Sunday, December 28, 2008

Help Us Win ! :)



When you vote for us, you increase our chances of winning $10,000! Do you know how we could help the dogs and our local community with that kind of money? The possibilities are seemingly endless!

Also, for the top recruiters for voting, the top 20 will get $50 gift certificates. There's something in it for you guys too the more you promote it!

Check it out and vote!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Holiday Fun!

We can't speak for the other pooches in our program but Ms. Mia and Penny Lane got a chance to experience Christmas!

Here's Penny investigating her gift:



And for everyone's viewing pleasure, a video of her opening said present :)



And THEN! There's Mia :) Lemme tell you guys, this girl has such a contagious joy for life!

For me???





And a second vid since I failed to take off the cardboard and plastic from the gifts lol!





Also, in other news, Dolla' Bill got THE best present of all - A new HOME! Pam and Earl, have fun with him and we all can't wait to see new pictures as he grows up!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Local Pitties Now Stars in The REAL Pit Bull 2009 Calendar!

We are SO pleased to announce that two special Charleston area Pit Bulls have made it into The REAL Pit Bull's 2009 Calendar! Deja (featured in July) and Cyrus (featured in December) are owned and loved by Alicia Domina, Director of New Hope Pit Bull Rescue :)

Mary Harwelik is the brains behind her site, The REAL Pit Bull and devotes much of her time to education and advocacy. She is a wealth of knowledge and a key player in many things pit bull! We are blessed to have formed a friendship with her and greatly look forward to the future :)

Show your support and order a copy of the "Responsi-bull n' Proud!" calendar today!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Precarious Positions and Microchipping

*waves hi* This is Alicia speaking today :) Kat and I take turns writing up posts but this one, since it is more of a personal story is one that should be directed from me specifically.

For those of you who may not know, my occupation is as a property manager. That's a fancy schmancy word for a landlord but you all get that I'm sure :) I manage a handful of apartments in the area although that's neither here nor there.

I guess when you get involved in rescue, you tend to put off that rescue "vibe" to both people and animals. For instance, about a year ago I believe, I was walking up to my office very first thing in the morning and notice a plastic crate sitting outside my office door. I was excited for half a millisecond thinking maybe that it was empty and we'd be able to use it for the dogs. Now, you know it just ISN'T going to work out like that. I get to the crate and am greeted by the earthy smell of FOUR young adult kittens, maybe 4-5 months old. It was such a "wonderful" way to start off my morning. Now, at this point in time, I've got two dogs at home, one of which is NOT cat friendly. Nor am I even remotely equipped for four cats. I had to call animal control to come get them as it was the most realistic and safest option for them.

I've had to call animal control out for domestic rabbits running around the property. Sadly, no one was able to catch them and after about a month, the disappeared.

There was one week a few months ago that I had to call animal control out for an injured, wild bird, a ferret running a muck in one of my buildings, and a 9 year old labby girl. I remember with the lab, the vet clinic associated with her rabies tag was extremely put off by my calling them as I was about the 3rd person that day. They wouldn't give me any information about the owners which was fine, but...they didn't exactly make it easy to help her get back home. The animal control officer had much better results in getting the owner information and took her back.

Now, all this is leading up to yesterday. I've been watching this pretty little pit mix wander around the neighborhood at the apartments this week. She seemed to be hanging around one specific area so I figured there were some owners possibly near by. Well, yesterday she meandered up to my office to greet our HVAC guys. Naturally, I want to meet her and pet her and check her out and get her safe. I get the slip lead out of my trunk and bribe her with some treats and she's my new best friend :) Silly girl even decided it was a good idea to get IN the trunk of my car where I pulled the goodies out of lol! Now that I've got her contained and safe, I call animal control again. The HVAC guys were giving me h*ll because they know I do rescue and they didn't understand why I was calling animal control to come pick up this pretty, sweet little lady and they thought that I should just take her home.

As much as I would have LOVED to take her home, there are several reasons WHY I chose to contact animal control. One, my significant other would kick me out of our house for bringing ANOTHER dog home lol! Two, bringing another home would have created a much larger financial burden that could potentially hinder the care of everyone. And three, THE most IMPORTANT reason of all, her owners would be looking in SHELTERS for her, not my house.

When animal control showed up and walked in my office, she was greeted by a pleasant, quiet young lady who was happy to see her :) I told the officer how good she was and that she knew commands, etc. While putting her in the truck, I was talking more to the doggie than the officer when I said, "I hope you have a microchip." See, this girl was in fairly decent shape. She needed a good bath and you could see where she was previously wearing a collar. By the looks of it though, she could have easily slipped out of it. Her nails were in impeccable condition :) The animal control officer heard me and piped in, "Well, I have my scanner. We can go ahead and check." ABSOLUTELY. The officer scanned her whole body once and on the second go around, "Beep!" She had a chip!

It made me feel SO much better about letting her go, knowing they had the means to find her family and get her back home.

It's hard to get people to understand the importance of microchipping and even more so, the importance of checking for those microchips. There are also common misconceptions based on appearance alone that will keep people from checking for microchips or trying to find the original owners.

If you come across a stray animal, skin and bones and cut up and neglected looking, please do not automatically assume that the owners of the animal must be trash and that they don't deserve the animal back. We really need to step aside some days and look at the whole picture. Yes, sometimes the situation will be that crappy and will be that real. But other times, things may not be what they seem. It only takes a few weeks for these animals to start dropping significant weight. The reality of living on the streets and getting into fights over food is something big to place in the back of your mind as well.

Here's a little Christmas Story that Heather forwarded on to us this evening that really should make you think a little bit about the importance of looking for the whole picture and making attempts to find the owners of stray dogs. You never know if the dog was stolen, got lost after a move, escaped, etc. Let us read this story and realize that things like this DO happen and that we shouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. **Grab a Tissue!**

Martha's Christmas Miracle

Martha was sitting in her living room watching television this Christmas Eve, alone as she had been for the last five years. All of her children had married and moved to the four corners of the nation, her youngest, a surgery resident at the Vet School across the state had planned on coming home, but had been assigned to work the emergency clinic and couldn't find a replacement. Martha told herself that having Sally working to help the sick and injured animals this Christmas Eve was worth being alone, besides, Sally would be driving over for Christmas dinner the next afternoon.
All the animals had been fed and now were safely in either the kennel building or lazily laying around the house. Martha had to stop to think how many dogs she had at her house this Christmas, she sighed when she realized there were 16. She did rescue and the number of dogs was always changing with some dogs being adopted, and new abandoned dogs coming in. Feeling overwhelmed by the number of dogs she had and all the dogs still left in shelters to die because there was no room for them in rescue, Martha seriously wondered if she should stop working rescue. If she didn't have all these dogs, she could have flown to any of her other children's homes for the holidays to be with family. Besides, the heartbreak of seeing each dog in such need was beginning to really weigh on her.
Tonight she had a new dog, brought home that day. Martha didn't really plan on adding another dog but on her way home from the store she saw a dog lying on the side of the road. Certain the dog was dead, Martha stopped, to pick up the body and take it home for a burial. As she got closer, she recognized the shell of an Alaskan Malamute, the breed she rescued. Covered by cuts and festering wounds, what fur was left was matted and filthy, it was so skinny that laying there you could see each rib and it's hipbones were the widest part of his body.
With tears in her eyes, mourning for what once had been a majestic animal now reduced to almost a skeleton she reached down to give the poor dog one last pat on the head. "Oh, you poor boy, what a way to end your life. Well, at least I can name you and give you a decent farewell." As her tears fell on the dog's head, one eye slowly opened and the tail gave a single wag.

"You're alive! Everything will be OK now, I'll take you home and you will have a soft bed and food tonight." She said, tears streaming down her face, this time from happiness.
The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning the dog's wounds and making sure he was able to eat and drink water. Martha set up the large run in the kennel building for him. A soft blanket and a thick foam pad was to be his bed, fresh water and food beside him. Papers for his 'necessary functions' were placed at the far end of the run. He lay there watching every move she made.
Martha left the dog resting on his bed, somewhat surprised at the reaction of the rest of the dogs in the kennel. Pandemonium usually broke out with all the other dogs wooing and barking when a new dog was brought in, tonight all the other dogs just stood and silently watched as Martha cared for the new dog. Thankful the other dogs were not disturbing the new boy, Martha went to the house to finish preparations for tomorrow's dinner.

Later that evening Martha went down to the kennel to check on the new boy and feed the other dogs. As she walked in the door the new boy shakily stood to greet her. As she was straightening up the kennel after feeding and exercising the dogs, she saw her microchip reader. "Well, this will be a waste of time" she thought as she ran the reader over the dog's body.
BEEP! The reader had located a chip! Writing the number down, she hurried to the house to call the chip registry and report the found dog. As she suspected on Christmas Eve, all she got was a machine.
Very late that night, the phone rang. Martha answered and a strange voice was on the other end. "Did you find a dog with a microchip?" "Yes, are you the registry needing more information? " Martha asked. "No, the registry called us and told us you found our dog!" and then the man broke down crying. After composing himself, he continued..
"The dog you found is BISS AM/CAN/INT CH Wasilla's Ice Sculpture, WPD, WTD, WLD, TT, CGC but to us he is our heart, the love of our life, Icy. Three years ago Icy was stolen from his exercise area in our back yard. We did everything we could think of to find him, but lately we had almost given up hope of ever seeing him again. This is a miracle. We are leaving now to come pick him up. We are about 14 hours from you so we will see you and Icy in the morning."
Martha was crying, indeed it was a miracle! And the new dog now had a name, his own name and his people were coming for him. What a wonderful Christmas gift.
Martha hurried down to the kennel to let Icy know that his humans had been found and they were on their way to take him home. As Martha walked up to Icy's kennel he stood to greet her, "Icy, yes, I know your name and I have spoken to your people. They're coming to take you home." As she was talking to Icy, she heard the old clock in the building strike midnight.
Much to her amazement, Icy said "Thank you."
Martha thought, now I am sure I have been around dogs too long, I could swear I heard Icy speak.
Icy continued "Martha, yes I am talking to you in human language, you see, at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Day, all animals can speak. Let me tell you what happened to me today."
"I have been kept in a dark barn for a long time by some very mean people who beat me and often forgot to feed me. Two days ago I found a loose board on the barn and was able to escape. I walked as fast as I could, looking for my people, or at least for some kind person to feed me and give me a warm place to sleep before I died. I was in the middle of a big field when I couldn't walk or even crawl any more, I laid down, knowing I was about to cross to the Rainbow Bridge . As I stepped onto the Bridge, an Angel came towards me."
"Icy," the Angel said "If you agree, He has a job for you before you cross the Bridge. There is a very kind human who needs you today to restore her spirit."
"Of course I agreed to help a human -- that is what Malamutes do. The Angel picked up my body and carried it to the side of a road and laid it down. The next thing I remember is you were scratching my ear and talking to me and your tears were falling on my face. You have cared for me this day."
Martha heard a chorus of voices all about her. To her amazement she was surrounded not only by her dogs, but dogs she had rescued and sent on to forever homes, all voicing stories how Martha had cared for them and restored them to health and loved them, thanking her for her love.
The first Malamute Martha had rescued many years ago stepped to the front of the gathering and said, "Martha, you took us in to your home, cared for us, healed us both in body and spirit then, even though it broke your heart, sent us on to our new forever families. This gave us a life we would never have had without you. Others of us here, never were adopted and lived out our lives with you, loved and cared for as if we were your own dogs. In our hearts we are your dogs. Thank you."
Then one small mixed breed puppy stepped forward from the back and said, "Miss Martha, you never held me nor fed me, you see I am speaking for all the shelter dogs and cats gathered here for which you did all you could. We understand that you can't save us all, but you read our shelter stories, knowing we would cross the Bridge without knowing a home of our own, and you cried for us. We thank you for that. You see, we knew you cared and loved us, too. And that love helped us as we crossed. We thank you and all the other Rescuers for that small act of love."

Icy looked at Martha and told her, "It is getting late and you will have many people here tomorrow to celebrate Christmas. And you have your rescue work to continue. Our time to be able to talk to you is growing short, but always remember what happened tonight. What you do for the animals is a gift to us and to Him, the Father of us all.

Each of us, animals of every species, needs people like you. Please keep on helping. You are doing the work of Angels."
At that point all of the dogs in unison said "Thank You," and their voices blended into a joyous howl which echoed from the heavens to the ends of the earth.

Humbly offered as a Christmas Gift to all who love animals.
Christmas 2007
(c)Bilinda Marshall 2007
La Vernia, Texas

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Updates and New Stuff!

As always, we've been busy in our neck of the woods but we wanted to pop in and let people know about some of the things that are going on :)

First, Dolla' Bill is NEGATIVE for the Demodex! He's healthy and good to go and SUCH a good boy! Happy days handsome man!

Penny and Java are still on meds for the Demodex so we'll cross fingers that in about three weeks we'll get an all clear for them. Ginger will hopefully make it in early Saturday morning to find out her status.

We're still steadily planning for 2009 and making some nice progress. We have plans to hold a special meeting in January that will be open to the public. We'll keep you all informed and updated on when and where that will be.

We've been deliberating on a way to get our community and interested volunteers better involved and organized with the goings-on of the group and we've decided to try a forum again.

For those of you who don't know what forums are and what their purpose is, they are almost like their own website. A topic is posted and members can reply to the topic at hand. It keeps thoughts and ideas better organized to where new members can easily go back and view the topics and read the discussions that were had about them.

We've set our forum up so that anyone can join. They don't have to be directly involved in the rescue. We wanted to create a space for people with a passion for the breed to come and chat with us and other knowledgeable members of our group. We can discuss things like training issues and health, share pictures of our pooches being the goofballs that they are, or just talk in general about doggie stuff.

For those more interested in getting their hands "dirty" with the "behind the scenes" stuff, we have a special forum slated specifically for those discussions. It will be a great way to discuss particular applications and proper procedures. This forum is one that we will have to specifically add interested parties to; the general membership will not have access or viewing rights to this part of the forum.

If this sounds like something you may be interested in, please read our topic, "How To Get Started" for instructions on registering and how to make a post. We require that you make an introduction post to be granted posting access to the rest of the forums. We just want to make sure you're a real person and not one of those annoying spam bots that make their appearance wherever they can on the web.

Want to just browse the forum first? You can visit it HERE.

Thank you everyone! Don't forget, we have another Meet and Greet this Saturday at Hairy Winston in Mt. Pleasant from 11 until 3. Come join us!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Don't Forget!

We've seen dozens of people carting their holiday trees to their house today alone! Keep us in mind after decorating your tree, to decorate ours! We guarantee it will be TONS easier! We've had several people participate recently and we can't tell you just how exciting that is! In case you've forgotten, visit our Holiday Memory Tree for more ideas and information :)

In other news, we had more great fun at our event yesterday! Check out Mia in our new "Adopt Me" vest!





We must say that the vest really did help to bring more attention to her. Let's hope it helps her find her forever home!

We also had a visit from Dolla' Bill who is looking FABULOUS I must say :) His foster parents also sent us some updated pics of him having a blast and we can't not share!



Great work guys!

We're going in on Tuesday to find out the Demodex status on the pups so we'll keep you all updated. Cross your fingers!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Exciting News!

Our 501(c)(3) application is IN THE MAIL!

It was tons of hard work but it's in the mail now! We can all start biting our fingernails in anticipation. The approval process can take anywhere from 1 to 3 months on average and with the holidays, it will likely take a little bit longer.

Cross your fingers everybody! A WHOLE new world opens up to us when we get our tax exempt status from the IRS. One big thing that means to YOU - Tax Deductions!

Keep your eyes peeled for an update!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

In addition to the many things to be thankful for this holiday season, we're especially thankful of all the people who've helped New Hope come as far as it has!

Marva, Amie, Pam, Bonnie and Pat, Sommer, Chris and Muchan, Gina, Kathe, Jim, all of you have helped us out tremendously and we can't ever begin to thank you enough.

And since there are SO many other names, please VISIT Our Supporters Page. Lots of people have stepped up to help our dogs and it's absolutely amazing to see so many in less than one year's time!

You guys rock!

Have a stellar holiday and enjoy!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

New Thinking!

Lately we've been hearing lots of people say (as we've been guilty of it ourselves!) that donations and adoptions are down because of the economy or for this or for that.

We've seen this excuse SO much that you know what we think? It is simply an EXCUSE. If it wasn't the economy, it would be gas prices (which are now at THE lowest they've been in what, three or four years???). If it wasn't gas prices, it would be the war. If it weren't the war, it would be something else.

We aren't going to stand by meekly and blame miserable results on the economy anymore. Each and every one of us has the power within to rise above tough times and make our lives what we want them to be!

We have great dogs that need great homes and you know what? There are people out there willing and ready to do anything and everything in their power to make sure their pets are well cared for. We know there are people out there prepared to make a commitment to these dogs for the rest of their lives no matter what. And we're going to look for them! We know you are out there!

Our dogs don't understand that we may be in the midst of troubled times. They still need food, medical care, love and attention like each and every one of us do. When you look into the eyes of any of the dogs in our program or any that need to come into our group, or even into the eyes of your own dogs, what will you see? A compassion and loyalty like no other. They don't watch TV for the latest updates on the world. They look to YOU. Their provider, their friend, their life long companion. To these dogs, their people ARE their world.

Mia has been with us the longest and she is one of THE most fabulous dogs that anyone has ever met. When I look at her, especially after a tough day, I think, "It's worth it." There's an innocence about these dogs. A sheer joy and thrill for life that should be contagious to us all. For many people across the country, their dogs have given them a reason to live, a reason to persevere and continue on during hard times. For this reason, we will continue forward to pass along a great dog to a new, wonderful, attentive owner to share in this blessing, this friendship that our canine friends give us.

How can you look at this clown and be sad??


If you've looked at our Holiday Memory Tree and left it feeling a little stumped about what it should mean to you and what difference it makes to us, let's break things down a bit :)

For a simple one time donation of $5.00, you can recognize any pet that was near and dear to you in your life. You remember, that one that was with you through thick and thin and never missed comforting you on a bad day? That one. Imagine the bells ringing in remembrance of your pet.



These three ornaments are available for a one-time $10.00 donation, your choice in color. Let these symbolize a current pet in your life that means the world to you :) Imagine our blinking lights shining sweetly on your chosen ornament for your pet.

There are many other options of ornaments and gifts to choose from so let your heart do the talking and help us show these pooches that they will be living the good life from here on out! Safe, loved, and cared for :)

Remember, our dogs can go from this:



To this:



This is why we do what we do. Tough times or not, these dogs are why we are here :)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Get Involved! Help Us Decorate Our Tree!

Since we don't have a shelter facility, we have no where to put up a tree for this holiday season. So, we improvised! But, we need your help decorating the tree!

Right now, our tree is fashioned with blinking lights, but there aren't any ornaments or even gifts under the tree. You can help with this though, and make the season merrier for the dogs in our program :)

We have several different ornaments available to choose from, and when you donate, you have the option to leave a message and tell the world about your donation :) If you have a special pet or person in your life that you would like to recognize, purchase an ornament "In Honor Of" or "In Memory Of" your loved one.

Click Here to view our Holiday Memory Tree and donation options :)

Our needs are great this holiday season as donations have slowed down and our dogs still need care. If you've been keeping up with our blog, you'll know that the three puppies were diagnosed with Demodex and Sir Java has been suffering as well. Treatment can get expensive as these particular mange mites are persistent and it sometimes takes a few months to be rid of them. Also, our shining star Golda, has been suffering from an unknown fungal infection that took over her whole body with icky, itchy lesions. She's making improvements now, but we've spent over $200 on her in the past month trying to get her better. Java still needs his neuter and a microchip so that's another $100 coming up VERY soon for him.

We mention these things because we want YOU, as our supporter, to know where your money is going. Our dogs are our priority and vet bills come first! Your help in succeeding with our goals is much needed and greatly appreciated!

Do you need a little extra push on seeing our tree as a finished product? Here is our rendition of what our Holiday Tree will look like upon full decoration:



Thank you all and get to Decorating!

Java Has Hair!



Lookit that tuft of white on his chest! Before, it was just a "passing thought" so to speak.

Bonnie, he's looking lovely!

Look! Even one of his cat siblings loves him :) Or, he's just plotting to get the crate all to himself lol!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

"These dogs are not pets".....huh????

I asked my friend Leo if we could repost his letter on our blog because I think it's a wonderful letter and I think everyone should read this. If you don't know of the angel who took Leo in and helped him become the AMAZING guy he is today, she is Marthina McClay (CPDT/Dog Trainer/Behavioral Counselor/ Certified Canine Good Citizen Evaluator/ Tester/Observer for Therapy Dogs/Animal Behavior College Mentor Trainer) with Our Pack Inc. Our Pack Inc. is an amazing organization who has rescued, rehabilitated and trained so many wonderful dogs. Like us, they strive to place the best of the breed and bring about awareness through public education programs. We are honored to call them our friend.

That said, please read Leo's letter and feel free to post comments. Better yet, go to Our Pack's blog and post a comment to him there and let him know how much you love and appreciate all of the wonderful things he and the other Vick dogs are doing for our breed! Don't forget to read the article about the Harris County fight bust that's linked here. We will try to keep you as up to date as possible about this case and what happens with the dogs. Please everybody, lets pray for them and God willing that they will be given a second chance, just as Leo and his "brothers and sisters" that were found on Michael Vick's property.

"These dogs are not pets".....huh????

My foster mom was reading this article today about another big fight bust and this is what she read to me:

Huge dogfighting ring broken up in Harris Co., DA says
"These dogs were bred specifically to fight," Smith said. "And
they were inbred back and forth. They are not pets."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/pets/dogs/6112617.html

My name is Leo,
Photobucket

I’m sure many of you have read my story and this makes me very sad.

I think I make a very good pet. I love my mom and my sister Hailey


and my brother Dexter

and I even try to be nice to Daisy who isn’t always too thrilled to have me around but she tolerates me.

I work very hard at the Cancer Center helping the patients forget their troubles for a few minutes at a time

And I’ve even gone to school to visit some kids?


Have I done it too well? Did people forget where I came from? Didn't they learn anything from my case? I wasn’t “raised” to be a pet, but I’ve tried really hard to become a good one.

Why won’t these other dogs get the same chance? Didn't we make a difference at all?

Love.
Leo
Former Michael Vick dog, Now a loving pet. (or so I thought)

Sunday, November 16, 2008

You Know You Wanna Foster!

Meet Forrest:



Forrest made his way to one of our volunteers homes who are unable to keep him and we're trying feverishly to help him! He needs a good bath, flea meds, shots, neuter, and plenty of food!

Just look at this picture here:



Forrest is approximately 6 to 7 months old as he has all of his adult teeth in. He THRIVES on attention and wants to be in your lap.

We need a home to step up for him so we can help him! If you are interested, please fill out our Foster Application. Please realize that this will be a minimum of a three month commitment!



Crash Course in Demodex

So, Thursday, I get a call from Dolla' Bill's foster home. He's concerned because Dolla' is scratching all the time and they only found a couple of fleas on him the first day. Nice. Penny Lane had been scratching a lot as well and we couldn't find any fleas on her either. I call the vet and schedule a visit and they tell me to bring in the worst one. To the best of my knowledge, Penny fit the bill. Friday morning, off we go and wouldn't you know, we get a diagnosis of Demodectic Mange. I leave with Ivomec for all three puppies since Demodex is considered non-contagious but something genetic passed down at birth.

Here is Penny, doing what she does best right now, gnawing on her tail lol!

Penny is the only pooch that's really suffering any hair loss. Both Dolla' and Ginger are scratching, but still have their hair. All I can say is that we must have caught this REALLY early because all the cases of typical Demodex I have seen have involved a significant amount of hair loss.

Now, since we have all three puppies AND Java confirmed to have Demodex, I decided to do a little more reading on the subject.

Apparently, all these mites live naturally on most dog's bodies. They are passed down to the puppies from the mother during the first week of life. It is said that after that initial week, a dog's body will not accept any new mites.

Most dogs do not have issues with these mites living on their bodies. The ones that do are rumored to be genetically predisposed to being susceptible to an overabundance of these mites during certain stages in their life where their immune system is weakened. Demodex generally affects dogs under 1.5 years of age, however, it is not unheard of to hear of an older dog with it. Obviously, that is the case with Java, as he is approximately 3 years of age. We aren't sure what happened to him to get him in the situation he was in, but it was obvious he was under tremendous stress and showing up so skin and bones, of course his immune system was likely to be compromised. With the pups, their immune systems are still fairly immature so it is highly possible for them to be diagnosed with Demodex, with no real underlying causes.

Now, some of you may be wondering about the possibility of relapses. Well, from my research, relapses are possible, but the dogs generally get over Demodex if all the mites are really gone. Most relapses occur 6-12 months after the initial treatment when they do happen, and this is normally because the handler failed to have the dog rechecked for the mites because it looked as though the problem was gone. Mind you, these mites are microscopic!

Penny and her siblings will be going back to the vet for another skin scrape right around the 6th of December. Java will be going in about a week prior to that.


For the fun of it, here's a picture of our horse Ginger just the other day. She is growing up fast and will likely be an EASY 60lbs of fun!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Java Mike!

Howdy howdy folks!

Mr. Mike, now known as Java has made it into the rescue!

We are absolutely thrilled and can't wait to watch his progress :) Bonnie, thank you and Pat both for agreeing to bring this pooch indoors and offer him stuff he may never have had before. You are AWESOME for that!

Ready to see how much he's improved in the last two weeks?





Now, he does look frowny still, but give us Two Weeks and let me tell you what, we will see a totally different dog! It's already amazing how much weight he has gained and how much cleaner he looks! Helping Hands Animal Rescue Rehab and Therapy played the biggest part in that and we can't thank them enough :) Now, we're in for helping him out the rest of the way as guess what? He was diagnosed with Demodectic Mange. This IS NOT the contagious kind of mange, but the kind that rears its ugly head in cases of severe stress in animals. It's a bit harder to treat but all things considered, we're VERY optimistic as he really looks so much better than he did before!

And! Java is heartworm NEGATIVE! How awesome is that!? All in all, we're very excited and can't wait to see the beauty this boy holds shine on the outside like it should :)

We'll keep you all updated :)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

The Holidays Are Coming!

We've got a great holiday fundraiser going on right now and we invite you to check it out and get involved! For every purchase you make, we get a portion of the proceeds! You get something, we get something. How cool is that???

Check out the page that The Uncommon Garden has made for us for this fundraiser! We're very excited and we HAVE made some money thus far, but not even quite enough to cover the cost of a microchip yet!

Here's some common services and supplies we need and how much they generally cost us:
Microchip - $30
Spay - $60-95
Neuter - $50-85
Crates (for safety!) - $90
Collars - $8-12 per collar
Leashes - $6-10 per leash
Bowls - $5-7 per bowl
Food - 35lbs = $30-50 per bag (one bag will feed an adult for about 4-6 weeks)
6 Months of Heartworm Prevention - $90

And all these are just basic things! No dog is the same and each dog needs a different level of care.

If you don't want to purchase any of the candles in our fundraiser, consider sponsoring one of our dogs or making a general donation to the rescue to help offset our veterinary costs! We've got some lovely dogs and it costs money (darn the luck!!!) to keep them healthy :) If you have questions about donating or our fundraiser, please send an email to donations@nhpbr.org.

Thank you all and be looking out for another update soon! Sunday maybe??? :)

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Update on Jezzy!

We received a LONG awaited email up date on Jezzy today and we couldn't be more THRILLED!

To give a little bit of a backstory, Jezzy was surrendered to us in January 2008, by LowCountry Pit Bull Rescue (now known as South Carolina Pit Bull Rescue). She came to us underweight and with a multitude of health issues. It was believed, by the vet we took her to after her arrival, that Jezzy suffered from an intolerance to rich foods and it was recommended that we feed her a bland diet of chicken and rice. During that appointment, we also learned that Jezzy was heartworm positive. Poor girl!

We took Jezzy to our own vet to begin planning her heartworm treatment. While she was on antibiotics and steroids, a pretreatment to build her strength before starting the toll taking heartworm treatments, Jezzy became very ill and we almost lost her. She was hospitalized for more than a week and on Sub-Q antibiotics and fluids just to keep her alive, while our vet ran various tests to try and figure out what was making her so sick. It turns out that Jezzy was suffering from a severe hookworm infestation in addition to having heartworms. A double whammy for this beautiful and sweet girl.

Being a brand new and small rescue with very limited resources, we were faced with a heartbreaking decision. We had another dog in our program too, and we were desperately trying not to exhaust all of our resources to treat Jezzy, but to also get her healthy at the same time. Our vet team had fallen in love with this girl, and the clinic stepped up to offer us a true miracle. A vet tech had grown attached to Jezzy and wanted to adopt her, so our vet offered to take Jezzy on as the "clinic dog" and treat her free of charge in hopes that she would make a full recovery. It was a slow process but she did recover, and the wonderful tech adopted her and Jezzy was able to go to her new forever home at the end of April. She was treated for the hookworms that nearly cost her her life and able to begin treatment for the heartworms. She was tested again a few days ago and is now heartworm free!

Here is a slideshow of Jezzy's pics while she was in our program.






Now, 6 months later, LOOK at this BEAUTIFUL dog!




We absolutely CANNOT thank the vet clinic enough for stepping in and going above and beyond for this girl! She looks fabulous and her new "mom" is obviously doing a superb job. Does that even look like the same dog to you guys???

Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful. Things like this totally MAKE OUR DAY! This here folks, THIS is WHY we do what we do. :)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Mr. Mike :)

As previously mentioned, several wonderful people came through with donations for Mr. Mike at our National Pit Bull Awareness Day event and we couldn't be any happier about it! Two bales of straw, two bags of cedar bedding, a large bag of dry dog food, cans of wet food, bowls, a collar, harness, leash, treats, toys, blankets, all sorts of stuff! (You all should have seen how we managed to stuff all these things in my car!) It is absolutely amazing and helps give us all faith to see people step up to help out these dogs who have been mistreated in the past by other people. You all are WONDERFUL! We can't say that enough!

Now, just so you all know, Tino DID make it into a new foster home so we can now start looking for a new place for Mr. Mike to go to that will keep him warm indoors and help give him the affection from people he wants so much :)

Mr. Mike was an absolute joy to be around and so affectionate, even though it was obvious to us that he was sore. He had a significant amount of hair loss that we aren't quite sure just what color he'll be when he gets better. We're guessing either fawn or red but...well you'll see what we're talking about in the new pictures we got of him. He is going to need a long term foster home while he recuperates but to see him go from bad to wonderful makes everything worth it!

If you are confident you can open your home to Mr. Mike, please fill out our Foster Application.

Now, on to the new pictures. You're heart may break a little at them, but remember, he's on the way to recovery now and so many of you have already stepped in to help get him there. Now we just need one more person to stand up and provide their home and spare time to him to get him indoors and out of the coming cool weather.


See what we mean about not being sure of his coat color? Those "golden" patches are fur that he hasn't lost. He does have new hair growth but it's minimal at this time and will be a different color when it first grows back in.








There's reason to believe that Mr. Mike may have had a broken leg at some point underneath that bright pink bandage. It has healed but they are keeping an eye on it while he's there and it will need to be checked out when we can get him into the vet.




This is the topside "close up" of his rear end.







If you'd like more information about fostering, please send us an email at volunteer@nhpbr.org

Thank you everyone!

Busy Busy Busy!

What a day yesterday! We had SO much fun and got to meet a lot of great people and their dogs!

A complimentary view of our table:


And just to show that we have no shame whatsoever....LOL!

I'm scratchin' m' ears!

*woof*




Those pics are SO embarrassing but you know what? We want everyone to know that we have a lot of fun at our events and that we're down to earth people :)

Now, to the other pooches we got to meet (with their people) :)


Gibby and his kid


Gibson and Harley


I didn't catch her name, but we got to meet a 7-8 month old English Bull Terrier! She was a beauty and so spirited :)


Meet Botox, a one of the area's American Bullies!


Botox and another pretty lil girl :)


Dog pile!






Look at Mia sporting this awesome bandanna that Marva made! Marva, those bandannas are GREAT!

This is Karma. Isn't she pretty?

And last but not least, by far our best Halloween costume seen on a pooch ALL day: Cheyenna!


We also want to take this time to thank everyone who stopped by to visit, our volunteers for helping out both at the event and "behind the scenes". We also want to give a HUGE thanks to Bonnie and Melanie (and their husbands!) as they brought a substantial amount of donations and goodies for Mr. Mike! Beverly and Marva also helped out with some supplies too! Every bit of it will make a difference in his life :) We will be posting an update on Mr. Mike shortly so keep your eyes peeled!

Thank you everyone for making yesterday such a GREAT day!