Our new foster pup!

Meet Brody, our new foster pup. He's about 7 months old (just a few weeks older than Norris) and weighs about 40 lbs., I'm guessing. He's a total cutie but is shrieking his head off in his crate right now. I hope he gets used to it soon!!

Our very temporary foster

I picked this little girl up from the shelter on Saturday. She will be staying with us until this Saturday when I will transport her to her "real" foster home.

Her name is Rylie, and she's about 4 months old. She's a pit bull mix of some kind! She was picked up by Animal Control when she was wandering the streets alone. No one reclaimed her, so she spent the last 3 weeks at the shelter. It wouldn't surprise me if whoever was caring for her just got sick of her and let her out of the house one day.





I am in the process of designing a website for our rescue group. It will be secondchanceforpets.com I can't wait to launch it!

New foster

We introduced Bella and Remy to our soon-to-be foster dog today. Introductions went extremely well. We introduced them outside in neutral territory, and they all got along very well! Our new foster's name is Chaos, but we've decided to change it to Brody. He's about 6-7 months old and is the same size that Bella was at that age. His owner is going into the army and has no one to care for her dog while she is away. She decided it would be best to give him to a rescue group than just give him away through the classifieds. He's getting neutered next Tuesday, and we're going to get him next weekend. Keep your paws crossed for us that we find a great forever home for him!!

Our first anniversary!

Today is Brent's and my first wedding anniversary! One year ago today we were married on the beach in Clearwater Beach, Florida in the most beautiful wedding I could have imagined. We were engaged for 16 months, planning on getting married in Montego Bay, Jamaica at the same resort my mom and step-dad got married at in 2002. When money issues forced us to re-consider our wedding location, we decided on Clearwater Beach. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful wedding, and we were so lucky that we had so many family members and friends there supporting us!

I'm looking forward to many more happy years with my husband and doggies. :)

Update on Norris

Norris is doing really well in his home. I can't believe he's been gone for 2 months already! I miss him a lot and sometimes wish we had kept him, but I'm glad that Brent and I will be able to continue fostering dogs in need. Norris is such a special little dog. He's definitely a dominant and confident little guy. I hear he keeps all the other dogs in check at doggy day care. :) Here is a new picture of him:



Hard to believe he's grown up so much in just a few months!

Well....

We didn't get Champ. The people who were going to give him up to the rescue group ended up giving him away for free (before he was neutered) to a 16-year-old kid. :(

I went to the animal shelter on Saturday and snapped a few pictures. It is so depressing there. I'm almost glad that the dogs there aren't given much time to find a home, because living in those conditions just has to be torture for all of the dogs.

A sweet little pit bull puppy that was found running loose. She may be our next foster if she isn't reclaimed within the next week.




A very sweet Boxer/pit bull/Great Dane(?) mix named Sophie. She was a stray.



How can you say no to that face?



A handsome Golden Retriever whose time is almost up. He's about 5-7 years old.






This girl broke my heart. She was the only dog not barking and carrying on. She would be a wonderful pet for an elderly person and would probably make an excellent therapy dog. She was left outside of the shelter on a freezing day inside of a metal crate. How could anyone be so heartless?





I wish I had room for them all.

Bella and Norris play date

Bella and Norris had a play date tonight. Norris will be 5 months old in a couple of days. Can you believe it?? He weighs about 30 lbs now. He's a feisty little guy. I'm glad we get to see him often and watch him grow up.

New foster

Since our rescue group didn't get those puppies, we have another potential foster lined up. He's a 9-month-old pit bull mix named Champ. We're going to introduce him to Bella next week after he gets neutered. I hope the introductions go well. We tried to re-introduce Bella yesterday to a young female that she used to play with this summer, but that did not go well at all. I think Bella is selectively dog aggressive, at least towards female dogs. Ah well...she's a pit bull! Can't blame her for not liking every dog.

Here is Champ:


I'll update next week on whether or not we get Champ!

Remy and Norris play date

Remy had a play date with Norris a couple of days ago. Norris is getting so big! He weighs 26 lbs. now. Puppies grow up way too quickly!







Well, our rescue group is not going to be getting those puppies. The kid who owned them gave them to someone he knows. I really hope they get spayed and neutered. :(

Myspace!

Bella and Remy are on Myspace. Check 'em out and add 'em if you have a profile!

http://www.myspace.com/bella_remy

Lazy pants Bella

Bella is usually hell on wheels, but she has an occasional lazy moment. :)

Rescue pups

Here are the pups I mentioned in the previous post:

Possible new foster

Well, Norris' owner picked him up today. It's always hard to say goodbye to the little guy. :)

We might be getting another foster puppy soon. A guy contacted our rescue group about his son's three dogs. His son (Andrew) has a 3-year-old intact male pit bull that he bred to his friend's pit bull. She had three puppies four months ago, and Andrew kept one of them. Andrew also has another 4-month-old puppy (a beautiful blue girl that looks like a combination of Bella and Norris) at his house that belongs to his friend. His friend was supposed to be looking for a house to move into that will allow him to have a dog, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Andrew's dad has been the primary caretaker of these dogs (even though Andrew doesn't even live with him), and he wants to find new homes for them. Our rescue group agreed that if Andrew got his adult male dog neutered, we would take the two puppies and find new homes for them. I really hope we get these puppies. The blue girl is absolutely gorgeous, and I'm sure she will be bred if we don't get her. Cleaning up other peoples' messes gets so frustrating and heartbreaking sometimes...

A few new pics of the dogs

Norris is here!

Brent and I are doggysitting Norris for the next week and a half while his owner is out east visiting family. I hadn't seen Norris since the night he got adopted, so I was really excited to see him tonight. He's such a cute, sweet, energetic little guy. He's 16 weeks old now, and he only weighs 21 lbs. Bella was already that big by the time she was 12 weeks old! Here's a picture I took of him tonight:

We almost lost Remy last night. :(

I was at Norris' new owner's house doing the hand off last night, and Brent was at home getting ready to go back to work. Bella and Remy were playing in the kitchen, and Bella got her bottom jaw stuck in Remy's collar. Brent thought they were fighting and threw a baby gate at them and tried to separate them, but quickly realized what was going on. Remy was literally 2 seconds away from being choked to death. Brent said he thought he was watching our dog die when he couldn't get the collar off (he was using a knife to try to cut it off.) Remy deficated and vomited all over the kitchen, but at the last second, his collar popped off. Brent called me and was so completely in shock that he was screaming and trembling, and I couldn't understand a word he was saying. He took Remy to the emergency vet, and I met them over there. Remy has bite wounds on his neck from Bella's struggle to get free of him, and Brent had a few knife cuts on his hands that he had to go to the hospital to get checked out, but everything is okay here now.

I've never seen my husband crying and trembling so much in the three years we've been together. He said he will never forget the look on Remy's face as he was at the edge of death. Part of me is really glad that I wasn't home to see that. I knew Brent loved our dogs, but I discovered his devotion to them last night.

We still have Norris. He had his first experience with snow this week. He absolutely loves it, even though he shivers the entire time he's outside. :)

Vicious pit bull attack caught on film!



My new favorite picture of Norris:

Norris is doing well. He's getting bigger every day!! We've been kind of lazy about advertising him for adoption. I have a friend in Massachusetts who is interested in adopting him, and I'd absolutely love for him to go to her, but it might be difficult to physically get him out there. We'll see! Here are a few new pictures.

Norris is back

Well, Norris is back in our care. (He still responds to the name Norris, and he'll always be Norris to us, so that's what we're calling him now.) His adoption just didn't work out. I'm kind of glad to have him back in our home, though. He's such an amazing little pup!



He's grown up so much in the last two weeks!! Now we have to figure out how the heck we're going to let him go a second time. That's going to be hard.