Guess what? Our dogs are finally on the mend. As you may remember, Rose’s digestive system took a real upsetting turn for a while, and we’ve been working on getting her back on track. Now that she’s mostly back on track, we are able to identify a few culprits. The puppy food was one, and she’s now on an all life stages food mixed with her special bland diet. We are working on getting her off the bland diet, but it may be the case that we’ll have to keep some of that around for her now, for when things go south. We were able to get her remaining puppy food donated to the rescue, and they were thrilled to have it.

We have also identified that Rose cannot have peanut butter. This is really sad because she very much loves to chew, and giving her a heavy-duty kong filled with her kibble and peanut butter and then frozen kept her occupied for very large amounts of time. I am going to try using yogurt to replace the peanut butter to see if that’ll be something her stomach can handle.

There will be no table scraps for this gal either, unfortunately. Lizzie of the iron stomach hasn’t had any issues in that respect but we are noticing that even fish bothers Rose, and throws her off.

So, we have to stay more strict with her diet, and then we get a dog that is happy. Here are some happy Rose photos.

These are tough to get because she’s generally moving quite fast when she’s looking particularly happy. That hound droopy face doesn’t lend itself well to happy looking photos.

Then there’s Lizzie, diagnosed with severe seasonal allergies. I’ve determined that it’s most likely the fall leaves or maybe the mold in the fall leaves that trigger her allergies. Now that we’ve got a good freeze going on, her allergies are starting to slow down, as is the coughing and sneezing associated with it. She’s not 100% and her eyes still need treatment, but she is doing MUCH better.

All that benadryl has her snoozing quite a lot. Since we are trying to avoid a ton of outside in the leaves time, I’ve been taking her everywhere I go in the car. This helps her boredom somewhat. But, she did get a walk yesterday in the cold and she was just thrilled to pieces to be out and about again!

Rose, lately, has decided that if Lizzie can hop up on my lap, she should be able to as well. Now, there’s a huge difference between a 27-pound dog and a 44-pound dog hopping up on laps. And they definitely cannot sit there together, much to Rose’s chagrin.

Here she’s quite annoyed because she thought she could join, and it didn’t work.

So, then she started to hop up on my lap before Lizzie could.

That’s what she’s done here. Trouble is, she can’t quite figure out what to do with herself once she gets on my lap. Sometimes she tries to put her butt on my shoulder, but naturally, that’s not too comfortable. Then she’ll wriggle all around trying to be comfy but never quite figuring it out, then will hop back on her bed having given up. She doesn’t understand that if she just lays down, she’d have exactly what she wants. She’ll get there though, she’ll get it figured out.

Rose is definitely settling in and growing up lately. It’s really really rare now that we have to tell her not to bite or shred something of ours. My slippers sit nicely on the floor near the door and she doesn’t touch them anymore. Just over 2 months in our home and she’s already become quite well adjusted. I am impressed.

Now, as you can tell, I adore our dogs. They are absolutely part of our family and we treat them as such. We feel SOOOO grateful to their rescue for saving them and allowing us the opportunity to adopt them. I’ve been getting more and more involved in the rescue lately. Since Mr. Ink doesn’t love the idea of fostering dogs, I feel the need to find other ways to help out. Miss Butterfly and I took the opportunity to help out with a meet and greet this weekend. You see, the rescue has a TON of puppies right now. Young puppies go in a pack and play during the meet and greet, but older puppies ready to be adopted have to be out and ready to meet. Naturally, one foster parent cannot handle the 5-8 puppies that might all be available. So, Miss Butterfly and I went and held puppies for the rescue.

It was fabulous! A ton of fun. The best part? We’d been talking to a family with 4 little girls all under the age of 8 who were looking for a puppy. They were such a nice family. They already had 2 dogs who are elderly and in failing health so they were looking to get a puppy for the kids. I knew whichever puppy went to them would be so loved. They had a hard time choosing but ended up with the biggest and most outgoing of the puppies we were holding. We volunteered on Saturday, and their adoption went through on Sunday! I was so happy! That puppy will have so much love in their home and so much attention from all 4 little girls who were incredibly gentle with all the dogs they met that day.

This is how I helped this past weekend. Who knows what next weekend will bring. I am itching to do a transport job, a road trip to bring puppies/dogs up from the south into our foster homes here. I got to ask for more details about that while we were at the meet and greet, and now that I know that I provide the vehicle and drive, while they pay for gas and provide the kennels, I know it’s something I could do. I just have to wait for the opportunity to present itself.

And that, I suppose, is your weekly dog update!