Nap time!

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Sharing

I wanted to take a minute before bed to mention how great Mabel is at!

Like all dogs, she does not like to have her toys taken from her, especially the rawhide chews!  When Twister tries to steal her chews from her, she gives him a little "Grrr", and he walks away.

At first, I was worried that she might have a little bit of resource aggression, so I watched her very closely.  I realized quickly that she just didn't want Twister snatching her things.  He can climb on her, lay next to her, even tug on her ears, while she has a chew, and she is just fine, until he tries to take hold of it.

Mabel does not act this way with other toys, such as the rope, or the football.  She has been playing tug-a-war with Twister quite often.  She also does not act aggressive about her food.  Surprisingly, after being an only dog in her last foster home with Angela, she is not bothered by sharing.  She and Twister have a few times traded bowls at meal time - which of course I try to discourage, mostly because they are on two very different foods at this stage.

But today we had a breakthrough that surprised me greatly!  Mabel had her chew, and Twister was being - well, a puppy!  He wanted that chew, and nothing we could do would deter him.  He even had a time out in his crate because he was aggravating her so badly.  Finally he learned, and just laid next to Mabel with one toy or another, and we figured that was the end of it.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Twister pounced on Mabel's head, and got her to wrestle with him, and drop the chew.  As they rolled around, Twister saw his chance, and snatched the rawhide!  Mabel went to grab it back from him, but instead just sniffed it, turned around, and came to sit on the couch.  I was so proud!  Mabel was told how happy we were, and what a good girl she was.

Now  only hope that Twister gives her some peace and quiet tomorrow, so she can enjoy her rawhide! :)

Important things we learned

OK, so over the past few days we have learned many things about Mabel that are important for prospective adopters to know...

1: You have to use her name before all commande, except "NO".  For some reason, she hears that word, and stops and looks at you automatically.  This is a very good thing. :)

2: Mabel is not affected by the noise of Thunder or Wind.

3: She does not pull excessively on a tie out.  We had her in the yard yesterday with us, and she only reached the end of the cord once (to hide behind the bushes and do her business )

4: Excercise is an absolut necessity, unless you want her to play tag with you in the living room, she needs time outdoors to RUN!.  we happen to have a pile of branches in our yard from a tree that fell a few weeks ago, and she runs in circles around it, just becuse she can.  About 20 minutes is enough for her to be ready to come in.

5: Bathtime is NO PROBLEM!  Mabel got very muddy yesterday, and when I walked her into the bathroom, she jumped right in the tub and stood still while I sprayed her down.  Also, because she is so good with the NO command, she did not muddy up the furniture before I could get her into the bathroom.

6:  She prefers bed time to be with her humans.  And she will not leave your side during the night for any reason. 

7: Alone in the house time should be in the crate, or a separate "Mabel Room", because she becomes very anxious when alone.  We tested her while grocery shopping (we were gone for 1 hour and 30 minutes), and when we got home, everything was fine, but the sofa cushions were knocked down from her jumping on and off, and she was whining at the window when we pulled in the driveway.

8: Mabel does not differentiate between TV noise and "Real" noise. If she hears a doorbell, or dog bark on tv, she will woof at the door, or run to he window to find it.  It's very cute, and not at all excessive.

9: Mabel will love you!  All she needs is time, love and a good chewey for bed time, and she will be the best dog you can want!

Mabel just had a great introduction to Boo Boo Kitty! With some coaxing and petting she stayed calm enough that he was not afraid to come into the living room. A few minutes more and she walked over to him and nosed him. :-) Poor Boo Boo didn't want anything to do with her and hurried into the kitchen and then hissed, but Mabel did great! I have no doubts that she will soon be ready for almost any cat encounter! Does anyone know of a dog-friendly cat she can meet?

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

The game of  the day is tug a war! Lol I just snapped this picture to show how well Mabel gets along with others. As i am posting this Twister is laying on Mabel's back trying to pull the ball from her mouth. Mabel would make a great addition to someone's family!
This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Our First Day (Saturday 4/23)

Mabel arrived about 4pm.  She was so happy to see us, we knew for sure that she remembered us from the visit.  Twister was so overly excited that we had to keep him in his crate for the first 15 minutes. :)

She walked around the yard with Jenn, from Pitty Love Rescue, and seemed content.  However after Jenn left, Mabel was a bit anxious.  She did not understand why her friend just left her here.  Almost immediately she began cuddling with us on the couch for reassurance, and shortly afterwards was playing and running around with Twister.

Mabel is teaching Twister manners also.  I hope I don't jinx it by saying that he has calmed down extremely, now that he has a big sister to tell him to "quit it" when he gets rowdy.  Twister gets a bit jealous when Mabel has a hoof to chew on, even though he has his own, and tries to bribe Mabel to trade, by bringing her other toys...  So far she has not fallen for it.

Poor Mabel would not go #2, no matter how many times we took her out (She finally went this morning).  It seemed like she just couldn't find the right spot.  Now, in hindsight, I know that she wanted privacy.  Her chosen spot this morning was behind the basketball hoot, where she could peek her head around to see me, but was pretty sure I could not see her business.  I couldn't. LOL


Last night was a little nerve-wracking for her, I think.  She did not want to go to sleep in her crate, instead, when we said "bedtime" she would curl up on the couch, and give us sad eyes.  We got her into the crate, and covered it up, so she would not be distracted.  She whined for about 15 minutes, and then settled down just fine.  She slept through the whole night with no problems.

Today (Sunday), Mabel and Twister will be alone for just a few hours while we go to dinner for Easter.  I'm the anxious one now, wondering how she will handle us leaving.  But it's good practice for Tomorrow and every other week day, when we will be at work.

A Message (Friday 4/22)

Today I received a great e-mail from Mabel's current Foster Mom, and I just wanted to share it with everyone:


"Hi Donna,
I just wanted to drop you a quick note about Mabel. I heard through your blog you would be fostering her and I am very glad that someone as excited about Mabel as you is able to take her. I love her very much, unfortunately my roommates situation has changed and I am not in a position to keep Mabel without help (i go to Buffalo for school).

She loves to cuddle and is very expressive emotionally (will pout if she has to). She listens very well but stay will probably be a problem as she gets used to you. She was very traumatized when we first got her and needed to keep people in sight. She is much better now but may revert a bit. She is very good with her crate (i use the word bed with her) and will sleep in there if you dont want her in your bed but she loves to sleep with people. If you put her in there right as people or leaving or right after playing or a walk she'll bark a bit because she's wound up.

She loves tennis balls and behaves very well at Ellison park. She knows off, stay, sit, here and bed. Her walking on the leash has improved immensely. I use heel and back when she pulls; she seems to respond better to verbal commands (back) than a quick pull on the leash. She is ALWAYS very excited at first.

She hates to be yelled at! But is very responsive to hugs and kisses.

I will miss her very much. Wish I could adopt her...

If you have any questions about her I am happy to help. I really want the best for her and will continue to talk about her, put flyers up and keep her FB page up until she is adopted permanently.

Thanks so much,

Angela"


And I wanted to also say Thank You to Angela for taking Mabel in when she needed her the most, for the work you've done with her, and for providing me with so much valuable information about her.

I hope we can keep in touch!

The Decision (Weds 4/20)

Tuesday came along, and I was so anxious that I had to e-mail Jenn from Pitty Love Rescue and find out if a decision had been made about Mabel coming to stay with us.

Jenn responded back almost immediately that the board meeting was not until Tuesday evening, but that she would let me know as soon as possible on Wednesday.  She also mentioned that she had a concern about the separation gate we had.  It was just a small (24" high) baby gate, that was perfectly suited to keep the puppy out of the kitchen, but Mabel could easily jump it, or possibly knock it down.

Well, wouldn't it just figure... we had already thought about that, because it was mentioned during the home visit.  And we had already purchased a taller gate with a screw attachment that was much sturdier! 
I made sure to let her know that we had also thought about that concern, and that the gate would be installed as soon as possible.

She seemed very please to hear that fact, and said that she would get back to me Weds, as soon as she could.

Waiting....  The gate was installed Tuesday night...  More waiting...  I was so excited, I could barely wait until Wednesday morning.

And of course, I e-mailed Jenn first thing Wednesday morning, and let her know that the gate was installed already, and that I was really trying not to pester her.  When I finally heard back, it was GREAT News!

Mabel will be coming to stay with us this weekend... AND there is a family interested in adopting her!  That means that Mabel might have a forever home very soon!  I'm so happy for her, and I can't wait for her to come and stay with us, so that we can start introducing her to cats, and leash walking, which are 2 things she still has some issues with.

More to come on Saturday, once we get settled in!

Meeting Mabel (Saturday 4/16)

On Saturday, we were privileged to have a visit from a young lady named Mabel!

Mabel is a year-and-a-half old Pit Bull mix, who has had a run of bad luck over the last few months.  I first heard of her through her FaceBook page called Rescue Mabel.  It showed up on my side panel, as "Someone you might like to know"... or whatever they call that category now back in January.  I clicked on the link, thinking that it was a lost dog notice on some one's personal page.

To my horror, it turned out to be a page that was started to find this lovely girl a home.  She had been left in her crate in a dumpster, and abandoned!  Poor girl was terrified, all alone, and in need of someone to love her.  I wanted to bring her home with me immediately.

But Mabel already had a foster home at this point.  I knew there was only so much that I could do for her, so I commented on her page saying how beautiful she was, and checked back on her from time to time.  I was not in a position to adopt her permanently, because, oddly enough, my SO and I had just put a rather large deposit down on an American Staffodshire Terrier puppy with a breeder out of state.  I knew that a new dog, who may or may not have emotional issues and a brand new puppy may be too much for even this dog lover.  So I watched and waited, and all seemed to be going well for her.

Mabel's page also shared postings from her rescue agency, Pitty Love Rescue, so I became a fan of their page also.  Last week, I saw a post that Mabel was in need of a new :)home.  I almost cried...  This poor girl had been through enough this year, hadn't she?  So I called my SO at work, and told him what the post said, and told him I wanted to foster her.  Can you believe he didn't even question it?  Go ahead he said, get all the information, and apply.  So I did.

The application was quite long.  I was terrified that we wouldn't be approved, for whatever reason, and that Mabel would end up in a boarding kennel, or (stars forbid) worse.  E-mail after e-mail, and a few days later we were able to have a home visit with Mabel and one of the Rescuers Jenn.

We were ecstatic!  We had been warned that she may not be good with cats, and we have one, so we were prepared with the cat in the kitchen and the gate up.  Mabel was great.  She played and wrestled with Twister our Am-Staff (Who is now 12 weeks old, and very nearly potty trained), and although she was very curious about BooBoo-Kitty :) She was never aggressive or overly agitated by him.  And she could pass for Twister's Twin!

The home visit went great.  Jenn told us there was a board meeting process, and that we had to get final approval, but that she would let us know on Tuesday or Wednesday.  When she left, we were discussing where to put the crate, and whether we should buy a taller gate... Just in case!