After quite some time, we finally got back in the foster game. We adopted our resident cat Sadie about a year ago and because she was still shy and skittish, we wanted to give her time to understand that this was her home now and gain some confidence. Boy, did she ever! She's pretty bossy now and the bed is definitely hers.

We also switched rescues for logistical reasons and are now partnered up with Foothills Animal Shelter in Golden. They had this sweet boy, Crouton, recovering from some pretty major dental work and he needed a place to crash. It was only about a week, but we got to see his cuddly side come out which is always a joy with fosters. Even with no teeth remaining, he managed to gum his way into our hearts as well as an adoptive older gentleman, finding his new forever home just in time for the holidays.

Any foster home that has been helping animals for awhile can tell you the stories of Foster Failure. Some animals come and go. They've healed from their wounds, put on weight, recovered from the surgery or have been successfully socialized. They head back to the shelter where they are lucky enough to meet their forever home and make someone happy for years to come. There are beautiful stories all across the country of people saving animals and animals saving people. Who rescued who?

Sadie came to us with an upper respiratory infection - super common in shelter animals that are stressed out and are in close quarters with others. She was a fun one that earned the nickname Snotty Sadie. She didn't have an attitude or anything, she just sneezed snot. Everywhere. On everything. Super gross. But underneath that mucus was the sweetest girl I've ever known. She has never once snapped, growled, bit or scratched us. She absolutely lives for pets and head scratches and loves to curl up on the bed to watch TV with us.

My husband and I had a very difficult time when she had recovered from the URI and it was time for her to go back to the shelter. We did it, though, and we saw her drop off the adoptable list after a couple of weeks - usually our only indication that the animals have been adopted, as they just don't have time to follow up with every foster case.

To our surprise, we got a call a few days later saying that Sadie's URI had returned and would we be interested in taking her back in and being her Home Buddy until she got adopted. Of course we said yes!

After about a week, it became obvious that this was simply fate. She was so comfortable in our home and we had just fallen in love with this sweet girl that we ended up adopting her. In the shelter world, this is called a Foster Failure. We couldn't be more pleased to fail!

Belle and her cone of shame almost stole our hearts. She was healing up with some stitches under her front leg after somehow getting her collar wrapped around it. That's how she was found originally and by the time she got to us, she was well on her way to health. However, the cone had a bit of a side effect of not letting her groom properly so she was a bit dirty - hence, we gave her the nickname Smelly Belle at first. Once she got cleaned up and was feeling better, she had quite the appetite! And her nickname evolved into Smelly Belly. We were recovery buddies together, as I had ankle surgery around the same time. She loved all the couch time that we got!

Belle was the one that made us stop and think - are we ready to adopt again? Having lost my own cat, Nikki, earlier this year, I wasn't sure. Belle reminded us so much of Nikki with similar meows and mannerisms. 

Ultimately we decided that we enjoyed fostering and it felt so good to help so many animals. We worried that if we adopted, we might not continue fostering. So Belle went back to the shelter after healing up quite well. She was adopted in just a couple of days, just in time for Christmas!

You'd barely know that this little girl had a broken leg. But she did and was the definition of aww-dorable (that's a combination of sad and adorable). Shaved backside, orthopedic hardware sticking out of her leg and goofy as can be. She loved to play with tennis balls and would pick them up by the fuzz and carry them around. It was hard to keep her from jumping on every possible surface when she was let out of the guest room, but she did manage to heal.

After a short stint with another foster home to clear up some ear mites, she was quickly adopted into her forever home.

The shelter called him Nathan. But as soon as we spent a day with him, we started calling him Paulie Walnuts because he was so talkative! Because little Paulie was recovering from a broken jaw, he had a snaggletooth and was a super messy eater. ​He was also aggressively cuddly - if I was sitting in a chair or on the bed, he would jump in my lap, crawl up my chest and try to sit right by my face for kisses.

He was with us for a few weeks to heal up and was adopted within a month of returning to the shelter. 

Swiper, no swiping! This fuzzball came to us as our first foster through the Dumb Friends League in Denver and just needed someone to keep an eye on him for a possible limp. He was just as michevious as his namesake (from Dora the Explorer) so keeping him off of bookshelves, tables and other high places meant keeping him mostly in the guest room. This of course meant that when he WAS allowed out, he managed to get into everything. When he was more tired out, he was quite the cuddle bug. Fortunately for him, the limp went away quickly and he was adopted within the next week. 

Earl was the smartest dumb dog I have ever met. He was mostly blind and about 8 years old and he had had a rough (ruff?) life. 

Earl came to us through the Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue and stayed with us for a couple of months while he found his forever home. As sweet as can be, he loved walks and hated listening to us. He would run into every table, chair, wall and corner possible, climbed over the baby gates we put up and generally managed to be a furry little wrecking ball.

We were so thrilled when his perfect forever home came looking all the way across the country. She knew how special Earl was and had the perfect home and family waiting for him. Good luck to you both! 

My big brother has a birthday coming up. A few months ago, I started thinking about what I could make for him that would be both nerdy and quasi-useful. Among other things, he has been a Dungeons and Dragons fan since our childhood, so it seemed a good place to start. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the first thing about it. In my quest to learn the basics, I discovered the original D&D Starter Kit from many years ago. It has what was, for most people, the first map they ever played. It’s about 2 ft x 3 ft and composed of 748 one-inch squares – perfect for a quilt pattern!

In between major projects, I have started using up scraps and leftovers by trying out new techniques and occasionally attempting crafts without patterns. I think ultimately it makes me more aware of what I’m doing, rather than blindly following instructions on the page. Here are two of my favorites.

As if making a quilt based on a video game wasn’t nerdy enough, I started this one in Excel. I used some images from a quick search to plan out the pattern and colored the squares in the spreadsheet according to the fabric color. As many people have commented on the pattern, it’s definitely not true to the game. There is at least one completely filled line that is still there where it normally would have disappeared, there are half a dozen pieces “falling” at the top and gosh is this person bad at Tetris. Look at all those holes!