Fostering Puppies

      

   So, I have said before that I don't like chaos, but really I must thrive on it.  lol  After having Wrangler here for just over a week and seeing how well he settled in, I dialed up Beth to let her know we were ready to foster again if she needed.

   I came home with not 1, not 2.... but 5 puppies!  I wish I could have shared a picture of my husband's eyes when he saw the box marked puppies, then another of how he looked when he opened it up and saw how many were in there! They are a mix of white, brindle and black pit bull puppies and they're adorable!

   It was a bit nuts at first I'll admit. We have previously fostered puppies but it was only two at that time.  This go around, however,  I changed a few things.



   One, I let them decompress for a bit. Basically decompressing is allowing your foster animal, or rescue animal, some "alone" time. It gives them the chance to relax, compose themselves and get a sense of their new surroundings. We gotta remember that though we are excited and want to show them off, these guys have just come from a very loud, very chaotic place to an entirely new place and they have no idea where they are or what's going to happen. With these pups, all they knew was their small kennel at the shelter with mom so I found them a soft, fluffy blanket and let them sleep the night away.





   Two, there is SUCH a big difference when you are able to get them out of the house. Our last puppy fosters we had during the winter so going outside wasn't exactly fun. Now, as Spring is here and summer is not too far away, we make regular trips out to the back yard. A) this gets them out of the house and their crate for a change of scenery and B) we are teaching them that outside is where they need to go to go potty.

  The biggest difference and what reduced my anxiety about having so many puppies at once was having the use of an exercise pen.

Midwest 8 - Panel Exercise Pen

   A trip to our local Petsmart gave me this. ^^ It. is. awesome. 16 square feet, 8 panels, a door PLUS it attaches to a wire crate which is perfect because that is exactly what the puppies are staying in.

  What I did was pop it open, set it up in our dining room and attached it to the crate using the clips provided. The whole thing took less than 3 minutes to set up. Inside the crate is the blanket and 2 new squeeky stuffed animals and I leave the door open so they can easily come in and out. Outside in the actual pen area I have 2 puppy pee pads set up so they can separate where they go to sleep and where they go to the bathroom. I've read of others who swear to not use the pads, but I have not had a problem so far. This also allows them to come out at night and use the bathroom without needing me or my husband to get up. If they happen to miss the pad, our dining room is harwood so it's an easy clean up. If yours isn't, maybe a similar set up in the kitchen or any other tiled/hardwood room would work.


   They will be here for about 10 days or so before they head back to be available for adoption, but one little white pup is working her magic on not only me, but my husband! Could we be a 4 dog household? Only time will tell....   :)

Foster #7 - Meet Wrangler!

   So after a short 2 week break, the call came in last night. Our fostering coordinator read me off a list of her "preferred" dogs, mainly dogs who might need a little extra attention or long time residents who would do well outside the shelter, and told me to look them over on petharbor.com and let her know.

   It was a choice between 2 and once we met our first choice, we were hooked. Meet Wrangler!

 

 

   His story is a heartbreaking one. We have 2 military bases in town, one of them the largest on the east coast. Apparently, Mr. Wrangler here, looks too much like a pit bull to be allowed to stay on base with his family. The worst part? He was THE pet to a young autistic boy. And this dog was loved, you can just tell. All he wants to be is comfortable.

 

   He walked into our house, took a little bit to sniff around then laid down on our rug and took a big sigh. Our pit, Becca, laid down gently beside him and they stayed there while our girls finished their lunches. He is gentle with them and gets along amazingly well with Becca and Bowser, which is a welcome relief after the animosity between Becca and our last foster, Electra. I was warned he's a jumper and he proved that to be true within an hour of being home by scaling our 6 foot privacy fence around our backyard! I caught him mid act though, through my youngest daughter's window, and was able to make it to the front door in time to call him over. He hasn't done it since, so I'm hoping it was just him being a bit nervous and making a last ditch effort to escape.

 

    I have already begun mulling over him being our first "foster failure"....

 

UPDATE: He's ours!

 

    I just couldn't pass him up. This morning I woke up to his head cuddled across my chest as he laid with me and our other 2 dogs and I knew that was it. We are officially a 3 dog family.  :)

 

   We will continue to foster. That was actually something Beth asked when I called her to see if she could put  hold on Wrangler while we talked it over. Actually her words were "There is only one problem I see with you adopting Wrangler..... that you adopt too many dogs and won't be able to foster for me anymore!" I laughed and assured her we would still foster, but after this it would definitely only be one at a time.

 

 

Welcome home Wrangler!