Tag: fostering

Diary, dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, litters, puppies

Diary of a Rescue: Week Six

Cara Achterberg

In less than a week these puppies will head to their forever homes! I surely won’t forget this crew—it has been an equally heartbreaking and heartfilling experience being their foster mom. By this time with every litter I am ready for them to go – they have outgrown our little puppy room and the work of caring for them is enormous. Still, I am trying to treasure it and working hard to give them the very best start to the very best lives.

Here are this week’s entries in their entirety. Continue reading “Diary of a Rescue: Week Six” →

dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, hookworms, puppies, returned dogs

Hookworms Round Two

Cara Achterberg

The trip to the vet with puppies was a quite different experience this time around.

The last time I drove there with a small airline crate full of nearly lifeless puppies who didn’t make a sound. I stopped once just because I was worried that Pippin was being smothered (there was no evidence to indicate it was even a possibility but the overtired, distraught mind conjures up all kinds of scenarios on a long drive alone in silence with sick puppies).

Once at the vet’s office, we had to wait in the parking lot like everyone else – only everyone else had Continue reading “Hookworms Round Two” →

Diary, dog rescue, fostering, puppies

Diary of a Rescue Week Four: A Week of Growing Puppies

Cara Achterberg

The puppies are doing well. Growing plump and busy.

litter 4-23

It is odd to be raising them in such isolation. Normally, by now, we would be having lots of visitors to help with socialization and even a few potential adopters would be stopping by to meet them. Until they get the all-clear from the vet next week, the rescue has not offered them to the people on the Puppy Waiting List (approved adopters who have been through the application process and are just waiting for the right puppy) or put them on the website. I expect them to be cleared on Monday, but I qualify my assumptions these days.

Below are the diary entries from this week. Continue reading “Diary of a Rescue Week Four: A Week of Growing Puppies” →

dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, hookworms, puppies, Spay and Neuter, worms

The Reality of Rescue Hits This Foster Home Hard

Cara Achterberg

Health is sacred. We are all realizing this as we struggle together against a virus we can’t see.

I’m also realizing this as I care for our foster dogs this week. Siobhan is handling heartworm treatment beautifully so far, but I will not say she is out of the woods because I am still learning the hard way that we cannot take anything for granted when it comes to these amazing, yet fragile animals.

We lost one of our puppies on Sunday night. Continue reading “The Reality of Rescue Hits This Foster Home Hard” →

fosterdogs, fostering, heartworms, puppies

Quarantined with Puppies: Saving Lives in Uncertain Times

Cara Achterberg

If you have to stay in your home for a month, it’s not a bad thing to be stuck home with puppies.

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Caring for this little family is a wonderful distraction; it gives me a purpose and is defining the days that have begun to blur together – is it Tuesday or Friday?

Mia, for her part, is Continue reading “Quarantined with Puppies: Saving Lives in Uncertain Times” →

Diary, dog rescue, foster dogs, puppies, rescue flight

Diary of a Rescue (Take Two) Week One

Cara Achterberg

I think all of us could use a happy story right now, so I’ve decided to create another Diary of a Rescue to follow the story of Mama Mia and the Broadway Babes. The last time I did this, about a year ago, I had the same intention but instead the story took a tragic turn right off the bat.

Daisy B, the mama dog featured in that story finally found her forever family the same week that Mama Mia arrived, so that seems like a sort of cosmic seal of approval to try again.

So far, so good.

Below are the dairy entries from our first week with this little family. If you’d like to see them in real time, you can follow along on my writer Facebook page. I also post extra pictures and videos in the Another Good Dog facebook group. Here’s hoping this story proves a heartwarming distraction to all that is going on in this world.

Diary of a Rescue Day One: Continue reading “Diary of a Rescue (Take Two) Week One” →

dog rescue, emergency transport, fosterdogs, fostering, shelters

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Foster

Cara Achterberg

Are you feeling as unsettled as I am?

I waffle between let’s-just-get-through-this-and-it’ll-all-be-fine-(different-but-fine) to OMG-what-if-what-if-what-if. It really depends on how much news I’ve been reading.

Last Thursday, Nick and I took Fanny and our foster pup, Shenanigans, and Continue reading “There’s Never Been a Better Time to Foster” →

adopters, dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, returned dogs

And He’s Back – One of our Fosters Returns

Cara Achterberg

I wondered what I would write about this week since nothing exciting had happened and our foster dog situation hadn’t changed, but then….as is always the case in dog rescue, things changed.

To be specific, Bowflex, the most amazing foster dog we’ve had in quite some time, the dog I said would get adopted quickly and did (in eight days!), the dog we all loved, most especially Fanny, the only foster dog we’ve had in years who was actually housetrained. That dog. That perfect dog.

Bo-38

Was returned.

I’d heard from his adopters a week or so ago that Continue reading “And He’s Back – One of our Fosters Returns” →

dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, puppies, transport, Who Will Let the Dogs Out

Meet the Pep Boys- Manny, Mo, and Jack!

Cara Achterberg

I’m not a night owl, so when I saw the transport time to pick up my puppies, I joined the chorus of grumbling that came from pretty much everyone whose new foster dog was on the last stop scheduled to arrive at 11:30pm Friday. Normally, transport arrives around 9:30 (although one recent transport didn’t arrive until closer to 1am thanks to traffic on 95). I am generally sound asleep by 9:30, so that was already pushing it, but 11:30?

I registered my unhappiness but accepted that it wasn’t within my realm of control. I’ve long ago come to grips with the fact that fostering can be a lot of things and one of those is inconvenient.

Friday night, we had a nice send-off dinner for my oldest who was moving to Phoenix the next day for a job and then I settled in to binge watch Pitbulls and Paroles until it was time to go. In the end, transport arrived at 10:45; somehow like the pilots flying east, they made up time in the air. Continue reading “Meet the Pep Boys- Manny, Mo, and Jack!” →

Barkalona, dog rescue, Edith Wharton, Flannery Oconnor, fosterdogs, fostering, Frankie, Volunteering

Fostering Can Be Fun and Easy

Cara Achterberg

One of my semi-permanent foster kitties, Luna, seems to enjoy smacking our new foster dog, Bo (he is Bowflex on the OPH website and was Tick at the shelter).

IMG_7383

Bo is like one of those overly eager to please, see-only-the-sunny-side dogs who pokes his nose into everything, including Luna’s face. He chases the reflections from the prism that hangs in my window as they waver and wander over the walls, and he quickly changes course, no hard-feelings, when Continue reading “Fostering Can Be Fun and Easy” →