Puppy Insights

As a dog foster parent, I've taken care of hundreds of puppies. Well, that may be a slight exaggeration... okay fine, a huge exaggeration. But I do feel that I have enough experience with puppies to share with you the following insights.

1. All puppies are cute. And as a general rule, the cuter the puppy, the more trouble they are.

2. A puppy needs to drink and eat often. And what goes in, must come out, just as often. Be prepared to do a lot of cleaning up when you have a puppy.

3. The only thing cuter than one puppy is two puppies. However, refer to rule #1 and rule #2 above.

4. Even a typical "tough guy" can be brought to his knees by puppy love.

5. Puppies love to chew. No matter how cute they are, don't let them get away with chewing on things that you don't want to be destroyed. If you never really liked that pair of shoes though, just let them keep chewing while you take pictures.

6. Don't let them fool you. Puppies can be tough too.

7. Puppy teeth are some of the sharpest teeth in the world. They have been proven to be sharper than knives. Really.    Okay not really.

8. When they are just six weeks old, most puppies haven't completely mastered running or walking. And this makes them fun to watch. But be warned - by seven weeks old, they may have mastered the art of escaping from their pen. So when you get home from work, you could find them wandering around the house, doing whatever they want (refer to rule #2 and rule #5 above).

I just have to say....

Fostering puppies can be very draining.

Ziggy chews

He chews a lot.  All attempts to redirect his chewing to specific objects like dog toys seem to end in failure.  Although many methods have been tried to reduce his desire to chew on prohibited items, the success rate of these methods leaves a lot to be desired.  For example, please note Ziggy's choice of chew toy this evening.

Can you read the label?  Here is a closer look.

That's right.  The Premium No Chew Spray apparently tastes quite yummy to Ziggy.  In fact, when he is really enjoying something, he closes his eyes while he chews.  And once he chewed off the top of the spray bottle, he began chewing with his eyes closed. 

Apparently the No Chew Spray has received the Ziggy stamp of approval as an enjoyable treat.  Who knew!  

Losing

After the recent house offer fell through, I received some more bad news. The subdivision will not allow me any more time to keep the foster animals, so they all must go. Only Remi and Noelle can stay. I am losing all of my fosters as well as my own cat. Rudy and Tripoli will go back to the original foster homes they came from. My cat Merlin will go to live with my parents. Ziggy may be going to a temporary foster home. And Gretchen loses the most. She has been at a shelter for almost a month now, and can't stay much longer since she is having trouble in the shelter environment. Since I have no idea when I'll be able to take her, and we haven't been able to find another foster home for her, she will lose her life. 

I am also worried about Ziggy. There is one person who offered a temporary foster home for him, but it may be several months before I am able to move and take him back, and if he doesn't work out at that foster home, he will have limited options. He is not an easy dog, and he would probably not do well in a shelter or boarding situation long-term. Long-term foster homes are in high demand and the few people I know who are willing to take on a deaf chewy pit bull are already full or have other pets that make it a bad fit. I am not giving up on him, and hopefully he will work out in his termporary foster home, but I admit I am concerned. One of my rescue friends already offered to help with boarding costs if needed. I live in the metro St. Louis area, and there are a lot of boarding facilities here. I am thinking perhaps he can just stay at one boarding facility until he is kicked out, and then sent on to the next one. Kind of like a rich kid who continually gets kicked out of all the boarding schools he attends. It's an option. If it comes to that I may be taking up a collection to pay for his tuition boarding fees. For now I will hope he is on his best behavior in his temporary foster home! The house search continues, and in the meantime I am blessed to have so many friends who are willing to step in and help however they can. Special thank yous to Bev, Chuck, Heather, Linda, Mom and Dad, for all you've done and all you've offered to do to help in this awful situation!

Puppy News

Before I talk about my puppies, I wanted to let you know of another foster blog that I recently discovered. 
From Shelter 2 Home is the blog of a teenage foster volunteer for Jacksonville Humane Society.  She currently is fostering three adorable puppies, and is doing a great job helping to save lives.  Please stop by and thank her for the work she is doing! 

Poky

Now on to news of my puppies.  Panda Bear and Poky are part of a litter of six pups. They came from southern Oklahoma, but I am working hard to turn them into proper Missouri dogs. The puppies were born and lived under an empty beach house. When the puppies were rescued they were covered with fleas and had many spots of missing hair due to the flea bites. Their rescuer got them needed medical care and then brought them to us so we could help them find homes. They should be ready to be spayed/neutered in a few weeks and then will be ready for adoption. Since there were six puppies, we found two other rescue volunteers who agreed to each take two puppies as fosters. As young as they are, it's not good for the puppies to be alone, so by keeping them with at least one sibling in foster care they can still learn proper dog behavior from each other. I'll share some updates/pictures on the other puppies soon. In fact, I should warn you now that you will probably see nothing except puppy pictures and puppy stories on my blog for the foreseeable future. I apologize in advance. If you get tired of puppies, please return in a few weeks when I will maybe have taken a picture of something or someone other than another puppy. Maybe.

Panda Bear

I took these pictures when I took them to my mom's house to meet my neices and nephew. It is very important for young puppies between 6 and 16 weeks of age to meet as many new and different people and situations as they can. This is true, but it is also a good excuse to take the puppies places to show them off. By the way, I didn't tell my husband I was bringing these puppies home. I waited until he noticed them and asked me about them. Then I said "what puppies? I don't know what you're talking about." But he didn't believe me. So I changed tactics and said "they aren't puppies, they are guinea pigs." They are about the same size as guinea pigs, so I thought it was worth a try. He didn't fall for that either. But incidentally, my three year old nephew did, and when his parents said something about the puppy he was holding, he informed them that it wasn't a puppy, it was a guinea pig! Or maybe he was trying the same trick in hopes that his parents would let him keep a guinea pig.

And now I'd like to share with you a brief compilation of playful Poky puppy pictures.

Introducing Poky and Panda Bear

I received some bad news about the house I was purchasing.  To make a long story short, during the appraisal it was discovered that the house was a different type than was originally thought, and that caused a change in the type of financing I could get and therefore I am not going to be purchasing that house after all.  I was very disappointed, so when I received an e-mail less than an hour later asking if I could help with some puppies, I decided to just say yes!  A "puppy fix" was exactly what I needed to make me feel better - and to give me the motivation to keep searching for another home.

So yesterday I brought home Poky and Panda Bear.  They are only six weeks old.  Poky looks a bit like the puppy in the famous children's book The Poky Little Puppy.  He acts like him too - compared to his sister, he is a lot slower, more laid back, and likes to go off on his own to explore.  Panda Bear is more outgoing, friendly and playful.  They are both wonderful, and have definitely cheered me up.

Favorite Foster Pet Video

In January 2009 I brought home a four pound pit bull puppy.  I named her Boo, and I took this video of her barking at me so I would let her out of her pen.  The funny part is not her bark (although I think that's pretty cute too) it's her ears.  Watch her ears...