Bonus Happy Tails: Katie and Suri

When I had them...

Bonus happy tails alert! Remember Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise? I posted about their transport to NJ and adoptions a couple months ago. I've been super fortunate to receive continued updates on both of these precious girls since their adoptions. I really want to share with you how happy they are in their forever homes and just how adorable they both look. Huge thanks to both of their new families for taking the time to share these wonderful pictures and updates with me! It warms my heart to see their new lives. I couldn't have dreamed of more for Katie and Suri / Kit and Zoe!

First up: Miss Katie Holmes, now Kit! Judging from these pictures and her mom's correspondence, Kit is as adorable and feisty as ever. Kit's mom says her skin (remember how awful it was from the flea bites?) is doing pretty well overall. That one bad spot flared up a little due to the super cold weather, but with continued fish oil supplements and an antibiotic shot from the vet it seems to be under control. Wearing sweaters helps keep Kit from scratching and prevents flare ups, too. How conveniently cute! Love it. She's settled in beautifully with her new siblings. Check out how pawsome she looks in her fancy Christmas dress and Santa suit!

Suri / Zoe then...

...Suri / Zoe now!

Next up: Suri Cruise, now Zoe! Just. Look. At. Her. Squeeeeeee!!! Zoe's mom emailed me this picture. It's a good thing she told me who it was because I would never have recognized our little baby girl! Oh my goodness! She is so grown up and big! And surprise: she still looks absolutely nothing like her mama. Hah! What a goofy pair these girls are, honestly. I hear Zoe's about ten pounds now. She was barely five when we sent her on transport. I just can't believe how much she's grown and changed. Dachshund? Yeah, right! She looks like a baby Boxer or Mastiff. How ridiculous! Again, the only telling trait is the double dewclaw phenomenon. Otherwise you'd never know Zoe was Kit's puppy. Zoe's doing great. She's learning how to play politely and continuing her potty training.  Check out her transformation! That's all I have for now. Just wanted y'all to see the pawsomeness of rescue pupdates! Paws up for Zoe & Kit!

The Great Foster Adventure: Our First Year in Review

Thought I'd let everyone know that Drew and I are taking a much-needed fostering break for the holidays. Coming off of a ten month foster bonanza, we need a minute to catch up with each other, things around the house, and of course our own pups. I feel like we were trying to take a break since early summer, but it just didn't line up that way. I can't believe we're down to just our three dogs again for the first

time in almost a year! It is insanely quiet and calm. I can tell they're super happy. They need a breather as much as we do. Having said that, it's not even been two weeks and I'm already going through foster withdrawal. I haven't been to the shelter yet during this time and I know it's going to be hard to go without having the option to take someone home. Must resist! With law school exams lurking right around the corner, I need this time to focus on life beyond dog stuff. It sucks, but that's how it's got to be for a little bit. Plus we're going away for Christmas, so we'd need a foster-free house for that period anyway.

Anyhow, I think it'd be nice to write a few posts on my

own 

doggies during this down time. I also have a couple more product plugs lined up. So even though there won't be any new dogues invading until after Christmas, be sure to check back every now and then for other posts. Rest assured, come the new year we will get back on track! In the spirit of reflection, check out the pictures of all the pups who 

passed through our home this year. What a great bunch! Paws up for all of them and their wonderful new lives! This first year of fostering was incredibly rewarding and super fun. It has been such an adventure...can't wait for the next chapter! As always, thanks for reading!

Happy Tail: Suri Cruise!

Congratulations, Suri!

Well, that didn't take long at all! Little miss Suri Cruise is adopted! Hurray! Her new name is Zoe, how perfect! Suri stayed in an awesome NJ foster home for a week until her furever family took her home. How pawsome! She is going to be so happy. Hopefully we'll get some updates on her so we can see what she grows up to look like. That little monster is going to be adorable, I just know it! I love this pup and I'm so glad she's got a great home. She has so much personality...sometimes she's a rabble-rouser and other times she is just super snoozy and mellow. She does that hilarious thing where she sits down and just gives you the "I'm too cute to ignore" puppy death stare from across the room until you pick her up. She's a goof troop. Good luck, little girl!

Can we go home now?

Too cute...NJ foster siblings!

Happy Tail: Katie Holmes!

Congratulations, Katie!

I've got some more pawsome news to share: Mama Katie got adopted on Thursday night! Woot! She looks SO happy and seems to fit right in with her new pack. She's got two low-rider siblings just like her: Dottie and Bogey! You know that's a crew that's sure to turn heads walking down the street together. Katie's new name is Kit. I think that's super cute and fits her quite well. I'm so excited for her. Check it out: she's already claimed her new daddy's lap! Love the family photo! We were all a little concerned that Suri would get adopted right away and no one would want Katie. Everybody wants puppies, but all too often the mama gets left in the dust. SSR wasn't about to let that happen! As it turns out, Katie beat Suri to furever. Who would've thought?

Happy Suri in her foster home

Don't worry, Suri is super happy and cozy in her NJ foster home (enjoy the brain-meltingly adorable photographic evidence). Her furever will come soon enough, I'm sure. And don't feel sad that they're not adopted together, either. Sure, they'd been through a lot together and were definitely bonded, but they're very independent girls. Katie was starting to play a bit too roughly with Suri and she also became a little overly protective of her toward people when they got to NJ. I really think they'll both do better separately. They can start totally fresh. From what I've heard, it sounds like occasional play dates may even happen! So PAWS UP for Katie/Kit! Good luck, sweet mama girl. We are so happy for you!

Katie & Suri Head North

Bon voyage, girls!

Today I sent Katie and Suri on transport to See Spot Rescued in New Jersey. They went on the FODA van and we crated them together so they could stay snuggly and (hopefully) less stressed. Mama and Suri have been through so much together...they're such a cute little team! I felt nothing but happiness when I said goodbye to them today. They are the sweetest little things, but I am just so excited for them to take the next step toward furever. I know their lives are going to be filled with so much love, whether they get adopted together or separately. For now, they'll go to a foster home together until

Like mother, like daughter

they get adopted. I'll keep you posted as I find out about their journeys. Paws crossed for safe travels and bright futures for Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise! They deserve nothing but the very best. Good luck, girls!

Please share widely...Katie especially needs help generating adoption interest! I think Suri has a few people interested, but nothing concrete. If you're in the Jersey City area and would like to adopt Katie or Suri, please email SSR and request an application: seespotrescued@gmail.com

Pupdate: Katie & Suri's Adventures Continue

Ultimate Cuteness!

Hey everybody! Thought I'd post a little update on my favorite girls, Katie and Suri since the focus has been on Raven recently. They're both recovered from their colds and are doing great. Suri finally weighs over 5 pounds (6.4!) and was able to get spayed today! She's feeling a little drunk, but is doing fine. Now they're both on track to go on transport to SSR in NJ next weekend. I am so excited for these two sweet girls!

Katie and Suri absolutely LOVE playing outside together. They love to play in the bushes and in the leaf piles. Don't worry, I always check for ticks and such afterward! Katie's pretty rough on Suri, but she holds her own quite well. Suri's getting much bigger...she's almost half mama's size! We've seen her torso stretch longer and her ears get bigger and floppier. Her fur is getting fluffier and looks like it might grow in long. She still doesn't look anything like Katie or a dachshund, though. Whatever she is, she's a cute little monster! Her teeth are all coming in nicely (read: SHARPLY) and her gums are nice and pink. They were super pale when we got her because she'd lost so much blood to fleas. So happy to see her thriving!

Katie's skin/fur before and after!

Katie is also doing well. She recovered just fine after her spay two weeks ago. She loves to play and snuggle. I think she's goofier than Suri. Mama Katie's fur looks SO much better! I've kept her on several supplements to spur healing and fur growth: Pet Kelp, Scratch-Attack Anti-Itch Gel, therapeutic levels of fish oil each day, Biotin, and Zymox medicated shampoo. It's really made a difference! Check out her skin/fur before and after pictures. These pictures were taken about 3 weeks apart. Pretty awesome progress! She still has the big bald spot on her left side where the skin was really bad, but it's healed nicely. I'm not sure the fur will ever grow back there because the skin is so scarred, but at least it doesn't bother her anymore. The rest of her coat really looks great. I'll have to write some product plug blog posts on some of these things I've used on Katie's skin...stay tuned for that.


I have to say, Katie and Suri are among my favorite fosters. If I had to rank them, here's how it stands: #1 Pickles, #2 Cowboy, #3 Katie and Suri. They are both just SO SWEET, loving, cheerful, and happy-go-lucky. Not to mention they fit right into the rest of our pack, which I very much appreciate. Neither of them ever causes a fuss over anything. They just roll with the punches and are happy to go along with whatever the day has in store. In the world of dogs, it doesn't get much easier than that! These girls will surely make somebody very happy in NJ. I can't help but cross my fingers that they get adopted together because they are quite bonded, but I think they'd be fine either way. Can't wait to see what happens! Enjoy the pictures and videos.

Pupdate: Katie & Suri

Tired Suri (AKA Poopface)

My household has been super mega busy with dog stuff recently! With all the hoopla over Pickles leaving (he's doing pawsome, by the way) and some stuff going on with my own dogs (everybody's ok, just an ear infection for Oliver), I realized I'm overdue for posting a pupdate on Katie & Suri. I took them to the shelter vet to get spayed today. Hurray! This may not seem like the most ideal "hurray" situation ever, but it's such a hugely exciting thought that Katie will never have to have puppies again and that Suri will never have to go through that at all. A few days of pain is well worth a long, healthy lifetime.

Sleepy Katie

As it turned out, Suri still does not weigh enough to be spayed yet. She's 4 pounds and needs to be at least 5 before the shelter vet will operate on her. Boo. I was pretty surprised because she's such a stinkin hog...I thought for sure she'd weigh in. Oh well. But! She did get her second full round of shots and dewormer, hurray! So that's super awesome. So, she's got to hang out with us for another couple of weeks and gain that last pound before getting fixed. Once she's fixed and recovered, she can head to NJ to See Spot Rescued and await adoption. So we're probably looking at transport on November 2nd for Suri.

Suri chillin in her daytime pen

Mama Katie is successfully spayed. She is recovering now at home with us, not so comfortably but that's how it goes. Spay surgery is WAY more intrusive and major than neuter surgery. Sparing you all the obvious details, the vet has to cut through the abdominal muscles during a spay operation. Needless to say, that makes for a very sore doggy belly and a considerable recovery period. Now, hold on to your hats for the best news of the day: Katie is HW NEGATIVE!!!!!!! Woot! I am SO relieved and thrilled by this news, I can't even express myself. So as soon as she recovers fully from her spay, she'll be able to head to NJ. I imagine she'll be able to make the October 19 transport, unless SSR wants us to keep her with Suri until November 2 and send them together. We'll see.

Suri & Oliver

Both Katie and Suri have upper respiratory infections (URI). This is common in shelter dogs. They'll be on antibiotics for ten days and will feel much better soon. Katie's skin is doing a lot better, too. It's not so inflamed anymore and her fur is starting to fill back in. Suri is chasing her tail, climbing stairs, running wild in the yard, and even digging in the dirt. All in all, these gals are really doing great. Enjoy some new pictures and videos and stay tuned for more pupdates on Katie and Suri (be sure to adjust the movie quality to 720!) :-)

Katie & Suri: Your Daily Dose of Adorable

Hold still while I get ya, Mama!

We likes to snuggles

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd write a little post letting you all know that Katie and Suri are doing great. Suri's learning new dog things every single day. She's barking, play bowing, climbing stairs, going down the stairs, and today she even did the dirt-scratching kick after she went potty! I'm having a blast watching her figure everything out. Mama Katie's really enjoying being a house dog. She got to go to lunch with me and Aunt Chrissy on Monday. We sat out on the patio and she soaked in the sunshine. She's a super sweet girl who I thought really deserved a little break from her puppy. Nothing too new to report, just that they're doing very well. Mostly, I just need an excuse to post a bunch of pictures and videos. Enjoy!

Katie Holmes & Suri Cruise: No Longer On Their Own

Just sayin'...

It's not every day you see a mama with only one puppy come into animal control. Y'all know we just temp fostered the houndy mama and her litter of 10, so when we saw this pitiful pair we just couldn't resist. Their intake photo interested me. You can see the independence and determination in both of them. Mama is alert and sitting up straight. Puppy is sitting tall next to mama, not hiding underneath or behind her. They both just kind of seem to be saying, "Yep, here we are. We made it this far, just the two of us. What's next?". When I got to the shelter and saw them in person, I knew I wasn't leaving without them. I took mama out without her puppy to see how she acted around people and other dogs. She was totally cool. When I walked back to her kennel, puppy was just sitting there just like she is in the intake picture. She wasn't fazed in the slightest. Ok then, off we go!

Adorable

The rescue group taking them is See Spot Rescued (SSR) in New Jersey. SSR likes their dogs to have famous first and last names, so Drew came up with Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise. We think it suits them well. Their shelter names were Becky (pup) and Darlene (mom). I thought those were really cute too, especially Becky for the puppy. Unfortunately, I didn't watch Roseanne growing up and so we didn't realize they actually already had celebrity names. Plus Drew is way too proud of himself for thinking up Katie and Suri given his profound lack of celebrity knowledge. So, Katie and Suri it is!

Katie's poor skin

Suri post-bath and sans fleas

Katie and Suri are both at good weights and seem to be in general good health. They were picked up as strays by an animal control officer a few days before I brought them home. Suri was completely infested with fleas. We used the shower handheld and bathed her with Dawn dish soap. They use that stuff on wildlife because it is so gentle and good at de-gunking. We washed her for about 15 minutes and the fleas just poured off of her the entire time. I have never seen so many fleas on one dog before, let alone a three pound dog like Suri. Poor thing. It was really bad. I can't believe she was still so strong with all those awful things leeching off of her. It makes me wonder if mama had one or two other pups that were just as infested and didn't make it. Who knows. I just know Suri felt so much better once we got rid of all those fleas. She's doing really well and only has some scabs from where the worst of the fleas were living on her. Mama Katie didn't have any on her, but she'd been chewed up by them really badly. Her skin is a WRECK. It's just horrible. At the shelter, I noticed she had pretty serious hair loss going on, but I didn't see the full extent of it until we got her home. Her poor skin is just torn up. Dogs can have severe allergic reactions to a single flea bite. When they scratch and chew and dig at their own skin it just makes

everything that much worse. She was so terribly inflamed, raw, and itchy. We bathe her with Xymox shampoo and conditioner. Katie gets biotin, therapeutic dosages of fish oil, and pet kelp to help restore her skin and coat. We also rub her down with an herbal gel to give her some instant topical relief from the itching. The gel is called Scratch Attack Anti-Itch and has yerba-mate, boswellia, arnica, chamomile, witch hazel, aloe vera, rosemary oil, peppermint oil, and tea tree oil. All of these ingredients are good natural remedies that should help Katie feel much better. Her skin has already improved. It's no longer red and inflamed, although she still has a long way to go. It will probably never look perfect, but all that's important is that we get her feeling more comfortable.

Check out those double dewclaws! Little freaks!

We think Suri is probably about six weeks old. Mama is a Dachshund mix who is probably about 25 pounds and roughly 2 years old. Suri looks nothing like mama. They both have super funky, fairly unusual double rear dewclaws. If it wasn't for that, I'd almost wonder if Suri was mama's pup. She's still nursing, but we're trying to help mama wean her because she has teeth and is rather rotund. Suri's really a little boss...she eats everything in sight (even if she has to shove mama out of the way) and she loves to chase the Chihuahuas. Bunkin, Flea, Oliver, and Pickles are pretty scared of her. It's hilarious. We spend a good deal of time playing in the backyard so she gets plenty of fresh air and exercise. Suri is running faster and steadier every day. Yesterday she sailed over a log at the end of the driveway mid-stride and kept right on running without stumbling! She even

conquered the very bottom step of the outside stairs and the slightly raised threshhold of the backdoor. Mama Katie is super spunky and likes to play pretty rough with little Suri. She'll shove her around, roll her over, pin her down, chomp on her ears, and run zoomies around her until she starts to cry uncle. Then she'll back off and Suri will resume chasing after Flea and Pickles. Yesterday she sent Oliver bounding away in terror and Bunkin decided he'd be safest hiding behind my legs. What a goof troop!

It seems like Mama Katie was a house dog at some point. She's completely house-trained and is even trying to teach Suri where to go potty. When we're out in the yard, Katie grabs Suri by the ear/leg/arm and drags her into the grass where she fusses at her until Suri goes potty. It's like she's saying, "Look here, this is where we go and we're not going back inside until you do!". It's super funny. Katie is VERY people friendly. She loves to crawl up into your lap and give kisses, even if she's just met you. She made herself right at home from day one, cuddling with us during tv time, leaning against our feet when we're standing in the kitchen, and squeezing in alongside me when I sit in the recliner to study. She's super tolerant of all the other dogs, too. Normally mamas with young pups are slow to warm and a bit protective, but Drew is a champ and seamlessly integrated Katie and Suri in with the rest of our pack in a day's time. In short, she's a really well-behaved girl. It makes you wonder what happened for her to wind up in this situation. My guess, for what little it's worth, is that mama may have be owned and loved but was never fixed, escaped her yard/house, got knocked up, birthed her pup as a stray, and wound up in animal control. No doubt she's a flea bitten mess, but she seems to be in good shape other than that and doesn't seem to have any emotional scars. It's really sad, no matter what their story may be. The great news is they're both safe and loved, mama will never have to go through this again, and Suri will never have any babies of her own. The hard part of their journey is over for good.

We will probably have Katie and Suri for three weeks or so. Suri has to gain a couple pounds before she can be spayed and Katie's got to be fixed once her milk dries up. Hopefully I can get Katie's skin in better shape during that time before they head to New Jersey. I really have nothing but awesome things to say about these two girls. They're both fantastic little dogs and I know they will make somebody very happy. We're certainly enjoying having them around! Huge thanks to See Spot Rescued for committing to take them and also to Friends of DeKalb Animals for transporting them to NJ. Stay tuned for more cuteness! I'll be posting occasional updates with lots of pictures over the next few weeks.