Rothko's Adopted!

Rothko's adopted and I couldn't be happier with the family he has found. He'll be moving up to North Vancouver, British Columbia and will get to spend almost 100% of his time with his parents, which he will absolutely love.

His family owns a music studio so Rothko will be a studio dog with a life full of music and he will even get to join in on some recordings himself. Since his new parents are musicians, they've decided to name him Django after the famous jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt. And check it out! His mom already did this cool painting of him.

Django Reinhardt

We know that Django has a happy life full of love ahead of him - a great future for this sweetest of bouncy boys!

King Goofball

Rothko jumped into the hammock with me while I was listening to a podcast

Rothko likes to be up where the people are or perched where he can see them and this leads to some funny poses. If I could use one word to describe him it would be goofball. Bellyrubs are his nirvana so he regularly uses his flailing feet to push the other dogs out of his way and flops over on his back next to whomever is on the couch to ask for belly-time.

Working on getting some attention

Chima and Salinas are tolerating his spazziness but I can't blame them for snarling when he kicks them full on in the face as he squirms around trying to get the spot on the couch closest to the person. Silly boy and very patient girls.

No humans were sitting down so he sat up on the hearth where he had a good view of everyone.

A Trip to the Vet

Rothko does this weird thing where when he runs fast he lifts up his rear right leg. After having Maile with her knee issues I was a bit panicked so I made an appointment to have his knees and hips checked out at the vet.

In the reception area, waiting to be called back

As with all new things Rothko was a bit concerned but willing to trust that I had his back. He sat between my legs as we waited to be called in and then later sat in the chair next to me. It was very cute.

Checking in with me to make sure I'm still there and everything is cool

Dr. Joe checked him out and Rothko's knees were nice and solid with equal muscle mass in both legs (meaning he wasn't tending to favor one leg enough for it to get built up larger than the one he was lifting). Because it's obvious that Rothko has lived pretty rough (he's missing the tip of one ear and has lots of little scars on his face) and because he tends to sit "side saddle" Dr. Joe wanted to check out his hips with an x-ray for any healed fractures that might be causing a structural issue. The x-ray looked wonderful - no signs of former fractures, nice straight spine, all just how it should look.

In the exam room, doing more waiting for the doctor to arrive

So Mr. R was cleared for full exercise as Dr. Joe can see no reason for the leg pulling up.  One thing that dogs from Central CA will regularly do when they get to wet Washington is walk with three legs on the wet grass, as if they want to have as few body parts touching the grass as possible. Salinas still occasionally does this so I have to wonder if that might be what is going on.

Puppy the clinic dog knows me well thanks to all my foster dog visits and always sits in the waiting area with me since she knows I always have a treat pouch full of kickass treats. Cutest clinic employee there!

Regardless, he has a clean bill of health, weighs 17.3 pounds and Dr. Joe guessed him at closer to 3 years than 2 like the shelter had guessed.

Rothko Out and About

I decided to take Mr. Rothko out for a leash walk to see how his leash skills were. While I know that it sounds like I'm gushing, this guy blew me away. I'm used to most new fosters either being terrified of the leash and flipping around in a panic, or turning into sled dogs and charging ahead and pulling the entire walk.

Rothko did neither and he managed things like a pro. I still don't think he's had any training,  but I think his leash skill comes from his desire to stick with his people and how he likes to regularly check in to see what they are doing.

Taking a 30 minute walk with a new foster dog can really give me a feel for a dog and what I took away from this walk is that Rothko is a very resilient dog. Walking in a Pacific Northwest neighborhood on a sunny weekend day means that you are going to see lots of people and dogs out in their yards. We only get so many sunny days here so it's almost sacrilege to not spend them outside. In the following video we walked past the fenced back yard of a Golden Retriever who regularly makes a fuss about dogs and people walking on the sidewalk by his house. Today was no different and Rothko did stop to take in the situation but after checking in with me and being reassured he was back on his way - no barking or high stress behaviors and able to happily take a treat given to reinforce his great behavior.

About a mile into the walk we went past a house with a small fluffy dog in the window completely freaking out about us walking by. We are talking a conniption fit of the intensity only usually seen in my dog Frodo. Again Rothko paused and looked at the dog quietly, looked at me, and then started walking again. Amazing!

Other scary or startling things we encountered over the 2 miles we walked: a car starting up loudly right as we passed the driveway, a guy using a Weed-eater in his front yard about 10 feet from us, and even a guy working on his deck with a nail gun that made Rothko stop a bit nervously but then quickly start up again without any barking.

Good dog, Rothko. While he's not perfect, he's a darn good dog!

Rothko meet the pack

Rothko did a great job meeting some of the grumpier members of our pack. His happy go lucky nature seems to put them at ease however, his joy of tearing around seems to irritate Chima and Tilly a bit.

Rothko and Frodo having a pee-off when they first met.

Meeting Salinas

Salinas decided to observe him from a distance

He loves people and likes to check in regularly to see what I'm doing

Scrub-a-dub-dub

There's a ton of dust where most of our foster dogs come from and their fur holds onto it like crazy. Add to that the fact that there are loads of ticks in the Central Valley of CA and that means the first stop after a foster dog arrives (after that first night of sleep actually) is the bathtub.

Rothko didn't think this was a load of fun, however he also didn't fight it and was a good sport, even when I made him sit through having a coat conditioner rubbed in after he was shampooed.

Bath time is a great time for a close inspection of a dog, especially when they aren't wiggly. A few things we discovered during this inspection was Rothko has a lot of small scars on his face so was probably on the receiving end in a few dog fights. He has pressure callouses on patches near his front elbows so likely spent most of his time on concrete. The shelter tattooed him when he was neutered so he's got his little green mark down there and his neuter incision is a little red so I sprayed some colloidal silver on it to help it heal up. And then lastly we discovered he has two "high toes". In this case the outside toe on each of his front paws sits up higher than the rest and it looks like the nails on those two haven't been trimmed in awhile so we'll be doing a nail trim on those soon. It's important that the nails on those toes stay trimmed up since they tend to curl back dramatically and can cut into the pad.

Once he was all clean and fancy he promptly proceeded to get his legs all muddied up tearing around in the back yard so he's definitely a normal dog.

100 Dogs

Besides just being cute and sweet, there's something else that is special about Rothko. He is our family's 100th foster dog!

Rothko - Foster dog #100

We bought our first Rat Terrier, Frodo, from a breeder in December of 2005 and over the next year we fell so in love with the little guy that we considered getting a second Rat Terrier. We weren't sure though so I had the idea of fostering for a Rat Terrier Rescue. I figured then we could have that "2nd dog" but would be saving more than just the one we would save if we adopted a dog. And now here we are, with three Rat Terriers of our own, two foster Rat Terriers and 98 others we have fostered over the last seven years.

My heart dog, Frodo

Initially in 2007 we were fostering for another Rat Terrier organization and our first ten foster dogs were through that group. When New Rattitude formed in August 2008 we changed groups and have been with New Rattitude ever since.

Our first foster dog, Smudge

Weirdly, our first foster dog wasn't even a Rat Terrier. He was a tiny black Chihuahua puppy with a broken leg who we named Smudge. I cried for a whole weekend after he was adopted but decided I could live with the pain of goodbyes if it meant more dogs could be saved. So often people say to me "well, I just wouldn't have the heart to let go of them!" The reality is if you really have a heart, you let them go, knowing that there are hundreds of others waiting for that life saving foster spot. Happily it got much easier to say goodbye the longer we fostered. It wasn't that I loved the foster dogs any less, I just learned how to think of them as someone elses's dog and over time I saw that the families they went to gave them wonderful lives.

Catty, one of our more challenging foster dogs whose adopter has become a close friend

In the past seven years the dogs have taught me so much. I've dealt with just about every physical malady in dogs that I had heard of and some that I had never heard of. I've also dealt with some very gross stuff that only a dog could share with you - dogs eating poop and then puking it up on the carpet an hour later, a dog who left tapeworms in my bed, and every weird wiggly worm that could come out of a dog has graced our doggy septic tank.  

Mama Star and our first (and hopefully last) litter of foster puppies

My understanding of dogs has deepened as well. Whereas I started out thinking of them simply as cute pets, I now appreciate how nuanced their personalities can be and how amazingly complex their language of movement, gestures, and body language is. It fascinates me so much that I now attend many seminars a year to learn how animals learn, how they relate to people and to other dogs, how to help them manage and overcome fear, what makes them tick....

Our 10th foster Tilly was the first highly fearful dog that we fostered. We adopted Tilly and she has made amazing progress over the six years we've had her. She's now 13 years old

They have pushed me to the edge emotionally a few times as well. I've fostered and done behavioral rehabilitation on a few very difficult dogs and of course those are the dogs who taught me the most about both dogs and about myself.

Callista came to us from a shelter in Texas and had been infected with distemper. It was the first time we had to deal with a major disease. Sadly Callista had to be euthanized when the disease moved into her brain. It was one of my most difficult times in fostering. We also had two puppies at the time who caught the disease from her and one pup died and one lived.

It has become a huge part of who I am and is an amazingly fulfilling job and I thank my family for all of their support and help with caring for the dogs. I also thank the volunteers that I work closely with both as fellow foster parents and as a regional rescue coordinator for the Pacific Northwest. Now, onto the next 100!

Our current pack: Tilly, Salinas, Chima and Frodo

If you've ever thought of fostering, New Rattitude is a great organization to work with. They give tons of support, offer stipends for food, pay veterinary medical expenses, cover flea and heartworm preventative and more. To learn more about fostering with New Rattitude go to www.newrattitude.org/foster.htm

Introducing Rothko!

We will have a new boy arriving soon and we can't wait to meet him! He's kind of a mystery still but we know that he's done well with other dogs in his temporary foster home and that he doesn't get upset when dogs are snarky around him. (Chima, you're in luck!)

Rothko is about 2-3 years old and weighs about 14 pounds. He has calico markings and a docked tail. Once he's up here we should be able to narrow his age range and confirm the weight.

We do know he's a handsome little dude though, as you can see in the two shelter photos we have.

Rothko was named for the American Abstract Expressionist painter, Marc Rothko. Rothko started his career in a more surrealistic style and a focus on mythical creatures. His work became more abstract and minimalistic until his signature "multiform" color block style evolved in the late 1940's through his death in 1970.

Marc Rothko

Entrance to Subway, 1938

Untitled, 1948

No. 61, 1953