August 2012
Fostering is always our greatest need, and people who are willing to take a very old senior dog are a genuine rarity. Doug and Michelle still have Char with them, and they report she is shaky and slow to trust, and they feel she has been abused at some time. She wants to stay outdoors and trembles when brought in. We’re sure that will improve with time as she gets used to them and finds that she is living with good people. One of the biggest rewards in rescue is seeing an old dog learn that some people can be very nice to them. They all deserve that.
We heard recently about a six year old Sammy boy in BC who needs a home, and we referred that one to Pat. She is going to check on him and see what’s up. It’s very nice that western Canada is officially covered now by the new Western Canada Samoyed Club. We let them know we will be glad to help whenever asked. Also on the horizon was a nine year old in Arizona we were asked to help, but we emailed Arizona Samoyed Rescue (who didn’t know about him), and they are handling him. It takes a wide network of rescuers to cover the whole country, even though there are still areas nobody can help. One of those is southeast Idaho, where we share the territory with Utah Samoyed Rescue. A one year old popped up on Craigslist in Idaho Falls, and since it’s not far from Salt Lake City we immediately passed that listing to them.
A few weeks ago Holley forwarded another Craigslist ad for a three year old male Samoyed in the Seattle area. We made contact with the poster to let them know we were willing to help, which we always do with Craigslist ads, and this time we got a reply. We have been emailing back and forth and right now we’re waiting for the listing info. Since we have a couple dozen applications on hand we know we can put him in a good home quickly, assuming they carry through. There may be some hesitation in placing him when they realize surrendering a dog means he goes away forever. It’s pretty common. If they ask for it we’ll offer some counseling and put them in touch with trainers or other Samoyed owners for advice.
The last time a Sam was in the Olympia shelter was six years ago, but thanks to Ryann’s association with SPDR we heard there was an old guy in the hold area. She had a call in to them, and asked if I would follow up since I was local. I called when they opened after the weekend and found out the owner had picked him up. It seems there was a house-sitter who didn’t think to check the shelter when he went missing.
At the deadline for this report we heard of three older dogs in Montana who need homes. We don’t have foster space, but this is a good time for Petfinder listings. Sometimes we don’t use Petfinder because it brings out the people who want pretty white dogs, with no knowledge of what they need. But this is a perfect example of when it’s valuable to us — and to the dogs.
You may have already heard of a seizure of 28 Samoyeds in Pennsylvania, but it’s been fairly quiet so far because the media called them “white Eskimo dogs.” Several rescuers got involved immediately and have been able to keep in touch with what’s happening. The primary contact is Danielle of MidAtlantic Samoyed Rescue, and she has previous experience placing dogs from a seizure. It’s a incredible job to do, but everyone will rally around if we need to, and dogs will be sent to adjoining rescues. If that happens they will need help in the form of money, since there is no place to foster that many dogs; they will need to be kenneled. In the meantime, the dogs are in no danger.
In October 2006 one of our adopters, Sheila, was working in a medical office and had her Sammy calendar on the wall. A man walked in and saw it, and asked if she had one. When she said yes, he asked if she wanted another. Sheila told him about rescue and got his information. We were at the National in Post Falls that week, so we asked Judy to go look at him. She said he was a handsome purebred boy who was tied to a tree. The owner said he had been there five years, and the people he got the dog from claimed he was nine years old. Judy was sure this information was wrong, so she helped him get to us. His name was Oakley and he came to us to be fostered. He fit in perfectly, and to make a long story short we ended up adopting him ourselves. After six more years, we knew he really had become a very old dog. He began to have problems, including senility, and then incontinence. We suspected kidney problems and a test showed he had lost 3/4 of kidney function. Although he still seemed happy, his heart was also failing and it was a matter of weeks, so we let him go before there was any pain. Oakley was one of the most genuinely nice, mellow, and friendly dogs we have ever known. He, and dogs like him, are the reason we do rescue.
