Two Fosters Here And Gone

Life was crazy and I've had two fosters here and adopted that somehow never made it to the blog so I thought I'd take a moment just to talk about them and keep there memory here in this little dog scrap book that my Untrainable blog has become. 

 This is Charlotte (AKA: Char Char, Charcolate, Chary, and Chary-bary). Charlotte was the second best foster we've ever had. Wilbur being on top.  She came to us as a stray taken from a shelter in Charlottesville Virginia. No idea how long she'd been out on the street. After her dental she walked away with only one tooth left to her name. She was probably around ten.

 Luckily she was adopted very quickly (or she might have been staying with us). She had the loveliest disposition and was so well behaved, potty trained and a total cuddle bug. She lived in our laps. Her only negative was her propensity to dart out doors. A trait that might have been why she was in the shelter in the first place. But who could not look for a girl like her. She was a tiny tiny girl at only 6 pounds. A trait which I think is one reason she was adopted so quickly. She barley barked which was lovely.

She was the only dog that actually slept with Sean under covers at night (he is a squirmier). Even Gauis can't manage this feat. She survived the great power loss episode and hurricane of August. During which she ate and entire package of ginger snaps and puked all over the bed. This was when we had no hot water or washer or drawer. Not her best moment. She used to jump on the couch and look out the window as we left. Which was freaking adorable (see photograph below)


She stayed with us only a month before she went to her new home in Soulth Carolina. She was adopted only one day after her photo made the website. If she had stayed longer I would have worked with her on getting CGC certified. Her mom and dad are lovely and have already sent us photos of her in her new home. Her new mom is a retired veterinary technician and a real animal lover. She has many brothers and sisters including another dachshund and a Boston terrier and three other dogs. They are retired and she will get a lot of attention there. She was a dear to have I wish she could have stayed longer.  Her name is now Willow.

 This is Sammy (AKA The Samster, Sammy-bammy) was our last foster. We had him for about a month and a half. He was surrendered because his owner was in the hospital and no longer in a position to take care of him. He was nine years old but man he didn't act like it. Probably one of the most active dachshunds we've had here in foster care. You can see him digging holes in my yard to your left. He had a grade four heart murmur which you could feel through his chest. But it didn't seem to bother him much and the vet told us it was probably congenital and not a big problem since he had no symptoms. He was a good dog but could be difficult.

He was a bit hand shy and would submissively urinate if new people tried to touch him too quickly. He stopped doing this with us after about a week but I had to protect him from unwanted touching by strangers. Other than that he was really great with people and even was comfortable around children as long as they went slow and fed him first. He loved sitting in laps and taking naps with you.

He had a little bit of barrier aggression and would sometimes attack dogs on the leash if they greeted him straight on or with too much excitement. But other than that was generally indifferent to other dogs. He wasn't very socialized with other dogs. He would ignore Gauis completely. Whenever Gauis would try and initiate play with Sammy there would be a fight. This only had to happen a few times for Gauis to decide he wasn't a good playmate.

He had a marking problem and some potty training issues he was really starting to overcome while here. He was fabulous in his crate. He was an expert at finding his way out of my yard and did give me several heart attacks. But he never ran off. I got him a harness the first day because he was such a puller, and he could destroy a dog toy in 0.032 seconds. We bought his an expensive non-destructable squeaker which he finished off in about a minute flat. We were forever saving Gauis' favorite toys from him.

All of that was fine except his absolute obsession with my cat. He didn't want to eat her, he was just fascinated by her and I'll tell you her life is much happier now that he's gone. I'm glade he went to a feline free household. But as big a pain as Sammie could be he was a wonderful dog and we'll miss him.

He went to an adoption event and was an instant favorite, you can see him below with his new mom. There will be another dog in his house but she is apparently as uninterested in other dogs as he is. It's a perfect match and I'm glade he's found his forever home.

 It is strange being foster free at the moment. we're not used to having a one dog household. I'll try to introduce our new arrive as soon as they get here instead of after they are already gone next time. :)