October Multi-Tasking

This is an iPhone photo of a Street Dog in Peru.
You can tell he's got severe mange. I'm not sure why he's wearing the shirt.
I can't wait to hear the story from my friend when our Church group returns from Peru.

I have had a whirlwind of October activities that have kept me away from doing Off-Site adoptions, thus the paucity of posts. I feel a bit like I've got a dog like the one in the photo below chasing after me!

Goofy dog trailer hitch cover seen at the Texas Renaissance Festival.

I had to take off my "Dog Lady" cowboy hat and don my "Band Mom" hat. My 16-year-old daughter plays mellophone (a marching-style French Horn) in The Woodlands High School Marching Band, and October is the busiest Band month.

This is my "Band Mom" Hat. My "Dog Lady" Hat is a brown Stetson cowboy hat.

There are football games, practices, competitions, auditions and fundraisers. We spend a lot of time on yellow school buses. We stand in lines, sit on stadium seats and cheer our Band kids on. They are super kids--dedicated, funny, and unfailing polite. They just earned a first place in their UIL Area Division, competing against 30 Bands to earn the privilege to go to the Texas State UIL Marching competition to be held next week in San Antonio. I will load up my three dogs (Chopper, Cross and my sweet foster, Mrs. Puff) to head to my Mom's house in Spring Branch (close to New Braunsfels). We'll leave the dogs with my Dad to babysit the pack--a total of seven dogs, including four Chihuahuas--and go watch the Bands participate in two separate competitions.

Chopper in a quiet pose. Soon his Heartworms will be history!

We've had a lot of transitions and changes at the Shelter lately, but there's one great bit of news--the Shelter has begun offering the Heartworm treatment to the adopters and fosters on the six-page waiting list. The treatments were halted in early summer for a number of reasons (cost, vaccine availability, staffing issues, etc.) but are now being offered.

I had a part in this--my newly adopted dog, Chopper, was heartworm positive, so I have been asking, and asking again, when the treatments would begin again. I got the call this week to bring him in for a two-day, two-shot protocol. Now the issue will be keeping a bouncy, squirrel-chasing 18-pound Miniature Pinscher quiet for a month!

I'm still fostering the amazing Mrs. Puff, the elderly but very spunky owner-surrender Chihuahua. My daughter wants to keep her. I love her dearly and she's a very easy dog. My dogs love her, too. But a fellow Band Mom has met her and wants to adopt her after the hub-bub of our competitive season is done in about two weeks. My friend recently lost her own elderly dog and has taken quite a shine to Mrs. Puff. I told my daughter we can go visit Mrs. Puff and even take her a Christmas present later this year!

I'm looking forward to getting back into my Dog Lady volunteer work. I'm excited about some new volunteer opportunities that are on the horizon, and look forward to helping new foster dogs find homes. I received an email from the Shelter noting that we'll be participating in the Home for the Holidays program again this year--it's one of my favorite national tie-in programs.