Our adventures as a foster dog family
My cottage is full of puppies! We went from a quiet space with just me and Nemo, to a bustling place with nonstop puppy wrestling (in two arenas), nonstop laundry, and nonstop cuteness!
First up is Sadie, a Dalmation mix puppy I am fostering for Rockingham-Harrisonburg SPCA. This is my second gig with them. I picked up Sadie from another foster who needed to move her (and also gave her red nail caps!).
Continue reading “My Cottage is FULL of Adoptable Puppies (and one Amazing Dog)”
When you foster as much as I have, you come to expect the unexpected. You also come to expect a little destruction from time to time. A puppy can wreak some serious havoc, especially a bored puppy.
Idling away in the puppy room, Alex discovered the tear in the vinyl floor that another foster dog had made. Well, actually, he unearthed the tear by first removing the packing tape I’d covered it with to discourage its growth.
And once the protective tape was gone, there was nothing to stop him from pulling that edge all the way across the room, exposing the plywood beneath. I didn’t witness this event, but imagine it brought a lot of joy to Alex’s day.
It wasn’t really a shock to discover what he’d done, what was a shock was to discover that the plywood beneath the vinyl was wet. Nick surveyed the mess, ripped up the vinyl, and then pulled up the plywood. Beneath that plywood was another layer of plywood, which was thoroughly soaked, and parts of it were covered in black mold. Beneath that layer of plywood, were two layers of linoleum, and beneath the linoleum was the original plank floor that dated back to when the cottage was built over a hundred years ago. Parts of the floor might be salvageable, but some of it was so rotten you could put your foot through it to the dirt beneath.
Seems the cottage has a history of occupants covering up one problem after another. Because no one thought to put any kind of ventilation in the crawlspace, the damp from the ground and any water that might have run beneath it (the ground is slanted slightly) simply seeped upward into the floor. It had also seeped upward on at least one wall.
Suffice it to say there won’t be any foster puppies anytime soon. There is much to be done and many decisions to be made. Hopefully, I’ll have a functioning puppy room by spring.
Meanwhile, Alex has finally found his forever family! He went home last week with a family who adopted a puppy from me six years ago. Slat (now Cooper) from the Road Trip litter will be Alex’s new brother. His adopter told me he turned out to be a super chill dog and is very much loved. Here’s Slat (and his adopter) to jog your memory (think they have a ‘type’?!):
Alex also got a new name – Max! Which seems pretty perfect for him. I forgot to get an adoption picture, but his new mom sent these pictures and reports that he is doing great. I love the last one of him sleeping on a foot – he’s such a love.
Diamond is still here entertaining me every day. She is just the sweetest, most butt-wiggling love bug you can imagine. She charms everyone who visits.
Her mom had a healthy baby and has a job now, so she’s working on housing. You can imagine the challenge of finding affordable rental housing that allows a 55-pound pit bull, but she’s hopeful that she can eventually take Diamond home again. I think I shared this on Another Good Dog, but here is a video of how she stayed warm during our recent deep freeze:
And here’s a video of her just being the happy, silly, sweet girl she is:
One last thing – Chrysanthemum, from the Literary Mice Litter will be in the puppy bowl this Sunday! She’ll be going by the name ‘Maya’ because the producers deemed Chrysanthemum too much of a mouthful for the announcers. Show business!
Her DNA will be revealed during the puppy bowl and you will likely be surprised as I was to hear the results! Here is her official Puppy Bowl picture:
Just in case you miss the Puppy Bowl, I’ll try to remember to share the DNA results on the Another Good Dog Facebook group next week.
Until Each One Has a Home,
Cara
If you like what you read and want to support my writing, consider buying me a cup of coffee.
For information on my writing and books, visit CaraWrites.com.
Who Will Let the Dogs Out: Stories and Solutions for Shelters and Rescues is a primer for those new to the cause, an invitation to get involved, and a source of inspiration for those already working tirelessly to save lives. With stories of successful shelters, innovative strategies, and the key ingredients for success—strong leadership, veterinary access, and community engagement—it’s a celebration of what’s working and a call to scale those solutions nationwide. Learn more and get your copy and/or send one to a shelter or rescue on our website. Also available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.
If you’d like regular updates of all our foster dogs past and present, plus occasional dog care/training tips, and occasional foster cat updates (!) be sure to join the Facebook group, Another Good Dog.
And if you’d like to know where all these dogs come from and how you can help solve the crisis of too many unwanted dogs in our shelters, visit WhoWillLetTheDogsOut.org and subscribe to our blog where we share stories of our travels to shelters, rescues, and dog pounds.
If you can’t get enough foster dog stories, check out my book: Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs. Or its follow up that takes you to the shelters in the south One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues.
I love to hear from readers and dog-hearted people! Email me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com.
If you’d like to support the work we do (and save the rescue and me some money), shop our Amazon wishlist. We are currently in need of chicken and chicken-byproduct-free, high-quality food, puppy treats, large dog beds (or cover replacements any size – we can cut the memory foam pieces I have to fit).
If you’d like to take a vacation with your whole pack, consider visiting one of our two dog-WELCOMING vacation rentals. Visits BringDogs.com to learn more.
I don’t know what else to say about this amazing adoptable puppy. But since he’s shockingly still here, I feel compelled to write.
I’ve said it before, sometimes foster animals stick around way longer than expected because the forever family meant to have them is not quite ready to take the plunge. I believe that’s the case here because there is no other reason for such an amazing puppy to still be adoptable nearly a month and a half after he arrived.
Alex is growing, which is good (he’s healthy) and bad (people want puppy-puppies). He’s still adorable, but he’s sliding into that gangly pre-adolescent phase. He’s closing in on twenty pounds, which is still very much snuggable, but now a bit more work to pick up. Luckily, he’s doing great on a leash, and even without one, he happily follows me wherever I go.
Let’s note Alex’s charms:
When he wants attention, instead of jumping all over me and getting mouthy, he will sit sweetly and stare at me, willing me to pet him. (I usually do)
He happily goes in his crate at night for a treat and sleeps eight hours with no potty accidents. A lot of nearly four-month-old puppies can’t do that!
He uses the doggie door to go out to potty during the day and has yet to have an accident in my office. When left too long in the puppy room, he uses his potty pads.
He loves everyone he meets. He gave such wonderful, perfect sits to so many people at the farmer’s market last weekend that he was stuffed with treats by the time we got home (and had diarrhea for two days, which is not one of his regular charms and not his fault!).
He is not bitey or mouthy (I wrote that in his bio and AI changed it to say he has great manners. No puppy has great manners, but most puppies his age bite and chew people – Alex doesn’t!).
He plays independently with chew toys or squeaky toys, or stuffed toys (not yet unstuffing them), while I work and is quiet as a mouse during my zoom calls.
He learns quickly, already understanding that he can’t go near the cat box or the wires under my desk, or the paper coming out of the printer (which is a tough one because he loves paper!).
He is athletic – mastering my puppy teeter, climbing on stools (but thankfully not my desk), zipping all over the puppy yard despite the ice.
He is VERY treat motivated. This boy will do anything for a treat. He is learning to eat slower (a tough challenge), but having once been starving in his short life, it’s tough not to gobble whatever is put in front of you.
He is friendly with the other residents of the foster cottage. He can’t quite convince Hazel-cat to play with him, but his affection is undeterred by her mean words or even her swats.
He loves Diamond from outside her crate. They can’t be together because Diamond has over 30 pounds on him and loves other animals in an Abominable Snowman and Daffy Duck kind of way. When she whines and barks to join him in his play, I cover her crate with a blanket. Alex sits by her crate in solidarity with her distress, and as soon as I’m not watching, Alex pulls the cover off the crate, much to Diamond’s delight and my frustration.
All of that is to say, this is a fantastic puppy! And the very first adoptable puppy I’ve crate, potty, and leash-trained ahead of adoption.
If you think he might be your puppy, apply to adopt here.
Please let anyone you know who is in the market for a puppy, that Alex is in the market for a forever home.
Until Each One Has a Home,
Cara
If you like what you read and want to support my writing, consider buying me a cup of coffee.
For information on my writing and books, visit CaraWrites.com.
My next book, Who Will Let the Dogs Out: Stories and Solutions for Shelters and Rescues will be released January 28, 2025, but you can order an early copy and support our mission to give them to shelters and rescues, by purchasing one directly from Who Will Let the Dogs Out.
If you’d like regular updates of all our foster dogs past and present, plus occasional dog care/training tips, and occasional foster cat updates (!) be sure to join the Facebook group, Another Good Dog.
And if you’d like to know where all these dogs come from and how you can help solve the crisis of too many unwanted dogs in our shelters, visit WhoWillLetTheDogsOut.org and subscribe to our blog where we share stories of our travels to shelters, rescues, and dog pounds.
If you can’t get enough foster dog stories, check out my book: Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs. Or its follow up that takes you to the shelters in the south One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues.
I love to hear from readers and dog-hearted people! Email me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com.
If you’d like to support the work we do (and save the rescue and me some money), shop our Amazon wishlist. We are currently in need of chicken and chicken-byproduct-free, high-quality food, puppy treats, large dog beds (or cover replacements any size – we can cut the memory foam pieces I have to fit).
If you’d like to take a vacation with your whole pack, consider visiting one of our two dog-WELCOMING vacation rentals. Visits BringDogs.com to learn more.
Nick keeps referring to Alex as the ‘leftover puppy’.
In my last post, I told you about Becca, who I thought was my ‘last puppy.’ But as is too often the case in puppy adoptions, there was another shuffle, and in the end, I still have one puppy. Just not Becca.
Alex was briefly adopted (for just over 24 hours) but it was not a good fit for the other dogs in the household, so he is back.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of the name Alex, but Leftover Puppy isn’t any better.
Continue reading “The Leftover Puppy”
Okay, I don’t really think I’m a terrible foster mom.
But I want to share the mishaps/mistakes that I made in this last week fostering. Basically, to show you that we are all learning as we go and that no matter how long you’ve been doing this, you still mess up.
And that’s okay.
My worst day saving dogs is better than someone else’s best day wishing they could save them.
Continue reading “Confessions of a Terrible Foster Mom”
Who is hoping to find a puppy under the Christmas tree?
I’ve got some pretty adorable puppies looking for a home of their own. The ABC pups – Alex, Becca, and Cassie – arrived this past week from Mississippi.
Leche is still here. She’s had two almost-adoptions in which her status changed to ‘adoption pending’ for nearly a week, and then the adopter never followed through (or even came to meet her). This is why, people, if you see a dog you want to adopt and it’s listed as ‘adoption pending,’ you should still apply. Adoption pending can, too often, never finish pending.
Many potential adopters are looking on multiple sites and often have multiple applications submitted at the same time. That’s normal. And on occasion, people apply on impulse, but in the cold gray light of day, they think, Maybe I really can’t handle a gorgeous Husky dog who is probably smarter than me.
Life with a Husky cannot possibly be boring. The more time I spend with Leche, the more I think either she’s exceptional or Huskies are just smarter than regular dogs. Her memory and her cunning ability to understand when I’m paying attention and when I’m not, have floored me time and again.
Since arriving here in my foster cottage, Berry has had a pretty sheltered life. We’ve journeyed all over the back roads around me at dawn and taken dozens of turns around our back pasture, but beyond that, his world has been pretty small.
Not anymore! If there was any doubt that Berry is a dog about town, it has all been shushed. My ‘shy’ guy spent this past Saturday greeting all kinds of people at the Farmer’s Market and in downtown Woodstock.
Continue reading “Berry’s Day Out”
Dogs just aren’t moving. Like everyone else’s, my foster dogs linger as adoptions have slowed down all over the country.
There are lots of theories about why this is happening, and I wrote about that this week on the Who Will Let the Dogs Out Blog.
‘Ann’ had a healthy baby boy and is doing well, but it is still undertermined whether she’ll be able to find work and housing that will allow Diamond to finally go home. This sweet girl is challenged by allergies and we are working through it, but treatment ideas are welcomed. She is red and itchy between her toes, and it’s quite a torment for her. I’ve cut out all chicken and chicken by-products in her diet, and that has helped but not eliminated the issue. She’s not a fan of probiotic wipes, but we’re trying that too.
Nancy was here to join me on the latest shelter tour and took some great pictures of this sweet, wiggle-butt:
Continue reading “Lingering Foster Dogs”
Another Good Dog™ 