More Fun In the Back Yard

Everyone was busy rolling in the grass the other day and it was pretty funny to watch. I wasn't able to catch Salinas' roll on video and by the time I had the camera out she was already relaxing on the deck, all rolled out.

I did however catch Chima and Tilly in the act. Tilly is funny because she likes to slide down the hill while she rolls around and on occasion will slide a good 3 feet or so down the hill as she squirms. Occasionally she'll squirm right over a poop pile which she thinks is awesome. Me, not so much.

Guess Who's at Our House...

Former foster dogs Willow and Hobbs. Their parents are in Oregon for the weekend and so the kiddos are staying with us. They've been as sweet as I remember them.

Willow (New Rattitude name was Coho)

Hobbs - he's always moving so it's tough to get a clear photo of him.

Willow is wondering what the heck Chima and Salinas are eating - fir cones, of course!

Chima and Salinas are a little leery about new dogs hanging out at the house but they have been good girls and are just doing a lot of sniffing. Willow and Hobbs will head home tomorrow and I'm sure they will be happy to see mom and dad again but in the meantime they are busy snoozing on the couch and doing what they do best - warming laps.

Pupdate: Whidbey in Alaska

Whidbey was rescued and adopted in 2012 and since he's gone to live with his new family he's been on some great adventures. We had shared with you his adventures in Death Valley. Well this year he and his brother Bain (another NR adoptee) headed north to Alaska - here are some pictures of them on their trip. Enjoy!

On the Dalton Highway

The boys made it to the Arctic Circle!

In the Yukon. "Larger than Life" could describe a Rat Terrier's attitude too.

Midday Snacks

Chima and Salinas have been quite successful on their diets. In fact they have lost about 10% of their initial body weight. Salinas is on a maintenance level of calories now but Chima still has a bit to lose. While I'm quite proud of their successes, they could care less. They are sure they are starving and have been forced to scavenge for midday snacks to sustain themselves between meals.

Chima and Salinas, on the "hunt"

Chima made the discovery that the nice crunchy fir cones littered about our yard have a delicious layer of pitch inside and she spends much of her time search out and crunching up this new delicacy. Sal caught on and now they both do it. Even Frodo joined in now and it's pretty humorous to see them on this new kind of hunt in the back yard. Forget the mice, these cones are much easier to catch.

Before

After (and they will come back and finish this part later)

Salinas, crunching up the last bits of her cone

Chillin'

When the girls first arrived in our home as new foster dogs, they were pretty freaked out by all the changes they'd been through. A suburban home in the Pacific Northwest was about as foreign and bizarre as it could get for these outdoor dogs who had grown up in the desert.

Salinas showed her unease through constant movement. She paced, wanted attention from the humans and then cowered when she received attention. Chima on the other hand was pretty still but always standing on the other side of the room from the humans and intensely watching us. It was pretty clear she wasn't going to relax with us in the room as she wanted to be able to escape from us quickly if we tried any funny business. Relaxing on the couch or even lounging on the floor wasn't an option for them.

Now here we are about 3 months later. Yesterday morning I was doing my computer work in the living room so I could supervise a bit while they played. Of course, I got distracted and after about 45 minutes looked up because it was way too quiet. With terriers, much like with toddlers, quiet can be a not so good thing.

Imagine my suprise when from the dining room where I sat, I saw no dogs. But they were gated into the living/dining area and the gate is still in place?! Where could they have gone?!! I stood up quickly in panic and then this is what I saw...

Chima, wondering what my problem is

Salinas popped her head up worriedly when I made a racket jumping out of my chair

The girls had finished their playing and chewing and had settled on their own piece of furniture for a snooze. Salinas, who always picks up on any human stress was concerned by my initial stress and then my fumbling with a camera and you can see in her ear and body position that I've made her worried. Chima, found my whole picture taking thing rather boring and went back to sleep.

Salinas, wanting to go back to sleep but concerned about me standing around with a camera

Chima went back to sleep when she discovered there was no emergency and that I didn't have any treats to toss her

Please be patient if you've adopted or bought a new dog. For you it may be wonderful to have a dog in your life. You are probably excited and overjoyed by their arrival. But that poor dog doesn't necessarily know that it will be a wonderful experience for them yet. They are in a strange place with an unknown person and they need time to adjust to this major change and to discover that their new life is wonderful. While some dogs can make that adjustment in a few days, for the typically smart and very sensitive Rat Terrier, that adjustment is more likely to take a few months. If you step back and give them time to decide things are okay, it will go much faster than if you push them and get frustrated. So hang in there and celebrate the little things...like a snooze on the couch. Who knew it could be such an exciting thing?

Salinas and her Outside Toy

A long time ago I bought a Jolly Ball Teaser Ball, thinking it would be the best tough toy for my terriers. I put it in the living room, they gave it a sniff or two and then walked away thinking "meh."  It went in the toy box about a year ago and there it has sat pretty much the entire time. Langley may have played with it once but that's it.

So imagine my surprise the other day when I look outside to find Salinas chasing after the teaser ball as it rolled down the hill. I had left the sliding door open so the girls could go in and out and she had chosen the teaser ball to play with. Yay! Now that it has a few teeth marks in it maybe other dogs will think it's worth playing with.

3rd Annual Northwest Rattiefest: Huge Success!

Wow! What an amazing event. From doing head counts on the different panoramic photos we know there were close to 90 humans and 50 dogs who joined the festivities.

From all the smiling facing and wagging tails, we're pretty sure that attendees had a great time. The humans bought tickets and could spend those tickets on trying their luck at the raffle where there were 28 great raffle items to try for, or they could spend tickets on the new games we had this year. A big thanks to my husband Troy who had the idea to add games! Dogs got to bob for hot dogs at the Dog Eat Dog booth, or they could try out a large variety of puzzle toys with their parents at the Puzzle Plaza. Humans could guess the number of kibble pieces in a jar in attempts to win a very nice soft sided crate full of Evanger dog food and treats. There was also the Rattie Rollin' dice game where you could roll the dice and depending on your roll, could win from three different groups of prizes - everyone won something in this game.

Bobbing for hot dog pieces

Some kids try their luck at the Rattie Rollin' game

The end result of this fantastic event (other than exhausted dogs) was that over $1,600 was raised in just 2 hours. That money will be used to pay for medical care and transport costs of the Northwest New Rattitude foster dogs. I want to extend a great big thank you to all of you who attended and purchased tickets. Not only have you guys made a difference by adopted a homeless Rat Terrier, you are continuing to make a difference by helping more rat terriers.

Inigo (former NR foster dog) tests out the Buster Maze at the Puzzle Plaza

And just as important, I want to thank the New Rattitude Northwest team of volunteers. You gave money for supplies, gifts for the raffle, begged and borrowed banquet tables from around the region, and brought all kinds of things from home so that this event could run so smoothly.

The Raffle Table

New Rattitude Information Table

Looking down the hill at some of the different Rattiefest booths

Thanks to all of you who worked booths and brought items. We couldn't have done it without your help and generosity. But a special shout out to Cindy Tokar for managing the food table and making all the signs for that, bagging up goodies, and talking her mom into once again making her epic homemade whoopie pies and shortbread to sell. Also a big thanks to Bruce and Karyn Fleming. Bruce helped us out by making beautiful signs for each of the different areas and Karyn managed the raffle, pulling together all the donated items into gift sets and making them look pretty and festive. Thanks to Carol Giberson for doing all the things that I was dropping the ball on thanks to the unexpected and happy event of Langley's adoption being processed.  She wrote up directions for the different games and the supply lists for each of them, managed the Biggest Loser: Northwest Rattie Edition and tallied up all the dogs weight loss stats so I'd have that info to announce the winners at the event, and then finally brought the 1/2 car load full of boxes that I couldn't fit into my Honda so that Troy and I didn't have to drive 2 cars to the event.

Pearl, a former NR foster dog, looking pretty

Elvis was one of our former foster dogs for NR. Such a sweet guy.

One of the best part of the events for the foster parents is getting a chance to see former fosters again, happy and enjoying their life as beloved family dogs. There were so many former New Rattitude fosters attending - I know I missed several - but it was great to see a few of my former kiddos. Elvis was a boy who was returned because he was fearful of the crawling baby in the home and the husband didn't like him. We found him a wonderful home with a former adopter and he and his sister Pearl alternate time between living in the city of Seattle and hanging out at their cabin that they hike into up in the mountains. Also attending was a foster dog from back in January of this year. Zia was one of the Rat Terrier-Jack Russell mix pups who we fostered back in January. She's 9 months old now and a tall, long legged beauty, full of energy and ready for fun. She had a blast tearing around with all the dogs and was fast, fast, FAST! Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of her but we just did a pupdate post on Zia so you saw how pretty she grew up to be. And Huckleberry also came and said hi to me. He looked great and was so much braver than he used to be. He clearly has blossomed in his home.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the photos and if you didn't make it we hope you'll be able to join us next year.