Frannie & Callie's Blog (53)

Well, Luna continues to be prove herself to be one of the sweetest doodles I've ever fostered. She certainly still has her issues...and lots of them...but I definitely see small pockets of progress. 

On January 16th, Luna started her heartworm treatment. She'd been on doxycycline for five weeks prior to that initial injection. Luna is my first heartworm positive dog and I just didn't know what to expect. Would she be in pain? (yes, a bit - it's a large, deep injection) Would…

Luna came into the DRC rescue program with her (suspected) sister Stella (and they are aptly named...these dogs will be someone's moon and stars!). I of course don't know what happened in their 2+ years beforehand, but some horrible person did a real number on these girls. I had both Stella and Luna for about a month and while Stella is more outgoing and less fearful than Luna, she still had some anxiety issues and was overly protective of Luna. Stella is now being fostered by Eric Nater…

Hi All! I've been off of DK for a while, but got so many sweet holiday messages that I wanted to post a quick (it's me, so quick AND wordy!) blog entry to catch y'all up! I've missed my DK "family", but sometimes life just gets in the way!

So, back towards the end of June, I got a foster named Lucy. Poor Lucy was scared of everything (especially me) and she ran away about an hour after I got her back to my house. Needless to say, the two weeks she was missing were among the…

On Sunday, Yankee Doodle was adopted by a lovely couple in Villa Rica, GA. Wanda and Don lost their beloved pug, Dixie, a little over a year ago and decided they were ready to take the "plunge" and get another dog. They were drawn to Yankee for several reasons...their son has a labradoodle and they liked the breed, Wanda is a "Yankee" herself, Yankee doodle is on the small side, and they wanted a scruffy (more wiry) coated dog. On my part, I liked that they were experienced dog owners (and…

April 17th was Callie's "gotcha" day. One one hand, I can't believe it's already been two years. On the other hand, it feels like I've always had her, because she's such a big part of my family and my life. I swear I love that furry little monster more every day! Callie had a lovely doodleversary (borrowing Donna's word) yesterday, romping around with Yankee (foster) Doodle in the house,  playing at the dog park with her friends Louie, Emmett, Boomer, and Yankee, taking a nap on top of me,…

Sweet Ruby Foster Doodle went to her forever family this weekend! Ruby is such a good girl and her new family is absolutely thrilled with her. They are getting the first hand experience of how being ill-treated for the first three years of her life is NOT going to get Miz Ruby down! She has way too much goodness and love in her for that! So please, join me in wishing Ruby and her new family, the Walkers, every happiness in the world!

Another dog was available for fostering,…

It's three weeks today since Ruby came to the ATL to get fostered and WOW has this girl adapted quickly! Not only is she ridiculously, absurdly gorgeous, she has the calmest, sweetest nature (possibly ever).

Callie has been doing a great job with teaching her foster sister how to be a proper doodle, and there's been some things that Ruby has learned on her own. Under Callie's tutelage, Ruby now likes to lounge on the sofa with her big noble head in my lap. She patiently…

Ruby is a sweet (SWEET) 3 year old labradoodle. She was pulled from a high-kill shelter in North Carolina (thanks, Michael G!) where she had been turned in by her backyard breeder "parents". That's right...Ruby was used strictly to breed litter after litter of puppies and then was turned into this high kill shelter when her "usefulness" was gone (If you can't read between the lines, I hate these people. I can't put it into gentler, more PC terms...people who irresponsibly breed dogs so they…

Callie and I spent all of last week in Memphis with my family. While Callie has visited several times before, this was just a special trip. This is where my nephew Benjamin fell in love with Callie. Now Benj and his (fraternal) twin Drew have always loved Callie...they play with her (Callie Tag being the favorite), talk to her, etc, but this trip something just clicked. Benj wanted to be with her all the time. He's always been a dog lover (and at the age of 8…

As you may have read in Nina's blog "Gus Has Been Sprung", Gus is 3(ish) labradoodle boy. Nina and her DD drove to Piedmont, AL to pick him up on Tuesday, and Nina got him vetted, let him have a slumber party with her pack and then got him groomed. Our normal foster drill has Callie at a neighbor's house while I bathe the new foster and try to get him settled in and then trying to keep…

Wednesday evening Harvey will be going to his forever home! Kim came and met Harvey last night and it was love at first sight! Kim is an experienced dog owner and understands that while Harvey is still a bit of a diamond in the rough, he IS a diamond!

Harvey was equally smitten, and by the end of the evening was snuggling with his head on Kim's lap. I let her see calm, snuggly indoors Harvey and goofy, energetic dog-park Harvey. She loved both.

Not only will…

Oh, sweet Harvey (or "Harvitee Hoo Hoo" as I tend to call him). Every day I look at Harvey and see so many good changes, and see that more of his fear has receded.

Many of my neighbors got to meet Harvey the first night I had him. He managed to slip his harness when we went outside and it was a group effort to retrieve him! I am VERY fortunate to live on a street and in a community filled with dog lovers (my block has 18 townhomes...and there are a total of 11 dogs)! None of…

It SHOCKS me to realize that I've only been fostering this sweet boy for a week, because he has made SO much progress...progress that I didn't expect to see for several weeks.

Harvey now prances. Words fail me when I see him trotting alongside Callie and they both have their heads and tails raised high, gazing confidently about. He's letting down his guard enough to be a little goofy sometimes. He completely eviscerated a stuffed toy - he was so proud you would have thought…

Hi all - Harvey is coming right along and I'll write a longer update this week. Mostly, I just wanted y'all to see how cute he is! He has an incredibly handsome face and is just brimming with sweetness. He's still scared of some things, but is making great progress! He's getting groomed tomorrow, so I'll post new pictures after that!

As you may have read, Harvey was one of the "3 Amigos". The amazing DRC doodle train rescued three sweet doodle boys and dispersed them to foster homes. I was not able to choose when Nina and I were standing in the parking lot of our meeting point, but somehow we each ended up with the "right" foster!

Technically, yesterday was Harvey's second day with me, but I've decided not to count the first day. He was soooooo scared that he had no opportunity to let the slightest glimmer…

Bixby Foster Doodle is leaving today on the first leg of his journey to his forever home. He will be transported to New England, where Liz Syring from the DRC will be fostering him for about 10 days until his wonderful new forever family comes back from vacation. The reason for this is two-fold...first - Bixby is so super attached to me and to Callie that we worried about the bond continuing to strengthen over time. Then, I loved having him around so much that I worried less about that (yes,…

A few weeks ago, I had Callie's portrait professionally taken (a local pet photographer had a fundraiser and reduced her cost greatly and had you bring in a large bag of dog food for the Atlanta Humane Society). Today Callie is the pet of the day on her blog! I am posting this so you can see how cute the photos came out!! Callie was a very good girl (once we got the treat thing worked out - the photographer's dog handler was using peanut butter treats. I'm allergic peanuts, so Callie just…

Last night, I got home to discover that my air conditioner had broken at some point yesterday afternoon (I had been home at lunch time to walk the dogs and it was working then). By 10pm the inside of my house was 82 degrees. My bedroom was managable to sleep in, but I really didn't think that it would be ok for the dogs to be in the house during the day (reg temp today is going to be 95, and the oppressive humidity will boost that to about 105). Callie was easy to take care of - I knew that…

Today, Bentley the Foster Schnoodle's new forever family came and picked him up. His new mom had such an instant connection to him (and vice versa) that I felt like it was a reunion instead of an introduction. The thing is that Bentley NEVER looked as cute in photos as he is in person. His new mom, dad, and college-aged sister were overwhelemed by his adorableness! The parents are retirees who will have lots and lots of time to walk Bentley and teach him to be a good schnoodle citizen. They…

This past Monday, I took over fostering Bentley from Nina (of Nina, Phil, and Harlow). Nina had Bentley (originally named "Hobgoblin") for about 2 weeks, having pulled him from a high-kill shelter in Augusta. Nina's reports on Bentley (or Mr B, as I've taken to calling him) were glowing and accurate. He's a total love! A cute, sweet, playful baby boy!

Mr B spent Monday afternoon exploring my house (as I tried to tidy it up - I'm still embarrassed that Nina saw my house in such…