Goodbye Darby and welcome Celilo

Another milestone day for Darby yesterday – she went to her new “furever” home in Sequim! I won’t lie, more than a few tears were shed… I was very nervous that our little girl would have a rough time adjusting to all of the new smells and noises of her new home. When I left her with her new dad she was barking, not knowing what was going on. These are always the worst moments as a foster parent. However, I received a text from her dad less than an hour later with a picture showing Darby sitting on her dad’s lap getting loves and pets! Yet again I was reminded of the resiliency of dogs, even those with special needs. By the end of the day Darby had gone for a walk, was greeting her dad as if she'd been with him all her life and even made friends with the cats! I also heard there was lots of lap time and she slept with her dad in bed. Darby had a great night and we have absolutely no doubt she has found the perfect home! New Rattitude took a big chance on rescuing Darby and her new dad took an even bigger chance by adopting her. We couldn’t be happier with how the story turned out and Darby will forever have a special place in our hearts.

Here's Darby and one of her new sisters!

What adopters don't always realize is that not only are they rescuing the dog that they’ve adopted, but they also open up a foster space to rescue another dog that otherwise would be put to sleep. Not only did Darby's new dad help her, he was also able to help rescue this little girl. 

Everyone meet Celilo (or Lilo for short)! She found her way into a kill shelter in California with her days numbered. Celilo is now safe and in a New Rattitude temporary spot until she can get up to Washington. She will be arriving on Saturday May 5th and we can't wait to welcome her into foster care! Celilo is a tiny girl weighing in at 7lbs and she's roughly 9 months. I'm heading off to Tennessee for the New Rattitude Rat Terrier Jamboree but when I get back expect to be reading and learning all about Celilo - she's a cutie and no doubt will be quickly adopted.

                                                               Celilo's shelter picture

I've been adopted!

Super news - Darby has been adopted! We drove out to beautiful Sequim to meet her new dad and boy oh boy is Darby one lucky gal. Her dad has done a lot of research about blind dogs and he's 100% committed to her despite her reactivity to dogs and unfamiliar noise. Darby's dad also rescues and rehabilitates horses and has a blind horse on his farm so he is a rescue hero even before he found little Darby Doodle.

When I think back to the first video we saw of Darby, scared to death & screaming in the shelter knowing her only way out was rescue it just warms my heart that we decided to foster her. Then to get so lucky with her new dad making the choice to take a chance on her. In our wildest dreams we could not have come up with a better dad and home for our little blind girl! Way to go Darby your world sure has changed for the better in the last 10 weeks and there's no were to go but up!

                                                               On her way to Sequim

                                                      Tuckered out from her long day

It's exhausting being so beautiful!

Last night was bath night (gota love small dogs that you can bathe in your kitchen sink). While Darby isn't thrilled with getting a bath, she's a good sport! She was tired after her spa treatment and slept for the rest of the night.

Everyone wish Darby good luck today - she has the best application in the world for her and she's going to meet him today! We've told her to just be herself and we have no doubt she will capture the heart of her future dad.

Darby Fluff's her bed

Darby loves to "fluff" her bed before going to sleep!  She will pull the blankets into her round bed and then sleep on top of them.  She's a sweet, silly girl.

Darby's nicknames - I'm available for adoption

Darby's nicknames include: Doodle, Googley girl, Darbles, Darbs & Sweet girl - She comes to all of them and gets so exicted when you call her! If she's down on the ground she will bounce through the house to find you! She's a very happy girl who loves to be with people.

Love my bones! - I'm available for adoption

When Darby first arrived her teeth were really gross - brown full of tartar which for her age was pretty surprising. We gave her some chewing bones within the first couple days of her arrival and she wasn't sure what to make of them. It was as if she'd never had bones to chew on but, once she realized what they were she was in love! After almost two months of chewing on marrow bones and bully sticks Darby's teeth look pretty good! She loves to chew her bones so, this is a great cleaning tool and treat for her.

Darby's a good sport! - I'm available for adoption

Because Darby is reactive to dogs (she can't see them coming to her so she's afraid of being attacked) and we have a Catty our own dog - Darby has to be separated at all times. In the beginning this was done by keeping the dogs separated by baby gates. We are now to the point where in carpeted rooms we can have Darby elevated up away from Catty and for the most part all is well. Darby is a really good sport and spends lots of time "up". She will just hang out waiting for you to come say hi, pet her or play with her.

You Go Girl! - I'm available for adoption

Darby is always very happy to see us when we get home from work & last night she was a little extra excited! When I took her down to our very small yard to go potty she was tooling around and then all of a sudden she started bouncing all over the place. Luckily I had the video camera - the three video's below are all within a 5 minute period and you can see her excitement & zest for life progress. She doesn't usually get this excited outside with me (she does with my husband) but, it was fun to watch her go, go, go! Such a funny little girl and after 5 minutes she was all done with her running around, it was back in the house to eat dinner and the rest of the night was hanging out, relaxing with her foster parents!

Bell mishap

We had a bit of a mishap with the bell that we've working with Darby to ring when she needs to go outside and go potty... She's been about 50/50 in her ringing the bell. The other times she will just dance around the door letting us know she needs to go out since she is potty trained. I tried to lower the bell to see if she would have more luck ringing it and apparently didn't completely snap it back together. When she went to ring the bell, the dang thing fell down on her head - she was not pleased with this so, we are back to learning to trust the bell and her goober foster mom. Fortunatly for me Darby is a super resilient dog and I'm guessing we will be back on track soon!

Wanna play? - I'm available for adoption

Here's Darby having fun showing the playful side of herself! She has tons of personality and is a very silly girl. Again she may be blind but, she can get into this hand game and tell you all about it with her tail a waggin and her funny noises.

The great thing about Darby is that when you're done playing she will quickly settle, turning into a cuddly love bug often followed by falling asleep or if you go sit down she'll resting right along side you.

Let's eat! - I'm available for adoption

Darby has yet to meet a fruit or vegetable that she doesn't like. Her favorite fruit is apple and when she hears me cutting it up she bounces all over the place - funny girl! Darby will sit for her food and you can hear in the video how I tap on the bowl so she knows it's down on the ground.

Bow legged girl - I'm available for adoption

You can see in the picture how Darby's front legs bow. We believe this is due to how she has used & continues to use her front legs as guide sticks. When Darby first arrived to us she would twirl in circles as a way to "map" the new areas. She twirls so that when she hit's something, it's with her body rather than her face. Once she is comfortable with the area she's in, she moves her front legs out as tools instead of the spinning circles. Her walking movement reminds me more of how a horse trots. We do know that Darby was born blind so these tools are just some of the many ways she has adjusted to her blindness.

Steps and Stairs - I'm available for adoption

Darby and I have been working on mastering steps and stairs and of course she's doing amazing! She knows the word "step" and yet again seeing her in action you'd never guess she was blind. A single step up and down is now easy peasy for her. The step from our dining room to our deck she now knows is always there and I don't have to say step. She can go up a few stairs pretty well, it's the coming down where she is a little more tentative. We are moving to working a whole stair case so stay tuned for that video. Darby loves working these challenges and it's fun to watch how excited she gets once she has figured them out.

She's ready for more and she's just so dang cute!!!

Darby the snuggler! I'm available for adoption

While Darby certainly can get around without any problems, she LOVES to snuggle with humans and she's an equal opportunist snuggler of men and women! Darby is not obnoxious in wanting affection and will lay or sit next to you per your direction of either next to you or on you. As you can see here, I prefer to have her sleep like a baby next to me. So whether you are sitting for 10 minutes or hours Darby is happy to join you!

Out on the deck - I'm available for adoption

Here's Darby out on the deck - this was her second time, the first time she was a little nervous with the texture of wood. But, in true Darby form she mastered the new texture in no time flat. Now, I had moved the chairs since she had been on the deck - you can see how she runs into one and then keeps on moving. This is very normal Darby behavior when a new object or if something has been moved in an area she has "mapped" - she just keeps on moving and doesn't let the bumps slow her down!

Shhh....

Shhhh.... I found this awesome chew under the table make sure not to tell Catty!

Who are those four banner dogs?

Are you wondering who my blog banner dogs are?! Here's the crew left to right:

Caterina "Catty" who got this all started! We adopted Catty in June 2010 from New Rattitude and have fallen head over heals in love with her & the breed. Catty was a breeder in a Kentucky puppy mill and still has fear & anxiety issues but, she fits our lives perfectly and we adore her for all of who she is! Catty certainly has a terrier tude and that's what we wanted when we were looking to adopt. Catty is also know as Catty Rattie & Rat Cat.

Next is Dandy who we fostered for October 2011 - February 2012 and we fell hard for this very tender boy. Dandy was an owner surrender who we had been trying to convince his family to surrender him to New Rattitude for over a year. We were told Dandy was a chronic potty/pooper and that was why he needed to be surrendered. The day I picked him up we quickly found out that was not his issue. Dandy was a very scared boy who needed a lot of rehabilitation in foster care due to abuse and his general fear of the world. He did remarkable given what he had been through the first 3 yrs of his life and the lessons he and I learned together will forever stick with me. We were all lucky enough to find Dandy a home where he could continue to blossom while building his confidence and trust. Dandy was often referred to as sweet D and Danders.

Third from the left is Jasper who had two foster stints with us. He first arrived in May of 2011 and was adopted in early July 2011. Jasper came to us from a midwest puppy mill (he was 1 of 15 puppies taken in by New Rattitude) at the age of 3-4 months. He was having some separation distress while with us but everyone assumed he would grow out of this. We were all wrong and Jasper was returned to us in November 2011. This was a very hard return for Jasper and his adopter but, his issues were so severe that he could no longer reside with his mom in her condo. Jasper struggle a lot while in foster care despite all the consultation and remedies/medications. We finally came to the conclusion that the only way Jasper would be less symptomatic was by finding him a home where someone is home all the time. We were very fortunate to find Jasper his ideal home - a former New Rattitude adopter and a foster home for New Rattitude who are never gone more than a couple hours at a time. Jasper will always be a bit off as his brain has been fried from the many months of flooded stress hormones which contribute to some of his other issues but, his parents are on board with this and love him for who he is. Jasper went to his new home in February 2012. Jasper's nicknames included: Baby and Butters.

On the right is Reuben (sporting a cool sweater) and we fostered him from July - August 2011. He too came from the midwest puppy mill that Jasper came from and he was originally fostered by the New Rattitude Washington State coordinator - where all the hard work with him was done. We took Reuben so our state coordinator could take a dog that needed to be transferred within New Rattitude and this dog would not have done well with Catty. Reuben was by far the most skittish of the Washington puppy mill puppies (WA took 4 of the 15 pups) and he was able to learn in his foster home's how to begin to trust people. By the time Reuben was adopted in August he was still nervous but had made huge strides in his short life. Reuben was often called Rue or Rue, Rue.

The great news is that the family that adopted Reuben also adopted Dandy!

Big adventure - I'm available for adoption!

I had a big adventure today! I went to check out the rat terrier meet up and while the dogs scared me I loved the people that came to meet me! I made a bunch of new human friends and had lots of fun running around. Here I am in my walking gear.

Check me out having a blast running around - hard to believe that I'm blind!

Enjoying the sun - I'm available for adoption!

My foster mom was right! It was a sunny day and I loved being outside relaxing!

Waiting... - I'm available for adoption

My foster mom told me the sun is coming out today, I'm patiently waiting...

Darby plays ball! I'm available for adoption

While Darby may be blind she doesn't let her it slow her down! Here she is loving the game of playing ball!

Click here to watch Darby play ball!!

Available for Adoption - Meet Darby

If you are looking for a super sweet and affectionate pup, look no further! Meet Darby. She is a 3-year old, 13-lb. Rat Terrier who was picked up off the street and placed in a high-kill shelter in California, from where we rescued her. Darby was born blind, yet her disability doesnt slow her down one bit. Shes full of life and personality, and once shes familiar with her surroundings, she motors around without a care. She is a very smart girl who adjusted quickly to her foster home, learning the layout of the house and yard, and within a month of her arrival, she tears around the yard, playing chase and just having fun being a dog! Darby is very affectionate; she loves to give kisses and cuddle, and she will come seek you out to get attention. Since Darby cannot see, new noises can startle her and cause her to bark until she is settled or comfortable with the noise. Because of how she vocalizes her concerns, Darby needs to live in a free-standing house rather than a condo or apartment where she might disturb neighbors as she adjusts. Darby's blindness has made her very vulnerable to attack by other dogs so as a defense mechanism Darby does not like to let other dogs get too close. She therefore needs to go to a dog-free home. Darby's house training is going very well when she is kept on a schedule. If you have a quiet, laid-back home with a spot for a sweet pal to snuggle on the couch, then Darby may be your girl.