I know I say that all of our fosters are the best, but for the first time we were actually really close to foster failing.

I “picked” Jughead (re-named buddy because, let’s be honest, Jughead is just a dumb name) as our next foster back in early December.  In his “help me” photo it said he was 1-2 years old and 30 lbs, but all I saw was this cute little puppy face looking back at me!  He was the perfect size for Stella and Luke and I are generally drawn to hound mixes so it seemed great!

He was supposed to ride to MN from a shelter in Arkansas on December 16th with some of his other friends, but the poor little dude tore his toenail and had to be sedated, which meant he missed the “freedom ride.”  They don’t have rides going from Arkansas very often so they didn’t think he would be able to come to MN for at least a month.

We were all set to foster and another pup from the same shelter didn’t have a home so last-minute we brought Winnie (formerly known as Shirley Temple – again, dumb name) home on the 16th.

Winnie was a very sweet, calm dog but only ended-up being with us for only four days.  A lovely young man ended-up taking her as a foster-fail – she is living the artsy life hanging out with him all day at a Children’s Theater (CUTE)!

Conveniently little Buddy was able to catch a freedom ride up north that same week, so finally he came to us the Friday before Christmas.

At first he was extremely docile and scared.  He essentially didn’t move from the same spot on our rug for two days unless we fed him or picked him up to go outside, etc.  We were kind of wondering what we had gotten ourselves into!  Also unfortunately for buddy, it was Christmas weekend so we threw him right into the Tucker family gathering.  He went to my sister’s house (with two other dogs and a baby) and still basically stuck to his dog bed the whole day.

It wasn’t until around day 4 that he started to come out of his shell, and immediately he bonded with Stella – they play SO WELL together!  We hosted a party for New Years and had 3 other dogs at our house plus several people and kids, and he did great!

He is now all goofy/playful/clumsy personality, housebroken, and has learned to sit nicely for food/treats.  He sleeps nicely on his bed at night and after an incident with his kennel one day (photo below – I’m not even mad, more impressed!!) he hangs out in a room with Stella all day without accidents.

Quick sidebar on his daytime activities – I purchased a Nest on black Friday for future baby Fox.  It essentially streams live video via a phone/tablet app with sound (and you can talk back to it too!).  I decided to try it out on the dog’s room the other day and O.M.G. it is SO entertaining!  Stella basically sleeps in her cozy cave all day, and when buddy isn’t roaming/whining/bugging her he also calmly sleeps on his bed.  Amazing how fun it is to watch nothing happen all day :).

So despite being obsessed with this little cutie, with baby Fox coming this spring it just probably isn’t the right time to get a second dog.  So Buddy is still adoptable via Secondhand Hounds and would be the perfect family/brewery/go anywhere dog!

Who is looking for a new family member?!

As I mentioned in my last post, things have been a bit mental lately.  All good stuff, but Gopher Football, travel, the Alzheimer’s fundraiser, and a little thing called growing a baby – we’ve had our hands full!

Because of this we agreed (or more like Luke set the necessary boundary) that after Jammie we would wait to foster again after things slowed-down.  Essentially that meant after Thanksgiving.

I survived a few months of quickly scrolling over any sad or super cute pups on the Secondhand Hounds page, but then this I saw this:

Quick sidebar, this screenshot is typical of “our process” – when I find dogs I’m obsessed with and want to foster, I send these photos to Luke and hope that he says yes!  Note I’m not trying to throw my husband under a bus, he keeps things manageable in our household and without him I probably would have 3 dogs, a million things going on, and would be going insane!

This dog stood out to me for three main reasons:

1.) She looks a bit like our dog, Stella
2.) Her leg was shot and had to be amputated..WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE
3.) She was on her way to MN that weekend and had no home

These things apparently stood out to Luke too, and his text response was literally “God Dammit Fine” despite knowing he would be alone with the dog about a week since I was going to be gone.  He is the best.

We picked June up last Friday and oh my goodness is she a cutie!  She is a little over a year old, and some sort of beagle, boxer, who knows mix (around 40 pounds I would guess).

She is super happy-go-lucky and rocks three legs!  She gets around extremely well and has some serious speed when her and Stella play chase!  She is also a huge cuddle bug, preferring to lay belly up like the photo above.

This video is a good example of her just fun, goofy personality:

No disrespect to the reality TV star, but the name “Momma June” was just too trashy for this fantastic little dog who has overcome so much in her short life.  So after getting to know her, we have been calling her Hopper 🙂

Hopper is staying with a temp foster while Luke and I are out of town, and when we get back we will check to make sure her ear infection is cleared-up and think she will be ready for adoption!

***UPDATE***

Little Jimmy Jams (now Julien) got adopted to a fantastic family in Wayzata!  They are absolutely in love and appreciate all of his silly hound-ness!  We got our “family photo” before he left and like all of them I was a hot mess when we had to say goodbye.

But of course we are so happy he is now with his forever-home and are so lucky we have fund such great adopters again!

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To our surprise (I’m not complaining) we have had our current Secondhand Hounds foster, Jammie, for about 3 weeks.  Since he is the cutest little munchkin we assumed that he would be adopted quickly, but with over 220 dogs on the site we think he probably is just getting lost in the sea of cuteness.

We also thought that since he was a goofball little puppy we wouldn’t get attached but we were wrong – he is just THE BEST!  He charms everyone he meets and has chilled-out a lot since we got him.  He now sleeps with us in bed (much to Luke’s dismay) and unlike Stella just chills curled-up in a ball of soft fur in the same spot all night.  When he doesn’t know what to do he chomps his jaw and reminds me a lot of those alligators on Donkey Kong you have to avoid!

Although he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, he has caught-on quickly to potty training and has learned to sit!

He and Stella have also become besties – I busted them snuggling the other day and actually teared-up it was so cute (I mean their legs are intertwined…ahhhh)!

Other than being cute he is doing really well and is still a healthy pup.  He did over-play with Stella and sprained his toe (yes that is a thing for dogs) but with some pain meds and “trying” to keep him from playing for a few days that is all healed-up!  He also got neutered (sorry bud) a couple weeks ago so he is ready to be adopted!

We have a meeting tonight with a potential adopter so paws crossed!

Well, today was hard.  After almost four months, Reuger found his forever home!

This is obviously an extremely positive thing – logically I know this is why we foster, logically I know that he will thrive with his new family, and logically I know he will be a happy dog.  Well I’m an emotional individual and at this particular moment say screw logic, I miss my pup.

Reuger has been a part of our family since January and we have been through a lot together.  We have watched him transform from a timid, slow, and extremely sick dog to the goofy, sweet, playful pup he is.  We took him to vet visits, we know his quirks, and while we hate when his cold nose nudges us demanding attention, we love his snuggles.  We can both honestly can say we love the little guy.

Still a creeper in the car…4 months later! He sits RIGHT next to your face

Stella and Reuger on rabbit duty

I FINALLY got a picture of him where he doesn’t look sad!

And what really breaks our heart the most is knowing the he loves us back.  I can’t help but worry he will think we gave up on him.  Again, I am probably giving his mental capacity too much credit and logic would tell me dogs are adaptable but man that is the worst part about this goodbye.

Many people have asked why we don’t just adopt Reuger.  And actually the most common response I get when I say we foster is “how do you not keep them all.”  The only thing really keeping us from adopting is that if we had two dogs with our lifestyle/home we couldn’t keep fostering.  There are too many more pups to save for that!  While the goodbyes suck seeing pictures of Chance with a giant smile and the joy these families get from these dogs makes it worth it.

We also have final say in the forever families of our foster pups, and Tracy, Reuger’s new owner, gives me a great vibe.  She has stuck around and waited for Reuger while he went through another round of treatment and knows ALL of his quirks/some of the issues we have had with him.  Her and her boys will be great for Reuger and I can’t wait to see some pup-dates!

Don’t let his sad face fool you, he went to her without looking back!

Alright I’m off to have a glass of wine (or a few) and some comfort food (mac and cheese…even though I’m lactose intolerant because I can…)!

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)!