February 2008
This has been a month that brought both highs and lows and was mostly about senior dogs, with a couple puppies thrown in for fun. It also brought change.
Last October we found Sophie at the Bellevue Humane Society. Our vet gave her a check-up and she was in bad shape. Besides bad teeth and a heart murmur, she also had cancer. We decided she would stay here as a hospice dog, but when Carey heard about her he called to offer her a home. Sophie moved in with him November 10, and for over two months she lived happily as part of his family. She began to fail in the middle of January, and on the 29th she passed away in his arms. She now lies under his favorite rhododendron and will stay with him forever.
Without the support of people like Carey we couldn’t do rescue. This is the third time he has taken an old dog. He knew his heart would be broken, but he took Sophie because she needed him, and we think he is one in a million. He wrote a touching message about Sophie and we would like you to take time to read it below.
We have good news about two senior dogs. Dakota was the first dog we placed after taking over from Cheryl and Steve, and we were astounded when his family of over five years decided they would not take him along when they moved. A few days after he arrived here he turned 11 years old, and we worried it would be difficult to place him. Fortunately he was no trouble to have here, and has been the only foster dog we ever allowed to roam the house at night.
A few weeks ago we had an application from a woman in British Columbia who saw Cody listed on Petfinder. We corresponded about all our fosters, and on February 2 she drove down to meet them and introduce them to her Malamute girl, Ursa. I think all of us thought she would be taking Cody back with her, but when Cody saw Ursa he told us she was too much girl for him! He parked in the hallway outside the room most of the time they were here. Dakota, on the other hand, who is a reserved and quiet boy, walked up and gave Ursa a big nose poke. When she flopped down on her back we knew the chemistry was good, and Dakota is now a Canadian dog. He had dental surgery for a bad tooth last week (we discovered the tooth the day before he left), so as agreed we will send his new Mom a refund of the adoption fee as partial reimbursement of the vet bill. We’re delighted he is doing so well.
Cody, who decided big girls aren’t for him, felt quite the opposite about another senior male named Mishka, who lives with an older couple in north Seattle. When they visited on the 7th he presented us with the second adoption surprise in a week. We expected Katie to be a better match, but it was Cody who jumped up on the sofa and snuggled with his new Dad. We don’t know how old Cody is but we suspect at least 10; he is as active as a Samoyed can be, and appears to be completely recovered from removal of a testicular tumor in September. We had a full panel run on him two weeks before he left, and all was quite normal.
With two of our three fosters placed, it seems very quiet with only Katie remaining. She has been here nearly a year, had puppies, shed completely and grown her hair back, and has also battled quite an allergy. She chewed on herself her entire life, to the point her front teeth are worn to the gum line. Katie is on her third brand of special dog food, searching for the one that will keep her from itching. Right now we are also giving her a very low dose of cortisone and that is keeping the allergies under control.
We needed to update rabies shots on all three fosters before we had our visit from the Canadian adopter because she would need a current certificate to get her dog back in the country. Our rescue vet didn’t have an opening so we took them to the vet we use for our own dogs, and he had a different suggestion for Katie. He believes it is a severe flea allergy, and after consideration we think he may be right. Cody brought fleas into the house, and it was about then she had a terrible problem with scratching and hot spots. Only twice have we found a flea on her, but she is the only dog who had a problem. Our vet suggested a new flea treatment called “Comfortis” which is especially effective for allergic dogs. Whether or not it is our imagination, we think Katie is feeling better. Certainly she is displaying more energy and not scratching herself at all.
On January 31 we spotted two puppies in a shelter in Hillsboro. Melissa checked the next day and was able to get them out right away. The story is that the breeder dropped them off because, at 11 weeks, they were no longer cute enough to sell (we have a pedigree on hand if anyone wants a copy, but you probably won’t recognize any dogs on it). Melissa called her good friend Gail, who has had Sammies all her life; we called Lon and Mary, who after adopting so many old and frail dogs over the years deserved to have a puppy. Both of them jumped at the idea, and on February 9 everyone met at our home to see the puppies off to their new lives. We took dozens of puppy pictures, which you can see at http://nwsams.smugmug.com/gallery/4272382.
A month ago Melissa heard from a woman in Salem who wanted to surrender her Samoyed because she couldn’t afford to keep her. After some careful checking, Melissa discovered the dog has a chronic cough and her vet wanted to run some tests her owner couldn’t pay for. We gave this a lot of thought, and rather than take a dog into rescue and run the tests ourselves we offered to pay the vet bill. We established this was a genuine hardship case, and the best interests of the dog will be to keep her in the home she knows and try to make her healthy again. Payment went directly to the vet, and we are waiting to hear the results. Our first mission has always been to do what is best for each dog, and we think we did that. Funding came from the Northwest Samoyed Rescue account.
A significant event happened early in February when we received the IRS “Letter of Determination” that announced Northwest Samoyed Rescue is now incorporated as a 501(c)(3) public charity! This has been in the works for over a year and a half, and a lot of effort has gone into making it happen. SCWS Rescue and Samoyed Rescue of Oregon will combine and be a single entity dedicated to helping Samoyeds in Washington, Oregon, and northern Idaho. As before, we will assist when possible in Western Montana and will help Pat Cummins in British Columbia. It will also mean we can be listed on the SCA and AKC websites.
What does it mean to SCWS members that we are going to be independent of the club? Practically speaking, nothing. We will still be members of the club, and NWSR will be affiliated with both SCWS and WVSF. It means we will carry our own insurance, insulating the club from any potential problems, which is the reason most rescues are becoming independent. Rescue reports will still be in the newsletter, and we will still ask for help from everybody as we always have. You will now get to hear about Oregon dogs, as well as the ones we help in Washington. The biggest change is that donations will be tax deductible, and we will be able to pursue grant money. We will publish financial statements and keep the clubs apprised of our activities. As agreed over a year ago, the current SCWS rescue account and the SRO account will be combined with existing NWSR funds. Every penny you ever gave to help rescue will be carried forward, and now there will be even increased accountability.
Board members of NWSR have been set since our state incorporation in May 2006. They are Melissa and Terry Hopper, Ron and Kathy Manor, and Joy Ritter. Anyone interested in viewing our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws can ask for the link. Even though we are proud of this change, our mission will never change. It’s always going to be “all about the dogs.”
Following is the message we received from Carey:
Ron and Kathy, friends and family,
Sophie, my Sammy girl friend, passed away at home and in my arms on the afternoon of January 29th 2008 after her somewhat brief struggle with Cancer. She was a good girl with a pretty face. She never asked for more than I could give and she was a joy to have in our home. It was an honor and a privilege to care for this old gal. She was only with us for a short time.
After my inquiry about Sophie around October of last year, Ron and Kathy of Sammy Rescue told me she was a really sweet girl but also gave me the honest truth about her health in regards to an aging girl of around 12 years old with some health problems. She would be placed as a Hospice placement due to the Cancer that was reported in her health check-up upon entering rescue… “She may last a week… or a month and in the end she was going to break your heart” they said. They then asked in the next breath… “Do you still want her”? She arrived in our home a week later and yes; in the end she truly did break my heart. They always do. Her few months with us were good and pain free. She got around well and claimed her doggie bed and old green blanket very quickly. She always used the doggie door… and even to the very end she never had an accident on the floor. Two weeks ago she just stopped eating, I took her to the vet’s last Friday and was told her time was coming to an end. I found her in the yard early the next morning, she fell down while going to the bathroom and was never able to stand by herself again. I carried her into the house and laid her down on her bed, she never tried to get back up. She had her last appointment with the vet late today- but she decided to take her last breath at home around 2:00 pm while I was by her side.
I dug her grave the day before her passing in our yard next to a large pink and white Rhododendron bush that I love so much. It was lightly snowing and I thought to myself that it was a fitting day to let go of my old Sammy girl; it truly was a snowy Sammy day. My eight year old Sammy boy “Cheyenne” sat nearby and watched as I dug and dug. He would look at me then look at the hole and then look back at me as if to say, “she may have been bigger than life, but I think that hole is plenty big”. As I wiped away a tear… or more, I adjusted the size of the hole and stepped back to look at my handy work. Looks just right I thought, big enough to keep her cozy and shallow enough for her to hear the other dogs bark and play in the yard and also to hear me yelling at Cheyenne this spring to get the hell out of my garden beds and to stop digging up the flowers.
This afternoon I wrapped Sophie up in her favorite green blanket “just as snug as a bug in a rug”. I placed her in a pine box I made for her the day before, gave her one last kiss on her fuzzy white cheek, place a dog cookie- well two- next to her paws. I screwed on the lid as I said “good night ole’ girl- sleep tight” and placed the box in the hole. All along Cheyenne was sitting next to the grave watching every movement I made, as if standing guard over an old trusted friend, sniffing the cold air and licking the fresh fallen snow as it collected on the ground around us, his beautiful white coat gleaming in the cloudy filtered sun light of a cold January afternoon. I finished filling in the hole with dirt and then gave Cheyenne a great big bear hug- he didn’t need it, but I sure did. The late afternoon sun begin to get much more blurry as Cheyenne tried to lick away the tears. As we walked away and I looked back over my shoulders, I knew that someday in the future I’d be out here digging yet another hole- right beside the last– not because I want to, but because I find it an honor and a privilege to do so….
Thanks as always to Ron and Kathy for everything you do for Rescue as well as to its volunteers and donations that are made. Many thanks to the people that donated cash in Sophie’s name as she entered our rescue organization. I know money spent on a few bad cracked teeth and her other medical needs as she came into the program was not cheap, but it truly made her last few months of life a lot more comfortable to say the very least. She deserved every dollar given.
I’d also like to remind our Sammy community that if you have never fostered or better yet made room in your home and your lives for a Samoyed in need- young or old, to please give it a try. You will come to find that it was the right thing to do and yes… in the end they will break your heart, and each time it hurts just as much as the first. This has been my third senior rescue in the last few years- and it will not be my last. As long as I have a roof over my head and capable of caring for at least one Samoyed in need that I will always MAKE room in my home and my heart, especially our seniors. I don’t need to save them all, just one at a time.
Carey