2017

Wow. Well where does the time go? Where have all the nostalgia blogs gone really which was my inspiration for starting this blog. So what has been happening in the 2 years since I posted?
Had a quick look back over Facebook and not a lot!


In sad news, our furbaby Ebony passed away on Christmas day just over 2 weeks ago.
I don't feel anything I write would do justice to this gorgeous girl who just loved everyone and wanted to always be with you.
Link to her gofund me page for more of her story and illness (obviously not taking donations anymore) - https://www.gofundme.com/2255397w
We have this quote on our fridge which I just love and describes the unconditional love dogs have for their owners.

Rest in peace our love

Ebony Hall (2007-2016)

A year (nearly) of fostering - Part 4. The last one. I promise.

My awesome profile picture of Jaspy

Jasper. Well where do I begin? He was abused by some boys who lived next door to him and he ended up going into the kennels for about 6 months after he bit or nipped one of the boys when they let him out and the court case was going ahead.

So ya know he had some issues. My boyfriend likes border collies and another carer friend needed to move him on for some reason. He had been on a trial previously but it hadn't worked out which I probably should have thought about more seriously!

Whenever I think a foster will get adopted in a flash is when the opposite happens.

He went on trial with an English couple who shouldn't really have been looking as they were heading back to England over the Christmas break. They seemed like such a good fit though so I offered to look after him while they were away as long as the trial was okay. The husband seemed to get along well with Jasper but the wife was having doubts as he was lunging as some people (later recognised by the vet as probably an anxiety issue). Anyway the day came around and they decided to keep him and I got him back while they went on their holiday for about 3 weeks.

When they returned, he went back with them for 1 night, promptly starting 'marking' all over the place again (he had been away) including on their Dyson (which then blew up when the wife turned it on) so back to us it was. Sigh.
So after a couple more greets, one where he barked furiously at a mother and daughter and another where the man thought it was a shame he had been desexed as he knows a bitch (seriously why rescue then, just keep contributing to the problem!) Jasper was back at square 1.
Not making any friends but being very loving and protective of me, I got a phone call. A lady was very interested in him and she was willing to make the 45 minute drive even though he might just lunge at her like he did the other people.
Luckily this woman was prepared. She brought treats, she got down to his level and he ended up laying by her side, happy as a clam. Two week trial later and she tells me to bank the adoption fee. He still has the issues but she's happy to work with him. Sometimes third time is the charm.



Splinter. Yes named after the rat in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles



Splinter and Frankie were only with us for 1 night but they were so cute and crazy I just had to share a picture. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of Frankie that didn't reveal my boyfriends super secret identity.

They were from up north yet again and arrived on the same flight. As usual the big ears and small bodies and sparky personalities won us over! We would have fostered long term but we were literally just holding them for the night for their permanent carer to get back from a work trip.

Splinter was adopted by a gay couple near the beach I think, and Frankie by a suburban family.

Luna and Norbit are the kittens I still have so no success story as yet. We are going to an adoption drive this weekend so fingers crossed. Norbit is getting to be a huge tubber but Luna is as dainty as ever. I've had them since about December which isn't exceptionally long for cats, I am getting a bit tired of their toileting habits (i.e. missing the litter tray) but they're lovely and smoochy most of the time.

I honestly don't know who is who in this picture

Wally has had no blog love so I'd like to introduce you to the latest wonder pup. He's about 2 months old, full of beans especially for his breakfast and loves to play with Ebony. He has a habit of chasing Luna, Norbit has learned the art of a good swipe and hiss but they are getting better. We should have him for at least another month as I wait until I think he's big enough to get his vet work done, and we initially had a cousin interested in him but now with baby number 2 on the way, they're not so sure. Either way I'm sure he'll get snapped up - but I should really stop jinxing myself like that.

The cuteness is unbearable

So some reflections. Simply, fostering is hard. Sometimes I think know my life would be a lot easier without doing it (plus I'd definitely have more money...and maybe less fights with the boyfriend) but I hope I'm still fostering in 2012.

A year (nearly) of fostering - Part 3

This entry begins with Spock.

I agreed to pick Spock up from the country ranger under the thought process that he was a small fluffy dog, he wouldn't take long to get adopted. He was originally living with a family in the country and then when they had children, they passed him onto another family who then also had children. Good lord, and he was only 18 months old, so unfortunately he ended up in the pound.

When we picked him up, he was pretty dirty and very shaggy. A bath helped and we soon found out he had a penchant for any items left on the floor. To my boyfriend's horror he chewed through a laptop cord. He got along well with Ebony except for the occasional humping, and he was fine with Sabrina. They would sometimes play with each other, Spock being not that much bigger than her.

You can find my original entry about him here.


So he got booked in for all his vet work and got a lovely new haircut. He went on trial with a young couple who were just engaged. Unfortunately about a week into it, they called wanting to send him back as he had displayed food aggression towards her dad and with them looking to having babies not long after getting married it was a concern. I appreciate their decision but I was also frustrated. He's been in a pound and passed between at least 2 families - of course he's going to have some issues! Anyway his next trial was successful and he went to a older couple who are retired and give him plenty of walks. They changed his name to Jack.
I got quite attached to him, as we did end up having him for at least two months but I got a lovely update the other day:



Spoilt, courtesy of new owners

Hi Amiee,
 We are fine thank you. Jack has settled very well but can still be a
bit disobedient at times. He will still chew socks and undies if the
occasion arises ie me leaving a bedroom door open so I reckon its my
fault for not closing the door. He is a little character and has
brought so much pleasure into our lives. He gets a reasonably long
walk every morning a shorter walk in the afternoon and then another
shorty just before bed.

Rotti on the left, Girly on the right

Unfortunately I lied last week and I have another sad story. We took in three puppies only for a week as they were surrendered (accidental pregnancy). They were only about 4/5 weeks old and pretty small but they were staffy cross mixes so not too small. They were all very cute and we only took them because it coincided with my boyfriend being off for 3 of the days and me for 2. They were still sleeping together in a crate for a lot of the day as they were so small, but it was the most work I'd ever had to do. All they seemed to do was eat, sleep, play and excrete. A lot. The cuteness factor was right up there but then there was the never ending use of so many newspapers for messes and the 4 hourly feeds (and then the mess that came after). It reminded me of that episode of the Simpsons where Santa's Little Helper's girlfriend has puppies and as soon as Bart pulls on socks, they're ripped to shreds. Anything they could get their teeth on would be chewed with those tiny sharp little puppy teeth, clothes, feet etc. But, they were darling. We gave them very unoriginal temporary names of Girly (the only girl), Rotti (the one with rottweiler like face markings) and Tubsy (the chubby one who always ate the most and got the hugest stomach afterwards).

RIP Tubsy



They moved onto a new carer after the week, someone who was home more often and I was sad to see them go.
When they were about 3 months old they went in to get their vet work done and unfortunately Tubsy (who was actually a girl, how did we miss that?) died on the operating table.
It still hurts, thinking of the little pup. It does happen sometimes with the anaesthesia used when desexing the animals young. But they don't believe in re homing animals unsterilised as we are trying to decrease the problem not add to it. I still get upset thinking about her.

Such a sweetie

Buddy was a 'labrador' I was asked to go pick up. He was meant to be a short term foster but we just kept him until he found a home. i cannot recall the amount of times I have suckered my boyfriend into letting me get '1 more foster' under the pretense of it being a Labrador or a puppy. Although in this instance it was a honest mistake, but he obviously looks more dingo or collie than Labrador. He was being fostered with a view to adoption with a family but he somehow got out during a storm and someone handed him in to a local vet. The people fostering him didn't even tell the organisation he'd gone missing and didn't want him back. Words. Fail. Me.

Buddy was a sweet dog but Obsessed with Sabrina. He would just stalk her, but I think if she actually turned around and showed him any attention he would just run away. He loved chasing balls at the park, other dogs and he even would bring the ball back every time. My dad loved him.
He got maybe 1 call from someone interested but they had a couple of cats and he would be an outside dog for a while, so that didn't seem like the best option. I thought he was really cute, but no one ever knows why some dogs get heaps of interest and others none I guess.

He ended up finding a home with a lovely family (the second call for him), who had previously rescued a dog. They had great kids who were interested in saving a rescued dog. I'm not sure if I want kids, seeing some of what goes on in our neighbourhood but these kids gave me hope.
He was such a sweet dog, the first time I visited him to drop off his vet records after the 2 week trial, he made a sooky noise and jumped up on me. I couldn't believe his previous owners didn't care to keep him.
After the news about Gizmo, I emailed the new owners for an update on Buddy just to be safe:

Hi Amiee,

Thanks for your email - nice to hear from you.
Buddy is going really well. After much effort (as you know, he's not a big eater) we finally managed to put some weight on him - he's now about 23kg.
He and Sophie are still getting on well. They enjoy a good play together and sleep together in the laundry at night. However, Sophie is more an indoor dog and Buddy an outdoor dog. They both seem happy with this.
He copes well when we go out. He only appear at the gate when we get home if we have been away for several hours, and is always very glad to see us then. He doesn't bother if it's only been for a couple of hours. Sophie, on the other hand, is a complete sook! She whines the minute I walk out the door. I'm so glad that she has Buddy for company now. (When we leave the house, she is put outside with Buddy).
He has shown no aggression whatsoever with any of our visitors. I find him a very calm dog (except when he first meets people, which is pretty normal behaviour. Even then, he soon calms down once he's said hello).

I still find him a bit of a handful on the lead, but my husband and older daughter manage ok, so I leave the walks to them!

We are very grateful that you gave us Buddy.

I remember that you were going to have a break from fostering dogs. Have you gone back to it at all?

I have attached a couple of photos. Hope you like them.

Okay I swear part 4 will be the last!

A year (nearly) of fostering in review - Part 2



Aww I just want to hug him!



I only had Macca (or Mclure was his real name) for 2 nights. A woman dropped him round after organising with a committee member to surrender him to us. She signed some papers, gave a donation and left him with me. Apparently she had 2 dogs and could only keep 1 in her new house so she had to make a hard decision. I hope I never have to make a decision like that. Macca was a gentle giant in our house, never heard him bark, he wouldn't sleep on the carpet he stayed on the hard floor in the kitchen even though our dog was sleeping on the couch and looked just like a big cuddly bear. We had no trouble with him, and would have happily fostered him until he found a new home but another carer had a more hyperactive dog who she wanted to have some company with during the day when she went back to work so he was moved to her place. She ended up adopting him so it was nice that he didn't get moved around too much.

What a poser!



Sasha was a heart breaker. She looked almost exactly like our dog that my boyfriend took an instant shine to her and wanted to adopt her. She was a surrender, I believe someone had been given the dog as a present but didn't really want her. Bad idea! Live animal does not = gift. She is apparently the cross of a bull mastiff and rottweiler!



I'd always had this thing that I didn't want 2 dogs. I have a hard enough time walking our dog that if we got another biggish dog, they'd never get walked and I'd feel guilty. And I knew the onus would be on me as my boyfriend is a shift worker/on call and only has every second weekend off.



So from the start I'd said no, but we did resist putting her up on the adoption web page for a bit longer while we made up our minds. Then when she finally was put online, we were lulled into a false sense of security as there wasn't much interest in her. But then I got a call from a couple who were interested and I was going to take Sasha along to a pet adoption drive for them to meet. And then my boyfriend dropped the emotional card on me and said he really really wanted to keep her. So I thought I would compromise (or give in, you can't really own half a dog), and had to make a really hard call and tell the  potential adopter that she was no longer available. Luckily I thought, she hasn't met the dog yet.



Hell breaks loose. The enquirer rings up the organisation and bleats on about how they really wanted to meet her and even show up at the pet adoption drive in case we were there (what the?). I hear all this from a fellow carer. So basically I gave into this pushy whiny girl and said she could adopt Sasha. It's been a bone of contention ever since at home. I feel so bad as she was a lovely dog and would have made my boyfriend so happy. I'm also annoyed at myself for how I just folded to this girl. I mean, they hadn't even met Sasha yet, surely they weren't more attached than we were?



Ultimately I felt bad, like I was giving the volunteer organisation a bad name for advertising a dog under their name and then backing out on the meeting, so I think that's why I gave in. Well you live and learn huh? I have since found out Sasha is doing well through Facebook. The girl who complained has since broken up with her fiance but he still has Sasha. Heh.

I got an update in October last year, about 3 months after adoption from the guy. So a slightly newer pic, I still miss her.



Courtesy of new owner. And still cute.



Tully came to us as a bit of a mix up. My boyfriend does not like staffies (stafordshire bull terriers). I'll admit to not thinking they're the most beautiful dogs but every dog has their own unique personality. And they're actually very popular, hence why so many rescue dogs are crosses of this breed. But we thought we were getting a Labrador as you may have worked out by now, he does love.



Hotel for dogs is my life



Anyway we tried to move her on to a new carer as she was a bit stalkerish with my Sabrina. Fortunately we had interest in her within about a week and I handed her over to her (hopefully) new family. Unfortunately she came back from her trial after about a week. I'm not entirely sure what happened, they said that she chewed something out the back, but most dogs are apt to do that if they are bored. She was also a bit of an escape artist, she never got out of our backyard but she did bolt down the street once when I opened the front door. Eventually she went to a new carer I signed up who was a super mum. Her kids were really interested in helping and she took it in her stride when Tully decided to bolt out her front door too when I was leaving. I was glad to hear she had found a new home about a month later.



She was actually quite a sweet girl, and I never found out where she had come from exactly or why she was in our care.

Okay no sad stories in part 3 I promise!





A year (nearly) of fostering in review - Part 1

Like a lot of people I'd always loved animals. We'd always grown up with at least 1 dog and a cat. We've also had chickens (which invariably led to mice and rats in their feed), a pink and grey galah, finches and quails.

So a few years ago I tried volunteering at the local RSPCA. And it was so sad. All those faces in the cages looking sadly at you, plus then the actual cleaning out of the cages. I remember having to clean out a cage which had about 5 small puppies in it. Oh my god, the smell. I nearly passed out. Unfortunately I didn't make it to the exercising the dogs part of my volunteering experience as I just couldn't handle it. It's sad but I guess it just wasn't for me. I have a lot of respect for those volunteers and those who volunteer at the pounds as that is much more heartbreaking and seeing dogs become institutionalised would just break my heart.

Anyway so flash forward a few years and one unfinished university degree later and I'm in an office job I'm not exactly umm passionate about. So I look into other animal volunteering options. And I enter into the world of fostering which happened to nicely coincide with moving out of home and having only 1 dog at our new abode.

I started off with some simple transport help, got my own backyard check completed and started browsing the volunteer forum. Let's just say it didn't go well from there. At the time I joined there were less than 100 volunteers registered on this forum so there were a lot of posts going up for dogs stuck in the pounds, surrendered pets and animals needing to move carers. I saw a dog listed in the pound that was due to be put to sleep that afternoon. Looking at the pound picture I couldn't resist and rang up and spoke to a ranger. The rest of the story can be found here.
Needless to say my fostering started off very traumatically and maybe I should have took that as a sign and not continued. There were many tears that night but ultimately I wanted to go on.
It was an early harsh lesson that you can't save them all.

Just to be clear I'm doing this summary as some other bloggers seem to enjoy the foster posts I do, this is not in anyway an attempt to give myself a pat on the back.
I think it's also good to look back on the ones we've helped when you can sometimes get bogged down with what is wrong in the world with some people's attitudes to animals.

My first foster ended up therefore being a cat named Gizmo which I devoted two blog entries, here and here.
In a nutshell, Gizmo was a slightly older kitten we believe a pet shop couldn't sell (oh how I loathe pet shops that sell live animals). He was a big boy with sharp claws who was very playful and I nearly adopted him (something that would be a monthly occurrence). I got this update from his new owner in October last year:

Courtesy of new owners: looks like he's doing OK



"He's settled in really well now. Him and I have a close bond, he puts up with other people - but always seeks me out to cuddle up next to, either at night in bed, or on the couch when watching TV. He loves the dogs, and especially attacking them outside. They're a bit scared of him, 'cause he sometimes bites them and doesn't let go until they yelp. He goes for walks with us in the reserve out the back and then doesn't come home for a day or two, starving hungry. He's always happy, never comes home dejected after having a fight or anything like that - even though he lost a claw recently in a big fight with another cat. The only bad thing is that it seems my wife has become allergic to his fur, she reacts pretty badly if he's been sleeping on the bed, or couch where she sits - so we've gotta vacuum it all the time. He loves his freedom out the back, but rarely ventures out the front where the traffic is - which is good. He's made friends with the neighbours, who have two female cats and two young boys. Their cats tolerate him, but he walks into their house as if he owns the place apparently. They feed him too, which probably explains why he never seems to eat any meat products we put out for him - he only seems to like biscuits. So all is well apart from the wife's allergy. How's it going for you - have you had any more adoptee's? "



What a cool looking cat

A lot can be said about the scum of society who are cruel to animals, but the great thing about fostering is that you also meet a lot of genuine people who really care about their animals, and Gizmo's new owner is one of these. Gizmo is now 1 year old and funnily enough he came to us as Mikey but we just didn't like it and nicknamed him Gizmo and his new owners kept that name. He could have also been called Batman I think.

You will love my dopey stare

Next up was Sabrina and I was very excited as I got to name her. I wanted to name her Salem as she resembled a certain cat from a certain show I never watched, but thought that was a bit manly, so settled for another character on the same TV show.

Sabrina came from a house one suburb over. Details were a bit sketchy but I think this woman was also a foster carer for dogs, she adopted a cat, didn't know it was pregnant and Sabrina was the last kitten she couldn't find a home for.

Talk about tiny! I got her at around 6 weeks old and I couldn't believe how small she was, compared to Gizmo she was so small and a lot more timid. She hid behind the couch for many hours but I soon had her sleeping next to my pillow. And I guess I was done for by that point. She become my first foster fail, eg failing as a foster but succeeding as my pet!



The kitten spirit is strong in this one

 She'll be a year old next month and she has gotten a lot bigger than I thought she would. She has an amazing bushy big tail and little frilly bits of fur on her chest which aren't quite jet black like the rest of her.

She is now allowed outside but not at night and has made friends acquaintances with the other nearly identical black cat 2 doors down and the completely white cat across the road (see cats don't see colour, only friends).

Trixie I don't believe ever got written about on the blog. Trixie was a needy little skinny kelpie cross dog which was rescued from a pound up north, no one came to collect her. She was originally with a mother and her son, but a fellow volunteer thought this wasn't the best place for her to be fostered so I volunteered to take her. She was a bit too skinny and had this annoying habit of jumping on you for attention whether you'd just walked through the door or you were trying to watch a movie. She did it very gently but it got on my nerves. She was also stalking Sabrina and would not leave her alone, not in a nasty oh-no-she's-going-to-eat-her way, but it just made training her hard and it was very distracting.

Anyway so I tried to find a new carer for Trixie. There was a woman who did agility stuff with working dogs so she was going to take her. Unbeknowest to me, my parents had grown a little attached to Miss Trixie as they would sometimes stop by our house and pick up the 2 dogs and walk them together. Our beloved family dog Buster had died in March 2010 so I think they missed having a dog to walk. Particularly as towards the end with the cancer he could only manage to walk across the road to the park.

So a two week trial was begun at my parents house. It caused the remark from my boyfriend's dad: "What happens when she runs out of people she knows to adopt her fosters?"

And of course they adopted her. And now her nickname is Barrel as she has ahem put on a little weight. She is now very attached to mum and dad and they've changed her name to Missy Moo. She's still likes to jump on you, but I understand she's doing it as she's probaly never had unlimited affection before.

This has gotten a bit long winded so congratulations if you got all the way through. This may be a 3 parter. Stay tuned.

Edited to add: I asked Gizmo's new owner for an update and I got the sad news that he'd been hit by a car over Christmas time. I feel shattered.

Luna and Norbit

Since I am one of a handful of people who have not read any of the Harry Potter books, I did not know one of my latest fosters is named after a baby dragon. However I have been forced to watch the films so Luna's named after that weird blonde girl right?

Anyway this brother and sister came to me from what situation...well I'm not sure exactly, they'd been through a couple of carers. They're about 14 weeks old and just so dainty. Luna more so than Norbit but aside from that they're almost freaking identical, it makes it hard when I'm calling them (not that cats always come when you call anyway, snobs that they are) and I have to double check just which one it is.

How huge does Norbit look? He looks like he should be Luna's father not bro.

Happiness is laying between a Christmas tree and a Wii board

Sadly it is kitten season at the moment which means everyone who's dumb enough not to sterilise their female cat (no offence) has got oodles of kittens to give away. Which sounds fun in principle, yes I would like to be a crazy cat lady sometimes and have 4 kittens frolicking around the place, but in reality everyone and their dog is giving away kittens for free or cheap.
So trying to adopt out two 14 week old kittens, while still being a great price for a kitten which is vaccinated, sterilised and micro chipped, is gonna be hard.

These guys are delightful though and I love watching their crazy brother/sister antics. The boy is definitely the more sooky one but only after a week they're both getting braver with my dog who just loves and is so curious about them! The only problem is Sabrina aka Miss Grumbles, my cat who does not like them. She is evil, has no maternal instincts whatsoever. Definitely my cat!

FYI private blog hiatus is off...I just need to be more careful about what I write, particularly if my friends are going to google themselves.

Another one

On Saturday, I picked up this little guy from the airport who arrived from a country pound about 1186 kilometres away.

I'm terrible at picking the mixture of breeds in dogs like this (and most rescues are, you don't see a lot of poodles slumming it in the pound - unless they're from dodgy breeders, don't get me started) but he is very tiny and cute, only 8 weeks old.

I'm not sure if we will be fostering him full time as we both work full time and he is too small to be outside all day with our boofa of a dog Ebs. At the moment he is living in the bathroom while we're out with a few toys and comfy comforts.

But we do get to name him which I haven't done yet for any fosters!

Some possible names being thrown around at this stage: Panda, Rambo, Muscles, Newman, Danger Mouse.

We try and give unique and not the usual doggy names as most of the time there will be around 100 dogs looking for a family at any one time on our rescue groups books so if there are 5 Sams it makes things more difficult.

My kitten on the right there is Sabrina, a foster I decided to adopt and she is still only about 6 months old so he really is small.

We'd had a break from the fostering while I was away and we were looking after my mum's dog and I got used to not having the stress of wondering if cords were being chewed, the backyard destroyed, 4 hourly feedings, making sure the dogs don't get into the kitty litter etc etc.

I do enjoy the puppy cuddles though. And for the record that is not my arm below.

Spock

Just a few post groomed pictures of Spock, he has had so many enquiries about being adopted (the little dogs always go fast) but he will go on trial to a lovely couple next weekend after he has a hernia removed on Friday.
I've always been a medium-big dog person but I think Spock was sent to me just to show me little dogs are great too. My boyfriend didn't even want to foster a little dog (sizeist!) but he has such a lovely personality and I love his little dance he does on his back paws when I get home! He totally prefers me as well.

Award!

Thanks to Fear Street! My first ever award, how exciting. And if being versatile means talking too much about old and daggy movies and books and also whinging about life occasionally and posting too many foster pictures than I'm your girl!

Award Rules:

Share 7 things about yourself.
Pass the award along to 15 who you have recently discovered and who you think fantastic for whatever reason.
Contact the blogs you picked and let them know about the award.
Thank the person who gave it to you.

7 Things:

• I hate peas and corn
• I don't like tea or coffee. I live on diet coke, even though according to Paris Hilton, only fat people drink diet coke
• I just can't get into the Harry Potter books, though my boyfriend has forced me to watch the films
• I work in the finance industry but I didn't enjoy or complete any maths units past the age of 15 (except for that maths unit in university but it was aimed at an early childhood education level)
• I attended my parents wedding. I was 8 months old.
• I follow my Australian rules football team religiously and am a member. They get mocked in the competition because they have purple as their primary colour. Also they have the most female members out of all the other teams in the competition. Coincidence?
• My first kiss was from a french schoolmate when I was 11. It wasn't a real french kiss, mostly I remember it being kind of slimy.

I haven't named any other favourite blogs as we all seem to run in the same blog circles (?) and I don't want to be doubling people up. If you're on my blog roll, feel the love.

Eh and I changed the blog name. Again.
And to keep up the trend of foster photos, here is Spock my current Maltese cross boy - about a year old. He's from a country pound and already been through 2 families who both had kids and didn't want him anymore. Obviously I'm trying to find a cheap groomer for him before he finds a new home.
And after being informed by the vet that he has tapeworm I now have the greatest of fun looking through his excrement for tapeworm which looks a bit like long rice! Don't tell me I don't teach you guys stuff.

New foster

Sabrina is our latest, completely different to Gizmo, she was only 7 weeks old when we got her and so tiny.
She took a couple of days to come out of her shell not like Mr Independent Gizmo but she's getting along with Ebs now too which makes it easier. I also got a nice email from Giz's new owner saying that he has fit in well in their home which makes the fostering easier.

Fingers crossed I do not get too attached...although I have already entertained thoughts of keeping her (again) as she doesn't seem to mind being an indoor kitten as much as Giz. Speaking of outside, my boyfriend went crazy with a chainsaw and our backyard now looks like this:

Gizmo Update

For those of you following my fostering animals rollercoaster ride of emotions, it looks like Gizmo has found a new home. My mum advertised him on her work classifieds (accidently advertised as free! He has been sterilised, microchipped and vaccinated and we are a volunteer organisation, hence the $175 fee) and within a day someone expressed interest. Admittedly that may have been because of the free price tag, but luckily he turned out to be an animal lover and doesn't mind paying up.
At the moment is on a 2 week trial which is due to end this week, so fingers crossed. His feedback about Gizmo so far has been great, and he's even using the name and he is responding to it which is cute.
We are now looking at fostering a dog or another kitten (I do get sad looking at his scratching post).

Gizmo

Just a couple of pics of Gizmo who is going to an old friend's place from high school (who married another older friend) tomorrow night for an adoption trial.
They have 2 dogs so they want to see if they get along so fingers crossed they're a good fit and I can foster some more kittens in the future.
If not he comes back to us, and the great advertising campaign starts! Although I will be sad to see him go, he's getting better behaved and has a lot of character.

Fun with animals

So I want do something a little different and do a more personal entry. I know I've done them before but they were kind of lame and the only reason I haven't deleted them is that deleting them would be more lame. This event is about something which only happened yesterday and I wanted to get it out of my system in a therapeutic writing session.

I have recently signed up with an animal volunteer organisation with animal welfare being very close to my heart (some would say too close, I have a tendency to get emotional about animals). Seeing as I wasn't getting much job satisfaction out of my 2 part time jobs I thought I could at least try volunteer work in a field I was interested in.

Basically the deal with this organisation is primarily all the volunteering opportunities are posted on a forum (things like fostering, home checks, transport help, events) and anyone who can help and who has signed up posts a response if they can help.

I am really keen to foster a cat or dog, but my boyfriend not so much. And since I am technically living in his house, it is up to him. He wants to wait until we have grown some lawn as at the moment it is sand city. But then I saw this posting for a staffy cross older female who was going to be put down yesterday unless we could find a foster/someone who would adopt. For a start I shouldn't even be looking at the foster section, but I was and my heart went out to this dog who had been in the pound for 14 days and was due to be put to sleep unless she was picked up.

I asked my boyfriend and he agreed reluctantly and I spoke to the ranger at the pound. They advised she would be put down soon and I told them I would try and get down there by 4 that afternoon and I would bring my dog Ebony down to see if they would be friends.

I got there to some very nice rangers and a volunteer with the pound and Ebs and I trotted out the back to meet this dog named Venus.

Well the two dogs did not even notice each other for a few minutes both happily sniffing around the yard. The ranger had walked away, just in the next room I think and I was left with the volunteer. I still had Ebony on her lead and they finally noticed each other and were nudging noses. Ebs was doing her little dance on the lead she sometimes does when she wants the other dog to play (she is a 2 and a half year old Labrador cross, also a rescue dog but we got her when she was 8 weeks old).

But out of nowhere after some careful sniffing, the other dog turned feral and latched onto Eb's neck. Well I tried grabbing the dog, Ebs was squealing, I'm sure I had some interesting sounds coming out my mouth, the volunteer rushed to get the ranger. I got my hand in the other dogs mouth and was trying to ply it away from her neck, I got her away once and Ebs started to wander off but she was a bit confused and the dog latched on again. The ranger came running out and managed to separate the dog and I grabbed Ebs who luckily seemed to be okay.

We went into the rangers office, because in all the hoopla I had grazed both knees quite badly and 2 of my fingers were bleeding. Some nice old ranger put antibacterial solution on my fingers and knees and band aids and then I started to feel woozy. Think my body had lost it's adrenaline hit and the shock was now catching up with me. Ebs was checked out and seemed OK, no bleeding, I seemed to be more traumatised by the incident than her! My vision started to go blurry and it felt like cotton wool was filling my ears. The last time this happened was when I had to give a uni presentation solo while everyone else had partners.

After a had a sit down and 2 mugs of water and felt well enough to go home, after being informed I would need a tetanus shot.

Today I had my shot and Ebs had a vet check up just in case (and yes because we are those crazy animal parents), we also did notice a superficial mark on her shoulder that we thought should be looked at.

So overall a sad experience for everyone. I felt so guilty taking my fur child to meet another dog and have it end so badly, and now Venus will most certainly be put down when I wanted to give her another chance to get a new family. And now I'm walking around looking like I've got major carpet burn on both knees (as if) and I'm having to use a different finger to click the computer mouse (a hardship I know). For a first time volunteer experience it could not have gone worse. The only sunshine through the clouds is to try and see how much I can milk the experience and get any time off work.

Although the pictures are a bit old, that is our Ebony one spoilt pooch.