What "Happily Ever After" Looks Like

All good fairy tales have a princess, an adventure involving great challenges, and a happily ever after.  My Princess made her way through the difficult trials of meeting new people, adapting to her foster siblings, attending scary adoption events, and learning to take long walks on the dreaded leash.  And so she earned her happily ever after.

Princess has been in her adopted home for three weeks.  She now has dog and cat siblings, as well as wonderful human parents.  Her parents were kind enough to share an album of photos with me (so they own the copyright on these pictures, in case anyone cares).  It does my heart good to see that Princess is obviously well cared for and extremely happy.

People always ask me if it's hard to foster.  They wonder how foster parents can bear to bring the animals into their home, love them, and then give them up to new families.  And the truth is, it can be hard, especially for dogs or cats that are particularly special or have lived with you a long time.  There are two things that make it bearable.  The first is knowing that finding a home for one foster opens up a space for a new foster, and one fewer animal at the shelter will be put to sleep.  And the second is pictures and stories like this one.  When I take in a foster like Princess, all I want for her is to be happy.  And I can see that she is. It's not so hard to see your foster go into a new home when you know that it's the right home.  

Here she is with her siblings.  What a cute trio!

Be a good girl, Princess!

28 Days Later

Today was a big day for Princess.  But before I get to that, I want to mention that yesterday Princess was on dogshaming.com.  So now she's famous! Sort of.  Anyway, here's the link.

The most important news is that Princess found her forever home.  She has gone to live with wonderful people, a canine brother (an LDCRF alum also), and a kitty.  I am sure that once she settles in and bonds with her new family that she will be very happy there.

Before the adoption paperwork was signed, Princess and I did Paws in the Streets at Reston Town Center today.  We were out there with lots of other foster dogs.  It was a good time.

She met my former foster, Jersey.  Jersey came out to provide alumni support to the walk.

There were lots of people there!

It was a great event, capped off by her big adoption.
Good luck, my sweet Princess!

Riding in Cars with Dogs

The first time I met Princess, she had just been unloaded from the Lost Dog van at a 7 Corners PetsMart adoption event.  She was still in her crate, shaking, terrified, and had been car sick.  In the days that followed, I learned that Princess had a deep-seated dislike of driving.  Every time I walked her towards the car, she would try to turn and run in the other direction.  Generally, small dogs ride shotgun in Zorro's car seat (as demonstrated below by Zorro himself).  She hated that.  She wanted to run and hide in the smallest corner of the car she could find.

(For those who worry about having a dog in the front seat with airbags, I want to assure you that my passenger airbags don't activate unless there are more than 50lbs in that seat.  So they won't go off when a small dog is seated there.)

I eventually learned that she preferred to ride in the back seat, on the floor, hiding underneath the driver's side seat.  I had a prior very shy dog (Clementine, pictured below) who used to prefer that spot as well.  It seemed pretty safe, so I started placing her in the backseat instead of the front.  I still had to pick her up and put her in the car,  because she really did not want to go voluntarily. One adoption day, she tried to put herself in her crate rather than have to go in the car for the short drive to Tyson's PetsMart.  On a couple of occasions, she got carsick on the way to or from an adoption event.  Carsickness for dogs is often stress-related.  It can be trained away by exposing the dog to the car in positive ways for short periods of time, over time.  For the curious among you, this site explains how.

As my prior blog entry reflects, I took Princess to the groomer on Wednesday night.  When we got to the car, I bent down to pick her up, and she jumped right into the backseat.  She seemed perfectly happy there.  She did not get carsick, even though she had eaten less than an hour prior.  She just curled up, and every time I glanced back, she just wagged her tail at me.  This morning, when we headed out for a walk, she ran right up to the car like she was asking to be let in.  It makes me so happy to see a dog get over her fear and turn a negative into a positive.  Time, patience, and love can really cure almost anything.

Speaking of love, I wanted to share the exciting news that LDCRF received an update on Princess's sister, Lady.  It is posted on the Happy Tails portion of the website, right here.  There is a super cute picture and a great report.  I am thrilled that Lady found her happy ending. Hopefully, it will be Princess's turn soon.

Call Me "Tiger Lily"

While Princess has always been adorable, the truth is that she has too much fur. As luck would have it, there is a wonderful groomer in Falls Church who is kind enough to groom our rescue dogs at no charge and to offer a discount on newly adopted dogs.  She does a great job and has a very gentle approach.  Her name is Idie, and you can find her here.

As you know (if you've read the rest of the blog), Princess is quite shy when meeting new people. But she did very well nonetheless.   First, she had some excess fur shaved off.

Then she had a bath.  She smells like baby powder.  She didn't really enjoy the bath, but she didn't fight or try to escape too much.

Then she met the dryer.  She did not like the dryer.  So she had to wear the ear covers so it wouldn't bother has much. Also she snacked on some peanut butter during the dryer portion.  There was more shaving, plus trimming with shears.  She stood reasonably still for that part.

And when she was all washed, trimmed, and dried we were able to see the dog underneath the fur.  It turns out that she's brindle all over and looks like a mini-tiger.  She seemed very happy to have less fur to carry around.

When we got home, the boys wondered why she smelled so nice.

She grabbed a stuffed animal and played for a few minutes and then she was ready for a nap.

Living the Busy Lost Dog Life

Princess has had a busy few weeks since we last posted a blog.  She has made good progress on her leash walking.  She is still a little shy about letting the dog walker put a leash on her, but once she's hooked up, she's good to go.  She is doing great on her crate training, and now goes in happily as soon as she sees the treat.

She has been to two adoption events at Tyson's Corner Petsmart (a Sunday 1-4pm event).  That's a better location for her than 7Corners was because it's much quieter.  She can hang out with the other dogs and relax a little.  This week, she even dressed up for the event!

In addition to adoption events, Princess attended the first Paws in the Streets event!  We had a whole host of foster dogs out walking the streets of Clarendon as part of our kick off weekend for the ASPCA $100k Challenge.  Channel 7 did a great little news piece on the walk as well.  We will have similar events all summer long.  This Thursday, Princess will be at the Del Ray First Thursday event, and then on Saturday we will do another Paws in the Street at the Reston Town Center.

While at the Clarendon walk, Princess met a nice fluffy suitor.  Alfred the pom fell head over paws in love with Princess and followed her all over the event.  He was super happy to be reunited with her at Tysons on Sunday. Stay tuned for this love story to develop!

She also continues to fit in well with the other animals living in my home.

Princess continues to be a sweet, loving dog.  It makes me sad that when people meet her at adoption events, they can't see how wonderful she is.  She is a shy girl, so she backs away from strangers, even friendly ones.  But with a little patience, she will bond and be the most loyal and wonderful friend for whoever is lucky enough to adopt her!  This is the final cut of the video, which shows what Princess is really like, once she is in a home environment where she feels comfortable.