Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

2am Sunday morning (Sat night): What day is it? huh? About to pass out but I have realized that if I don't write stuff down as it happens, I never do and then it just disappears into the ether.

830pm Wednesday night:  oops - did I just pass out while trying to write a blog and then get way too busy to get back to the draft version until Wednesday night!? So yeah, this is now the day before the day before the day before yesterday...

Mama Belle

The Day Before Yesterday (Thursday): AWESOME dog photographer and huge supporter Jenna Leigh Teti came with me over to Johnny Bergmann's in Williamsburg to shoot pics of the American Eskimo/Parson Russell terrier family we rescued from Rutherfordton, NC. Johnny and I had really wanted to rescue the mama Belle - too gorgeous - and we don't really do puppies... But no one was stepping up for the puppies and we certainly couldn't let them just die in the shelter. SO, we rescued the WHOLE family!  Can you say OMFG what are we going to do with all of these dogs? After fostering for a couple of weeks down in NC, we transported the family up with a group of other dogs that we had also rescued from Rutherford (Jazz, Benny, and Fonzie). Johnny generously opened his home to foster the whole family together - his kitchen became 'the Eskimo room.' He also fostered Fonzie. Benny the super energetic beagle went to board at Eva's Play Pups in Williamsburg and Jazz went to foster with a new friend and foster Krishnan in Park Slope.

Fonzie - looking like an oil painting

Doing this photo shoot was like a dream. Johnny has a nice little garden where the dogs could just be themselves and relax, and Jenna was totally in her element. She specializes in getting candid, unforced and unposed shots that really capture the essence of a dog's personality (or is it dog-ality, canality?). I think she actually took 1500 shots and was up past midnight sorting through to send me selects to post online.

Benny Beagle

Friday morning: I started putting up the pictures that Jenna took on Petfinder and AdoptAPet and suddenly started getting flooded with inquiries about the dogs! We told everyone to come to our first ever adoption event to meet the doggies which was scheduled for the next day. My block association president invited me to do a dog adoption event at our annual block party and we did lots of publicity and preparation to make it a great event. (Which basically meant Johnny and I going around our neighborhoods posting up fliers and posting on facebook and just basically your average low-rent, grass-roots, DIY promotions.) But we also got a nice mention in the awesome F*cked in Park Slope Blog! I also got a couple of cool tee shirts printed for us to wear at Neighborhoodies in DUMBO.

Friday night: A rare treat - I actually put on some jewelry and nice clothes and went out for drinks with humans! It was such an exciting departure, I did drink a bit toooo much and drunk texted various friends (and exes - oy) while riding the F train home at midnight.

Saturday 530am: Wake up hungover, wanting to kill myself and Lucy - who is being spayed at the ASPCA. She has to be signed in at 7am all the way out in bumfck Queens. WHY WHY WHY couldn't she have already been spayed at the shelter?! Oh yeah, because she was taken into Staten Island ACC the day before Hurricane Irene was meant to hit and they were killing all the animals in preparation for possible flooding (since the SI ACC was in the flood zone). So instead of getting a chance to get spayed and possibly adopted, Lucy would have been slaughtered with all the rest of the animals at the shelter if not for a cat rescue that pulled her out just in time. They contacted Ruthann from Tails of Love and asked her for help - and she called me since Lucy is a lemon beagle and I am the beagle girl.

Lucy the Silly Goose-y

So Lucy the Silly Goose has been fostering with me for a few weeks and we finally got an appointment to get her ass spayed at the ASPCA. Why on earth do we have to get there at 7am? Why can't we run on a 12noon-midnight work schedule like normal night owls?

It's a good thing we had Lucy scheduled to be away on Saturday because she is a bit leash aggressive and basically becomes the White Rabbit of Caerbonnog whenever she sees another dog when she is on leash. For some unknown reason when she first met Simone on the street on leash, she was totally fine, wagged her tail, and became friends. She loves Simone (Simone does not requite that love), but she just gets all freaked out when she meets other dogs on the street. Soooo, an adoption event with a bunch of dogs on leashes outside the apartment = not the best place for Lucy Goosey to be chilling.

Sat 7am:  meet Linda Hastings Kane outside the ASPCA. She adopted Jackie O - the 70 pound 5 year old black lab that I rescued back in May from Rutherford and NO one wanted. She was fostering her for a few months and when we finally got an app on her, Linda knew she couldn't give her up. Linda has started rescuing on her own and had rescued a dog from GA that needed neuter. We had to wait over an hour to sign in and Lucy was freaking out the entire time - just going ballistic over seeing all those dogs waiting for their turn to sign in for spay/neuter. The ASPCA spay/neuter clinic is awesome - we were on the mobile unit and it was really clean and nice inside and Lucy calmed down once she got into her crate on the van.

Sat 9am - 12noon: Johnny comes over with his dad and Jenna comes over with her tables and we get set up for our first ever adoption event. Kristin Wilhelm and Linda Hastings Kane come over to help with the silent auction and walking the dogs. Ann Rose comes over to shoot some video of the event for a potential tv project. Jazz's foster dad and fellow documentary filmmaker and Park Slope resident, Krishnan Vasudevan comes over to help and ends up shooting a little video. Which you can watch here: From NC to NYC

It's pretty amazing and awesome to have such great help from such smart and motivated people. I was doing this all alone for so long and now I feel like we have a whole team of really talented people who know how to take the initiative and get shit done. BADASSES!

Sat Noon- 6pm: HOLY COW! The adopters are coming to meet the dogs and they are filling out apps and people are dropping by with their own dogs offering to foster and donate and help walk the foster dogs! What just happened? Did I just go from a one woman show a few months ago to a bona-fide rescue with actual volunteers? We have a donation jar and people are actually stuffing dollars in there and the rescue car magnets that Kristin's mom bought for us to sell are actually selling and people are bidding on the silent auction items - which I must admit are pretty damn cool: Molly Mutt Dog Bed Duvets, Mod Dog Collars and Leashes, Butter Lane Cupcakes, a session with Give Paw Dog Training, a sitting with photographer Jenna Leigh Teti and country boarding in PA with Eva's Play Pups. I think this might be an amazingly successful adoption event! AND my friend Tracy who lives on the next block invites us to do another adoption event at her block party in October!

Sat 6pm: I come inside the building to find Ann and Johnny holding a cupcake with a candle it in and champagne and singing happy birthday! My birthday was in 2 days but I hadn't made any plans - too busy with the dogs - so this was a very nice surprise!

Sat 7pm-10pm: Johnny takes Mel and Scarlet (2 of Belle's puppies) on their home visits in Prospect Heights and Williamsburg and I take Rhett (the other of Belle's puppies) on his home visit in Sunset Park.

Scarlet nuzzling her brother Mel

All the new parents are very happy with their puppies and agree to post pics and even want to keep in touch with each other so that the puppies can see each other at a reunion later. As has become routine these days, I cry when I tell the adopters about Rhett's story - that his family was living outside a trailer in NC and all 4 were dumped at the shelter together. That the puppies had never had human attention, let alone affection,  before getting to their foster home and how they were still confused and disoriented by being moved up here and separated. The adopters were so loving and understanding and I knew that all of these dogs would soon be the happiest pups on earth basking in the love of families who really value them.

Sat 10pm: Wishing I could take a shower and wash off the grime but no time - Ann and Jenna take me out for bday dinner/drinks at my local pub and we have a grand time.

Sat night - Sunday morning 2am: Start trying to write this blog as eyes drift closed... dreaming of happy doggies snoozing in their new homes, safe and sound...

Belle and Fonzie snoozing on Johnny's couch