Tag: foster dogs

I had beautiful Char over for a visit today. She is such a terrific dog, and the right match for her has STILL not been found. This makes me sad. Both because I know she deserves her very own family, but also because somewhere there is a person who is missing out on this dog.

We had a wonderful visit. Indy had a great time playing with her. Indy has been a bit bummed since Bear left us. The puppies don’t cut it for stimulation. The fostering thing is a balance. The foster dogs help keep Indy active, but if they won’t give her a break when she needs one, that becomes problematic. Char is nice to her, but doesn’t want to back off and let her rest when she needs her rest, and at almost 16 years old, my poor geriatric dog needs her rest. Playdates are the perfect solution with a dog like Char. She is playful and works to engage Indy. Indy spends some time playing, and then Char goes back to her foster home.

As nice as it is to visit with her, Char really needs to find her people.

Surely there is somebody out there who enjoys lots of hikes and a good long game of fetch. Somebody who would like to provide Char with snuggles and kibble and a good supply of toys. Please help Char find that person. Let her have a rescue story. She is very clever and would like to be trained and given a mission.

Char is located in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. This is her petfinder page.

Darby has a date tomorrow. I’ve been feeling sad that she hasn’t had any serious inquiries. Is stressed me enough that I tried making a commercial for her. Mindy got multiple applications for her, and Webster has had a hold on him from the start. Some people have called about Darby, but not followed through. When this happens I worry that our photos are not presenting them in a good enough light, or I am not doing enough to help them become a better pet (not so much with a puppy this young, there is only so much I can do and she is in the same place as her littermates). I suppose that makes me self-centered, thinking it has something to do with me, but I do want them to be appealing and interesting. The more people who apply, the better chance we have of finding that really special match.

Darby reminds me of London, so of course I have a bit of extra emotional investment in her placement. Well, that, and the fact I MADE HER. Yes, I am super emotionally invested in all their placements. I always am, but there is something about all that bottle feeding and sleepless nights and feeding tubes and concern about keeping them alive that intensified it a bit over how I’d normally feel after so few weeks with them.

I heard from Laney‘s family. She is doing very well. She is in puppy kindergarten classes and is super smart at learning commands. I’m so thrilled they have her in classes.

So, fingers crossed for tomorrow. Darby doesn’t need multiple families to apply for her. She just needs the right family to do it. Laney only had one applicant too (Corbin had multiple – Black Dog Syndrome?), but it was the right family.

There has been a steady influx of puppies to the rescue all winter. This is not standard. Yes, some puppies are born year round, but there is a tendency for cycles to have it be a much lower birthrate during the colder weather, because this weather is harsh. Not only have there been a lot of puppies, but they are all coming from further up north, where it is even colder.

Like, one mother dog was turned in with a litter of three puppies, but she had originally had 9 puppies and 6 had frozen to death.

Anyhow, another puppy was transported in yesterday. An orphan, probably a half week older than our batch were when they came in. Since they develop at such a fast rate, that half a week makes a big difference. He is the only surviving member of his litter. Because he is alone, we’ll try to get him some time with our orphans on a regular basis so that he gets proper dog socialization, even though it will be a bit thrown off by their age difference.

He is adorable. A puffy ball of fluff that right now looks a lot like a Burmese Mountain Dog mix, but probably isn’t, since that breed is not common in the area he is from.

Anyhow, V stopped by yesterday to pick up supplies because mine are not on bottles anymore, and she stopped to let me meet him. She gave him a bottle here, which he took eagerly. Yay! Hopefully no feeding tubes will be needed for this one. After he was full and checked over for skin conditions, we let him meet our three.   He wasn’t really interested yet, he is a little young, but they sure were. Darby was the first to rush over to him, which I love, because I’ve been saying she needs to go to a home with another dog. She hurried over, body posture as friendly and enthusiastic as can be, “Hi! We should play! Let’s Play!” The other two soon followed. Mindy also was all friendly body posture, but more tentative, “Hello. How are you?” Webster was all boy dog. His stance was strong, and he wasn’t unfriendly, but he definite wasn’t friendly either. “Hello stranger. What are your intentions?”

Unfortunately, all too soon the new little one proved that he has a serious case of diarrhea, so we quickly separated him from my gang, and did a bunch of cleaning. I then got out the precious stash of magic white powder that had stopped the onslaught of poo water from our gang, and passed it along.

I’m glad nobody asked me to take him, because once I saw him, I couldn’t have said no, but I am still not getting enough sleep even though these are weaned. I’ll try to get photos of him soon.

My precious babies have all reached the Piranha Puppy stage of development.

Too bad I am not into body piercings.

It is a very good reminder why I do not want to keep all of them myself, even though I kind of still want to keep all of them myself. Luckily, even if I went insane, the rescue would keep me from making that mistake.

I am really, very fond of each of them.

Mindy is very sweet and full of snuggles. She likes to play with toys and her litter-mates, but is usually the first to break off and head for lap time.

Darby is the most adventurous of them. She is clever and a bit demanding. I think she’ll do best with an experienced dog owner, and would also do better in a home with another dog, to help keep her from getting bored.

Webster is a Zen Apprentice puppy. Mind you, he has not mastered Zen, for he is still very much a puppy, but there is a little stream of calm that appears to run through him. He is very food motivated, which might explain his size and pleasant plumpness.

Unfortunately all three pups have loose stool again.

Meh.

What? You thought you might escape without a poo comment? Wrong blog. So, back to the food tweaking for me.

Puppies!

We still have them. They are up on petfinder now, but they are not available to go to homes until after March 9th, so we still have a couple more weeks of puppies.

I believe that I can declare all three puppies weaned now.

I’ve now fed gruel to orphans. I feel so Dickensian.

No surprise, Webster took to it right away, “”Please, Sir, I want some more.” Darby was also enthusiastic, “More NOW dammit!” Mindy would eat a little, but mostly still needed the bottle, “Hmm, interesting. Okay, bored, where’s the bottle?” We got a couple of days in and it looked like we’d be able to do all meals as gruel, with no formula bottle supplementation, but then Darby wasn’t feeling well, and her appetite dropped off. So, back to the bottle for her. Then she was feeling better, but turned down the gruel. I tried a couple of different recipes, and finally hit upon one she was willing to eat. Now all three are eating enthusiastically, and I get to keep adjusting what I am serving them to move them closer and closer to eating just plain regular dog food.

They are super adorable, but also a lot more active, which means a different kind of work. At first it was all about getting food in them and cleaning up massive amounts of poo. Now there is still making food for them and cleaning up after them, but there is a lot of keeping them occupied and doing the beginning stages of teaching them some puppy manners, mainly, quiet cuteness will get you more attention than OMG NOISY SCREAMING. This is where it really becomes quite clear (just like with Corbin and Laney), why it is not a great idea to get puppy pairs. One puppy at a time is so very much easier to train quickly, of course for these young ones keeping them with siblings is good. It helps to keep them warm and helps them become better dogs, but when it comes to permanent families, one puppy at a time is best.

It has been endlessly fascinating to me to watch them change every 6 hours or so. They are advancing and changing so rapidly at this stage. They arrived here total squirmy wormies. Their eyes were open but they weren’t really seeing anything and connecting it to their brains in a meaningful way. It has been amazing to watch them turning into small dogs, step by little fuzzy step. I find myself overwhelmed by the feeling of “I MADE THIS!” which totally cracks me up. “You did not make a puppy, crazy lady. Go sit in a corner and be quiet.”

Auxiliary Teen and my mother were both scheduled to go home on Sunday. Instead we had a massive snow storm. So, they both went home yesterday. Now it is time to find a groove of managing the puppies without my mother’s help. Last night was a little rough, but today is going better. Of course, as I type that, I realize I forgot to get kibble soaking in prep for the next meal, so I had better go do that now before I forget.

Okay, kibble prep done. Once the puppies are hungry it is best to need to do as little prep as possible. Because they are rapidly changing, it isn’t quite a matter of regularly scheduled mealtimes. As they mature they can eat more in a single meal, and have more time pass between meals. I am glad to not be feeing them every 4 hours, like I needed to at first.

Today we took the puppies outside. First they were “Oh crap, what is this?!” Then they became quite fascinated, and then they became cold and pathetic and we had to go back inside and get warm. The harder I play with them, the harder they sleep. Puppies sleeping is good. Let sleeping puppies lie, for sure. Sleeping puppies mean human naps, or human showers, or human meals…  hmm I think I forgot to eat lunch today.

The house is beyond disastrous. We are doing some cleaning every day, but it never seems like enough. Puppies are messy and energy draining. There has been SO MUCH LAUNDRY. Anyhow, house is just plain embarrassing, and people are arriving in 8 minutes, and I am trying to be arctic fox about it.

People came and went. We talked some webstuffs and then they visited with the puppies, because who could come to my house and not visit with the puppies? The puppies were excited to see new people, which is great. I am glad they are nice and  social still. They are not vaccinated yet, too young, so I can’t go dragging them to places like Petsmart so they get exposed to more people.  After some playing and interaction, they were ready for a nap and all three came right over to pile on me, or next to me. They know the difference between visitors and food provider, that’s for sure. Food provider is a good source of warmth during naps.

Trying to shift their sleep and eat schedule a little bit tonight.  Wish me luck.

I am trying to convince myself that a feeding tube is just a tool, and not a symbol of my failure to get her to eat the “right way”.

It isn’t really a fact that I’ve fully integrated into my thinking yet, but I am working on it. Certainly, it is more important that she get the damn hydration and nutrition she needs to thrive, than for me to feed some personal ego issue.

I can always give her extra cuddle time to make sure she doesn’t miss out on the social stimulation aspects of nursing/bottle feeding.

Introducing Mindy from Ms Tori on Vimeo.