A Family for Kira

Kira came to our house 19 days ago (not sure about the hours and minutes), which may not be such a long time, but it was our longest foster period to date (Francie, our longest before Kira, was here for 8 days).

The first few days were extremely difficult, due to Kira's parvo quarantine, along with the fact that she was so fearful, knew absolutely nothing about living in a house, and was just a puppy. I remember the first night, I couldn't be out of her sight for even one minute without her barking from fear. I played peek-a-boo games with her, by leaving her in the ex-pen in the backyard and walking around the corner of the house where she couldn't see me. I'd count 1-one thousand, 2-one thousand...until eventually, I was able to count to 20 without her having a barking fit. With all the instability in her life, she needed to learn that I was going to come back. Every day since, she has amazed me with her resilience, intelligence, and desire to please.

After several adopters fell through this past week, I was contacted by a woman who lives about 30 miles from us. She had seen my Craig's List post, fallen in love with Kira's photos and description, and emailed me twice and left me a voicemail, all in the space of an hour. She said she didn't mean to be a pest, but she wanted to make sure I was getting her messages. I thought, wow, THIS is someone who is REALLY interested in Kira.

We made arrangements for Kira and me to visit them yesterday morning. I met the woman and her husband of 23 years in their home, where they live with their 18-year old son and 12-year old daughter. They also have three race horses, two cats, and a 7-year old male shar pei. Their 14-year old German shepherd/Rottweiler mix died recently, and their shar pei has been very lonely.

The shar pei liked Kira instantly, and although Kira was a bit shy, I knew she'd warm up to all of them. I wasn't sure how Kira would do around the horses, but she was much braver than I had anticipated. She was much better than Cabana would have been, for sure, and I was so proud of her.

The family fell in love with Kira's sweetness and said they were ready to take her that afternoon. So I took Kira home, brushed her for the last time, and took some final photos to remember her by.

I'm grateful to you all, my blog readers, for following Kira's story. I felt your support and encouragement throughout, and I know you share my happiness. The perfect family did come along, and Kira is going to have a wonderful life. I will miss Kira and the way she would give me thank-you kisses before eating her food, how she always wanted whatever Cabana had, and especially how she followed Cabana around, worshiping at her heels. I wonder if Cabana will miss her or if she's just happy to have everything back to normal. Probably some of both.

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Francie is a Ranch Girl

Whenever I'd envision the perfect owner for our foster dog, Francie, I thought of a young single man, tough, outdoorsy, athletic, not bothered by dirt, not into nice furniture, kindhearted but firm, experienced with dogs.

Today, Francie drove away in the truck of that perfect owner.


She's being taken to an 80-acre ranch surrounded by redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains. Her owner is the caretaker of the ranch and will take her everywhere he goes. They will camp in Yosemite, swim in the mountain lakes, and hike the rugged trails.

Francie's new owner responded to an ad I had posted on Craig's List and drove over two hours to come meet her. He's owned bully breeds before and plans to buy her the best organic dog food money can buy. He's a southern boy and called me "ma'am", which I will not hold against him.

It's a happy ending. Go well, Francie, we will miss you terribly (well, maybe Cabana won't, but I will), but we couldn't ask for better for you.

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Guten Tag!

Guide Dogs gives puppy raisers an assortment of items, along with their new puppy. One of them is a "big" collar, which Cabana started wearing at around 5 months. It's a nice black collar with an engraved metal placard/tag that has Guide Dogs' name and phone number, as well as the dog's tattoo ID (the ID that is tattooed into the pup's ears).

In yesterday's mail, we got our official adoption papers from Guide Dogs. Along with the papers was a new replacement placard. It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but it reads, "I'm proud to be a career change dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc." Like the old tag, it also has Guide Dogs' phone number and Cabana's tattoo ID engraved on it.

I was so touched to get this placard and pleased that Cabana can continue wearing her big girl collar. I had bought her a new red collar--but I think the old black one is so much more flattering (black is my favorite color to wear).

I was also impressed by Guide Dogs' commitment to Cabana's continued well-being. The fact that they put their phone number on the new tag shows that they are willing to be contacted, should Cabana ever be lost or found. They also say in the paperwork that if, for any reason or at any time, we decide not to keep Cabana, they would be happy to find her a new home. Although I'm quite confident we won't ever need to use their placement services (even after she's been a mad dog), it's still reassuring to know Guide Dogs will still provide that kind of support.

How much cheaper and easier it would be for Guide Dogs to say, "Good riddance!" to their career changed dogs. But instead, they say, "We're still here for you." What an awesome organization!

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