As you might have guessed from last week’s post, our itch to foster is being scratched.  We never really made a decision to foster per se, however, our foster found us.

On the first Saturday after Christmas, I just returned home from a trip to Baltimore and was taking the pugs out for a short walk before we went to grab some dinner.  While the pugs were smelling around on the corner, a car approached and the person inside asked if we wanted another pug - referencing the one on her lap.  Confused as to why they were offering up their pug, we approached the car and found out that they had found the pug wandering the street a few days before and were unsure what to do with it.  I asked if they were able to keep the pug for at least one more night and they assured me that they could.  Knowing that, we immediately swapped numbers so that when I returned home I could call them and give them the contact information for Central Florida Pug Rescue who I knew would be able to help.  However, after many attempts to contact them, I never spoke to those people again.

Cut to Monday morning.

I was plugging away in my office when the doorbell rang.  When I approach the door, I was taken aback by a man in what looks very much like a police officer’s uniform.  I quieted the pugs and then went out to speak with him.  He asked if I was short a pug.  I gave him a pug titled head look and said, “No, why?” He explained, that he just received a call about a pug wandering in our neighborhood and first wanted to check and make sure all ours were accounted for.  This had me ever so confused as I wondered how the animal control officer even knew that I had pugs.  It turned out that he lives in a neighborhood right behind us and frequently sees us walking our pugs.  And after asking a few people in our subdivision he was easily able to track us down.

I let him know that all my pugs were present and accounted for and were all barking at him at the door.  He explained that there was a black pug wandering about and that he was on his way to pick it up.  My heart sank.  Was this the same pug that I saw on Saturday?  I told him the story of what happened on Saturday night and how we were trying to get the pug into rescue.  He was very pleased with this and asked to take our rescue surrender form up with him so that he could get the person that was temporarily holding the dog to sign the pug over into CFPR’s care. (Through the conversation it was determined that this was not even the same person that we spoke to on Saturday.  Apparently, the people that spoke to us on Saturday just released the pug back to the streets!)

The animal control officer went to retrieve the pugs and in about 5 minutes returned with an elderly, black, female pug that was clearly the pug we saw on Saturday evening.  We put a leash and collar on her and scurried her off to the vet to get a quick checkup to ensure that bringing her into the house would not put Benjamin, Henry, Luna or Cupid at risk.

Here is what we found out at the vet:

• She is approximately 8 - 10 years old.
• She has an immature cataract in her left eye and a small growth on her left eyelid.  In her right eye she has poor vision due to another condition.
• She has been spayed and currently weighs in at 18 pounds.
• She has no microchip.
• She is missing at least 6 teeth.
• She has pretty bad arthritis in her hips and it appears she has it in other joints as well.
• Here toenails were exceptionally long and curled under making it difficult for her to walk.
• But, she had nothing to prevent her from mingling with our crew so we promptly brought her home.

There are plenty of details to come about her first couple of days in the OBP household.  With the adventure of the first week under our belt, we have taken a sigh of relief to have made it this far.  We did not expect our foster to come to us, we expected to go retrieve her.  Sometimes, I guess that is just how things work out.  At least it saved me from having to make a decision about fostering.

PS - Holy Moly, we realize we didn’t eve tell you her name!  Choosing a name was a day’s adventure in itself!  I guess there really is a lot more to come.

Baby Benny in his oversized bow tie.

Guess what?  Another dog bed!  This one is like a bean bag chair and we normally keep it on the floor and the pugs love it!

I know, just what we need, another dog bed.  If you are staging an intervention, I understand.

Happy New Year!

I would like to thank everyone who supported us through all our ups and downs and adventures in 2008!  It was great getting to know all of you and I look forward to sharing 2009 with you!  Here’s to another wonderful year!

While the thoughts of another beautiful snorting pug and the warm feeling of knowing you are making a difference fills our minds, we are also consumed with “foster parent nerves”.  Will the new pug upset our pug apple cart?  How will the foster take to the transition?  What if we cannot separate when it is time to send the fostered pug to his/her forever home?  As you can see, we are excited and nervous all at the same time.  What do you think?  Any advice or commentary would be appreciated.  Have you fostered?  What was your experience?

As with most things lately, it turns out I am a little late in posing this question.  Sometimes, decisions get made for you.  And in this case, things seem to be working out just fine.  More to come.

Happy New Year!  Here’s to a prosperous 2009!

Benjamin & Henry eyeing the Christmas cookies.  Looking forward to your captions in the comments.

Luna, fresh from the bath.

These resolutions were made back in 2004 when the boys were about 1 1/2 years old.  What is funny is that they both could make the same resolutions today!

Christmas came a little early in the OBP household.  There was a “Santa” that came from Lowe’s to install shower doors in the guest bathroom.  Henry was the first to go see what all the commotion had been.  We were careful not to let him stay very long though because the smell of the caulk that the man used when installing the doors was quite potent.  Henry might of gotten his first little doggy high if he’d stayed in there very long.  So, we wisked him away, closed the door and put the fan on.  This year was a Christmas filled with oversized presents in the OBP household.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holiday from Benjamin, Henry & Luna!  We hope that you have a safe & happy holiday season full of plenty of pug kisses.

What’s that we hear?  Is that the pitter patter of reindeer hooves?  Santa must be here with our pugkin bread!

I know this is a duplicate Caption This photo, but I just couldn’t help myself, I had to use this shot again.  For Henry’s first Christmas we dressed him up as a reindeer.  He was thrilled, can’t ‘ya tell?