Tag: fostering

Boarding Buddies, dog rescue, foster dogs, returned dogs, shelters, Volunteering

Three New Friends I Met This Week

Cara Achterberg

Bell is recovering from her spay surgery. She’s sporting the cone of shame and confined to crate or kitchen, and it’s still a challenge to keep this busy dog down. I’ve never had a mama dog bounce back from this surgery so unaffected and strong.

Thankfully, she tolerates the cone, even sitting calmly for me while I try to figure out how to feed all the plastic straps in and out of the holes to keep it in place!

recovering from spay surgery

Yesterday Bell had her last romps with Fanny. They played all day long, wrestling and chasing. We had nearly eight inches of snow last week and Continue reading “Three New Friends I Met This Week” →

adopters, Dixieland, dog rescue, Fanny, former foster dogs, fosterdogs, fostering, Gracie, puppies

Who Doesn’t Love a Happy Ending?

Cara Achterberg

What a special week it is for ten lucky families! All of the PA Pups went home to forever families last week.

It is always fun when families come to pick up their pups – so much excitement and joy! Of course, that joy is likely tempered when they get home and the whining and housetraining and teething begins in earnest, but from my end it’s always fun! Continue reading “Who Doesn’t Love a Happy Ending?” →

adopters, dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, litters, puppies

Last Day of Puppies!

Cara Achterberg

The countdown has begun. Puppies will begin leaving tomorrow!

Normally, we have ‘adoption day’ on a Saturday and all the puppies leave the same day. This keeps it simple for me and less disruptive for the family. I like them all to go on the same day so that I’m not left with one crying puppy.

This will be the first time the puppies leave their siblings and it will be their first experience ‘all alone.’ There tends to be a great deal of Continue reading “Last Day of Puppies!” →

dog rescue, Dogs with Issues, Flannery Oconnor, former foster dogs, foster dogs, fostering, Gala, hard to adopt, Long Term Dog

Sometimes it Don’t Come Easy…

Cara Achterberg

Sometimes rescue is hard. Sometimes it doesn’t come easy.

As I put the final touches on my next book, due to the publisher December 1 (and if all goes well, released July 2020), I’ve spent a lot of time remembering one particular dog who changed my life. Gala was with us for over eleven months, but truly she has never left my heart.

Gala-7
photo by Nancy Slattery

The new book, One Hundred Dogs and Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues (and yes, that is a mouthful and no, it wasn’t up to me), begins with Gala. Up until Gala, fostering had been mostly fun, occasionally stressful, but ultimately a win-win for all parties involved.

Gala challenged me, not just in terms of exposing how much I don’t know about dogs, but emotionally as I wrestled Continue reading “Sometimes it Don’t Come Easy…” →

dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, oph, pregnant dog, puppies, shelters, Spay and Neuter

Fifteen Dogs in My House

Cara Achterberg

We survived our record-setting weekend.

Now we just have fourteen dogs. Which we’ve had before.

Gosh, this makes me sound like a dog-raving lunatic. Which maybe I am. Or at least I feel like one after this weekend.

Saying we fostered fifteen dogs this weekend is somewhat misleading since Continue reading “Fifteen Dogs in My House” →

dog rescue, Dogs with Issues, Flannery Oconnor, fosterdogs, fostering, hard to adopt, Long Term Dog, oph, returned dogs, training

A Designer Dog Looking for his Designer Family

Cara Achterberg

There was a time when we had two, even three new fosters each month, but for the last few years, it’s been one long-term foster after another (Gala, Flannery, Daisy…) and a few puppy litters. This weekend we had planned to welcome a much anticipated foster dog from Alabama – Houdini, whom I met while visiting Walker County Animal Shelter where OPH partners with RUFF to support the shelter and rescue dogs.

That reunion has been postponed because transport for Houdini and the other RUFF dogs fell through at the last moment. Hopefully, he will catch his freedom ride at the end of this month and we’ll welcome him then.

Meanwhile, Fanny was in need of a playmate as Flannery and Gracie easily tire of her endless puppy-like energy, so I Continue reading “A Designer Dog Looking for his Designer Family” →

dog rescue, foster dogs, fosterdogs, fostering, Miss Fanny Wiggles, oph, Rescue Road Trip

Home Again with a Stowaway

Cara Achterberg

It has been a long time since I brought in a new foster dog. April to be exact.

(Which makes me wonder what I’ve been writing on this blog for all these months!)

There is a very special dog in my kitchen. She arrives with a story that began back in June. A story that inspired me to return to Tennessee and go on to Alabama and to now explore more ways I can change the situation.

You may recognize her face… Continue reading “Home Again with a Stowaway” →

dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, returned dogs

Foster Dog Overload

Cara Achterberg

I’ve often wondered what my limit is.

I know other people who have four, five, even nine dogs living in their houses.

Five.

20190325_105918191_iOS

That’s clearly my limit, judging by Continue reading “Foster Dog Overload” →

Diary, dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, hard to adopt

Diary of a Rescue Week Five:  It’s a Big Wide World

Cara Achterberg

Every evening when I sit down to post in this diary, I think—nothing really happened. (except on Wednesday – that was a little too exciting) And yet, when I look through the day’s pictures and start to write, there’s always something to tell.

That’s probably true of all of our lives, not just one rescue dog. So much happens every day that we take for granted and should instead be awed by in gratefulness, but I suppose it’s human nature to think it has to be exciting/tragic/titillating for it to be worthy of writing or reading about. Daisy is teaching me to slow down and appreciate the moments.

This week was made up of a lot of little moments, but her world stretched and she gave me lots of clues to her history and maybe a few that will help to unlock her heart.

I appreciate any help you can give in sharing her story. I really believe it simply she needs to reach the right heart—someone who will recognize her as family and choose to adopt her. Daisy has so much love to give and every day I see more of her huge loving, funny personality.

If you’d like to read her story in real time, you can follow along on Facebook at Cara Sue Achterberg, writer.

Here are this week’s entries: Continue reading “Diary of a Rescue Week Five:  It’s a Big Wide World” →

dog rescue, Dogs with Issues, foster dogs, fosterdogs, fostering, hard to adopt, oph

Diary of a Rescue Week Four: Progress is an Eight-Letter Word

Cara Achterberg

I have to forewarn you that this past week hasn’t been terribly exciting. The progress with Daisy is only incremental and likely will stay that way. Again and again, I shake my head at the depth of pain this dog has endured. Her scars are deeper than any dog I’ve encountered.

It has been a month now since I picked up Daisy on a cold night at the bowling alley where she arrived on a transport from South Carolina.

And yet despite the fact, that during that first week of fevers, labor, delivery, and surgery, literally carrying her 60+ pound body in and out of cars, hospitals, and vet offices, she Continue reading “Diary of a Rescue Week Four: Progress is an Eight-Letter Word” →