Johnnie Cash is borrowing almost this exact same post from Baxter’s search for a Valentine last year because it is just so perfect. Bax wrote this poem, and now Johnnie wants to know the same. . . will you be hers? See for yourself:
Couldn’t have said it better myself, J girl! Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone. Take this day as an excuse to tell EVERYONE you love in your life – parents, friends, significant others, pets – how much you appreciate them. I sure do love y’all!
Enough about Johnnie’s past – from here on out we’re going to celebrate who she is now and how bright her future looks!
Johnnie Cash is a little bit over a year old. She’s smart as a whip from what I can tell, learning both “sit” and “down” in the shelter without much effort. She’s picking up quickly on some of the rules of the house, like sitting before she goes out the door and staying off the bed and couches (though she’s not happy about it).
There’s not a person we’ve met that she doesn’t like, and most people are absolutely thrilled with her overly exuberant greetings – though we are working hard to get her to stop jumping up on people! At only about 40 pounds, it’s tough to tell her no to jumping sometimes when she’s covering your face in slobbery kisses.
She absolutely lives for toys and sticks. While she’s pretty food motivated, she’ll do almost anything for a good rope toy. It makes play time fun because she’ll work to receive her toys. Right now we’re only practicing sit and down, but in the future I hope to add some tricks and sharper skills to her repertoire!
Johnnie Cash would be a fabulous dog for pretty much anyone looking to add an active, happy puppy to their life. She’ll excel with positive training so she can be learn desired behaviors. She can be sensitive, especially around big scary things like school buses and garbage trucks, so her adopter should be excited to do training classes with her and to help build her confidence.
Johnnie gets along well with most other dogs. I haven’t figured out what it is about the dogs she decides she doesn’t like, and I probably never will, but she loves I’d say about 90% of other dogs she meets. Johnnie will probably LOVE to find consistent friends and have play dates. Here she is playing with shelter girlfriend Diamond.
Like I mentioned yesterday, there is no reason why this girl shouldn’t be scooped up! But as usual you can bet that we’ll share all our new adventures together until she’s gone. She’s a total goofball so I know she’ll keep us all laughing for the time being.
If you’re interested in adopting Johnnie Cash, email peacelovefoster@gmail.com.
On August 27, 2012 a family in tears walked their eight-month old puppy into the shelter because their landlord wouldn’t allow them to keep her.
The puppy was adorable, but seriously lacked basic manners. For five months she was overlooked in the shelter, despite her deep brown eyes and a tail that wagged her whole body when she met you. I first met Johnnie Cash (formerly known as Angel, for anyone who is looking for her from MCHS) in early October when I took her on tv and she was a total doll. It wasn’t the right time for me to foster her, but I fell in love and told myself that after my big event in November was over I would take her home.
The more I watched her in the shelter though, the more hesitant I got about taking her. She was so rambunctious, clearly with lots of pent-up energy. Even some of our long time volunteers were weary of taking her for walks, annoyed with her love of biting the leash and jumping on you. Occasionally I would take her out – giving her a toy to occupy herself with so she didn’t grab the leash – and I would work on basic manners with her: sit, four on the floor, loose leash walking, etc. She picked it up really fast.
And yet I started to ignore what I saw in her myself and started listening to others. “Oh, that dog, she’s a pain!” I began to talk myself out of fostering her because I was afraid she was going to destroy my house and be tough to adopt out. Soon the holidays came and went and fostering drifted out of my mind, even though this beautiful tan and white pup had now earned her spot as our longest resident.
January flew by for me with obligations almost every weekend. I finally came up for air a few weeks ago, so Mark and I started entertaining the idea of fostering again. He joined me for one of the fabulous photo shoots at the shelter two weeks ago where we both met a few fostering contenders. During the shoot we took Johnnie out and she immediately caught my attention because of what she wasn’t doing. She wasn’t jumping, she wasn’t biting the leash, she wasn’t making a mad dash for every toy in the room. . . she was just an extremely waggy, happy girl – totally different than when I had spent time with her months before.
After that photo shoot, I couldn’t stop thinking about Johnnie. I couldn’t stop marveling at how well she demonstrated “sit” and “down,” and I couldn’t stop wondering if it was just a fluke and maybe she was behaving nicely because she was just worn out that day, or if something had changed in her as she grew up in the shelter.
I learned that about a month ago Johnnie got spayed and had surgery for a hernia. Volunteers and kennel staff noted that that’s when things started improving – she wasn’t acting out as much, she wasn’t as out of control. To me, it sounds like she was probably in pain from that hernia and when she finally recovered from it, she felt better and started to clam down. When I took her to an adoption event last weekend and she totally rocked it, I knew her fate was sealed. She was coming home with me.
It’s only been a little over 24 hours since she’s been in my home, but I am head over heels in love. So is Mark and my whole family. It breaks my heart to know that this dog spent so much time misunderstood in the shelter when she is proving herself to be an AMAZING family dog with me now. She’s fast asleep at my feet as I write this, and we already went for a run together this morning after bouncing around the yard playing with sticks.
I’ve never truly busted a dog out of the shelter like this – Zee was a product of Aleksandra’s generosity and hard work, Baxter came from the Jasmine’s House farm and Otis came from his previous adopters. The feeling of walking Johnnie out of the shelter and into my loving home is an experience I don’t think enough people are blessed with having. I’m so happy to be able to share our journey with you this time around – though I have a feeling this gem of a dog will not be here for long!
If you’re interested in adopting Johnnie Cash, email me at peacelovefoster@gmail.com.
Didn’t you hear? There’s a competition for 2012’s Best Cuddler Award. I didn’t realize he was even in the running, but it seems Sinclair has been training very hard to make himself the best cuddling competitor possible. Check out his training regimen while he was with me last week. . .
He starts by sneaking his way onto the bed in the first place, as a warm up.
Then he slowly works his way closer to his cuddling object – usually the human – and curls up behind the often unknowing recipient.
When he finally feels prepared and warmed up, he goes into full blown competition mode:
He stays there for a while, practicing and practicing, until finally the cool down phase. This is where he stretches and lets loose a little after his tough cuddling workout:
Gosh, cuddling is just such hard work – but I think he’s on his way to Cuddling Champion!
If you are interested in adding Sinclair and his sonar ears into your family, email me at peacelovefoster@gmail.com or fill out an application on the Jasmine’s House website.
Hey ladies and gents. Sinclair here. J let me take over the blog to talk about the most important thing in my small little world: toys. You see, I have a serious love affair with toys, as she mentioned during yesterday’s introductions. All kinds of toys: squeaky, rope, plush, plastic – you name it, I play with it.
My version of playing is as follows: total and complete destruction. Yep, you heard me. I like to rip, shred, chew, and gnaw the toys I get my paws on. Temporary-FosterMama (TFM) gave me a lobster rope toy, and like a true Mainer I started with the claws first.
Now you might look at these incriminating adorable photos and think, “He is so destructive!” BUT, think again – this sort of playing with toys is very good for me! Let me explain to you why. First of all, giving me toys to chew on means that what I’m NOT doing is chewing on your shoes. The best way to prevent me (or whatever doggy) from chewing up things they’re not supposed to is to provide them with alternatives! I was so busy ripping the limbs off Mr. Lobster that the couch didn’t even interest me (not that it normally would because I don’t chew things I’m not supposed to, but to some dogs the couch and other non-edible things are simply deeeeelicious).
While I was deep in the La La Land of Squeaky Toy Destruction, TFM kept talking about this thing called in-rich-mint. TFM says in-rich-mint is something that makes my little doggy brain work and concentrate really hard on something. That is exactly what I do when I destroy toys: I lie there for hours meticulously ripping and pulling at my toys, planning exactly which piece of string to pick apart next. I work really hard to be the best Captain Destructo I can be. You give me a strong rope toy to work on and disassemble for thirty minutes and I am straight exhausted after that. Like seriously, give me a NAP!!!
So next time you think toy destruction is a bad thing, think again! It might be saving your pup from serious boredom – or, better yet, it might be saving your throw pillows from an unfortunate demise ;-)
If you are interested in adding Sinclair and his sonar ears into your family, email me at peacelovefoster@gmail.com or fill out an application on the Jasmine’s House website.
It’s been a revolving door of temporary fosters here at the PLF household – and we love it! Everyone, meet Sinclair:
Sinclair is a stunning adoptable from Jasmine’s House who stayed with us for a few days last week, and let me tell you. . . he is a total doll! At three years old, Sinclair’s got top notch manners – and not just because he is being fostered by the Jasmine’s House trainer (okay, maybe that’s helped a little bit). He is one of those “I’ll shoot my butt to the ground in a milla-instasecond before you can even say ‘sit'” sort of dogs, and he splats into a ‘down’ the same way, with a big smile on his face.
Basic commands aren’t his only skills. Sinclair’s got one of those easy going personalities perfect for someone with only a moderately active lifestyle – he’s good to hang out on the couch with you after a walk or a fun game of fetch. For those of you with hyperactive dogs, you appreciate how nice this is. What’s even better? He’s 100% crate trained! After a few dogs who weren’t fond of the crate, it was a huge relief that Sinclair loved snoozing the day away in his crate without bugging my Dad who works from home. I knew he was staying out of trouble while I was at work, and he wasn’t upset about it!
Sinclair is what we like to call “dog selective” – meaning he’s not reactive, but he isn’t BFFs with everyone he meets (and I don’t blame him, neither am I!). Even while he practices his manners around other dogs he is well-behaved on walks and in public.
My favorite thing about Sinclair is how much he loves toys and playing ball. Mark has been dying for a dog to play ball with ever since I started fostering, and Sinclair was just the guy for the job. Whether it was out in the yard or in a space I cleared out in our living room, we had a great time playing games of “I’m gonna getcha,” tug and fetch with Sinny. Some of our toys that have been sitting dormant through all our fosters finally got great use from Sinclair, including this lobster rope toy I got from family in Maine last Christmas.
As if we weren’t lucky enough with how awesome Charlie was, it only continued when Sinclair stopped by. We’re getting spoiled! While we love to soak up the love and happiness these temporary fosters bring us, we’d love it even more if someone else got to experience it every day by adopting them.
This week we’ll be highlighting our time with Sinclair, including more exploration into the joy of toys and showing off his amazing cuddling skills. These ears are too cute to miss, so he’ll see you tomorrow!
If you are interested in adding Sinclair and his sonar ears into your family, email me at peacelovefoster@gmail.com or fill out an application on the Jasmine’s House website.
Otis was my first real experience with fostering, though it was still pretty informal. He was owned by a friend of mine who adopted him in Kentucky after he was saved from a hoarding situation. They loved him and everything was great about the adoption, except that this poor gentle giant was terrified of their five year old daughter.
In order to save him from his own fears, my friends decided to re-home him. They told me they were going to bring him into the shelter when they returned from vacation. I offered to watch him while they were gone, which obviously turned into keeping him until he found a home.
I only had him for two weeks because the first day I brought him to work, a woman came in and fell in love. Those two weeks were great though. It was the middle of the summer and we spent almost every evening after work hiking somewhere. Otis is extremely timid, but once he realizes something won’t hurt him – he loves it! To watch him go from an unsure, shy dog to a leaping & bounding happy pup was so rewarding. 
Unfortunately, Otis’ chapter might not actually be closed yet. Otis’ new mom adopted another female dog at the same time, hoping the two would become great companions. It turns out that because Otis is so incredibly submissive and shy, his sister’s high energy and dominant personality really freak him out. Because he is so sensitive to change, we are keeping him at his current home for the time being, but we have his best interest in mind and think he will be happier in a different situation – perhaps one without kids or other pets, looking to find an extremely calm and gentle dog to share their days with.
So if you know of anyone looking for a Big Friendly Giant, Otis is your guy. He is so sweet and loving… anyone would be lucky to have him as a forever dog!
For more information on the big friendly Otis, email peacelovefoster@gmail.com.
Peace, Love & Fostering 