Fosters are to child birth as I am to Hoarders

February vacation was nuts.

Remind me about this winter of the foster dogs next time I think "oh, OK, poor thing, sure I can foster just.one.more."  Don't just remind me, whack me on the head with  a mallet, or a shovel. Shake me, do something.  I am pretty sure this is a stage I needed to go through and it will soon  pass.  File under just because  you can doesn't mean you should.

For those keeping track. There are my two dogs, and 2 fosters, Beck and Stella.  Beck is still worming his way into our hearts. Every heart except for my middle daughter, so we will see.  Stella has a trial this weekend at a wonderful home of a friend of friend.  I am sure they will love her, but there are young kids, so you never know how these things will turn out. Please everyone think good thoughts for her.  It is amazing to think that she went from her last day on earth in a horrid southern shelter to a super home and new life  in Maine.




We still have puppies Lady and Lego and at 11 weeks they have reached that stage that I refer to in my puppy classes as "OMG HAVE YOU SEEN THE WORLD!!!"  That is when a light seems to click on and pups go from super snuggly, adorable, sweet, cuddly sit in your lap lumps, to pin balls.  It is normal puppy stuff, but they are getting  bold,.  They are you know,  normal pups. Oh and did I mention they sleep less and need to run more?  They are cuter than ever and in a weird twist of fate, the puppy that I returned was the first one adopted. That will teach me!

A friend's dog stayed here over vacation, and guess what, he wasn't a huge fan of the fosters, so he got separate leash walks.  Know what else?  Bryce the big puppy didn't work out in his foster to adopt placement and he came back today. Seems there was the issue with the resident Springer with  guarding .
Did I already mention that I am on my second case of paper towels?

Not looking for sympathy, after all fostering is rewarding in and of itself, but I did want a record of my insanity to remind myself not to do this again.  I think in a way, taking on new fosters is not unlike forgetting the pain of child birth.

Maybe that was why my camera broke, so I can't look back at the all the cute and want to do this again.  Maybe the universe did me a favor.  When you look into the face of a sweet puppy.....oh rats, I am not fooling anyone. I those love those little pin balls.

Day after Wordless Wednesday, we haz pups please forgive

1:55 AM

Last week I placed three wonderful puppies in less than a week. When the blurr leaves my brain, I will post pictures of them.  Tonight I sat down before bed to post pictures of Lady and Lego, but I fell asleep. 

Hold on, they are outside shivering waiting to come back in from a potty break. By the way, I was too late and just used up the last of my  paper towels.  Just a few days ago, I had  a case of paper towels.

2:00 AM

Where was I?  Oh yea....Check out Lady above with my daughter. Isn't she too adorable?  Adopt her please, tell all your friends. Please help get them out  of my house before my kid comes back from visiting her father. My youngest daughter has adopted Lady as hers. The last puppy she cared for,  Birdey (oh wait, I did already post that litter. Guess I have a bad bad case of "new Mommy brain") was a trauma and a half to give up.  She was so sad when she passed the pup to the new owners, that the woman started to mist up and nearly gave her back. I was like Hellz "NO!!! we have  had her less than a week, I do this to my kids on a regular  much too regular basis. 

2:06 AM

The little angels are fast asleep again.  Most likely I will see them again by 5:30, which is fine because I have to take my oldest son to visit a school in Massachusetts and we need to be on the road by 7:00 the latest. And guess what, Lady and Lego have to come. Even though there will be people home, no one else can care for them. Young teenagers do not understand "THE PUPPIES JUST WOKE UP, OMG THEY NEED TO GO OUT. RIGHT. NOW " and not at the end of that cool  song on You Tube you were singing. 

Crap, I am out of paper towels. 

 *contemplates getting a fast food  breakfast and a TON of napkins before we hit the road*

Lego = CUTE!

2:10AM

And this my friends is little Lego. Be still my heart.  The day I brought these pups home to foster, my camera decided it could not take one more photo of cute and died a quiet death.  All this extreme cute has been captured by my Blackberry. It is hard to see his adorable speckles, but they are there, and they call to me.

They say "please adopt me and look at me every day, you won't regret it."

I like to think of this shot as Lego, side cute.


2:16 AM

Think of me today, traveling with 2 pups in the car for 3 hours each way. With potty breaks, that will take who knows how long.  It is supposed to be warm and I will be sure to leave the tour a  few times to warm up my car and take them out.  If any one reads this and thinks they can handle them for a day, you will get a lot of karma coins. I have been saying all along that having fosters in my house gives me a fresh perspective on what my training clients go through. Aside from being tied down ( DOI!) ,  here is a view that I hadn't thought about , or read about. 

Puppies eat snow and then puppies have to pee. A lot. like all the freaking time, and there is nothing you can do about it. Maybe if I only had 1, but with two of them, water scedules are at  a 100 percent  fail and forgetaboutit.  There is no spacing out  and controling water for these two.  Especially not at 2:11 AM 

By the way, I had a third litter mate for 2 nights, but I realized quickly that even I wasn't that crazy.  He slept even less than his brother and sister and ZOMG is he adorable.

 Meet Larz.

Larz-his cute hurtz

He pushed my mental health-o- meter  near over the top. When I really got thinking about things, I came to the conclusion that there was no way I could socialize, and train 3 pups and that really at 10 active weeks, 2 pups was pushing it. In case you didn't already know, puppies need to be seperated and they need to develop their own personalites and brave.  When litter mates are together, one will be the go-er and the other will be the go -to. One pup takes the lead and the other will follow. It is a MAJOR amount of work to have two littermates and do it right.  At ten weeks they can still be together, but if they are do not adopted soon, I will have to seperate for a good portion of 24 hours.   Each pup currently  gets alone time while I take the other one out and about every day.  We are doing our  best to do the best by these two pups.  They have been on many different surfaces and met lots of people, working  hard on the house training thang and learning basic cues and manners.   Little Lady came to  Portland Stage this AM were my daughters are rehearsing for Holes . We  meet a lot of freaky people on  Forrst ave,  and  cleared meet freaky people clear  off her socializtion  check list this morning. 

So for those of you  counting. We have 2 puppies and two foster dogs Beck and Stella Luna from   

Caninecommitment.org.

Me and the kids may need therapy if when we place Beck, and StellaLuna leaves a week from Friday for a trial wekeend. Wish her luck. 

Please share. I need some peace and sleep back.

Tell everyone you know.

Do it!

spell check  2:33 AM

(if you find mistakes, please forgive-I am blurry)

send 2:49 AM

No Puppy left behind. Trot joins Governor's race

In one week Maine will pick a new Governor, and I would like to introduce  you to an exciting new candidate.  With a platform that includes No Puppy Left Behind, Celebrate Diversity,  Affordable Pet Insurance, Scoop Your Poop, and a Bone in Every Bowl,  who wouldn't get behind the newest write in candidate--- Trot.

I have known Trot personally for several years, and worked closely with him on a Canine Musical Drill Team.  Without  a shadow of a doubt, Trot is a smart guy, and a  team player with plenty of animal magnetism. 

Thanks to my friend MaryJo McCormack for sharing her photo.

from left to right Daisy, Trot, Abby and Glory.