Bones and Izzy

When William was adopted at the SPCA's Walk-a-Thon and then Lester flew off to Boston, I told Ashley that I wouldn't take any more foster dogs until after I got back from Europe. I did tell her, though, that I would be an emergency placement if she was really hard up.

That's how we got Jimmy for two brief stays here.

It's also how we got Melissa for a long weekend.

It was really cool when I stopped by Petco to pick up Jimmy and bring him home and Melissa was so excited to see me. I love it when animals we've fostered remember us after a long period (like "Sugar" remembered us when we went to see her this past weekend).

Summer is a hard time for dog placement for the SPCA. Many of the volunteers are students who go home (or off to summer internships elsewhere) for the summer and other volunteers go on vacation in the summertime. It leaves Ashley hard up for finding homes for all the dogs that filter through the SPCA (and there are often more of them, because students may leave pets behind when they leave).

She was desperate this week, so I told her to give me a foster dog. I figured if we had a dog settled in for a couple of weeks, Walt could then handle the care and feeding of 3 dogs while I'm gone, as long as it wasn't a litter of puppies needing extra care.

And that's how we got Bones today. And Izzy. Actually Izzy wasn't staying with us; she was moving to Jimmy's old foster home, but her foster mom was going to be working today, so I agreed to pick both dogs up at the SPCA thrift store and keep Izzy here for the afternoon.

There was great excitement when I brought them home. I got all four dogs settled down and calm and then the two new dogs started learning their new surroundgs. First things first:

Left: Bones (chihuahua); Right: Izzy (Spaniel/Doxie mix)

Then came the settling in process. Izzy is a little love. She looks like a shorter Nikki and, like Nikki, is very sweet and loving. But she also hid in corners until she started to feel comfortable and if anybody (on 2 or 4 feet) came up to him, except me, he growled. It wasn't a serious threat. She was just a scared little puppy in a strange place with big dogs trying to check her out. She didn't try to bite anybody and stopped growling soon, but she did have her defense mechanism. As soon as I sit down, she's in my lap and very happy to sleep there.

Bones is an attention hog. He must be in my lap at all times. It's much more pleasant now that I've given him a bath. Either he peed all over himself in a cage or something else happened, but he smelled (and felt) quite unpleasant, so the need to be attached to my body at all times was not exactly something I felt happy about.

But once he was clean and sweet smelling, it was much more pleasant to have him in my lap. He follows me everywhere, whining either for food or to get into my lap.

He is desperate for food and will do a little dance whenever he thinks there is a possibility of getting some.

He seems to have a cute little personality, if only he settles down long enough that he doesn't feel the need to whine whenever I am doing something other than paying attention to him, I think he's going to be a nice little dog.

This is his description from Petfinder.com: Bones is a a sweet Chihuahua mix who is in need of a new home. Bones has been though a lot and has quite the story to tell. This little guy was picked up by a good samaritan after they witnessed him literally being kicked out of a car on Jefferson Blvd in West Sacramento. They took this sore boy home and let him heal. Bones was microchiped and a letter was sent to the owner but she never came to pick him up.

The family that found Bones wanted to keep him but, their other dog was not able to get along with him. Now Bones is in a foster home. He seems to be a happy boy. He walks well on a leash and is social with everyone. He is very cute and will stand on his back legs to beg for attention. Bones is 4 yrs old and weighs 13 lbs.

Can you imagine kicking a dog out of a car on a busy street and driving off without him? I just wonder about people, sometimes!