Oliver and Finn Reunion

I forgot to add that Oliver and Finn are brothers - born from the same litter. Their adoption pictures are on the SDR Happy Tails year 2009 section of the SDR website.

Oliver and Finn Reunion - SDR Adoption Story

Dear SDR and Friends,

Oliver and Finn were rescued the same day from a puppy mill in Milwaukeein 2009. They have been apart for 2 years. I adopted Oliver and always wondered what happened to Finn. SDR led me to the lady that adopted Finn.

Well, Oliver and Finn had their reunion yesterday afternoon at my home. It was the most wonderful, joyous occasion I have ever witnessed. When Finn came in the door, I was holding Oliver and he started squirming in my arms when he saw Finn. Immediately, and I mean immediately, when Lea Taylor and I put the two dogs down on the floor, they ran to each other. I have never seen such a reaction in my life. They frolicked, they jumped on each others backs, they sniffed and licked each other, their tails wagged nonstop. It was so evident that they immediately knew each other. They chased each other and wouldn't leave each other's side. They did not need a few minutes to warm up to each other at all. Like I mentioned, their reaction to each other was instantaneous. Both Lea and I agree 100% they knew each other immediately. Lea said she has never seen Finn act that way and show such emotion nor have I seen Ollie get that excited since he is quite reserved.

Facially they look alike. My Oliver is heavier and a little bigger than Finn, partly due to the fact that Oliver still has his teeth and eats more and gets his share of treats. After they left, my little Oliver seemed almost depressed and down and out and kept going to the door, hopefully I guess to find Finn.

We took pictures of the reunion. We will continue to get the dogs together time and again. We both have fenced in yards so it works well. To think we only live a few miles from each other.

My other yorkie dog Bubba, who is the youngest but the biggest joined in the fun. Bubba is 3 years old and we got him from a home breeder as a pup. Bubba and Oliver get along great and Bubba liked Finn as well. Bubba is the spoiled brat of the family and played hearty with his two brothers. The three babies had a great time. Lea tells me that dogs get along best with other dogs of their own breed. That certainly was the case yesterday.

What a glorious day! Thank you SDR for your help in reuniting these two babies.

Mary Franson!!!!!

Nicole Bodem - Contributing for the Greater Good

Nicole Bodem‘s volunteer experience is impressive. She has taught conversational English to people new to the U.S., volunteered at orphanages in India, and started a lung cancer walk in honor of her mother-in-law.” For me, personal growth comes from contributing to the greater good,” says Nicole. “I’ve truly become a better person through volunteering”.  A lifelong passion for animals led Nicole to seek out a volunteer opportunity at SDR. Her first experience was being a foster guardian for a miniature poodle named “Ty.” “The same name as my son,” she laughs. “It was a fun few months in my house!”

Her next foster, Cody, stole her heart. Her family ended up adopting the dappled Doxie after meeting him at a foster event. Cody’s entry into the family was not problem-free. Cody had experienced a harsh life in a Missouri puppy mill, but once he had a clean bill of health his unique being” began to shine through. “Cody is so loving and loyal. During the day he is best buds with me (I work from home) and at night you can find him sleeping nose to nose with my husband. He has the typical Doxie traits he is very strong-willed and stubborn at times, refuses to go outside if it is raining, windy or too cold as deemed by him etc. but these are also the things we love so much about him. It’s hard to look into his eyes and think about how awful the first 5 years of his life were.  I hope Cody knows he is safe now and will be spoiled and loved to pieces for the rest of his life.”

Though Nicole’s volunteer duties have shifted to other areas, she and her family still make time for SDR. She stresses that volunteering doesn’t need to involve a lot of time. "Even if you have 1 hour a month, that 1 hour can change the life of a dog forever. There are so many volunteer activities that require zero commitment: Donate proceeds from your garage sale, knit/crochet something we can sell at a fundraiser, donate a bag of dog food, or just help spread awareness about the importance of adoption.”

We agree, Nicole! Thank you and Cody for helping SDR in so many ways.

Aegina

My wife and I had been considering adding another dog to our family. We already had Molly, our 8 yr old cocker who we got as a puppy. After reading and hearing of all the dogs needing adoption from programs on the Animal Channel, we decided to look into adoption.
I started cruising all the dog rescue sites and found it pretty exhausting trying to decide where to adopt, what to adopt, how to adopt and so forth. A short time before this we had been visiting a shop in Red Wing where the proprietor had her dog with her in the store and this is the first time we saw a Papillion. My wife immediately fell for the breed. I started looking for Papillion's to adopt. The first search I did brought me to Aegina and SDR.
She looked so cute and her markings were so beautiful. We emailed SDR and got set up for a home visit right away. By coincidence, Aegina's foster mom worked with my wife so Aegina was already in our city. When she arrived, her foster mom told us about Aegina being a rescue from 8 years in a puppy mill and she was starting to house train and re-socialize her. I'm not sure we fully understood what we were getting into. We liked her looks, she got along with Molly and we just figured she would come around and become a family member (a pet). Besides, we knew how to house train a dog…………..
She came to her forever home! It hasn't been the same in our house since…..LOL
Anyone who has taken in a mill survivor will know exactly what we were facing. I'm almost positive it should be a firm rule that there already be a resident dog when getting a mill dog. I won't bore you with all the details of house training, but our resident dog was instrumental in helping. I'll just say it took a while and a lot of hit and miss trials but she is fully house trained now and allowed the run of the house 24 hrs a day.
One and a half years later, she still isn't the pet we thought we would have, but she is our little girl and we couldn't think of being without her. She isn't a lap dog or doesn't seek a lot of attention. Although sometimes she feels the need for petting (for a minute) and wants to be on your lap when its storming but for the most part, just being by you in the same room is enough for her. That's OK though with us. We know she's now in a safe place, a loving place and she will be as happy as she can be for the rest of her days. She has developed a personality and we get a kick out of her.
She loves walks and is great on a leash. She roams all over the yard now after accepting that stepping in grass is not all that bad. Her favorite time of the day is bedtime. She gets up on the bed, makes a nest in her own blanket and settles in for the night. In fact, I think she tolerates us more than we her. We not only adopted her, she adopted us.
I'm not sure we would have adopted Aegina if someone had told us she wouldn't be the PET we were looking for, but I do know we would do it again. The satisfaction we get from seeing her get as far as she has and the feeling we get, knowing we have given her a good safe home is more than we ever expected.

File #1 DSCF0832.JPG exceeds the maximum file size. Error: 1.

Transport - A Commitment To Rescue

 

In simple terms, transportation can be thought of as taking something from one place to another, but the volunteers that transport Small Dog Rescue’s precious cargo know that it’s so much more than that. Dogs are connected with people at adoption events, which can lead to them finding a forever home, and the dog also may need transportation to that forever home. So until a teleporter is invented, the dogs rely on volunteers to physically take them places. Volunteers like Barb Stiles and Jennifer Schultz who have taken the dogs to local events, on longer trips out of state, and places in between.



According to Barb, a typical transport involves taking one to four dogs to adoption events. Dogs are also taken to potential adopters’ homes for a visit to assess compatibility. Dogs are also moved from shelters to foster homes which can involve multiple transfers from trucks, trailers, and/or cars.



Other things that are included in the transport process are the paperwork and vet records that must be exchanged, stops for potty breaks and allowing the dogs to stretch their legs for a bit, and also checking on the dogs. Dogs being transported are kept in kennel crates for their safety during the trip, so breaks made along the way are a necessity for their comfort, especially since many of the dogs are taken long distances to get where they need to be. Most dogs handle the trip well, typically taking a snooze for most of it, but once in a while some dogs, just like people, are sensitive to the movement of the car and may get a little uneasy. To make the trip a little more bearable, Jennifer has a special CD with music made specifically to calm the dogs down. “But on the trip, I couldn’t find that CD, so I ended up finding a light rock radio station, and that worked! It was an adventure!”



Transporting is an essential part of any committed rescue organization because it opens up opportunities for both dogs and adopters, increasing chances of finding homes where both the family and the dog live happily ever after.



If you would like to help with transports, you may be interested to know that SDR provides crates for the dogs during the transport. You can also deduct mileage on your taxes. If you'd like to help but can't drive, there may be a gas fund to help out those who are driving.

For more information or to let SDR know you can help, contact info@smalldogsminnesota.org.

 

Gizmo

Last spring we lost our cat Peanut Butter suddenly to a virulent illness. She was my husband Patrick's absolute best friend – he always called her the dog he'd always wanted. Her loss left a giant hole in our family, and then she was very quickly followed by our beloved Shih Tzu Snickers. 2010 was a very rough spring for all of us, as our family of six shrunk to a family of four – Patrick, myself and our cats Singe and Cricket.

Now it must be understood that in our house, animals like Patrick, but they adore me. It's just the way it is. After PB's death, Patrick told me he wanted a dog that was HIS, a dog like our cat Peanut. A dog that he took to the vet, and that he cared for and that liked him best. I said OK. We can try. And so our adventure in fostering began!

They say three times the charm, and Gizmo has definitely upheld that old adage! We started fostering when Patrick applied to adopt Leo (once known as Jericho), but it was discovered that Leo was NOT fond of men and so we agreed to foster him in the hopes that we could find him a perfect family. Eventually his fabulous fur-ever home found him and off he went! Our second foster, Mason, passed away suddenly in November. It was exceptionally traumatic because it was so unexpected and so fast, and we said we would not foster again. Well, time passed and we eventually felt ready to foster again, and along came Gizmo!

All we knew about Gizmo was that he was 8 years old, some sort of Papillon mix, and severely overweight. He was apparently afraid of leashes, which made going for walks difficult, and that at one point he had been housetrained but that he no longer was.

When Tracy from SDR first brought Gizmo to our home, he didn't want to leave her side. As we fully expected, coming in to our home was intimidating – three cats and a dog (over the past year we had adopted a dog and a stray cat)??? Are you kidding?? And the tiny little dog resembled a buzz saw more than a dog! Who wouldn't be intimidated? The first thing we did after Tracy left was go for a walk – it had always worked before when acclimating new dogs to Meena, and it did wonders with Gizmo and Meena. They walked like they had always been walking together! Amazing! But that first night really sealed the deal – Gizmo discovered the trick to getting up on the big bed, and the first thing he did was curl up on Patrick's pillow. And that's how they've slept ever since! I remember laughing and telling Patrick – be careful what you wish for!

Gizmo is Patrick's dog through and through – there is NO doubt about that. He falls asleep on Patrick's lap, follows Patrick around the house even when that means going up and down the stairs twenty times in an hour (we're remodeling). He goes bye-bye with Patrick and shopping with Patrick – he knows minutes before the car pulls up in the driveway that Patrick's coming home and is waiting impatiently for him. Gizmo loves going for walks with Patrick, and will probably be going up to the lake with Patrick this summer to visit Grandma and Grandpa B. Gizmo has absolutely flourished in the few weeks we've had him. He knows where he belongs, and I think that helps to give him a sense of stability and confidence. He's not entirely housetrained yet, but every day we get a little closer. Gizmo almost never shies away from the leash – in fact, he'll plant himself right in front of the door and sit and wait for his harness to go on! And he's gone from a whopping 22 lbs, to a mu
ch more svelt 17.7 lbs - that's an incredible achievement! The vet says 3 more lbs to go and he'll be where he should be - yay!

Gizmo entered our lives during the 1st anniversary of Peanut Butter's death, and I've described it as pure poetry that he bonded to Patrick during this time. Our house is fuller than it's ever been – we have our dogs Gizmo and Meena, and our cats Singe, Cricket and Angus. Plus there's the two of us! From six to four to seven! Who ever thought our family would be so big??

Our clan has expanded to the point where we can no longer foster, but that doesn't mean our relationship with SDR is over – we still plan to volunteer like we've been doing over the past year, so don't be surprised to see us at the bigger events or even some of the smaller events! It's easy to talk about volunteering and how important it is to our communities, but it's another thing entirely to actually DO it. It really doesn't take that much time – it can be as little as a couple of hours a month – and you get to meet all kinds of interesting people and dogs and perhaps go places you wouldn't normally consider going! Our lives have been enriched by the experiences of the past year – the good and the bad. Because without the bad, how can one possibly appreciate all the good?

Charlie! (aka Paprika)

We had a wonderul oppertunity to adopt little Paprika, now Charlie, a 4 month old minature poodle! Charlie has turned out to be one of these best puppies my family has ever had and loves playing with his sisters Abby (toy poodle/american eskimo) & Wilma (min pin). He loves retrieving, keeping the squirrls out of the backyard, walks, and socializing with new friends. He has been a wonderful addition to our family and could have not found a more perfect puppy! Thank you SDR you guys do a wonderful job!
File #0 P4020027.JPG exceeds the maximum file size. Error: 1.
File #0 P3300013.JPG exceeds the maximum file size. Error: 1.
File #0 P4030028.JPG exceeds the maximum file size. Error: 1.