{"id":1045,"date":"2021-02-26T04:00:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2021-02-26T18:11:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T02:11:31","slug":"i-can-stop-any-time-i-just-dont-want-to-mostly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2021\/02\/26\/i-can-stop-any-time-i-just-dont-want-to-mostly\/","title":{"rendered":"I Can Stop Any Time… I just Don’t Want To. Mostly."},"content":{"rendered":"

My last post, I talked about fostering a puppy (who has since gone on to his furever home, huzzah!).\u00a0 <\/span>And I thought, \u201cokay, I\u2019m going to take a break from all that, for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then an email landed from the other shelter I volunteer with, and without hesitation I said, \u201cI can take Bella.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

Bella is a six-year-old Pomeranian mix, a delicate little lady with the spine of a dragon (when a friend\u2019s Great Dane pup got too close, she opened her little mouth and showed her little teeth, and told him to get fucked.\u00a0 <\/span>He backed down.).\u00a0 <\/span>We call her the cat-dog, because all she really wants is to cuddle, ideally and preferably in my lap, but she is perfectly happy to trot alongside Max for nearly an hour on our walks.<\/p>\n

(and then she demands to be carried, like the princess she is).<\/span><\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been all snuggles and walks, though.\u00a0 <\/span>Her first few days, her tummy was stress-upset, and I spent a lot of time washing shit out of her fur.\u00a0 <\/span>Her housebreaking broke (also due to stress) and I spent a lot of time cleaning carpets. And recleaning carpets.\u00a0 <\/span>And throwing out soiled pee pads (and keeping Max from eating the fresh ones).\u00a0 Sweet <\/span>Bella is demanding<\/i> of my time, to the point where Max started to get cranky about it.\u00a0 <\/span>And god help you when you tried to crate her at night!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Her place was on the bed with you, thank you very much.<\/p>\n

(Once she regained her house training, she got to sleep on the bed, yes).\"\"<\/p>\n

And then she had to have dental surgery, and I spent four days trying to convince her that yes, she did need to take all her meds\u2026.\u00a0 <\/span>Trying to get a tiny dog to swallow a pill is not like pilling a larger dog.\u00a0 <\/span>Their mouths are so tiny<\/i> and you feel guilty AF for even trying.<\/p>\n

But she\u2019s still the sweetest bundle of fierce fluff, and I love her dearly.<\/p>\n

I said that in conversation recently, and\u00a0 <\/span>got another round of the usual, \u201cI don\u2019t know how you can bear to foster, and then let them go.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019d end up adopting all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I said to that friend: no, you really wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 And no, we’re not saints for doing this.\u00a0 <\/span>I joke that having a third animal in the house for a short period of time is how I remind myself that one dog and one cat is the perfect balance for this household.\u00a0 <\/span>More than that, and chaos is set loose.\u00a0 <\/span>Chaos, and exhaustion.\u00a0 <\/span>But more than that, the truth is that with animals, as with people, loving someone doesn\u2019t always mean you want to keep<\/i> them.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

As you read this, I\u2019m bringing her back to the shelter to meet with prospective adopters.\u00a0 <\/span>I have all my fingers and toes crossed that they will be a perfect match, and Bella will be going to her furever home, to spend the rest of her life loved and comforted and allowed to sleep on the bed.<\/p>\n

And then I\u2019m going to take a break from fostering for a while.<\/p>\n

And this time I mean<\/em> it!<\/p>\n

EtA: Bella did in fact charm her potential humans, and their resident dog, and went home with them this evening. <3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My last post, I talked about fostering a puppy (who has since gone on to his furever home, huzzah!).\u00a0 And I thought, \u201cokay, I\u2019m going to take a break from all that, for a while.\u201d And then an email landed from the other shelter I volunteer with, and without hesitation I said, \u201cI can take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[160,117,57],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals-pets","tag-dogs","tag-fostering","tag-laura-anne-gilman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}