another puppy

posted by Elizabeth @ 5:48 PM 0 comments

trying for puppies

posted by Elizabeth @ 5:46 PM 1 comments

awwwww puppies

I am trying very hard to load photos of these adorable puppies. they were found on the side of the highway by some very good people who agreed to keep them at their home until we found forever homes for them. young puppies are best not taken into a shelter because their immune systems are not strong enough for what they may become exposed to in multiple dog situations.

if I can't load the pictures, watch Channel 16 on monday morning at 6:15 a.m. to see them or keep checking back because these pups are about as cute as they get

posted by Elizabeth @ 5:32 PM 0 comments

It has been a tough week

An acquaintance had her two dogs stolen from her yard. two registered great danes, micro chipped, in a fenced yard with a cable style lock. They were spayed and neutered and had their id tags on them - she did everything a dog owner should do for the protection of her pets.

some lowlife, pond scum, cruel, self centered, uneducated, selfish, greedy (what other adjectives can I use without cursing?) jerk - cut the cable with bolt cutters, stole her two dogs and did unspeakable things to them. the female broke free and made her way home, the male was not so lucky. he ended up dead, but only after God knows what abuses. The female was apparently chained to a rape cage and had multiple dogs go at her. she found her way back home at 3 in the morning and was so frantic she was able to break into the front door. her vet bills are exurbanite and her soul is damaged.

The dog fighting gangs have long been in our city and the bad people are getting more and more brazen. the penalties are low because our legislature refuses to do anything about making any reasonable animal protection laws and the criminals are aware of it. the business of dog fighting is a high dollar business and the criminals have found that the profit margin and legal issues make it much more appealing than drug dealing. Until we stand up and push our elected officials to do something to make this business a serious jail time issue, nothing will change, I just hope it isn't your dog that ends up in a rape cage. contact your elected official and demand that they do something. NOW

posted by Elizabeth @ 8:02 AM 0 comments

His name was Pete

One of my board members does pet sitting in her not so spare time. This past week, she had a pet sit in my neighborhood. It is a nice urban neighborhood, with sidewalks, huge oak trees, daffodils blooming in the yards. a neighborhood where the neighbors know each others names and I know the names of all the dogs and cats.

She called me on Friday night very upset. this house where she was tending the pets had a visitor. It was snowing, sleeting and raining, the low was to get down into the twenties. in the back yard, in a little nest under a window was an abandoned dog. he was of the American bulldog breed - a breed much maligned by society today. he looked just like the dog on The Little Rascals television show. this breed of dog doesn't have much hair and unlike the belief of society due to bad press and even more so bad people like Michael Vick, they are not tough. They are just dogs needing a safe loving home. They don't choose to fight, they don't choose to die violent deaths.

This dog had ears that were cropped by some yahoo in their back yard with either a pair of sharp scissors or a pocket knife. not attractive and even more so, I imagine very painful surgery.

but he was sweet. he was quiet. he was calm. he had found a quiet place to be. he was half starved. you could count the bones in his spine. it being late in the evening, and no vet clinics were open, we had no place to take him at that point in the day. we grabbed about 15 blankets, some canned dog food and some kibble dog food. we made him as warm and dry of a nest as we could for the evening. he knew what it was for and burrowed down into his warm nest after gobbling up some dinner; he was quite content in his warm, safe quiet place to be for the evening snow.

the next morning, the sun was shinning and the ice and snow was gone. we went over early to feed him and check on his status. he wouldn't eat, he was still in his warm bed but not interested in getting up. I could see in his eyes that he was there to die; his breathing was very labored and quiet heavy, with a wet rattle.

After much encouragement, he shakily got up and went where I encouraged him. I had hoped to get him to drink some water and do some business. he was not interested in either.

We loaded him up in the car and got him to the vets office. he never growled, he never flinched, he never showed any fear.

When we got him to the vets office he stood quietly as the vet tried to get some blood from a vein, several pricks, not a flinch. The vet listened to his chest and his heart. Pete was in the middle of a heartworm heart attack. he was dying. the vet told us that had we not gotten him there, he would have died a very violent painful death within the day. His heart was blown and there was no way to save him. We had to choose the only loving thing we could for the sad dog who had never been given any sort of decent care. The vet gave him a sedative, the dog took a nap and then was given the final injection.

His name was Pete

posted by Elizabeth @ 7:51 AM 0 comments

kill shelter/no kill shelter

quite often I am asked how we can be a no kill shelter.

they start to state the fact that there are so many out there and that life in a shelter for long periods of time is not humane...

I bet you money if the dogs and cats could talk, and if you asked them if they would rather live in the shelter or go back out on the streets, or be put down; each and everyone would choose shelter life. Our animals are happy and content. Granted, I bet also if they could talk and given the choice of life in the shelter or a life with a loving family providing a safe place to live, inneraction with people and plenty of play time in a large yard, they would choose life with a family rather than the shelter. Unfortunatey, we don't have lots of people banging down the doors ready to offer up a life with a family wanting to give a dog or a cat a home. So, until they do, we will continue to provide them the safe, loving sanctuary of life in a shelter.

on the other hand, if you peel back the layers of the onion, when we are full (as we are right now), when someone comes to us needing assistance with an animal they have found or the animal has found them, or they know of an animal being abused by a neighbor, when we are full, if we can't get them to step up and hold the animal in foster until we can make an opening - we have to turn them away. (how's that for a run on sentence)

when we turn them away, the other option is the other no kill shelter or the local kill shelter. if the other no kill shelter can't assist, and the person can't help for the short time, then they usually go to the kill shelter. so, under those layers of the onion, I am sending a number of animals to that unfortunate demise.

what is the answer to this issue? the ONLY answer I know of is for society to open their eyes and see the issue for what it is. for society to help these creatures of God who don't ask to be here, they don't ask to be shunned, kicked, abused and starved. they don't ask to be put down when there is no room at the inn, they don't ask to live months, years in a shelter. they only ask for a family to love them and protect them, to get them spayed and neutered so that there are not more animals needing rescue. we have plenty out there, there is no need to make more. we won't run out.

posted by Elizabeth @ 9:29 AM 0 comments

this business of animal rescue. why continue

We are always getting calls about dogs and cats in need. mostly dogs, but we do get calls for cats needing rescue as well.

Recently there was a kitten stuck about 100 feet up a tree. he had been there for over 5 days; through wind and rain storms, without food and freezing temps. Finally a good Sameritan who owned a tree service came out with a bucket truck and got the kitten down from the tree. The kitten had ring worm, tape worms, hook worms and was severely malnourished.

He is now adopted and living the life of Riley with some wonderful cat people. He has a lovely home in town and a weekend get away on at a lake house. He is cooked special meals and has an older, wiser cat to show him the ropes.

But, all stories don't have such a happy ending. I don't put the terrible stories here, I have been told that people don't want to hear those. People want the warm and fuzzy stories.

This work will break your heart, it will break your bank account, it will wear your bones to the nub. it is back breaking, dirty, difficult and sometimes scary. My husband and I have depleted out savings and are at times living from day to day financially. We work through fever and aches. But we keep going because the animals are depending upon us.

And then, in the middle of all the setback, aches and pains, we get a warm fuzzy.
that is what helps keep us going. It is what makes us get out of bed in the mornings. It is the faith that there WILL be happily ever afters everyday and THAT makes this work worthwhile.

posted by Elizabeth @ 6:25 AM 0 comments

not so good at this blogging thing

I seem to be very lax in my updates, but not because I don't have something to say, that has never been my problem. I don't keep up due to time constraints.

there are so many updates and stories and thoughts I want to share, but the animal rescue biz is a very hectic one.

just yesterday, my husband and I were driving down the road, coming home from some real estate work I had to do out of town. We saw a dog in the road, then a second dog. they were facing a car pulled over on the side of the road and barking frantically at them. I convinced the husaband to stop and help. He tried to tell me that they didn't need any help, but I thought otherwise.

It turns out that there are three adult dogs who live in this field, one is a female. She has had a litter of pups and they were beginning to explore close to the highway. they stopped to collect up the pups. 6 of the most adorable little pups you ever saw. We will be helping them place the pups and going back later to get the adults. The couple said that the adults had lived there in the field by the highway for about 3 years. there used to be four adults, but the highway took one.

We have been planning fundraisers and have several scheduled for this year. I will be advertising, blogging and talking about these over the coming weeks and months.

We have had some very positive feedback about shelter land, I hope to have a press release and blog about that in the coming weeks.

We had a very successful response to our desperte plea in January for donations and were able to get through our roadblock when we could barely feed the dogs. That isn't to say our need is behind us; we continually need donations and ask for continued support, but at that point, we begged for support and the community supported. For that we are humbly grateful.

I will try to keep this updated better in the coming weeks. photos of puppies, stories of happily ever after and stories of hope.

thanks for dropping by

posted by Elizabeth @ 6:48 AM 0 comments