Shampoo... not just for hair

We had to "shampoo" our carpets this weekend. The good news is that we can foster dogs again! It's been almost one month since we said goodbye to Baby (now Zoe) and we hear she is doing well. When you get used to having a furry friendly pet that depends on you, makes you take walks for exercise each day and gives you attention, it's hard to give that up. We both are dog people and really enjoy taking care of them and training them, not just the fun playing and cuddling part. After learning on Saturday that all we needed to do was to shampoo our carpets and wash our couches... we got right to it! Now we are just waiting to find the right pup that needs a home!

Pictures!

Here is beautiful baby Sophie!
She is healthy and well mannered, thank goodness!








Sydney is still adjusting, she's not sure she likes sharing all of the attention. But she is being a good big sister, nonetheless.








I got to hold her :) I love being an auntie!

Baby Sophie

My sister Sarah has had her baby!  She was induced this morning and 5 hours later, Sophie arrived!  She weighs 9 pounds even and is about 20 inches long.  She is healthy and so is mom.  I will post pictures as soon as possible.

Such is life... crappy

The little darling that came in to our lives and captured our hearts... is healthy, and in a new home. We are very happy that she survived the Parvovirus, but sad that we can't keep her. Due to the nastiness of parvo, our place is now infected and we can't bring her back or foster any dogs for a few months :( So, she came in, infected it and then left... oh yeah, and took our sleep and hearts with her. That's a raw deal and I'm a bit emotional still, if you can't tell. It feels like of all of the people involved in this little puppy's life, helping her along, we got screwed. Isn't life ironic.

I think fostering will now be on a strictly un-emotional level now. Just there to be a roof over a dogs head, not their new best friend.

Stabilized

The update... she has stabilized! We visited Baby today in her isolated room with our smocks and rubber gloves on, careful to not spread the parvo. She looked wonderful, sat right up to see us and even walked towards the front of her cage! She made sure to lick our faces since our hands were in gloves. The vet said she was very interested in eating baby food last night and ate some puppy kibble this morning. They think she "turned a corner" last night, largely due to her omega-interferon treatment and a plasma transfusion. Both procedures have additional dosages tonight and tomorrow (3 day treatment for the omega-interferon). We were very glad to see how much she responded to us and even more glad to hear the good report from the vet. Also glad that HART is so generous in paying for treatments for their rescue dogs. We know she will be in until at least Sunday night, and more realistically we think she might get to come home on Monday. The adoptive family still seems interested, so we're fighting to keep the perspective of "foster" parents.

The Real Deal

Here's the real deal... pictures of sweet Baby (we like to call her Lady as well) on her first day with us. She was feeling much better then.

We visited her at the hospital tonight, even got to hold her! The doctors are "guardedly optimistic about her condition. They say we might get to take her home tomorrow! Let's hope so! If she makes it through this whole thing, it's gonna be pretty hard to give her away...

Parvo

We took in another foster dog on Saturday, August 30. She is an adorable 3 month old pitbull/Lab mix. The rescue organization named her "Baby" which is cute now, but not much of a real name. Anyhow, she developed a sense of lethargy and lack of apetite on Monday night and Tuesday, then began vomitting on Tuesday afternoon/evening. We took her into the animal ER last night and they are keeping her for 24 hours. They think that it is Parvo , a disease that has a 90% mortality rate if untreated. We are sad that she is in pain and miss her sweet demeanor. It's funny how you can get so attached to an animal in 4 days...

This is not a picture of her... but I found on the web and it looks a ton like her, only Baby is cuter. I will upload a picture of her as soon as I have a free minute at home.