My name is Mojo-Adoption Pending!

All potential adopter’s will need to be approved to adopt from MWBCR and should visit our website at www.mwbcr.org for more information on the approval process.

1/23
Mojo's prognosis for a healthy, active life is good due to early detection of the heartworms coupled with his youth.

He has completed 30 days of antibiotics to kill bacteria the heartworms live on. I have never had a dog so willing to take a pill! Even if it pops out of the Pill Pocket, he gobbles it up.

Thursday morning he was given the first shot to start killing the heartworms, and he will receive another shot in 30 days. The people at my vet clinic used these words to describe him after he spent the day with them: happy, alert, smart, sweet, engaged.

Since the shot, all Mojo wants to do is sleep, eat, and maintain contact with me. It's very sweet, but also sad. I miss his goofy self, but it has to be this way for his safety.

Now is the critical time - his heart rate must remain steady. As the worms die, pieces break off and travel through the blood stream. If his heart started pumping faster due to exercise, the pieces could clump, causing blockages that could damage his organs, even resulting in death.

On a lighter note, I have learned the kind person who took him in as a stray taught him commands. Mojo is smart enough to know, because I was a new human in his life, that maybe I would not require those actions! So the fact that I taught him - in two minutes - to keep his nose out of his food bowl until I released him, had nothing to do with my expertise! He already knew that and was testing to see if I knew it!

Putting a biscuit in a Kong to keep him busy? The first time he worked on it for about half an hour; the second time he had the biscuit within a minute. ;-)

This boy is going to be fun to work with!

1/10
Mojo has lived with me for a month now. He is a nice boy who is still learning the boundaries of living in a house. As I understand it, he was a young stray taken in by a kind person, where he lived outside during the day, coming inside to sleep in a crate at night.

Speaking of the crate, that is a pleasant experience for a foster mom! He willingly goes in the crate when asked ("kennel up"), and there is no drama when the door is opened; he quietly comes out again. I put a blanket over the crate at night, and he does not pull the blanket through the kennel and shred it. (Can you tell I've had that experience with other fosters? ;-)

Mojo has the bravado of a young dog, but I have to chuckle. He acts like a big, brave dog, but it's obvious he depends on my dog to explain his new life. It's like he whispers to her, "Okay, Bella, I got this . . . now what do we do?"

I can just see it in his eyes that he's hungry to learn and experience his new life. Since he isn't supposed to have a lot of exercise until the heart worm treatment has been completed, we focus on reinforcing basic commands - sit, down, wait, come, off, don't touch it . . . and learning a few tricks. I would love to start agility training with him - he's SO fast (he's muscular and has long legs), SO focused on the human, and EXTREMELY food motivated. I think he'd be a dream to work with.

We are having some wicked cold weather in Minnesota this weekend, but it doesn't seem to bother Mojo. I tell Bella to "take Mojo potty" and he follows her out the door.

Right now he is napping in front of the Vikings game. He enjoys football. ;-) He'll run up to the TV to study the action. I watch closely but he's a good boy and never touches the TV screen.

12/26
Things I've Learned During My First Two Weeks of Foster Care
by Mojo

• I have about 50 toys to play with, but Foster Mom's shoes are not part of them.
• I am very, very skilled at catching a tennis ball, but they don't bounce very well after I pop them.
• I like to follow my Foster Sister Bella around - she knows stuff.
• Bella does not wrestle - she only had to tell me twice. (Foster Mom doesn't wrestle either.) That's okay, Bella is cool. We get along.
• Foster Mom doesn't want a hug from me when she's eating.
• I'm not supposed to put my paws on the counter, table, cedar chest, dresser . . . no matter what yummy or interesting item might be there. I'm struggling a bit with that one.
• Foster Mom's bed is off limits. I don't understand why, but it's the law.
• We have visited a place called a P-A-R-K a few times. That's a lot of fun. I mark a bunch of spots, and check out whatever Bella finds to check out. It's too bad we have to be tethered to Foster Mom though.
• My favorite time of the day, other than food time, is at night when Foster Mom and I cuddle up and watch TV.

I just have one request: Could somebody turn up the heat in Minnesota?

Notes from Foster Mom

Mojo is a sweet boy. I am happy with how fast he's learning the rules of in-house living, and his recall has improved. He has good focus on his human.

It has been confirmed that he is heartworm positive, but it was caught in the early stages and he is under treatment.

At this point, I would rate him at a companion activity level.

12/17
I’ve had Mojo for only 24 hours but I already know he is joyful, cuddly, and inquisitive. From what I heard about his long transport, he rode calmly and quietly in all the various vehicles. I sat on the floor with him last night and he fell asleep in my lap. He watched TV too, although I couldn’t tell if he’s a Cowboys or Packers fan. He is napping at my feet as I write this. My first impression is that he is a sweet-tempered dog who just needs to learn in-house manners. I don’t know if he had any previous training, but he’s already doing sit, down, come, off, and leave it for me after working on each command for only a few minutes. A family member stopped by this morning – Mojo greeted him with happiness, and performed a sit and down for him.

Mojo and I went for a short walk around the block in a snowstorm today just so I could see how he was on leash. He does the BC weave but he does not pull, which is a pleasant surprise! He was skittish about a few things, like cars going by and neighbors’ yard decorations, but he stayed calm when I said it was okay.

Tomorrow he will visit my vet to confirm that he is heartworm positive and will undergo treatment if that’s the case.

My dog, Bella, is reserving judgment. She’s given him boundaries a couple times and, although he thinks she’s initiating play, he does give her space. Mojo is already taking cues from her as far as what happens in our house.

For more information go to www.mwbcr.org or contact JulieAnn at krugerjw@charter.net