Saw a wonderful story that Missouri allocating $1mm to crack down on puppy mills. Their goal is to hire more enforcement people, veterinarians, and others to monitor past and future offenders of the puppy mill laws and make sure that breeders behave responsibly. This is more than a baby step, so we applaud Missouri with their attention to the effort even in the midst of a miserable economy and financial situation.
After several days of posts on various websites and emailing back and forth with rescue groups and shelters, a new home has been found for the shepherd (no thanks to us) we were helping place with a person who lives right near the clinic at which Max has been staying. The very nice man loves shepherds and has already named the GSD Max, who is already very fond of the nice man. The clinic treated him and neutered him, and now Max is starting his great new life with his kind new father. Hooray for Max!
We took Cosita for a ride to Manhattan today to show her off at the SFTH Boat Basin Event. I have got to tell you, it was very difficult to take her as we barely want her to get adopted from us. Jen was a good sport and brought her along but as person after person came up and stared at Cosita, picked her up, and carried her around, it was clear we both were having a hard time parting with her. This fostering thing is tough! There were probably 20 groups of people who had some interest and there was one couple we loved and thought would be perfect for her. They were extremely nice, but we did not want to be pushy with anyone (ok, I admit it, we almost found them a second time and told them that we would love for them to be her adoptive parents). Don’t hold our biases against us, we are still learning!
We were at the SFTH Boat Basin event and met a lovely woman who is on the board of The Toby Project. She was extremely nice, bright, and thoughtful and just what is needed to make some changes in the animal world.We plan to follow up with her and talk to her about perhaps working with The Toby Project or at a minimum learning from all the great things they have done.
So, what is The Toby Project? They are solely focused on spaying and neutering animals in New York City. They offer a low cost spaying and neutering service that is free for low-income families and they drive a van around to meet people. We have written a lot about this in the past, and we are convinced that spaying and neutering needs to be a bigger part of the rescue agenda. We look forward to learning more about The Toby Project in the future.
Saw this: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Saving_Pets_on_Death_Row_With_Social_Media_New_York-122428639.html and thought it was worth posting. It is really amazing how social media is pushing the boundaries of what has been accepted for decades and pushing for change. Whether in politics, business, charity, or everything else, social media is a powerful force. Of course, it can and is being used for good and bad but this is an example of some good that has come out of it.
http://www.canada.com/Pitbulls+lose+their+muzzles/4966062/story.html Read this story about the town of Cumberland that had a law that all pitbulls had to be muzzled and now they are getting rid of it and using muzzles on dogs that need them rather than pitbulls. Brilliant! What a novel idea to muzzle dogs who are aggressive rather than targeting breeds.
The real issue is of course that pit bulls and all other breeds of dogs start of as man’s best friend until ruined by us. Of course, some dogs have more prey drive, some like to herd, and some are more protective. The problem is not the breeds, it is the way we raise them. If we accept that we do not want to live our lives stereotyping people, then it would seem to follow similarly in dogs.
Well, we are continuing to learn just how hard it is to help foster and save dogs. This shepherd we are trying to find a home or rescue organization for seemingly has no takers even though we are offering to give a donation to cover the space, time, and money needed to hold onto him. He is a beautiful, purebred shepherd that is very sweet and playful. What else could you want in a dog. We have posted him on a couple of shepherd forums and emailed several local rescue organizations in Alabama. We have received no responses thus far. It is pretty disheartening, but we are going to make it happen!
Emergency situation: found male German Shepherd in Anniston, Alabama. The dog was left outsi
de along with another small dog without any food or water. A family member of ours rounded them up, made flyers, and fed him. Nobody came to the dogs’ rescue (not surprisingly), and while they have already found a home for the small dog the young German Shepherd still needs a home. He might be purebred or a mix but that is less important. He is healthy beyond some cuts on his legs and scratches under his neck. He is “playful,” “beautiful,” and has a great temperament. We are going to try to find him a home over the next few days or a foster home, or we are going to pay a local human society to keep him until they or we find him a good home, as he cannot stay at the house and medical clinic at which he was found forever. Look at the picture-he is a really great dog.
He is now part of the Mav’s Friends family, so we are going to find him a home one way or another. Please let us know if you know someone that is interested! You can email Jen and Adrian Meli at maverick@mavsrescuefriends.com
We saw this story and thought it was heart warming at the same time as it being a bit tear jerking. Every once in a while we hear how unfortunate it is a dog lives on the street with its owner, etc. when we think a lot of people miss that dogs do not care about where they live, they care that they are with their owner and caregiver. This man got very sick and his dog Yurt went to a shelter and his last wish was to be reunited with his dog. We don’t know anything about this man obviously but he and Yurt made a good team and we were glad they got to spend as much time as possible together. It just goes to show you that you love a dog, they will follow you anywhere. http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Dying-Mans-Final-Wish-to-be-Reunited-With-Dog-124040304.html
Well, Cosita is shaping up to be quite an amazing addition to our family. She follows Jen around everywhere although she is now loosening up and hanging out with me and Maverick. Jen obviously wants to keep her as part of the family, but I am resisting as I still want to foster other dogs in the future. I suppose in the end it will depend on how long it takes to find her a great new home.
The one thing that we learned from the vet that is bothersome is that Cosita apparently has a misformed leg. We noticed it and pointed it out to him, and he says it is either from birth or she had her leg broken and nobody took her to the vet. We are unsure which it is but she seems to be nervous of it at times. We would not be surprised if she had broken it and never had it looked at. She gets along fine on it and the vet said not to let her gain weight as she won’t be able to support extra weight but it is pretty sad to see. We are not sure if she will need surgery to take care of her leg, but we are going to talk to the vet and if she might need it with her new family down the road we will offer to pay for it whenever she needs it. She is already part of our family so we want to make sure she gets all the care she needs. This fostering thing is tough, though, as every day she becomes more of a part of our family!
