May 2008
We are happy to report this month that Eddie has a home of his own. He was adopted April 26 and lives with his new family in the Troutdale area. Eddie is the dog we found in northern Idaho and rescued the day after he was scheduled to be put to sleep. The area he was picked up has no animal control so a vet keeps the dogs for five days; if not claimed, they are euthanized. We are grateful to the people of animal control who agreed to stretch his time until Kristina could pick him up. She and Jim fostered Eddie for two weeks, getting him neutered and ready for adoption. He moved to our home and was here about three more weeks before his family found him. They originally came to look at Katie, who has a striking resemblance to their Samoyed mix “Sam,” when they met Eddie. After talking it over for a week they came back for Eddie.
That means Katie is still with us, as she has been for 14 months. Although she is a delight to have around, she is definitely not a purebred Samoyed; we’re not even sure how much Samoyed is in the mix. This is one of the problems we have with shelter identifications, especially when we are trying to cultivate a relationship with them. 
There is always a fine line between building a reputation so they will call us and taking dogs we shouldn’t. Undoubtedly we will err on the side of a mix again someday, but for now we have added a policy of requesting pictures before we will talk about taking a dog.
For now we think the best thing for Katie is to remove her listing from Petfinder (and also from the Northwest Samoyed Rescue website). We’ll give it a rest for a month, then add her as a new listing and see if that generates any interest. Although there are about 200 people a week looking at her picture and description, only a handful have made inquiries. It’s too bad, because she is a sweet dog who loves people. Her allergies are a thing of the past and her coat is long again (and shedding again).
A female Samoyed popped up at the shelter in Silverdale, the same place we found Finnegan three years ago. This time her owner came to pick her up, so there was no need for us to get her. Another mix is listed in Tacoma and one was in LaGrande, but in both cases they were definitely not Samoyeds.
The flurry of dogs we traditionally see in the first month of May hasn’t happened yet this year. Let’s keep our fingers crossed this is the start of a new tradition.