Puppies….and Dogs.

I have news about my dog fostering.

Miss Mindy is HOME!!!  Not her furever home but with me home.  WHEW.  What a long haul for her, the vet, and me!  She was originally spayed back on February 1st.  She was home with me on the 2nd and 3rd.  She landed back at the vet on the 4th and is finally back with me on the 8th.  Oh, what a joy to see that sweet little face.

Mindy had a rough few days.  Her spay surgery was that one in a million that didn’t go smoothly.  She ended up with an infection that required IV meds…poor girl.  She had improved on and off but never made the complete progress they wanted to see so on Wednesday they opened her back up, cleaned up the scar tissue and everything and she is now back home with me.  WHEW.

I have her meds.  Lucky me, I get to give her meds.  She actually has done okay with taking them and she’s still small enough to sit on my lap so it’s not too hard.

I’m working with the family to try to figure out when they want to pick her up.  She was cleared by the vet to go with her new family as early as today but I’m a little leary about that as she seemed fine last week at this time but then Saturday everything went south.  If the family is committed to keeping up with all of her meds and watching that incision, she can go home.

The poor girl is going to have to wear a cone for 12-14 days.  It was stressed that she’d have to wear it for the FULL 12-14 days.

We’re working on figuring out a good time for us all…but before long his sweet girl is will be on her way to her new life.

Next up I have a report on… Mork.  He is doing fabulous.  He and Izzy have become great friends.  Izzy and Mork are always playing tug of war and romping around.  He goes back to the vet on Monday to get the stitches out of his back legs.  He had dew claws and they were removed when he was neutered.  He has an early morning appointment on Monday to get those removed and will be going to his furever home later that morning.  I’m so excited for him.

I had said in an earlier post that he was a bit of a howler.  He still can but that all has greatly lessened.  Now the howling at night is closer to five minutes than the long 45 minutes it was.  I don’t keep a kennel in my bedroom.  If I did, he might not howl at all.  He does like to stay really close to me and is SUPER affectionate.  Initially, I wasn’t all over in love with him because of the howling but he has completely won me over and now I’m crazy about him.

Now I’m moving from talking about puppies to talking about dogs.  Meet Susie.  She came to my house this morning.  I wasn’t exactly ready for another dog to be here but sometimes, there is just no other choice.  Susie’s owner passed away and she was staying at the house alone with family checking on her during the day.

Nope.  I didn’t like that so even though I already have two fosters here, I said yes to Susie.  I am only supposed to have her for a week or so and then she’ll transfer to another foster…but my secret wish is that we could find her a home before then so this poor girl doesn’t have to make another transition to another home before she finds her furever home.  This girl just needs some normalcy.  She’s already lost her family and is likely confused by the change since her beloved owner has passed away.

This is where I need your help.  Susie is 15.  I thought my former foster Rusty was old and might be hard to find a home for.  Susie is almost double his age.

Susie was recently in and had her nails done.  I have a vet appointment for her and we’ll do all the usual tests needed on an older dog coming into the rescue.  If all of that clears, we’ll be listing her.

What I know about her from the intake forms…she is a great dog, well-mannered, does great with cats, is friendly, housebroken, and overall a really great dog.  The family wrote, “Her parents loved her like their child (they had none of their own) loved her to pieces.  She is just a very happy dog and loves life and even at her age has a lot of life left to a foster or home where she can continue to be loved until she is ready to join her late parents”.

Okay…does that break your heart.  It sure does mine.

Susie has been at my house only a few hours and I can confirm she does like people.  She does just fine with other dogs.  She is overweight and I’ll be working with her on that.  She is getting appropriate dog food and her food will be used as her treats.  No extras.  She does great walking on a leash.  I’ve had her out on a walk…at this point, it wasn’t a brisk walk…just a happy walk.

Is there anyone out there who can love this girl in her final days??  Do you know of anyone who loves older dogs??  Are you older and thought you might be getting too old for a dog but can see this might be a good fit for a dog for you?  Maybe the two of you can enjoy old age together.  If you know of anyone, please share this blog post with them.  The link to HEART Animal Rescue, the foster group I work with, is HERE.  There you will find an application to fill out.

HEART adoption fee for dogs that are seniors is $200.  Kalissa was talking to me and she said she would throw in the first $20 toward sponsoring Susie’s adoption fee.  Does anyone else want to help?  You are free to Paypal HEART.  HERE is their link to donate.  Just put in the note that it’s for Susie’s adoption.  Should any extra money come in, HEART will use it to help cover her vet fees.  She’s an older dog who needed a full workup.  On top of that, she has an abscess on her tooth and will need a dental procedure.  Those are expensive.  Previously she hasn’t had any vet work besides having a rabies shot so there will be some expense for the extra needed tests and shots.  Thanks for thinking about helping Susie.

So far, I really like her.

Speaking of dogs with special needs, we have another dog who has been at a foster for some time.  Her name is Sophie.  She’s a two-year-old Australian Shepherd.  If you want to read more of her story, you can find it HERE.  I went and helped with intake when this girl came in.  She came to us with her four puppies that were five weeks old.  She was super skinny.  She went to a foster home and finished nursing her puppies.  They were soon adopted out.  Sophie was spayed and then was listed.  We hoped to help her find a furever home.

Sophie ended up being cared for by our foster coordinator because she has some special needs.  Sophie is a puppy mill dog.  She came from an Amish farm.  We know she was almost two when we got her and already had at least one litter if not more.

She has wonderful coloring.

Sophie we found out has some special needs.  Here is a listing of things we know about her…
-having a fence is a must- she will run away.
-she is slow to warm…a little skittish…but can love a human
-she does okay with other dogs
-she would do best in a house without a lot of stimulation
-her new owner would need to be patient and work on rehabilitating Sophie to become more trusting
-she is fearful and nervous about new things, even things like walking downtown
-she’d do best with someone who is home a lot
-someone who already knows or is willing to learn how to work with a dog that came from a puppy mill is important

We are confident that the right person for Sophie is out there.

Sophie would be a good dog for someone who was recently divorced and needed a distraction as you both learn to navigate a new world.  She loves to be loyal to one person.  I just know there is someone who would have the patience to help Sophie become the dog she was meant to be.  Do you know of anyone who could provide that type of home for Sophie?  If you do, please share this post with them.  Again, the place to apply for Sophie is HERE.

It’s fun to foster puppies but there are more needs out there than only fostering puppies.  There are dogs like Susie and Sophie who need people who will open their hearts to care for these special dogs.  If you can share this post… If you can talk to a friend who might be looking for a dog…or for that matter…look in the mirror.  Maybe that person is you.  If you can do anything to help these girls, we all would be so grateful.

That’s the dog news for now…I’m off to scratch a puppy ear and let some dogs out.  Thank goodness my own dogs are tolerant of all the other dogs coming in and out of my house.