Puppies heading home

The first two of the puppies have headed to their forever homes this weekend and will both live just a mile apart in Seattle. Hopefully they will get to set up some play dates so they get to see each other. Milah will now be called Paisley and Worf's new name is still being decided. I think the list has been narrowed to Fritz, Otto (nodding to his schnauzer heritage) or Moose.

The 3 remaining boys will be dropped off tomorrow morning for their neuter surgery and then will head home over the course of the next week. Sisko will head to Portland on Wednesday - his new name will be Deiab (Dee-ab). Dax will be next and will be travelling to Beaverton Oregon a week from today. His new name will probably be Dexter. And then last but not least, on the 26th Rom's dad will fly across the country from Baltimore to carry him home. His new name is Hurley.

It has been a wonderful, but exhausting experience. I think we'll stick to adult fosters for awhile. We still have Franny and Star who are waiting patiently for the right home.

The photo above was taken when I had the bright idea to turn the bathroom into the puppies' nursery so they'd have more space. After the demise of a roll of TP and chew marks on the wall I decided that they would have to go back to the ex-pen.

The pack

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted to the blog. It seems like all my time is spent cleaning up after puppies. If I rush it still takes a full hour and a half in the morning to get everyone cleaned up, fed and pooped and cleaned up again before I can take a shower and get ready for work.

The puppies were listed on Petfinder and Adoptapet.com today and already we have applications for Rom and Sisko. We are going to miss them SO much after they go to their homes. When you watch a pup be born and care for it since birth it's tough to keep from getting too attached to them.

Franny and Star both are doing excellent with their housetraining and are such good girls. Franny has learned the "sit" command and "in your house" (which means she needs to go in her crate) and we are working on "leave it" and "drop it" with her. Both girls are very food motivated and smart so training them is easy, it's finding time to work with them that's the difficult part.

Star went to work with me yesterday and was so good. She greeted the customers like they were long lost family (still working on not jumping up on people) and when she wasn't doing that snoozed behind the counter in a nice cushy bed.

So that's the latest. If you know of any families who have the time, love and energy for a young puppy be sure to let them know about our little Trekkies.

Almost 8 weeks

The puppies turn 8 weeks old this Saturday and that means they are ready for their first set of puppy shots. Boy, this has gone fast. It seems like only yesterday that they were squirming around on their bellies. I've been meaning to post for quite awhile, even have a bunch of notes for a post but I never have time thanks to their penchant for tromping through their poop overnight which requires a pen cleaning and five puppy baths each morning. It's a good thing they are so dang cute.

So here's a photo of them at 6 weeks old. As per usual most of their ears are inside out. L to R are Dax, Rom, Sisko (back), Worf (middle) and Milah Jo (front, lying down). They are mostly weaned now, although Star is still having trouble letting go and is still quite protective of them. Their little personalities are very apparent now, which is fun. Anyhow, I have to run now - time to feed the puppies - again.

Holiday Hugs Drive

We know that money is tight this year for a lot of people, but here's a way that you can make your money do twice the good. Over the holiday season we have a "Holiday Hugs Drive" going on over at the New Rattitude Website. A generous donor has offered to match holiday donations to New Rattitude's vetting fund up to $1,000. So if you make a $25 donation that means $50 will be put into the vetting fund. Pretty cool, huh? We've already had about $650 in donations. Remember, you can donate in someone's name for a holiday gift. New Rattitude will send a card to the person whose name you are donating in letting them know that you have donated money in their name to New Rattitude and telling a bit about how we use donations.

Another way to help us earn an extra $1,000 would be to tell everyone you know about the shelter challenge over on www.theanimalrescuesite.com . The contest ends on the 20th, I believe so we only have a little more time to widen our lead. The 2nd place group for Washington state is VERY close to our vote count and we don't want to lose this at the last moment like we did last time. E-mail everyone you know and ask them to vote for New Rattitude, WA (Northwest Region) daily.

The dogs here are doing great. Franny is now reliably house-trained and the puppies are now reliably NOT house-trained and making many messes, many times a day. Star is less enthused with her role as momma now that the pups are 6 weeks old. She is still nursing them a little but spends more time out of the puppy room than she used to.

The perfect storm

Sh$% storm, that is. The puppies are growing up and now that they are over 4 weeks old the poop is coming fast and furious. This would be fine if it was a nice little pile in the corner, but no. For a young puppy pooping usually involves walking through the pile, wandering around in circles and then wiping in on your sibling a few times when you put them in a puppy smackdown.

It's a good thing they are so dang cute because these little boogers have entered the stage where they are a LOT of work, what with the supplemental feeding, extra laundry, and the steady supply of urine and feces they provide.

They are growing so fast, so a couple days ago we moved them out of their playpen and into an x-pen where they have more room to play (and spread their poop around.) Fuzzy faced Sisko is the biggest at 2# - 13 1/2 oz and Milah Jo is still the smallest at 2# - 3 1/2 oz.

Their personalities are starting to emerge which is very fun. Dax knows what he wants and isn't afraid to let you know about it. Milah, Worf and Rom are all pretty easy going with Milah being the most playful of the three. Worf was the first to discover his bark. Even though Sisko is the biggest, he is a bit timid and takes longer to get used to new things.

The picture above was taken after an extremely involved cleanup of the x-pen last night. Watching Troy and I work so much at cleaning up their poop and pee really wore out the pups and they crashed with all the little brown/black pups (F to B: Milah Jo, Worf and Sisko) lined up in a row.

Shopping to help

As we head into the holiday shopping season I wanted to make a couple suggestions of ways you can find great gifts, save time and money AND help out animals.

This season, what about helping out the little guy? Why go to Target when you can shop online for one of a kind gifts made by local artists. Earlier in the year I discovered Etsy.com and I have to say, it is a wonderland of handmade items, many that you would typically find in galleries and boutiques only. Instead of paying boutique prices you can go straight to the source on Etsy and buy directly from the artists. This way you end up with unique gifts, you save money and you help out the little guy. It gets better though. Etsy has a group called "Etsy for Animals" or EFA for short. If you go to the EFA Webpage you can find the over 500 artists who give a portion of their profits to non-profit animal welfare groups. I just purchased some beautiful handmade fused glass ornaments for less than I would have paid for a plastic Hallmark ornament AND a portion of what I spent went to an animal welfare agency AND it was a local artist so I'm shopping locally as well. Can't get a whole lot better than that.

If you still want to shop from big box stores there is a way to help New Rattitude Rat Terrier Rescue while you shop online. Stores like Amazon.com, Target.com, Wal-Mart.com, Petco, SitStay.com, Zapdos.com ..... will donate a portion of what you spend when you link to their Websites from http://www.goodshop.com/ or http://www.igive.com/ . All you have to do is go to one of the previous Websites and check out their list of participating vendors. Use their links to get to your favorite Webstore and then a portion of what you spend will be donated to the charity you have chosen on goodshop or igive (PS: I'm thinking that New Rattitude would be a good choice. :)

A third option is the greenest and best in my opinion. Make a donation to New Rattitude in a person's name and a card will be sent to them noting that you have given in their name and it will explain a bit about how the money will be used to save rat terriers. I mean, who really needs more stuff? This is perfect for that difficult to shop for person. You can even request a receipt and write the donation off your taxes. How 'bout that? And coming up soon there will be a way to double your donation at no extra cost to you. Stay tuned and I will announce the Holiday Fundraising drive info as soon as it is kicked off in the next 'Tude News newsletter.

Anyhow, I just wanted to send out a plea before we Black Friday. Save gas, time and money, shop local, help independent artists AND help out animals all at the same time.

Wire-haired?

The pups are now 3 weeks old and the big surprise this week is that several of them are growing these scruffy long hairs around their face which makes me wonder if dad was wire-haired or long haired. Since we were told that Star is from a puppymill we assumed that dad was another rat terrier, but who knows now. We will just have to watch and wait.

Dax continues to lead the pack in development and Rom in size. This week Dax has learned how to pee and poop without mom's help. Thankfully he walks over to the corner of the playpen before he does his business. He's the smallest of the boys, but is certainly precocious. Rom is now almost 2 1/2 pounds and the smallest two pups, Milah Jo and Dax, should hit the 2 pound mark today.

The photo above is of Sisko and you can see a bit of the scruffy hair that is growing in around his face.