Lukes friend Shane

This is Shane Lukes little yorkie friend, I tried to get a photo of them both together today but they werent still long enough and raced around like a couple of whirlwinds, He is a gorgeous little chap and greets me with the most wonderful smile at first I thought he was growling but he isnt, its so funny to see.The strangest thing is that we lost our own little yorkshire terrier last october, Georgie was 14 years old and was a treasured member of our family untill heart failure took her from us, little shane is very much like her and it is a bit wierd to see him running in our garden like Georgie did, maybe Georgie has sent him to keep an eye on us, its a nice thought.

When we collected Luke from the kennels, even though we were glad to see him, he really needed a bath, usually the first thing we do when we get a new foster dog is bathe them mainly to treat them with a flea repellent but also it does seem to settle them really quickly.

This time though Luke wasnt having any of it and no matter how much I persuaded , cajoled and bribed him into the bathroom, he seemed really scared so we didnt pursue it. It has been a bit of a problem though because when he goes out he loves to roll in the earth and wade in the mud, so as you can imagine cleaning a dog that is scared of water is difficult. I manage to clean him with a sponge and wet wipes although he thinks this a great game and its a case of catch me if you can when he sees the sponge arriving. It was suggested we try a paddling pool in the garden and we thought this was a great idea, so after digging in the shed we found one we had bought for the kids a few years before, we pumped it up and filled it with water, Dave thought I was crazy because I was adding hot water as I didnt want it to be too cold for him, (as if he was going to get straight in? YEAH RIGHT !)

I threw his ball in , thinking he would jump in to get it, NO ! I splashed about hoping he might think it was fun NO ! I blew bubbles over the top of it , nothing worked, so after a week of it on the grass we have decided that the only purpose the paddling pool is serving is to actually kill the grass underneath, so tomorrow it is being emptied and returned to the shed.

So, It is back to the drawing board, Luke isnt really so smelly anymore, I grab him when i can and rub tea tree oil lotion into him, which makes him smell lovely and is really good for his skin, and he quite likes that because anything that involves us stroking him is fine by him as long as no water or spray is involved.

I took a short video of him prancing around the pool , bless him he is such a happy dog

Linda x

Luke has a new friend

Now Luke is a really lovely boy, and has many excellent qualities but, he just doesn't know yet how to behave with other dogs.
We have tried to introduce him to others, sometimes he does ignore them but because I think he is a bit scared of them he tends to be on guard when he meets them.
He is getting much better though and today was a huge step forward.
We live in a small cul de sac, and there is just around the corner a tiny little yorkshire terrier, this little scrap is a typical latch key dog and trots around all day on the loose, he has never really shown much interest in our previous foster dogs, and would just have a quick sniff and then go merrily on his way. However yesterday when Luke was out for his walk little shane the yorkie started to follow very, very interested indeed, he followed part of the way and then returned home., when Luke returned shane was outside our front door yapping , like he was calling for Luke to come out and play.
we ignored him and after a long while he gave up and went home, but today he was back and he just wouldnt give up, we have a gate to our back garden and the two dogs were nose to nose at the fence tails wagging like crazy it really was as if they knew each other, very strange indeed.
we decided to take Luke out on his lead to meet little shane just to see how they got on , out he went into the square outside and they sniffed and wagged and pawed each other and wagged some more, but absolutely not one bit of aggression, so Dave decided to let the little yorkie into our garden, well, I was a nervous wreck, Luke is really sturdy now and this yorkie is a tiny thing, but in he trotted and they ran around and played and shane was showing Luke just who was the boss around here . It was so wonderful to see and just proved to me what I had suspected all the time, our big bad Luke was in fact just a scaredy cat, today has done wonders for his confidence, so tomorrow we are going to ask Shanes owners if we could take him with us on our walks, and also invite him in again to the garden to play, awwww isn't friendship a fabulous thing.

Practising my "Look how cute I am Please take me Home" look !

Litle Missy

All of the dogs that have stayed here with us were hard to say goodbye to, although we know they will be loved and cared for brilliantly in their new homes , we miss them, but Little Missy will always be extra special to us.

She came to us after we got a call to go pick her up as she was due to be put to sleep in 2 hours.

She was so nervous and would have crawled inside of the wall if she could have to get away from Dave she was so terrified of him

It was heartbreaking to see her in such distresss, but after only a couple of days she was a different dog. Dave said I should ignore her and let him do everything for her, walk, feed etc, if he was busy in the garden he would take her with him and not let her back indoors she had to spend the time with him,he took her out walking for hours and boy did that work, she became his best buddy and followed him around showering him with kisses whenever he stood still. Then she decided she loved everyone so I got the most gorgeous cuddles and our grandaughter Sophie was fussed over and mothered everywhere she went by this once petrified little dog.

Little Missy was here with us for a month, and she was adopted by a great couple who we know will love her , but more than a few tears were shed the day we said goodbye to her.

After visiting the blogs of other rescue dogs and thoroughly enjoying them I decided that I would give it a go myself, so first of all let me tell you a little of myself and my husband.

I'm Linda and hubby is Dave , we live in the north east of England and have two grown up daughters and a gorgeous grandaughter.

We have always been mad on animals especially dogs and when our little yorkshire terrier passed away last october aged 14 we decided that instead of having another dog of our own we would try to help those who might need some help.

So , in December 2007 we approached Pawz for thought a local rescue and asked if it would be possible to look after a dog just for over the christmas period, even a dog deserves a nice warm fireside at christmas right?

A nice lady from Pawz (Lynne) came to visit us and explained everything and checked that our home was suitable, and then we were told we could go to the kennels and choose a dog to bring home temporarily, we were thrilled and next day went to collect a cute little furbaby ( yeah right) what we did bring home was Bobby .. ( see link for his blog) he was so happy to see us and wagged his tail in excitement. he sat in the back of the car with my daughter who very bravely put up with the extreme odour that was coming from him and all went well untill 10 minutes into the journey home, when he decided to let us know that he wasnt going to be putting up with any funny business and grumbled and snapped for the rest of the journey !!

Once home however , and after a nice warm shower and a bowl of food he showed us how sorry he was for his bad behaviour and sidled up for a cuddle.

Bobby is such a cutie although he was a bit grumpy, we grew very fond of him. about a week later an offer of a new home came up so Bobby went off to be introduced to a member of another fosterers family. unfortunately it didnt work out so John and Brenda kept him with them untill a new home could be found, Bobby is very happy there so everything worked out for the best in the end, although we were dogless for christmas after all .

I was due to go away for a month in January, and just after christmas i got a phone call to ask if we could take in a stray dog that had been found wandering in a distressed state in a housing estate, of course we said yes hopefully the poor dogs owners would report it missing and they could be reunited. half an hour later In walked Katy and barely greeted us she was so tired. She lay down and except for eating and going into the garden for the loo, she slept solidly for two days .

She soon made herself at home but as I was going away and Dave works long hours she had to go into the kennels, we were heartbroken and I worried about her and couldnt wait to get home and bring her out of the kennels .Although the dogs are very well looked after there

In February home she came and it was as if she had never been away, she settled in right away and was a joy Her favourite thing was to run around the garden head down and eating grass, she never suffered any ill effects from this so we think she just liked the taste, . after about 3 weeks a lovely couple came to see her with their daughter and they fell in love with Katy ( its very easy to do) so off she went to her new home a week later and she is very happy there, and is loved and pampered as she deserves to be .