the chicken

Seeing double

One of the highlights of my day at K9 Capers was getting to see Murphy. He is as gorgeous as ever, and much loved in his forever home. Seeing him and Fletcher together was quite funny, they are so similiar, even behaviour wise.

Not the best photo, but you can hardly tell the difference between them.

Fletcher was already lying down by this stage. Much to my surprise both he and Patch slept through and Fletch even went out as normal at 5am, but then he came back inside and went back to bed for a few hours. Patch refused point blank to get up before 8am when I had to make her go outside so I could leave for work. On one hand I am grateful for getting to sleep in, on the other I am worried as this means that Fletch just doesn't have the energy to be as active as he was even a week ago.

He still has his moments, his latest game is to pick up a toy from the lounge, throw it around a bit, carry it carefully to the bedroom, play with it a bit there. He then either trots back out with the same toy, then exchanges it for another one, or repeats with the same one a few times! Then he may leave one in the bedroom, back out to the lounge and starts with a new one. The end result is us humans laughing till we cry as he trots up and down the hallway and after about 3 hours all the toys have been moved to the bedroom.

Patch just rolls her eyes as this goes on, she is firmly planted on her bed and has no intention of moving.

Especially when she is all tucked up under her polar fleece blankies, she refuses to wear a coat but loves to be bundled up in blankets. She has even worked out how to pull them over herself when she is cold. I have such a clever girl.....

Murph gets his forever home

Today will be heartbreaking for me. I am doing Murphy Smurf's adoption. This in itself is a good thing, he will have a forever home with much love and devotion from his new peeps.

It is sad for me, but then things have a way of working out. If I had brought Fletcher down from the kennels the night Murphy came home with me things would have been so, so different. I am not begrudging the new family Murphy, he is a darling of a dog and will be good there. I am not blaming anyone for what has come to pass. I have made the decision to love Fletcher and give him the world for as long as he will stay with me.

He went to his first doggy drinky session last night. No, he himself didn't drink, it's when the girls that are slaves to them get together for drinks and food and chats. He had a crash course in stairs, did quite well after I walked him up paw by paw the first time!

He is such a sweet dog, he still follows me everywhere and cries when he can't see me.... am hoping that will settle down when he realises that I am not going to leave him and not come back and that he is not moving from here....

A flubbering mess

My darling Murphy took less than 12 hours to be evicted from his foster home this time. I think that he will make his way back home, despite K's best efforts to keep him elsewhere!!

I dropped him off at a new foster home. I stayed for a cup of tea and a chat and to satisfy myself that he would be ok with them. Of course he will, all of our foster carers are fabulous, but my Murph Smurf is special. He does this thing with his lips, puffs them out like a blow fish when he is excited or nervous or happy, pretty much all the time! He has the appropriate nick name of Flubber. I am weak. I flubbered when I left him there....

I believe that your dog finds you, not the other way around. I thought I was getting good at saying good-bye to my fosters. There is just something about this boy that has me invested. If he is meant to be with us he WILL come home. I just have to wait and see.

I have much to keep me busy while I do so. This weekend is the Spectacular Petacular. We spent the day setting up our stand today. It looks fabulous, and if we don't win the competition for best display there will be a problem... I am fortunate enough to have a talented and generous partner. In our hour of need he came to our rescue and painted our back drop. I will get a photo of the stand complete with dressed up greyhounds over the weekend, then you can appreciate the complete majesty of our creation. In the meantime, here is our day of slaving...

Excuse the boxes, and the sign will be hung in the morning, but as you can see, it is magical and mystical and by some miracle, it is up!

Smurf on the rampage

Mr Murphy is a busy little puppy. Today he thought he would help clean out the garage. This is in spite of the fact that before his valiant efforts it was all organised and the box was complete and ready to go to the tip. This is the aftermath of a bored Smurf.

Helpful little bunny isn't he?

Ah well,he is so cute that all you can do is laugh, and remove all shreddable objects!

I did a swapsie, Phoebs for Murphy. She is much quieter and less inclined to eat the place....always a good thing.

Mr Murphy is with another foster carer, and I had a quiet chat to him when I dropped him off. This gist of that conversation was that he had better behave himself and various threats if he didn't. He seemed to take it all very seriously and I imagine he will now be an angel! (Wishful thinking?!!)

The best laid plans

Today we said good-bye to Sweetie. She went to a lovely forever home.

She wasted no time sussing out the garden. Couldn't do anything but laugh when she came tearing around the side of the house with a piece of bone in her mouth and started to throw it around and play. No idea where she got it from, we took it off her just in case it was cooked and she was a bit miffed. She looked so proud of herself for finding it. I think she will settle in well and be much loved. Her new family are having another addition soon, a little baby girl. Sweetie can look forward in years to come to being dressed up in pink by a little girl. What every greyhound deserves....

I schemed and planned and thought that I would have Fletcher for one night at least. Then I got really excited, I was going to get Murph back! He is a sooky boy, has some issues. This is not surprising, when we first picked him up he was with Fletcher. They had probably NEVER been apart from each other. He comes to our house, then goes to another home and it has finally sunk in that he is on his own now. He is still totally adorable and much loved by his foster carer, just needs more people contact.

He thought he had it bad with The Chicken at our place. Tag team Siamese have it all over us.

Since he actively avoids even making eye contact with anything feline the Siamese are having a complete ball tormenting him. I think The Chicken would get on well with these guys!

So Mr Murph is not coming here, niether is Phoebs...... or Fletch.

We have Skidattle, who had somewhat of a personality transplant between 8am and 4pm today. He now has one! Got home to a typical Patch Rat greeting, and low and behold, Mr gigantic fat unco Skidattle joined in! I don't call him that to be unkind, he is a lovely dog, he is just so chunky and well rounded in comparison to the delicate little girls we have had lately.

So all quiet here until after the Petacular. The one upside of this is that I now only have to wash 2 dogs for the weekend, not 4!

Murphy's Law

Wouldn't you know it. I had Murphy for a few days. In that time I fell in love with a gentle, sweet, playful, quiet and well behaved boy.

The first night he spent in his new foster home he made a liar of me. He took offense to the sleeping arrangements and carried on like a pork chop for half the night......

He is lucky that he is so utterly adorable and may be forgiven. He also took an interest in the aviary and was seen to be sniffing, then shortly after had paws up and was pushing it along the floor! He got down as soon as he was told to, just wanted to say hello to the birdies.

Am hoping that he settles at night as he is otherwise an absolute pleasure to have around.

Meanwhile at Chicken Manor it is very quiet. There is only Patch and Sweetie, and Miss I am a limpit not a dog Sweetie is departing for her forever home on Tuesday. Patch will either be sad or quite relieved. We have had a fair few different dogs through lately....

Am hoping that the next one is just like Mr Murph the Smurf and stays with us for longer than a few days.

The girls (Patch, Sweetie and myself) had a night out on Saturday. It was a regular Greyhound Party. 5 girls hanging out with their peeps. Wine was consumed, cheese was eaten, oh, and there was some spilling of blood too.....

Poor Little B ripped her dew claw and had to take a trip to the emergency vet to have it removed. OUCH! I averted my gaze as she stood in the dog park with blood trickling down her leg.

Sweetie thought the sleepover thing was a great idea, spent the entire night harassing us all for cuddles, standing on any grey silly enough to be in her way..... not good manners. Then she proceeded to try and share the single bed with me, well, not really share, more like push me off it so she could have it! That didn't happen, she was relegated to the floor.

Miss Patch also disgraced herself/me by getting up on the couch. BAD PATCH. She has never attempted to get on our couch, armchair yes, couch no. Naughty girl....

My camera had a fit, shame cause I had a beautiful shot of synchronized roaching from Patch and Amie. Also missed me being spooned by Amie while using Flo as a pillow this morning...

Such a gentleman

Murphy is so sweet and gentle. He has been a pleasure to have with us. He has discovered that toys are fun, soft inside beds are great and that he loves cuddles.

He, Patch and Sweetie got on really well. Miss I want to be under your skin Sweetie is showing slightly dominant behaviour lately. She has been with us for a while. Wheedled her way into our hearts, and onto our laps! She had a token growl the other day at Patch when she was protecting her sleeping spot, then again at Murphy when he tried to lay down with her. Patch lets the fosters do all sorts to her, they lie snuggled up to her, or just plain ON her. She is very tolerant.

Murphy conceded to Sweeties superiority (complex!)

Given that he settled in so easily and was so good with The Chicken he has gone to keep Karma company. He will have 3 cats to contend with. Kitty may actually befriend him, which I think he would like, though I imagine that since all his cat experience has been The Chicken attacking him he will possibly steer clear of the evil little fluffy things, just in case....

We only had him for three days. I miss him.....

Murphy learns to fly

Patch loves her toys. From day one she would throw them around and never worried about the noises they made. The noisier the better, her duck and helicopter are her favourite ones.

Some of the fosters are a bit wary of toys. Jeb used to love anything that squeaked, Dory would try and destroy anything fluffy, CeeJay just liked to see if he could steal them from Patch!

Murphy found the bed really quickly, and proceeded to claim all three of them. Today he discovered the TV Guide. For some reason alot of our fosters have wanted to eat that! So I distracted him with the soft toys. He picked the helicopter up very gently and took it back to his corner. He looked at it for a bit. Then from a different angle. Pawed it. Then mouthed it. Repeated the whole process..... at length he picked it up in his mouth again, which set off the rotor noise. The poor dog. He sprung back in fright and just looked totally bewildered.

This is pre-flight.

He took a moment to recover and then carefully stepped around the offending noise making thingy and found himself another bed. I will have to try and give him toys with no squeakers in them until he gets used to them!

Murphy stretches out

You thought Sweetie was doing good with 3 beds. She has nothing on Mr I am Long and Stretchy Murphy.

He is the ultimate bed thief.

Once I had lured him off the bed the girls reclaimed them and refused to move...

They are keeping an eye out for the bed stealing boy. He is stretched out over the other bed and the bean bag too. Not bad for a dog that came out of the kennels yesterday.

He is an absolute darling. No marking, no accidents in the house, not a peep out of him all last night. He is wary of The Chicken and very cuddly with all of us. His litter mate, who happens to be almost identical is coming into foster too. They will both make fabulous companions.

Looks like he might be another short staying visitor. Probably just as well, I already think he is lovely, the longer he stays the more I will want to keep him....... I will keep another boy, just not right at the moment. When I find another forever dog I will take a break from fostering and I am not prepared to do that for the time being. It is too much fun.....