Okay, I haven't written for awhile because I have to confess: I, Leni the Foster Dog, recently of North Philadelphia, a former garbage-eating dog, have to say: I am totally, and absolutely IN LOVE with Stan. Of course, I am 'in heat' and I guess that does have an effect on me. But I finished with the first bloody part and I'm now in the 'hold-my-tail-aside' part and I did so and Stan, despite the fact that he is, well, without 'huevos', well, we were caught inflagrante delicto, by The Foster Lady and we got STUCK!!! I freaked and Stan freaked! We got 'unstuck' after a few minutes, but The Foster Lady was thinking we might have to go to the vet to get 'unstuck' !!!!

Honestly though, I didn't mind and as you can see from this video, all I want to do is be with the handsome guy! I know I'm a nudge, but I can't help myself. You would be too!

Week 6 This week The Foster Lady took me to the Pet Expo in Hamburg, PA. Even though other strange dogs scare me, I did fine sticking by The Foster Lady. And it was crowded! I participated in something called 'My Dog Will Eat That' contest which benefits the HillsideSPCA where The Foster Lady volunteers.



Here's what happens: all dogs sit in a circle and each one is first given some yummy people-food called 'lunch meat'; of course, we all at that...I even wanted to eat the plate! Next we were given another type of lunch meat; no problem, keep it coming!! Then we were given a piece of cheese! Yay, I love cheese! So far, all the dogs are still in; Next comes the small dog biscuit. I could not believe it, but some dogs actually would not eat the biscuit!! and they were disqualified. Fine, more for moi, The Foster Lady had to restrain me from taking those discarded biscuits! Then came the orange thing called a 'carrot'. I kept spitting it out, but finally, I did see that some other dogs were eating theirs, so I ate mine, but several absolutely put their paw down and refused! They were outta there! Next came the piece of food that undid me....a sweet thing called a 'banana'! It was slimy! I didn't mind the sweet taste, but it was that slime that finally did me in. I could not choke it down, try as I might. Several dogs did though and we had to watch from the side to see which dogs would eat the pickle!! And two did! One was a Lab and the other I can't remember. The Lab's owner said proudly, see I told you he would eat anything....and The Foster Lady thought I was bad.

Week 5 - Well, it finally happened. I got to meet the Meathead, nose-to-nose. I understand now why The Foster Lady is so crazy about him! This is after 5 weeks of what she calls 'crate and rotate' for us. I'm used to their smells now. She put a 'muzzle' on me .... did not like that one bit! Put one on Stan, why I don't know...he's such a pushover! Then after we did our meet, she took the muzzle off Stan, so far so good. Then she took the muzzle off me, still on leash...so far, so good. Then she dropped the leash and we chased each other all over the house, up and down the stairs having a great old time.

Stan is a very nice guy. Here's a video of me and him playing together!

Week 4 - Time is a-flyin’ in The Foster Lady’s house! I was ‘de-wormed’ this week, which means that I will be gaining weight faster, even though I don’t want to be like Tubby, picture of her in her harness to the left! I’m not heavy enough yet to go to the Weight-Pulling Contest tomorrow, but I heard The Foster Lady tell someone that Meathead Stan might be a bust at the contest. She got him a special harness and put it on him, attached something called a weight and he refused to move. Just sat down! Those dogs are really lazy bums! I also heard that The Foster Lady bought something called a ‘treadmill’ and it’s coming to the house soon; that all of us are going to ‘run’ on it. This should be interesting!

Oh, one more thing: I was out for a walk on my leash, and these dogs come rushing up to me, but they stay some distance away from me, barking like the silly dopey dogs that they are! The Foster Lady told me that they are on a property with an ‘electric fence’. I sure don’t see any fence and it’s really freaky that they just stand there barking at me. Go figure!

Week 3 – The Foster Lady Speaks. So okay Leni, I do get a word in edgewise here. I want the world to know what a wonderful girl you are and how far you have come in a short time. You are great on lead, you heel nicely. You are crate-trained and are happy to go into your crate, even when not required and the door is left open for you. You are still very much a puppy, despite your size, and the lucky person that takes you into their home needs to realize that you will need exercise and understanding that if you can’t be seen, you might be eating furniture, which means, you need to be in your crate while your family works or is busy doing something else where they can’t keep an eye on you. You love to run for a ball and a tennis ball is all that is needed to keep you happy. You can mouth it for hours. You enjoy a car ride with your head in my lap and also like to lie next to me on the sofa, ball in your mouth, upside down for a belly rub.

You still obsess about food and water, which leads me to believe that you did without these things for long periods of time.

All that was, for you, is in the past. Some remnants of people chasing you perhaps, or yelling at you, perhaps even throwing things at you to keep you from their garbage, will remain, but you are a resilient girl, showing no resentment or malice towards people. You have been tested with strollers, men in baseball caps, kids and none bring out anything bad. Yes, umbrellas are troublesome, but hey, so very much is new to you in the world, that I am not surprised. The person that I finally let you go to, will be a lucky person indeed as they will have a friend for life.

Week 2 – I have to talk about Loretta. She’s dead. The Foster Lady told me that Loretta, an older pitbull girl at the shelter, was sent on to dog heaven and The Foster Lady was very, very upset about it. She said that Loretta was a true breed-ambassador and she spent a lot of time crying over Loretta. In fact, she still cries when she thinks of Loretta (pic on the left). You see, she had gone in to bathe Loretta, the day before she died. She was fine that day and she was going to be shown at Petsmart in the hopes that she would be adopted. Two weeks before that, she had been at Petsmart and some guy had said he really wanted her, and he never came back for her.

The Foster Lady was planning on taking Loretta out for the day, the following day and we heard that Loretta was taken to the back, for possible pregnancy testing. The next thing she heard was that she was dead from pregnancy complications. The Foster Lady is sad, angry and sad again. She wishes she had just taken Loretta out of the shelter too, because she was fine the day before when The Foster Lady gave her a bath!!!

Loretta was very special to The Foster Lady because she was a very mellow, laid-back, red and white pitbull like Meathead. She had lived her life in a vacant lot in Germantown and everyone at the shelter loved her. I know that whenever The Foster Lady would come to the shelter, she would go to Loretta, me and Missy as her most favorite girls, give us treats and walk us first in the yard. I’m glad Missy got adopted and I wish The Foster Lady were not so very sad about Loretta. Loretta looked a lot like the Meathead and I think that makes it even harder for The Foster Lady.

Day 7 - We finally made it up to this place called ‘the mountains’, this time with all three of us in the car. Yesterday, it was a trial run with just me and The Foster Lady. But today, it was me in the gated way-back, Stan riding as ‘shotgun’ and Lily? Well, Ms. Tubby wouldn’t hang in the back seat cause she didn’t want to be near me. So she wedged herself onto the floor of the passenger seat, cause Stan would not give up his seat! After an hour or so, she gave in and came to the back, and I was a good girl and didn’t bark at her. The mountains are very, very quiet; none of those loud moving machines called 'trucks' rumbling by. As we do in the other place, The Foster Lady rotates us but this time, I have the run of the house and those other two bozos get to go and sit in the car. They like to do it; I think that Stan is practicing how to drive. I can see him in the passenger seat, Tubby riding shotgun.

Above is a picture of 'the mountains'....and when I say, no noise, I mean it

DAY 6 – Today I got major QT. The Foster Lady spent the whole day with me and we went for a long car drive, all by ourselves, no Meathead, no Tubby. The Foster Lady says I am very good in the car…and I am! NO ACCIDENTS! We got to a very quiet place, with lots of trees around. The Foster Lady calls it ‘the mountains’ and she spread out a blanket and I got to be a ‘snuggle bug’ with her in the sun. That was very, very nice. I went for a walk in ‘the woods’ with her; smelled something called ‘deer poop’. Guess I will get to see one of those ‘deer' sometime.

I wonder sometimes if people understand that for some of us dogs that end up at ‘the shelter’, that we have never been inside a house before? We might have lived in a little shed in the backyard, or tied to a doghouse with a 2 foot chain….some of us may have just been on the run for a long, long time.

We have no idea about things like ‘tv’, which I still find amazing, soft things called ‘sofas and chairs’, food that comes from a bag and not the garbage can. I keep seeing other dogs when I look out the window at night and I bark at them. ‘Silly girl Leni’ The Foster Lady says…that’s you…looking at yourself in the darkened window. All that kind of stuff; I do hope that people who adopt us understand that it will take a bit of time for many of us to adjust to a ‘house’. We may leap over furniture, be unable to settle down, but trust me when I tell you, once we get the hang of it, we are very, very happy dogs.

Day 5 – Well, it finally happened….THE ACCIDENT…but The Foster Lady told me not to worry, it was in my little house (‘crate’) and it’s her own fault for giving me people food….she said, ‘no more people food for you Leni…no more stale Christmas cookies, no more rich marrow until you are a bit healthier, no more dehydrated chicken strips from Buzzy Bow Wow Meow shop. The Wellness Diet and that’s it!’ I mean, I like that food, but boy, I’m gonna miss that people food. I mean, that’s all I ate when I was out there, scrounging for food! Oh well. I don’t like making messes in my crate either.

I got to play with this neat thing called a ‘flirtpole’ in the backyard today. It’s this long stick and The Foster Lady has something that looks very very much like a real SQUIRREL…and she puts it on the end. I guess I get a little confused because it looks so real and I chase and chase and chase it! The Meathead and Lily can hear me outside having a good time and they really freak out! They want to play with this thing too I guess. Particularly that Stan…he barks and barks and barks…and I can hear him, even when he’s on that nice cozy bed upstairs, being a total boring whiner!

The Foster Lady was gone for a long time today. Tubby Lily and I were in our crates in the dining room and Meathead Stan and this CAT called Zeke, get the run of the house.
I was so happy to see The Foster Lady when she got home!!! I gave her many kisses and she fed me, and took me for a nice long walk. The moon was out. I smell spring in the air.

Day 4 - Today I saw something small dash across the street when The Foster Lady and I went for a walk with her friend. It was called a ‘bunny’ and since it was running, of course, I wanted to chase it. I’m a terrier, remember? But, since I am learning leash manners, The Foster Lady kept me reined in. She says that I have to remember that she is taking me for a walk, not the other way around! A friend of hers called Jane came with us. Jane was a bit afraid of me, because I am one of ‘those dogs’, but at the end of the walk, I was giving her kisses.

We also took a ride in the car, cause The Foster Lady wants to see how I do with rides. She says she has a house in the mountains and it will take some time to get there and she wanted to see how I did. I loved it! She left me with my blanket in the wayback and did some shopping and came back and everything was just fine. I had not eaten anything I wasn’t supposed to! Next we got home and she brought Meathead Stan out to the car and put him in the front seat. I stayed in the wayback that has a gate across it; I wasn’t really afraid, cause Stan stayed right in the front seat, next to The Foster Lady, starring straight ahead. He never even turned around to look at me!!! I think that my barking at him when he walks past my crate has sent a signal. But what’s a dog to do? I had to fend for myself for a long, long time. I’m not too sure I will ever totally trust another dog. Time will tell I guess.

After we got home, I got a meaty marrow bone in my crate which was great. The Foster Lady puts them in something called 'the freezer' so it takes a long, long time to clean them out. Before bedtime, The Foster Lady called the Meathead and Tubby downstairs. She pulled the sheet back from the crate and she had this thing that squirted at in my face, if I barked fiercely at those lugs. Once I stopped that (I mean, those guys really, really scare me…they are so much bigger, like some of the dogs I had to run away from when I was on the run!), she made them sit next to the crate, and then she gave each one of them a treat and me a treat. Leni, treat, Stan, treat, Lily, treat. I guess she wanted for me to see that good things CAN happen, when we are together. Then they went upstairs to what I am sure is a big cozy bed where they sleep with The Foster Lady. It was our QT time and we watched some ‘TV’. I am learning how nice it is to get my tummy rubbed on the sofa. It was my bedtime. I did a fairly good imitation of a lone wolf howl, several times. Nothing happened; I figured, might as well get some shut-eye.