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Foster Fail!

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Sheltie
PeeWee

What is a foster fail you may ask? Well, this picture sums it up. To be more precise, a foster fail is when the dog you are fostering does not leave the foster home. He is adopted by the foster family. We failed and PeeWee is home!

sheltie
PeeWee is being a gift with his Christmas morning bow!

On Christmas day my husband picked PeeWee up, put a bow on him, and said, “Here you go, Merry Christmas. This present is for you and Claire.” Best gift ever! Claire is one of our other shelties and the reason the gift was for her and me, is because she loves PeeWee. She seems to think he is her puppy. She plays with him throughout the day, every day. He can take bones from her mouth, and she rarely complains. When PeeWee is not looking, Claire just takes them back. They can do this for quite a while. Also, when we are out for walks or hiking, Claire keeps an eye on where PeeWee is and gazes adoringly at him every few seconds.

We knew it would be hard on Claire if PeeWee left for another home. As for me, I realized that I was attached when he started hiking with us. He did so good for a little dog that had such emotional challenges to overcome from his former life. He just fit. And this past year has been such a rough year for us with losing Baxter, our 14 year old lab-Rott mix, in the spring and then losing our 12 year old cat Morty right after Thanksgiving. We had some other trying issues too. PeeWee has brought such joy and laughter into our home that thinking of it without him is a very sad thing.

Rest time for some of the pack.

I like to think that we have made PeeWee’s life happier too. He was a timid dog, who spent a great deal of time hiding under the bed in his last home, and when he arrived here, would only eat at night when no one was around. He has been here four months and now smiles, plays with us and the other dogs, and is so happy to see us in the mornings that he gets the zoomies. And he gets so excited to go on hikes now that he whines and yips with anticipation when the leashes come out if we aren’t fast enough to get out the door.

Happy New Year to all of you, my faithful readers! Things are looking up for 2024 to be a much happier year around here as we welcome PeeWee as a permanent member of our family. It’s hard not to be happy when there is such an adorable, eager face looking you in the eye.

sheltie
Nap time. Or king of the blanket mountain!

Welcome Home!

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

This is the newest member of our family! Meet Claire. She has been our foster dog for the past 6 months so if you know us, she’s not new around here.

I honestly did make a good effort to adopt her out. Our rescue isn’t doing home checks right now because of the pandemic. Over the past three months I did speak to previous adopters about her but the time and situation wasn’t right for any of them.

Mercifully, after speaking to the last potential adopter last week, they decided the timing was not right. I say mercifully because after I got off the phone with them before they had decided, I fell apart at the thought of Claire leaving us.

I don’t know if I’ve changed? Or I lost my edge after taking a year and a half fostering break after Zekie came to us? Or if it’s due to the fact that I’m home all the time now? Or if it’s just Claire. But the thought of her leaving is unbearable.

This does mean that we are on a moratorium from long term fostering for now. We will still be available for fostering those shelties that only need one or two weeks here.

So Claire is home! As you can see, she is quite happy about this. And so am I.

Kammie Comes Home

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

This is our foster girl Kammie the sheltie. She came to us in April. She ended up at a local shelter because her owner had died. A volunteer there took pity on her and took her home for a couple weeks because she was so sad and sickly, not adjusting to kennel life well. After a couple weeks on antibiotics for possible kennel cough, she was transferred to us at Northeast Ohio Shetland Sheepdog Rescue. A wonderful volunteer transported her to me since she was coming from a fair distance away.

Kammie is an easy dog to have around. She is 8 years old and quiet most of the time. She spends the majority of her time indoors curled up in a corner sleeping. She loves to spend time outside with our other dogs. She takes delight in barking at the others and playing referee during games of frisbee.

You may wonder why this beautiful girl is still here. First she needed more antibiotics for a respiratory problem, a possible relapse of the kennel cough. At the time Kammie arrived at the shelter, she weighed 59 lbs. She should probably weigh about 35 lbs. By the time we got her, she was down to 54 lbs. Now  she weighs in at 42 lbs! Yay Kammie! She was diagnosed with low thyroid. She receives pills for this twice a day, hence her new svelte shape . 

It was then discovered that Kammie had a bladder infection. She received antibiotics for this, to no avail. We tried a different antibiotic. Still no luck. At this point a culture was grown to see what antibiotic would work. There was only one oral kind that would work. After all of this, the poor girl still had blood in her urine. At this point the vet requested an ultrasound to look for another cause of these urinary troubles. It turns out that  Kammie has 3 tumors in her bladder. Two look to be malignant and the other is likely benign. So poor Kammie has terminal bladder cancer. She was not eating as well anymore and not as active.

She now takes a medicine made for humans that is an analgesic and has the side effect of slowing tumor growth. She was not eating as well and was more lethargic.  She has definitely perked up since she has been on this medication. She eats all her food again and is back to rowdy playing . 

The vet diagnosed her with a probable 3 to 6 more months. Kammie will live out the rest of her life with us and as a ward of NEOSSR. Even if we found someone who was willing to adopt her, we don’t think it would be fair for her to have to transition to another home at this late stage of her life. So this is Kammie’s last stop. She is home.