Ode's outreach

Pet Haven received the following note from from Jessie (of Stray Dog Arts) and commented to me, "You will be happy to see that Ode continues to touch the hearts of many... in this case, someone in California!"

I was perusing a list of BARK Magazine advertisers soliciting donations for our eBay Auction. I simply happened to click on your site and was lost in the YouTube video and story of Ode. Sitting in my office with tears in my eyes, I cannot believe her story.

As a volunteer for a Golden Retriever Rescue and having been involved with this organization for the past 7 years I've seen what people can do to animals - I've also seen how trusting and loving those animals can become.

So, rather than ask you for something I went to the Etsy site and ordered greeting cards - Ode you touched yet another...

Jan
GRCGLA Rescue
State/province: CA
Website: http://grcglarescue.org

A Pug named Princess

A note from an adopter through Animal Ark:
Here is a picture from the Midwest Pug group's website of Princess at the Pet Expo 2008 where she won 2nd place in the Best Costume contest. She was dressed as a princess, of course.

Princess' Story: I got a call from Animal
Ark that they needed a foster home for a pregnant pug. After having fostered several pregnant dogs for them, we jumped at the idea. As we walked up to where this adorably huge black pug was standing, she ran up to my 11 year old son and gave him a kiss. It was almost like she was welcoming a long lost friend.

On our way home, we were trying to figure out what to call her. When we mentioned 'Princess', she jumped up and gave me a kiss. I knew immediately that she must be called Princess. It wasn't long before she become queen of our house, too. She immediately began to rule over our other two dogs (a border collie and an aussie mix). Not to mention the cats.

It was about two weeks later that Princess gave birth to four adorable puggle puppies in my living room amongst a group of spectators (humans and animals). She took all the attention in stride and did wonderful despite my fears after doing research on pugs (I had never had a dog so small). She was a wonderful mother and enjoyed being a teaching tool about the miracle of birth to some young relatives.

As the puppies grew, we fell more and more in love with Princess. When it was time to bring the puppies to Animal Ark for adoption, we had already decided that we couldn't part with Princess. We were excited to see that her puppies were adopted out in record time (two within the first hour they were on the adoption floor and all four adopted out by the end of the first day). Having gone through this a few times with other litters we raised, we were very excited to learn they went so fast - it was always heartbreaking for us to worry about 'our babies' finding good homes.

Princess stayed the night getting spayed and I couldn't wait to pick her up. When she was placed in my arms, still a little sleepy from surgery, wrapped in a towel, and put her head on my shoulder and started her pug purr, I knew she knew she was going home.

A few weeks earlier, a cat we were fostering gave birth to her litter of kittens. I laughed hysterically when I would walk by their box and find Princess in the box with them - nursing them (or at least trying - she was dry). Not only is Princess the 'queen' of our home ruling over the dogs and cats but she is also the 'mother'. We love our Princess and cannot believe that someone would give her up.

She's such a great, intelligent dog. She does have one quirk that can be irritating, but mostly we just laugh about it. Princess hates television commercials. Being a family where the tv is constantly on, this can be a noisy problem. Princess sits quietly and watchs tv, until a commercial comes on. Then she rushes to the tv and barks. When the commercials are over, she returns to her spot on the couch and quietly watchs tv again. Everyone who has witnessed this is amazed over the fact that she can tell the difference.

We have done several experiments such as turning off the volume, etc. and yet she can always tell when its a commercial! Some day we'll have this video recorded. It is quite hysterical as she really gets angry at them as she barks, farts and kicks her back legs.

Thank you so much for finding our Princess for us. We are so blessed that we were able to give this incredible dog a home - and I wish we had more room to adopt more!

H

Winter Straw Haul, Sept. 28

Tom and Nancy of Bemidji have been very helpful in providing animal food, straw haul for winter bedding, animal transport as well as kennel repair over the past year.

Tom's connections to the Shed (storage place for donated pet food in the Twin Cities) as well as his large truck and trailer have provided most of our food for over a year. They are the backbone of our local support.

We are planning our 2008 straw haul on September 28. We plan to haul and stack 225 bales for our winter bedding of dogs and pups. They have organized a group of 6 people including Carolyn May pictured with the O'Sullivans.

We are so thankful for this group out of Bemidji who have improved the shelter and helped us so much! They have made special friendships with Rusty (who gets toys and balls regularly) and all the other animals who live at the uphouse. They also have helped place many other animals at the shelter. They gave me hope for Mishkeet, and as a result she has been adopted. These people have a real "heart of gold" and we are so blessed to have met them.

Sincerely, Karen Good, RLRR

Thank you, DeeDee!

Another Happy Day:

Another great blessing on September 13 was the delivery of food and transport of another 14 dogs/pups and 6 cats/kittens by our faithful Dee Dee who arrive at 7:00 am and was back on the road by 9:00 am. She also left a copy of the "Pins For Pets" grant application which she completed for RLRR.

A total of 30 dogs/pups and 10 cats/kittens left that day with Dee Dee and Akin staff. All animals went to foster homes except 3 dogs who went to Tricounty Humane Society.

It was finally quiet at the shelter. Only 12 dogs and 2 cats left but not for long.

On Sunday we had 15 dogs/pups intake and business was booming again.

Thank you Dee Dee and all for helping us make space for the ones that need to come by moving out the ones that are ready for a new life.
Karen

Breanna

Hi Denise, here's the pics and story on Breanna to add to the Akin story:

Breanna, a pit bull mix, brindle in coloring giving away her breed mix, and afflicted with demodex mange spent over a year at the RLRR shelter. She came here as a small puppy and once went to the Pennington Humane Society, but was returned due to her mange that was not responding well to treatment.

She is a very sweet dog and won the hearts of all the visitors but when the transports left she was only watching them leave. It was sad because it seemed very unlikely that this great dog was going to get the "real home" that she craved and deserved.

It was a great surprise when Dr. Bartsch and Lindsay announced on Friday that they were going to take Breanna and get her a foster home! It was the greatest blessing of the whole weekend to see Breanna finally leaving the shelter.

An update email today said that Breanna is living with Dr. Bartsch.
What a great story. Karen

Akin Hills Pet Hospital helps out at RLRR

Dr. Veronica Bartsch and vet tech Lindsay Cline of Akin Hills Pet Hospital in Farmington, MN made a visit to Red Lake Rosie's shelter September 11 - 13 and were very helpful to us. They were initially going to bring a load of food from Liz Champeau and they decided to make it a more extensive project.

The dedicated team neutered 16 cats and dogs at the shelter as well as provided exams, worming, shots, and medications to all the shelter animals and the 8 resident dogs at the uphouse.
They also provided emergency care and vaccinations for community animals that showed up at the shelter during their visit.

When they departed, they took out 4 cats and 14 dogs/pups to the Last Hope Rescue of which many have already been adopted. Among the group were Breanna, a brindle pit bull mix who has been here a year working on demodex mange who now lives with Dr. Bartsch and also Spencer who had a severe case of demodex and has been adopted.

We are so happy to have developed this new relationship with this dedicated team who now wants to organize a larger group of participants to sponsor another Red Lake community clinic. They are meeting Tuesday in Roseville to work on that possibility.

We wish to thank them both for their wonderful work for the Red Lake animals!

Sincerely, Karen

Joanna (now Angel) is happy in foster care

An update from the foster home of Angel (formerly Joanna):
Denise

Here are two updated photos from the day I picked her up. I will get you more pictures. She is doing wonderful, extremely playful, having only one eye doesn't even phase her.

dino