Update on Rugby: Life is Good

...life in a foster home that is!

Rugby's foster mom (and fellow Lucky Dog Adoption Coordinator) Iris, has sent an update on how our boy is doing. Iris took Rugby on as a foster on Monday night, after a slightly stressful experience in doggy daycare when he first came to DC. For those of you who may be wondering, Lucky Dog has some excellent cage-free boarding partners that we work with, and who are gracious enough to host our dogs when they don't have a foster who can take them. Many do great and love daycare, but for some dogs it's a wee bit much. Rugby was one such dog, so when we realized this we knew that it was essential to get him into a foster home. Big thank you to Iris for swooping in to take Rugby, whose previous foster was adopted the day before.

So our scruffy young boy with super soft ears is learning lots (and loving life) during his time out of the shelter and in a real home.  He has been learning how to walk like a gentleman on the leash at the side of his foster mom, which she says an easy walk harness has really helped a lot with. We have found that he will need a yard to run around in or an active family to exercise him daily, but his foster mom reports after coming back from a run he is ready to take a snooze on the couch!

Rugby still maintains some energetic, playful, goofball puppy tendencies and will need his future parents to help him with his manners, as he does jump when excited (especially when he knows he's going on his walk!) and can be a little mouthy in play. However, he is very food motivated and his foster mom is teaching him what "no/stop" means. She has reported that he is a GREAT dog who will become an AMAZING dog with a little positive training!

Rugby is very friendly to new people when he meets them, and loves to be where his foster mom is and will follow her where she goes. That doesn't mean he needs your full attention all the time though, he just wants to stay close by! He also loves squeaky toys (and trying to get the squeaker out of them), and this friendly boy has been trying to make friends with his resident canine foster sibling. Rugby's foster sister is not always interested in playing or snuggling as much as he is, so when she says she's not in the mood to share her chair with him, he will listen and respect her space. We would also like to note that Rugby's foster sibling is 9 lbs, but that doesn't bother him one bit. We feel he would be a great, sweet canine brother to a dog closer to his size of 40 lbs or a smaller dog.

Like most shelter dogs, Rugby may need a refresher on housetraining. He is doing well with crate training in his foster home.

The adoption fee for this dog is $300, which includes the cost of routine vetting, including vaccinations and spay/neuter. If you are interested in adopting, please download ourAdoption Questionnaire and email it to Lynn at lynnh@luckydoganimalrescue.org!

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

Well, we closed on our new place last night and Nick and I are officially home owners. We celebrated with a visit to the new place (the Greenie that Ollie left on the stairs during the walk through was thankfully still there) and per his mom's suggestion, a bag of M&Ms (which Ollie asked us to share, we told him no for his own good). 

So moving date is Saturday for us, and as we settle into our new home sweet home, there are lots of Lucky Dogs coming up to DC and looking for theirs. A few I would like to highlight:

Rugby is here and looking for his home!

Scruff face cutie pie Rugby arrived to the DC area on Saturday, and according to his overnight foster was absolutely wonderful. This playful pup loves everyone he meets and also loves to snuggle. He also played very nicely with his overnight foster sibling on day one and was very happy to show himself off at Lucky Dog's adoption event the next day. He's currently in foster care and is accepting applications for his new forever family! How could you possibly not want to have this face greeting you when you come home from work?

Rugby will be at Annandale Petco this Sunday from 12-2pm(located at 7434 Little River Turnpike Annandale, VA). So come on by to meet him!

And Arriving Next Week: Jethro and Sabrina!

Um...hello? Just look at those beautiful markings and that happy little face, do I need say any more? Jethro is a beautiful boy who we believe to be a Border Collie mix. We are absolutely in love with his beautiful markings and adorable ears. At 9 months and 45 lbs, he may still have a little growing to do, but we don't think he'll get to be more than 50-55 lbs when full grown. Jethro passed with flying colors when tested with other dogs and children, so he would love to have a canine or human sibling to play with. If you want, we can see how he does with cats too! Border Collies are by nature very intelligent and active dogs, so be prepared to keep this guy entertained and well exercised, as bored border collie can very easily get into trouble. With his daily dose of play time, training, and mental stimulation, Jethro will give you a lifetime of happiness.

Sabrina the shepherd mix is 8 months old and has one ear that sticks straight up and the other is "dog-eared" a bit :). As you can see by her picture, she is smiling because she was just told Lucky Dog is springing her from the high-kill shelter she was in, and she's headed north next week! Being a young dog, Sabrina will still have some left over puppy energy and need love, positive training and daily exercise (really, ball, tug, a trip to the dog park or a nice run with her human parents will do) to help her grow into a well-adjusted adult. She in turn will impress you with her smarts and steal your heart with snuggles and puppy kisses at the end of the day! Currently weighing in at 40 lbs,  this beautiful blonde girl still has a little more room to grow and will probably end up weighing 50-60 lbs when she is full grown. Sabrina gets along great with other dogs and children, so would love to have a canine or human sibling to play with. We don't know how she is with cats, but can find out if you have household members of the feline variety!

Jethro and Sabrina get into town next Friday night, November 4 and will be at Home for the Holidays at Reston Town Center on November 5 from 11am-4pm, where I feel confident that their beautiful faces will get adopted. If you would like to get approved to adopt them before the folks at Reston Town Center get to see them, fill out an adoption application on this page and email it to me at lynnh@luckydoganimalrescue.org so we can get you on your way!  

In other happy tails reading, Brownie, our adorable 1-year old pit bull mix, was featured as Dogtipper.com's Adoptable Dog of the Day yesterday, and is now currently an internet celebrity getting networked to the masses! We hope this will help him get into a forever home, and we can't thank Dogtipper.com enough for offering the opportunity for rescues all over the country to get their pups featured. Check him out and stay tuned for more featured adoptables.

In the mean time, if there is someone you know interested in adopting Rugby, or fostering/adopting Sabrina and Jethro when they get to town next week, please let me know and pass along their information. Let's find these guys a home, because we all know "for the holidays you can't beat home, sweet home."

Hugs and puppy snuggles,

Lynn, Rugby, Jethro and Sabrina

Barking About Buddy, Rugby, and Room to Roam!

Busy week on the Lucky Blog front friends! I made it through Adoption Coordinator (AC) Training and now have two awesome dogs to brag about and find their forever homes! Buddy and Rugby are the handsome boys I am proudly AC'ing and accepting applications for.

Rugby Buddy

Buddy is a super cute Chi/Beagle Mix (with maybe some pug or doxie mixed in), about 2-3 years old, and 18 lbs...out of that crazy puppy phase and the perfect size package for apartment living. He's being pulled from the shelter and arriving in DC this week. Rugby is still down in in a South Carolina Shelter and can't wait to get his new leash on life when he arrives in DC! Their bios can be viewed at http://www.luckydoganimalrescue.org/adopt/adoptable-dogs if you would like to read a little more about them! If you or someone you know is interested in adopting Buddy or Rugby, or any of the awesome Lucky Dogs, go to http://www.luckydoganimalrescue.org/adopt/adoption-process to see what you need to do and to download an adoption questionnaire!

Also this week, my community of Prince William County held a public hearing outlining the master plan for our soon to be (we hope!) dog park, the first of its kind in Prince William County. Personally, I'm super excited about being able to drive down the street and not across county lines to exercise little Ollie and my future fosters! While this project will be supported by the Prince William County Park Authority, it will not be paid for by them and our local dog park support group and community members need to raise about $12,050 to get the park built. That's a lot of milkbones, so we need to create lots of awareness and make this a concerted community effort from dog-lovers in our county and elsewhere!

You can help support the project by going to our Prince William County Dog Blog (http://princewilliamcountydogs.blogspot.com/) and encouraging everyone you know to do the same. Please also follow us on Twitter at @PWCDogs and encourage others to follow us in this grassroots initiative as well! Also, if you'd like to get involved in helping us fundraise, definitely let me know!

Thanks!

Lynn

Recent Updates and Blog Hopping/Home for the Holidays!

Hello Lucky Dogger Bloggers!

I know it's been awhile since my last update...the big things in life involve a wedding, a home purchase, and a whole lot of busy times at work in September. Now that that's all over (minus the home purchase, that's still a work in progress), it's time to start barking about the lucky life again!

How cute is the family on our wedding day?

In the few events I have been able to attend for Lucky Dog, I am happy to say BJ (of my last post) was adopted, along with many, many more. Yay BJ and all the Lucky Dogs! We also surpassed bringing up our 1,000th dog from our partner shelters, officially saving over 1,000 puppy lives in 2012 so far...and we aren't done yet!

It seems bringing a new foster pup in will be better timed when our house isn't in boxes and getting packed up (I can't wait to be moved and invite in our first furry house guest of the new place!), so to help spread the lucky love in the mean time I've taken on a few things:

1. Helping Lucky Dog get its social network groove on at Twitter. Hint: you can help with this too by following @DCLuckyDog

2. Going to Adoption Coordinator Training this Sunday! AC's are the OTHER awesome volunteers that help get dogs placed into their furever homes, by screening potential adopters and making sure they are fit to "Get Lucky". Excited to learn about taking this on this weekend!

3. Helping coordinate one adoption event a month starting in October, and helping coordinate the event details for our Holiday Luck Event, which will be an awesome dinner at Lincoln Restaurant on Monday, December 12. Stay tuned for details!

I'm also supporting Iams in their goal to bring 1.5 million dogs home for the holidays, which Lucky Dog will obviously be a part of locally! Iams will be helping to promote dog adoptions with this campaign, but also donating lots of food to participating animal rescue organizations! Here's what we bloggers are doing to help:

How Bloggers Can Help

As we mentioned, we’re cohosting a blog hop along with our pet blogging buddies, The Tiniest Tiger’s Conservation Cub Club, Preston Speaks, Pet Blogs United, Fidose of Reality, Pet News and Views, andPetsWeekly.

You can show your support by joining the Iams Home 4 the Holidays Blogging 4 Bowls Blog Hop…and for every blog that joins the hop through October 10, another 100 bowls of food will be donated! Here’s how to join:

• Write a post on your blog to show your added support for the Blogging 4 Bowls Blog Hop and link up your blog name and URL using the Linky Tool below (where it says “Click Here To Enter”). You only need to add your link once to be seen on all the Blogging 4 Bowls Blog Hop Linky Tools.

• Grab the linky code and add it to your post so everyone can hop around and make new friends. (Just click the “Get the Code Here” link to obtain the code.)

• Stop by the other blog hop co-hosts–The Tiniest Tiger’s Conservation Cub Club, Preston Speaks, Pet Blogs United, Fidose of Reality, Pet News and Views, and PetsWeekly–to say hello.

• Visit other blogs that are supporting the Blogging 4 Bowls Blog Hop. Make new friends and/or reconnect with old friends!

For more information about this cool campaign, blog hop over to Dog Tipper and get the scoop, and blog hop over to some of the other cool animal blogs out there as well.