And then there was one

It would appear that the demand for kittens is keeping pace with the supply--at least for us. In the two weeks since our foster kittens were featured on the IHS website we've found homes for all of four of the original batch. Our emotions have been mixed as we watch the kittens who have been a part of our lives since they were a week old going off to new families.

Thank you all who have adopted "our" kittens. We feel good knowing they've gone to people who will love and appreciate them.

I should get a picture of Kelsey up soon. She's our remaining kitten. She was brought in as a stray, and was not handling the shelter well. With four kittens already bouncing about, we figured what's one more?

It's obvious, however, that this little one has had a much different life thus far. She was very shy at first and preferred to hide. The other kittens made her nervous, and she would hiss at them whenever they came near. But as she's had more contact with us and with the our gradually-diminishing herd she's started to come out of her shell more and more. She now plays with us quite eagerly, though she's still less sure of the other kittens.

I think she just needs some time. Since she's a few weeks younger than the first batch of kittens she still has some time. I suspect in a few weeks she'll be ready for prime time.

In the mean time we still have Grace, the mother cat. Now that she doesn't have to care for her kittens she's been showing her personality more. She's playful, but also quiet and unassuming. She gets along well with our cats, and can hold her own against the ornery one. She's still got some growing of her own to do, but I suspect she'll remain an elegant, handsome cat.

We want to take a break after this round of fostering. I'm not laying odds on it, though.

The kittens are ready for a home

Our little family of kittens are now old enough to be adopted out. It seems such a short time since they came here, no longer than their tails are now. They grow so fast! But in case you're interested, here are the listings on the IHS site:

Zamzow
Timmy
Rosie
Buddy
Grace, the mommy-cat

We've picked up an additional little cutie which we've named Kelsey. She was found all alone as a stray, and was having a very difficult time at the shelter. Now she's here with us, and while she is very loving and starved for affection, she is also shy and cautious. For now she seems afraid of other cats, but we're hoping to help her overcome that. She's a gorgeous little lady with some of the most striking markings I've ever seen on a cat. When she's ready to be adopted she'll make a very elegant addition to any family.

Gracie finds a home

I guess it's been awhile since I posted here. Gracie has found a home, at least temporarily. There is to be a trial period first, but the person who took her seems to know dogs pretty well and was specifically looking for a dog like Gracie. It's been four days now, which is plenty of time for a sweetie like Gracie to work her way into your heart.

I do miss her a bit, though.

We still have Grace and the kittens. The kittens are nearly big enough to be put up for adoption, and we're trying to help Grace wean them. It's not easy, as Grace really starts getting anxious after awhile. She must be a mother, as it only takes me about five minutes before I want to get away from all that energy attached to pointy claws.

Kittens are cute, of course, but only up to a point. I wonder if people really understand what they're getting in for when they get so excited about adopting kittens. It's good that people adopt them, certainly, but they can be a lot of work.

Indestructible toys

Labradors are known for their love of chewing, and Gracie is no exception. She loves chew toys, and will work on one until it's completely torn to shreds. Terhi discovered recently that dogs instinctively try to dispatch their prey. They like it dead before they eat it. So it seems that when you have a toy with a squeaker in it, the dogs interpret the squeaking as the pained yelps of a wounded animal and try even harder to kill it (rather nice of them to want to put it out of its misery, unlike cats, who like to torture their prey).

Most every toy we've gotten Gracie has had a squeaker. No wonder she becomes obsessed with destroying it right away.

I do think there is more to it than that, though, as even the toys that have held up longer she will still work at destroying if there is any hope it can be. For example, she recently got a tube-shaped toy--we think it was supposed to be a stick, a newspaper, or a cigar. The way she carried it so it stuck out of one side of her mouth made it look most like a cigar.

Anyway, it took her longer than usual, but she was eventually able to chew a hole in one end. Soon she had chewed off the entire end. Over the next several days she gnawed the thing down to nothing.

Her latest toys are a rope chew toy and a Kong. Kongs are supposed to be indestructible, and so far it's proving true. On the other hand, I think she's realized she's met her match, as she doesn't try to chew it nearly so often. This one might actually survive for awhile.

I'm still betting she'll destroy it. Eventually.

Gracie's second adoption unit

This weekend we took Gracie to a Humane Society remote adoption unit at the Soul Food Extravaganza at Julia Davis Park. She has improved quite a bit--she hardly barked the entire time, even with the other dogs barking frequently. There was a young terrier in a pen that kept her interested, and she found a toy she just had to destroy, but she was mostly very well behaved for spending four hours in the heat.

A Staffordshire bull terrier named Blue got adopted. "Blue" is a real sweetie, and I'm sure he'll make his new family happy.

Meanwhile, we still have Gracie with us, and that's fine. She's a fun dog with such a happy personality. We enjoy her, and are willing to wait to find her the right home.

We tried taking a video of Gracie playing with the kids. As you can see she's quite obedient.

We're not just "dogs" anymore

We have kittens! Very young kittens! They're little more than a few weeks old at the most, as their eyes just opened last week and they're still figuring out how to walk. Most of the time they sleep and eat, but now and then they wake up enough to get curious about their surroundings. And then they totter about the bathroom like a bunch of fuzzy, geriatric space aliens, mewling piteously, and bumping into things.

Their mother is with them too, of course. She can't be much more than a year old herself, but she is doing a fabulous job. She's very protective and attentive, even though she dearly loves any bit of attention we can spare her.

This time of year the shelter is overrun with kittens. People who could never bring themselves to spay or neuter their cats--especially their outdoor cats--should be required to work a few weeks at the shelter during this yearly surge of unwanted families. There are literally hundreds of cats, with entire families crammed into a single 2'x1.5'x3' cage.

Grace was having a difficult time raising her kittens under those circumstances, and so a desperate call for help was sent out to all foster homes. We decided to give it a try, as the kids have been desperate to earn some pocket money lately and we're trying to teach them responsibility. They take care of Grace and her kittens for a little bit of money each day. If Grace and the kittens are to have any hope of getting adopted when the kittens are old enough they all need to be used to humans--and especially kids.

So far so good, though the kids have been a bit disappointed so far that the kittens don't do much or want to play yet. But in the mean time they've already given them names: Grace, for the mother, and then Timmy, Buddy, Rosie, and Zamzows (poor thing!). Don't worry, these names aren't permanent.

We'll have them for another seven weeks before the kittens are old enough to be adopted out. We only hope they'll be able to find good homes. Grace is a real sweetheart with striking green eyes, beautiful white and gray markings, and a very pleasant, affectionate personality. The kittens are all varying shades of gray at present, though already some of them are showing signs of having longer fur than the others. Timmy seems to be the most inquisitive of the group so far.

More details as their personalities develop. It should be an interesting place around here for awhile.

Hey buddy, wanna dog?

This weekend we started formally trying to find Gracie a permanent home, and in the process learned more about her. On Saturday the Idaho Humane Society scheduled a remote adoption unit at the Idaho Green Expo down at the Boise Center on the Grove. It didn't last long, as the weather was quickly getting too hot for the dogs. The kids wanted to see the expo, so I took them while Terhi walked Gracie.

We learned that Gracie gets a little too excited in crowds. She barks when she gets excited. She doesn't get aggressive, she just likes to bark. She also has something about meeting strange men. We noticed that the first day she came home. I came home later, and the minute I walked in she started barking. She's not aggressive, so it's not a an matter of being territorial or feeling threatened. If the man pets her and talks to her she immediately likes them.

The paperwork that came with her suggests that some of her previous owners taught her some bad habits, and we think that barking is what they're talking about. I think somehow a man in her past encouraged her to bark, and so that's what she does around all men now.

We've been working with her on it, and we're making progress. She's barking less and less, and stops quickly. The key is to let her know that the barking is not acceptable, not try to calm her down or give her positive reinforcement.

I wouldn't consider her barking excessive. I was raised with three dogs, and she's nothing compared to them. Most of it is typical to dogs. It's just that big dogs are louder when they bark, so it draws more attention. People tend to be more nervous about big dogs and quickly assume the dog is aggressive when it barks. Other than being a little protective of her toys the first few days (since then she's actually tried to share them with Lady), I've never seen any sign of aggression in Gracie.

Today Terhi visited the shelter and got some more information about Gracie's past. She was first brought to the shelter by a family that had to move and couldn't take her with. We think it must have been them who filled out the pages and pages of information about her that we were given. She was soon adopted by someone who brought her back in a few months claiming she was too active.

I'm not sure what they were expecting. Labrador Retrievers (though she's not a purebred) are energetic dogs, and compared with many I've seen Gracie is pretty calm. It took her a few days to get used to being here, but now she is a fairly calm dog. She just likes to be with people and will occasionally let you know she would like some attention. She'll bring her toy and drop it at your feet, a clear sign she wants to play. She doesn't need long, perhaps five or ten minutes, and then she's happy to let you go back to what you were doing.

She was adopted again last month. They brought her back after a couple of days complaining that she didn't get along with their other pets. We have a dog and three cats of our own, and we've seen no sign of that. If anything, Gracie goes out of her way to make friends. She's shown the cats very little interest at all, and she usually defers to our original, older dog. I suspect that the last owners either didn't introduce Gracie correctly, or their other pets have a problem with newcomers. In any case, two days is hardly enough time. The shelter gives you up to thirty days. I think had they taken longer it would have worked itself out.

I can't stress Gracie's sweet nature enough. She's a naturally loving dog who enjoys being around people. She'll come lay next to me on the den floor while I work, or follow Terhi around. She's great with the kids. She is quite smart, knows many commands, and is perfectly housebroken. She's also got some of the softest fur I've ever felt on a dog. And very expressive ears. She would be such a good dog for somebody.