A few months ago Chris mentioned that he was ok getting a dog...maybe an older one at the SPCA that Owen and I noticed when doing enrichment. After a rough couple weeks in November, I saw this post looking for 2-week fosters for this litter of 7 puppies, so I mentioned it to Chris as a good distraction from life. ;) He said yes and so did the kids, so we filled out the application and picked one up the next day!
Owen thought Bartholomew would be a good name. It's quite a mouthful so "Barty" ended up being his nickname...also Barty Boy or Barty Party. He sure was playful and brought lots of smiles to our house! He loved his toys (and trying to get our fingers!) and we lucked out with some 50-60 degree days to enjoy lots of time outside. The 30-degree days were tougher with him having energy we needed to burn off. Since we didn't have a crate, we used the laundry room as his room and took him out frequently for potty breaks. He was quiet and rarely barked. We didn't have any problems at night but always woke up to a mess.
Owen thought Bartholomew would be a good name. It's quite a mouthful so "Barty" ended up being his nickname...also Barty Boy or Barty Party. He sure was playful and brought lots of smiles to our house! He loved his toys (and trying to get our fingers!) and we lucked out with some 50-60 degree days to enjoy lots of time outside. The 30-degree days were tougher with him having energy we needed to burn off. Since we didn't have a crate, we used the laundry room as his room and took him out frequently for potty breaks. He was quiet and rarely barked. We didn't have any problems at night but always woke up to a mess. 
We gave Barty one of the cat's boxes they rarely used anymore. It was labeled "lockup" and had that Tilly was in lockup for overlicking and Whiskers was in lockup for hissing. You could say that Barty chewed his way out of lockup! 
We woke up one morning to Barty not putting weight on his left paw. He'd gone outside to the bathroom the night before perfectly fine so it seemed strange. We'd also puppy-proofed the laundry room as he showed us what he enjoyed having access to (wrapping paper, box recycling, etc). There really wasn't anything to get hurt on in there! After an exam at the SPCA and x-rays at the vet hospital, Barty ended up in a cast. They said that fractures are hard to see in puppies, so the cast was more precautionary. Unfortunately the cast pushed back his neuter surgery, so his two week adoption was turning into a 4-week adoption. It's not easy to have a puppy to take out to the bathroom so often when you're working full-time, so we ended up having to bring him back. We checked on him recently to find out that he's recently broken the femur in his back leg and is on strict crate rest. Poor thing! They have done bloodwork to see that his calcium levels are normal....he's just a wild child!! We're confident that he'll find a good home after he recovers from his leg injuries and neuter surgery!
