Thursday, August 7, 2014

Puppy Tails, Part I

I am a cat person. Let there be no doubt in your mind. I live in a cat family. We have three of them, as a matter of fact: Fletcher, Pete and Ruby (have I ever mentioned her before?).

Maybe two weeks ago, I saw a news crawler going across the screen while I was watching The Today Show saying the Joplin Human Society was looking for people to foster puppies and kittens. Intrigued, I mentioned it to my daughter, and we then checked their website for more information. There had even been a recent feature on the local news about it. We thought it sounded like fun.

Knowing I am a cat person in a cat family, I knew we couldn't foster kittens. First and foremost, our cats would be so upset. Pete and Fletcher would probably pack up their bags and move, and Ruby would be all kinds of hurt. Besides, I also knew I wouldn't be able to give them up, and then we would go from a cat family to a crazy cat family with ten cats living in the house. But a puppy? I could do a puppy! I don't care much for dogs, but puppies are cute! Inspired by my friend Kristi, who fosters puppies to become service dogs, my daughter and I decided to give it a try.

I have never owned a dog before.

We began casually mentioning our plan to my husband and son, knowing they might not be on board so much. We visited the humane society a week ago and met with the woman in charge of fostering, who walked us through the animal area and pointed out all the dogs and puppies who were available for fostering. There was a litter of 6 that caught our eye. Half of them were black, half were blonde. They had been found on the other side of town and brought in just a day or so before and were very, very shy. We agreed to take two, one of each color, and they would be ready for pick up on Saturday. 


Olivia, left, and Audrey

We broke our plan to my husband and son at lunch time Saturday (at which time my husband proclaimed that I was Lucy and our daughter was my Ethel), and then we were off to pick them up. We were handed two little girls, whom we named Olivia and Audrey (after a friend of my daughter's and her sister), one black, one blonde, who were sweet and shy and desperately in need of a bath. A visit to Walmart for food, leashes and collars (pink, of course), a couple of toys, and some puppy shampoo, and we were home and had them in the tub, turning them into much more pleasant smelling puppies (they still smell like dogs, which is my main drawback for having one, but at least they smelled like CLEAN dogs). 

Here's what we learned about having our foster puppies within the first day:

1. There is nothing innate about walking on a leash.
2. They can and will chew everything.
3. They quickly figured out they would get a little treat for going potty outside, to the point where we're pretty sure Audrey fake-peed a time or two.
4. Audrey is like a goat and will eat any and everything she finds on the ground, including, but not limited to, ants, sticks, rocks, Hershey Kiss wrappers, cat fur, rug fringe, and flip flops.
5. They adapted very quickly from living in a kennel at the humane society to being inside a house and love to nap on my daughter as she lies on the couch and watches Netflix.
6. My husband and son, who didn't want anything to do with them, can often be found with a sleeping puppy in their laps.






7. They have no fear of cats.
8. Our cats have a serious fear of them, yet are drawn to them like magnets, especially Ruby. I believe they are trying to figure out what the hell they are, as they are clearly not cats but resemble nothing else in their world.





9. They are more trouble than my children were as infants, including having to get up with them more often in the night to take them outside to go potty (you clean out a crate with stinky puppy poo in it two times, you set the alarm and get up and take them out at 3 a.m.) than I ever had to get up and nurse a baby.
10. They are very, very cute but still do not make me want to own a dog.

It is the beginning of the Puppy Adventure. To be continued....

22 comments:

  1. How cute!!!! I've definitely heard that dogs can be almost worse than goats. My boss's dog once ate one of these bubble bath balls and had to go to the vet for that. Enjoy your puppies!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. dogs have a 'cute gene' that all of the major pharmaceuticals (and the majority of cosmetics) companies are diligently pursuing.
    (not that cats don't have a similar effect... but puppies do the 'fall asleep in endearing places totally down to a science)

    careful... you may find your self a multi-non-human-species caregiver before you know it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are cute but require 100% attention at all times. ALL TIMES.

      Delete
  3. I'm SO jealous...that little blond Audrey is especially cute and I would love love love to take her home! But, alas, Indy wouldn't hear of it. He's like that, you know...

    Yeah for you doing this, Lucy! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They really are cuties. Audrey looks like a Great Pyrenees, Olivia a shepherd. Except Olivia got the Pyrenees curly tail.

      Lucy is a lot more worn out by all of it than Ethel is!

      Delete
  4. they so adorable ... good luck and yes puppies are a lot of work ...try feeding them in their crate they won't pee or poop in their crate; well supposedly they shouldn't - i'm sure you have a good handle with it but as soon as they are taken out of the crate walk them this starts a routine and puts them on a schedule just try not to walk them them where other dogs could have been until they get all their shots..yes they will try to chew everything they are teething too - I would give my pup a frozen wash cloth to chew on, bully sticks and that seemed to work. this bit of advise might be too late don't look into their eyes you will fall in love! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We feed them in their crate only some of the time, and that's a story for tomorrow :)
      The humane society has given them shots of all kinds, and the best part is they have had the flea stuff. It would have been horrible if they had brought fleas in the house, something I hadn't thought about until it was too late!
      Unfortunately, I have looked into those big, brown eyes....

      Delete
  5. Love love love that first photo - those are two seriously cute little puppies. No way could I give them up if they were fostered here - that's why I stick to pet sitting, at least I know that any dogs/puppies I take will be going back when their owners return from vacation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aren't they cute? They're going to be HUGE dogs. I know we'll be a little sad when they go, but I will also be pretty ready to get life back to normal.

      Delete
  6. You're ten kinds of braver than I am. But then I'm only prepared to have vicarious cats, either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was one of those poorly thought out things that I get myself into sometimes. Often.

      Delete
  7. I AM SMILING EAR TO EAR...XO SKIPPY

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Skippy, they are not YOU, but they are pretty darn cute.

      Delete
  8. WOW! Now when Daisy comes to live there you will have cats, dogs and birds!!! not to mention frozen dead hamsters...oh, you cant do that with dogs...you know that right? zoe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let's hope it doesn't come to me having to put one of them in the freezer, but we'll get to that tomorrow.
      On the other hand, I DO have a chicken in my freezer....

      Delete
  9. added to skip's blog page http://skippytails.blogspot.com/search/label/FRIENDS

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh. My. Cuteness! I always thought I was a dog person...then we got these Rotten Cats. Now my Hub claims I was always a cat person, just in disguise. I dunno...something to be said for an animal that cleans itself and does its business in a box. OH WAIT - MINE DON'T. THEY PEE ON MY CARPET!
    Sorry...I digress.
    But good heavens those puppies are cute. I hope that they are just bad enough that can let them go to their forever homes. Because you know, if they aren't, then you'll want to keep them and that will be ten other kinds of crazy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are more than enough trouble to be able to let them go to good homes, she says as she types this with one hand because a puppy's lying in her lap and on the other hand.

      Delete
  11. I have been ogling those puppies on FB all week. They are the cutest puppies I have ever seen. I wouldn't know all of those things about puppies, seeing as our dog mama was an outdoor dog. The puppies never came in my house.
    Love the photo of your husband with the sleeping puppy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are so darling! And a huge pain! And I love them and yet can't wait for them to go!

      Delete