Norman's meet and greet - Part 1

A nice young couple came to meet Norman this morning. They live in Richmond and they seem to check all the boxes for what Norman needs in people. I think he also seemed to check all the boxes for what they were looking for in a dog. He did a good job. They seemed to like him and seemed interested. They wanted to take a couple of days to think it over, which is smart. I offered to bring him to their place for a second meeting and they liked that idea. So part 2 of Norman's meet and greet will take place on Wednesday, January 1st. I am looking forward to it.

Norman's meeting happened pretty early this morning. Later in the afternoon I took Bailey for a four mile hike. We managed to find trails that we're too muddy and we both enjoyed it. 

Gus settles in

Gus came here late Friday afternoon immediately after his neuter surgery. He was dazed and confused and we had a very vocal Friday night where nobody got much sleep. Saturday was much better. He ate pretty much normally, I no longer attempted to crate him, and we all had a quiet night. By Sunday he morning he was going out to the yard off leash with the rest of the pack and even ventured out to the pasture. He had proven himself to be housetrained and trust worthy and I guess we had gained his trust as well. 

I took him on a two mile walk with Elvis on Sunday morning. He was curious and wanted to explore everything but he really wasn't bad on the leash. Sunday was an unusually warm day and it wasn't raining, so that walk was followed up by another two miles with Bear and a third two mile walk with Bailey. I walked a total of six miles today, which I very much needed after the gastronomical excesses of Saturnalia. 

Moms and miracles

I don't believe in virgin births, but mothers do work miracles after giving birth. I'm talking about dog moms of course. I have very little experience with human mothers but evidence suggests that many of them fail miserably when it comes to raising decent human beings. I confine my comments to something I've had more experience with – dog moms. When we've had a mother with puppies I've always been amazed at how well the moms do even when coming from bad situations. Our role has always been to support the mother in caring for and raising her puppies. 

A pregnant or nursing mother in a shelter or rescue situation always pulls at the heartstrings because they are in a bad situation not of their own making and are forced to do the best they can under what are often terrible circumstances. I think it's particularly important then that the mothers get the best possible adoptive home after they've completed their maternal role for the last time. We want great homes for the puppies too, of course, but those aren't so hard to come by. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing one of our mother dogs end up in really spectacular adoptive homes. And so it has been with our three most recent litters.

Marvel is our most recent foster who came to us with a litter of newborn puppies, born in transit from the shelter she came from. She was a great mother to the pups and a great dog in her own right. I was very happy to see her wind up in a most wonderful home where she seems to be very much the center of attention and gets all the exercise, activity, and love that we would wish for any dog. Marvel is constantly smiling in all the post-adoption pictures I've seen of her and that tells me everything.

Here are two pictures of Marvel prior to adoption:

And two pictures of Marvel from her new home:

Padme was the mother of the litter of Doberman puppies we took in from a seizure handled by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). By the time they arrived here the puppies were ready to be weaned and the mother was actually adopted before any of the pups. I love when that happens. And I particularly loved it in this case because the adopter was someone I had known through the vet world for many years and was someone I love as a person and would have entrusted with any dog. HSUS ended up using Padme's story in an ad that showed the situation she came from as well as where she ended up.

Here's the HSUS video featuring Padme/Brynn and Traci (adopter): 

And here are two gorgeous pictures sent to me after the adoption:

And finally there is the story of Lux, now called Fiona, the mother of the Shar-pei pups who came from the same HSUS case that brought us Padme and the Doberman pups. Lux was a classic puppy mill dog, valued only for her breeding. She was completely neurotic, pacing back and forth in a distance defined by her prior living conditions even when she was here and had more room. She was fearful of humans, having never had much, if any, positive exposure or contact with decent humans. She was also beyond my ability to rehabilitate or "fix" her problems so she moved to another foster home. I don't have the calm patience required and we have too many dogs around here to give her the time and attention she needed. I just learned yesterday that she was being adopted by her foster home and I couldn't be happier.

Here is Lux when she first arrived:

And here's Fiona the house hippo now:

In and out

Not much happens around the holidays in a lot of areas other than retail and the rescue work also slows down, at least adoptions do, because people are either traveling or busy with other stuff. However, we had one big change here just prior to Christmas, which at least one person noticed when I posted pictures from a recent pasture run. Cheese was conspicuously absent from those pictures because he had gone to his new home. I haven't heard anything yet, so I'm going with the assumption that no news is good news. 

Former foster Cosmo is a fairly frequently visitor around here and he came back to us on Christmas day, but only for a few days. He'll be going back home either Friday or Saturday.

Cosmo's temporary spot is being filled with another Bernese Mountain Dog named Gus, who came as an owner surrender and was neutered on Friday. I believe he has another foster home lined up who is currently out of town, so he may also be a short timer at our house. Gus is a youngster, about two to three years old. He arrived just after his neuter surgery today, probably still under the influence of the anesthesia, so I really can't say much about him yet other than the obvious fact that he's very handsome.

Rogue should be going to her new home after the first of the year. More changes are afoot. 

Cheese

Cosmo

Cosmo with Paisley and Candace Friday afternoon.

Cosmo with Bear in the pasture

It was sunny and pleasant for a while this morning and early afternoon.

I had the puppies out for a good run.

This is Storm.

Rogue

Storm and Rogue

Puppies discovering big logs

Storm, in flight

Bear and Bailey

This is Gus.