Charlotte: Foster Five

Charlotte was our fifth foster - a blue tick coon hound stray that had just had a litter of puppies. She was emaciated; might have had worms; and her teats were chapped, full of milk, and obviously hurting her. Plus she smelled really bad. See her ribs in this photo?


While she was recuperating, she enjoyed sitting on the couch...


Sitting on the couch some more...


And wagging her really long tail. In fact, she wags her tail so much that she cut the end of her tail (what can I say, she was tragic), which then sprayed blood all over our walls and furniture at knee-height every time she wagged. I took a picture of this for the blog, but it was kinda morbid so I didn't post it. Sufficient to say, it looked like there was an elfin massacre in our living room.

This is called "happy tail" or "split tail," and is pretty common apparently for breeds like Great Danes. It's really tough to heal. Fortunately, Charlotte let us bandage her tail.


First we cleaned the cut with alcohol. Then we put on a neosporin-type antibiotic cream. Then we added a piece of gauze and wrapped it in athletic tape (the cloth type so that it breathes a little). This was changed daily.

Some dogs chew off their bandages. For them, people have developed crazy methods of tail-hiding, such as this one which requires a trip to the hardware store.

Her tail seemed to be healing but we don't know for sure because Charlotte was adopted; our first dog to get a new home while still in our care! She's got a great new family, a nice fenced back yard and a cat.

Dog eat dog

Caption: A vicious 6-month-old Puggle puppy, known as Tony the Corkscrew, attacks an innocent victim in Columbia, Mo. on Dec. 27, 2007.




Tony is our fourth foster, a pug/beagle mix (aka the "designer breed" puggle). We grabbed him right before Christmas because the shelter was getting overwhelmed.






A man of taste, in addition to eating American Pit Bull Terriers, Tony also likes to sample the occasional blanket.

Heidi update

Columbia Second Chance was able to take in Heidi and get her taken care of. They think it isn't cancer, but a salivary gland infection. Apparently it's healing up quite well and she's now listed on their Web site as adoptable.

Hooray!

Gracie Ann

Hmmm, this is quickly becoming my foster dog log...

Here's Gracie Ann. Our third foster dog, she's been with us the longest because of a series of health problems beginning with kennel cough.

If you look at the full size version of the picture above, you'll also see that her one eye is a little red. It became very eventually. Now she has to wear an Elizabethan Collar, or e-collar (so named because, like Al Bundy, Elizabethan-era Brits were prone to scratching themselves and, thus, needed to wear these crazy collars).

Also, she keeps breaking it, so now it's pieced together with duct tape. It's pretty hilarious looking in a pitiful sort of way.

Like Fruit Rollups, it comes by the foot!

Meet Heidi, foster number 2:



Heidi likes to eat something a little different. It's white and comes in long rolls. She finds it spooled up in the bathroom and just starts nibbling.

A doberman/hound mix, Heidi came to us with a bad case of kennel cough as well as a nasty dog-like flu which the Shelter referred to as "snot nose." She was really sluggish and didn't like to move around too much. It was pitiful.

Now, however, she won't stop moving. She wants to wrestle with anyone 24 hours a day with maybe a short break to eat.

In the time she's been with us, she's also gotten to about 90% housebroken too. Most likely this is building on the work of some other loving foster families, but she has been progressing really quickly. She's really an adorable, happy, little bug-eyed cutie.

She keeps playing despite 3 worrisome growths we've discovered on her neck. The vet is not sure what they are, could be anything from an odd infection to cancer. The shelter is not set up to do a biopsy, which is what she really needs. They're contacting other animal rescues to see if anyone else would be able to help out.

Keep your fingers crossed. With so many dogs needing homes and so few resources to help, it is really hard to point to one dog and say "that one deserves some extra attention." But when she's lived in your home for a week - a crazy, hectic week at that - it's so hard to hear that she may be too sick to place.

Wish her luck!

A home for Pepper Blossom

Pepper has already been adopted! We'll get another foster dog later today - some sort of Doberman mix.

Foster Dog!

This dog needs a permanent home!

A few weeks ago we sent in an application to become dog foster parents for the Central Missouri Humane Society. A short training session later, and our first foster dog arrived yesterday, Pepper Blossom.

CMHS is smart. They start you off with the easy dogs.

Pepper (or Peps, or Peppy, or Pepsid AC, or The Peppinator) is just getting over a case of kennel cough. She is incredibly sweet and likes to stretch out across your lap on the couch or in the bed.

Even more importantly, all of the dogs and Hank have been receptive of Pepper. We were a little worried they wouldn't be happy with intruders, but they've been excellent.

Pepper is active, happy and thoroughly enjoys wrestling with Buddy (which is a godsend for Bailey who, frankly, is getting sick of babysitting the little punk). And she is currently trying to eat a cardboard box...

...ok... I've stopped her.

Congratulations, Pepper! You've rightfully earned a place on Stuff My Dog Ate.

Behold the cardboard box: