Don't Make Him Angry

After Dave caught his latest mouse, he reset the traps just in case.  I'd thought I'd heard one of the traps go off yesterday morning as I woke up, but since it went so quickly and there was no residual noise, I promptly forgot about it in my sleepy fog.  Then last night, when Dave and I went to bed, I remembered.

Me:  I think you might have caught another one.

Dave: Oh, I should check that tomorrow then.

Not 5 seconds later we heard a scratchy scratch sound coming from the ceiling above our bed.  We pondered for a while what a mouse could possibly be doing that created such a loud noise.  I'm still convinced that it's a squirrel rolling acorns, but Dave disagrees.  There just is no other explanation.  We used to have a hamster (his name was Fezzik and he was awesome).  Despite that he lived in the room right next to us, with his cage and hamster wheel on our shared wall, he never made as much noise as these "mice" in our attic.  Therefore, it must be something other than a mouse. 

Fezzik

At one point I yelled at the mouse to shut up because I wanted to go to sleep and it actually did stop making noise.  Several hours later, I was stirred awake by the same acorn-rolling shenanigans. It was 3:45 am.  How rude.  

Well, it turns out I wasn't the only one whose sleep was disturbed by this uninvited guest.  About 20 minutes later, I stirred again, hearing REALLY BIG mouse in the attic.  And then I noticed Dave wasn't in bed.  And then I noticed the hall light was on.  And then I heard Dave come up from the basement with the ladder and climb up into the attic.

Me: Uh-oh.  That mouse is in trouble now.

After another 10 minutes of hearing the REALLY BIG mouse scour the attic, it finally left the attic and came back into bed.  I asked him what he was doing.

Dave: Resetting the traps.  I caught one.  

Me: It sounded like you were walking around up there.

Dave: I was searching for the mouse.  

Clearly at 4 am Dave's faculties weren't all there, because I would have assumed the mouse would just run and hide the moment Dave opened the attic and the light shined in.  But apparently this was personal since it caused Dave to get out of bed and go mouse-hunting at that hour.

Me: Are you sure it's not a squirrel?

Dave: I did not find a squirrel or evidence of one.  There were no acorns.

Me: Damn.

Less than a minute later: Scratchy, scratch, acorn roll.

Dave: Go find the peanut butter, you little bastard.

I don't know if he heard Dave or not, but he did stop making noise.  Does anyone else think this is shaping into a Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoon?

I'll let you know if the ACME boxes start coming.

Halloween!

I really like Halloween.  And not just because I really like candy.  My friend Cindy is a costumer and ever since I met her, I've looked forward to Halloween.  Cindy makes all our costumes (mine, Dave's, her's, her fiance's, other friends) and they are always awesome.  We legitimately plot our costumes all year round.  So, as a preview of what you can expect next week, here are a few costumes from the past few years.

2009--Beetlejuice and Lydia.

Cindy hated me for all the red tulle she had to deal with.  Dave made the finals of the costume contest.  He came in 2nd.  I can't remember what came in first, but it wasn't nearly as awesome.

2009

Cindy last year.  Her fiance was Jack the Ripper and she was one of his victims.

2009

Our friend Stacy in one of Cindy's creations from a few years before.

2009

Even our pumpkins are awesome.

2008

No theme. Just a flapper and a pirate.  If you were a pirate, where's the first place you'd sail?  Enter your answer in the comments! (Hint: there is a right answer, well a couple of right answers.)

 

Oops, I Crapped My Pants

In the wee hours of Sunday morning while it was still dark and I was nestled comfortably in my bed, I was woken up by a telltale sound.

Dave had caught a mouse. 

And this one, too, had difficulty accepting its demise.  As it bandied about on the attic floor, Dave actually stirred.  It took him a while to place the source of the sounds, but eventually he rolled over to me and sleepily said, "I win," before promptly falling back asleep.  (It took me a little while longer, what with the mouse still thrashing.)

During the daylight hours, I'd taken Chiquita for a walk and suggested Dave "take care of" his winnings while we were out, otherwise a curious puppy might try to "help" him. When I came back, he told me he had blog fodder.  Apparently Dave had set two traps.  The first had it's peanut butter bait stolen, but the second--the finisher, if you will--still had some bait left.  This mouse couldn't do it's magic trick twice.  And, Dave said, "He must not have expected the second trap to go off, cause he pooped himself."

Umm...Fire?

In Tuesday's post, I mentioned that if I ever set the oven on fire again, I'd tell you.  Well, this prompted a few people to ask, "Again?"  Implying there had been a first instance.  So even though it happened 5 years ago, well before I turned 30, I suppose it's a good enough story to share with you here.

When Dave and I were still dating, we were long distance for about 2 years.  We would make the 7 hour drive to visit about once a month or so.  This included one Thanksgiving weekend that I came to visit Dave.  Since Thanksgiving is a great bunch days off in a row, perfect for cookie baking, I decided I would make a few batches during my visit.

Dave had moved into the house about a year prior, and while he's pretty handy in the kitchen, he hadn't really used the electric oven all that often.  Less than a handful of times in the year.  In I march, ready to bake, and really gave the oven a workout, having it on for a few hours while I bakeds batch after batch of cookies.  Busying myself in the kitchen, Dave was in the living room watching TV or playing video games.  I had several cooling racks full of cookies, having just completed a batch of Peanut Butter Cookies, and just starting on a recipe of Oatmeal Cranberry.  My first two sheets of oatmeal cookies were in the oven when the timer went off and  I opened the oven door.

There was a flame.

In the electric oven.

So I did what any logical person would do.  I shut the door.  I stood there for a second and thought, "Surely that wasn't a flame."  Assuming the flour had officially gone to my head, I chalked it up to me seeing things, and opened the oven door again.

Nope, there's still a flame in there.

Me: S#!T!

Dave: (no response)

Me: S#!T! S#!T! S#!T!

Dave: (no response)

See, here's the thing.  Even at this early stage in our relationship, and only seeing each other for a few days each month, Dave had already become immune to my use of the word S#!T!.  Turns out I use it so frequently that when Dave would ask, "What's wrong?", my standard response was, "Nothing."  It became a new twist on crying wolf.  Only I was crying S#!T! and needed to find a way to get his attention.  So I searched my vocabulary for a word that would express the dire situation unfolding in the oven.

Me: FIRE!

Dave, boy scout and lab safety professional that he is, sprang to his feet and practically jumped over the couch.  He grabbed the fire extinguisher (I'm not sure I knew where that was) and asked where the fire was.  I opened the oven door and then immediately began opening doors and windows to blow the smoke out, sort of stunned and a little scared.  I just set my boyfriend's kitchen on fire!

I should have gotten Dave these cookies from www.sunflowerbaking.com

After the fire was out and the smoke cleared, Dave calmed me down and we went about cleaning up (all those poor, innocent, extinguished cookies) and figuring out what had happened.  Apparently at some point in the oven's life prior to Dave, someone had a messy oven episode and something had dropped onto the heating element in the oven (the black oval shaped thing on the bottom of the oven that turns red when it gets hot).  Whatever the mess was got stuck on the element and was never cleaned off.  It had never been a problem before since Dave never left the oven on for that long.  But since I had the oven cranking for so many hours, eventually the goop just combusted and when it did, the element caught on fire as well, completely ruining it.

Luckily, Dave is also very handy and knows how to fix things.  This was the day before Thanksgiving. So the day after Thanksgiving, he called a local appliance store, explained what he needed and started to give the serviceman the part number.  The guy at the store actually rattled off the last few digits of the part number and said, "Yeah, I've got one of those left.  We always have a few people who need one of those the day after Thanksgiving."  

It made me feel better to know I wasn't the only one in town to set the oven on fire that weekend.

Fantasy Update

Not good, my friends.  

I'm slowly slipping.  After two weeks in the number one spot, I've started a slow decline in the fantasy football universe.  I held the number 4 spot for a while, but after suffering a loss this week (stupid Ryan Torain--Running Back for Washington on my opponent's team), I'm now in 6th place out of 16 teams.  I'm so frustrated that I lost because my quarterback (Matt Cassel from Kansas City) was actually better than my opponent's, the long-haired hippie Tom Brady from New England.  

The good news is that I am 3rd in my division, out of first by only 14 points.  So as long as I get some more wins and bunch of points, I can reclaim my rightful position at the top.  With the Steelers' Defense and some reasonable Wide Receivers, I might be ok.  My defense has been what saved me so far this season; combined with my Kicker (Steeler Jeff Reed), they scored more points than the rest of my entire team one week.  Clearly, I'm stoked that Troy Polamalu is back this season. 

Next month Dave and I are headed to Pittsburgh where we'll get to see the Steelers take on the New England Patriots at Heinz Field in a Sunday night brawl.  I was there the last time the Patriots played in Pittsburgh, when the Steelers snapped the New England winning streak that spanned two seasons.  I expect this year's game to be equally exciting.

And it will be fun watching my husband cheer for the Steelers and then look conflicted, since we play each other in fantasy football that week.

Secrets Unveiled

Today is the start of something new for me.  As cookie season comes upon us (and by us, I mean me), I was struggling with how to share with you the craziness that is my cookie baking, without turning my blog into a complete cooking and recipe based blog.  Because telling you that I made delicious, yummy, fabulous cookies without giving you the recipe could be consider cruel.  But making you suffer through recipes when you just want to hear about mice hunting, my fantasy football prowess, and Halloween costumes (teaser!) could also be considered cruel.

So I decided to launch a new blog.  Secrets of the Cookie Princess is the new home to everything cookie in my life.  This was a difficult thing for me to come to terms with, because I generally don't share my best cookie recipes.  Years ago I was asked for a recipe and instead of giving the individual the recipe I use, I searched online for a reasonable facsimile.  But that was ages ago, and apparently I was going through a phase, because now I'm over it.  I'm willing to share my recipes as well as the tricks I use to make them awesome.  Because frankly, if you've ever had my cookies, you'll admit they are awesome.

I hope you'll enjoy.  I'll do my best to not overlap, but clearly if I set the oven on fire (again) then I'll be forced to share that adventure with you here, but I'll put the cookie casualties on the cookie blog.

"Cookies" and a New Development

Those of you who know me know that I have a little obsession.  And those of you who don't know me, but have read my profile are wondering why I haven't addressed the "ridiculous quantities of cookies" I mentioned.  Well, I haven't talked about it yet because the holidays (and by holidays I mean cookie baking days) only come but once a year.  And I've been working on something else that I'm hoping to unveil for you this week.  

So in an attempt to totally tease you, I thought I'd share with you a story that illustrates exactly how obsessed with cookies I am.

Last weekend, I made Chiquita her own batch of cookies.

I'm such a sucker.

We've been using treats to aid in Chiquita's training, since she is a very food driven dog.  Not want to spend a fortune on dog treats (yeah, $3.49 for a 1/4 pound at Petco's treat bar is a little crazy), I figured I could make something that I knew would be healthy and definitely cheaper.  

After a little searching online, I did find a recipe that was both easy and healthy.  I found I had to make some modifications from the original, but it's essentially the same.  This isn't supposed to be a food blog, but I thought you might enjoy a change of pace.  Especially those of you with your own pups at home.

Peanut Butter Puppy Poppers

courtesy and inspired by Bullwrinkle.com

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 cup peanutbutter

1 cup milk

1 ripe, mashed banana (This was my addition, since I had just found out the day before that Chiquita likes bananas.  Oh come on, her name is Chiquita--I had to find out!  And I may or may not have contemplated putting a certain sticker from the produce department on her forehead and taking a picture.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (or 350 if using a dark pan).

In one bowl combine flour and baking soda.  In another bowl combine peanutbutter, milk and banana.  Whisk until smooth.  Stop and see how much your dog likes peanutbutter by offering her the spatula.  Wait and see if she likes it.  Call your husband into the kitchen to watch.  Laugh when she licks the spatula clean. (Remember, spatula is technically not clean and should be put in sink, not drawer.)  Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and mix with spoon as much as possible and then knead in with hands until a firm dough forms.

Stop to take dog for a walk.  Remember to turn oven off.  Return from walk and turn oven back on.  Dough stays fine on the counter for a hour or so.  Preheat oven again.  Roll dough out (in batches if space is tight) to 1/4 inch thickness and using your dog's favorite cookie cutter, cut into shapes.  Repeat rolling and cutting until all dough is used.  

Bake for 20 minutes on a parchment lined pan.  Practice sit and stay commands with dog when opening oven.  

Cool complete on racks.  Practice leave it command when dog investigates her cookies on the kitchen table.  Store in an airtight container.

 

I made about 4 1/2 dozen dog bones, and put some in the freezer.  I would imagine they'll last a good 1-3 months in the freezer.  That is, of  course, if you want to deprive your dog of cookies for that long.

Oh, and the dog bone cookie cutter?  Yeah, Dave gave that to me about 8 or 9 years ago, before we were even dating.  Who knew?

The Other Woman

Among our friends, Dave and I are very close to two women who live near us. Stacy is a friend from college who lives about 10 minutes away. She was actually friends with Dave before I even met her. And our friend Cindy, who lives about 20 minutes away, but works about 5 minutes from our house. I met Cindy through work when I first moved to Massachusetts, and Dave and I have become good friends with her and her fiance, Keith.

Since Dave has been home, and especially during the summer, we joked that Cindy and Stacy were his girlfriends. Stacy, being a teacher, would come over during the day to use our pool. And occasionally pining for some human interaction, Dave would go to lunch with either of them.

But now there is another woman in my husband's life. And she's in our house all the time. I'm pretty sure Chiquita is in love with Dave.


Don't get me wrong, she loves me and wants to play with me, snuggle me, and all the stuff puppies want from their people. But she loves her some Dave.

When we first brought her home, we wanted to establish boundaries, so we only allowed her free reign over the kitchen and the living room. We shut the doors to all the other rooms in the house, even when we were in them. So on Day 2 when Dave went into the office to do a little work, Chiquita was not pleased. Apparently my presence in the kitchen wasn't enough for her since she proceeded to wait for Dave right outside the office door.

Yes, we really are that pathetic.

Of course, once she heard me preparing a snack, I was her best friend.

It's been pretty funny, seeing Dave walk around the house with a dog-shaped shadow. Chiquita loves to sit at the front door or look out the front window. On Sunday, Dave was rotating the tires on his Jeep and taking out miscellaneous stuff from having gone 4x4ing on Saturday. This meant several trips from the driveway (which you can see from the front windows) through the gate on the side of the house (which you can see from the side door) and through the backyard (which you can see from the backdoor) to the bulkhead (which you can't see from anywhere, especially if you're only 23 inches tall).


Chiquita was so sad that she could see Dave in the driveway, but that she couldn't get out there to be next to him. She whimpered and barked a little bit. But the absolute funniest thing was when she figured out where he was going when he left the driveway. I think she thought he was coming back in every time, and her plan was to meet him at the door. But which door? So she ran from the front door to the side door. Wait, he's not coming up the steps. To the back door! He's going past the deck. Now what? At that point she would start to run down the hallway. But then she realized all the doors were shut and there were no windows to see where he went. And every time she would look up at me with the saddest, most confused look on her face, as if to say, "My Dave keeps disappearing! Where does he go?"


I lost track of how many times this scenario unfolded, but I don't think I'm underestimating at 8 puppy panic attacks. So of course, when Dave finally did come in, I had to document the greeting.

Sorry the lighting is pretty terrible. But you get the gist.

Chiquita's a licker. Big time. We discourage jumping, but I certainly wasn't going to be the one to reprimand her for this one. Since Dave was the one that freaked her out, he was going to have to deal with her. She really wanted to lick his face, but she settled for completely washing Dave's hands and arms.

I'm not actually jealous, because she doesn't try to interfere with Dave and I nor does she exhibit guarding behaviors of Dave. I'm certain her attachment is just because he's with her all day. Since Dave was out on Saturday, I spent the whole day with her and she was just as loving with me.

Until Dave came home.

They're Baaaack!

Last night Dave was working in the office.

Dave: Uh-oh.

Me (from the kitchen): What? Did Chiquita get into something? (Nope, she was curled up on her blanket in the living room, getting a pre-bedtime nap.)
Dave: No, I think I heard a critter.

Me: Dammit.

I went into the office and stood in the doorway, both of us being super quiet. Sure enough, we heard the tell-tale scratching.

Dave: I'll set a trap tomorrow.

And so begins another round. Hopefully this one is really stupid and alone.

Apple Picking!

Fall in New England means it's time to hit the orchards and pick delicious apples right off the trees. Dave and I are lucky that we have a volunteer run orchard right in our town, which just happens to be the birthplace of Johnny Appleseed. We've actually been picking three times this season, but yesterday was the first day we remembered the camera.

Since part of our task with fostering Chiquita is to get her exposed to people and social situations, we decided to take her with us. She loves to ride in the car, but prefers the highway. She actually starts to whimper when you slow down.

Monday morning we called Red Apple Farm to see if they allowed pets. They do! So we got our stuff together and headed about 30 minutes west. It's a great little farm that has a lot of activity for the whole family. In addition to pick your own fruits (seasonal apples, pumpkins, peaches, berries, and more), they also offer hayrides, farm animals, a BBQ pit set up on weekends, and a country store full of all the apple-y goodness fall has to offer.

Chiquita did pretty good on the way to the farm but was so excited once we pulled into the lot. She rode the whole way in the tailgate area of Dave's Jeep, but having to stop and get directed by a guy in the parking lot caused her to spring to the back seat and practically lick Dave's ear off trying to meet this new person. Once parked, she did get back into the tailgate for Dave to let her out, so there is progress.


We got directions to the apply picking, and Chiquita was in seventh heaven with all the attention. She got lots of pets and even got to lick some friendly people. There were an awful lot of distractions, but she did pretty well. There were even times when she listened! She made friends with a few little kids and gave them gentle licks, which was good to see her interact well with little ones. And she even met another doggie friend. That went...OK. They were friendly at first and then something happened. We're not sure if the other dog aggressed or if there was some misinterpreted barking, but she let Dave pull her away onto other things.


One cool thing about the farm is it's wind turbine. The farm is powered by a recently installed 15kw windmill. A brisk New England day, the turbine spun the whole time we were there, and it was remarkably quiet.

You can sort of see it behind this barn. I was trying to take a picture of the hayride, but didn't turn out so much. :)

At least the orchard had other things going on and Chiquita got some good exercise, because the apples left a lot to be desired. We were able to pick about a dozen Yellow Newtown Pippins (yeah, I'd never heard of them either), but the Baldwin trees were wiped clean save for the tiny and frost damaged ones. Disappointed, I ended up taking my meager bag to the country store to pay, only to find some beautiful McIntosh apples there. So I picked up a bag there.

I showed true restraint in the country store, because all you could smell were amazing apple baked goods. I did cave in and bought one apple cider doughnut for Dave and I to share, but I refrained from the pies, the dozens of doughnuts to take home, the apple cider and even the homemade fudge.

We got back to the car and enjoyed our doughnut while Chiquita got a cookie and a last little lick on a 2 year old girl coming by on a wagon. Lucky for her she had the sense to keep her cookie in the hand farthest from Chiquita.

We figured the ride home would result in a sleepy puppy, passed out in the back. Unfortunately she was still wound up, and as we were on the highway, before I could stop her, she had jumped into the back seat with no hope in getting her back.

This is what a bad dog looks like.

So Chiquita didn't earn any cookies for the ride home. But considering she's probably never been exposed to that many people and animals (and pigs at the farm) at one time, she did pretty well. She's only a year old, and still a puppy in many ways, so we're calling it a win. We'll just have to keep exposing her to break some bad habits.

Meanwhile, I have to find some recipes so I can bake up some apple cookies with my Yellow Pippins.

Class FAIL

All summer and into fall I've been diligently working of various crochet projects, including a bunch of scarves I've completed for Miles of Smiles while on the train. I'm doing ok once I know a stitch, but sometimes the patterns are a little difficult for my to understand. So I thought it was time for another class.

In August, Joann Fabrics had an open house, offering 50% off classes if you signed up that day. Thinking this was perfect opportunity, I signed up to Crochet 201, an intermediate course. That class was scheduled for this past Sunday, and although I was bitter that it fell during football hours, I committed. (And I grew even more bitter when I realized there was a slight possibility I would be able to watch the Steeler game since the Patriots didn't play on Sunday. But they didn't show it, so nothing lost.)

I arrived at the store and purchased my supplies, although my colors were completely different than the list suggested. I figured I'd make it work. I had brought a scarf project to work on while I waited for class to begin, so I went back to the classroom to settle in. Although it was 12:00 pm (when class was to begin), there was no one else in the room. This didn't look good.

But I kept positive and a few minutes later an employee (who I later found out was named Renee) came into the room to get something from a rather unkept administrative area in the room. I continued working on my project and after a few minutes, I asked her, "So, is the class still scheduled for today?"

Renee: Oh. I don't know. I thought you were the instructor since you were already here.

Me: Nope, I'm signed up for the class.

Renee: Ok. I don't really know anything about the education area, so let me see what I can find out.

She went away and a few minutes after that, another woman, not an employee, came into the classroom. I asked her if she was the instructor, and she said no. I filled her in on the situation. We ended up having a nice conversation and I was actually able to help her figure out an issue she was having with a pattern while we waited for an updated.

While we talked, Renee came back to say that they were trying to call the instructor, but were going to wait a few minutes to see if she was just running late. It was 12:15 pm.

Me: Ok. But at some point we need to decide that this isn't going to happen. Because I'm not waiting until 3 (class scheduled end time) to find out the instructor isn't coming.

Renee: Oh, no! I'll call her right now. I wouldn't expect you to wait that long.

And she did get on the phone. While I was speaking with the other student, Renee was able to get in touch with the instructor. When she hung up, she filled us in. Apparently in the less than 6 months that the store has been open, they've had 3 different Education Coordinators, but no actual education coordination. The instructor had expressed to the Coordinator that she was uncomfortable teaching the pattern for the class and wanted to cancel it until she could understand the pattern better (apparently there was an error). Either this wasn't communicated properly or the coordinator didn't understand or completely ignored it, because the class was never canceled.

Renee was very apologetic and took us up to the front to personally ring our refunds for the course (and for the materials I bought 30 minutes prior). So from the time I left the house to the time I left the store was about 45 minutes of time I won't get back. So I know you're wondering: Did you ask them to compensate for your time since it was their mistake.

No. And I have good reason, too.

From the moment I voiced concern to Renee, she immediately jumped in, to an area she had nothing to do with, figured out the problem, solved it, was genuinely apologetic, and without question returned the fees. She even told us when the Education Coordinator was going to be in and encouraged us to call or come in to speak with her.

So I didn't think it was necessary to suggest that she did something wrong and demand something for compensation of my time. And by the way, Renee isn't the manager. I actually never saw the manager, although I think Renee did talk to him during the process.

So I'm a little bummed that I didn't get to learn more. And I'm hesitant to want to take another class there. But I did get home before kick-off which was cool, even if it wasn't the Steelers.

Spamalot

The traditional anniversary gift for the first year of marriage is paper. So for our anniversary last month, I bought Dave tickets to see the Broadway musical Spamalot when it came to the Hanover Theatre in Worcester this past weekend.

Dave is a Monty Python fan. He's not a crazy, ridiculous fan, but there are occasional quotes that fly out randomly and he and his old roommate, Ben, can recite the beginning of Life of Brian. Or Meaning of Life. I'm not sure which one. Because I don't care. It must mean I love him because I'm really not a fan. It's just a type of humor that I'm amused with for about 30 seconds and then get annoyed.

So it was a try gesture of love that I bought two tickets with the intent of being in the audience myself. Friday night we headed down to Worcester, our first time visiting the Hanover Theatre which was really nice. Built in 1904, the theatre has undergone massive renovations and renewed commitment to the performing arts. Our seats were a little snug, but the ambiance was wonderful and the building is very pretty. It was actually a much nicer performance space than some of the places we've been to in Boston that are about the same age.


Image from monthypythonsspamalot.com


I'd heard great things about the show, so I actually wasn't dreading it. After all, it did win a Tony. A musical and theatrical interpretation of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there were many funny moments. I particularly enjoyed the character of Sir Lancelot and the encounter between King Arthur and the French. So I was pleasantly surprised that I laughed as much as I did. And Dave of course liked it. He did tell me that it was watered down, so I imagine that's why I had fun. They probably made it appeal to a broader audience, and it was still fun.

Dave and I really enjoyed ourselves. I'm not sure I'd get balcony seats again (even I didn't have enough legroom), but I think we'll definitely go again. They are showing Avenue Q in the spring, and although we've already seen this show, it was so funny we'd absolutely see again, hopefully with some friends.

Meet Chiquita

Don't you just want to give her all kinds of love?

I know it's been a while, but clearly there's been good reason. We spent last week trying to make arrangements to bring our first foster dog home. All Dog Rescue has evaluators that go to shelters and Animal Control Offices around Massachusetts to evaluate dogs and determine if they are suitable for fostering.

On Friday, Dave and I had the opportunity to go to Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Shelter and meet two of the women from ADR while they evaluated some of the dogs. Lisa and Donna were so nice to explain the process and we even got to help, even though that consisted mostly of holding the leash or taking notes on the evaluations for the rest of the group.

Prior to our visit, Dave and I had checked the shelter's website and immediately fell in love with Chiquita. She's about a year old and is a boxer/pit bull mix. When we arrived, we asked Lisa & Donna to be sure to check her out. Chiquita was the second dog we tested and did very well. She was by far the best evaluation of the day. She's energetic, but not obnoxious and very loving. She listens well and already knew how to sit, taking treats very gently. We were so excited to get approval to take her home.

We ended up evaluating 10 dogs total, and the group took 4 of them into fostering. We would have taken a fifth, but she was lucky to already have 2 adoption applications pending.

Chiquita did really well on the drive home; she was nervous and didn't really like being stuck in traffic on the Pike, but she listened to me and remained fairly calm, eventually laying down in her crate. When she got to the house, she was timid and very curious about her new surroundings, but did well. She was good on the leash in the backyard that she explored pretty thoroughly. Immediately she showed signs of being very smart and easy to train, so Dave and I are looking forward to reinforcing good habits and helping her learn.

Saturday she was excited to spend the day with us and shortly after breakfast we took her to the backyard. She absolutely loves it. LOVES. Besides playing with her tennis ball (which she tosses in the air and plays catch by herself), she loves to run. We have an above ground pool and she took to using that as a track, doing several high-speed laps. And she is fast. Her boxer and pit bull background are two strong dog breeds, so she's almost pure muscle.

She also got to meet the neighbors dogs and did really well. They were separated by a fence and our neighbors' two poodles are big barkers, but Chiquita was just curious and quickly wanted to play. She showed no aggression, which is a positive sign.

I'll have to put up some video, but Chiquita also plays hide and seek. We took a treat and placed it under one of three plastic cups. She quickly figures out which cup it's under, and then works very hard to tip the cup and get the treat. At one point, she chased a cup halfway around the room before she was able to knock it over. But she figured it out!
It hasn't even been 3 days, but already we are so glad to have her in our lives. And we think she likes us too, although she's got a secret weapon against us--a sweet little head tilt to the right, with perked ears. Absolutely adorable. We are promising ourselves that we won't be "foster failures" (i.e.: fosters who adopt their foster dog), but we are encouraged by our first fostering experience so far. If you are interested in bringing a dog into your life, I encourage you to adopt first (I've left out a lot about our shelter visit--don't make me tell you more). And be sure to check out Chiquita on petfinder.com!