TaKeela

TaKeela made the journey down from Red Lake just before the Holidays and she was quick to steal some hearts. I thought her photo was especially appropriate as we prepare to send out the old year and greet the new year! Check out her fabulous bed!
Denise,

Just wanted to give you an update on Kaylee (TaKeela) the little blue-grey Chihuahua you brought me from Karen last week. Well, my whole family fell in love with her and even though we had many families that wanted her we just could not give her up, so Heather in our office and I are sharing her. Heather brings her home every night but then brings her back to the office in the morning. She loves to hang out with us all day, right now she is sleeping on my lap. She is so well mannered.

d.

Holiday Fundraiser close to goal -- Please Help!

Happy Holidays!

Thank you for all your support of the Red Lake Rosie's Rescue (RLRR) Holiday Fundraiser!

RLRR has received $4,295 in donations - only $700 more to go to reach our goal of $5,000. And surpassing it would be a very needed bonus! Karen Good and RLRR have been overwhelmed with animals this year so Karen has taken the opportunity to reduce the number of breeding animals through spay/neuter and placement. Medical care and vet bills have also increased this year.

1/1/08 - 12/25/08:
619 Animals rescued, sheltered and placed - up 23% from last year.
507 Animals spayed/neutered - up 11% from last year.

The Holiday Donation form and flyers are available in right pane. Thanks for spreading the word about RLRR and for helping to reach (surpass) our goal!

A very special thanks to the Animal Humane Society which collected and donated many items thanks to Kim Culbertson, DVM and staff.

Lynn Mecum

Carlton Collie

Dear Denise:

Hi and glad to report we have rescued another purebred collie, named Carlton Fritz. Minnesota Wisconsin Collie Rescue is taking him and he has a foster home in Iowa.

He was neutered, and got all his shots. He's a tri-colored beauty with a very nice personality rescued from euthanasia at the Bagley Dog Pound last week.

He is a very lucky boy to go to MWCR. They have also offered to pay all his vet fees!

Sincerely, Karen

The 12 Dogs of Christmas

Check out the Pet Haven blog featuring all former Red Lake dogs looking oh-so festive!

A Very Merry Christmas for the Red Lake rescued animals

Bless the Red Lake dogs and cats that have a warm place in someone's home this Christmas....and the ones that don't.

Barbara brought Lucy with her after her time at RLRR this summer and fostered her until she was adopted and she got her new name of CC.
Hello from the A-family. Just emailing you some Christmas pictures. We are sad to say that we have lost our old dog, so C-C will have to live alone for a couple months. We plan on getting a new pup this spring so she doesn't have to wait too long. But I must say even though she e alone it doesn't phase her. She had a lot of fun snooping around when we brought all the Christmas boxes up. We see more of our old dogs and their traits in her more and more...like from Iggy she snoops in bags when you bring them in lol.
She also got to experience the cookie weekend we have. We get together and bake cookies, bars and candies for one full weekend and she loved it.

we had lots of fun getting our nose into enerything...we would have to say that her favorite cookie to hunt down are the lemon bars...
We wish you a happy holidays.
-The A. family

Marilou and Ahnung return to Red Lake

Marilou from Pet Haven reflects on her most recent trip to Red Lake on her blog. Check out her story and photos.

Karen --- again, thank you for ALL you do for these animals and continuing to be such a great source of inspiration for me :)

As I type this email you will happy to know that Ahnung and Missy are sharing a dog bed ;-)

Marilou
(Missy, Mister, Ahnung and Henry too!!)

Samson update

Karen...
I am not sure if you are the one to write to, but about two years ago, my wife and I were the lucky people to get one of your rescue "success stories".

The dog that we got is Samson, a newfoundland / black lab mix. I don't know if you remember him, but we are so fortunate to have him. Some think that he's lucky to have us, but as cool, and sweet as he is, I know that we're the lucky ones.


I am proud to say that the dog you rescued from a terrible, abusive life is so loved by all who meet him. In fact, we were on a walk and started talking to a lady, and when we gave her his story, she was surprised to see that my Samson is the same Samson that she transported from Red Lake to the Animal Ark in Hastings. He had come that far in his new life, and is no longer the mange-ridden, heartworm infested, starving dog that she transported, unsure of how long he'd survive.


He is now a 108 pound, healthy, happy dog, with many more years ahead of him. His disposition is so sweet and loving that one would never dream of what kind of past he had had. Although he is 108 pounds, he still thinks he's a lap dog, and takes up a big portion of our king size waterbed, where he sleeps with us each night.

We would love to send pictures of Samson, if we can, and if you would like..

We would also like to thank everyone from Red Lake Rosie's group that does so much to help animals that need it so much.

Thank you for all you do.

Happy Holidays...

Dan & Maggie Larson, and Samson

Red Lake Collie reunion

Dear Denise:

How great is this??? Dakota and Corkie aka Dancer have a reunion of Red Lake Collies. They are in the same foster home!!

The picture is darling!!

Karen :)
Foster mom at Minnesota Wisconsin Collie Rescue says:

By the way, that is Dakota, Dyson and Dancer(foster dog)--left to right I think I need a bigger couch!!!!!!

Lori

MORE before the storm...

Fluffy pups
We had a couple days notice of a big storm with snow and wind and cold moving across Minnesota this past weekend. I had planned a transport driving up on Saturday and back on Sunday, but it was clear that Sunday would not be a day to travel. Karen really needed to get some dogs moved to rescues before the storm, so the trip was changed to a drive up and back to Bemidji -- all on Saturday.
Rufus
The O'Sullivans helped out by driving from Bemidji up to Red Lake and back to bring down the animals for transport. We met and exchanged our load of supplies for Karen for the animals before noon. I drove in freezing drizzle that kept threatening to cover my windshield, but had no other problems. Thanks to G. for swapping vehicles with me (again) and K. for riding up and back with me.
KeelaWe delivered a darling gray and white chihuahua to D. in Rogers. Next stop was the Brooklyn Park office of Minnesota Animal Rescue Services (MARS) where we dropped off Moneya and her three medium-sized pups. Then we went to my house and two women from the Akin vet clinic in Farmington came to get big Rufus (who was quite intimidated by the snowmen in the lawn across the street), three squirmy little fluffy white and black puppies and two tiny shepherd mix pups.

J. came to claim Mama Mia's five darling kittens that are quite a bit older now than this picture.
NOTE: Please send your best wishes to Bev K. of MARS who was injured in a car accident just after meeting us and distributing the dogs to their foster homes on Saturday. A drunk driver hit four cars, including Bev's, that were stopped at a red light. A man in another vehicle was killed and Bev is in the hospital with a head injury, but is expected to recover fully. Karen spoke to Bev and Bev told her that "She was happy she had no animals or other people along or they might have been killed."

Before the Storm...

Dear Friends:

Hi and I wanted to thank you and update you on the hooved two-some that were rescued out of Red Lake just before the bad weather hit. The rescues took place December 11 and 12.

First of all, we had the little miniature stallion, who the people could no longer care for. He was on a rope, and the people moved and would come and and give him feed/water, but they said he was so lonesome that they had to give him up. I call him Freddie. He was a very nice horse and was in good physical condition.

Also, at a different residence we found Ruby who turned out to be a donkey. She was not in as bad a physical condition as first reported, however, she has swollen leg joints, and very bad feet in need of farrier services. She had longer hair and some hip and backbone protrusion.

Ruby is a real doll, she is friendly and not a bit hard to handle. She was on a rope in a yard on the reservation. She had been grazing grass under the snow and a very nice man driving by with a truckload of hay, stopped and rolled off a bale for Ruby.

We are thankful that a retired teacher from Red Lake who raises horses answered the call and took his horse trailer up to Red Lake and met us first at Freddie's house, then on to Ruby's. Ruby would not get in the trailer with Freddie, so the man returned the next day at 6:30 am and loaded Ruby. This was only 1 day before the very bad weather hit. Ruby had no shelter at all.

Now both Ruby and Freddie are in the barn, warm and eating hay. They seem to get along well according to the caretaker. Both will see the vet and the farrier next week. Check out poor Ruby's overgrown feet -- no wonder her joints are swollen!
Thank you to all the wonderful people who were instrumental in helping us get to the rescues, and all the right people and just in the knick of time. Also to Sandy, Jill, Denise and others who provided advice and financial support to help Ruby get care for her feet, temporary boarding fee, and hopefully transport to RIDE in Rochester or Refuge Farms in Spring Valley, Wisconsin soon.

It amazes me how we are able to, with the help of a great network of animal-loving people, rescue the animals just before the "big storm".

We will keep you updated on Ruby and Freddie.

Sincerely, Karen Good and RLRR

Featured Volunteer: Carol Priest

Dear Denise:

Carol Priest has been one of RLRR friends for the past 4 years.

Carol works in the Red Lake community and has started a number of social programs including the homeless shelter. Not only does this lady love and care about the homeless people, she also has a special heart for homeless dogs. She has sent many to the shelter, volunteers for rescue during clincs, feeds animals at the Group Home and has been a great help. She has a special gift of being able to win the trust of dogs who are more difficult to catch.

Pictured here is Carol with her recent rescue of "Sarge" a homeless dog she has been advocating to get out of the community and to the shelter. She brought Sarge during the Akin visit and had him neutered, immunized, and a wound under his leg repaired.

Sarge is a very nice dog, and we are hoping to find just the right placement for him.

We are so very lucky to have Carol as a partner. Thank you, Carol, for all you do.

RLRR

Santa cats

Jodi and Chuck of St. Paul came up to Red Lake Rosie's Rescue and worked on November 15 and also transported a large load of food.

Chuck repaired kennels which Grandpa (the dog) had broken, while Jodi worked in the cathouse. We are so appreciative of the supplies they brought that were so generously donated by staff from the State Department of Education and MARS (Minnesota Animal Rescue Services).

They took out 3 cats to Cause For Paws foster homes. The cats got to visit with Santa at a fundraiser at Petco in Highland: Robin & Bickley and Penelope. What do you suppose those Red Lake cats were thinking?



Thank you so much.
Sincerely, Karen Good, RLRR

Lauren, sweet brown bear

Photos from the Pet Haven foster caregiver of Lauren, a Red Lake dog.

Corkie has become Dancer--How Festive!

We got an update from Minnesota Wisconsin Collie Rescue on Corkie:Just wanted to let you know that he is doing wonderful. He did not really answer to Corkie and he looks like he is dancing, when he gets excited, so we changed his name to Dancer. I just decided to foster him, because he gets along so well with everybody and everything.

His surgery went well and he seems housebroken. The only accident he had was when he lifted his leg on the Christmas tree!

We had an applicant come over last night and visit with him. He may be a little too excited for her, but we will see. I am sure he will not be in foster long. Check out Corkie/Dancer's website!

Thank you for rescuing this very precious soul.

You are an angel to the animals,

Lori S.
Foster Home Coordinator
Minnesota Wisconsin Collie Rescue

Moneya and pups need homes

In mid October, 2009 Red Lake Rosie's volunteers found Moneya and her litter of 7 at a house in Redby, Minnesota. The people who lived there had accidentally driven over one of the puppies and it appeared it had a broken jaw.
Moneya
The mother, Moneya was malnourished and her puppies were hungry. Their hair was sparse and they itched due to mange mites. They had no shelter and wandered around a yard near a highway with no fence. The people would not give up any, not even the poor little injured pup!

Roxy
Two weeks passed and Moneya and her family got more hungry and left their "home", and went looking for food. Now they were homeless and walking around from place to place in hopes of finding something to eat. By this time there were only 4 pups and Moneya.
One of the social programs contacted Red Lake Rosie's and they were able to take Moneya and her four kids.

Lydia
A day later and a call came that another of Moneya's pups was also found near death, our little black and white Lydia. So, they then returned her to her family. Lydia was skin and bones and needed to had special feedings and nearly died.

The whole family has been on an antiparasitic, which killed the mange mites and they are regrowing hair and gaining weight. The pups were weaned from their mama and Moneya has since been spayed, and has gotten her shots. She is positive for Lymes and Anaplasmosis and is currently taking antibiotics.

Zoey
Akin Animal Hospital took out 2 male pups on their last visit, leaving
Lydia, Roxy, and Zoey with Moneya at the Red Lake Rosie's shelter. With winter fully arrived (last night was -12 below actual temperature) they are anxious to help the rest of the family get to foster care. MARS has stepped in to help and is seeking foster homes so we are able to bring these poor dogs in to our rescue.

They are wonderful, lovely, well socialized and are so happy to be eating and getting better. Please contact Minnesota Animal Rescue Services if you are interested in fostering or adopting any of these dogs.

Thanks to Akin Pet Hospital

Dr. Veronica Bartsch and vet techs Lindsay and Karmen of Aiken Pet Hospital, Farmington, MN visited RLRR shelter again on November 19 - 21, 2008. During their stay they neutered over 30 cats and dogs both from the shelter and the community. They examined and immunized 86 dogs and cats.
It was a great blessing to have them here. When they left they took out 15 larger puppies, 3 small puppies, and 8 cats to foster care in the Last Hope Rescue in Farmington. Many have since been adopted.
This was Karmen's first visit and she fell in love with Charlie, the little yellow lab mix. Charlie had arrived 2 days before the group and was in an isolation kennel as the report was he had survived parvo.
Well, Charlie rode out with Karmen in a beautiful new coat! He had been a stray and Kathy from Red Lake had taken him in and kept him alive during his sickness. We are so happy for Charlie and all the other puppies and cats that left with them.

The team says they "love" coming here and plan to be back. Aren't we lucky?

Karen Good, RLRR

Update on Ahnung

Dear Karen,

It's now been almost 3 weeks since we brought Ahnung (which means "star" in Ojibway -- thank you for letting me name this sweet girl) back to the cities. There was something about this gentle soul that captured my heart when I first met her back in mid-October on my first trip up to Red Lake. I knew I had to return for her. You were so right about her sweet, gentle disposition.

As she goes through her heartworm treatment she is staying at one of our partner clinics and they have fallen in love with her too. She's had her first heartworm shot and will have her second shot in mid to late December -- hopefully by January she will have a clean bill of health and will be up for adoption.
In the meantime, I have been so lucky to spend time with her. I've been visiting her everyday and we go on outings to a local coffee shop where I can bring her in and get my work done -- they even know her by name now and they know her story! It has been a great way for me to spread the word about both Red Lake Rosie's and Pet Haven!!

Whenever I pick her up at the clinic, it always takes a while for her to come out because the staff has to give her lots of hugs and kisses on her way out... and it just warms my heart to see her tail wagging so hard. When she first arrived she was leary of getting in and out of my vehicle. I had to lift her up into my Honda Element for the first two weeks... then less than a week ago we had a breakthrough and she just hops right into my car now and is excited about going on a car ride. I guess she's learned it's pretty fun to go on these outings!
I am so grateful to have the opportunity to spend time with her and to witness her personality start to come through ... I continue to be amazed at the resilient nature of dogs who have been through so much.

Thank you for rescuing Ahnung (and her pups) and for entrusting her into the care of Pet Haven. I can assure you she is being loved and pampered... the doctor has given me the okay to bring Ahnung up to Red Lake next week when I come up to visit and help out. We are both looking forward to our visit :)

Marilou

Holiday Fundraiser

Please help Red Lake Rosie's Rescue reach our goal of $5,000 this holiday season. Food, vet care and shelter supplies are needed to help get through the grueling winter in Northern Minnesota.

Attached are 2 forms for Red Lake Rosie's Rescue Holiday Fundraiser.
1) A flyer that you can share with others.
2) A gift giving donation form that you can give in someone else's name that can be put in holiday cards. This is perfect for those who love animals and for those where you just don't know what to give them.

We will track "Reaching Our Goal" on this blog.

If you have any questions, please contact Lynn Mecum at lmecum4@msn.com

Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving transport, part II

FROM T:

The day after celebrating Thanksgiving with family in northern Minnesota, my two teenage children, Q and C, and I stopped at Red Lake Rosie's Rescue to drop off supplies and transport 10 puppies to rescues in the Twin Cities area.

After getting a tour of the improvements (new outdoor kennels, bedroom and bathroom in the cathouse, etc.), we started rounding up the pups. Karen was organized, as usual, with paperwork and crates ready to go.



The pups settled down pretty quickly, with the occasional sad cry from Jackson (pitbull mix who came in with a suspected home-done/half-done tail crop, who had surgery by a vet before transport out to Animal Ark). He's the sweetest bulldozer of a dog! Rock solid muscles.




Q and C enjoyed cuddling two of the pups that went to Pet Haven.

Beautiful Ogema settled in and never made a peep the entire trip.

We made a stop at Tri-County Humane Society in St. Cloud. Workers said they get quite a few requests for shepherd mixes, so let's keep sending shepherds there! Volunteers from Pet Haven and Animal Ark were waiting at my house and the transfer was made quickly.


It's so satisfying to move a few more Red Lake animals into foster homes and shelters for eventual adoption. Thanks to all who help!

T.