It's been a long time

We haven't posted in quite a while. A whole lot has happened and changed.

We've had sooooo many adoptions. We only have five dogs left in our adoption program and four kittens!! We've found homes for many of our courtesy listings as well. We've helped transport many owner surrender and shelter pulled dogs to new rescues that have room for them. We've assisted the community with vetting their pets and feeding them. We've had a lot of success.

That said, on October 1st, we lost $1000 a month that was coming in to keep the rescue going. The loss of a career that funded the rescue has been the end of it. While we certainly don't plan on closing the rescue altogether, we are no longer able to pull dogs from shelters or to foster them on the scale we have been doing for so many years.

We will still be helping with courtesy listings for owners that are able to foster their pets until homes or rescues can take them in. Some of our policies may need to be changed to support the new style the rescue will be operating in. We have put aside a part of our website that has low cost vet options for people in the middle Tennessee area.

We hope to continue the blog and use it to update everyone with the things we still are able to do to help out in our community. It will also be an area we can keep track of statistics and studies related to domestic pets. Please keep watching for the new information we will be posting!

Life-saving information - please read!!!

Tonight I almost lost my best friend.

I did a transport from Tennessee to Chicago last fall. At the fist stop, a shelter that we've been working with for some time, I saw the most adorable long haired chihuahua in a cage. Unlike others that were afraid to approach people, she came right to the front, her tail wagging and a smile on her face. My first thought was anyone would be thrilled to bring her home. I knew I could find her a home easily.

I asked the Director about her and she said she came in as a stray. Someone had taken an application home but it hadn't come back yet. If I was interested I could take her home. As much as I wanted to, I said no, if there was a chance of her getting a home I wanted that for her. But all the way to and from Chicago, she was all I could think of.

On my way back I called the Director and asked about her. She said the application for her had been denied and asked if I wanted her. Ha! Uh, heck yeh!! I was so happy to stop that night on the way and pick her up. My first thought was she'd be adopted before I got home, but in the back of my mind I knew she was mine and never leaving.

I named her Munchkin, and call her Munchi. I've had so many dogs in my life that I just adored. Every time I've lost one I've cried. But Munchi is special. Munchi is my baby.

A couple months ago a litter of kittens came home with us that had to be bottle fed after their mother died. Munchi took over within days, cleaning them and warming them and protecting them and allowing them to nurse. Eventually she began producing milk. Her story got out and the news came and did a story on her.

Since then her babies have been vaccinated and placed for adoption. Munchi went back to just being my baby. Then a few nights ago I brought home another litter in need. Munchi again took right over.

This morning I had to run an errand. Little did I know that while I was gone, my baby's life nearly came to an end.

One of the foster parents that also helps us with grooming, walking and cleaning came by. She brought Bonaroo, one of the puppies we have for adoption. Munchi and Roo are best buddies and wrestle all the time. While Debbie was in the other room, she heard a huge commotion coming from the living room. She walked in to find Roo thrashing around, flipping Munchi all over the room. She found Munchi's collar wrapped around Roo's bottom jaw, and as he flipped and turned it tightened more and more around Munchi's throat.

As hard as she tried she couldn't get it undone and Munchi had lost consciousness. She ran outside to get John. John said the collar was so tight he couldn't even get a knife between her and the collar to cut it off. By this time Munchi's tongue was hanging out, and her eyes had glazed over. There was blood all over from Munchi's eye and mouth and Roo's chest from the struggle as they each battled to free themselves.

John realized by spinning Roo he could loosen Munchi's collar enough to get it off. When he did he realized she wasn't breathing and had no heartbeat. Thank God his career as a paramedic all came back. He was able to do canine CPR on her. He said for a while he thought it was too late, as her eyes had no life at all in them. And then after one breath for her, he went to do a chest compression and saw a flicker of life in her eyes.

He continued the CPR until she was breathing on her own. He called the vet who thankfully called him back. We'd not used this vet in over a year after severing ties with them. With no hesitation at all John was told to rush her over ASAP. He did a thourough exam and said she had a concussion, a broken tooth, a laceration over one eye, that eye also was very swollen, as was her throat. He gave her an injection of steroids to help with the swelling in her throat.

Tomorrow will be rough for her. She'll be sore for a day or two. But other than that, she's fine. John's knowledge of CPR and the quick reaction of him and Debbie saved her life.

Needless to say, every single collar on every single dog in this house has been removed. We will be spending a pretty penny this week on harnesses for everyone. Never, ever, ever again in my life will I ever place a collar on any animal again.

Please, think about what happened to us. I wasn't here. But when I walked through the door and John handed me Munchi and said to sit down and prefaced it all with 'Munchi is fine, but I need to tell you what happened', I can't even begin to tell you how much of a wreck I was. I felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I can't imagine if I'd been here.

Collars can be so dangerous. Please switch any pet you have in a collar to a harness and don't risk what we went through. We are so blessed that we've been given another chance. I can't imagine my life without my little Munchi and I'd never want anyone to go through what I did.

Another week goes by

Time flies................well, when it's spring and summer. Puppies and kittens are coming at us in record time and it gets hard that no matter how hard you try and how much you do, there is always another litter in need.

Payton, re-named Snow White, has lost all of her puppies. We don't know what happened. They would seem fine and within an hour their stools would turn black and their gums would turn white and we'd lose them. We were losing nearly one every day. We'd get worried but then they'd seem fine and we'd move on. Then we'd lose another. Yesterday, the last little one passed after seeming like he'd beat the odds.

Their loss means we can take the litter of puppies from the cave. We've got the room now, though it came to us in a sad way with the loss of Payton's babies. Payton will be coming back to us for some eval time. As soon as we're able - hopefully tomorrow morning - we will go get the other puppies and move them to their foster home.

We got a call one night last Thursday that another litter of kittens was in need. 2 days old and their mother had been hit by a car. When we picked them up, they were in a cold wet blanket and barely moving. I was very scared they were going into hypothermic shock. I put them on the floor board in their bucket and turned the heat on low, not wanting to shock them more by warming them too quickly and then raced home as fast as I could.

I called ahead and told my daughter to get the food warmed immediately and have it waiting when I walked through the door. I got in and we started taking them out, worse first and feeding them. With some warm food in their belly they immediately became vocal.

Once we got them settled my daughter said as soon as she brought out the kitten bed, Munchie, my long haired chihuahua, started dancing. It was the same bed she'd used for the litter of kittens she nursed a couple months ago. When I walked through the door carrying them in the box and she could smell them, she started dancing and crying. She knew she had more babies in need.

Once fed, we placed them in the small bed with a clean warm blanket and Munchie waiting. She began cleaning them and snuggling with them and they settled right in.

I had little hope they'd make it through the night. I got up the next morning totally expecting to find at least one passed. I was very shocked and thrilled to find them all doing very well, quite vocal in their demands for breakfast. My daughter had been up to feed them twice in the middle of the night and I took my turn first thing in the morning.

They were born last Tuesday and today, at 6 days old they're eating about 3 cc at each feeding, up from just a few drops. They are all healthy and active and quite happy with their chihuahua mommy.

We adopted out a kitten at our adoption event this weekend. Shrek came back to spend a night with us while his foster family was out of town. He was thrilled to see them and quite happy to hop in the car with them and head back to his temporary home.

With the adoption a week ago of Pierre, Bridgette was able to take home another fur kid and chose O'Connor, who was returned this week. Bonaroo has finally had his first two sets of vaccine and was able to go home with Debbie, as it looks like Shaggy will be going to his home on Thursday. Thelma will be going home with Susan tomorrow until she finds her forever home since Louise went to her new home today.

As always, we're still looking for foster homes. The more we have, the more dogs we can help. We need fosters for:

Sugar and Spice, two year old beagle / terrier mix sisters. Pulled from the shelter in very poor health, it's taken them over a year to be healthy enough for their full vetting and ready for a home. Spice is more outgoing and starting to realize that humans are actually pretty cool. Sugar is much more reserved and still not sure how she feels. She spends her time at adoption events laying down shaking, so she needs someone that's patient and will take her to lots of places to give her a good dose of socialization.

Amy and Dooley, a pair of year to two year old puggles, beagle / pug mixes. Dooley is the two year old male and Amy is the one year old female. Both are just about 100% housebroken, extremely friendly and outgoing and very playful. Would be fine in an apartment setting or out in the middle of a huge farm.

Brady, a 6 month old male Tibetan Spaniel mix. We've just started housebreaking him. He's young and full of life and just starting to learn all those important lessons. He had some dominance issues when he got here, but in a house with 28 other dogs, most of whom are females with great maternal instincts, he was taught proper dog behavior very quickly. He now is playing really well with the other dogs and has become even more outgoing than he already was.

Duval, a 7 year old male rat terrier. He's absolutely petrified of children, as he was abused very, very badly by them as a puppy. He must be in an adult only home with no livestock. He's fabulous with other dogs and cats and warms up to adults really fast. He prefers women to men but will warm to men over time as well. Housebroken and crate trained, he needs someone with time and experience.

Randy, year old male American Pitbull Terrier. He had been adopted to a family with young children. He adored their daughter and when she was at our adoption events, it was common for him to take naps with her, curled under the blanket right beside her. However, their family had a friend with a little boy that was allowed to torment him for a month, leaving him scared half to death. After a month he finally growled at the boy and then snapped as a warning to leave him alone. They decided he couldn't stay and returned him. He's been around other people and children since then and been fine, so we don't think there's any aggression issues, as much as their was ill behaved child issues.

Rex is a 3 year old male beagle / hound. He's a major love bug and will spend all day by your side and all night sleeping at the foot of your bed. He's 'low man on the totem pole' in our house and the other dogs don't spend much time playing with him. Sugar and Spice gang up on him, trying to play but ultimately just scaring him. He's got a hound bark and bay for sure and needs to be on a big farm some place where his bark isn't going to upset neighbors.

Batman and Robin were dumped in the local dump together. As if being dumped in a landfill wasn't bad enough the people that worked there would throw things at them and kick at them. Their young lives weren't very pleasant. A young couple picked them up and brought them home and held on to them until we could take them. They are both young mixes, Batman a border collie type mix of maybe 12 pounds and Robin looks like a shepherd / lab mix but is only about 20 pounds and full grown. Batman has really come out of his shell and will approach people when called. Robin is much more hesitant and like other dogs with a bad start in life will need someone with lots of love and patience. They are fine in a crate and Batman is crate trained but Robin will potty in his if he's left alone too long.

All of the dogs that need foster homes can be split up, even if listed as a pair above. The ones listed above are a bit 'bonded' but can be seperated and will re-bond with another dog or human rather quickly.

If you are interested in helping, please see our website for more information at:
http://hilltopanimalrescueteam.com/foster_parent.htm

And the puppies keep coming.....

Now that we've got Payton (now named Snow White and her puppies are the seven dwarfs) settled in, we have started getting calls of other dogs and puppies in need. It seems this is the week to whelp!

Buttercup is a possible border collie / golden retreiver mix. She showed up at my husband's barber's property to give birth to at least 4 little puppies in a cave. They've not been able to get in to them and we're very worried about their safety, so we're trying very hard to find a foster home for them ASAP. The puppies are a week to 10 days old and should have their eyes open now. We'd like them to imprint on humans as soon as they can to make sure they'll be friendly, outgoing little guys.

We also got a call about a possible Irish Setter mix girl that has 7 puppies. They think the fathers are a rottie mix and a lab mix. They were born on Tuesday, July 6th. 4 of them have rottie markings, 1 is brown with a darker ridge running down their back and the other 2 are blond with the same darker ridge. They have foster homes so we'll be taking care of them and updating with photos.

If you can help temp foster the litter with possibly 4 puppies and are in middle TN please let us know. We can provide a kennel, food, vetting, etc for them. We just want to get them to safety!

Busy busy busy busy busy.....

It's really funny. People that truly are dedicated to animals and somehow manage to find time and energy that never existed before seem to find each other. It's a wonderful thing!

We've added an amazing groomer who also is keeping the dogs walked and the kennels clean and the ICU spotless for us! I have no clue how in the world she does what she does. She can bathe a dozen dogs in the time it takes me to get ready to bathe one. Every one of our dogs fell in love with her instantly. Duval who's afraid of everyone and Diva who's very shy were instantly head over heels for her. And she's got an amazing hubby that even comes along to help out when we're busy too. On top of everything else they're doing for us, they're also fostering kittens and have fallen in love with, and are planning on adopting, the momma terrier we pulled from the shelter.

We were contacted by another amazing lady who offered to foster a mother lab and her newborn 8 puppies. They were supposed to go to a rescue up north and we had a temporary foster all lined up for them. Saturday rolled around and the transport never showed and the foster couldn't keep them any longer. We asked if this foster could take them until we got another transport together and she agreed. When the transport failed to pick them up again she offered to keep them as long as needed so they could join our program and we would know they're safe. After taking them in she offered to take the puppies we have as well. On top of the fostering she's doing for us, she's raising 6 children and going to college to get her PhD!! The girl is a super hero, I'm telling ya!!

It seems like we've finally kicked the kennel cough virus. What a nightmare. Coccidia seems to finally be dead. We're slowly but surely emptying the ICU room. We've got a couple that still have an occasional dry cough, but the hacking and heaving is over. Phew!

Randy has come back to us. His adoptive mom said he never relaxed in her house. Her daughter said a family friend's little boy was over a lot and liked to tease him and scare him. She kept telling him to stop but he didn't. Sounds like Randy may have been tormented a bit. Yesterday the kid had him backed into a corner and wouldn't stop. Randy growled and the kid kept it up. Left with no other way out he snapped and scared the little boy. The daughter said he never got close to making contact with the boy, just got close enough to scare him into backing off. But the mom was freaked out, so back he is. He was thrilled when we pulled in the driveway and he saw John. His tail didn't stop wagging all night. He and Diva were still playing this morning.

We'll be bringing him to adoption events to re-socialize him and let him see that not all kids are that way. Such a shame, as he's one of our dogs that was happier with children and other dogs than he was with adults. We're just hoping that the torment hasn't left him terrified of all children.

We've added a guest book to our website. It's still in the early stages of design, but it's up and running and ready for your input!

Tomorrow is our 4th of July party at Petco. We'll be having contests and raffles and all kinds of fun games with prizes. Bring the kids along. We've got a coloring contest just for them!! Only a few dogs will be in attendance. We're trying to focus this more on the people that are dedicated to responsible ownership and thank you for being so wonderful! The few that will attend however will be:

Gomer and Andy, of course
Sarge (we have someone coming to look at him so he may get adopted!)
Pierre, the scottie - this will be his first event!
Connor - he's just waiting for someone to come along that wants a boy to play ball with!

Not sure on the others yet, but stop in and find out for yourself!

Great adoption events continue!

We started the week with our trip to the shelter to pull dogs. Those that follow us may have seen the post on Facebook, everyone taking bets on how many I'd come home with. Well, the winning guess was 16! Among them:

Bonaroo, a sheltie mix puppy boy about 8 weeks old
Jasmine, an 8 week old yellow lab puppy girl that was adopted the day after we got back!
Merlin, an 8 week old GSD / rottie mix puppy boy
Dooley, a beagle / pug mix boy about a year old
Gin'E (for search engine) and her 3 nursing puppies Google, Yahoo and Bing. They are rat terrier mixes.
Junebug, a female 8 week old Great Pyrenees mix puppy
O'Connor, a gorgeous young adult male American Eskimo
Scooby, a young adult male Yorkie
Scrappy, a young adult male Cairn Terrier
Shaggy, a young adult male Schnauzer
Pierre, a young adult male Scottie
Precious, a 6 year old female toy poodle
Prince, a 5 year old male toy poodle

They are on a quarantine hold for two weeks during which time we'll be evaluating their temperament.

This week's adoption event was wonderful again!

With Mr.HART in Atlanta for a concert, transport space was limited. My vehicle is so tiny I'd have to really work to transport a mouse! Luckily our shelter coordinator had the day off and Mr.TransportCoordinator didn't mind staying home to play fur kid daddy for mommy!

Tammy got to our house on time but I was running late............as usual! Tammy's got several dogs that just came available that are just wonderful so we decided to give the other dogs a week off. We loaded up Sugar and Spice, two adorable little bassett sisters and Mork and Mindy two very tiny little Norfolk terrier mix puppies that someone had found in a dumpster. I brought along Bolt since he'd only been to one event so far.

We loaded and thanks to Tammy's driving and few cars on the road we made it on time. We had tons of volunteers show up, always a wonderful thing! We'd had a lady call before we left to say she was driving all the way from Crossville with her fur baby to visit Spice. We walked in and the manager tracked us down to let us know she'd called to let him know too! She obviously fell in love with her over the internet!

In the meantime we had two ladies come in and fall instantly in love with Mork and Mindy. No surprise to any of us. They are beyond precious! They decided to adopt them both! We were so happy. After some cruel human threw them in a dumpster like trash they not only got a home, but got to stay together!

The lady about Spice showed up - Yay! Her dog is so laid back and easy going that she had no issue at all with Spice. Spice is just a laid back girl, so it seemed like it was meant to be. She called home to make sure everyone was absolutely positive they wanted the adoption and a resounding yes followed! We were thrilled that on her first day out, Spice found a family!

A couple came in and looked at Sugar. You could tell they just adored her. She was so sad when her sister left, walked around the pen and cried. When they took her out she climbed right in their lap. Just a complete snuggle bug! So daddy went home to get their dog to make sure they'd get along. Sugar is just so laid back it didn't seem to affect her one way or another. Because they wanted a dog to play with theirs, they took Bolt out. It wound up a perfect match and he was adopted!

By the end of the day 4 of the 5 we came in with had homes / families! We couldn't be happier!

Incoming!!!

After our wonderful adoption weekend last week, we've committed to pull quite a few dogs and had some others come in as owner surrenders / strays that the people in the community can't keep.

We'll be headed to the shelter tomorrow after we pick up Dixie and Bolt from the clinic after their spay and neuter today. Once settled, it's off to Kentucky we go!

From the shelter, our list will include:

A female white and tan cocker spaniel
A male yorkie
A male Scottish terrier
A male Cairn terrier
A male American Eskimo

A mother rat terrier and her 3 female babies about 4 weeks old

A male rottie mix puppy, about 8 weeks old
A female Great Pyrenees mix puppy, about 8 weeks old
A female yellow lab, about 8 weeks old.


All adults are in the 3 - 5 year range for age as far as we know. Once we get them seen by the vet we'll have more info.

We also accepted 2 Norwich terrier mix dogs this morning that had been thrown in a garbage dumpster, a male and a female. They apprear to be younger, maybe 8 months or so.

We may have some of them at the adoption event this Saturday. For certain in attendance we will have:

Murphy, 3 year old male golden retreiver
Trixie, 3 year old female boxer mix
Bolt, 8 month old male corgi / terrier mix
Andy, 8 year old male chihuahua
Rex, 3 year old male hound / beagle mix
Shrek, 3 year old male beagle


In attendance pending their foster homes ability to make it:

Buffy, 12 year old female poodle
Alvin, 2 year old male beagle / cattle dog
Batman, 18 month old male border collie mix
Robin, 18 month old small male terrier / shepherd mix


Not attending but still looking for a family and home of their own are dozen more kids, with more coming in tomorrow. Please look at our website or Petfinder and see if you can find your next family member!!

Best day ever!

Our adoption event yesterday was an unbelievable success!!! I was absolutely shocked at how very busy we were. By the end of the event, Rocky, Charlie Brown, Garrett, Willow, and Lord Farquaad had all been adopted. Willow will be staying with us an extra week while her mommy and daddy are on vacation. Rocky's new family will be going on vacation next week so he will return to his foster mommy while they're gone - how about that? At Hilltop we even provide babysitters for your new family member!

After leaving our event one of our foster mommys called to let us know she'd gone to visit a potential home with Liza. The adopters had brought their dog to make sure they'd get along ok. She said they pretty much ignored each other, both being very much the couch potatoes. The application looked wonderful and pending a home visit on Friday, it looks like Liza may have a home as well!!!

We'll be headed back to Jessamine SAVE Center on Thursday to pick up some more. We've had a couple people contact us about fostering for us as well, which means we've been able to pull at least 2 more dogs off of euthanasia lines, possibly four more! For every foster home we have agree to help us out, we can save another one or two. It's a fabulous way to have a fur kid in the house with no expense from it and save their life in the process. The ultimate gift of love - life!

We've also got all those kittens! We'd planned on someone coming to help transport at least 16 of them to the event but they didn't show, so we weren't able to bring them. Next week though it looks like we may have a 3 vehicle caravan headed up, so we could possibly bring everyone!!! I can't even begin to imagine where we are all going to fit, but we'll certainly manage somehow! If you're looking for kittens, swing out to the Petco in the Avenue shopping plaza. We've got at least 16 of them from 8 weeks to 14 or 16 weeks that will be there. $30 adoption fee includes their first set of shots and de-worm. You can't beat that!!

We've got an appointment for Gomer on Monday afternoon for x-rays on his knee. He has an approved adopter, so we're waiting to see what x-rays show to find out when he can go home. If he needs surgery they'll need to wait to bring their little boy home until after he heals. If he's cleared for adoption and only has arthritis and just needs meds he can go home now.

Once we get them through and get Dixie, the female boxer we took in for her spay ready, we'll be taking in the kittens that Munchi has been nursing. They're staying incredibly small. We've got a litter of kittens their age and they are half the size of the others. They seem very healthy and quite active though. We're quite eager to see what the vet says and are wondering if they're going to be mini-cats??!!

If you missed the Munchi and the kittens stories, the link is here, with a video on the right side of the link. You can see her playing with them, nursing them, and cleaning them. She's a very good mommy!

http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=12479395

In the meantime we're gearing up for our two big events leading up to 4th of July. We'll be having contests at Petco on June 26th and July 3rd. Categories are cutest pet, best trick, best costume, etc. Gift certificates and other prizes from local businesses will be given out as prizes. These events will lead up to the 4th of July event in Smyrna where we have a booth set up with information and photos and info on all of the pets we have available for homes! Stop in and see us!

Well, it's definitely kitten season

As I was getting ready to leave for work a few days ago, talking to my daughter, we kept hearing a kitten crying. I assumed it was her year old kitten that likes to play in the attic, in the rafters over the garage. But my daughter stopped and said, 'mom, I think it's coming from your car'. *shock* She was right!

I popped the hood and there sat three very little fluffy balls of fur, staring back at me. We pulled out a male and female solid black kitten and a grey male kitten. Scared, but otherwise healthy.

We got them to the vet and their first vaccines. While I was on the phone with our cat foster the other day telling her about it, she said she's had kittens showing up on their own, as well as being dropped on her door step lately. She's got 16 little kittens there now!!!!

It's obviously going to be a very busy kitten season. With her 16 and the 6 we have, we're looking for homes for 22 kittens. And that doesn't include the 5 she has that aren't even weaned yet. And season is just starting.

So our focus right now is kittens! We'll be picking up a massive amount of vaccines from our vet this weekend and heading to her place to start vaccinating everyone. Because they aren't really HART fosters, we're doing them as a courtesy listing for........... well, for them. They will be adopted out with their first set of vaccines done. A courtesy listing contract will have to be signed, guaranteeing you will provide us with vet statements showing they have received their other vaccines as well as been spayed / neutered before 6 months of age. The adoption fee is only $30 and you will need to complete the application as usual. If you are looking for a pair, we will adopt two at a time to approved applicants for $45.

I'm going to try to get out and vaccinate this Friday so we can bring them all to Petco on Saturday. If you're looking for a new kitten in your family - or two! - this will be a great time to adopt. We're hoping to have the kittens that have been nursed by Munchi, our long haired chihuahua, and were on the News 2 report mid-May up for adoption in the next couple weeks as well.

And if you're looking for a new canine companion, we will be at Petco with plenty of those this week. New to our group:

Willow, an 8 week old unbelievably precious boxer american bull dog mix
Tanner, a very cute and tiny 8 month old puppy
O'Connor, a stunning young adult American Eskimo
Batman, a 12 week old male border collie mix
Robin, Batman's best buddy, a 12 week old GSD / Lab mix
Bullwinkle, adoption pending, a 18 month old male Boston Terrier
Rocky, a 3 year old male Boston Terrier
Dixie, a 3 year old female Boxer

Another great adoption event!

Our adoption event this week kept us all jumping, and I'm guessing everyone is as sore this morning as I am! We expect the dogs to have 'accidents' during the event and there's always one of us ready to jump to clean it up. But this weekend they had us all jumping in different directions all day long. Phew!

The good news is Ebony found herself a new home and family. We were so happy for her. After being dumped in a field in the middle of nowhere she finally has people that love her. Her new grandparents had been in for a few weeks looking at Charlie Brown and sent their son and his family in to see him. Poor Charlie Brown was afraid of their dog though, but Ebony did just fine. After spending time with both, they chose Ebony as their new family member. By the end of the afternoon she was even walking on a leash for her new brother.

We had 2 wonderful new volunteers stop in. One is a high schooler that's looking for a place she can help out at. She was wonderful, spending so much time with the dogs, playing with them and loving them. They all just adored the extra attention! The other is a local couple that offered to come help us out, and we really needed the extra hands this week. Having them to help clean up and walk dogs was great. We're just hoping all the cleaning up after them this weekend doesn't scare either of them away!

We've got some good looking applications for some of our other dogs and we're very excited about that. We took in some more dogs this week too, and some others went to foster homes, some are ready to leave this week for foster homes. It's been a busy week, that's for sure!

We pulled Bullwinkle, a young male Boston Terrier from Jessamine SAVE Center in Nicholasville, KY. We saw at least half a dozen other amazing dogs there that we wanted so badly but someone (the Director's husband who has to care for all these dogs that first come in) put their foot down. We won't mention any names though....................John.................... ;)

Bullwinkle has an approved application already, so we're thrilled with that. He'll go for his neuter this week. He's been sneezing and our initial reaction was worry about kennel cough, but we're thinking now it's allergies. Our chihuahuas have them too and it seems more like that than kennel cough, but we'll keeping watching to make sure. He also has some tummy problems, but that's very common with dogs that go from their home to a shelter to the rescue. That's a lot of change for them and different foods; it all usually ends in an upset tummy for a few days. He's a bit underweight as well so once we have his tummy problems under control we'll be switching him to a more nutrient dense food and get some weight on him before he goes home.

We also took in Willow, a precious little 8 or 10 week old pittie or American Bulldog / Boxer mix girl. A wonderful woman in AL had found her as a stray. They weren't able to find her owners so they started looking for a rescue. We got the e-mail about her and fell in love with her picture. We applied to be the rescue to take her and they agreed. Our pittie foster mommy and daddy drove down this morning to get her for us. They said she's just as wonderful as we thought she'd be. Our Liza, who they are fostering, and their Princess (both female pitties) are all over her, kissing and cleaning her and giving her the full mommy treatment!

We took in 2 puppies from a local couple that said they found them at the dump. We'd been giving them food for them for a month or so, hoping we could find them homes or a rescue. When we picked up a new foster home that offered to keep them, we jumped at the chance to go pick them up. They are both underweight and very scared; they seem like people haven't been too nice to them all their life, which breaks our heart. Their foster mom said they are starting to relax though and she's got them walking on a leash already. We'll get them in for their neuter this week and get some weight on them and start bringing them to our adoption events. They are estimated to be about 12 weeks old. One looks like a black and white border collie mix and our adoptions coordinator has named him Batman. The other looks like a lab / shepherd mix and he's been dubbed Robin.

We took in two owner surrenders this week, a male Boston Terrier named Rocky and a female Boxer named Dixie. Rocky is all ready for his new home once he's neutered, but poor Dixie is afraid of her own shadow. She does not like other dogs around her at all. We think it's all fear at this point but we'll need to work with her for a while before she's ready for a family.

The last we took in is Garrett, a 5 month old Toy Fox Terrier boy that only weighs about 7 pounds. We don't expect him to get too much bigger than he is now. We got an application in for him within 24 hours of picking him up. We'll be checking the references on that this week and hopefully this weekend Garrett will have a new home!

Snoopy, the cockapoo we took in a few weeks ago has a good application in for him, so he's been moved to a foster home until that goes final. If they do sign the contract they are going on vacation for a couple weeks so he'll stay in the foster home so that when he comes home his new family will be there full time to be with him. We've got our fingers crossed for him!

Later in the week, Charlie Brown, the absolutely adorable little Australian Shepherd / Sheltie mix boy will go to his foster home, with Alvin's foster mom. She's got a couple other dogs of her own too, so they'll have tons of friends to play with in her huge fenced back yard or wrestling on her deck. We're very excited that he'll have a smaller household and get some more attention!

As always, we're always looking for foster homes. We've got dogs of all ages, sizes and breeds. We provide everything for the foster pets, including food. We also provide our foster homes with annual vaccinations for their pets and food for them as well. If you have an unaltered pet we can assist you with that as well. We do require you be an indoor home and not breed pets or have any unaltered before we can send a dog to you, and you must be able to attend at least 2 adoption events per month in Murfreesboro, TN with your foster. Please contact us if you'd like to help out.

The last Jack post

We finally received the vet records for Jack from his second adopter. They do confirm all the information we were given. It looks like he was bitten by a tick carrying Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever right before we picked him up. Everything we're reading says they show signs from 7 to 12 days after the initial bite. I'm guessing the first syptom he displayed was his lack of appetite a couple days after the first couple adopted him. I wish they'd taken him to the vet; perhaps he wouldn't be as sick now if they had. But hind sight is 20/20 and they had no way of knowing.

Regardless, now that we have the vet records as support and back up of what's going on we will be refunding the first adopter their adoption fee as well. It's pretty amazing that a dog can be left fighting for it's life from a parasite so tiny. And one that could have been killed with a simple application of Frontline Plus. It really brings home how important it is to keep your pets on their parasite prevention!

For more information on RMSF and how to protect your pet, please consult your veterinarian.

It's been a wonderful week!

Last weekend's adoption week saw the adoption of Rascal, the black Pekinese we pulled from Jessamine. His paperwork was filled out but we were waiting for his neuter later in the week. He was finally ready to go home and his new mommy met us to pick him up on Thursday. We got an update the next day that he was doing wonderful and they were so happy to have him!

This adoption event was fabulous - our best yet! Little Fiona was adopted and got to go home with her new mom, who had been torn between her and Snoopy. She had a friend come meet her and help her decide. They decided Fiona's more laid back personality would better fit their life and we couldn't agree more.

When we arrived we had a new volunteer / foster meet us there with a gorgeous boy - a yellow lab that we'd pulled from the Coffee County Humane Society. Less than 2 years old and sweet as could be, but needed some work walking on a leash and really needs a nice big yard to run off some of that Lab energy! Within a few hours his perfect family came along. Dad is in the military and he and mom have a little girl. She leaned over and gave Cooper a big hug and he just loved it!! So in a few hours with us, Cooper found his perfect forever home and we were beyond thrilled and amazed!

Little Lord Farquaad, the mini tri color beagle boy, has finally gotten well enough to join the pack. He's gained the weight he should, and maybe a bit extra, and has stopped coughing. Kennel cough has gone away so we brought him in and you'd think he'd been there his entire life. He's thrilled with finally having that huge yard to run and play in. He didn't stop wagging or snorting for hours!! And yes, he snorts - like a pig! He's a comical little guy.

We think Sugar is finally past the point where we're over concerned. She's not coughing much anymore and is finally gaining the weight she needed. Her sister Spice is still underweight and coughing a good bit. We've still got them both on some extra food / supplements and Pedialyte in their water to help with their fluid levels. I'm sure she's going to be ok, but it's just going to take her some time. They're 11 months old but very tiny little girls and I'm sure they're done growing. Still shy, but super affectionate. They love to climb in your lap when you sit down.

Randy has a bit of a cough from the others. He's supposed to go to his adopted home next week so we're hoping he's stopped his coughing by then.

Liza was home with us a few days for her spay and went back to her foster home yesterday. She was cranky and whined a lot during the day and we think she was missing her new foster sister. They said as soon as she got there the two girls snuggled on the couch and went right to sleep. We got a call late last night that Liza was coughing though, so she may have picked up the KC from Randy. Gah!! It's just spreading like crazy. Looks like it's time to do a major bleach down of the house. Liza will be coming back to us today until the coughing stops.

We took in another litter of kittens and their mom this week. Kittens are about 5 or 6 weeks old. A man found them in the kitchen cabinet of an old home on his property. He was going to demo the house so when he found them he threw them in the front yard. He told a neighbor he'd just toss them in the woods later if they didn't go away. The neighbor took them and began looking for a rescue. We called our newest kitty foster and they said they had room so we went and got momma and all 5 babies. There are 2 black kitties, 2 calico kittens, a precious little tuxedo kitty and a gorgeous calico momma. Our adoption coordinator has given all the kittens berry names and momma is D'Vine. *groan* LOL We are listing them as courtesy listings. Their fee is $30 and you must provide proof of vetting within 14 days.

The three kittens Munchi has been feeding are doing wonderful. They're going to be very tiny kitties. At 4 weeks they are still much smaller than the newest litter we took in. We think we've got a home for one of the little orange boys and the calico girl is going back to the home that found them. Just leaves one little orange boy left!

Our spay / neuter clinic is closed until next Tuesday, so all other vetting is on hold for a while. We're hoping the twin girls - Sugar and Spice - will be well enough for their spays by then. We'll get Rex, Shrek and Farq in for theirs when they re-open for sure.

Until next time, have a great week!

Bursting at the seams!

We've been so beyond busy!! We're just bursting at the seams.

We took in 7 dogs from 2 shelters and then took in 2 owner surrenders that were in serious danger. Of the shelter dogs, two have been introduced to the pack, much sooner than they usually are, but they were vaccinated at the shelter and have almost no coughing.

The two parvo puppies have rallied quickly. They are now both active and eating very well. Vomitting has stopped and they seem to be recovering pretty quickly. The other three still have a bit of a cough, but are much better.

The cockapoo and the aussie / sheltie / border collie mix have been intro'd to the group and are doing fabulous! Snoopy, the cockapoo is best friends with Murphy, the Golden, something that was greatly needed in our home. Murphy is so big and so playful and active that he scares and irritates the other less active dogs. Having an active little puppy that's not afraid of big dogs has been a blessing!

Charlie Brown, the puppy, is fitting in so well. He's already claimed his bed and learned quite fast that pottying in the house is a no-no. He loves to play with Snoopy and Murphy but gets tired before those two crazy boys do, so he'll come inside and relax with the other lazy dogs.

Rex is nothing more than a total snuggle bug, lover boy. What a complete and total angel this guy is. He doesn't like to be kenneled and will howl like life is ending but once he's out and is with you, he's just more than happy to be laying by your side. He sleeps at the foot of our bed, and never moves or bothers anyone.

Fiona likes the desk chair for naps and bedtime. She had a hard time finding a place she felt safe. We're not sure if she had a bad life before she was picked up by animal control or if her life was just very quiet with no other dogs or only one or two others. Either way, she prefers to be off the floor away from the chaos. Loves attention, but is fine in a quiet corner on her own. She's got a very laid back temperament, much like Gracie the husky / golden girl.

Rascal and Shrek, though in quarantine still, are both doing very well and are very playful. We walk them together just so they have company and can wrestle a bit. Both are uber friendly and love other dogs. They pretty much ignore the cats. Shrek likes to jump and spin when he's on walks. He tends to get tangled in his leash and will stand patiently waiting for you to untangle himself so he can do it all over again.

Little Farquaad is the quiet and timid one of the bunch. He's a lot like Fiona, though maybe a bit more curious. He likes to explore the quarantine room and check everything out while his kennel is cleaned and he has his food and water dish re-filled. He's very quiet and would be a good apartment beagle, something I never thought I'd say!

Riley, the Saint Bernard is doing very well recovering from her heartworm treatment. Her foster parents send us pictures and she looks happy as a little clam. This afternoon she's curled up on their couch chewing on her toy. She seems like such a sweet, happy little girl. It amazes me that someone wanted to shoot her. I'm so glad the wife called for help and we could intervene and save her. What an angel she is!

The kittens are all growing so big and strong. They are no purring and starting to wrestle and play. They've learned they can climb the sides of their playpen and the little girl has learned to escape. We're having a heck of a time keeping them corraled now. Todd Dunn with News 2 came out this morning to interview us about them and got some footage of Munchi and the babies. We're waiting to see what time it will be on the TV and he says there will be a link on their website too. (www.wkrn.com) It's not posted as of yet, but we keep watching.

Both goats have fully recovered from their different sicknesses. The goat we were afraid would be blind has even recovered his site!! Our daughter's fiance's step dad told us about a medication that's what we've referred to as a miracle drug. Just a few treatments and he was back to his old self. We were amazed!

We're in the process of scheduling a lot of spay and neuters for the community in the next couple weeks. Several cats and a couple dogs. We're so happy that we're able to help in this way!

We'll be at Petco again this Saturday and look forward to everyone coming to visit!

New policies

Due to a very unfortunate recent adoption, HART is being forced to become much more strict with our policies.

A courtesy listing that we recently adopted out turned into a failed adoption and a fiasco. The adopter called within a couple days to say the dog she adopted wasn't eating. We asked if he was just not eating at all or if he wasn't eating as much as they felt he should be. We explained that in a weeks's time he'd gone from the only home and family he'd ever know, to our rescue to a clinic for a neuter and on to yet another home. This can be stressful and they can reduce their food intake while they adjust. There of course was the possibility that these adopters thought he could be eating less than he should because he was such a large dog. They were told if they felt he had a problem he needed to see a vet immediately. The opted to not take him to a vet.

We received an e-mail a few days later saying they didn't think the adoption would work out as their current dog continually attacked him. They asked what they should do and we told them it was a decision they needed to make. They could get a trainer for their dog, as they said they knew the issue was not the dog they adopted from us. He'd been around their parent's small breed dog and was wonderful. Or they could return him to rescue and we could find his new home. The following day they sent an e-mail that he needed to be returned. Before his adoption we'd received an application from someone else that had also been approved. We contacted this person and asked if they were still interested in adopting him and they were. Since the second adopter worked close to the first adopter they just picked the dog up themselves.

On the day the new adopter picked him up, the first adopter told her he had something wrong with him medically. We're still not sure why she didn't take him to the vet. At first we just thought he had an infection in the incision area from his neuter. Now we're hearing from the second adopter that he has heart problems and a hernia. We'll be in contact with the vet today for the official report.

However, because of this, we're making some changes to how we do things. Our initial reaction was to suspend all owner surrenders and courtesy listings. The sad fact is in many cases if we don't help the animal will wind up in a shelter. On the other hand we don't want animals to wind up in the wrong hands or for sick animals to be adopted out. So we now have a contract that any owner must sign if they're listing their pet with us. They must provide us with vet statements that the pet is current on all vaccinations and is spayed / neutered. The owner must do a vet check for each person that is interested and must keep in touch with us on the status of their pet. Until these requirements have been met we will no longer post any pet for anyone.

We hate that we have to do this. We know there are plenty people who won't bother to vet their pet and instead dump them in shelters. We also know these pets stand a very, very slim chance of leaving the shelter alive. We'll monitor how these changes work for the rescue and if anything needs to be adjusted in any way it will be.

As always we welcome any thoughts, suggestions or questions anyone has.

Board of Directors
Hilltop Animal Rescue Team

Where's the ark??

Our adoption day yesterday was in the middle of a drenching downpour. We got there a bit before 11 and had to unload the kennels and dogs and all of their stuff in unbelievable rain. We weren't able to get Alvin so he couldn't attend. Kali, the Keeshond mix we just got in was adopted the night before so she didn't attend. We found our numbers for our event shrinking quickly!

We brought along Ebony, Murphy and Trixie for their first event, Gracie for her second event, Lucky, Andy and Gomer for their third event.

There were a couple other rescues there - Operation Education, who had some adorable little puppies. One had been adopted and was waiting for his wonderful foster family who agreed to house him until his trip to his new home in Chicago was set - and a cute little BC mix boy that was about as happy as they come. There was also the local Greyhound rescue with some stunning greyhounds. One of our foster parents has always wanted a greyhound so she and her granddaughters gravitated over there quick. They had a gorgeous black boy there that was a therapy dog. His handler was showing our foster parent some of the things he can do - what amazing dogs they are!!

The people in the store were pretty slim. Shockingly enough, people don't want to shop during the storm of the century! LOL We did have some people come through and plenty volunteers there to keep the dogs walked and entertained. It was a slow day but we all really enjoyed it. We spent a good bit of time talking with the people from Operation Education and found them to be wonderful. If you don't find your next family member with us, we can put you in touch with a few other great rescues in middle TN!

Toward the end of the event we had reports of tornadoes touching down in areas within miles of us. The storms had caused serious flooding and the interstate outside Nashville was closed. The news showed a building floating down the interstate and reports today say that more than 120 cars are flooded on the road, waiting to be moved. At least ten people were killed.

We came home to a flooded yard at our house. Everyone that had showed up to help us was totally soaked head to toe. As we unloaded dogs they were jumping into water hock deep. Poor little chiahuahuas and doxie had to be carried in so they didn't float away!

The water has receded some today though the roads are still impassable in areas. Our yard is very wet but there is some dry land now. The goats and tortoises have made their appearance this morning already and are happily munching away out back.

No adoptions at this event but we're sure it was the rain. Looking forward to next week'd event! Keep watching for updates on four new dogs we've pulled from a KY shelter!

Another busy week, and more to come

This week started with the monster storms that swept through. Friday night we started watching the news very closely. By Saturday morning it looked like the worst of the storm would be sweeping over Murfreesboro at the height of the adoption event. For the safety of the dogs we decided to cancel for the day. I always hate doing that. They lose an important day that could be the day they find their forever home. But I took some solace in the knowledge that few people are out shopping while tornadoes are blowing around.

So much went on it's hard for me to remember the exact day of everything! So we'll just go as best as memory serves!

The sad news is we lost a very important member of the rescue this week. On Monday night my daughter came to my room to get me. She said our 14 year old cat, Fatboy, had been sleeping on her bed. He stood up real fast and fell over onto the floor and wasn't moving. By the time I got there he was unresponsive. My husband, a former paramedic, said he thinks he had a heart attack. He was gone before we knew it.

Fatboy was a free to good home kitty in a grocery store parking lot many years ago. He was the tiniest of the kittens there, even though he was by far the furriest. Solid long thick black fur on this tiny little boy. Had to have easily been 20 kittens in the dog crate. I chose him but later decided he needed a friend. I went back and picked a short haired black and white boy.

Kitten seemed to not grow for the first year. Spot was massive compared to him. But around his first birthday he all the sudden had a crazy growth spurt. He gained weight like crazy. No medical reason. Nothing we did got the weight off him. Then we moved to TN 4 years ago. Some time on the farm, running outside with us as we went back and forth from the garden to the other areas he started to drop the weight. He finally was down to where he should be. We were thrilled.

Over the years we've used him as our 'tester' cat. Shortly after bringing him home we brought home a mastiff puppy that wound up being 182 pounds. After being raised with her, there just weren't many dogs he was afraid of. Because of his calm nature he was ideal at seeing how dogs would react to cats. His passing leaves a void in the rescue, but an even bigger one in our heart.

Jack went to his new home. We were thrilled. They adored him and were taking pictures as soon as they met him.

We got an e-mail about a sweet 3 year old pure bred tri-color Saint Bernard. We agreed to take her in but found out she was riddled with heartworms. Luckily through donations from the local Humane Society and local people and other rescues, she has begun treatment. She's at a foster home now and will go for her initial treatment at the vet on Monday. They'll release her to us on Friday and will start her recovery in our home. It's going to be a longer, slower treatment because she is so infested. Poor girl. We've got our fingers crossed and prayers have gone up.

We're picking up Ebony today, a Patterdale terrier mix puppy. She'll be going to her foster home and stay with her foster brother, Alvin.

Alvin has two families coming to meet him on Saturday, so we're beyond thrilled!!

Tomorrow we've got Kahlua (calling her Kallie) coming to us. She was pulled from a shelter in west TN. She's a precious little Keeshond mix puppy, around 9 months of age. If all goes well and Alvin is adopted she'll be taking his place.

We got a call yesterday from Rosco's adopters. The husband was at his wits end. Rosco has begun having accidents in the house, barking non-stop, chewing things up, chasing the cat and is not kenneling well at all. He was ready to throw in the towel as it's caused so much chaos in their household. His wife however has talked him into giving him a couple weeks and training. We're praying Rosco picks up the training fast and turns back into the sweet baby boy we know he is. They're wonderful people and do love him very much and I hope he knows that and re-pays them with more appropriate behavior.

We got a call today that Jack's adoptive home wasn't working either. The adopter's sheltie just does not like him. They said he's been to their mother's house and was wonderful and loving with their shih tsu, so they know it's the sheltie and not Jack. After a long family discussion they've decided the best thing for Jack is to return him. Luckily for Jack we did have a second approved adopter and they are still interested. They'll be arranging his transport hopefully this week. Jack will now have a Newfie sister to play with. We're broken hearted for his first family as they were wonderful people and we know how hard it is to be forced to part with a family member, even if it's in their best interest.

Adoptions have finalized for both Lucky the doxie and Goober the chihuahua. They'll be leaving for their new homes on Thursday, May 6th. On the transport up there we will be picking up another dog for a rescue we work with and helping to transport her to her new home as well. We also have a confirmation for Randy, the pitbull puppy. He is being adopted by one of our foster mom's daughters and her children. The youngest daughter has been in love with Randy from day one and we've got photos of her on the floor giving him hugs and him giving her kisses. It was just a match that was meant to be and we couldn't be happier!

I think that's about it for now! We've got our big adoption event this weekend (Saturday) at our Petco in Murfreesboro at the Avenue shopping plaza. In attendance will be:

Trixie, a 3 year old boxer mix girl

Gracie, an 8 year old female husky / golden mix

Murphy, a 2-1/2 year old purebred gorgeous golden retreiver boy

Ebony, a 9 month old Patterdale terrier mix girl

Kallie, an 8 month old adorable Keeshond mix girl

Alvin, an 18 month old beagle / cattle dog mix boy

Gomer, a 7 year old male long hair chihuahua

Andy, an 8 year old male short hair chihuahua

Buffy (pending), a 10-12 year old purebred poodle girl that still acts like a puppy


We may also have some puppies along with us as well. Stop in and say hi!

The to date post

Just to keep everyone up to speed on the Rural Tennessee Veterinary Assistance Program that HART has launched, we have done the following this past 30 days:

Neutered 2 dogs
Spayed one cat
Provided food for over 15 families
Provided annual vaccinations for over 10 families
Completed one rabies clinic with a second to be scheduled soon

We've adopted Star, Barney, and Roscoe and have pending approvals for Jack and Goober. We've accepted 3 dogs into our program and will be picking up a fourth this afternoon. We will try to set a day / time to get to KY to pull 3 or 4 more dogs off the euthanasia lines and bring them back as well, pending Alvin's adoption.

For us, this has truly been a wonderful month and we're feeling so blessed! We've had many more calls that usual and our website is seeing a tremendous amount of traffic. We're sure this is in thanks to the Petco adoption events. Being so far in the middle of nowhere like we are, our pets just weren't getting seen. We're beyond grateful to both Petco and especially to AARF in Cookeville for helping us get set up with these events.

What a wonderful life!

This has just been the most incredible week ever!

So, Friday started with me covered in goat poo. That's always a good way to start the day. I got ready to start the day - dropping a dog off for a neuter, picking up the newfie and chickens, etc but had to take care of the goats meds before anything else. I got lazy and held the them wrong and one poo'd right down my side. Gah! So I had to re-shower and change before I could do anything else.

I ran to the Carthage area to get the chickens and the newfie and wound up lost three times. Nothing unusual for me. Finally got there and thougth a bear had gotten stuck in the dog pen for a minute. Um, no, that's just a freaking massive brown newfie!! Holy crud! If that boy ever loses his tail for any reason people will mistake him for a bear, right down to the way he walks!

I decided to get chickens first thinking I'd just grab them and toss them in the crates before having to wrestle what is easily a 150+ pound dog. Well, that didn't really go as planned either. The farm has multiple out buildings and I was there alone. It took a while to find the right building the chickens were in. Now, when I had chickens they were extremely tame and when I went in their pen they came right to me. I'd sit in a chair and be covered with 21 chickens sitting on me. Being born and raised on a very tiny island, I'd never had experience with chickens other than my own. Allow me to let everyone know now, my chickens were unusual. Most don't like sitting on you or letting you hold them. I found this out the hard way. 20 minutes of being outsmarted at every turn by a hen house full of flapping screaming chickens, I'd caught one that had shredded my arm. Hmmmm..... Might need to re-think my strategy! I quickly realized that I alone could not catch these chickens. I gave in and decided to tackle the dog.

I approached the kennel and realized he's probably about my weight, maybe a bit more. His head is double the size of mine at least. Just a massive dog. All I could think was 'please be nice, please be nice, please be nice, please don't eat me'. That wasn't a problem at all. As long as you were there to pay attention to him he was all about the love! I opened his pen thinking 'please have a collar' only to quickly realize he didn't. I didn't know if he's a runner so I had to be extra careful he didn't escape and run off. I looped the leash around him and he came right out, happy as could be! I walked him to the Explorer at which time I realized rides are not his favorite thing. Ok, no problem. I can just pick him up and put him in. We're fine. But as soon as I tried, little 8 pound Barney in the front seat decided to let him know immediately he was not getting in his vehicle!

So here I stand with a 150+ pound dog butt in my arms trying to push him in the SUV while the 8 pound chihuahua in the front seat is scaring him and he's trying to push his way back out toward me. Oh, if only someone had a video camera, we'd be rich right now. It had to have been comical. I did manage to settle Barney down and get Jack loaded up and off we went as fast as humanly possible to meet Barney's moms.

Barney got to meet his new moms soon after and wasn't too sure at first. He's not trusting of strangers right off the bat, and I'm sure because things had been so crazy he was feeling a bit frazzled himself. But as soon as Phyllis picked him up and Kim started petting him you could see him relax immediately. They've got a gift with animals and Barney is headed to his new home with them in Kentucky to live with his very extended doggie and kitty family!! While we will miss him so much (he's a fabulous snuggler) we know he's now in two incredible ladies' hands and they will love him more than anyone else ever could.

Once Barney was settled we headed back to Cookeville to get Roscoe from the clinic and realized we were a bit late. I'd hoped to make it up on the drive, but found I-440 closed. Gah!!! Why today, why me? In a panic, knowing I'd never make it on time, I started calling the other rescues I know to see if anyone could grab him for me and hold him for about 30 minutes. Everyone has a life outside of rescue - who knew? LOL As a last resort I called the clinic to see if they knew of anyone that can hold for them until I get there and was so grateful that Terry offered to hold him for me. She met me right at the interstate with him which was an unbelievable help for me!

So we got him home and settled, settled in the 'big dude' and hit the e-mail account. I sent an e-mail to a rescue that's familiar with the breed and said he must have been very poorly bred as he's brown and gold. Don't get me wrong; he's probably one of the most gorgeous dogs I've ever seen in my life!!! But Newfies are black and he's most definitely not black. She said he's actually very much pure bred Newf, but is a rare brown newfie. Not many of them out there and some people go far and wide to find them. Wow! You learn something new every day!

We sent photos and info to the people who have asked for information. To that point we'd had one application for him that had been approved, pending a home visit. They are still interested and the visit is planned (tentatively) for Thursday. We had another application last night when I got home so we'll check that tomorrow and see what happens Thursday. However, if the visit doesn't go well, his second option is the rescue that's been helping us. They'd offered to take him in but have fallen in love with the big guy and asked to adopt him. Thursday will tell us where he will go! Either way, he's going to be a very lucky guy!

The two goats are finally getting better. The one will probably be blind all his life, but he's learning his way around their acre pen very quickly, and even knows where their 'room' is and where his bed and food and water are in the room. He's navigating steps and sidewalks just fine. The injured goat has rallied quickly and even was walking at a rather quick pace last night when he saw us come out for his evening penicilin injection. Giving them those injections, while we know it saves their lives, is heart breaking. If you've never heard a baby goat cry you'd be surprised. They sound so much like a two year old child crying it's shocking. Once they get them though they get extra yummy treats like carrots and apples and lots of love and petting. We're just thrilled to see them both doing so much better.

The little kittens we took in are doing great as well. They are very eager eaters and strong little fighters, a very good sign. We had to take them to the adoption event with us yesterday as there was no one at home that would be able to care for them. The little calico girl managed to get out of her blankets, out of the container they are in, and out of the kennel and was snuggled up with Star, our foster dog. And Star was thrilled, curled around her to keep her warm. Animals are just incredible!

Speaking of the adoption event, it was out best yet! Star got a home and family all to herself!! A wonderful woman asked about her and we told her she has to go to a home with children. She said she lives by her daughter and her granddaughters are there all the time. They walked her around and she just adored the children. We just couldn't say no! By the time they left she was so happy with them she didn't even look back as she walked out the door. It's a good thing; she didn't have to see our happy tears. Congratulations and huge thank you to the Allen family in Murfreesboro for giving her a home! We love you Star and will miss you, but we know you're in absolute heaven with kids to call your own again!

We have applications pending right now for Alvin and the Golden Retreiver we accepted in our program, Murphy. We'll be working on those this week and hope to have them in their new homes soon too.

In the meantime, we all sit and eagerly await the return of our newly engaged adoptions coordinator!!!! Yay!!!!!!! She had a very romantic proposal on the beach while she was in Florida this week. The e-mail we got of the entire account was so sweet and so romantic it had me in tears! I couldn't be happier for them. Who knows, maybe this time next year we'll have little Adoption Coordinator in Training feet at our adoption events!

Things can get crazy fast

We never had time to update after last week's adoption event. It went great! We had so many people come in and got to meet several new people involved in animal welfare of different types. We had a new volunteer join us, Robin, and we're so grateful! She asked some wonderful questions, helped walk dogs, set up and break down crates - she was an absolute blessing!! No adoptions again, but we're still optimistic. We handed out a lot of business cards and people seemed truly interested, but most of all some of the dogs got out of the house and had fun so it was still a good day.

Then the week rolled around and good grief have we been hopping!! The two goats we brought home have been sick. One has a respiratory infection so he's been on medications. The other has a laceration that's being treated as well. We've been treating them both twice a day and feeding the injured one and keeping him comfy while he heals.

We've also been trying to find placement for a dog who's family was in an abuse situation. The mom and boys were in a special home while the domestic violence case was going on. They were told that they could not keep their dog there. It just rips my heart out that a family has had to deal with violence, separation and now they have to lose their dog as well. During stressful or emotional times, a pet can be a huge help for people. That the county will tell her she must give him up - that he and his kids will be separated - just kills me. It's so cold and unfair. I went yesterday afternoon to pick him up and it was torture. You could tell mom was trying so hard to be strong for her two boys, but her eyes were red and puffy and I knew she'd been crying an awful lot. The two boys were a mess. They just sobbed and bawled over losing their dog. Their dog was scared as well, knowing something wasn't right but not able to understand what was going on. It broke my heart filling out that paperwork for her and taking him away. The poor guy got in the back of our car terrified, trembling, wondering what he'd done wrong to be taken from his family. I drove away in tears for all of them.

The good news is he had a home visit that night with a wonderful couple in Nashville. While he was scared, he did great. By the time we left he'd totally loosened up and was playing and being a silly little puppy. They decided they wanted to think about the adoption and talk some before making a decision. The wife has a 15 year old cat that's not used to dogs and they were very worried about how it would work out. The dog had obviously not been around cats either and was afraid of her, barked a couple times out of fear. The good news is that when we got him home he was greeted at our door by three of our cats and even gave one a kiss. He's obviously not cat aggressive and was only reacting to the cat's fear. So I have no doubt that given time they'll be just fine together.

I checked e-mail this morning and found one from them, confirming they want to adopt him! He goes for his vetting tomorrow morning and to his new home on Sunday. He has been about the fastest adoption we've ever had and he deserves it. A complete and total sweetheart and we're thrilled for them!

We also got an application for Barney, one of the four chihuahuas pulled from Jessamine County SAVE Center in Nicholasville, KY. It was approved and his new moms will be meeting us in Nashville tomorrow to pick him up. We couldn't be happier! They also told a lady that works at the shelter they volunteer at about him and she's interested in Goober. We sure hope to see an application. Goober is special needs with his small hips and unsteady gait and it sounds like this would be a great home for him. Our fingers are crossed!

This evening we go pick up a Newfoundland and about 20 chickens that are being surrendered. A co-worker has lost his home and can't keep them. We have a home visit set up for him tomorrow as well, so we'll have a busy day again tomorrow! Vet in the morning, run home to bathe the Newfie, take him and Barney to Nashville for his home visit and to drop Barney to his new parents. We do love this kind of busy though!

Another co-worker's wife called us yesterday about a stray cat that had kittens on the side of their house. It had them the night before (April 13th) and they found them yesterday afternoon. Sadly one of the kittens she had was only a partial body. The mom wasn't doing well at all and we were afraid she still had the remainder of the body inside. She rushed her to several local vets asking them to help her, but none would do anything without at least $500 up front, money they just don't have. As the evening wore on and she continued to beg a vet to help her, it became obvious she wasn't going to survive. Ultimately they had to make the painful decision to euthanize her and put her out of the pain she was in. Her three surviving kittens are at our home now being bottle fed. We're lucky that our 18 year old daughter is out of school this week and is able to care for them while I work. Next week is going to be very interesting when she returns though. We're actively seeking a volunteer with day old kitten bottle feeding experience in our area that can take over for us for a couple weeks. Of them, it looks like we have 3 orange boys and a calico girl. The family that found them will be adopting the calico so if they all make it through bottle feeding we will have two orange boys up for adoption in two months!

Lastly, our adoptions coordinator is on vacation this week. We've been totally lost without her!! She's kept in constant contact with us via text messages though and is having a wonderful time on her much needed and much deserved Florida vacation. As we speak, she is swimming with dolphins! Have a good time Laura - we miss you, as I know your fur kids do too!!

A delivery from the Easter Bunny!

Aside from the rescue / foster pets we have, we've also got our own personal pets, including some exotics. As John was watching them all playing happily in the back yard with the dogs on Easter he mentioned that the grass wasn't being eaten nearly fast enough. Our back yard is fenced for the dogs to safely play in and to ensure we didn't have someone open a gate we didn't install one. This keeps their yard completely safe and secure. It also makes it very difficult to get a lawn mower into!

Some of our exotic pets are grass grazers but they just aren't keeping up this year. John made the mistake of mentioning that a goat would be quite helpful. He's been promising me a goat for seven years. Now, that's just a mean thing to tease about!

Well, he decided he was serious. We needed a goat. I hit the internet and found a pair of 11 week old pygmy goats an hour from us. We went intending to bring home only one, but we couldn't bear to break up the two. They were brothers and quite bonded.

So among our menagerie out back we now have two very tiny little pygmy goats. For the most part most of the dogs ignored them. A couple of the mommas wanted to mother them and spooked them. I"m sure it's going to take them a few days to settle in and relax. A couple dogs thought they wanted to play since they were running. It's taken us a few days of getting the dogs to understand the goats do not want to play! Keep in mind, these are the dogs that welcomed a wild skunk into our yard as if it were one of them. To say they are social dogs is pretty understated!

Updated and photos will follow! Keep an eye out!

Easter Adoption Event

Happy early Easter to our followers!!

We had our second adoption event today. We arrived to find a greyhound rescue all set up with some wonderful, very sweet greyhounds also looking for homes. Susan, one of our foster mommies has wanted a greyhound for ages and was just ga-ga over them!

We also had Laura, our adoptions coordinator and Bridgette, another of our foster mommies meet us there. Susan brought her granddaughter along and she was a huge help, walking and loving on the dogs!

We had a person volunteer to help us out on adoptions days that came by to meet us. She and her husband have been helping with transports, another phenomenal way to help homeless pets if you don't have room or time for fostering. She will be stopping by next weekend and we're very excited.

On this trip we brought along Randy, Star, Lucky, and Andy and Barney again. Gracie stayed home but Bridgette brought along Alvin, the dog she's been fostering since last fall. Alvin is what I call a Kentucky Brown Dog. We think he's got some beagle and cattle dog in him, but we're not sure what else is in the mix. We've pulled more than half a dozen dogs exactly like him from the same shelter in Kentucky.

We had a lot of interest in Randy and Star again and I was so hopeful that tonight they'd finally be able to spend the night in their own bed, their own home, with their own family, but it just wasn't meant to be.

A lot of people thought the others were all cute and they were taken out and walked and played with quite a bit, but an adoption was not meant to be had today.

We did have a wonderful man come in and donate a large bag of dog food and a large bag of cat food and leave his phone number for us in case we ever needed anything else. He said he'd love to have a dog but his schedule just won't allow it right now so this is his way of helping. What a wonderful guy!!

We're back home and all the dogs are once again settled back in to their places. Dinner has been served, everyone has had a walk. The little dogs are all ready to be put in bed for night-time. The big dogs have found their beds and special places they like to sleep. Mornings always come pretty early for us, so we'll be getting ready to turn the lights out soon. We'll dream that at least a couple fur kids can find their forever homes this week so we can go save some more from the euthanasia lines at the shelters.

We'll be back at the Petco in Murfreesboro in The Avenue shopping plaza next Saturday from 11 through 4. We're bringing along some new dogs next week of all goes well. We've got all sizes and breeds, colors and ages. Stop in and see us!

The day after!

The adoption event went wonderfully! I was so very proud of all of our dogs. Although it was a very long day for them, full of new sites, smells and people, they remained very outgoing with happy wagging tails the entire time.

Randy got a lot of attention and surprised a few people when they found out that the sweet huge dog on the end was a pitbull. The media has done such a wonderful job of destroying this wonderful breeds reputation; it should be a crime. I even had one person interested in him and say if he'd had a home of his own he'd love to adopt him. After he asked what breed he was he said he wasn't interested because they 'turn' on you. I gave him some facts on the breed and he seemed very interested in perhaps adopting one some day. Score one for the true temperament of this wonderful breed. Take that, biased media!

Gracie spent the entire time being Gracie so she got little attention. She's such a very quiet, laid back, mellow girl that no one ever notices her. They see her and comment on how pretty she is, but because she's so easy going and doesn't jump up or wag her tail, people just walk by. Even so, it was wonderful for her to be socialized as she spent so long tied to a tree with no time to acclimate to life with people. In typical Gracie style, she handled it with quiet and calm dignity.

Star was beyond thrilled. She had a couple people take her out to walk around the store. She lived up to her name, truly being the star of the show. A lady and her little boy stopped by and she was able to come out and meet him. Her year growing up in a household of children really showed through, as she was in her element with a little boy to love on. You could see her true affection for children with him. She was very gentle with him, sitting while he wrapped his arms around her and she gave him kisses. This wonderful girl needs a family so bad. I've not seen her so happy since we took her in.

Andy and Barney were wonderful. Because they came to the shelter as strays we don't know their history, but whatever it was they were socialized. They were very happy to have people wandering about, stopping to rub their heads. Anyone that got close to their pen made their little tails wag so hard that their butts were wiggling.

Lucky spent the first half of the day barking to get anyone's attention in the hopes they'd pet him. As soon as someone reached over to rub his head he'd just sit and enjoy it. He's a typical doxie, stubborn and demanding! We finally took him out of the pen and put him on a lead and he settled down. As long as he can be near a person he's happy. For a dog that had no socialization at all last fall when we brought him in, he's really come so far. The only issue we had was him getting mad when a lady was trying to hold him still when he wanted to walk. He got growly and cranky but as soon as he was allowed to move he was fine. He let her continue to sit by him and pet him. Lucky just wants everything Lucky's way. Again, typical doxie!

We'll be at the Petco in Murfreesboro again this Saturday and every Saturday from now on. We're looking for some volunteers to help hand out adoption forms and business cards, take dogs for walks, answer questions and just general help setting up and breaking down the area. If you've got some time to kill on Saturdays and want to help out, give us a call!

Tomorrow is our very first adoption event at the Petco in Murfreesboro, TN. We're hoping for a nice day with lots of visitors!

On this trip we'll be bringing Randy a 9 month old or so brindle and white pitbull puppy. His friend Star, a year old Boxer mix girl, Alvin an 18 month old beagle / cattle dog boy, Gracie an 8 year old golden / husky mix, and Andy and Barney, 2 little chihuahua boys. We are also bringing Lucky, a 5 year old doxie boy.

Hope to see you there!

Welcome!!

We started this blog to keep in touch with our adopters and have a place to post what's new and exciting in the rescue!

Currently we have 11 wonderful dogs in our rescue. They are all living in homes with other dogs and are very well behaved. They are:

Alvin - a year old beagle / cattle dog mix. We've pulled so many dogs from the Jessamine shelter that look like him that we've deemed them 'Kentucky Brown Dogs', a rare breed from a small part of the country. Get your rare breed dog today! He's super friendly and outgoing and just adores every single person he meets.

Buffy - a senior poodle that doesn't know she's a senior. This girl loves men! She's still quite active but not the least bit hyper. A perfectly well behaved little lady in the house. Our vet says she was probably a breeder for a horrid person and when she wasn't producing puppies they dumped her in the woods.

Trixie and Star - mother / daughter boxer mixes. They were living in a home with 7 other dogs when their owner was arrested for child abuse. The small town sheriff's office left all the dogs locked in the house with no one to care for them. Luckily a lady in town stepped in and managed to free all the dogs. Trixie (mom) was carrying another litter and had them at the lady's home. She was such a good mom that she wouldn't leave them, even to eat or drink, so her year old daughter Star would stand over the litter so Trixie could eat and drink. Raised with kids and other dogs and cats, these two ladies are amazing. Trixie is a very settled, sweet, laid back lady that just loves attention. Star is about a year and a half now and loves long walks and would enjoy a young active family.

Liza and Randy - mother / son pitbulls. Liza was purchased as a puppy but as she grew her owners decided they wanted a different looking dog so they started breeding her over and over until she had a litter that had a puppy that they liked the looks of. Once the puppy was old enough to live without her they dumped her and her remaining puppy, Randy, in the local shelter. We saw their posting from the shelter on the day they were to be put to sleep and called the Director. We met her to pick them up a couple days later and have been in love ever since. Liza is just now starting to act like a puppy, something that as a breeder dog she was never allowed to do. She loves playing with our daughter's 3 year old chihuahua and is so gentle with him. Randy is just a totally goofy puppy. He's almost a year old now and loves attention. He plays very well with dogs of all ages and sizes. They are both great with cats. If you're looking for your first pitbull, these are great options. Very submissive and loving, not an ounce of aggression in either one!

Gracie - adult golden retreiver / husky mix. Gracie spent her life tied to a tree with little human interaction. When her owner passed away his children didn't want to bother with her and were only feeding her a couple times a week. A local lady offered to take her in. She was a groomer and one of her clients was a former adopter and friend of ours. They called and asked if we could take in Gracie and another dog they had. We set up transport and moved her over. Since being here she's realized that being inside is a pretty cool thing! She still prefers to spend a good bit of her time out doors when weather permits, but will willingly come inside when it's too hot, cold, raining / snowing. Still shy and totally quiet, she loves affection and is a great dog to have indoors. She doesn't get into anything, doesn't chew or bark. Just wants to lay at your feet and have her head petted once in a while.

We just pulled 4 male chihuahuas from Jessamine this past week. We're still getting to know them, but so far they're just sweet and wonderful! They seem to be on the older side and some may need a good dental cleaning before going to their new homes, but they're as cute and sweet as can be!! They've all been named by our adoptions coordinator after Andy Griffith characters!

One is a cream color and we're calling him Andy. He is very affectionate and extremely laid back. He's happy spending all day laying by your side while you watch TV.

The second is a beige male with a white face and we've called him Barney. He's the snuggler of the bunch. He wants to be on your lap all the time. Laid back and easy going just like Andy, he's a wonderful addition to any sedentary lifestyle!

Goober is a tri color male that has some dental issues. His cute little pink tongue tends to fall out the side of his mouth every now and then. He's got either some genetic birth defect with his ears or they had severe hematoma at some point that went treated. Either way his ears fold down rather tightly against his head. Because of this he'll be at increased risk of ear infection if his ears aren't kept cleaned. He's a very sweet little guy though and likes to sit with you or lay on your lap. Of the four he's the most reserved and shy.

The last is Gomer, a long hair tri colored male. He's a comical little guy that's always on the go. He's a snuggler but also would do good with an active family. He seems to be the leader of the pack and is at odds with Goober, battling for dominance. Both of the boys need to be neutered and I'm sure once that's done within a month they'll both settle down just fine.

Many of our pets can be seen on Saturdays from noon to 4PM at the Murfreesboro Petco in Tennessee. Stop in and say hello and meet some of our fur kids!