Lots of news!

For the past couple of weeks I have been keeping my eyes open for a new member of our family, a boxer. I didn't want a puppy because I refuse to pay for a puppy at a breeder and I'll be damned if I get a puppy from a backyard breeder so I've been looking at different rescue organizations in the area. Aside from Safe House which I foster for and Hope 4 Paws out of Plainfield, IL (where we adopted Pony from years ago) I have never really interacted with other rescue organizations. What I found in looking for a boxer is that there are many, many so called "rescues" out there that the animals are not top priority. I found a boxer that I wanted to meet on PetFinder and there was no phone contact information but there was an e-mail. I sent an e-mail to the rescue asking for an application and some other questions about the dog and also spent some time introducing myself and my family. A couple of days go by and there is no response. Then I went back to PetFinder to look again and I looked at the other dogs that are in the "rescue" and found that these are dogs that are posted on CraigsList. Basically they are getting dogs from CraigsList and selling dogs for $300-400 because they are "purebred". I also found out that this rescue is not non-profit 501-c. To this day I still have not heard back but I wouldn't adopt from them anyway after doing my research. Then I found another boxer but with this rescue you had to jump through hoops and sell your first born child to adopt from them. Sorry, I'm not going to play those games with them. I'm trying to give the dog a good home to love and have it as part of our family. 

Yesterday I got an e-mail from someone who is a member of our Facebook Group Illinois Twilight Bark saying that Cook County Animal Control had a boxer. I immediately went to the CACC Facebook page and saw a super sad looking 3-year-old boxer looking back at me saying "please!". I immediately sent an e-mail to Monica at Safe House asking if we can pull her. Monica got in contact with her contacts in Chicago and PAWS had already pulled her but if I wanted her they would hold her for me until Saturday. Typically they don't hold dogs but because of the close connections between the rescue and being a volunteer this girl is essentially ours. 

I know its a horrid picture of her behind bars but rest assured that Saturday we will get better pictures of her and she won't look so sad and scared. She will be with her new family, us! Her name is Duchess and she was an owner relinquish so we don't really know anything about her past except that she was bought in with a 10-year-old male boxer. She has been temperament tested and health tested so I'm not really concerned about that. Our family is really excited about it. Her name is Duchess but we are going to change her name. Its between Layla, Emma and Stella but we will probably wait to officially name her until after she gets here. 

In other great news: I got an e-mail this morning that there is an application in on Tinker!! I certainly will miss her as she is a wonderful dog but she deserves her forever home! The lady lives in Chicago and is interested in adopting over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it pans out, if not then she will continue to be spoiled at my house. :) 

Yesterday someone asked me if I knew anyone who was looking for a pit bull puppy and there was a lady on Twilight Bark looking for one so I directed her in that direction. Today when I saw her at the twins preschool I asked her if it panned out and she said she didn't know and proceed to say "I don't know why someone would want a pit bull." My response was "why not? They are amazing dogs." She said that she doesn't believe in the hype but she just doesn't like them. I was about to ask her if she has ever been around one and start educating her on the truth of the breed but the preschool teacher opened the door and the kids all walked in and I didn't get to finish what I wanted to say. It takes every fiber of my being to start rambling and not get defensive when people say things like that. I think my face turned bright red and smoke started to come out of my ears until I took a deep breath and calmed myself. 

I will update this weekend with pictures of our new family member!

Fallon ADOPTED!!

Fallon, now "Bandit" has been adopted! She is going to a wonderful home. She was so excited when her new family brought her a toy. Congrats Bandit and your new family! You will have a wonderful life together!!

On March 27th I will be leaving my husband and our four kids alone for 4 days. Scary I know! We have decided that it would be easier if we don't get any more fosters until I get back so my husband doesn't have one more thing to care for. Of course we are keeping Tinker until she gets adopted. She is doing so well in our home. She really is a sweet girl who just wants love. Once I get back on April 1st then we will start fostering again. After I get back we will start actively looking for a boxer. No other boxer will EVER replace Tooter but I need some boxer wiggles in my life. 

This afternoon at the twins birthday party the dad of the birthday boy recognized me. He looked at me and said "You have a boxer, right?" It turns out he is works for the garbage company and picks up our recycling. I told him that he passed away last month and his face turned bright red and he said he felt really bad for bringing it up. LOL I told him it was okay. He was telling me that they just got a boxer puppy a few weeks ago and they are really enjoying him. Of course I would love a boxer puppy but nothing would make me more happy than to rescue a boxer. Not only would we be saving a life we wouldn't have to deal with all of the "puppy" stages. That is what is great about rescue dogs. They come fully vetted and you saved a life. You can't go wrong. 

Over the next couple of days I will be posting the cost of a new puppy versus the cost of rescuing a dog from a shelter or licensed rescue organization. 

Paws Crossed

Today Fallon will be meeting some potential adopters. I can't be with her to meet the family because my twins have a birthday party to go to at 4:00 and the potential adopters could only meet at 4:00. I dropped her off with Monica at 2:00 and she was so scared. On my way home I stopped at Tractor Supply and got Pony, Abel and Tinker new bones so they would be occupied and not hopefully not be sad that Fallon is gone. Tinker could care less about the bone and wandered around looking for her. I think she is sad that her best friend isn't here.

Now its Tinker's turn to find her forever home.

I'll update later and hopefully with a picture of Fallon and her new family if she gets adopted.

Invisible Person = me!

Friday night I was laying in bed with Pony laying across my feet and Fallon and Tinker both laying their heads across my chest while Abel had his head on my pillow. I called for CJ to dim the light up and take a picture. He reluctantly got up and by the time he got to the door and turned the light on full blast the dogs had gotten up thinking that he wanted to play. It got me thinking...according to all of our pictures of our kids and dogs they don't have a mom. My husband hates taking pictures so I'm always the one taking them which I don't mind. I told him that he needs to start taking at least a few pictures of me and the kids so we have some memories captured at least. I'm sure this happens in a lot of households though. Most of the pictures you will see of our dogs and of our fosters will be of them with my husband CJ or the kids. 


The other day I said I would introduce my personal dogs. Below is Pony (white) and Tooter. Tooter passed away last month and we miss him terribly. 

This is Abel. He is 1 1/2 years old and weighs 130 pounds. He LOVES the snow and loves to be outside with its cold outside. 

I get asked often why I foster. First, why not foster? If you have room in your house and heart then it is a great way to help homeless dogs until they find their forever home. They come into my home and I teach them what its like to have a family and what they get to look forward to for the rest of their lives. I get to enjoy and learn about many different breeds of dogs which helps educate other people about different breeds if they are looking to adopt a dog into their family. Not all breeds of dogs may be right for certain families. I get to love on these dogs with very little responsibility. All of their vetting is paid for by the rescue, I just need to take the dog to the vet. I don't have to buy food for the dogs as the rescue provides that also. All I provide is love and shelter and some training. 


The next question I get asked is how do you let them go? Trust me its hard for some dogs! I get attached to certain dogs and it makes it very hard. It does get easier the more I foster though. There are just certain dogs who come into your lives and touch your heart and its hard to let them go but you do and then a few days later your next foster comes and the cycle starts all over. The joy of know that that certain dog that is in your home was on death row and was going to be euthanized and its not now because of you. 


If you can't foster there are many ways that you can help rescue organizations. You can volunteer time to transport animals or go to shelters and just pet and brush dogs. Also when you are grocery shopping pick up an extra bag of dog or cat food and take it to your local no-kill animal shelter. Every little bit is appreciated! 

Welcome!!

Welcome to my new blog! I have pondered for two days about the name of my blog and asked friends on my Facebook page to help me come up with a name for it. My Aunt said how about "Pits and Pieces" and at first I thought no because out of all of my fosters I have only had a couple of pit bulls although I do hope to get more. However, the more I thought about "Pits and Pieces" and what I wanted this blog to portray along with why I foster and showcasing my foster dogs is that I want to educate people on the breed of pit bulls and simply educating people about dogs in general. While I don't have a pit bull myself I do have a love for the breed and really hate when people are uneducated about the breed and try to tell me or other people that pit bulls are bad dogs. I will continually say it over and over again that they are NOT bad dogs!! 


A little about me....My name is Jami and I am happily married with four wonderful kids ages 16, 12 and 5-year-old twins. We have two dogs Pony who is an elder  Boxer/American Bulldog mix and Abel who is a big ol' St. Bernard who has Wobblers Syndrome. We recently had to put our other Boxer, Tooter, down when his bowels became paralyzed. It happened very sudden and my family and I took it very hard. We also foster dogs through Safe House Animal Rescue League ( http://www.safehousepets.org/ ) who go above and beyond their call of duty to help homeless animals from dogs and cats to chickens and bunnies. Right now I have two puppies in foster and while they are a lot of work together they are a joy to be around.

These two sweeties are my fosters, Tinker and Fallon. Tinker is a pit bull about one year old. She was found when her owners left her tied to a tree with no food or water and moved out of the house. A nice neighbor saw her there and she was brought to the pound. Unfortunately, like most pounds, it was a kill shelter and she was going to be euthanized if she wasn't rescued. Safe House pulled her from Quincy and she came to my house. When we got her she weighed only 32 pounds and was totally emaciated. Her face was so skinny that her eyes bugged out of her poor head. She came to my house and was immediately met by Abel the St. Bernard, Pony, the boxer mix and my crazy 5-year-old twins. All Tinker did was want to give lots and lots of kisses. Now she is a happy and healthy girl who weighed 43 pounds at her spay earlier in the week and she has learned how to be a real dog. She shows no aggression towards other dogs, kids, men or women and she is not food aggressive at all which is great since before coming here she never had meals that were given to her everyday. She is also doing very well with potty training and has very few accidents in the house. 


http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/22166809


Fallon is a 5-6-month-old Boxer mix who spent half of her young puppy life at the pound. She has bilateral cherry eyes and was deemed "aggressive" by pound staff because she growled at them when they took her food bowl away. This girl was pulled from the pound, had bilateral cherry eye surgery, twice, and was spayed. When she got here she was so scared and so shy and timid that we didn't feel that my house would be the right place for her so she went to another foster home. When she got to that foster home she "woke up" and was playing with the smaller dogs. After a night there we felt it was fine for her to come here and again was greeted by my brood of kids and dogs and she fit right in. Not an aggressive bone in her body. She eats well with the other dogs and shows no food aggression whatsoever. I have even put my hand in the bowl while she was eating and she looked at me like "why is your hand there, can you please move it so I can continue eating?". She plays very well with the other dogs and her and Tinker are the best of friends. Fallon is doing VERY well potty training especially given the fact that when she got here she had absolutely no concept to potty outside. She has very few accidents in the house and is doing great! 


http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/22197459


That is it for now. I will showcase my personal dogs this weekend. I will post on here a few times a week with pictures, updates and other news along the way.