February, 2006
ing THREE old senior sammy girls from Tacoma, Missoula, and Boise. It’s also been a month all about transporting dogs from one place to another. But most of all it’s been about some incredibly generous and caring adopters.
Honey began the rescue month on January 12 when she was spotted in the Coeur d’Alene shelter. Barb Campbell checked her and reported that although she was a mix with a honey-colored coat, she was otherwise pure sammy in spirit and temperament. We asked Celine, who adopted Makita last year and was interested in adding another girl, if she would like to try Honey. Angie Brainerd, a fellow rescuer and groomer in CDA, pulled her from the shelter and groomed her. It turned out Honey was a bit much for Makita, so Lon’s friend Charlie picked her up and took her to “Camp LoMar.” She has been spayed and is just about ready for adoption. Everyone who meets Honey says she is the sweetest dog they have seen. We’ve had several serious inquiries already.
Next was Snowy, found as a stray and taken to the Tacoma Humane Society. Kathy Buckner went to the shelter and did the assessment, and when Snowy’s hold was up we brought her home. For the first time ever we found a microchip the shelter had missed, and were able to determine her name, age, and former owner. Unfortunately we can’t locate them due to a divorce and move. Our vet removed two growths from Snowy, and when she was healed we contacted Carey and Kaz, who lost Madison last October. Snowy is a plus size girl, 80 pounds, and is now happily dieting in Seattle in her new home.
China was turned in to the Missoula Humane Society along with four other dogs. At ten years old, China was the youngest of them. We were exploring ways to bring her west when we received an offer from Paws Across the Northwest, a group devoted to transporting rescue dogs around northwest states, who had a transport already scheduled and going through both Missoula and Coeur d’Alene. Again we called Celine, who jumped to take China. The transport went perfectly, and this time the placement also was perfect. China and Makita are new sisters, happily sharing Celine between them.
Cheri was contacted about an old sammy in Meridian, Idaho, close to Boise, and passed the word to us. That’s 500 miles away in an area with few volunteers, so we hit the phones and started sending e-mail messages to a lot of people. Lucky for us, Judie Lucas remembered someone in Meridian who called her last fall after her Samoyed passed away. We called and e-mailed, and she was interested. She went to the shelter, adopted the old girl, and had her at the vet that day. We think she is at least 12, deaf, and has such bad teeth she can’t eat solid food. She was scheduled for a dental appointmen
t as this was written, and we’re waiting to hear how she is doing. It takes an Angel to adopt a dog like this, and we count our lucky stars that we keep finding such caring and loving people who want to help our dogs.
At this writing, we are working on getting a young (five months?) Samoyed mix from Moses Lake. He has someone scheduled to visit him soon, but we have transport lined up if he isn’t adopted directly from the shelter. We have a good working relationship with most shelters across the northwest because we ask first how we can help.
A quick count shows approximately 27 people were involved one way or another in the four dogs we placed or transported this month. It takes a large rescue community to do this job right, and we thank every one of you from the bottoms of our hearts.