Empty nest...for 2 days

Our three fosters, Elvis, Gatsby and Emma, all went home in the last three days so now we are down to just the 2 house dogs. It is so calm! I can't say it's quiet since my personal dogs are louder than any foster I've ever had, but there is less movement as Elvis and Emma aren't staging regular wrestling matches in the middle of the living room.

On Wednesday we have a 2 year old girl arriving from Illinois - Jessie - who we'll have until Saturday when she heads to her foster home in Eastern WA. Then after a quiet weekend we'll welcome a load of 4 dogs at Sea-tac Airport on Monday the 2nd. One of those dogs, a 1-2 year old girl named McMuffin, will also head East to Yakima after spending a few days with us. The other 3 will be staying.

The plan was to just foster 2 dogs and all was working as planned. Jett is a 5 year old male who is being returned by his adopters because him and his pugly brother do not get along. The issue seems to be more on the pugs side but since the pug was first then Jett will be the one leaving. He'll be transported from his home in Virginia to Atlanta where the flight to SEA originates.

The other dog will be Tippy, who was pulled from a particularly awful shelter in Louisiana. She has been being fostered in LA but since that foster home has too many dogs right now and can only temp Ms. Tippy she will be heading here. Tippy will be ground transported from her foster home in LA to Atlanta.

McMuffin, the female heading to Yakima, was just pulled today from a high kill shelter in Georgia. When the New Rattitude volunteer went there to pull her from the shelter there was another rat terrier who had been recently dumped. This little gal was just a baby, likely around 8 weeks old, and it is always extremely risky for dogs of that age to be in shelters because their immune system isn't mature. The NR volunteer pulled her from the shelter and figured she'd find some place that could squeeze a cute little pup in.

Since the plane was already booked to be flying 4 dogs for New Rattitude and we only had 3 thanks to a transport falling through I decided we'd find room for this little girl. We're kind of looking forward to having a baby in the house again (1 is so much easier than a litter of 5). We've named her Quimby after the Beverly Cleary children's book character "Ramona Quimby".

So watch for photos coming soon of the new load of fosters winging their way to Washington. In the meantime, here's a picture of little Quimby at the shelter. She's safe at a temporary foster home right now.

Deiab pupdate

I just heard from one of Deiab's moms about how he's doing. This guy was the middle pup in Star's litter of fluffy rat terrier mix pups. Poor Star - none of the pups look even remotely like their rattie mom, but boy are they cute.

Deiab has learned how to swim and loves swimming out to fetch sticks. He's a very well trained pup and his moms really love his goofy, loving personality.

Isn't he looking good!

Speuter day

Gatsby and Emma are at the vet's office today for their speuter surgeries and various other things and it is so quiet at home with only our personal dogs and Elvis here. Emma and Elvis are usually wild and crazy together so he's a bit bored I think.

Gatsby will have his weird rear dew claws removed - well, at least one set. It's so strange because he actually has 2 dew claws on each of his rear legs - one on the side and another on the back. They will take the back ones off for sure and the side ones only if they are completely unarticulated. They are pretty floppy - we'll see.

Emma is also having a heartworm test. Cross your paws for her. It's really expensive to have HW treatment done in WA state since there aren't any heartworms in Western WA. Since heartworms come from fleas and she was so flea infested I'm a bit worried. We did discover that the fleas gave her tapeworm so that was treated this week. Poor girl. Both dogs will have their microchips inserted as well and I'll pick them up this afternoon.

Elvis' app has been approved and the contract sent and he'll be heading home early next week when his new family is back from a camping vacation. Both Gatsby and Emma have great apps in Seattle and all that is left before approval is the home visit.

Already we are thinking about the who to save next. Right now New Rattitude has several foster dogs who are needing to switch foster homes for various reasons and I will probably be getting one of them. I'm also looking at an owner surrender in GA - the lady lost her home and is trying to avoid taking her dog to the area shelter, which is a notoriously bad one. As you all know, things can change a thousand times before the flight actually leaves the ground with dogs bound for WA so we'll see what transpires.

Congrats to Emma and Gatsby for quickly finding very wonderful homes.

Meet and greets

Lots of foster dogs meeting and greeting yesterday:

Gatsby met the guys who have applied to adopt him and he really took to them, which is a big deal for shy, nervous Gatsby. It looks like this may be a good match for him.

Elvis met the other half of the couple who has applied to adopt him. I think that Elvis will really enjoy life with their active fur-girl, Roxy who loves to play just as much as Elvis does.

Emma came to work with me for the last few hours of the day to greet people with her permanent underbite grin. She was a big hit and a couple people have expressed interest in her.

And last but not least, Miss Prairie's adopter picked her up and she left for a home loaded with toys, soft beds, treats and love. Have a great life our sweet little Prairie Dog.

The pack is thinning a bit and I am breathing easier - 4 fosters is definitely overload at our house.

The gangs all here

Well, most of them, anyhow. Prairie is being babysat at her honorary grandma's house while this house of crazies settles down. She has a very good application and should be heading for her forever home this coming weekend.

The plane load of New Rattitude critters arrived yesterday and the cargo workers were practically begging us to take them away. Nervous from the novel experience of a plane ride the three of them were barking up a storm. They settled right down once were in the car though.

Getting them on the plane was a bit of an adventure for our IL volunteer. She had one of the boys, Gatsby, with her but the other 2 dogs, Emma and Munch, were being transported from their shelters in Western IL to our volunteer and arrived just an hour before she had to get them on the plane. Imagine her surprise when Emma, who was expected to be 15-18 pounds was 25 pounds! Since she didn't have a crate large enough to fly Emma she had to purchase one from the transporter and then rush all the dogs to O'Hare. In addition to being a big girl, poor Emma had a horrible flea infestation.

Luckily I was forewarned about the fleas and was able to talk a customer at work (also an adopter of one of my dogs) to run down the street for me to the vet's and pick up a Capstar. I was leaving for the airport from work and wouldn't have time to get to a vet. Capstar tablets are used to kill all the fleas on a dog within 30 minutes and then are supposed to be followed up with Frontline. At the cargo facility on our end we gave her the Capstar tablet and then as soon as we arrived home Troy gave her a bath while I fed our dogs along with Munch, Elvis and Gatsby. Emma then ate and with a full belly and flea-free she was feeling MUCH better. Her and Elvis chased each other all over the yard and soon Munch and Gatsby joined in and it was a wild blur of spotted dogs.

As you can see in the photo, Emma is a bit of a mutt. We are calling her an honorary rat terrier. She has a wire coat that will be beautiful now that the fleas are gone and her hair will start thickening where she was chewing on herself. Her ears are floppy and it looks like before she became a "stray" she had recently weaned a litter of puppies. She has quite the underbite and all her bottom teeth show when she is relaxed so it looks a bit like she is making a face at you.

Gatsby is a brindle patterned rat terrier and looks like he might have a little Boston terrier in him. He's incredibly thin so we are feeding him a puppy food three times a day and trying to get some weight put back on him.

Munch was transported over the mountains to his foster home in Yakima. He is a pure-bred rattie and is hilarious. He's all crazy puppy and has much more energy than he does coordination. What a fun, wild little guy.

In the photo you can see Emma, playing in the back yard with Elvis.

Lots goin' on

So we are starting July off with a bang (no fireworks pun intended) and there will be 5 new dogs flying into our 3 WA foster homes this weekend. Thanks to the WA foster parents who are going into overload to make room for these great dogs. Summer is what rescue people call the dumping season. All those Christmas puppies that seemed such a good idea end up at shelters and then you have the people who are planning a long vacation and decide they don't want to bother paying the money for boarding (trust me, this is very common) - whatever the excuses, the animals come into the shelters in droves. I am so impressed as I see the New Rattitude volunteers and other groups working together, sharing transports, networking, doing all they can to rescue as many of these forgotten dogs as possible.

Tomorrow evening the first three fosters will be flying into WA from Chicago. These one of the little guys I've already told you about - Gatsby from IN who was a stray, half starved from his time on the streets. Then we have Munch, a 1 year old pure bred rat terrier who has been in a Southern IL shelter since April. They held him longer than the usually hold since he was so young but due to lack of interest in him he was out of time. Thankfully the shelter works hard to find rescue groups to take their dogs. The other dog is Emma, a very mixy and hairy and adorable terrier who was also in a Southern IL shelter and was scheduled to be put to sleep earlier this week when the IL New Rattitude State Coordinator begged them to wait while she worked her magic. Munch will be heading to a foster home in Yakima where he will hang out with their pack and NR foster girl, Tellie. Gatsby and Emma will be staying here with me. Yep, we have an overly full house right now. However, Prairie has a very good application and I believe she will be heading to her forever home very quickly. She'll meet her new dad on Saturday morning.

Then, on Sunday a flight from Austin TX will bring 2 more dogs to WA. Hirf is an 8 week old rattie mix puppy who has a touch of demodex mange that we will treat. He'll be healthy in no time and ready for a new home then. The other dog I don't know as much about but her name is Bambi and she is under 2 years old, and is a terrier-Chihuahua mix (heavy on the Chihuahua as is the norm in TX.)

So welcome the new crowd to Washington. Hopefully they'll find great homes quickly and we'll be able to save a few more this summer.

Gatsby

Well, we are full up right now but I couldn't say no to this little guy who was scheduled to be put to sleep either today or tomorrow. We'll find a way to squeeze him in and I'm sure that Elvis will love having another youngster to play with. All of the other dogs just get irritated when he tries to play with them.

Gatsby (was called Shack in the shelter) was a stray for who knows how long and when he was found he was starving. His ribs, spine, hips, all jut out from his body but he is otherwise healthy and VERY happy. He is one of those dogs who seem to grin when they are happy. He is about 1 year old and very playful once he gets to know the place he's in and know that he's safe. His coat has very beautiful brindle markings, I hear, and you can see in the photo that he has radar dish ears that never miss a thing.

Right now he is being temped by the New Rattitude person who pulled him for me, Jessica, until he is ready to be flown to the Seattle area. We look forward to meeting the little guy.

Gatsby was one of about 10-12 rat terriers that were urgent this week. I wish we could save more of them. If you know of anyone who might be interested in fostering, let me know. New Rattitude covers vet bills, flea treatment, and even a stipend for food. All we need is your time and TLC.