I know several of you were really disappointed last week when the blog had it’s big hiccup and a couple of blog posts were lost. One that was lost was the story of me picking up Olive and Twiggy the two foster pups I had. I was able to find most of it so I am republishing it here. It’s likely not the exact post…but it’s close-ish.
Twiggy and Olive left for their new homes last week on Saturday. I have my fingers crossed that all if going well for them.
I thought I would give you a little update on my foster dogs. It’s really not an update…it’s a dowsey of a story. I swear…I couldn’t make this up.
Starting on Sunday I was supposed to be in a town about a half hour away at 11 am. One of my clocks was not set to daylight savings time so I started out late. UGH. That clock has since been changed.
I got to where the puppies were. These guys are White German Shepherd crossed with a Poodle. Dad is the poodle and he’s red colored at about 40 pounds. Mom is the White German Shepherd and she’s closer to 50 pounds so these are going to be big pups.
I was getting four pups for an overnight, taking two to the vet in the morning to be spayed and keeping the other two fosters. Another foster would pick up the two that were at the vet. We had to do that so that we could get he puppies fixed and out with their new families sooner as one of other vets the rescue often uses was full and couldn’t get the pups in for several weeks.
I pulled in and two of the pups, the two I was taking home for an overnight, were processed and immediately put into a large kennel I had in the back of my van. The two pups I was keeping were larger and each was getting its own kennel.
We went to put one of my pups in and what??? My van reeked. One of the pups in the shared kennel pooped a giant cow poop sized poo and the two pups were running through it. Oh my word. Thankfully there was a lot of help there. We got the pups out, cleaned them and the kennel the best we could and loaded them back in.
My two pups were loaded so we stood around and chatted for a bit. That’s when I struck me. I wanted to get home. I wanted to get the puppies out of the kennels before another one pooped. So I made some apologies and headed out the half hour to my house.
My van reeked. The smell wouldn’t go away even with the window rolled down. I pulled into the garage, popped the back open and CRAP. I had two the three kennels with poop in them again. OH MY WORD. This is icky.
I got the one dog that was in the clean kennel out, took her outside to go the bathroom, and then put her in the pen in my house. I cleaned up my other dog, took her outside to go the bathroom, and then put her in the pen in my house. Whew. I had two cleaned up and in place. Now to start working on the other two.
I realized that I couldn’t put all four in one pen so I pulled out the spare pen I have that I don’t like, got it set up with fresh beds, toys, and puppy pads. I got the easiest one cleaned, outside, and in the pen. Then I got the second one in. Whew…now I just needed to clean the van and then the kennels.
We walked over to say hi to my two fosters…WHAT?? One had pooped a giant poop. The two ran through it and ruined all of the bedding in that pen. Oh my word! I couldn’t believe it.
I got the pups out, pulled the bedding and toys and put in new puppy pads…then cleaned the dogs up. Thankfully it wasn’t a full bath clean up just a foot scrub.
I went out to start cleaning the van. The dogs in the larger kennel had terrible aim. They pooped on the side of my van and the pooped ran down the side and into the crevices’ where the fold down seats go down. It was not easy cleaning at all…it was terrible and stinky. I had to pull the garbage can over so I could throw out all the wipes I was using. BLAH. It was a lot.
I got the van cleaned but the kennels were still a mess. I figured enough time had passed that I better try to take the dogs outside to potty. Well…you guessed it. The overnight guest dogs pooped in their kennel and romped in it. It was all new bedding for them…AH!!
That made the fourth load of laundry from this adventure.
I had the dogs settled and went back to clean the kennels. Two needed complete cleaning. I got that done, went in the house and it was 2:50 pm. WHAT??
I was supposed to walk my dogs with Carla at 3pm. WOW? Could I have really spent all that time cleaning poop??
I looked down at my coat and I had poop on my coat.
I was about done in but decided I wasn’t going to cancel on Carla…besides it was too late even if I wanted to so I cleaned myself up the best I could, got my dogs ready and remembered I needed to change my shoes. I sat down and realized I had poop on my shoe and piece got trailed in my back entry. AHHH!! Nothing to do about in now. Carla was coming.
I could have about cried.
Carla came. We walked. It was EXACTLY what I needed. The topping on the cake, Carla had been baking and brought me treats. That was so sweet and so appreciated as I realized, I never ate lunch!!
I didn’t know what to expect when I came back from walking. I figured there would be poop everywhere…but there wasn’t. The dogs were all good. WHEW! Maybe we were over the worst of it. They had completely destroyed the puppy pads and bedding but I can take that over giant sized cow poops.
The evening went much better…no more poop and they actually started peeing outside.
The two that were overnight guests were loud and vocal…but I could tolerate that over all the poop.
We made it through the night. I woke once to whining dogs…again the overnight guests. It was short lived though.
I got everyone out and taken care of. I loaded up the overnight guests and took them to the vet as soon as I could. WHEW!! I made it!!
Those girls got spayed and were picked up in the afternoon but their foster mom.
I am happy to report that my two have been great all day. Between the two of them, we had one poop and one pee accident. Impressive for new pups.
Monday was 100% better than Sunday. On Sunday, I was ready to throw in the towel…by Monday afternoon I think we caught our groove and are all friends now. They are back to feeling like a normal foster situation which is a HUGE blessing. I was so worried I was going to not enjoy these two.
I’ve named them Olive and Twiggy.
I had originally picked out other names but this is so much more fitting. They are both lanky and thin…so Olive had a black collar and was named after Olive Oil on Popeye the Sailor Man. Twiggy is named Twiggy because she likes to pick up and carry around twigs and from the model from the 60s and 70s Twiggy who was so tall and slender.
These guys are VERY energetic. There will be no pictures of them with grandkids as they just are safe for the ages of my grands. The pups are 20 pounds already and then they jump up, the almost reach my belly button. They aren’t super cuddly…but not bad. They love people and love affection. Twiggy has licked me a few times.
We don’t often get this larger breed of dogs in. It makes me curious to know how they will adopt out. There are six total…two males, two females with another foster and my two. I like my two best as they look more like mom and I like that coloring.
Each day that goes by is getting better. My two will go to the vet on Wednesday. After that they will be ready to go to their forever homes. I am hoping the perfect homes come along. Please don’t hold their first day poops against them. They really are great pups.
As I said, these guys are living their best life in there new home. I did an update on them HERE and I told you about my new fosters HERE.
That’s all I have for dog stories right now. I think that was enough!!
I was sort of disappointed when the original post only blinked then disappeared. I’m so glad you reposted and let us know the beginning of their story. It gives us a better look at fostering. Thanks for sharing.
You are so good! I would have given up. Oh so not fun going through that but so glad there are people like you to care for these dogs!
What a story! You must have a nose of steel and an incredibly strong gag reflex suppressor. That would have finished me, for sure. I fostered four feral kittens with coccidia and I haven’t fostered since–it was way too much for me. I so admire your ability to keep going and find the positives! I’m glad it all turned out okay and hopefully you got the smell out of your van. Phew! Thanks for putting the story out there–I really appreciate that you went to the trouble!