Ebb and fade.

We've had a couple of fosters come and go as of late.















Bindy's first car ride with us, fresh from the clink in Camden, SC.















Satellite ears and a happy face.















On her way to Columbia, the first leg of her journey to Indiana to find a forever home.

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In early July we had Bindy Sue (yes just like that ever-cheerful Irwin girl) she was with us for 2 weeks from Blue Crush Rescue out of NC. We held her so that she wouldn't have to stay in a $60 a night kennel after being pulled from a shelter where she was on the put down list for June 24th.

An ornery, loving, greedy, kissy, & domineering 35 lb lap dog. Satellite ears, just a nub of a tail, with a long swirly coat. She liked (and I am sure she still does like) to wander off on her own, very much an ACD with selective hearing and definitely was not a fan of bath time. She did teach us some things tho, never trust a dog, they will always find a way to what they want, in her case FOOD. We would be giving treats in the dining room and we'd find her in the pantry with her head stuck in the box of meaty bones. Or we'd go to the living room with something for ourselves and she'd be sitting on the couch , in your seat no less, waiting to snatch it from your hand.

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Just recently was Barnaby.















Sitting pretty just after a bath.















Showing off his mottled tongue just like the rest of all our rescues.

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Barnaby was a stray wandering the neighborhood. I thought that he was the neighbors dog, Buddy. Long and lanky, an big hot mess of black fur. some sort of lab mix with giant feet and a puppy face. Blinding white teeth and should've been named goober for all the goofy things he did. He just wanted to please, but was far too big to be kept in our house, even though he, amazingly so, had been housebroken.

We kept him for a weekend then sadly turned him in to animal control, and that was after posting signs all over and ads on craigslist.

Because we live in a nice subdivision with big new houses, in a semi rural area, we and some of the neighbors are thinking that locals are dumping their pets off here in hopes someone will take them in.

Bluntly, that sucks.

Fetch Monster

Through shadowing his brother Max, Colbert has become quite the fetch monster. We are still working on the return, as he still has issues with people reaching towards him. But a happy boy is he.

OK, so I am a crappy blogger...

Colbert and his litter sister, Kenya.


A recap:

We adopted Colbert on February 8th. Just in time for Valentines Day. I told Donovan he wasn't allowed to get me a puppy for VD 09 as we adopted Buela VD 07. He told me I'd ruined the surprise.

In late March we took on Colbert's litter mate Kenya. We are fostering her for medical reasons. Pet Helpers old facilities had open air outside kennels with dirt 'floors'. The resident vet refused to fix her cherry eye until she could be kept in a clean condition. It was noticabley pussy with green mucus and infection. That's where D stepped in.

We brought her home and she was a flash back to Colbert in the beginning. No potty manners, no socialization, shied away from human and canine contact. Granted she wasn't as bad as Colbert, but it was still just the same. No corners and nose burying; but she definitely plastered herself as close to whatever wall or furniture was closest.

She had her surgery to correct the cherry eye, but it reverted back. So the vet fixed her up again and this time it held. Her eye still looks different, but is a thousand times better than what it was.

April brought us to another milestone with Colbert. We could just let him outside without having to deal with a leash. Leashing up one dog while letting the others run off is hard, imagine two. We also do not have him wear his collar 24/7 as he was starting to mat underneath. When out someplace that isn't fenced or our backyard then we make sure he at least has a chain on for easier catching.

April was also when D started 12 hr work shifts and Kenya was supposed to go back to Pet Helpers, however due to space and staffing issues, we still have her.

On a non-dog note, May started with a marriage between D & W.

Kenya started out with hoarding rawhides. Not being aggressive about it, just running out into the room and collecting. .

She doesn't run like Colbert did, she would stay in her corner if you went about it the right way. We had issues with Buela 'assisting' with herding Kenya at bed and potty time.

She still eats like it is going out of style, I tell her to breathe, but she hasn't choked yet. If you say "Let's go out" she will usually skulk over to the carpet by the back door. she will sit there and wait for you to put the leash on for her. Something Colbert still won't do.

D and I will wake up often times and find her either sleeping on the bed with us, she was sleeping between us one morning, Corona style, OR she is playing with Buela, the latter has been our alarm clock this week at 5 am. Mmm, the sounds of sparring in the morning.

We have yet to hear her bark, but she does growl in her sleep. It is probably her moose lips rippling over her adorable under bite, but it still makes our other dogs upset.

As long as we don't talk to her or acknowledge her appearance, she will come out and spar with our pack or chew on a rawhide. Her expedited rehabilitation makes us believe that she definitely wasn't as badly abused as Colbert was.

It is now late May and we have slated June 3rd as Kenya's return date to Pet Helpers, this happy news for her, in hopes that she will find her forever home, is tinged with sadness as we have received news of Colbert and Kenya's sister, Sudan. One of the last pups to be adopted (Kenya is now the only one not in a home) Sudan was just as bad as the other 4, unsocialized, scared and scarred. Today or yesterday, Sudan got out of her owners house and was fatally hit by a car. It makes me sad that an innocent puppy spent her entire life afraid of humans and never knew the ability to relax and enjoy a belly rub. But I know that where ever she is, pain doesn't exist, physical or mental.

More to follow.
















One of Kenya's first days, when she wouldn't even look at food never mind inhale it.

















Passed out with her rawhides.
















Stealth mode pictures...
















Learning some leash manners.
















Her ungainly 'I don't wanna snuggle' pose complete with feet stuck straight up in the air.
















My favorite (and accidental!) picture of Miss Kenya Marie.

New Tricks, Same Dog.

So Colbert has picked up on the eternal game of fetch that occurs in our home between Max, Buela, D and I.

He likes to chase our red Kong around the living room. D will roll it across the floor and Colbert will bound after it, alternately pouncing and prancing to get it. Of course this means restraining Buela and Max so as Colbert can get versus those two.

Rising of the Phoenix...

I say Phoenix because Colbert may be ready to move on from our home. He has come so far, and yet still needs more work, we took him and the others to the James Island Dog Park and then on to see the staff at Pet Helpers for an update. Everything was sublime at the park, but once he saw K and got a whiff of the shelter itself he reverted to him oldself from October.

K thinks that she has a home for Colbert with the father of the woman who adopted one of his siblings. Also his 3 other siblings are still at the shelter without human socialization beyond potty breaks, food, and visitors. Which we know is the best they can provide with all the other animals at the shelter. But they do need more interaction in a normal household with stable dogs and loving humans. There also is a Golden that has issued with being touched due to prior abuses.

On a more happy note, enjoy the pictures from today at the Dog Park.

I wish these could be back dated.

Standing up on the console tween us on the way to the dog park.















"put your head on my shoulder..."















Watching the world go by...

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So we have had Colbert for just over 3 months now. He immensely enjoys herding Buela around the house and even gives Corona a reason to run and play. He is still wary of me while he will sleep curled up next to Donovan on the love seat.

I remember waking up one morning to someone licking my foot - no weird thing in this house, both Buela and Corona love feet. However this was more than just a few passes on my toes, this was my entire foot right up to my ankle. Then I wiggled my toes and off he ran. He's becoming quite the goober.

Here is the email and D sent out recently with updates and anecdotes:

Anyway, Colbert has made leaps and bounds in progress since bringing him home in October. He's kind of hit a plateau this month. He's become a apart of the daily walks with the rest of the dogs. When I first tried walking him it was via the body harness, which provided no means of training him how to behave on a leash. When I put a choke chain on him, he fought vigorously before we even got out the door. I let that get the better of me, so I gave up for a while on trying to get him out on walks. The shelter worker with whom I dealt said that he busted an eye vessel when she tried to put him on a leash.

After a little while I got the idea in my head to use a harness and a choke chain simultaneously. That way I could get him used to the feeling of the choke chain but use the harness to control his tantrums without worrying about him hurting himself. It worked great. After one session of using both devices he was ready for the choke chain solely. He did the usual struggling in the beginning of the first walk, and even less on the second. He realized very quickly, as the choke chain is designed to do, that it's in his best interests to figure out what to do in order to not get choked. Now he's almost as good as the rest of them on walks.

He's grown more comfortable with me than with Wendy. He still avoids her as he did the both us in earlier months. He does many things now that show he's on the right track to becoming normal. He's at my feet right now, sleeping. He'll choose to sleep next to me rather than in the corner of the room as he used to do. Earlier today and on other occasions all of the dogs will take a nap on the love seat that I'm sitting on while watching TV. So he's choosing to be next to me and/or around the pack rather than separated and isolated. Good sign.

Everyone who sees him always remarks as to how cute he is. Wendy and I went to Magnolia Gardens last weekend for a dog walk for cancer research. He got so many compliments with his big Corgi ears, big Corgi smile, and little Corgi legs. It'll be hard to let him go, to return him to the adoption center. I'd love to keep him, but the purpose of fostering him was to rehabilitate him for someone else. If I did keep him, then we'd be testing our limits of how many animals we could handle if we desired to foster again. And that's what I originally wanted to do was to foster dogs that needed special attention, fix them, and return them for adoption. If I keep every dog that I foster, then I'll reach the limit of how many dogs I can handle and then I won't be able to help any more dogs. So it's necessary to return the fostered dog so that I can foster another one. That's how I'll maximize the number of dogs I can help.

Taken to anchoring his snout on my arm while riding in the truck, as the one picture shows. He'll maintain that for however long the truck ride is. It's cute.

After the piddling on the dining room floor got old we have decided to start working on house breaking. This involves putting his harness on in the morning and getting everyone outside so they can all piddle on the lawn. So far so good.

Also, after having him walking with the clan on his said harness for about a month D thought it might be time to try our favorite training device - the choke chain.

Colbert has spent less than 48 hours walking with a leash and chain combo and walks beautifully, like he has been doing it his whole life. Versus the tugging and yanking and ungangly-ness of the harness. He is adorable and spends 95% of his time on the leash staring up at D while his big purple tongue hangs out.

Riding in the truck standing on the center console.
















Enjoying the sun in a giant field.

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What lately has perplexed us most is that Colber has no qualms in getting up close to us in the truck. He likes to check out the windows and bury his nose into the crooks of elbows, but the favorite is (like Buela) to stand on the center console and watch the world go by.

Meanwhile, when in the house, coming near us is like a stealth mission and unless we have food we are to be avoided.

He still likes to hide under dog beds and pillows, though we have removed the large dog bed so that forces him to hide in plain sight with the collection of three smaller beds. I have also watched him nose the couch cushions to the floor so he can use those to hide his nose. This morning when D got out of the shower Colbert wasn't under his usual pillow. D thought nothing of it until a little blonde Corgi head popped up out of the blankets and pillows of our own unmade bed.

The fur on the tip of his nose is slowly growing back, developing a velvet quality and the patch of foot pad has healed beautifully. Which means he is back to roughhousing with our crew. Even Corona, the standoffish chichi mix is goading him into playing with her. Must be because he isn't as rough as Buela and is smaller than she is. You can't imagine how funny it is to see a usually reserved princess dog start clapping her forelegs to the floor and pawing at his little bear cub face. I feel like I have to have the camera permanently in my hand because the by the time I get the camera and turn it on all the action has stopped and the pups have all gone back to sleeping in sun puddles. I will have to work harder on my reaction time.

Happy faced Colbert

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Per D.....

So, a significant milestone happened today. Over the past couple of weeks, when wrestling on the floor with the dogs, Colbert has become less and less evasive and more willing to get near me. While my hand is touching another dog he will get right up to it and sniff it, until I would direct my hand at him in a playful manner and he would back up. Then he stopped moving away and would just let me flail my fingers at him. He would always be tense while I would scratch his head after cornering him to prevent his escape.

Anyway, today we were all playing on the floor and he let me scratch his head without running off. He even responded when I scratched him at the base of his tail—contorting his body in the standard way a dog will when you find their sweet spot. He's so happy when he plays with the other dogs.

Playtime is over now, and he's back under his little fort: a dog bed that he wears as a hat. He spends most of the time underneath something. Last week he even walked with it on top of him to his food bowl until the bowl was underneath the bed as well and then began to eat...while under the bed.

I'm anxious to see how much more he improves with more time.

-D

Our house guest this weekend: My co-workers beagle; Charlie.















One of many 'forts'.

Friday we went to Wannamaker Park.

After a short walk around the neighborhood with Colbert catching on relatively well. We went for the short drive and walked the mile long paved trail culminating in a short stint at the dog park. Walking on a leash with him is still a struggle, as he is still looking for a way out versus looking forward to see where he is walking. The result of all this struggling, besides a very tired puppy, is that he unfortunately ripped an piece of the pad on one of his toes, into a flap, about the size of the top of a pencil eraser. We have wrapped his foot up in a piece of paper towel with some bandage tape. The vet's office is in our future...

D thinks that Colbert realizes that we are giving affection and he knows his name and such, and that now is the time to start making him come to us instead of us going to him and petting him through his anxiety.

Colbert will now huff at the the other dogs in play as well as stand in the middle of the floor while decimating a rawhide. Otherwise his usual actions are running from one safe spot to another in order to hide under a dog bed. He particularly likes Max's dog bed which is large enough for him to hide under completely and light enough to run around the room wearing it as a cover. Friday night he used it to eat his dinner in peace, I wish I had a photo of him wearing his dog bed, draped over his bowl, while he ate his dinner.

He still sleeps under D's spare pillow between the bed and the nightstand. We call it his fort.