Minty Fresh

Brushing your own teeth is such a pain in the ass let alone brushing the teeth of your dog. So I put on my thinking cap and thought to oneself why bother brushing her teef when she can do it herself. So I slather on some chicken flavored toothpaste and lo and behold, she brushes her own teef now. Win win win

Rescue Me Drama.

Working for a rescue or running a rescue is not easy. There is always some sort drama associated with it and politics. There's "hardline" rescues and there's the "softer" rescues. You got the more liberal types and the more hardcore communist types. Irrespective the only thing that everyone in rescue should be focusing on is the animals. The animals is the reason why rescues exist. Yet with rescue there's always the drama. Whether the drama is created within or by potential adopters or those abandon or surrender. I think most rescues start off being soft. Then having dealt with the multiple scenarios of people giving up their pets, the abusive cases such as finding out that an animal was purposedly maimed/injured or burnt with acid. It's stories like this that turn the once soft rescues hard.

I would consider myself a member of the cleanup crew. Foster parents are the ones who clean up the issues caused by others. We re-gain their trust, we re-train, re-socialize, re-create ideal behaviors to help make the animals deemed unadoptable to adoptable. Foster parents have no set job. There's no real job description for being a foster. We're parents, We're people with dayjobs, we're also sales people. We're relationship counsellors. We're Psychiatrists and Therapists. However I think the most important role we all enjoy is being the "Flower/gift" Delivery person. This is when we send off our fosters to their forever homes. Sometimes we fail, we end up keeping our fosters. Sometimes we cry as we say goodbye; it's the most self sacricifing trait we put ourselves through and in the end thru the tears, our hearts are lifted. No matter what drama or politics take place in rescue, we foster parents always know that no amount of effort ever goes unappreciated by the animals.

Finding a good home is hard.

Finding my dream home wasn't an easy process but was easier for me than most people I know. I think the same applies to finding a good home for my fosters. Having spent the time,money,dedication to each one of my fosters is paramount to them having the *acceptable* behaviors to be adopted to their forever homes. Although each of them have their own quirky personalities, I will say that I do truly love each one of them as nutty as they all are. However there comes a point in time where I have to
think of what's best for them and not my own interests or agenda. I need to make the decision as to whether or not MY home is the ideal home for them. I know in the case of Tequila my home is not the perfect home for her. She deserves more than I can give her and it isnt fair to her. She has to share me with my two puppies who are too rambuctuous and active for her. I know in my heart that she would be best suited to a female or couple with lots of love to give. She passed the "children" test and would do very well in a home with child that is older versus a household with a very young children. She tends to get nervous around young children esp if they chase after her as most dogs do. In the meantime, I am trying to work her charm on a neighbor of mine. She is a single mom with Tequila's identical twin. We are going to set up a playdate and walkies for them to see how Tequila interacts with him. If all goes well and Tequila is ready for adoption, I hope to have found her a forever home and the bonus is that I will still get to see her around :) That makes me a happy foster mommy.

"Hello World, I'm ready to be spoiled!"

Meet Tequila. She's a beautiful 3yr old darling girl who's friendly to everyone she meets; children,dogs and adults. She is from Calgary and now residing at Hotel Chez Windy with her pals Choco and Nilla. She's a lovely girl who suffered 3 hard years of a life of breeding and being locked up in a cage all day long. She now enjoys the good life, eating beef tenderloin, chicken jerky, hugs and kisses from her foster mom and the worship from Choco and Nilla (her minions). What a wonderul dog, she deserves to be spoiled after the life she led. She will never again look back at her former life as long as Im in charge. :)

Kittens going home, welcoming a new addition

Kittens are going home today and I got word from my local dog rescue that there was a puppy mill bust in Edmonton. We are taking in a few chi/chi-mixes and they have arrived safely in Toronto from their flight yesterday. The girls at the moment are being vetted. I will hear shortly if i am going to get one of the girls or if any of the boys are coming this way. I'm excited to be able to assist in helping out with the rescue any way I can. In regards to the other cat rescue I foster for, I will be getting two new kittens that were abandonned at the vet. Busy week with new fosters....but I'm looking forward to being busy.

With that note, one final good bye to the darling girls Lulu and Lemon. My tribute to you girls! I hope you're very happy with your new dad!

This is what happens when you are naughty....

and you shit on my floor!

You get put in zee zink....

DONT YOU BE GIVING ME CUT EYE LITTLE ONE!!!!!!!!!

Foster Mommy?

I may soon be fostering for the chihuahua rescue I work for.
I hope that the home visit goes well albeit a formality since I am already a volunteer and have done numerous house visits of my own.

If I do get to foster a chi, I know it won't be an issue with Choco as he's rather friendly and generally a submissive pup. Nilla may take some warming up but she will eventually come around. Most of our rescues come from shelters like Toronto Animal Services or owner surrenders. I do believe we get some from out of provinces as well.

I am constantly looking at the shelters/craigslist/kijiji for those people giving up their chihuahuas for moving purposes or no longer able to care for them. I try to contact them to surrender to Chihuahua rescue group. Most of the time they rather just sell their dogs to make a quick buck or to recover their lost. Sad really, its not about the welfare of the dog.

In California, the shelters have about 80% of the dogs being chihuahuas and chi mixes there. When i browse through the website I feel sad as I would love to rescue all of them. Then i think back about how Nilla could have ever been in a shelter and it makes me happy that she is now in a good home (Or so i like to think :P). If i could travel to Cali and rescue all those chi's I would. Lord help me because if i had the money i would be on the first flight out. - She looks like a puppy still!!!