The Tilly Stamp of Approval. Literally.

When Tilly takes an interest in a new dog she has a little awkward stamping, hopping dance that she does to try to entice the dog to play. Tilly seems to have two greetings for new fosters after sniffing them out - she either snarks at them if they try to come near her or she does her little dance if she likes them. It freaks some dogs out since her dance is pretty "in your face" but Chile understood that it was all in good fun and joined in the dance. Well, it still made him a bit nervous but he played along. This led to much giggling on my part since the dance went on for a good two minutes.

Tilly with her favorite foster ever - Gus. Gus was not a Tilly fan but Tilly followed him everywhere trying to get him to play. We had to give Gus regular "Tilly breaks".

Here's the video so you too can join in on the laugh:

Getting to know Chile

While we love all our foster dogs, it's always a wonderful thing when we get a dog with such a sweet and easy temperament as Chile has. He wants to play but won't be pushy about it. He wants to snuggle but won't try to wedge other dogs out of the primo spots. Just an all around great little guy. 

With his handsome ticking and dark eyeliner, he's a striking little dog

I don't think he's probably ever lived in a house before so we are starting out having him wear belly bands to counter any attempts at leg lifting. He's only been here two full days and is already getting the lesson that potty time happens outside. He does get to be inside without his belly band sometimes but that is only when I know that I won't be distracted and am spending time down on the floor playing with the dogs. 

LOVE his underbite - he perpetually looks like he's pouting a little bit

We don't know much about his history beyond what the shelter noted on his intake history. He was picked up by the county animal control officers in the middle of a busy highway that runs through Hanford, California. The intake officer noted that he was thin and dehydrated on arrival at the shelter. After that the little guy spent a month in the shelter but there are so many dogs there that without rescue groups helping, it's tough for them to make it out. Luckily this shelter has a director who's pretty dedicated to working with rescue groups to get more of the dogs in her care moving on to a better life. Her hard work and dedication has greatly reduced the euthanasia rate at her shelter. New Rattitude's Lynn Bonham was told about Chile and some other Rat Terriers there at the shelter and together they were able to find rescue spots for most of those dogs. 

He loves to play, but if very focused on people too and regularly checks in

As a new arrival to our house he's had to endure some pretty invasive sniff downs by Chima and a little snarking from Sal when he wanted to lie right next to her on the couch but he's taken it all in stride. Frodo is so impressed with him that he's even lowered himself to acknowledge a foster dog and took some time to play chase. That's high praise from the Frodster.

Chima giving poor Chile yet another sniff down

Frodo and Chile

The only thing I've noticed Chile needs work with (other than just perfecting the basics of being a house dog) is to build his confidence. He cowers a little if someone leans over him and is quite nervous about being picked up. So he will need a family who understands that positive based training is the only way to work with him. Set a dog up to succeed and they go far and Chile's a smart boy so this definitely holds true for him. In a gentle family dedicated to helping Chile grow, he is going to exceed anyone's expectations for him because he's such a great little dog. The sky's the limit for this little one!

Santa Delivers to the Northwest NR Foster Dogs

One of the distributors that the store I work at buys pet products from delivered two pallets with over $16,000 retail worth of Kong toys on them for local rescue dogs to the store where I work. There were 6 boxes worth of Kong toys for our Washington and Oregon foster dogs that included tugs, squeaky toys, food dispensing toys, and more. Our haul would have put us out oaver $1500 at a retail store. Pretty snazzy!

Frodo was busy sniffing all the boxes as I loaded them inside the house

I had the fun job of dividing the toys up for the various foster homes and while the dogs were all gated on the dog side of the rec room, I sorted out the piles of toys on the other side. When I looked over as I sorted, this is what I saw.

Salinas, Chima and Frodo were VERY interested in the dog toys that I was sorting.

I had to run upstairs to get my camera, and figured they'd be off doing something else by the time I came back with the camera. Nope, they stayed like this for a good 10 minutes.

The girls will have to wait until Christmas for most of their loot. Sacks of toys will be arriving at the various foster homes in the next couple weeks.

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.