Bye-bye Quin boy

Quin doesn't head to his family until Sunday, but since I am leaving on Thursday for the Rat Terrier Jamboree in Tennessee today is my last day with him.  I'm always a little happy when the young fosters head to their forever homes as they are a lot of work - so busy and needing nonstop supervision to keep them safe and out of trouble - but I'm a lot sad too since we really love all our fosters and connect to them.

So goodbye, sweet Quinault.  Have a long and happy life with your new family in the Kootenays of British Columbia.  I know they'll take great care of you and help you continue to grow up to be the fabulous adult dog that we all know you will be.

Fern: Sunday and Monday

Fern's Sunday and Monday this week couldn't be more different.  Sunday she was on Mercer Island at a rat terrier meetup event, tearing around the dog park and having a blast.  Today, Monday, she's headed to the vet for spay surgery and to have her microchip implanted.  AND she would like me to add (she's been whining non-stop for about 30 minutes now) she had to miss breakfast this morning and is pretty sure she's going to faint dead away from starvation - as soon as she finishes complaining about it.

Quinault will be a Canadian Pup

Our sweet Quinault will soon be heading to his adoptive home in Southeast British Columbia.  There he'll live with a family of 4 who have a nice big yard and spend lots of weekend time on their 35 acre wooded property.  Everything has been approved and he's going to be heading home in one week, when we have a transport planned.  He'll rarely need to spend more than a couple hours on his own and once he has some training under his belt will go to work with his dad.  Lots of happy times are ahead for our special little blue boy.

Simple joys

One of the fun parts of fostering is discovering the individuality in each new dog.  They have a certain gait, different vocalizations for different moods, a favorite wrestling pose, favorite toys...  This first week with Fern we've learned so much about her.  She loves to run and thanks to her supermodel length legs she is fast and sleek like a 20# spotted racehorse.  She also will leap off of things during these high speed runs and look like she's going to start to fly.  During these races she is so joyous that it is impossible not to have a sloppy grin on your face just witnessing the pure beauty of it. 

And then yesterday we learned that Fern loves tennis balls.  She loves to fetch them. She loves to squeak them if they have a squeaker, and she even loves to just carry them around in her mouth.  She will purposely set it down on a slope, leap forward and catch it and then do it all over again.  She'll roll it into a shrub just for the simple joy of digging in after it and emerging with her prize.

It may seem silly to the uninitiated but learning another creature's joy, even if it is just carrying around a mucky ball they found in a leaf pile or taking a flying leap off a 24" wall, can help us find that joy within ourselves.  It's a reason I hope that I will always be fostering.

Busted!

It's a beautiful day so against the advice I always give adopters of new puppies I left the back door open and was letting the dogs go in and out as they pleased. Fern, who likes to stay close to her people at all times kept checking in but after awhile I realized that Quinault hadn't been up on the deck for awhile. He was up by the fir tree which is prime hole digging territory for dogs who seem to enjoy that activity.

As I came up the path he lifted his head with the cutest little gray muddy nose I ever saw and it was impossible to be irritated at the tiny little hole he had so proudly dug. It was my fault anyhow since I know better than to let a little one have unsupervised playtime - even if it was just for 5 minutes.

Meet Fern

Fern is our newest foster girl and we think she's quite a prize. She's a big girl compared to a lot of the Rat Terriers you see on the West Coast - about 20 pounds - and is just under a year old. She was a stray in the city of Fresno and was pulled from the shelter when her "safe hold" was up. A New Rattitude volunteer in CA temped her, nursed her through kennel cough, and got her ready for her long ride up to the Puget Sound area yesterday.

Her and Quin have been having a lot of fun together and spent 4 full hours yesterday tearing around and wrestling. Quin even somehow lost one of his baby teeth during the wrestling that I wasn't sure was going to come out without being pulled under anesthesia.

Like all youngsters she's working on her house-training and still likes to chew but when given lots of appropriate chewing options (antlers, Nylabones and toys) she does fine. We are really looking forward to fostering this sweet-tempered, beautiful, long-legged gal.

Puppy teeth!

Like all puppies, Quinault has those needle sharp baby teeth and everyone, especially the four legged family members, are celebrating that his canine teeth finally are starting to come in. The bottom 2 have poked through and the top two are super close. For now that means lots of extra chewy toys to help him work those gums. In this photo he's hanging out with an antler that he likes to work on.

Quinault wrestles 10 wk old Dane puppy, Luna

Quin had a great time at the Seattle Rat Terrier Meetup at the Luther Burbank Off Leash Park on Mercer Island.  Here he is wrestling with his new BFF, Luna, a 10 week old Great Dane puppy.

Introducing Quinault

So after nearly a year of not posting here I've decided to try it again. I'm nearly twice as busy as I was a year ago but hopefully if I just keep posts simple I can share some of the fantastic foster dogs New Rattitude has in their Pacific Northwest foster homes.

Meet our current foster boy, Quinault. He is a gorgeous, large 5 month old puppy. Right now he's about 11 pounds so full grown will be a classic standard rattie size of about 16-17 pounds. He has beautiful blue tri-color coat with the tuxedo pattern - pretty unusual for a Rat Terrier and absolutely stunning.

With those good looks come a good chunk of energy. He's an active, busy boy who's full time teething and wrestling and busy, busy, busy. He needs a home that will be willing to harness his very smart little self and help him become a team with his family. A positively taught puppy class and then maybe some intermediate trick classes would be great.

Anyhow, see more photos of this gorgeous little guy at www.imageevent.com/newrattitude/quinault