Pulled: Friday October 28th, 2011 from Richmond County Animal Shelter/Middle Mutts
Adoption commitments: Rescued and adopted! Zeus was adopted by fabulous Foster Mom, Trina Shealy
Meet Chester Y, my Chester Yemassee and Middle Mutts’ Yabby. I think the name Yabby suits better than Yemassee (her sister’s name is Gabby and is in foster already). Yabby is 1 year, a Hound mix, spayed, up-to-date on vaccinations, and heartworm negative. She’s an energetic, sweet dog.
And meet Chester Z, a stray named Turbo. I’ve renamed Turbo. — twice. To keep with my system of naming fosters (Chester + SC town/city/county), I named him DalZell, which is the second of only two SC towns/cities/counties that even has a letter Z. But Dalzell is a truly horrible name. Casey says that it makes him sound like a drag queen.
So, I’ve been calling him Zeus instead. It starts with Z, and I love naming such a little squirrel of a guy after the King of the Gods. Zeus is 2 years, a Yorkie mix, up-to-date on vaccinations, and heartworm negative. I’ll schedule his neuter surgery this week.
On Friday after work, Jack and I took Chesters Salley and Union Chance to Rockingham, so that they could take the LCAR van to fabulous homes in New York. Chance has a home waiting for him already, and Whitney said that she’ll find a home for Salley in two seconds. After all, Salley looks like a Park Avenue purse dog.
I told my friends at the shelter that I could take either four more puppy fosters (since 2 puppies = 1 medium sized dog) or two medium-sized/small adults. Tessie, one of the many ladies we love at RCAS, showed me two of the dogs she most wanted to see out of there: Yabby and Turbo. So, I’ll foster Yabby, since she needs a backyard to run in, and I’ll send Zeus to foster-in-crime Trina.
I left satisfied, thinking that it will be nice to have a break from puppies, since they tend to get underfoot and nip at ankles. But, I quickly learned that the good thing about puppies is that they are much more transportable. Before I was out of NC, Yabby had torn a hole in my brand new custom made dog kennel and she and Zeus were wrecking havoc on my brand new dog-friendly 2011 Honda Element.
SIGH. Remember how excited I was about my car? I introduced it here:
https://fosteringchester.com/2011/09/24/quinbys-new-ride/
By the time I got to McBee to pick up Jack, who I had left with Nana and Pop, Yabby had not only chewed through the kennel, but also both harness straps on the car seats and (very nearly) one of the backseat shoulder straps. I would post a photo of the shoulder strap, which is hanging on by a thread, but it’s too depressing. And there’s a hole in one of the back seat covers.
To top it all off? I was so anxious to get them out of my freaking car, that I sped up to pull into my parents’ garage. I figured that I needed to be in the garage, so that I could put the doors down. My parents’ yard isn’t fenced, and I didn’t want the dogs to bolt. I pulled in . . . and forgot that the luggage box was on top of the car. Result: a ruined luggage box and a banged up garage for Mom and Dad.
We’ve figured it up, and the grand total is about $1000 worth of damage.
Luggage box=$600; kennel=$100; replacement carseat harnesses (which we have to buy asap)=$120 ($60×2); replacement shoulder strap (which we have to buy asap)=$70; car seat covers=$250.
I had a couple of strategies for breaking the news to Scott.
Strategy, the first: “Well, I saw a car flipped over on the side of the road on the way back. Perspective! Now we have it!” He wasn’t going to argue with that, of course, but he still looked gloomy.
Strategy, the second: “Well, we got the dog friendly car, so maybe the tears just give it character. — kind of like what Kincaid did to the doggy welcome mat.”
Scott’s response: “I would have preferred to make at least one car payment before giving it ‘character.'”
“Maybe we can do a chip-in link for the car?” I ventured. Scott rolled his eyes at me.
So, I gave up, drank three glasses of wine, and went to bed.
Lessons learned:
1) A car labeled “dog friendly” is not “dog proof.” Dog friendly means that it’s a good car for friendly, well-behaved dogs. Henceforth, I will only transport rescue dogs of destructive chewing ability in a plastic kennel with metal bars.
2) That I am, as Casey often tells me, “a hot mess.” And by hot, he doesn’t mean attractive. He means “capable of burning.”
Arina, at least, was delighted to see the new fosters. See, below, Arina with Yabby, the chewing fiend:
And, below, Arina with Zeus, Yabby’s happy accomplice:
Message me if you’re interested in Yabby or Zeus. Yabby comes in a plastic/metal kennel.
Fostering Chester 
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