Fostering Dogs - Mo the Chocolate Lab Mix

This beautiful, sweet thing's name is Mo. I'll explain why we changed it from Sunshine to Mo in a minute. She is a sweet heart. Mowgli, Mo, whatever you want to call her she is so sweet.

She is a year old, chocolate lab mix (greyhound? Look at the long face:)

As you can see in that last picture ALL OF HER RIBS, you might guess, the poor thing was starved. Probably abused too judging by her temperament and skiddish-ness. But she still LOVES humans. She's incredible.

We got her in August and we still have her. :) YAY! But for any of you in the Salt Lake area, she is up for adoption! Check out the Humane Society of Utah's dog adoption page and she is there. And Blue :(

**Update: Mo has a potential new owner we will meet on saturday**

Anyways, back to Mo. She came to us as starved, scraggly, Sunshine but that wouldn't do. While she is a ray of sunshine it just wasn't her name. We tried to be clever and come up with 'thin' or 'skinny' or 'bone' in another language since she was SO SKINNY. None of those sounded too good either. Lindsay had started calling her Mo on the ride back from the HSU just because it was what she thought of when she saw the dog. After a couple hours of debating and voting and not choosing a name Lindsay said let's just call her Mo. It fits and she will always need mo' food. So Mo it is. 

She is a great dog. So obedient and calm. She crosses her front paws when she lays down which just SLAYS me it is so adorable. 

And she inspired us to build a killer doghouse:

More on that later.

We love Mo so much. Even if she ends up with this potential family she will always be ours. 

Love you Mowgli. <3

Why 7 out of 10 of you should go adpot a dog from the local shelter in the next 6 months

Here are a bunch of links to things you can read to convince you to go adopt a dog from your local shelter:

http://news.distractify.com/geek/science/reasons-you-absolutely-need-a-dog-in-your-life/

• This one gives 20 reasons to get a dog
• Like:
• reduce allergies, eczema
• helps overcome PTSD
• aids with all sorts of conditions

http://news.distractify.com/avericlements/21-ways-that-dogs-show-you-they-love-you-more-than-anything-ever/

• This one explains the way dogs express their love for you
• Like:
• not eating the food off the counter
• when the leave a few inches of bed instead of taking the whole thing
• when they bring back the things you throw for them instead of leaving them across the yard

http://list25.com/25-reasons-why-you-should-consider-owning-a-dog/

• This one gives 25 reasons for owning a dog
• Like:
• fitness
• love and affection
• teaching responsibility
• teaching discipline

http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/features/health-benefits-of-pets

• And this one gives health reasons for having a dog

SO GO GET A DOG ALREADY!!

Fostering Dogs - Blue the Cattle Dog

Ah, Blue. What a wonderful little ball of electricity. What a handful. What a monster.

She jumps up on people but not obnoxiously at all. It's like she is giving you a hug because she actually puts her little arms around you. I think she just wants to make it easier for you to pet her to be honest. It was adorable. She is like the perfect size too. Not a small dog but not a huge one that takes up a ton of space either. Perfect travel size!

If you sit on the ground with your legs out she makes herself quite at home there wanting to be pet and loved.

She looks so nice in these pictures. Not at all showing the psychotic nature underneath. She always has this smile too. AH the smile. So CUTE. I can't find a good picture of her with that smile. She found (or created) a spot in the backyard under the big pine tree that stays cool and that is where she spent much of her time here. Ah Blue...I love you. 

She was in heat when we first got her so she was superrrrr obnoxious. Like so annoying. And she has the worst bark I have ever heard in my life. It's a high pitched yap and I hated it. We all hated it. Luckily she isn't a very vocal dog. 

She is so curious. So so so curious and the way she manifests that is through digging and chewing. I will let my dad speak about this:

"Then she brought home a female dog, and this female dog was totally the opposite. I think we should have named her "Tasmanian Devil," but her name was Blue. She is a Blue Heeler, so she has all the attributes of a Blue Heeler. They herd cattle. It is a mistake to think they bite the heels of cattle. They are bred to herd cattle and they open their mouths, and hit with their teeth at the heels of the cattle to herd them. Blue has all of the psychological makeup required to engage in that hazardous occupation. 

And this dog, bless her heart, is eager to please. Disciplining her was simple, you just had to indicate you weren't happy, and it about killed the poor animal. But she is so full of energy that she couldn't help but drag the mulch bag out into of the middle of the lawn and reduce it to shreds. She also has engaged in a major excavation project to find out exactly how the sprinkler system is put together. She clearly questioned whether we really needed a valve at the location she found it. She also wondered what the valve tasted like? When she found out we don't like that behavior, she was so apologetic. I could not bring myself to do anything, other than by the voice to say, What are you doing!?! She responded to the tone of voice and she fell onto her back, as if to cry: 'You have to love me still! Please, you have to love me still'"

All that is true. 100% true. She's a curious, energetic archaeologist in the making. And she's so eager to please. That was good. And she's so receptive to discipline, which is necessary because her antics often require discipline. She is a puppy and comes with all her puppy ways. She is queen of the love bite or love chew. 

Perhaps the best thing about her, besides all of this:

is the fact that she did not run away. Not once. In fact we let her off the leash and she would walk with us and it was so great. Like having Rocket with us again. Ah Blue, what a gem! We miss you Blueberry. 

This adorable pup is Mo:

We will talk about her next time.

Fostering Dogs - Buddy the Australian Shepherd Mix

I decided to foster dogs starting this summer and it has been the greatest thing ever. Seriously. I cannot even explain how awesome dogs are. They are super cool.

I am doing it through the Humane Society of Utah in Murray. They like to foster out the dogs sick with kennel cough, or who are depressed and need some love, or who are recovering from surgery and that.

My first guy was this adorable Australian Shepherd mix - His name is Buddy. He was about 2 or three years old but was just a HUGE puppy. Just a ginormus puppy at heart. He played like a puppy and acted like a puppy and oh man he was adorable and just slayed my with those eyebrows. AAHHHHH

These first ones are

 on the way home from the humane society the first day. He was a little scraggly and his nosey was all yuck from the kennel cough.

Here he is meeting the bird, Tinkerbell. He was OBSESSED with her. He would sit like that for hours just staring at her.

He loved it under the deck. GAH HE IS SO CUTE

He is such a beautiful animal. 

He's great for some lazy cuddles. 

I was (only mostly) obsessed with this animal. He was so great. He was so stubborn and got into some trouble (trying to eat the mouse, Winston) *cough, cough*. But he had a great heart. He tried to be obedient but he was so stubborn it didn't fly sometimes. 

Also, he ran away. A lot. Any chance he got. And it wasn't a sauntering, exploring, meandering down the street kind of a run away. It was bat-outta-hell run away. It was terrible. We had to mobilize troops on foot and in vehicles within seconds or he was gone. We chased him quite a ways a few times. The morning he was adopted, he got out and took off like there was no tomorrow (and there was no tomorrow...not with us at least....) but we got him back and had to bathe him cause he was so filthy from the scrub oak and shrubbery he ran through to escape. STUPID ANIMAL. UGH WHAT AN IDIOT. But we love him dearly and hope he loves his new home. 

We are now on our second dog, Blue: 

Her story will come up shortly. Check back!