2013 PNW Rattiefest Was A Huge Success!

Wow wow and more WOW! Rattiefest this year was the biggest ever and I had such a nice time meeting adopters that I have spoken with on the phone but had never met in person! And I got to see some of my past foster dogs there too..

A ratties view, here we are just getting started...

Sweet NR alumni Murray

Happy Murray getting a pet from a friend...

Our dog Skip got to come along today and of course he brought Blue

Remember Chevette? Her name is Milla now and she and her mom and dad and NR alumni brother Sammy, now Jake, came all the way from Eastern WA!

Milla and Besoleil

Ahhhh sweet Mingus and part of the Greenwood Rat Pack giving a kiss to Dave.

Love that boy Mingus

Here is Inigo! His mom and dad got to know Mingus and waited for just the right rattie to come along...Inigo was the boy and they are all very happy!

Will came to visit with his brand new dad. This was a match made in heaven as his dad is just smitten with Will.

Lookin' good Will!

Beautiful Besoleil...

Skittles was the winner of the Biggest Loser NR Edition contest. He lost a bit over a lb and on such a small boy that was a very big thing to accomplish! Congrats to him and his mom for doing what it takes to be a superstar and svelte rattie boy.

Jack Russell Terrier's are welcome at Rattiefest. What a cutie.

Here is another JRT doing a food puzzle.

My past foster boy Landau, now Yoshi, he isn't really in jail, he was in the dog corral but he posed for the picture as a reminder that he was saved from being behind bars and is now in his happy and perfect forever home!

Handsome Reynvann, "Rain" came even though his parents were on a trip. He surely did not want to miss Rattiefest! I think he is looking for his family....

Here is just a taste of all the adopters and dogs who came out today.

A JRT showing his stuff with a food puzzle!

Remember Gramercy? He and his moms came from 2 hours away to go to Rattiefest.

Here is Gramercy meeting his past foster mom, he was really excited to see her again. 

Thank you to everyone who came out to the 2013 PNW Rattiefest! It was a pleasure to see you all and the proceeds from the raffle, food, and games, are going to finish paying for our past foster dog Sierra's luxating patella surgery and the rest will go to the transportation fund so we can continue saving more little spotted dogs! Thank you Thank you one and all!!!!!! See you next year.....

Who is Skip?

You have officially met Birdie, Liza and dear Sage, so now it is time to meet another one of our personal dogs, Skip! Otherwise known as Skippy, Skipper, Skip-Dawg.

This is Skip's Mr March picture. He was picked to be Mr March for the first New Rattitude Calendar 3 or 4 years ago. This was taken just a couple of days after Skip joined our family, little did we know at the time how much he loves to carry a ball in his mouth. This was the first time he picked up a ball at our home. Pic 07/09

Happy 4th Gotcha Day Skip!

Today, is Skip's gotcha day. We have had him for 4 years today and he is pretty close to 10 years old now.

Skip came into our life when a dear friend of mine was working with a woman who was in need of re-homing her dog. She had the dog on Craigslist and had even found a home for him once but after one day he was returned right back to her. This was an ongoing saga and one day my friend asked the woman in conversation what type of dog he was. The woman told her Skip was a Rat Terrier. My friend quickly contacted me wondering if I could do anything. This is all before I was a foster mom for New Rattitude. Not really understanding at the time the intricacies of a rescue group I contacted someone within NR and asked them if I went to get Skip could he be put into foster care to help him find a home. That wasn't an option at the time but I was directed to the re-home program through NR where I could hold on to the dog and work with the volunteers to help him find a good fit forever home so this was the road I had decided to take before I went to actually go pick him up.

When I got to the home to get him I took one look at him and had this quick thought, "We're keeping this guy". His mom quickly told me the story of Skip's first 6 years of life, fraught with bad interactions with her disabled daughters and some other personal dramas of her own. She mentioned off handedly that he had bit the husband of the people who had gotten him off Craigslist which was why he had come back to her the same day they had taken him. It didn't really sink in what we might be in for with this cute little guy who stole my heart the first time I laid eyes on him.

Skip two months after I brought him home. We had gone to a friend's goat farm to meet some farm animals and Skip posed perfectly for me. What a gorgeous boy! Pic taken 9/09

It took all of 15 minutes to retrieve Skip and be out the door. Interestingly enough he jumped right into my car and never looked back. He and I were fast friends and have stayed that way ever since. He is the first male dog either of us have ever had in our life! He was still intact and that was taken care of first and foremost. I guess Skip had been studded out a few times so there might be some little Skips around the area somewhere. He does wear a charm that says "ladies man" that our friends gave him. We think it is pretty funny.

The bottom line is that due to not being socialized properly Skip is what is termed a reactive dog in certain situations. (that isn't all he is but it is part of who he is) When we realized the reality of his temperament we felt we could not adopt him out. He needed to stay with us forever. Our journey of learning how to work with and manage a dog like Skip began. This was definitely new territory for us, we had never had a dog who was reactive like Skip. Trial and error played a big role in his rehabilitaion. And the folks at NR helped by giving us support and education to help us, which was beyond wonderful as he was not a NR dog!

We have always adored Skip even though we have had some hard times with him. None of it is his fault and he has been an excellent teacher. Skip is an intelligent, hilarious, loving, and all around great companion. It is hard to imagine our life without him and we hope he is with us for many more years to come.

Skip attends many dog park rattie meet ups and if any of you have been to one of these you will know him as the boy with the blue ball.

Skip doing a play pose with his favorite ball "blue".

Skip with Blue on a snowy day.

Skip with Birdie....and Blue

Skip on driftwood in Bandon, OR 10/10

Skip doesn't ever let Blue get too far out of his sight.

These last 2 pictures were taken recently at a rattie meet up by Darin Suthapong. She and her partner Aim adopted Boushey a year ago and they have a great blog all about their life with Boo http://boushey.wordpress.com/

Yup Skip is a bit older but he is still full of life and brings such joy to our home every day.

 Thank you Skip for coming into our lives, we love you more than words can say little buddy. 

WhaT iS moRe FUN thAN a BaRrell oF MOnkEyS???

What IS more fun than a barrel of monkeys?????

A School of Fish???

Nooooooooo.......

A Scurrey of Squirrels???

Nooooooo....

 Give UP?

Why it's a 

Corral of Rat Terriers!

At the third annual

PNW Rattiefest!!!

Join the PNW New Rattitude Team and LOTS of adopters with their Ratties

Sunday July 28th from 1pm-3pm

Robinswood Park 

Address is:

2430 148th Ave SE

Bellevue, WA 98007

RSVP HERE if you are on Facebook

And come and join the fun!!!! YAY!

Current foster dog Suri is up front in this picture! Second from the left was my foster boy Nash and rear center was my foster girl Sierra! This was taken a few weeks ago at the same corral Rattiefest will be held. Hope you can come!

 

Ssshhhhhhh......Suri's in the house.

It's time for me to start telling you about our newest foster girl Suri. Now just to complicate things a little her New Rattitude name is Tina Fey, but Suri is a return dog to NR and she lived as Suri for almost a year and she knows her name very well so I will be referring to her as Suri in my blog.

The short story of how Suri ended up back in foster care is that Suri and her adoptive home turned out to not be a good fit for her. She has a sensory sensitivity and so noise and I believe certain touch or a combination of the two can be stressful and very uncomfortable for her.

You can read all about Suri coming back to NR here New foster girl Suri aka Tina Fey 

And here you can read about why the decision was made to transfer Suri to our foster home A change for Tina

As a person with chemical sensitivities and high pitched sound sensitivities I can totally relate to how Suri is feeling as a dog who doesn't tolerate the stacking of sounds (more on this in a later post). Now you might be rolling your eyes and thinking, "oh those people (and now their dogs!) in Seattle with all their sensitivities".  I understand there are people who can go through their life with nothing external that bothers them. That is great! Most people and probably most dogs can do that. BUT if you are a person with one or more sensitivities you will understand that these types of things do exist and are very valid problems and can be life altering.

So for the last week we have been lying low, trying to keep the noises that we create to a minimum while we figure out which noises Suri can and can't tolerate. We want to keep Suri as comfortable as we can and let her acclimate to what will be her new home with us for at least the next 2 months while we learn about what bothers her and problem solve what we can do to help her. As with Moon  and Sierra who both ended up really blossoming and being adopted into wonderful forever homes, we have a golden opportunity! Figuring out what we can do to help Suri and pinpointing what the best fit forever home looks like for her. Every dog has the perfect home out there...and I have no doubt Suri's will be there when she is ready to go "home".

And so our journey with Suri begins........

These pictures were taken of Suri in the first couple of days she was with us. You can see she is stressed, and not settled in. But that's ok! She has gone through a lot of changes and she will soon realize that it was all for her benifit and well being. And as the days go by we will no doubt have pictures of a calm and relaxed Suri, that is what we are striving for!
 

This was the first time she was trying to get comfortable on a dog bed near us. She couldn't quite bring herself to lie down so she stayed at half mast for quite a while. Day 2

Sitting with paw up, still tense and unsure. (pictures taken with a zoom lens) Day 2

You can see here she was wanting to just close her eyes but something was bothering her still....Day 2

Oops eyes are closing....  Day 2

Eyes closed but still tense and ears alert...  Day 2

That's a good start to looking relaxed but to me she still looks tense.  Day 2

Two days later she found this bed....she was having a better day on this day and she looks less tense and softer too but still alert. Day 4

And this is the first time I think she looks relaxed. Day 4

In Between Foster Dogs Part 3 Skip And I Take Our First T-Touch Class

Skip and I were invited by a fellow foster mom to a T-Touch workshop by Lori Stevens for senior dogs. Skip is not quite ready to think of himself as senior but that didn't matter at all. There was wonderful information and techniques for dogs of any age. This was a big thing for him. The class was all day long and he had lots of new people and dogs he had to maneuver. I am happy to say Skip did really well and best of all he asked to get up in a lap of someone he has met quite a few times and finally felt comfortable to get closer to. Skip is the kind of boy who needs lots of space and to choose to engage when he is ready, as you can see here he WAS ready and took full advantage of a safe, gentle lap.

Hi Julee, I think I'm ready to get to know you better..

Skip checking in with me to let me know he is getting brave.....while NR alum Boushey "Boo" says hi to Julee who was his foster mom a year ago.

Ahhhhh that's the ticket, Skip made it into Julee's lap and snuggled in for quite some time. Later that day I got an email from Julee who is now completely smitten with Skip. He does have that magic power.

Once we learned about some T-Touch we then took time to practice on our dogs. T-Touch is a very slow and gentle touch and as you can see Skip got very relaxed after about 5 minutes of me working on him. He kind of fell into my lap.

And then he went to sleep.

Here is Boo again, he and Skip showed the rest of the class how terriers rule. They had fun barking at a few intruders and just being their funny goofy selves. What would any class be without a couple of terriers in it?

Here is Boo getting worked on by his mom

After effects of T-Touch......

We had a very nice day together and now I have even more tools to work with all our dogs and foster dogs too! We learned that less is more when touching dogs, and with my new foster dog who you will meet very soon, this is going to be very helpful because she is super sensitive to noise and touch. I really learned a lot and am grateful to Julee that she invited me to come along! Please feel free to check out Julee's cool foster dog blog here http://cattierattie.blogspot.com/,

In Between Foster Dogs Part 2 A Hike On The Wallace Falls Trail

Pre fostering Dave and I would hike a different hike every Friday, rain or shine. We rarely missed and that was only if it was dangerous from high winds or too much snow. But then when we began to foster we either had too many dogs to hike a lot of places, or we had reactive dogs, or shy dogs so we found the quiet spots to hike that were close and started doing those on a more regular basis. Could we do more hikes when we have foster dogs and leave a few behind? Well yes we could, but that just doesn't feel fair or right to us as all the dogs need exercise and they really don't seem to care if we go the same places all the time as there are always new smells to smell and new things happening that they can explore. But in between foster dogs we decided to head out to Wallace Falls trailhead. This was mid week and the ONLY time we would even go close to this hike is mid week as we are the type of people who like to get away from crowds when we hike and it worked out great last Thursday to do something different and we and the dogs LOVED it!

This is what I like to find at a trailhead, only a few cars and lots of empty parking spots, Yahoo it is going to be a good day!

First stop potty breaks before hitting the trail, this way we can clean up and toss away before heading out. Jenny Boo had a different plan to use the grass for.

Ratties stick together, as you will notice this is always the way it goes, three ratties walking together, and Liza the Min Pin off scouting ahead...

This sign designates where the nice older part of the forest begins...

What a sight! Just us and the dogs....ahhhhh

Jenny says, "come on mom stop taking pictures and let's get going!"

Looking out at Wallace River

We decided to take the RailRoad grade, the woody trail is gorgeous but we know that the RRG get way less traffic.

Jenny again saying "mom take the picture so we can go!"

Skip looking so handsome

Liza checking things out ahead...yup still no one but us!

How peaceful is this?

Love these flowers called Indian Ghost Plant, Indian Pipes, or Corpse Plant thanks to my team mate for identifying them for me. If you click on the link you will see pictures of the flowers, they are very unique a subtly beautiful.

This is as far as we came today, we normally do a loop back along the woody trail, but it was so nice and quiet we just decided to walk back the way we came.

Sun starting to come through the trees...

Back to civilization...

Powerlines let us know we are almost back to the car. What a wonderful hike we had....and when we got back the parking lot was full and there were large groups of people starting their journeys. We hit is just right and got to feel like it was just us and the dogs for a just a couple of hours.....heavenly.