Just figured our foster pup Reuger (or Roogs as he is known in our house) needs a shout-out for #TransformationTuesday!  As you can see from the before/after below, he looks (and smells) much better.

his “before”

yesterday – notice all of the hair re-growth!

We took him to Burnsville Parkway Animal Hospital last week (love their staff, especially Dr. Everly) and they were “tremendously pleased” with his progress.  He has completed a full 30-day treatment for his bacterial skin infection, skin yeast infection, and ear infection and has seen significant hair regrowth around his face and back  (he’s also only mildly smelly now).  Dr. Everly also left me a voicemail containing a bunch of words that sounded like Harry Potter characters but essentially his blood work also showed improvement!  (For those nerds out there his albumin has normalized, globulins are better, anemia has normalized)

He still has traces of the infection and is completely bare on his belly so we are going to do another 30-day treatment.  He also hasn’t gained any weight, likely from fighting chronic infection, so we upped his food to two cups twice per day (easier to hide his pills in)!

Although it is great he looks better, seeing him come out of his shell now that he FEELS better has been the most fun.  He went from acting like a 12-year-old to acting like a two-year-old goofily hopping along (the vet thinks he is four based on his teeth).  He and Stella initially just kind of co-existed, but now won’t stop playing with each other (or fighting for our attention).  He is a BIG snuggler and will do anything for a treat.  He also has found his voice, barking a bit when he sees a rabbit, gets excited, or wants to tell Stella to stop stealing his bones.  He feels so good he even ate my lasagna the other day 😉

we were cuddling nicely watching Netflix, then this happened…

Naps with Luke (now that he isn’t so smelly he can be on the bed!)

yesterday – notice all of the hair re-growth!

Wrestling with Stella

Don’t let him fool you, he is still a bit of a creeper though!

He sat like this for too long…

We of course want him to find his forever home, but selfishly are enjoying getting to know him and having more time with him.  Next step is to teach him to lay down and some better food manners then see what the vet says in 30 days!

Way to go Roogs!

Luke and I are back at fostering through Secondhand Hounds, and this time we get to hang out with a 4-5 year old lab-ish mix named Reuger (pronounced Roo-ger) until he finds his forever home!

After Chance and Andy we took some time to hang with our number 1 (Ms. Stella) and travel for the holidays, with the plan to get back at it after the new y ear.  As Luke can confirm, I was looking at dogs available to foster daily finding the right one who needed our help, when I came across this photo with the caption:

Reuger has severe demodex mange (non contagious), a secondary bacterial skin and eye infection along with full body hair loss.  He has ulcers all over his body and swollen feet.  His nails were so long they were grown into the pads of his feet

I mean if that Sarah McLaughlin song doesn’t start playing in your head as you look at this you have no soul!

We committed to fostering Reuger at the end of December and he arrived from somewhere down south on Saturday the 21st of January.  He was moving pretty slowly and looked like it hurt him to walk, so we took him to the vet.  Turns out he no longer has mange, but still has the secondary bacterial infection all over his body plus a yeast infection (this is Yeast Dermatitis, another infection of the skin) plus an infection in both ears.  He is also anemic and underweight 😦  Long story short this poor guy has a lot going on (and unfortunately the yeast infection gives him a VERY pungent odor)!

Reuger at our vet appointment, you can see the hair loss

clearly ready to leave!

Good news is that this is all treatable with 30 days of prescriptions, and he is already feeling better! (that was until we took him to get neutered today, sorry bud!)

He is great to have around – very chill, loves to be by his humans, and is already potty trained!  Plus after a week of daddy daycare (I traveled the first week we got him) Luke taught him to sit and lay down!

He is a bit of a creeper though, he somehow finds his way from the way back of my SUV next to my face every time we get in the car!

Just creepin!  (ignore the eye goop, this was right after he was neutered and it was from when they put him under)

I look forward to showing some improvement photos as the month progresses and to get this guy lookin’ fly to meet his forever family!

P.S. I got another pup-date from Chance’s parents – THAT SMILE THOUGH!  She said he is still as happy and snuggly as can be, and has started to do this “smile” regularly (heart = melting)!

Today is a bittersweet day at the Fox household – our foster pup Mr. Chance is now with his forever family, so we are down from three dogs to one!

To give a little background, we adopted our dog, Stella, from Safe Hands Animal Rescue in July 2015.  While looking for a dog, I started following several of the local Minneapolis rescue organizations on Facebook.  This means that while I’m catching-up on my friends’ lives (or let’s be honest stalking random people) on Facebook, often pictures/stories of dogs will pop-up on my newsfeed.  Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a bit of a softy, especially when it comes to dogs (just hearing that Sarah McLaughlin song brings visions of sad animals to my head and tears to my eyes).  I try my best not to get caught up in it, but the photo below and story from Secondhand Hounds broke my heart (don’t worry this story has a positive ending so stick with me!).

This was Chance’s “before” picture – he was brought to a partner shelter in Alabama with a skin condition, stab wound, broken jaw, and had his lips cut-off at some point.  I mean WTF is wrong with people?!  Unfortunately with situations like this they often don’t know where the dogs came from to prosecute the terrible people who do things like this.

So essentially I lost it (like, ugly cry lost it) when I read this, and after I showed Luke we decided we wanted to help this poor little dude.  There were almost 200 comments on the photo so I didn’t expect that my inquiry would go far.  But it turned out he didn’t have a foster yet AND he had a brother that was also looking for a foster.  So Luke and I went from having one crazy pup to having three!  Despite their horrible past, these dogs were loving and spunky from day one, and our dog Stella LOVED playing with them.  True proof of the forgiving, loyal nature of dogs.

Andy napping

Andy playing in the yard

This was typical!

Chance playing in the yard

We had Andy (now Bauer) for about a month, and he got adopted by my best friend and her family so the best part is that we get to continue to see him!

Andy with his new “brother” (my Godson, Carter) and dad Bryan!

Chance had dental surgery on Monday to correct residual issues from his broken jaw and now is ready to be adopted.  Since last night was our last night with him, I made a puppy cake from Pinterest that was super easy to make!  He and Stella ate it in one bite (it was actually quite impressive) 🙂  Luke and I also got as many puppy snuggles as we could with him.

As I reflect on this experience, it’s funny how in the beginning Luke and I set out to help Chance, and in the end I feel like he gave so much back to us.  As cheesy as it sounds, I feel like he and I found each other.  He helped Luke and I find this love of fostering that has brought us closer as a couple.  He also is the definition of forgiveness and loyalty, and touched the hearts of everyone he met with his goofy ears and smile.

Although I’m going to like having a cleaner house, less “mess” to pick-up in the backyard, and more room in our bed at night (yes, he slept with us much to Luke’s dismay!), we are going to miss this sweet pup.

BUT he is going to the most perfect family and will get the life and all of the attention he deserves.  They asked if it would be OK if they sent updates on him – it took everything in me not to scream YES so I contained myself and casually said “yeah, that would be great” while beaming ear-to-ear. (Did I mention these guys are PERFECT?!)

Chance and his forever parents!  They fell in love as soon as they met him

We are going to take a break from fostering for a bit and give Stella some one-on-one love, then get back into fostering after the Holidays.  We also agreed our next dog is going to be a yippy dog we don’t like so the goodbye isn’t as hard!

Thank you Chance and Andy for making our first foster experience a memorable one, you will always have a place in our hearts!