I am so excited about this upcoming event!! It is called Strut Your Mutt and is an annual walk to raise money for No More Homeless Pets and other local animal rescues. I have never been before and can't wait to take my dogs. I have still not found anyone else who wants to go so if you have a dog you should come. Or even if you don't have a dog you can come and walk one of mine! There is an all day festival as well which sounds kind of fun. Below is the information you need for the event:
When: Saturday May 21, 2011
Registration starts @ 8:00
Walk begins @ 9:15
Where: Veterans Memorial Park
1985 W. 7800 S. in West Jordan
Cost: All proceeds go to No More Homeless Pets
$25 per person or $50 to register as a couple (which basically means two people walking together)
Please see http://www.strutyourmutt.org/ for more information. Hope to see you there!
Well our fourth and hopefully final furry family member is Lucy. I think my sister and I kind of conned our mom into getting her. She had been saying how she was thinking about maybe getting a dog for herself. Well there was a super adoption at the PetSmart in May 2010. I was a volunteer there so I kept my eyes open for any good possibilities. Our friend and dog trainer Marc was there as well since he worked for PetSmart. Hannah and I told him about finding a dog for our mom and he went off to interview people about possible dogs. Lisa, our friendly 4 Paws director, had a dog that desperately needed a foster home. We called my mom to come over and promised her we only wanted her to look at the dog. Lucy was so scared and confused in her little pen. She is 3 years old and had been living with her family since she was a baby. She was kept outside in a pen with the families two other dogs. The wife of the family was upset that Lucy would bark at people walking by and jump on her little dog so she made her husband give Lucy away.
She came to 4 Paws and had been adopted by a family the week prior to our meeting her. That family had gotten her for their teenage son. Apparently he really enjoyed her the first day but then got tired of her and they brought her back. So my mom walked her around a bit and decided that she would be a foster mom for Lucy because she did not want to commit to an adoption just yet. Lucy is a black lab and a beautiful, energetic girl who loves riding on the back of my dad’s 4 wheeler. She has since been adopted, of course, and is a bit socially inept but that is because she was always in a pen and never socialized with other dogs. When she plays she growls and it scares Charlie and Wrigley but they are getting used to her and she quite enjoys being part of our family. Charlie has mellowed out a lot since we brought her home and they are quite good friends.
Lisa, the 4 Paws director, had brought two girl dogs for us to meet. One was named Dolly and she was a beautiful black lab and great dane mix. The other dog was named Cinder and she was this old, fat, drooling black lab. But the minute we walked over Cinder perked her ears up and started sniffing Wrigley. Lisa was amazed and said that Cinder had never ever acted like around any other dog. Long story short Cinder came home with us. The poor girl had already been through 3 families in her 6 years of life. Her first family she had lived with since a pup with her sister. They suddenly died and both dogs were taken to the pound and eventually picked up by 4 Paws. Cinder’s next family had her for a few months and then brought her back because the wife did not like having a doggy shadow. The third family had lost their home and were no longer able to take care of her. She was returned to 4 Paws shortly before I met her. She was in a sad shape; dirty and shedding with long twisted nails that made it hard for her to walk, she was 75 pounds with a limp, and had a broken front tooth and an ear infection. 4 Paws gave me some medicine to put in her ears.
Wrigley and I took her home and she spent the first night curled up in his kennel on his fluffy bed. The next day I made an emergency grooming appointment with PetSmart and she came out looking like a shiny new lady. We got her nails ground and she no longer had a hard time walking. Since I was her foster mom the goal was for her to be adopted. I was so upset one day when Lisa called and told me a family wanted to adopt Cinder. I called my mom crying and she was like well what did you think was going to happen. When that family fell through I decided that Cinder would be better off with me than anyone else. So on Thanksgiving I made the adoption official. You should have seen how excited she was to get her new collar and tag. She was so funny about it, like she knew she finally had a forever home. Since then we had her broken tooth pulled, started her on arthritis medicine, and she is down to 60 pounds. Cinder has the goofiest personality and loves her brother Wrigley. He has been much happier since she became apart of our family as well.
In May of 2009 I decided it was time for me to get my own dog. When I started looking around, Charlie was so mad at me the first time he smelled another dog on my clothes. I met Wrigley at the Cache Humane Society. He looked so small and scared in his pen. He had a little stub tail and really fuzzy orange ears. I asked the ladies up front what his story was. They said he was picked up in Providence by animal control. He was just wandering around the streets, hair all matted, and hungry. The pound kept him for a week and when no one claimed him they were ready to put him down.
Luckily the humane society rushed over and picked him up. They had to shave off his hair and some 16 year old volunteer on pot named him Fuzzle. That named did not last long. I took him outside to see how we got along and I knew he was the dog for me. I even called my mom to come and meet him. He was so excited to be out of his pen with someone and when he jumped to give me a kiss he bit my chin. I immediately paid his adoption fee so no one else could adopt him. But I had to wait a week before I could take him home so they could make sure he did not have any illnesses. That was such a long week. But I had found a really cute apartment with a yard for Wrigley and I and we had such a great summer together.
At that time my sister was begging my parents to get a dog. Of course when I ask it is no but when she asked my dad he was like sure that would be great. Not that I am upset about it or anything. Since I worked at the shelter I was able to take my siblings and my mom to pick out a dog. They met the puppies that we had and decided on Charlie boy. The day we took him home was so fun! I slept over at my parents house that first night and when I woke up in the morning he was curled up on my stomach. He turned 2 last December and is continually growing. Sometimes he still acts like a big puppy but we love him anyway.
I have never had a desire to write on a blog before now. I just figured I didn’t have anything interesting enough for anyone to read so why spend the time and energy. People talk about all kinds of things on their blogs that they feel are important. I have three things I love to talk about. The first is about my dogs. The second is about Mexico and the third is about nursing school. The purpose of this blog is to talk about my first favorite thing or rather my passion for helping save homeless animals. I have met few people who understand or share this passion so I hope that by sharing this with you I might find other people who want to understand or share this passion with me.
It all started in the fall of 2008. I had graduated from college, moved home with my parents, and had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. In short I was completely lost. My friends from college were still in Salt Lake and my friends from high school were mostly gone. I begged my parents to let me get a dog. I thought that if maybe I could get some old dog from the shelter that no one else wanted I would at least have one friend. Well they said no over and over and over again. So finally I decided that if I could not bring a dog home I would go to the dogs.
I started volunteering at the Cache Humane Society in October of 2008. There were few things in life I had enjoyed up to that point more than I enjoyed spending a couple days a week at the shelter. It was really just mundane stuff you know, cleaning cat cages, walking dogs, giving the occasional bath, helping with an adoption, or answering the phone. But I had so much fun. This filled my perceived need for a dog for awhile. Then right before Thanksgiving two ladies from Idaho brought in a stray puppy. She was the most beautiful puppy I had ever seen; chocolate lab with a little patch of white on her throat. She was so scared and little and I fell in love with her right away. I knew my parents would never let me keep her so I came up with a new plan. Little Abby would find a home really quickly but she had to have a 1 week waiting period to make sure she was not sick before she could be adopted. I thought she should spend that 1 week waiting period at my house. Surprisingly after only minimal begging and complaining my parents agreed. So I brought her home after spending $50 at the Wal Mart on puppy supplies and dog food. That was the best most tiring week of my life. The carpet at my parents house has never been the same since but I think everyone really enjoyed having her there. She was adopted by a cute little family after a few days and I only cried a little bit when she left.
There were dozens more puppies I wanted to foster but by that time I had moved into an apartment and the roommies weren’t too keen on puppy pee, although I can’t really blame them. But from that experience my family now has adopted 4 dogs between myself, my sister, and my mom. When they complain I just remind my parents that if they would have just let me adopt a dog when I first asked we probably would have stopped there. They don’t think that’s very funny. But over the last 2 ½ years I have turned my desire to have a dog into a desire to advocate on behalf of homeless animals everywhere. I have found so many ways to help them but I will talk more about that later. I will next share with you the stories behind our 4 furry family members.
