an Epic update

We ran into Epic's family at Arlo's obedience class last night. They were there to speak with Andrea, our intrepid instructor. I was happy to see them - we got an update on how their first week with their new family member had gone, and heard lots of stories. Epic's name has been changed to Portia and she already knows the new name. She's been a little too interested in the family's pet birds, but it's being worked out.

The unexpected news is that she's pushing boundaries with the male head of the household, who happens to be a military man! She doesn't care - she apparently doesn't listen to him. Mom is the one in charge in Portia's eyes - but I hope dad learns how to assert his dominance over her soon. A really good thing for them to do would be for dad to take her to obedience classes when they start in the new year. That way, dad learns how to communicate effectively with her, and she learns that he is someone to be listened to.

Other than the usual bumps in the road that come with getting a new dog, everything else sounds like it's going well. They found out that Portia likes to swim and, as she did in our house, she's been trying to take over the bed every chance she gets. This family told me before adoption: "the bedroom doors will be closed" and the story now is: "she sleeps between us, on her back, snoring". Ha ha! I'm sure they half-suspected that this would happen.

Anyway I was happy to speak with them and I think she'll settle in just fine. I'm sure I'll hear from them again so I'll fill you in with any new stories they tell me. Portia's mom is thinking of starting a blog so if she does I'll post the link here. I'm certain it will be highly entertaining!!

indefinite hiatus

We've had some major upheaval in our household recently. Through no fault of our own, we have been forced to move out of our fostering-friendly rental suite. We don't know when we will be able to foster again - it will depend on the relationship we develop with our new landlord. For our friends who haven't heard the story behind this, email me or leave a comment and I'll fill you in on the dirt.

Sophie has been handed off to a kind soul who wasn't even approached about fostering - she heard about our situation and simply offered to take her on. The timing for poor (no longer Angry) Sophie could not have been more heart-wrenching. Within a week she had gone from barely being touchable to purring and leaning into our hands for more while being petted. And then we had to trap her and send her elsewhere. Our feral cat person was confident that the change would not affect her progress, and any setbacks would be minor and temporary. I hope so! I will post an update about her as soon as I get any news about her.

For those of you who have followed this blog, thanks for your interest. I really enjoyed writing about our temporary animals.

Don't stop coming by though!

For the time being I'll post stories about animals that we fostered before the blog was started. Hopefully before too long we'll be able to start in with fostering again and the adventure will continue...

Epic has a forever home!

Epic's new family came to pick her up tonight! Yay!! They might do obedience training at the place where we go, so we might see her again in January!

I'm happy to see her go to this family - they seem like such a good fit and I know she'll be spoiled to death by everyone. It was a family decision and every one of them seemed to fall in love with her.

Goodbye Epic! Have fun in your new forever home (we know you will).

Sophie makes a decision

Wow, I didn't expect this. Last time I posted about Sophie's progress was when, three days ago, she let me gently stroke the side of her neck. Well little miss kitty has suddenly decided that I'm no big deal, and when she is on her window sill I can now pet her quite a bit with no reaction. I'm allowed to touch her neck, back, head, and under her chin and that's just fine with her.

This morning she even leaned into my hand for a second or two before she caught herself. I'm not sure if we're friends, but we're better than we were before.

I can now report about Epic, too. It looks like she has found her forever home! A very nice family came to meet her this week - lots of kids, LOTS of energy - perfect for a young girl like Epic. They liked her and were quite eager to finalize everything! The subsequent home check went well, but there is one little outstanding item before the adoption can be completed...and then Epic is theirs!!

I really liked the energy that this family had going on. In my opinion Epic will fit in to the household perfectly, and all those kids will have fun tiring her out! It's so exciting! Like I've said before, it's not over til it's over, but I think she'll be gone in the next day or so. Keep your fingers crossed!

patience and rewards

There are two things I want to tell you about today - Sophie, the foster cat, and our own dog Arlo. I don't mention Arlo often but today he deserves a blog entry. Aside from welcoming and loving every foster animal we bring home, Arlo has also started doing another type of volunteer work. He donated blood for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and although it took a long time, Arlo behaved wonderfully the whole time and came home very tired afterwords.

A few days ago we got a phone call from the Central Victoria vet clinic, which is where Arlo gave blood. They asked us to come in to pick up something at the reception desk. The owner of the dog who had received Arlo's blood had left him a present! He got a big bag of cookies, as well as a very nice card and a picture of the dog he had helped. She is beautiful golden retriever. They said thank you in the card and told us that she wouldn't have made it through her surgery without the blood. Mark and I were very surprised and touched that the family had thought to thank Arlo.

YAY ARLO!!

If you have a medium or large sized young dog, your dog might be able to give blood too. Just imagine - if your dog ever had an emergency like getting hit by a car, they might need to rely on a canine blood donor one day. Time to fill up the karma bank in advance!

Okay, I'm done preaching. On to Sophie. She is still making progress in teensy tiny steps. Yesterday I went in to spend some time with her, and it is obvious she is becoming more relaxed in our presence. She was looking out the window and didn't turn back to me when I was talking to her, so I brushed my fingers through her whiskers like we've been doing lately, and then I stroked the side of her neck! She didn't seem to mind! I wasn't wearing gloves, but we know her well enough by now that I was comfortable doing it. I did get one hiss while I was in with her, but like I've said before, it's just nerves and she settled down. This is the next step that we'll do over and over again til she's fine with it, and then we'll start petting her more eventually. She's doing great, and is so brave!

There is some action on the Epic adoption front - I will let you know when I know anything for sure. Cross your fingers!!