dogs and kids | Mr. & Mrs. & Nola Kisses

Going into this weekend I knew there would be a foster dog at our house. After this weekend, turns out that was pretty much the only that turned out to be true.

Saturday night I met Almost Home Rescue at a rest stop in Southern Maine to pick up Anna. (Maine has some strict rules about bringing in dogs from rescue transports, so it used to be that as long as they were in New Hampshire adopters could pick up their pups right off the transport truck. New Hampshire has since changed their importation rules, so now all dogs coming up from the south require a quarantine period, or a foster hold. That’s what Munchkin was, and that’s what we were doing for Anna because she had a family waiting for her.) As Anna came off the truck she had some serious energy. I expected to see a 35 pound petite pittie, with medium energy, and what I got was a 50 pound solid girl bouncing off the walls. I could barely hold on to her as she literally did a three foot vertical jump, twisting and pulling on the leash. She was so happy to be with a person; giving me kisses like it was her job. I could tell that she was a very sweet girl and the three days in the truck was a bit much for her energy level.

During the 20 minute drive home, I was thinking how much Nola is not going to like Anna’s crazy high energy, pushy personality. We really only agreed to take another female pit because it was for two days. We could keep them separate for two days, and not worry about stressing either of them out for such a short time. We did take them for a walk together when I got home, being careful not to really let them meet, just be aware the other one exists. Then, it was downstairs to the finished basement for Anna and I. We played, trying to get out some of that energy, until she conked out asleep. I slept with her on the couch, snuggling and snoring like a true pittie.

Almost Home Rescue was having a reunion at a local park the next day, so I took Nola and the Mr. stayed home with Anna. Well, this is where the unexpected happened. Because all the AHR volunteers would be there, I knew I could talk to the President of the group and Anna’s adoption coordinator about some health concerns I had with Anna. Her spay incision looked a little infected and she had what looked like tapeworms. In our conversation, it came to light that the people who were adopting Anna were not 100% committed and that her adoption was contingent on a meet and great. Say what?! And then as I asked more about the people, I found out they have three young kids under six and that they were still under the impression that Anna was a 30 pound medium energy dog. Apparently there was a serious miscommunication going on here and it looked like out two day hold had the potential to turn into a long term foster. It was at this point that I lost it.

Through the tears I told the rescue coordinator and president all my concerns, the first being we did not expect to have a permanent foster and were not really prepared to keep her long term because of Nola’s low tolerance for females. The second being that this 50 pound ball of muscle has no house manners and is probably not a great fit for someone with three small children. And the third, and most upsetting, was my concern for poor Anna. What if I had shown up to meet these people thinking I was giving them their dog? I would have been mortified and I’m sure Anna would have been confused. Where would she go if we couldn’t keep her? They apologized for the misunderstanding and assured me that if it doesn’t work fostering her then they could find her somewhere else to go.

I called the Mr. and cried to him about the situation. We both decided that we were in this for the long haul. We had both already fallen in love with Anna’s sweet, loving personality. We have some work to do with introducing her and Nola, but we couldn’t bear the thought of uprooting this girl again and bringing her to another foster home.

So, the potential adopters are coming to meet her tonight. I’m not sure how it is going to go, but either way she is staying with us for a few more days. The people are going to meet her and let us know what they think. It turns out they were as unprepared to take her as we were. Obviously, I want her to go somewhere where she is the right fit and if that if it’s not with them, the Mr. and I are committed to helping this love bug find someplace that is.

This weekend I got a text from my boss (from here on she’ll be referred to as BL-boss lady) asking if we wanted to go up to her lake house and go for a hike. At first I wasn’t sure because we had planned to take the pups down to the river. But, Laynie’s kennel cough flared up again Saturday and we thought it was best if she rested Sunday. So Nola and I were off to hike Rattlesnake Mountain with BL and her kiddos.

Two of the kids had met Nola while she was at work with me one Friday and couldn’t stop talking about her to BL. One of the ways I like to introduce kids to Nola is to have them make her sit and then give her treats. It’s a good way to keep Nola calm as well as show the kids that the she won’t hurt them and that they are in charge. BL’s kiddos were so impressed at Nola’s high five trick that we knew we had to get them together again so it was nice that this trip worked out.

Nola and I drove up to Raymond and met at BL’s lake house. We packed up the kids and drove about a mile down the road to Rattlesnake Mountain I decided to keep Nola on leash hike because I wasn’t sure what the leash rule was there, and when we showed up there were a bunch of little kids. I was glad I did because we passed a couple that said they had just seen a moose! We didn’t see any, but I’m not sure what Nola would have done if she saw a huge moose. She thinks all 4 legged animals want to play, and ones that big with hooves could have spelled disaster.

Nola did great the whole way up, she didn’t pull at all. The kiddos took turn holding the leash on the parts that weren’t too steep. We made it all the way to the top and enjoyed the view of Panther pond and Crescent Lake.

When we got back to the lake house we all ate lunch and hung out on the dock. Nola took a swim and chased stick the kids threw for her. It was a great afternoon and I had one tired puppy when we got home.