Friday Road Trip with Chloe

Friday was my last vacation day of the year. I took Chloe on a road trip to northern Virginia and returned with a signed adoption contract in place of the dog.

The adopter is a former adopter and I always love that. In July, 2012 he had adopted Dixie from me. The great thing about former adopters is that they have a track record with one of my dogs. I trusted them once, they proved themselves by giving the dog a good home, and I have no reason not to trust them again. The dogs are different, of course, and anything can happen, but I have good reason to believe that they can do it again.

Chloe rode in the crate in my van without making a sound. She was very excited when we arrived and spent a lot of time investigating the new house and yard. There's another dog in the home, a senior female shepherd named Sheba, and the dogs seemed to get along. They will have things to work out, of course, but Sheba lived with Dixie until her death recently and Chloe has lived with eight other dogs around here for the past month or so.

It's a great home so I really hope that it works out as well for Chloe as it did for Dixie.

Recent pics of former fosters, Calendars, etc.

Eva (formerly Summer), isn't she beautiful?

First, I wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to order 25 more copies of the puppy calendar. They will cost about $20 each, plus postage if I have to mail them to you. Let me know if you're interested.

Abita in a Christmas sweater.

These are a few pictures I've received, or stolen, of former foster dogs. My apologies if I missed your dog. I've been saving these for a while but sometimes I slip up and fail to download them from my phone, email, or whatever.

There is nothing that makes me happier than seeing former fosters in new homes, all with greatly improved standards of living.

Priscilla (rear left) is the big sister to former
foster Benny (formerly Lenny).

Duvel, snoozing on the sofa.

Karma, in a color-coordinated scarf.

Mercedes, on an afternoon walk.

Kona (formerly Cookie). This dog has it made.

Benny again, in reindeer antlers.

Reka, the only dog in the household who
cooperated with the holiday photos.

Diamond, still mothering, with a pink stuffed
toy that matches her own pink skin.

The Goddess Athena, the object of much love.

The big brindle guy on the left of the sitting
circle is former foster Otis.

Former fosters Duvel and Chester, in bed.

The black dog is former foster Tank, the
overweight black lab that we had just recently.
Tank looks like he has dropped a lot of weight!
Way to go, Tank!
(Our new foster Dane is also called Tank, but
we are working on a new name for him.)

This is Cooper and he probably goes back the farthest of any
of these dogs shown here today. Cooper is still a sweet boy.

Rocco, formerly Simba, who was rescued from living on the balcony of a high rise apartment
building. He was woefully underdeveloped but he sure made up for it.

Merry Christmas, It's a Dane!

Admittedly, I may be more inclined than many folks to rearrange my holiday plans around a dog's needs, but when you're responsible for something, you have to be responsible, end of story. We made some relatively minor adjustments to Christmas Eve plans to pick up a new foster dog that evening. We brought him along on Christmas day in a large crate in the back of van. He was cool. We took him out occasionally, and took him for walks. We went back home mid-day to give the other household dogs a break and took the opportunity to introduce the new guy, Tank, to the other Danes in our pack, Serena and Della.

Maybe we're just in a honeymoon phase, but I haven't seen anything so terrible about this dog. He's horny and needs to be neutered (see "responsibility" above), but that's the worst thing I can say about him and that's not his fault in any way. He has now met Della, Serena, Maya, and Trooper with no problems. A small dog approached him when I had him out for a walk today. I didn't let them meet, but he had no interest in and certainly no aggression towards the small dog. He marks a lot of stuff outdoors but he hasn't lifted a leg indoors. He's in a crate in my office as I write this and seems quite content. He wasn't so happy last night, but we basically had to just bring him home, crate him, and go straight to bed. He was lost and alone, torn from the only family he knew, so I'm not surprised he was unhappy. He seems more at ease tonight so I'm hoping that we will all get more sleep.

Meeting Della through the crate.

We had a couple extra Danes at our house
today too. Rorschach (formerly Galaxy)
and Mo-Dean (formerly Allagash)

Sweet Serena

If there was going to be any problem with the new guy, I expected it from Della, but
she was good with him and he was fine with her. She will eventually figure out this
fostering business like Maya has, and like Maya, I think she will feel sufficiently confident
in her own position that she won't feel threatened by it.

Tank gets a new home for Christmas

The title of this post puts the best possible spin on what actually happened. The real story isn't quite so warm and fuzzy. Tank got dumped on Christmas eve. I picked him up from Green Dogs in the evening. His "new home" is a new foster home, with us. He'll be neutered at long last and we'll work on finding him a home.

First impression is that he seems like a nice boy. He's a big (120 pounds), blue, intact male. But he's fine with people, lived with kids, showed little interest in a cat, and seems fine with other dogs. He rode home in the van in the crate next to Maya. I hate nighttime dog introductions so we are putting that off until tomorrow at least. He's up in the big Dane crate in the office tonight and we are all going to bed. He'll probably ride along with us tomorrow for Christmas and then we'll work on getting him integrated into the pack later in the day or on Thursday.

Chloe and Kami

I'm a bit overdue for making a post about my two fosters, Chloe and Kami. Both are young, spayed, female German Shepherd Dogs.

Chloe is the most trained of the two. She has always lived in a home and had great care. She grew up with a child in her home. She will use a crate but she doesn't need one. I have left her loose in our house since the very first day with absolutely zero problems. I wouldn't do that with some of my own dogs.

Kami (white shepherd) came from a rural area and didn't always have the best of care. She was kept outside, but she has adapted to life indoors very well, learning a lot from Chloe. She will crate without problem and in fact she sees the crate as a safe place and often runs in there when she's not sure what to do. Kami seems to know that she doesn't know a lot and she watches and learns from Chloe. She would do very well with another dog in the home who would be willing to show her the ropes, and also to play.

I'm taking Chloe to meet a former adopter on Friday. Fingers and paws crossed.