I know I ask for foster homes about once per week, but this week we really need foster homes because the shelters are packed this week!

Here’s the way it works. Every time a stray comes in to the shelter, they have to put them in a kennel and hold them to allow an opportunity for the owners to come in and claim them. When the kennels are all full, they have to find a way to make space for those strays (What’s the lesson here? Keep your dogs inside so they don’t go stray!)

Tonight, I’m posting four dogs who need fosters ASAP. Tomorrow, I’ll be posting a few more. If you have been considering becoming a foster home so you can help save a life, now is the time. Can you help one of these dogs?

• First, there is a very sweet, but super scared Lab mix we are trying to help. She is 55lbs and under two years old. Sorry, no pic at this time, but her shyness pulls at my heart because I adore my shy little Pittie girl, Tawnee, and she blossomed into a fantastic girl and just found a great home. She will just take someone with a calm home and time to build her confidence.

• Second is a 95lb, approximately 3.5 yr old sweet Black Lab who has been at the shelter for a month! They think the only reason she’s been passed up is that she is so big…

• and if you think that’s big, third is a 120lbs mixed breed (Lab, Rhodesian?) female, who is overweight and should probably be about 100lbs. Not sure of her age but probably 2-4 yrs.

• Last (for today), Honey Buns is a 6 yr old Basset from the big Basset case that was covered on the news a few months ago. She was returned by her adopter because she lost her home.

I took Elijah in for his second day of laser treatment today. He doesn’t seem to mind it at all. They are working on his back and his right hip. Fingers crossed that it gives him some improvement!

Here’s a typical example of the outcome of a day of outreach at Petsmart. It looks like only two of the four dogs who got adoption applications on Saturday will result in adoptions. The people who applied for our beautiful dancing Malamute, Kenai, left our outreach and adopted another Malamute later that day… (

My beautiful foster Pit bull, Tawnee, is going to a home with a really nice guy and his 12 year old Doberman. He is clearly a ‘dog person’, and I know he’ll adore her like I do. She’s such a sweet girl!

Vince, a ittle cutie who came to us after being hit by a car and having his hip fractured, is finally, after more than a year in his foster home, going to a new home…that is, as long as he doesn’t chase the two cats in the home! Fingers crossed.

No return call from the applicant for Elwood  ( .

So what is our lesson? This is why we send people home to think about whether they are ready for the commitment of adopting this dog. Bloody hell! Can you imagine if these people adopted one of our dogs and then got home and started having “buyers remorse” and regretting their decision? This would be very, very bad…

Our regular group of dedicated volunteers plus a couple of newbies, met up today at the Beaverton Petsmart so we could show some of our great rescued dogs who are available for adoption. We meet every other Saturday at Petsmart from noon to 4pm. All things considered, everyone was pretty well behaved (I’m referring to the dogs, of course).

We got a couple of good applications and sent people home to think about whether they are up for the commitment of adopting one of our dogs. The last thing we want to do is send a dog home with someone sho is reactionary and smitten with the look of a dog. It’s far too important of decision than that!

So, Kenai, Vince, Tawnee and Elwood all got applications. Fingers crossed for some really good adoptions!

Kenai the Dancing Malamute!

Vince, who came to us a year ago hit by a car, with a badly broken hip.

Tawnee, who is the sweetest, most gentle, loving Pit bull ever!

And cutie-patootie, Elwood!

First, he isn’t a ‘he’,  he’s a ‘she’! ;o )

Second, she’s having a bad day today. She started vomiting and coughing this morning so we ran a parvo test…and it was negative (whew!) but she does have kennel cough, so we’re giving her some Pepcid for her upset stomach, and cherry flavored Umcka for the kennel cough. Dr. Mark took another set of x-rays, and said the break is so bad and her little bones are so small, that it will be best to see if it will heal on its own as an “unaligned fracture”. We’ll wait three weeks and check it out again.

Dr. Mark in his anti-radiation lead suit…

We’ve decided to name this sweet little girl who has so many problems but still tries to give you kisses, Calamity Jane )

So now she’s resting…

And incidentally, she weighs about 2.5 lbs (3lbs including her cast).

We finally got the results from the spinal fluid sample from Elijah Blu. There is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that Elijah’s condition is not surgical and he does not have any inflammatory process going on. So he won’t need surgery and he won’t need to take meds for the rest of his life.

The bad news is that Dr. Skinner believes that Elijah Blu had a hemmorhage in his spinal cord at some point. This happens in 3-5% of dogs and they do not know why or what causes it. The outcome is permanent damage, although they generally improve some over a period of 3-6 months following the incident. We don’t know how long ago this may have happened to Elijah so we don’t know whether he has already been through that time period, but we have decided the fight isn’t over yet! We want to get Elijah Blu as close as we can to walking and playing like a normal dog. Now we are going to try a laser treatment that replicates acupuncture without the needles.

Elijah’s laser treatment will begin next Monday and will go a few times per week for three to four weeks. We will, of course, keep you all up to date on his progress…

Can you believe it?! He had his second spinal tap on Monday and the results were supposed to be back by Wednesday. Tomorrow is Friday! Sigh…

I’ll put in another call to the specialist tomorrow.

Everyone who deals with us on a regular basis knows that we don’t get very many puppies in rescue. For one thing, we are here to help the dogs who aren’t going to otherwise have a chance at getting a new home, and puppies generally fly off the shelf (so to speak).

An example of a special circumstance where we might get a puppy, is when they come in with medical issues, such as broken bones. Last week we got the little “Trooper” with a broken front left leg, and tonight we got…

Another broken little Chihuahua puppy. This little guy is probably 12 weeks old, and weighs a whopping 3lbs. He has the same broken front left leg, but his leg is broken worse than Trooper’s, and may need surgery to place pins and try to hold the bones together.

Ouchy! That’s got to hurt…

I swear these little guys get stepped on by their owners, who can’t afford or don’t want to pay a vet bill, so they drop them off at the shelter. Seriously, this guy was supposedly a stray…really? I’m kinda doubting it.

Here he is warming up in my jacket.

And before you all start emailing me about wanting to adopt him, here’s an icky thing we’ve already discovered about the little guy. He eats his own poop, and tries really hard to get a sneak kiss in by shooting his tongue in your mouth french kiss style. Oy! ;o )

We’ve also figured out he’s got a pretty good set of lungs on him and does NOT want you to leave him alone. He sounds like a dying duck. Okay, all of that aside, he’s still the cutest, tiny little guy, who just wants to be held. We’ll have Dr Mark decide about surgery tomorrow. More details to follow.

I picked the little Min Pin up at the shelter today and just dropped the little guy off at his new foster home tonight and he did great! He was instantly friendly and playful with their two little Chihuahua’s and raced around with them, leaping up on the sofa then off the sofa, then on to the foster’s lap, then on to my lap! Absolutely gleeful, and finally settling in for a rest…

My hope is that his history of re-direct biting has been based on fearful behavior that wasn’t managed by a very savvy person. I believe he’s just a sensitive guy who needs people to respect his boundaries. We’ll share more as we learn about him, but for now, he’s sure glad to be free and a very happy guy. Good for him!

There’s a description of fostering for Indigo Rescue posted on the Indigo website under Volunteer. Ask any of our diehard fosters, who have fostered many, many dogs for us, and they will tell you, fostering isn’t easy, but it sure can be rewarding knowing that your part in providing a foster home is what saves a dogs life.

We have successfully placed Raven the Rottie, and the little Min Pin (later today)  into foster homes, but Jada, the beautiful Black Lab/Boxer mix, and the little Eskie-Pom mix, Shasta, still need somewhere to go, and there are several more dogs we are working on finding fosters for. First in line are two new dogs who need to find a foster home!  These two are three year old siblings, a boy and a girl. They’re Wire Haired Dachshunds. These are their shelter pics so they aren’t great, but you can tell they’re really cute dogs. The shelter say’s they’re sweet but shy, moreso the female than the male…

Help! Lets give these guys a chance to recover from the fear and trauma of whatever tragic history they have had, so they can find a new home. Meet Muriel and Devon!