Two Lives Saved

Hard times, Good times...

Sometimes fostering a dog can bring great joy. You take a scared pup into your home, work through the issues, and help them learn what its like to live with love. Then they find a good home and you miss them but you know in your heart they're off to a happy life. That's the reward, the heartbreak and the reason you do it again.

Then there's Trouble. This little brown and white Chihuahua came from a southern shelter. They said he had one deformed leg. Okay, we can deal. Send him up on the next transport. We get dogs with issues all the time. Heartworm is rampant in the south and treating it can be expensive, but we have great volunteers and good vets who help us muddle through the treatment. Parvo? It happens. Sometimes seemingly healthy pups come up and WHAM! Parvo! It sucks, but it's treatable. The volunteer is on 24/7 alert in helping the dog survive but it can be done. We've had to do it a million times and the dogs go on to live healthy lives.
But when Trouble arrived and we placed the little guy on the ground we discovered he had more than a deformed front leg. Both back legs wobbled like he couldn't balance on them at all. Off we go to the vet to discover this little guy was in a lot of pain. Both back knee caps were dislocated and that deformed front leg were all the results of severe abuse. Surgery to fix this little guy will cost over $6000. Yes, Trouble has real trouble.
So we deal. Fundraising goes viral and movies are made and flyers go out. Six grand is a lot of money and bottom line is---we have to raise it because Trouble will be fixed. Castle of Dreams Animal Rescue doesn't give up on any dog.
So we move on and then comes a little Shih Tzu up from the south. She's cute and happy but, after we shave her down so we can see this little girl under all the matting, her face looks funny, lopsided. Something we couldn't see under all the matting. A trip to the vet and we find out her jaw is dislocated. The vet said she must have been kicked in the face at some point.
That's two injured, abused pups in one month. SHEESH! What kind of people abuse animals and then just dump them in shelters? My first reaction is hate. Pure ugly hate. I hate these people and think they should be locked away where they can't ever hurt another living thing. They are not fit to be called humans.
I hate this hate. It's useless. It wastes energy and brings me down.
Instead of focusing on the hate I push it aside and focus on what we can change. We can get Trouble fixed. We can get that little Shih Tzu's jaw fixed. We can move on and keep going and not let the ugly people in this world stop us.
To donate to help either of these pups go to Castle of Dreams Animal Rescue

Who Am I?

Little Dog Lost.....CAPTURED!

Little Runaway in New Jersey!

SOUL MATES

My novella, Soul Mates (A different kind of love story) is now available from Amazon on Kindle!

After a tragic death on mean city streets, a woman meets God and begs him to let her reincarnate to bring the heavenly message of unconditional love to the world. Follow the adventure when she is tossed back to earth as one of the smallest dogs on the planet.

Losing a Best Friend

Heart of my heart. I lost my dear Halston.
I had been sleeping on the couch in the family room with her because she got up several times a night and it was closer to the door. I brought her bed and blanket out and I was there to help her out when she had to go outside to pee. 
The last week was the worst.
Halston was 16 and failing. She was refusing food, drinking limited amounts of water and her back legs were giving out almost constantly. She had one weekend where she couldn't walk at all and the vet gave her a cortisone shot which got her right on her feet and we took her home filled with hope. As the week went on she just got worse again.
We made the heartbreaking decision to help her pass. We made the appointment for Saturday morning. I told her the vet would take away the pain.
She was up often that last night and around 4 a.m. she started barking at me. I offered water, food, brushed her, but she kept barking at me. Since she likes laying out on the deck I carried her out and laid her by the door. Leaving the door open I went back in and sat on the couch watching her. She looked around at the yard she ruled for 16 years and as the night gradually turned to day she watched the birds come to the feeder. After a while I noticed she was looking off to one side and realized she was watching the sun come up.
I looked away and moments later I heard a thunk and turned to see she had fallen over on her side.
I carried her back inside and she died in my arms.
I think she went as she wanted to go. At home.  In her own bed.
God Bless Halston. The best dog ever, a forever puppy in my heart.

There's Something

There's always something we can do. No matter how small and insignificant it seems at the time. Small gestures can bring big change.
If everyone who walked past our rescue table dropped the spare change in their pocket in our bucket: it would pay to spay/neuter dozens of dogs.
If people who can't foster, could transport: we'd save hundreds of dollars in transport fees.
If people who can't transport dogs, could pick up donations: we'd have more warm blankets and food for the dogs that are fostered.
If people who can't do any of the above, could find a way to spread the word about available dogs by facebook, fliers, or emails: more dogs would find homes.
If you fostered one dog every other month: you save 6 dogs a year from certain death.
Foster one a month: you saved 12 dogs.
Foster every two weeks or so (yes, some do move onto permanent homes that fast) and you've saved two dozen dogs that year.
If you start a food/toy/dog accessory drive in your church/school/work: costs of maintaining the rescue go down and more dogs are pulled from shelters.
If you start with one small thing, big changes happen in the life of that one small dog.
He finds a rescue.
He finds a foster.
He finds a warm house, good food and the vet care he needed.
He finds his forever home.
All because you did something.

Sometimes fostering isn't that easy. Although the rescue group I'm with will give me food, collars, leashes, bones, toys for my fosters, I spend my own money. Sometimes I do signs and stuff for events and consider the cost a donation. Some dogs pee on my stuff. Some dogs chew my new shoes. Once I got bitten. And sometimes I wonder if I want to keep doing this. I'm tired, money is tight, I work a full time job on top of this and other problems are constantly popping up (I call that life), but still I take in one more dog. Then I think back to when I started fostering.

So far I've fostered about 25-30 dogs in my home. Some are still nestled in my heart and others came and went so quickly I have to think to remember. Others I've grown to know through the other fosters. They were not in my home but I met them on adoption days, in transport, helping out on pick up days.
Thinking about this makes me feel better. I can imagine 30 dogs in my living room. Thirty dogs in my car at one time - ok, impossible but it gives you an idea of just how many 30 dogs is. Its a lot of dogs. I couldn't put 30 dogs on a leash and walk them, take 30 dogs to the vet at one time or try to get 30 dishes of dog food down in my kitchen.
This visualization makes me realize just how many lives I saved by opening my home up to foster just one more. Fostering does make a difference. Even if you foster one at a time. My 30 dogs may not seem like a lot to some people, but to each one of those 30 dogs I'm sure it meant the world.

Piggy-Mugsy-Frank

This little Piggy is the sweetest dog! Housebroken, likes cats, other dogs, kids, and everyone who gets within ten feet of him. He barks at the door to go out, listens very well and is close to the perfect dog. But he's a Pug! Snorty, affectionate, sweet. I never had a Pug before and now I understand why people fall in love with this breed.

This little Piggy.....

Someone named this dog Piggy. Ugh! We're going to have to get him a new name ASAP! Something to reflect the true beauty in his soul.
He's ten years old and should be at my house tonight. His first family waited until he was 8 years old and had a tumor that needed removal before deciding to dump him in a high kill shelter in South Carolina. Castle of Dreams Animal Rescue saw the potential in this little fella and pulled him up to New Jersey where they got him the medical attention he needed and found him a home. He did great until the new family discovered they had to move and the new place doesn't allow dogs.
So Piggy is homeless again. He's getting dropped off tonight and I already have two applications on him. Both look great so he should have a new home soon. In fact, both applications have Pug experience so this will be really hard to choose. If only I had this problem for all the dogs that come through my home.
Say a prayer that this little Piggy finds his forever home once and for all. He's much too sweet to be bounced around.

What I do?

Foster dog t-shirts now available! Love the work? Let them know how much fostering means to you with t-shirts and hoodies; http://www.cafepress.com/goingtothedogs1