Tag Archives: foster

Chick’s position on fostering: still not impressed

March 22, 2011 By in Gonzo, on fostering Tags: , , , , , , 23 Comments

Fostermom and dad enjoy fostering for the reasons we have already explained and the reasons we will explain next time we have the time to sit down and write about them, but as for Mr. Chick, our own loverboy, he is not so sure.

Of course, he has dog friends. He even has dog kindred spirits, like his uncle Tex the lab, and his old Texas pal Pancho the mexican bandito. But for the most part, Chick’s attitude toward other four-leggers of the canine variety is one of reluctant tolerance. He will leave them in peace, and ask the same in return.

You can tell by his utterly unimpressed and squinty expression in this sorry excuse for a portrait of him and Mr. Gonzo Bunny-Ears:

The only good thing in the photo is that it gives you a little bit of a sense of how very small Mr. Ears is, when compared to the very normal-sized Mr. Chick. Note how Chick has his legs all the way down on the step below,  and he’s just as tall as an upright Mr. Ears.

Chick’s real complaint with fostering Mr. Ears in particular is that Gonzo is full of boundless energy and is constantly running up to Chick, bodyslamming his tiny body against Chick’s, and saying (with his body language) “hey bro, wanna play? huh? huh? huh?” To this, Chick squints his eyes unamusedly, sighs, and saunters off to another room.

Gonzo has also learned that Chick’s back is the perfect height for putting your paws up on, especially if you are trying to reach, with your tongue, a cooking utensil in your foster mom’s hand. Chick does not find this entirely entertaining, but bears it stoically.

Not that Chick doesn’t like fun. It’s just that Chick takes his energy in small, very enthusiastic bursts, and when he’s not in a burst, he prefers to have fun by reading the paper and sipping a cup of joe. And he’d prefer if you would refrain from wrinkling his paper or spilling his coffee, thank you very much.

gonzo takes a stand . . . or a sit

March 21, 2011 By in Gonzo Tags: , , , , 17 Comments

Mr. Gonzo Bunny-Ears has excellent house manners, but in the first few days with us, he revealed to us his strong preference for sitting in chairs — it seems that in his old home, he may have had a little perch in a living room chair. Over his first week in our home he tested out the options here, and we had to have a talking to about dog beds being for dogs and chairs being for humans.

He eventually understood the new rules, but in the interim, we found him in various chairs around the house, looking very cute and very defiant.

a few words about separation anxiety. and photos, too.

March 17, 2011 By in Gonzo Tags: , , , , , , , 24 Comments

is that a little snout i spy?

Well it looks like we typed too soon about how mellow little Mr. Bunny-Ears is. Turns out our little pocket pittie has a bit of separation anxiety. Don’t get us wrong– it seems minor at this point– but it is something we will need to work on.

The first few days he was with us, he didn’t pay much mind to our comings and goings, but the other day it was like a switch flipped. All of a sudden little Gonzo was whining, crying, and scratching frantically at the floor in his room when I closed his door on my way out in the morning. It’s no wonder, really, considering that the little dearling was abandoned by his people at the animal shelter in November.

The next day, I discovered that the issue seems to be worst when he can hear us still in the house, but he is closed in his room. We do a lot of rotating of Gonzo Bunny-Ears and Chick so that each dog gets his own special time with the Humans Who Dole Out Treats, and Mr. Ears is not happy with the half of the arrangement where he is in his room with his toys, alone. He whines and scratches, and finally just lays with his face smooshed up against the door. Pardon the blur in this photo, I snapped it from outside on our deck through the window and mesh screen:

sad little Mr. Ears...

We did some serious training with our own loverboy Chick when he was younger on separation anxiety. It seems that when I first adopted him, I made the fatal mistake of taking him with me everywhere, so he was almost never alone. Together, we did my shifts at the wonderful little emergency shelter for immigrants in Austin where I worked at the time, ran my errands (back then Home Depot and REI both allowed dogs inside), and went swimming. Apparently constant togetherness is the best way to give a dog a separation anxiety issue. We learned this the hard way, but we overcame with glory.

Through intensive training which transitioned to a crazy routine of stuffed and frozen kongs upon leaving, we eliminated Chick’s separation issue.  It is more challenging with Gonzo because he is a little bit less food-motivated than Chick, so if I hand him a yummy snack/puzzle and head for the door, he follows me rather than diving into his culinary challenge. Thankfully his coping mechanisms are not too destructive (he does not hurt himself or destroy things), but still.

We plan to dig out our old notes from Chick’s behaviorist, but in the meantime, this anxious-faced little nugget wants to know: anybody have suggestions for how to get back on the right track?

help me be worry-free!For more info on adopting Gonzo Bunny-Ears, click here or email us at DCpetographer [at] gmail [dot] com.

dog bath night

March 16, 2011 By in Gonzo Tags: , , , , , , 16 Comments

Well, it was that dreaded night again in the Fosterfamily household . . . dog bath night!

mr. bunny-ears really is that small.

What we have learned about Gonzo Bunny-Ears is that unlike his foster brother Chick and our last foster Lollie Wonderdog, both of whom just regular hate bath time, Gonzo really hates bath time. In the bath, he spends 36 percent of his effort scrambling his legs around, 5 percent giving me the stinkeye, and 59 percent trying (sometimes successfully) to leap out of the tub.

i'm so sad, even my ears are deflated.

On six occasions, I had to pick up all 35 pounds of him (maybe 36 pounds soaking wet) and plop him back in there. By the end of the bath, we were both soaked.

the great escape

For more info on adopting Gonzo Bunny-Ears, click here or email us at DCpetographer [at] gmail [dot] com.

the art of settling in

March 15, 2011 By in Gonzo Tags: , , , , , 18 Comments

You know how some people just have a knack for certain things? They pick up languages in what seems like just minutes, they have perfect pitch when singing, or they can memorize useless information, like the value of Pi, out to 150 decimal places (3.1415926535897932…)? My hunny Ben, for example, has this knack for the guitar. It’s hard to explain, but he can just play.

Little Gonzo Bunny-Ears has a special talent too. When he arrived at our house on Saturday, he spent about 30 minutes playing with great vigor and ferocity (and I mean that in the least aggressive way possible, unless you are coming from the perspective of the sticks and leaves in our yard), then he came inside, grabbed a kong from the floor, and just plopped down on a dog bed. He was done. It was almost as though he had already lived with us for months, knew where everything was, and there was no need to investigate. The rest of the weekend was smooth sailing, with him somehow reading our minds and already knowing the routine before we even told it to him. No anxiety, no drama.

How does a dog get to be such an incredibly mellow fellow?

For more info on adopting Gonzo Bunny-Ears, contact us at DCpetographer [at] gmail [dot] com, or click here.

everything is illuminated

February 17, 2011 By in Lollie Tags: , , , , , , , , 13 Comments

The other night we were sitting around in the den, like we often do, and Lollie was checking out some of our books, like she often does, trying to decide what to read. When she is extra-concentrating, she likes to go into an intellectual play-bow while she thinks.

First she contemplated the blue books . . .Hmm, some Poe? Maybe some Murakami? Perhaps my friend MMB’s short story?

Then she contemplated the orange and red books . . .Ooh, I do like that Michael Chabon, and I heard the new McCann is good too . . .

But then she surprised herself, and selected a book — a favorite of her foster mom and dad’s — that she hadn’t even planned on reading: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated.Smells like a good read to me . . .

She is pretty enthralled with the story of Shapka, Jonathan, and Sammy Davis Junior-Junior (the seeing-eye bitch), but promises that once she’s done reading this book — tomorrow — she will return her attention to her fans, and share the next chapter in her foster adventure.

zonked.

February 16, 2011 By in Lollie Tags: , , , , 8 Comments

Adoptable Lollie Wonderdog came home from “camp” tonight and almost immediately scurried off to the nearest dog bed to fall deeply and profoundly asleep. We had been away over the weekend, so she spent four nights at her vet’s kennel. The facility is no fancy digs, but everybody there seems to love our sweet girl, and every time she comes home she is freshly washed and completely exhausted.

Stay tuned tomorrow, for the one in which everything is illuminated.

you’ve come a long way, sweet girl

February 10, 2011 By in Lollie, on fostering Tags: , , , , , 16 Comments

I love rifling through old pictures, so last night I spent a little time looking back on my archive of Lollie Wonderdog’s photos. I missed her 100 day anniversary with us (today is day 106), but better late than never, right?

I got a little emotional when I found this photo of sad little Lollie on her first week with us. Look at the sores and irritation on her arms. All the thin and missing fur. Look at her brownish yellow tail (this was after a thorough bath at our house and at least six at the shelter). Her pink, irritated nipples. Her red, irritated eyes. Notice her uncertain, defeated expression.

That was day five for Lollie at Casa Fosterfamily, and the following picture was taken 100 days later, last night. I think the photo speaks for itself.

For more info on adopting Lollie, contact us at DCpetographer [at] gmail [dot] com or 301-520-7123.

our very own CAFO

February 4, 2011 By in Lollie Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 14 Comments

I don’t often joke about factory farming because it is not at all funny, but last night was just too ripe with opportunity.

Lollie Wonderdog has become quite the stern farmkeeper in her time with us, never afraid to put a stuffed animal in its place or zing it with her teeth for falling out of line. (As an aside, this is a big change from her first days with us, when the mere sight of a stuffed animal would send her into a fearful tremble.) And when its use has expired but it is still taking up valuable floorspace, selfishly breathing our air and soaking up our dust? She finishes it off at the end of its usefulness and sends it to the trash pile.

Last night was a prime example. We had a slaughter, and the victim was poor Mr. Piggy. Lollie was doing a concentrated animal feeding operation on Mr. Piggy’s extremities. Those are the tastiest bits after all, just ask a hotdog lover. I turned around a minute later, and poor Mr. Piggy had lost an ear.

Lollie as not always been such a heartless farmer (she is normally very sweet with stuffed animals), and truth be told, she seemed to regret her harsh punishment afterward, snuggling up with Mr Piggy and asking for forgiveness. Fosterdad and I are hoping that she learns from this experience and becomes an anti farm animal cruelty spokesmodel.

For more info on adopting Lollie, contact us at DCpetographer [at] gmail [dot] com or 301-520-7123.

the prettiest eyes you ever did see

February 3, 2011 By in Lollie Tags: , , , , , , , 15 Comments

Remember when we blogged about how gorgeous Lollie Wonderdog is (not that you didn’t notice on your own), and about her magnetic personality? And when we showed you how her older fosterbrother Chick was teaching her his famous puppy dog look?

What we haven’t highlighted specifically– but you may have noticed through Lollie’s photos– is that each of these qualities is greatly augmented by her stunning, expressive, artfully-shaped, rich caramel-colored eyes.

We’re clearly not biased, because she’s not our dog. But just in case, judge for yourself.

For more info on adopting Lollie, contact us at DCpetographer [at] gmail [dot] com or 301-520-7123.