper, and [insert frustrated shriek and several curse words] broke Continue reading “The Difference Ten Pounds (and Two Months) Make”

Carla, foster dogs, fostering, Frankie, Gala, Galina, Updates

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.

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Or maybe it’s just me, missing Gala.

There is no need to Continue reading “A New Normal in this Foster Home”

Darlin, dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, Fruitcake, oph, puppies, Swimmer Puppy Syndrome, Uncategorized, Updates

Best of the Blog

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”