April 2008
Last month Cracker was on his way from Great Falls, Montana. This month he is in his forever home in Portland with a brand new name of Keiki, which we are told means “Little Boy” in Hawaiian. We first heard about him early in March and began writing to everybody we could think of trying to find help. It was Sandy Nelson who put us in touch with a wonderful organization that transports dogs all over Montana (and other states, too). They got him out of the shelter and to Missoula, where he stayed with Susan Lassila until she met Melissa on her way to the Albany show. Melissa fostered him for a short time and he was adopted to his new home. Last month in some editions of this report I omitted Sandy’s participation, and I want to correct that here. If she hadn’t known about the transport group, Keiki would not have made it out of the shelter. Thanks, Sandy.
Eddie was picked up as a stray and taken to Oldtown, Idaho. That’s the east side of Newport, Washington, which straddles the state border. They have no shelter, so dogs are boarded for five days at a vet clinic and then euthanized. We heard about him on his fourth day and were able to work out an agreement that we would have one extra day. Our daughter Kristina picked him up early on the 12th and fostered him for nearly two weeks, including hauling him to the vet for neutering. He is an extra-large Samoyed of unknown age who gets along with absolutely everybody; dogs, cats, and people. Our son Jeff brought him from Coeur d’Alene to our house two weeks ago and he is now completely recovered and ready for a new home. Eddie is a perfect dog except for being unsure of himself on bare floors. When he was anesthetized for his neutering the vet took hip x-rays, and they are in great shape, so apparently he had some problem in the past and simply doesn’t like uncarpeted areas. Patience and a little kibble have already got him used to most parts of the house and we’re confident he can soon handle anything. We expect to be introducing him to a possible home very soon.
We were contacted by the Crossroads animal shelter in Bellevue on March 30 about a dog who had just been surrendered. They sent a cell phone picture showing a nice looking girl, and Erin went to pick her up. When we looked through the paperwork that evening we found her breeder’s name and saw she was only 14 months old. Joy made a call to let her know one of her dogs was in rescue, safe and sound, and that Erin and Tom were spoiling her rotten. She arranged right away to have her girl flown back home, and we have heard since that she settled in perfectly with her family. The story behind the story is a bit hazy, but apparently the people who bought her gave her to a friend. The “friend” took her to the shelter. We are grateful to the shelter for calling us immediately. All’s well that ends well.
Katie is going to have a visit from someone toward the end of this month. After 13 months with us she really deserves to have a home of her own, even though it’s going to be hard to see her go. Her puppies recently had their first birthday, and we celebrated with Sue Yim, who brought Sadie to visit. There’s nothing quite so flattering as the reaction we got when Sadie realized where she was.
Mark your calendars! This year the rescue picnic is July 12. Since it is the same day as the WVSF picnic (sorry, it’s the only Saturday we have free in July), we’re planning to go later than usual so you can attend both. What could be better than two picnics in one day?