Surprise! It's 2 Boys!

(I originally tried to post this earlier this week, but for some mysterious Blogger-like reason, it wouldn't publish the entry. And then I was crazy-busy the rest of the week so here I am today trying once again to publish.)

This is what I found waiting for me when I got home Monday night:


"Grunt" is the runt in the back and "Squeek" is the big boy in front. These are just nicknames, because the babies' father (aka Mr. Criquette) wants something to call them but doesn't want them burdened by silly names when they reach their full dogly manhood. Or should that be manly doghood? here is a close-up of Grunt (Blogger is still being pissy and won't let me download anymore pix right now so I can't show you a close-up of the Squeeker. Trust me, he's a cutie!)




Okay, so I'm just pretending to be grumpy about our foster children. Some time ago Mr. Criquette (who is a 4-year board member of our local low-kill shelter) brought up the subject of fostering kittens. We decided it would be better to wait until everything with the house was finished and our own babies had settled back in to their routine. But, yesterday he got "the call" and "couldn't say no." Animal control had brought in an abandoned mom and her litter of 10 -count 'em- 10 little young 'uns. The director told Mr. C that she had been a great mom until this week when she just threw in the towel. Couldn't handle the crew anymore. (I can empathize after a busy day spent seeing all ADHD kids. Especially when they've been all cooped up for almost 2 weeks because of ice and snow and cold.) So my sweet animal-loving guy stepped up and took one of the pairs they were sending to foster homes. And he did an amazing job of figuring out where to put them and gathering all of the things tiny puppies need and being such a good puppy dad. He already had stories to tell me about how much they ate and pooped and other proud papa stuff. It's soooo cute!

Meanwhile, Criquette has definitely figured out something's cooking, but isn't sure what. She kept acting out all last night. Bitsy has gone into hiding but it could have been because the workers were there yesterday. Abbie and Chloe so far seem rather blissfully ignorant of the impending chaos, and haven't figured out that *something* is lurking behind the guest bedroom door!

Of course, almost as soon as I met them I was planning what I could knit for them. I hope I have enough time to knit them each a chew toy and a little blankie. I think I will recruit their Auntie C, the premie hat knitter extrordinaire. Maybe she'll adopt one. See how I'm already scheming to find ways to keep them in our lives? I have some neighbors who are dogless, or in a 1-dog family who could surely share their homes with a cute little black furball. Hmmmmm, who else do I know?

We'll see how this experiment in fostering turns out. I am only worried about 2 things. First, will this disrupt the harmony in which our little animal family lives? And second, will it break our hearts when we send our charges on to their own new families? Stay tuned and share the adventure...