Rescue Railroad: Two New Foster Dogs in Washington

I know it's only been a week but we couldn't wait to bring a couple more dogs into the pack.

First meet Tulpen. This guy was spending 12 hour days alone and not getting much time out of the house. His mom rehomed her dogs, knowing her work schedule wasn't fair to them. So 6 year old Tulpen is headed to his Seattle foster home. He's sweet, house trained, confident, and could care less about cats. Good boy, Tulpen! Follow his foster adventure at http://cattierattie.blogspot.com/

And then we had a last minute addition to the trip - Daisy!  Miss Daisy is about 3 years old and had lived her life in and out of the shelter due to her owner being occasionally homeless and having a drug and alcohol problem. Finally the shelter talked the owner into sending Daisy to rescue. Daisy is well socialized, loves kids and other dogs, loves to play, and is an all around great dog. Learn more about her on her foster family's Webpage, www.gigharborratties.com

Smart and Silly

In the few days we've had Roswell in our home he's showed us what a smart little guy he is but also that he is 100% goofball.

I decided to do a bit of clicker training and learned that someone has taught him the cue for "sit" but not much else. We have started to build on that beginning and in just a 3 minute training session he caught on what "down" is. Currently I'm teaching it with a hand signal as the cue but as he get better at it I'll add the word "down." He really seemed to enjoy the training and it was fun to watch how intent he was at trying to figure out the puzzle of what behavior would earn him the reward. Great work, Roswell! I can tell you were born to be a superstar.

And on top of intelligence and great looks this boy is also loaded with personality! He loves to play and is a bit disappointed that none of the other 4 dogs at my house will give him the time of day. It doesn't stop him from trying though. But even if they won't play with him, he's pretty good at entertaining himself as you can see in this video. Silly little guy!

The Little Chocolate Blur

Roswell is doing great and settling in well. I'd love to show you some beautiful fall photos of him sitting outside in a pile of maple leaves but sadly this boy does not have time to pose for a photo. So all I have to show for two solid days of photo taking are 5 pictures that are in focus enough that I can share them.

He's a hilarious boy and really loves people. As much as he loves to move, he always has time to jump up in a lap for an ear scritch.

Chima and Salinas aren't quite sure what to think of him yet. Sal steers clear but Chima is the curious one and spends a lot of time sniffing him and following around allow the following seems to be a bit of posturing to remind him who runs the show.

Things we've discovered in the last couple of days: he tolerates baths really well, he has the cutest little tail nub EVER that wags non-stop, he is loaded with muscles, when lying down he prefers the "full frog" position, and he has a love of trash cans (or at least their contents.)

I'm looking forward to learning more about this little goofy boy and can't wait to share him with you.

Rescue Railroad: New Washington Foster Dogs

We have three newly rescued dogs arriving in Washington foster homes this weekend . You read about our new boy, Roswell. Well, here are the two sisters who rode on the transport with him:

Harper (rear) and Stella (front) are a cute pair of Rat Terrier mix sisters. The girls came from a shelter where they had been sitting for awhile and had run out of time so it was urgent to get them into foster care. They are believed to be around 1 year old and weigh about 14 pounds each.

From what we hear they are shy and gentle girls who need a bit of time to get to know new people but are quite the little love bugs once they know you are a safe person.

Welcome to Washington, Harper and Stella! Harper will be fostered in Gig Harbor and you can follow her on her foster parents' rescue page. Stella will be fostered in Yakima and her adventures in foster care can be seen on the Yapitude in Yakima Rescue Blog.

Introducing Roswell!

We're pleased to announce the arrival of a new foster boy in our home! His name will be Roswell and he's said to be a happy go lucky, energetic guy who does great with other dogs but not so much with cats (seems to be a theme with our foster dogs.)

He's about 3 years old and the guess at his weight is about 14 pounds. We can't wait to get to know this new guy and maybe Chima will finally have found a dog who is willing to play with her. Stay tuned to hear more about this chocolaty delicious tricolor guy.

Continuing our New Mexico name theme, Roswell is named for the famous town in New Mexico, best know for the supposed 1947 UFO Crash. The town has built a tourism industry around the fabled incident so that even with a population of just 48,000 people it is knows around the nation.

Langley is in the house!

Langley's dad has some meetings on the mainland so he asked us if we would watch Langley for him overnight. I was excited to see the wild man again but the canine members of the family have been somewhat less enthusiastic.

Salinas: "I thought you loved me enough to not put me through this butt sniffing maniac!"

Chima: "What were you THINKING woman?! Have you lost your mind?"

Langley doesn't mind their discomfort though. He is busy doing all the things that Langley does best - running, barking, begging for belly rubs, eating copious amounts of poo...

Langley: "Someone ate about 3 cups of poop and then puked it up?  HORRIBLE! Who would do such a thing!! Did you ask the girls about that?"

There have been a couple close calls with Chima who does not appreciate Langley's intense staring into her eyes when he wants to chase her. Most dogs have trouble reading Langley's awkward "dog speak" and find his intensity a bit much. We hear he has a buddy named Pippa in his dog class though who he tears around and plays with after class for about 30 minutes of non stop wrestling and chasing. He's also the star of his doggy class thanks to the overdose of brains that dog ended up with.

Langley tries out Frodo's favorite pose on the couch while Salinas watches distrustfully

Anyhow, he'll be going home this evening so it was a short trip. We enjoyed our time with him but I'm pretty sure that Chima, Frodo and Sal are happy to send him back to his island.

Simplify

Lately I've been on a mission to clear away the clutter - get rid of all the extra stuff in our house that never gets used and just adds to stress. While I've been on one of these kicks in the past, this time instead of diving all the way in and getting completely overwhelmed by all the organizing I made a goal to choose a minimum of three things each day to get rid of. It could be extra kitchen utensils that don't get used, clothes not being worn, out of date medications in the medicine cabinet, or in the case of the canines in our house - old damaged toys and extra leashes and harnesses. It's been going great and already after a few weeks of doing this, I can see a change coming over the house.

Salinas supervising my decluttering of a kitchen drawer

Luckily the little changes don't get my anxious crew of dogs worked up and while they do like to watch what in the heck I'm doing while I'm organizing, for the most part they just see it as one more odd and mysterious thing that their human is doing.

But today I happened to cast my eye upon their toy basket. There were plenty of chewed up squeakie toys that I could be rid of.

Their basket of tough toys and chews

A Cuz, desqueaked by Frodo

As many of you know though, a dog never loves a toy more than at the moment you decide to throw it away. Oh, the conniptions, the pacing, the snuffling of the cabinet where the garbage can is kept. They were beside themselves for quite awhile. They'll get over it though.

Langley absolutely loved this Jolly Ball and would throw it everywhere by its handle. Sadly, Chima decided the handle needed to go and chewed it off 3 days after I brought it home. 

So as much as they find my mission to get rid of things perplexing (and alarming when the focus is their toy basket) in the end, simplifying the environment is a great way to calm oneself. And calm humans are just what a dog needs.