Kia Is Celebrating!

We knew when we decided to foster little Kia that she wouldn't be with us long and we were right! In exactly three weeks since we brought her home from her long transport from Central CA Kia will be in her forever and ever home. She will have her very own family with 2 moms, a human brother, a rattie brother, and a kitty too! She is in for the time of her life with lots of adventures and tons of love and we're sure her 25 lb furbrother Oso will show her the ropes and teach her how to be a ratatastic rattie like he is!

She will spend the 4th of July with us then head to her forever home Sunday. Happy Tails little Kia!!!

Kia and Birdie / +5 Videos blog post mash-up

We have been having unusually hot weather in the PNW. Today our thermometer reads 86 in the shade. Our dog Birdie, originally from Texas, is a heat worshiper. Kia does fine with the heat but sometimes she gets too warm when she is outside playing so foster mom makes her come in to cool down. We don't have air conditioning or anything but with things closed up and the fans going it is pretty liveable in the house.

Dave was in for a break from working in his shop and Birdie and Kia decided they needed to both be in his lap, but they both like burrowing and would not settle in unless he covered them up a little. Poor Dave! He was wanting to be cooler and instead got too girls who insisted on a blanket. I did point the fan directly on them all so that helped... a little. :)

Here are five stray videos of little Kia that I wanted to post.

Tim and Kia bitey face cuteness.

This one is of her playing with Tim on the big dog bed. Dave had told me that they were playing so I quietly moved in on them to they would continue to play.

The same day she and Birdie took to playing and Liza (the fun police) makes an appearance in this video.

I got a quick video of Kia fetching a soft mushroom toy that she and Tim have decided is the coveted fetch toy these days. She is doing great with bringing it back for more, we have been working on this and she is doing great!

And here is a cute video of Kia now that I have added the "sit" cue to our training. This was last week I think and she is a champ at sit now. She will sit for others who ask her to as well! Smart little cookie! At the end I asked her to "bump" (touch her nose to my fist) but foster mom was clumsy with the video camera and treat delivery.

Kia and Skip

Our boy Skip does not really like the foster dogs to encroach on his space. So when I glanced over at the bed he was sleeping in and saw Kia there too, I had to get a couple of shots. She is good with our dogs, doesn't annoy them like some puppies we have fostered. Skip just gets annoyed on principle but it was so nice he could just relax and let Kia cozy up to him without a fuss.

There's Bear In Those Woods

We haven't done a lot of our usual walking out in Sultan since we got Kia. For one the mosquitoes and biting flies have been horrible the last few weeks which is really not a fun time for us or the dogs. But there is another reason we have be doing other closer in walks...

Here is why...

Bear! We have had a lot of bear in our neighborhood trail we do and from the scat on the Sultan trails, large bear scat and small/baby bear scat, we have decided to take a hiatus from our usual morning walk with the crew.

We did do one quick walk though with Kia but we kept it short and stayed on the service road where we had, and ant bear had, plenty of opportunity to see each other. We didn't see any bear this day however and although they are awesome creatures, it was fine if we missed one another.

You can see in this video how Kia goes right toward the rocks to get over the stream but she gets some help from foster day to get across. Jenny just goes for it, she has done this many times.

Here you can see how much visibility we had, and we made sure to do a lot of talking and making noise to let any bear in the area know we were here. There were no issues though.

LOL, Kia was having a blast.

She loves to explore and that is one of the things we just adore about her. Tim is being brave to get up on this contraption.

Love this!

She had to check off the main trail too, here she is sniffing the end of a small fallen tree. Maybe she smells bear!

She is always thinking if she gives eye contact that she will get a treat. We have taught her too well maybe?

Behind this small dam is a little lake that has made it into a few past blog posts. This is the water for the small town of Sultan. There was water this day but I am sure in just a week's time there is very little to no water coming off the waterfall, we just haven't had any rain and we didn't get enough snow melt to have this run into the summer like it does a lot of the time. I suppose they will have to release extra water from the bigger dam further up for the town to have what it needs.

This is the lake that is created from the small dam, it was low this day. It is really a pretty little place to be.

I picked a few Salmon Berries and Kia thought they were quite tasty!

Rounding back we took the service road out to the main paved road in. Kia checks out some of the equipment that is in the area.

And the little sweetie was crashed out by the time we got out to the main road. Kia in her crate in the back seat. She had a fun adventure to dream about.

Kia Has An Adventure At The Maltby Farm Stand

Not too far from where we live is the Maltby Produce Market. http://maltbyproducemarkets.com/  and we come to buy our produce, grass fed beef, and fresh free range eggs a few times a week. This is my kind of shopping. This farm stand is wonderful and most everything is locally grown and grown without the use of pesticides or herbicides. A lot of the produce is fresh picked daily and so are the wonderful eggs!

Behind the stand is a small animal area, the chickens where we get our eggs and some goats. There is a little trail and mothers will bring their little ones to visit the chickens and goats and we thought it would be a great opportunity for Kia to get a little exposure to these animals as well.

Kia quietly checks out the chickens

Smelling the air, sooo many smells right here on a warm day.

She spots the goats and is not quite sure what to think.

She gets to hang out with foster dad to make sure she is okay.

This silly billy goat was trying to get these little girls to feed him, he was very tame and seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

Kia wanted down and is happy to check out the goats from a safe distance.

Getting brave.

Such a curious girl.

I loved seeing her work this out.

 

Inside the farm stand, such a welcome sight, all these colors and such variety.

These tomatoes really do taste like home grown, they are wonderful. My fave are the light orange ones on the right in the round bowl.

I have made a lot of Baba Ganoush this year with all these fabulous eggplants!

These strawberries are so yummy, not like the cardboardy CA strawberries.

We always get some of these homemade jams and we use them in everything. Really you could eat it right out of the jar :)

I don't think Kia was actually supposed to be in here but no one said anything. They know us here, and we don't make this a habit.

These are the best eggs and I always pick some up for gifts when we meet friends.

Aren't they beautiful?