Here We Go Again...

First the sad news - we lost Cassie's beloved childhood cat, Sarah at 18 years to chronic kidney disease in November.   We are so grateful for Airport West, Erica, Rose and staff who helped not only helped give us almost an additional quality year with her, but also helping us when it was her time to cross the rainbow bridge.   And thanks to to the Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - an invaluable website to anyone battling CKD with their cats.

And then if that wasn't sad enough - George got pancreatitis shortly after that and I was struggling with that, when he had a stroke of some kind and I let him cross the rainbow bridge in early January.  I really liked George - he was a super chill cat, just wanted to be petted all day every day every second forever.. :)  

Onto happier news; Pinkie, the other cat of Mike's, is doing really well being an only cat.  I believe she was picked on by her two siblings up at my dad's being the smallest and it's probably why she hid all the time.   It has been great watching her come out of her shell. She's been coming out of her little hidey hole and asking for pets and being sweet.   She's doing so well - Cassie decided to take her back to school with her this weekend .  She misses Sarah still; but she can use the company and Pinkie is not a fan of the dogs; so she will get extra extra attention and her own dog free space.  She seems happy there... And she is wearing a little pink collar for the very first time at age 17!

So I find myself back with  just Sasha and Skeeter; but the energy is the house is... well...low... They are world class nappers.  I thought we could use a change. The winter has been mild; so we aren't under tons of snow like last year.  Time to change things up.   Some new energy for all of us.  So I am going to pick up fostering again... I have really missed it.  The love and the joy of new dogs in the house.  Yay! 

So who is this new dog?  Well; her name is Sunny.  She is coming up on transport this weekend - she is about 6 years old.  She was found as a stray and injured by most likely being hit by a car and some other surprises; but now she is healed up and ready to start looking for her forever family.  I am excited to meet her and getting to know her.  Hope Sasha and Skeeter are too!  Look at those ears!

Fostering Life

So I will be taking an extended break from fostering for New Rattitude.  I will still stay active in New Rattitude and will always be on the look out for updates of any and all my foster pups - I will not be taking on any new fosters for awhile.

The reason is cause of these two sweet little kitties - George and Pinkie; they are siblings and 16 years old.  They were my dad's cats and he passed away last month.  I'm happy to have them and am working on acclimating them to their new home... It's scary to them and they have not be exposed to dogs before - so we are doing a slow transition to the full house and the crew  They are a hoot though. They stay in my work office and George demands pets and drools while you pet him (and we incidentally found that he also loves to be vacuumed!).  Pinkie is the shyer of the two - she hides a lot but we have been getting short visits from her and she lets us hold her.  She has a bit of sneer due to missing a canine.    And we micro chipped them too since George likes to go outside from time to time and we want to build up to short visits outside like he was use to if possible for George especially who likes to go outside for daily walk abouts.

How I ended up with 5 animals probably isn't surprising to anyone; but I am surprised that the cats outnumber the dogs!  That's not how I thought it would go.  I am now a senior animal home with Skeeter coming in at the youngest at 11 years.

Sarah is doing good, at 18; she's still fighting her kidney disease but has rebounded from being sick like she was in December.  She gets weekly sub-q fluids at home and that has seemed to slow down the progression and she is comfortable and happy.   

 Sasha at 14 isn't sure about these new cats she's having to deal with.  She likes to bark at them at first; but now she's not and she gets that they live here now.   We are working on getting her and Pinkie/George used to each other in small increments.

And Skeeter is just happy to be sleeping back on my work desk after being booted for a week. George and Pinkie are currently staying in my office for the most part and for the first week they were here; I kept her out while they acclimated a bit.   She doesn't care about the cats; but she would like to test taste their food!  They don't seem to mind her either; though I think they don't know quite what to make of her either.

so I will still pop up from time to time and one day come back to fostering - I really love it so much - I love meeting and getting know to know all my foster dogs and their personalities.  They've taught me a lot and in a variety of ways.  But for now; these five will get to settled into this new pack and routine which so far has been off to a very good start.

Much love  :)

Happy SkittleWeen!

My daughter is getting some mad skills on the sewing machine and has made the dogs some cute little dino pj's which I think they will be wearing to celebrate hallo ween... My dog Sasha doesn't get nearly enough props on this blog and she's been such a trooper with all the fosters for the past year and half.  Plus these pictures where just too cute to not to put up... I think they are pretty adorable.

You can see Skittles being a little nervous being so close to Sasha but is hanging in there... They get along pretty well and will get close to each other for treats and naps, but no play out of either of them with each other...

an owl dinosaur!  ;)

someone needs to pull down the sofa cover...

Cassie showing the improper way of picking Skittles up!

Skittles cute little dino tush.. if he wags his tail, it moves...bahahaw

She had the Sarah, our cat try on the dino pj's too!

I Love Cats But They Don't Love Me!

Tucker's previous home had a cat that was super tolerant of him... not the case with my cat Sarah... She hissed and hides from him.  He wants to play with her and will bark at her until we shoo him away.. then he will come back over and over again... So I had an idea... I took him to meet Strider - our neighbor king cat that is always about... Again, Tucker wanted to play.. really it was cute watching him tried to get Strider to play.. Strider said no, and no, and then Tucker got a swipe on nose... Did it work?  No.. He still wanted to play!  So Strider ran away... Round one to Tucker...   I will have to come up with a new idea...

who wouldn't want to play with this cute little face?  

Tonight I tried out my double lead leash with Tucker and Sasha together and it was great.. .They walk well together until we were on the way home and Sasha starts to lag cause she's tired.  They aren't BFF's yet, but they are on their way to be friendly...  There was also a dog barking as we walked by and they perked up, but with a little talking, not a peep at either of them. 

No accidents in the crate on Friday, so I think the extra time and a walk in the am is the trick.  He's also using the doggie door on his own as needed...

Rolling around in the front yard...

*Sob* *Sob* Ooo Shelly

SHELLYYYYYYYYYYY!

So on Sunday Shelly went off to go to her wonderful parents, but it was heartbreaking for me, Cassie. I was strong when Sebastian left, and Shelby, but something about her little face, and white paws made me fall in love.

Maybe it was the fact that she liked me more than Mom. The way she would obsess over the red dot, or how she would be impatient for a treat were my favorite traits of hers. Or the way she would stretch crawl towards us wiggling her butt.

Shelly's new home is going to be amazing! I know she will just be in love with Lisa's two little girls, who were very excited for having a new dog.

I think the hardest thing of being a "co-fosterer" is getting attached, which I thought I would never happen. (WHAT WAS I THINKING!)

At the amazing New Rattitude Reunion where about 40 rat terriers showed up and were absolutely adorable all checking each other out and sniffin'. I was unhappy with the fact that Shelly was going home but it was hard to think that Shelly should stay when i saw her new parents. The last kisses for Shelly are still in my heart. I will always love lil shells.

-In other news Mom and I won two prizes for the raffle and one of them had a doggie bed. Which has another visitor other than a dog....

SARAH LOVES IT!!!

I love you lil shelly and will always miss you:)

-Cassie

P.S. Shelly's new name is Indigo, named by the little girls