STELLA! Our 4th summer foster dog adopted

It has been a busy summer. Remind me not take 4 fosters next summer will you? Even our dog hair has dog hair. We cut a lot of outings short to come home and let puppies out, we cleaned up a few accidents, and I picked up a boat load of poop. On the other hand, it is a great feeling that we helped 4 dogs find their way. As I have written before, it comes relatively easy for us. After all, I am a trained professional right? We have a big fenced in yard and plenty of crates and know how. My kids were pretty much all in to. Kudos to them for putting up with early morning crate elephant noises from Mango, the world's loudest crated dog. She actually jail broke her wire crate with her butt, just from being happy in the morning. That is funny now, but it wasn't so much when everyone was woken from a sound sleep before  6 AM.  Mango was adopted last week and from all accounts it is a great match.

For those who have fostered before for any length of time, it becomes really really hard to say no. There is always a hard luck story just around the corner that pulls at your heartstrings, and people send me them All.The.Time. I have given some thought to the randomness of how and which dogs end up here even when my brain says no. My dogs are needing a break, so when Stella goes to her new home with my cousins next week, that is it.

Finito.

I mean it.

Charlee deserves me back all to herself, and while she is doing excellent, the jury is still out on whether she has the Big C or not.

And Finney, well, he could totally do without Stella. Stella endlessly tries to french kiss Finney while on her hind legs with her front feet wrapped around his neck until he pins her. I have watched it so many times and I have decided it is some sort of weird worship.

Smackdown - after much warning I might add.

The more pissed off Finney gets, the more she tries to make it better. We have had Golden pups try the same with Charlee. The more she pushed them away, the more they were like "you must love me, you must love me." Both Stella and the Goldens never never quite got the concept NOT NOW.

Nom Nom Nom

Now that Stella is most likely in the 8 months range, with no other dogs here to play with, she has turned into a little demando dog. The past few days I was sick and it was rainy and the whining nearly did me in. Today we took an early morning off leash romp and thankfully she is sacked. out.

On more week and she gets to live with my cousins.

Perfect or what?

Last week she was a super star on Good Day Maine, her second time on Tv by the way, where she was a perfect and adorable hand target demo pup.

If she got on better my my dogs, she would impossible to give up.  It is somewhat amazing to me that Stella was dumped at a shelter at 2 months old, where she lived in a kennel and was let out 2 x a day for 10 minutes and turned up at my doorstep 4 months later a super star. What a fabulous poster child for rescue she is. Talk about resiliency!

My cousins tell me they will be taking her to training and can't wait to teach her more tricks. I hoping she leads my cousin down the path to agility. She would be great at it.

Family pose at Jewell Falls. What a great place.

I am going out of my way to keep her busy and tired for just one more week until my cousins are moved into their new place. 

 

Wish me luck.

 

 Here is an interesting outtake. I didn't capture the dog's posing, or Stella frenching Finney, but Finn's body language is pretty clear don't you think?

 

 

 

Doesn't he look like he is saying "Not now, I am working."

 

All photos. except the one of Stella with her new family were taken with my Blackberry. I know it is not the best quality, but it sure is handy.