Rescue Memories...

Charley & Elena with Bitsy & Itsy a couple of weeks ago

Well, I wanted to thank everyone who has followed this blog or wanted to look to it for inspiration for Grade 2, as well as those who I am making custom orders for, which have been a bit delayed compared to my usual speed :) Life took us in a whole new direction this summer and while we've LOVED just about every minute of it, rescue is very time consuming and I just haven't had the time to keep up with all of my additional responsibilities.

I am hoping to get the ghost tutorial online very soon and will eventually resume Fri's book reviews, but for now, I want to share the precious reasons why we've been kept busy...

Starting with our Jack...

Jack was rescued from Pasadena in May after being attacked by another dog or juvenile coyote. His right eye had to be removed at the shelter. He also had been kept in a collar that was too small for him as it embedded into his neck, leaving him with very little fur in that area - most likely he was chained up outside most of the day and had been abused by a man with black shoes. He was also a cryptorchid and had to be cut in two places during his neuter. He was grumpy and was in the shelter for 6 long weeks before we came to bring him home with us. He had no adoption interest during his time there :( It took him almost 4 months to stop growling and barking at my husband whenever he came home wearing black, clunky shoes. But he was always a total love to my girls and has the happiest, most adorable demeanor!


When we were looking at Jack, this little girl on the left (Cookie) also caught our eye. She was a large chihuahua who had been adopted by someone and then returned a month later. She ended up in rescue. We decided to pull Jack because he was missing an eye and was not considered a very adoptable dog. When we picked him up, we noticed the little dog on the right, who also had only one eye...


A wonderful rescue came for him and named him Popeye. Because I had been watching Popeye, when I saw he was gone, I called the shelter to find out what happened to him. They put me in touch with the rescue that pulled him...that was the beginning of a wonderful life change for us...


We started to converse with the rescue owner, enjoying her wisdom and appreciating her unconditional love for these puppers. Meanwhile, Jacky relaxed and flourished in his new furever home.


Then, we added Koda to our family after being told that no one wanted him, even the pet shops turned him and his remaining brothers down. Didn't want to see him end up in a shelter, so we took him in...You can see his story and more of our rescue adventures here.

That led to our very first pulls, transports & fosters...

Itsy and Bitsy

Details of that adventure can be found here. But they were two chihuahua's who had seen abuse, as well. They couldn't be any sweeter. Bitsy, the brown female had her eyes punctured by something and was extremely underweight. She is still undergoing treatment to try to save the bad eye from having to be removed. Itsy, the tricolored male chi had severe flea infestation that left his butt area bare, as well as a bruised lumbar spine most likely a result from either being thrown from a car, or hit by one. He also is permanently missing a patch of fur on his side from an old wound. These two are very, very special to the girls and to the head of the rescue as she has decided to keep both of them. Itsy will be a therapy dog and Bitsy is just Bitsy...

Farley

Well, old Farley is our 12 y/o corgi mix who has been such a trooper through all of these changes in his seniorhood. He had a blood brother who passed away at age 7 from lymphoma and had been the only pup for 5 lonely years. Adopting Jacky showed us what spunk Farley still had left in him and has helped his arthritis by keeping him moving.

Onward...we continue with just a foster - no part in his rescue, but what a love he was...

RichieRich

This wee one had been badly traumatized emotionally so that he was very timid and shy. It took him a few days to feel comfy around us and then he blossomed into a most hilarious pup! He was incredibly playful, around age 2, and equally a stinker. I caught him in my baskets of wool, unraveling and making quite the mess! Hard to get mad at that face, though - lol! More pictures of him coming below...

Tiffany

While we were fostering RichieRich, we found a gorgeous, sweet female long haired chihuahua about to be put to sleep. She was only about 5 lbs, and we were thrilled when the rescue told us they could take her! We drove up to get her and fostered her for a week, enjoying every second with this princess!

Needless to say, she adopted out within a week of getting into rescue. She was a total love and so gorgeous. She's now in a wonderful home and we got to see her a short time ago and she just loves her new family!

Such happiness in our home this summer!


We also have 4 little ratties (Chaulky, Luke, Ben, and Rudy)

Who's Peeking out There?

We used this diaper box from my sil during her recent visit - perfect for transporting them up and down the stairs safely...

Well, Koda and RichieRich just fell in love - it was beyond precious. They'd play fight constantly, battling loudly and then kissing each other, snuggling, totally BFF's...here's a slew of shots to enjoy...

BUSTED!

It was just a lovefest this summer...

This is one of my favorite pictures - Charley coming down the stairs in the morning and 5 pups excitedly coming to give her some love!

RichieRich enjoying a treat...

RichieRich ended up on a transport up north where he is looking to find his forever home. Since we have so many chihuahua's in Southern Cal, many rescues will transport them to other reputable rescues on the east coast and in the northwest, where there is a shortage of this breed and people almost line up for them. I would have loved to have kept RichieRich, even just for Koda, since they were so close, but he was growling at my husband and while I think over time it would have subsided, my hubby didn't want to go through that again, like he did with Jack...but a few more cute shots of how they'd play. Even though RichieRich was a peanut, Koda would always be gentle with him and even let him *win*...

We'll miss you RichieRich!

Meet Candy...

Little Candy came from a shelter in San Berdu and they keep their dogs for the required 5 day hold for owner claim, and then believe it or not - they will start to put them to sleep on the day they become available for adoption to the general public. Honestly. This shelter is horrid about that and I have heard horror stories of them putting puppies down on the day of availability, even though puppies are the first to be adopted out in most cases. I've heard of rescues coming for a mom with pups and arriving to find that only mom is left - the pups were put down for absolutely no reason at all. Sickening, huh?!?

Anyway, little Candy was about 4 lbs or so and another long haired chihuahua. She was so loving, but came to us a bit sick. They think she either had kennel cough or a canine flu. Shortly before we took her to rescue, she was up all night coughing and would regurgitate this foamy clear stuff. Another sweetheart, though, just grateful to be in a loving home!

Sweet Candy was just adopted last Saturday - yeah!

My little Candy Cane!

It's so hard to let each one go...

Well - the day we were to take Candy to rescue, after fostering her for a week, we headed back to Pasadena to pick up little Maddy...

Maddy is about 5 months old here and suffers from demodex mange, a non-contagious skin condition caused by a mite which can eventually be deadly. The mite causes the pup to lose their fur and get scabs which can become infected. Maddy's case wasn't too bad, but she's lucky in that she went right to rescue and the owner is fantastic with this condition which usually strikes puppies and is common among the chihuahua breed.

Yawning in happiness to be out of the shelter!

Could anyone resist this face?!?

Maddy is not available yet for adoption as her mange clears up. I have no doubt she'll find a home quickly once she's ready to be placed!

Then there was Petunia and her 4 puppies!

This loving momma and her 3 week old puppies couldn't have been more sweet!

We stopped at home during the transport to empty out and eat lunch.

I also wanted to give this momma some food, water and a potty break!

She was so, so loving!

The girls were on Cloud 9 with the pups!

And then came Prudence & Penelope.

Back to Pasadena for these 3 month old chihuahua girls. There were actually three female pups from this litter that we were transporting to our rescue, but one of them got adopted just before we showed up, so we took the remaining two. This is Penelope, the smaller of the two...and below is Prudence - both super sweet girls!

We took them to our rescue and dropped them with their new foster mommy!

They are both available for adoption in the Southern California region!

And finally, last weekend brought us three transports, with one going into our rescue...three seniors...

Jackie O. (about 9 y/0)

a sweet 10-12 yr old male Pommie with alopecia...

and Peanut - the hugest pug I've ever seen.

The poor guy is much older than the shelter thought (more like 13-15) and isn't doing well - his rescue took him to the vet and discovered he has a huge tumor and congestive heart failure...waiting to hear his fate, but he was supposed to be put to sleep on Sat at 4pm. We got him out of there at 11am that morning...it's always close calls in rescue & lots of scrambling...

We got Jackie O. to rescue at the adoptions event where they actually had a wedding for two rescue chi's who were adopted by one of the foster families. The two love each other so much - it was darling...here you can see Jackie O. getting acquainted with the rescue and with two of the other special rescues (DixieDoodle who was used as a beebee gun target and they'll found at least 4 of them embedded under her skin...and Snickers - who they believe was maced by someone and has a film over his eyes that looks like glaucoma... - how people could do things like that will always be a mystery to me.)

Finally, I will leave you with a shot of another dog we had nothing to do with rescuing, but that the girls have fallen in love with. Old Stanley who had to have so many teeth removed that his tongue hangs out to the right of his mouth. He really couldn't be sweeter and the girls are hoping that their daddy might let them foster Stanley for a while...

So these are the dogs we have been involved with this past summer until now. There are also a bunch that I am not listing that we helped save just by looking online and networking them to reputable rescues. It's a lot of hours and can be very demanding so I am trying to find a balance so that I can continue with the girls in our rescue endeavors and keep up with homeschooling, the shop, the blog, and life in general!

Hope you enjoyed this smidgen. Somehow the blog wouldn't be complete to me without mentioning these very special furbabies that have made a huge impact on our lives.

The head of the rescue listed a page on her site recently with pictures of the dogs that each of us have saved through transport or fostering, networking, etc. And she put Popeye in mine. We didn't have anything to do with saving Popeye, but he brought me to Linda, the head of the rescue we volunteer for. And when I was showing the page to the girls, Charley astutely looked up at me and said,

"Mommy, why is Popeye on your list? You didn't save Popeye...Popeye saved YOU!"

Indeed he did, my dear...indeed he did...