3 Year Anniversary

Today marks three years since our first foster dog Tucker came into our lives. I should have a lengthy post, but I'm midstream a full day of packing/sorting/cleaning, with another few hours on the horizon yet. On Friday we move our furniture/boxes over to my parents' place. They will bring it with them to Saskatchewan in a few months when we find a place. Yay parents.


That makes for a busy week though, and although I love my husband very much, packing up a house is definitely not his forte.


We've had 25 fosters this year. :)
We lost Beckett :(
And.... adopted our sweet.
And Shane is growing up.

7.5 months.

His coat is coming in nicely, but I find he's starting to look more Aussie than collie. Regardless, I care not. This is one fantastic, keen, biddable, confident, sweet dog. I will be eternally grateful to my old sweet boy for raising one helluva puppy.


This time in three weeks I will be in Regina, job hunting, park hunting, dog extracurricular training hunting. We'll find lots of dog related stuff I'm sure.

A New Chapter

Apologies for the long delay between blogs. We've been busy over here. Django recently went to his new home, and we fostered Cozy, a husky mix from Taiwan for about two weeks before he went home yesterday. Cozy marks our 80th foster dog adopted :)


He is also our last Victoria-based foster.


Jerrad and I have decided to move back to Saskatchewan to start a new chapter. Job opportunities are better, family (including Lemon) is back there, rent is somewhat cheaper and I could use a break from living and working with so many dogs to work on my Master's Thesis next year starting in September. After all, that's really what I'm supposed to be focusing on, especially when I pay quite a lot of money in order to take the classes. If I write the next Hunger Games or Harry Potter, I promise some of the proceeds will end up in rescue dogs.


So, we're hanging up our foster hats, given our rental notice, work notices and found a place to land for a few months (with the collies) to get some jobs and find a place to live more long-term. Who knows, we might be back out West sooner than later, but with Beckett gone it's time for us to try something new. It has been an adventure.


We'd love any and all updates from any of our old foster dogs, and are hoping to put together some kind of foster-get-together before we go.


Who knows what awaits us (besides a whole lot of snow) back in Saskatchewan. Life has a way of figuring itself out though, if you give it half a chance.


<3 always,
Emily, Jerrad, Jinks & Shane

The Blog got Lost, but the Dogs Didn't

It's been a rough few weeks. Some days we feel normal, some days it is hard to get going. Working and living a dog-life I need to make sure I get an hour or two out of every day to sit with just one dog (or no dogs) and breathe a little. I'm not burnt-out, but I could get there quick without that hour or two a day to pretend I'm a normal twenty-something who gets home from work and watches some stupid girly TV show. (More some Disney movie for me).

In nutshells. Joyce was adopted to a lovely family here in Victoria, two houses away from the beach! She is one loved pooch already and they are super happy to have found her. I love matchmaking. Stan, Yvette, the Taiwanese rescuers, they deal mostly with the shitty end of rescue. I'm fortunately enough that I get to bring dogs to their forever homes, or I get to home-check, seeing a match start to unfold in front of my eyes. And I get to do a lot of it. Feel-good work :)

Joyce & New Family

We also had Zin, a little border collie mix (she was only 20 pounds, not going to get bigger than 30). A funny, busy, clown of a dog who didn't exhibit any "border collie" in her. So who knows what she was. She has since been adopted by my co-worker. I was teased that I would foster-fail her, but nah, I DEFINITELY don't need another young collie, and I most assuredly don't need one that doesn't even act like a border collie. Two young dogs are enough for me right now.

Zin @ the airport

Zin @ new home

Zin Running in the Park

Last weekend we did the Victoria bus run for Turtle Gardens, bringing 8 dogs into foster homes on the island. We brought: Wendy, Ashley, Piper, Pepper, Brodie, Morry, Django & Rhodes.

Puppies on a walk with their two foster mums.

Wendy and Piper have since been adopted. :) Wendy was an adorable, friendly, independent girl, and Piper a higher-energy diva. They have gone together and will be Pet Store embassadogs.

Ashley is in foster here in Victoria. She is a very-dog friendly, but very people-shy pup who will likely weigh 55-70 pounds full grown. She'll need a patient home willing to work slowly on bringing her out of her shell.

Ashley's an Avid Hiker too!

Brodie is a senior lab mix, the sweetest fellow you will meet. Loves to play short games of ball, and loves to soak up the sun outside. He might be older, but he so deserves somewhere to hang his hat and retire. He is maybe 55 pounds of gentleman.

Brodie from Foster Home

Morry is a sweet, tidbit shy maltese mix who has raised a litter of puppies. She is quiet, low-energy and would really just like a lap to snuggle on most of the time. She would make a great senior's dog, but because of her grooming needs, will need frequent spa days. She needs very little exercise a day.

Sweet Morry from Foster Home

Pepper is an active, animated Lab x Pitbull mix puppy (5-6 months) who likes to play fetch. She plays well with dogs she knows, but at times can be standoffish in her introductions to new dogs. Because she is likely a pittie mix, she needs someone dog-savvy, and/or willing to do lots of training with her in order for her to be the best dog she can be. She has good off-leash skills already and likes to stick by her person.

Pepper doing well off-leash in her foster home.

Rhodes is in foster care, but as of yet I haven't gotten a good photo update. He is working through some separation anxiety, but is very smart and loyal.

And then Django is in foster care with us. He is a large, 60 pound fluffy Lab x Karelian Bear dog mix who is super dog and people social. Someone has taught him to walk fairly nicely on a leash. He is medium energy, only needs about an hour of exercise a day. He likes to play, but settles nicely. Fantastic with kids. Inside he likes to follow you around, outside he is very independent. Housetrained, and okay in a crate, but also okay left loose in the house for a few hours. I have the feeling because he is bigger and black he might be here awhile, which is a real shame, since he's really an ideal, ready-made family dog.

And in the end, an update picture of Champ, who kept his name:

We have a couple of home-checks upcoming this week and a meet + greet for Sprout the puggle sometime soon as well (she's spent way too long in foster). For today, it's my Monday off, so some training with Shane, a leisurely walk, and some catching up with e-mails/cleaning/etc.

Beckett, Adopted May 2008 - Jan 11th 2014

Jerrad thought to hang your collar -complete with all the jingling tags-, but we decided to give it to Shane. After all, you would be awfully bored hanging up on a wall or on a peg. May you walk where he walks and guide him. He has huge paws to fill.

I'm sure there are important things for you to do still, as you did here. You will be deeply missed. Be at peace, my dear old friend. You have more than earned it.

Foster Party Postponed

I forget if I posted Beckett's Foster Party on the blog or not, or if I e-mailed adopters individually.

Please note that Beckett's Foster Party -scheduled for this Saturday @ 3:00pm- has been postponed due to Beckett's health. Hopefully we can have a get together sometime soon, perhaps when it's warmer out.

Sweet Boy Shane

6 Weeks Old

Looking at the baby picture I barely recognize my now 28 pound snuggle bum. Shane is over 5 months now, and looking at starting his agility career this upcoming Sunday with puppy class. Jerrad is going to take him through his beginners classes :)

He's stopped is monstrous growth spurt that I thought would have me a 65+ pound dog, and seems like he should finish under 45. Much better!

Shane is by far the laziest border collie puppy -and perhaps even one of the most lazy puppies- I have had the pleasure of having in my home. Now don't get me wrong, he's more than happy to go for a two hour hike, but inside the house he is a total couch potato. He's momma's little snuggle bum.

He also MUST snuggle whoever is around.

Shane in the middle of the dog pile.
"This is my family and I wuv them."

Comfy dogs. Bums are the best pillows.

Shane is also most upset if a foster dog does not want to snuggle him. We have a new foster Joyce (update with pictures tomorrow) who is very dog social, but not "cuddly". Oh, he is a very sad puppy that she does not want to snuggle him. Shane's so snuggly that if you ask him sit or down and he knows there isn't food, he will sit or down on your feet or right beside you and lean his WHOLE body into you while he does his command. He very rarely lays down away from anyone else. Not that he's needy a he's quite fine with his crate time, just that he's a TOTAL lover. He will snuggle you all day if you want to.

Jinks is snuggly only if she gets a whack load of ball time and even then it's a limited time deal. On the bright side, though I didn't get a whacky collie like I thought I would, I got a perfect little snuggle bum who is the light of my life.

Foster updates soon, I just needed to brag about my little man. His grandma calls him "the baby". No matter how big he gets, I think he's always going to be the baby.

Jinks is "Stinky Jinks", affectionately just "Stinky"
Shane is "Sweet Boy Shane"

It's funny, Shane's previous name in rescue was Romeo. I think he lives up to it :)

Emily Out

Sunday Update

Sunday meaning the dog and not the date, although I do think she went home on a Sunday. This update came on a Tuesday.

Sunday, at airport before she came to foster with me.
 

Sunday with her new family on their boat!

Sunday's family writes:

Sunday is fantastic! We couldn't have wished for a better puppy!!!

Thank you so much for all the work that you and your organization do for dogs like
Sunday.

She has settled into our family seamlessly. She is so clever, completing two
training courses as the instructor's favorite :)

She is amazingly well socialized and loves our daily plays with the neighborhood
dogs at the park.

Her favorite thing, I think, is diving into the lake to fetch a stick. And boy can
she swim!

Thank you again, more than we can express, for this amazing dog! She is a treasure
to our family.

Best wishes for the New Year


----Makes me so happy. All a foster mum wants for her fur-kids is them to be loved and cherished, to be the best that they can be.

Champ went to get neutered today and I missed the little dickens a lot more than I thought I would. He has a really infectious nature, providing you have a good sense of humour and some expectations from him (or else he can be plain annoying). He tried to jump and play tug with every piece of laundry I was trying to fold last night.

Sometimes I get that feeling I think lots of first time foster parents get. That sense of love for a dog and that they make you smile and that you can see yourself with them until they're old. But, take a step back and realize even though I love them, I could never give them all that I would want to. I've got two young sporting dogs as it is. Having another young dog wouldn't be fair to them, me or the current full-time young black and white creatures.

So, I will look forward to him going home and the wonderful update I will get from his family sometime in the future and know, it was better for me to stay strong and let him go, I helped create a family. That is a very special thing and it is my favorite part of rescue, even though sometimes it is hard to say goodbye.