A rescue story that makes me cry every time

Photo by Peace, Love, and Foster Dogs

I wanted to share a story that touched my heart, and to show that it is never too late to make a difference.

You may have heard us mention Emily a few times before. She is a volunteer with K9 Justice League. One shelter they go to pull at risk dogs, Paws of Hartford County, posted on facebook about Pager, a stray who had been diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer. So that he would not spend the rest of his days there, Emily took Pager in for hospice care.

Emily made a plan to fill up the last bit of Pager's life with as many wonderful experiences as it could hold. They went for walks, car rides, trips to parks and pet stores, even a coffee house, and he got to eat everything his little heart desired. Each day was dedicated to Pager. And at adventures end, they came home to a house of playmates, toys, and comfortable places to sleep. After only 8 days, despite so many other things left to do, Pager decided that it was time to go.

“His story is an important one... to get the word out there that there are... dogs in the shelter that never get to experience love or a home to call their own before they have to be euthanized... So, please think about adopting a dog! Even if you can't adopt, foster. And if you ever get the chance to give a terminally ill dog a home, do it. I'm not a strong person... I'm heartbroken... but I'll never regret my decision... People may say that we changed his life, but I think that he changed ours.”

That very day, to honor Pager's memory, Emily went back to a shelter to pull a new foster dog... they named her Paige. And wouldn't you know, this little girl fit in perfectly. Very quickly, Emily could never think of her going anywhere. "Welcome to forever, Paige." I couldn't imagine a better ending than that.


Read the whole story on Foster Dog Diaries: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." We're so proud to know this incredible person who is touching so many lives and to share one incredible story of love.

Be sure to give your whole family (two and four legged alike) an extra special hug today. And celebrate all those special people that are making a difference every day.

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Relay introduces Boots to laundry day

I'm terrible about laundry. Instead of putting away each load as it comes out of the drier, I make a huge pile on the bed until it is an incredibly daunting task. My procrastination never pays off... that is unless you ask Relay. Without question, his favorite place to take a nap is right smack in the middle. Passing by the bedroom today, I noticed he was not alone. Curled up right on his side, the little kitten easily seemed to find the allure of a big pile of laundry. By the time I grabbed my phone, they had woken up some... but still pretty cute.

 

Just to prove this is a documented trend, here's the shot from a few weeks back. He just looks so cute when he does this, I'm okay with a few extra hairs on my clothes.


This post is participating in a blog hop! Check out more Wordless Wednesday fun hosted by Blog Paws.

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Making decisions

Might as well start this off with some cuteness. Here's the link to the photo gallery, but this is my favorite. (Our friend Julia came over with a real camera, so I got some high def adorable.)

Oh my goodness, I'm all about this girl. As you may have read, I was going through a major melt down trying to decide if we'd become foster failures. [Let me take a moment to thank those of you who offered advice. I read them all a few times over while I battled internally.]

 

I found myself just looking Boots each day and saying, I want to keep her. Travel, fosters... I could find a way to make it work. I just never wanted her to leave. She is our perfect cat, and in my heart I had no doubt.

 

So, maybe you can understand my mixed emotions when I tell you we aren't keeping her. A little while ago, I remembered a good friend that had mentioned wanting a cat. And when I say good friend, I mean one of the best guys I have ever known. I had sent some pictures, a description, and yesterday (a little to my surprise) was told the family had decided to adopt her.

 

They want to wait until after the Christmas holiday to incorporate our Kitty Kitty into the fold. Obviously, I still have to call NACC, they have to fill out paperwork, there are obligatory meetings, but this all should happen without problems. My own actions seemed to have taken the choice away from me. And of course I'm still running through the all the possible scenarios that could allow me to keep her, but that is just me making things harder on myself. It's going to be hard to let go.

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Checking up on Trixie

Remember Trixie? When Relay was injured we had to give up this pretty girl to give him a chance to heal. We've been keeping tabs on her over the last few weeks (photo gallery) and wouldn't you know, the change in foster homes turned her into the perfect child. No more chewing for this reformed lady ;-)

 

I attribute all that to one wonderful K9 Justice League volunteer, Emily. In addition to being a dog whisperer, Emily also dabbles in videos for K9JL. It didn't take long for her to come up with a video for Trixie. Half the pictures were actually taken while she was with us. That paired with the song, has me crying each time I watch this.

 I love, love, love this video. In addition to becoming a youtube star, miss Trixie has a whole house of pups to play with, she gets trips to the park, has practiced being a ranch hand, has dabbled in Dock Dogs, and most importantly, spends every weekend trying to find her perfect forever home. We miss Trixie (who still has the softest ears I have ever felt on a poochie) and wish for her the love of a family all her own.


UPDATE: A chance to promote Emily's blogging efforts, here's a recent post on how she hopes to find Trixie a home soon. Love is patient, love is kind.

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Crisis of Kitten

Before we started this whole foster adventure, Jeff and I laid out ground rules. The first and most important being we were a one dog family. A hard rule, but it made things simpler when confronted with fosters that we would otherwise love to have kept ourselves (Elmer comes to mind).

But what about a cat? 

Honestly, it never occurred to us that we would ever want to keep one of the foster kittens. They only stay with us until they are old enough and weigh enough to get fixed, given shots, and put out on the adoption floor. We got Boots as a very young kitten and she was very slow to put on weight, so she has been with us weeks now. And in that time we have all fallen in love.

Relay loves to play with her. He tosses the kitty onto her back and nuzzles her belly while she paws his face. Jeff loves to cuddle with her. He lives for the evenings where we'll watch a little tv and the kitty falls asleep purring across his chest. And I love her antics. As I type this she is having an epic battle with my mouse.

And really, who could ever resist this?

This silly thing thinks she's a dog. 

Two major sticking points bring all my future cat-dog fantasies to a halt.

1. Owning a cat would limit our ability to foster... and by quite a bit. Last thing I need is to loose her like we did her sister. Relay has taught her not to fear dogs. She can run and jump at his head, she takes little bites of his food and snacks when she sees him noshing, and curls right up next to him on his bed. This is terrific... with Relay. He is mild mannered, has no food, toy, or territory aggression, and likes to cuddle sometimes. But how many Relay's are out there?

2. We love to travel. I visit my family in Jersey a half dozen times a year, we do cross country trips routinely, we visit Jeff's family in Minnesota once a year, and we travel for Jeff's job. Relay comes with us half the time, and the other half we have a small network of friends and family that could watch him. Most of our friends have dogs. None of our friends have cats.  

And all this has to be decided on within the next few days, when this little Miss is due back at the pound. I could definitely use some perspective here. What do you think?

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Messes and Successes

Once, while wandering down the aisle of my grocery store, I found some canned pumpkin on sale. Never having much experience with the stuff, I wondered if I was missing out on my new favorite foods. I looked up a pumpkin soup recipe online and it was a complete success... except, as it turned out, I do not actually like pumpkin soup. At all really. And of course I payed no attention that I pulled a recipe that fed 10 people.

Scrambling, I looked over the ingredient list. All dog safe (and in fact pumpkin is great for digestion). I added some chicken stock, brown rice flour, parsley, and vitamin supplement to end up with some on the fly pumpkin cookies for Relay.

He LOVED IT!  Not the first time my home cooking shortfall ended up becoming a supplement to Relay's diet, but easily the most successful. Later on, I found this really cute fire hydrant cookie cutter, and thought to try my hand at the pumpkin cookies a second time, this time with a purpose.

And you know what? It was a complete disaster. Oh my goodness what a mess. The cookie cutter was quickly abandoned and Jeff just started to make balls out of what I can only refer to as slop. Of course, Relay didn't find these as appealing, but I'm sure ate them to be polite.

We are participating in Kol's Notes' Tasty Tuseday Blog Hop. Be sure to stop on by to check out more dog friendly bites and visit some terrific blogs. 

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