A trip down 2012 memory lane - Part 3

Ursa

 This little lemon girl came to New Rattitude as an owner surrender (she was posted on Craig's List) and she has the story that I think a lot of puppies have. Her original person bought her from a breeder as a tiny cute puppy and didn't have the time to care for her. So her person gave Ursa to a friend and that friend also didn't have the time for terrier puppy. Ursa like most dogs started displaying behavioral issues that were anxiety based. Submissive urination, beginnings of separation distress and chewing. Dogs don't just randomly come up with behavioral issues and it's the humans job to sort out what is going on and hopefully help the dog to resolve the issues. Lucky for Ursa, her 2nd person didn't know what to do so looked to New Rattitude to take in, work with and adopt out Ursa to a home that could give her what she needs.

 

Ursa's Craig's list photo

Ursa was a delight to foster, she was respectful of Catty and Dandy and was all about giving love and being around people.  What Ursa needed was a temporary safe spot to get her into a loving, predictable and consistent home.  When we found out her new parents were interested in Ursa we knew it would be a perfect fit.

 

Ursa is front and center on by banner blog picture!

 

Ursa in foster care at one of the rat terrier meet ups

Ursa is doing fantastic, she in the midst of attending doggie school at one of our local positive based training school.  Given how smart she is, we are sure she do amazing with all her new skills!  We are happy to report that Ursa's anxiety issues have drastically decreased in her new home and she has fallen head over heals in love with her parents.  From what I understand they love her just as much if perhaps not a little more! 


Ursa is ready for some action - here she is hanging out with her parents at the San Juan Island.  This is a frequent vacay for this amazing family!

Dandy

I think everyone pretty much knows Dandy's story.  He was an owner surrender after suffering a lot of mental and physical abuse the first 3 yrs of his life.  There was lots of drama around his surrender and it took us almost a year and 7 tries of getting his owner to surrender him to us.

 

Dandy's in Nov 2011 after I had picked him up from his owner.  Dandy spent many weeks in this position usually staring into the corner of a wall - trembling with anxiety and fear.

Dandy first came into foster care with us back in November 2011. He was adopted in Feb 2012 but his deficits and anxiety proved to be too much so he came back to us in May 2012.  At that point we decided to try anything to help this sweet boy move forward. Dandy was placed on prozac to ease his anxiety and we saw a pretty big improvement in his daily functioning.  Shortly there after I contacted Lori Stevens a local TTouch practitioner.  This was the missing piece for Dandy - the changes we saw in him were amazing.  With the "treatment plan" in place he quickly excelled and was turning into a different dog before our eyes.  He would still have melt downs but they were shorter and easier to manage.  With Lori's help and all the work my husband and did with Dandy it was hard to imagine letting him go.  Our talk of adopting him was a long drawn out decision for us as we were worried he would struggle with fosters coming in and out. 

Dandy at a TTouch session

 

We are happy to say that in November, we adopted Dandy!  With each foster coming in and out of our care he's done better than we ever expected. In fact our last foster boy - Balboa really followed Dandy's lead around being more confident with the world. Dandy is certainly paying it forward. 

This sweet boy also has a variety of new names - his official name is D'light (because he's such a delight) but, we also call him D, Mr. D, Sweet D!

D at Christmas having a great time outside looking for birds and moles

D'light - our heart dog

 

 

 

Figgins

 

Sweet little Figgins was found by a good Samaritan in Central CA.  Figgins had been wandering by her home - he was bloody and had wounds all over his body. This was out in the country road and we believe he was attacked by coyotes. The lady took him to the vet and had him all cleaned up. Figgins was not wearing any ID, was not microchiped and not neutered. The woman posted ads of a found dog and no one came forward. She had her own dogs (which Figgins did great with) and could not keep him. That's when she reached out and found New Rattitude.

 

Figgins wounds healing - you can see the bit marks on his back end. He had some pretty nasty bites around his neck.

 

Figgins was a super dog to foster - he had great manners, loved everyone he met and was great on leash.  This guy also loved kids so we were hoping to find him a home with at least one child for Figgins to play with.  Lucky for everyone that's what we found for Figgins! 

 

Figgins is now Figs and he's been doing great!  He LOVES his 2 legged 6yr old brother as well as his new parents and they all think he's pretty awesome.  Figs and his human brother love running around in their huge backyard along with playing fetch and tug.  What a great home for this amazing rattie boy.  Figs also loves going for walks with him family, which is wonderful for all of them.

 

ready to go walking

 

Teo

 I kinda stole Teo as a foster dog from one of our other WA foster parents.  Teo and Figgins came up on transport together and Teo needed to be "temped" for a couple days as her intended foster mom was at a flyball tournament.  After less than 6 hours with us, I emailed saying "Teo is awesome, would you like us to just keep her as a foster?". 

You see this is the great thing about our NW team - we work hard and collaborate all for the common goal of rescuing and adopting out these great dogs.  Since we kept Teo that opened up another spot for yet another rescued dog with Teo's original foster mom and she ended up doubling up and rescuing two sister ratties!
 



Teo right out of the shelter

 

 Teo was a rock star, super sweet, friendly and pretty dang cute as well.  I knew one of our past adopters might be interested in adopting a 2nd rattie so I contacted her about Teo.  This is a great family and they adopted our foster dog Maggie last year.  Maggie is roughly 5-6 yrs old and a fun loving happy rattie girl. When she was fostered with us we worked hard to sort out an unknown medical issue. After lots of testing, she was treated for lung worms (Maggie was from a shelter in Alabama) and we saw a change all for the positive in this silly rattie girl.  Maggie was adopted in August of 2011 and her family just loves her beyond belief.  So much so that they wanted a 2nd rattie and that turned out to be Teo.

 

Teo being a good sport wearing her sweater hood!

 

 

Teo is now Mazey and as you can see she has a pretty amazing life.  She adores her human sisters and Maggie as well.  Mazey and Maggie are constantly playing, chasing the squirrels and of course getting lots of love and cuddles.  This was a fantastic match and we are so pleased for both of these speckled rattie gals!

 

 Mazey (left) and Maggie (right) are loving their lives!