Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Not So Sucker Free Sunday
So for those of you who follow me on twitter you know I went a few days ago to pick up two new fosters, what you don't know is I went back again yesterday to get 1, juuuuuust 1 more and came home with juuuuuuust 3 more. During an emergency vet visit last night (my 13yr old Dachshund got in a fight with a power cord and lost, I'll tell ya about it in another post) my vet very nicely laughed at my current number of fosters and asked "Do they have your name on the sucker list?" My response "I don't know what you're talking about lady, let's just focus on my charbroiled doxie here, ok!" But the way I see it is the FAHS are the suckers!! They supply me with a non-stop supply of squishy puppies with heavenly puppy breath! I win, so eat that vet lady!! (I love you Dr. Buckner!)
Anyway I've been promising a blog post to introduce the newbies so here ya go... These pictures are not the greatest but it's been one of those weeks so it's gonna have to do for now, I promise better ones are coming soon(ish)
Ms. Audra
Dillon
Wilhelmina
Adoption Status: Confirmed for rescue. Not available for local adoption.
And last but not least
"Busta" Braveheart(Don't ask)
Now I know you guys are wondering "hey lady what are their stories??" and I promise as soon as I get to know these guys a little better I will fill you all in! In the mean time keep your eyes peeled!! I've left someone out! Someone very very special who will get her very own introduction!!! :)
Monday, September 26, 2011
Saying goodbye never gets easier!
Friday morning at 5:30am I dropped off Granderson and Joba to be transported to Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, I knew all along that these guys were slated for rescue but it didn't make saying goodbye to them any easier! It's funny how in just a few weeks you can become so attached to these guys even though you tell yourself daily that they aren't yours, they WILL be leaving, you are simply giving them a place to crash until it's time for them to go home! But still you wake up every morning to their silly faces and you care for them when they are sick, you feed them and play with them, and most of all you love them almost instantly.Though you may convince your head that these guys do not belong to you
your heart never really gets it, and when they are gone to new homes and loving families you can't help but feel heartsick over their absence.
Granderson was the hardest for me to let go of hands down. I came so so so close to just calling and saying "I can't do it, I cant let him go!", but I knew in my heart he deserved the chance I had hoped to give him all along, the chance to have a family of his own. He was my study buddy, he would lay with his head on my lap while I read my biology books and anatomy texts. He was my silly little goof ball, always up to something crazy and making me laugh constantly.He had the BEST fat bully feet and I could have just eaten them right off of his legs. He was a lover of belly rubs and snuggles and gave the sweetest kisses ever. I miss him so much but I am happy to report that he was adopted the day after arriving in DC!!! He is home with his forever family and that makes my heart ache a little less. Have a great life baby boy you will always be special to me <3
Joba was our little fuzzy butt. When I picked him up he was a barely 2lb ball of fur with a tiny little monkey face. You couldn't help but love him. He was the great defeater of toes and a master of the innocent puppy face! He was just too darn cute to ever stay mad at. He had a very unusual habit of sneaking off to nap behind toilets, no idea where this came from but we figured with all that fur he must like being close to the cool porcelain. He was the runt from the same litter as Granderson and desperately smaller, he came to us barely able to eat 2oz and we wondered if he would ever catch up. Well when this little guy figured out how to eat he hit the bowls wide open!! He left us weighing just a couple lbs less than his big brother and able to hold his own at play time. We miss that little fuzzy bugger and we know he is going to find love wherever he goes! As of today he is with a lucky Dog Rescue foster family still awaiting adoption.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Fabulous Foster Furbaby Friday
My foster babies are all getting ready to go to new homes so I wanted to take a few "fancy" pictures of them before they left. This litter was such a fun litter, and they are going to be wonderful additions to their new families! :)
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Things I've learned while fostering
1.) You will get attached!! Not just to one but to every single one that you foster, and one day you WILL fall so much in love with one that you simply cannot bear to let them go! If you foster you WILL fail and it's a wonderful thing! :)
2.)Flower gardens that at one time you nurtured and slaved over will at some point be absolutely DEMOLISHED in the blink of an eye. At first you will be FURIOUS but then you'll look over to 3 huge eyed little puppies with leaves hanging out of their mouths looking all innocent and you'll decide that the flowers weren't all that pretty anyway!!
Before
After:
3.) The little guy is always the one you need to watch out for!! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT let that tiny innocent face fool you!!! He's the one that will sneak off and poop in your computer room, and steal food from the other dog's bowls, and then look at you in such a way that you will actually make excuses for everything he'd just done!
4.) Eventually one will come to you so sick that no matter how hard you try you just can't save it. This will be devastating! This will make you question everything you tried to do, you'll ask yourself if you could have done more, if you did something wrong, if you missed something you should have seen. You'll question humanity, God, your vet, and then you'll have to realize that sometimes things just happen. There is no reason, nothing more that could have been done, you did your absolute best and it happened anyway. You have to decide to go through the emotions but get back to saving what lives you can. It's one of the hardest lessons I had to learn and it was with my very first foster puppy.
5.)You will walk into a pet store to simply buy a $20 bag of dog food and walk out of there having spent $170 on treats, toys, bones, and a new crate.. When you get to the car you'll realize you forgot the dog food so you have to go back in. You also realize that you now have to eat ramen noodles for the next two weeks and you're somehow ok with that. :)
6.)You will document and remember every vet visit, their weights, medicine dosages, make schedules and set alarms to make sure they get medicine at the right times. You'll remember who's poo looks like what, who is on which food, who isn't resting well, who is coughing worse, who is coughing less. You will be able to remember every detail of their day to day life, but you will not for the life of you be able to remember if you washed your hair in the shower this morning!!!
7.)You're gonna meet people while fostering that are unlike any you've ever met before! People who don't foster as a hobby or foster one or two at a time, but people who do ALL that they can as often as they can. When they are told something can't happen they MAKE a way for it to happen. People who lose sleep so that they can be there at 5AM to transport animals 600 miles away to give them a better chance at finding families. People who don't think twice about how much room they have in their homes when they decide to take in yet another abused, abandoned, neglected animal. People who work in freezing cold, blistering heat, foul stench, through aches and pains, heartache, and setbacks, because comfort to them is just not as important as saving the lives of these animals. These people will inspire you and support you and when you need them for anything they will step up and be there! You'll find that you haven't just made friends you've joined a family! These are people like Lela Joseph, Jayne Boswell, Pamela Glass, Stephanie Duer, Christy Vaught, and Jennifer Vander Meer, just to name a few!!
Fostering isn't always easy, there are costs both financially and emotionally, but for every negative there are at least 10 positives! All the costs are reimbursed with love, snuggles, puppy breath, games of fetch, belly scratches, goofy antics,big brown eyes,wet noses, slobbery kisses, and the knowledge that you helped make a life better! Saving even one makes it all worth it. :)
2.)Flower gardens that at one time you nurtured and slaved over will at some point be absolutely DEMOLISHED in the blink of an eye. At first you will be FURIOUS but then you'll look over to 3 huge eyed little puppies with leaves hanging out of their mouths looking all innocent and you'll decide that the flowers weren't all that pretty anyway!!
Before
After:
3.) The little guy is always the one you need to watch out for!! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT let that tiny innocent face fool you!!! He's the one that will sneak off and poop in your computer room, and steal food from the other dog's bowls, and then look at you in such a way that you will actually make excuses for everything he'd just done!
4.) Eventually one will come to you so sick that no matter how hard you try you just can't save it. This will be devastating! This will make you question everything you tried to do, you'll ask yourself if you could have done more, if you did something wrong, if you missed something you should have seen. You'll question humanity, God, your vet, and then you'll have to realize that sometimes things just happen. There is no reason, nothing more that could have been done, you did your absolute best and it happened anyway. You have to decide to go through the emotions but get back to saving what lives you can. It's one of the hardest lessons I had to learn and it was with my very first foster puppy.
5.)You will walk into a pet store to simply buy a $20 bag of dog food and walk out of there having spent $170 on treats, toys, bones, and a new crate.. When you get to the car you'll realize you forgot the dog food so you have to go back in. You also realize that you now have to eat ramen noodles for the next two weeks and you're somehow ok with that. :)
6.)You will document and remember every vet visit, their weights, medicine dosages, make schedules and set alarms to make sure they get medicine at the right times. You'll remember who's poo looks like what, who is on which food, who isn't resting well, who is coughing worse, who is coughing less. You will be able to remember every detail of their day to day life, but you will not for the life of you be able to remember if you washed your hair in the shower this morning!!!
7.)You're gonna meet people while fostering that are unlike any you've ever met before! People who don't foster as a hobby or foster one or two at a time, but people who do ALL that they can as often as they can. When they are told something can't happen they MAKE a way for it to happen. People who lose sleep so that they can be there at 5AM to transport animals 600 miles away to give them a better chance at finding families. People who don't think twice about how much room they have in their homes when they decide to take in yet another abused, abandoned, neglected animal. People who work in freezing cold, blistering heat, foul stench, through aches and pains, heartache, and setbacks, because comfort to them is just not as important as saving the lives of these animals. These people will inspire you and support you and when you need them for anything they will step up and be there! You'll find that you haven't just made friends you've joined a family! These are people like Lela Joseph, Jayne Boswell, Pamela Glass, Stephanie Duer, Christy Vaught, and Jennifer Vander Meer, just to name a few!!
Fostering isn't always easy, there are costs both financially and emotionally, but for every negative there are at least 10 positives! All the costs are reimbursed with love, snuggles, puppy breath, games of fetch, belly scratches, goofy antics,big brown eyes,wet noses, slobbery kisses, and the knowledge that you helped make a life better! Saving even one makes it all worth it. :)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Battling Kennel Cough
If you've noticed that things have been a little quiet around the blog lately, you're right! We've been battling a case of Kennel Cough!! UGH!!! It started with ONE puppy having a slight cough and then all of a sudden a slight cough and a fever!! I promptly got the 3 foster pups up to the vet's office and heard the words I had REALLY hoped I wouldn't hear..Yep, it's kennel cough! NOOOOOO!!!
The easy part was getting everyone on antibiotics, we've been battling the hard part for the last week!! Isolation, sanitation, and Poor Puppy Syndrome!! All of the dogs were put on antibiotics (even the ones with no cough) but the ones with any sounds of congestion (turned out to the 3 out of 9) would have to be isolated from the rest of the pack. This means scheduled potty trips outside instead of free access to the doggie doors. Their inside time is spent in the "doggie room" because it is the one room we can keep about 90% sterile 90% of the time!! I suppose it's good in a way that there are three and not one stuck in there, at least they have each other! But "Poor Puppy Syndrome" sets in fast, we stand at the door looking in through the window and think Poor poor puppies stuck in there all alone instead of being with the rest of the pack.. It's heart breaking!!
No one is allowed in or out of that room except my husband and myself and we use hand sanitizer like mad people before we leave the room! 500 cans of lysol, bleach water solution, lysol wipes, and gloves (exam gloves) and even more hand sanitizer help to make sure no germs go in or out! I am the designated snuggler which means I am pretty much the only one who is allowed to pick them up and love them and let them lick me or climb on me, and immediately after I have to change clothes and shower before I reenter my pack.
Luckily all of our coughers seem to be responding to the antibiotics and all that congestion mess seems to be making it's way out of their systems. We are hoping for an all clear from our vet in about another week. In the mean time I do my best to make sure they get as much personal attention and outside time as possible.
This is my first interaction with Kennel Cough and though I think so far we have been successful at catching it early and stopping it from spreading throughout the pack I still feel a little intimidated by it all! I've never been one to let a little cough or sneeze get me very worried, but I find myself questioning every cough, sneeze, whine, and pretty much every other body function of my pack!
So tell me fellow pet bloggers have you ever had to deal with kennel cough? What was your experience like?
The easy part was getting everyone on antibiotics, we've been battling the hard part for the last week!! Isolation, sanitation, and Poor Puppy Syndrome!! All of the dogs were put on antibiotics (even the ones with no cough) but the ones with any sounds of congestion (turned out to the 3 out of 9) would have to be isolated from the rest of the pack. This means scheduled potty trips outside instead of free access to the doggie doors. Their inside time is spent in the "doggie room" because it is the one room we can keep about 90% sterile 90% of the time!! I suppose it's good in a way that there are three and not one stuck in there, at least they have each other! But "Poor Puppy Syndrome" sets in fast, we stand at the door looking in through the window and think Poor poor puppies stuck in there all alone instead of being with the rest of the pack.. It's heart breaking!!
No one is allowed in or out of that room except my husband and myself and we use hand sanitizer like mad people before we leave the room! 500 cans of lysol, bleach water solution, lysol wipes, and gloves (exam gloves) and even more hand sanitizer help to make sure no germs go in or out! I am the designated snuggler which means I am pretty much the only one who is allowed to pick them up and love them and let them lick me or climb on me, and immediately after I have to change clothes and shower before I reenter my pack.
Luckily all of our coughers seem to be responding to the antibiotics and all that congestion mess seems to be making it's way out of their systems. We are hoping for an all clear from our vet in about another week. In the mean time I do my best to make sure they get as much personal attention and outside time as possible.
This is my first interaction with Kennel Cough and though I think so far we have been successful at catching it early and stopping it from spreading throughout the pack I still feel a little intimidated by it all! I've never been one to let a little cough or sneeze get me very worried, but I find myself questioning every cough, sneeze, whine, and pretty much every other body function of my pack!
So tell me fellow pet bloggers have you ever had to deal with kennel cough? What was your experience like?
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Saying Goodbye
This past week one of our very first foster puppies "Jeter" left us to go to Lucky Dog Animal Rescue.
This being our first one to go it was very hard to know what to expect. I knew this day was coming so I feel I had lots of time to prepare myself mentally, but you just never know until the moment arrives how you will feel.
I got a call on Monday saying a spot had opened up and could I bring him to the shelter for transport on Tuesday.Um..way to give me time to prepare guys..lol... Of course I said it wasn't a problem 1: because it really wasn't and 2: because I knew it was finally his chance for adoption!!
I told my family that evening and my 8yr. old was not very convinced that Jeter was ready to go just yet! We had "the talk" about how this was a good thing and how this is what fostering is all about and we all gave an example of what his future life might turn out to be. :)
Dropping him off Tuesday morning was actually a little easier than I expected...We had spent the evening before giving him some extra attention and saying our goodbyes because we knew I had to leave out first thing in the morning and there would be no time then. When I arrived at the shelter my heart was heavy and I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but when I walked inside I saw there was already a crate waiting for him and in the next crate were 2 of his litter mates! No one at the shelter rushed me and I was able to spend as much time as I needed before putting him in the crate.. I held him for a while and said my personal goodbyes to him and told him to be a good boy..Then I put him in his transport crate and waited a while until I saw that he was nervous but settling and then I petted him one last time through the crate door and walked away feeling like this boy had such a wonderful future ahead of him.
Instead of the overwhelming feeling of loss that I expected to feel, I was filled with hope and pride that this boy who I watched grow from a skinny little weakling into this gorgeous, healthy, playful young pup was going to be a well balanced and wonderful addition to some family in the very near future. On the drive home I imagined where he would be in just a few short weeks.. Playing with new children, other family pets, growing and learning, and I was at peace! Though I won't even pretend I didn't cry most of the way home!! We miss him very much around the house and things certainly aren't the same without him here, but we are all hopeful for his future, and thankful for the time we had with him.
UPDATE
I received this email from Ms. Stephanie Duer who transported Jeter all the way to Washington DC to his new home!! Stephnie, thank you soooo much for the update!! :)
"I got the privilege of seeing Ace go to his forever home this weekend. Pickens brought their dogs to me to transport to DC this time...so Ace came along! When we arrived at the transport site a tall nice looking man walked up to the van very excited and said, which van is this? I said Florence and he said "yay! it's florence" to his wife and two young children. They waited anxiously as we called out dogs names as we pulled them off the van......When we said ACE, he and his daughter were so excited they couldn't stand it! The wife recorded on video as he took Ace from his crate! They were all so excited and he went to a fantastic home! He's going to be one spoiled little pup!"
This being our first one to go it was very hard to know what to expect. I knew this day was coming so I feel I had lots of time to prepare myself mentally, but you just never know until the moment arrives how you will feel.
I got a call on Monday saying a spot had opened up and could I bring him to the shelter for transport on Tuesday.Um..way to give me time to prepare guys..lol... Of course I said it wasn't a problem 1: because it really wasn't and 2: because I knew it was finally his chance for adoption!!
I told my family that evening and my 8yr. old was not very convinced that Jeter was ready to go just yet! We had "the talk" about how this was a good thing and how this is what fostering is all about and we all gave an example of what his future life might turn out to be. :)
Dropping him off Tuesday morning was actually a little easier than I expected...We had spent the evening before giving him some extra attention and saying our goodbyes because we knew I had to leave out first thing in the morning and there would be no time then. When I arrived at the shelter my heart was heavy and I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but when I walked inside I saw there was already a crate waiting for him and in the next crate were 2 of his litter mates! No one at the shelter rushed me and I was able to spend as much time as I needed before putting him in the crate.. I held him for a while and said my personal goodbyes to him and told him to be a good boy..Then I put him in his transport crate and waited a while until I saw that he was nervous but settling and then I petted him one last time through the crate door and walked away feeling like this boy had such a wonderful future ahead of him.
Instead of the overwhelming feeling of loss that I expected to feel, I was filled with hope and pride that this boy who I watched grow from a skinny little weakling into this gorgeous, healthy, playful young pup was going to be a well balanced and wonderful addition to some family in the very near future. On the drive home I imagined where he would be in just a few short weeks.. Playing with new children, other family pets, growing and learning, and I was at peace! Though I won't even pretend I didn't cry most of the way home!! We miss him very much around the house and things certainly aren't the same without him here, but we are all hopeful for his future, and thankful for the time we had with him.
UPDATE
I received this email from Ms. Stephanie Duer who transported Jeter all the way to Washington DC to his new home!! Stephnie, thank you soooo much for the update!! :)
"I got the privilege of seeing Ace go to his forever home this weekend. Pickens brought their dogs to me to transport to DC this time...so Ace came along! When we arrived at the transport site a tall nice looking man walked up to the van very excited and said, which van is this? I said Florence and he said "yay! it's florence" to his wife and two young children. They waited anxiously as we called out dogs names as we pulled them off the van......When we said ACE, he and his daughter were so excited they couldn't stand it! The wife recorded on video as he took Ace from his crate! They were all so excited and he went to a fantastic home! He's going to be one spoiled little pup!"
Friday, August 12, 2011
Foster Failure Friday..
Foster failure is a term I had never heard before a few days ago. Hi, I'm Vicki and I'm a foster failure!!! Well sort of! Foster failure is the term used when a person is fostering an animal and when the time comes that person cannot bring themselves to part with the animal. It's considered a failure one because fostering is a temporary situation and by definition dictates handing over the animal when a home or other situation is found, and two because most people who fail to hand over an animal now have no room to foster another animal making them one less foster parent available and that is when it's a bad thing!!! I am a type one foster failure I am not however a type two! I still have plenty of room for future fosters. Now let's talk a little about the dog that made me an utter foster failure!!!!
This folks is the one that made it completely impossible for my husband and me to let go!!
Jorge Posada June...
We knew as time went on that we were becoming more and more attached to this guy and earlier this week we knew that letting him go was just not gonna happen, so I called up Lela, my HS contact, and pretty much told her that this guy just had to be ours!!
The day I went to pick up Jorge and his sister they brought him out to me on a little hand towel and told me he had been acting sluggish. They handed me this limp scraggly little thing and gave me very little hope that he would even make it, after all the way he came to be at the humane society in the first place was a pretty grim situation. A man had found a litter of pups in a field he was mowing, they seemed to be about 2 weeks old and there was no mother in sight. No idea how long they had been out there or how long since they had been fed. They were very small and were obviously not in the best of health. They were lucky enough to come at a time when a mother dog had just lost her litter and could step in to let them nurse, but she was running out of milk and fosters needed to be found soon. They were so unsure of how things would go with this litter that they were not even given ID numbers.
I brought him and his sister home and immediately to the vet, they both had pneumonia and were infested with hook worms. After 2 weeks of struggling his sister finally couldn't fight anymore and she passed away. Little Jorge continued to fight and thankfully to get better! In those first weeks he was beginning to come around...
After his sister's passing we took on his brother "Jeter", then another one from another litter, then another one, then another one, until we ended up with 6 foster puppies, basically our own mixed litter. and each one as cute and sweet as the one before it! But there was always something about our Jorge, something we couldn't put our finger on. Maybe it was the many many long nights feeding and warming and praying that this little guy would just live!! Maybe it was the absolute joy we felt the day our vet gave him a clean bill of health, it could also be VERY likely that he was the first one to become potty trained and that was just enough to send us overboard!! lol
But whatever the reason, we just knew this guy was no longer a foster but a part of our family! He just fit so perfectly, like it was just meant to be, and who are we to fight something like that??
So yes as the foster parents of Jorge we failed absolutely and blissfully!!! I know some people in the animal rescue field won't find this to be an especially good thing but we couldn't be happier...annnd I don't think he minds it very much either. ;)
This folks is the one that made it completely impossible for my husband and me to let go!!
Jorge Posada June...
We knew as time went on that we were becoming more and more attached to this guy and earlier this week we knew that letting him go was just not gonna happen, so I called up Lela, my HS contact, and pretty much told her that this guy just had to be ours!!
The day I went to pick up Jorge and his sister they brought him out to me on a little hand towel and told me he had been acting sluggish. They handed me this limp scraggly little thing and gave me very little hope that he would even make it, after all the way he came to be at the humane society in the first place was a pretty grim situation. A man had found a litter of pups in a field he was mowing, they seemed to be about 2 weeks old and there was no mother in sight. No idea how long they had been out there or how long since they had been fed. They were very small and were obviously not in the best of health. They were lucky enough to come at a time when a mother dog had just lost her litter and could step in to let them nurse, but she was running out of milk and fosters needed to be found soon. They were so unsure of how things would go with this litter that they were not even given ID numbers.
I brought him and his sister home and immediately to the vet, they both had pneumonia and were infested with hook worms. After 2 weeks of struggling his sister finally couldn't fight anymore and she passed away. Little Jorge continued to fight and thankfully to get better! In those first weeks he was beginning to come around...
After his sister's passing we took on his brother "Jeter", then another one from another litter, then another one, then another one, until we ended up with 6 foster puppies, basically our own mixed litter. and each one as cute and sweet as the one before it! But there was always something about our Jorge, something we couldn't put our finger on. Maybe it was the many many long nights feeding and warming and praying that this little guy would just live!! Maybe it was the absolute joy we felt the day our vet gave him a clean bill of health, it could also be VERY likely that he was the first one to become potty trained and that was just enough to send us overboard!! lol
But whatever the reason, we just knew this guy was no longer a foster but a part of our family! He just fit so perfectly, like it was just meant to be, and who are we to fight something like that??
So yes as the foster parents of Jorge we failed absolutely and blissfully!!! I know some people in the animal rescue field won't find this to be an especially good thing but we couldn't be happier...annnd I don't think he minds it very much either. ;)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
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