I wasn't sure what to expect from a pre-holiday weekend, but we did well! Don't forget to check out our website at www.heartlandhumanemo.homestead.com to see pictures and information about Heartland!
Dogs: Lady, Lovey, Rascal, Croc, Fluffy, Kermit
Cat: Shea, Smokey, Diego, Cora, Jack, Robin, Mickey, Minnie,
Lady - was an older girl, 7 or 8 if I remember, and a big girl - husky mix. Her owner couldn't keep her because she was mentally unstable. We found homes for her other 4-legged-friends and are glad that someone was willing to give her a happy-rest-of-her-life
Lovey - a cute hound puppy, they're getting to be around 6-months-old now and this was her foster mom's favorite
Rascal - came from a pound and looked like Winn-Dixie and gets into troube just like his name implies
Croc - another pound puppy who has a new tough-looking dad who just talked baby babble to him and was a perfect match
Fluffy - a favorite of her foster mom, a collie puppy who went to a repeat-adoptor of ours and so we know she has a very good home!
Kermit - this is our bobble-head neurologic dog. He was named after Kermit because he hopped instead of walked - his back feet would move as one and he falls over when too excited. If we were Kermit, we'd be falling all over ourselves with excitement over his new home!
Shea - beautiful calico mama gets to be an only cat which will suit her just fine!
Smokey & Diego - medium-haired beautiful kittens that we're not surprised found a home quickly!
Cora - was live-trapped in a trailer park and we guessed her to be about 6-years-old. A nice young couple fell in love and now Cora won't have to be afraid anymore - she hated PetSmart and isn't crazy about other animals so foster care is a tough place to be
Jack - Jack came back rather quickly. He was returned once this year after 4 years in a home. He was adopted out quickly and the woman who adopted him said it was love at first sight. Unfortunately she died 10 days later. Her husband tried to keep him, but Jack never did get along with the family dog, so to be fair to Jack, he got another chance at a new home. It took just one week at PetSmart for another couple to fall in love and we hope that the third time is the charm for Jack!
Robin - he is what we call a "failed foster". His foster mom surprised us all by adopting him. She just loves him and when she watched people holding him at an adoption event she got very jealous and knew that she had to keep him.
Mickey & Minnie - their foster mommy loved them very much too and held out for a home that would take them together and her wish came true today as they went home!
Tonya was one of our hard-to-adopt cases. She was around 4-years-old, had come in with kittens, adopted out - declawed on all four paws and then was returned for peeing in the house. She had a raging bladder infection, but the family didn't want to be bothered with treating her when there was a new baby on the way. It took a year to get it under control and she'll have to be on prescription food for life. And she's black. Luckily she's super sweet and found a wonderful family that was willing to adopt a special needs cat. Here's the nice email that her new mom sent to let us know how she was doing. We love happy endings! Don't you just love her new name?
Tonya (a/k/a Smoochie Poo) is fine. She has settled in as the queen bee of the house. As you would expect, she feels it is your duty to walk around her when she's lying in the middle of the floor and not for her to move. My son
actually had to drag the laundry hamper around her yesterday because she wouldn't move. She just watched him walk around looking at him as if to say... watch the tail.... She likes her kitty tube, hiding under sheets of tissue paper and playing with the variety of toys my kids leave around the house. Couple of times a day she has what I call a cat nip moment when she just starts pouncing at nothing and running through the house. My daughter thinks that's funny...
I'm not sure why but she likes to sit at the top of the stairs. Part of me thinks she's really a blonde, because she will lie there and start rolling around and every time she'll wind up rolling down the stairs. We'll be sitting in the living room and all of a sudden we'll hear "thump, thump, thump, thump" and I'll look at the kids and say "... she's done it
again!" and they'll start to laugh and get up to see if she's ok and there she is sitting at the bottom of the stairs looking up as if to say "how'd I get down here!?!"
She escorts me to the kitchen every morning in hopes that I'm going to make tuna for my lunch, because she gets to lick the empty tuna can. She tries to escape every time we open the garage door, therefore we have to almost crawl in the house in an attempt to keep her in. But otherwise things are fine.
Elena
I feel like I've been treading water lately. There hasn't been anything going on that makes for good writing - that's good and bad. Drama isn't a good thing when dealing with animals, but it does make for a more interesting blog. I've been feeling like I'm just a poop-scooper lately wondering if I was ever going to find homes for my over-flow of kittens. I spent 12 hours at PetSmart this weekend and found homes for 5 of my guys and got to leave a few more up there. That will make poop-scooping a little easier tonight!
Here are Angel and Willow, who spent those 12 hours at PetSmart with me! They wanted out of the cage so bad! Willow got her wish and at 5:00 tonight she got her forever home. A very nice couple - I have no doubt that she'll be loved and spoiled for the rest of her life. It was hard to let her go though. I just sat and snuggled her while we did the paperwork. I'll miss those deep blue eyes! Angel is also a sweetie pie who got passed around a bit too.
Also adopted today were 2 of the Manx boys - they went home together to a woman who has 2 Manx girls! They're in for a surprise! Wesson, one of Revolver's babies also went home. The family had little kids and I hope I did the right thing by letting them have her. I really liked the mom and I hope that it'll work out ok. She's sweet enough that I think she'll tolerate all the cuddling and excitement alright - it's just so easy to second guess yourself. You'd love to be able to supervise them for the rest of their lives, but you just have to cut the apron strings and let them go...
But then you get a wonderful letter like this and everything is ok. Here's a picture of Bridgette - a little dog we picked up from death row who is now living in the lap of luxury! Listen to how devoted these owners are!
Hi! Just wanted to send you an update about Bridgette. We shortened
her name to Gigi, and she took to it immediately. She gets along really
well with our other dog, Sadie is 2 and she's a husky/shephard mix. I was
out at a pet store yesterday with my mother and saw a dog that looked so
much like Gigi, it was a Shiba Inu. When I got home I looked that breed up
on the internet and I found a pic that looked like Gigi. So I looked up
Rhodesian Ridgeback and again found what I was looking for. So Gigi
is a Shiba Inu/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. She still will only get to be
about 25lbs. Gigi was quiet and cuddly and stayed to herself in the crate
on adoption day. We got her home and she just cut loose!! She loves to
run, play, snuggle and eat. My kids are 15,14,13,7 and they all play with
her and she loves them all. So far there's no one she dislikes. She's a
very good watch dog, and will bark to alert us. She brings her leash when
she wants outside, brings her water dish when she's out of water. She sits, lays down rolls over and stands on hind legs soo easily. So she's very well trained already. Thank you for that. She is still trying to control her bladder, which goes off when she thinks she did something wrong or if startled (The kids have quickly learned not
to do that). We had trouble with diahrea for the entire first week. She started stealing bites of Sadie's food and her bowels got better. So we switched her to Purina puppy chow. And like magic diahrea was gone and bowels are just fine. She's not so anxious now knowing she doesn't have that to worry about. She got her stitches out and got her first bath.She doesn't like water too much so it was really fun watching the kids bathe her. We have her as an inside dog along with our other dog. But my husband will take them out every morning to chase toys thrown and they so
look forward to that. He keeps them out for 30-60 min playing in the morning. Then they get out again about mid-day and at night its a walk around the neighborhood. Gigi has her favorite toy and place to sleep but doesn't mind sharing
with Sadie, who mothers Gigi and Gigi lets her. So, so far things are really doing well. She fit right in and no porblems. Sadie handled the addition to our family in stride, she has shared everything with Gigi and treats her like she's her mommy. I could go on and on but I've run out of room.
> Thank you again. Kelly
The day seemed to drag forever - foot traffic was very slow and all the weirdos seemed to be around. The people who were interested in adopting all seemed to need to sleep on it - we don't want rushed decisions, but when you're giving up your day to the animals, you want some of them to have a happy ending!
Dogs: Buddy/Duke, Fluffy, Oliver, Speckles
Cats: Monk, Puss In Boots, Patches, Chloe, Donkey, Shrek, Randi & Elessar
Buddy/Duke - he was being fostered by one of our dog fosters who has more of a kennel set-up. This really big dog had clearly lived in the lap of luxury and wasn't adapting well so we got him into another foster home that only fosters once and awhile. Well, Duke's name got changed to Buddy and he never came to PetSmart and for father's day (yes, her husband fell in love with him) they adopted him forever.
Fluffy - a collie mix puppy that we picked up at a kill shelter. The foster mom had a hard time letting her go, but she did and now the puppy has a happy-ever-after!
Oliver - we're crossing our fingers that the 3rd time is the charm! Poor guy has had a string of bad luck
Speckles - a dalmation with a very happy ending!
Monk - the shy kitty who hated PetSmart is safe and happy at his new home
Puss in Boots, Donkey & Shrek - Donkey & Shrek got to go home together, Puss in Boots got adopted to a woman whose niece adopted one of the other Shrek babies so that they can visit each other!
Patches - Pretty little calico kitten, rescued from a place where the landlord (of the farm) started killing the cats so we did what we could to help
Randi - poor Randi is also on her third adoption but the family who adopted her felt such an instant bond that we know that it's the right time!
Elessar - pretty little siamese boy, I'm not surprised that he was the first of his litter to get adopted!
Nothing exciting to report, no super happy moment happened today, nothing emotionally jarring. Just another day as a foster mom. I took the Manx boys to the vet today and 2 of them got the all clear to go to adoptions tomorrow! One of them got new medicine for an eye infection, so hopefully he'll heal it all up and get over it. We have a couple of cats up at the vet, but no diagnosis yet, which is frustrating, but no news to report on. Lena has had a bladder infection and we need pee from her, but she isn't cooperating, hopefully she'll have a full bladder this afternoon - I know, you're dying to hear if she can hold it or pees in her cage again! My life is just that exciting.
Buffy's litter is doing very well. I'll be bringing a couple of them to PetSmart tomorrow. I'm going to miss them. Luckily my favorite isn't ready yet, so I get to snuggle him a bit longer. If you have anyone interested in getting a kitten, send them to PetSmart tomorrow. I have several that will be up there and 2 other foster homes have litters that will be making their PetSmart debuts as well. I'll have my camera, so watch the website next week for new kitty pictures!
I didn't want to get up this morning, my bed was comfy and warm and my head was much too heavy to lift from the pillow. Then I heard it - the strangest meow that I've ever heard. Soft and mournful and just pathetic. I raised my head quickly to see if Max, my old man cat, was still safely on the bed and he was. He looked up at me as if to say "what's the rush?" So my thoughts quickly turned to Tad, my big boy younger cat who is down to 15 pounds. I called his name and I heard the noise again. As I was about to hop out of bed to see where he was crying, the fog lifted from my head and I heard the noise again. It was a mosquito! So even as I'm sleeping, I'm still thinking about the health and happiness of my kitties! I just wish I wasn't scratching a mosquito bite on my hand now....
And today's lesson is Heartguard! We hear from a lot of people that they don't have their dogs on heartworm preventative because they're "inside dogs". Well, most of those inside dogs go outside to pee and sometimes those mosquitos come inside too. There is debate lately about heartworm preventative for cats as well. That's one that will have to be between you and your vet, but there is a cool new product that prevents fleas and ticks and heartworm for cats. We are treating another dog for Heartworms. It's so sad because it could be prevented so easily and the treatment is painful, long and expensive.
What a nice day! I went shopping with my kids, found what we were looking for and they barely argued! My daughter who loves bugs, found a really cool moth that had a broken wing, so she brought him home and it made her day. She spent so much time with it sitting on her shoulder - she was just in heaven. We spent a couple of hours at the pool playing and relaxing. I also got to spend extra time with my kitties - it seems like I got stuck on the corded phone in the basement several times today which the kitties and I love because I have no choice but to stay in one place and pet cats. I have one foster kitty that loves to be held and has a funny, squeaky purr - it's so unusual and loud that people always ask me what that noise is!
I went to PetSmart to drop off 2 of my kittens, Smith and Wesson and so I'm just happy that they're healthy and can be up there. The bonus was that I adopted out Monk while I was there. Then Jeana stopped up and adopted out her kitten Puss in Boots.
Afterwards I stopped at the Post Office and we had a great mail day!!!
There was an envelope from the Emergency Clinic, but it was a receipt, not a bill! That's always a good thing. Emergency Clinic visits are always expensive.
We had a $20 check with a note to apply it to Annie's bill - very nice.
We got an order for 2 tickets to the Rascal's fundraiser and they included a $50 donation - that's enough to pay for a kitten neuter!
We got 2 tickets to the City Museum for our Trivia Night! We're getting lots of cool stuff, so save the date - November 9th and start getting your team together.
But the grand-daddy of good news is that my grant proposal was approved! We're getting $5,000 for our low-cost spay/neuter program. Hopefully that will make a nice dent in the kitten over-population next year! Now I'm feeling really motivated to work on finishing off the grant proposal that I've had sitting on my desk for a month now....
Sorry to steal one of my favorite Monty Python lines, but the lack of posting lately wasn't due to my extreme illness, I got to take a quick little jaunt to Wisconsin! Only needed a cat-sitter for 2 days, but she was nice and came the day I came back so I wouldn't be in such a rush! On Wisconsin, God's country, the motherland, safe behind the Cheddar Curtain - it's a Wisconsin thing, you wouldn't understand. It was hard coming back to Missouri, if I could live up there, I certainly would. But then my hubby wouldn't have the good job that he loves and that makes it worth living here. We had a family graduation party to attend, I can't believe that I'm old enough for my niece to be 18. Then we took our kids to the biggest tourist trap in the state - the Wisconsin Dells. It is touristy because it's so pretty. It has the world's largest concentration of water parks - both indoor and out. So for only a 7-hour-drive, you could have a really good time and the kids wouldn't realize that you were there for the great outdoors! We enjoyed them by taking a boat tour of this lovely lake and then playing mini golf until we couldn't handle it anymore - they had 5 18-hole-courses in one place!
Getting ready to go on a trip while sick wasn't an easy task. Luckily my cat sitter is also my best friend, so I could leave the house a wreck and it was ok. I spent more time making sure litter boxes and food bowls were clean before I left than I did worrying if there were any dirty clothes laying about. Now that I'm back home, I'm paying the price! I have to catch up on all my kitty duties (hee hee, I said "doody", yes, too many hours in the car with my children....) plus try to reclaim my house from the few days that I could only lay on the couch and occasionally get up to feed cats - luckily the kids were old enough to feed themselves! I'm still trying to wade through all my email, I'm not sure if I'll ever catch up!
One good thing about being sick is it forced me to rest a lot. And that means a cat on the lap. My kitties got a lot more attention while I was sick. I actually took naps, so they curled up with me while I slept. I had to rest in between each litter box and some of the kitties figured out that pattern quite quickly! Tonight they were still begging me to sit down for snuggle time and so how could I refuse? I do have a few favorites in the current batch of kittens that I'm turning into my "obnoxiously affectionate" trademark. Every summer I seem to develop a few of these - kitties that won't leave you alone, insist on following you about and want to be carried everywhere - could it be because I love to carry kittens around? I'm always a little happy-sad when they get adopted. I miss my little shadows but I'm always happy that they'll get more individual attention when they're the "real" cat vs. being a "foster" cat. I always like to picture my fosters getting to sleep on beds with their humans and it makes me smile.
Samoa got spayed today so I'm hoping that she'll be able to go to PetSmart next weekend. She's such a sweetheart that I'm hoping that people will overlook the fact that she's just a brown tabby and be willing to look at the kitty on the inside. She still "mothers" all the kittens. Samoa lives with Riley in a huge exercise pen, big enough for me to stand in and my daughter and I can both sit in there at the same time, but the bars on it are small enough for kittens to fit through. So during the kittens' running around time, they like to go visit Mama Samoa and get a bath. She doesn't care whose kitten it is, if it comes within reach, it's getting a bath! 3 of Galadriel's kittens got neutered today and so did Piper. The last one of Revolver's kittens also got spayed. I'm hopeful that I could have a lot of those guys at PetSmart next weekend and that they can find their forever homes. Tomorrow I'm hoping to take pictures of kittens again and get these guys on our website.
Ok, here's another shot of the Dells, I couldn't resist!
I didn't spend much time at Petsmart today. I was at the vet this morning with a very sick mama kitty - the whole Skunk litter wasn't doing well and one died last night, which shocked me because it was the strongest. Our vet examined him and thinks it was a blood clot, so while that eases my guilt and doesn't indicate a bad future for the rest of the litter, it still sucks. After all, I have a "thing" for tuxedos. But on to happier news - who went home this week?
Dogs: Bridgette, Bennie, Raven and Sirius
Cats: Bubba, Annie Oakley, Suzy Q, ButterCup, Harpo and Kendra
Here are Bridgette and Raven, both saved from Animal Control on days that I got to help pick dogs, so I always feel extra special when they find their forever homes. We still don't know what Bridgette is, she's so petite with that interesting ridge-back. She looked so proud walking around PetSmart with her new owner. Raven turned out to be more of a black german shepard than lab. Her ears now stand straight up! Our volunteer saw that a woman was interested in Raven and said "you touched her last, now you have to take her home" and she did. She blamed the volunteer of course and he said, then my plan worked!
This black and white boy is Sirius. He was pulled from Animal Control just this Monday! He's one that they drew our attention to. It's so easy to walk in and be attracted to the kind of dogs that you like and look over ones that don't float your boat. The shelter workers liked him, so we took him out to evaluate him. He didn't do anything that would excite us good or bad. He did have several plusses, like he knew how to sit really well on command and was already neutered and current on shots - he was obviously a pet. I hadn't even gotten a decent picture of him yet - we were calling him a border collie/lab mix, about 1.5 years old, which is about the best age to adopt in my opinion (both my dogs were that old so I'm biased!). A woman was casually walking by our dogs today and stopped dead at his cage and said that he's the one! So while he didn't turn our heads, we're very happy that we didn't let that stop us from saving a wonderful dog who turned someone else's head!
Benny was also pulled from Animal Control, but not while I was there. He was part of my crazy car ride on Wedneday as I was coming down with this germ I'm fighting (cough cough). We pulled him because one of our volunteers had someone looking for a shitzu, so when they saw Benny they thought they'd see if it was a love-connection and of course it was! So no picture but a wonderful happy ending all the same!
Bubba was a big boy and at 19 pounds, got lots of attention! He came from a woman who took in strays, unfortunately the dog was too much and killed her. We helped adopt out 4 of her cats. Bubba is just 19 pounds of love! What a sweetheart! He was one of our many brown tabbies that we had this spring. Luckily they all seem to have found their homes - at one point we had around 6 of them at PetSmart. Now just cross your fingers for Randi, the last one and Samoa, who will be ready to come up in a couple weeks!
Suzy Q is the mama to my first litter of the year - Twinkie, DingDong and HoHo. She was such a sweetie here, but a bit of a diva at PetSmart so it took her awhile to choose her forever home, but she did choose and went home today! Yeah for Suzy Q!
Annie Oakley was the first of Revolver's kittens to get adopted. Colt (the black one) is at PetSmart right now driving everyone nuts! He's lonely and meows constantly. The funny thing is that at my house, he was much more cat-centered, so he didn't want to snuggle and now all people talk about is what a cuddler he is! Annie is the grey tabby out in front, she is so stunning, I never did get a picture that did her justice!
The rest of the adoptions were kittens that I never met so I can't give you any details except that I know that they'll all live happily ever after!
I had a sick day today. I haven't been doing a whole lot of anything today, but I did drag my weak butt to PetSmart to adopt out Annie Oakley. The even better news is that someone is coming to look at Suzy Q tomorrow! (I love it when the moms get adopted!) I managed to scoop litter boxes tonight without passing out or losing my lunch - my head is just spinning but I still have to take care of the kitties. Luckily my daughter was a big help tonight. I like that she gets into playing with all the cats that come through our house, but it's so good for them to get that socialization too. I have some real sweeties right now that it's going to be hard to let go of.
The news on the sick kitties from yesterday is unchanged. The neurologic kitty is still shaky, but is still happy and playing with his tail so it's hard to say what his prognosis will be. The tail-less girl will be starting her medication and the limping kitten is on pain meds but is very sore. I'll keep you posted as we hear anything else.
