Update on Sophie, our foster girl....

Right after my last post, Sophie met a family who wanted to adopt her. They are a young couple with a three year old daughter who live in Newcastle. They had to wait for her because of a pending hospitalization (the Mom), and Sophie hadn't lost enough weight for her de-sexing. The good news is she has lost the weight and then some. I'm sure she must be down to a svelte 19 kilos.

Unfortunately, though, Sophie bit a male human friend in the dog park (on the finger) after he tapped her on the nose. This caused our rescue group to be concerned for her eventual re-homing (fear that she might bite a member of the new family), they canceled her de-sexing appointment and requested the services of a dog behavioral specialist.

She had her behavior assessed this morning, and she had a risk score of 1/10.... hence, very low risk. There is still a concern for her to be re-homed with children, so I don't think she will be moving home with the nice family who have been waiting for her.

I never thought I would have a foster dog for this length of time - seven months so far - but it has still been worth it. Sophie is quite a character and is very good company. I hope we find the perfect family for her soon, though, just so she can get settled in and bond.

On Fostering a Dog

Last Easter I decided I would like to foster a dog. Before the holidays, lots of pet owners dump their dogs because they don't want the expense of putting them in a kennel for a week or two. These dogs fill the pounds and lots of them end up on death row. Fortunately, there are rescue groups who take the dogs that would otherwise be euthanized. This is how we got Sophie and this is how Sophie looked when we first got her, fat, dull coated...:

She was so fat that she could barely waddle around. I think her past owner just left her in the backyard and fed her fattening food without ever exercising her. She weighed 28.8 Kilos when we got her; and she's now at a semi-svelte 23.8 Kilos. She lost 5 Kilos, but unfortunately needs to lose 3.8 Kilos more before she can be desexed safely. I didn't expect to have a foster dog for this long.

Don't get me wrong, I love Sophie. She's a great dog in many ways, she just needs to be the only dog in a household because she's BOSSY. Photo below of slimmer and bossy Sophie:



Good old Sammy (the "questionnoodle") is pretty mellow, and when Sophie pushes him too far, he'll let her know that he's not at all pleased. Poor Karma (Australian Shepherd), though, gets submissive to her and slinks away.

I mentioned that Sophie still needs her desexing surgery. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as doggie menopause. It's the ethical thing to do when you are re-homing a rescue animal, but it's also safer for her in terms of less chance of mammary tumors, etc.

Do I recommend fostering a dog? Without question. Rescue organizations usually have full houses at their facilities, so they need foster carers to take up the slack. It's also better for a dog to be in a home than in kennels with tens of other dogs. I'll cry when Sophie is adopted and leaves us, but I knew it was a temporary arrangement when we got her. Besides, there are lots of other doggies waiting for love, good care and a safe haven, and we have plenty of that.

Long Time No See

It has been a while since either Tim or I have posted, and needless to say, a few things have happened in the last two years. For one thing, we moved from our house in Thornleigh, a whole kilometer to Westleigh. Our old house was great in many ways, but two big for us and too much work. Our new place is a duplex located right next to the Westleigh Dog Park. How good is that? We have three small bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen (large), a garage, and a double courtyard out back. Westleigh has nice wide roads, so it's not like the streets in Thornleigh where you take your life in your hands just going out for a walk - crazy drivers/narrow roads. Up the street is a small shopping center, and the only thing lacking is a fish shop.... well, and a clothes shop...

Also next to us is Ruddock Park, which is a wonderful park with tennis courts, kids playground, an oval for sports, a graffiti wall, trees and grass.

When we first moved into our new home, we decided to renovate the kitchen. I would talk about that adventure, but I'm still trying to forget about it - what a nightmare. The finished item was successful, but the road was long and weary. I'd like to include some photos of the kitchen, but it's along several walls, so it's hard to do anything inclusive. We just bought a new camera, so maybe I'll try to get a few pics.

In the meantime, here is a photo of our "new" house:



I speak like we just moved here, but in fact, it has been one year.

CIGNA - More proof of their dishonesty (click here)

Holiday on the South Coast of NSW

Hi. It’s Monday, about noon, and we’re staying at the Shellharbour Beachside Tourist Resort. They really mean "beachside", because we are about 50 feet from the water. We unfortunately have some trees in the way of our water view, but the sound of the surf is very relaxing and there is still a nice breeze. The beach is a combination of sandy and rock pool. There’s also a huge “manmade” ocean pool - huge! I think I might swim in it, since I’m not big about swimming in the ocean.... yeah, I’m afraid of sharks, I give.

We arrived here last night after packing and deciding at about 2 PM that we would leave on the day, rather than wait for the next day, which would mean today which means we wouldn’t be here now, so I’m glad we decided to go when we did. Phew.

The people who run this caravan resort are really nice. They must be, because they allow dogs! Yeah! All the usual rules apply regarding leashes, etc., but Sammy and Karma well-mannered in parks. They usually just lie around the outside of the caravan, unless they can finagle their way inside, which they invariably do. Last night, it was raining, hence, wet and smelly dogs. We kept them in the car (wagon, with their beds and all the comforts of home), and they probably slept better than we did. Except for the times we woke them for “walkies” because we were afraid they might bother the neighbours.

This morning, the weather was mostly clear - at least partially sunny, occasionally cloudy and fairly pleasant. I went to the local mall to pick up a book on caravanning and camping in Australia - a “bargain” at $50 bucks - yikes! I still can’t get used to the cost of books in this country. Hopefully, the information in this book with save us so much money, it will have been a charmed purchase. We had to do something, since we left our only, albeit, outdated, other caravan books somewhere at home. We were fortunate to have found such a great place to stay just by following signs and our noses.

I will include photos as I take and process them (aka: photoshop!).

Great headline

Drug-smeared boobs knock out robbed men

Still a few more days to donate....



Whales and dolphins singing

The Neptune Project in Canada has some cool recordings of whales and dolphins. Spectrograms are also shown.

Tim