Foster Journal

June 2000: Sassy Finds a Home

June 8, 2000

I had an unpleasant surprise when I got home from work. I smelled it as soon as I opened the door. I'm sorry, I know it's really gross to hear about it, but at least you didn't have to actually deal with it. Anyhow, I took the crate outside and cloroxed it and let it sit out there for a couple hours. And I used up the last of the simple solution on the footprints Sassy left as she went from the crate to the door. And then I gave her a bath (yes, she just had one on Monday). When Warren got back, we went to Monroeville for more Simple Solution.

June 9, 2000

Just to recap this "wonderful" friday....

Warren forgot to crate Sassy this morning and we came home to a big mess. Three or four piles of poop, several rolls of chewed toilet paper, a chewed up pen, and a bunch of stuff just moved around but not actually chewed at all, like books, shoes, etc.

Warren said the dog incident was about the best thing that happened today.

... Oh, and by the way, I read that you aren't supposed to give dogs anything for diarrhea because whatever is going on in there, you need to just let them get it out. So you're supposed to totally quit feeding them for a day ("stop putting stuff in your pet, and it will stop coming out!"), then do the boiled hamburger/rice thing for about two days, and then gradually add back in their regular food. I haven't fed poor Sassy since yesterday morning and I got a big box of rice last night so hopefully I 'll get this straightened out over the weekend. By the way, not a single solitary person has called about her.

June 11, 2000

I was just sitting outside with the dogs. They are stupid. They absolutely would not get in the shade. They all stood around panting for about an hour while I sat comfortably in the shade. I couldn't stand it anymore so I brought them inside. Dumb dogs. :)

Sassy seems better. I'm switching her back to regular dog food today. Did I tell you she's been pooping out pieces of a towel? A couple weeks ago it was kinda cold, so Warren was nice enough to put some towels in Sassy's crate to keep her warm. And I just left them there. Then, one day I came home and found that she had totally shredded her towel. I threw it away and didn't think much of it. A couple days later she started pooping out pieces of it. Guess this could have something to do with her intestinal distress, huh? I know this could be a very dangerous thing but so far she just poops some out and goes on like nothing's wrong. I've been keeping an eye on her but she seems perfectly healthy otherwise. Guess I 'll just keep doing what I 'm doing, and wait and see. Having dogs is stressful.

June 12, 2000

I put an ad for Sassy in the paper on June 2. I had one call right away from a woman who never got back in touch with me after I left two messages on her machine. I got another call last night. The guy was a total dork. The conversation went something like this:

"I'm calling about the doberman mix. She's not spayed, is she?"

Yes, she's spayed.

"Oh, well, are you looking to just give her away?"

No, I 'm fostering her for the humane society and you would adopt her through them.

"Huh?"

I'm fostering her for the humane society. The actual adoption would take place through them.

"Oh, well, do they charge anything for that?"

Yes, there is a $60 donation to adopt a dog.

"Oh, I didn't know if they would charge anything."

Yes, they do.

"Oh, well, I might call you back if I don't find anything better."

Needless to say, this guy is not getting any dog from me! He never even asked anything about her temperament or training. He never mentioned wanting to meet her. All he cared about was if she was spayed and how much she cost. What a dork. I'm sorry, but if you can't afford to pay $60 for a dog, you can't afford to take care of one.

I decided I'm not gonna run any more ads because I don't want to talk to people like this. I'll just take her to the shelter on weekends or something and pick her up on Sunday nights if nobody adopts her. Then I don't have to know anything about the idiots who think they deserve to own dogs.

"oh geez, that's depressing. you know, I 'm surprised the animal advocate ppl haven't gotten things to the point where ppl hafta pass a test to own a pet."

June 23, 2000

I can't remember if I told you the latest Sassy stuff. A got the number of a volunteer who seems to have a knack for getting dogs placed through newspaper ads. We're going to try a different newspaper too. I wanted to drop Sassy off for the weekend to see if anyone would adopt her but the shelter thought it would be too stressful for her. So I called L. She's nice and very efficient. She just went boom, boom, boom down through a list of stuff.

Here's how it's gonna work. She asked me for all Sassy's info and she's gonna place the ad. The people will call her and she will screen them and explain the foster thing to them. Then she will pass their names and numbers to me and I 'll set up appointments on Sunday for them to come and meet Sassy.

Oh, she just called back. She already placed the ad! But it won't start until Monday. She sounded happy with the ad. She was laughing and said something like, "I put all kinds of things in there!" Maybe that was my mistake; I got the cheapest possible ad and couldn't fit much in.

She expects us to be bombarded with calls. She said it will be a first-come-first-served deal. Hmm... Well, she did say she was listing Sassy as a lab mix, so that might bring in more calls. I wouldn't call her a lab, myself, but hey, whatever works.

She said she placed one of her fosters with her neighbor and she still walks him a couple times a week. She said he chased her cats (she has five), and he still tries to get to them when she walks him past her house.

June 25, 2000

I left Sassy loose in the house for about an hour while we were outside doing the yard. When we came back in, there were several piles of poop and all of the toilet paper was scattered around the house. I don't mean just the one roll, I mean the entire supply. So we had to go buy more toilet paper.

June 28, 2000

L. called last night. She said three people called about Sassy. One of them called me last night. She is coming to meet Sassy tonight at 6. She said she had a lab mix for a long time and had to put it down, and she's finally ready for another dog. Her husband is a truck driver. She is home during the day. She has two kids, 7 and 10.

I don't know what happened to the other two people that were interested.

If M decides to adopt her, we won't be able to do anything until tomorrow because the humane society closes at 7:00. I'll miss her, but I 'll be glad to see her go. Keek will be happy. Life will return to normal for a while, until I get the next one.

Another lady called today about Sassy but she said she has a pet bird. I'll have to call her back tonight and tell her that would not be a good idea. Hopefully the first lady will adopt her. I'm looking forward to seeing my cat again! I guess I 'll tell them I can't take another dog until sometime after T's wedding.

I'm a little worried cos I don't think M is planning to use a crate. I know it's possible to raise a dog without one, especially if somebody's with her all day. But I 'm sure there will be times when they'll have to leave her for a while, and she WILL get into stuff. One hour was enough time for her to make quite a mess. So I really hope they don't take her and then return her because she chews stuff and poops in the house when nobody's home.

I'm also a little worried that she'll bark at them when they come to meet her. I mean, I know she'll bark. But I hope she shuts up and lets them come in the yard. I'm planning on just having her meet them in the yard and keeping B&E inside.

L called and said she had another EIGHT messages today!! It's nice that she's dealing with all of that. I don't have to explain about the foster thing. People call me and they already know everything. While I was talking to her, the phone rang but I didn't answer it. A few minutes later, I got a call from somebody named J, who has a 4yo and is pregnant, and wants a dog but thinks it would be better to get one that is not a tiny puppy cos of the kids. She sounds nice too. They all sounded nice. I wish they wouldn't call me at work, though. I feel so conspicuous talking about dog stuff with all these people around. Oh well.

Anyway, I told J I will call her after M meets Sassy tonight. If M doesn't adopt her, J is next in line. L, the bird lady, is not an option, unfortunately.

I wonder why I had such a poor response to the ad I ran. It was in a different paper, and it was really short. And I certainly didn't use the word "stunning" to describe Sassy!

All the calls except one were from women.

I'm reluctant to call and check my messages again. I can't deal with any more people!!

Well, I think I will go cut the grass and pick up some poop to get ready for our big meeting tonight. If M and her family want Sassy, depending on how late it gets, we might take her back tonight. I don't know how realistic that is, because the shelter closes at seven.

June 29, 2000

Remember M, the really nice lady that used to have a lab mix and was finally ready to get a new dog, and was supposed to meet Sassy last night at six? I sat around waiting... and waiting... Finally I called L. because I didn't have M's number. I got the number, waited until 6:30, and called.

Me: "M?" Her: "No." Me: "Is M there, please?" Her: "No." Me: "Um... she had called me about a dog..." Her: (Pause) "I don't know nothin' 'bout no dog." Me: "Okay, bye."

I was so tempted to say something like, "Oh, okay M, bye!" It was obviously her. I wanted to believe it was a wrong number but it just wasn't. She never even said "you have the wrong number" or "there's no M here." So I crossed her off the list (cursing!) and called the next person, J, who is pregnant and has a four year old. I know some people won't adopt to anyone who is pregnant or has really young kids, but I thought it was worth a shot. She said they could be there at 7:30. They actually showed up, mostly on time. Sassy barked at them but made friends pretty quickly. She seemed to like the dad. She mostly ignored the boy, even when he was running around, which is good.

They stayed for about half an hour. They seemed to really like her, and she liked them. The lady said they decided ahead of time that they weren't gonna make a decision until today. So she is supposed to call me today and let me know. If they want her, we'll take her to the shelter tonight. If not, I guess I have to call the next person on the list. This is getting to be a real hassle.

L. had warned me ahead of time that some people would probably just not show up. So she wasn't surprised when I told her about M (although I didn't get to tell her about the "don't know nothin'" part). It just blows my mind. Why would you go to all the trouble of calling two different people about a dog, make an appt, not show up, not call, and pretend you didn't know anything about it? Just say you changed your mind!

I was away from my desk for a while this morning and I thought J might have tried to call (she was supposed to let me know this morning - she didn't) so I called her. She said she had to talk it over with her husband and she'd call me in fifteen minutes. An hour and a half later, she called back and said they decided they didn't want her.

So I crossed her off the list and called K. Her line was busy for like an hour. Finally I got her and told her Sassy was still available. She said she has three kids and one is autistic, and she heard that pets are good for autistic kids. She said she has been looking at a bunch of labs and lab mixes cos that's what she likes, but they are all too rowdy. I tried to tell her that, although Sassy is relatively calm, labs are generally kinda rowdy, especially young ones. But for some reason she is sure she wants a lab-type dog. So she decided she wanted to come meet Sassy. I told her she could come tonight after 4:30. She wanted to know if she could wait until Saturday. I told her no. So she said she could come tonight at five. She said their car is small so she wouldn't be able to take her home tonight. I told her she isn't allowed to anyway. Then she called L back (I gave her my number but I guess she was confused) and said she couldn't come until seven. I guess that's okay.

But then L called me AGAIN because she found someone that sounded really good. She said he had labs, and his neighbors have dobes, and a lab/dobe mix sounded great. He has three kids (the youngest is seven) and he's buying a new house with land, and he said the first thing they will do is put up a fence. I'm supposed to call him tonight after the other lady comes. It sucks cos he sounds better than the lady (she was kinda pushy on the phone) but she's already coming.

This time I only waited 20 minutes before I called. K was like, "Oh, you know what happened, my husband got called into work early, gee, I guess it is after seven already." Yeah, whatever. And something about, "This is a really busy time for us." Okay, that's a GREAT time to go dog shopping! Idiot. She said she might call back next week if Sassy is still available.

I tried to call the guy that L really liked. I had two numbers for him. One was disconnected. The other one keeps saying, "All circuits are busy, please try again later, 412 71T." Guess I 'll go try again later, 412 71T. I'm about to go drop the darn dog off at the shelter. I'm not good at dealing with this stuff.

June 30, 2000

I kept trying to call M last night after the other lady didn't show up. I couldn't get through. It kept saying all circuits are busy. Finally at around 8:45 I realized he must have a different area code. They added a new one a while ago. So I tried his number with (724) and it worked. I felt really bad because apparently he had been waiting for me to call. He barely waited for me to give him directions (I could tell he wasn't writing them down) and he said they were on their way. They got lost and had to call (I knew he didn't write down the directions!) but they made it. It took them a while to get there, about an hour. I looked at the map and they came from pretty far away.

It was just him and his wife. They were gonna bring the kids but it was past the seven-year-old's bedtime. They haven't told the 7yo yet. They were really nice. They just moved to a new house last weekend and she said she always wanted to get a dog as soon as they lived someplace with enough space. They are a soccer family and they are planning to take Sassy to the games and practices. They said all the soccer parents drop off their kids at practice and walk the dog in the park. Sounds perfect! The dad wanted to name her Keeper, like goalkeeper. But he decided it's not a good girl name.

They really like her. She was actually not giving them a whole lot of attention. I think she was ready for bed, and she was concerned that Brin and Echo were upstairs whining. I wanted to do the intro outside but it was raining and dark so we did it in the kitchen. It's good that the kids didn't come because there wouldn't have been enough room. Anyway, they looked at each other and said, "What do you think?" and then they smiled and looked at me and said, "What do we have to do to get her?" No wishy- washy "I have to think about it, we'll let you know" kinda stuff. They definitely want her. I hope there's enough time to get everything done. We can't get her to the shelter until around 6, and he said he works until 6, and the shelter closes at 7. But we'll try it.

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