My Man Kaiser on a Trial with his New Family

It's true. Happy-go-lucky dogs don't stay around for long. And so, only two weeks after Kaiser's arrival to Canada, he's on a trial. Pretty darn good for a pittie mix! And where else is he trialling, but with the upstairs tenants that live in his foster home!

Regardles of his breed, I spent one day with him and knew he had that awesome happy-go-lucky personality, that he was good with dogs, always wagged his tail for people and a head scratch. That he was a face-kisser, and all around good looking young man. True to his breed he could be a rough player, but he came along fast in foster care, was great with housetraining and was crate-trained easily.

Many thanks to Amber, who fostered him, and in term, introduced him to his most likely forever home. I look forward to more pictures of this great boy, and will hopefully get to meet him at a dog walk sometime in the new year. Good luck in your trial brindle-boy. You will always have a special spot in my heart.

Mr. Kaiser

And #19 Is...

Panda. A TG girl. Cause its about darn time I got another TG foster. I think she's on the bus on her way, so I feel a little safe in announcing her.

Annoyingly, I also found her look alike. In Cali, four months old, wearing a sweater donated by someone so she wouldn't freeze to death before they could euthanize her. If she isn't saved by Wednesday, I'll save her freezing little butt.

Affectionately calling her Rattie. She's a (Toy) Rat Terrier Mix of some sort. Pictures. They do me in. Its the sweater and eyes combination. Guhh.

As you keep fostering you realize you have the capability, that the good ones don't stay very long, and the ones you want to get the heck out for some reason just have to stay that much longer. You start to realize things go round in circles, that you love it, and that it becomes monotonous. And that "I'm doing such a good thing" feeling wears off real quick to the point of "you deserve more than the world has given you, so hear, lean on my shoulder awhile, and then get your cute little butt to a real home!"

People often ask me "how do you give them up" and I go "If I didn't give them up I'd have 20 now."

I can not have twenty dogs. There are days when that foster feeling creeps over me for Lemon too, but then I realize she's as crazy as I am. That's right, we're crazy.

Panda will be my 19th foster this year, not counting the 5 dogs I've saved but not fostered, and the few 'here for a few days temporary' foster dogs.

To be perfectly honest, I'm actually more sane when I've got a few extra dogs kicking around. It's when I don't have any that I've lost my mind. Even when we hit the new house (soon, so soon!) my limit will still stay at 6. 6 is a very nice manageable number (providing you don't have 4 crazy huskies or something) that I can still do my homework and life around. It's not 'bootcamp', and its not TG, but a middle-of-the-road kind of foster home.

Which now includes.

Lemon: The Cute One

Beckett: The Blind One



Ah, Revisiting Some Pooches

It's true, 8:30pm comes around and my head turns to goobly-gouk. There is absolutely no way to manage to do anything correctly, and so, for about two hours before I throw myself into bed for another night, its the time to surf dogs, cuddle dogs, watch stupid movies, think about doing the laundry and in general, doing shit-all. Even if I have a gazillion things to do -like the crushing pile of masters rewrites, or e-mailing about tuggies, or tying my shoes, my brain just can not continue to sort all the information. It goes: "I QUIT!" and I become a laptop zombie.

Lately, I've been making my head quit before I actually finish everything that I want to, but in a way, it keeps me sane as the more I have to do, the less I get myself in trouble with having extra time.

Anyway, long story short, tonight 8:30 hit, I'd surfed through numerous Cali shelters without any picture sucking me down for another foster (oh dreaded 'yet'). I found two possibles, that if not adopted in a week or so, I'll consider seriously, but I really doubt they'll be close to euthanization. Words to eat though, as that's what happened with Adam.

Tuesday, 4 Year old Corgi/Cattle Dog Mix. @ Baldwin Park Shelter

How can you say no to that SMILE!

Second is ID#A511406 -I'm going to Call her Silver as I'd rather her name not be equivilant to a phone number. She's a five month old Chi X. Looks like a minature Pit Bull. She's @ Devore Shelter, which is notorious for having dogs freeze to death at the shelters -and they let it happen so that they don't have to euthanize! This is Silver:

Anyway, surfed those guys, (about 700 different dogs altogether!!), checked my rescue sites (I'm SO glad TG is updating daily or more than daily now. It's amazing how addicted am I to that blog and those pictures!), played a horrible game of scrabble against the machine and not-surprisingly lost.

Got an e-mail for a homecheck, figured out the Bus Run was this weekend, and went, oh hey, why not. So, might be getting somebody sooner than later. With only one extra running around it doesn't seem to be an issue whatsoever. And maybe that'll keep me from saying 'yes to the dog' (did I mention if I had cable, instead of dogs I'd be endlessly watching wedding dress and debt shows?)

Will keep you updated on that front.

But posting a pic to my facebook wall, I went surfing through some old foster pictures too. First off, over the last few days I've really been missing Trunk. So when I found this pic, I was nailed.

Me and my girl.

Now don't get me wrong. I LOVE Lemon with all my stinking heart, and she is the better dog for the total circumstances, and she makes me laugh like crazy and Beckett is even crazier about her, but there was, and always will be something about Trunk that I very much doubt will come around again anytime soon. Trunk was my heart dog. If there wasn't another dog, if we didn't rent in a very restricted pet-rentals place, and if I were single (or not I guess) Trunk would have stayed. She took a piece of me when she went and even now I catch myself at times wishing I would have kept her. She was different with me too. With me, there wasn't one hesitance, one piece of shyness, one fear. In the short time we were together she trusted me completely, and I too, trusted her completely in return. Heck, there are times when I don't even trust Beckett! (But then again, can you ever trust a mostly blind husky with a love for running?)

Trunk Happily Running in the Yard

But, although there are times that I am sad that she isn't a permenant fixture in my life, there are also the times when I think how much of blast she must be having in Tofino with her new brother Baloo, and how by not adopting her, we fell in love with a maniac ChihuahuaX who will continue to grow as more and more fosters come and give her life experience. And even though she's gone, I still have a part of her here with me, through pictures, and through experience, and through all the funny moments she brought us.

One of my favourites, BTW is crating anybody with her. One yelp and Trunk did the whining in for a few hours! Graelee didn't stand a chance! Trunk was the ultimate babysitter, my cuddle-beast, the dog I couldn't get enough of. I don't think she missed a single shift at the daycare, she was always with me. And now, she's giving that to someone else, but am I ever glad she came. Although I won't go steal her back, there will always be a spot for her back here. And this I think is why I'll never (never say never though right) get number 3. Because if Trunk ever needed another home, she would come back here and I would adopt her in a heartbeat.

There are some that leave bigger pawprints in your heart than others, but all of them get you someway. And, to finish off not-so-sappily, I've (in my 8:30-10:30pm gobbly-gouk hours) put together a calendar of some of my foster dogs this year. --Not everyone can fit!

Jan-December.

Now to turn it in. Goodnight :)

Tuggie Links -and Adoptions!

Okay, I finally managed to find some good tuggie links. These are for the square, basket weave sort of tuggie, that's more durable. A basic braid is still a good choice for small dogs, and a basic braid with a lot of ends left loose drives cats looney (in a good way).

Here are the links:

 http://youtu.be/XwCNn5Gnn6M - box stitch then: finishing box stitch -
 http://youtu.be/S4xFEb4ZHsc
 http://youtu.be/UtWWA6MQXGE
 http://youtu.be/I0SqmQNV2yU
I will be answering requests for tuggies this evening. (I got Christmas colored fabric, so am pretty excited!)

Also, things in the dog department have slowed. Chata, Kane and Lady, who were all on one week trial, were all officially adopted yesterday!!!! I'm hoping to get family photos soon :) Adam has had his home-visits, and I have offered him to one family as of this morning. I just got confirmation back that "YES, WE DEFINITELY WANT TO ADD ADAM TO OUR HOME!" He'll go home sometime this week :)

Also, because I think people are generally interested about 'numbers', here is a breakdown of costs associated with bring the five dogs (Kaiser included) over.

Chata, Kane and Lady -who came through People Loving Pets
$250 per dog for pull/boarding with Alanna/vet check for $750
$300 for Jutta's plane ride/hotel stay/crates/dog transport for a Total: $1050.00
Adoption Fees: $350.00 for Kane, $350.00 for Lady, $300.00 for Chata (discount as she was picked out and adopted before coming here, so I wouldn't have to pay to feed her,etc). Total: $1000.00

Money Out: $1050.00
Money In:    $1050.00
__________________
Funds:         -$50.00

Price to save three dogs lives: $50 (I can definitely live with that!) Plus, I have an extra crate now.

Adam:
$80 for pull and transport to boarding.
$80 for boarding.
$30 for de-fleaing, a month's worth of advantage and feeding raw for two weeks
$80 divided by 2 for $40 for us to transport him to and from Vancouver
Total: $230
Adoption Fee: $350

Money out: $230
Money in:   $350
______________
Total: +$120.00

However, there's a big difference with Kaiser, which goes to show that this is definitely not a money making game.

Kaiser:
$200 for pull and transport to boarding. Includes his vaccinations, neutering and vet exam.
$325 for boarding (he was there almost a month before he found transport, which isn't atypical)
$200 for transport to Canada
Total: $725.00
However, we did get some general sponsorship
$250 in donations.
Total now: -$475.00

Saving Kaiser was my 'birthday present' and is now an Island Dogz 'dog', so no monies for him will be coming back. (That's okay though, it was in the plans!) However, even if his adoption fee was about $300, there's no way to make money. It just goes to show that like most rescues, even if you make a slight profit (like with Adam), it ALWAYS has to go back into saving someone who needs vet attention, or needs longer care before adoption.

In other great news, a rescue took Casper (the white albino boy of the last post) in! So Casper won't have to spend his final days in a dark, cold shelter. Even with the darkness in this world, I marvel at the kind people as well. The people like Yvette and Dave of TG, Lisa the foster head, the people dedicated to seniors like Carol of Saints, and Jean and her lovely senior crew and whoever took Casper in. These are people who I admire, look up to and thank again and again.

And I know there is no way to save them all -regardless of where they are from. But, hopefully, the few I can save will go on to live happy, bright lives with families who could never part with them.

Also, this 4some (Adam, Lady, Kane & Chata) went way too smoothly. Not a single bump in the darn road -minus Adam having fleas-. Three had trials before they even arrived, so I didn't even have to bring them home (a good thing considering we aren't moved into the farm yet), and Adam had 4 applications within a week. Plus, he's such a good little house dog. AND HOUSETRAINED! As much as this pleases me, it's probably going to push me to do the California thing again! I can never completely win right ;) If it goes wrong, it goes wrong, if it goes right, I'm too tempted to do it again.

But I have to keep reminding myself, something will go wrong eventually, so I should probably quit while I'm ahead (or at least, can jump out of the hole!). Why is it so darn hard with certain faces though.

And also, a big thank-you to everyone whose shown their support for Casper, or for California rescue, and anything that I do. I've very thankful for those who read this blog, and support me, even if from afar.

Many thanks,
Emily

So Fricking ANGRY

Okay, I won't rant a lot, I swear.

Suffice to say, I fell in love with another picture/video, but know I'm not in any position to do anything until everyone is officially adopted (I'm heading to a homecheck with Adam in 20 minutes -hooray!). I'm going to try really hard not to take any more of my 'technical own' on as once I can foster 'fur sure' I want to get back to TG!!!!! (Funnily enough, I think the fact that he reminded me of White Spot is what sold me!) Anyway posting Casper on my facebook, the video tore into a few of us, and we decided to pitch in to save Casper.

Casper's a 6 year old deaf, albino mutt. He's ridiculously good-looking, (to us anyway) and the fact that's he's six and deaf did not mean very good things in general. 6 might not be old to you or me, but in a high-kill shelter, let me tell you, six is OLD. But not old enough to get senior pity!

Unfortunately, as I was making arrangements to pull him -many thanks to Piper for her amazing offer to help bring him up! (Okay, not so much offer and request accepted ;) -I'm pushy, what can I say), someone phoned into the shelter to say that Casper's people had surrended him as he has TERMINAL CANCER. Terminal freaking CANCER. They dumped their dog that has days/weeks, maybe a month to live, and couldn't do him the curtosy of paying his fee to be put down in their arms. $100 or so. Could not pay the bloody minimal dollars to have their boy die warm in their arms and loved. NOOOOOO, they had to dump him. Make his final days more painful than they already are. Why not just whack him with a shovel and do him the curtosy of not suffering in his final moments. (okay, that might be a bit extreme)

I know it happens all the time, that senior dogs get dumped, that 'problem' dogs get dumped, but for the love of pete, if you know your dog only has death knocking on the door, you DO NOT dump them (especially without informing potential people that he has terminal cancer!)

Anyway, I rant -I apologize, I said I wouldn't. Unfortunately I can't do anything for poor Casper. He's in no condition to travel over the border, and its doubtful anyone will take on a dog that's at death's door. So, I write this post in honour of Casper.

Please, if you can take a moment, watch Casper's video, and think of your own dogs, and promise, please promise, you will never dump them because they are sick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbbejyJ81xs

Tonight I hug my dogs close -even Adam, who has grown a small obsession with barking at his reflection and is slowly driving me a little nutty-, and promise them, this relationship is until death do us part, no matter how hard that might be.

Dear Casper, even if it was over a thousand miles away, you were loved.

Quick Tuggie Update

Videos won't properly load. Will try to get a more tech-savvy person to upload tomorrow. I can make a few myself, and I have orders for about 10 so far (maybe more), and can do that many if I have addresses on where to send them. PS: The mail system has a HATE OUT for me, so I'd rather not use it!

Okay, time to guzzle more orange juice. This bug has got me, and I've been fending it off for a week or two now, but its nearly time that it does me in. I'm damn well going to get to the weekend at least!

Three Chis still on trial. Getting a little antsy that not one of them has officially sealed the deal yet. All I can say is that they better ALL not come back to me!

Adam has quite a lot of interest, but we're hoping to place him by next weekend. He's already had one awesome meet and greet, but I feel I owe it to other people interested to see him too. This is not a first come, first serve foster shop.

Alright, so apologies on the tuggie front! Soon, I promise, soon!

Transport Complete!

Got stuck in Vancouver overnight, but luckily Adam and Kaiser got over the border. Both are very friendly to people and other dogs. Adam is skinny, the first thing we did when he got in was flea-bath him as he was scratching a lot. He's such a sweety though. Hard to believe he was about to be put down.

Kaiser -the pittie mix- I'm quite sure has a lot of boxer in there. He plays like boxers -BOXING, hitting dogs in the face, etc-. He's handsome, eager-to-please, but active, active, active. On the bright side, his activity is a physical kind, and not a "I NEED TO WORK" kind so finding a home shouldn't be too hard. He's now in foster with Island Dogz and playing with the two other pups in his foster home already. I only had him one night, but he's the kind of dog, that when I don't have to worry about renting, I would most likely take on in a heartbeat.

We stayed overnight, grabbed the 7am ferry and dropped Kaiser off, and swung back to the airport. Jutta was there to meet us with our three. A little bit of Kennel Cough symptoms from Lady, but other than that three sweeties. We were quickly up and away.

Dropped Kane off at his trial. Leroy, the resident dog wasn't all too upset, but was a little guardy with 'his' things. I have my fingers crossed after a couple of hours he just gives up.

Next we dropped Lady off, and although she is supposed to have a trial, she walked in and charmed everyone. So, I VERY much doubt Lady won't be adopted. But a few days never hurt anyone (I hope).

Chata went to a trial with her new family (parents of Chula and Antoinette's mum). Housebreaking is their main concern, as its all carpet, so hopefully that doesn't become an issue. I told them to give it a week as the first few days anywhere there are probably going to be accidents.

Tomorrow I will update with the tuggie info.
And a BIG thankyou to the 3-4 people who contacted me about helping with transport. Glad to know if I do it again, I have potential back-up.

But for now, to enjoying being a foster mum again :)

Best,
Emily

Arrivals Galore

First off, on Sunday I promise I will fill any and everybody in on the tuggie situation I'm gathering all the info tomorrow, but will need a couple of dedicated hours to make sure its good to go. Between work, flu symptoms (that thank goodness I've conquered by nearly drowning myself in orange juice), hunting for a seasonal job to pay the bills, submissions for my Master's program and figuring out my California dogs, I've been a little ragged.

That said, suddenly everything comes together. Kaiser and Adam arrive on Friday (in Abbotsford. If anyone can work some magic and get them to the ferry, that would be stellar awesome! But I'll go over if I need to).

Kaiser will be fostering with Amber from Island Dogz.

This was the dog I saved for my birthday -finally making it to Canada!

And about-to-be-euthanized-did-me-in-with-his-video-and-those-damn-eyes Adam (who I think I might rename Grishum), who will be staying with me as Kane has a home lined up :) :)

And, to make the weekend even more interesting, the Chihuahuas come in the very next morning! I'll be picking them up at the airport and bringing each one to their new home!

Chata (now Jinny) will be on one-week trial with her new parents. She will live above Chula and Antoinette, also saved from Baldwin Park Shelter. Good luck Jinny!

Kane has a one week trial with his new family, which includes Leroy, a confident Doxie X. I'm hoping that they'll rub off on each other. Leroy giving shy Kane some confidence, and Kane giving Leroy some of his calmness. Good luck Kane! Plus, they'll be two too cute little black dogs. I love matching families!

Lady had a fantastic home-check, and we even made sure the cat was going to be okay with dogs. Lemon helped (sort of), mostly she wanted to play with the darn cat. Anyway, Lady will be going to one-week trial, that I have no doubt will turn into a forever match. She'll have two older kids, and two committed adults. You lucked out Lady! Be a good girl in your forever home!

Alright, well, back to the chaos that is my new life. To be honest, I'd rather have my house full of dogs -it means I don't go looking for other trouble to get into. Dec 15th can't come soon enough.

Emily out.

Adam, Who Needs a New Name

There is much in common with dog rescue and potato chips. Most importantly, "Once you start, you just can't stop." It seems to be as true for my love of junkfoods (which is why I don't buy them!) and my fostering/rescuing.

Since today, I saved Adam.

He was past his last safe date, and although he MIGHT have been adopted before the long walk to the back, I wasn't about to take a chance on a MIGHT.

I went: "Now Emily, there is only so much in the bank, and things are already starting to look tight" -and then I looked at his stupid video again, and went 'well dammit, I'll eat the beans and weiners, and at least feel good that someone got to live cause I was nice enough to eat beans and weiners."

So Adam was pulled today and is in temporary boarding. Everyone is gushing over him so far. Gentle, sweet, affectionate, laid-back and easy going is what the shelter handlers, his transporter, and the kennel attendant report. And, somehow he's kennel-cough free!

In other news, Kane and Lady have meet+greets on Sunday. I have my fingers crossed for them. As much as I would like to see the faces I've saved stay with me a bit, its more important that they make as few transistions as possible.

And now, to call it a night. I'm feeling a flu starting to come on, and have decided to fight it off early to avoid it doing me in for a week when I really can't be down for a week. ORANGE JUICE!!! I don't particularly like orange juice, but whenever I start to feel ill its as much orange juice down the hatch as possible. Vitamin C overload usually = saved from the worst of the bugs going around.

Night,

Emily

Lease Signing, Potential Applications, and a Cold Coming On

This week has been a mountain of little tiny things that string together to create chaos. Luckily Thursday is my day off, so I'm camping out at home catching up on my massive amount of homework. Lots of Orange Juice will hopefully keep me away from "The Cold" that is slowly creeping up on me! No, no cold until the end of next week, when most of the chaos will return to peace.

Big submissions due next week for class, so I apologize if I'm empty. And to Nancy -I didn't forget about the Sheriff Dog's Book. I'm just collecting some old Beckett pics to throw his mini story in with yours! Once the hell of next week's Master's Submissions is finished, I will get right on it!

Okay, so first off, we signed our lease! Which is SO exciting. Fostering will be back on the agenda for the new year! We'll be looking for a roomie to help out with the rent, and with 4 bedrooms, it won't be hard for someone to have their own space -we have 2 livingrooms for crying out loud, oh, and dishwasher :). Anyway, my head is seeing all the $$$ signs, and although its a good deal, and I'm glad we signed the lease and all, damage deposit, pet deposit, and not getting those back from the current place for over a month is well, my bank account is crying slightly. (not so much that I'll raid Beckett and Lemon's Vet account, but its kind of tempting!) I'm off tonight to see if I can find some seasonal work for 10-15 hours as I could use a couple hundreds for the holidays. And depending on if I can find something, and what it is, I might just suck it up and not board. But its all up in the air right now.

Secondly, since Kane and Lady have been on Victoria Adoptables they've had interest. Most interesting is the interest they've gathered from this blog alone. Both Kane and Lady have an application each from a TG supporter. In Yvette's words: how cool is that. Or, she might be shouting 'you're stealing my adoptions!'

The most annoying thing mind you is the few e-mails I've got asking how much the adoption fee is. When the FIRST thing you ask in your e-mail is "how much is the adoption fee", sorry, but that raises alarm bells for me. Luckily, those three e-mails, once the adoption fee was stated (which is $350, which covers bringing them up, etc, IE: break-even if nothing goes wrong), I heard nothing back. Dogs are NOT for free! If $300-$400 is a problem, I would hate to think of what would happen if the dog got sick and had thousands of dollars of vet bills.

I mean, I have $1500 stashed away for Beckett -I should put some in there for Lemon too!- for Just In Case Emergency funds. I've had it there since we adopted him actually. I haven't had to touch it, but its there. Ironically, I don't have an emergency fund for myself. Go figure.

Anyway, Kane has a possible, and Lady has 2 possibles. Exciting, but at the same time, I hate having to choose! Meet and greet for one of Lady's possibles this weekend though, and the other one is UP NORTH. As always, I will go with my gut. So far it hasn't steered me too far off course.

I have the feeling that at least one of them will be 'completely spoken for' by the time they arrive. :)

And silly old me has another dog in the works. Adam, who was posted in the last blog, has his last safe day today. That video -like Antoinette's in the beginning- whallops me. I can't let him die. I'll eat beans and weiners for the month before I let him die. He's too frigging adorable to let die.

So, Adam will most likely be saved, hang with Jen until he can come here or we move, or he's adopted. IF Kane and Lady have homes, I'll sneak him in here -after all, I have the go-ahead for one small dog as my last foster. He might be a little bigger than Kane (okay, like 4 TIMES bigger), but so be it. I'm such a pansy. I didn't even click his video -it just came up randomly when I clicked another dog's video-! His picture alone wouldn't have done me in. Fate? I really should just stop looking already.

Adam

Adam's video: please watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxjjn0TV_g8

Dear Adam's furever family, he did me in, so I saved him. I will eat beans and weiners for your boy. Just give him a warm, forever home where he never has to worry about being in a shelter again.

If any readers can forward Adam's pic and video on to potential families, that would be awesome!

Alright, back to the mountain of chaos. Remind me again why I'm going to look for more work tonight. No rest for those who are done in by needy dogs.

And I don't even have a full-house. (I'd rather the full-house, cause that means I don't go looking for more!)

Emily Out