I have a new foster who is trying to give me heart failure now. He is a 1 year old male, very sweet, and apparently has a bit of separation anxiety. He is an owner give-up due to a foreclosure. The crate I have from lab rescue is a drop pin crate, with only 3 pins. So I have been reinforcing the crate's 4th corner with wire ties. It has worked fine for 6 years. So I get Marshall. He was recently neutered, and Gus was a little growly around him. Anyway, I went out to dinner last night, and I put Marshall in the crate. Came home, and my friend said "there is no dog in the crate." So I searched all around the house, no Marshall. Then I looked, and saw that the screen to the front window was ripped out. My heart just sank, I really thought I lost him. So I went out and started calling him, my neighbor came up and said that he was in her back yard. Whew, apparently somebody found him wondering around, and knew I fostered dogs, and my neighbor put him in her back yard. Mind you, I just got this dog yesterday.

He is fine as long as I am in the house with him, he was fine overnight. So I shut the windows downstairs, reinforced the corner of the crate more, and went to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy. I was only gone for 10 minutes because they weren't open yet, came back, and there is no dog in the crate again. Augh. Went outside, and the upstairs screen was torn. So I went out with a leash, and found him about a block away. I called him and he came to me. Good boy. Got back to the house, and now I have to figure out how to go to the pharmacy again when it opened. So I called my friend up, and she came over to sit in front of the house so she could get him if he somehow escaped again, and put more reinforcing on the crate. So my friend came over, I put Marshall in the crate again, and went back to the pharmacy. When I came back, my friend was not in her car in front of my house, went into the house and there were no dogs at all in the house. :ph43r: Walked down the street to see if I could find anybody, and they came walking around the corner a leash short. So I asked my friend what had happened, she said that I was gone for 2 minutes, and he was out of the crate again. Then he was trying to open the window, so my friend decided to come in at that point (good decision). When she went to go into the house, all of them got out. So she grabbed some leashes and went after them. Gus and Eddie came back to her, but not Marshall. She had to corner him to get a leash on him. Augh again.

Get everybody in the house, and I looked at my prescriptions. They got one of them wrong, and I needed it this morning. Called the pharmacy and they told me to bring it back and they would replace it. So I have to leave the house again, what am I gonna do? Called my friend again, and borrowed a crate that is a fold-up crate. She brought it over, and sat in my house one more time. She was still there when I got back. When I went in the house, there was a dog in the crate, but he had pushed the pan out of the crate. I guess he was trying to dig out. So the crate holds him, and I have to figure out how to keep the pan in. What a morning! :speechlesssmiley

Good heavens! Maybe he should be called Houdini. How long are you going to try to keep him?

Oh you have your job cut out for you. Seperation (Ang)Spelling) Big time.

It takes some time to get them to stop doing that. Good luck. That could be crazy.

It is an adventure in fostering. :laughingsmile Marshall is a really good boy, he looks so innocent as he is asleep right now. He stays close to me when I am home and always has a smile on his face. My friend took one of the crate pins and went to Home Depot, so my original crate should hold him in now. Poor has been through a lot recently, his family had to take him to the pound because they lost their house, Lab Rescue picked him up, took him to the vet, and took his boy bits. Then he went to another home where he didn't know anybody and put into a crate. I don't know where he was going, he just wanted to get out. It is sort of amusing now, but it sure wasn't at the time. I'll have to start putting him in the crate for short periods and leaving so he knows that he will get out when I come back. I have been feeding him in the crate, and will continue to do so in the hopes that he realizes that the crate isn't so bad, and he will get out shortly.

He can stay until he gets adopted as long as I can keep him contained. He hasn't done any damage except to 2 screens, and that is pretty cheap to fix. Gus isn't growling at him anymore, Marshall has been very respectful of him after the initial meeting.

Oh he is beautiful. I love that look on his face. Lets go. You need to get a child to run around the yard and tire him out. I hope everything works out with him. He has a lot going for him already.

Poor guy has been in to many places and still has to go again. I don't know how I could give up my dogs if I lost everything. How could I put them through that.

I really do like the boy, he is very gentle and loving. Marshall and Gus are playing now, Gus is still a little cautious, but still playing. Gus is right on schedule for him, it takes him 4 days to play with a new dog. He is a bit faster with some cute young girls, but with boys it is without fail 4 days. I think it is better that way, they know each other a bit before they start playing, and it prevents misunderstandings. I can even fit 3 dogs pretty comfortable in bed with me, and more importantly, they are comfortable with each other.

I can't afford another dog right now, and 3 big dogs is a bit much for a townhouse. But he will be a great dog for somebody.

He is so pretty. What a looker
He should be able to find a home with looks and eyes like that :laughingsmile

I actually have a referral for the boy in spite of his Houdini tendencies. A family is coming tomorrow evening with their 10 month old female lab/border collie mix. They have 2 teenage sons and they are all really excited to meet Marshall. So tomorrow evening, I will send Gus and Eddie over to spend time with Holly so Marshall has a chance to meet the family and their puppy alone. In this case, I think Gus and Eddie would be a distraction in this case, not to me of course, but to the family and the puppy. 3 boys would probably be quite overwhelming to her. So keep your fingers crossed for Marshall, this sounds like it is a really good family for him.

Argh, again. They decided not to come, they didn't want to crate him. Marshall has been settling in, and he is a good boy. Oh well, they only have a 4 foot fence, and I'm not sure if Marshall would try to go over the fence or not. He doesn't try with my 6 foot fence. So Marshall will go to adoption day tomorrow, and I hope that if there is anybody interested in him, they give him a chance, and they listen to what I am saying. Oh well.

I know I don't have any right to worry but OH I am. I hope he finds a home where people really care. He needs a lot of attention right now to get to know him.

I can see it now. Ran away and can't find him. This kind of dog you just can't leave the house and expect him to be there when you get back. URGH.

I hope they listen to you too. I'm sorry I am such a worried old lady.

Oh well lots of love Marshall. :hugsmiley :hugsmiley

Well, good news. Marshall got adopted. Apparently there were 3 families who were really interested in him. I asked for a strong guy to hold onto Marshall because he is a strong young boy, so Jules held on to him. I was going to hang out with him, but they needed me to work at the contract table, I was one of the few who knew what to do there. He got adopted by a family with 3 pretty young children, I was actually a bit surprised that they let Marshall go with them. But I know that Marshall is a really gentle boy, they just usually don't adopt out dogs to who don't have history with kids out to kids under 10. But it was the President of LR who approved them for Marshall, so that was good. They are home almost 24/7, Dad works from home. I think he will be fine once he settles in with a new family. And the Mom is looking for a jogging partner.

The kids were hanging on him, and Marshall was just eating the attention up and loving on them. I really hope this works out for Marshall. They asked if changing his name would confuse him, and I told them that I don't think that Marshall was the name he grew up with, and he was just starting to answer to it. So I don't know what his name will end up being, I suspect that they will change it. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will work out. We adopted out 8 dogs today, and 2 went foster to adopt which means that they are interested in the dog but want a little time to commit. The rescue doesn't do that often, but at the end of an adoption day it helps the fostering situation if they can go to a foster home, and they usually do get adopted.

Marshall seems to have settled down a bit by the end of the week, he even went into the crate on his own to eat without me having to put the food in the back of the crate. I do that to help them get comfortable in the crate. So he was making progress.

Having the people at home realllllllly helps alot. I know that if Joe and I had worked it would have been hard to handle. I feel so lucky that mine are good dogs. Out of 8 not one is a problem. I think they teach each other also.

I'm glad it worked out. Sounds like he is going to get lots of love. Thanks for letting us know.

Good job on the other 8.