November 1, 2001

Lucky was just spayed this afternoon and I will pick her up Fri or Sat. I don't have any new info on Prowler yet.

The humane society will have a table at the expo, so I will most likely be there with whatever foster I have at the time. What will your booth be called?

"Good to hear that you will be there! Our business is called Puptents & More . We are a distributor for Homestretch Crates and carry collars, leashes, toys and we make a custom leash for single up to four dogs on one lead. I have been asked by the master distributor for Eon products to take over the local sales area for those products and I may have it for the show. Sounds like it will be a nice weekend and we are so happy to see the shelter/rescue organizations being represented. Keep in touch!"

Prowler's picture is now on the HS website. He's really cute and reminds me a lot of my family's old dog, Pepper. I
tried to get my mom interested in him, but she is extremely resistant to getting a dog ever again. Pepper was mainly my mom's dog and she had to be put to sleep at age 13. Lucky's picture was removed but will eventually be on the foster page.

"I thought I was looking at my Bailey when I saw Prowler, they are almost identical although Bailey has a little more weight.

"Some people can bounce right back after the loss of a pet and some can never do it again, the pain is too great. I like to think the best we can to in memorial to our little loved ones is to rescue another and give them the same life.

"Well have to run if you need me over the weekend you can call."

November 3, 2001

We picked up Lucky last night. She is really sweet. She hasn't been here long enough to really tell what she's gonna be like, but so far she's quiet, housetrained, doesn't get into stuff, and gets along with everybody. She tries to bury stuff. She pretends she's pushing dirt over it with her nose. Too cute!

I crated her last night when we went to eat and she was fine with it. But I'm pretty sure she's not gonna need to be crated. She slept in the dog bed all night. And we left her gated in the kitchen when we went to the store today, mainly because I didn't want Echo bugging her. I think she'll have the run of the house now though. (unless her behavior changes on day 10!) Oh, she's burying her bone again!

We went to the park this morning. Lucky pulled a lot but eventually she was responding to her name and coming back to get treats. She was fine with everybody at the dog park. No issues with this one (so far).

November 4, 2001

Lucky chewed the door today. I didn't crate her when we went to the store. I just put up the gate and left her in the kitchen. She chewed the bottom corner of the door and the doorknob. She had bits of wood in her teeth. She didn't chew anything else though. She just wanted out. Suffice it to say that she will be crated from now on. Otherwise she's been great. She was really good at the park today.

November 7, 2001

Lucky smells like a kennel. I never gave her a bath cos I wasn't sure how long I should wait after her surgery. But I might do that tonight.

November 11, 2001

We went to the park yesterday and again today. We have to make the most of it on the weekends because we can't go during the week anymore until the days start getting longer again. The dogs were good. We went on a different trail and eventually went up to the off leash area. Lucky is doing really well. I keep her on the flexi when we're on the trails and she has already developed a really good check-in behavior. She runs back to me on her own a lot, and when I call her. It helps that I always take really good treats when we go to the park. She is good at the fenced area too. She loves to run with the other dogs and she seems to get along with them really well. She usually ignores the people, but she doesn't seem shy at all.

I tried to clip her nails the other day and she really didn't want to let me touch her feet. So I've been trying to desentize her to having her legs and feet handled. She is doing tons better after a couple sessions of click/treat for sitting still while I touch her feet. I started doing it a little at the park today and she started offering me her paw! I wasn't even trying to teach her to shake hands but she's doing it consistently now, and she seems a lot less freaked out by being handled. She could use more work but we're definitely on the right track.

Next weekend is that super pet expo thing in Monroeville. Maybe we'll be able to find a home for her there. She's just about perfect. She's housetrained, affectionate, gets along with everybody, and doesn't get into stuff -- as long as somebody's here with her. But she absolutely needs to be crated when she's left alone. She still barks a little in the crate but she settles down in less than 5 minutes (according to Warren, who is still in bed when I crate her before I leave in the mornings). So as long as somebody is willing to use a crate, she'll be a wonderful dog for somebody.

She does a couple cute things. She tries to bury stuff with invisible dirt. And she rubs her face on furniture and stuff after she eats. And she backs up to us and rubs her butt and her side against our legs. She was doing this a lot at the park. I don't know if she was insecure or just itchy.

I hate the haircut but I guess she was pretty matted when they found her. I think she'll be cuter when her hair grows back in.

I've had her for a week already! Somebody at the park asked if she is a Portuguese Water Dog, I guess cos she's black and has a curly tail. But they have curly hair too. I should call her a Portuguese Terrier.

She keeps licking her stitches but I think everything is healing correctly anyway. I just told her to stop licking and she gave me a look like, "What? I wasn't doing anything."

November 18, 2001

Back from the pet expo... and we still have Lucky. Lots of people petted her and gave her treats but nobody was interested in adopting any of the animals. She did really well. She interacted with a ton of people and was good with everybody, even little kids. She was really tired by the time we left and she's sleeping now. I'm tired too. We were there about 5 hrs. I bathed her this morning cos she was dirty from going to the park yesterday. Everyone thought she was very fresh-smelling and soft.

I assume Lucky will have to come home for Thanksgiving. She's housetrained and stuff so it shouldn't be a big problem. We thought of dropping her off at the shelter but I don't think anybody's gonna adopt a dog over Thanksgiving, so she might as well just hang out with us.

November 29, 2001

I would like to send holiday cards to all the people who adopted my fosters. Unfortunately I don't have addresses for most of them. Would it be possible to look them up? What info would you need? I have invoice #s for some of them but not all. I think I have adoption dates for all of them. Let me know if this is doable!

Someone wants to meet Lucky this weekend. She is looking for a playmate for her greyhound. I'll let you know how it goes!

"That should be fine - I can probably just look up names in our files - and adoption dates would help. Send those to me and I will get them for you. Hope all goes well with Lucky. Hope she is doing okay."

While researching adopters' addresses:

"I found out he adopted a dog 7/98 and returned - said it was not his dog. It was 7 wks when adopted and returned 3/99. I guess he still has [dog's name removed]. When we get the new system middle of Jan it will pick up on this sort of stuff when they do a new adoption - their name will come up if they adopted or brought in an animal. I will get the rest for you later. You are not the only one that needs to get organized!"

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