Foster 11: Dora

Way behind... here's some catch up (ketchup? cat sup?).


Dora was one of three in a litter that we took in, as well as her mother. She was the spunkiest of the bunch. This was our first cat fostering adventure, and we kept them in a side room that is really a remodeled garage. It helped keep the dogs out of 3 of the 4 litter boxes.

Dora, meanwhile, was a huge fan of sneaking into the house, darting between legs and running as fast as possible to various hiding spaces in the bedroom and office.

She was going to be named Kung Pow after my Uncle Scott's cat (we originally had her whole litter named with this theme). But, given her wanderlust (and Amanda's distaste for naming cats after Chinese food), she earned a name following the popular Spanish-speaking explorer.

Dora looks exactly like her mother. She's the only one in the litter to look even slightly similar, but I suspect, when grown, you won't be able to tell the difference between them.

Dora is a happy story! She was adopted after a stay with us and a couple weeks at the shelter.

Foster 10: Mikey

Here's our tenth! Don't have time to type now, but here's what we suggested for his profile page:

Meet Mikey! He may be the most affectionate dog in the world! He wants nothing more than to snuggle and to be as close to you as possible.

Mikey is very smart and picks up commands quickly. In fact, he already knows “sit” and “down.” He is also crate trained and is almost fully housebroken.

At his foster home, Mikey plays very well with other dogs – even big ones! He’s very tolerant and gets along great with cats too!

Mikey can be easily frightened and worries if you move toward him too quickly or make loud noises. Because of this, he may do best in a home without small children. He is naturally very trusting but needs a loving hand to help him gain confidence and learn to feel safe.

All he really wants is someone who will love him just as much as he loves them.

Mikey weighs approximately 30 lbs. and is done growing. He has been neutered and is patiently waiting for his forever family.

(Edit: Mikey was adopted by a great family, including his new best friend - a young lady of about 14 years)

Foster 9: Honey

Our foster dog Honey, numero nueve, was adopted yesterday. She's a clumsy, loving and smart Great Dane mix. Also, one of our most beautiful fosters to date.

Her nicknames included Lug, Honey Bee, Honey Mustard, and Mustard Head.

At approximately the same length as our couch, she's small for a Great Dane but still too big for all of the crates we had. We borrowed the world's biggest dog crate from the CMHS - I thought the first one they offered was too small, but in retrospect, it probably wasn't. This one took up about 1/5 of the available floor space in our office. It could have held a baby elephant.



She has a goofy side.


And here she looks stoned.


She likes nothing more than to torment Buddy, grabbing his flappy skin and holding on tight. She's a bit of a klutz, but also liked to see where the action was. This sometimes made our daily ritual of playing WiiFit difficult.

She's an awesome dog. We're thrilled she was adopted!

Toby makes a discovery

Why, yes, I do fit through the cat door!

Foster 8: Toby (aka Snoop)

Our 8th foster's prison name is "Snoop" but he seems to be a Toby to us. Here's his writeup:

My name is Toby, and I am a one year old Vizsla/Beagle mix.

I get along great with the other dogs in my foster home. We run and play around the house for hours. Sometimes I even forget that they are three times my size—I only weigh about 20 pounds.

Something else I love to do is snuggle! Every night I climb on to my foster mom’s lap to sleep while she watches television. Sometimes she even picks me up and carries me around. I think this is great!

There is one other thing I love to do, but my foster parents don’t like it so much. I don’t know what the big deal is—that furry white hairball meows at me all the time. He is just begging for me to chase him around the house.


Okay, so there might be one other thing I do that my foster parents don’t love. I howl when I am lonely. I am part beagle though—what do they expect from me? In my humble opinion, I am the perfect dog and these minor “issues” just add to my overall charm.


Toby is neutered, housebroken and is ready for his forever home. He has been waiting patiently since March, 2008.

Fetch!

Foster 7: Adelyn

UPDATE: After 2 months at the shelter, nearly being euthanized and 2 months with us, Addy was adopted yesterday (May 17)!


Our current foster dog, Adelyn (or Adrock, as she's known to her posse), is smart. She's scary smart. Like, I'm pretty sure that she has developed complex algorithms to determine when we will give her treats and uses elaborate engineering to determine how best to get into the trash can.

Smart dogs are awesome. You can see them figure things out, like how to sit or stay. They can also be really annoying, like when they figure out how to dismantle a baby gate.


Also, normally, you can wear out a hyper dog by just letting them play with Buddy for 30 minutes. It's loud. They run into the furniture a lot. But when it's over, they'll lay down for the rest of the night panting. Adrock is different. She's like a boxer who anticipates a long fight and conserves her blows. Jaw gaping, she floats like a butterfly and stings like an alligator. At first Buddy thinks he's winning, but after a few rounds the poor guy ends up laying on his back, exhausted, while Addy chews on his leg.

Addy was adopted after a couple weeks in our house, but the poor thing was returned. She actually sulked for two days after she was returned. We've kept her as our foster since, hoping she gets adopted without having to return to the shelter. (Of course, we always hope for that... it's much easier to hand a dog off to a new home than to return it to a small concrete cage.)


Also, ummm... she has an odd number of nipples; nine of them. And they don't line up neatly in rows. Instead they zig-zag across her belly. Is it weird that I find that endearing?