My Story - by Magnolia

I was picked up as a stray on Cloverleaf Circle in Rock Hill, SC on May 4th, 2009, and taken to doggie jail. The jail was really full so I couldn't even go to the adoption floor. On May 9th I was listed as a "rescue only pull" and my picture was sent out to rescue groups in case someone could help me. There were 8 other puppies in the same dire circumstances as me. We only had until May 15th at 5:00PM to be pulled or we would be sent early to the Rainbow Bridge, and never have the chance to fulfill our promise as loving family members.

Fortunately at 3:00PM that day, my foster mom came and got me, and another puppy. She took us home, but I barked and cried all the way home cause I was so scared. I didn't feel well, and I really smelled bad which I didn't like. I had fleas driving me crazy, and a few ticks in my ears. They only gave me one shot at the jail because they weren't going to keep me for long.

When we got home, foster mom gave us baths. That felt good and I sat down in the warm water. She rubbed us dry and talked softly to us and told us she promised to find wonderful homes for us where we'd be safe for the rest of our lives, and that we had to promise to be good girls and love our new families forever because they are the true rescuers.

The first night I was really confused. There was a soft music, but I barked all night long. I was scared, and had never been in a crate before. It seemed big and scarey. The next night I had a smaller crate, and foster mom and put one of her t-shirts in there with me so I knew I wasn't really alone. I also had toys and she hid some little treats in my blanket so I would have to hunt for them. I did better, only cried a few times, and every time mom came out and talked softly to me and I was able to calm down and go back to sleep.

Over the next few days I got good food, medicine, and lots of belly rubs and got to play a lot with my foster sister. Her name was Meadow, and she's a border collie mix like me but we didn't look alike at all. She was younger than me too, which gave me a real advantage when we played! She was adopted about 10 days later and I missed her.

I have two foster aunts, too, named Casey and Noir. They play sometimes, but other times they just wanted to relax and chew their bones.

Every afternoon we go outside on the deck and I get to swim in the puppy pool. I love it! I snorkel for toys on the bottom of the pool, and sometimes just lay down in the water and cool off.
Last week another puppy came to live with us named Mulligan. He had been abused as a puppy and foster mom decided he deserved a "do-over". He was adopted and went to his new home yesterday. He was fun to play with too, and this morning I miss him. But foster mom says today is my "big day" and this afternoon I start living with my "furever" family.

My new sisters have already sent me emails and pictures and I can't wait to meet them. I know we're going to be best friends. It will be so nice to have someone to play with all the time!

I will miss foster mom and dad and aunts Casey and Noir, but I told them I will never forget them for helping me when I needed them most. I will try be a good girl, and fulfill my promise as a loving pet and best friend to my new family. Life is going to be a wonderful adventure and I am so happy to be here and part of it all.

10 year old border collie returns to agility

Brewster, our 10 year old Border Collie, has been trained and performing agility jumps since he was a pup. In the last year, as a large dog (50+ lbs.) he has developed some arthritis in his hips, the vet says due to age and his athletic life.

His symptoms were hard to rise from lying down while on a smooth tile floor, and after 2 or 3 jumps on the hurdles, he would drag his back feet and knock the hurdle over.

We started him on Pet Restore and one pill a day of Run. After only a few days, his energy activity level picked up (if you can believe a Border can have an increased level) and he was taking his daily jump routine making 10 – 15 jumps with no problem or fatigue. He has also become more lively, such as rising in the morning and running for a toy to fetch with, similar to the way he behaved as a young dog.

The Pet Restore and limited Run tablets have really worked with him. Thanks for giving us our family athlete back!!

Rick Z.
Florida

Molly moves on...

Wow, that was fast! in the 4 days I had Molly listed on Petfinder, she got 650 hits, and several great applications were received for her. Yesterday Jim and I took her to meet a man in Lake Wylie, SC, and tomorrow he's going to pick her up and take her to her forever home. He's retired and his wife is retiring next week. She has been begging for a dog for a while, so this will be a little surprise for her. Should make her retirement very interesting!
I'm flying out to Colorado for the weekend, so I won't be here to see her off. All her things are packed - vet records, a few days' worth of food, her first hearguard and frontline. Jim will add in a few of her favorite toys.

As always, I'll miss her. She's so adorable! But I know she is going to a good home and will want for nothing. We'll check in with her in a few weeks and see how she's doing. Till then we'll wonder how she's doing, if she's behaving, and if she likes her new home.

On Monday, Bob will move into the puppy crate. He's a little pitty puppy that was neglected and left for dead, rescued near death by my friend Cindy 3 weeks ago. She hovered over him, giving him IV fluids for a whole weekend. Now he's doing great. Jim and I went over to see him last night. He loves to be held and sat in Jim's lap for a long time. He's on Petfinder as "Cowboy Bob", dressed in a cowboy outfit with a hat and everything. TOO CUTE!

>>> Bob's" Petfinder Page

Good Golly, Miss Molly!

Here she is, our new foster puppy, Molly! She's a trip. Very cute, loves to play. We think she's only 6-8 weeks old, and she weighs 6.0 pounds. Loves to play. Has the prettiest blue eyes. Cried every few hours all night to go outside. :-) She's smart, I think we have a puppy einstein on our hands!

Here comes Trouble!

You knew we couldn't go puppy-less for long! Tomorrow we're taking in a puppy that, of course, was dumped by the side of the road in Rock Hill, SC. Who could do that to an 8 week old puppy?
Well, anyway, the people that found her nicknamed her Trouble. We'll probably re-name her so's not to give her a bad reputation. She's a black lab mix with a white dot on her nose, a white streak on her head, white chest and white paws. Sounds adorable, and I'm sure she is!

Today was Jim's birthday. We had a nice dinner with friends, a quiet day, and this evening Helen invited the neighbors for cake and coffee. We love our neighborhood, and have made some great friends here, so it was good fun.

I also heard from Simon's mom, too!

"Here's some great news for you! He didn't cry Monday or last night at all. We took him out at 10:30 for his last walk and then put him in the crate and said good night. He was pooped for sure :-) We didn't hear a peep from him until morning. I came downstairs and he was standing up waiting for me and we went outside and took care of business. That was about 5:00 am. The early morning is when I do my devotion time, so he then cuddled up on the couch with me after breakfast and chewed on a bone while I read... of course then the kids get up and quiet time is over! He's done great during the days as well. There's been no accidents in his crate and only one in that puppy bed that you saw (such as it is with life... remember we said that we were fine if he messed up the carpet because it was old and coming up soon... so he pees on the NEW bed. Oh, well, that's what they make deodorizer for!) We are doing great! I will send pictures this weekend for sure :-) I can't thank you enough for taking such good care of him for us. He's a joy!"

It's so good to hear that he's doing well. He's destined for a wonderful life! :-)

Mari and I cried our eyes out

Our usual transport wasn't running this Saturday, and Mari and I decided not to pick up on another one. Instead on Friday we ran two local transports.
It started when an urgent plea and a picture of a border collie came from our friend at theYork County shelter. "Please save this sweet girl, she's out of time!" I love border collies, and my friend that owns Camp Bark does too. I wrote her and told her if she could foster her I would transport her.

Since Mari and I never like to do just simple things, we picked up on another urgent need to pull some dogs from the Gaston County shelter and move them to Huntersville.

We headed out early and on the way to York, my friend from Camp Bark called. "There's a chihuahua there that's terrified. Just bring her." Then the group that needed us to pull from Gaston called and said York has a rat terrier, can we bring it too. So instead of pulling a border collie at York, we also had a chihuahua and a rat terrier.

From York, SC we returned to Waxhaw, NC and dropped off Heidi the Chihuahua and Rita the Border Collie.

We dropped the two passengers at Camp Bark, then stopped at Mari's house to let Buddy and Foxy, her dog and foster dog out. Buddy's an old guy and has to go out every 4 hours. Then we stopped for a quick lunch, and headed to Dallas, NC to the Gaston County shelter.

Gaston is known as a high-kill shelter, not friendly to rescues. We felt it the minute we got there, like they were not happy that we were pulling dogs. The place is so sad. We had to go into the horrible shelter to pull the dogs. The first one was a terrified chihuahua that snapped and snarled and had a sign on his cage "Biter! Not adoptable". The shelter worker wouldn't go in to get it, he was too afraid of the dog, so Mari and I did. He put up a real fight, but once we got him into the crate he settled down.

Next we pulled another rat terrier, then a dalmation mix. No struggle there. Next we got a chocolate lab. I didn't have enough crates so we tethered him in the back. It was horrible there, to see all the dogs that looked at us as though to plead, "Take me too!" Old dogs, puppies, dogs that looked like they'd never had a bath or had spent their life at the end of a chain, dogs that looked like they'd been fought. It was heart wrenching and at times Mari and I looked at each other and sobbed.

We were loaded and started to drive away and Mari started crying. There was another chocolate lab that had been dumped there by it's owner... a mother and pup that were found tied to the gate a few mornings before. I turned around and went back in and got her. We made room for her behind the passenger seat. All she wanted was to put her head between us and nuzzle our elbows. Such a beautiful sweet lab/ basset mix.

The car was packed. Crates were crammed in on top of other crates. We had bungee cords criss-crossing, holding them in place. Finally we left. I never want to go back there again. The images are etched into my brain and my heart.

Once underway, the first chocolate lab that was tethered in the back started to heave. And poop. All over everything, including the dog that was crated next to him. Oh, did I mention I was driving Jim's Toyota Highlander? Yep. What a mess. We couldn't open the windows all the way, either, because in the course of being sick he had slipped out of his slip lead tether and was trying to climb over crates to get to the front, spreading the mess around even more.

It was a stressful, sickening ride, in an hour we had gotten lost twice, but finally arrived at Great Dane rescue in Huntersville, NC. The farm worker held up a remote and opened the big iron gates. He motioned us to follow him back to the kennels. One by one he carefully unloaded the animals, and they seemed calm and ready to follow him. Even the "biting killer chihuahua" that had put up such a fit was suddenly sitting in his lap kissing his cheek. This guy had to be the second coming of the dog whisperer! He was constantly followed by a chihuahua mix named Ricky, that trotted behind him.

He was great, helped us clean ot the car, clean out the crates, and disposed of all the blankets and towels that were too disgusting to keep.

At 4PM we were back home, cloroxing crates and cleaning the inside of the car so you couldn't tell what a mess had been made!

Alas, I have no pictures of the Gaston dogs. But the dogs we transported from there will long be remembered. And the ones we left behind we will remember with our tears. By now they have all been killed.

It is not merely an offhand choice to make whether to spay and neuter your pets. It is a mandate from the heart that has seen shelters like this and know that irresponsible breeding causes an exploding pet population and more of these animals being killed merely because they were alive and no one would take them in. It's sickeing.

Many times I have heard people defend breeding dogs, saying,"I want my child to witness the miracle of birth". My answer is, "Then they should also see the horror of those same animals dying in a gas chamber." Because that's where most of them will end up. But mine are pure breeds, you say? 40% of the dogs killed in shelters are pure bred. Too expensive? Let me tell you where the low and no-cost spay neuter clinics are.

Can you tell I'm angry? Damn right. Come visit a shelter in the Carolinas some time and see why.