December 2011
As the year comes to a close we can report one of the busiest months in recent memory.
Chip and Ozzy are here for the foreseeable future. Although they are good dogs who deserve a great home, senior dogs are difficult to place. Chip is ten, while Ozzy is thirteen. They came from a woman on the Kitsap Peninsula who had been unemployed a long time and couldn’t afford vet care for them. We took care of their medical issues and returned the dogs to the woman, only to find out from her son that she has some other issues. He thought the dogs would be better off elsewhere and we agreed to take them back. Now, after six weeks here, they have settled in and we can see their real personalities. Both of them are loving dogs but probably didn’t have much physical contact with the previous owner. They are now beginning to separate emotionally from each other and finding their own places around the house. That’s good, because we are confident now that placing them in different homes would be OK. Despite their ages they have a lot of time left to give to a new family.
Tundra, who came back to us last month, has found a perfect new home. We don’t know her past, or why she has a case of separation anxiety, but she was causing damage when left alone and that’s why she was returned. Our friend Harry, who found two previous dogs through us, lost one of them recently and was left with just his thirteen year old. His wife recently moved to an assisted living facility and he was lonely. Tundra, whose new name will be Molly, is going to help tremendously with that. She wants to be next to her human 24 hours a day, asks (or demands) attention, and at six years old will keep Harry active. The report we received is all positive. He doesn’t go anywhere without his dogs, and they are with him when he visits his wife.
A couple years ago Ryann Grady talked to us about becoming the Samoyed breed representative for Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue, one of the oldest rescue groups in the northwest. For many years there has been no rep for Sammies because SCWS Rescue, now NWSR, has been active enough nobody was needed. Nevertheless we thought it would be a good idea for her to sign up, because there can’t be too many people watching over our dogs. Until last month there was nothing for her to hear. Then, because of a change in the way things were done at the Tacoma Humane Society, Ryann was called about a Tacoma dog. Our foster space is full, so together we began asking for help. Kathy Thomas asked Norma Irish if she had room and she said yes. Kathy Manor picked up Sam and took him to Norma’s home, hoping we could place him in three or four days. We had a perfect family who have been waiting a while, but this was over Thanksgiving and they weren’t home. It took a few extra days, but as soon as they returned home Liz and Van visited and told us it would be the perfect place for Sam, just as we expected.
In the meantime Sam came down with kennel cough. You might think this would be common working with as many dogs as we get from shelters, but this is only the second or third time ever. Norma took Sam to her vet to verify the diagnosis, and she wasn’t concerned about his cough. Just as fortunately the adoptive family also wasn’t concerned, and Sam is now in his forever home in Renton. By the way, we were able to trace his story back to his breeder, a woman in Port Angeles who called us last summer to take her two dogs because she was moving to Ohio.
By now you have probably heard of the seizure of 102 dogs in Duncanville, Texas in October. The woman who had them showed her dogs, and over the years bought a number of dogs from breeders around the country. Nobody knows what happened, but sometime in recent years things changed. She kept them in crates full time, didn’t care for them, and worst of all didn’t clean the crates. For the full story you can read news reports posted at http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/duncanville/.
About a dozen dogs were Samoyeds. Lynn Sluder and Claudia Khan, of North Texas Samoyed Rescue, turned their lives over to getting the dogs to safe new homes. They went to every court hearing and worked cooperatively with the SPCA of Texas. They helped breeders get their dogs back; a number of those dogs were from Christie Smith of d’Keta. One or two were well enough to be flown back right away, but others were in poor health and the SPCA wouldn’t release them.
On December third two more of the d’Keta dogs were flown to Portland, where Christie met them. Dixie went to Linda and Paul Martin, while Christie drove Graham north to us. Graham is nine years old and has been a Champion since he was 22 months old. We could even find pictures of him over the years in the ring. He was very dirty after his experience, and luckily for us Joy Ritter drove up to bathe and groom him for us. At the end of the day he looked ready for the ring again. His ears were damaged over the years, and it looks like he was in fights where his ears were bitten and not treated. In talking to the vet who treated him twice for hematomas in his ears, we learned the ears were erect after treatment, so we may never know exactly what Graham went through during the last few years.
You may remember a few years ago the story of Casey, who went to live with a senior lady on Vancouver Island. He had been his “daddy’s favorite boy” until his owner died in his late 40’s suddenly, and from there he went to a shelter in southern Oregon. When we got him here he was filthy, to the point we had to wash him before combing, something we never want to do. About that time we heard from Pat Cummins about Lorraine, a woman she knew who always had Samoyeds and was now living alone after losing the last one. We decided Casey would be perfect for her, and he absolutely was. In the pictures we received over the years we saw a handsome and perfectly groomed Samoyed and a happy Lorraine. But then, with time, Casey became more and more infirm and she had to let him go. That was a few months ago and we have been searching ever since for the right dog for a woman in her 90’s. After consulting with Christie and people who know Lorraine well, we all decided Graham would be just right.
On the seventh of December Kathy drove Graham north to the Canadian border. She was met there by a friend who crossed the border and handed him off to Paul, the husband of Diana, a good friend of Lorraine (are you keeping all the players straight?). After taking the ferry over to Victoria, Diana and Paul delivered Graham to an ecstatic Lorraine. This second picture of Graham is with Lorraine, who couldn’t possibly have been happier.
The next morning we heard that Graham slept well all night, but took advantage of an early trip outdoors to jump on the bed and spend some time there before getting up for the day. He wouldn’t let Lorraine out of his sight, and she said she had to call a neighbor to watch him so he wouldn’t crawl in the shower with her. We don’t know about Graham’s previous life, but we know the rest of it will be wonderful.
There are many people named in this month’s report. Once again we are reminded that we owe a lot to all those terrific volunteers who help us, because nobody could do rescue alone. Thank you!
More pictures of the dogs are online:
Tundra – http://nwsams.smugmug.com/rescue/tundra
Sam – http://nwsams.smugmug.com/rescue/sam-tacoma
Graham – http://nwsams.smugmug.com/rescue/graham