Inauspicious beginnings...

A few months ago I got it into my head that fostering dogs would be a good idea, a half measure between being dogless and a dog owner again. My dog Lulu died suddenly last spring and I have been missing her in particular and dogs in general.  Dogs can be a burden, you can't go anywhere, you have to run home after work, it's hard to find an apartment with a dog, there are lots of reasons not to have one but despite the inconvenience you cannot deny how much they add to life (you know, if you're a dog person).  Since April I have been dog free and it has not been an improvement, on grumpy days there is no doggy silliness to combat bad moods, I've gotten fat from not walking enough, my floors are unnaturally clean, and when I have to drive to Maryland I am traveling solo, perhaps a foster dog could be the remedy.

Introducing Edwina, my first official foster dog.  This is what I've been told: under one year old, dog and people friendly, might be ok with cats, had a litter of puppies (mommy nipples!) and was brought up from a shelter in Baltimore, don't know how she ended up there.  Really really wanted a small dog to foster, someone easily contained when necessary (house breaking etc...), small poops, wee wee pad for the occasions I may be gone longer than a bladder should last, and if they bite it's stitches not plastic surgery. But I came a little late to the adoption/foster party and the pee-wees were taken, so home we go with a 35lb Australian Shepherd/Cattle Dog (not sure what she is, looks like a cross of those but with a leaner frame?).

where  am I and who are you?

under the weather...

Trial by fire! holy shit, explosive liquid diarrhea the first night, splat all over the floor (in my BRAND NEW apartment!), pee running across the uneven floors... and the dog didn't have much personality, I had lost the foster dog sweepstakes.  So it's oatmeal and chicken/rice to bind her up, please PLEASE work.  Oatmeal is a miracle!  2 days of oatmeal and pedialyte and miss Edwina is bright eyed and diarrhea free.  So it turns out she is not a dull spiritless dog, hard for a girl to put her best foot forward when she has diarrhea and is in heat (getting spayed soon), not to mention being shuffled around from place to place.

almost back to normal!

From what I've read this breed is cautious and really smart, they are working dogs and bred to be capable of independent thought.  She's been watching and assessing and slowly making up her mind, sometimes sitting near me, I'd get a wag here and there but certainly not the shameless doggie affection, silliness and bottomless kisses I'm used to.  But this morning I got a smooch on the face so thats a start!


For information on Edwina please call 917 374-3260