Updates on the current crew

First off we have to tell everyone the great news. Nimh has found a home of her own and she is doing great! She now lives in the Capital Hill neighborhood of Seattle and is enjoying life as a city girl. Nimh has a rattie-chi sister that's even tinier than her and a 12 year old human sister who is really good at spoiling her. Congratulations Ms. Nimh on your new home.

The next news is on Skipper. We've continued working on training with him and he is doing great. He now spends most of his time upstairs in the living room hanging out with Frodo and although I can't say that they are best buddies, they do fine together. In the picture you see Skipper "uncorking" the squeakie wine bottle that he made quick work of. We're pleased to announce that Mr. Skippy has an application and his potential family is coming out tomorrow afternoon to meet him. Wish him luck - he'd sure love to have a family of his own.

Let's not forget Ms. Madeline. She continues to recover from her hip surgery, although she has had a little setback when something seemed to get pulled during her spay. We have her on an anti-inflammatory and some Tramadol for the pain and are hoping she will be 100% soon. Currently she has a couple people interested in her so we are just waiting and watching to make sure she will be healed up enough to head to a forever home.

Just a reminder - you can check out the latest on all the WA New Rattitude foster dogs over on Facebook - just look for the "New Rattitude - Washington State" community page. You should also "like" our National page while you're at it! Thanks everyone for your continued support!

Skipper is here!

The New Rattitude WA team has another new foster parent, Traci, and her 1st foster dog arrived in WA on Sunday the 12th.

Skipper's owner passed away and the 6-7 year old guy was spending most of his time in a crate after that. He was headed to a shelter but the owner really wanted to avoid that since a 6 year old guy doesn't have much of a chance in a shelter. A rescue spot was found for him and he arrived here on Sunday, seemingly enjoying his big transport adventure.

This guy is up for just about anything. He knows some basic commands, is well house trained, crate-trained, loves kids and other dogs and is an all around joy for everyone (except maybe cats - he LOVES cats but they aren't fond of his ability to chase and catch them.)

He's a Jack Russell/rat terrier mix and at 6 he's not even quite middle-aged yet. This guy is an excellent example of why people should skip puppies and look for a mature dude to add to their family.

Thanks to all involved in saving him.

Edward Update: Poor Edward's kennel cough has settled in and he's at the worst phase of it with lots of coughing at night and a runny nose. The good news is that he is now eating and not looking so gaunt. We just need to get him through this KC so he can be healthy enough to have his hip fixed.

Frisby/Nimh update: Frisby has a great application and will be meeting his potential adopter and their rat terrier Cooper tomorrow. Everyone wish him luck! Nimh is still looking for a home that is looking for a gorgeous tiny dog who deserves the title of Princess Nimh.

Busy, busy...

After a long dry spell without any applications we recently received 3 and although one didn't make the cut the other 2 look like great fits for Mayzie and Kanga. Actually, Mayzie's application is already approved and she will be heading to her new home on Saturday. Mayzie turns 1 yr old on the 23rd of this month and I think that a loving mom and new home are the best gifts this tiny girl could ask for.

Kanga will be meeting an applicant on Sunday and also meeting a possible rat terrier brother, Scooter. Since Kanga loves everyone, dog and human alike, I'm pretty confident it will go well and we'll be able to move forward. Nonetheless, everyone wish Kanga luck on Sunday afternoon. She's been through a lot with ending up in a shelter, staying for a week in a foster home, flying from Chicago to Seattle, and then 2 knee surgeries to get her ready to find a home. In spite of it all she loves unconditionally and even gave the vet a kiss after he was feeling her just operated on knee.

Frisby and Nimh are each still waiting for someone to find them and we also have a couple great boys, Doc and McLovin' in Yakima looking for a special spot so if you know of anyone looking for a new family member, point them our way.

We also currently have 2 new Washington state foster homes going through the approval process so that will mean even more dogs that I can tell you about. The poor volunteer coordinator is likely getting very tired of my impatient E-mails asking for updates on the status of the foster home apps. I can't help myself! We've got more rat terriers to save.

In the photo above you see Kanga, Frisby (front) and Nimh squeezed into a crate together. Although we have 3 open crates loaded with beds and blankets (including a huge 500 series crate) they always hang out like little spotted sardines in one of the small ones.

Some positive things happening...

After several weeks of no applications for Washington New Rattitude fosters, and no open foster spots for dogs that were urgently awaiting rescue, I have some good news at last!

Sweet tiny Mayzie has a great application that is currently being processed and will likely be a really good fit for her. Also, a couple came to meet Frisby at the Petsmart adoption event and applied to adopt him. That will finally get us down to our typical fostering level of 2 fosters at a time which will be much appreciated by my husband and son. :)

Other great news: a couple really great applications in Western WA to foster for New Rattitude. To foster for New Rattitude you go through an approval process that is much like when a person applies to adopt a dog. That is followed by a short training session with our treasurer and then the person is assigned a mentor and is ready for their first foster. So I'm hoping that sometime soon I'll be able to be pulling some dogs urgently awaiting rescue for these new spots.

Many thanks to Julee for attending the adoption event and taking my fosters Kanga and Frisby with her. She developed some really great arm muscles thanks to Kanga being stressy and wanting to be held the entire time. Kanga is fit and trim but she still weighs around 18 pounds so she's not a light load. Thanks also to Julee for volunteering to help out with marketing our dogs - getting fliers posted in spots where good potential adopters are located. Because of the slow economy the number of applications for our dogs has dropped considerably and this extra publicity for them is going to be an incredible help.

So things are looking up. Mayzie has quickly healed from her surgery and has a new favorite past time - wrestling with Nimh and Kanga. She's still a bit of a fraidy cat with people but with the dogs and with me she has become much more playful and confident.

Co-dependent dogs

Sometimes it is easy to think of two dogs as "bonded" when the situation is something more complex and less healthy. We've had Frisby and Nimh here in foster care for over a month now and when I first met them I was sure that it was necessary to adopt them out together. I kept them in the same big crate at night, fed them together, etc.

However the longer we had them, the more I realized that it was more co-dependency than anything else that formed their bond. Both dogs had been together for a month in the shelter and according to paperwork they had been surrendered together as well. Nimh has a strong personality and is bold and a little high-strung. Frisby on the other hand is somewhat timid and shy. When together Nimh bossed Frisby around constantly and then when she felt threatened would look to him for a reason to keep barking at something.

After talking with friends who had seen these behaviors before I started working on splitting the two up to see if they could handle it. The first night I made the mistake of trying to go cold turkey and after several hours of barking and whining gave in. Talked with someone on New Rattitude's behavior modification team and then tried again. First it was separate wire crates set right next to each other. Next, we slowly moved the crates a little further apart each morning and by night time they were used to the wider distance. Now the crates are across the room from each other but still mostly in line of sight. After they get used to this I'll start easing the crates so they are no longer in each other's sight.

All this moving apart has made a big difference, especially for Frisby. In the past he didn't do anything on his own and mostly followed Nimh around to bark at whatever she was barking at. Now he explores on his own, and just this week started playing chase and doing rattie runs around the backyard. BIG PROGRESS!!! Nimh isn't barking like she used to and is learning to play with the other dogs without trying to constantly boss them around. She loved to wrestle with Elvis but now that he's been adopted has decided that wrestling with Kanga is pretty fun too.

Another thing that has happened during this process? House-trained!!! Crate training works and no dog is too old to be house-trained. These 4 year olds had never been house-trained but now they run for the door when it's time and as long as they are kept on a schedule we don't have any accidents. Yay!!!

The photo above shows Frisby, Nimh and Kanga enjoying some snuggle time on the back of the couch. They are our current 3 foster dogs.

Still crazy...

We've now reached a new level of craziness here with 8 dogs at the house. Last winter when we fostered Star's litter of pups we had 9 in the house but at least with the pups the mess was contained to as far as they could toss their poo through the wires of their ex-pen. The 2 extras aren't fosters - we're dogsitting some friends' dogs and to give them credit they are easy dogs compared to any of the other 6 in the house. Actually, individually none of the dogs are difficult dogs but when you put them together in this big of a pack it makes life difficult.

Nimh and Elvis both have possible adopters so at least there is hope for a calmer household in the future. After they go home we are going to try to keep it to 2 fosters at a time for awhile to give ourselves a break after the crazy summer of foster overload at our house.

Kanga is a month past her surgery now and although she still lifts her leg to walk, she uses it fully when playing with Elvis. I'm thinking she'll be ready for surgery number 2 in another 4 weeks.

I decided to split up Frisby and Nimh because although they are bonded, it is more a co-dependent bond that tends to bring out the worst in both of them. Nimh likely has a home but Frisby will still be looking. He's a cute little 11 pound guy who is a bit anxious so should probably not be in a home with kids or large dogs. He loves to snuggle and is great with people as long as they aren't wild, crazy and loud.

Well, that's the latest. Happy October to you all!

The latest from the hound house

Sweet Lucas found a great home and was handed off to his new family on Sunday. I just E-mailed them to see how the transition was going. This sweet little guy can be a bit growly in new situations but he found a hardcore dog family who will happily give him the time and space to get used to his new family. His 12 year old Jack Russell Terrier sister should keep him in line if his new mom and dad are too soft with him though. :)

Since Lucas went home we had room finally for Elvis to join us. He had been staying with an adopter after being returned because of being overly fearful in his new home. He's doing great here and has been acting as a physical therapy assistant for Kanga. When she plays she forgets to hold her leg up and Elvis always wants to play. Kanga is happy to join in and gets regular sessions of using her leg. It is really speeding up recovery.

Frisby and Nimh are continuing to work on housetraining so they do spend a lot of time crated which is kind of a bummer. They went to work with me one day last week but Nimh wanted to be held all day so it didn't work very well. Even though she is 8 pounds she thinks she's a pocket dog. They are hilarious together and so cute and tiny. If you know of anyone who might be willing to offer this dynamic duo a loving home, point them my way. Their image event album can be found at http://imageevent.com/newrattitude/frisbyandnimh I can't take any new fosters until I find a home for at least 2 of my fosters because we are so full right now.

Oh - don't forget to enter your photos in the New Rattitude Rat Terrier Calendar contest! They are accepting entries until 9/30 over at http://www.newrattitude.org/

A crazy couple days of rescue

I really need to post to the blog more often so I don't have these huge posts to keep things up to date. Since I last reported we have had 5 new dogs arrive in WA and the big news is that 2 of them already have possible homes! Two arrived on Sunday and then 3 more flew in yesterday during one of the busiest rescue days I've ever experienced.

So here's a bit of info about our new crew in WA and I'll follow that with updates on the dogs who were already here.

Kanga: Kanga came from a Milwaukee shelter that is very low kill, however because of her luxating patella she was deemed unadoptable and scheduled to be euthanized. In stepped our WI state coordinator who pulled Ms. Kanga and fostered her for a week or so until we could get her transported down to Chicago for the flight. She had her first surgery yesterday and it ends up she had no groove for the patella to sit in at all! Not even a shallow one. That problem is now fixed and in 4 to 6 weeks she'll be ready for the other leg to be fixed. Special thanks to Edgewood Veterinary who always does such a great job on these surgeries and who are incredibly rescue friendly. We love you guys!! Kanga is shown in the picture above.

RJ/McLovin: This little 10 pound boy came from a rural IL shelter and is a little heart-throb. SOOOO cute! Poor boy had been in awful conditions at the shelter and had urine burns on his paws and worst of all, his testicles were like one big open sore. The shelter had reported that he didn't like to be held. Well would you like it if a person was holding you and squeezing your bloody McNuggets? The sores are already starting to heal and he will soon be neutered. This morning I drove him to his Eastern WA foster home where he'll get some TLC. It looks like one of Jett's overflow apps is interested in him so he should be able to go home in about 2 weeks when all the paperwork is done and his vetting is current.

Doc: Doc is a young, excited, big goofball of a boy. Although he can be wild, he does settle and will look at you with his big brown eyes and give a kiss. He came from South Bend IN and had been listed on New Rattitude's urgent list for a couple weeks. He also was shown to one of the apps who had been interested in Jett and may have a home with them.

Frisby and Nimh aka "The Dynamic Duo": Frisby and Nimh are rat terrier/chihuahua mixes who were surrendered together and have been together their whole life. This 4 year old pair does everything together, often in unison, and are very well behaved. Mr. Frisby is 10 pounds and is tan and white and Ms. Nimh is 8 pounds and is tan. Because they are so bonded our goal is to adopt these two out together. They came from a shelter in rural southern IL.

Okay so that's the new crew. Here's news on the old crew. Quimby has a great application and if the home visit goes as well as the interviews have will be going home this weekend sometime. She was spayed yesterday and came home in the evening. Today she has all her gumption back so we are having to keep her crated so she won't overdo it. McMuffin was adopted by a couple who had originally applied for Jett. I brought her back to the west side from her Yakima foster home and she will go home this evening. Lucas is meeting up with a possible adopter this evening. If all goes well he'll go home when they are back from vacation in a week and a half or so. Little Fleck, the 5 mo. old puppy from Stockton CA is available for adoption still.