"Perfect Storm" of dogs

[Richard Crowe]

We have five of our Crowe Maltese plus our Goldendoodle, Holly = 6-dogs

We are presently fostering six Maltese plus our Labradoodle rescue, Cocoa = 7-dogs

We offer dog sitting services to persons who give our fosters a furever home.  We don't want our fosters ever put back in a kennel, even a nice kennel. We also love to see the dogs come back to us looking lovely from the TLC they receive in their furever homes.

Three families have taken us up on this over the Labor Day Weekend = 3-dogs

Our daughter and son-in-law needed to go out of town for a couple of days and we are watching their dogs.

Three Maltese and a Labrador Retriever = 4-dogs

That totals out to 20-dogs in our home right now.  It is really quite calm and the dogs get along quite well.  Even two of the foster Maltese who are not perfectly house trained are following the pack outside to go potty. We can handle a dozen dogs quite well because we have separate places for each of them to eat.  Some are slower eaters than others and we don't want the chow hounds to finish theirs and steal food from the slower eaters.  Above a dozen dogs we have to sort of feed them in shifts.

We have plenty of room for dogs and none of them are in pens or kennels.  We don't think that we can prepare foster dogs for furever homes by keeping them in pens or kennels.  A dog cannot learn to be house trained without being in the house.  Having a large home and plenty of yard space really helps too, as does living in a semi rural area and having understanding neighbors  each of whom have their own dogs..

However, this morning our best laid plans went bonkers.  We usually feed Holly and our daughter's Lab outside - they eat quite well together.  This morning since it is so hot in our area, our gardener came an hour early, before the dogs were fed.  We had to do some tap dancing on where and how to feed the poochies.

Our daughters 4-dogs leave this afternoon and the three boarders are scheduled to leave by Monday. That will put us back to 13-dogs total.  A very manageable number.

After all - one Labrador or doodle weighs as much as seven or eight Maltese...

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

You and Judy are awesome :)

[Richard Crowe]

BYW:  We do charge to board dogs and only board dogs that we have fostered.  We use the money from the boarding to help defray the cost of dog food for out menagerie.  The cost of food, even for Maltese, can get pretty heavy.  That way the fostering is sort of self sufficient.

When we bred purebred Maltese, we used the money from our litters to make our house dog friendly such as replacing the entire carpeted floor with ceramic tile.  We could not live without tile floors and our Hoover Floormate...

[Richard Crowe]

I once told my doctor that I must be developing Alzheimers because I can't remember the names of all my dogs.  He asked me, "How many dogs do you have?"  I answered, "Let's see; there were 30 in 2010; 60 in 2011 and another 60 in 2012.  I don't really know how many in 2013 because I haven't counted them up so far!"

Speaking about counting, that is the only way I can keep track of them when we have a crowd.  When I let them out to potty, I count them as they come back in.  If we are one short, then I have to inventory the Maltese...

However, we did one Maltese adoption yesterday, our daughter and her husband returned and retrieved their 4-dogs, two families retrieved their dogs we were boarding.  That would have reduced our numbers to 13-dogs except that we acquired another rescue Maltese.  So we have 14-dogs right now...

It's just about feeding time now.  Fourteen dogs are a piece of cake!

They are great dogs!  One of our young rescue Maltese bolted out the door as I was feeding our rescue Labradoodle outside.  The Maltese stuck her face in Cocoa's bowl and started eating.  That was O.K. with Cocoa, no growling or otherwise angry behavior.

We really couldn't have any bigger dogs in the house if they were at all aggressive.  Holly and Cocoa are perfect examples of the wonderful doodle demeanor...

[Julie and Charlie]

Goodness! Those families and dogs are so lucky to have you.

Adrianne, how did you get 9 to sit still all at once?!

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

I'm thinking huge huge amounts of dog poop though the Maltese do little ones lol Seriously though, you are a dedicated wonderful team and you do the most amazing work. I am grateful that I get to hear about all that you do here.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Richard,

You and Judy truly have hug hearts and every single dog that comes through your home are truly very lucky!!

You win with 20!! I thought 9 doodles was a lot!!  I feed them in shifts also. It is the only way!

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Amazing!  I can't even imagine twenty dogs at once!  You two are the BEST!  

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

OMD and I go bonkers when I have 6 dogs sleeping at my house for more than 3 days. I am really, really, really impressed.

[Diane, Baker & Oskar]

Amazing !

[Jennifer and Jack]

My gosh....that is awesome,,,,, someone is going to have some serious poop scooping to do.....just kidding .... That is awesome that you do so much for all these babies......I am so grateful.........