Sierra Rolls in the Grass

One of my team mates and fellow foster parent for New Rattitude took on the task of trying to get some decent pictures of Miss Sierra at the dog park the other day. HA ha ha, she got a little sampling of what I go through with the little camera shy dumplin'. Julee managed to get a few shots and a little video and I was grateful for this.

Here is Sierra relaxing in the warm earth with the sights and sounds and activity of the dog park all around her. She is looking a tad skeptical about her picture being taken, but Julee was using her zoom and caught her before she could move to another part of the park :)

Much better picture, you can see how alert she is and what a great profile she has!

Click here to see a video of Sierra rolling n the grass at the dog park

Sierra's Spots

Sierra is closing in on her swim therapy, she completed the 5th out of 6 sessions today. Today I decided to try getting a few still shots of her without her noticing.

Today Sierra did quite a few laps around the perimeter of the pool.

Foster dad is the carrot and Sierra will follow round and round when he is up front calling her.

After a couple laps JLinn holds Sierra and massages her leg and hips and also works on pulling her leg out straight. Sierra will tolerate this as long as Dave is petting her and offering support.

And this is the best part! Seeing all those spots on her belly when she is wet. How can you resist this cute girl's tum tum?

Pixie's Smile & Whiskers

Pixie is one of those girls who looks like she is smiling on a regular basis! And you can even see in the pictures that her tail is still a wagging, really it never seems to stop :)

On top of that she has the cutest darn whiskers ever!

Who can resist this face? Really no one can.

Another shot that shows her bigger size, Pixie is 17.2 lbs and Birdie is 13.4 and the biggest dog of our personal dogs.

Pixie found her spot next to my desk where she can longingly look up at me hoping for some lovins. See those whiskers?

She decided to just take a nap since foster mom was busy, doing New Rattitude stuff no doubt.

Awwwww what did I tell you? The cutest whiskers ever!

Pixie the Lovebug

Pixie has arrived and all I can say is quite the love bug. She had a stint in a shelter where she was on death row, temp foster home in CA, a long ground transport from central CA to WA state, a night with my team-mate another foster parent, then a trip to meet my husband and me at a small off leash dog park first thing in the morning. In spite of all this she is friendly and loving with people men and women alike and with the other dogs at the dog park! She does pancake a little when new people bend over her, which is completely understandable, but she is soon rolling over for belly rubs or giving kisses. And she doesn't seem to mind the camera so I was able to get some good pictures of this beautiful girl. I will just post a few now so you can get a feel for Pixie's gorgeous self.

What a face!

Pixie greeting a stranger at the park.

Happy girl...

shhhhhh don't tell Pixie I posted this silly picture of her

Pixie and foster dog Syncline getting more pets. Love those tummy spots.

Pixie (on her back) and Syncline play. You can see more Syncline in her foster home at her foster mom's blog

love her pink tongue

Pixie and Sierra with foster dad.

Sierra Likes the Pond

It was an unseasonably warm spring day today and we decided to take the dogs to the little pond just off the trail where we walk all the time. With Sierra doing swim therapy she has gotten quite adept at swimming. We are never really sure if she really likes swimming so today when we let her have a little freedom in an area where she was safe near the pond we were surprised that she went swimming all on her own! I didn't have my camera but I did decide to try taking a couple of shots with my phone of her standing on a rock near the pond. She was actually standing on both rear legs but it is hard to tell from the pictures. 

Pixie

With Sierra all settled in and just awaiting her forever home to come along, we felt ready to take on a second foster doggie. Her name is Pixie. This is actually her shelter name but we really like the name Pixie and there happens to be an Ariel Pixie Scooter so in keeping with our naming theme it worked out! We hear Pixie is a 17 lb girl so a bit bigger than the dogs we have at home. We are looking forward to meeting her in a few days as she will be making her way up to WA from CA on a ground transport.

Awwww sweet girl, so glad she is out of here and waiting in temp foster care to come live with us for a while...

Looks like a tail wag and a little smile.....we are ready for you Pixie, waiting with open hearts and arms.

Our new foster doggie, Pixie, will be zooming around here soon without a care in the world.

Sierra The Little Otter

I figured out how to get still shots from video using the snipping tool with Windows. As I have mentioned Sierra is camera shy. She isn't a fan of the video camera or my cell phone either. But that is ok she has a right to not like foreign objects and weird looking "eyes" staring at her from near or far.  So because of this the last thing I want to do is to stress her out so I am getting tricky with my gathering of photos of her. After all having her picture taken and feeling comfortable with that is not a prerequisite for being one of my foster dogs :)

When she is at swim therapy we always comment on how she looks like a little river otter when she is swimming and her fur is wet, so I went through and captured pictures from the video I took of her at her first swim session. We don't take the camera or video recorder anymore because the most important thing is for her to feel good about her swim sessions where she really has to work her muscles and try new things.

Sierra has done 4 session as of this blog post and she is making small steps in her ability to walk on her post surgical leg. We noticed yesterdy when we were on our walk that every once in a while she would tap her foot down on the ground. She is still air walking and her foot just hovers above the ground, so with the newly every now and then tap on the ground this is big progress for her! She also was using all four legs this morning to try and get a toy out of the toy box and she also did a rattie run this morning and used all her legs for that. So she is steadily making progress and this is wonderful!

Here are a few pics of the little otter girl. Sorry the picture quality is poor, but at least you get to see her sweet self.

Big stretch after her swim session

It's hard to tell but when she gets wet all her spots really show and she has them all over.

Little otter face....

Slurp...

Sierra working. She can swim really fast and when she does she doesn't use her bad leg so much, so J Linn gently holds her back so she has to engage the leg that needs to build strength. Once Sierra has done a lap, then J Linn massages and extends her leg while Dave strokes her face. She tolerates this routine and so she is getting lots of therapy in just a 1/2 an hour.

Love her full expressive tail.