Have a little time?
Need some unconditional love?
Maybe, just looking to give back a little in this life?
Karma?
Then now might be the time to be a Foster Mama (or Papa) to a dog one shot away from nothing.
(Mira, my 6th foster dog and one I should have kept....:)
I got involved in dog rescue and fostering in 2008. I did it for a couple of reasons.
One, to be honest, I was looking for someone to love, my kids had grown and I'm a nurturer at heart (even though I had never thought of myself as such) but when the house was empty of demands, schedules, homework, practices, etc. after 20 years, I found I had some extra attention to give and no one to give it to.
(Here's Trixie, now known as Hailey, who my parents fostered through the summer of 2011)
(My first dog, Puffy and me taking a "nap")
Three, I read a heart-felt plea about truly honoring your dog who had passed, by giving another dog a chance.
So 10 foster dogs later. I've learned a few things...
- Dogs want to please you. Just not always the way you're expecting....
- Your energy - both good and bad says more to a dog than your voice.
- All new dogs will "mark" your home at least once....
- Dog (and kids) need structure, rules, discipline and time to be free
- Joy comes in quick moments and you had better pay attention: Like a wagging tail, a play bow, a successful "Come" or "Sit" and sometimes, if you are lucky, a full jump of joy.
- Your trust in the dog is a powerful tool for training.
- Your heart always has room for just one more dog and that's why you can let go.
So here's Dakota, my parents' and my latest foster. Dakota is truly a rescue in that she came from a neglect situation where she was forcibly surrendered by a dog-hoarding family that also kept wolves, yes...wolves. For the first three years of her life, she was kept in an outside pen behind the barn (and yes, Wisconsin winters suck). When coming to shelter, with no socialization to the real world, she was timid, cowered and would back-up from everything. The only comfort she could give herself was licking her skinny hip.
Thankfully, the family gave her to the local humane shelter, which spent the time getting to know her sweetness. After a few calls and emails, Dakota found her way to
GSRAW. With a couple of months of love, attention, care and discipline she has just blossomed into an amazing young dog. Yes, she has a lot to learn yet, but dang, she's come so far.
Today Dakota and I worked on some house-dog basics. She conquered the stairs. She hammered the word - "Come" (always have a great $1000 treat - like ham). She worked on the sit, stay and wait commands. She wore out my arm with a
Wubba and her absolute joy to play. She sniffed every tree on our one hour walk. And she didn't knock over the miniature poodle, Cita.
The best moment: She gives hugs. Really! She'll jump up gently, put her front paws around your middle, tuck her nose in your side and just be.
Here is a great dog who just loves to be in safety and kindness and knows how good she has it.
And the sad....she could have easily had been euthanized like so many others - because of her initial fear of new things.
And imagine that. What a loss of joy.
PLEASE, please consider fostering. It makes your heart feel so good and it really does make a difference!
November 2 in Mexico and Latin America is known as La Dia del Muertos or the day of the dead. A day (well a few days, actually...) where people remember and honor their ancestors and friends who have died. Todd and I really liked this celebration of loved ones which we witnessed first hand in Mexico last year. This year we decided to make our own "ofrenda" or offering to our dearly departed to show our remembrance and love. Our humbled honorings included items that we associated with them. 
For my Grandma Wedekind, I offered a Louis L'Amour novel, who I remembered curled up in a chair and reading on a Friday night, and a potato to represent a family favorite food, potato dumplings, which she made all of us learn to make and love to eat.
For Grandpa Rollie I provided old fashioned peanut butter which he loved and Brachs bridge mix for Grandpa Vic as well as an orange, because when he traveled to Texas every winter, he'd drive 5 extra miles to get a better deal on a bag of them. 
For our beloved Grandma Alice, we provided lots of flowers as she was a gardener. For Nanette, an old friend of Todd's, a vodka gimlet, and for Tasha, our first German Shepherd, her favorite treats.
While up at Beatons a few weeks ago, I asked Bonnie if she had any liqueur to top off my evening coffee. Bonnie, being the ever intrepid Yooper, had a box of liquor from a neighbor who had stopped drinking and gave away the liquor cabinet. Not to let anything go to waste, She figured she'd find some use for it so stored it away.
There was 60 year old whiskey just waiting for us! And let me tell you, the whiskey was beautifully smooth, just like a cognac. What a find! And the best damn Irish Coffee, I've ever had.
My first failure was Cara, my seventh foster dog since December. She came from a really hard background. No family, living in an outdoor kennel for the past few years at a pet "sanctuary" which was busted by officials. In the beginning of August she was transported to me from Kentucky. 
Yay, today marks the the start of my third year of blogging the Life of Rylee. When I first started - I tried to do my own blog, but soon gave up and started using Blogger tools. The original still exists here - Life of Rylee. One of my first blog stories was a photo essay of using the macro lense on my new (at the time) Pentax Optio point and shoot camera.
The email address was masked to look like it came from paypal@paypal.com - this is such a simple trick to set up that it insults one's intelligence. Above is a screen shot of the email with the hyperlink to the supposed paypal site where I am to "log-in" to update and or correct my account.
However, being the inquisitive little shit that I am, I can't leave it at that. So I open an MS Explorer window and paste the same URL address. Lo and behold, I'm taken to what sure looks like Paypal's website - even all the hyperlinks in the page go to internal paypal.com links. All except the golden log-in box which is patiently waiting for my paypal email and password log-in info.
So while probably not all that smart but I couldn't help myself, I entered in my Paypal email address - teeheehee....yousuck@youareevil.com and my favorite paypal password: yousuck!
And I had to throw this photo in the mix. I love how the sunlight is reflected in the glass beads. Again, I had the lense almost touching the beads. 