December 2009

This was a successful month, with the placement of two dogs and the promise of another finding a home soon. Honey and Rio, known formerly as Pogo and Cedar, were picked up in Pasco by animal control and taken to the shelter. The people there saw Honey had only three legs, but didn’t realize it was a relatively fresh injury. She received no medical care, and by the time she entered rescue she had quite a lot of infection. Erin and Tom, foster parents of Honey and Rio, made sure she was put on antibiotics immediately. Our vet in Tumwater did a proper amputation, and most of the rest of her leg had to be removed. Through all of this, Honey has been nothing but a sweetheart who seems to know how much better her life will be.

The same day Honey had her surgery, Rio was spayed. We believe Rio might be Honey’s daughter, though it’s impossible to tell because she is definitely a mix. Rio is probably about a year and a half old, while Honey is three or four. Two weeks after surgery, Erin and Tom were going out of town so they brought the dogs to Ron and Kathy’s house over Thanksgiving weekend. We combined the visit with Honey’s spay, something that couldn’t be done earlier because the first surgery was so long.

Nanook came to rescue from a family in Oregon who were told he had two bad ACLs and needed expensive surgery on both legs. Our vet disagreed, and after a full set of x-rays and tests it was determined he had iliopsoas muscle strains. Those are the muscles that go from the lumbar spine to the back legs, and were strained because he was confined up to 10 hours at a time and released to run hard. At 18 months old, it was too much for him. With some committed physical therapy he will heal and be fine.

While Honey and Rio were here, we had a visit from a couple who wanted to meet Nanook and thought they might also want a female as a companion. Originally they had Honey in mind, but while here they saw how well Nanook and Rio played together. Both are about the same age and temperament, willing to play and enjoyed being together. Update: Nanook and Rio were adopted together, but one of the resident cats was killed and they were both returned. There was no indication which one was involved (or even IF one was involved). They are once again available for adoption.

Kayla has been through two rounds of tests trying to find out what causes her chronic cough. She had two courses of antibiotics and one of Prednisone, and last week was sedated and samples were taken of the fluids in her lungs. As this is written we’re waiting for the results, which should finally be definitive. Kayla also has a bump on her nose that is growing and we fear it might be a fibro-sarcoma. If that is the case, her time with us will be determined by its growth. If not, she has a home. Celine, who previously adopted Makita and China (both older females) has asked that she get Kayla. We can’t imagine a better home, or one in which Kayla would be more loved. Tentative plans are to move Kayla to Celine in Coeur d’Alene just after Christmas.

This is the month of our annual fundraiser, and we have been busy taking orders and printing sweatshirts and t-shirts. Every year Holley out-does herself with new designs. We’re featuring “Samoyed Country,” “Got Squirrels?” and “Café Samoyed,” all of which are selling briskly. This year we also have beautiful calendars courtesy of Wolfpacks. For several years Paul has been extremely generous to rescue with donations of his calendars. We continue to provide White Pine collars and leads, and many people this year have combined shirts with calendars and collars. You can see all of them at http://www.nwsams.com/fundraiser.htm. We are blessed to have committed friends like Holley and Hans doing designs and Paul and Linda donating calendars to help our dogs.

In November and December this year rescue has had expenses of over $2,600 on just four dogs. This is exactly why fundraisers and donations are important to us. It’s what lets us help so many dogs.

Do you buy at Amazon.com? We just added a way for you to buy as usual while generating donations for Northwest Samoyed Rescue. Simply go to http://www.nwsams.com/amazon.htm and enter the product you’re looking for. It will cost you no more and Amazon will donate a percentage back to us. It’s a win-win for everybody!