Baa-sil or Bay-sil?

We're still trying to figure out whether we should be pronouncing it like the spice, or like Mr. Fawlty. Generally, we've been using the latter. He doesn't seem to mind much, and will respond with a "meow" to either name.

Basil has become much more comfortable around the house and will come and go as he pleases now -- no more hiding in his room. He's still not overly enamoured with Arlo, and will take a swat at him if and when Arlo deserves it (usually from getting too close, or attempting to play).

Our camera broke shortly after our last update that included a photo, so we're stuck trying to make up for those 1,000 words the hard way for now :( We're shopping around for a new one though, so we should be able to post more pics soon.

For now, this will have to do:

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          ) , ,(          ) )
        ={   Y  }=       / /
          )     `-------/ /
         (               /
          \              |
         ,'\       ,    ,'
         `-'\  ,---\   | |
            _) )    `. \ /
           (__/       ) ) 
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More on Basil

Basil has now been here a little over a week. We are starting to see the more subtle aspects of his personality come out at he gets more and more comfortable in our house.

Basil is a cat that genuinely likes people. He follows us through the house and talks to us constantly. Lately he's been spending the night either at the foot of our bed or underneath it. Our earlier observations about the dog turned out to be on the mark - Basil is cautious but not overly concerned about the dog. He came up to Arlo yesterday and sniffed his nose!

Basil doesn't seem to like sitting on a person's lap - he'd rather be by your side. This may be a trust thing, and he might like laps after he has bonded with his people and feels completely secure. Maybe not though - who knows.

He is just doing so well in one short week. Hopefully there's a family out there for this golden-eyed boy.

Basil settles in

Doe-eyed Basil is an affectionate, talkative cat who will come to you (with a "meow") when you call him. He is fine with our respectful dog. He was very traumatized by his trip to our house from the boarding kennel and by the new situation, but he has calmed down quite a bit now.

Basil has been with us for about four days now and is doing great. Yesterday we left the door to "his" room open so he could come out if he chose to. Mark's stepfather coaxed him to the doorway very soon after the door was opened, and then after a few hours of thinking about it, he ventured out. What a brave cat he was once he got going! He slowly explored the next room and then, despite the dog, immediately strolled through the rest of the house as though he owned the place. It was nice to see, after how scared he had been the first day. I'm sure it was more fun than cowering under an ottoman, which is what he did the first day.

He is such a nice cat! He loves to carry on conversations with you if you talk to him. I'll put more as we get to know him.

Koobee goes home; Basil on the horizon

Here's a picture of Basil. More on him at the end of the post.

Koobee went out on a flight this morning to her new home in Alberta. Her new owner called to say that she was well treated by the Westjet people during her flight, and 20 minutes after arriving home she was happily playing with her new young brother, a 5 month old Catahoula Leopard Hound.

YAAAYYY KOOBEE! Good luck!!

The chinchillas have been returned to the SPCA since the younguns are now old enough to be adopted out and need to be separated from their momma. Best of luck to them too!!

So when we returned our loaner kennel to Cora, she mentioned in passing a cat who is desparately seeking a foster home. Well...okay. So Cora is grabbing Basil the cat from the boarding kennel where he was abandoned four months ago and bringing him to our place tomorrow. We will have gone almost 24 hours without a foster animal. Weird! I will post again once we get Basil and let you guys know how he is doing.

Koobee's adoption approved!

Alriiiiiight - Koobee's out-of-province adoption has been completely approved!! Homecheck is done and everyone has had great things to say about this family. Mark and I are super happy but I think Mark is a bit sad that Koobee will be going soon. Not that I'm saying 'good riddance' or anything - I think he just has a bit of a harder time saying goodbye to foster animals than I do. I'm always so happy that there's a home that has put in the effort to get approved for these animals, and they want to love them for ever and ever!!

So there's no word yet on when we'll be shipping her out. We have to get our hands on a smaller crate for her and then find out what day/time we are supposed to take her to the airport. One sort of sad thing is that I got a call from another family who had also applied to adopt her - the family who already had the "dog on trial" when I phoned them last time. Well, they called and told me that the previous owners couldn't part with the trial dog, so they are still very interested in Koobee. I felt bad. They would have been a really great family to adopt her, too. I'm hoping Sam will talk to them about one of the other Bully Buddies dogs maybe - it would be nice to see them still adopt a pit bull, since this breed gets no breaks when it comes to the rescue system. They seem to sit in the shelters longer than almost any other breed.

The house will be very empty of animals soon. In addition to Koobee, the chinchillas will be going back to the SPCA in just another two days. I know I haven't mentioned them before - we have a mother chinchilla and her two babies while the babies grow old enough to be adopted. The time is near, so they'll be out of here very soon and then we won't have a single foster animal. That has not happened in almost a year! Wow! I'm hoping that I get an update from Bully Buddies about Koobee's new home once she gets there. She'll have a new brother - a 5 month old puppy - to play with, and from what I've heard about him they'll be best friends in no time. I'll keep you posted on how that goes if I hear anything.

A "Foster" playdate

Yesterday was a busy dog-day for us. We had agreed to dog-sit one of our previous foster dogs, Foster the greyhound and his new sister Tigger, while their parents hosted a party. They didn't want the dogs getting scared about the crowd or getting too curious about the planned bonfire, so they called us and we whisked them off to Elk Lake along with our own boy, Arlo. Our friend Taras met up with us and the three of us walked around Elk Lake with the dogs. Greyhounds are SOOOO easy to walk. They're calm and gentle and tend to just stay by your side, unlike bouncy Arlo!

So after that we went home with everybody. Koobee was in her kennel and we decided to leave her in there for a while to get used to the presence of the greyhounds. This is a method that Koobee's previous foster mom used to introduce new dogs to her household, and we're glad we've learned about it! Koobee was happy enough to chew her rawhide, but whined to come out when she was done. We put her leash on her and let her out, and she was very well behaved around the new dogs. Good Koobee!! :)

We kept her leash attached to her just in case, but everything went fine. Koobee was curious and wanted to sniff the greyhounds a lot, but Foster didn't want to be sniffed and gave her the cold shoulder. Not a lot of friction overall, though. I was glad to see Koobee getting some positive interaction with new dogs. On the adoption front, we are still waiting for news on an active application. It could go either way; keep your fingers crossed!