Getting started

Last year at this time my family and I walked confidently into the Walker County Animal Shelter to volunteer as Foster parents. Within 45 minutes we were sent home with two adorable puppies we promptly named Kevin and ChiChi.  My husband, who really likes clean spaces free of dog urine and dog poop, was going to be our biggest challenge in the new hobby.  The puppies were assigned a room here at the school, given bedding, a radio to listen to NPR, water and food bowls and lots and lots of newspaper.  My plan was to take the puppies out in the morning to poop and get fresh air, then feed them, then take them out again to relieve themselves, then to put them back in their own room until the afternoon when it would be time to feed and walk them again.  This lasted approximately 12 hours. By nightfall the next day Ty and Nikki had split up the dogs claiming one as their own. Nikki got ChiChi and Ty got Kevin.  Both dogs got a soft warm bed and a human to sleep with.

Within a couple of days Chuck started coming home from work a little earlier and wanted to see the puppies as soon as he got home. With the dogs being part of our family life, they were, obviously, in the family room and kitchen with us. This meant that there were soon small (almost imperceptible) puddles of pee on the floor that I tried to clean up as soon as noticed, but definitely by 4:45 pm before Chuck got home from work, usually accomplished at least in the first few months of this endeavor. Eventually Chuck left the light on in the hallway to avoid puddles, set up a mop bucket system for instant urine clean up and helped me invest in paper towel stock!

We are older now and sleep is super important to us. Our backs hurt most of the time and since Chuck has to work standing up sometimes, it is important that we have a good bed that will keep us supported and cozy.  After moving here to the school Chuck ordered a Temperpedic Adjust A Bed that costs thousands of dollars.  He hardly lets our kids sit on the bed with us, let alone our aging, blind and deaf Italian Greyhound.  This bed is an altar to the sleep gods.  So it was that I was floored when one night I went into bed after Chuck had already fallen asleep. I woke him up with my movement and he rolled over and mumbled the funniest thing ever in our 25 years together: "Go bring the puppies in here so they can play on the bed, they are so cute." Luckily for me, I knew he was asleep and didn't bring the puppies, but for months afterwards I laughed with him about the cute puppies.

At night the kids, unused to the sounds a puppy makes to be let out to pee and poop, let the dogs kinda wander around the room, decorating it in yellow and brown. Which I cleaned up since it was my idea. ChiChi wanted to be let out to do her business and got into the practice of pouncing on Nikki's face and chewing her hair to wake her up.  Nikki loves and needs her sleep, so she would cover her head resolutely and ignore the dog who had no other choice.  ChiChi was clever enough to actually poop and pee in the bathroom near the toilet.

By the fourth day Kevin was adopted by a lovely young girl, and ChiChi was firmly the property of Nikki. Not to worry, the Animal Shelter had a continuous supply of puppies that are abandoned or dropped off.  So we got another batch of puppies, this time there were 5 and they slept together in the puppy room on a thick comforter. Did you know that puppies will pee on their bedding if it is any bigger than the actual space they require for sleeping? It's true, and surprising if you just don't know about this. 

Our stray pitbull that we adopted and had neutered became a loving uncle to the subsequent batches of puppies.  Every morning and afternoon we would take them on a 30 minute walk around the property over to the soccer fields, down to the creek and back to the house.

Most of the time after a 30 minute romp I still had 5 puppies when I got back to the house

But this one time when I got back to the house I found only 4 puppies! I freaked out a bit, stuffed the four I had in their puppy room and took the pit bull with me to find the stray puppy.  I had only had them for a few days and they still didn't come to me when I called.  I asked my pit bull who definitely understands human speak to find the puppy.  We walked and walked but couldn't find it. It was getting dark so I got my son to go back down to the field while I fed the other dogs. 

Within 15 minutes two of them came back. My son covered in scratches and leaves, the puppy scruffy around the mouth, and the dog uncle missing.  It seems that when the two of them went back to the field the pit bull sniffed out a yummy delicious smell instead of the puppy and he bounded into the Sleeping Beautyesque thicket like Prince Charming! When the pit bull found the yummy thing it was a quick turn to get it from the stray puppy who had been gnawing on it all this time. The puppy protested loudly, ran and got caught in a vine, and howled piteously.  My son, not knowing what was going on, heard the soulfull cry and ran into the thicket, got stopped by overgrowth, ran around to find a clearing, got scratched in the face and arms, ducked under vines, got his shirt ripped and finally came to the puppy whom he released and brought home in his arms.  On the way back out of the brambles he passed the pit who was happily munching on a partially decomposed fox body.