Room To Grow

Sunday, November 29, 2009

September Went To The Dogs

Every since we adopted Thani in October 2006, I have volunteered with the local Rhodesian Ridgeback Rescue group. I mainly perform homechecks and sometimes transportation from foster home to foster home. The day before Labor Day weekend, I received an email from the group asking if anyone could take our senior foster dogs, Sara (12yo) and Cooper (10yo), for the weekend. I had seen them on the website and thought that they were very cute, especially Cooper.

For some reason, M agreed to let us take them over the weekend.

Here they are - the first night home with us. They were very nervous. We stayed with them all night. Every hour or so, they would get up and pace around the house. And whine and whimper.

Thani, Rita and Cooper on a hike at a nearby lagoon Labor Day weekend.

Cooper - love that face.

Sara and Cooper - always excited and hopping for their dinner.

Thani trying to give Cooper kisses. It was very interesting to see Thani as part of the pack. He definitely was a follower. (Sara was the pack leader but was very dependent on her younger brother Cooper.) At first, Sara and Cooper hung out together and slept near each other. Thani was on the other side of the room. But eventually, they all warmed up to each other and would pal around together.

Cooper.

Sara and Thani.

One issue we did have with Sara and Cooper is their inconsistent interest in Yoshi the cat. At times, they didn't seem to care one bit that she was part of the family. At other times, they would try to chase her. Once early on, Cooper pinned her down but she tricked him and got away. Yoshi ended up staying upstairs alot - under the bed and hiding in her room.

The pack sleeping.

There were a few families interested in Sara and Cooper so we decided to keep them longer than the weekend. Unfortunately, none of the families checked out so we decided to keep them (alternatively they were going to be split up) as a long-term foster situation.

We took them to the vet and had them checked out. Endured Sara's accidents in the house. (Turns out she had a bladder infection.) And after two or three weeks, their paperwork made it to our home, and we learned their story. Sara was adopted in ~1997 from a shelter in Palo Alto, CA when she was two years old. Cooper was born the same year and adopted directly from a breeder. For 11 years, the family - with Sara and Cooper - lived in California, Nevada, Colorado and Hawaii. Finally they moved back to California and had to downsize their home (to 1700 sq ft) and dropped off Sara and Cooper with the rescue group. I can't imagine the circumstances that lead to that decision.

So, our 12yo and 10yo foster dogs were actually (almost) 14yo and 12yo.

The story continues in October ....

Besides working ALOT in September, at the end of the month Rita and I went to Portland to visit with Aoife & Jeremy and family. It was a nice, girls getaway weekend!

Written at 1:00 PM by A Room to Grow.

2 comments

2 Comments:

Melissa said...

could Rita translate the video or has she lost her Russian?

7:25 PM PST

Christen L said...

Two houses down our neighbors have a Vizsla and a Weimaraner. Everytime I see them out, I think of you. :) Isn't it funny how we associate blogger friends by the little bits we know about their lives? lol.

10:39 AM PST