A Tribute to a Spunky, Wonderful Woman

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Thanks for bearing with me as I use this space to gush about the amazing people and pets in my life. While I don’t enjoy writing posts about loved ones who have left us, it is nice to have this platform as another way to remember them. Plus, after I post these entries, your positivity always brightens my day. So thank you for understanding when and why I put these posts up. I appreciate it and I know my family does too.

My Grandma passed away this week. She was a really awesome woman. I’m mentioning her on here (I have had a few family members pass away since this blog was created, but I haven’t necessarily dedicated a whole post to them) because she was one of my biggest cheerleaders for this blog. She loved reading my posts every day, and would often email me about them. She also enjoyed sending me newspaper clippings, and after I started the blog the clippings went from being about horses to being about animal rescue. She loved what I was doing and made it clear how proud she was of me – and I so appreciated that. Do you remember the note Otis wrote to her in January? That talks a bit more about our relationship and her love for my fosters.

It seems I was merely following in her footsteps, though. As someone who believed in sticking up for causes she was passionate about, my Grandma was quite a feisty lady. When her assisted living community began making the staff cover up their tattoos, Grandma, at the age of 78, went out and got one herself just to make a statement. How cool is that? If I had guts like her I probably would have gotten myself into a bit of trouble by now :-).

She lived in Oregon so this blog was often the way we stayed in touch in between phone calls and emails – and for that I am extremely grateful.  I will certainly miss her humor and wit, but I know she will be following this blog in spirit. Love you, Grandma!

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Preparing for a New Dog

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Now that thing’s have settled down a bit (famous last words) it’s time to start thinking about a new foster dog. It’s been a while since I’ve had a foster, though the temporary pups have kept us nicely on our toes! I think we’ll be ready when the time is right to bring a new four-legged kiddo home.

I’ve gained so much new knowledge in the past few months that I think will really help me with my next foster, whoever it ends up being. There are others in my house, though, that have not learned quite as much as I have recently. Because shaping a dog into the “perfect” little household family member takes lots of consistency, I want to make it easy for everyone in my house to be on the same page. I wrote up a quick page of *things to remember* about having a dog that I think will help provide more structure for the new pup we bring home.  It’s not necessarily that these things alone will help a new dog learn manners, but following these simple steps as well as additional training will set the pup up to be the best she can be.

Here is our list that I posted on the hub of the household: the fridge! I’ll go through it first with my parents and then just leave it up there as a reminder or point of reference. I am really excited to see if this helps a new pup pick up on the rules any faster!  There’s nothing more confusing to a dog who is living in a house for the first time than mixed signals. . .  “but I was allowed on the couch last time!”

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If you or anyone you know is bringing home a new dog, along with a list of guidelines for everyone in the house to follow, I would recommend the books The Other End of the Leash and Love Has No Age Limits by Patricia McConnell. Both of them touch on the pointers on my own list as well as much, much more. Bringing a new dog home can and probably will be a stressful experience – being prepared can lessen that stress a bit!

Graduation Day: A Proud Big Sis

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I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about dogs. That makes sense, because dogs are the reason why I started a blog.  But the blog also makes a nice platform to every once in a while celebrate something else, non-dog related.

Today my little sister, Elisa, will walk across the stage at Clemson University’s graduation ceremony, a semester earlier than her peers. She is graduating with honors, earning a degree in Animal and Veterinary Science.

Elisa has spent her three and a half years at Clemson, for lack of a better term, kicking butt. She was the vice president and then president of Clemson’s Intercollegiate Eventing Team, she worked as a lab technician doing cutting-edge research, and she maintained phenomenal grades in even the hardest of science classes.  Elisa and I share a love for horses, though she certainly ended up with the science brain.

I’m so proud of my little sister, and I’m so happy I can be with her today to watch her collect her college diploma. Otis is also proud of her, and wanted to display his Tiger pride since he cannot attend graduation with us:

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Congrats, Lis! We love you!

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Prayers for Baxter

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It seems our favorite little monkey has gotten himself into some tummy trouble for the third time. On Sunday morning Baxter went to the emergency vet and was rushed into surgery to fix an intestinal blockage. As many of you know, this is an unfortunately familiar situation for Mr. Baxter.

When I first brought Baxter home to foster – actually just about one year ago today – I was warned that he was a foreign object eater. While unsupervised at the rescue farm, he had gotten access to a leash and consumed it. He went through surgery to remove it, but while recovering at the vet’s office he ate part of a towel that he pulled into his cage, and he had to go under a second time to have it removed. He healed up from both surgeries, but has severe scarring on his intestines.

At my house we were diligent about picking up anything he could eat or leaving him in his crate if we weren’t home. Even then he still managed to find a leash, pull it off our kitchen table, and eat half of it in the five minutes we weren’t watching him. Luckily he passed that one though. We’ve never been able to figure out what causes his urge to eat these things. Our best guess was anxiety, which made sense because for the last eight months he’s been completely fine in his new home since he is always with his siblings. Until now.

His family rushed him to the vet Sunday morning after he was lethargic and couldn’t go to the bathroom. X-rays were inconclusive, so they decided on exploratory surgery and their worst fears were confirmed: they found a towel wrapped around his intestines, beginning to cut into them. It seems they caught it in the nick of time. The vet made it clear that while Baxter made it out of surgery okay, he is not out of the woods yet. Because this was the third time his intestines have had to endure this, there is severe damage and we’re not sure how he’ll heal up. They gave him the prognosis of a 75% chance of full recovery.

For now, we’re all just waiting and sending lots and lots of good vibes to his parents, who are worried sick. He hasn’t been released from the hospital yet, so every day is a waiting game to hear reports from the vet. Please keep Baxter and his family in your thoughts and prayers! He has been through so much and I’m sure he will bounce back from this too, but he needs all the positive thoughts he can get right now.

Building My Confidence

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So FosterMama says I need this thing called CONFIDENCE. I’m not sure what she’s talking about, but I do have an inkling that it has to do with all of the very scary stuff that I encounter on a daily basis. When I run and hide from these scary people, places, and things, Mama usually refers to me as “Silly” and laughs it off. I try to tell her that these things are really, really going to get me and that we need to get away fast!!

Sometimes I even tell her that by barking at them, especially if they’re big scary monsters coming into my house. I tell them, “GO AWAY! Go away! Look how big and scary I am! Go away!” I try to do my best at showing them it’s not a good idea to come in here, but then they do anyway! Once they’re in and FosterMama makes sure they’re not yielding any weapons says hi to them, then I decide they’re okay in my book. But until then it’s all a big show.

FosterMama says that I like to put on big shows for the scary monsters because I’m not confident. She says I need to learn to be comfortable in my own skin. According to her, there are a lot of ways to help me do this. Well, I’m waiting lady! Where is my strong Bravery Armor?? Then, to my dismay, she tells me I’m not going to get brave overnight. Shoot. I have to do a lot of exercises like nose work, clicker training, agility, playing with Mama – stuff like that. All of these are supposed to help my confidence.

Well, remember how I told you FosterAunt is around? FosterMama took that, plus a perfect weekend evening, as an excuse to go on a confidence building adventure. We walked and walked and ended up at this place that looked weird and different, called a “playground.” FosterMama told me that if I learned to climb all over it, I would slowly catch on that new things can be fun! I was weary at first, but pretty quickly I got the hang of it. We went up and down and up and down. I even started wagging my tail!

Did I mention that FosterUncle came too? I was comfortable enough up there to hang out with them while FosterMama did her usual click click click away behind the big black box in front of her face.  I really didn’t even mind it. I think I could feel my confidence Bravery Armor showing up already! Or, at the very least, I felt my sorta-comfortable-in-new-situations Armor building up.

I certainly felt good enough to give FosterAunt & Uncle some loving.

FosterMama says that one day someone will adopt me who is willing to put in all the time and effort I need to grow into a more confident dog and come out of my shell (didn’t realize I was a turtle?). She says it is going to take a lot of love, understanding and patience, but that the perfect person is out there somewhere. After all, I have shown her in just two months what an amazing dog I can be, so I will surely win the heart of whoever takes a chance on my shy little self.

For more information on adopting Honey Bunches of Otis, go to his Adopt Me page to learn more about him and how to get in touch.

FosterAunt is in the House!

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Remember when I told you about my FosterAunt, and how worried I was about her because of her inability to stay on a horse? Well she is here to visit for a few days from Kin-tuck-ee, and I’m so excited to see she is in one piece with my own two eyes!

I just know we’re going to be the best of friends the next two days. In fact, check back later this week to see what adventures we get in to!

(P.S. Here she is showing how little I mind having my personal space invaded. It’s probably because of how much face-squishing FosterMama does, but I’m totally okay with inappropriately close nuzzling by my friends!)

For more information on adopting Honey Bunches of Otis, go to his Adopt Me page to learn more about him and how to get in touch.