Who could resist a face like this?

Let's hope no one.

This is Pretty Girl… at least that is what I’ve been calling her since I picked her up at Thurston County Animal Services this afternoon. She is one of two dogs that I will be taking to the Kent Station adoptathon tomorrow. The other is a crazy eight month old male- also rescued from/by TCAS.
Much thanks to Connie there for all her help making sure these guys got sprung to make it to the event. Also a big thanks to Joyce- the primary contact down that way who made all the arrangements for getting them out.
So I took Snuffy and we made the roadtrip down to Olympia to get them. Then, we went immediately to Amore Petcare in Shoreline to bathe them for the big day. Thanks to Stephanie, the owner there for cutting us a break on the cost of a self-wash so these two would be huggable fresh for their public debut. She even suggested a special shampoo for Pretty Girl’s troubled skin and coat.
Then, the dynamic duo, who actually did not really get to socialize during their three weeks in the shelter, met The Pack.

Just for fun

Ok, this has nothing to do with our dogs.. but watch it anyway and I dare you not to smile.

Did you spot the goat?

Ouch!

This is one miserable puppy.

This week, we noticed one of Daisy's teeth had broken off. Next to her lower right canine was a bright white shard sticking out of her pink gumline. We had no idea where she broke it or what she did, but it looked painful.
So off she goes to Doctor Bob at the Mountlake Terrace Affordable Animal Clinic. Doctor Bob said it had to come out. So Wednesday morning Heather dropped her off. Eight hours later, we picked up. What a sight. She hobbled out, still groggy from the drugs.

Doc said it was one of the longest teeth he had seen. That meant they really had to get in there and work to get it out.

Daiser spent the night being an unhappy doggie. She flopped on the floor and didn't even want to eat.

Luckily, the drugs wore off by Friday morning. By Friday night, when Loki got home from Barking Lounge, she was ready to rumble.

Flashback:Thor... this is a long one

My dog, Dharma, died in October of 2008.

I was heart-broken. I took her home the day she turned six weeks old, a hot humid Indiana summer day back in 1996. While there are now a number of dogs in this house, and I had dogs growing up, Dharma was my dog in a way no other ever was or will be. She traveled across the country with me. She was there with me at time when I was finishing college, when I was alone in L.A., and when I was really becoming the person I am today. She was my companion, my confidant, my friend. Losing her left a huge hole in my life, one I was really not expecting. I didn’t imagine I could fill it, and for the record haven’t, but decided to ease the loss of my precious pup I would begin volunteering for the local German Shepherd Rescue. I was not ready for a foster, so I was transporting dogs from shelters to foster homes to vets. Unfortunately, there were a lot of dogs that needed to be moved around as many were beginning to show up at shelters as the economy began its tumble. One night I was asked to move three dogs. One went from a shelter to a fantastic kennel that takes in some of the dogs, one went up to a foster home, the final dog was going from a foster home that could no longer keep him back to the Rescue’s main organizer, Cara. While dropping off the first dog at Sno-Line Kennels, the owner took a call about Thor. He was 13 years old, epileptic and suffering the first stages of spinal myelopathy. His life-long owner had died. She asked, a bit bluntly, why they didn’t just put him down. I have to admit, to my shame, that at the time I agreed. But they didn’t put him down, he went into the rescue’s foster system.

Why we are terrible foster parents

I got an email this week that I was not prepared for. Here’s the troubling line…


“Also, we met with an adopter today and Marianne was wondering if Kiyana would be a fit for them.”

<<Willow's petfinder pic

Kiyanna, known in this house as Willow, is our foster. You can go back and read more about her in previous posts, but let it suffice to say that when we took her in, we really didn’t expect someone else to want her. That’s a bit mean, I know, but how many people are interested in a 3-legged, overweight, geriatric dog? I mean, other than us. Well apparently someone else thought they might be a good fit for this tragic case. So at the receipt of this message, there was some serious conversation taking place in Chateau Kittelson-McFee. We took her in as a foster, temporary, and planned only to rehabilitate her and get her ready to be a part of someone’s family. But let’s be honest, we really didn’t think she stood a chance of being adopted. We went back and forth. Letting someone else take her would open a space in our house for another dog that desperately needed a place to stay. But in the past two months, she had made such great progress, not only on her weight, but coming out of her shell and beginning to interact with the other dogs and with Heather and myself.

So, what to do?

Read more after the jump.