The ups and downs of life with Langley

I think the most trying thing for me personally with Langley is that he's a 2 steps forward, 1 step back kind of dog.  This makes me crazy.  While I realize the overall movement on our path of training is forward, I am a linear person and those one-step-backs discourage me so much.  I try my best to stay even and not get so excited when he does something wonderful (like today when he went to the door when he had to potty) or get dejected when he seems to immediately ignore the epiphany that I was sure he just had (like when he peed in the middle of a dog bed 15 minutes after letting me know he had to go out.)  But it's tough - that's how I roll.

Playing with a JW Cuz and rolling in a horde of toys on the couch 

But then, just when I am at my most frustrated he does something sweet and hilarious - like when I was busy doing rescue paperwork on the computer and looked down and he was lying on his back right next to my chair, all 4 legs straight up and chewing on a toy.  Or, like in this photo (sorry for the blur - Langley's not one for staying still for a photo) or video where he just happily plays by himself, rolling around on the chairs and couch with a favorite toy and then falling off accidentally and opening a can of whoop ass on the toy because he's pretty sure it pushed him off.

He's a hard boy not to love.  And the more you love him, the more frustrating he can be.  But I suppose that is how all relationships are.

It's that time again!

What time is that you ask?  It's TRANSPORT TIME!  New Rattitude's Northwest team of foster parents have 4 new dogs coming up from Central California.  Tonight they'll hitch a ride with the rescue transporter. One will be met in Portland, Oregon by their foster mom but the other 3 will be heading north and I'll pick them up in Puyallup, WA.

The crates are ready - a big wire crate for the two Seattle kids to overnight in before meeting their mom Saturday morning, and then two travel crates to pick the WA trio up in. Three martingale collars with ID tags are in my purse and the leashes for the post transport urgent potty break walk are loaded in the car along with a doggy water bottle/dish for a quick sip before the ride back to our house.

The crates are sanitized, loaded with clean blankets, and all ready for tonight
 

Sweet and beautiful Neah

I've already introduced our new foster girl, Neah, but can't help sharing her beautiful face again. Here are the others who are heading north with her:

Kai's shelter photo

Kai is a 5 month old tan and white Rat Terrier puppy who will be fostered in the Hood River area of Oregon. He's a sweet gentle boy and I have no doubt he'll find a home quickly.  Apologies for the photo - we take what we can get from the shelter.  Watch the Rat Terrier Rescue blog for updates about how he is doing.

Little Cayuse, currently experiencing puppy "ear wars".  Looks like his ears will be up soon.

Cayuse is about 4-5 months old and he will be fostered in Seattle. He's an active silly little guy who is super friendly.

And finally, introducing Buty (pronounced beauty) who will be sharing her foster home with Cayuse.  We've been told she's about 1 year old and is a sweet and playful girl.  Watch the "A day in the life of a New Rattitude foster dog..." blog for updates on how Buty and her buddy Cayuse are settling in to foster life.

All four dogs were rescued from overly full shelters in California's Central Valley. They may miss the California sunshine when they get here, but we're sure the happy, loving homes that they'll end up in will more than make up for that.

Introducing Neah

We have a new girl who will be arriving in town on Friday but we thought we'd do a bit of an early introduction.  Meet Neah...

She's a 17 pound female, about a year to year and a half old, and very playful.  My thought was that picking another foster who was closer to Langley's size might work out better.  Langley loves the new fosters but they get overwhelmed by his size and rough play.  Since Neah is close to his weight, loves to wrestle, and Langley really likes female dogs better than males, we are crossing our fingers that this works well and that Neah will help us wear Langley out a little.

 

Neah, pronounced NEE-uh, is named for a beautiful spot on the NW tip of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington.  Named for a former Makah Tribal Chief, the coastal areas in and around Neah Bay are wild and magical.  It seemed like a fitting name for this energetic and beautiful girl.  The photo below shows Cape Flattery, a favorite hiking spot of mine and a popular sea kayaking location.

 

 



Death to all piggies: part 2

Langley finally discovered the joy of desqueaking stuffed animals.  While Frodo tends to take a more violent approach to stuffie destruction, Langley's focus was just on the areas containing the squeakers.  He wanted those squeakers out.


Langley, working open a hind leg

So poor Mr. Pig was doomed once Langley got started in on him.  At this point all four feet have been opened with near surgical precision and the squeakers removed - two squeakers I was able to get to before Langley freed them for the pig's cloven foot, but the other two ended up as shredded bits around the carpet.  To let Mr. Pig salvage some of his dignity, I took him away to remove the head squeakie and stuffing before Langley started in on that. 

Even poor piggies tail ended up severed from his body

The good news is that now that piggie no longer squeaks, Langley is back to tossing him around and playing with him since his de-squeaking job has been completed.

An End and Some Beginnings

Today was big day for Samish. It was the end of his stay in foster care with our family and the beginning of his life with his new family.

I had all this things packed to go last night - a couple belly bands until he can behave, his favorite stuffed dragon, his blankie, records, kibble and canned food, samples of his supplements... That left this morning for just hanging out and having fun.

The costume looks more like a penguin puking up a dog, than a dog dressed as a penguin.

Oh, the look of disillusionment on that face!

Yesterday at work I bought a polar fleece that looked like a penguin out of the clearance section and so this morning, since Samish was the only one that it would fit, he had to humor me and try it on. He was pretty patient considering it had a hood which flattened his ears down. He definitely didn't think it counted as hanging out and having fun though. So we did some training, which he enjoys, and he ran around the back yard chasing leaves with Frodo.

Then it was off to drive him to his new home.  When we arrived they had toys, a new crate, food, and even a special new blanket his mom had made for him in a place of honor on the couch.  Pretty sure Samish will be in heaven there.  He likes being the center of attention and he had to share the limelight with 3 other dogs here. He tolerated this well, but you could tell he thought he was being deprived of as much lap time and play time with the humans as he was sure he needed.  In his new home he’ll be the only dog who gets to hang with his humans all the time. Pretty nice digs for this sweet little stray.

And taking a foster home marks a time of beginnings for us too.  We close a chapter with one foster and then start preparing for the next.  On Friday 4 new dogs will be transported from Central California shelters up to New Rattitude foster homes in the Pacific Northwest.  One dog will be getting off in Portland, Oregon and the other three will continue on up to the Seattle-Tacoma area.  Two dogs will spend the night with us and then head north to their Seattle home but one dog will be staying on as our next foster.

Since I have the day off work I like to get everything ready for the next foster and the batch of dogs coming north on the “rescue railroad.”  A new file was set up to keep our new foster’s records in.  Samish’s 2 crates were cleared of blankets, cleaned and reloaded with new clean blankets. 

 Then I cleaned and sanitized three crates for picking up the transport dogs.  They too were loaded with crate pads and blankets and are stacked in a corner of the basement, ready for duty on Friday.  The big 700 series crate that the transport dogs overnight in was cleaned and the bedspread used in it was washed and fluffed and put back in the crate.  I think we’re ready!

So stay tuned for an introduction of the newest foster kiddo to join our crew.  You’ll also want to peek at the blog, “A day in the life of a New Rattitude Foster Dog” for intros of the two Seattle foster dogs.

 

The Rescue Railroad

While one of my roles in my rescue work is fostering the sweet dogs I write about in my blog, another thing that I do is help get dogs urgently needing rescue from CA to their foster homes in WA and OR.  While there are certainly dogs in shelters here, their chances of making it out and into a good family are much higher here in Western Washington.  The population of the Central Valley of California has a much higher poverty rate and with that comes lots of unaltered dogs.  The result is way more dogs than can ever get adopted and shelter's with euthanization rates in the 50-75% range. These shelters aren't just loaded with large dogs.  There are hundreds and hundreds of small breed dogs that never make it out.

Quita and Moche, NW New Rattitude's newest foster dogs

 

There are several people and groups that bring van loads full of dogs up for Washington and Oregon Rescues each week. It's a long trip - about 17 hours of driving I believe, plus the time for stops - and a lot of work since bathroom breaks and crate cleaning needs to happen along the way.

 

For the NW New Rattitude foster homes, my co state rescue coordinator and I choose which dogs we will be rescuing for any open foster spots we have and then our volunteer in the Fresno area, Lynn Bonham, pulls the dogs for us, temps them until it's time for the transport, gets them vetted and ready for the trip and then does a late night meet up with the transport to get them on board.

 

The next evening when I get word that the transport is getting close I drive out to a no-kill rescue shelter about 30 minutes from home and meet the transport there. There I get my foster pups and their paperwork, pay for the trip (New Rattitude's NW team fundraises to pay for these transports and I am reimbursed) and head back home.  There the dogs get food, water, another potty break and then we all crash for the night.

Last night's arrivals are sisters Quita (tan and white) and Moche (tri-color).  They snuggled right in for the night and are very sweet little gals.  Quita is pretty scared by this adventure but I can tell that Moche is pretty spunky and she barely seems phased. 

 

Then the morning after the trip I load the dogs up and stop just off I-5 to hand the dogs off to my co state rescue coordinator who drives them north to a meet up point with the other foster parents.

 

These two girls will be staying in temp foster homes for the weekend while their foster mom is at a flyball tournament but will be in their foster home Sunday evening.

 

It's a lot of coordinating but very fulfilling to go from choosing a photo from a list of dogs that are down to their last couple weeks alive to seeing that dog get unloaded off that van and getting on the road to their new life as a cherished member of someone's family.

 

A big thanks to all of the people who play a part in this rescue railroad from the shelter workers who notify us when there are Rat Terriers needing our help, to the drivers, temp foster homes, foster homes, and all the other people that make these rescues possible.  That means there's also a great big huge thanks to those of you who choose to adopt rather than buy your dog.  By doing that you save 2 lives - the dog you take home and the one that is able to move into the foster spot they left open.



Great news!

Today Samish and I went on an adventure to do a couple of home visits of people who had applied to adopt New Rattitude dogs.  One of those apps was for Samish so it was pretty exciting.

The bad news is Samish was a little terror on the visit.  He attempted to lift his leg in the house (luckily I had a belly band on him.) Then when we went outside he DID lift his leg on the barbecue cover on the patio. 

Back inside he met the kitty who was not at all thrilled with him. Samish, freaked by this hissing alien being, immediately thought "game on!" and was screeching at the top of his lungs and attempting to charge the cat.

Oh, and did I mention that he puked in their dining room two times because he was so worked up?

In spite of this all, miracle of miracles, they were still in love with the little guy and willing to work on the integration with kitty and to commit to a week of belly bands while Samish settles in. That's about how long it took at our house.

Samish meeting his new mom and dad

So great news! Samish is officially adopted and will be heading to his new home on Sunday.  A big thanks to trainer Blair Meek who offered to help Samish's new family get a plan in place for slow integration of the two reluctant furry siblings.

After we finished both of the home visits Samish and I stopped by my work to pick something up and Sam said hello to Belle the chubby lab.  Belle said "hi. Got any treats?!"  In this picture it looks like Samish is barking at her but he is just gazing up and Belle's person hoping to get picked up.