Our adventures as a foster dog family
From Marley’s point of view, people just don’t understand. What she’d like is a person (preferably a man) to be devoted to her in the same way that she is devoted to him. She’d like someone she could stick close to when he’s home and a safe, comfy crate to hang out in when he’s gone. Maybe a few long walks to sniff stuff, a few treats after she sits when asked, and a couch to snuggle on during movie marathons.
She’s a pretty simple girl.
Continue reading “Looking for that Adoption Magic”
Billie Jean is launched.
Gosh how I hope this time it sticks. I think it is a good match, but we never really know until she goes home.
I’m still awaiting word. I haven’t heard anything since a quick text from her adopter while they were driving home (four hours to northern New Jersey). She said Billie Jean, now Piper, was sleeping in the back seat most of the time, occasionally standing up and putting her head between the seats to give a few kisses.
Continue reading “A Dog I Once Fostered…”
Having Billie Jean back with us has been really fun. She has an energy that shimmers off her and an eagerness to please that is refreshing. Like most cattle dogs, she has a lot to say and a huge repertoire of sounds. She is great company and an entertaining guest.
She is so much the dog I remember, but at the same time there is Continue reading “Our Beauty Queen Returns”
It’s another quiet week at this foster house. We’re in between foster dogs, something that feels rare for us as the dogs have generally overlapped for years now.
Tito was adopted on Sunday by a couple of ‘old hippies’ (their words!). It seems like a really great fit. They are experienced pit bull people who don’t just want to adopt, but to ‘rescue.’
They understand that Tito is a work in progress and that any dog adopted into a new home will require a significant effort on their part. At the start of this pandemic, Tito had only ever lived on a logging chain 24/7. Since then he has been in two rescues, one foster home, and now a second adoptive home. They are committed to helping him feel safe and loved, while teaching him about life in his new home.
There have been so many adoptions this spring and summer. It’s a wonderful thing, but with lots and lots of adoptions come the inevitable returns.
Making a decision as momentous as adopting a dog for the rest of its life based on pictures, maybe a few videos, a foster’s notes, an adoption coordinator’s questions, and usually only a single meeting, is definitely a gamble, albeit an educated one (the same kind my brother claims he uses to win money in Vegas).
We shouldn’t be surprised or dismayed when a dog is returned. It doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the dog or the adopter.
What’s really remarkable, I think, is Continue reading “Returned Dogs Are Inevitable”
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”
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.
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”
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”
Flannery is such an interesting dog.
The puppies are cute and Hula Hoop is a sweetheart, but Flannery is complicated and funny and just so not-your-average-dog. I adore her. Even though she is nothing like any dog I’ve ever wanted.
She’s little. Only 30 pounds.
She’s a busy-body – always in the middle of whatever is happening and worming her way onto the couch or dog bed, even if there is clearly no room for her.
She is the first dog up at the slightest noise. And weirdly, Continue reading “A Dog’s Eye View”
Another Good Dog™ 