THIS AND THAT

Don't dog people just love pictures of their dogs? The volunteers at BTRNC are no exception. We share pictures daily of our forever dogs and our foster dogs daily. As a blog contributor, I have quite a collection of adorable little bostons. I keep them with the intention of writing a blog about the dog in the picture. Sometimes best intentions get buried in my e-mail and the stories don't get written. So for this entry, I would like to present some of our current and past fosters and forever babies being themselves and therefore being adorable.

One of our anchor volunteers who I have mentioned before has fostered more babies in the last 5 1/2 years than I bet even she can count. She usually maintains a house of 5 plus her own. This means that everyone must share! Here is foster turned forever baby, Mr. Gus who would really, really like his bed!

Mom, can you not see that I WANT MY BED! Guess I will just have to wait!

From the same volunteer comes former foster Moochie who proves that Boston Terriers can fly!

And then, there was Daisy who like Snoopy believed that she was the pilot of her crate keeping the house safe from villains!

Here are Bailey and Naomi who are all stars in the famous Boston Terrier sport of tug of war - no humans required. (Another good reason to own more than one boston!)

Bostons cannot be counted out in swim meets either as Cali demonstrates!

Or how about Sam in a kayak???

And finally, Bostons are intelligent and well educated. Pictured here is Pepper with his diploma!

The morale if there is one that the bostons that come and stay forever and the ones that pass through on their way to their new forevers make us laugh each day and constantly amaze us with their talents. No, the are not perfect but they make imperfection a whole lot more fun!

HOT DOT IN THE PARKING LOT

The Boastful Boston saw Dot for the first time in the parking lot at the 5th anniversary celebration for BTRNC. I remember she had a lot of white on her and that although she looked healthy, she also seemed very uncomfortable in her own skin. Dot was a very new rescue arrival. She had been brought to the anniversary to do a hand off to her first foster home. As the day wore on, I noticed that Dot was still there in her travel crate and that no one had taken her home yet.

Suddenly, there was a great flourish of conversation and attention begin paid to Dot. Her intended foster Mom had just that day handed over a foster baby to their new forever home. As any foster family will tell you, and has been addressed in this blog, it is hard when you first watch the baby you saved leave you for their forever home. I thank the heavens everyday for all the foster families who are able to accomplish this task since without them, we would not be able to do rescue work.

Back to Dot..... her intended foster Mom, having just completed her FIRST successful foster and placement found herself more distraught than she had planned and in need of a little break between fosters. Everyone at BTRNC is in full support of the needs of foster families, but now who was going to take Dot home??? In truth, I almost did. As I stood there looking at this baby who I knew somehow had issues and thinking of my 15 year old sickly senior and my 10 year old dominant fur children at home, I was giving myself visuals of how I was going to make all this work all the time knowing that mine would not be the best place for Dot to begin to heal. At the bell, another foster Mom took Dot and began the journey of making her whole again.

Dot did indeed have issues. She suffered from severe separation anxiety which made her a challenge to crate, a bigger challenge to work with on a daily basis and she required a lot of extra time to work through her issues. Her foster Mom was up to the ask and she tirelessly worked with Dot. Through donations, BTRNC was able to send Dot to an intense educatioin program to help her adjust. As time went on, we continued to see updates about Dot on our available dogs page. Dot did so well in her first round of school, that she was going back for more, Dot had begun to vocalize, Dot was actually learning to play, Dot was eating well without fear or aggression, Dot was becoming a happy dog..... you get the picture! I began to suspect what Dot had probably known all along - the foster Mom who stepped up to take her home was not her foster Mom at all, but her forever Mom! Dot just had to be patient and wait for the humans to figure it out for themselves.

All of us at BTRNC are so happy for Dot and her new family! We are happy to report that once again, everything turned out as it should. Dot is with her family and the first foster Mom who needed a break has fostered again and is currently fostering! Another happy ending!

PROUD TO BE DOLLY MADISON

I just learned that the original Dolly Madison was the first First Lady to serve in Washington DC. She was the wife of former president James Madison and she became famous in her own right. She was known for her strength and her stand against what she thought was wrong so people have been naming things for her ever since. Pretty cool name to share ah? I am so proud!

I am 4 years old and I have recently arrived in BTRNC rescue and am staying with a wonderful foster family. My foster Mom even let me help with this blog.

Even though I am so proud of my real name, it's a long one so I have several nick names. Dolly is my favorite name but I like cupcake and zinger too. My foster siblings call me dingdong which is still o.k.. I'm just glad to have a home and people to call me something. My foster Mom is specially pleased that I like cats. Heck, cats are just animals too. I am working real hard on house training. I am mostly working on training my family to pick up on my hints that I need to go outside. I think we are all getting the hang of it because we don't have very many accidents these days. We go for a walk, all of us together. My foster Mom and Dad say that the family that walks together gets along together. I like to go for a walk so whatever they say is fine with me.

I have many important things to do each day like chew by bone, play with my new toys and of course nap on my bed.

One more thing, I wanted to let everyone know that I am slowly adjusting to being in my crate when my foster people are not home. I am learning that they will come back and let me out as soon as they can. That's a nice feeling.

I hope that you will check out my bio on the available dogs page. Maybe I am the proud Dolly Madison to make your family complete.

Happy New Year everyone! I have a feeling this is going to be a good year for me. Please remember to paws to tell someone you love them everyday.