Howling Success!

I'm stunned.

This week I sent out an email to supporters of the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation asking for help. I told the story of the six hounds we took on after they were injured in a fire and asked people to consider donating to help us defray the costs. I hoped it would net us a couple of thousand dollars, maybe a little more.

We started out that day with a little over $3,000. By the end of the day, we had met and surpassed our goal of $10,000. I couldn't believe it. I cried more than once when I got the phone calls giving me the updated numbers. I was in the car all day that day delivering puppies to the vet for spay /neuter and then driving to Clarke County to pick up some gorgeous puppies and drive them all the way back to the Woofs! daycare/boarding facility to be fostered. It wasn't until later that evening that I got to see for myself that the red line had crept to the top of the meter indicating that we had met our goal.

The funds are hugely important to us and we are so grateful to all who have donated and thus enabled us to continue saving animals. Almost more satisfying, however, were there positive comments people shared and the way in which people were touched by this story. It is good to be reminded sometimes of the largeness of the human heart.

Happy Hound!

Things are looking up for our "Hunt Club Hounds." Duchess and Ramey still remain hospitalized, but we hope to have them out soon. Sapphire went to a wonderful foster home where she has her own room complete with blankets and bones. Reckon is also safe in a foster home and both Ranger and Rascal are with me, enjoying some serious backyard time.

The photo is of Ranger and something about it made me grin. Maybe it's because he looks like any normal hound, checking out the world. Maybe it's because it looks like he just peeked into the frame to see what was going on. Or maybe it's just because he is alive and happy on a beautiful spring day.

More hound info and donation information at: http://www.firstgiving.com/helpingthehounds

Helping the Hounds

What I'm really hoping is that one day we'll look at this "before" picture and be amazed at how far this momma hound has come. That's what I'm hanging onto.


Ramey, pictured at left with me and the vet in charge of the regional blood bank, lost all of her 2-week old puppies in the Fairfax Hunt fire and has third degree burns all over her head and other parts of her body. She has a huge amount of fluid build up and had to have plasma transfusions to replace proteins lost through the wounds. Nonetheless, she is patient, tolerant, quiet and stoic. In short, totally opposite of the screaming, writhing mess I would become in her condition!

Lost Dog Rescue has committed to helping all 6 of the hounds made available to us and we have already placed four into foster homes. Ramey and Duchess are the more seriously injured and have a bit of a long road to recovery.

I am most excited about Duchess' progress because the day of the fire she struggled for every breath and cried in pain. I thought she had no chance at all. Yesterday when I visited her, however, she was sitting up, eating cheez whiz and giving kisses. What a wonderful surprise!

Pallet Kitties and Burned Hounds

Today was quite a day in animal rescue. Apart from the usual assortment of animal tasks at hand today, two surprises lay in wait.

First, a volunteer called to say that while moving pallets at the Lowe's store where she works, a worker discovered a litter of tiny kittens and a mother who fled the scene. It was sheer luck that the kittens were discovered before the pallets were lifted high in the air and dropped in another location, but there was a problem at hand. The babies were far too tiny to be away from mom, but she was too scared to reappear. The staff at Lowes rallied to the cause and installed kitties in a cardboard box near a heater and sent someone out for kitten milk and a bottle. The Lost Dog & Cat Rescue "machinery" went into motion and by noon a trap was set at the store to capture Momma Cat and a foster was lined up to take the kittens and even bottle-feed around the clock if necessary.

The good news is that the trap worked its magic (kitten-scented towels drew momma cat in) and the little family is reunited and safe in an LDCRF foster home. In another 8 weeks or so, they'll be on our website looking for homes. Maybe we will name them Hammer, Nail, Wrench and Screwdriver!

On a much more subdued note, the second surprise today involved a tragic fire at a Leesburg area hunt club. Our vet alerted us to the fact that there were a number of injured dogs en route to their office and that some of them would need rescue placement. I agreed to make a trip out there to see if we could help and it will surely be a long time before I forget that scene.

Some of the dogs have 3rd degree burns on nearly half of their bodies. Some were having trouble breathing due to smoke inhalation. A few were in much better shape than the others.

On behalf of Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation, I committed to taking at least 3 of the dogs and possibly two more depending on their prognosis as of tomorrow. Some of the dogs were wagging their tails in spite of the burns and all were so patient with the staff smearing salves on their bodies, injecting them with pain meds and examing their injuries.

I am eager to get the hounds out of the hospital and into homes where they can be lovingly rehabilitated and start looking for loving, forever homes.

Empty Nest (sort of)

Today was the end of it- the last little long-eared, black and tan baby found his forever home today and for the first time since September there are no beagle babies in residence. It's always bittersweet to say goodbye to the last little pup, but mostly I'm just so proud of Little Tiny Hope for keeping eleven babies alive and well. I send them with wishes for a future full of enticing smells, yummy treats and soft beds for napping. 

Harvey, at least (pictured right with his new boy, Carson) is well on his way.

As for the bathroom that formerly housed Hope's Double Digits, well, Annie and her Angels are making sure it continues to serve its dual purpose. Thank goodness there are only four of them!

The Dawning of the Dogs

There comes a moment in the lifetime of every litter of puppies when everything changes. All at once, they go from being unfocused little balls of fur with bobbing heads and wobbly legs to actual tiny dogs. There is no mistaking "the moment." It's the first time you walk into their room and the entire litter is sitting up staring at you like they have just woken from a vegetative state and are wondering what's next. Their eyes are focused, their legs work and they have (in the blink of an eye)developed opinions. This is the day they begin to attack pajama legs and chew on toes, the day they cry to be picked up and start growling at the toys they have suddenly noticed are scattered about about their bed. It's all uphill from here!

Hope's babies had their "moment" this week. I was working on the computer when Pam called to me from their room (aka the master bathroom). She said simply "It's happened," and I knew what she meant. I jumped up to investigate and there they were, eleven pairs of eyes clearly focused and eleven little puppy brains visibly plotting the havoc they would wreak over the next few weeks. Stay tuned, it's going to be interesting.

Eyes Wide Open and Taking Baby Steps!

Like clockwork on day ten of their lives, little eyes started popping open. By the end of day eleven, the baby pool whelping box was a sea of unfocused little eyes. They are also up on unsteady legs and a few of the more adventurous are doing laps around the pool and peering over the edge.

Yesterday we had our first attempt at eating real food. I filled a baking pan with a mixture of water, canned puppy food and puppy formula and introduced the puppies one by one to the joys of eating. The first one peed in the pan. Several of the puppies, however, thought it was the greatest thing they had ever experienced and ate quite lot. We'll keep working on it. With so many puppies and such a little momma, we have to get them off of her and into a food dish as soon as possible.

Momma Hope is doing wonderfully. She zooms around the yard a bit in the mornings and plays with some of the other dogs, udders flaping in the breeze. She is eating well and continuing to take fabulous care of her little ones, protesting quite adamantly when I remove even one from her circle of care (aka plastic baby pool).

She doesn't like to leave the babies even to eat, so we have learned that the best way to keep her eating and drinking enough is to put her food and water bowls on an elevated stand next to the pool so she can just crane her neck over to eat without actually exiting the pool. She has us trained.