Who is Birdie???

I got so busy as a foster mom posting about my foster dogs the last few weeks that I completely skipped over introducing you to Birdie on her "Gotcha Day" which is May 6th. Birdie happens to be the first rattie we adopted back in 2008. Before Birdie Girl, as we call her, we had always had larger dogs, all "pound puppies", as I was taught from a very young age (by my grammie and mom) that adopting a rescue dog was the ONLY way to go. So when our large dog Maya was getting older we decided to adopt again while she would be able to tolerate a new dog, and so we decided to downsize. We came across Birdie on Petfinder and adopted her from another rat terrier rescue group. In fact many of the volunteers of New Rattitude are originally from the rescue group we adopted Birdie from.

When we got Birdie we knew little about the breed, little about terriers, and so the journey began. Another thing we didn't know when we adopted Birdie (and neither did her foster parents) was that she is deaf. We had her about a week when Dave said to me, "I don't think Birdie can hear!". We did some tests, clapping behind her head, whistling, clicking our fingers, she didn't respond. AhHA so that is why she didn't bark at the doorbell or seem to respond to us talking to her or calling her name. We just thought she was a quiet dog by nature.

Our daughter, Jill, and now son-in-law, Miguel, had come over shortly after we figured this out and Miguel was intrigued. He stood looking at Birdie who was across the room and pointed to the floor in front of him. She ran over to him and sat down! Just like that. Birdie being deaf has never been an issue, she knows hand signals and how to sit, down, stay, roll over, come. She is just like any terrier and if she doesn't want to come instead of conveniently "not hearing" us, she conveniently doesn't "see" us waving our hands to get her attention. <grin>

Birdie is a total character and a wonderful dog. She is a comic and she rules the roost when it comes to foster dogs. And any of you who frequent my blog know, she also has a thing for unfixed males, and male foster dogs in general especially Mingus....

Here are a few choice pictures of our little Tweet Tweet Birdie

Birdie was under a year old when we adopted her, still a little thing...

Birdie has the funniest personality and keeps us laughing. Here she is pre-cleaning a large soup pan for us.

This was taken on a hot day in Umtanum Canyon, Birdie LOVES the heat.

This is Maya, she is the dog we had when we first got Birdie, she was great with her and let Birdie attack her all she wanted and Maya would just lay there in ecstasy, Maya was one of those dogs who tolerated most anything.

What a face!

Birdie might be deaf but she is very clued in to what is going on around her.

Birdie (and Skip) loves to run on the beach and she is a super fast runner.

She also loves to snuggle in her blankets and will sleep all day.

Birdie has been a wonderful companion and because of Birdie we adopted Jenny-Boo, rescued Skip, and adopted Sage! Not to mention started volunteering for New Rattitude. So better late than never on introducing Birdie officially on the blog and Happy Belated Gotcha Day Birdie!!!!!

Nash Makes a Wish...and it Comes True!

Nash is no different than any of my other foster dogs, well he IS unique as are all my past, present, and future foster dogs, but they all have one thing in common, and that is they all make a wish to be adopted into their forever homes, where they will be loved for who they are and where they can truly shine!

But before the best news of all, I wanted to share a video of Nash working on a Kong Quest Wishbone Food Toy!He really loved the peanut butter, salmon skin, stuffing I put in it. Yum Yum! If you are interested in this toy, click here to see a close up picture and how to stuff it.

Nash has something to share with you!

Nash's wish came true!! He is going to be living with a whole family of four who love and adore him. Best of all they were looking for a dog just like Nash to bring them companionship, giggles, snuggles, and love. He will have a dad, mom, and 2 human siblings that he will get to play with and sleep with too! We could not be happier for our little Monkey Boy and look forward to all the updates and good news that goes along with having his wish come true.

This is Nash's shelter picture, I can't even think of him not making it out...so I won't!

This is how I will remember Nash, feeling the sun on his face, and in the arms of his forever family. Wishes do come true.....and so do happy endings....

Remembering Our Dear Friend Sage

Two years ago today we adopted our Sage, he was a very old rattie boy that I had seen on one of our weekly urgent lists....he was never going to make it out of the high kill shelter alive. We just could not bear this sweet old guy dying in a shelter after he had most likely been a loved companion of someone who maybe had died or for some unknown reason not able to care for him any longer. With the loving help of the New Rattitude network of devoted rattie lovers we were able to bring this boy home to live out the rest of his life in love, comfort and safety. I posted a story about it back when I first started this blog you can read all about it here if you'd like to. Love At First Sight.

When we decided to adopt Sage, we went in figuring that what we would be offering him was hospice care as he was very old, very sickly, and very fragile. But to our delight and bit by bit over time Sage got stronger and healthier and he lived for almost two years with us and our pack.

On April 30 of this year we helped Sage go to Rainbow Bridge. Sage was quite camera shy but over the last couple of years I managed to get a few nice pictures of this sweet boy who never caused one problem in our home whatsoever. He was a perfect gentleman and his funny ways and character will be remembered and dearly missed for years to come. I wanted to share this beautiful boy with you.

This was Sage's shelter pic. By the time we ended up getting him he was really skinny and really sick and not eating.

Rescue Dogs Unite!

We had some company the other day. A couple of customer/friends of ours who have rescue dogs of their own dropped by. One of the men normally is hospice care for older Pomeranian's and he usually has a real old dog with him at all times. His last boy Floyd went to Rainbow Bridge a few months ago so he was feeling pretty lonely again, but not long ago his daughter who works for a local shelter brought him home a 1 year old Pom who had been tossed away because he had a problem with his hip. His name is Barney now and he is living the good life with George, goes everywhere with him and the two are never apart. They came for a visit. Nash was smitten with Barney and went to work trying to woo him, Barney was playing hard to get but they did end up running around together which was really cute.

I like Barney!

Nash finally feeling brave enough to get some pets from George

Barney can we be BFF's?

I really want you to notice me Barney!

This move ought to make you want to play...

Barney, I can tell you a secret.....I...Nash....want...to...play....!!!!!

This little gal is named Princess King. Her dad rescued her and she gets to go everywhere he goes too. She loves to go to air shows with her dad and has a seat right in front of his vintage military vehicles of which he has many. Princess also has been seen riding on her dad's 1941 Harley Davidson with him and she wear doggles and everything! She is quite the loved little girl.

Birdie gets some lovin too. It was a great afternoon.

Nash finally won out and Barney did a little rattie run with him.

Nash Enjoys Summer With Jenny Cheek to Cheek

Today is a beautiful summer day in WA and Nash, Mr CA boy, is quite enjoying relaxing in the sun. It was so cute because he was cheek to cheek with Jenny Boo who was also loving the warmth through the window. Warning.....loads of cuteness contained in this post.

Photo Shoot....Going For All 6

A couple of my New Rattitude fellow foster mamas did great blog posts of photo shoots of multiple dogs. Of course my dogs all wanted to get into the act....well maybe it was me who wanted to join in as I am always looking for ideas for cute blog posts!

Foster dad had opened up our monthly Bark Box today and because he loves potato chips himself he was pretty excited that the dogs got a sample bag of sweet potato chips and so I took this as my oppertunity to go for the 6 dog photo shoot. It was pretty fun and at first we really weren't in sync, but we were able to work together and finally were able to get a picture with all 6 dogs, but it was the ONLY one we got.

If you are interested in getting a monthly Barkbox subscription use this link and you'll get $5 off the subscription and the foster dogs get an extra box.

L to R Sierra, Birdie, Jenny, Skip...hey at least Sierra made it in the picture

Ummmm not quite what I was looking for...

Ha ha ha Jenny who doesn't see well anymore was going in for that treat!

Where is everybody going?

OK now we are getting somewhere. Birdie, Skip, Jenny, Nash

Nice picture of 5! Liza, Skip, Jenny, Birdie, Nash...Darn where was Sierra?

There's Sierra trying to figure out how she can come and get a treat but avoid the camera.

5 again! But where is Nash???

5 again but where is Sierra?

Love this one, if only Nash had been in it, this would have been great!

Bingo! 6 dogs but not the best photo I've ever taken. Oh well that was fun and we will try again another time.