Irish Blessings and Great Jingle News!

May those who love us, love us.

And those that don't love us,

May God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn't turn their hearts,

May he turn their ankles

So we'll know them by their limping.

All of us at Talking Dogs wish you

 the luck of the Irish!

Like Jingle!

Remember Jingle, the Redbone Coonhound who was fostered by Kristi and Glenn Austin.  She was available for adoption from City Dogs Rescue.

Yes!  That is past tense.

Jingle went to her new forever home on Saturday!

Thank you for sharing and networking this beautiful senior girl!

Redbone Coonhound Jingle Will Steal Your Heart

 Meet Jingle, a beautiful Redbone Coonhound dog.

No, you're not going crazy.  No, it's not the first stages of Alzheimer's, nor is it deja vu.  You've seen Jingle before.

In fact, you've seen Jingle twice on this blog.  The first time was in our Q and A interview with Kristi and Glenn Austin about fostering dogs.  The second was in our Follow-up Friday blog post where we gave you an update on Jingle.

Jingle will steal your heart.  She stole mine.

Jingle was found as a stray with her two 8 month old puppies by animal control in Christiansburg, VA.  No one stepped up to claim this little family.  The puppies were adopted, but Jingle remained homeless.

Pulled from the Montgomery County Friends of Animal Care and Control by City Dogs Rescue, thanks to the persuasive efforts of Kristi Austin who volunteered to provide foster care while Jingle was vetted, had surgery and was spayed. Jingle was saved.

Jingle waiting to into the clinic for her vetting.

Jingle is described as "one of the sweetest hounds to come through the shelter (and we see a LOT of hounds!)"

While in foster care with the Austins, Jingle got used to hardwood floors and enjoyed cuddling.

Jingle is 8 years old, a female Redbone Coonhound, and weighs 57 pounds.  She is house broken and crate trained.  Though she is excellent with other dogs, she not fond of cats.  Jingle adores people and does great in the car.

Jingle's tummy is full and the treats keep coming!

Jingle does well on leash and loves to go for walks.  She's playful, submissive, friendly, and shy.  Jingle is a low maintenance dog.
   

Jingle - on her way to the big city and City Dogs Rescue.

 While in foster care with the Austin's, Jingle learned about hardwood floors and became a foster that was very hard to give up.  Kristi says Jingle is the "sweetest girl.  I look over at her and she starts wagging her tail."

Country girl Jingle gets her first look at the big city, Washington, D.C.

Jingle is now living in a foster home in Washington, D. C.   She is available for adoption from City Dogs Rescue.  View her adoption page here - available dogs are listed in alphabetical order; just scroll down to Jingle.  Click on her and you'll see many more photos.


City Dogs Rescue was formed for one reason: to rescue adoptable dogs in overcrowded and high-kill shelters where resources are severely limited.  They offer a lifeline to as many of these pups as possible.  City Dogs Rescue is a network of volunteers who foster dogs with volunteer families and donated boarding facilities.  By finding dogs permanent and loving homes in the DC metropolitan area, they enrich the lives of both canine and human.

We always feature an adoptable dog on Sunday at Talking Dogs.  They're all special and they all deserve a loving forever home.  However, today's dog is more special to me.

You see, this dog has captured my heart.  It's one of those inexplicable things that just happens.  Like it or not, I feel a connection with this particular dog.   If our lives were in a different place, there's no doubt in my mind that she'd be joining our family.  Please help me network and share to find Jingle that perfect forever home.

Follow-up Friday: Treats, Winners, Coyotes

I'm pleased to be joining Heart Like A Dog for the Follow-up Friday blog hop this week.

I love Jodi's idea and am pleased that I've finally gotten it together to join in! 

It's the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.  Hosted by Jodi at Heart Like A Dog, and co-hosted this week by Donna and the Dogs.

Today I have some follow-ups to more than just the past week of blog posts.

Good Dog Take Outs Treat Giveaway
We've heard from a couple of our winners who are enjoying their Good Dog Take Outs dog treats.  Tiffany reports that her dogs have sampled the Peanut Butter dog treats from Good Dog Take Outs.  Bella and Jenny love them!  Tiffany sent photos to prove it.

Kelly was hoping that her Peanut Butter and Egg and Cheesy dog treats would arrive in time for Artie's Gotcha Day Celebration and they did!  Here's Artie:

Be sure to visit Talking Dogs in April because we'll be celebrating Jeffie's birthday with giveaways!  In fact, Good Dog Take Outs new dog treat flavors will be among the prizes!


Dog Mom Jewelry Bracelet Give Away
Our celebration of my mom's birthday was a lot of fun!  Especially for the winner, Caren Gittleman, author of Cat Chat with Caren and Cody and Dakota's Den blogs!   My mom never met a celebration or giveaway she didn't love, and I know she's smiling that a dog and cat lover won that bracelet! Bark at me in the comments if you'd like me to have another For Love of a Dog jewelry giveaway and tell me what you'd most like to win!

Fostering Dogs: Kristi and Glenn Austin Q and A
Kristi reports that Jingle has settled into her new foster home in Washington, D. C. and is looking for that perfect home where she can spend the rest of her senior years.  Contact City Dogs Rescue for more information on "one of the sweetest hounds you'll ever meet."

Jingle is now waiting for adoption.

A Different Sort of Canine Wordless Wednesday
This probably merits a whole new blog post, but since I won't get around to that until next week, I'll give you an update.

Since I took those snowy coyote photos and wrote that post (okay, confession time:  I schedule posts ahead of time) we've had several more close encounters of the coyote kind.  However, these encounters were way too close for comfort and were with a lone coyote with a bit different coloring than the pair we've been watching.

This coyote shows absolutely zero fear or caution.  He just sits there, a few feet away.  Watching.

I think he's pegged Jeffie as all bark and no bite;  Rudy as a loud, inexperienced goof;  and Rosie as a delectable delight.   All true.

And me?  You know how all the literature tells you to make yourself as big as possible?  To yell and wave your arms? I was on the top of the back porch, yelling like a banshee, and definitely waving my arms.   No reaction.

Got the dogs in.  I came in.  The coyote, looking very obviously bored and feeling like the show was over, slowly meandered off to the north.

There's something very wrong here that this wild creature has absolutely no fear of any of us in any of these encounters.  I have a feeling we're approaching a "High Noon" moment.  Stay tuned...

Missouri: A Dangerous Place for Animals
Here's the deal:  I try not to think about the fact that I live in Missouri.  I've blogged about the shame I feel living in the Puppy Mill Capital.  Animal welfare is not the only issue that makes me feel that way about Missouri.

However, I do live here and so do millions of other animal lovers who have worked very hard to improve conditions and protect animals from cruelty.  If we all left, stopped spending our money here, never promoted the state... then where would animals in Missouri be?  Definitely in worse shape.

Is Missouri our home state?  No.  We moved here to provide hospice care for my mother and to fulfill her wish to die at home.   Will we be moving?  Probably.

My husband is fond of saying:  Bloom where you're planted.  He's also big on: Everybody's gotta be somewhere.  Right now we do live in Missouri and we do what we can for animals.
[rant over]

So...  that's how my week has shaped up so far!  

Join the Follow-up Friday blog hop and tell us all about your week!

Fostering Dogs: Kristi and Glenn Austin Q and A

Jingle was found as a stray with her two 8 month old puppies by animal control in Christiansburg, VA.  No one claimed this little family.  The puppies were adopted, but beautiful mama hound, Jingle, remained homeless.

That's when a Virginia couple, Kristi and Glenn Austin, stepped up and agreed to foster Jingle while she underwent spay surgery.  

That's Jingle (left) at the shelter, sporting a new collar, and loaded in the Austin vehicle getting ready for her roadtrip to foster care with Kristi and Glenn.

I can't say I was surprised.  Kristi and Glenn have been fostering for awhile and they especially love hounds!  Well, truthfully, they simply love dogs.  In fact, they have seven dogs of their own.  Yes, some of them are "failed fosters."

Glenn and Kristi Austin

Because fostering is such an important part of saving shelter dogs, I thought I should take advantage of my friendship with the Austin's and ask some questions.

Max

Tell us about your first fostering experience. Why did you decide to foster?
How long did you foster that first dog? How did that dog fit in your
household?

Kristi: Our first foster was in July 2010. 

We adopted a Dalmatian mix from the Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia (www.drswv.com) in January 2010 and I started volunteering with them later in the spring.  They were in need of emergency fosters for three puppies coming up from North Carolina. I was able to help find fosters for two of the puppies and I talked my husband into fostering the third. 

So Max came into our lives on July 4, 2010. He was about 4 months old and full of clumsy puppy energy. Max is the reason why some people say they can�t foster � because they would get too attached and want to keep them. Well I only had Max a few days and I was completely in love with him. He became our first foster as well as our first failed foster.

Glenn: Ask her to tell you about the �cannon�

How many dogs have your fostered?
 

Chester

Kristi: We�ve fostered dogs anywhere from a few days to several months. There�s been a total of 9 since 2010. Max, (Dalmatian mix), Chester (Dalmatian/Setter mix), Haven (American Bulldog mix), Yuma (Dalmatian mix), Belvedere (English/Bluetick Coonhound), Louis (Long haired Dalmatian), Maggie (Redtick Coonhound), Jazzi (Jack Russell/Hound mix), and Jingle (Redbone Coonhound). 

Our latest foster, Jingle, came from a shelter in southwest Virginia. We are working with City Dogs Rescue http://www.citydogsrescuedc.org/) in Washington, DC to temp foster her, coordinate her vetting and getting her transported to DC.

How do you introduce a new foster dog to your current pets?

Haven

Kristi: Introducing a new dog to our pack can upset the pack dynamic that�s been established by our own 7 dogs. So much so we�ve gone back and forth about continuing to foster. 

Our younger dogs, Boof and Luna are usually more welcoming. Max, our �middle child�, thinks �Yay! Someone I can dominate!�. Mia and Ash, our alpha female and male are quick to let the newbies know they are in charge. Emme is typically indifferent, as is Belvie, unless it�s a puppy and he becomes a drooling goof! 

What�s easiest to do is to introduce the new foster gradually. We�ll put the foster with one or two of ours at a time so they can do the meet and greet with each other and get familiar with all the new smells. By the time the foster has met all of ours, they look at you like �That�s all of them right?�

Yuma

Glenn: We bring them in, let check out the house and just introduce them to the less alpha dogs first and then one by one introduce them all in
limited numbers.

 



Tell us about your set-up. Crates? Yard/exercise.

Kristi: All of our own dogs are crate trained so we do have several crates set up in 2-3 rooms in the house. We rotate who gets crated at night and there�s a couple that are crated when we�re at work because they like to pilfer in the house. So we do/have used crates with all of our fosters. We have a fenced in area for our dogs so fosters get to go out and play and interact with our dogs.

Of course, you feed them, but what about basic training, behavior
modification, socialization, and medical care?
 

Louis the Longhair

Kristi: we do work with fosters on house training and crate training. Basic manners are always useful. Socialization is usually needed. 

I�ve taken fosters on short weekend trips or trips to dog friendly places in town to allow them to interact with people and see how they ride in a car. We have dealt with behavior modification issues in the past. 

One of our fosters, Haven, was becoming crate and dog aggressive after she�d been at the rescue for a few weeks. I had spent some time with Haven at the rescue and knew she was a great dog, just not happy in a crate environment. My husband let me bring her home to foster so I could work with her. 

We kept her outside in a kennel during the day and crated at night. I worked with her one on one for about a month, slowly introducing her to our dogs and letting them interact. I also had a behaviorist work with her. This dog had an amazing, goofy personality. 

Haven was with us for about 8 months before she was adopted. We�d had several applications on her, but I was very protective of her. My husband has referred to me as the �adoption mafia� because I was so militant about her applications. I had worked with Haven for so long and she�d come such a long way, I couldn�t just let her go to anyone. She ended up getting adopted by a family friend so I get regular updates! 

Rescue/shelter dogs come to their foster homes with a past. People who are thinking about fostering should understand that. These dogs have been dumped at shelters, abused and neglected by their former owners, or picked up as strays These dogs have often lived hard lives by the time they go to a foster home so they are nervous, afraid, unsure. Foster parents have to be ready and willing to deal with that.

How do you find the time?

Maggie

Kristi: We have a pretty good system down with our own dogs and they are on a routine for feeding, bedtime, etc. It takes a couple of days for the new foster to figure it out, but once they do they settle into it pretty well. 

Feeding time is like an assembly line of dog bowls. We rotate who�s inside and who�s outside on days we�re off so they all get time inside and outside. Don�t get me wrong; it can be stressful and chaotic. My husband vacuums everyday as soon as he gets home from work. Thank God for hardwood! 

We�re constantly picking up gutted dog toys or taking shoes away from Boof. Glenn and I both work full time, but we love our dogs so we make time. Fostering from time to time is very important to me. There are just so many dogs in shelters and you realize you can�t save them all even though you want to. I don�t know who this quote is attributed to, but I love it: �Saving one dog won�t change the world, but it will change the world for that one dog.�

Any �horror� stories?

Kristi: Not really horror stories. There are things that you sometimes have to watch out for when you bring a foster in, especially if you have other dogs. If you bring in a male that hasn�t been neutered yet, they tend to mark which cause your male dogs to mark over it. 

Strong willed female fosters can cause an issue if you have a dominant female in the house. A battle of wills so to speak. You often have to be prepared to work on them with basic manners, housetraining, socialization, or just being in a house for the first time.

Are you actively involved in finding the foster dogs forever homes? How do you give them up?

Jazzi

Kristi: Yes, I volunteer with the Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia as the Foster and Event Coordinator. I often work with the applications for any dog I am fostering for them. I also network with several groups via Facebook and email to spread awareness of dogs available for adoption or needing rescues. I create flyers for my fosters that have pictures and bios of our fosters to post on Facebook.

As much as I would love to keep them all, I know realistically it�s not possible so I like to play a role in where the foster goes if I can. 

Another group I work with is in my home state of West Virginia. One of the volunteers I work with I call my �coonhound partner in crime� and she works endlessly with other volunteers to save the dogs at the shelter in Charleston. The group is called Dog Bless and your can check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/dogblessadvocacy

Tell us about your �failed� fosters. Why did you decide to keep them?

Belvedere aka Belvie

Kristi: Our first foster, Max, was a puppy and that probably had a little
to do with us keeping him. You do get attached to them, especially your first couple fosters. Max was just an adorable clumsy puppy. He and his brother were picked up as strays in North Carolina when they were just about 3-4 months old. 

He will be forever known to us by the �ass cannon� incident on his first night with us. He�d been on a transport all day so he was a little stressed and settling in. I caught him just finishing up a round of diarrhea in our dining room (thank goodness for hardwood floors!).

Anyway, I went to clean it up and thought I got it all, but could still smell it. We discovered he�d also managed to poop down into the AC register! He sat by my side watching me in my rubber gloves as I cleaned it all up!  

Max as a puppy used to play really hard with our larger dogs. When he�d get tired he�d come over to me and I�d pick him up and he�d go to sleep in my arms. My husband looked at me and goes �That dog isn�t leaving here is he?� Well now 3 years later, Max is close to 70 lbs and still climbs into my lap on occasion. He�s a total mama�s boy!

Glenn: Kristi brought Belvie in and already �had� a Coon Hound rescue group up in Massachusetts for him. Well Massachusetts has strict rules for bringing in outside animals. We had to arrange to have a Health Certificate for him prior to transport. We arranged transport and a vet visit but the health Certificate expired before we could get him transported so we had to arrange for another Vet check. 

So we�re ready to get him on a transport and we find out that he has to be tested for Lyme Disease.  He�s tested on Thursday, the transport is on Friday. Of course he tests positive for Lyme Disease, though he has no symptoms. Treatment is antibiotics for several weeks. At this point after our failed attempts to get him transported we just decided it was meant to be for him to be with us, so we adopted him!

Why should dog lovers foster?

Jingle

Kristi: Fostering is an amazingly rewarding experience. Our latest foster, Jingle, is a senior redbone coonhound that was picked up as a stray in southwest Virginia with her two pups. The pups were adopted but Jingle was left. I convinced City Dogs Rescue in Washington, DC to take her in and we became her foster while she's vetted. 

For anyone who thinks they can�t foster because they would want to keep him/her, that's okay because you will want to keep them. BUT, know you are saving the life of an unwanted dog that would have stayed in a shelter and perhaps been euthanized for to make room for more dogs to be brought in. When you foster and let that dog go to a forever home, it opens your home to save yet another life.  

I'll cry like an idiot when Jingle moves on but I'll know that she's spending her golden years in a warm home with a family who will love and spoil her crazy. 

If you foster for a rescue, vetting expenses are generally paid for or reimbursed by the rescue. A foster family provides love, attention, help with housebreaking (if needed), socialization. I am the foster coordinator for Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia and we adopt Dalmatians and Dalmatian mixes throughout US and in Canada. Foster homes are always needed.

If you can�t foster, I would encourage anyone to volunteer with their local shelter or rescue. Help with transporting a dog, walking a dog, donating a bag of dog food or a little money to help pay for vaccinations or heartworm preventatives.

Austin pups sunning on the deck.

If you are interested in fostering, Kristi and Glenn suggest you check out these sites: 

Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia 
Dog Bless   (affiliated with the Kanawha Charleston Humane Association in West Virginia)
City Dogs Rescue, Washington, DC
Logan County WV Adoptable Animals � volunteer group working with a rural county pound in Logan, WV. They just received their non-profit status.  This is where our former foster Yuma was pulled from this pound.

Some of the Austin pack watching Glenn plow snow!