two dolla

do you know generous people?

Pet Project Rescue is, as I’ve mentioned, having a silent auction next month and they are in need of…

Wait for it!

Silent auction items! If you work somewhere that could donate something or know someone that might be able to put us in touch with someone that, you know, knows some people, I’d really appreciate a quick comment or an email.

And so would the 10 animals PPR is rescuing tomorrow from owners that have just decided they want to try out a life with no animals. Really.

why everyone should foster

The General and I have been fostering puppies and dogs and the occasional kitten for close to a year now for Pet Project Rescue, an organization ran out of Northeast Minneapolis. The General had done it before, but wound up keeping the dogs. I knew that wasn’t happening, so I figured I’d give it a try. No commitment. No money out of my pocket, just another animal running around the house. When you already have 160 pounds worth of animal running around the house, what’s one more, right?

When it started out with us fostering an overweight Pekingese with only one eye, I was like “You have got to be kidding me”. I was sure we’d wind up fostering animal that nobody in their right mind would ever want to adopt. Then, just a couple of weeks later, we met the absolute perfect family for this one-eyed dust mop we thought was destined to never be happy again. The family loved her from the minute they met her and the feeling seemed to be mutual. Once Peeka went to her new family, I knew right away that this was something much more rewarding than I could have imagined.

My favorites have been Eddie (the chihuahua I actually got to help rescue from Animal Control) and Merlyn (the day he got here from Mexico, I had to warm him up after his bath!), both of which have been hard to give up, but they both found incredible homes. Merlyn even got his named changed to Pete and was in the Twin Cities Puppy Bowl! We fostered Ruby, the other chihuahua, for months, because she had such a hard time getting used to life outside the puppy mill.

We’ve also helped find homes for:

• Colby and Fletcher, the only two felines we’ve fostered, taught us that while kittens are cute, they also will murder you with their fangs and talons.
• River, who came to us with a gaping hole in her stomach from her spay which had to be washed, medicated and bandaged multiple times a day.
• Elsa, one of the sweetest dogs we’ve had, but also liked to chew the crotches out our pants. All our pants.
• Baby Adolfo, who is now Henry and lives with one of my favorite co-workers and his husband.
• Gypsy, Elsa’s sister, that we just had for a couple of weeks before she found her home.
• Cosme, who came straight from the jungle and had a bit of a weight problem. She went to live with a family who’d already adopted one Mexican foster dog (and six kids, but just not from the same place).
• Betty, the possible pit bull mix two month old puppy who was stuck in the back room of Animal Control with the dogs that come from fighting ring raids, all because she might have been part pit.
• Vicente, our last foster resident, found his home after only a week with us, just after he learned to jump from on top of his kennel, to the top of our kitchen counter, over to the top of our stove, and over the baby gate we had between the kitchen and the living room.

More foster dogs are on their way (or may already possibly be) here from Cancun. We’re getting two new two month old pups named Shaun and Irene, who are sure to make sure remember why we like older dogs!

If you’ve ever thought about fostering, you should contact Pet Project Rescue. They’re be more than happy to answer any questions. Heck, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions. You could even try it once and nobody’s going to be mad at you!

someone adopt this dog

Seriously, because if you don’t, I’m probably going to cave and do it. Yes, I know we’ve only had him for a week, but c’mon. LOOK AT THAT FACE.

But here’s why I won’t adopt him. Riley’s not a fan. At all. The General, Riley, Kentucky and I are all sitting in the bedroom, which is always the way across the duplex from our kitchen, which is where Vicente (the adorable puppy featured above) sleeps at night. The problem is Vicente thinks he needs to be around everyone else when he sleeps and is very vocal about telling us this.

Right now, he’s making the saddest sounds he can possibly think of making, including whimpering and something closely related to a Velociraptor on it’s death bed. Trust me, it’s sad. Riley, the spoiled rotten dog that he is, jumped off the bed, walked to the kitchen to see what was going on, walked back into the bedroom and tried to close our bedroom door with his face. Riley’s tired of Vicente’s antics and needs you to adopt him.

Vicente is maybe 3 months old and comes from Isla Mujeres, Mexico. He’s been in the U.S. all of about a week now. He weighs around 10 pounds right now and is the sweetest little guy ever. He gets so excited when you pick him up that he’s close to shaking right out of his skin. Vicente is a big fan of watching TV on the couch, but is also absolutely hilarious when he decides he wants to play. Riley (at 75 lbs) and Kentucky (at 85 lbs) aren’t really the ideal playmates for him.

If you’re looking to adopt a puppy (spring’s right around the corner!) or know someone who might be interested in this little guy, you can find out more information at Pet Project Rescue’s website. (I also stole the above picture from them.)

pete for mvp!

After you watch the above video (or at least part of it), you should go here and vote for Pete as the MVP! Pete was our foster dog through Pet Project Rescue. When he lived with us, his name was Merlyn and is pretty much tied as my favorite foster dog we’ve had so far. Yay, Pete!

foster dog #9

Merlyn, our latest foster dog (photo via PPR)

Meet Merlyn, the latest foster dog we welcomed into our home yesterday through Pet Project Rescue. Since April of 2009 when we started fostering, we’ve had two foster kitten (Colby and Fletcher) and nine foster dogs (Peeka, River, Ruby, Eddie, Elsa, Adolfo, Gypsy, Cosme and now Merlyn). I think. I hope I’m not forgetting anyone.

Every one of them has new homes now, homes that don’t include fighting for food on a Mexican street or sitting inside the Minneapolis Animal Control building just a couple days away from being put to sleep.

When we started fostering, I wasn’t sure how easy it was going to be to let the dogs go after they’d stayed with us for a while. And, really, Eddie the Chihuahua is the only one I’d struggled with. I don’t know what it was about that little leg humper (he also humped Riley’s head regularly), but knowing that he’s now in a home that spoils him rotten makes things 100% okay.

Right now, Merlyn’s laying on the bed, on his back, smashed against Riley’s hip. He’s forgotten all about his plane ride from Cancun to Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago. All he knows is this living in a house thing kind of rocks.

I bought Riley from a breeder and while I wouldn’t go back and change that at all, I know I’ll never do that again. There are way too many dogs and puppies (and cats) that need homes to pass up. Plus, all the cool kids are adopted!

meet elsa! (and adopt her, too!)

Meet Elsa:

I know, right? I’ll wait for you to stop gushing and showing all your friends her picture.

She just flew up from Mexico a little over a week ago with the organization that we foster for, Pet Project Rescue. Her owners moved out of their home, leaving Elsa, her mom, and her two siblings to fend for themselves. Elsa’s about 12 weeks old and very, very sweet.

She’s getting the hang of this whole house-living versus street-living thing, caught on to potty-training extremely fast, and doesn’t even bat an eye when it comes to being around other dogs. Her first adoption day was on Halloween; I have a feeling she won’t last long.

Since she’s been herea little over a week, her favorite thing seems to be hiding things in her kennel. She absolutely loves her kennel and hangs out in there on a regular basis. Last night before putting her to bed, I had to pull out a shoe, five stuffed animals (they’re cheap dog toys when you get them from the thrift store!), and a sock. Like The Boy’s dad said, Elsa wasn’t used to having stuff when she lived in Mexico, so she’s pretty excited about all the things she gets here.

Elsa will probably only be around 30 pounds when she’s fully grown. She already knows how to sit and comes back to you when she’s told. She’s pretty darn near potty trained, and will either go outside as soon as you put her down or on the puppy pad. It’s possible she’s chewed holes in two pairs of my jeans, but I’m okay with that because I needed new jeans anyway.

you should be a foster

You know the only time I ever post is if I have new pictures or I need something, right? Well, good, because this is no exception.

For the past few months, we’ve been working with Pet Project Rescue, fostering animals that have come from less than crappy situations and finding them really awesome homes where they don’t have to wonder where their next meal is coming from.

First, there was Peeka, the one-eyed Pekignese that we had for a very short time before she found the most absolute perfect family after coming from a home where we’re pretty sure she was fed table scraps all the time and was given up because her owners “couldn’t afford her” anymore.

A few days after we delivered Peeka to her new home, we were introduced to the next members of our family – Fletcher and Colby, two very tiny kittens that probably weren’t old enough to be away from their mom. They were adopted out to the same home and found a family with two kids that are incredibly excited to have new kittens in the house.

And, now there’s Ruby. While I haven’t properly introduced her (and I should!), she’s a 4 year old chihuahua that came from a puppy mill in Iowa. As soon as we got her, it was clear that she’d done absolutely nothing in her life except for sit in a small cage and wait for someone to tell her it was time to have baby puppies. Fast forward a few weeks and right now she’s busy dragging the shirt I wore to work across the living room. She had her first trip to the dog park this weekend and, although she got tired by the time we headed home, she kept up with Riley and Kentucky like it was something she’d done all her life.

This whole pet-foster, animal rescue business? It’s been fantastic. More so then I ever thought it could be. And, now, our foster organization needs some help. One of Pet Project Rescue’s partner rescues was robbed and now they need to find homes for five puppies by the end of this month.

If you’d be interested in fostering a puppy or know someone that might be, please forward PPR’s URL along to them: http://www.petprojectrescue.com. The people that run the organization are fantastic. They provide you with all of the food, collars, leashes, kennels, kitty litter (when necessary!), and anything else you could possibly need. All you have to do is make sure the dog or cat you’re fostering gets some love.

hi again it’s me

We just dropped off our foster dog to her new home. Happy Mother’s Day to Peeka’s new mom!

Our Mother’s Day was spent trying to get a foreign object out of the toilet. The General’s been working on that for the past three days, but one final day of jamming an auger up and down both sides of the toilet have proven to be unsuccessful. We cut our losses and bought a new toilet at Menard’s. Yeah, we’re renting, but neither of us wanted to call the landlord and explain this little mild disaster. Especially because we need to call him tomorrow and tell him one of the electrical outlets in our kitchen stopped working.

I’m toying with changing themes on ye ol’ blog, mainly because I figured that might be something to get me to post more often. Probably a futile attempt, but I didn’t see any harm in trying. Of course, it takes me forever to find something I like.

Lastly, I’m completely in love with Facebook. I have been for a long time. But today took the cake. This boy I used to play basketball with at the park daily during the summer (we’ll call him Rayson Jeno) is on there. I most certainly never had a crush on him (right), but more of a “Dammit, you ass, I’m going to beat you at streetball if it’s the last thing I do” type feeling towards him. Of course, I never did, but Angie and I sure as hell were the only girls that could give him a run for his money… And now, I kind of want to go back to Vermont Park in Sedalia, shoot three pointers to decide who plays on what team, and listen to the basketball clank through the metal nets one afternoon.

meet peeka

This is Peeka! She’s a six (or so) year old Pekignese. And, no, she’s not winking at you. She only has one eye.

A few weeks ago, The General and I were at the St. Anthony Park Dog Park letting Kentucky and Riley chase each other around a gigantic fenced area. Kentucky was happily chasing other dogs’ tennis balls and Riley was doing what he’s best at – peeing on other dogs and sometimes their owners’ legs. The General started up a conversation with a couple and, as it turns out, they run a rescue organization in Minneapolis. We’d been mulling over the idea of fostering a dog or a cat. The General works from home and our dogs are pretty mellow when it comes to meeting new dogs. Plus, there’s just something about helping a dog out that’s had a crappy go of things that kinda makes me feel good.

We filled out the application and were approved right away. It probably helps that our dogs weren’t douches at the dog park. The rescue folks let us know they’d be dropping off our first foster dog Saturday afternoon. They told us her name, what kind of dog she was, and that her owner was surrendering her, because they couldn’t afford her anymore.

Around 12:30pm, the rescue people got here. Matt, one of the founders of the rescue organization, was carrying Peeka, but what I saw when looking out our bedroom window was a guy carrying a small bear. And as I got closer, I realized it was a small one-eyed bear. Named Peeka. Short for Peeka-boo.

There’s a lot going on with Peeka that needs to be taken care of before she finds her forever home. She weighs 19.6 pounds (according to the Wii Fit) and she’s supposed to be around 14. There’s a bump the size of a golf ball on her stomach that looks like it’s already been looked into, since we can see a needle mark going into it. Her mouth smells like horse poop and moldy chicken. The poor dog’s teeth are pointing in every direction and she can’t even keep her tongue in her mouth most of the time. When we take her outside, she pees about every 5 minutes the entire time she’s out there. The socket of her missing eye still moves around like she’s trying to open in it and like maybe there’s still an eyeball shoved in there somewhere. And, finally, her butt bothers her so bad that we’ve caught her on multiple occasions scooting herself across our bedroom floor by the butt. She has a vet appointment on Thursday, so keep your fingers crossed that it’s all things they can take care of. I’d hate for something like that to prevent her from having an awesome home from here on out.

The story we heard on why she was placed in rescue goes like this… She was a puppy mill dog, which is where it’s believed that she lost her right eye. She was rescued and placed with a family. Peeka’s family had two other dogs and a couple of cats. Recently, one of the dogs died from cancer. Then, Peeka’s family called the rescue organization and said they couldn’t afford to keep her anymore. Kind of suspicious. But whatever.

She’s a really sweet dog. I’m having a hard time getting used to the fact that it takes her three times as long to get from one end of the house to the other. She has to be carried up our stairs, because they’re either too steep or she’s too fat – I haven’t decided yet.

But, if you’re looking for a dog, how can you say no to this face: