Poor Little Paco

I needed an easy foster after 3 months with Georgia and her pelvic fracture and resulting cage rest, so I took a 2 week kennel cough case. Paco is a chihuahua mix, mixed with something much bigger than a chihuahua. He weighed 18 pounds and only some of that was being overweight (which he was).

Paco was a shy dog and was slow to warm up. He was more comfortable with Pat than me, but he really wasn't interested in either of us. He liked the dogs right away, but he didn't settle in quickly. Despite his unsure state and aloofness, he was very polite and well-behaved. He spent his first few hours watching the dogs and not looking at us. He learned to drink from the pool after watching Frankie and Georgie do it.

I read in his material that prior to needing a foster for kennel cough, he was on a behavior hold. He was hiding and growling in his kennel. They worked with him quite a bit but he remained aloof. They found that he did much better when other dogs were around.

After a day or two of ignoring us, Paco warmed right up and became a master cuddler. Once he felt secure, he liked us a lot. Taking a nap:

Paco got over his kennel cough in the 2 weeks and was taken back to be put up for adoption.

And there, he waited. And waited and waited. I knew he would be a hard adoption since he doesn't really like people until he has a chance to warm up. 15 minutes in a the get-to-know-you-area is not enough time for him to warm up. I networked him like crazy - posting him on my work classifieds, posting numerous times to my facebook page and having everyone share the post. I had a guy from our IT department say he saw the picture of Paco sleeping on my shoulder in his facebook news feed, posted by someone I don't even know! The word was out on what an awesome dog Paco was, but yet, no one was adopting him. :(  My heart was breaking every day that I checked the shelter website and saw poor little Paco's picture still there.

One of the attorneys at my firm shared the ad that I posted with his wife. He told me that his wife, a city attorney, was doing everything she could to find Paco a home. She emailed me a few times to ask his status. Finally, after 3 weeks of no adopters and poor Paco being sad and terrified at the shelter, I decided that if no one took him over Memorial Day weekend, I would just have to adopt him. He isn't the dog I want, but he is sweet, cuddly, and very very easy. On Friday I got an email from the attorney's wife saying that a friend was going to adopt him on Saturday ! Yet, on Saturday night, his picture was still on the website showing that he was available. They didn't take him. Very sad.  :(  But on Sunday I got an email from the attorney's wife's friend saying that they had gone and picked up Paco. He was currently staying with her but he was going to have a home with the family of one of her friends. He would have a mom and dad and 2 kids to play with. And, she said if for some reason it didn't work out, Paco would come back to live with her and so I did not have to have anymore sleepless nights worried about poor little Paco. Networking works! And now a co-worker's wife's friend's friend is the happy owner of poor little Paco! YAY!

Smitty, Georgia and Andy

Smitty
Little Smitty was a quick foster who just needed some time for his wounds to heal. He was a young cairn terrier mix.

He was a friendly little guy, if a little needy. He was always wanting to be held, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. He came in as a stray so I got to name him. I picked him up on a Coyotes game night and I decided to name him while we were watching the game. I would name him after the first player to score, unless the first goal went to the Oilers, then I'd name him after our goalie. Yep, the Oilers scored first and Smitty got his name. We only had him for a week and a half. He got adopted quickly, like most of my fosters do. :)

Georgia
Next up was Georgia. It had been awhile since I'd had a hard foster so I felt I needed to do my part. I took Georgia. In addition to having a really bad hair day, she had a broken pelvis and required 2 months of cage rest.
She was a teeny, tiny thing who weighed almost nothing. But despite her wee size, boy, could that dog scream! She didn't bark, she screamed. And she screamed whenever she was caged, which is all the time when you're on cage rest. We got new neighbors during the time we had Georgia and I had to assure them that we wouldn't have her forever. It was January so our windows were always open, and their windows were always open, so we all had to endure the screaming. The screaming which never ended.

When she wasn't screaming, she was awesome. She was cuddly and sweet, and housetrained. She LOVED to play with the cat, she loved her toys and she loved the dogs. We put the toy box in her x-pen and she'd crawl right into the box so she could play with every toy we have. When she was healed enough to play, we learned that she was a fetch super-star. But by then, we were so annoyed with her screaming that even though she was no longer caged and thus no longer screaming, we were eager to take her back to the shelter. Even after a bath and a brush, the bad hair day persists.


Andy
Andy was very close to being a keeper. He was a 9 pound chihuahua that I fostered for cherry eye. When I picked him up I immediately fell in love with him. He was very athletic and sturdy for being such a tiny little dog. He got along great with the other dogs, he was housetrained. He was very agile and even in his cone, he could jump up on the chairs. He was perfect. Here he is with my dogs and my old roommate's dog, Chugg.

See how tiny he is? So cute! And I loved his striped face and spotted body. So cute! He had two speeds: 100 miles an hour and cuddle. So awesome!

Then I found out what was wrong with him - He HATED the cat. He was obsessed with the cat. He would jump up on the chair and then get onto the table to attack the cat. Bless Al's heart, he didn't even care. While Andy was attacking him, Al would just look at me like "Why do I have to put up with these little dogs?' Al didn't fight back, just tolerated it like he would a flea. Andy was so obsessed that he would just stare at the kitty non-stop:

Once when I brought the dogs in from outside, Al wasn't up on the table where he lives but on the kitchen floor instead. (On a non-Andy note, I think Al might be going deaf because he always gets up on the table when he hears me open the back door to let the dogs in.) Andy raced to him and started attacking him. I picked Al up to get him away from the fury of the little chihuahua. What did Andy do? He leaped into the air and caught Al's hind leg and held on like he was a pit bull with locking jaws. Andy - you are a chihuahua! And you are not a keeper.  Even despite his cat-hating, I kept him longer than I needed to because I liked him so much. When Al wasn't around, he was so much fun! But I finally returned him for adoption and he was adopted 2 days later, hopefully to a home with no cats! His kennel card stated he wasn't good with cats so let's hope the adopters believed it.

Atomic Atom

Just before Christmas we fostered a border collie mix named Adam. He was bigger than my usual fosters, but he was the littlest dog the shelter had available at the time and I just hoped that Mo wouldn't complain too much.

 As you can see, he lost an eye. We took care of him while he healed from his surgery. I don't know what happened to injure his eyeball, but I'm guessing whatever it was was his own fault.

Within a day, I changed Adam's name to Atom because of his atomic energy. The dog was everywhere at once, running, playing, jumping up on the chairs, even jumping up onto the counter where I found him happily eating kitty's food. Despite his crazy amount of energy, I really liked Atom! He was eager to please, easy to train and he loved to play with the other dogs.


What has 7 legs and 3 eyes?

I was worried that his spastic behavior might prevent him from being adopted right away. I decided I'd give it a week and if he wasn't adopted, I would adopt him. I don't know how he would do with agility since his depth perception might be off (though it didn't hinder him at all that I could tell) but I was willing to give him a try.

Alas, I had no need to worry. Atom was adopted the same day I returned him to the shelter. It turns out that he was adopted by a friend of a friend. At the Bacon's Christmas party, my friend Jen told me she saw some pictures of Atom (now Buster) on facebook and she thought that I had adopted him. Then she realized that it wasn't me posting the adoption pics - it was a teacher-friend at her school! Small world. I am now facebook friends with that teacher-friend and I'm able to keep up to date on all the Atom, I mean Buster, fun, including his graduation from obedience school! He's such a good puppy!!

The Winning Mr. Winston

Meet Winston!

Winston is a 3 year old Chihuahua mix who just had FHO surgery. He will be recuperating at our house for the next four weeks. I am currently reading 1984 for book club so I named him after the main character. Big Brother is watching you, Winston!

We've only had him for 3 days, but he is already making himself quite at home!

I love an easy foster, and Winston is certainly that. He is housetrained, he gets along with the dogs and he doesn't bark much. He does do this hilarious "talking" thing when you are eating and not giving him any of your food. I've never seen begging quite like it. He doesn't bark at you but he is very vocal. I'll have to try to get it on video.

Yo Quiero Taco Bell:

After we finished eating our super-healthy Taco Bell lunch with Winston chirping at us the whole time, Pat let Winston up on his lap. Winston immediately put his front paws on the table and pulled the Taco Bell box all the way to the edge of the table so he could scavenge for crumbs. It was so cute. He doesn't know Pat very well yet, or he would have known there would be no crumbs left over!

Updated a few days later:  I took Winston over to meet the Bacon Bits. He loved all the kids but he gravitated towards the youngest one. We were all sitting in a circle on the floor and he was scared of their cat. When the cat would come around, he'd run over to Maggie, who is 9, and hide in her lap. It was very cute.

Winston is also scared of my cat. For the first few days, he accepted Al but was nervous about it. As he was around Al more, he got more scared of him and started trying to run him off. Twice when I was watching hockey sitting on the couch with Winston in my lap and Al next to me, Winston tried to attack Al. The first time it happened, Al spooked and ran away. The second time it happened, Al wasn't phased at all (I love this cat - he is so awesome!) and just stayed put. You could almost hear him thinking "Oh, please, little chihuahua. I am so above fighting, but if it came down to it, I would kick your ass. So just simmer down now."  Poor Winston was now scared and mad so he upped the attack. Kitty still did nothing so I removed Winston to chill in his crate for awhile. 

So, I guess we'll say good with children and bad with cats. :) 

Updated March 18:  Winston passed his vet exam two weeks early (he's a good healer!) and went up for adoption. Sadly, TWO weekends have passed and Winston is still at the shelter. He is such a people-oriented little guy, I bet that he's just wilting there. I'm afraid that people aren't getting to see his true happy nature. If you know of anyone in the market for a little dog to live in a cat-free home, send them to the Arizona Humane Society Campus for Compassion. Poor little Winston.

Sweden

We had a crazy, record-breaking cold January. Temperatures below freezing for multiple nights in a row, which is quite unusual in Phoenix! On one of these ridiculously cold days, I saw a loose dog near the park by my house while I was driving home from work. It was a pit bull mix and I could tell she was wearing a collar.

As soon as I saw her, I slowed down. She watched me. I turned the car around to park. She watched me. I got out of the car. She watched me. I opened the back door and asked if she wanted to go for a ride. She watched me. I got out a leash and some treats. She watched me. I crossed the street, walking toward her. She watched me. I got closer. She backed away, still watching me. I got out my treats and threw one towards her. She ate it, still watching me. She was very wary but also interested in befriending me.

After about 15 minutes freezing my ass off and going through almost a full bag of treats, I was able to grab her collar and slip the leash on her. As soon as the leash was on, she was immediately trusting of me like we had been friends forever. We walked around the neighborhood going door-to-door asking the neighbors if they knew her. No one knew her but I was told that she had been loose in the area for two days. This means that she was out overnight with the temperatures below freezing!! Poor little girl! No wonder she was so willing to let me catch her!

I took her to the park and asked the families there if they knew her. No luck. I took her to the EAC to have them scan for a chip. No luck. So I took her home. It took quite a bit of maneuvering to get my dogs in and out and fed, and her in and out and fed without them meeting. She seemed friendly but Frankie is sometimes sketchy and Mo doesn't always like big dogs so I didn't want to introduce them without Pat being there to hold one of the leashes. Also, it was dark out now and she was a black dog so I wouldn't really be able to see her body language when she was being introduced. So, I tied her up to the boat for a bit and I left her in the car for a bit while I moved everyone around. She was completely patient though it all. Every time I came back to her, she wagged and wiggled like crazy!

Finally I brought her into the house and to the guest room. She plopped right up onto the bed and stretched out. She almost immediately fell asleep. She must have been completely worn out from being out in the cold for all that time!

I did everything I could to find her owners. She was so well-behaved and she had on a brand new sparkly pink collar so she had to belong to someone! I searched all the websites for lost dog posts. I posted on Craigslist and PetHarbor. I posted her on my facebook wall and on a bunch of other facebook pages. I posted signs all over the neighborhood on my way to work the next day. It was 28 degrees out! My fingers were about to fall off! I emailed my neighbors. So many people pitched in to help spread the word. One of my neighbor friends emailed our Neighborhood Watch Captain and he sent her picture out to the whole area. People forwarded that email and people forwarded that. I knew it was working when I was a recipient of one of the emails! The facebook picture was shared 657 times! I posted more signs at the shelters. I posted new ads on Craigslist. And after a week...still nothing! :(

Over that week, my stray pit bull mix proved to be one of the most well-behaved, most friendly dogs ever! She liked my dogs. She ignored the cat. We had the Chocolate Chihuahua at the same time and she completely ignored the Little Shit's aggressive demeanor. She was a bit afraid of Pat at first, and other men who visited, but never showed any signs of fear-aggression and she warmed up quickly. She loved to cuddle and loved hugs. She never chewed on anything other than the bones we gave her. She was house trained. We called her Sweetie, which didn't seem like a "real" name so I changed it to Sweden. A dog named Sweden should have blond hair and blue eyes, right? Ha, not this one!  Tail wagging:

She didn't know any commands when I found her, but she learned sit in a matter of 10 minutes. She quickly learned she had to sit/stay before I would dole out her dinner. She was a smart cookie!

She was the exact same size as Mo, but weighed 10 pounds more. Yet, she still thought she fit in this dog bed:

With all the emails and all the facebook photo shares going around, I had five people contact me to say they were interested in her! So awesome! I did three family visits. One family didn't work out because they were looking for a dog to wrestle and play with their black lab. Sweden and the lab got along just fine but Sweden wasn't interested in playing. She is much more interested in hanging out with her people than playing with dogs. Another guy didn't work out because his rescue pit/border collie mix (who looked a lot like Sweden!) did not like her at all. She was scared of him and hid behind me. In the end, Sweden went to a family in Glendale who used to have a Rottie (he died of old age) and felt they were ready for another dog. They have no other pets and the mom fell in love with Sweden at first sight!

Sweden's name is now Lilly. She was a wonderful house guest and I hope she has a long and happy life with her new family!!

A Chocolate Chihuahua

We fostered this little guy for two weeks in January while he recovered from kennel cough. 

His real name was Ringo but we never called him that. It was always either The Chocolate Chihuahua or Little Shit.

If I wasn't so diplomatic when filling out his kennel card information, it would have read like this:

Here we have a little shit of a dog. He is a pain in the ass, not very affectionate and not very smart. He is aloof and stand-offish, which appears to be more of a personality trait than an outcome of being fearful or previous bad treatment. He will tolerate cuddling when it's cold but that's only because he's seeking your warmth. He will run out any open door and will not come when called nor will he chase you if you turn around and run the other way. He is scared of cats. He will tolerate dogs that you introduce him to while he's too sick to care, but after that, any big dogs he meets will be greeted with growls and lip curls as he has a big case of Little Man Complex.  He isn't very cute with those permanently red-rimmed eyes. His only redeeming traits are that he is 100% house trained, walks well on a leash, and he likes to burrow under the blankets which is moderately entertaining. If you choose to adopt this little shit, we hope you have a good sense of humor and a strong sense of self so you won't feel bad when your dog doesn't like you.

His kennel card ended up just saying generic stuff like he likes to go for walks. :) He was adopted in 3 days. I hope his new people are a better match for him than I was! I've been looking at the website for the past few weeks and the Chocolate Chihuahua has not showed up again, so I guess his new family have decided to keep him and he hasn't run away yet!

Barney

 

Meet Barney, my latest foster. Barney is a recovering from a broken leg via a splint and cage rest. He is a two year old Lhasa Apso. Or maybe a Shih Tzu. Who knows? The shelter says lhasa, I say shih tzu. I did a google search on the difference between a lhasa apso and a shih tzu and the best I can tell is that shih tzus wear there top hair in a pony tail and lhasas don't. Since this little dude came in as a stray, there was no one to be styling his hair so that differentiation is lost on him. No matter what his breed, he is a cute little sweetie.

His cast is so big. His leg sticks out in front of him when he sits.

His leg sticks out to the side when he sleeps. That can't be comfortable, can it?

Barney has a few favorites things, such as my dogs, getting the zoomies and chewing bully sticks. I hope a big alarm sounded when you read "zoomies". He's supposed to be on cage rest, remember? Zoomies are strictly NOT allowed. Well, this morning I was in a huge hurry and it takes me forever to find the collar ring under all that hair so I didn't put a leash on him to go potty outside. I figured he would pee real quick and then I'd pick him and take him inside, just like every other morning for the past 3 weeks. I underestimated Barney's intelligence! He knew he wasn't on a leash and he knew that means I had no control of him. I put him down on the ground and SHAZAM! He was off. He was zipping around like a dog on fire, huge grin on his face. He wouldn't come near me at all. It was a huge game of keep away...the funnest game a dog has ever invented, according to the dog. Not so fun for the human! Especially when that human is in charge of CAGE REST! I take some solace in the fact that he did his zoomies all on 3 legs and didn't put any weight on the broken leg. Finally I gave up and went inside and he followed me so he wouldn't be left outside alone.

Barney does not like to be alone. He wants to be with you and be a part of the family. When he's in his x-pen in the dining room, he will go crazy with the barking if I leave the room, even to just grab something from my bedroom. At night, I put him in a crate in the dogs' room. He's not alone, right? He's got Frankie, Georgie and Mo with him. Yeah, try telling him that. He'll go to sleep for a little bit, but he will wake up in the middle of the night barking. And barking. And barking. I try to let him bark himself out, like a normal dog would do, but no. He doesn't give up. After an hour and 40 minutes (not exaggerating), I would give in. I couldn't take it longer than that. Finally, I gave in altogether and now he just sleeps in my room from the get-go....and not a peep all night. As long as he is with the people, he is a happy and QUIET little dog.

His ideal life would to be with us and with the dogs, too. He LOVES the dogs. He wants so badly to play with them. He tries to wrestle with Georgie and he play bows Frankie into a game of chase that he can't follow through on because I've got him on a leash. Poor little guy. I am looking forward to him being cleared for activity, because Frankie will be so happy to have someone to play with.  Georgie has turned into a lazy-butt recently and doesn't play with him as often and he is sad. Barney will be good for him, hopefully soon!  Though when he's cleared for activity, he will go back to the shelter shortly after that to go find himself a forever home. Hopefully that home has dogs!

Olympic Pups - Track and Fielder

Who fostered the cutest puppies ever? I did!

I got these cuties four weeks ago, during the height of the Olympic excitement. Thus, I wanted them to have Olympic names. I thought about Shot Put and Discus, Breaststroke and Backstroke, Bars and Beam, but finally settled on Track and Fielder. Track is the brown one, Fielder is the cream colored one.

They were picked up as strays by County and were transferred to the Humane Society for medical treatment. When they were found they were covered in ticks and scabs. When I got them they were covered in dead ticks (thanks to a tick dip) and scabs. Track was underweight and he had no hair on his body at all except that little brown spot by his tail. 

They were tested for mange and tick fever and luckily were negative for both. All they needed was a little fattening up, some oatmeal baths and some TLC.

They certainly didn't know they were sick. They were jolly, cuddly and super-playful. It was hard to get good pictures of them because they were constantly in wrestling motion. I have about 100 pictures that look like this:

I haven't had puppies in a long time and my dogs were not quite sure that they liked the idea.  Frankie was terrified, to the point that he was drooling like a madman. I tried to explain to him that they were puppies not monsters, but he wasn't convinced. A little (a lot) nervous:

Georgie didn't want anything to do with them. She spent the first few weeks as far away from them as she could get:

Mo was simply annoyed. The puppies loved to jump up and bite her in the face. She would growl at them, but that didn't deter them. She finally gave up the growling and tried to just ignore them. That didn't work either.

After a few weeks of the puppies, my dogs decided that perhaps puppies really are dogs and perhaps they could accept them.

When I go swimming, I leave the dogs' room open so they chill inside if they want to. They all wanted to.

Isn't this cute?

I've had over 30 dogs stay with me and Track and Fielder are the first dogs to take up the diving board as their relaxation spot. This is also cute because it highlights how they were always together. They acted like one dog, never more than a few feet from each other. I bet they will be sad at first when they get adopted since they will be separated for the first time. I hope they both get adopted on the same day so neither one has to spend time at the shelter alone. It's a scary place!

Here are the kennel card photos I submitted for them-
Track:

Fielder:

The cute Olympic puppies are getting neutered tomorrow and will be up for adoption on Tuesday. I'm guessing they will get chosen quickly. They are adorable, playful and Fielder is even housetrained! Good luck little Olympic puppies! We loved having you!!

Jake

This is Jake:

Jake is already up for adoption at the Humane Society! Here is his foster story.

 

After a short break from fostering (I needed some sleep; Quinn was a VERY early riser), I called the Humane Society to see what they had for available for foster, preferably something along the lines of mange or tick fever or infected uterus in size small, please. Anything that doesn't require cage rest. They didn't have anything small. Bummer. However, a few days later they called and asked if I could take a beagle mix with mange. Mange! Yay!

When I got there to pick up the dog, they inquired about my request for small dogs. I explained that Mo is a Nervous Nelly who doesn't particularly enjoy other dogs though she seems to do okay with smaller dogs. The foster lady looked a little nervous and told me that the mangy beagle mix was actually 40 pounds. 40 pounds is not small! But I was there and a mangy beagle mix needed some foster care so I said okay. Mo would just have to deal.  And so they brought out Jake...who is exactly the same size as Georgie! Georgie, who is 29 pounds!  No problem!

Seriously, Jake and Georgie are exactly the same size:

I think he is more basset mix which would account for his low-slung heavy stature.

Jake was originally fostered for two months by a different foster home while he recovered from a bad leg injury. His leg was torn open all the way to the bone. It was so bad they couldn't suture it closed so they let it scar over while wrapped up. The scar is about an inch wide down the whole length of his leg.  I don't have any pictures of it. He is also covered with scars all over his face. You can see a few of them in this picture, though there are a few more that you can't see.

Who knows what happened to this boy in his prior days, but I can tell you that it hasn't at all affected his temperament. The day I brought him home, he allowed me to trim all his nails and clean his ears, and he lay still for about 45 minutes while I manipulated him in all sorts of configurations to thoroughly de-tick him. He was amazing! After his leg healed, the poor guy was diagnosed with mange. The original foster couldn't keep him any longer which is why I got the call.

He got along with Georgie, immediately asking her to play. As Frankie got used to him, they would wrestle and play chase frequently. For the most part Jake respected Mo's request for distance, though every once in a while he tried to be more friendly than she wanted.

Jake LOVED toys! He especially loved to run around the yard with a toy in his mouth. He would demolish stuffed animals in minutes. I went to Goodwill and bought a bunch of $1 stuffed animals to keep him happy.

Isn't this cute? This is the picture they put on his kennel card and online:

Although Jake came to me housetrained, he had never been taught to sit. Teaching him to sit was an arduous task. He really liked his food so I thought he would be easily trained. Wrong! The problem was that Jake was TOO easy-going. I would hand-feed him his entire meal piece by piece, breakfast and dinner - each time giving the command to sit, showing him the correct position and then giving him the kibble. You think eventually he would understand. But no...his thought process was more along the lines of "this crazy lady sure likes to maneuver me around. Okay, I don't mind. I'll let her do whatever she wants. I can wait til she decides to give me the next morsel."  It took him probably about 325 repetitions before he finally realized that he was supposed to be playing a part in this game. When he did eventually connect the dots, he had a solid sit. I never did get a chance to start on down. 

 He really was an awesome dog. He walked perfectly on a leash. He was housetrained. He was super-duper cuddly. If you were watching a movie or taking a nap, he would happily snuggle up with you for the duration, happy as a clam! He was super-silly, always doing things that made us laugh. Once he tried to jump, with all 4 feet, into my lap while I was sitting on a high barstool. He failed. :) With all the wonderful things about him, there always has to be a catch, right?

The catch was that, like Quinn, Jake was an early riser. As all my fosters do, he slept in a crate in the dogs' room. He would wake up and start barking at 5:00-5:30 every day and loudly protest being in the crate until I came to get him. Ugh, I needed sleep!  They had told me at the shelter that he was a chewer, and though he tore through toys really quickly, he hadn't even attempted to chew anything he wasn't given for that purpose. So, to see if he'd sleep longer, I decided to test him sleeping loose in the room with Frankie and Georgie. It worked like a charm the first night. He slept on the couch and didn't wake up until I woke them up. Yay!

But the second night, he woke up early again. He barked once or twice but then was quiet so I went back to sleep. You should always be suspicious of quiet dogs! Jake was being quiet because he was happily chewing the stuffing out of the couch! The couch is a "dog couch" so this was no tragedy.

"I didn't do nuthin'! See? I gots this pink toy in my mouth...it couldn't have been me!"

So, back to the crate for Jake. Back to really early rising for me. I hypothesize that if he was allowed to sleep in the bed with us, he would have slept as long as we wanted him to. Pat is out of town this week so I was going to test that hypothesis. However, when I took him to his vet appointment (Jake, not Pat) on Saturday, they surprised me with the news that his skin scrape was clear and he could be put up for adoption immediately. I was supposed to have him for 4 more weeks! I hadn't taught him down yet. I hadn't taken any video of him yet. I hadn't even filled out his adoption information paperwork!  My intention was to create an adoption video to try to help him get adopted. He's so ordinary looking that I'm afraid he'll get overlooked in the shelter. He's adorable, but he looks like 50 other of the 100+ dogs there.

It's a good thing that he got to go up for adoption sooner than planned so he can hopefully find a home sooner than planned, but I'm still worried about him. He has been up for adoption already for 5 days. It makes me sad to think of all these days that are going by that he doesn't get to snuggle with someone. :(   Please, someone out there, please go adopt my boy. You won't regret it!

Until he is adopted, this link to his adoption profile will be active: http://www.petharbor.com/pet.asp?uaid=AZHS.A395247

The Mighty Quinn

I would like to introduce you to the Mighty Quinn.

How cute is that face?!

The Mighty Quinn is an adorable, teeny, tiny, insecure little beagle with, you guessed it, a broken leg. To give you a perspective of how little this beagle is, here he is next to Frankie.

We named him Mighty Quinn in an effort to give him some confidence. That plus a ton of love and a constant routine have helped him out a bit. He's still a little bit insecure but he's no longer quivery. He really wants to please you, but he isn't always sure want you want.

As he's getting comfortable at our house, he is showing his true personality. His true personality is a little quirky. Quirky Quinn. For example, he's great in his crate. No crying or whining when you leave for the day or when you put him to bed. It's when you come back for him that he gets upset. He starts barking and crying and freaking out. It's as if he's saying "I can't believe you left me alone! And I WAS ALONE! All by myself! And it was terrible. TERRIBLE! Ahhhhh!" It takes him about 5 minutes to settle down when you let him out of the crate.

More quirkiness... He loves strangers and wants them all to be his friend. When people come over, he gets uncontrollably wiggly and wants to get in the visitor's lap. He's happy as can be to be loved on by any and every person. I have a few friends, however, who don't enjoy wiggly little dogs in their laps. As we sit on the couch (watching Coyotes playoff hockey. Woo hoo! Go Coyotes!), he'll try for a long time to weasel his way over to them. When he finally figures out that they don't want to be his BFF, he gets pissed. He instantly switches from happy, wiggly "I-love-you"s to growly, barking "I-hate-you"s. He looks right at the unwilling non-friend and speaks his mind. If his barks could be translated, his sentiments wouldn't be fit for print on my blog.

His other habit, which is more annoying than it is quirky, is to wake up at 5:45 every morning. 5:45 am! And by "wake up", I mean he starts scream-barking at 5:45 am. "HEY! I'm alone! ALONE! Come get me now! NOW!"  If he was my dog, I would let him bark it out to teach him that 5:45 is not an acceptable time for scream-barking (as if there is any acceptable time for scream-barking). Since he is a temporary dog, it's easier to just deal with it. I deal with it by putting him back to bed 15 minutes later, after letting him out to pee and feeding him, so I can sleep for another 30 minutes. And true to his quirky nature, he goes right back in his crate quiet as can be...until I let him out again.

In the past 5 weeks, he's been in for some splint changes. Purple:

 

At his second appointment they said he was doing great and the bone was healing well. Yay! I rock as a foster mom! Blue splint:

At his vet third appointment he was neutered and got his back dewclaws removed. They did another x-ray on the bone and found that it wasn't doing so well this time. Boo. I suck as a foster mom. They took his splint off anyway, in hopes that the bone would heal itself if it were more free. No splint, but bandages on the back paws:

 

Since he doesn't have a splint to protect the bone, he is now on Super-Strict Cage Rest.  He only gets to walk for about a minute a day during potty breaks. I carry him all over the house and I move a crate all over the house so he can be caged wherever I am. He's getting a little stir crazy. He goes back for a check-up at the end of this week. Hopefully his restrictions will be lifted because he really needs to be leash-trained!

Before the splint came off, I let him wander around the backyard at potty time. I initially tried taking him out on leash, but it was obvious he'd never been on one before. When he hits the end of it, he gets scared and freezes. He lays down and won't move again until I pick him up. Now that he's on Super-Strict Cage Rest, he only gets to go out on a leash. Luckily, since he had previously gotten used to our routine of potty breaks, he does his business as soon as I set him on the ground (what a good dog!). We don't run into the leash problem as often. But when I'm not quick enough to keep the slack when he's walking, he still freezes when he hits the end of the line. A couple of real walks with the the other dogs is all it will take to get him used to the leash, but that will have to wait until he is cleared for exercise. Here's hoping for a good vet visit this week!

Peanut

Hello there, reader. Allow me to introduce you to Peanut who is the current star of my foster rotation. This is Peanut: Peanut is a 5 year old pug/chihuahua mix, which I'm sure you could have guessed by looking at him. I don't know how he manages to be squishy-faced like a pug and pointy-faced like a chihuahua all at once, but he does!

Peanut was found as a stray. He had a collar and tag on, but the tag information was a dead end. Boo.

When he was found, he was not putting any weight on his back leg. It turns out that he was suffering from a luxating patella, which is a fancy way of saying "dislocated kneecap". And I bet you assumed from the cast that he was just another dime-a-dozen broken legged foster. Oh, no! Peanut is much too fancy for the ordinary broken leg.

When Peanut arrived at Casa de Pequeno Diamante, he was muy gordo. A little fattie, if you will. I don't allow fat dogs, so his 10 pounds was brought down to a much better 8.7 pounds.
He was on cage rest for the first four weeks, which means that if he wasn't in his crate or x-pen, he was in my lap. When in his ex-pen, he is a huge complainer! Bark, bark, bark! When in my lap, he is content as can be.

"Oooh! Are you about to pick me up?! Yippee!!"
Now that he has been cleared for freedom to roam the house and walk around like a regular dog, I understand why he was so fat. He is a PIG. He wants to eat constantly. He starts demanding his dinner two hours before it's time to eat. He'll scratch at the door that leads to the dog food until I physically have to remove him. When we are in the bedroom, he tries to get my attention and have me follow him out to the kitchen. He wakes up at 6:00 am every day, barking like a fiend. I figured it was because he really had to pee, but I know now that he was saying "GET UP AND FEED ME NOW!" Apparently his original owners allowed themselves to be bossed around by a little peanut. Not me! He will remain svelte for the duration of his stay and his records for his new owner will recommend watching his weight to help keep his knees healthy.

He will occasionally play with toys.But mostly he wants to cuddle or eat.

During his cage-rest period, I would put him on my lap while I worked on the computer. He always tried to get in the way, just like a cat. Finally, I gave up fighting with him and I let him crawl up onto the desk. And he promptly plopped down like the table was the comfiest dog bed ever. This is his favorite spot now.As a matter of fact, he is right there, right now. His head is on my wrist and his butt is tucked up against my other wrist and he is snoring as loudly as a true pug. What a silly little doggie!

He also likes to burrow in the covers. He's kind of lazy about it, so you have to lift the blanket up for him and then he'll crawl in. I make him a fort out of the extra pillows when I take a nap. He'll crawl right in and take his nap. One day he was burrowing in the pillows and he managed to crawl into the pillowcase and he wouldn't come out. I had to turn the pillow upside down and dump him out. He was not very happy by that turn of events!

He will go up for adoption this week. He has lots of good traits (housetrained, crate-trained, wonderful with cats, tolerates dogs, extremely affectionate [i.e. needy], a great cuddler, he doesn't shed, which is odd but true) so hopefully he will go quick. His one bad trait (barking like crazy when he is crated and you are present) may not do him any favors though, as he will be in a kennel with adopters on the other side who may not appreciate him yelling at them. One of my co-workers has a potential home for him, so that would be ideal. The less time in the shelter, the better. This dog likes his companionship!!