Jillian! My "heart" foster.

I hear people talk a lot about heart dogs, that special dog that is like no other and will always have the most special place in your heart. For Nick and I both, Spike is our heart dog. I love all of our dogs but no one has touched us on a level that Spike has and I can say with absolute certainty that no other dog ever will.

If there is such a thing as a heart foster dog then Jillian would be it for me and I think the same could be said for Nick, although he would never admit it! Admitting such a thing would help my case that would should keep Jill Jill, as I call her. We've had Jillian for about five weeks now so I am clearly very late on making this post. Jillian was the first dog I brought home after starting at BARCS on December 1st.

Jillian is about a year old, she's a pit bull mixed with who knows what, and she is a lover! It's so hard to teach her "off" and make her sit in order to be pet because my heart melts when she jumps on me and wraps her long arms around me, she likes to hug it out! Jillian is wonderful with other dogs, big and small, and she's great with cats! She is very gentle and knows how to take hints from the other dogs when they want to be left alone. Jillian is completely housetrained and does great in her crate. She is also a puppy feign! We have had quite a bit of puppies in our house over the past two weeks, I almost feel as if I'm running a puppy prostitution ring, and Jillian has loved every single one of them to pieces!

Jillan!! Doing what she does best- cuddling!

Bella loves her Jillian.

Bella and Jillian constantly fight over the same cat bed! Why do we have nice, big dog beds in our house?

Did I mention she's good with cats?! Loves them!

I took Jillian on a long hike one morning, apparently too long, because she didn't even wake up when I put a cookie in her mouth! Bella came and took it back out :)

 

All ready for bed!

 

Jillian really does love to be held like a baby.

 

More love for Bella <3

 

Possibly the cutest picture ever! Jillian and our foster puppy, Boldin.

Here is a link to Jillian's Petfinder page in case you or anyone you know is looking to add a wonderful girl to their family! http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/18028242

All in the family!

Wilbur has a new home! And his home new mom is my mother-in-law! My mother-in-law, Charlaine, always had a special bond with Piglet since she helped us nurse her back to health and she's always said she wanted a Piglet of her own. Well, she got him! Wilbur kept his name and he's settling in wonderfully at my in-laws house!

Wilbur spends his days chasing the cat, shredding anything he can, running around outback, and taking lots of naps! I am so happy he's still a part of our family and Piglet will get to see her "mini me" often!

Dream Job? Check!

After spending such a long time doing a job I that I absolutely hated I have finally come across, and landed, my dream job! I started last week working for Best Friends Animal Society, I work out of BARCS shelter in downtown Baltimore. Best Friends has partnered with BARCS to create a Shelter Pit Bull Program in an effort to lower the euthanasia rate of pit bull type dogs at BARCS. Here are two articles about the program-

http://www.examiner.com/dog-in-baltimore/baltimore-chosen-to-participate-new-national-pit-bull-project?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4cc1fb497fa73fca,0

http://www.petsmartcharities.org/grants/awarded/best-friends-pit-bull-grant.html

So far I love it! My boss is amazing, it's such a change from my past job, I love her excitement about saving animals and the encouragement she's given me has been great! I also love seeing all of the dogs at BARCS and knowing I'm there to help make a difference in their outcome at the shelter.

In the upcoming months I'll be assembling a "pit crew" of volunteers to help with the program so if you're interested in joining please let me know! I'll have more details on that after the first of the year.

Back to your regularly scheduled posting of cute dogs :)

Puppy Love!

I have always said I prefer the elder bulls to the puppies, they're easier to work with and seem to get less love at adoption events compared to the little puppies so they need our love more. Plus, most of them have come to us house trained, there are definitely no complaints about that! However, when I got an email that contained six pictures of the cutest pit bull/bull terrier mix puppies that I have ever seen, I could not turn down a foster baby! It also didn't help that one of the puppies looked like a mini version of our Piglet. It took me about a minute to decide I was on board with fostering a 10-week old puppy.

Last Saturday we met two other volunteers and one of the two fabulous ladies that runs MABB to get these babies to their foster homes! I took the three boys and off we went to Hanover, PA where two of the little guys were headed. Before we left with our newest foster we let them play together one last time!

After some good play time we headed back to Maryland so our little guy could meet his foster family! We decided that he needed to be named after something pig related since he looks so much like Piglet... Meet Wilbur :)

Ma, is that you??

Wilbur has made himself right at home! He's doing great with housetraining and he sleeps from about 10pm-7am with no issues! Wilbur is available through Mid Atlantic Bully Buddies, he's UTD on all shots, microchipped, and will be neutered before he gets his forever home!

Sunday Funday- The Dog Version

Usually Sunday Funday is a day filled with football, beer, and bad food but the Ravens had a bye week this past Sunday, Halloween, and it just so happened that it was gorgeous outside. Nick and I decided to skip the other games and take the dogs to the tennis courts in our neighborhood so they could tire out our short term weekend foster puppy, Sinbad. Meet Sinbad:

Sinbad ran our three ragged!

We figured it might be in the best interest of everyones sanity, dogs included, to take a little walk to the tennis courts in our neighborhood and get some of Sinbad's puppy energy out! Let's be honest, it couldn't hurt Piglet to get some added exercise either. It's also nice that the tennis courts act like a huge nail file for the dogs so we got to check that chore off of the list for Sunday chores! 

Spike is obsessed with sticks and the other dogs are pretty much obsessed with Spike so it works out getting them all excited!

Bella and Sinbad were best buddies the whole weekend!

Spike would be happiest just being left alone to eat his sticks in peace..

Go Bella, wear him out!

Piglet, the one who needs this the most, is rather unimpressed with sticks and chasing the other dogs. Sigh.

After the tennis court fun we took Sinbad to meet a potential new family. He made quite the impression and is actually getting settled in to his new home as I write this! Yeah, Sinbad! 

While we were meeting the new family we also took some picture of new MABB dogs still at the kennel, waiting for foster homes. As of 11/1 these gorgeous pups are all looking for homes! 

Bronx! He is quite a big boy with the most amazing personality.

He was also a big goof ball, all he wanted to do was play!

Star, aka Bat Girl!

Hopefully Friskey will have a new home soon, she met a great family while we were there to take her picture.

And one of the most gorgeous, unique looking dogs that I've ever seen, Apache.

Did I mention at the start of this post that it was Sunday Funday THE DOG VERSION? As in, we got to play with dogs from 10am-9pm and met six new furry friends! After taking pictures of the adoptable dogs for MABB I dropped Nick off at home and went on a transport for New Beginnings German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue where I got to meet my awesome co-pilot, Bronson. He was coming from Missouri and entering rescue here in Maryland. What a sweet boy Bronson was! He was also very easy to have in the car and he really just wanted to have his ears scratched the whole ride. New Beginnings was really wonderful to work with, Bronson is a lucky guy!

And that was it! A fabulous day filled with puppy breath, dog kisses, and lots of love from our four legged friends. I came home today to three exhausted dogs, likely still recovering from Sinbad, and it almost makes us me excited for another foster puppy instead of the older pups we normally get. I think the puppies make our dogs appreciate each others laziness so much more.