Our adventures as a foster dog family
I’ve just returned from a tour of shelters with Who Will Let the Dogs Out, and this time I came home with more than stories and connections; I brought back three new fosters!
Leo went home while I was away. He was adopted by a family local to me, so I should be able to keep tabs on him!
Continue reading “Refilling the Foster Dog Cottage!”
I’ve been fostering for over ten years now, and more than 300 dogs and puppies (and a few cats and kittens) have come through our home. So, by now, I shouldn’t be surprised at the adoption magic.
When I picked up my puppies at the airport in May, I noticed Pinto Bean right away and thought – ‘he’ll be the first to go’. With his dramatic eye makeup, funny nose, and gorgeous coloring, surely he’d be in high demand from adopters.
Continue reading “That Old Adoption Magic…”
Having four adult dogs and four two week old puppies is requiring me to refine my juggling act.
At this juncture, none of the adult dogs can be loose in the cottage at the same time. So it’s a game of crate and rotate and walk and keep track of who hasn’t been out recently to potty and who needs snuggle time with me and what the best set up is to have quiet for my zoom call.
I make myself take several deep breaths and put on my ‘calm mama’ invisible cloak before entering the cottage. That helps tremendously. In the early days of my fostering career, I used to allow my anxiety over the situation and my frustration at my inability to instantly fix things to color my world. And the dogs picked up on that.
Continue reading “The foster cottage is FULL!”
Have I gotten myself in over my head? This is the question that rolled across my mind early this morning when I couldn’t sleep.
The last time I had this many dogs in the foster cottage, I was overwhelmed.
In fact, it was also four dogs and four puppies. Of course, those were basically feral dogs and worm-riddled puppies, so the physical work was overwhelming. After the seventh or eighth poopified crate, I’d come pretty close to quitting this whole foster gig.
Continue reading “Have I Gotten Myself in Over My Head?”
Wishbone, our newest foster, flew in last night.
He makes a nice matching set with Diamond, my other foster. He is the same size as her but weighs about 25 pounds less. He is quite literally a walking skeleton. It’s easy to feel all of his bones.
Continue reading “Flying to Safety”
I don’t know what to tell you about Bippity Bop. Her health situation is a mystery. As we back off (very slowly) from the anti-seizure medications, she is still not herself. It’s like the little dog who arrived here a month ago, is gone, vanished.
In her place, is a timid pup who startles easily, is unsteady on her feet, and seems confused most of the time. X-Port Paws and I are reaching out to different doctors and rescue organizations for advice and plan to do all we can to get to the bottom of this, but my heart is heavy as she is deteriorating quickly. I just want my spunky little girl back.
Continue reading “Heartbreak and Happiness Exist Side By Side in Rescue”
After ten days of quarantine and pumping her skinny body full of steroids, antibiotics, and as much food as she could eat, Bippity has joined our pack.
She quickly submitted to Fanny’s established leadership, will run and chase Otis but not wrestle with him (he is 3x her weight), and took no offense at Gracie’s warning snarls. She is undeterred; with her tail wagging and her happy energy, she trails all three other dogs all over the house.
Continue reading “Bippity Bop is Ready to Bop On Out of Here”
We’re still waiting for word on a transport date for Bippity-Bop to make her way eastward, but since I’ve restarted this blog, I thought I’d stick to my new Thursday posting habit. (I’m sure you missed me expected me to take up space in your inbox today.)
X-Port Paws has decided to keep Bippity in the boarding/foster situation in Texas for another week to be certain she is healthy enough to travel. At her vet appointment last week she was infested with fleas/ticks and running a fever. She also tested positive for Ehrlichia (but negative for heartworm!). Ehrlichia is a tickborne disease that is very treatable but must be monitored. Bippity has been started on a course of Doxycycline. This week her fever is gone and her energy is back.
Continue reading “Foster Dog News, Personal Dog Update, and a Recommendation”
We are certainly just easing back into fostering with this sweet pup. Serendipity is just about as easy as they come in terms of foster dogs.
Even after a three-day journey in a crate inside a van full of dogs, she arrived happy and friendly and pretty much ready for anything. Her enormous tail (which belongs on a lab not a petite girl like her) and her elongated body (I think she more resembles a fox than any other breed), wag ferociously at the sight or sound of any human being (and dogs too I would soon learn).
Continue reading “Easy-Peasy Foray Back Into Fostering”
I had not planned on getting a new foster dog. Our house is too small, too much under construction, and we already have three needy dogs.
We’re still getting settled here in Virginia, figuring out what’s what and where, and have no actual yard, so another dog means another four or five walks around the block a day (this would probably be good for me after a two-week vacation in Florida!). Plus, I’m too busy with Waldo and am writing to a deadline for a new book.
But then I saw the sweet face of a little dog in Texas who was scheduled to be ‘euthanized.’ The shelter was full and she’d been there too long with no interest.
Continue reading “Saving Lives with two Wonderwomen of Rescue (and a foster dog is coming!)”
Another Good Dog™ 