March 2011
The next time I say it’s been slow in rescue, would someone please tell me to knock on wood? We just had the busiest month in history and it shows no signs of slowing down soon.
First was Kyoshi, a five year old male who lived with a woman in the Everett area. We have heard many stories over the years, but it’s not often someone truly surrenders a dog because they are thinking only of him. We have no doubt his owner wanted to keep him, but she was working two jobs and she knew he needed to be with people to be happy. Her name sounded familiar so we looked back through records and found emails from her. The first was an application and another was a message that she had put a deposit on a puppy. That told us the breeder, and of course we sent a quick email to her. Within five minutes the phone rang to let us know she would take care of her dog. We suggested that we had some great homes already checked and ready to go, and after some discussion she agreed to let us do the placement. Erin and Tom drove to get Kyoshi and brought him to us to foster. Two days later a couple from Portland came to visit and he left with them. They had recently lost one of their Samoyeds and it was exactly the right time for them. Kyoshi is getting along wonderfully with them, happy with all the attention he gets in his new life.
Next came Tasha, a four and a half year old female from a military home. Once again, Erin and Tom made the contact for us and made sure her owner knew about a group that fosters dogs during deployments. His wife had recently divorced him and he wanted to make a clean break from everything, including his dog, so they brought her to us. We could probably have passed her off as a one year old because of her energy level. She is affectionate, loved everybody and all the other dogs, and we decided she should go to a special home with Dennis and Terry. They adopted Jade almost ten years ago, one of the first dogs we fostered when we began with rescue. Jade is still doing well but was lonely after the passing of Sonoma. Tasha is fitting in very well.
Sometimes things are meant to happen, as in the case of Nakita. She was listed in Red Bluff, California, and only the day before we had been talking with people in Auburn who said they would drive to Montana or California if that’s what they needed to do to find another mix like the dog they recently lost. When Nakita popped up we wrote to them. It turned out they have friends in Red Bluff who could go check her out, and quickly they scheduled a drive south. On the way home they called to let us know they could stop by, and we were able to meet Nakita. She is going to need a firm hand, but they seem to know what they’re in for and willing to do the training.
Around the first of the year we heard the story of Shivers, a Samoyed on hold in the Great Falls, Montana shelter. He was being held as evidence in a case where he was accused of biting someone. After investigating they doubted it had happened the way his owner claimed, and since his owner was in jail on another charge a local attorney took on Shivers’ case. We heard about all this when the attorney wrote to another rescue and they forwarded the message to us. We placed a dog a few years back to a woman in SW Montana, and she had let us know she would like us to find another dog for her; when we heard about Shivers we asked if she would consider him. She said yes, so we wrote to the attorney to introduce rescue and give our adopter a reference. Recently the attorney went to court and was able to save Shivers, and he subsequently drove 200 miles to drive Shivers to a new home with our adopter in Stevensville. He is doing well and shows no signs of aggression at all. It’s heartwarming to know that an attorney would take on the case of a Samoyed and save his life.
You may have heard of a seizure of 35 dogs from a breeder in Canby. She was breeding Golden Retrievers and Coton d’Tulears, having switched recently from Samoyeds because the Cotons sell for more money. There was one Samoyed in the seizure and Melissa is staying in contact with the Oregon Humane Society, where the dogs are being held. We will attempt to get the Samoyed as soon as they allow her to be released.
As this is being written we have three Samoyeds about to come from Kalispell, Montana. Two are males about six years old and one is a female who is slightly older. We have quite a number of applicants still waiting we we’re hoping for fairly quick placements of all three.