Puppies!
Huge THANK YOU to all the people who gave so these puppies could get their initial core disease vaccines! They had those administered a few days ago, and as you can see, they're healthy and happy and growing like little weeds. Around the first of June they'll be ready for their second vaccine in this series as well as deworming. After that comes a third vaccine, a rabies vaccine, microchipping, sterilization, and a trip across international borders to find forever homes!
EVE UPDATE!!!! :-)
Her name is now Piglet. Very appropriate!
From little Burke in Vermont and from all of us, THANK YOU to our sponsors, volunteers, and donors. We love you! You make this possible.
Stewart and Scotty's big day at the vet!
Both are reasonably healthy, besides dings and bumps and bangs and evidence of chronic undernourishment. The adult canines just erupting from the gums prove they are five months exactly. The boo-boo on Scotty's face is clearly from a bite, probably from Stewart. The wounds are minor and should heal with no complications. Stewart's eye irritation may be from entropion, a congenital defect that will require surgical repair. Both puppies received antibiotics for their individual issues, deworming, rabies vaccines, and the initial DA2PPV vaccines. They are going to be just fine!
THANK YOU everyone who donated to make their care today possible.
There is one person or possibly multiple people who we wish a miserable New Years Eve and possibly a slow, agonizing death by natural causes...like maybe cobra venom or flesh eating bacteria. A gunshot to the head or knife to the heart would simply be too quick.
Our Director pulled into the driveway of the rescue a couple hours ago and narrowly missed hitting a tiny puppy sitting in the roadway. She actually straddled it with her vehicle. No other puppies could be located, so at this point we assume someone went driving down Adria Road tossing tiny puppies out of a moving vehicle. This baby is barely four weeks old, if that.
However, that isn't the worst of it. Some moron looped a rubber band so tightly around this baby's tail that it is nearly severed. Hillbilly tail docking, which is against the freaking law. It's cruelty. Whoever did this--maybe we should loop a rubber band around their dangly bits and stand around drinking beer while little pieces turn black and fall off.
Enough of this crap, Southwest Virginia. Enough. The world is watching, and certain people (especially some in Russell County) whine and cry like little girls when the national verdict is in--you don't want to be treated like hillbilly trash, then STOP ACTING LIKE HILLBILLY TRASH. It wasn't you who threw this puppy out the window or wrapped the rubber band around her tail? Well, let me tell you something: if you think widespread abuse of animals is not a full-on community emergency, and if you keep voting for the same politicians who look the other way year after year and pretend this isn't a problem, then you are hillbilly trash, too. There's nothing else to call you, unless you like being called an idiot better.
This doesn't happen in other parts of the U.S., at least not with the consistent, unrelenting frequency that it happens in Southwest Virginia. Our community leaders and politicians refuse to take a stand, protecting the good old boy system while we become the laughingstock of th
Sasha came to us as a tiny puppy more than a year ago. Look at her now! She's all grown up with a family of her own who loves her very much. :-)
This is not a great video, since we're on a busy road and trying to stay safe. But we have had many reports of this dog and feel we need to determine who the owner is and make them aware that their dog is getting into the road and into a very dangerous situation. It appears to be a purebred German Shepherd. If you own this dog, or know who owns this dog, please take note that there is a containment ordinance in place in Tazewell County. We all have dogs who escape. My rescue included. We just don't want to see anything bad happen to any of them.
Major progress on the basement drains. We've fought with this issue since moving to this location on January 1. 2014. The plan was to unblock the cement-clogged exit of the drains, which diverted underneath the foundation and would eventually weaken it. But standing in our way was a hard-as-nails blob of poured concrete into which ALL drain lines from the house had been shoved. What a mess! Said blob of concrete is now history, and the waterline that had been buried only a few inches below ground can now be safely redirected beneath the foundation, well under under the freeze line. Thank you so much, Kelly and Brent, for your outstanding work on this project!
This is Bandit, the little stray roaming West Riverside in North Tazewell. He is very skittish. We're asking people in the area to make efforts to lure him into a closed garage or even into their home and lock him in, attempt to make no contact with him, and contact us immediately. We will come collect him and notify the authorities once he's caught. If you're driving in the area, please slow down and be very vigilant, watch the sidewalk for activity and know that he will dart out into traffic without a thought. Rescue efforts are underway, but he is definitely not making it easy.
Here are our furbabies stretching their legs after a very long ride to New Jersey. They ran and played and played and ran and then all got baths. They smell very nice now, all ready for the big event tomorrow.
It's been a pretty interesting week, that's for sure. No, rescue is never stressful. Not at all. LOLOL! We've had some really cool things happen, though, like the pending adoptions of two pups to members of the Bluefield Blue Jays team. We've been to Bowen Field with a load of puppies and had team members here to the house, and it was mind blowing getting the chance to talk with these people because without exception, they are rescue-minded and "get it." It's easy to become jaded in this business, when so many pet owners won't spay and neuter, when the trade publications are filled with accidental and intentional litters that compound the problem, when people pay two and three hundred dollars for unvaccinated puppies yet won't pay $150 to adopt a fully vetted dog, when animals are set out on the side of the road or dumped like trash in kill shelters. But then along come people who just innately seem to understand how precious animals are, and how serious our responsibility to them is. We've also had volunteers really step up to the plate (pun intended, go Jays!) when it comes to helping me here at the facility. Yesterday I placed two phone calls needing 911 help with a situation, and BOOM. I had the help I needed so desperately within minutes. One volunteer was here almost immediately, and the other family showed up not long after she left to help with the kennel so I could be free to talk puppies with some potential adopters. Thank you, Caitlin and the Wyatt family!!! You were all here when we needed you and that means more than words can ever say.
Also, Mayrissa and Michael Fender, the deck you guys donated and built has started paying off in spades. We were able to show the puppies yesterday on a fresh, attractive surface, in an enclosed area where they could run and interact with visitors safely. See how much the things you've done are helping us help the animals? :-) We also had two more visitors yesterday who benefitted from the deck. They were able to walk
Here's more video of our big dogs. We've had people ask to see updated pictures/video of Rayne, who was in such bad shape when MCAS took her in as a stray. Not in bad shape now! She's a completely different dog. Much happier than she was in the video yesterday, too. I guess she knows better weather is coming. LOL!
We are a network of animal welfare advocates around the world who, through purely volunteer efforts, Spaying and neutering is the exception, not the rule.
