Three Lucky Dogs!

Many of our regular readers will see some familiar faces here. Meet Sugar, Max, and Milroy. All three of these wonderful dogs were fosters that ended up being adopted by their foster family. Sometimes the fosters just become such a part of the family, they are hard to give up. Sugar is a Shar-pei mix who ended up at the shelter when her owners couldn't take care of her.
After trying to find her a home, her foster family decided she was staying with them. That was more than a year ago. Recently, that same family brought home Max, a beautiful 9 year old Yellow Lab, who was surrendered by his owner. Max was extremely depressed in the shelter and wasn't eating well. Lou Ann took him home to foster and fell in love. He also joined the family. When Milroy, the 9 or 10 year old Beagle came to the shelter as a stray, Lou Ann came to the rescue again. A Beagle rescue had agreed to take Milroy, but Lou Ann and her husband fell in love with him before that could happen. As you can see from the pictures, these 3 lucky pups have it made! Max likes to twirl before he comes into the house. He's probably just trying to express his joy and appreciation for his family. Milroy had to try out every dog bed before deciding on just the right one. He also greets the family with a happy bark when they come home. Even Sugar, who is sometimes choosy about who she gets along with, seems to have taken to these boys.

Fostering is such a rewarding experience. These 3 may have never made it out of the shelter and into a loving family without a foster home willing to give them a chance. Their faces say it all. They appreciate every day with their new family. Thank you to Lou Ann and Denny for being such a loyal foster family for the many great animals at the shelter.

Offsite Adoption at the Hot Dog Festival

Here are a few pictures from our offsite adoption on Friday, 7/24 of the Hot Dog Festival. Thank you to Family Video for letting us use their lot and also for selling baked goods to benefit the Humane Society! One cat (Daisy) was adopted there and the other cat (Dapple) was adopted a little later at the shelter by a couple that had seen her. They also adopted a chihuahua that had just been surrendered and was very scared. These three adoptions made the day worth it. We got a few small donations and visited with some people, but finding homes for the pets is what it's all about.

Kermit's Happy Story!

Hi, Rick!

I have a Happy Story for the blog that is long overdue. Mick and I adopted Kermit (Jenny when she was in the shelter) on October 4, 2008. We saw Kermit's picture on Petfinder and were captivated with one of the pictures in which she was smiling with her mouth open, much in the way a Kermit the Frog puppet might look, and we kept referring to her picture as "Kermit the Dog." We went to the shelter to meet her. We didn't exactly hit it off with Kermit on our first visit. She was a handful on a leash-jumping, pulling, and scratching with her claws. And we weren't sure we were ready for a younger dog (she was around 4-5 months old and full of jump and bounce). But after discussing, we decided I should go back for a second visit to see Kermit, and on that second visit, we connected. After a third visit to make sure Kermit and our Husky would get along, we made it official and brought Kermit into our family.

But that's not the end of the story...We enrolled Kermit in a basic clicker training class, and we might as well have saved the enrollment fee. Kermit was a superstar! And she did so well socializing with the people and children accompanying their parents to the class that I decided to enroll Kermit for a Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog preparation course. On June 7, just a few weeks past what we would estimate to be her first birthday, Kermit and I drove to Indianapolis to take a shot at the obedience exams and passed the combined CGC/Therapy Dogs International exam together! She has a fancy certificate from the AKC recognizing her Canine Good Citizen achievement. And today, we received notice in the mail that Therapy Dogs International accepted her application to become an associate member. Kermit has her own photo ID badge, bandana, and collar tag identifying her as TDI therapy dog. We will be able to share her calming, loving influence with children and adults who need her special gift, and I'm looking forward to scheduling our first volunteer visit!

Kermit has been an amazing treasure. We're so thankful that we gave Kermit a second chance. And we hope that other potential adopters will realize that not every dog puts their best paw forward on the initial visit, and will consider returning for a second visit if they don't find what they expected the first time.

I'm attaching a couple pictures of Kermit. Some of the blog followers might recognize Bozeman, being walked by Mick's mom, and Kermit's foster brother, Dyno.

Kendra

Big Girl's Update

Big Girl was adopted from us at an off-site adoption at the Carmel PetsMart in June. She was surrendered at seven years old to the Clinton County Humane Society because the family was moving. The following is an update from Big Girl's new family:
Attached is a picture of Big Girl. She's doing great. My Mom and Dad love her, so if you see any calm, low-maintenance dogs let me know. They had a ball with her when we brought her to Terre Haute for a visit at their house. She actually ran with Jack in their back yard, but only once. I think she spent all her energy! She worked my mom over with her sad brown eyes. We did discover she does not like thunder or fire works. She hides. Our vet says she needs to lose 10 lbs, so we're walking twice a day and cutting down the food intake. I'll keep you posted on her progress.

Jojo Finally Finds Her Forever Home!

This is Jojo, a beautiful beagle mix who had a sad start to life. Jojo was adopted from our shelter a couple of years ago. She was brought back for unknown reasons. Paw Pals sponsored her and got her spayed and into a foster home where she was quickly adopted again. That family's cats didn't like her so back to the shelter she came. We found another foster home for her, and Jojo found yet another home. Luck was still not on Jojo's side because that family returned her as well. We contacted Julie, Jojo's second foster mom to tell her Jojo was back at the shelter. She immediately agreed to foster her again. This time she was adopted by a wonderful young man named Ryan who loves her. Jojo finally has the happy ending she deserved all along. Now she is living the good life. We so appreciate the foster homes Jojo had that kept her from living in the shelter. Our foster homes are extremely valuable and needed! Thank you to Ryan who gave Jojo the home she craved. What a happy ending!!!

Frankie Finds a Happy Home!

I'm sure many of you have seen Scruffy on our website. He was brought to the shelter by his former owners in February when they were moving out of state and didn't want to take Scruffy with them. He became urgent recently because he was getting depressed at the shelter and not eating. Tracey, one of our wonderful volunteers, listed a story about Scruffy on her Facebook page. Friends started sharing Scruffy's story with their friends, and within a couple of days, Scruffy found his new family in Fort Wayne! He is living it up with a family who loves him, complete with two teenagers! He thinks it was worth the wait because they are spoiling him rotten. His new mom said he was so good at his first vet appointment, and he let his new doggie cousin, a cocker spaniel, jump all over him! He even got a new name: Frankie! He couldn't be happier! Thanks to Tracey, Frankie will have the happy home he deserved for so long! A huge thank you to Frankie's new family who saw him and realized he was just what they needed to make their family complete!