I'm a slacker...

If I admit it, you can't judge me for it :) Here is a quick recap of the last month.We got a new foster, named Hatzi. She likes to cuddle, so I like her.
Emily and Jared came to visit! They were in the states for Christmas vacation. Sydney is getting so big! All of the girls, except Sophie. I think she was sleeping :)

Catch Up

This one is a long time coming, I’ve been a bit busy and have gotten behind! I could blame it on the lack of dogs to blog about, but we haven’t really had that. We took a “break” from fostering and instead we dog-sat for two of our friends and then allowed a special foster for 24 hours! I can’t tell you about them and not post pictures, so here are our friends’ dogs, and the last picture is the foster dog named Lola.

They were fun. It’s funny how you get used to fosters, and then dog sit for a dog that actually knows it’s name, and knows how to sit, stay and even play fetch!

In other news… Mike finished his hardest semester! He had 18 credits and managed to maintain his 4.0 (smarty-pants). Only one semester left for us, then he will have his Bachelor’s in Communication and we’ll be on our way to Chicago! Still no word on the housing situation, so we are staying flexible and patient.

And then there were two...

Spooky's brother (Boo) joined us on Wednesday evening. We've all been having great fun, and a few extra opportunities to practice patience. They love to wrestle each other, it's hilarious. And it doesn't matter what one of them starts playing with, the other will get jealous. Seriously, we gave them a cardboard box and one got interested, and before you know it they were pulling it apart! Though they are definitely more of a challenge than just one dog, they really are a good lesson for us. They make us work more as a team, not just taking turns, but coordinating and doing things at the same time and together. For example, when you're trying to get a puppy to go potty out side, it's much easier when one person only has to keep track of one dog, and they aren't distracted with being too close to each other. And messes... one cleans, and the other removes the culprits. We are a true team. And though it causes some stress, I love it.

Happy Halloween!

Ok, so it's way after Halloween, but our little friend was a Halloween "present" so I thought it would be fitting. He was dropped off to one of the rescue workers from HART on Halloween evening, so he and his two siblings were given festive names. His was Spooky, but we think he deserves a much more fitting name. He was born on 9/2/08 so is about 9 weeks old now. He is surprisingly aware of potty rules and goes as soon as we put him down on the grass. We are thoroughly enjoying the joy of puppy love. If you need a puppy fix, come visit! He loves to play and then conk out in your lap :)

New friends...

Cash has a new friend! He was adopted almost a week ago, on Sunday. His new family is enjoying him and he seems to be having fun playing with their other whippet mix dog. We are very happy for him!

Mike and I also have a new friend.. her name is Dutchess. She is a pitbull lab mix and is quite sweet. We are enjoying helping her relearn the world, as she had previously been chained up outside 24-7. She's having fun living in a home and getting attention.

A New Friend

We picked up another foster dog today! Cash is a Whippet and Jack Russell Terrier mix. He has the height of a Whippet, but a little more meat like a Jack Russell. We think he's actually pretty good looking. Cash needs a bit of training in the listening to us category, as well as the toilet genre. He is showing good potential though :) He will be one year old in December, so is still enjoying his puppyhood behavior.

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!

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.

Buzz

Buzz was adopted! We were very fortunate to pass along our dear friend Buzz to a loving family exactly one day before we had to leave for our mission trip. Good timing! We miss him very much and are kicking around the idea of taking in another furry friend this fall. We will keep you posted.