Rescue Railroad: 6 New Washington Foster Dogs

We've got 6 kiddos arriving late tonight for Washington foster homes and all the foster parents are pretty excited by their impending arrival. I already told you about our new boy Chile so here's a little about the other 5 dogs:

Charlie

Charlie likely was someones beloved dog before she somehow ended up in the shelter. She sat in the shelter, unclaimed until her time was up. Our intrepid volunteer, Lynn, swooped in and rescued her and once she was out of the shelter we learned what a special dog she is. Charlie tends to be a "human worshiper" and follows her people around, always ready to warm a lap when her services are needed. Initially she was quite panicky when Lynn would leave her for a day at work but once she learned the schedule and realized that Lynn wasn't dumping her again, she relaxed and was fine with snoozing on the couch until Lynn returned.   Bonuses: Charlie is house trained and it looks like she recently had a dental done because her mouth looks wonderful. While she is 7 or 8 years old, she still has plenty of kick in her step and likes to play with the floppy stuffing-free toys or with a tail teaser wand. Seven is just middle aged for a small terrier so don't let age stand in your way of adopting this jewel of a Rat Terrier - she's got beauty, health and great house manners!

Soos

Soos is a young guy, about a year old, and just 9 pounds. He's sweet, loves people and other dogs. He was just pulled from the shelter so we are still learning more about his personality but if you'd like to follow Soos and his time in foster care be sure to visit his foster mom's blog, A Day in the Life of A Rescued Rat Terrier.

Liberty

Liberty is another sweet little gal. The shelter's guess as to age  was 1 to 2 years old and she weighs just 9 pounds. We don't know a lot about her other than her ears are hilariously adorable. Be sure to follow her adventures as a New Rattitude foster dog on the Gig Harbor Rat Terrier Rescue Website.

Figaro

Figaro is a sweet, short little Rat Terrier mix puppy who loves to tear around and play and will be sure to keep his adoptive home laughing with his silliness. The shelter's guess is about 14-16 weeks of age so Fig is still in the puppy training age and will need a family ready to put in the hours doing that early puppy socialization and positive training to get him a great start to his life.

Viktor

Viktor is a bit younger than Figaro, about 12 weeks old, and he is a lover of a pup who is always ready for a pet or a snuggle. While you can see that he is ridiculously cute, like Figaro Viktor will need a home where his humans are ready and willing to put in the time socializing, and getting lots of experience in different environments and with different people under his belt. That will set him up to be a resilient and confident adult and a family member who is very easy to live with.

Introducing Chile!

We've got a new foster arriving late Friday night - a sweet gentle twelve pound guy we've named Chile. He is said to be a playful boy but is initially nervous meeting new people. Once he knows the person is safe though, he's fine.  We can't wait to get to know him and Chima better hurry up and decide to play with him because my guess is this sweet boy will be adopted in no time!

Chile can be pronounced the Spanish way, "Chee-lay", or the anglicized way -"Chill-ee" and is named for perhaps my favorite thing about New Mexico - the New Mexican Chile and the New Mexican food it graces. In September this year we attended the Hatch Chile Festival in Hatch, New Mexico and these photos were taken there. The farmers had racks of ristras for sale and mounds of 40 pound bags of green chile. Here's a  Webpage that tells all about the New Mexican green and red chile, how to roast them, how to make ristras, the difference between "chile" and "chili" when you are in the Land of Enchantment, and more. New Mexico Chile For Dummies

Ristra for sale at the Hatch Chile Festival

Bags of green chile labeled "M" or "H" for mild or hot

Green chile in a roaster

Pupdate: Mesquite

Mesquite is now called Helo and he has continued to be an active busy guy. His parents do a great job at keeping him exercised and are planning on teaching him the treadmill since things are getting snowy where they live.

Running in the snow

If you remember, Helo was quite a timid boy when he was with us and he really needed to go somewhere where he could work on gaining confidence. Well I'm happy to report that he is no longer an axious barky little pup. He still is nervous and barks at the horses but they haven't started working on that yet and his mom is sure with more practice even the horses won't make him nervous.

Lettin' it all hang out

I was a bit worried that he might be drive his feline sibling crazy. Boomer the cat has shown herself to be amazingly tolerant and will let him be his puppy self around her until he gets to be too much. Luckily she is bigger than Helo so if he needs a smackdown, she isn't afraid to offer one. All in all though she is a great big sister and really puts up with the little spotted hooligan who has joined the family.

Boomer and Helo - what a long suffering kitty!

I'm guessing that Boomer wishes Helo spent less time attempting wrestling matches and more time snoozing

So a very happy pupdate. Little mister has hit the jackpot and is a very loved and well cared for dog.

First Christmas

Okay, well, not actually their first Christmas, however it is their first Christmas as house dogs so I'm guessing it's the first time they've experienced Christmas decorations.

Chima and Salinas liked to be in the middle of the action once they figured out this tree stuff wasn't going to attack them

Chima is Miss Nosey - quite literally  because her nose tends to get into everything. We've nicknamed her "Snuffleupagus" since this is a trait that quickly becomes apparent when you meet Chima. So when we decorated the tree it was no different. She had to sniff the tree, the ornament boxes, the garland...

Miss Snuffleupagus, moving in to check out the ornaments

Salina takes longer to feel brave enough to really explore a new situation. It was very cute because she watched everything, but from the other side of the expen we have set up to separate our recreation room in half for dog containment. After about 10 minutes she felt brave enough to join Chima in the sniffing. In fact, she even decided to try to snag an ornament.

Salinas attempting to nab an ornament 

Eventually it didn't seem that exciting so they just sat and watched awhile and then went over to crash on the couch where it was more comfortable.

Chima kicked back and watched after she had a chance to sniff everything

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, it's the human's job to make sure that a dog is set up for success and doesn't have a chance to let their curiosity (and mouth) get them in trouble. At our house that means the glass ornaments are all on the top half of the tree. We also don't use any tinsel or foil type decorations and our tree is located in the half of the room that the dogs never have access to unless I am right there with them. We have 16' of ex-pen fashioned into a gate to divide the room. The half with the couch, TV, dog beds and doggy tox box is where the dogs are allowed and we make sure to keep it much more interesting than the side of the room with the tree, computer desk, fireplace and elliptical.

And remember, mistletoe and poinsettias are very toxic to dogs. Be careful too with any chocolaty treats you might have around and be sure to let guests know not to feed your dogs. My vet said the number of pancreatitis cases skyrocket over the holidays thanks to dogs getting into lots of the high fat foods that are the norm this time of year.

Who's the naughty one?

I had bought some new fleece pullovers for dogs and had put the bag they were in up on a shelf. Well Chima loves floppy fabric and is notorious for nosing around on those shelves where I keep foster dog things. She's grabbed collars and tote bags before but this time it happened to be a $35 fleece.

So did Chima do something wrong? Nope. She doesn't really know what passes for chewable and not chewable in the human world and since she loves "killing" floppy fabric things, why would she pass up the bright orange floppy bag with soft floppy things inside of it? And why would I put the bag on the shelf in the first place, knowing that in the past Chima has gotten into things there.

If a dog is going to learn where the good things are that they can chew, it's important to set them up for success. Keep all the things you don't want them to mouth up at a safe height. Keep lots of dog toys at their level that are way more interesting than things on shelves.

So I kind of had a face-palm moment and realized that all of the toys in the basket (and there are a lot of them) are tough rubber or plastic fairly indestructible toys. While Chima will play with those, she really prefers something fabric that she can really shake and throw and eventually rip up a bit. So I got down a stuffing free hedgehog for her and was treated to about 20 minutes of the most hilarious play session. Both her and Salinas loved the beat up, headless hedgehog and thought it was the best toy ever.

Chima with headless hedgehog

Then there was a game of tug that was too fast paced to get a non-blurry photo of

Sadly, Mr. Hedgehog lost his butt in that tug battle

Salinas had the toy and Chima did her effective creepin' move where she invades a dogs personal space, sometimes to the point of standing there with her nose touching their face, and waiting until they decide to put the toy down. It isn't threatening in any way to the other dog - her body language is loose and relaxed and if the other dog growls she will back off and stand a bit further away, waiting her turn. 

When I run out old Skinneeez toys then I have a lot of partnerless socks in the laundry basket that I can braid and tie into knots for them to play with. As long as I make sure to set the girls up for a happy play time my tote bags and coats and magazines will be fairly safe.

Relaxing

Not a lot of content here. Just a couple pictures of the girls spending a relaxing evening on the couch last night. Pretty exciting though that Chima now chooses to lie next to me and didn't even flinch when I put my hand on her chest. In fact she then lay her head on my arm and then got a bit snarky when later Salinas tried to squish herself between Chima and me.

Such great foster girls!

Langley Stops by for a Visit

Langley has been visiting for a few days while his dad has some visits on the mainland. He's been a good boy this visit but because of past snarkage between him and the girls I'm being really careful to keep them apart for the most part.

Occasionally we do backyard playtime together though.  The girls are fine with this since Langley stays on a long lead and the girls can get away from him if they feel overwhelmed. They even move in for the occasional butt sniff when they can sneak one in.

Frodo is his typical forlorn self when we have an extra dog visiting. Lots of sighs and long-suffering looks.

But Langley says, "Hey! I can chillax with the best of them!"