Fosters Cookie, Perry, Jackson, Ella, and our Snoopy and Bonnie are in these photos, so we currently have six dogs at the house while we try to find homes for all of the fosters. We’ll probably get Jackson to Muttville soon, but it was hard for both him and Cookie to remain in the shelter, so I’m glad we were able to make room for them temporarily.

We took in two more fosters, one of which is a senior we need to groom (Shea already gave him a bath), and then he’ll be a great candidate for Muttville. Therefore, he’s likely to be here only a few weeks if someone wants to adopt him from HSNB. Cookie is the small cream terrier mix who reminds me of recent fosters Marshall and Lana. Jackson is a salt and pepper schnauzer that reminds me of my first dog growing up, named Sugar. Red foster Perry makes a cameo in these photos, too.

Bonnie (who is blind) and an HSNB dog I adopted are really warming up to foster Perry. I’m so glad I got some footage of them playing together. She gives him a hard time when she’s trying to rest and he wants to engage with her, but when she’s in the mood to play, it makes her day!

Numerous weeks ago, I saw a shivering elder in a kennel at HSNB who was a good candidate to be transferred to Muttville in San Francisco. Lana came up to sniff my fingers. I had room for one more foster at the time, so I asked to foster her until the transfer, especially because I’ve always been partial to special needs and senior dogs. That transfer to Muttville was today. I have pretty much fallen in love with all of my foster dogs, but not all of them fall in love with me the first day, the way this deaf little girl, Lana, did. She was not shy about flanking me the entire time she was with me. She was a joy day and night, and I’m missing her dearly already. I’ve learned with foster dogs that can bond so easily that they are highly adoptable and will be able to love someone else, while I make room for another dog that needs a break from the shelter and to get ready to be adopted. Muttville is such a well-resourced organization; I predict she will be fully adopted this week. There’ll probably be people fighting over her as she is a spry 12-year-old with no apparent health problems and a wonderful personality. This morning she knew something was up because she started shivering, so I put on a sweater that fit her well before handing her over to the volunteer who is transporting her. I will be able to track her progress and even watch her on video with the live feed they have on Muttville’s site. I intend to set up the same system when we get our permanent building fully renovated eventually at Humane Society of the North Bay. I’ve still got four dogs here at the house, including two foster dogs that were slated to be euthanized in Stanislaus County, so the work on getting them adopted out is just beginning. I also know there will be more coming in the future while I take care of my forever dogs, Bonnie and Snoopy.

We were down to only one foster dog, Lana, who is going to go to Muttville soon. The house seemed so quiet with just three dogs. I then got an email out of left field about dogs that were going to be euthanized on Monday down in Modesto, so I inquired if they would be available for me to take some in. One of the three “smalls” was already adopted by the time we got there, so Ella and Perry were the two that we were able to take, even though Perry is not your typical chihuahua mix.

He’s taller than any foster I’ve had in recent years, but he’s a total sweetheart and so skinny. Historically, I’ve dog-sat and fostered large breeds, but it’s challenging for various reasons, including managing the personalities of my two permanent dogs and worrying about their ability to jump the fence. Perry is a perfect example of a gentle, medium-sized dog that I have zero regrets bringing home. We instantly fell in love with him and his personality. He’s super affectionate.

Poor Ella, who reminded me so much of the doxie I had named Bella, is extremely shy and avoiding us even two days in, but hopefully she’ll come to trust us when we give her space. There aren’t too many pictures of Ella yet because she’s so freaking shy she barely lets us hold her yet, although Shea had her on his lap the entire ride home.

Shea took these great pictures of foster Lana and her lookalike potential great-grandson, foster Marshall, who recently got a new foster family in Oregon. You can also see foster Millie’s butt as she likes to stand guard near my feet when I’m reclined. Shea used A.I. to replace my computer screen with this non-existent lamp, so this is not a completely realistic picture, but it’s less glaring than the monitor that was in front of me.

Shea was surprised that foster Lana jumped up on his lap, but she’s pretty happy to get cuddles from whomever, even though I’m her go-to.

Found out that Dolly, who has been in foster care, has been officially adopted!

Millie got adopted too!

The house is eerily quiet without foster Millie who found a wonderful family to live with in Lake County. She is a good girl and has a sort of maltipoo brother now, who looks a lot like Bonnie. Like most people the family was surprised how small she was in real life, but she has a huge personality and she’ll be a wonderful addition to their family. Between them this family has nine grandkids that visit, so she’ll have a big yard in the country with people visiting all the time. Bonnie’s probably a little relieved because Millie often got very jealous of the attention I gave her, but I love all dogs that we take in.