Willow, Murphy, Alfie and Simon

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

On-set Nap

After I made them pose, I couldn't find Sal. Until I climbed half-way up the stairs, that is... apparently she likes goose-down duvets!

Sal's favorite chair

Best Buddies

Big Beautiful Girl

Sal in full snuggle mode

The foster dogs love it when Jessie comes to visit. She makes them feel so loved that everything bad that's ever happened to them disappears.

Sal and Demitri

I told someone I was fostering a greyhound cross and a dachshund. She said, 'who would cross a greyhound with a dachshund?'

Well, I think they make a cute couple!

Did someone say 'treat'?

Balancing

With those long legs, it's pretty easy to tip over on the corners. But she's learning. And today was the first day she jumped into the truck all by herself.

We took a different route for our walk, and on the route is a tunnel going under 14th street. Sal began to slow down as soon as she saw it, and ground to a complete halt at the entry. It took quite some time to get her to the half-way point of the tunnel, and then she would have flown out the other end if she had wings. For the rest of the walk she was skittish. When we got to the truck she leaped in without hesitation. Anything to get away from that tunnel! So we'll go there for our walks each day until she forgets about whatever was worrying her.

The Greyhound Run

Now that she's figured it out, she can go pretty fast. It keeps her from being cold - although so far she's only worn her jacket once (because I keep forgetting to put it on). I think she steps on the leash less often when she's at a full run too, because it flies in the air behind her.

Not that she has endless energy - a walk/run in the morning, and Sal is a couch potato for the rest of the day!

The Christmas Addition

Sal, 8 months old, is our newest foster, and she's settled in very quickly - thanks to Demitri!

She didn't want to come into the house, so Demitri went down the stairs to say hello. She followed him in, and after about 20 minutes of sniffing rooms, corners and dog bums, her tail got its wag back.

She and Demitri slept in crates on the main floor. She was quiet, but Demitri yipped his protest every five minutes. After about an hour, Don got up, leaned over the rail and yelled, 'Hey! Shut up and go to sleep!' And there wasn't another yip the whole night through.

Neither Sal nor Demitri really know how to play, it seems. Demitri chews on her neck or her back leg and Sal looks confused. But I think they'll be good for each other. This morning, both of them were in my lap. Demitri learned that grrring for attention just gets him booted off the couch, so he contented himself with sharing the snuggles.

Sal is very friendly with people and she got lots of pets on the walk today. She even jumped into the truck by herself at the end - although I had to climb in first and bribe her with a treat!

Sal is a Pawsitive Match puppy, ready for adoption - well worth checking out if you're a greyhound fan. She's very sweet.

pUpdate

Yes, I know - I've been neglecting this blog. I don't have Baby with me anymore and I have switched to another blog so that her information stays here.

For current foster news, see http://www.123puppyspot.blogspot.com/

Baby News

Here is Baby in her first coated outing. This was in between two of the many times her legs popped out of the leg-holes and had to be put back in. Nothing a safety pin won't fix.

Baby has been with us for three weeks now. If I had to describe her personality in one word, I would say ''worried'. But very gradually, she is calming down. Following is 'all about Baby' in case you are considering adopting a sweet little chihuahua-dachshund.

Sleeping
Until a few days ago, Baby's bed was a crate beside the human bed. You know that sound old men make before they spit? Baby would make about 20 of those every morning when I let her out of the crate, all the while bouncing up and down, wagging her tail so hard it was just a little black blurry thing. This is only cute the first few times, so one night I left her in the x-pen on the main floor because she was fast asleep inside her fluffy blanket. She was still excited to see us in the morning, but there were only three old-man noises, and now she doesn't make them at all.
Of course Baby's favorite place to sleep is in the human bed. She burrows her way all the way to the bottom and doesn't move until morning, when she creeps up to the top for a snuggle.
During the days, she naps in her x-pen under the fluffly blanket, or (if there's anyone on it to curl up beside) on the couch.

Food
She thinks every bite of food is going to be the last one! I make the dogs sit quietly while I get their dishes ready, and Baby is a challenge. When I say 'stay', she sinks to the floor and creeps away. She will circle the perimeter of the room on her belly, trying to find a way to get close again without me noticing. This morning we started food training. I put a dish of human food on the floor beside her and told her to leave it. She crouched and trembled and whimpered for about ten minutes, and then finally sighed and laid down beside it. But we have to keep working on this one.
She is quite protective of her food - not with people, because I can put my hands in her dish or take the dish away and she doesn't react. But if other dogs come near her (and by that I mean into the same room) she will grrr at them. She sometimes has food left over, and will leave her dish. Ginny, waiting patiently, will head over to finish it off and then Baby races back to protect it. She may be hungry later, you see!

Other Dogs
When Baby first arrived, she was very quick to grrr and snap at other dogs - they all frightened her. But she's met so many of them now that she's learning to sniff butts and be normal. She will still 'snap and miss' sometimes, but so far they all just blink at her. I think they sense that she's not dominant. She's very happy around dogs she knows - she and Ginny play like puppies for long periods of time, racing from room to room.

Strangers
Baby will grr and snap at strangers who immediately reach out to her, and even at me if I grab her suddenly. But this is fully a fear reaction (I suspect she has had a bad experience in the past). If you let her approach and sniff on her own time, she'll be your best friend in less than 30 seconds.

Walks
Baby's only concern about walks is that it might be too cold. But once out there, she's in her glory and forgets all about shivering and worrying. She's even learning to play with Ginny's friends instead of running away from them. She loves to sniff in the tall grass, and sometimes has to be retrieved. But if you have her attention, she comes immediately when called - on the run, as though she hasn't seen you for weeks. For walks around the neighborhood, she loves to have the leash put on and can barely stop bouncing long enough for me to find the loop on her collar.

Housetraining
She's house-trained as long as you take her out regularly. If you don't take her out, though, she will go from looking worried (which you may not notice because she so often looks worried) to finding a place to pee in the house. She sometimes needs coaxing to go outside, but I make her go anyway and she'll always pee even if she doesn't really have to.

Baby needs a non-excited human to help her stay calm, and one who will not 'baby' her. She is developing confidence slowly, and is a most loving little pal who will always be happy-happy-happy to be with her human!

Camera Shy Baby

What a silly girl. She was cuddled up inside her blanket with just her head poking out, half asleep. So cute. I very slowly reached for the camera, because she is all the way across the room, and really - why would she mind???

It takes me a few seconds to zoom in and focus, and during that time Baby, in slow motion, stood up, turned to the side and slunk under the blanket. I'm sure her tail was between her legs.

For some reason, this dog does not like cameras!

But I bought her a new jacket last night at the Misty Creek silent auction. So I pulled her out from under the blanket and put the jacket on ...

The New Jacket

Notice my feet holding baby on the chair. The more you tell Baby to stay, the more she tries to crawl into your arms for comfort.

As good as it gets.

I finally got her to stay without holding her there. But notice those sad brown eyes. And notice that her legs are no longer through the leg holes, because this is after I have stuffed her back into the chair and the jacket about six times. But I won. Sort of.

Baby learning that dogs are good

Baby is nervous around strange dogs, probably from having to look out for herself more than a little dog should have to. So I've been throwing her into the middle of them as often as possible. She's come a long way from Day 1, as you can see ...

#1

'Okay, fine. I will walk with Iggy as long as you promise it will just be Iggy.'

#2

'Hey! This doesn't look like Iggy! Who is this? What's going on here?'

#3

'You're a big fat liar.' (Baby/Tibby, second from the back in the right-hand row.)

Tibby the Whirligig

Baby arrived last night after flying from Texas. On a plane, of course, but if she had even the tiniest of wings she would have been able to fly here on her own power. What a bundle of energy!

The first thing I did was pick a new name for her - one that sounds like 'Baby' but isn't, because she isn't a baby, and she bit my thumb. This is nothing to worry about - after a traumatic day, a strange hand reaching into her crate was just too much. By the time we got home, Tibby's tail was wagging so hard it just about shook her little bum off.

Her first experience in Canada was to watch the Rangers beat the Yankees, which made her tail wag.

She slept in a crate with less than a minute of whining, and this morning I let her up on the bed for another nap. She snuggled into my armpit and kept right on sleeping.

We went for a walk with resident dogs Ginny and Iggy, and I let her go with the leash dragging. She stayed right with us except when she decided the airplane passing overhead was chasing her. I had to send Ginny to round her up and bring her back. But she'll get used to airplanes, and also to all the big dogs that worry her.

Who's Yer Baby?

I keep the cushy part of the crate by my computer so foster dogs can sleep in it while I'm working. But Ginny, usually very independent, likes to make sure she's always the most Special of Dogs. So here is Ginny curled up in Baby's bed...
And here is Baby. She is inside the blanket I put on the floor for her after Ginny stole her bed. She nosed around and found her way inside of it all by herself. As it turns out, Ginny is the Baby but Baby is the Innovator!

Toby has been adopted...

... in record time - three days.

Which didn't surprise me, because he was such a precious little guy. He was adopted by the perfect family. When they came to meet him the first time, he trotted out the door with them as though he had been theirs all along. He was just as happy to see them the next day, making it one of my favorite adoptions.

Next is Baby, who arrives on October 22. I am giving Don a 2-week break - a real sacrifice for me!

If you are interested in the Don conversation, here it is:

Me: On October 22, Baby is coming. I have to foster her because in her photo you can't even see her tail. That's how much it wags.
Don: Ah. I knew there would be a good reason.

Baby is a Dachshund cross, and we haven't fostered a Dachshund yet. That's another good reason.